I would invite you to turn with me in your Bibles to 1 Kings chapter 21. And today we're going to be looking at verses 1 through 16. Now, one of the things that we believe and teach is that the Bible is a sure ruling guide for all of our faith and our life and our practice, that it deals with every factor of life. It may not tell us how to cook lasagna. I have searched the scriptures. You will not find a recipe there. But it does teach us how to live our lives as cooks in a fallen world. The kind of things that we should do and the kind of things that we should not do. One of the things that it teaches us about also is leadership. It shows us, obviously, the example of good leadership. We have the example of the best leadership. the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who leads and we should follow, taking up our cross and denying ourselves, and following him every day of our lives. It also tells us about leadership in the world. It shows us examples, obviously, of good leaders and of bad leaders. Good kings, bad kings, lesser magistrates who did well, lesser magistrates who did wickedly. It does these things for our instruction. It sets patterns before us. It also creates within us, it should at least, a longing for there to be an end for the need of human leadership and entering into the presence of the living God and knowing perfect leadership in the presence of the Lamb, Jesus Christ. But until that time, we live on earth, and so we need to learn lessons about government. Today, we're going to be looking at the example of a terrible king who did wickedly. Instead of shepherding the sheep that God gave him, he took advantage of them terribly and went against God's law. Hopefully we will learn something from that and be able to apply it in our own world and in our own life. But before we read the word of God, let's go to the God who gave us that word and let's ask for his blessing. Sovereign Lord, I ask now that you would be with me and that you would help me to teach your word aright. Lord, I confess I'm a sinner, a man with feet of clay. I cannot hope, O Lord, to open up your word and exposit it aright unless I have your spirit dwelling within me. So I ask, O Lord, that you would give me clarity, that you would allow me, O Lord, to divide your word aright. And as I speak about leadership, I pray, O Lord, that I would be reflecting in my own heart about the leadership that I provide in the church, Lord, and in my own home. and wherever I am, Lord, help me to take these things to heart. Help me to learn from the examples of the past and help us all, oh Lord, whatever sphere we're in, whether we be parents or simply older brothers, older sisters, help us to remember that these things apply to us as well. And we pray this in Jesus' holy name, amen. 1 Kings chapter 21, and I will be reading verses one through 16. This is the word of the Lord. And it came to pass after these things that Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard which was in Jezreel next to the palace of Ahab king of Samaria. So Ahab spoke to Naboth, saying, Give me your vineyard, that I may have it for a vegetable garden, because it is near, next to my house. And for it I will give you a vineyard better than it, or if it seems good to you, I will give you its worth in money. But Naboth said to Ahab, The Lord forbid that I should give you the inheritance of my fathers to you. So Ahab went into his house sullen and displeased because of the word which Naboth the Jezreelite had spoken to him. For he had said, I will not give you the inheritance of my fathers. And he lay down on his bed, and turned away his face, and would eat no food. But Jezebel his wife came to him and said, Why is your spirit so sullen that you eat no food? He said to her, Because I spoke to Naboth the Jezreelite, and said to him, Give me your vineyard for money, or else, if it pleases you, I will give you another vineyard for it. And he answered, I will not give you my vineyard. Then Jezebel his wife said to him, You now exercise authority over Israel. Arise, eat food, and let your heart be cheerful. I will give you the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite. And she wrote letters in Ahab's name, sealed them with a seal, and sent the letters to the elders and the nobles who were dwelling in the city with Naboth. She wrote in the letters, saying, Proclaim a fast, and seek Naboth with high honor among the people. And seek two men, scoundrels before him, to bear witness against him, saying, You have blasphemed God and the king. Then take him out, and stone him, that he may die. So the men of his city, the elders and nobles who were inhabitants of his city, did as Jezebel had sent to them, as it was written in the letters which she had sent to them. They proclaimed a fast, and seated Naboth with high honor among the people. And two men, scoundrels, came in and sat before him. And the scoundrels witnessed against him, against Naboth, in the presence of the people, saying, Naboth is blasphemed, God and the king. Then they took him outside the city and stoned him with stones, so that he died. Then they sent to Jezebel, saying, Naboth has been stoned and is dead. And it came to pass, when Jezebel heard that Naboth had been stoned and was dead, that Jezebel said to Ahab, Arise, take possession of the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, which he refused to give you for