Synopsis: Today’s sermon marks the start of our study of the second half of Proverbs. In chapters 1-9, we encountered a series of lengthier poems setting the stage and introducing the themes of the book. In chapters 10-31 we read the actual short statements of wisdom we refer to as proverbs. Today’s first message we venture into a discussion on the nature of nations and politics. Proverbs teaches us that righteousness in a nation will bring blessing, but sin that becomes normalized in a nation will eventually bring reproach.

Text: Proverbs 14:34
Date: October 18, 2026

Introduction

Opening Illustration: Some time ago, I had preached a sermon in which I had a section where I carefully walked through a basic sketch of God’s designs for earthly government. As you can imagine, I had both positive and negative feedback from that. Some folks who offered negative critique said something along these lines, “I just don’t think a pastor should be speaking on political issues.” Now, on the one hand I know where this is coming from. Because I have seen Pastors make fools of themselves from the pulpit lifting up political candidates, and preaching nonsense as if it were the Word of God. But on the other hand, it is the job of a pastor to preach the entire counsel of scripture, and to apply it faithfully into the life of his church. And so it would be an act of negligence to refuse to preach the passages of scripture that do shape such an important part of our life.

Personal: Praise God that he is not left us scratching in the dark, on such an important topic as how good government ought to operate!

Do you feel that you have a deep and anchored vision for your engagement with governmenet that is rooted in a careful study of God’s word.

What are the qualities of an ideal political leader?

Does the Bible principles for how we should think about the responsibilities of government?

Is there wisdom in scripture for navigating the most pressing political issues of our day?

Is your theology big enough to address the real world that you live in?

Surprising to many, the Bible is chalk full of wisdom on these issues.

Proverbs Context: We are studying the book of Proverbs. And Proverbs is all about wisdom. Thus far in our study we have had four sermons covering the first few chapters of this book. Chapters 1-9 are largely comprised of lengthier poems introducing us to the themes and purposes of Proverbs as a whole. But chapters 10-31 are largely in a different form. These chapters are where the true proverbs emerge, those short memorably punchy statements of wisdom intended to be memorized, internalized, and lived out.

Verses: The challenge with chapters 10-31, is that by and large each individual verse can stand alone as its very own nugget of wisdom. This makes straight preaching verse by verse (like we typically do in this church) a bit more challenging because in a matter of five verses you can encounter five completely separate topics of wisdom. And so for many of the sermons in Proverbs moving forward we will anchor ourself in one particular verse that will serve as the primary idea. And then, we’ll see how other verses spread out across the book support and speak into that particular topic.

Midterms: Today, along with the next few weeks, we are going to dig in to one of the more consistent themes that emerges in Proverbs, that is the topic of earthly government, of kings, and of God’s hand over nations. As we approach this topic, we do so of course in the midst not only of a hyper-politicized environment, but also on the eve of midterm elections in our nation. My aim as a pastor is not political, it is biblical. Together, we want to look into the wisdom of the Bible and discern how we ought to approach these things.

Primary Proverb: Today our primary proverb, which will also serve as an anchor for the coming weeks, is in chapter 14, verse 34.

Proverbs 14:34 “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.”

Explication

Like many of the Proverbs in this book, this proverb is composed of two parts that are in parallel to each other. In this proverb, part (a) makes a truth statement, and then part (b) tells that same truth from the opposite perspective. Let’s consider both in order.

RIGHTEOUSNESS EXULTS A NATION

First, “righteousness exalts a nation…”

Righteousness: The first word is “righteousness.” “Righteousness exalts a nation.” The word “righteousness” is a deeply Hebrew term that is woven all throughout the Old Testament. In a purely technical way, it refers to a person, or in this case a collection of people, that does not deviate from God’s Word. So, a righteous person, is somebody who the standard of their life is God’s law. When they think of how they engage God, how the engage the world around them, how they manage their families, God’s Word is the standard to which they conform. That’s righteousness.

Wickedness: In Proverbs we will find over and over that righteousness is compared to wickedness. So for example

Proverbs 10:7 “The memory of the righteous is a blessing, but the name of the wicked will rot.”

Or again only a few verses after that we read:

Proverbs 10:20 “The tongue of the righteous is choice silver; the heart of the wicked is of little worth.”

There are many more examples of this in Proverbs, but the point is that consistently “righteousness” is pitted against “wickedness.”

Illustration – Job’s Righteousness: In the Bible, we know that only Jesus Christ is the only truly righteous one. We, and every person you meet in scripture, outside of Christ, has fallen short of perfect righteousness. Yet we meet folks in scripture who are described as faithful and righteous. These are man and women who properly placed their faith in the God of the Bible, and by the grace of God lived with righteous excellence. We read of Job, that faithful suffering servant, that righteous man of God.

