What should we, as God's saints,
remember after the presidential election
in a country as divided as this one? That's going to be our subject
tonight, things to remember post-election. These are things that I pray
God will put in our hearts and make us remember. These are things
that only God can teach and they are things that He only teaches
His people. He does it by His power, by His
grace, by His gospel. Those He has chosen, redeemed,
regenerated, this is what He causes His people to remember.
Turn with me to Romans chapter 10. I'm sorry, Romans chapter 13. I just have three things I want
to show you and I pray God will teach us these three things and
make us bite our tongue, make us hold our fingers from tapping
on the keys and think about these three things.
First of all, remember, there is no power but of God. Romans 13, 1, let every soul
be subject unto the higher powers, for there is no power but of
God. The powers that be are ordained
of God. Whether or not your candidate
is the one who won the election, It's the responsibility of every
believer to subject ourselves to that president and to all
those that were elected in the various offices because that's
what God says do. Let every soul be subject unto
the higher powers. And the reason is, is because
God declares there is no power but of God. That goes for our
new president-elect. That goes for all the senators
and all the members of Congress and on down the line. There is
no power but of God. It means God puts the person
there. God rules them. And they do what
God will. Before the world was made, God
ordained every single person that came into office on Tuesday.
Before the world was made. It says there, the powers that
be are ordained of God. That means God ordained it. God
put them there. Proverbs 8.14 says, God says,
counsel is mine. That means He is all wisdom.
Counsel is mine and sound wisdom. I am understanding, I have strength. By me kings reign, and princes
decree justice. By me princes rule, and nobles,
even all the judges of the earth." God spoke through Daniel and
He said this, He changeth the times. We've been hearing a lot
for 10, 15 years about times need to change. And each man
comes along, or woman, and says they're going to be the agent
of change. Scripture says God changes the
times. God changes the times and the
seasons. He removeth kings and He setteth
up kings. He giveth wisdom unto the wise
and knowledge to them that know understanding. And so, knowing
this, as God's saints, those that have been taught of God,
we have a responsibility. And it's this, in Romans 13,
2, he says, Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth
the ordinance of God. We have a responsibility to subject
ourselves rather than resist. Because whoever resists the power
that God has put in place, he's talking of people, the person
he's put in office, whoever rejects them is rejecting what God ordained. Plain and simple. So he says
there in verse 5, wherefore you must need to be subject, not
only for wrath, but also for conscience sake. He said before,
if you become angry and resist, that person will be God's tool
to execute judgment. If you do right, he'll be God's
tool for your good. So he says, therefore, we must
need to be subject not only for wrath, but also for conscience
sake, knowing it's God who put them there. For for this cause
pay you tribute also, pay taxes, for they're God's ministers attending
continually upon this very thing. Render therefore to all their
dues, to all their dues, tribute to whom tributes due, custom
to whom custom, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor. Now
you think about this, as sinners that have absolutely no ability
to save ourselves, aren't you glad God ordains everything?
And that He ordains the powers that be? Because just like He
chose who would sit on that presidential throne on Tuesday, He ordained
who would sit on the throne of glory before the world was made.
And He chose His Son to come to where His people are and accomplish
our salvation, accomplish the glorification of God and to bring
us all to Him in glory. And Christ came into this earth
and kings and rulers and wicked men and powers and principalities
that you and I can't even see tried their best to prevent Him
from accomplishing God's will and yet He accomplished it perfectly
just as God ordained. just as God ordained. Why do
the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings
of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together
against the Lord and against His anointed saying, let us break
their bands asunder, cast away their cords from us. He that
sits in the heavens laughs. He just laughs. He shall have
them in derision. And then shall he speak unto
them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure. And
he says, Yet, in spite of all the opposition, yet have I set
my king upon my holy hill of Zion. Right now there is a king
seated upon God's holy throne in glory, and upon his vesture
there is a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords. I was thinking on this a long
time before Tuesday. And I was thinking, what can
I preach no matter what comes to pass on Tuesday? This is what
I can tell you. There is one who is the king
of that king. And he's ruling that king. That
king's there because our king put him there. And that king's
only going to do what our king would have him to do. And not
only is He come and now is the King of kings and Lord of lords,
declared, shown plainly, He is the faithful witness. We know
God because He's faithful and He bears witness. And He is the
first begotten of the dead, meaning guaranteeing, that's our pledge,
that you and I will be raised from the dead in glory with Him.
And He is the Prince of the kings of the earth, all of them. They
are all doing His bidding. And this one I'm talking about
loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood. And He's
made us kings and priests under God. And He has all the glory
and the dominion now and forever. You think about all the different
folks right now. We've been watching them jockey
for position to try to get an in road to the president to get
on up in some position of authority or something like that so they
can have the president's ear. We got something better than
that. The very one who came and gave
himself for us and laid down his life for his people and redeemed
us from all iniquity and is now seated at God's right hand, King
of kings and Lord of lords, is the very one who redeemed
us. the very one who's doing everything for us. If he did
all that for us, you can be sure everything he does in this earth,
using kings and princes and rulers of this world, will be for the
good of his people. Do you want me to tell you what's
going to happen over the next four years? I can tell you exactly
what that president's going to do in the next four years. I
can tell you what every senator and every member of Congress
is going to do during their term. They're going to do exactly what
God ordained for them to do. And God's going to get every
bit of the glory to Himself in the process. And He's going to
bring good to His people in the process. And His gospel is going
to go forth in power and accomplish whatsoever God wills. And nobody's
going to stop it. It won't even be a bump in the
road. That's so. So remember, there's no power
but of God. Now here's the second thing.
Go to 2 Corinthians chapter 10. We're going to spend a little
more time here because this is very needful. Though we walk after the flesh,
our weapons are spiritual. Read this with me now. 2 Corinthians
10.3. For though we walk in the flesh,
we do not war in the flesh. Right now, every believer walks
in the flesh. We still have an earthly body,
fleshly body. We are walking amongst fleshly
men and women. And we have an old sinful fleshly
nature in us. But though we walk after the
flesh, God's children do not war after the flesh. We don't
war. Now we watched this campaign
over the past year and a half and there's a good example of
what it is to war after the flesh. That's what we've been watching.
You've been seeing all these political campaigns. Aren't you
glad they're over? That's warring after the flesh. The things that men use to divide
one another from each other are the things that men use to war
after the flesh. The media divided all the voters. They divided the voters by the
color of our skin. They divided us by male and female,
by religious and non-religious, by educated and uneducated. Warring
after the flesh is warring after a carnal mind, using carnal weapons
for carnal ends, and it's sinful. And all it does
is divide. It divides. Sin is in our hands. That's what we war with after
the flesh. And sin separated man. God said, your sins have
separated you from God. We separated ourselves from God
by our sin in Adam. And ever since then, men and
women have been separating ourselves over those very things that the
media used to divide us all into groups. We've been warring after
the flesh and dividing one another over pride of face, pride of
place, pride of grace, and even pride of race. These are the
things that we face and race and place and grace are the things
we divide over. Differences in one another. And
since we have a sinful flesh, it's very easy to hear the back
and forth and to get caught up in it and to start thinking,
well, maybe I could affect some change if I would just you know,
debate a little bit, or march, or if I would throw off some
custom of our culture which would really make a statement and get
people's attention. Maybe I'll kneel during the National
Anthem. That's warring after the flesh.