money, for Naboth is not alive, but dead. So it was, when Ahab heard that Naboth was dead, that Ahab got up and went down to take possession of the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever. Many of you probably already know this, but I went to university in Scotland at the University of St. Andrews. And in St. Andrews, there's a lot of ancient architecture. It's a very, very old city. St. Andrews itself, the university, goes back to the 14th century. But one of the major landmarks is the cathedral. And in the cathedral graveyard are buried several eminent men, many of them very, very eminent Scottish worthies, men of the church, theologians. great teachers of bygone years. One of those men is Samuel Rutherford. Samuel Rutherford was a pastor and a theologian who lived in the 17th century and he was a man who wrote many great things. If you ever get a chance and you want to see really what the heart of a pastor should look like in dealing with the members of his congregation, pick up the letters of Samuel Rutherford. They are inspiring. Sometimes they will bring you to tears. They touch on issues such as death, for instance, and how to go about consoling those who have lost loved ones. They are simply amazing and moving. His sermons as well are so full of Christ. They are almost poetry as it was being given to the congregation that he watched over. Sadly, unfortunately, Samuel Rutherford was a man who angered by his other writings, the King of England, and he was sent into exile. He was taken away from his beloved congregation at Anwath, but that did not stop him from eventually becoming the head of St. Andrews University at the time of the British Civil War and the English Civil War. Nonetheless, with all of his sermons and his letters and so on, his great writings, the writing of Samuel Rutherford that made the most impact upon the world, indeed this nation and its formation, a work that angered many when it came out and got him into the most trouble, is his book that is known simply by two Latin words, Lex Rex, literally the word for law and the word for king. It was subtitled, The Law and the Prince. This was a treatise in which he tried to sum up and put into writing Presbyterian and Reformed principles, theological principles about government. It's a book about politics, but a book about politics founded upon biblical principles. It gives the view of government that eventually would be incorporated into the Westminster Confession of Faith. Most of the divines who met at the Westminster Assembly later on, he wrote his book in 1644, had been profoundly influenced by his ideas when it came to the civil magistrate. In turn though, Rutherford himself had been influenced by the National Covenant, which the Scots had signed in 1638. bringing several principles of biblical government to a head. Among the most important things that Rutherford's work, Lex Rex, taught was that all power and authority came from God. The civil magistrate's responsibility was, therefore, to rule according to the law of God. Properly understood, Rutherford pointed out, kings and all those who were in authority were really vice regents, not regents. They were kings who governed at the authority of a greater king and who were supposed to be governing according to the instructions of that king. It's the failing of every reformed pastor, generally speaking, that we over quote Tolkien. I've been trying to hold back this year. I think this may be my first full reference, but You'll remember in the Lord of the Rings cycle, the return of the king, that Gondor is not ruled initially by a king. It's ruled by a steward who's supposed to be waiting for the king. He is supposed to be ruling in the name of the king. In a real sense, all human magistrates are supposed to be ruling in the name of the king. They are supposed to be ruling, not as though this were their land, but rather watching over people for the sake of God and enforcing his laws. In that way, they will do them good. It's the same in the church. You are not my sheep. I may be the shepherd in this particular congregation, but properly, I am an under-shepherd. You are God's little lambs. And a day will be held when all rulers will be held to account." How did you rule? And particularly all pastors will be held to account. How did you take care of my sheep? How did you shepherd them? Did you rule according to my law? Did you teach them what I wanted you to teach them in my name? The civil magistrate may have authority over men, but he has no authority beyond that which God has granted him to rule in his name. He also, one of the things that Rutherford said that created great controversy, was he said that the civil magistrate had no authority over the kingdom of God, and he could not therefore tell the church what to do. He also pointed out that the Pope was not the ruler over the church, and that all authority and power had been given to the Lord Jesus Christ. Lex Rex also stated that when a king did or commanded men to do things that were against the law of God, he ceased at that moment in time to be a good ruler. In fact, he ceased to be a ruler at all and became instead a tyrant. He stated that there was no lawful power to do evil. In fact, it's wonderful. It's the counterpoint to Machiavelli's The Prince. Rutherford makes very clear throughout that the ends never justify the means. It is never right to do evil looking