I want to thank everybody that
asked about me. I'm sorry I had to cancel Friday
night. And I'm especially sorry that
I didn't get the word out to everybody. I tried to, but I
guess I didn't send the email correctly Friday morning or something.
But both emails went out together that afternoon when I sent another
email out. So I apologize for that. But
I'm fine, and thank you for asking. Exodus 22 Verse 28 It says thou shalt not revile the
gods of nor curse the ruler of thy people. Thou shalt not revile the gods,
nor curse the ruler of thy people. Look at Psalm 82. Who's God speaking about when
He says, Thou shalt not revile the gods? He's talking about
the rulers. Look here in Psalm 82 verse 1. God standeth in the congregation
of the mighty. He judgeth among the gods. How long will you judge unjustly
and accept the persons of the wicked? See who he's talking
to? He's speaking to judges. He's
speaking to rulers, people he's put in authority. He says, defend
the poor and the fatherless. Do justice to the afflicted and
needy. Deliver the poor and needy. Rid
them out of the hand of the wicked. He says of these gods, they know
not, neither will they understand. They walk on in darkness. All
the foundations of the earth are out of course. I have said,
ye are gods and all of you are children of the Most High. Jews
shall die like men and fall like one of the princes. Arise, O
God, judge the earth, for Thou shalt inherit all nations. Now
let's go to John 10. Who does this apply to? Our subject
is, Thou shalt not revile the gods. Who does this apply to? John 10 verse 31. It says, then the Jews took up
stones again to stone him. Now, these were the pious religious
leaders of the day. Those in the highest seats of
authority. That's who we're dealing with
here. What made them mad enough to pick up stones and try to
murder the Lord Jesus Christ in the very temple of God? Well,
he declared himself to be the only door of salvation. He said
in verse 9, I am the door. He declared himself to be the
good shepherd who God promised to raise up over his elect by
whom God promised to deliver his sheep unto himself. He said
in verses 11 and 15 there, he said, I am the good shepherd
that giveth his life for the sheep. And then he declared to
these proud racially bigoted Jews that the sheep that he came
to save were not only from among the Jews, but were also from
among the Gentiles. And then on top of all that,
he said plainly to them, I am God. I and my Father are one. Verse 32, Jesus answered them,
Many good works have I showed you from my Father. For which
of those works do you stone me? The Jews answered him saying,
For a good work we stone thee not. Religion won't stone you
for good works. Here's what they'll stone you
for. But for blasphemy because thou being a man makest thyself
God. When we declare that Jesus Christ
is God, We do so when we declare that He's the Alpha and Omega
of salvation, that He's the beginning and the end, and that the sinners
He saves contribute nothing to their salvation. By that, we
declare He is God in human flesh. He is the Christ, the Savior.
Now, men will stone you for that. They'll stone you for that. Verse
34, Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said,
ye are gods? He's quoting from our text. In
our text, he said, Thou shalt not revile the gods. Then in
Psalm 82, he said, verse 6, he said, Ye are gods, ye children
of the Most High. Now in the scripture, they had
in their very law, he called them gods. He said they were
gods because they were ordained of God and they were placed in
positions of authority. to judge and to rule the people,
to do it justly. God's prophet Moses was just
such a god to Pharaoh. Remember? He said, I've made
you a god to Pharaoh. Remember that? We saw that in
Exodus. He's saying, I've made you a judge to Pharaoh, a ruler
over Pharaoh. Well, I thought Pharaoh was the
king over Egypt. God's messenger, His prophet
in this earth has always been over kings and presidents and
men in this earth. A president would get a promotion
to be made God's preacher. That's right. God's preacher,
His prophet has always been the ruler over everybody in authority. Joseph was such a one in Egypt.
David was such a one over Israel. religious leaders that are put
in position of authority by God. They're called gods by people.
But the Jews that he put in authority, these men that were natural men,
like all natural men, they did not minister justice as they
were supposed to. They took bribes and whatever
lobbyist came to them and was offering them the highest amount
of money, that's who they would side with. and they didn't work
justice in the religious realm nor in the civil realm. Now listen
to our Lord's point and why he quoted this. Listen, right, verse
35. If he called them gods unto whom
the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken, Say
ye of him whom the Father hath sanctified and sent into the
world, thou blasphemest, because I said, I am the Son of God."
