In 'The Successful King' sermon by Peter Allison, based on Proverbs 14, the speaker delves into the qualities of a successful and righteous king, juxtaposing biblical teachings with contemporary implications for civil leadership. Emphasizing that a king or civil magistrate rules by God's decree, the sermon highlights the necessity of a multitude of people as the foundation of a kingdom's strength. Historical examples, such as Solomon's prosperous reign and the pitfalls of pride seen in Nebuchadnezzar and David, illustrate the importance of wisdom, careful authority, and a sound heart in leadership. The sermon critiques contemporary societal issues like impulsiveness in justice, envy, and oppression, calling for rulers to be slow to wrath and promote equality and opportunity. A successful king, as the sermon outlines, cares for the poor and upholds God's law, recognizing the limits of human justice while embracing divine wisdom. Concluding with the ultimate example of a successful king, Jesus Christ, the sermon calls for trust in Christ's eternal and righteous reign.

Please turn in your word of God to Proverbs chapter 14. I'd like to read beginning at Verse 28 for our text this morning. Hear the word of the Lord. In a multitude of people is a king's honor, but in the lack of people is the downfall of a prince. He who is slow to wrath has great understanding, but He who is impulsive exalts folly.

A sound heart is life to the body, but envy is rottenness to the bones. He who oppresses the poor reproaches his maker, but he who honors him has mercy on the needy. The wicked is banished in his wickedness, but the righteous has a refuge in his death. Wisdom rests in the heart of him who has understanding, But what is in the heart of fools is made known. Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.

The King's favor is toward a wise servant, but his wrath is against him who causes shame." Thus far the reading of God's word, the grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever. Almighty Heavenly Father, your Word is truth, in it is light and life to us. We ask that it might be so this morning. We ask that you would teach us and instruct us, that you would correct us where our thinking and our actions have gone astray. We ask that you would be praised, that your name would be glorified in the proclamation of your word and asked that you would sanctify these sinful lips to Proclaim the riches of your grace Through Jesus Christ, Amen Please be seated The Bible has much to say about the King.

The King rules by Christ. He rules with Christ's authority. And by the word king, I don't necessarily mean somebody who sits on a gold throne with a gold ornament on his head and a gold ornament in his hand and courtiers lining the walls of the room. What I mean by the word king this morning is more broadly speaking, the civil magistrate. So in our government, in our civil government, we don't have one man in whom all the authority of the civil magistrate resides.

We have a division of that authority. It's divided into three sectors. And within those sectors, the judicial, the executive, and the legislative, the authority to make laws and so forth, the authority is further distributed. The power to make laws doesn't rest in one person, but rather in a great plurality of people and so forth. And so when I refer to the king this morning, that's what I'm referring to, the civil magistrate.

As it is represented in any country it could be represented in a single man as a king, who is both the judge, the jury, and the executioner. Or the king could be representative of our country as well, where this authority is wisely distributed among not only three different broad institutions, but even within those institutions a number of different people. So that's what I want to communicate by that word king this morning. The civil magistrate who rules by God's decree, Who exercises the authority of Jesus Christ? Who bears the wrath of God?

Not His own. It's not our wrath. It's God's wrath that He is the minister of. And our text this morning begins by addressing the king and it concludes by addressing the king and what's in the middle This morning or what's in the middle of the text this morning is is True broadly speaking to many people, but I thought this morning. It would be helpful to see how these all of these instructions apply to the king to a successful king?

What makes a successful king? What makes for a righteous, God-fearing king? The Bible gives us these answers. The first characteristic of a successful king is a plurality of people. A plurality, a multitude of people.

People are the foundation and strength of kings, of governments. The more people that a kingdom has The stronger the kingdom is all else all else being equal But without people Civil rulers fail the king fails there is no honor in that so Proverbs 20 verse 14 verse 28 says In a multitude of people is a king's honor. In a multitude of people is a king's honor. But in the lack of a people is the downfall of a prince, the downfall of civil government. You see the prosperity of the king depends upon the prosperity of the people.

