In God We Trust
July 4th sermon
Chuck Sligh
July 3, 2016
[PowerPoint or ProPresenter presentations are available for this sermon upon request by emailing chucksligh@hotmail.com.]
Adapted from Bruce Howell’s sermon, “Happy Birthday America” found on SermonCentral.com.
TEXT: Psalm 33:12 – “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance.
INTRODUCTION
Tomorrow will be the 240th year anniversary of the United States. Historically, that’s actually a long time for a nation to remain free. 240 years may seem like a long time, but did you know that 240 years is actually just 12 generations?
But even its brief history on the world stage, God has richly blessed the United States. It is the richest and most powerful nation in the world.
It also has a wonderfully rich spiritual history.
• It was founded by pious Pilgrims and Puritans.
• Two of the greatest religious revivals in history, known as the First and the Second Great Awakenings, occurred in the United States.
• Rev. John Witherspoon, a Presbyterian minister, was a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and almost all the forefathers extolled Christianity and its morality.
• It was the teachings of Christ that was the basis for the end of our country’s national discrace—slavery, and it was devoted Christians who lobbied endlessly to abolish it.
• My County, ’Tis of Thee was written by a Baptist minister, Samuel Francis Smith.
• The Pledge of Allegience was written in 1892 by a Baptist minister, Francis Bellamy.
• The words “In God We Trust” are traced to the efforts of Rev. W.R. Watkinson.
God truly has shed His grace on the United States of America...and there’s a reason or it.
Illus. – When it was a young country, the Frenchman, Alexis de Toucqueville, visited the United States to discover what made America so great. He traveled across its vast land, looking for greatness in its harbors and rivers, its fertile fields and boundless forests. He studied its schools, its military, its Congress, its Constitution—but still he could not find the secret.
It was not until he went into its churches and heard its pulpits “aflame with righteousness” that he found the answer. When he returned to Europe, he wrote, “America is great because America is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.”
Sadly, our country has ceased to be good and is no longer great in many ways.
• It once stood for the Ten Commandments, but today the Ten Commandments are mocked, and often are illegal to even mention in a public setting.
• When the founding fathers reached a deadlock in the Constitutional Convention and simply could not agree on a crucial point, one of the members suggested that they have a prayer meeting; and right there the members of the Continental Congress knelt down and prayed for God’s wisdom. – Sadly, today prayer is illegal in our public schools.
• Violence, crime, abortion, immorality, drunkenness, pornography, governmental corruption, rampant materialism, an insatiable desire for sinful pleasure, and every imaginable sin are a pretty apt description of broad swaths of Americans.
And yet, on every American coin and paper bill is the little motto “In God We Trust.” Today, the motto on our coins is no longer true, but it SHOULD be true for us who name the name of Christ. How can we transfer the motto, “In God We Trust” from our money into our hearts? The answer lies in Psalm 33—not just in verse 12, but in the rest of the chapter as well. I’d like you to see three principles in this chapter we as believer should observe if we are to survive as a free people, blessed of God.
I. THE FIRST PRINCIPLE IS REVERENCE FOR GOD.
Verse 18 says: “Behold, the eye of the LORD is upon them that fear him….”
The idea of fearing God in the Bible encompasses two ideas:
• One is a fear of judgment for willful sin that that we do not repent of and forsake. – Hebrews 10:29-30 says, “For we know him that hath said, ‘Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense,’ saith the Lord. And again, ‘The Lord shall judge his people. 31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.’”
• The second, more common way the phrase “fear of the Lord” is used in the Bible is a idea of a reverence and respect for God and the things of God.
Our nation desperately needs to return to reverence for God. But today in our culture we have gone far beyond disrespect to outright blasphemy!
• Ordinary people’s speech is spiced regularly with GD this and GD that, and the precious, holy name of Jesus has become a common expletive.
• While it is practically a crime to insult a Muslim or Muhammed, it’s open season on the God of the Bible and His Son, Jesus Christ, with blasphemy and sacrilege and ridicule of everything holy and pure common fare on TV, movies and music.
• Even some people who claim to be Christians watch and laugh along at movies that mock God and spiritual things as if all they was the funniest thing there is, or use God’s name in vain themselves without a second thought.
I fear for the future of our country! When a people lose their reverence for God, it’s a step on the road to destruction.
Who is this God that we say we trust in? The Man upstairs? The Big Guy in the sky? The Big Kahuna?
The Old Testament has many names for God, and each tells us something about God and His character. – He is Kadosh, or “Holy One”; He’s El Shaddai, or “Almighty One”, He’s Jehovah-Tsidkenu, or “The Lord Our Righteousness”; He’s El Roi, or “The God Who Sees”; and He’s Shaphat, or the “Judge”.
