A Christian Response to the Political Climate

Sermon Transcript

The following is a lightly edited transcript generated from the audio; it may contain small errors.

• A Chosen People
• A Divided Nation
• Who We Are, and What We Are Called to Do
• Do Not Put Your Trust in Man
• Honor Authority, and Guard the Tongue
• The Gospel, and a Tamed Tongue

A Chosen People

We’re going to start in verse 9. It says, But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special people, that you may proclaim the excellencies or praises of him who called you out of darkness into his amazing, wonderful, marvelous light, who once were not a people but are now, the people [audio unclear]

A Divided Nation

As you probably already know, we live in a very divided nation.

And the presidential cycle reveals what is latent, what is already there.

And we’ve seen for quite a number of years now this ongoing polarization in our nation.

And it appears to me that it’s getting worse. and worse. And polarization is getting more and more extreme. We are divided politically, we’re divided racially, we’re divided economically, and we’re divided spiritually. America seems to be becoming a country of tribes. And when you have tribes, what you have is tribal warfare. And the environment in which we currently live is becoming more and more, now this is an opinion, more it seems to be becoming more and more toxic. What I mean by that is all you have to do is spend a day, not even a day, a few hours on the internet and you see how toxic it is. You see how insulting, how angry, how afraid, how bitter many, many people are and this is on the right and the left, conservatives and progressives. There is a lot of hatred in our country. Does not bode well for the future. It’s a bad omen. But the question is what is our role? What is the church to do? Now I don’t like to talk about current events in the pulpit, but we have to at least say enough in touch with current events so that we can minister in the culture we are in. have to realize, you know, we have to minister with our eyes wide open to the things around us. We have to understand what’s going on so that we can speak to people who are influenced by what is going on. And so you will have friends and co-workers who are extreme right, extreme left, some people in the middle, some people who are heavily invested in the political process, some people that care less, you’ll meet all kinds. When you look at the life of Jesus, one of the beautiful things is how he tailored the gospel to the need of the people he spoke to. The Woman at the Well is a perfect example, but there are many, others. So Jesus never changed the message, but he tailored the message to the person he was speaking with. And so we need to realize where people are at.

Now the reason we have this increasing tribalism in America, in my opinion, is because people live in their truck. They live in their bubble. Their social bubble, their church bubble. Now maybe you go to work with people that are in a different bubble, but you don’t talk about things that will pop anybody’s bubble. Right? So in polite society, you don’t talk about politics or religion because those things pop bubbles, right? So you really stay in your bubble. So you tend to read the news outlets reinforce what you think. You tend to read the books that reinforce what you think. And so we get in this thing where people on the left cannot believe that any human being would ever vote for Donald Trump. They just don’t believe anybody in the world could ever do it because they’re inside a bubble where people wouldn’t do it. Well then you get people on the far right who think nobody in the right man would ever vote for Hillary Clinton. It just could never happen. Well, what do you see in the results? Half the country voted for one and half the country voted for the other. Of those who voted, right? Many people did not vote. The point being is is that in order for us to fulfill our mission, which I’m going to speak about in a moment, We have to be aware of the way other people think. And it’s hard to be sympathetic to opposing viewpoints, especially if you believe those viewpoints are extreme. It’s difficult to do, but it can be done. It doesn’t mean agreeing, but it means listening. it means understanding. It means attempting to discern where other people are at. So as I saw events unfold this week and as I was in the Word, the Lord impressed this passage on me, which I think is a good reflection for us as we view the political and social environment that we are in. And

Who We Are, and What We Are Called to Do

I want to mention two main things this morning as we look at this text. Number one, we need to be reminded of our identity or who we are as the people of God.

