WHY THE PEOPLE REJOICE

Proverbs 29:2 (KJV)
When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn.

I want you to notice this statement, “When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice…”

Personally, I can accept that statement on face value.
I believe it because I believe the Bible.
It does not need to be proven to me.

It’s like a five dollar bill.
I accept that five dollar bill on its face value. You don’t have to explain to me the laws of economics. I do not have to see the Gold and Silver our government has stashed away to back it.
You don’t have to prove to me that a five dollar bill is a five dollar bill.

Right, wrong or indifferent, it’s how I am.
I don’t question everything just because I can.

I think that is a strength.
I know a lot of people who have messed themselves up because they will not merely accept truth as true.

You can disagree with me if you like, but in my 34.5 years in the ministry I have not one time seen a person improve their position in life by challenging the truth of the Bible.

Not once.

The Bible says, “When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice…”

I believe that.

But as I studied this chapter I came to see that God gives us several clues why the people rejoice whenever the righteous are in authority.

I. BECAUSE THE RIGHTEOUS SING
Proverbs 29:6 (KJV)
In the transgression of an evil man there is a snare: but the righteous doth sing and rejoice.

The passage doesn’t mean that righteous people party all the time.

We have to understand the description of the righteous in the context of the whole verse.

In the transgression of an evil man there is a snare, a trap.

The evil man has a hidden motive.

I think what the verse means is that the righteous man is an open book.

He is honest
He has no underlying motive

He doesn’t act selfishly, doing what he does to see what he can get out of others.

· He has a set of principles
· He makes those principles well know and
· He behave according to those principles

You may not always agree with his principles but you can still rejoice when he is in authority because you know where you stand with him.

I hate it when I am around someone and I don’t know what their game is.
· They seem to be nice
· They say what I want to hear
But I don’t feel like I know what they mean by what they say.

I am not sure everyone would call Donald Trump righteous, but I think that is because we write into our definition of the word what we want it to mean.

Most of us think a righteous person is someone who is exactly who we want him to be.

But consider, 2 Peter 2:7-8 (KJV)
And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked:
(For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;)

I don’t know if President Trump is saved, but I am pretty sure that, with him, what you see is what you get.

History seems to be in the making all around us these days:

I want to play a portion of Pastor Jerry Scheidbach’s program on a great week for America.
I want to play some of it just because it tickles me.
He displays a style of – I don’t know what to call it – I would not consider, but it is entertaining.

Did you hear his list?
· Congress gets ready charge Attorney General Sessions
· North Korea releases three American hostages
· US/Iraqi troops snag five top ISIS leaders
· Unemployment at historic lows
· US economy continues to do well
· California Conservative making a charge against liberals and
· Trump pulled us out of the Iran deal (than Iran had never signed on to)

We have a reason to rejoice because there is, in authority, a man who makes no pretense.

When the righteous are in authority the people rejoice
II. BECAUSE THE RIGHTEOUS STUDY
Proverbs 29:7 (KJV)
The righteous considereth the cause of the poor: but the wicked regardeth not to know it.

Notice the word “consider.”
It means that the righteous really do care for the cause of those under them.

The terms that are thrown around in American politics anyway are conservative and liberal, but that is not who we are speaking about in this message.

We reference the righteous and the wicked.
· I think there are plenty of wicked people in the conservative camp and
· I imagine there are probably a few righteous people in the liberal camp

The wicked claim to care.
· They write laws and institute programs that appear to be a help for those in need.
· They yell loudly about their being a champion for the cause of the poor

Truth is, they merely use the poor as a platform to make themselves more powerful.

The wicked, as a local illustration, want to a head tax on large companies so they have more money to meet the needs of the homeless.

But King county spent $195 million dollars on programs for the homeless last year and yet the number of people “sleeping outside, in a bus or train station, or in an abandoned building or vehicle” climbed 18% over two years ago.[1]

All that will happen if they are given more money through the head tax is:
· Drive away one of the largest employers in our area
· Reduce the number of jobs available to working people in our area and
· Waste the money they receive on overhead and spending unrelated to the homeless problem

Besides that, they don’t even know what the real problem with homelessness is.

They refuse to consider the reason for homelessness, choosing instead to put a band aide on the homeless problem.