Now get what our Lord said here. He said the Scripture cannot
be broken. His purpose is to show us that
whatever God has said in this word, it is true and it cannot
be broken. Not any word can be broken. Every
jot and tittle of Holy Scripture is true. It must be received
as authoritative and conclusive from God. Now the point of the
law is this. The point of that law in Exodus
22 is this right here. If God called them gods unto
whom the word of God came, mere men, mere sinners put in authority
by God, here's the reason He did so. To declare that surely
It cannot be blasphemy for the Lord Jesus Christ, whom God the
Father set apart and put in authority to be the prophet, priest, and
king over all. Surely it can't be blasphemy
for Him to say, I am the Son of God. That's the whole point
of Exodus 22-28. That's the point of the Psalm,
where He said you're God, is to point to Christ and say it
can't be blasphemy If God said that of mere sinners that He
put in authority, it can't be blasphemy to say it against Christ,
God's Son, who God set over all in authority, as the prophet,
priest, and king of His people. Just like all scriptures do,
our text points to Christ, and our text is for the purpose of
declaring Christ is the authority. He's the Son of God. He's the
authority. Thou shalt not revile the gods
nor curse the ruler of thy people. Why? Because Christ is the authority. He's the authority. Now first
of all, here's what I want you to see. Christ Jesus the God-man
is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. To say that in language
we might better understand, He's the President of Presidents. He's the ruler of every ruler. The righteous, faithful Son of
God came and took flesh and became the God-man to save His people
from our sins and to declare God just and justifier. And He
came forth and He perfectly fulfilled all the law, including Exodus
22-28. He never reviled those that He
had put in authority. He never reviled them. He honored
them. He honored them. And He used the fact that He
had put them in authority to declare He is the authority.
But He fulfilled that law just like He fulfilled all laws. He
did it for His people. And He went to the cross and
He justified us from our sins wherein we have reviled those
He's put in authority. In our hearts, in our tongue,
we have reviled them. And He paid the sin for that
so that before God's holy law we've never and shall never His
people have never and shall never be able to revile the God. Because
before God in Christ, we've honored that law perfectly just like
we've honored the whole law perfectly. Our sin in breaking the law has
been put away by Christ and we're justified from all our sins by
Christ. There'll never be another charge
of that law laid to us because of what Christ did. And as He
did this, He declared God just. He declared God just. He highly
exalted God the Father. He highly honored God's holy
law. He manifest that the holy, just, and righteous God of heaven
and earth only does what is right in the earth and in all places. That's all He ever does is what's
right. That's what He does. Therefore,
because He did this, God raised the Lord Jesus Christ as the
God-man. and glorified Him as the God-man
and made Him the authority over all as the prophet, the priest,
and the king of His people. There had never been another
man in the history of this world, never been another man that held
all three of those offices. Christ is the only one. He is
the prophet, the priest, and the king of God's people. Christ is the only potentate.
He's the king of kings. He came to his disciples just
before he went back to the father and he told them, all power,
think of that, all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go to 1 Timothy 6 verse 14. 1
Timothy 6 verse 14. He says here, at the end of verse
14, it says, he's speaking of our Lord Jesus Christ, and he
says, He shall show who is the blessed and only potentate, that
means the only power, the only ruler, the king of kings and
lord of lords, who only hath immortality, dwelling in the
light which no man can approach unto, whom no man hath seen nor
can see. He's the fullness of the Godhead
bodily. We see the invisible God in him,
to whom be honor and power everlasting. There's no term limits with this
king. He's everlasting King, eternal King. And all power and
all honors to Him. Go to Revelation 17. What does
this mean? It means everybody who makes
war with Christ our King always loses. Anybody who wants to make
war with this King always loses. Revelation 17, 14. He speaks here of some enemies
of God and kingdoms and different countries and all these different
things in symbolical language. And then he says in verse 14,
These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome
them, because He is Lord of lords and King of kings. And they that
are with Him are called and chosen and faithful. That's you and
I, His people. Go look at Revelation 19. Christ
is ruling this earth with a host of heavenly armies at His disposal. Invisible armies at His disposal. And He's ruling all armies below,
and all kings below, and all men in authority below. Christ
is ruling them. And so he says this, Revelation
19.11, I saw heaven open, behold a white horse, and he that sat
upon him was called Faithful and True. Now you understand,
he's speaking in language that we can visualize and that we
can see. Our Lord doesn't have to be riding
on a white horse. But he's showing us something
here where it's an image of a conquering king here. And His name is faithful
and true, and in righteousness He doth judge and make war. He does it because it's right.
