1. "Everything is political because there is no neutrality in relation to Jesus. Everyone is either a willing subject or a rebel. Every act of every person in every place either honors his authority or tries to cast it off."

2. "Whether you recognize it or not, your whole life is political. Because everything you do bears witness to your ultimate loyalty and your ultimate authority. Everything you do shows who you recognize as supreme."

3. "Earthly political power has the aura of finality. In human terms, every buck stops somewhere. Every chain of command has a last link. Every appeals process eventually comes to an end. But that aura of finality tempts us to think that human authority is the highest authority."

4. "All earthly authorities will either do their duty to Christ or receive their doom from Christ. They will become either His willing subjects or His conquered captives."

5. "One reason that so many of us are so suspicious of authority is that it is so often abused. Ungodly authority sacrifices others to serve oneself. But Jesus sacrificed Himself to serve others."

6. "Ungodly authority takes and takes and takes and never gives. But Jesus gave himself so that we would have him and have all things in him forever."

7. "To worship Christ as He deserves is to gladly recognize him as your supreme authority. To rejoice in Him as your greatest good, and to make pleasing Him your highest aim."

8. "Submission is hard because every act of submission involves dying. Dying to whatever desire you are denying. Dying to whatever ambition you are refusing. Dying to whatever vision of the good life has come into conflict with what Christ tells you in His Word."

9. "Human government is established by God's authority. It gives much to us and it requires much of us. But there's a whole lot that human government cannot do. It cannot transform people from within. It cannot pull out sin by its roots."

10. "Don't put your ultimate hope in government. Don't give to human leaders the faith that only God deserves. Don't be elated when your preferred candidate wins or crushed when they lose."

Observation Questions

1. According to Psalm 72:2, what two qualities does Solomon pray that the king would exercise in judging God's people and the poor?

2. In Psalm 72:8-11, what is the geographic scope of the king's dominion that Solomon prays for, and who does he say will bow down before this king?

3. What reasons does Psalm 72:12-14 give for why all kings should fall down before this king and all nations should serve him?

4. According to Psalm 72:5 and 72:17, how long does Solomon pray that this king's reign and name would endure?

5. In the promise God made to David in 2 Samuel 7:12-14, what specific things does God say He will do for David's offspring, and what relationship does God say He will have with this future king?

6. What does Psalm 72:6-7 say the king's reign will be like, and what will happen to the righteous and to peace during his days?

Interpretation Questions

1. Why do you think Solomon's prayer in Psalm 72 makes such extravagant requests—a reign that lasts forever, extends to the ends of the earth, and brings universal flourishing—when no human king could fully accomplish these things?

2. How does the sermon connect the promise God made to David in 2 Samuel 7:12-14 with the identity of the king being described in Psalm 72, and why is this connection significant for understanding the psalm?

3. According to the sermon, what are the two forms that submission to Christ's authority can take, and what determines which form a person's submission will take?

4. The sermon states that "everything is political" in a deeper sense than our cultural usage. What does the preacher mean by this, and how does Psalm 72:11 support this claim about Christ's universal authority?

5. How does the sermon explain the relationship between Christ's absolute authority and the legitimate authority of earthly governments, and what limits does it place on obedience to human rulers?

Application Questions

1. The sermon challenges us to ask "What does Jesus deserve from me?" rather than "What do I deserve?" What is one specific area of your life—a desire, ambition, or decision—where you need to shift from self-focused thinking to Christ-focused submission this week?

2. The preacher describes submission as "dying" to desires and ambitions that conflict with Christ's will. What resistant desire or competing loyalty have you been holding onto that you need to bring before God in prayer and disown?

3. How might you be tempted to place too much hope in political outcomes or human leaders? What would it look like practically for you to maintain appropriate civic engagement while keeping your ultimate hope in Christ alone?

4. The sermon mentions that ungodly authority "takes and takes" while Jesus "gave himself to serve others." How can you reflect Christ's self-giving authority in a relationship or sphere of influence where you have some measure of responsibility over others (family, workplace, church)?

5. Galatians 1:10 asks whether we are seeking the approval of man or of God. In what specific situation are you currently tempted to compromise your loyalty to Christ in order to please or gain approval from other people, and how will you respond differently this week?

Additional Bible Reading

1. 2 Samuel 7:8-17 — This passage contains God's covenant promise to David that establishes the foundation for understanding Psalm 72 as pointing to Christ, the eternal King from David's line.

2. Matthew 28:16-20 — Here Jesus declares that all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Him, directly supporting the sermon's claim that Christ now reigns over all things.