That's what that is, warring after the flesh. But though we
walk in the flesh, God says we do not war after the flesh. Now
in Paul's day, I want to give you some examples. In Paul's
day at Corinth, the newly born believers, they've been born
of God, but they're new believers, they're babies in Christ, and
they thought that they should war in the flesh against some
of the customs that were in practice during that time, oppressive
customs. One of them was you had a newly
born again servant, and you had newly born again masters. And
they heard the gospel declare that in Christ there is neither
bond nor free, but we're one in Christ. And spiritually, that's
so. But we still walk in His flesh,
don't we? That's true spiritually. There's neither bond nor free,
but we're still in His flesh. But hearing that, they thought,
well, we should lead a fleshly revolt against servitude. We
ought to The servant thought he ought to run away from his
master, and the master thought he ought to let all his servants
go. Now, what's a gospel preacher going to preach? Well, if you
listen to gospel preachers in our day, they're going to be
all about politics. They're going to be on one side
or the other trying to use politics to affect change. That's not
God's preachers. That's not His place to do. Our weapons are not carnal. We
don't war after the flesh. So what did the Apostle Paul
tell them to do? He said, Let every man abide in the same calling
wherein he was called. Art thou called being a servant?
Care not for it, but if thou mayest be made free, use it rather. If God works something to make
you free, use it, he said. But if not, don't even care for
it. He said, for he that is called
in the Lord. Now he's talking spiritual. He's
teaching something spiritual. He that's called in the Lord
being a servant. He's called spiritually into
the Lord, yet in his flesh he's a servant of a man. But he's
the Lord's free man. He's been freed by Christ. Likewise,
also he that's called being free. Here's a man that's free. Here's
a man who's the master over the servant. but he's Christ's servant. You're bought with a price. Listen
to this now. You're bought with a price. The
price of Christ's precious blood. Be not ye the servants of men, but let every man abide wherein
he's called therein abide with God. He added something to it. Abide there with God. Now, he's
not telling us that we ought to practice slavery in our day.
That's not what he's telling us. He's teaching the principle
that though we walk after the flesh, we do not war after the
flesh. You see, to war after the flesh
would be to be the servants of men. But see, Christ came and
with his own blood, he bought his people. And He freed us from
that servitude of serving men to know that we're Christ's servants. We're Christ's servants and we're
Christ's free men. And so He teaches us, don't be
the servants of men, be the servants of Christ. But if I turn and
start warring after the flesh, if I turn and said, okay, I'm
going to try to effect some change here because this obviously is
not right, the way men are abusing this, I'm going to revolt against
this. I'm going to make a movement
over this and I'm going to stop this. Now I'm warring after the
flesh. Now I've become the servants
of men rather than the servant of Christ. Why? Because the servants
of Christ don't war after the flesh. We see what Christ has
done for us and we wait on Christ to do whatever He's pleased to
do in this earth. Imagine how much better the change was that
Christ effected spiritually through the gospel than what man could
have ever effected by warring after the flesh. Think about
this. Man thinks change is only accomplished
when you abolish an institution like servitude. Sin's not in
things. Sin's in the people. Sin's in the people. You abolish
the institution without giving a man a new heart, he'll just
find another way to reinstitute that form of that servitude.
When Christ gives the servant and the master a new spirit through
our spiritual weapons, then they have a new relationship to one
another as brothers who are one in Christ. Now each feels their
office seeing the glory come from Christ. Now they feel the
office looking at their relation as Christ as the master. and
as his people serve in Christ. And now there's a beauty to it.
Now there's a beauty in it. Now you've got a master who would
be the very best master a servant could have. And a servant who
would be the very best servant to the master that a master could
have. So that the two, it's not even like they're master and
servant anymore, it's like they're family now, brothers in Christ. Man can't affect that. by warring
after the flesh, only Christ can do that by giving a man a
new heart. And when He's giving you a new heart, it don't much
matter about what role you fill or where you are or what position
you have in the world because you have Christ. And you see
Christ in all the relationships in the world. Let me give you
another example. In Grecian culture at Corinth,
it was a man-made custom that the women wore head covering.
I've searched the scripture. I grew up in a church where it
was taught women wore head covering. And I've searched the scriptures
everywhere. God never taught men to wear head covering, no,
taught women to wear a head covering. It was a man-made custom. Men
did it. And in that culture in that day,
folks who were not religious, They wore head coverings. Everybody
wore head coverings. It was in Greece. It was a heathen
culture. Everybody wore head coverings.