A people who are not prospering don't grow. They don't multiply. And so the King then who fears the Lord, the King who has a carefulness to exercise this authority that he's been given by God as God's minister, exercising it in his name, who's careful with that authority, He blesses the people. He cares for the people as a father. He solicits of the welfare of the people.

He encourages learning. He encourages especially the learning of the Word of God and In turn under a king like that who blesses the people, who uses that authority to prosper the people. In turn, the people multiply, they flourish, they blossom under this kind of civil ruler. And then in a multitude of people is the king's honor. The scriptures describe Solomon who is a great king.

He followed King David and he was the wisest king and the wealthiest king in all of the world and certainly in all of Israel. But his kingdom is described in the first Kings chapter 4. It describes his administration, who all the people were in his government, and he had a number of people. And then it describes his kingdom beginning in verse 30 of chapter 4. It describes it more generally and more broadly.

But the very first description of it is that Judah and Israel were as numerous as the sand by the sea in multitude. So, when the scriptures want to describe the glory and splendor of Solomon's kingdom, The first thing they describe is the great number of people, as numerous as the sand by the sea and multitude. Now that was a specific promise that had been given to Abraham, that his descendants would be as numerous as the sand. And when the children of Israel left Egypt, which would be almost 500 years before this point, Moses pointed out that God had indeed fulfilled that promise, that they were as numerous as the sand of the sea. But this is a description then of Solomon's kingdom.

It goes on, eating and drinking and rejoicing. So Solomon reigned over all the kingdoms from the river to the land of the Philistines and it describes the magnitude of his kingdom. And they brought tribute and served Solomon all the days of his life. And then it goes on to describe just the food that was necessary to feed Solomon's household. Then it talks about the dominion that he had over all the region on this side of the river.

And Israel and Judah dwelt safely, each man under his vine and his fig tree, all throughout the land. The people dwelt safely. Solomon was a wise king, and the people prospered initially under his reign. He was wiser than all men. Then, Ethan the Ezraite and Heman the Chalcot and Dards and the sons of Mahal and his fame was in all the surrounding nations.

He spoke 3, 000 Proverbs. This that we are studying were the Proverbs of Solomon. So he is putting here into Proverbs the keys to a successful reign, to be a successful king. His songs were 1005 and he spoke of trees from the cedars of Lebanon even to the hyssop that spreads out over the wall. He spoke also of animals, of birds, of creeping things and of fish and men of all the nations, from all the kings of the earth who heard his wisdom came to hear the wisdom of Solomon.

Solomon was a successful king And he had a multitude of people and through his wisdom he blessed and he prospered the people of that land. Notice the great diversity of things that Solomon engaged in In order to bless his people. So if in the multitude of people is a king's honor, what do you suppose We can say about a nation that kills their own children. A nation that kills their own children kills themselves. Nations that pursue their own pleasure, Instead of being fruitful and multiplying, disappear.

They're wiped off the face of the earth. They are conquered. Sometimes that's by an invading army, and sometimes it's because the nations kill themselves off and are simply overtaken by people who don't. That's what's happening in our country today. We've been killing ourselves off for two generations almost.

And we are finding that we are a minority now in our own country. Their country is being given to other people who are fruitful and multiply. Now a multitude of people can also be a source of pride in a king or in any other organization, even a church. 2 Samuel 24 speaks of David falling into this sin of pride. He wanted Joab to go out and number the people of the land.

Joab, recognizing the error of that, and because Chronicles says that Satan moved David to number the people. Joab, recognizing the error of that, tried to dissuade David from numbering the people, saying that this would be a great sin. It was coming out of his pride over the plurality of people that God had blessed the kingdom with, but David persisted. So Joab went out and numbered the people in accordance with David's command, and he brought back that number. But then David faced God's judgment, God's chastening for that.