His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. That means whoever in this earth
wears a crown, He wears the crown that rules that crown. And he
had a name written that no man knew but he himself. And he was
clothed with a vesture dipped in blood. This is Christ crucified,
risen. And his name is called the Word
of God. And the armies, look at that,
the armies which are in heaven followed him upon white horses,
clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth
goeth a sharp sword. He's ruling through this gospel. You know, men neglect the gospel. Men don't think it's important
to be under the gospel. Do you realize this Word is how
God is ruling this world? He's doing it through this gospel.
And out of His mouth, goes a sharp sword, and with it he should
smite the nations. And he shall rule them with a
rod of iron, and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness
and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture and
on his thigh a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords. Now, what does that mean? What's
he going to do to our enemies? What's he going to do to his
enemies? Read on, verse 17, And I saw an angel standing in the
sun, and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls
that fly in the midst of heaven, Come, gather yourselves together
unto the supper of the great God, that you may eat the flesh
of kings. and the flesh of captains, and
the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them
that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond,
both small and great. And I saw the beast and the kings
of the earth and their armies gathered together to make war
against him that sat on the horse and against his army." Everything
that men, natural men are doing in this world is directly in
opposition to Christ our King. Everything that nations are doing,
everything that men are doing, whether they know it or not,
religion included, false religion included, is making war against
Christ our King. Well, what happens? And the beast
was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles
before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark
of the beast and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast
alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone, and the remnant
were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse.
which proceeded out of his mouth, and all the fowls were filled
with their flesh." In other words, Christ is King of Kings. Christ
has, is, and shall conquer all his enemies and all the enemies
of his people, and he alone will triumph. He alone will prevail.
That's who he is. So in our text now, in the law,
go back to Exodus 22-28, And remember, Christ applied
this law first of all to Himself. He says, Thou shalt not revile
the gods, nor curse the ruler of thy people. Who is this pre-eminently? It's Christ pre-eminently. He
is the God, the ruler of His people. Brethren, would we revile
and curse the God? Would we revile and curse the
ruler of all people, Christ our King? No way. God forbid that we would ever
curse Him. Believers are brought to obey
God by His grace. by His grace, by His irresistible,
sovereign, conquering grace. That same sword goes forth out
of His mouth and He conquers us in grace. And He gives us
a willing heart to bow to Him. And He shows us what He's done
for us and He constrains us by His love for us. Not by law,
not by legal motives, not by legal constraints, not by fear
and torment, but by His love for us. He constrains us. And
God's gift of faith makes us behold Him and apply all the
Word to Him. And we see Christ preeminently
in all these scriptures and we see Him preeminently as the ruler,
the authority, the one who's fulfilled the law and made it
honorable for His people. And so His love constrains us.
to obey Him, not because of law. Men will hear this and they'll
say, well, now look at there, he's preaching the law and he's
the one that tells folks they're not under the law. What I'm telling
you is what it is to be not under the law. This is what it is to
be not under the law. This is to be under grace. If
all you had was that law, nobody in Israel naturally ever kept
it. Nobody did. That's why Christ
stood before them and said, I called you gods and here you are dealing
unjustly with Him whom God has sent forth, God in human flesh. But by God's grace, He brings
us willingly to submit to God and in our heart desire to obey
Him in all things in that new man constrained by the love of
Christ for us. That's not law, that's grace.
That's love. That's faith which works by love.
