MELVIN NEWLAND, MINISTER
RIDGE CHAPEL, KANSAS, OK
(Updated & Revised: 2022)
(Powerpoints used with this message are available for free. Just email me at mnewland@sstelco.com and request #189.)
TEXT: 1 Chronicles 12:30-32 Acts 17:22-34
A. Tomorrow is officially designated as a holiday celebrated in many communities by a variety of solemn observances. All across the U.S. people will gather in parks & cemeteries to commemorate what this day symbolizes.
Bands will play, speeches given, prayers will be offered up to God, “Taps” will be played, & guns fired as a salute to those whom our nation seeks to remember.
From Valley Forge to Berlin, from San Juan Hill to Heartbreak Ridge, from Iwo Jima to Saigon & Afghanistan, the blood of Americans is permanently mingled with the soil of four continents & dozens of islands.
Memorial Day is our attempt to remember & say “Thank you” to those who gave their best & their all that our nation might continue to enjoy the liberties that are ours.
Will you bow your heads with me as I pray? Lord, protect the men & women of our armed forces both at home & throughout the world. Give them courage, faith, & clarity of mind to perform their duties effectively.
For those who are suffering from past injuries, & those who may sustain injuries in the future, I pray Your hand of healing & grace will be upon them.
I pray for their families & the loved ones of those who have made the supreme sacrifice. Give them Your peace, comfort, & blessing.
And please bring about in this nation a return to the attitude of respect & honor for all who have served, & are serving, that we may enjoy the blessings you have bestowed upon us. In Christ’s name I pray. AMEN
B. Do you know what the word "chronicle" means? It means an "account," a "record," a "history," a "story of" whatever is being written about. And that is what the O.T. books of 1 & 2 Chronicles are an account of some of the events that took place in the history of the kings of Israel.
The first king of Israel was Saul, who disobeyed God & whose reign ended tragically. The second king was David, the one who killed Goliath, author of many of the Psalms, the one who ushered in the golden years of Israel.
Well, in the 12th chapter of 1 Chronicles, there is a list of the 12 tribes of Israel who came to ally themselves with David, to make him their King. Listen to what it says about some of them:
1 Chronicles 12:30, "...men of Ephraim, brave warriors, famous in their own clans..." Vs. 33, "...men of Zebulun, experienced soldiers prepared for battle with every type of weapon..."
Notice in particular vs. 32, "...men of Issachar, who understood the times & knew what Israel should do."
Those are important words because they tell us that these men from Issachar realized that changes were taking place, & they needed to respond to those changes. Not only that, but they were men who could make the right decisions.
ILL. About 30 years ago, Judge Robert Bork, who had been nominated for the Supreme Court by Pres. Reagan, was being interviewed on "Face the Nation." The interviewer, after mentioning a number of depressing current events, threw up his hands in mock despair & said, "I don't understand what is going on, do you?"
Judge Bork responded, "Yes, we are on the edge of the decline of Western civilization."
Well, he may have been right. At the very least, this is a time of great changes & social upheaval, & we, as Christians, need to understand what is happening.
C. We're living in a time of spiritual warfare. The line has been drawn. On one side is the Judeo Christian view of life & family & society. On the other is Humanism. And the two views are in direct conflict with each other.
Basically, Humanism opposes the values & teachings of Christianity, & proclaims that once man throws off Christian beliefs of right & wrong, we would be a society where the will of man, not God, would be supreme.
No matter how it is presented, the conflict between good & evil is real. And it is obvious that still "the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour." (1 Peter 5:8)
The apostle Paul says in Ephesians 6:11, "...our struggle is not against flesh & blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world & against the spiritual forces of evil..."
ILL. A few years ago newspapers reported that a civil-liberties group, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, was demanding: "Court-Martial Air Force General for talking about God! Bring him to justice for his unforgivable crimes!” Who were they talking about, & why?
They wanted Air Force Maj. Gen. Craig Olsen to be court-martialed for mentioning God at a National Day of Prayer event . They demanded that he be “aggressively & very visibly brought to justice” for his “unforgivable crimes & transgressions,” & that any other service members who helped him should be investigated & punished also.