Verses nine and ten. Then we need to be reminded secondly of what we are called to do or our task. And that’s in verses 11 through 17. So we’ll look at both of these this morning. First, who we are, our identity. what Peter says, we, the church, are. Verse 9, you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special people. Pretty high calling, amen? But then he adds in verse 11, we are also sojourners and we are pilgrims. So we have five things mentioned here about the church won, it says that we are a chosen generation, that we are elect of God, and the idea of election in the Bible has many meanings, one of which is is this idea that the elect one is valuable and precious or beloved. Jesus is called in the Old Testament God’s elect servant. Jesus wasn’t elected to be saved, right? Because he didn’t need that. But he was precious in God’s eyes, and he was valuable. But the elect servant also speaks to the fact that being chosen means you’re chosen to a task, or to a high calling. So the church is elect in Christ Jesus. We are beloved in the sun. We are beloved in him. And our belovedness means that we the object of God’s care and love and that he sees his people as very precious to him. But it also means that we have a calling. We are chosen not just to receive his love, we are chosen to a task and to a ministry. Also we’re called a royal priesthood.

That is to say we are elevated. The church is in the eyes of God far above. above the earthly authorities on the earth. Why? Because Christ is above all authorities and He is our head and we are in Him. It’s the word says we are seated in the heavenlies. Meditate on that for a while. He is above, I am in Him, I am above. I am a royal priesthood. Now what is a priesthood do? the priesthood serves, the priesthood ministers, the priesthood intercedes, but it does so from a position of royalty. This is true whether the church is actually oppressed and suffering, or whether the church is at a given moment in revival and quote, being successful on the earth. It doesn’t matter, its position is unalterable because it is in Christ Jesus. Our life is hid with God in Christ. and where He is we are. He even prayed that in John 17 to the Father that we would be where He is that we might see His glory. Thirdly, we’re called a holy nation. Holiness in the Bible not only means moral purity, but fundamentally holiness means separation. We are a nation, a people, a race, which is separate from the world. We’re separate because we are called out and we are separate because we have been exalted priests We need to understand that we are different Many of us do not like to be different We want to fit in we don’t want to feel strange. We don’t want to be criticized because we’re odd We are odd Okay, the people of God are odd. It’s the truth in the eyes of the world. We must be odd because we’re different. Now when I say different, I don’t mean we have to wear clothes that are fifty years out of date or we have to you know do things like that. I didn’t know that was going to be funny. The point is is that our oddity should be our moral and spiritual quality. Our oddity should be so that people can see that something about us is different. Our oddity should be that we’re the ones that don’t laugh at the dirty jokes or we’re the ones that aren’t gossiping in the office. We’re the ones that will come in early and stay late. We’re the ones that work the hardest. We’re the ones that are different. So we are a holy, we are a separate people, and it is never the mission of the church to be like the world. We are in the world, but we are not of the world. Now we should understand the world. We can even sympathize with the world, but we are not of it. We are not like it in in its values and in its fundamental belief system. Fourthly, we are his special people. It says in verse nine, now I love the King James because the King James actually says his peculiar people, his peculiar people. His special or a people of his own, a people that he has purchased and owns. This, of course, brings to mind the idea of redemption in the Bible, where God owns His people in a special way in which He does not own others.

That is to say that His people have been bought by the blood of Jesus Christ. Of course, God owns all things as the sovereign Lord of the universe, but He owns His people because the blood of His Son, Jesus, has been shed for them.