Job 29:14 “I put on righteousness, and it clothed me; my justice was like a robe and a turban.”

As you study the book of Job, details emerge about this man’s life that give us a picture of how he lived out his righteousness.

Job cared for travelers who were passing by and hungry (Job 31:31-32)

Job did not trust in his own wealth, nor did he rejoice in his wealth, but rather used his wealth to bless others (Job 31:24-25)

Job did not squeeze out of his servants every last drop of effort, but cared for them as fellow children of God. In other words he really cared about the poor and needy (Job 31:13).

In short, Job not only lived out the letter of the law very faithfully. But he also lived out the heart of the law towards his neighbors. And for that, he was considered a righteous man.

Exalts a Nation: Our text today says that when a community of people, more particularly “a nation”, lives with a normative culture among them of righteousness, that nation will be exalted. That word “exalt” means to “lift up, to reach high, to bring aloft.” In other words, “to be blessed.” Solomon here expressly states that if a people of any nation desire that nation to experience blessing from God, prosperity from God, the joy of safety and security, they must be a righteous people. Elsewhere we read in Proverbs.

Proverbs 11:11 “By the blessing of the upright a city is exalted, but by the mouth of the wicked it is overthrown.”

This is the consistent theme of wisdom literature in scripture, and of scripture as a whole. God delights to bless nations that honor him.

Examples: This is of course what we would expect in this world isn’t it? As it goes for an individual, so it goes for a nation. If a city or a nation is filled with people that love Jesus, and want to honor him in their private and public lives, that city or that nation, will be blessed. Why? If for no other reason than the natural repurcussions of that society will be good.

In that city you’ll find Christians who love the discipline of hard work, and not cutting corners, and being honest in their business.

In that city you’ll find Christians who are setting a cultural standard of the beauty of God’s design for sex and marriage, and thefore protecting their young from all the foolish mistakes of godless sexuality, of disease, of heartbreak, and social anxiety.

In that city you’ll find Christians who strive to care for the poor and the vulnerable. Though Jesus says that we will always have the poor with us, in that city, there would be a concerted effort to stand for the vulnerable.

In that city you’ll find Christians who love truth, and hate all deceit. They’ll be wise to the false messages of propaganda, and they’ll filter ideas through God’s word.

In that city you’ll find Christians who are wise with their money, wise with their resources. They do not spend money frivolously or go into debt, either as individuals or as a city or nation.

In that city you’ll find Christians who are not prone to rapid revolution, but long for ongoing reformation. Christians who recognize that until Christ returns we will always have areas of our life and our community to reform, to redeem, to fix to the glory of God.

It is like we read later in Proverbs chapter 29.

Proverbs 29:2 “When the righteous increase, the people rejoice, but when the wicked rule, the people groan.”

All the seeds of national greatness. Why? Because righteousness exults a nation.

SIN IS A REPROACH TO ANY PEOPLE

But there is a second half to our verse. It reads, “sin is a reproach to any people.”

Righteous Character is Easily Lost: Sin is unrighteousness. And where unrighteousness festers, and shapes the character of the community, that community should not expect the blessing of God, and prosperity. The text says the sin becomes a “reproach.” That word means “shame” or “disgraceful thing.”

Illustration – Two Travelers (Spurgeon): Perhaps you might think about it as two travelers walking on a road together. So long as they keep good company with each other, the path is enjoyable. But if after a while one of the men begins hurling insults at the other traveler, and then even still turns and strikes him, you would not expect that second traveler to continue to walk with him. So it is with God. When nations determine collectively to walk with God (imperfectly as they will do that), God delights to walk with them. And that nation will experience all of the blessing of walking with God. But if that nation begins to hurl insults at God, begins to institutionalize sin, begins to vehemently rage against his very name, would you expect God to continue to walk with and bless that nation? To continue to strenghten and uphold that nation? No! Sin is a reproach. It is a shameful stain on a nation, because it pushes us away from God, his good commands, and his blessing.

Illustration – Thai King: Years ago when I lived in Thailand, it took me a while to get used to the way the Thais loved and honored their King. At that point, the Thai king was the longest reigning monarch on the planet, and had on the whole led in an honorable way. The Thais love their king so much that anything with his image on it is handled carefully, including money. I’ll never forget I was in a shopping mall one day, when I went to pay for something with Thai currency, and a bill came out of my hand and started to float away. Me, being the former soccer player that I am, used my foot to stomp it to the ground. I immediately knew I had done something incredibly disrespectful. I had put the kings face under my foot. I’ll never forget the look of anger from the shop keeper and the others in the store.

