This morning we are going to begin a series of sermons on leadership and the roles that leaders have in our lives. And the passage that we have here is a real doosey to kick things off with.
I know that when I first read this I was struck by the language. It’s one of those proverbs that makes you do a double take. As soon as you are done reading it, you say, “Did that say what I think it said?”
I know that when I first read this I was struck by the language. It’s one of those proverbs that makes you do a double take. As soon as you are done reading it, you say, “Did that say what I think it said?”
And the second half of the sentence drills it in even more when it says that a king’s mouth "does not sin in judgment." Now, get what this is saying: This is saying that there is infallibility. When a king pronounces judgment and sentences a criminal, his speech is, essentially, without error.
Now, that’s enough to knock your socks off, isn’t it? It kind of makes you wonder, “Is this saying that everything that Donald Trump says is inspired?” Now, some people may believe that. But let’s not get too hasty to jump to that kind of conclusion. And I don’t want you to go to the opposite extreme and think that this has some super spiritual meaning that when we understand what it “really means” then we’ll understand that it doesn’t mean what it really says.
What I want you to understand is that this is talking about the principle of representation in leadership. That is to say, it is telling us that God has instituted a hierarchy of human leadership and these authorities act as God’s representatives. They are God’s agents for maintaining order in society. And they maintain that order by pronouncing judgment. In other words, they punish the bad guys. And this passage is saying that when they do that--when they pronounce a just sentence upon someone who has done wrong, they are speaking the Word of God.
That is what this passage is dealing with. And that’s what we are going to talk about this morning. And we are going to do so by thinking about two points. There are two things that this proverb deals with. The first thing we need to talk about is the power that God has given to human authorities. They have been given the power to judge and inflict punishments. The second thing to note is the precision that they have in these judgments.
Before we talk about the accuracy of their judgments, let’s make sure we understand the authority they have to judge.
I. The Power that Human Authorities have to Judge
You’ll notice that our passage for this morning mentions kings and their judgments. So it is expressing the fact that there are people in this world who have positions of power. They are put in leadership positions and given the authority to examine cases, and, after having considered all the evidence, make a verdict. If that verdict is that this person is guilty, they then have the God given duty to punish this person.
Now we recognize that God is the King of all the earth. As God He is the supreme ruler. And what this verse tells us is that God demonstrates his rule through human leadership. That’s why it is such a good connection between verses 1-9 and this verse. Verses 1-9 tell us that God acts in and through the actions of man. And here it is telling us that there are a particular kind of people that God uses.
So think of it like this. Those who are in a position of leadership—anyone who holds a place of authority—God is using them to conduct his Rule of the earth. They are the means by which God upholds order in society. They are the agents of God’s justice.
Now that you got that, let’s talk about who exactly these kings are. Who is it that has this power and what authority do they have?
And here I want you to see that this idea of a king is not just limited to someone who wears a crown and sits on a throne. Here in America we do not have kings, in that sense. But we do have people who sit in positions of authority. And that’s what this is talking about. This is referring to anyone who God has put in a position of rule or power.
And who is it that God has put in power? Well, the Bible is very clear about that. There are three basic division of power in the Bible: the family, the church, and the state. These are the three basic jurisdictions that God has instituted. And each one has a ruler who has been given certain powers. To the state God has given the power of the sword. To the church God has given spiritual authority of the keys. And parents have the power of the rod whereby they discipline their kids.
Now, these are important distinctions. And let’s take a second to break them down and talk about each one.
When it comes to the family, we have the fathers who are the heads of the house. They are the kings, so to speak. And to him, along with his wife, God has given the power of the rod—or what we sometimes call corporal punishment. That is to say parents have a child that acts out, they are to discipline that child. They are to take a board or a rod and give that child a swat with it so that this child comes to understand that God does not tolerate this kind of behavior.
