A few days ago we celebrated the Fourth of July, which in this country speaks of our Independence Day, our independence from England and our freedom to worship God without being told by the government how we are to worship God. We became a sovereign nation! And this nation was founded upon, built upon Judeo-Christian principles, a nation that submitted their lives to the Lord, Jesus Christ! We were not perfect, but we truly were a Christian nation! Today we have negated our roots and to be relevant, to be what they call “non-judgmental” we have become liberal in our ways and thinking that this will help maintain our freedom, that this will bring us peace, but that is all a lie of the Devil. This kind of thinking has only placed us in bondage and the judgment of God.
You doubt that? Listen to this true story that shows what a liberal town is like, what it becomes. The story goes like this:
A few years ago, a group of people in Missouri founded a town and named it Liberal. They were so extremely ‘liberal’ that churches were not allowed. In their boom literature they boasted that it was ‘the only town of its size in the United States without a priest, a preacher, church, God, Jesus, hell or devil.’
But Elder Clark Braden wrote up an account for the Post Dispatch showing that there was little else than hell and devil there, that it was a den of iniquity, that its hotels were brothels and virtue almost unknown. The account was so terrible that they had Braden arrested for criminal libel, and sued him and the Post Dispatch for $25,000 damages.
After the prosecution had presented all of its evidence, the case was submitted to the jury without rebutting evidence by the defendant and he was acquitted by the jury. The civil suit for damages was dismissed by demand of the plaintiffs, who paid all the costs.
Liberal was a failure, and even lifelong unbelievers, who had moved there for its advantages, left in disgust. One of them struck the keynote when he said: “An infidel surrounded by Christians may spout his infidelity and the community may be able to stand it but it will never do to establish a society with infidelity as its basis.”
- Ministers’ Research Service
As we are going to see in our study this morning, America is heading quickly down that path, they are following the path of the Southern Kingdom of Judah, and seeing this, like Judah, can the judgment of God be far off? In fact, maybe we are beginning to see His judgments come upon us to wake us up out of our slumber and return to Him as He tried to do with Judah, but they refused to listen. And for us, is anyone listening? This morning if you would, please turn in your Bibles to Jeremiah chapter 6, beginning in verse 9, as Jeremiah is speaking of the coming judgment of God upon the nation as the Babylonians will come down and be the instruments of judgment that God used against them. And as we read this, see what we can glean for us and for this nation so that we may apply them to our lives and see the coming judgment stopped!
Here we see the judgment of God upon the Southern Kingdom of Judah for their idolatry, their wickedness, for their refusal to repent and get right with God. You see, when you would harvest your field you could only go through once and the rest that was left would be for the poor to glean and gather. But, when the Babylonians come in, they will wipe out the nation, nothing would be left and that is exactly what happened!
And God warned them, they just refused to hear, they didn’t want to listen and because of that the wrath of God came upon the entire nation, they were carried away into captivity! Listen to what King Manasseh did as he lead the nation in II Kings 21:2-7, “And he did evil in the sight of the LORD, according to the abominations of the nations whom the LORD had cast out before the children of Israel. For he rebuilt the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed; he raised up altars for Baal, and made a wooden image, as Ahab king of Israel had done; and he worshiped all the host of heaven and served them. He also built altars in the house of the LORD, of which the LORD had said, ‘In Jerusalem I will put My name.’ And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the LORD. Also he made his son pass through the fire, practiced soothsaying, used witchcraft, and consulted spiritists and mediums. He did much evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke Him to anger. He even set a carved image of Asherah that he had made, in the house of which the LORD had said to David and to Solomon his son, In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put My name forever.’”
What we see here is a picture of a nation that was morally bankrupt, full of corruption and wickedness, and why? Because they and any nation that turns from God will manifest these evil things in the hearts and the lives of its people! Look at Europe and the immorality that is going on there. Look at the Muslim nations and the oppression and evil that is manifested there.
Now, not only do we see the political leaders messed up, but also the spiritual leaders. As God sent His prophets to warn them that a main artery in the life of this nation and its people were severed, the false prophets came around and tried to place a band-aide on this arterial gusher. The nation was bleeding to death and the false prophets were telling the people that their sin was an addiction, a weakness, it wasn’t their fault, that God loves them and would not judge them, everything would be okay and the reality was the nation was bleeding to death!
Was it really that bad? You bet it was! Sin was openly and proudly displayed for all to see. They were no longer ashamed of it but wore their sin like a badge of honor! Things that once made them blush no longer bothered them, it was just accepted as the norm and life went on apart from God, in rebellion to God!
