Need for National Unity

 

Sunday July 4, 1993

First Baptist Church of North Highlands, California

 

This morning I would like to focus on five verses

 

Romans 15:4

For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.

 

Proverbs 14:34

Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people.

 

Joshua 24:15

And if it seems evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve, whether the gods that your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

 

Hosea 4:6

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou has rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me; seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.

 

II Chronicles 7:14

If my people who are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

 

Let Us Pray.

 

This morning's message is titled: The Need for National Unity

 

The United States of America is suffering from a sever lack of national unity. If we review the foundation of our country, the words of Patrick Henry’s 1775 "Give Me Liberty" speech provides the focus for the unity that made us a nation.

 

"We have done everything that could be done to avert the storm which is now coming on. We have petitioned; we have remonstrated; we have supplicated; we have prostrated ourselves before the tyrannical hands of the ministry and parliament. Our petitions have been slighted; our remonstrance’s have produced additional violence and insults; our supplications have been disregarded; and we have been spurned, with contempt, from the foot of the throne. In vain, after these things, may we indulge the fond hope of peace and reconciliation. There is no longer any room for hope. If we wish to be free...we must fight! I repeat it sir, we must fight! Why stand we here idle? What is it that the gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains or slavery? Forbid it. Almighty God! I know not what course others may take -- but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death.

 

The United States of America is now facing an approaching storm. Our country is divided across many lines, from race to creed, from creed to economics, from economics to civil rights, and from civil rights to religious liberty. The approaching storm and how we as a nation weather the storm will determine the future of the United States of America. From where has the division come? The Bible in the Book of Matthew, Chapter 13, verses 24 through 30 and verses 36 through 43, gives us the answer in the Parable of the Tares.

 

24 Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field:

25 But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way.

26 But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also.

27 So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares?

28 He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up?

29 But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them.

30 Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.

 

and

 

36 Then Jesus sent the multitude away, and went into the house: and his disciples came unto him, saying, Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field.

37 He answered and said unto them, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man;

38 The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one;

39 The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels.

40 As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world.

41 The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity;

42 And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.

43 Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.

 

This Scripture text refers to the church, the collective body of believers, and Satan, the enemy; and the tares, false converts. The application to today in our nation is very real. Throughout our land, the tares of division have been sown, through the misapplication of the statement, "All men are created equals." This matter of equality is not equality in man's limited vision, but through God's unlimited vision. In the Book of John, Chapter 3, verses 15 and 16 we read:

 

15 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

 

It is God's desire that none should perish, but that all come to know his Son and receive everlasting life. To know or to believe is more than an intellectual agreement, it means to put our trust and confidence in him that He alone can save us. It is to put Him in charge of our present plans and eternal destiny. Believing is trusting His words are reliable and relying on Him for the power to change.

 

As our nation prospered, our freedoms and liberties increased. The problem is that through our freedom we lost the focus. The Apostle Paul in I Corinthians 6:12 and 10:23 speaks of liberties and freedoms:

 

12 All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.

 

and

 

23 All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not.

 

In these texts the Apostle Paul indicates that while Christ has taken away our sin, it does not give us the freedom to continue doing that what we know is wrong. Further while some actions are not sinful in and of themselves, they are not appropriate as they control our lives, leading us away from God, or may hurt others.

 

The freedom we possess is a mark of the Christian faith -- freedom from sin and guilt, and the freedom to use and enjoy anything that comes from God. We should not abuse this freedom and hurt ourselves and/or others. We must be careful in what God has allowed us to enjoy, that it doesn't grow into something that controls us. This freedom does not mean anything goes. It is inseparably tied to our Christian responsibility. When we love others, our freedom should be less important to us than strengthening the faith of a brother or sister in Christ.

 

The tares of our American society in my opinion have come through the liberal interpretation of the First Amendment to the Constitution and its "separation of church and state" have defined the place of religion in American public life. Prior to the First Amendment, the Constitution as originally adopted mentioned religion only once, and its command was very clear:

 

"No religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States."