And this power is expressed in different places in Scripture, in passages like…
Both of these passages are talking about the jurisdiction of parents and the unique power that God has given to those of you who are parents. And this is a very important responsibility. It’s because it is the first line of defense. There is all kinds of outrage today about spanking your kids and people say that it is a terrible thing. But if more people would follow God’s command in regards to spanking, we wouldn’t have as many problems as we do. We wouldn’t have as many spoiled little brats running around (spare the rod, spoil the child). We wouldn’t have as many criminals either. That’s because we learn self-discipline through parental discipline.
So God has made parents rulers and given them the power. They have the authority to keep order in their homes and in society at large by using the rod of discipline.
But that’s not the only power on earth. God has also given the church a certain kind of authority too. He has invested the elders of the church with the power of the keys (or the “keys of the kingdom”). This refers to church discipline.
In Matthew 18 Jesus talks about church leaders and he tells says that they have the power to bind and loose. Jesus told the apostles that whatever they bind on earth will be bound in heaven and whatever they loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. What he was doing was showing them the nature of their power as church leaders.
Thus, the elders of the church have the ability to admit people into its membership (binding) and discipline them when the need arises. This includes excommunicating those who do not demonstrate a repentant attitude and maintain a credible profession of faith (loosing).
This part of the reason why its so important to be a part of a local church if you are a Christian. It’s not just a club or a social gathering that you can opt out of or join if you feel like it. It is an expression of the kingdom of God. God calls the elders of the church to shepherd the flock of God and he has invested them with a spiritual authority—one that helps to maintain order in the kingdom of God. The church’s elders help us to identify who is in the kingdom and who isn’t.
Parents have the power of the rod—to discipline and chastise. The church’s leadership has the power of the keys—which is used to bind and loose in the kingdom of God. And the state what we call the power of the sword. That is to say, they have the power to put people to death. That’s what swords do. They execute people.
This is found in a number of places in the Bible, primarily in two places though. In Genesis 9 we read how God instituted the death penalty, “whoever sheds the blood of man, by man his blood shall be shed.” In this passage God is re-iterating the value of humanity. Man, as God’s image bearer, has the right to life. And anyone who a life without just cause is to be put to death.
The other main passage is found in Romans 13. In that passage the civil magistrates is called the “avenger of God upon the evildoer.” And it says that the civil magistrate “does not bear the sword in vain.” That is Paul’s way of saying that God has granted the state the power to execute those who quality.
Now there are people in this world (Christians, mind you) who say that the death penalty is an ugly, terrible thing. They say that the death penalty devalues life and we shouldn’t devalue any life. But God says that there are some lives that should be devalued. If the state doesn’t do its job and use its sword, anarchy ensues.
Think about it. If someone is a murderer and we don’t follow God’s command to put them to death, what have we gone and done? What we’ve done is reinforced the fact that murder is okay by subsidizing it. That’s what prisons are. We end up paying the criminal, providing room and board.
But we’ve not just reinforced the fact that his murder was okay, we’ve probably made him a worse person than he was before. You put a guy in prison where he hangs around with other murderers and criminals for 10-20 years. Then you put him out on the streets again. What kind of good does that do society? What do you think he’s going to do when he gets back out on the streets? Scripture tells us that bad company corrupts good character. What do you think that it does to character that is already corrupt?
God gave the state the power of the sword. He instituted the death penalty as a way of maintaining order in society.
Now this is not the place to go into a full defense of the death penalty. What we are simply trying to do is state the fact that the civil magistrate does have this power. It is the duty of a king to enter into judgment and pronounce sentence that God wants.
Why? Because God is acting in and through these different authorities. They don’t belong to parents, or elders, or governments. They are God’s powers and when they are rightly used God is acting in and through them. You parents and elders are the kings mentioned in this text. You are the agency of His justice and the means that He uses to maintain order in society. And every time you spank your kid or every time a criminal is put to death, you act just as God would want you to act.
Which leads us to the second point that our text makes. Once you understand the powers that earthly rulers have to judge, you now are in a place to understand the precision that they have in their judgments.