Nebuchadnezzar fell into the same sin in the book of Daniel. He was a great king. He ruled over all the nations of the earth. He had a great multitude of people. Babylon was a magnificent city from what we can gather from the ruins today.

Ruins today. Because Nebuchadnezzar one day was walking on his roof in his palace and he looked out over the vast multitude of people and the magnificent architecture that made up the city of Babylon and the walls that were so wide you could have chariot races on top of them. And he said, look at the wonder and the glory of my kingdom and God said no no you're going to walk like an ox in eat grass And the dew is going to fall upon you until you recognize that it is the Lord God who is King, not you, who is sovereign, not you. And all of this wealth and this great multitude of people, the Lord has given it to you. But you're not acknowledging the Lord.

So you're going to lose your mind. You're going to be kicked out of your wealthy palace and live like an animal without reason, without understanding, until you acknowledge that God alone is sovereign. Well the second characteristic of a successful king is that he is slow to wrath and not impulsive. Now this is true of anybody. This is true of us as individuals.

He who is slow to wrath has great understanding, but he who is impulsive exalts folly. That's true of us as individuals in our workplace. It's true of us as husbands, as fathers, as mothers, as wives, as elders, but it's also true of kings. And it's especially important for kings and those in authority. Being slow to anger and not impulsive means that there is due process and proper order in bringing God's wrath on those who do evil.

There must be time to investigate a matter before reaching judgment Proverbs 25 to says it is the honor of kings to search out a matter It's the honor of kings to search out a matter. And so justice should move carefully and deliberately, not hastily. One of the marks of tyrants is this impulsive action, judicial action, a rush to anger. One might think of the Tyrants like Hitler or Stalin. Under Hitler's reign, there were three people, two siblings, a brother and a sister, Hans and Sophie Scholl, who passed out flyers at the University of Munich that were somewhat critical of the war that the country was in, asking what is the purpose of this war?

What is the usefulness of all these people dying? What are we fighting for? They were caught that immediately and imprisoned and tried and convicted a day or two later and executed a matter of hours after the sentence of death was passed upon them. Now that is not being slow to wrath, that's impulsive. And that's a characteristic of wicked rulers.

And all too often it's a characteristic in our land as well. We have a problem of justice not coming at all, and that's a totally different problem. We also, a very sad, tragic case that just happened this week, where a very good family, a godly parents, were prosperous people, upstanding people in their church and in the community, were immediately put in jail and depriving the father of all ability to earn a living. The church is dependent upon his income, His family is dependent upon his income. But in this rush to judgment, both he and his wife are now in jail.

There's a haste there of being equipped to wrath that isn't good. It is not wise. It demonstrates a lack of understanding and it exalts folly. And it harms everybody that's affected by it. There's a case right here in our own city of such a haste to judgment.

You can read all about it in a book called White Lies. You can even borrow a copy from me. But it happened right here in this city. It happened right in the courts, just a few blocks from us. A high school student was murdered at Conroe High School, Just down the road.

The people were pressing for arrest, find the perpetrator. And so the king obliged and just arrested somebody. Arrested an innocent man and pushed his case through against all wisdom. Gross injustice in the investigation. Incomplete investigation.

It's all documented. In fact, it was published around the world. It was so egregious. An innocent man was almost put to death because the king was not slow to wrath, but rather acted impulsively and thereby exalted folly and ruined the life of an innocent man and brought great shame upon this city. And those people that did that are still living in among us today a Successful king a righteous king is slow to wrath But He who is impulsive exalts folly.

It's a good thing for us all to remember us, especially I think as fathers, especially where there is the exercise of authority. The third characteristic of a successful king is that he promotes a sound heart and not envy. Now, a sound heart is a healthy heart. In the Bible, the heart refers to the inner man, The seat of our conscience, the mind, the will, the understanding, the seat of emotions and passions. When the Bible speaks of heart, that's what it's referring to, our understanding, our thoughts.