3. Philippians 2:5-11 — This passage describes Christ's self-giving sacrifice and subsequent exaltation, when every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord, fulfilling what Psalm 72:11 anticipates.

4. Romans 13:1-7 — Paul explains the divine appointment of civil government and the Christian's duty to submit to earthly authorities, providing the New Testament foundation for the sermon's teaching on legitimate human government under Christ's rule.

5. Revelation 11:15-18 — This passage proclaims the fulfillment of Psalm 72's vision when the kingdom of the world becomes the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He reigns forever.

Sermon Main Topics

I. Everything Is Political Because Christ Reigns Over All

II. Psalm 72: A Prayer for the King That Points to Christ

III. Only Jesus Reigns Over All Things (Psalm 72:11a)

IV. Only Jesus Deserves Your Worship and Absolute Obedience (Psalm 72:11b)

V. The Goodness of Earthly Government Under Christ's Authority

VI. Put Your Ultimate Hope in Christ, Not Human Government

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Detailed Sermon Outline

These days it seems that everything is political.

And that's not just because we're in DC, and it's not just because we're two weeks from an election.

Popular music and TV shows increasingly advocate for the political convictions of their creators. Topics and material artifacts that would seem to have no political potential. Like masks or tests, can become political footballs overnight. The historian Carl Truman points out, Once one side in the political debate chooses to politicize an issue, then all sides have to play that game. Everything is political.

Anything that isn't will be soon enough.

In this sense, the fact that everything is political is an unplanned and unhelpful development in the life of our society. It seems that more and more people are set against each other more and more of the time about more and more issues.

But there's another sense in which everything is political.

For every single one of us. Everything we do is political because everything we do either recognizes or refuses God's rightful rule over us. God assesses and measures our lives.

In terms of how we relate to His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who sits at His right hand and reigns over all things, the risen Jesus claims your entire person. He claims your whole heart, your whole mind, your every thought and word and action. Everything is political because there is no neutrality in relation to Jesus.

Everyone is either a willing subject or a rebel. Every act of every person in every place either honors his authority or tries to cast it off. So whether you recognize it or not, your whole life is political. Because everything you do bears witness to your ultimate loyalty and your ultimate authority. Everything you do shows who you recognize as supreme.

Is it Jesus of Nazareth or something or someone else?

Whether you realize it or not, there is something to which you pledge ultimate allegiance. And if it isn't Jesus, chances are it's yourself.

Our passage for this morning is Psalm 72:11. If you have a Bible, please turn there. I'll read the whole Psalm and then we'll focus on verse 11.

Psalm 72 of Solomon, Give the King your justice, O God, and your righteousness to the royal son. May he judge your people with righteousness, and your poor with justice. Let the mountains bear prosperity for the people, and the hills in righteousness. May He defend the cause of the poor of the people, give deliverance to the children of the needy, and crush the oppressor. May they fear you while the sun endures, and as long as the moon throughout all generations.

May He be like rain that falls on the mown grass, like showers that water the earth. In his days may the righteous flourish, and peace abound till the moon be no more. May he have dominion from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth. May desert tribes bow down before him, and his enemies lick the dust. May the kings of Tarshish and of the coastlands render him tribute.

May the kings of Sheba and Seba bring gifts. May all kings fall down before him, all nations serve him.

For he delivers the needy when he calls, the poor and him who has no helper. He has pity on the weak and the needy, and saves the lives of the needy. From oppression and violence He redeems their life and precious is their blood in His sight. Long may He live! May gold of Sheba be given to Him!

May prayer be made for Him continually, and blessings invoked for Him all the day! May there be abundance of grain in the land, on the tops of the mountains may it wave, may its fruit be like Lebanon, and may people blossom in the cities like the grass of the field. May His name endure forever, His fame continue as long as the sun. May people be blessed in Him, all nations call Him blessed. Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who alone does wondrous things.

Blessed be His glorious name forever. May the whole earth be filled with His glory. Amen and Amen. The prayers of David, the son of Jesse, are ended.

King Solomon, the author of this psalm, was the son of King David. Solomon ruled over a united Israel in the 10th century BC and this whole psalm is a prayer for the king. In it, Solomon makes four main requests, which we'll survey briefly. First, he prays that the king would do justice. Verse 2, May he judge your people with righteousness and your poor with justice.

Second, Solomon prays for the people's total flourishing, their peace and prosperity. So verse 7, In his days may the righteous flourish and peace abound.

Third, Solomon prays that the king's reign would be universal, that its boundaries would reach the ends of the earth. This is the main theme of verses 8 to 11. We'll come back to it. For now, look at verse 8. May he have dominion from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth.