Our Sin: If that is the honor that the Thai people have for their human king, how much more honor ought we have for our divine king. But each and every sin of our heart and our actions, every time we skirt God’s law in any way, it is like we take our foot and stamp it on the image of the king of kings. What a shameful thing to do to such an excellent God. This is why sin is such a reproach to any people. Because it treats God as worthless. It treats his word as worthy to be stepped on.

Individually: Before we think about “national sin” and how collective sins are a reproach to the collection of people, we must first fully accept how individual sins are a reproach to an individual. They are shameful. They are a disgrace. Every little sin of the heart, of the mind, of the will is like taking our foot and smudging it all over the loving and righteous face of God. This is why the message of Christianity is so unique and so marvelous. If you want to understand the full weight of our sin, look to the cross. Every word of gossip. Every false affection. Every lustful thought. Every angry word. Every foolish action. There it is, on shameful display for all to see. But the centerpiece of Christianity, is not political theory, its Christ crucified for us. It’s the most glorious doctrine we could ever imagine. Our savior bearing the reproach we deserved. Christ, the infinitely righteous one, swapping places with us, in order that we, through the simple of act of faith, might become the righteousness of God and might walk with God.

Nations: Those who are in Christ have will have been declared forgiven in full. And those who are outside of Christ, will bear their own reproach, the consequences of their sins. Our text today, implies something imporant. While an individual will stand in their judgment before God one day, nations will not. In fact, heaven will have no nations, just one kingdom, with one king, Jesus. This means, that nations receive their judgments here in this world. This is why the text says that “sin is a reproach to any people,” because when nations normalize and popularize sin, God after bearing with much patience, brings his judgment upon that nation. That judgment can take many forms, but judgment will come.

Application

Proverbs is a highly practical book. The idea that Solomon was training his son to know how to live rightly in his day, to navigate the issues of his day. I want to suggest five foundational applications from this text, for each of us to walk away with today.

1 MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE

First, this text, and others in Proverbs and throughout scripture, teach us that there is always more going on than meets the eye. When we look at the world, we see headlines. We see wars. We see floods. We see plagues. We see some nations flourish. We see other nations struggle. Sometimes it looks like wicked nations get ahead for a while. We see leaders rise and fall. Movements rise and fall. As Christians there is often more happening than meets the eye. This doesn’t mean that every little tragedy in the world is directly attributed to some national or local sin. Jesus specifically addressed that in Luke 13 when speaking about those who died when a tower fell on them. And yet, in a general sense, God still blesses nations and brings reproach upon nations who honor or dishonor him.

No Prophet Alive: We must be careful and sober-minded here. We have no prophet alive to draw direct connections between the events we read of in our news and the purpose of God’s hand. So, in the days of the prophets, a plague could come upon a nation, and the prophet would say, “This plague is a result of this sin.” Or an army would invade a nation, and the prophet would say, “This battle is a result of this sin.” We have no prophet alive today, so we must be cautiuos in drawing those lines ourselves.

First Application: But this first application is simply remember that God brings national punishment for national sin. We see this principle all throughout scripture?

Did God not purge the evil from the land of Canaan for their generations of sin by sending in the Israelites to destroy man, woman, and child?

Did God not purge the evil of Sodom and Gomorrah, two cities steeped in sexual sin, by sending devastation upon them from heaven itself?

Did God not destroy the Philistine army, when Goliath their champion dared to defy the living God?

Did God not take the life of Herod, and cause him to be eaten by worms, when he defied God and established himself as a demi-god?

Where is Roman empire now, who crushed the poor under their feet and oversaw the crucifixion of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? Where are the Babylonians, with their great hanging gardens, that ruthlessly pillaged and plundered the surrounding nations? What of the Egyptians? What of the great Chinese dynasties? Of the Ottoman empire? What of the great Aztecs and Mayans?

There is more going on than meets the eye.

Illustration – Civil War: It is my firm belief that this nation of America that we all love is a living example of such chastisement. In the early days of the formation of this nation, we punted the issue of human chattel slavery to future generations. It was a pragmattic solution to a moral issue. God grave great patience through thirteen presidencies to rid that sinful stain from the fabric of our nation. England, did it under the leadership of the great Christian man William Wilberforce. But America did not follow suit. A stench before a holy God. And God permitted a great war to befall our nation, known as the Civil War, in which countless lives were lost, and this nation was just about ripped in two, if it wasn’t for the singular leadership of Abraham Lincoln.

There is more happening than meets the eye.

2 BE UNASHAMED OF GOD’S STANDARD OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

Second application. Be unashamed of God’s standard of righteousness. In other words, what God has deemed as righteous, is not just righteous for the Church, it is righteous for all people everywhere. That is the very nature of morality. Somewhere along the way, as popular opinion shifted on a lot of topics that Christians used to hold the majority on, Christians began to start feeling ashamed of their views. Almost like we need to hide them. Some even went a step further, and started believing the lie that our ethical beliefs need only shape our private life, and not have any influence over our thoughts about the larger communities we live in.