What could they have done? The Lord tells them to forget these new revelations of man and return to the “old paths” or return to the Word of God, return to God! Folks, please keep this in mind, if it is new, it is not true; and if it is true then it is not new in regards to God’s Word and His standards that He has set forth!
The problem for the Southern Kingdom of Judah is they refused to listen even though God sent them prophets to warn them of the coming judgment. They thought their ways would bring them rest, peace, freedom, but it didn’t, it brought them into bondage, captivity, turmoil and the judgment of God! God is not looking for religiosity in His people, I don’t care how much they sacrificed for Him, He is looking for obedience. But they refused and God brought judgment upon them, they refused to heed His warnings and return to Him!
Now some would argue that this has nothing to do with us, we are not Israel, which is true, and thus, what is the point? The point is this; we were founded as a nation under God, following the Judeo-Christian teachings, even though many today try to deny that fact! Let me say this, if you deny our Christian heritage in this country then you are un-patriotic! Don’t believe me; listen to what George Washington said in his Farewell Address to the Nation:
“Our laws and our institutions must necessarily be based upon and embody the teachings of the Redeemer of mankind. . . It is impossible that it should be otherwise; and in the sense and to this extent our civilization and our institutions are emphatically Christian.”
I know this may be hard for some of you to swallow, to believe, because of what you have been taught, what you have been told. In fact, some of you may believe that the idea of Separation of Church and State is in the Constitution, but it is not as we will see. The State was to stay out of the affairs of the Church but the Church was to be actively involved in the affairs of the State! Today we have that turned around, and it should not be! I want to share with you just a few court precedents that will show you that this is neither my idea, nor the idea of Christians but this is what our court systems have said, and you will see what this great nation of ours was built upon.
The purest principles
of morality are to be taught.
Where are they found? Whoever searches for them
must go to the source from which a Christian man derives his faith
– the Bible.
-
Vidal v. Girad’s Executors, 1844
Whatever strikes
at the root of Christianity tends manifestly to the dissolution
of civil government.
-
People v. Ruggles, 1811 ( 2 decades after the First Amendment)
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. First Amendment. And keep in mind this is speaking of Christianity, not all kinds of false religions, as we saw in the previous court precedent.
By our form of government,
the Christian religion is the established religion and all sects
and denominations of Christians are placed upon the same equal
footing.
-Runkel
v. Winemiller, 1796
The First Amendment
has erected a wall of separation between church and state, but
that wall is a one directional wall; it keeps the government from
running the church, but it makes sure that Christian principles
will always stay in government.
-Thomas
Jefferson, President of the United States, January 1, 1802, in
an address to the Danbury Baptists
Now the challenges to the Constitutionality of the government being run by Christian principles continued throughout the late 1800’s and finally arrived at the Supreme Court to be decided upon. In the case of Reynolds v. United States, 1878, the court pulled out Jefferson’s speech in its entirety and confirmed that Jefferson also said that Christian principles were never to be separated from government.
Interestingly enough, the Supreme Court used Jefferson’s speech for the next 15 years to make sure that Christian principles stayed part of the government. It remained that way until 1947, when for the first time in the Supreme Court’s history; the court only used a portion of Jefferson’s speech to prove their point of separation of church and state! The First Amendment has erected a wall between church and state. That wall must be kept high and impregnable. (Everson v. Board of Education, 1947). Interestingly enough, in a court case, Bear v. Colmorgan, 1958, they said “If this court doesn’t stop talking about separation of church and state, someone will think it is part of the constitution.” That is exactly what has happened, it has been said so often, and even though it is not true, people believe it as the truth and they will defend it as truth!
This was the beginning of the decline and the attempted elimination from our history of our Judeo-Christian roots. The first separation of religious principles from public education was the case that removed school prayer. In 1962, Engel v. Vitale, June 25, 1962 school prayer was eliminated! And please understand that there were no other precedents cited for this. The court did not quote any previous legal cases or historical incidents. A new direction in the legal system was being established – no longer constitutional! In 1965 it was unconstitutional to pray aloud in school, Reed v. Van Hoven. Within 12 months of removing prayer from school the court had completely removed Bible reading, religious classes and instructions, and without one precedent or Constitutional basis. Think about this for a minute. The 22 word prayer that was declared to be unconstitutional and led to the removal of all prayer from public schools, and yet it only acknowledges God one time. The Declaration of Independence itself acknowledges God four times! Go figure?
