How to Pray for Our Nation and Its Leaders

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Our Scripture lesson this morning is from 1 Timothy 2:1-7. Let us hear God’s Word:
1 Timothy 2:1–7 ESV
First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time. For this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.
May God bless this the reading of His holy and infallible Word.
As we gather this morning for worship, it just so happens that this day is also the anniversary of the founding of our nation. Two hundred and forty-five years ago today, delegates from all 13 colonies ratified the Declaration of Independence. It is a day celebrated with backyard picnics, fireworks and the gathering of family and friends; yet on this July Fourth a dark cloud of foreboding has descended upon our nation. Things are not right. In many ways, we have fewer freedoms now than the colonists did under King George. Our nation is in economic and moral decline. Moral perversion is celebrated and righteousness is condemned. Those whose minds are informed by the Word of God know that the day of God’s wrath upon our nation is drawing near.
This is why I have chosen as my topic this morning, “How to Pray for Our Nation and Its Leaders”, and my first point is this: We must pray that our nation and its leaders submit to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

That They Would Submit to the Lordship of Christ

This truth is given to us by God in Psalm 2. If you remember from my series on the Psalms, Psalm 2 along with Psalm 1, serve as the theological introductions to the Psalms. Psalm 1 teaches us that the Psalms are to give us wisdom and Psalm 2 is given to teach us that the Psalms are about Christ. At the end of Psalm 2, we read these words:
Psalm 2:10–12 ESV
Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.
This is a warning to all the rulers of this earth that they must submit themselves to the reign of Christ or they and their nation will face God’s judgement. This warning is necessary because our fallen nature has set us in opposition to God and His Messiah. Psalm 2 opens with these words:
Psalm 2:1–3 ESV
Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying, “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.”
This hostility against God and Christ is seen today in the ruling class of our nation. By “ruling class”, I am referring not just to politicians, but also the leaders in the academic, business or media world. The lynch pin of their strategy to undermine the authority of Christ is to spread the lie that our nation is a secular nation.
I realize “lie” is a strong word, but I do not know what else to call it. The Declaration of Independence, which serves as the preamble of our Constitution speaks of “Nature’s God”, “the Creator”, “the Supreme Judge of the world” and “a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence”. Notice that this is not just any theism, but is a monotheism in the Judeo-Christian tradition.
I make these points because I have noticed many Christian are afraid to pray for and politically promote the submission of our leaders and fellow citizens to Jesus Christ as Lord. To be ashamed of promoting faith and submission to Christ in all levels of society is to be ashamed of the Gospel itself, because the Gospel is the proclamation that the Kingdom of God was come in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus is Lord of lord and King of kings. Every person, institution and activity is called to bend the knee to Jesus Christ!
People love to wear and display patriotic items that say, “God Bless America”, but they are ignorant to the precondition of this blessing. Scripture tells us what that precondition is:
Psalm 33:12 ESV
Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom he has chosen as his heritage!
Who are the people God has chosen as his heritage? Israel, the children of Abraham.
Who are the children of Abraham under the New Covenant? According to Galatians 3:7, 29, it is those who believe in Jesus Christ.
Who is the true Israel of God under the New Covenant? According to Galatians 6:16, it is the Church!
The only way a nation will be blessed by God is if the majority of its citizen are Christians. You can sing “God Bless American” until you are blue in the face, but if you are not praying that our nation and its leaders submit to Christ, it will not do any good!
From this first point flows the second: We must pray for our nation and its people...

That They Would Walk in Righteousness

God’s vision for Israel is give to us in Deuteronomy 4:5—8:
Deuteronomy 4:5–8 ESV
See, I have taught you statutes and rules, as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should do them in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. Keep them and do them, for that will be your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’ For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is to us, whenever we call upon him? And what great nation is there, that has statutes and rules so righteous as all this law that I set before you today?
Since, the church is now the true Israel of God, these words apply to us and by extension, any nation in which the majority of its citizens are Christian.
What makes a nation great according to these verses? The answer is that they are taught by God His “statutes and rules” and that nation obeys them! Proverbs 14:34 says, “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.” By this standard, our nation is a reproach!
I want to be clear here. It is through preaching, not through politics, that Christ will advance his Kingdom. One of the reasons the Founding Fathers supported religion so strongly was because they realized that a Republic requires the majority of its population to be moral people who self-regulate themselves. John Adams’ famously said, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people”. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
Last Sunday, I spoke of Natural Law, which is the law God has written upon every human heart. Far too many Christians today are appealing to Natural Law as the sole and adequate basis upon which we can be in public discourse with our fellow citizens. According to them, an appeal to God’s written Law is unnecessary and is too heavy handed. What these people fail to take into account is the context of Romans 1-2, within which Paul teaches about nature law.
Of all the Natural Laws that have been revealed to us, the clearest are the first two: That there is one God and He alone should be worshipped. In chapter one, Paul teaches that fallen man has purposely suppressed this truth and as a result his mind has been darkened. Moreover, because people have rejected God, He has turned him over to a whole host of sinful desires. In other words, while Natural Law may be a true guide, it is not a sure guide. We need the Law of God written in black and white upon the pages of Scripture.
It was a sign that our nation had fallen off the moral and theological cliff when prayer and the Ten Commandments was banished from the public square by the courts. In these rulings, these judges revealed the wickedness and godlessness of their own hearts. Psalm 14 speaks of people like these judges:
Psalm 14:1 ESV
The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds; there is none who does good.
In his farewell address, our first and greatest President gave the American people this warning:
Let it simply be asked: Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice ? And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.
Brothers and sisters, those who are to administer justice have revealed themselves to be fools. Do you not see why we must pray that our nation and its leaders return to God and obey His Law? Without this, justice cannot stand.
This brings us to the third prayer. We must pray that our nation and leader would uphold justice:

That They Would Uphold Justice

Our God is a God of justice. In Micah 6:8 we read:
Micah 6:8 ESV
He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
In Micah and the other prophets, the leaders of Israel are called to uphold justice and they are warned judgement is coming if they do not. For example:
Micah 3:1 ESV
And I said: Hear, you heads of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel! Is it not for you to know justice?—
In fact, if you read Romans 13 carefully, the maintenance of justice is the only task God has ordained government for; everything else is reserved for the family, society and the church. Yet it is at this one vital task that the governments of this world fail at time after time. Scripture paints a grim and dark picture of the fate of any people and its leaders that do not uphold justice; but Scripture also paints a picture of hope for a nation that repents. Our closing hymn this morning is entitled “If My People’s Hearts Are Humbled”. It is a hymn based upon 2 Chronicles 7:14 which says:
2 Chronicles 7:14 ESV
if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
Brother and sisters, how should we pray? We should pray first for ourselves and then for our nation that we will submit to Christ, love and obey His Law and administer His justice.
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