II. The Precision that Human Authorities have in their Judgment
The text before us is abundantly clear when it comes to how much God approves of a leader exacting a punishment upon someone who is unruly. The passage says that they are acting prophetically. The pronouncement of a sentence is an “oracle.” It is as if they said, “Thus sayeth the Lord.”
A parent is does not sin in judgment when—after having analyzed the situation and found the child in need of discipline when he says, “Bend over.” At that moment that parent is acting on behalf of God. And his pronouncement of punishment and use of the rod is exactly the thing that God would do if God were in his shoes. As a matter of fact, it is the act of God because God is acting in and through the parent. It is God’s discipline.
The same is true for the church’s leadership or the state. When a church’s elders declare someone to be banned from the Lord’s Table or when they turn someone out of the fellowship, they are making the decree that can be said to be the very word of God.
Now turn with me to Matthew 18. In Matt 18 we find one of the most often misquoted texts of all Scripture. In verses 19 and 20 it says, “If two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”
This passage is usually taken to mean that if you and a few other Christian people have a prayer meeting and you each agree that sister Margret should be healed, then God is bound to answer that prayer and heal sister Margret. But that’s not what this passage says. The context is talking about Church discipline. The two or three gathered in my name is the church’s leadership. It’s talking about the elders of a church agreeing that a person should be excommunicated (let him be to you as a Gentile or a tax collector, v. 17).
Now think of what it is saying in that light. “Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I.” Jesus is reiterating what this proverb is talking about. Your cumulative decision to put this person under church discipline is not just sanctioned by Christ, HE IS RIGHT THERE. It is as if that declaration of excommunication was being made by Christ himself.
Now we have to recognize that there are some limits here. This is not saying that every pronouncement of a human ruler is legit. As a matter of fact, if we would skip down just a few verses we read another proverb that says, “It is an abomination for kings to do evil.”
The accuracy of the judgment is dependent upon the right use of their power. In other words, the judgment and the standard for judging has to be the law of God. The state doesn’t have the authority to execute someone for stealing a loaf of bread. They only can execute people who are committing capital crimes, which the Scriptures clearly lay out.
Neither can they turn that sword into a butter knife and offer all kinds of welfare programs. That is an abuse of power. That is not a power that God grants to the state.
And if you as a parent are using excessive force and beating your kids to a pulp, then you’re way out of line. You’ve gone beyond what God allows in regards to your authority and power.
There has been a tendency, in homeschool circles especially, for fathers to tell their children that they are not allowed to take communion. They withhold the elements because their kids have acted out. But you know, that’s not their power. That’s the church’s responsibility. Parents don’t have the power of the keys. So if they do that, that is a pronouncement of judgment that is beyond the scope of authority that God has laid out for them. And that is wrong.
All that is to say that the accuracy of their judgment depends on the right use of their power. It has to be done in conformity to God’s law. It must be guided by and falls within the parameters that God has laid out in Scripture.
That’s why the idea of papal infallibility is way out there. This is a verse that has been used by the Roman Catholic Church to defend the infallibility of the pope. The Roman Catholic Church believes that the pope can make certain decrees and promulgate new doctrines. And they believe that when he speaks or makes these official declarations, these things become authoritative church doctrine. So they believe that these things that the pope declares are inspired and have the backing of God.
But that’s an abuse of this text. It is way out of accord with what God has said in His Word.
But when judgment is done in accordance with the law of God—when it conforms to what He has laid out in Scripture, we can say that it is God’s will. It is God’s justice that is being enacted. The sentence that comes down—it is as if God did it himself.
When I was in seminary I was thinking about the difference between the word of God (as recorded in the Bible) and what I preach. People will say that you get up and preach the word of God. So I asked my professor, “What do we say about that?” His response was, “In so far as you preach the text accurately, you declare the word of God.” He said that it is on par with saying, “Thus says the Lord.”
And that’s the idea here. Your just judgment as a parent—your right use of your power is parallel to a prophet who says, ‘Thus says the Lord.’