And a sound heart is life to the body. A sound heart is peaceful and calm. It dwells and meditates on what is beautiful. It dwells and meditates on what is beautiful. It dwells and meditates on what is lovely, on what is good and what is wholesome.

It rejoices in the success of others. It's patient with the faults of others. See, a mind that is engaged this way, a mind that does these things, a mind that is occupied with these kinds of thoughts and these kinds of emotions brings life to the body. It's restorative. It's physically rejuvenating.

In fact, the Proverbs even comments about a merry heart. It's a heart that makes medicine better. It is like a medicine. This is a very clear statement in the Bible, connecting the health of our body, the physical health of our body, to the thoughts of the heart. What we think about, the emotions that we allow in our mind, and that we dwell on, do have a direct effect upon our own physical health and our own body.

Stress is an example of this phenomenon, it's a Safe example of this phenomenon. Safe for me to use, that is. When we see a dog running at us, a mean snarling dog, we might have a fear of being harmed. Maybe you don't have a fear of a dog, you might have a fear of a bear running at you, a mother bear. That causes our body to release stress hormones Into the body that prepare the body to expend great amount of energy to deal with that danger But we can we can also be stressed from environmental factors such as loud noises or Or or we can be stressed by working too hard, by fatigue.

But the same thing can happen to our body from the thoughts that we allow ourselves to dwell on. And that can produce anxiety. The Bible says anxiety produces depression. And anxiety, these fears, can cause our body to release those same hormones. But in that case, there's nothing to do.

There's no, there's nowhere to run. There's nobody to fight. And so these hormones that prepare our body to expend great energy end up causing a problem in our body. I read somewhere, I don't know if it's true or not, but like they say, you know, you just make up statistics, but I read somewhere That as much as a quarter of all the medication in our country is Given to treat the problems caused by stress And and much of that is probably not bears chasing people It's emotional stress Envy is the opposite of a sound heart. Envy is resentment, resentment at the gifts, the successes, or the abilities of others.

It resents when somebody else is recognized and rewarded for their work It says well there they're really no better than me. I should be the one getting that reward. We have a little children's book called Lentil, I think. That is the message of the book. It's an old, old children's book that we had growing up when we were little.

But it's about this envy between these two people. The Jews delivered Christ to be crucified out of envy. Christ was popular. He had the crowds around him. And that made the Jews envious of him.

Joseph's brothers sold him into slavery out of envy for him. They didn't like the fact that he had the attention of his father, the coat of many colors. They didn't like his precociousness, that suggesting that they were all going to bow down to him. They were envious of him. And the result of that envy drove them to sell their own brother to slavery in Egypt.

The Jews attacked the Apostle Paul on several occasions because they envied the fact that he had great crowds following him. And they didn't. He had the ear of the people. He had the respect of the people when he came into towns, and the Jews didn't. And they envied Paul.

The second Sunday that Paul and Barnabas were in Antioch on their first missionary journey, the second Sunday, the first Sunday a lot of people heard what they were saying, but the second Sunday the Bible says the whole city turned out to hear them and the Jews got envious of Paul when the whole city turned out to hear him and not them. And so they started speaking against Paul and spreading discontent among the people and contradicting. The Bible says even blaspheming. In Thessalonica, the Jews driven by envy gathered a crowd of worthless men and created a riot in the streets because of their envy. In both cases, Paul had to flee the city because of the envy of the Jews.

Envy is rottenness to the bones. Where good thinking brings life and is restorative, envy brings ruin to the body. It destroys us. And governments based on envy destroy the nation. Communism is an ideology, a religion based on class envy.

And it destroys every nation that it touches. Every land that adopts those ideas is destroyed by envy. We're seeing some of that in our land today. The stimulating, the feeding, the stoking of envy, of class envy. Getting one group of people to be envious of another group of people.

It's rottenness to our bones as individuals and it rots our country as well. And a successful king will not, what will promote sound hearts, a healthy heart, and squash envy. You know, Envy is behind the idea of an egalitarian culture, that no one is able to rise above anyone else. And actually, almost all, I think all, I haven't checked in a while, but I think almost all of the planks, the ten planks of communism have been realized in our country. And many of them are all based on envy.