When we gather to worship the Lord, let’s remember that though He is our Father with whom we are on familiar terms, He is also the Holy One, the Almighty One, the Lord our Righteousness, the God who sees our hearts, He who is the Judge. He is the only God—the only one worthy of our reverence.
If reverence for God is to return to our nation, it’ll have to start with God’s people! The best place to start is when we gather to worship, but if that’s the only place we reverence God, we’re just hypocrites showing off to one another.
May we reverence God everywhere—in church or out—by not taking His name in vain, by not participating in mockery of His moral principles, by saying “NO” and not supporting entertainment that mocks God and profanes His name. And the greatest way we can reverence God is by living a godly life.
No, we’ll never be perfect; we’ll make mistakes; we’ll not live up to what we aspire to be. But we must be constantly focused on reverencing God by living a godly life, and repenting before God when we fail.
II. A SECOND PRINCIPLE TO HELP US TO INTERNALIZE THE MOTTO, “IN GOD WE TRUST” IS DEPENDENCE ON GOD.
This idea is fleshed out in verses 13-20, but it is summarized in verse 21: “For our heart shall rejoice in him, because we have trusted in his holy name.”
If we as the people of God in our country would learn to depend upon the Lord instead of worldly things, maybe verse 12 would apply to us again where the Psalmist says, “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord…”
Look how this idea of dependence on God weaves its way through verses 13:20:
• Verses 13-15 reminds us that the Lord takes note of a country’s regard for him: “The Lord looketh from heaven; he beholdeth all the sons of men. 14 From the place of his habitation he looketh upon all the inhabitants of the earth. 15 He fashioneth their hearts alike; he considereth all their works.”
Listen, God is watching the nations and peoples of this earth and He’s weighing them in the balance. If God is their Lord, they’ll be blessed. If not, no matter how strong they are now; they’ll face God’s judgment.
• Nations and people think that the source of their power is their military might, but verses 16-17 says, “There is no king saved by the multitude of an host: a mighty man is not delivered by much strength. 17 An horse is a vain thing for safety: neither shall he deliver any by his great strength.”
Just substitute modern words for these ancient terms: “There is no president, prime minister, sovereign or dictator that can be saved by a big army. It’s not military strength that protects us. A tank or a weapons system is a vain thing for safety.” That’s what this verse is saying. This doesn’t teach that we should not have a strong military; but it does mean a military cannot save a country from God’s destruction if it does not reverence God.
• For the psalmist goes on to say in verses 18-20, “Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy; 19 To deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine. 20 Our soul waiteth for the Lord: he is our help and our shield.”
There have always been evil, violent, despicable people in our nation’s history right alongside those that fear the Lord. But those who loved God have often protected our country from destruction just as God would have spared Sodom and Gomorrah if there had been just a few just and righteous people living there as salt and light in their community. Never will every American be a Christian or God-fearing; but every Christian ought to live like a Christian and fear God and pray that by being salt and light in our country we can hold back God’s judgment a little longer.
Brethren, we have formidable enemies. Some are external and some are internal.
• Our EXTERNAL enemies are formidable.
The WAR AGAINST TERROR has not been won and ISIS is on the rampage.
Russia is on the rise again and China in the East is flexing its muscles.
• But our most dangerous enemies are INTERNAL.
The U.S. is number one in the world in violent crime, divorce, teen pregnancies, abortions, and illegal drug use. Character and morality are no longer valued or nurtured as in the past. Now the most important value in our society is fun and pleasure. Drunkenness has become a scourge in our society, along with the sexual laxity and raucous dissipation that so often accompanies it.
The answer is not more education, more government spending, greater investment in science and technology, or psychology. These will not save America, nor give us the values and character needed to keep us safe for years to come. These will not restore our morality, which the patriots all claimed was the bedrock of a free society.
We need to pray for a turning to God—a third great spiritual awakening. 2 Chronicles 7: 14 says, “If my people, which 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.”
Illus. – In June 1910, a man named Steeplejack Miller, known as the “Human Fly,” went to Los Angeles where he announced that on a certain day he would climb up the face of one of the large department store buildings. Thousands gathered to watch him perform this seemingly impossible feat.
Slowly and carefully he made his way upward, now clinging to a jutting brick, next to a cornice, and so on.
Up and up he went, getting almost to the top. He was seen to feel to the right and then to the left, and then above his head for something firm enough to support his weight.
