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Country Life SDA Church

Eric Walsh

Politics, Prophecy and the Election

For a sermon, our scripture reading comes from 2 Timothy 1, 7.

2 Timothy 1, 7, the Bible says, For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

Our message today is entitled, Politics, Prophecy, and the Election.

Father God, we thank you for this opportunity to study your word.

And once again, Lord, I ask that you just make me a nail on the wall.

And Lord, hammer that nail into the wall with your Holy Spirit.

Then Lord, hang a portrait of Jesus Christ on that nail so that I am not seen.

Instead, Father, let us hear a word from you.

This is our prayer in Jesus's precious and holy name.

If you have your Bible, go with me to the book of Matthew chapter 22.

Matthew 22, and we're going to start at verse 15.

And we're gonna move through this quickly, but this is a, I think this story is apropos for where we are now prophetically.

And the Bible says, "'Then went the Pharisees and took counsel how they might entangle him in his talk.

And they sent out unto him their disciples with the Herodians saying, master, we know thou art true and teach us the way of God in truth neither carest thou for any man for thou regardest not the person of men here we have an example of where they are trying to trap Jesus The methodology of the Pharisees is to set him up, trap him so that they can justify his murder.

This is just the Tuesday before the crucifixion.

And here we see that the Pharisees Have set him up to try and entangle him in his talk.

So they'd have something to say against him They send their disciples Luke calls them spies they send their disciples with the Herodians and they say listen, we know you're true Jesus and you teach the way of God in truth, neither cares thou for any man, for you regard us not the person of men.

And now it's an interesting thing that happens.

You have the combination of the disciples of the Pharisees who are against the Roman occupation and at the same time you have the Herodians who actually want the at the time sitting King Herod they are a part of the political party for Herod Antipas they are working together and from the outset it is important to see that although they were political enemies diametrically opposed they united to try and destroy Jesus.

Matthew 22 verse 17 says tell us therefore what you think.

Is it lawful to give tribute unto Caesar or not?

You see, if he answers that, yeah, you can give tribute to Caesar, the Pharisees will say, see, he violates the law of God.

The coin had the image of Caesar on it and to the very pharisaical Jews, that image was like an idol.

And so it was wrong for them to carry it.

If he said, yes, pay it, they would say, see, he violates the commands of God.

He is an idolater and he pays homage to Caesar in Rome who oppresses us and destroys our nation.

If he says no, do not pay it, the Herodians would say this man is a revolutionary and counter culture, counter society.

He deserves to die for being against the emperor.

This is what we call a catch-22 situation.

Jesus had no right answer according to the Herodians and the Pharisees.

Ah, but there's something about reading the words of Jesus, isn't there?

He's the 1 who can always give a good answer.

Not like the talking pundits on 24-hour news cycles.

If you go to verse 18, the Bible says that Jesus perceives their wickedness and said, why tempt ye me, you hypocrites?

He saw their plot, their scheme, and he said, why are you tempting me?

Verse 19, He says, show me the tribute money.

And they brought him, brought unto him a penny.

And he said unto them, whose is the image and superscription?

Now the Greek word for money is normisma.

It literally means anything sanctioned by law or by custom that you can trade with.

It's the way that we look at a dollar bill and say, it is legal tender.

And so he said, whose face is on it, whose image is on it, and whose superscription, whose authority is on that coin?

Now, the interesting thing is that when the Pharisees made their local coinage, they put palm trees and olive trees on it as to not violate this rule of idolatry.

So they, he asked the Pharisees disciples now for a coin.

Now what's interesting is if the Pharisees' disciples can produce said coin, it means they are walking around with something they think is idolatrous.

Then said he unto them, render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's and unto God the things that are God's.

The Bible then says in verse 22, when they heard these words, they marveled and left him and went their way.

They were so dumbfounded that their plot had not worked.

In fact, it had backfired on the Pharisees who could produce a coin that basically they were saying is against the law to even carry.

Here's what the SDA Bible commentary says on things that are God's.

Therefore, the Christian's supreme loyalty belongs to God.

The Christian cooperates with the powers that be because they are ordained of God, Romans 13 1.

Therefore, to pay tribute to Caesar cannot be contrary to the law of God as the Pharisees claimed.

But there are certain things in which Caesar has no right to interfere.

God's jurisdiction is absolute and universal.

As a Christian, we are caught in a catch-22 situation.

I was sitting on a committee with 1 of the former Surgeon Generals of the United States.

And I would have to fly to the East Coast, I was living in California at the time, like once a quarter, we'd have these meetings and what they were trying to do was produce a document that would govern our nation in terms of how we approach sexual health as a nation.

They had about 4 of us that they were Christians or considered conservatives, and the rest, about 8 to 10 people, who were more left-leaning, I'll say it that way, and more liberal, obviously, in their stance on sex and sexuality.

And I remember being in heated debates with these folk as they said things that I found outrageous, Things that were dangerous, in my opinion, as a physician, around actual health, especially in the realm of sexuality.

They would say things like, listen, just all we have to do to have a sexually healthy country is have all of the public schools give adequate sex ed and then give out and distribute all the condoms that anybody would ever want and all the birth control that anybody would ever want and make abortion available and you'll have a sexually healthy society.

And I remember once saying to them, asking them, you know, how is it that you think the government should be so involved in the life of a family?

Shouldn't the parents be the ones making, this is a long time ago, making these decisions with their children about how they're going to train their children, how their children are going to live?

I said, listen, I will render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, but to God the things that are God's.

And my principles and my convictions are between me and God.

Now, it's interesting, because what we found out as we did our research for that committee is the more condoms and the more sex education America has done, the more sexually transmitted diseases the country has.

Even during the pandemic, when everybody was supposed to be 6 feet apart, it still went up.

We as Adventist Christians are in a catch-22 situation.

On the 1 hand, as it shows in Romans 13, I'll go there now, we are to respect the government.

Here's what it says, Romans 13, 1, that every soul be subject unto the higher powers, for there is no power but of God.

It says, and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.

So it clearly tells you that the powers that be are ordained by God, which means I respect my government, I love my country, that is perfectly fine for me to do that.

In fact, as a Christian I am not here to try and overthrow government.

There was a time in my life coming out of public school, I thought that was our goal, was to change the government, fight the world.

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Politics, Prophecy and the Election

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