Fourth, Solomon prays that the king's reign would last forever. Look again at verse 7. In His days may the righteous flourish, and peace abound till the moon be no more. And in verse 5, Solomon asks that the prosperity that flows from the king's faithful rule would last while the sun endures, and as long as the moon throughout all generations.

So who exactly is Solomon praying for? And on what basis can he make such extravagant, supernatural requests?

In one sense, Solomon could be praying for himself and any of David's heirs. Some of them could have experienced partial answers to these prayers during their own lifetimes. And yet, what kind of king reigns forever? What kind of king can bring unhindered prosperity and universal flourishing across the globe? The key is a promise that God made to Solomon's father, David, in 2 Samuel chapter 7.

In verses 12 to 14 of that chapter, God tells David, When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, that is, when you die, I will raise up your offspring after you who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. Who is this king who will reign forever? It is only Jesus.

Only Jesus, the true and final son of David. This king who will reign from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth is Jesus who will reign over the entire new creation.

So why is it that everything is political by definition? Because the reign of the risen Lord Jesus extends to the ends of the earth and to the depths of your heart. As Mark preached a few weeks ago, after Jesus rose from the dead, he declared in Matthew 28:18, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. So with all that in mind, let's return to our verse, Psalm 72:11, May all kings fall down before him. All nations serve Him.

I've got two points to make from this verse. Number one, only Jesus reigns over all things. Only Jesus reigns over all things. May all kings fall down before Him. This is a prayer and it will be answered.

All kings will one day acknowledge Jesus as King. All rulers will one day bow before the rule of Christ. All earthly authorities will one day answer to the authority of Christ. There are two basic forms the submission can take. One is humble trust and obedience, which can happen now and bring glory to Christ through the submission to His authority.

The other is being unwillingly humbled, by His just judgment on the last day. All earthly authorities will either do their duty to Christ or receive their doom from Christ. They will become either His willing subjects or His conquered captives.

Earthly political power has the aura of finality. In human terms, every buck stops somewhere. Every chain of command has a last link. Every appeals process eventually comes to an end. A bill is blocked by veto, or the veto is overridden.

When a final ruling has come down, your options are greatly constrained.

But that aura of finality tempts us to draw false conclusions.

It tempts us to think that human authority is the highest authority. It tempts us to think that human power is the highest power. But right now, as each of us draws breath, Christ holds an office far higher than that of any earthly leader. And one day, He will divest all authority from all those who have resisted His rule. Now, in one sense, that's every single one of us.

All of us have resisted God's God's rule through Christ, all of us have rejected God's appointed king. As our Creator, God Himself is our King. God has given us everything and we owe Him everything. But all of us are rebels against God. All of us have rejected God's authority over us.

All of us deserve to be punished by Him, to be subjected to an eternity of just judgment for our sin. But God is both just and merciful in mercy. He sent his eternal Son into the world to save for us, to live for us, to die for us and to rise again for us. He sent Jesus into the world to die on the cross in order to bear the sentence of death that we all deserve for our sins. And then Jesus triumphed over death by his resurrection.

And he ascended into heaven and he was installed in power and glory at God's right hand. Right hand. That is when many of these prayers of Solomon began to be answered. They began to come true in Jesus' reign over all things. Many of them will not come true until the resurrection and the new creation.

That kind of unhindered physical flourishing that gets rid of all external, internal, and physical evil will only take place at the resurrection. But Christ's reign of justice really is transforming us through the Spirit.

Christ's reign is bringing about holiness and transformation and a witness to His authority among those who submit to Him. Christ really is exercising a cosmic and global authority over all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus is the one who has defeated death. Jesus is the one who holds all authority in heaven and on earth. And on the basis of that authority, Jesus commands all people everywhere to repent of their sin and trust in Him.

If you're not a believer in Jesus, that means you. Jesus offers you mercy and He commands you to accept the offer. Maybe you've never even considered the possibility that He actually has authority over your life. He does, and it's a good authority. It's an authority that would lead to your ultimate and eternal flourishing.

Christ claims you.

He has created you and He has shed His blood to redeem you. He claims all of you and He has given all of Himself in order to obtain all of you. One reason that so many of us are so suspicious of authority is that it is so often abused. Ungodly authority sacrifices others to serve oneself. But Jesus sacrificed Himself to serve others.

UnGodly authority robs from others to serve self, to enrich oneself. But Jesus sacrificed himself, he gave of himself to serve others. UnGodly authority takes and takes and takes and never gives. But Jesus gave himself so that we would have him and have all things in him forever. Only Jesus reigns over all things.

All earthly authorities ultimately answer to Him and will give account to Him. Point 2. Only Jesus deserves your worship and absolute obedience. Only Jesus deserves your worship and absolute obedience.