I didn't I can't list them all off the top of my head at the moment But several of them like education and government education is driven by envy Everybody's got to be equal. Nobody can excel beyond everybody else else. The progressive income tax is it pushes down those people who are successful and wealthy. Those are the people who bring prosperity to a country by their ideas, by their ability to produce things and sell them. They bless the land.

A progressive income tax seeks to squash them and make everybody equal, and it's driven by envy. The removal of the inheritance, sorry, the estate tax, not the removal of it, but the existence of an estate tax in our government today if you're wealthy and you die they take half of your estate a half of your estate that makes people have to sell heirs have to sell property just to pay the estate tax. Why? Envy. You got to push all those wealth, You can't let those wealthy people retain that wealth.

That would be an unfair advantage. You can't give your money away. If you have a billion dollars and you want to give a couple hundred million to your son? You can't. They're going to, without the government taking half of what you want to give.

Envy. Push down the people that have risen up, that have excelled, whom the Lord has blessed. It's rottenness to the bones, it destroys a culture, it impoverishes a people. The fourth characteristic of a successful king is that he cares for the poor and the weak. He who oppresses the poor reproaches his maker, but he who honors him has mercy on the needy Now you might be thinking wait a minute wait a minute Haven't We said that charity doesn't belong to the civil government, to the king.

It's not the king's office to care for the poor. That Charity belongs to the family and the church? Well that's true. That's true. Charity does belong to the family and the church.

Charity is not the domain of the king. But there are other ways that the king must care for the poor and the weak. Proverbs 29, 14 says that the king who faithfully judges the poor, his throne will be established forever. So one of the ways that the King cares for the poor and protects the needy is to see that there is equal justice for all. Equal justice for all.

The biblical tax was a half-shekel poll tax. That's it. Some figure that that would come if that we had something like that today that would amount to about $540 million for a government budget. That's it. The poor did not pay less and the rich did not pay more because justice was equal to everybody and everybody had to contribute to justice.

That was a low enough amount that anybody could pay it and was required to pay it Because the poor received justice the same as the wealthy. Oppression as we saw a few weeks ago in that message on oppression can take many forms. We're not going to review all of that, but oppression can come be brought by a denial of justice, by a failure to enforce the law or selective enforcement so that people only get as much justice as they can pay for by failure to impose restitution on resulting in uncompensated victims. Unjust laws are one big form of oppression. Laws that make it very hard for people to work productively.

Laws that put roadblocks in people's way when they want to produce, when they want to go into business, taxes that make businesses unprofitable, or less profitable. All these things disproportionately affect those who are poor than those who are rich. The rich can afford some of these taxes. They can afford to accommodate this oppressive regulation, but Those who are poor can't. And so these types of things become an oppression of the poor.

They especially oppress the poor. Today, the laws around medicine and the practice of medicine cause great oppression, especially on the poor. The wealthy can still get the treatment that they want They can fly anywhere And get anything they want But the poor are oppressed in our land. Because it's illegal in this land to practice medicine unless you have been to a prohibitively expensive school and indoctrinated into one idea and one theory of medicine. Now if I needed an operation I certainly would want the person doing it to be competent.

We're not talking about competence. We're not talking about excellence. What we're saying is, it's not the king's job to determine who is competent and who isn't. What medicine, or to determine what medicine is the right medicine and what medicine is the wrong medicine. And when the king gets into the medical business, creating a medical monopoly, because that's what we have today, a monopoly, and monopolies always drive prices up.

And if you're paying any attention to the cost of medicine in this land, you know that medicine is going, the cost of medicine is skyrocketing prohibitively. It's skyrocketing faster than the population growth, faster than even inflation. And inflation is A virtual number as well. But the cost of medicine is growing up even faster than all of that. The reason is we it's because we have a monopoly Instead of a free market so medicine is very Very expensive and becoming more and more expensive and this Oppresses the poor You might think well, what other option is there how do we get our doctors trained?