The righteous would:
Identify the problem as a God problem
· God was kicked out of the school system so that now, two generations later:
· Parents do not know the Word of God
· They do not know what is moral
· They cannot teach their children Judeo-Christian ethics (they don’t have them themselves

Kids are:
· Dropping out of school
· Doing drugs and
· Don’t have the character to get and keep a job

Until these issues are tackled, taxing more money out of working people will not solve anything.

When the righteous are in authority the people rejoice
III. BECAUSE THE RIGHTEOUS STAND
Proverbs 29:16 (KJV)
When the wicked are multiplied, transgression increaseth: but the righteous shall see their fall.

There is a stability in righteousness that does not exist in wickedness.

· Righteous people are not always the most prosperous people.
· Righteous people are not always more successful

But righteous people have a reason to continue on. Their cause is bigger than themselves.

Just after WWI the German people were defeated and listless. Their economy had tanked and their national pride had plummeted.

In this atmosphere of confusion Adolph Hitler was able to find fertile soil to plant seeds of blame against an innocent group of people, the Jews and grow in them, not national pride but wicked hubris.

Hitler built a powerful army, inspired some of the world’s great scientific minds and nearly conquered the world.

But when his plans fell through, he killed himself.

You see, the whole plan was selfish.
And when he didn’t get what he wanted he selfishly took his life.

Righteous people are the opposite of that.
· They will go on against all odds
· They will suffer any indignities
· They will endure any losses yet
· They will continue to stand

Because they do not stand for themselves. They stand for right.
Ultimately, they stand for God and for eternity

When the righteous are in authority the people rejoice:
· Because the righteous sing
· Because the righteous study
· Because the righteous stand
And finally,

When the righteous are in authority the people rejoice
IV. BECAUSE THE RIGHTEOUS STRIVE
Proverbs 29:27 (KJV)
An unjust man is an abomination to the just: and he that is upright in the way is abomination to the wicked.

The word righteous is not found in this passage but the definition of it is, “upright in the way.”

Notice that there is a conflict.
· The unjust man is an abomination to the just and
· He that is upright in the way is abomination to the wicked

The Bible makes it very clear that mankind is at war today.
· It’s not a war between nations
· It’s not a war between political ideals
· It’s not a war between dominant world leaders

This war is deeper, much more sinister that all of that.
Ephesians 6:11-12 (KJV)
Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

The righteous do not hide from the conflict but endure hardness as good soldiers of Jesus Christ.[2]

They understand that the weapons of their warfare are not carnal[3]so they’re not angry and violent and bitter.

But neither are they passive.
And the people may rejoice because they won’t quit until they have secured the victory.

After the Germans had driven England to an almost devastating retreat at Dunkirk Winston Churchill addressed his beaten and ragged countrymen and said,
“I have, myself, full confidence that if all do their duty, if nothing is neglected, and if the best arrangements are made, as they are being made, we shall prove ourselves once again able to defend our Island home, to ride out the storm of war, and to outlive the menace of tyranny, if necessary for years, if necessary alone. … will defend to the death their native soil, aiding each other like good comrades to the utmost of their strength. Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous States have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender[4]…”

Some time later the United States joined forces with England. Something like 420,000 Americans and 418,000 died in the war but, as Churchill had promised, they did not surrender until they won.

I had several men in our church in Astoria who had fought in WWII.
Ray Brandonlanded on the beaches in Normandy.
Arne Froysethhad never been out of the city limits of Astoria until he was drafted. He fought in the Battle of the Bulge.
Ed Jaspersurvived a Kamikaze attack on the ship he served aboard.

Ray was home after the Germans surrendered and about to be retrained to go to the Pacific Theater. He once took me to the spot on Commercial Ave. where he was standing when the word came that Japan had surrendered. He said
· Car horns began honking
· People came running for joy out of the stores
· Dancing broke out on the street and he said
He collapsed in tears on the street and began to thank the Lord.

When the righteous are in authority the people rejoice:
· Because the righteous sing
· Because the righteous study
· Because the righteous stand
And because the righteous will not stop striving for right until Jesus comes and the victory is won.

[1]https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/homeless/how-much-do-seattle-and-king-county-spend-on-homelessness/, accessed 5-12-18
[2]2 Timothy 2:3
[3]2 Corinthians 10:4
[4]https://winstonchurchill.org/resources/speeches/1940-the-finest-hour/we-shall-fight-on-the-beaches/