And soon he seemed to spy what looked like a gray bit of stone or discolored brick protruding from the smooth wall. He reached for it but it was just beyond his reach. After several minutes appearing to be weighing his chances, he ventured everything and leaped for it. But before the horrified eyes of the spectators, he fell to the ground and smashed into the pavement. In his dead hand was found a spider’s web he had mistaken for a stone.
What a lesson for us if we’ll only stop and think. Yes we need human effort and we need to do our part to meet our challenges, but it’s all in vain if we ignore the only “Solid Rock” there is—Christ Jesus. We as a people need to stop grasping for the empty things of this world that are unstable and anchor ourselves to the God who has our destiny in His hands. May we repent of these things and lay firm hold on the anchors of our soul—Jesus Christ and His Word and righteousness.
III. THE LAST PRINCIPLE I WANT TO SHARE WITH YOU IS FOUND IN VERSES 18 AND 22 WHICH URGES US TO HOPE IN HIS UNFAILING LOVE.
Look with me at Psalm 33:18 and 22 – “Behold, the eye of the LORD is upon them that fear him, upon them that HOPE in his MERCY [take note of the words “hope” and “mercy”]; [Now go down to verse 22 and note the words “hope” and “mercy” again:] 22 Let thy mercy [note that word again], O LORD, be upon us, according as we hope in thee.”
The Hebrew word translated “hope” in verses 18 and 22 means “to cast one’s cares on another.” That’s pretty much the same as our English word for “hope.”
But in verses 18 and 22, where the word translated “mercy” is found, it does not mean mercy as we use it in modern English or in the New Testament sense of God withholding from us the judgment we deserve. It’s the Hebrew word “chesed” [kes’-ed] which is this wonderful word my Old Testament theology class professor in seminary spent two whole classes explaining. The shortest definition for this one word is, “An affectionate loyalty stemming from a relationship and resulting in kind deeds.” Most modern translations render chesed as actually God’s “unfailing love,” or His “steadfast love”.
The Psalmist is saying that we should cast ourselves upon the unfailing love of God. Many of our nation’s problems can be traced to a lack of hope. Poor people often turn to crime because they don’t see a way out: they’ve lost hope. Minority young people often turn to gangs because they feel trapped in a cycle of poverty and depravity—they see no hope. Depressed people turn to drugs, alcohol, and suicide because they have no hope.
BUT THE BIBLE IS A BOOK OF HOPE!
• Psalm 43:5 says “Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted [literally, “depressed”] within me? hope in God: for I shall yet praise him,…”
• In Luke 4:18: Jesus says, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised [lit. “oppressed.”]”
Hope has as its object the Lord and His unfailing love, and prayer where we find hope.
Illus. – During the dark days of the American Revolution, when the Continental Army had experienced several setbacks, a farmer who lived near the battlefield approached Washington’s camp without being seen or heard. Suddenly his ears caught an earnest voice raised in agonizing prayer. Coming nearer, he saw it was the great General George Washington himself, down on his knees in the snow, his cheeks wet with tears. He was asking God for assistance and guidance.
The farmer crept away and returned home. He said to his family, “It’s going to be all right. We’re going to win this war!”
“What makes you think so?” his wife asked.
“Well,” said the farmer, “I heard General Washington pray out in the woods today—such fervent prayer I have never heard. And God will surely hear and answer that kind of praying.”
The farmer was right! It happened because Washington put his hope in God.
CONCLUSION
I’ve talked about “America,” but America is not in my congregation this morning—YOU are! So what is God saying to YOU in this sermon?
• Let’s begin with reverence for God.
1) Do you USE GOD’S NAME irreverently? – Let me remind you what God said in the third commandment, and the warning after the commandment in Exodus 20:7 – “Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.”
2) Are you irreverent WHEN YOU GATHER FOR WORSHIP WITH GOD’? It’s irreverent to come to church without preparation of your heart; without repentance; without passion when you sing; without participating. Remember, when we gather to worship, we’re paying homage to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords! Let’s treat Him with the honor and reverence due One so great and mighty.
3) Do you LIVE irreverently? – Putting in your time on Sunday, but living a life of sin and disobedience to God the rest of the week? That’s called being a hypocrite, and Lord knows we don’t need any more of those! God help us to live worthy of our calling. God help us to live reverently, realizing that God is with us everywhere we go.
• Second, return to dependence on God.
Have you committed yourself 100% to God by being saved and following God’s Word in every area of your life? If you’re a believer, have you learned to depend on God in the midst of your trials and difficulties in life instead of trusting in your own resources and strength?
• Finally, are you hoping in God’s unfailing love?
Whatever you’re going through in this life, you can be assured of God’s unfailing love. His steadfast love will be with you through every problem in life if you’ll trust in Him.
