In his sermon, Mike Davenport discusses Chapter 24 of the 1689 Second London Baptist Confession, focusing on the role and significance of the civil magistrate. He references Sam Waldron's commentary, highlighting the importance of recognizing God's sovereignty over all aspects of life, including politics. Davenport stresses that civil magistrates are ordained by God, emphasizing their ordained position, purpose, and power. The magistrate's authority comes from God, and they are appointed for His glory and the public good, equipped with the power of the sword to defend the good and punish evildoers. The sermon also explores the lawful involvement of Christians in civil offices, citing Biblical examples like Daniel and Nehemiah. Christians may accept and execute the office of a magistrate when called, maintaining justice and peace according to wholesome laws. The sermon emphasizes subjection to civil magistrates in all lawful things, as an act of obedience to God, and encourages prayer for those in authority, fostering a dependency on God for a peaceful and godly life. Davenport concludes with a call for prayer to have righteous leaders and for the church's growth under God’s guidance.

Well, we come tonight to the 24th chapter of the Civil Magistrate, of the Civil Magistrate. And if you weren't familiar with the 1689 Confession before coming here, you may be scratching your head thinking, why is this chapter in the church confession? Well, as an introduction to our subject tonight, I want to read Sam Waldron's opening comments on this chapter from his commentary on the 1689 confession. Mr. Waldron writes, does it surprise you that the confession contains a chapter on the subject of the civil magistrate.

Are you inclined to ask, what does politics have to do with Christ? If that is something of your response, may I suggest that you are a victim of a religious background which has retreated from its social responsibilities under a wrong view of the separation of church and state. Such an attitude has virtually denied the sovereignty of God over all areas of life. To restrict Christianity to the spiritual realm, and he's putting that in quotes, to restrict it as it were just to the spiritual realm is ultimately to destroy it. That's what Mr.

Waldron writes. And so, it's an important subject, and it was so important that the writers wrote it in the Confession. And you find it as well in the Westminster Confession. Interestingly enough, if you look at the Westminster Confession, they actually have four paragraphs. The first two paragraphs kind of line up, but then our third matches their fourth and they have a third one.

And interestingly enough, the way it was written at that period, it was changed and kind of updated kind of in the American version afterwards, kind of more following suit with the confession that we have. But they actually have four paragraphs in theirs. So it's in both confessions, the Westminster as well as the second London Baptist Confession. And it was in the first London Confession as well. It's not something that they sought to add later.

They realized that Jesus Christ rules over kings. He rules over lords. And so, we'll jump right into paragraph 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, God hath armed them with the power of the sword for defense and encouragement of them that do good, but also for the punishment of evildoers." I so appreciate how the writers of the confession begin this chapter on the civil magistrate, God, the supreme Lord and King of all the world.

That is where any serious consideration of government should start. That's where it needs to start. We just don't jump right in as you teach your homeschool on civics. Start here with the authority of God. Theologian A.A.

Hodge wrote in his book, Confession of faith, some have supposed that the right or legitimate authority of human government has its foundation ultimately in the consent of the governed or the will of the majority or in some imaginary social impact or, excuse me, social compact entered into by the forefathers of the race at the origin of social life. It is self-evident, however, that the divine will is the source of all government and the obligation to obey that will, resting upon all moral agents, is the ultimate ground of all obligation to obey human governments. So that authority is not put in place just by the will of the people, the majority of the people. This is what we want and we established it. No, it's from God Himself.

It's from God Himself. So note first that God is described as supreme Lord, as supreme King. Yes, other authorities do exist in this, his world, but his authority is supreme. He is Lord of lords and king of kings. And note second that his authority extends to all the world.

He's not just supreme Lord and king of any one particular place. The supremacy of His Lordship, His kingship is over all the world, all the world. There is nothing, absolutely nothing outside of the authority of Jesus Christ. And that's why when he was raised from the dead and he appeared to his disciples, what did he tell them? All authority has been given to me, therefore go.

Make disciples of all the nations. Not well, you can go to this nation, this nation, no, go to all the nations because it's His authority. He's the supreme King, supreme Lord over all the world. Well, using Mr. Waldron's outline, we see in this paragraph, paragraph one, number one, the civil magistrate's ordained position, his ordained position.

God by virtue of His supreme authority and His supreme sovereignty, has ordained civil magistrates to be under Him over the people. You see, the magistrate himself is a man under authority. Whether he understands that or declares that, he's a man under authority. Nebuchadnezzar didn't think he was under God's authority, but God humbled him. Is this not great Babylon that I have created?

