Political Leaders with Character: Priceless!
Proverbs 29:2
Sermon # 3
August 3, 2008
It’s well known that Winston Churchill often had heated exchanges with his political adversary, Lady Nancy Astor. Lady Astor was the first woman to serve in Parliament. On one occasion Lady Astor was giving a costume ball and Churchill asked her what disguise she would recommend for him.
She replied, “Why don't you come sober, Prime Minister?" Another time
Lady Astor said to Churchill, "If you were my husband, I'd poison your tea." To which he responded, "Madam, if you were my wife, I'd drink it!”
There’s another anecdote from their contentious relationship where reportedly the verbal duel went something like this. Churchill asked Lady
Astor, “Madam, would you sleep with me for five million pounds?” To which she replied, “My goodness, Mr. Churchill, well, I suppose I would…” Churchill then asked her, “Would you sleep with me for one million pounds?” To which she replied, “Yes, I probably would…”
Churchill then asked her, “Lady Astor, would you sleep with me for a penny?” To which she angrily retorted, “No, what kind of woman do you think I am!?!” To which Churchill replied, “Madam, we’ve already established that. Now we’re just haggling about the price.”
What’s your price? That’s a question we need answered when it comes to our elected officials. It appears Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska had a price.
He was indicted last week for failing to disclose hundreds of thousands of dollars in services from an oil company that helped renovate his home.
When House Speaker, Jim Wright, was forced to resign in 1989, he quoted
Horace Greely who stated,
“Fame is a vapor, popularity an accident, riches take wings, those who cheer today may curse tomorrow, only one thing endures—character.” The greatest issue facing America today are not gas prices or national defense or health care. The greatest issue is the commonly accepted absence of a lack of moral character, particularly for our political leaders.
When talk show host, Larry King, asked pastor and author, Max Lucado, if religion should matter in an election campaign, Lucado wisely said,
“Genuine religion has to matter. We elect character. We elect a person's worldview. Faith can define that worldview...”
One of the stupidest popular lies is that “what one does in their private life doesn’t matter as long as he/she is an effective political leader.”
Those arguing for this myth suggest that there’s no connection between someone’s personal life and their leadership abilities. And according to all indications, this response to scandal and serious charges is the most common response among
Americans! It certainly was the case with President Clinton. One editorial stated,
“A majority seem to believe in the President's programs and politics even if they don't believe in him. They care far more about the good times.
As one wag put it, 'People say they vote Dow Jones, not Paula Jones.'"
Yet we don’t accept this behavior for any other area of life. Use a public bathroom and you’ll see signs, “Employees must wash hands before returning to work.” It’s printed in English and Spanish. It’s a law. Is there anything more private than going to the bathroom? But the government and public is in the stall with you and demands (rightfully so) that you follow certain standards of hygiene. We won’t let someone drive a bus who views child pornography. If you hire an illegal nanny to watch your children, we won’t let you hold an office. If you’ve declared bankruptcy, we’re not going to hand the public checkbook over to you. If you’re an addict, we don’t let you practice medicine. But if you violate a covenant you made before God that you’ll be faithful to your spouse, “for better or for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health…til death do us part,” we’ll let you hold any office in the land, including the Presidency! Are we stuck on stupid? Who you are privately affects who you are publically!
Character must always be a foundational consideration when choosing whom to vote for. Harry Truman used to say he’d never knowingly vote for a man who cheated on his wife. He explained that if a man would lie to his wife, he’d lie to the people, and a man who would break his marital oath of fidelity would break his oath of office. President Calvin Coolidge said,
“Character is the only secure foundation of the state.”
During this election season the litmus test for the voter should be
“ character
.” Without character, being a good public speaker, a clever debater or a slick campaigner just doesn’t matter. As believers, a Biblical worldview must be our litmus test. That covers a host of issues, including the candidate’s character, honesty, ethics and worldview.
God’s Word teaches that
Political Leaders with Character are Priceless!
Proverbs 29:2 (p. 469). This morning we want to look at what Scripture says about the type of political leaders we should support and seek to put in office. A leader's character makes a vast difference. It makes every difference what a person in leadership believes and does in their personal

life. Character counts with God and it must count with us if we want God’s blessing on our country and want Him to hold back His judgment. Let me suggest then…
1. God’s ideal is to have political leaders with moral character,
Prov. 14:34 (p. 459). “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people.”
Our country desperately needs the blessing of God! We’re ruined without it. One has to wonder if our wars, terrorism, water shortage are the beginning of God’s chastening.
It’s been said “good managers are people who do things right, while leaders with good character are people who do the right thing.”