for a good result. There is no lawless power to do evil, or rather lawful power to do evil, and that lawless governments are going beyond their power and authority. when they command something contrary to the law of God, or forbid something commanded in the law of God. He went even further. He said that such laws, and this was what was absolutely radical, may and indeed should be disobeyed and necessarily resisted when they come forth, because only God can be the Lord of the conscience. And if we do things at the king's command, like, for instance, in our story, the lesser magistrates obeyed the instructions that they thought were coming from the hand of the king. They were, in fact, coming from the hand of the queen. But they obeyed those instructions and did evil. Rutherford would have pointed out to them that you are never to obey an evil command that goes against God's word. You are never to obey a command from a king to commit murder. It does not matter how much he exalts himself or how much he says, this is a good thing. Now, when Lex Rex therefore came out, it was immediately controversial because the then king of the United Kingdoms of England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, Charles Stuart, himself a descendant of James VI of Scotland and James I of England, a Scotsman, believed in and he promulgated the divine right of kings. He stated unambiguously, Charles declared to the entire nation in the world that he was the head of the church in his kingdom and that God had given he and his descendants absolute power and authority to rule as he saw fit. For Charles I, it really was not Lex Rex, but Rex Lex. The king is the law. He was above the law in the kingdom. He had a godlike power, he proclaimed. When Lex Rex came out, it was an affront to his authority. He saw it as a written form of treason. Charles I, though, and rulers like him, what were they doing? They were grievously misinterpreting Romans 13. If you would ask them, where do you get your authority? Oh, it's given to me by divine right. It is given to me by God. They would quote Romans 13. Many powers have quoted Romans 13. as an aside or an affront, rather, or a facade for doing evil. Even the Nazis quoted Romans 13, trying to get the German people to do whatever they said, saying that they were the authorities that had been put in place by God. Turn, if you will, with me to Romans 13. I do want to take a look at that briefly. We're going to be reading the first few verses. In Romans 13 we read, Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers are not a terror, to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same, for he is God's minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain, for he is God's minister and avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil." Well, Rutherford said, yes, all authority comes from God. But he pointed out that the authority given by God to the magistrate was to do good, not to do evil. And that when the magistrate sinned by ignoring the law of God, or going against it, and murdering, or stealing, or commanding lesser magistrates to do so, he ceased to be the authority. that God had placed over the people, and it became the duty of the people to either refuse to obey or actually to resist him. Rutherford wrote these words. I'm going to read a section from his work. He said, I am not now unseasonably to dispute the power of lawful defense against tyranny, but I lay down this maxim of divinity. Tyranny, being a work of Satan, is not from God. Because sin, either habitual or actual, is not from God. The power, that is, must be from God. The magistrate or magistrate is good in nature of office, and the intrinsic end of his office, for he is the minister of God for your good. And therefore a power ethical, political, or moral to oppress is not from God, and is not a power, but a licentious deviation of a power, and is no more from God but from sinful nature and the old serpent than a license to sin. God in Christ gives pardons of sin, but the Pope, not God, gives dispensations to sin. To this add, if for nature to defend itself be lawful, no community without sin has power to alienate and give away this power. For as no power given to man to murder his brother is of God, so no power to suffer his brother to be murdered is of God, and no power to suffer himself a fortiori far less can be from God. Now note that point he makes at the end. We do not have the power to give away that is to alienate, to abdicate our responsibility to preserve life and to prevent murder from happening. Those lesser magistrates may have said, what can we do? We received orders from the king to kill this guy. they never had a right to execute those particular orders. He also says, no community has the right to give up that right to defend themselves from murder. It is our duty under the sixth commandment, which we've been going through, obviously, the commandments, it is our duty to defend ourselves and our brethren from murder. We have a calling to do that. Now, while King Ahab obviously did not have the benefit of Romans 13, he was still bound by the laws given by God to Moses. And in particular, he would have been bound by the rules in Deuteronomy 17, which states, starting in verse 18, also it shall be when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write for himself a copy of this law in a book from the one before the priests, the Levites, and it shall be with him, and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, and be careful to observe all the words of this law and these statutes, that his heart may not be lifted above his brethren, that he may not turn aside from the commandment to the right hand or to the left, and that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children in the midst of Israel. to the kings of Israel before they ever enter into the kingdom, before the kings are established. Moses says, by God, he says, you will, if you are the king of Israel, you will copy down God's law contained here within this book, Deuteronomy, we would know it as. You will copy it down and have a copy of it nearby you so you can consult it when you are wondering what to do, how to rule, how to be the king of Israel, you will go to it. And because you've copied it yourself, you will have it set in your mind. It will be impossible for you to say, I did not know these things. Unfortunately, however, Ahab, while he had been forced to acknowledge the power of God, because it had been displayed before him wonderfully several times, he did not love or fear the Lord. And as a result, he did not follow his commands. He did not execute his law. The only thing, therefore, that held Ahab back from being fully tyrannical, and this has been the case again and again in history, was Ahab's own weakness and cowardice. He would have been a far worse ruler if he was a more forceful ruler. Unfortunately, however, as we see from 1 Kings, his wife Jezebel did not share that particular weakness with him. She was more than willing to misrule in his name and to use his power however she wanted to." Now, verse 1 sets the scene in Jezreel. Jezreel is this community not far from the the mountain, Mount Carmel, where they'd had the battle between Baal and Yahweh, that Yahweh had decisively shown he is the only God in Israel. The king and the queen apparently had a winter residence there, a winter palace, and enjoyed the balmy Mediterranean seaside weather rather than the colder weather that you would get during the winter in the elevated areas around Samaria, the capital city. Ahab, while he is there, notices that one of his subjects has a nice vineyard next to the palace. Ahab covets that particular vineyard. He likes it. He thinks to himself, that land would be just absolutely perfect for me to have a vegetable garden where I could grow my favorite tummy yummies. So he offers Naboth something better. He says, I'll give you one of my royal vineyards, where we get the royal vintage from. You'll get the best grapes. You can have this, or I'll give you money. What good is this vineyard doing you? It's turning out, you know, not much produce, I'm sure. I'll give you money instead. You'll realize the value of your property. But Naboth refuses. Why would Naboth refuse? Well, Naboth's refusal actually indicates that Naboth knew God's law. The king didn't care for God's law, but Naboth did. He knew that the children of Israel, they were not permitted to sell land to one another because their property belonged to the Lord. The Lord had parceled it out. The Lord had given it as an inheritance. The land shall not be sold in perpetuity was what the law of Moses said. For the land is mine. You are strangers and sojourners with me," the Lord said in Leviticus 25, 23. Or again, the inheritance of the people of Israel shall not be transferred from one tribe to another, for every one of the people of Israel shall hold on to the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers. Naboth makes this point, I can't sell you the inheritance of my fathers. Don't you understand? Even if I wanted to realize the value of this property, I can't sell it outside of the tribe. This is also the inheritance of my children. I sell it away, what will I give to them? He understood the law of God and he desired to keep it. Apparently this was one of the 7,000 in Israel who had not bowed the knee to Baal. And at this point, eminent domain didn't exist. So, you know, Ahab couldn't say, well I'm sorry, we need this land in order for a new wall to be built here. So, he didn't simply seize the vineyard and give Naboth some paltry sum, saying it was for the good of the community. So, what does he do? He acts like a two year old, doesn't he? He goes into a grand sulk. Turns his head towards the wall. He lies down on his couch, and he turns his face to the wall, and he won't eat. And his queen, Jezebel, notices and asks and says, why are you sulking, you happy kittens? What's wrong? Nobody's going to tell me anything here. And at which point she says, seriously. Is that all Naboth won't tell you his vineyard? Now, a princess of the Sidonians from this nation kingdom, she did not acknowledge the laws of the God of Israel, which is another reason why kings and all those in authority should not be unequally yoked with people who do not acknowledge the Lord God. And indeed, regular Christians, we should not be unequally yoked. She was used to the divine right of kings being exercised. She'd seen it in the Phoenician kingdom as she was growing up. And she essentially says to him, you decide what the law is, Ahab. You now exercise authority in Israel. Your word is law. What you say goes. Why aren't you acting like that? So she decides to take matters into her own hands and show Ahab how her strong father, King Ethbal of the Sodonians, would