How do we make the medicine of the practice of medicine achievable or available to the poor? Well, get rid of the government medicine, get rid of the government monopoly, and the poor would have access to medical treatment. Mametu Gashi is a surgeon in Ethiopia. She is very experienced in repairing obstetric fistulas. It's something we don't see a lot in this land, but it's very common in poorer countries like Africa.

Gynecologists from around the world come to the hospital where she practices to be trained in this surgery and quite often she is the one who trains them. The reason I know about her is because in 2005 the New York Times ran an article about her. Surgeon, world renowned, training surgeons, wonderful story. That's not why they were running the article on her. The New York Times is running the article on Mrs.

Gashie because at the age of 62, she decided to go back to school and learn how to read. She didn't go back to high school or college, she went back to first grade to learn. She figured I'm 62, I'm a surgeon, I'm training surgeons, I should probably know how to read. She is healing people in Africa who would otherwise have been too poor for any other treatment. People...

She did it without any education whatsoever. She was trained because she herself had had this surgery as a teenager. And you can go read about it. I won't go into detail, but it's a very traumatizing thing for a young lady. Often it results in them being cast out of the village and living in absolute squalor with nothing because of the effects of this fistula.

And so she had simply come to the hospital, received this surgery and having nowhere to go, being an outcast from her own family and her own village she simply stayed there and started helping the doctor and his wife who had operated on her and over time after decades she eventually was doing the surgery herself and was very good at it. And operated on hundreds if not thousands of girls. Girls who looked up to her as a mother because of what she was able to do for them. On November 19, 2000, in northern India, in the foothills of the Himalayas, an eight-year-old girl was preparing to go into surgery. See, as a toddler, her hands had been burned, severely burned, both of them.

And they had healed into one, into fists. Her fingers were all grown together, her hands were just a mass of flesh. Because her parents were poor shepherds in the Himalaya foothills. They didn't have access to a doctor until this day. The surgeon who was about to operate on their 8-year-old daughter's hands was a 7-year-old boy The operation was a success she he was able to restore her hands Could that happen in our country today?

What would happen to somebody who tried to, with a seven year old boy? What would happen to the parents of a daughter who allowed a seven year old boy to operate on their daughter? They'd be in jail. Everybody would be horrified and up in arms. But in this case, because there wasn't oppressive regulation, because The government wasn't outlawing this sort of thing.

These poor, poor people had access to healthcare that restored their daughters' hands. That boy learned. He's a very bright boy. And he learned by reading a book. See, oppressing the poor insults God.

We are made in God's image. The poor have been made in God's image as much as any other person. And when we oppress them by whatever means, by withholding their wages such that their voice cries out to the Lord, by fraud, by denial of justice, by denial of medical care, by oppressive laws or regulations, by whatever means, we insult God, their Maker. A wise king takes care of the poor by creating a land of opportunity, a land where people who are willing to work, where people who are willing to study can prosper, free of oppressive regulation and taxation and confiscation of their wealth. In confiscation of their wealth.

A successful king accepts the limits of human justice. By his own... Bruce Waltke, who is one of the translators of the NIV, he's a very gifted scholar, though I don't agree with maybe other things he says, but his Hebrew is good, and he translates this verse, by his own evil the wicked person is thrown down, But the righteous takes refuge in the Lord in his dying. Proverbs says that a man that does violence to the blood of any person shall flee to a pit and let no one help him. It says that whoso digs a pit shall fall in therein, and he that rolls a stone it will roll upon him.

Ecclesiastes 10.8 says he that digs a pit shall fall into it, and who so breaks a hedge a serpent shall bite him. What are these Proverbs saying? By his own evil the wicked person is thrown down. Some wickedness, some evil is beyond the reach of the civil magistrate. Because in order for the civil magistrate to bring God's wrath, he needs to be deliberate.