And he was an animal in seconds, such that they had to drive him out of his own palace until God brought him to his senses and he acknowledged, all the authority, all the power, everything that I have is from God Himself. But having been ordained by God to His position, He does exercise authority over the people. And this is something that the church has to tell the magistrate, yes, you're over the people, but you're under God. You are under God. And is that not what Jesus told Pilate?

You would have no authority except that we're giving you from my Father. You do have authority. Jesus recognized the authority of Pilate. He didn't say, you don't have any authority. You're looking at the authority.

No. He said, you have authority, but you would have none apart from God who gave you that authority. So, it's an ordained position. Secondly, the civil magistrate's ordained purpose, not only his ordained position, but his purpose. The magistrate is placed in that God-ordained position for God's own glory and the public good.

We live in societies, our own included, where we understand the magistrates for the public good. That's what the world seeks to do in putting that magistrate in place. But what they fail to do is the first part of this. God puts him in that place for this purpose, for His own glory, for His own glory. That is what God requires of such a man.

If he does or requires anything, if that magistrate does or requires anything that does not glorify God or is not for the good of the people, he is acting outside of the very purpose God ordained for him. And then thirdly, we see the civil magistrate's ordained power, his position, his purpose, and his ordained power. In order for magistrates to carry out this purpose as God's ordained magistrates, God hath armed them with the power of the sword for defense and encouragement of them that do good and for the punishment of evildoers." The power that God has placed in them is to operate within the bounds of His ordained purpose. That is, His own glory and the good of the people. That's where the power is to be exercised, in glorifying God and doing good to the people.

When the power operates outside of this purpose, you have tyranny. The position, the purpose, and the power all flow out of who God is and what He has decreed. That's the first paragraph. In the second paragraph, we see the Christian's involvement in this ordained office, the Christian's involvement. It is lawful for Christians to accept and execute the office of a magistrate when called thereunto.

In the management whereof, as they ought especially to maintain justice and peace according to the wholesome laws of each kingdom and commonwealth, so for that end they may lawfully now under the New Testament wage war upon just and necessary occasions." So the writers of the Confessions state that it is lawful for Christians to enter into civil offices when the providence of God calls them to it. It's good for them to get involved. It's good for them. Think about all the good that was done in men like Nehemiah, men like Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Daniel brought God before the face of Nebuchadnezzar.

I think Nebuchadnezzar was a converted man. I mean, I really do think his heart – his heart had not been in a lot of the statements that he had made earlier, like after Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came out of the fire and he said, everybody has to worship the God of heaven. You better worship Him. He didn't say stop worshiping the others. But boy, oh boy, when God brought him low, right, and when God brings low, you humble yourself and God will exalt you in due time.

I believe He exalted him and brought salvation to that man because of the things that he said and the acknowledgments that he made of God. But think about the impact that Daniel and his friends had upon that man, the witness that they had being right there at his side acknowledging what God had purposed and called him to do. And so we have these examples of Christian men who served God in the realms of civil affairs. Now the lawfulness extends not only to the acceptance of the office, but this lawfulness also extends to the execution of that office, the execution both in its purpose and its power as we saw in the previous chapter. What should Christian magistrates be about?

What should they be doing? The writers say they ought especially to maintain justice and peace according to the wholesome laws of each kingdom and commonwealth. Each kingdom, each Commonwealth generally has some laws that are wholesome. We see it almost in every culture. Men's consciences know that they don't always base it on the Word of God and the authority of God, but men tend to know what's acceptable and what's not.

They might not draw the line all in the same places, but there are generally wholesome laws. And the magistrate is to seek to maintain justice and peace in the land by means of these wholesome laws. The confession then goes on to state that it is lawful to wage war in the pursuit of this justice and peace if the causes are just and necessary. As men under God, magistrates need to wrestle with the fact, is this just? Is it peaceful?

Is it just but also necessary? That's what they need to ask themselves. These are the parameters that God gives even to Christian magistrates in order to carry out His will just, peaceful, necessary. What are the constraints that He has to work within? Okay, he can wage this war.

What are the constraints? It's what they've already stated, the glory of God and the public good. The glory of God and the public good, and also for the defense and encouragement of them that do good, as well as the punishment of those evildoers. And here we see it's for the maintaining of peace and of justice. Now they draw attention to the New Testament.

Why do they do that? Well, for one, we live in the times of the New Testament. But I believe it's because much of the Old Testament revolves around a people of God operating under a theocracy where God Himself was the magistrate and war was often tied to God's judgment as Lord of other nations. Okay? God was overall.

He was over this people, and as the magistrate of Israel, God wasn't just acting on behalf of Israel. He is God. So when He sent the people into the land of Canaan, when did He send them? It's when the sin of the Canaanites had reached that level and God said, it's time for my justice to drop because He's God, He's Lord of all the nations. And so, we don't operate under a theocracy like the old covenant people did.