Of course, all this is representative of the ultimate authority Christ himself has. We recognize that this is a delegated authority. And it is demonstrating the fact that Christ himself is a king that judges the people. He is the one who can say, “Depart from me I never knew you.” Or, “Take him away to the place where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Now, that’s enough to knock your socks off, isn’t it? It kind of makes you wonder, “Is this saying that everything that Donald Trump says is inspired?” Now, some people may believe that. But let’s not get too hasty to jump to that kind of conclusion. And I don’t want you to go to the opposite extreme and think that this has some super spiritual meaning that when we understand what it “really means” then we’ll understand that it doesn’t mean what it really says.
What I want you to understand is that this is talking about the principle of representation in leadership. That is to say, it is telling us that God has instituted a hierarchy of human leadership and these authorities act as God’s representatives. They are God’s agents for maintaining order in society. And they maintain that order by pronouncing judgment. In other words, they punish the bad guys. And this passage is saying that when they do that--when they pronounce a just sentence upon someone who has done wrong, they are speaking the Word of God.
That is what this passage is dealing with. And that’s what we are going to talk about this morning. And we are going to do so by thinking about two points. There are two things that this proverb deals with. The first thing we need to talk about is the power that God has given to human authorities. They have been given the power to judge and inflict punishments. The second thing to note is the precision that they have in these judgments.
Before we talk about the accuracy of their judgments, let’s make sure we understand the authority they have to judge.
I. The Power that Human Authorities have to Judge
You’ll notice that our passage for this morning mentions kings and their judgments. So it is expressing the fact that there are people in this world who have positions of power. They are put in leadership positions and given the authority to examine cases, and, after having considered all the evidence, make a verdict. If that verdict is that this person is guilty, they then have the God given duty to punish this person.
Now we recognize that God is the King of all the earth. As God He is the supreme ruler. And what this verse tells us is that God demonstrates his rule through human leadership. That’s why it is such a good connection between verses 1-9 and this verse. Verses 1-9 tell us that God acts in and through the actions of man. And here it is telling us that there are a particular kind of people that God uses.
So think of it like this. Those who are in a position of leadership—anyone who holds a place of authority—God is using them to conduct his Rule of the earth. They are the means by which God upholds order in society. They are the agents of God’s justice.
Now that you got that, let’s talk about who exactly these kings are. Who is it that has this power and what authority do they have?
And here I want you to see that this idea of a king is not just limited to someone who wears a crown and sits on a throne. Here in America we do not have kings, in that sense. But we do have people who sit in positions of authority. And that’s what this is talking about. This is referring to anyone who God has put in a position of rule or power.
And who is it that God has put in power? Well, the Bible is very clear about that. There are three basic division of power in the Bible: the family, the church, and the state. These are the three basic jurisdictions that God has instituted. And each one has a ruler who has been given certain powers. To the state God has given the power of the sword. To the church God has given spiritual authority of the keys. And parents have the power of the rod whereby they discipline their kids.
Now, these are important distinctions. And let’s take a second to break them down and talk about each one.
When it comes to the family, we have the fathers who are the heads of the house. They are the kings, so to speak. And to him, along with his wife, God has given the power of the rod—or what we sometimes call corporal punishment. That is to say parents have a child that acts out, they are to discipline that child. They are to take a board or a rod and give that child a swat with it so that this child comes to understand that God does not tolerate this kind of behavior.
And this power is expressed in different places in Scripture, in passages like…
- Proverbs 13:24 - He who spares the rod spoils his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him.
- Proverbs 23:13-14 – Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you strike him with a rod, he will not die. If you strike him with the rod, you will save his soul from Sheol.
Both of these passages are talking about the jurisdiction of parents and the unique power that God has given to those of you who are parents. And this is a very important responsibility. It’s because it is the first line of defense. There is all kinds of outrage today about spanking your kids and people say that it is a terrible thing. But if more people would follow God’s command in regards to spanking, we wouldn’t have as many problems as we do. We wouldn’t have as many spoiled little brats running around (spare the rod, spoil the child). We wouldn’t have as many criminals either. That’s because we learn self-discipline through parental discipline.