Total head coverings. And they did it to show a woman's
subjection to the man. That's what they used it for.
And the unregenerate man abused it and made it oppressive, just
like they do now in some countries and some cultures. And the unregenerate
women hated it with every fiber of their being. But they did
it. They all did. Well, you got these newly born
again Corinthian women and men, born of God's Spirit, and they're
taught of God now that in Christ there's neither male nor female.
We're one in Christ. We're equal in Christ. And so
naturally, what do they think? Should we stop wearing this?
This that's been used so oppressively, should we stop that now? It would
have been like the women in this country during the liberation
movement when women stopped wearing dresses to show, quote, who wears
the pants in the family. That's where that statement came
from. When women stopped wearing dresses and started wearing pants,
men started going, who wears the pants in the family? Because
that was our cultural symbol. the man wore pants, the woman
wore dress. Just like it was their cultural symbol in that
day in Corinth, in that Grecian culture. Now in this day, not
only have the women stopped wearing dresses, now some men are trying
to affect change by wearing dresses. So the Holy Spirit moved Paul
to use our spiritual weapon. to show God's spiritual order,
that the woman's head is the man, and the man's head is Christ,
and Christ's head as our mediator is God. And he preached the gospel
to them. He showed them the gospel in
it, just like he did with the servant and the master. He wasn't
telling us to continue practicing slavery, and he wasn't telling
us to continue practicing head covering. He was taking them
where they were in the culture they were in and He was making
this point that we don't rebel against things to try to make
a change because we don't war after the flesh. You see, if
you take God and He reveals spiritually the relationship of a husband
and a wife and how it's patterned after Christ the husband, and
the church being His bride, and you see how Christ loved the
church and gave Himself for it. And you see how the church by
His grace is made to be in submission to Christ. You've got a beautiful,
beautiful picture from which a husband and a wife was patterned.
And so now to the believing woman and man, this becomes beautiful.
And they, the man loves the woman, and the woman loves the man,
and this relationship is better, and they love deeper because
they're one in Christ. And they see Christ their heavenly
husband, and the whole relationship gets its light from Christ. But
why did Paul tell them keep wearing the covering? You know, if you
look anywhere else in the Scriptures where that wasn't the custom, It's nowhere said in the Scripture
that a woman is to wear a head covering. It's just said that
she's to dress modestly and that she is to be in subjection from
a meek and quiet spirit which in the sight of God is of great
price. God's looking on the heart. That's the way God's looking.
Dress modestly, do it from a heart that's made new by Him, that's
in subjection to God, to Christ, to the husband, meek and quiet
spirit. And that's a great price to God.
It was the same reason He told the master and the servant to
not rebel. Paul said it over there in that text. He said in
1 Corinthians 11, 16, if any man be contentious, any man wants
to rebel against the lawful custom of the day that otherwise would
be scandalous and otherwise would draw attention to you and draw
the attention off of Christ, He says, if any man be contentious,
that's the custom we don't have in the church of God. We don't
war after the flesh, that's what he's saying. We're not warring
after the flesh. because that won't affect anything.
The reason I'm saying this to you is God will remove oppression,
He'll remove civil injustice, He'll do all these things you
see everybody arguing about right now, wonder whether this is going
to all happen. God will do that, but He'll do
it in His time. He will use the warring of fleshly men. But to imagine that a sinful
man can accomplish anything like that, can accomplish unity, Real
unity. That's the same as imagining
you and I, by the works of our hands, can accomplish salvation.
It's impossible. The only way that unity can be
made is God to make it in the heart. Now look back there at
2 Corinthians 10.4. Believers have a weapon far more
powerful, and it's made powerful through our great peacemaker.