 

In fewer words, the First Amendment added two far more important and far less precise injunctions:

 

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment on religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof...”

 

The United States Congress and State Governments through the Fourteenth Amendment cannot set an official or "established" religion; cannot support one or all religions; and cannot interfere with or prohibit religious worship. It can prohibit a sect from engaging in practices contrary to the general public welfare. The United States Supreme Court has held that this limitation pertains to state governments as well as Congress.

 

America as a civilization was founded upon religion. America was set apart from the Old World by the freedom to worship. The constitutional decision was that government should have no right to make inquiry into the faith of its citizens. The First Amendment is in part a descendent of the 1776 State of Virginia's Bill of Rights, that dealt with the matter mentioned only tangentially in the Declaration of Independence ... man's relation to God.

 

"...That religion, or the duty which we owe to our Creator, and the manner of discharging it, can only be directed by reason and conviction, not by force or violence; and there all men are equally entitled to the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience; and that is the mutual duty of all to practice Christian forbearance, love and charity towards each other."

 

On New Years Day, 1802, President Thomas Jefferson wrote a letter to the Committee of the Danbury Baptist Association in the State of Connecticut which in part states:

 

"...Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions. I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus building a wall of separation between church and state."

 

Jefferson's metaphor, "wall of separation" has been heavily and substantially relied upon to support the liberal argument that the amendment's ban on "an establishment of religion" has foreclosed any sort of state assistance to, or cooperation with, religion. The essential point is from the beginning to the end of the debate on the First Amendment, the legislative intent was perfectly clear and unanimously agreed on: The primary thing was there was to be no legal constraints on freedom of conscience and on the free exercise of religion; secondly, there was to be no one national religion endowed with legal privilege for its beliefs, a.k.a. England at the time. Never was the intent that Biblical principles of living should be disregarded or recorded. Rather it was to be left to the conscience of each individual, between the individual and his God, how the exercise of faith and/or worship would occur.

 

The early American settlers were a mixture of all of Europe, and they stood boldly and courageously together bound in the unity of God. For it was through their strong faith in God, those Americans came forth as a new nation, under God, with liberty and justice for all. America became the melting pot of all nations under one name; with vast differences in vocation or trade bringing all specialties to one people.

 

So where have the tares come from? The enemy of man and God, Satan. How did this happen? As America grew economically, politically and militarily, it lost its religious fervor and became generally apostate and apathetic. In America's apostasy, the Supreme Court made decisions that have resulted in further separation of the people from God. Sorry to say the blame is not solely on the Supreme Court, but the collective body of believers across this land has slept while the enemy sowed the tares. False teachers within and outside the church has distorted the Biblical truth of the Gospels. Some diluted it with compromise to increase membership and others deleted it entirely by teaching it no longer applies to our time. God's truth never changes, is never shaken and will never fade.

 

Within the church, the form or appearance of godliness includes going to church, knowing Christian doctrines, using Christian clichés and following a community's Christian traditions. Such practices can make a person look good, but if the inner attitudes of belief, love and worship are lacking, the outward appearance is meaningless.

 

False teachers or prophets are not new, they were common in the Old Testament times. They prophesied only what the king and the people wanted to hear, claiming it was God's message. NOT! Jesus taught to beware of those whose words sound religious but who are motivated by money, fame or power. They minimize Jesus Christ and glorify themselves in their teachings. Just as trees are consistent in the kind of fruit they produce, good teachers consistently exhibit good behavior, high moral standards and teach Biblical truth.

 

About AD 66 or 67, Paul penned his second letter to Timothy from prison in Rome. In the third chapter he warns Timothy of the opposition that he and other believers would face in the last days from self-centered people who would use the church for their own gain and who teach new and false doctrines. In the first six verses of Chapter 3 we read:

 

1 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.

2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,

3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,

4 Traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;

5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.

6 For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts.

 

America will you wake up, the enemy has sown tares among us! The seed of the church is being choked by the tares of the evil one. Have the cares of this temporary world and the deceitfulness of riches caused the fruit of the Spirit to be choked off?

 

In 1863, one hundred and thirty years ago (at the time of the sermon), President Abraham Lincoln issued the following proclamation:

 

Whereas, the Senate of the United States, devoutly recognizing the Supreme Authority and just Government of Almighty God, in all the affairs of men and of nations, has, by a resolution, requested the President to designate and set apart a day for National prayer and humiliation.

 

And whereas it is the duty of nations as well as of men, to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions, in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord.

 

And, insomuch as we know that, by His divine law, nations like individuals are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world, may we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war, which now desolates the land, may be but a punishment, inflicted upon us, for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole People? We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us!

 

It behooves us then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.

 

Now, therefore, in compliance with the request, and fully concurring in the views of the Senate, I do, by this my proclamation, designate and set apart Thursday, the 30th. day of April, 1863, as a day of national humiliation, fasting and prayer. And I do hereby request all the People to abstain, on that day, from their ordinary secular pursuits, and to unite, at their several places of public worship and their respective homes, in keeping the day holy to the Lord, and devoted to the humble discharge of the religious duties proper to that solemn occasion.

 

All this being done, in sincerity and truth, let us then rest humbly in the hope authorized by the Divine teachings, that the united cry of the Nation will be heard on high, and answered with blessings, no less than the pardon of our national sins, and the restoration of our now divided and suffering Country, to its former happy condition of unity and peace.

 

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

 

Done at the City of Washington, this thirtieth day of March, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty seventh.

 

By the President: Abraham Lincoln

 

The 1992 Presidential election, was portrayed by the media, that the American people mandated a change in our nation and its policies. The problem is that the only change that will benefit our nation is not earthly but spiritual. The need for a spiritual change was spoken of on September 2, 1945, from the deck of the U.S.S. Missouri, by General Douglas MacArthur:

 

"Men since the beginning of time have sought peace," but "military alliances, balances of power, leagues of nations, all in turn have failed, leaving the only path to be by the way of the crucible of war." Now "we have had our last chance. If we do not now devise some greater and more equitable system, Armageddon will be at our door. The problem basically is theological and involves a spiritual recrudescence and improvement of human character that will synchronize with our almost matchless advances in science, art, literature and all material and cultural developments of the past two thousand years. It must be for the spirit if we are to save the flesh."

 

The spiritual recrudescence spoken of by General MacArthur: is the same spiritual renewal that King Solomon prayed for as recorded in 2 Chronicles 6:37-40. In 2 Chronicles 7:14, God's response to Solomon's prayer is recorded:

 

If my people who are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

 

If the American people as a whole meet the above requirements, then and only then will God heal our land. We must first achieve the unity the founding fathers developed with the divers peoples that came to America. That unity comes from the Spirit through Christ Jesus. Oneness in Christ does not destroy our individuality. Through the gifts of the Holy Spirit, each American must use their gift to strengthen and encourage one another.

 

Jesus taught, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hand all the law and the prophets." If we truly love God and our neighbor as ourselves, we will naturally complete the commandments. Further, if we all love our neighbor as ourselves, will not the hate that exists in American society disappear?

 

During World War II, German Pastor Martin Niemoller was imprisoned by the Nazis. Reflecting on his experience in those days he said:

 

"First the Nazis came for the Communists, and I did not speak up, for I was not a Communist. Then the Nazis came for the Jews, and I did not speak up, for I was not a Jew. Then the Nazis came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak up, for I was not a Trade Unionist. And then the Nazis came for the Catholics, and I did not speak up, for I was a Protestant. And then the Nazis came for me. By that time there was no one left to speak up for anyone.

 

Brothers and sisters, we stand today at the crossroads of history and the future. Will we consider sacrificing our own convictions in order to make the majority report unanimous?

 

Or do we follow the Lord our God fully?

 

For the Christian it is indeed "drawn Swords to the very gates of heaven." Our Sword, the Spirit, the Word of God, is the only offensive weapon in our armor of God. There are times when we need to take the offensive against Satan, "against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."

 

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Mitakuye Oyasin,

 

A Guardian and Servant of Spirit,

 

Silver Eagle