That’s what God is looking for. God says, “If you want My blessings, there are some things that are necessary.” Let me point out several characteristics that God requires of leaders before His blessing can rest on our country. a) A leader of character must be a person of righteousness, Pr. 16:12 (p. 460). “Kings detest wrongdoing, for a throne is established through righteousness.”
We don't have a king in this country but
God is talking about leadership whether it's a king or a
President. Leadership is stewardship. Romans 13:4 says that a political leader "a minister of God." He’s acting for God and therefore should be godly.
Wicked individuals are unfit for leadership. A government is established by righteousness. The first qualification then that God requires of a leader is that this person must be righteous, they must practice righteousness, “ Kings detest wrongdoing.”
This leader must administer in righteousness,
“ a throne is established through righteousness.”
Then, this leader rewards righteousness, vs. 13.
“Kings take pleasure in honest lips; they value a man who speaks the truth” The flower children of the '60s had a song with one line that’s particularly relevant,
“You can't live crooked and think straight, whether you are a chauffeur or a Chief of State.” b) A leader of character must be a person of wisdom, Pr.
8:12, 15-16 (p. 454).
“I, wisdom, dwell together with prudence; I possess knowledge and discretion...By me kings reign and rulers make laws that are just; by me princes govern, and all nobles who rule on earth.”
A leader must be wise. Sadly, this highlights how little we understand true leadership. We say we want our leaders to be skilled but God says, "I want leaders to be wise." It’s far better for a leader to be wise than to be intelligent or gifted.
That's one reason a nation can’t be governed by popularity polls. Friends, beware of the polls! A leader who takes a poll to find out what the people want, then pampers their wants and promises things whether they can deliver them or not, is an opportunistic politician, not a wise and godly leader.
Harry Truman made a shrewd observation about the difference between leadership and poll-taking. He said, "I wonder how far Moses would've gone if he had taken a poll in Egypt." What would Jesus Christ have preached if He’d taken a poll to find out what the people wanted to hear?
What would have happened to the Reformation if Luther had taken a poll? Polls of a fickle public are irrelevant.
What matters is wise leadership from those who know right from wrong and do what’s right. God requires leaders to have wisdom. Those who do will change the future of this world.
True story: A city slicker moved to a semi-rural area. He called the local township office to request the removal of the
Deer Crossing sign on the road near his house. His reason:
Too many deer were being hit by cars and he no longer wanted them to cross there. A wise leader doesn’t give the public what they want, instead he gives them what they need.
The Conventional Wisdom that the economy is all that matters is Biblically foolish! God values wisdom and understanding more than gold or silver,
“How much better to get wisdom than gold, to choose understanding rather than silver!”
(Pr 16:16). When will we learn that wisdom is far more important than a record close on the Dow Jones?
Our Pilgrim fathers didn’t come to these shores so that the stock market might boom. Tragically, we have become
“One Nation under greed.” c) A leader of character must be a person of absolute honesty, Prov. 17:7,
“Arrogant lips are unsuited to a fool— how much worse lying lips to a ruler!”
Liars and leaders are not the same. A liar has a character flaw that goes down to the core of their being. People are not liars because they tell lies. They tell lies because they’re liars. A man is never more like the devil than when he lies. Jesus said in John

8:44 that Satan is a liar and the father of lies. The opposite is also true. We’re never more like the Lord Jesus than when we tell the truth because Jesus Himself is the Truth (Jn
14:6). d) A leader of character must be a person who has
righteous friends, Pr. 22:11 (p. 464). “He who loves a pure heart and whose speech is gracious will have the king for his friend.” A leader is known by his friends and the team he chooses. A leader who chooses consultants and political operatives with the morals of an alley cat isn’t fit to lead.
When immoral profligates come out of the closet and head into the Cabinet room, something is terribly wrong.
Proverbs 29:12 says, "If a ruler hearkens to lies, all his servants are wicked.
" A leader must be someone who chooses wise and honest consultants and assistants. This isn’t some political statement. It’s what God’s Word says and what He requires of leadership. e) A leader of character must be a person who lives by moral absolutes, Pr. 31:1-3 (p. 471). Here the king’s mother warns him not to fall into the destructive web of immorality or substance abuse. It will destroy even a king.
If a leader lacks personal moral standards, how can he/she set a moral standard for a nation? How can they be the person about whom parents tell their children, "You can look up to him/her. That's our leader, be like them. Maybe one day you can be President.” That sounds hollow when we’ve so lowered the Presidency that it’s little more than a glorified CEO, rather than a moral leader setting a tone for a nation. Today we don’t hold up politicians as leaders to emulate. Instead we ridicule them. They’re the fodder of late night TV comedians.