Christ Jesus. You want to make peace? This
is how peace is made right here. Verse 4, The weapons of our warfare
are not carnal, but they are mighty through God. Our weapon
is the preaching of Christ and Him crucified. Our weapon is
the preaching of Christ and Him crucified. We come here week
in and week out and we hear about the total absolute ruin of man
and Adam. Because of Adam's sin, Adam's
rebellion, he plunged us all into ruin. And so therefore God
imputed sin to us. When there was not even a law
to break, God still imputed sin because we really did sin in
Adam. And we died in Adam. But we declare that because that's
what you have to hear spiritually in the heart to understand Christ
is the last Adam. Christ is the one who came and
by His obedience affected the change that needed to take place.
He satisfied the law. and he pleased God in everything
he did. From a holy heart, in a righteous
conduct, under the law, faced with every temptation of the
Son, so that God's pleased with His Son. And we declare this
message, and through this message, God said, I've given the stewardship
to my Son. And through this message, in
the dispensation of the fullness of times, I'm going to gather
together all things in one, even in Christ. in him. That's the one who's going to
affect unity. That's the one who's going to
bring his people together. But he's going to do it through
this gospel. And he's going to do it by making us one, by taking
down that middle wall of partition, that middle wall of the law.
If he doesn't take that law out of the way, if he doesn't remove
the law, fulfill the law so that you don't look anywhere but to
Christ for righteousness and holiness and redemption and wisdom
and all things. If you don't look to Christ,
if you're looking to the law and to Christ, not only are you
going to be cross-eyed, but you're going to use that
law to exalt yourself over others. Always. Always. Just like men do who think they're
educated and some other poor little ignorant fellows uneducated.
But you see, it takes Christ to come and take that law out
of the way, and remove it out of the way, and teach you He's
the fulfillment of it, He's the end of it, and bring you to His
feet to rest in Him. Only then will you find brethren
who are made one. When you're all worms, you don't
have anything to exalt one over the other with. If somebody ever calls me racist
or bigoted, I'm going to say, I am in my flesh. You are too
in your flesh. That's what sin is. We always
in our flesh pick out things that differentiate us and try
to exalt ourselves with them. That's true of you and me, and
we're being dishonest if we say that ain't so. But when it comes
to the spiritual man, where I'm taught of God, what I'm trying
to tell you is, We're all on the same level. We're all just
a bunch of worthless maggots before God. And it takes God
to choose us and make us one and make us complete in Christ
and make us what He would have us to be, righteous and holy
in His Son, giving Him all the glory for the whole work. That's
what our gospel is. And when we preach this gospel,
Christ comes forth then and He puts the whole armor of God on
His child. That's how a difference is made.
He comes to you and He puts the girdle of truth in you. That's
a new man. That's a new heart. That's what's
controlling you. Your girdle around your loins
is truth now. Not lies anymore. It's truth
now. And He puts the breastplate of righteousness upon you. His
righteousness. That's what guards your heart.
That's what moves you. In the heart now is that breastplate
of righteousness. And then you have the shoes of
the gospel of peace put on your feet. And then you have the shield
of faith put in your hand, whereby you're able to quench all the
fiery darts of the wicked. Trust in Christ to overcome them.
Cast all your care upon Him, for He cares for you. Satan goes
about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. How are you
going to tangle with him? Warring after the flesh? No.
Cast all your care on Christ. That's the shield of faith. trusting
the object of our faith. And He puts the helmet of salvation
on your head. When your mind don't have something
good to think on, like Christ and what He's done, your mind
starts eating itself up. And you start thinking all kind
of, you got enemies, you conjure up enemies that aren't even aware
about being your enemy. Just because your mind don't
have something good to think on. He puts the helmet of salvation
on you and turns your mind to Christ and says, seek things
above. You start thinking on Christ,
you'll be just at peace. You know your enemies are conquered,
you got nothing to worry about. Am I telling the truth? Isn't
that so? And He puts the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God.
