Landmarks

Landmarks

Sermon for 10/12/97

Introduction:

A. Originally held in commemoration of soldiers killed in the Amer. Civil War (1868), its observance later extended to all U.S. war dead.

B. Coburn Corners observance of Memorial Day.

WBTU:

A. We have in our culture people who think that if an idea is old it is no good. I do agree that some old ideas are no good. However, there are many things in life throughout the ages that have remained constant. Things that have stood the test of time. One of those is Christianity.

B. Proverbs 22:28.

C. Gave each tribe, family a particular section of land. Boundary markers- Piles of stones. Something to mark the dimensions of people’s territory.

D. Deuteronomy 19:14- You shall not remove your neighbor’s landmark, which the men of old have set, in your inheritance which you will inherit in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to possess. Those who were greedy and stealers would take the landmark and move it to there advantage. Neighbor might slip over and move marker couple of feet to increase own parcel of land. Dishonest.

E. Throughout the past couple of decades people have been dishonest. They have been moving or even removing the landmarks of our nation, our communities, our families, and even the landmarks from our personal lives. It has happened gradually. Much like moving a physical landmark. People will notice. However, gradually it might not be.

F. Denominations and groups have moved and moved and eventually removed the landmarks from Christianity. Many in mainline denominations no longer believe in the old landmarks of Christianity. No longer believe in the Bible.

G. People keep asking what will get this nation back on track. It is a return to the old landmarks of Christianity. People believe that if we do this or that it will return this nation to greatness. The only way this nation can return to greatness and remain there is if people come back to the old landmarks of Christianity. This nation was built on those landmarks. Most people do even know that.

H. Need to get back to landmarks- Moral values, spiritual truths, biblical basics. Landmarks this nation was founded upon,

I. Henry Wilson, Vice President under President Grant, said in 1866- Remember ever, and always, that your country was founded, not by the best of all European races, but by the stern old Puritans who made the deck of the Mayflower an altar of the living God, and whose first act on touching the soil of the new world was to offer on bended knees thanksgiving to Almighty God.

J. John Adams, the 2nd President of the US said of the Founding Fathers - The general principles on which the Fathers achieved independence, were the only Principles in which that beautiful Assembly off young Gentlemen could unite… And what were these general Principles? I answer, the general Principles of Christianity.

J. John Adams also said in an address to the military, “We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

J. WE need to get back to the message of the gospel. Why? This is what will change people lives, Christ and his salvation.

K. Statesmen. Well, let us all go back to that old landmark. Let us stay in the service of the Lord. Oh, let us kneel and pray in the old time way. He will hear us and be near us, we’ll be given bread from heaven, tell the story of his glory, it will warn them, it will turn them, it will save this old world from sin and shame.

Well, I want to see a big revival in the old time way. Sinners turning, converts joining, Christians yearning, fire burning, He will hear us and be near us, it will warn them, it will turn them, it will save this old world from sin and shame. Well, let us all go back to that old landmark. Let us stay in the service of the Lord.

Well, let us go on down to the river in the old time way. Sons and daughters buried in water, coming up shouting, nobody doubting, He will hear us and be near us, we’ll be given bread from heaven, tell the story of his glory, it will warn them, it will turn them, everybody happy in the service of the Lord.

L. Jesus is described as a stone. Luke 20:17-18- Then He looked at them and said, “What then is this that is written: The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone? Whoever falls on that stone will be broken; but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder.