GIVE ME LIBERTY
A sermon preached by Jerry Falwell
This is an encyclopedia survey of Patrick Henry because most Americans only know Patrick Henry by one phrase from a speech, not his total influence.
Henry, Patrick (1736-99) was born to a prosperous farming family in Hanover County, Virginia. He had little formal education, but grew up in a cultured environment and was widely read. A failure as a storekeeper and a farmer, he turned to the practice of law in 1760. In 1765 he was chosen a member of the Virginia legislature (the House of Burgesses) and became a fiery defender of colonial rights. In presenting the radical Virginia resolutions to the assembly as an answer to the Stamp Act, he ended his speech with the memorable words: “Caesar had his Brutus, Charles I his Cromwell”—here he was interrupted by cries of “Treason!” He answered, “If this be treason, make the most of it.” Four of his resolutions passed the House, and all seven were given wide publicity from Boston to Charleston. For the next five years Patrick Henry dominated the public life of Virginia and was appointed a delegate to the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia.
At the Second Virginia Convention in Virginia (March 1775) he made a motion that Virginia form a standing army and concluded with a stirring call to arms with his dramatic declaration: “I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!” Although without military experience, he was made commander of the Virginia forces in August 1775. He was so hampered by political opponents that he resigned the following February. In the Third Virginia Convention (May 1776) he helped draft a new state constitution. Elected the first Governor of Virginia in June 1776, he was twice re-elected for one-year terms, the constitutional limit for continuous service. He gave full support to George Washington and the continental war effort.
Henry served two more terms as Governor (1784-86). He was among those responsible for the adoption of the first 10 amendments (the Bill of Rights) to the Constitution. In 1795 President Washington offered him the position of Secretary of State and then of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, but he declined both offices. He died before the assembly convened.
GIVE ME LIBERTY
By
Jerry Falwell
A. INTRODUCTION
“And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none” (Ezekiel 22:30).
Whenever God has a great task, God raises up a man of equal greatness for that task. When this nation called America was being founded, there were strong voices calling for America to remain as colonies joined to Great Britain. But there were voices on the other side calling for independence from Britain. These voices called for revolution. The leading voice calling for revolution was Patrick Henry. He was God’s man to stand in the gap, rallying this nation to become the “United States,” separate from Great Britain.
Patrick Henry has been called the “trumpet” of the American Revolution, because it was his voice and his speech that rallied the state of Virginia—the largest of the thirteen colonies—into military preparedness for military action.
Let me set the stage for this magnificent speech. It was March 1775. Britain had levied a number of unjust taxes upon the colonies, and the colonies had begun to rebel against “oppressive taxation.” There had been the Boston Tea Party to rebel against the unjust tea tax. In response, the British government had posted troops throughout the colonies and sent war ships into America’s harbors. Britain was determined to force her rule on the American colonies.
There had been a Continental Congress to discuss the issues; the colonies didn’t know what to do. A few wanted to declare independence from Britain, a few wanted to negotiate settlement with Britain, but most of the people were indecisive. They hadn’t made up their mind.
In 1775, Patrick Henry was elected to the Virginia Convention. His wife Sarah was extremely ill with bouts of depression, called a nervous breakdown. That March she died, and it was a sorrowfully bereaved Patrick Henry who went to the Virginia Convention in Richmond in March 1775.
Richmond had approximately six hundred citizens; the largest building was the St. John’s Church in Henrico Parish, a square wooden framed building with a squat steeple. The building only held one hundred and twenty delegates, plus two dozen spectators.
For two days they discussed the work of the Continental Congress. Some wanted to negotiate; some wanted to fight England. It looked as if a stalemate would result. Nothing would be done.
Patrick Henry made a motion to immediately “draw up for arming and disciplining a well regulated militia.” Many in the room thought Patrick Henry’s motion “went too far.” They said, “Fortitude would be the best defense.” They didn’t want to fight. Patrick Henry rose up to defend his motion: [Excerpts from Patrick Henry speech, given in the Second Virginia Convention, at St. John’s Church in Richmond, VA, March_23,_1775]
“No man, Mr. President, thinks more highly than I do of patriotism . . . . different men often see the same subject in different lights; and, therefore, I hope I will not be thought disrespectful to those gentlemen . . . I shall speak forth my sentiments freely and without reserve . . . . The questing before the House is one of awful moment to this country. For my own part, I consider it as nothing less than a question of freedom or slavery. . . . Should I keep back my opinions at such a time . . . I should consider myself as guilty of treason towards my country, and of an act of disloyalty toward the Majesty of Heaven, which I revere above all earthly kings.