A leader's moral character is vital. If a leader can’t control their own passions, what will they do in a time of national crisis? If a leader can’t keep the most sacred promise of all, the promise made to their spouse before God, how can they be trusted to keep any other promise? A leader must be a person who lives by moral absolutes. How tragic that our leaders today are often instead known for their abuse of power, and sex and drugs! f) A leader of character must be a person who protects the weak, A leader must protect the weak and the helpless,
Proverbs 31 again, vss 8-9. “Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute.
Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy.”
A leader must speak up for those who can't speak up for themselves, those who are about to be destroyed.
When a president is inaugurated, he takes a pledge to defend our nation. There are many defenseless people in America today who are depending on government to defend them.
Instead of watching out for their cronies, politicians need to watch out for those who can’t watch out for themselves.
Obviously, they should be standing up for the unborn, the most defenseless of all those who cannot speak for themselves. Political leaders must be the protector of the helpless. This is the character that God requires.
g) A leader of character will bring about stability, Pr.
29:4a (p. 469). “By justice a king gives a country stability.”
Once there was a golfer whose drive landed on an anthill.
Rather than move the ball, he decided to hit it where it lay.
He gave a mighty swing. Clouds of dirt and sand and ants exploded from the spot…everything but the golf ball. It sat in the same spot. So he lined up and tried another shot.
Clouds of dirt and sand and ants went flying again. The golf ball didn't even wiggle. Two ants survived and one of these dazed ants said to the other, "Whoa! What are we going to do?" Said the other ant: "I don't know about you, but I'm going to get on the ball. That’s the safest place around here."
A godly leader will bring about a sense of safety and stability. These principles don’t just apply to America but to all governments. Our terror filled day is a day of wars and rumors of wars. The economy is fickle. Economists who try to predict the future are about as accurate as the weatherman. A godly leader though brings true security.
That’s what happened when Solomon took the throne because he had a heart for God.
2. God will give us the government that we deserve , Isaiah 3:1-5
(p. 485). Isaiah prophesies about Israel’s not too distant future. Her leaders are all removed. Isaiah denounces the sins of the affluent upper class, telling them God is going to take away their leadership and everything they’re depending on as a nation. Then, he lists out all those in leadership they’re going to lose. In the place of these leaders God is going to place “ children ” to rule over them. In other

words God is going to allow their competent leaders to be replaced by immature, incompetent ones. The instability of the nation will become so bad that the people will oppress one another. They’ll become vicious, attacking one another. And their leaders, because they’re incompetent, will do nothing to correct the situation.
Please mark it down. Though God requires character of leaders, He also respects a people's choice of their leaders…even if the leader lacks character. Not that God approves of the choice but He respects human will. He allows us to choose our leaders. For example, in Hosea 8:4 God says,
“They set up kings without my consent; they choose princes without my approval.”
The people didn’t seek God when choosing their leaders so they didn't have
God's will to guide them. He wasn’t part of the process.
We reap what we sow! Wicked rulers are God’s reward for wicked people. While we’re free to choose our leaders, we’re not free to choose the consequences of our choice. First we choose and then the choice chooses for us.
3. So how should we vote when there is a vacuum of character?
J.I. Packer wrote,
“It is a paradox of the Christian life that the more profoundly one is concerned about heaven, the more deeply one cares about God’s will being done on Earth.” Sir Frederick
Catherwood, a Christian member of the European Parliament, said,
“To try to improve society is not worldliness, but love. To wash your hands of society is not love but worldliness .” Christians should be good citizens, voting in sync with God’s Word. We’re to be part of the solution, not part of the problem.
Romans 13:1
“Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by
God.”
God is the source of all governments. He not only establishes the rulers but also the way the government rules and operates. God is the One Who graciously gave us the government we have in America. Since our system gives individual citizens the privilege of choosing their leaders, Christians not only have a right to vote, we have a God given responsibility to be involved and vote in this system God ordained. Samuel Adams put it this way,
“Let each citizen remember at the moment he is offering his vote that he is not making a present or a compliment to please an individual--or at least that he ought not so to do; but that he is executing one of the most solemn trusts in human society for which he is accountable to God and his country.”
America is a republic, not a democracy. In a republic we need to elect representatives who will rise above the passions of the moment. They need to be people of character and virtue, who will act responsibly and even nobly as they carry out the best interests of the people. We want leaders we can respect. Staying uninvolved isn’t an option. As the late Paul Simon, during a talk at a university indicated, the word " idiot " comes from Latin words meaning
“ someone who does not get involved in civic life.”
Believers are stewards of what God has entrusted to us, thus
Biblical principles must direct our vote. Remember that there were no governments like ours in existence when the Bible was written, so we have no clear directives about voting. We must then look at general principles of a Christian living according to Scripture.
Let me suggest some key areas where you need to let Biblical principles decide your vote. Biblical principles last forever.