And so I believe they're drawing attention to the fact that we operate under the new covenant and things are administered differently in the new covenant. Well, Sam Waldron gives a response to someone who may ask, how is it that a Christian could take up that office and then bear the sword righteously? Christians are called to live at peace. So someone may ask, how is that? A man enters that office and Romans 13 says, a part of being that, the confession tells us part of being in that office is to take up the sword.

It's the power that God gives to that magistrate. How can a Christian do that and bear that sword righteously? He says this. There are two important lessons that are suggested by all of this. The first is ethical, the second historical.

First, one's duty before God greatly depends on one's vocation or calling. It might be, in some cases, it would be wrong for you to do what others may do. Why? Their calling in life is different. For instance, it is certainly right for me on certain occasions to spank my child.

It would not be right for someone else to discipline my child without my consent. Why? The other person has no divine calling to be the parent of my child. That is my calling. The concept of vocation is a key part of Biblical ethics rediscovered and re-emphasized by the Reformation.

Secondly, in terms of historical, that first one was ethical, in terms of historical, our Baptist forefathers were not Anabaptists. It was Anabaptists who taught that Christians could not occupy the office of the civil magistrate without sin. It was they who taught that this office was of the devil. Clearly, Our Baptist forefathers completely rejected such view of government and the resultant pacifism, it implied. They publicly distanced themselves from it in this, their confession of faith.

It is appropriate to note here that the mainstream of Baptists in America are descended from Puritans who came to Baptist convictions and not Anabaptists. Most modern Baptists, he goes on to say, are historically Calvinist and Puritan in their origin, not necessarily where they are today, but they are Calvinist and Puritan in their origin, not Anabaptist and Arminian. So those are the two things, both the historical perspective as well as the ethical perspective as to why it's lawful for a Christian to enter into the office of civil magistrate. Well, the third paragraph deals with the Christian's subjection to the civil magistrate. Paragraph three says, civil magistrates being set up by God for the ends aforesaid, subjection in all lawful things commanded by them ought to be yielded by us in the Lord, not only for wrath, but for conscience' sake.

And we ought to make supplications and prayers for kings and all that are in authority, that under them we may live a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty." Well, the Christian's response to the civil magistrate is to be one of subjection to and prayer for. Subjection to the magistrate and prayer for the magistrate. So first, the confession calls Christians to subject themselves to the civil magistrate. Yet before they call us to our duty, They do this over and over, do they not? They reiterate the fact that God sets magistrates up and He declares what their responsibilities are.

Civil magistrates being set up by God for the ends aforesaid. So they give us that nice framework that is the framework for our subjection. And they tell us what it is that is our duty. In other words, subjection to the magistrate is Subjection to God. That's what they're really pointing at here.

Subjection to the magistrate is a recognition that God has placed them there for the purposes that He has ordained. And not only does the initial phrase in this paragraph set us upon obedience to the Lord, what follows the call to subjection in all lawful things commanded by the magistrate is that subjection ought to be yielded by us in the Lord. So our subjection is framed by the facts that God places the magistrate in office, and therefore we are to yield that subjection to Him in the Lord. This the writers give us as the ground for our subjection. Just as children are to obey their parents in the Lord, so we are to be subject to those authorities over us in the Lord, in the Lord.

What does that mean? Well, it's recognizing in them the authority of God and obeying them or subjecting to them for the sake of God and of the gospel. So, when we tell our children to obey us, we're telling them, don't just simply obey me because I should be obeyed, not because I am worth. You need to obey in the Lord. What does that mean?

You obey because He's the…it's His authority. I don't have the authority in it of myself. It comes from Him. It's His authority. Obey in the Lord.

Obey…do it as not unto men, but as unto the Lord. But also that obedience in the Lord is obey according to what He has prescribed and He's told us what to do. He's told us what to do. Obey in the Lord. Let that be the framework of all obedience for children, subjection to authority for us.

As a side note, Sam Waldron points out that Romans 13 does not call the Christian to obey the magistrate. It's interesting. There's – I think he said there are three Greek New Testament words for the word obey. There are three different words. None of those three are used in Romans 13 when it talks about the civil magistrate.

The word used is subordination, or as it stated here in the confession, subjection. Subjection. Now since our subjection to the civil magistrate is a reflection of our subjection to God, the writers sought to reveal the extent of that subjection. What is the extent? The subjection is only due in lawful things commanded by them.

It's in lawful things commanded by them. And note that they don't say some lawful things. The easy lawful things. It's all lawful things. Now what actually dictates the lawfulness of something?

