MELVIN M. NEWLAND, MINISTER
RIDGE CHAPEL, KANSAS, OK
(Revised: 2014)
(Powerpoints used with this message are available at no charge. Just email me at mnewland@sstelco.com and request #304.)
A. Are you aware that America is in a cultural civil war? William Bennett, former head of the U.S. Dept. of Education, wrote,
"America is engaged in an on going & intensifying cultural war. Over the last two decades there has been waged an all out assault on common sense & on the common values of the American people. We now stand at a crossroads."
Now if we're standing at a crossroads, then it seems to me that we, as Christians, need to know what to do, & in what direction to proceed.
In 2 Chronicles 7:14, God tells us. He says, "If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves & pray & seek my face & turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven & will forgive their sin & will heal their land."
B. In the book of Lamentations, the prophet Jeremiah had witnessed the destruc-tion of Jerusalem & its people being carried off into captivity in Babylon. Then, in Lam. 5:21 22, Jeremiah utters a prayer that comes straight from his heart.
He prays, "Restore us to yourself, O Lord, that we may return; renew our days as of old unless you have utterly rejected us & are angry with us beyond measure."
PROP. I believe that ought to be our prayer, too. So this morning lets consider 5 things we can do to reclaim the heritage that is ours as Christians.
I. BE INFORMED ABOUT AMERICA'S SPIRITUAL HERITAGE
First of all, we need to be informed about America's spiritual heritage.
A. History is being rewritten today, & we're now being told that the founding fathers of our country were deists or secular humanists. Now a deist is someone who believes in God, but he believes that God has removed Himself from us & is no longer involved in the happenings of mankind.
ILL. A song sung by Bette Middler, "From a Distance," proclaims this deist philoso-phy. It's message is that "God is watching us as we go to war, as we kill each other. He is watching, but He is watching from a distance. He is no longer involved."
So those who are rewriting history want us to believe that our founding fathers were all deists. They say that our country was founded as a spiritually neutral land, where all religions would be accepted, & that no religion is any better than another.
They also say that the founding fathers advocated strict adherence to separation of church & state - that the church should have nothing to do with government, & that government should have nothing to do with the church. But that is simply not true, & you need to know it. You need to know that our country has a rich spiritual heritage.
ILL. If you ever get the chance, I suggest you visit Jamestown, VA. It was one of the earliest English speaking settlements in the new world, & it has been carefully restored so that we can see what life was like nearly 400 years ago.
At Jamestown, you'll discover many interesting things about our country. You'll learn that when this settlement was first established, most of the people built rather humble huts for their families.
But right in the middle of Jamestown they erected an imposing church building as a testimony to all who came that the people of Jamestown put God first.
They had 2 hour worship services every day of the week, & attendance was mandatory. If you didn't show up for the daily service, your day's ration of food would not be given you. Their reasoning was, if you were too sick to go to church, you were too sick to eat.
They had a 5 hour service on Sunday, & you were expected to be there all 5 hours. If you missed church for 3 weeks, they would put you in stocks for 6 weeks out on the church lawn. The stocks are still there for all to see.
Even though they may have gone too far, it seems to me the lesson which comes through loud & clear is that in this original settlement, the people wanted to communicate clearly that God came first.
C. When our earliest universities began, most of them were founded to train preachers.
ILL. When Harvard was established in 1636, their statement of purpose said that every student's main aim is to know God & Jesus Christ, & to recognize that Christ is the foundation of all learning.
When Yale came into existence in 1701, they said that "God is the source of all wisdom," & they required all their students to attend daily public prayer services both morning & evening.
When Princeton came into existence in 1746, Princeton proclaimed, "Cursed is all learning contrary to the cause of Christ."
Our founding fathers were convinced that the Psalmist was right when he wrote in Psalm 33:12: "Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord."
ILL. Patrick 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 religion but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ."
William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania, said, "If we aren't governed by God we will be ruled by tyrants."
John Jay, first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, said, "It is the duty as well as the privilege & the interest of a Christian nation to select & prefer Christians for their rulers."
D. Schools in our country used one primary textbook, & that was the Bible.
ILL. Thomas Jefferson, when he was president, also served as head of the school board in Washington, D.C. Jefferson insisted that two books be used the Bible & the Watts Hymnal which was rich in Bible teaching.