If you go back to chapter one of Peter, Peter says this, he says, in verse 17 of chapter one, he says, and if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each man’s work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear or reverence, knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold, from the aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but you were redeemed with the precious blood of Christ, as if a lamb without blemish and without spot. So we are God’s people by possession, by purchase because of the great sacrifice that Jesus Christ made for us. Lastly, we’re told that we are sojourners on the earth. In verse 11, beloved I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims. Now one of the challenges of being in the world but not of it is finding that balance to where you give due importance to temporal things without neglecting eternal things or giving due prominence to eternal things without neglecting and temporal things. You understand what I’m saying? Some people have to be told, you really should go out there and vote, it’s important. Other people need to be told, politics isn’t everything. You know what I’m saying? Because you have extremes on both sides. And the challenge is for us to walk in such a way that the things of the earth, the mundane things, the temporal things, receive their due attention and that we pay attention to them in such a way that we honor God in these things. Yet at the same time not become immersed in them that we lose an eternal perspective, right? There’s an old criticism of the church that the church can be so heavenly minded it’s no earthly good. And we do have this, it’s called pietism, And this is where we define our faith as simply really our devotional, prayer, Bible reading. I remember Bible, I pray, I worship. I love God. But that doesn’t translate into any kind of action out here. So it’s just not easy and for every Christian, they’ll find a different place where they feel comfortable with that balance. but we can’t ignore the temporal and the mundane. You have to go to work tomorrow, sorry I brought it up. You have to pay your bills, you have to, you know what I’m saying, I mean, you can’t ignore the temporal, but we have to live in such a way that we’re not immersed in it to the degree that we no longer have any eternal perspective. And as it relates to current events, the, as I said, every four years, our country goes in this frenetic cycle where we believe that whatever happens in the ballot box will alter the course of human history. And for many, it’s an apocalyptic event every four years. And every four years we hear, this is the end of America. Am I wrong? Every four years, this is the end. This one. I know I said it four years ago, but it’s this one. I know I said it eight years ago, but it’s this one. And 12 years ago, but no, it’s really this one. Now, I’m joking as if that’s not important. It is important. But again, it’s got to be kept in balance. So I think what we need to do, you don’t ignore the mundane. You don’t ignore the temporal, but you see the temporal through the eternal. You see it through the eternal. Well, how do I get an eternal perspective? We have to see things from the mind of God, and this is how we know the mind of God. We know it through His word. And so what’s important to God is revealed here. It’s dear to God’s heart, if you will, has been revealed here, and so we must learn to see every area of life, including the social, political, through the eyes of scripture. And that’s an ongoing process of really renewing the mind. That’s what what Paul says in Romans. Let’s read it, because it’s just an important text. You all know it, but we’ll go back. Go to Romans 12 for a minute, I want to read it. Romans 12, one and two. Paul says, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present yourselves, excuse me, that you present your bodies, a living sacrifice wholly acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service, and do that you may prove or discern the good and acceptable and perfect will of god now if you think about this verse you might come up with this question well i don’t know the will of god is right here in the bible yes and no because in many cases the scripture is not specific, right? Did the Bible tell you where to go to college? Does the Bible tell you who to marry? Does the Bible tell you… My point is there are many, many, many decisions we make in life where we have no specific direction. What we have in scripture are general principles. In many cases we do have direct injunctions. I’m not saying it’s all vague. My point is But in many cases, you have to make decisions based upon the revelation of Scripture, which is not specific. It doesn’t say, wear a red tie today. Take this job and not that job. So you weigh these things, you pray. But Paul’s point is, the more you renew your mind, especially now that we have the canon that even Paul didn’t have, he didn’t have everything we have, We renew our minds according to the Word as the Holy Spirit renews us and teaches us and helps us see the temporal through the eyes of the Eternal, that is through the Word of God. And then we can make wise decisions. So who we are, we are God’s people, we are not man’s.

We are not Republicans or Democrats or Libertarians or Greens. What do they call people in the Green Party? Greensenies? That rhymes with something I’m not gonna say in the pulpit. So we’re not first of all a political party, we’re not first of all a tribe, we’re not first of all our identity isn’t rooted in our local church, it’s not rooted in our family. We are first of all the people of God. We’re bought by Jesus Christ. And we need to remember that because the danger is that we put our hope in man and not in God.

Do Not Put Your Trust in Man

I want to read Jeremiah 17 to you. If you want to join me, you can turn there. Jeremiah 17. Part of this is well known. One of the verses here is well known, but it’s the verses around the well known verse I want to point out. Jeremiah 17 and verse five, it says this, it says, thus says the Lord, cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart departs from the Lord, for he should be like a shrub in the desert and shall not see when good comes, but shall inhabit the parts in the wilderness in a salt land which is not inhabited. Now notice before we go on, Notice that he says trusting in man means you’re departing from God, you’re drifting from God.