Again, some of you may be thinking, “Big deal, what harm could come of this? Religious teaching should be done in the home and not in the school!” How wrong you are, not that religious teaching should only be done in school, because it also needs to be done in the home. But just listen to a few things that happened to this nation, to our children in regards to morality after 1963, and it is shocking!
- Unwed birth rates for 15-19 year-olds shot up.
- Unwed birth rates for 10-14 year-olds shot up 533% by 1983.
- Sexually Transmitted Disease rates for 15-19 year-olds shot up 226% by 1975.
- Divorce rates had been declining for 15 consecutive years prior to 1963. After, the number of divorces tripled every year until 1983.
- SAT scores declined for 18 consecutive years after 1963; unprecedented in our history. We are now graduating a generation of students that, academically, knows less than their parents.
- Violent crime up 544%.
The United States likes to brag about being number one in many things, but listen to the top 7 list of what we are number on in the world in, and it is not something to be proud of, to brag about!
-Violent crime.
-Divorce.
-Teen pregnancies (industrial world).
-Abortions.
-Illegal drug use.
-Illiteracy (industrial world).
-Exporting pornographic material.
Again, just so you don’t miss what has happened since we removed prayer from our schools, God from our schools, listen carefully, for too often people don’t want to and they bury their heads in the sand, but there is no excuse for not seeing what is happening, just turn on the news! I am going to give you two lists, you have heard them before, but I believe they are very powerful and show you clearly how things have changed. And as I read this to you, you can compare them yourself and see if there is a difference.
-Talking in class.
-Chewing gum.
-Making noise.
-Running in the halls.
-Getting out of turn in line.
-Not putting paper in the waste basket.
-Rape.
-Robbery.
-Assault.
-Burglary.
-Arson.
-Bombings.
-Murder.
-Suicide.
-Absenteeism.
-Vandalism.
-Extortion.
-Drug Abuse/Pushing.
-Alcohol abuse.
-Gang warfare.
-Pregnancies.
-Abortions.
-Sexually Transmitted Diseases.
You see, the lists are like night and day! It is as Proverbs 14:34 says,
“Righteousness exalts a nation, But sin is a reproach to any people.” Morality has sunk so low in this country because we don’t know anymore what is right and what is wrong because we have taken the standard, God’s Word out of the picture and we have removed God from our lives and thus morals are in a constant state of flux, you believe and do what you think is right and no one can tell you it is wrong, it is bad, that would be hateful!
When you begin to compare what happened to the Southern Kingdom of Judah, removing God from their lives and became spiritual, religious, but there was no relationship with the true and living God, morality went out the window. You see, everyone was doing what they thought was right in their own eyes, just like the time of the Judges in Israel. The religious leaders tell people that “God loves everyone and God would never send anyone to Hell, in fact there is no Hell! God will never judge you because God is love and in the end, all people go to heaven or whatever you want to call it!” And you know what, that is just a band-aide that won’t help them. They can do the most wicked sin and not be ashamed of it, but are proud of it. We just saw this year in the suburbs of Chicago how the Senior Class of a High School hazed their younger classmates and what they did was horrible, beating them and making them eat garbage. They were caught, suspended, not able to graduate with their class and the parents of these students that did this crime are suing to get their child back in class, they did nothing wrong, or as one student put it, “We didn’t kill anyone!”
In the Southern Kingdom of Judah they sacrificed their children to the god Molech, burning them alive in the fire! We have sacrificed over 40 million unborn babies in abortion, in the womb, murdered them, sacrificed them to the god of pleasure, or as the Bible says, to the god Molech! You see, we are no different and I don’t know how long before God’s judgment falls upon this nation, but we need to listen, to take heed to what He is saying, and get right with Him before it is too late!
You see, these are heart issues and many hearts have become hard-hearted to the things of God and thus, we see the results of that in the way they act, the way they behave, the things that they do! Because of that, the freedom, the peace, the joy we once enjoyed has been replaced with all kinds of fear and bondage. Think about it, look at all the security alarms they have for your homes now, to protect you from intruders. You go to the airport, they not only check your luggage, but for some, they make them take off their shoes and they check them. When we turn on the Television we see what terror level we are at today, what color it is so we can prepare ourselves, so the local governments can prepare themselves for terrorist attacks! In some schools the gun problem is so bad that they have installed metal detectors! And the list can go on-and-on, but I think you get the point. The question is, “Is that freedom?”