have handled such a matter entire in his kingdom. She says, in essence, I'll show you how this is done. I'll give you, I guarantee it, the vineyard of Naboth. Now, she knew that the property of traders reverted to the crown. If you were found guilty of treason in the ancient world, the king seized your property. So all she has to do is convict Naboth of treason. So she sends instructions under the king's seal, telling the magistrates of Naboth city to frame Naboth and accuse him of blasphemy, both against God and the king. Now this is rich, isn't it? Blasphemy against God being sent by Jezebel, the supreme blasphemer in Israel. But isn't that often the case? You see that kind of projection. The evildoer accuses the others of doing the very evil that they are perpetrating within the government. So, she sends these things. She uses the king's seal. These seals were created by, you took usually some sort of ornate stone, a gemstone often, and you carved into it your particular crest. Then, when there was an official document, you would press the seal into either the wax or the clay that you were using to close the document or the clay tablet it was written on, and it would show that it had your authority. Sealing was incredibly important. In fact, sealing is a principle within the Bible. Once something is sealed, it has the king's authority behind it. Because there were so many of these authorized documents, thousands of these seals have been recovered in Israel. Thousands of what the things that they were pressed into, they're called bulleh, have been found in Israel. Now many bear the names of biblical figures. We have found the seals of various advisors to the king mentioned in the books of the Old Testament. And interestingly enough, while they have not found the seal of Ahab, they have found the seal of Jezebel. In fact, I put it on the slide there. I'm sorry I ruined it. Ty picked out this beautiful picture of a vineyard symbolizing Naboth's Vineyard, obviously, and I went through a picture of a seal on it, but that's Jezebel's seal. The top portion is broken, but it still has the remnants of Yah Ysabel in it, basically saying, or La Ysabel, meaning of Jezebel. This seal was discovered. The artwork, you'll notice, resembles that of which nation? Who said Egypt? Somebody said Egypt. I heard it. Very good. It looks almost Egyptian, doesn't it? That is in keeping with the practice of the Phoenician royalty. They favored Egyptian symbolism. They traded with the Egyptians all the time. They loved their art, they loved their pottery, and they loved their royal symbology. She had this pagan. You find a seal in Egypt from this era, using this pagan symbology, and you know you're dealing with a Phoenician here in this case. In any event, she seals it, though not with that seal, she seals it with her husband's seal, the king's seal. The lesser magistrates read it, and they no doubt turn white and begin to tremble. They go along with her plan out of fear, because they knew exactly how ruthless these rulers could be. The elders and the nobles of the city, out of dread for either Ahab or Jezebel, or both, went along with the plot. They hold this feast and Naboth thought he is being honored, but at the feast the scoundrels leap up and accuse him. Scoundrel is a good old word. We should use it more often. You scoundrel! You scallywag! You blaggard! Those are great old words. We've lost them. We've reused the same insults again and again. The word translated scoundrels here, it's literal translation is sons of Belial. It comes from two words, bili, meaning without, and yal, meaning worth. So literally these are sons of worthlessness, worthless men, men known to the community to be worthless. What was their word worth? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. These were the worst possible witnesses who could have been picked, and yet everybody's like, oh yeah, what they said. Yeah, you did it. It was a foregone conclusion. This was rather like the trial of Jesus. You remember when we had these sons of worthlessness leaping up and saying, he said, he said, he said. Even then, they couldn't get their words to agree. The Scottish commentator Alexander McLaren, talking about this, notes that there are three types of dangerous characters in this story. He says, first there is Ahab. who is wicked and weak. Second, there's Jezebel who is wicked and strong. Thirdly, there's the elders of Jezreel who are wicked and subservient." Then he went on to say that he believes the latter of the three, that is the elders, are the most reprehensible. McLaren said this, and it's so true, "'Better to be lying dead beneath a heap of stones, like the sturdy nobbeth who could say no to a king. than be one of his stoners who killed their innocent neighbor to pleasure Jezebel. Let me stop for a second and ask you the question. As you've gone through the story, as you've seen these things, who would you rather be? Would you rather be Ahab or Jezebel? Would you rather be the elders of Jezreel? I mean, you've got the power, or you're staying in power and keeping your head. Or would you rather be Naboth? who knew the Lord, and though he died, died doing what the Lord had said for them to do. Who of them do you want to be? And I ask that question pointedly, because we live in an age where you're going to have to make decisions like that. Are you going to follow the Lord, or are you going