He needs to have due process. He needs to have a plurality of witnesses. Sometimes you don't have it for whatever reason and Justice is not possible humanly speaking The civil magistrate has to recognize that and not seek to bring justice unrighteously not seek to impose justice because well, we just know that this man is guilty Sometimes when there is no evidence Sometimes when something can't be proved we have to leave it in the Lord's hands and trust that the man who has Raised his hand against innocent blood will fall into the pit that he who has dug a pit Hoping to trap others will himself fall into it That he who breaks a hedge a serpent will bite See the wicked person Who perishes through his own evil does not trust the Lord even when he dies. But the righteous who trust in the Lord are not defeated by evil even in death or even by death. And that's simply, we got there simply by applying, by recognizing this parallel, this proverb is parallel.

And so applying both aspects of the proverb equally. Sixthly, the Successful king upholds God's law. Righteousness exalts a nation. But sin is a reproach to any people. The greatest kings are those who bring the law of God to their land.

Proverbs 16-12, it's an abomination for kings to commit wickedness, for the throne is established by righteousness. Proverbs 29 for justice establishes the land. Proverbs 28, 4 and 5, they that forsake the law praise the wicked, but such as keep the law contend with them. Righteousness exalts a lamb, but sin is a reproach to any people. That didn't just say right, sin is a reproach to Israel.

That said any people Babylon Persia. Syrian Empire the Syrian Empire Canaanites the Egyptians America. South America Canada Europe. Sin violation of transgression of The law of God is a reproach to any people. We're not exalted by a strong military, or a strong nuclear arsenal, or by having a highly educated people, by everybody in our land having PhDs and so forth.

That's not what makes our land, or any land, great. We're not exalted because we have a great wealth and an elastic money supply or wonderful architecture like Babylon had, or an advanced space program and being the first people on the moon. That's not what makes a nation exalted. It is obedience to the law of God. It's a nation that exalts or honors God's law.

It's a nation whose laws reflect and conform to the law of God. That's what makes a nation great. Deuteronomy 28 discusses this point. In the first part of the chapter, Moses is reviewing this covenant with Israel as they are about to come into the land of Canaan. And he says, it shall come to pass if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, righteousness, obedience to the law of God, That the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth You want to be a great nation that is exalted above all the other nations of the earth Then look to the law of God abide by the law of God observe carefully all his commandments and All these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you Because you obey the voice of the Lord your God and and what are those blessings that are going to come upon you and Overtake you what are they we listen?

Blessed will you be in the city and blessed will you be in the country blessed will be the fruit of your body your children The produce of your ground the increase of your herds the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks Blessed will be your basket and your kneading bowl. Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out." Now are those typically things we think of as spiritual blessings? Your kneading bowl, your crops, your flocks, your herds? God is saying those blessings come from obedience and observing the law of God. The Lord will cause your enemies to rise against you to be defeated before your face.

They shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways in confusion. The Lord will command his blessing on your storehouses, and in all to which you rest your hand he will bless you in the land. The Lord will establish you as a holy people to himself. And all the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they shall be afraid of you. And the Lord will grant you plenty of goods, and the fruit of your body, and the increase of your livestock, and the produce of your ground, and the land of which the Lord swore to your fathers to give you.

The Lord will open to you His good treasure, the heavens, to give you reign to your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hand. You shall lend to many nations but you shall not borrow. You're not going to be a debtor nation. You're not going to be trillions and trillions and trillions of dollars in debt if you conform your laws to the law of God. Rather you will be the one loaning the money.

The Lord will make you the head and not the tail. You shall be above only and not beneath if you heed the commandments of the Lord your God Which I command you today and are careful to do them so you shall not turn aside from any of these words to the right Or to the left Those are those are national cultural blessings that flow out of obedience to the law of God Disobedience of those things brings all the opposite. You can go on and read that chapter, what happens to those who do not obey the law of God. To cultures that ascend, they bring great reproach upon themselves. What is the greatest economic threat to our country today?