He gives you the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God. And
He makes you to pray. I don't mean just starts making
you say prayers. You did that plenty of times before. I mean
He makes you absolutely, totally dependent on Him. That's what
I mean. How does He do it? Look at verse 4. He pulls down
strongholds. We had all these strongholds
of sin and pride and self-righteousness and vain refuge of lies and all
that. He pulls them all down. Verse
5, He cast down imaginations and every high thing that exalted
itself against the knowledge of God. What's these high things
that exalt themselves against the knowledge of God? If you
went to college, probably your freshman or sophomore year, you
sat around with some brilliant folks and you all exalted your
high minds over God and talked about what you think God is and
how He works and all that stuff. And He brings that all to nothing.
And brings you to see you just a big old dummy. And He makes
Christ your wisdom. And He brings you into captivity,
brings into captivity every thought to obedience unto Christ. What does that mean? It means
He brings you to Christ's feet and makes you to see Christ as
your obedience by whom you're saved so that you don't look
to anywhere else but Him. Your every thought, when you
start thinking of any way that you might save yourself, every
thought comes back to Christ and His obedience. And you say,
that's how I'm saved. And then verse 6, he says, "...and
having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience when your obedience
is fulfilled." When Christ fills us full in the Spirit, and for
the first time in your life, Christ is formed in you and He
makes you obedient to look to Christ and trust His obedience
alone. We are a walking contradiction,
partly truth and partly fiction. That's what we are. And when
He makes you to behold, when He makes you obedient, He's made
you to come and trust Christ's obedience and none other. That's
when you've been made obedient. When you're not looking to your
obedience anymore, you're looking to Christ's obedience. When am
I holy? When am I made holy? When I'm looking to Christ for
my holiness and not to me. That's when I've truly been sanctified.
Is that coming out of this world? That's different from what the
world teaches you, I guarantee you. To be made to see Christ
as all is what I'm talking about. Everything brought into obedience
to Him. When you do that, He gives you
a readiness, a willingness to revenge all disobedience. Does
that mean you go around correcting everybody else? No, that's what
you did before this. You used the law to do that and
exalt yourself over educated and uneducated, male and female,
bond and free, color of people's skin. You used anything you could
to exalt yourself. Now, he makes you willing to
take revenge on your own disobedience. He makes you to see your own
sinful self-righteous works. He makes you to hate your own
sin and your own calling yourself worthy of something by something
you've done. He makes you to take revenge
on that. He makes you take revenge on looking anywhere else but
to the gospel as your one weapon of salvation. Whereas before
we were going to turn the world upside down with a picket sign,
now He makes you put that away and just makes you Support the
preaching of the gospel because you know, that's how it's gonna
be done That's how it's gonna be done You know whenever the
Lord I want to give you this if I didn't erase this I Hope
I didn't erase this I did erase this you go read. Let's go do
it. I'm gonna do it anyway Jeremiah
1 go over there. I Want you to see this Jeremiah
1 You don't think God does everything through the preaching of the
gospel. Let me show you something Look here in Jeremiah chapter 1. When
he sent Jeremiah, look at what he did. Look here. Now let me find it. All right,
right here, verse 9, Jeremiah 1, 9. This is the Lord calling
Jeremiah, sending him forth to preach the word. Then the Lord
put forth his hand and touched my mouth. And the Lord said unto
me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth. See, I have this
day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms to root
out and to pull down and to destroy and to throw down and to build
and to plant. That is a powerful weapon right
there. That's the gospel. Jeremiah told you who he was.
He said, I'm nobody. I'm a child. God said, don't
say that. I'm putting my word in your mouth. I'm sending you
forth. Don't be afraid of their faces. I'm sending you forth
to preach this word and turn kingdoms upside down, to root
up kings and princes. He said, I'm putting you over
the nations. That's what he told Jeremiah. And that's true of
all his gospel preachers. Not because of anything in them,
but because God is making it the word of faithful. And he's
doing the work. Now that's our weapon, brethren. We don't do anything to draw
attention to us. By anything we do. Not dressing
provocatively and not trying to dress in a way that looks
religious, that has no meaning in our culture. We dress plain. Because why? We want all attention
on Christ. We don't march and try to effect
change. Why? We trust Christ to do it. We're
waiting on Him to do it. So remember, the weapons of our
warfare are not carnal. We're not worn after the flesh.