So God has made parents rulers and given them the power. They have the authority to keep order in their homes and in society at large by using the rod of discipline.
But that’s not the only power on earth. God has also given the church a certain kind of authority too. He has invested the elders of the church with the power of the keys (or the “keys of the kingdom”). This refers to church discipline.
In Matthew 18 Jesus talks about church leaders and he tells says that they have the power to bind and loose. Jesus told the apostles that whatever they bind on earth will be bound in heaven and whatever they loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. What he was doing was showing them the nature of their power as church leaders.
Thus, the elders of the church have the ability to admit people into its membership (binding) and discipline them when the need arises. This includes excommunicating those who do not demonstrate a repentant attitude and maintain a credible profession of faith (loosing).
This part of the reason why its so important to be a part of a local church if you are a Christian. It’s not just a club or a social gathering that you can opt out of or join if you feel like it. It is an expression of the kingdom of God. God calls the elders of the church to shepherd the flock of God and he has invested them with a spiritual authority—one that helps to maintain order in the kingdom of God. The church’s elders help us to identify who is in the kingdom and who isn’t.
Parents have the power of the rod—to discipline and chastise. The church’s leadership has the power of the keys—which is used to bind and loose in the kingdom of God. And the state what we call the power of the sword. That is to say, they have the power to put people to death. That’s what swords do. They execute people.
This is found in a number of places in the Bible, primarily in two places though. In Genesis 9 we read how God instituted the death penalty, “whoever sheds the blood of man, by man his blood shall be shed.” In this passage God is re-iterating the value of humanity. Man, as God’s image bearer, has the right to life. And anyone who a life without just cause is to be put to death.
The other main passage is found in Romans 13. In that passage the civil magistrates is called the “avenger of God upon the evildoer.” And it says that the civil magistrate “does not bear the sword in vain.” That is Paul’s way of saying that God has granted the state the power to execute those who quality.
Now there are people in this world (Christians, mind you) who say that the death penalty is an ugly, terrible thing. They say that the death penalty devalues life and we shouldn’t devalue any life. But God says that there are some lives that should be devalued. If the state doesn’t do its job and use its sword, anarchy ensues.
Think about it. If someone is a murderer and we don’t follow God’s command to put them to death, what have we gone and done? What we’ve done is reinforced the fact that murder is okay by subsidizing it. That’s what prisons are. We end up paying the criminal, providing room and board.
But we’ve not just reinforced the fact that his murder was okay, we’ve probably made him a worse person than he was before. You put a guy in prison where he hangs around with other murderers and criminals for 10-20 years. Then you put him out on the streets again. What kind of good does that do society? What do you think he’s going to do when he gets back out on the streets? Scripture tells us that bad company corrupts good character. What do you think that it does to character that is already corrupt?
God gave the state the power of the sword. He instituted the death penalty as a way of maintaining order in society.
Now this is not the place to go into a full defense of the death penalty. What we are simply trying to do is state the fact that the civil magistrate does have this power. It is the duty of a king to enter into judgment and pronounce sentence that God wants.
Why? Because God is acting in and through these different authorities. They don’t belong to parents, or elders, or governments. They are God’s powers and when they are rightly used God is acting in and through them. You parents and elders are the kings mentioned in this text. You are the agency of His justice and the means that He uses to maintain order in society. And every time you spank your kid or every time a criminal is put to death, you act just as God would want you to act.
Which leads us to the second point that our text makes. Once you understand the powers that earthly rulers have to judge, you now are in a place to understand the precision that they have in their judgments.
II. The Precision that Human Authorities have in their Judgment
The text before us is abundantly clear when it comes to how much God approves of a leader exacting a punishment upon someone who is unruly. The passage says that they are acting prophetically. The pronouncement of a sentence is an “oracle.” It is as if they said, “Thus sayeth the Lord.”