Look again at verse 11, especially the second half. May all kings fall down before Him, all nations serve Him.

Only Jesus is the King of kings and Lord of lords. And one day the prophecy Gio read to us a few minutes ago in Revelation 11:15 will be fulfilled. The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever. All nations will serve Christ. Verse 9 of our passage says, May desert tribes bow down before him.

Verse 10, May the kings of Tarshish and of the coastlands render him tribute. May the kings of Sheba and Seba, that is, North African kingdoms around Ethiopia, May they bring gifts to him. Verse 17, May people be blessed in him. All nations call him blessed. Jesus deserves everyone's worship and he deserves all of your worship.

Jesus commands everyone's obedience and the obedience he commands is absolute.

To worship Christ as he deserves is to gladly recognize him as your supreme authority. To rejoice in Him as your greatest good, and to make pleasing Him your highest aim. To worship Christ as He deserves is to give Him and Him alone your absolute loyalty. All other loyalties are secondary and relative. If any other Loyalty conflicts with your loyalty to Christ.

Christ wins. That is what it means to serve Him. The Apostle Paul draws the line for us in Galatians 1:10. It's a good verse to write on a note card and tape to your bathroom mirror.

Galatians 1:10 For am I now seeking the approval of man or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.

In his recent book, the Tyranny of Merit, Harvard political philosopher Michael Sandel observes that over the past 40 years, American presidents have increasingly begun to appeal to the public with two words, you, deserve. Sandel writes, After Reagan, you, deserve became a nonpartisan fixture of political discourse.

A president would go and open a government office that had been allocated to a certain town and say, you, deserve these jobs for hardworking Americans, pass a piece of legislation and say, you deserve what we're doing on your behalf. And it's not just presidents or other politicians. Even recipes in the newspaper appeal to our sense of well-deserved success and reward. As one recent New York Times headline had it, you deserve more succulent chicken.

What do you deserve?

Have you gotten what you deserve?

What good have you received that you don't deserve?

Now, the question of what people deserve is a crucial foundation of justice. It is something we should be concerned with as citizens. It should be something we're concerned to uphold and protect. It is a legitimate test to apply. It's a legitimate sentiment to appeal to.

And yet, as a Christian, rather than asking, what do I deserve? expecting positive answer after positive answer, a question you should ask far more often is, what does Jesus deserve?

What does He deserve from me? What does he deserve from all people? How can I render to him what he deserves? How can I set an example so that others will be more and more glad to give to Jesus what he deserves? How can I plead with and seek to persuade other people to give Jesus what he deserves?

Jesus deserves your delighted Submission. But isn't it hard to submit sometimes? And isn't it even harder to do so with delight? Submission can feel threatening. Serving Jesus means making his will supreme.

It's always a risk. It always requires trust. It always requires thinking more of Jesus than I do of my own preferences and desires. It means confessing, even if not out loud, that Jesus is wiser than I am. Submission is hard because every act of submission involves dying.

Dying to whatever desire you are denying. Dying to whatever ambition you are refusing. Dying to whatever vision of the good life has come into conflict with what Christ tells you in His Word. So how can you submit? How can you serve Him as this prayer of Solomon says all nations will?

How can you more perfectly image what will be going on on that joyful last day when all nations serve Him? How can you live like that now? Faith is the key. Trust that Christ knows what is good for you better than you do, and that He wants what is good for you more than you want it. Study His Word to strengthen that trust.

Take whatever desires you have that are resisting Christ's rule and name them in prayer. Say them out loud to Him. Take your disorderly, resistant desires into God's presence and disown them, disavow them, and embrace Christ's rule over you. Only Jesus deserves your worship and absolute obedience. As the text says, May all kings fall down before Him, all nations serve him.

But saying that kings will bow before him and nations will serve him is not an attack on either kings or nations. Jesus has absolute authority, but God has appointed other legitimate authorities. Ultimately, they will give account to him. But in the meantime, in different ways, we give account to them.

A few minutes ago, we confessed Article 16 of our Church's Statement of Faith. Every time we've been able to gather since the shutdown, we've had a sermon with a text tied to one of the articles of our Statement of Faith, which is walking through this in order. These sermons were planned months ago. The texts that the article is tied to were planned months ago. And so just a few moments ago, We have confessed that we believe civil government is of divine appointment for the interests of good order of humans, interest and good order of human society.

And magistrates are to be prayed for, conscientiously honored and obeyed, except only in things opposed to the will of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the only Lord of the conscience and the prince of the kings of the earth. Our article on civil government does two important things. It establishes the goodness and legitimacy and authority of earthly government. And it confesses that Christ's authority is higher. Both of those steps are important, and I want to focus just for a minute on the goodness and authority and legitimacy of earthly government.