You’re putting your hope in the wrong place. In contrast, verse 7, Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and his hope is in the Lord. For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, which spreads out its roots by the river. It will not fear when he comes, but its leaf will be green. It will not be anxious in the year of drought, nor will cease from yielding fruit. Blessed are the people whose God is the Lord, and who put their trust in the Lord and not in man. You know, I’ve been around long enough that when Jimmy Carter ran from office, you all heard the name Jimmy Carter? Some of you are like too young, I get that. Jimmy Carter got elected by evangelicals overwhelmingly. You know why? Because he said, I’m born again. Now, I think Jimmy Carter is doing many, many good things. But he was not a really very good president. Well, he wasn’t. I mean, historians will. He probably wasn’t cut out for the job. There’s nothing to do with this moral character or a spiritual character. But my point is, is that when Christians heard that he’s born again, well they just, boom, okay.

It’s a putting of trust in man. If we think that putting our man, or our woman in the Oval Office is going to really change the course of history, we’re putting our hope in man. We need to put our hope in God. We are God’s people. We’re called by Him. We are separated by Him. We are owned by Him. And, and we are to put our hope in Him. So whether your candidate got in or out, maybe you didn’t even vote, maybe you don’t care. I don’t know, because everybody’s different. But the thing we need to understand is we need to put our trust in the arm of the Lord and not the arm of flesh. My second point, what we should do, our task, I can preach on this for weeks, I just wanna mention quickly a couple things. Back to our text in Peter. After Peter says who we are, then he challenges us in verse 11. He says, beloved, I beg you, sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul. Having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, They made by your good works, which they observed glorify God in the day of visitation. Therefore submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake, whether to the kings and supreme, or to the put to silence the ignorance of foolish men. As free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice, but as bondservants of God, honor all, love the brotherhood, fear God, and honor the king. First of all, we are called to proclaim the excellencies of God. He says this in verse nine, that we are his own special people that you may proclaim or declare the virtues or excellencies or praises of him who called you out of darkness and it was a marvelous life. Our main R calling is to communicate to the world the glory of God and the Son Jesus Christ. This is our main mission, okay? All other things are subordinate to this. We do this in worship, we do this in evangelism, we do this in how we live our lives, how we raise our children, we do it in many ways. But we are to be thinking how we can exalt God God and his Son Jesus Christ. We do this in our… so we do it through worship, we do it through lifestyle, we do it through evangelism. The more I contemplate the gospel, the more I’m amazed at the wisdom of God. How God contrived away that he could be just and yet merciful. How God contrived away that he could save us in and from our sin. And so we see the wisdom of God displayed in the gospel, We see his justice displayed, we see his love displayed, his mercy displayed, his patience displayed. And the more you contemplate the gospel, you see the glorious attributes of God displayed in the gospel. And then you see the beauty of Jesus Christ, his great love, the stupendous sacrifice that he made, his humility and condescension that he would become a man, and not only that, but dying on the cross of the criminal for those who hated him. Astounding love. Astounding amazing humility that Jesus would do that for people who hated him. So the more we declare the gospel, the more we declare the excellencies of the one who called us out of darkness. Secondly, we’re called to live honorably. Paul, excuse me, Peter says to live honorably, but he first says this, he says, abstain from worldly lust that war against the soul, and then he says having your conduct honorable. Why does he do this? Because if you don’t clean up the inside, you’re not going to clean up the outside. One of the things that we need to remind ourselves as we Christians who almost always think we’re right is this. Reform begins at home. Revival begins at home.

When you, when you, let me say this right, I probably won’t, but I don’t want to unnecessarily offend anybody. I don’t mind necessarily offending anybody. It’s just unnecessarily. That’s the problem. It’s pretty clear that the evangelical church in America has lost its credibility. Am I right? Well, there’s reasons for that. Many of the most prominent preachers in America have all been exposed for adultery and embezzlement and other high crimes and misdemeanors. In other words, they weren’t abstaining from the flesh and lust, and that worked its way out, and they didn’t live honorably. And so it brings our faith into ridicule. When you have Christians in government who will profess Christ to get an office and then they divorce their wives and they cheat on their spouse, you lose credibility.