I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the lamp of experience. I know of no way of judging of the future but by the past. And judging by the past, I wish to know what there has been in the conduct of the British ministry for the last ten years to justify those hopes (negotiated peace).
. . . Suffer not yourselves to be betrayed with a kiss . . . . Have we shown ourselves so unwilling to be reconciled that force must be called in to win back our love? Let us not deceive ourselves, sir. These are the implements of war and subjugation; the last arguments to which kings resort.
. . . Has Great Britain any enemy, in this quarter of the world, to call for all this accumulation of navies and armies? No sir, she has none. They are meant for us; they can be meant for no other. They are sent over to bind and rivet upon us those chains which the British ministry have been so long forging.
And what have we to oppose them? Shall we try argument? Sir, we have been trying that for the last ten years. Have we anything new to offer upon the subject? Nothing.
. . . Let us not, I beseech you, sir, deceive ourselves. Sir, 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 throne. . . . Our petitions have been slighted; our remonstrances have produced additional violence, and insult; our supplications have been disregarded; and we have been spurned, with contempt, from the foot of the throne!
. . . If we wish to be free—if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending . . . we must fight! I repeat it, sir, we must fight! An appeal to arms and to the God of hosts is all that is left us!
. . . But when shall we be stronger? Will it be next week, or the next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house? Shall we gather strength by . . . inaction? Shall we acquire the means of . . . resistance by lying . . . on our backs and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot?
. . . we are not weak if we make a proper use of those means which the God of nature hath placed in our power. The millions of our people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible . . . . Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us. The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave.
. . . There is no retreat but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable—and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come!
. . . Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace—but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! . . . Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? . . . Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!
B. PATRICK HENRY A SOUL WINNER
Everyone said that Patrick Henry’s faith grew stronger as he grew older. In Thomas Paine’s book, Age of Reason, Paine said there was no God. Patrick Henry wrote a refutation to argue for the existence of God.
On Patrick Henry’s deathbed, just moments before he died, he looked at his friend Dr. Cabell, a man who denied the existence of God. Henry had formerly held many arguments about Christianity, trying to convert his friend. Patrick Henry “asked the doctor to observe how great a reality and benefit the (Christian) religion was to a man about to die” (this story quoted by Kevin A. Hardwick in Patrick Henry, Economic, Domestic, and Political Life in 18th Century Virginia, 26).
C. PATRICK HENRY ON THE CHRISTIAN FOUNDATION OF AMERICA
The popular modern concept that “religion and politics don’t mix,” was completely foreign to Patrick Henry and the co-founders of the United States.
Henry 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. For this very reason peoples of other faith have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship here” (qtd. by N. E. Bradford in A Worthy Company: A Dramatic Story of the Men Who Founded Our Country, 1).
Who founded America?
· Pilgrims landed in Plymouth, Massachusetts
· Anglicans landed in Jamestown
· Puritans landed in Boston
· Lord Baltimore and Catholics landed in Maryland
· Quakers landed in Pennsylvania
· Scotch Calvinists, i.e., Presbyterians colonized in New Jersey
D. PATRICK HENRY’S VIEWS OF CHRISTIANITY
1. A strong view in the sovereignty of God.
In his speeches against British tyranny, Patrick Henry said he believed God governed the affairs of men, and would intervene in the behalf of the colonies. Notice the statements by Henry, “God presides over the destinies of nations, and because of God, America would ‘ultimately’ triumph” [excerpt from Give Me Liberty Or give Me Death]. David J. Vaughn, in his book Give Me Liberty, claims that Patrick Henry was a Calvinist. His father was a moderate Calvinist, yet his mother held to a more pure form of Calvinism. From ages eleven to twenty-three, Patrick Henry regularly heard Calvinistic sermons from the pulpit of Samuel Davies, considered the greatest Presbyterian of his day. From this source, Patrick Henry developed a strong view of the sovereignty of God.