Politicians, politics and even this great country of ours will one day go by the wayside. We must seek to elect people who will most closely reflect Biblical principles in their own life and promote them in their service in government. a) Vote for principle over party.
Some are members of a political party and would almost die at the thought of voting for another party. It is wrong to vote for an immoral, godless member of your party when the other party has someone running who has a better handle on Biblical principles and character. If you’re a slave to your party affiliation, you’re jettisoning Biblical principles for political expediency.
That’s wrong! b) Vote for principle over pork. Remember those famous words of John F. Kennedy,
“Ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.” We seem to forget those words when elections roll around. The questions of, “what can this person do for Burlington or
Wisconsin” or “what kind of money will this person bring to our area,” or even “what will this person do to benefit my industry,” all seem to overshadow the fact that there is more to this world than our little world.
We’ll complain about politicians from other states bringing billions home to their states, but when it comes to our own, we seem to forget that pork in one part of the country is pork in all the others as well. Do you want to stand before
God and say, “Well God, I thought that defending unborn children wasn’t as important as our new highway project.”

c) Vote for principle over pocketbook. The scandal of our time is the bad citizenship of good people. It’s a tragedy that most believers vote their pocketbooks over Biblical truth.
As we vote, we often ask “who’s going to put the most money in my bank account?” It’s not wrong to want to be prosperous, but not at the expense of moral values. And
God’s Word is very clear that it is God who brings the increase, not politicians. d) Vote for principle over person. You don’t vote for a person because you like them or they’re good looking or even that they’re your friend. You vote because that person stands for Biblical principle. e) Vote for principle over popularity. (Of the candidate or even of yourself among your peers). Paul wrote,
“Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ” (Gal. 1:10). f) Vote for principle over political speech. Don’t be a sucker for the hype. Check and see if the candidate’s personal life and voting record match their talk. For example, if a candidate says they’re personally against abortion, yet consistently vote for it, they can’t be trusted and have no right to serve in a position of trust. If they constantly try to bring their faith into the picture, yet support ungodly and immoral legislation, then they can’t be trusted and have no right to serve in a position of trust. If they claim to support the family, yet do not stand up for legislation to protect it, then they can’t be trusted. Are you getting the picture here?
Don’t be swayed by political rhetoric. Look at how they live and vote when the pressure is on.
Conclusion : As a believer, I see a lot around me that deeply disturbs me.
As an American, I pray for leaders that will obey Micah 6:8 and act justly, love mercy and walk humbly before Almighty God. For the most part, that prayer has not yet been answered.
Pastor Richard Neuhaus was on his way to a speaking engagement in
Pennsylvania. When he arrived at the airport, his host spent over an hour detailing everything that was wrong with our country, our society and our culture. When his host had finished his dreary litany of national ills, Pastor
Neuhaus replied, "These may be bad times, but they are the only times we are given. And we must remember that despair is a mortal sin." How true!
These are the only times we’re given. Despair is never an option for the
Christian. Let’s reaffirm our belief that our God reigns over all the nations of the earth, that He’s the Lord God Almighty, that He’s in control! No matter who controls the House or Senate or the White House, God’s still on the throne. If we forget that, we're in big trouble no matter how we voted in the last election or who wins in 2008. Remember that in the days to come.
God is in control. He knows what He’s doing and He’s doing it.
Does character count?
Are Political Leaders with Character really priceless? Yes, if there is a God in heaven, a God who established this nation and Who has sustained us and brought us this far. But if America is willing to say, "God, we don't need You anymore. We don't want Your rule anymore. We know what we are doing. Our skill and ingenuity will see us through," then I say God help America! Because God will say, "You don't need Me? That's fine. But then don't call on Me when judgment falls."
Remember what happened when Peter preached his great sermon on the
Day of Pentecost? The people of Israel "were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what
shall we do?" (Acts 2:37). That’s the question the people of God need to ask today. Let me suggest three answers to that cry, what shall we do?
1) We must pray for revival.
When God sends revival, He’s not going to send it through Washington! The White House can’t bring revival and the
White House can’t stop revival. We’d better stop looking to the White
House to save us and start looking to God's House to save us!
2) We need to prepare for survival. I don't know what's going to happen to
America in the days ahead, but we need to be insulating our children against the hard times that may come. We need to be building into the hearts of our young people some bedrock Biblical truths that will sustain them and keep them true to God in any situation, because rebellion and immorality are in the air around us like a disease!
3) We need to get ready for arrival.
King Jesus is coming! God's eternal plan goes way beyond America. Jesus is coming back to this earth. On that day He’ll reveal to everyone that He’s the King of kings and the Lord of lords.

Friend, do you want to know the most patriotic thing that you can do? The best thing that you can do for this country and your family is to get right with God, and to help others to get right with God, as we prepare for His coming coronation!