to do what either the grand authority or the lesser authority tell you to do that goes against the Word of God? Are you going to obey Christ and His instructions, or are you going to obey the unlawful instructions that are given to you? You're going to have to, all of you at some point in your life, are going to have to make that decision. I've only been on the earth for 54 years, and I've already been confronted with that kind of decision before. And it's happening more and more frequently in the world that we live in. So keep that in mind. Who do you serve? Who do you serve? Do you serve the Lord God Almighty? Do you listen to His voice? Or do you listen to the voices of wicked men who tell you to do the wrong thing? These men, these lesser magistrates, these elders, were charged with watching over their brethren. They were charged with making sure that the laws were followed. And instead, they subverted them. They conspired to murder an innocent man. Instead of protecting the good and punishing the evildoer, they do exactly the reverse. That's the mark of a tyrant. They're lesser tyrants, but they're still acting tyrannically. They do what Jezebel asks. They send letters to Jezebel. Then she commands her husband to go up and take possession of the vineyard that she has obtained for him. Ahab, of course, is immensely pleased. I'm sure he went there whistling and assuming there is nothing to stop him now. No one sees, and nobody can stop me from doing whatever I want. Unfortunately, David thought that, didn't he, when he took Bathsheba. and had Uriah put to death. No one sees. At that point in time, he's a practical atheist. He can do whatever he wants. But as we shall see, there was one who saw, one who took care of the worthless, or rather, the powerless, and who brought justice even to the powerful. Ahab is wrong. Now, there are some applications of this I want to make. Some of them are obvious. Some of them are already made. But Rutherford, in his Lexerex, mentions Ahab no less than 32 times. Ahab he considers as one of these sterling examples in the Old Testament of terrible kingship, of exactly the wrong kind of kingship. The incident of Naboth's vineyard, because it is such an act of a regent stealing the property of one whom he was supposed to serve, he mentions it 12 times in the work. It's a foul example of government doing exactly the opposite of what it is supposed to do. So let's think on this. What's the purpose of government? Well, if we want to summarize Rutherford, here are some ideas that come from his work. What is the purpose of government? It's a good question. The purpose of government is the glory of God and the well-being of the people in both outward and spiritual terms. Who or what brings government into being? Is it a social contract? Is it something that we just pull out of the air or something like that? No. The answer is it is brought into being by God and the people by means of contract or covenant. What is the nature of government? Government involves declaring, applying, and enforcing the law. And what, finally, are the limits on government? And the answer, and this is the most important point of all, is government cannot go beyond God's law and command what is contrary to it or abuse the people. When a government does so, it ceases to be a lawful government and becomes a tyranny. Later, Presbyterians would take these ideas and they would distill them into this statement about the duties of rulers in the Westminster Confession of Faith. You'll find that in chapter 23, section 1. God, the Supreme Lord and King of all the world, hath ordained civil magistrates to be under him over the people for his own glory and the public good, and to this end hath armed them with the power of the sword for the defense and encouragement of them that are good, and for the punishment of evildoers." That, in summary, is the duty of a magistrate. And when they aren't doing that, they are wrong. They are doing evil. What this means is that, as Rutherford puts it elsewhere in his work, nothing can legitimate tyranny and killing of the innocent, the intentions of men can make nothing intrinsic evil to become good. We may fool ourselves. We may say that by doing this thing, by legitimating, for instance, the killing of the innocent in the womb, that we are doing good, ultimately. But we are not. We are doing evil, and to make a law like that is to make a tyrannical law. Therefore, when a leader, whether it be in the church, or the government, or the home, commands something sinful, or forbids something good, contrary to God's word, it is the duty of God's people to resist. Those leaders of Jezreel, when they received those letters, even though they had the seal of the king upon them, because they commanded explicitly doing something evil should have ripped them up and burned them, and said, far be it from us to do such a thing, or at least sent a complaint back. You are asking us to do evil that goes against the Word of God, to take an innocent man, or at least, at the very least, warned Nabba, Nabba flee for the king is seeking your blood. They did none of these things. Instead, they slavishly bowed the knee and did that which was evil in the sight of God, justifying it. By doing this, we are preserving ourselves. How many people have said, in essence, in the past, I was only following orders when I did these things. Brothers and sisters, that