Another way we lose credibility is we don’t live honorably. just not living honorably in front of people and they see that and yet then they hear the church preaching to them about how to live. You know what that’s called right? And when you talk to people you hear this objection all the time. Now the hypocrisy thing is is true and false depending on the people and all that but the point is there’s enough truth there that Ryou You can’t say, oh no, that’s not true. I’ve seen it. I’ve even done it. I violated in my heart, if not in my actions, things that I believe. I don’t even live up to my own ideals because I’m a sinner. I constantly need grace. I constantly need to repent. I constantly need to confess. The church would do well to have a little bit of humility. Someone said a lot. Okay, I agree with you. The church would do well to have a lot of humility. As we preach to the world, as we say we are representing God in our pronouncements, we need to realize that, okay, if you’re gonna speak for God, then I’m gonna take a look at how you live. And when you look at the social indicators of professing creatures in America, they don’t look that different from the world. or the horse rate, pornography use, go down the line. It’s, the church isn’t that different. So why should they listen to us? I don’t know why they should. So we’re called to proclaim His Excellency, but we can’t do that effectively if we’re not living honorably. So revival begins at home, okay? Many of you are true patriots. Many of you care about this nation. Many of you want to see reform and change. And I want to see it too. But we must be careful that we take care of business at home first. Okay? We need to take care of our hearts. We need to take care of our family. We need to take care of our relationship. with people and then we can speak with integrity.

Honor Authority, and Guard the Tongue

Thirdly Paul says submit to authority. I keep on saying Paul.

Peter, excuse me, in 13 through 14.

And he’s basically agreeing with what Paul does say in Romans 13 and other texts, and we don’t have time to look at that. But the point is that we are not to be anarchists. We can be a loyal opposition, but we’re not to be revolutionaries. Lastly, he says honor all. Honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king. This is something that I’m not sure we do very well anymore in our society in general. If you look at the political discourse and even just the general conversation, you hear magazines, popular magazines, radio, It’s getting more and more coarse and vulgar. Am I right on that? This election cycle is particularly brutal. And it, yeah, it was bad.

We are called to honor all, Peter says. And this word honor means to esteem them, to respect them, it means to value them. Now that’s hard to do, not only when you disagree with people, but when you actually don’t respect them. It’s hard to respect people who are living in ways that are, you know what I’m saying?

It’s easy to respect somebody you actually respect. But that’s a challenge. Especially when you’re dealing with, I mean when Paul, when Peter says, I might get it right by the time I’ve done a problem now, okay. When Peter says honor all, and then he goes on, he says honor the king, the king wasn’t saved.

The king during Peter’s time wasn’t saying I’m a born again Christian, vote for me. He was a pagan, he was a tyrant, he was not a good guy.

Yet Peter says honor him. So how do you do this? You honor the office. You don’t honor the man or the woman. honor the office. When you drive down the street, you see a policeman standing on the road and he’s holding his arm up because of traffic like this, you stop. Well, some of you stop.

You stop. Does he have some magical power that makes your car stop? No. How does he get your car to stop? It’s the badge. It’s what the uniform of the badge represents.

It’s the position, you honor the position. Why? Because as Peter tells us to submit to every man’s ordinance, but Paul tells us that all authorities are ordained by God. That’s very troubling when you think about some of the people that are in office. But the point is, you honor the office. That’s the only way you can do it. So, This is very hard to do, especially when you don’t respect the individual, when you disagree with the individual, but we are called to honor all, and specifically we’re called to honor the king. Of course we don’t have kings in this country, but we have magistrates, we have what we call politicians, we have people in office who we are to honor.

We are called as Christians to honor God. We’re called to honor our employers. We’re called to honor our parents. We’re called to honor our spouses. We’re called to honor our elders. We were called to honor widows. In fact, we’re told to honor the weakest members of the body. But we’re also called to honor our magistrates. And we are to do this because we are called to honor the position that God has ordained, whether we respect the person or not. And I say this, especially, and I’m stressing this, especially in light of the vitriol and the hatred and the bitterness that we’ve seen in this election cycle. We are not of the world. That doesn’t mean we don’t engage, it doesn’t mean we don’t care, but it means we don’t act like the world acts. And what the world does is the world shames, the world bullies, the world slanders, the world criticizes, the world hates.