You might wonder why our church's statement of faith includes an article on civil government. It's not because we're a church in DC. Instead, the reason is a historic one. In Western Europe during the Reformation, it was seen as seditious and a threat to civil order to practice believer-only baptism. That's because all citizens of the realm were baptized as infants.

So-called Christian identity, conferred on all by infant baptism, was a crucial tie that bound society together. If you started pulling on that thread by saying that only professing believers should get baptized and join the church, it looked like you were trying to unravel to travel the whole society? What's going to hold people together? How are we going to have a joint identity and authority and rule? So, Baptists throughout the centuries have tended to affirm the goodness of civil government to ward off the charge of being anarchists.

Civil government is appointed by God. Insofar as it is just, it is a great good and a gift from God. Just government is also a stewardship to be handled faithfully. Especially when that government takes the form of democracy. What does government do for us?

Good government promotes justice. Good government protects people and property from crime and harm. Good government helps to secure and promote order in society, which helps people to flourish and prosper. Good government fosters and protects trust, and accountability by maintaining just weights and measures and all of their modern equivalents. Good government can help to provide for and protect fruitful action and partnership in various spheres, study, work, peaceable assembly, and more.

And promoting good government is a valuable, worthy calling for Christians to give themselves to. In order to promote justice and to secure as many good things as possible for as many members of society as possible. That is a good and worthy calling and we should thank God for the ways that our government in so many ways promotes and secures so many of these goods. When I was in college, I had an experience that probably many of us have had at a different stage in our lives, maybe from traveling somewhere and visiting or maybe having lived somewhere else. But there was just a sort of worldview, kind of dawning moment that occurred to me.

I was visiting a former Soviet country. I was talking with someone who'd lived there since shortly after the fall of the Soviet Union. And there was some incident, I can't even remember what it was, that this individual who happened to be a Christian just shared with me about a kind of run-in with the local authority. And I kind of asked, oh, well did the police help? Did you have to make some kind of an appeal to the law?

And he almost laughed. And he just started explaining kind of how many different officials had to be bribed or bought off, how many different layers of corruption there were in the government, how far from a genuine kind of rule of law there was. And it dawned on me, having grown up in America, lived there for 20 years, how many aspects of good government I simply took for granted, even the kind of question I asked. He kind of laughed and smiled at how naive it was. There were so many good things that I was able simply to assume.

Now, I don't mean that to be a statement of the sort of absolute justice or a denial that there are genuine injustices in our nation, but it is absolutely appropriate to take stock, to give thanks, to give honor to whom honor is due, to recognize the many blessings that our government continually secures and provides for us.

So human government deserves respect and honor, as 1 Peter 2:17 says, Fear God, honor the emperor.

Human government deserves obedience in all things that are not contrary to God's will. The government has a right to say 55 mile an hour speed limit right over there and 25 mile an hour speed limit right over here. Their stewardship requires them to establish those kinds of positive ordinances. And so the only conditions that justify disobedience to legitimate government authority, legitimate earthly authority, are when they either command something God forbids or forbid something God commands. It was in just such a circumstance that Peter and the other apostles said in Acts 5:29, We must obey God rather than men.

When any form of dissent or even resistance is called for, we should do so humbly and respectfully. Wherever possible, we should enact our resistance through appealing to other duly constituted authorities, making use of any recognized legal processes that we can. Human government is established by God's authority. It gives much to us and it requires much of us.

But there's a whole lot that human government cannot do.

It cannot transform people from within. It cannot pull out sin by its roots. It can't secure stable, lasting, worldwide peace. It can't end war forever. It can't eradicate disease.

It can't defeat death.

So don't put your ultimate hope in government. Don't give to human leaders the faith that only God deserves. Don't be elated when your preferred candidate wins or crushed when they lose. As Psalm 146:3-5 proclaim, Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man in whom there is no salvation. When his breath departs, he returns to the earth; on that very day his plans perish.

Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God.

Earthly human rule seems so much more real to us than Christ's rule because, for now, Christ's rule is physically invisible. You can perceive it only by faith, and you can see it only in its spiritual effects. Earthly government, on the other hand, has columns and pillars, statues and domes, hummers, helicopters. Now we see Christ's rule only by faith, but one day all eyes will see Him return in power and glory. Look ye saints, the sight is glorious.

See the man of sorrows now.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for this prophetic announcement of the reign of Christ. We pray that we would joyfully fall before him, that we would serve him with all our being. In Jesus' name, Amen.