2. He believed in the depravity of man.
We teach the depravity of man is the basis for salvation, i.e., people must know they are lost sinners and deserve the punishment for their sins. Patrick Henry applied the view of depravity to the American Revolution, “I pledge the depravity of human nature.” He warned the Virginia Ratification Convention that this new nation should not be ruled over by sinful men such as the tyranny found in the English throne. He constantly held up “virtuous” leaders.
So Patrick Henry advocated a federal government with internal checks and balances with a written Bill of Rights that would protect the freedom of each man before God.
“Since rulers are themselves sinners, they must be effectively restrained by checks and balances and be held accountable to the constituents.” Henry supported an idea of clearly delegated powers in rulers.
3. Patrick Henry believed in absolute morality.
He taught “the eternal difference between right and wrong does not fluctuate.” He taught the difference between right and wrong “is immutable.”
4. Patrick Henry believed in the morality of the Bible.
Patrick Henry held that “eternal law was reflected in nature and written in the Bible” as the surest foundation of social and political life. He went on to teach that since the law of God is eternal and immutable, “a civil ruler does not have the authority to violate this law.” Author David J. Vaughn described Patrick Henry’s view, “Civil magistrates who presume to ignore or contradict God’s law or the law of nature, for they are centrally the same, or acting without legitimate authority, and according to Henry, should be resisted.” Henry calls this the “justness of revolution.”
5. Patrick Henry believed authority came from God.
Patrick Henry believed that authority for civil government came from God, but it was mediated through the people (not through the king). Thus by vote, the people give their rulers the right to rule over them. Henry said, “Power is vested in, and consequently derived from the people.” Patrick Henry went on to say that magistrates are not lords, but servants of the people.
According to historian Rhys Isaac, Patrick Henry’s overriding passion was for “a world be shaped in truly moral order.” Therefore, Patrick Henry held out for a nation whose principles were Republicanism, liberty, and self-government.
A CALL TO RENEWED LIBERTY
1. Repent for our national rejection of God.
Even though we say “God Bless America” with our lips and songs, we have rejected God by our actions and our votes. I say we have rejected God by our votes, because our legislators vote for us. They have voted prayer out of our schools. They have voted Bible reading out of our schools. They have voted to abort the unborn babies. They have voted to recognize homosexual alternative life-styles and alternate marriages that God calls an abomination.
We who are believers must repent for the sins of our leaders, even when they will not repent, or because of their blindness; they cannot repent. On many occasions, I’ve called this Identificational Repentance. We who obey God and His Word must identify with the sins of our leaders, and repent for our nation when our leaders will not repent for us. Here is the prayer we must pray:
· Lord, we recognize the sins of our leaders.
· Lord, we confess the rebellion of our leaders to Your moral standard.
· Lord, we ask You to forgive our leaders and our nation.
· Lord, we ask You to cleanse us and our nation of sin.
2. Intercession for national restoration of righteousness.
America is a nation founded on biblical morality and righteousness. I believe our form of government is the best ever devised by humans because it was founded on biblical morality for individuals, biblical righteousness of authority, justice, and liberty, and biblical recognition for the rulership of God in the lives of individuals and the affairs of state. Here is the prayer we must pray:
· Lord, may our legislators recognize Your rule over them.
· Lord, may our pastors call people back to biblical righteousness.
· Lord, may this nation depend on You for guidance and authority.
3. Prayer for national revival.
America needs revival. I’ve defined revival as “God pouring His presence on His people.” America needs the presence of God to protect us from our enemies and to bless our endeavors. Here is the prayer we must pray:
· Lord, send Your Holy Spirit to convict us of sin.
· Lord, pour out Your presence to revive our weak love to You.
· God bless America.
If you have never really accepted Jesus as your personal Savior, would you do it right now? Do not delay or put it off. If you would like to receive Christ by faith, pray this simple prayer in your heart:
Dear Lord,
I acknowledge that I am a sinner. I believe Jesus died for my sins on the cross, and rose again the third day. I repent of my sins. By faith I receive the Lord Jesus as my Savior. You promised to save me, and I believe You, because You are God and cannot lie. I believe right now that the Lord Jesus is my personal Savior, and that all my sins are forgiven through His precious blood. I thank You, dear Lord, for saving me. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
If you prayed that prayer, God heard you and saved you. I personally want to welcome you to the family of God and rejoice with you.
For more information on the TRBC Pastor’s Bible Class, log on to the Internet for TRBC Home page at www.trbc.org/pbc.