It's our blatant disregard of the law of God when we allow a million babies, unborn children, to be murdered every year. It should be everybody's concern. Lastly, the successful civil magistrate has wisdom. Wisdom rests in the heart of him who has understanding, but what is in the heart of fools is made known. The King's favor is toward a wise servant, but his wrath is against him who causes shame.

Those who fear the Lord are given wisdom." Rehoboam didn't have this wisdom. Remember when the people came to him and asked him a question about the taxes and he said, well, let me go figure it out. He went back to his throne and he had his father's advisors come in and they advised him to lighten the tax burden and then he had his peers come in and advise him and they said, no, you know, you just jacked that up. Solomon or Rehoboam did not recognize the wisdom when it was presented to him. And as a result he lost his kingdom.

It was torn away from him. He couldn't recognize wisdom because there was no wisdom in his heart. Now you might be thinking, what land, what kingdom, what king could ever do all these things? Well there is one, Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the great successful King who sits upon David's throne.

Look with me, if you will, in Psalm 72, as we close this morning. This is a Psalm of Solomon. Just note that. And in it, he speaks of Christ our King, Christ the Messiah. Give the King your judgments, O God, and your righteousness to the King's Son.

He will judge the people with righteousness and your poor with justice." What is Christ, our King, judges the poor with righteousness? "'The mountains will bring peace to the people and the little hills by righteousness. Those are the thus-her-magistrates who rule under Him. He will bring justice to the poor of the people. He will save the children of the needy and will break in pieces the oppressor.

You recognize the same thing that we saw in our text? Solomon is ascribing to Jesus Christ the king, Breaking oppression, care for the poor. They shall fear you as long as the sun and the moon endure throughout all generations." That's an everlasting people. He shall come down like rain upon the grass before mowing, like showers that water the earth as the Holy Spirit. He sends out His Holy Spirit who falls upon the people as rain falls on a freshly mown lawn that produces growth.

Like showers that water the earth in his days, the righteous shall flourish and abundance of peace until the moon is no more. He shall have dominion From sea to sea and from river to the ends of the earth, those who dwell in the wilderness will bow before Him. His enemies will lick the dust. The kings of Tarshish and of the Isles will be present. The kings of Sheba and Seba will offer gifts.

Yes, all kings will fall down before Him. All nations will serve Him." That's a multitude of people. That revelation describes the multitude of those over whom Christ reigns as an innumerable multitude, an innumerable host, because Christ is the successful King. He will deliver the needy when he cries, the poor also, and him who has no helper. He will spare the poor and the needy.

Are you poor today? Are you needy today? Jesus Christ, the successful King, Offers you to come and buy without money From him He He comes to deliver those who are in bondage, those who are poor and needy. He will spare the poor and needy. He will save the souls of the needy.

He will redeem their life from oppression and violence and precious shall be their blood in His sight. And He shall live and the gold of Sheba will be given to Him, prayers will be made for Him continually and daily He shall be praised. There will be an abundance of grain in the earth, on top of the mountains its fruit shall wave like Lebanon and those of the city shall flourish like the grass of the earth. His name shall endure forever, His name shall continue as long as the sun, and men shall be blessed in Him. All nations shall call Him blessed.

Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who only does wondrous things, and blessed be His glorious name forever, and let the whole earth be filled with His glory. Amen and amen. Christ's name and his fame and his honor will be perpetuated from generation to generation. His gospel does go forward, Delivering from us from the curse of sin and bringing life and blessing The Bible says that the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ and he Will reign forever and ever Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him. Almighty Heavenly Father, we thank You that You are a righteous King, that You deliver the poor, the oppressed, those of us in bondage to sin, you have subdued our rebel hearts to you and conquered us in your grace and for that we praise your name.

Father may you Father, may You be glorified in us and through us, that we might forever and ever sing your praise and magnify your name, both here on earth and for all eternity. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.