When we turn on the Television and see all kinds of immorality, is that freedom? Not for me! When we turn on our computers and we receive all kinds of pornographic material that we never asked for but they feel it is their right to send this stuff to us, is that freedom? Not for me! When we encourage our children, who are minors, to have safe sex, which is against the law for them to do, is that freedom? Not for me and not for our children, it only places them in bondage! Again, this list can go on-and-on but I think you get the point. It is as Jeremiah said in Jeremiah 6:16a, “Thus says the LORD: ‘Stand in the ways and see, And ask for the old paths, where the good way is, And walk in it; Then you will find rest for your souls.’”
The rest, the peace we are looking for is only found in Jesus Christ, all the other peace, the other rest is a false peace and a false rest that will never satisfy. It is as Jesus said in John 16:33, and listen carefully to His words, “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” Do you see where our peace is found? Our peace is found not in this world but in Jesus! We need to, as a nation, get back to the basics, we need to get back to God’s Word and apply these things to our lives, we need to make Jesus truly Lord and Savior of our lives. As a nation, if we do that, we will become a people in whom the judgment of God was to come down upon but now one that God can look down with favor and bless once again!
Too often people reject this idea of judgment, the judgment
of God, and it is just as Peter said would happen as he warns
us in II Peter 3:3-4, 10-14. We read, “knowing
this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking
according to their own lusts, and saying, ‘Where is the promise
of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue
as they were from the beginning of creation.’. . . But the
day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the
heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will
melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are
in it will be burned up.
Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what
manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness,
looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because
of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the
elements will melt with fervent heat?
Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new
heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be
diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless.”
Judgment is coming against a Christ rejecting world and I truly believe that the judgment of God will come upon this nation if we continue down this path of rebellion towards Him, rejecting His warnings, rejecting what the prophets are saying! We have been so de-sensitized to sin that we don’t even see things as wrong anymore and yet, if you were to take someone from the past, say 150 years ago, and bring them to the present day, they would be shocked by what they see, the morals we have. Yes, immorality is not something new, but now so many people, grandparents, parents, children can watch something on Television and it doesn’t even bother them that people are sleeping around, men with men and women with women besides men and women!
A couple years back we went to visit my parents and we took a video to watch, something I thought they would like, and I will tell you this, I was embarrassed at what was spoken in that video, and so were my parents, and this was suppose to be a comedy with people that you would not expect to do these things or say these things.
Again, you may not think it is so bad, but listen to what Edward Gibbon, the author of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, has attributed to the fall of the Roman Empire, several factors, and as I read these see if you see any or all of these things happening in America! He said:
1. The rapid increase of divorce; the undermining of the dignity and sanctity of the home, which is the basis of human society.
2. Higher and higher taxes and the spending of public monies for free bread and circuses for the populace.
3. The mad craze for pleasure; sports becoming every year more exciting and more brutal.
4. The building of gigantic armaments when the real enemy was within, the decadence of the people.
5. The decay of religion – faith fading into mere form, losing touch with life and becoming impotent to warn and guide people.
It seems to fit like a glove, so what can we do? In II Chronicles 7:13-15 we are told,
“‘When
I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts
to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people, if My
people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray
and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will
hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to prayer
made in this place.’”
You see, it does begin with us, interceding for this nation, repenting of our sins and praying that God would heal this land. As you think about the Fourth of July and what it means to you, may you not forget about our Judeo-Christian roots, what this nation was built upon, for that is what we as a nation need to get back to!
As I close this morning let me share with you the words by French writer Alexis de Tocqueville that he said after he visited America back in 1831. He said:
“I sought for the greatness of the United States in her commodious harbors, her ample rivers, her fertile fields, and boundless forests – and it was not there. I sought for it in her rich mines, her vast world commerce, her public school system, and in her institutions of higher learning – and it was not there. I looked for it in her democratic Congress and her matchless Constitution – and it was not there. Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because America is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great!”
May we not forget that, may we thank God for the privileges we have in this great nation, the freedom we do have and not take these things for granted, but seek His face and be guided by Him because for this nation to continue to be great, it needs to get back to the “old paths” the things of God. And that is going to start with this message being proclaimed through churches across America, pointing people to Jesus Christ! Let me leave you with these two quotes, first from Patrick Henry as he said:
“It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians, not on religions, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ!”
And lastly, from John Jay, the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, one of the three men most responsible for the Constitution, said:
“Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers and it is the duty as well as the privilege and interest, of a Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers.”
May we not forget our roots, but proudly proclaim them and adhere to them, as we continue to follow after our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, as a people and prayerfully, as a nation!