ILL. The "New England Primer," which was used as the primary book for elementary education until 1900, has in it the system of learning & teaching that took place in the early days of our nation. Children in the first grade were expected to learn the alphabet by memorizing Scripture verses.
A "A wise son maketh a glad father."
B "Better is a little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure & trouble therewith."
C "Come unto Christ all you that labor & are heavy ladened."
In the back of the Primer there are numerous questions & answers that first graders were expected to know: "Who was the first man? Who was the first woman? Who was the first Christian martyr?"
I'm afraid that most people today wouldn't be able to pass the first grade test given back then.
SUM. So don't let anybody tell you that our country was started by a bunch of deists. Don't let anybody tell you that our country is to be spiritually neutral & one religion is as valuable as another.
Don't let anyone ever tell you that our Constitution says, "Separation of church & state." It doesn't! Our country has a rich spiritual heritage!
II. BE POSITIVE ABOUT OUR POTENTIAL TO WIN
A. The second thing we need to do is to be positive about our potential to win. Christians oftentimes feel defeated. We watch crime increase, & see the family disintegrating, & we look around at all the pain & sorrow, & it just seems like evil is winning & righteousness is losing.
ILL. That sounds like the father who went to watch his son's T ball game. Arriving in the middle of the first inning, he saw his son & asked, "How is your team doing?" The boy replied, "Well Dad, we're behind 20 to nothing." His father said, "That's pretty bad, isn't it?" "Oh no, we haven't even come up to bat, yet."
It's time for us to come up to bat. God has given us the power to win. 1 John 4:4 says, "Greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world."
ILL. Nineveh was a city full of cruelty & sin, & God said He would destroy it because of that. But He told Jonah to go to Nineveh & preach. Jonah finally obeyed, & when he preached the city repented, from the peasant to the palace they all repented before God. And the result was that God spared Nineveh all because of Jonah's preaching.
B. Go back with me in time & stand at the cross. Look at Jesus Christ hanging there, & it looks like defeat. "We can't win. Our leader has been crucified." But 3 days later the tomb is empty. "He is not here. He is risen." Christ is victorious. He has conquered both sin & death.
SUM. The Bible says that “We are more than conquerors through Him who loved us." (Romans 8:37) "This is the victory that has overcome the world even our faith." (1 John 5:4) "If God is for us, who can be against us?" (Romans 8:31)
III. BE BOLD IN COMMUNICATING THE TRUTH
A. Thirdly, we must be bold in communicating the truth. We have been commissioned to go into all the world & preach the Gospel. But instead of being aggressive, most of the time we have been passive. Maybe that is because it has become politically incorrect today to share our faith.
Well, guess what - in the First Century it wasn't politically correct to share your faith, either. Go back to Acts 4 & you'll discover the story of Peter & John being so excited about their faith they couldn't keep it inside. They went out into the streets of Jerusalem & started sharing their faith with anyone who would listen.
Hundreds of people started coming to Jesus Christ. The Jewish government became concerned because of what was taking place & arrested Peter & John.
They couldn't find anything to condemn them for legally, so finally they had to release them. But first, Acts 4:18-19 tells us, "They... commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus."
"But Peter & John replied, ‘Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God's sight to obey you rather than God. For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen & heard.'"
B. Now here is what I want you to see. That story is very close to what's happening in our society today.
ILL. A few years ago there was a bill in Congress that fortunately was defeated. If it had passed, it would have become law that the workplace is to be religion free. Which means that we couldn't leave a Bible on our desk at work, nor could we talk about or share our faith at work without breaking the law.
Some are trying to tell us today that we are not to speak or teach in the name of Jesus Christ. So we must decide. Are we going to respond as Peter & John did? Will we say as did they, "We cannot help speaking about what we have seen & heard?" Or will we crawl into the corner & be silent?
I tell you, the ACLU & the Gay Rights groups, & the NOW movement & the humanists are all speaking with loud voices. They're shouting what they believe & what they think ought to happen in this country.
We outnumber them, but we aren't speaking up as we should. We're remaining quiet, & the result is that we're losing when we should be winning.
Paul said in Romans 1:16, "I am not ashamed of the Gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes." Are you ashamed of the Gospel, or do you believe that it is the power of God unto salvation?