A parent is does not sin in judgment when—after having analyzed the situation and found the child in need of discipline when he says, “Bend over.” At that moment that parent is acting on behalf of God. And his pronouncement of punishment and use of the rod is exactly the thing that God would do if God were in his shoes. As a matter of fact, it is the act of God because God is acting in and through the parent. It is God’s discipline.
The same is true for the church’s leadership or the state. When a church’s elders declare someone to be banned from the Lord’s Table or when they turn someone out of the fellowship, they are making the decree that can be said to be the very word of God.
Now turn with me to Matthew 18. In Matt 18 we find one of the most often misquoted texts of all Scripture. In verses 19 and 20 it says, “If two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”
This passage is usually taken to mean that if you and a few other Christian people have a prayer meeting and you each agree that sister Margret should be healed, then God is bound to answer that prayer and heal sister Margret. But that’s not what this passage says. The context is talking about Church discipline. The two or three gathered in my name is the church’s leadership. It’s talking about the elders of a church agreeing that a person should be excommunicated (let him be to you as a Gentile or a tax collector, v. 17).
Now think of what it is saying in that light. “Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I.” Jesus is reiterating what this proverb is talking about. Your cumulative decision to put this person under church discipline is not just sanctioned by Christ, HE IS RIGHT THERE. It is as if that declaration of excommunication was being made by Christ himself.
Now we have to recognize that there are some limits here. This is not saying that every pronouncement of a human ruler is legit. As a matter of fact, if we would skip down just a few verses we read another proverb that says, “It is an abomination for kings to do evil.”
The accuracy of the judgment is dependent upon the right use of their power. In other words, the judgment and the standard for judging has to be the law of God. The state doesn’t have the authority to execute someone for stealing a loaf of bread. They only can execute people who are committing capital crimes, which the Scriptures clearly lay out.
Neither can they turn that sword into a butter knife and offer all kinds of welfare programs. That is an abuse of power. That is not a power that God grants to the state.
And if you as a parent are using excessive force and beating your kids to a pulp, then you’re way out of line. You’ve gone beyond what God allows in regards to your authority and power.
There has been a tendency, in homeschool circles especially, for fathers to tell their children that they are not allowed to take communion. They withhold the elements because their kids have acted out. But you know, that’s not their power. That’s the church’s responsibility. Parents don’t have the power of the keys. So if they do that, that is a pronouncement of judgment that is beyond the scope of authority that God has laid out for them. And that is wrong.
All that is to say that the accuracy of their judgment depends on the right use of their power. It has to be done in conformity to God’s law. It must be guided by and falls within the parameters that God has laid out in Scripture.
That’s why the idea of papal infallibility is way out there. This is a verse that has been used by the Roman Catholic Church to defend the infallibility of the pope. The Roman Catholic Church believes that the pope can make certain decrees and promulgate new doctrines. And they believe that when he speaks or makes these official declarations, these things become authoritative church doctrine. So they believe that these things that the pope declares are inspired and have the backing of God.
But that’s an abuse of this text. It is way out of accord with what God has said in His Word.
But when judgment is done in accordance with the law of God—when it conforms to what He has laid out in Scripture, we can say that it is God’s will. It is God’s justice that is being enacted. The sentence that comes down—it is as if God did it himself.
When I was in seminary I was thinking about the difference between the word of God (as recorded in the Bible) and what I preach. People will say that you get up and preach the word of God. So I asked my professor, “What do we say about that?” His response was, “In so far as you preach the text accurately, you declare the word of God.” He said that it is on par with saying, “Thus says the Lord.”
And that’s the idea here. Your just judgment as a parent—your right use of your power is parallel to a prophet who says, ‘Thus says the Lord.’
Of course, all this is representative of the ultimate authority Christ himself has. We recognize that this is a delegated authority. And it is demonstrating the fact that Christ himself is a king that judges the people. He is the one who can say, “Depart from me I never knew you.” Or, “Take him away to the place where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.