Marriage Example: Some Christians will say, “I believe in my own heart that God’s good design for marriage is that it is supposed to be between one man and woman for life. But…” they say, “what is good for society as a whole is that we extend marriage to people of the same sex.” Now think about that for a second. If “righteousnes exalts a nation, and sin is a reproach to any people”, will normalizing something that God has called unrighteous bring God’s blessing on the nation, or be one more step pushing us away from God as a nation? The answer is obvious.

The Christians Heart: So often we have bought the lie that to love somebody means to affirm them. That’s not true at all. I made all kinds of mistakes in my life, and my mom loved me without affirming those mistakes. Christian, we be unashamed of our ethical positions on all the issues of the day. We can be bold, and present our case them joyfully, and humbly, and clearly, without feeling like we need to apologize. God’s Word is good! God’s design is good. It brings blessing. It lifts communities up! Be unashamed of God’s standard of righteousness.

3 BE INCREDIBLY GRATEFUL FOR YOUR CHRISTIAN HERITAGE

Third application, be incredibly grateful for the Christian heritage of this nation. If I were a pastor in Japan or India, I would offer pastoral reflections on that context. But we are living here, in America, and so I offer pastoral reflections on our heritage. The simple fact is that for over 250 years God has sustained and blessed this nation, and you and I are the benefactors.

Failures: That is not to say that our nation, like every other nation, does not have tragic wounds and scars in our past. The persistence of human chattel slavery. Many of the stories of how we treated Native Americans. The list of American foolishness is quite long. Nobody in their right mind rejects that.

Christian: At the same time, we do have quite a remarkable history, unlike just about any other nation on the planet. We like to debate today, if America was ever really a “Christian nation.” That’s a fine debate, and I understand that it was complicated, there was enlightenment thought, and some of the founders were deists. But history records that this nation was deeply rooted in Protestant Christianity. The Puritans who escaped from persecution in Europe, came here and sought to establish a city on a hill.

They built churches.

They preached tirelessly.

They built universities to raise up gospel ministers and missionaries.

And yes, they built a nation, on Protestant principles. The most common book our founding fathers quoted was the Bible overwhelmingly.

Humble: There are not many nations you can go today that have experienced the kind of blessing that God has bestowed upon us. My point here is not to make some America Hoorah statement. It is to suggest that we ought to be very humbled by the reality that in God’s providence he caused us to be born into a nation with a rich history in Protestant Christianity. How are lives would be different had God providentially caused us to be live in Iran, or Somalia, or India. Wonderful people I’m sure, but no Protestant heritage. Dont take that for granted.

4 HATE NATIONAL SIN

Fourth and finally, this text suggests that we should hate national sin. Again, I am not telling you to hate people. We are to love people, especially those who are from God. And we should do everything we can, short of sin, to win them to faith in Christ. But we must hate national sin. We cannot allow the normalization of sin to become common place in our heart. We must keep ourselves sharp, so that we love righteousness, and hate wickedness.

Illustration – MAID: A few months ago, Illinois passed an Assisted Suicide Law. If you have traced the development of these kinds of laws around the globe, in Canada for example, we can clearly see the abominable culture of death that surrounds these laws. As a Christian, there may be no legitimate space for you to voice your opinion beyond the ballot box. I’m not saying you have to protest or anything like that. But in your heart, don’t become numb to national sin. It is a stain on our nation. And in time, it will be the cause of great national calamity if we do not turn to Christ for healing and forgiveness.

Satan: When we see these things in our culture, we must understand that Satan is working overtime to enforce his agenda. He is laboring to settle public opinion to delight in that which is an abomination to God. He is invisibly fighting to get books in our public libraries and in our schools that corrupt our children and subtly numb them to sin. And we cannot let Satan strong arm his way into our city, and into our schools, and into our laws, without a fight. We must use every legitimate means to stand for truth and to push back on evil, and to counterwork the spread of the influence of demons. The greatest way we can do that, is to get people to Jesus. Let Christ transform individual’s hearts to know God and to love God and to choose the things of God, and slowly the culture itself follows suit.

Closing

I’ll close today, by simply drawing us back to the word of God. God’s word gives life. We might not be able, as a small chuch in one corner of Chicago, to change the shape of a nation. Perhaps our influence is too small. But we can be a people who unrelentingly and unwaveringly represent God faithfully in this city. We can be a people, who stand for righteousness when other’s won’t.

Proverbs 14:34 “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.”