I was reading through, I read an article last night, I was reading through some of the comments and that’s a scary thing to do. I mean to read comments on news articles is just a frightening thing to do. And the hatred, there’s no other word for it, that is just pouring out into the social air we’re breathing, okay, is phenomenal. We are not to breathe that air. The stream is being poisoned, we are not to drink that water. As much as we may not like those who are governing, whether it’s people governing in state or home or church, we are never permitted to slander. It is a violation of God’s word. We can criticize policies with positions, but we are not called to attack people. We’re not called to slander people. We are to be separate. We are to be different. This is hard to do when the opposition is hating you and slandering you and calling you names and saying you’re a racist or a bigot or you’re this or you’re that. It’s very hard to do. But let me just say this to the church. If we can’t walk through this now Now what will we do when real persecution comes? What will we do? It just so happened providentially to watch a documentary on the Nazis the other night.

And it struck me how irresponsible it is when people in politics refer to this group, They’re like the Nazis. They’re like the of the Communists. It is utterly irresponsible to say things like that because they’re false and they diminish the suffering of millions and millions and millions of people who actually lived under Nazis and lived under the Communists. You hear me? So, we as the people of God need to not join the chorus of hate.

And I know some of you are thinking, oh, pastor, you’re going soft. I’m going with the Bible. Honor all. Honor the King. Thus saith the Lord. And I’m going to bother some of you, but this is probably necessary, or this is unnecessary. You don’t get a free pass on Twitter. You don’t get a free pass on Facebook. There is no area where just because you’re alone and think you have anonymity for you to publish hatred, to slander people. And Jesus said that we will be judged for every idle word that we speak.

And that means everything we type, everything we tweet, and everything we put out there that affects our family will be accountable.

So we need to do some, we the church, this church, the church, all of us, myself included, We need to do some heart searching on how much we’re giving into hatred and the bitter fruits of that being slander and accusation and prejudice. We have stereotyped people. If you voted for that person, then you’re this, this, this, and this, and yet you don’t know that. You just don’t know that. That kind of thinking breeds more and more hatred, more and more division.

We are the people of God, my friends. We are different and we have a solution to the hatred and it’s called the gospel of Jesus.

We have the gospel. If you love the nation, preach the gospel to your friends. If you love the nation, share the gospel with your family members because the only thing that will heal the wounds of this nation, the only thing is the blood of Jesus Christ which cleanses us from sin. Jesus Christ is the solution to so much division, so much hatred.

I determined many, many months ago when the election, even when the primaries began, I was not going to give in to hate. It has been. Because it’s being fed to me on television, on blogs, on the internet.

I’m being fed hatred and anger. Let us not drink from that bitter water. Amen.

The Gospel, and a Tamed Tongue

In conclusion, James says, But no man can tame the tongue. It’s an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. Listen to this. it, meaning our tongue, we bless our God and Father, and with our tongue we curse man, who have been made in the image of God. Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things are not to be so. Does the spring send forth freshwater and bitter from the same opening? The answer of course is no. The point being, if bitter words are coming out of your mouth, hateful words are coming out of your mouth, it’s revealing your heart. For out of the abundance of the heart, Jesus said, the mouth speaks. The fingers type, the thumbs tweet out of the heart. So let us be the people of God, amen. And let us be about, to declare the glory of God to the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And let’s live according to that same gospel. Let’s be agents of healing as well as agents of reform and change, amen. Let’s stand and pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. So precious, so valuable, beautiful, so cleansing. Lord as we meditate in Your Word I just feel the the effects of all the demagoguery and the hatred and the bitterness in our culture and I just been cleansed from my mind. We just thank You. Help us to renew our minds according to Your Word. Help us to live according to Your Word. Help us, us to preach your word. Jesus, help us as your church to live honorably so that we would honor you and so that we would draw men and women to you. And we ask this for Jesus’ sake, Jesus’ sake in His glory. And all God’s people said, Amen.