We've got a mighty weapon in this gospel. This is where He
reveals the righteousness of Christ to His people. Alright,
then thirdly, one last thing, 1 Timothy 2, and I'm just going
to read this and that's all. 1 Timothy 2. Knowing now that
there's no power but of God, knowing that we're not worn after
flesh, but after using this spiritual weapon of the gospel, which is
mighty through God, remember to pray for our president, pray
for all the folks that were put in office, and pray for this
nation. 1 Timothy 2.1, I exhort therefore
that first of all supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving
of thanks be made for all men, for kings, and for all that are
in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in
all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable
in the sight of God our Savior, who will have all kinds of men
be saved." That's what he's talking about. He's talking about praying
for all kinds of men. Don't pray for just kings, and
don't pray for just paupers, and don't pray for the educated
and not the uneducated. Pray for all men. Because God's
going to have some of all kinds of men to be saved. And to come
unto the knowledge of the truth. Because only God can save them.
He says, for there's one God and there's one mediator between
God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for
all. You know what a ransom is? That's a price being paid. He paid the price. That defines
for you who all is. It's everybody that he paid the
price for. Every one of them. And it will be testified in due
time. Where unto I am an ordained preacher and apostle, I speak
the truth in Christ and lie not. A teacher of the Gentiles in
faith and verity. I will therefore that men pray
everywhere, lifting up holy hands, hands that have been sanctified,
empty. That's the main thing about a
holy hand is they're empty. They don't have anything you're
doing in it. Without wrath and doubting. It's
so easy right now to be filled with wrath and doubting, isn't
it? If you start listening to the world and the news and all
that stuff, it's so easy to be filled with doubt and wrath.
God make us look on Christ and keep us focused on Christ, remembering
God's rule and everything. He's working it through this
gospel and we're to pray for men and we don't even know who
God's going to save. Wouldn't it be amazing if He
saved the President of the United States? Wouldn't it be amazing
one day if there was a revival by God's grace in the senate? He could do it. He's done it. King David was a godly man. King
David was a man after God's own heart. Pray for it. God can do
it. Only God can do it. Because He's
going to save all kinds of people. And this is what will keep us
from wrath and doubting. Looking to Him only all the time.
I pray God will bless that. Let's pray together. Our Heavenly Father, we thank
you that you put your person now, made
it clear who you would have in this office. Whatever it is you
intend to work by it, whatever it is you are going to do, you
may change it, you may, we don't know. But we trust you, Lord,
that it's by your power, you've ordained it, and that you'll
work your will in it. We thank you. We pray for him. We pray for his wife, his children. We pray for those that didn't
win. We pray for those that you might
bless them and cause them to know the truth. Lord, we pray that you would
keep your people. Don't let us get wrapped up in
all this stuff. So many friends separating from
friends and family from family. Lord, make us turn off the Facebook
if we have to. Make us turn off the news and
open up the book. Spend more time seeing what you
say, thinking on good things. Remind us ever more, Lord, that
our weapons are not carnal. Our weapons are mighty through
you, through this gospel that you're going to work unity. Don't let us ever distract from
that glorious one who came and redeemed us and made us one. Lord, make us to be unseen servants
that help to point people to Christ and not to us. And Lord,
help us to be ever dependent on you, even when things don't
go our way and the country's way and what have you. Cause
us, Lord, to come back and pray to you again and thank you. Whatever
it is you're doing, when it's hurtful, it's just as good for
us as it is when we like it. Keep us ever dependent on you,
ever remembering that. Forgive us, Lord, for our fleshly
warring over this whole mess. Settle us now, Lord, so we can
get back to worshiping You. We ask it in Christ's name, the
King of kings and the Lord of lords, the Prince of the kings
of the earth. Thank You, Lord, that He reigns.
In His precious name we pray. Amen.