ILL. A few years ago a high school valedictorian wanted to pray during her valedictory address & was denied the right to do so because she was told it was against the law.
So she & her classmates plotted together. Right in the middle of her speech she sneezed, & the entire senior class said in unison, "God bless you!" Thus they had a prayer during their Commencement Service.
ILL. Also in Rockingham County, VA, Jason Nosnan was valedictorian & president of the Student Council. He requested permission to say a prayer at the close of his address, & was told that he couldn't do that because it was against the law.
He was also told that if he went ahead & did it anyway they would be sued by the ACLU. Therefore, if he started to pray, school officials would have no choice but to escort him from the stage.
Well, Jason contacted Jay Sekulow, president of the American Center for Law & Justice. This is a group of Christian lawyers who have gotten together to study the rights of Christians & to advise them as to what they can & cannot do.
They advised Jason that the law said he couldn't bring in a clergyman to pray, & none of the school administrators or teachers could pray. But there was nothing illegal about a student praying. In fact, they would be denying him his First Amendment rights if they did not permit him to pray.
So Jason went ahead & prayed a humble & heartfelt prayer at the conclusion of his speech. Officials did not escort him off the stage, & as he walked off the stage he was greeted with a standing ovation by students & parents alike.
The rest of the story is that the ACLU did sue the school & lost the suit. We can win. And we need to be bold in communicating the Gospel.
IV. BE CREATIVE IN INFLUENCING OUR FAMILIES
Number four, we need to be creative in the ways that we try to influence our families. Proverbs 22:6 says, "Train a child in the way he should go, & when he is old he will not turn from it."
ILL. James Russell Lowell was asked how long the American Republic would endure. He responded, "As long as the ideas of the fathers be dominant."
Now what's happening today is that the ideas of the founding fathers are no longer dominant.
ILL. A few years ago, the U.S. Dept. of Education released a 680 page report about the teaching of History in our schools today. Researchers had taken the 60 most popular history textbooks, used by 88% of the nation's students, & went through them to see what we're teaching the kids in those textbooks.
There were only 5 stories in those history books dealing with the period of our nation's founding. And each of those 5 stories told about what a couple of children did during the Revolutionary War.
There was not a single story about Patrick Henry, or Paul Revere, or Nathan Hale. Not even a story about George Washington or Thomas Jefferson not in any of the textbooks. That is the Dept. of Education's own report on what is now being presented in the history books in most of our nation's schools.
APPL. If our children are going to hear about some of the heroes we learned about when we were young they will have to be taught in the home. They are not being taught about them in most schools anymore. So we need, as parents, to teach our children the rich heritage of our land.
SUM. That is why I think Memorial Day is important. When we celebrate it we need to explain to our children & grandchildren what we're doing. We need to explain to them the heritage of this land & the rich history we enjoy as citizens of the U.S.
V. FOCUS ON THE POWER OF THE GOSPEL TO SAVE US
Finally, we need to focus on the power of the Gospel to save us. Our job as the church is to preach the Gospel. We're not trying to take over the government. We are, rather, trying to change hearts from within.
We can't just change the educational system & fix it. We can't just change the welfare system & fix it. The only way we can fix it is to change the hearts & lives of people. That's our job.
And as people are changed then there will be Christian teachers & Christian principals, & Christian writers writing textbooks, & Christian lawyers & judges, & Christian politicians & businessmen & executives, & even Christian newsmen & newswomen who are reporting the news into our homes each day.
But it must begin from within, & that's our responsibility. Proverbs 14:34 says, "Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people."
Righteousness exalts. Sin tears down. So what are we going to do about it? Are we going to seek out the enemy, do battle with him, realizing that God has given us everything we need to defeat him?
CONCL. One of these days you're going to stop breathing, & so am I. One of these days we're all going to stand before the Creator of the universe, & all that will count in that moment is what we've done for Christ.
What about now? Are you doing anything now to build His kingdom? Are you trying to reclaim our heritage as Christians in this great land? We have the potential to win. It's time for us to begin.
This morning, if you're here outside of Jesus Christ, that is the place to begin by making Him your Lord & Savior. So if you need to make a decision for Him we invite you to come & make that decision now as we stand & sing.
INVITATION
(Note: Several of the illustrations and ideas used in this message are the result of reading books by David Barton of Wallbuilders, Inc.)