So, the first thing we see here, Christ is the authority. He's
the authority. He's the King of all kings, the
Lord of all lords. Now secondly, I want you to understand
this. Those in authority, men in authority,
are put there by Christ our King. And therefore to revile them
and to curse them, is to do it to Him. Go to Romans 13. And let's see this. Romans 13. Verse 1. Let every soul be subject,
that is, submit unto the higher powers. That is, these ones that
our text is referring to as gods, the judges, the rulers, those
in authority. For there is no power but of
God. There is nobody in authority
except that God put them there. The powers that be are ordained
of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth
the power, resisteth the ordinance of God. And they that resist
shall receive to themselves damnation. For rulers are not a terror to
good works, but to evil. Will thou then not be afraid
of the power? He's saying, will you not be
afraid of those God has put in authority? Do that which is good,
and thou shalt have praise of the same. Because He's the minister
of God to thee for good. That one that's in authority
is the minister of God, put there by God, and this God He's talking
about is Christ the King of kings. put there by God to minister
good for thee. Now read on. But if thou do that
which is evil, be afraid, for he beareth not the sword in vain. For he is the minister of God,
a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. You get that? Here's the point
now, verse 5. Wherefore, ye must needs be subject,
not only for wrath's sake, but also for conscience' sake, knowing
Christ our King put him there. For for this cause pay ye tribute
also. Pay taxes, pay tribute, honor
to whom honors due. For they are God's ministers,
attending continually upon this very thing. God our Savior, Christ
our King, puts all men in positions of authority. From his preacher,
to the president, to the senator, to the congressman, to the governor,
to the mayor, to the police officer. Every one of them are put there
by Christ our King. Every one of them. Whether we
like the ruler or not, whether we agree with him or not, he's
the minister of God to thee for good, and the minister of God
to execute wrath on them that do evil. That's what he is. So our gracious king says to
his people, from the constraint of his love for us, he says you
must needs be subject, not only to prevent the wrath of those
in authority, That'd be a pretty poor motive if that's the only
reason we would obey is because we're just scared of them. He
said, but do it for conscience sake. Do it because you know
who's ruling them and who put them there, Christ your King.
For this cause pay you tribute also for they're God's ministers.
They're continually attending to this very thing that God put
them there for, to either execute good for you or to execute the
law upon you. and put you in jail or whatever
needs to be done to you. Now, we cannot earn a righteousness. We cannot make ourselves holy
by our personal obedience. We can't do it. We have never
kept this law given at Mount Sinai. You and I never have,
neither has any man ever of himself kept even one of these laws that
God has given. How can you say that? Because
we broke them all in Adam. That's how. We reviled God and
cursed Christ when we sinned in Adam. And we broke the whole
law of God. So when God gave the law, we'd
already broken the whole thing. The law that you and I as Gentiles
broke is not even the law at Sinai. He gave that law to show
us the depths of our sin in what we broke, that one law in the
garden, when we broke that one law in the garden. That's the
law we're under as Gentiles. We were never even under the
law in Israel. Only the natural and spiritual
sons of God were under that in Israel. And He gave that to show
us so that our offense would abound, the offense we committed
in the garden. So you could go to all those
laws and look at them. Whatever they say to do, just
know when Adam disobeyed God, that one offense, you broke that
law in some regard. So as we look at this law, don't
revile the gods and don't curse the rulers. When we send an Adam,
we revile the God. We curse the ruler by committing
that one offense in the garden. So we can't, by our obedience,
make ourselves righteous or holy. Get that out of your thoughts.
And even today, as believers, being born of God and having
a new man created in us of God, We still can't earn a righteousness
or present ourselves to God by our obedience because our old
man of sin is with us and in that old man of sin all we are
is reviling and cursing. And you know it and I know it.