may, for a little while, absolve you in the eyes of the people standing around you, because they're saying the same thing. or perhaps quieten your conscience just a little, not much I believe, but ultimately it will never absolve you in the eyes of God. You were not following orders if you are not following God's orders. If you know God's law and you ignore it, what are you? You're a traitor. You are committing what R.C. Sproul called cosmic treason. Now it's bad enough when the unregenerate do it, but when the regenerate do it, Oh, that's shameful. That's sinful because we are, in essence, acting in the place of God. And when we tell people to do something that's evil or forbid them from doing something that's good, we're saying God is telling you to do these things. And that's wrong. When you say, thus saith the Lord, and it's nothing he said, that is evil. Never do it. So therefore, if you are a leader in whatever area you are, stand for the Lord, stand for his law, never bow to evil, even if it costs you, and it will. But know this, at the end of time you will not be judged by your peers, you will not be judged by the ladies on the view, thank heavens, You will be judged by the Lord God. And the thing that he will ask is, what did you do with the people that I put under you, my little lambs? I have to tell you, that scares me every time I stand up here. For I know that I'll be held, as James 3.1 says, to a stricter judgment. Therefore, I try very, very hard not to say, thus saith the Lord to anything that the Lord has not said when it comes to teaching you. So when rulers like Ahab ignore the law of God and they take it upon themselves to govern as they see fit, they do whatever that pleases them. Note this also, you can be sure that people like Naboth, the powerless, are going to suffer. Now, this does not just apply to civil government. It also applies to the church. When men seize power, when they centralize power, when they say, we will do what seems right in our own eyes, and they justify it saying, this is the only way that the kingdom of God can advance. They've done that in the past. That is where the church begins to go wrong. We must cleave to God's word and do what he says, even if it seems unpopular in the culture in which we're proclaiming the word of God. We must remain true to that. We must be concerned with God. James Harrington wrote this, the empire of laws is concerned with right, the empire of men with power. Our calling is to obey God, whom we love as Naboth did, even if it results in our suffering. Because unlike Ahab and Jezebel, we are not scrabbling to accumulate earthly power. We follow the best of kings, don't we? We follow Jesus Christ, who you remember was submitted, or was forced to endure a trial, rather like Ahab's sham trial, where scoundrels, sons of Belial, stood up and made their accusations. Yet he did not resist. He suffered the depredations of misguided power for our sakes. Because of that, we can now follow him as our leader, ultimately. We remember that Jesus is Lord, Caesar is not Lord. Caesar may rule over us, but when Caesar asks us to do things that go against God's word, then we must stand with the apostles as they stood before the Sanhedrin and say, we ought to obey God rather than men and not fear because we have a kingdom that can't be taken away. We have an inheritance that is incorruptible. that has been given to us by the Lord Jesus Christ. He went to the cross in order that you and I might inherit a kingdom that worldlings like Ahab and Jezebel could not even understand. A kingdom that goes on forever. Remember therefore to obey your king, to remember that you're a pilgrim and a sojourner in this world, that this is not really your final home. And where is your citizenship ultimately, brothers and sisters? In heaven. Thank you for answering. I ask these questions and I'm like, they're not always rhetorical, brothers and sisters. Yes, your citizenship is in heaven. Peter reminded the Jews of the dispersion of this in his letter, his first letter, and I'm going to close on this, these words of Peter. He wrote to the Jews in the dispersion, these Christian Jews, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials. that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise and honor and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen you love, though now you do not see him, yet believing you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith. the salvation of your souls. Let's go before the one who saves our souls and ask for his blessing. God our Father, now Lord, as we come to the Supper of the Lamb, we pray Lord that you would be reminding us that there is a kingdom set aside for us. A kingdom that cannot be taken away. A salvation and a glory that's incorruptible. An inheritance, Lord, that cannot be stolen, as so often our things on this earth are taken from us unlawfully. But we know, O Lord, that we will have to suffer tribulation. All those who desire to live godly will. Your servants have told us that. But remind us that what we endure here on earth is not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us. Help us to cleave to that and help us to listen to the voice of Christ and to follow him always. Help us to strive to be good citizens, this side of glory, but never, O Lord, let us compromise our faith by doing that which is wicked and evil, even if people tell us to do it.