What dictates whether it's lawful or unlawful? It's not our desires. It's not our wants. It's not our convictions. It's not our traditions.

It's not our dispositions. It's not our convenience. What makes something lawful is its conformance to the Word of God. Does it conform to what God said? The Word of God is the sole authority in regards to what is lawful before God.

When what is required is not lawful, we have a duty to respond like Peter. We ought to obey God rather than men. We ought to respond like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Play the music all you want to. We will not bow down to that golden image.

Even if it cost us our lives, we will not bow down. If and when the time comes to stand against the magistrate out of duty and obedience to God, the Christian must not be belligerent. Mr. Walden writes, note that there is no precedent for a Christian displaying a belligerent, rebellious attitude towards civil authority in the Bible. You won't find it.

Belligerent attitudes and deliberately and unnecessarily provocative behavior are never appropriate even when Christians must decline obedience. So it doesn't just give you a free pass to tell it like it is. Peter with the authority of Jesus Christ to go and preach the gospel said, men, we ought to obey God rather than men. You determine whether it's right to obey God or you, we cannot but do the things that we've been told to do. It was no belligerence.

It was just stating the facts. And that time may come for you, it may come for me. Let us do what we do to the glory of God. Well, the motives given for this subjection, it says, for the sake of wrath and for the sake of conscience, for the sake of wrath and for the sake of conscience. What are they talking about?

Well, I believe they're talking about for the sake of the body and for the sake of the soul, for their well-being of their body and for the profit of their soul. Our subjection must go well beyond the mere saving of our skin. I mean, it's a good thing to know that punishment comes to those who don't put themselves under that subjection and respond accordingly. You oppose, you rebel, it's not going to go well with you. You're going to feel the wrath of the magistrate.

And so the motive given is for the sake of your own well-being, when it's lawful, put yourself under that one. Put yourself under. But also for the sake of conscience, the sake of conscience as well. We should strive like the Apostle Paul to have a conscience that is void of offense toward God and void of offense toward men. That's what we should strive for.

So for the sake of wrath, for the sake of conscience, those are the motives. But going above and beyond mere subjection, the Word of God calls us as Christians to make supplications and prayers for kings and all that are in authority, that under them we may live a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. Because the civil magistrate has been ordained by God, because his purpose is to maintain justice and peace, And he's having to do so among a people that largely are not that concerned about justice and not concerned about peace. We should be in prayer for them. We should be in prayer for them.

Such prayer, such prayer reflects the understanding that our bodies and our souls profit under the justice and peace that God establishes. We recognize that there is a peaceable life. There's fruit from having just rulers. We should pray that God would give us just that. But also, think about it this way, such prayer to God for the magistrate also keeps us in a state of dependency on whom?

God. Too often, even the church can grow dependent on the state. It's the state that gives me the peaceable life. It's the state that makes life easy, good. Prayer helps us to understand that it's God, it's God who over that magistrate can bring to us this peaceable life in godliness and honesty.

And so our prayer to God keeps us in a state of dependency upon God and not upon the state as the provider of a quiet life and a peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. And if we're that kind of people, if we're that kind of people, we like Ezra and Nehemiah would testify what? Do you remember what's come over, up, over, and over and over in these books? As they testify of what God – or what's happening in their lives, what do they say? The good hand of God was upon us.

They don't keep talking about all the goodness of our exorcizes, all the goodness of Cyrus, all the blessing that they've been, all the things they provided. They acknowledged that, But what did they do? They acknowledged the good hand of God was upon us. And why was that good hand of God upon them? They were praying men.

They were praying men. They were praying for the magistrate and they were praying for the people and they were doing so for the glory of God as well as for the good of the public. That was in their prayers And that was united with the purpose that God has for magistrates to glorify Him as well as to do the public good. Well, let's pray. Father, we thank you for this time looking into these matters.

Lord, give us wisdom to understand, to know what is our duty. Lord, we ask that You would raise up men like Mr. Moore, who would stand in the gate and who would be a godly influence in our government. We pray that You would bless him, that You would strengthen him. Raise many more up like Him, O God.

O Father, we need and we desire to have righteous men ruling over us. Father, forgive us for not praying as we should. Lord, help us to know that the King's heart is in Your hand and like the rivers of water, those water courses, You turn them whatever way You want. So Lord, make us a praying people and a people who pray about this very thing. Help us to know that you are concerned about this very thing, that you've ordained all of the magistrates that are in place in whatever country in the world.

They are your ministers doing your will. We pray that you would make it such even here in this land that we would have such men ruling over us that we would be able to live quiet and peaceable lives, that godliness and honesty might be seen. Lord that you might increase your church for your glory in Jesus name. Amen.