It still creeps up and you have it come up in you when you see
things and it's the flesh. Men will see others revile the
candidate that they're for during election season. And they'll
say something about them. And then somebody else will see
that who's for that candidate and they'll say, well, they shouldn't
say that. If they were a real Christian, they wouldn't say
that. And then they'll sit in their home or in their heart
and revile the candidate they're against. That's called hypocrisy
and God hates it. That's called self-righteousness
and God hates it. And it's direct rebellion against
God. Christ has fulfilled the law
perfectly for us. He put away our sin, past, present,
and future. Before God we've never reviled,
we've never cursed, and we never will before God, before His law. It's because Christ honored the
law perfectly on behalf of His people. And so here's what He's
saying to us here that are under grace. For that reason, for that
reason, moved by His great love for us. He's saying, if my love
means anything to you, Don't dishonor me by reviling anybody
I've put in authority because I'm ruling them and I'm doing
it for your good. Well, they're so wrong in what
they're saying. Don't write negative things about them, don't speak
against them, not in public, not in your heart because Christ
put them there and they can't wiggle a toe without His consent. You see, brethren, we're going
to see in the second hour that we serve a sovereign Savior.
He rules everything in our salvation. Nothing is left to chance. There's
not even such a thing as chance. Scripture says, David said, He's
made with me an everlasting covenant ordered in all things and sure. And this is all my salvation.
All the promises of God in Christ Jesus are yes and amen. All of
them. To the praise of the glory of
His grace. There's not been one second out of God's control since
He made the first second to tick on the clock. Not one second. And nothing that's happened in
any second that has passed since the world began has anything
been out of control of our sovereign Redeemer. Nothing. Nothing. If we believe that He's true,
then know that those in authority are only doing His bidding. And He's doing it for us. They
say something you don't agree with, they speak something you
think is just wrong and you know according to this word it's just
flat wrong, it's injustice. Well, Proverbs 16.1 says, The
preparations of the heart in man and the answer of the tongue
is from the Lord. They wouldn't be saying it if
He didn't make them say it. Do they do something you don't
like? A man's heart deviseth his way. The sin is their own. It's coming right out of their
own heart. But the Lord's directing the steps. He's making them do
it for the good of His people. So constrained by Christ's love
alone, He's telling us, close our mouths and just trust the
Lord. He won't err. He's the ruler. He's doing justly. When you see
somebody who does something that's unjust, like a civil ruler, a
senator or a congressman, and I know there are some of them
that you think, But anyway, He's got them under
His control and He's ruling them. When you see something they do
that's unjust or that you think, how could they possibly say that? Know this, I don't know how it's
happening but my King is making that happen for my good. He is. So we don't have to revile him.
We don't have to curse him. If we're constrained by his love,
we can just keep our mouth shut and say, man, what a good king
I am. Look at how he can use such an
imbecile and still work his sovereign will and do good for his people.
How amazing. You don't have to revile him.
You don't have to curse him. We can gladly pay our taxes,
we can gladly submit, we can gladly obey, and be thankful
for those. And like he said, if you're doing
what you're supposed to be doing, all this arguing against the
police and all of this, if God says, if we believe God, God
says, if you do what's right, you keep your head down, you
submit, When they tell you, stop, stop. When they tell you, put
your hands up, put your hands up. When they tell you, get on
the ground, get on the ground. God said, they'll minister what's
good for you. But now, you want to rebel? Well,
don't get upset now if you get tasered. Don't get upset if you
get hogtied. They're the minister of evil
too, to execute God's law too. and behind it all, God's doing
it. That's just fact. That's just fact. We don't have
to fight and argue and wrangle. We got a sovereign King who is
our Savior who's ruling everything for the good of His people. We'll
see that in the next hour. Let's stand together. Father, we thank You for this
Word. Help us to Make us mortify this flesh and not get hot under
the collar and revile and curse. Make us put our hand on our mouth
and remind us who's really ruling everything. And keep us submitted
to you by submitting to those you put in power. Lord, we thank
you that we don't have to worry. We're thankful that we can trust
you're ruling everything right, just. We see it in what you accomplished
at Calvary and we know When we see what a righteous, just salvation
we have, we know, Lord, whatever you do on this earth is going
to be right and just, even if you're using wicked men to accomplish
it. We thank you for your grace. Thank you for your mercy. We
ask you to forgive us our sins in Christ's name, for the sake
of our King of kings. Amen.