What crimes? During his speech, Maj. Gen. Olson referred to himself as a “redeemed believer in Christ,” & spoke about how God has guided his career, & credited God for his accomplishments in the Air Force. He concluded his remarks by asking those in attendance to pray for the troops preparing to be deployed.
Mikey Weinstein, CEO of the MRFF, then sent a scathing letter to Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh, stating, "This letter is sent...on behalf of countless members of the United States Air Force who are utterly disgusted & shocked by (his) brazenly illicit & wholly unconstitutional, fundamentalist Christian proselytizing. "
PROP. Obviously, the line has been drawn, & the battle is on. But do we realize it? Are we people who understand the times & know what should be done? You see, there are four areas in which this battle is being fought.
I. BETWEEN BELIEF & UNBELIEF
The first is between belief & unbelief, between belief & rejection of a supernatural God.
A. The Christian believes that God is. We believe He is the Creator of this world, & that we are made in His image. Because He is the Creator, we have no problem believing in His miraculous power.
He can part the waters of the Red Sea. He can feed the children of Israel with manna from heaven.
We also believe that Jesus is God who revealed Himself to us. We believe that He is our Savior. He lived a sinless life, going to the cross & dying in our place.
We believe that the Bible is the Word of God. As 2 Timothy 3:16 says, "It is God breathed." That's the stand of the Christian community.
B. But humanists believe the exact opposite. They reject the supernatural. They believe there is no God. They believe that we are not here because we have been made in the image of God, but rather we are here by accident.
And we need to understand that due to the influence of John Dewey & Horace Mann & others in education their humanist views are reflected in the textbooks many children are studying in school.
Humanists believe that Jesus was maybe a good man, & possibly a real figure in history. But He was not virgin born. He didn’t live a sinless life. And He certainly did not rise from the dead.
They believe that the Bible does have some literary value, but that it is full of fairy tales & myths. And it should not be taken seriously.
C. Unfortunately, these ideas have even made their way into a few churches, & some today are proclaiming humanism, even from the pulpit. You see, we're living in a time when a battle is being waged between belief & unbelief.
II. DETERMINING BETWEEN GOOD & EVIL
A. Another battle is in determining between what is good & what is evil, between righteousness & unrighteousness. This is a crucial decision not only for individuals but for nations as well.
But there are those who proclaim that there are no such things as "righteousness" or "evil." Instead, every culture or opinion should be revered & respected regardless of how pagan or barbaric it might be.
The humanist would say, " What is good & what is bad should be determined by majority opinion. If everybody is doing it, then it must be all right." So to mention God or religion or prayer or church is to be out of step with modern sensibilities.
More & more there is an emphasis on one-world government, & a global village, & to many that sounds good. But the result has been a breakdown of national pride. Our heroes are being ridiculed & political correctness seeks to rule the day. Our grasp of history is being perverted.
B. Yet we, as Christians, believe that "Righteousness exalts a nation," (Proverbs 14:34) & "Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord." (Psalms 33:12)
ILL. A cartoon shows a little boy giving a report to his class about Thanksgiving Day. He's saying, "The Pilgrims came here seeking freedom of you know what, & when they landed they gave thanks to you know who, & because of them we can worship each Sunday you know where."
Memorial Day, 4th of July, Veteran's Day come & go & there is very little feeling evident in the hearts & lives of far too many in this land.
The prophet Hosea said, "My people are destroyed because of a lack of knowledge." (Hosea 4:6)
III. BETWEEN ABSOLUTE STANDARDS & SITUATION ETHICS
A. The third battle is the conflict between absolute standards & situation ethics, concerning standards of right & wrong. Now the Christian says that there is a way to know what's right & wrong.
ILL. When John Quincy Adams was Pres. of the U.S. he stood before Congress & held up two bushel baskets, one from New York & one from So. Carolina. He said, "The problem is, one of these baskets holds 68 cubic inches more than the other."
Then he held up two one-pound weights, one from Maine & one from Massachusetts. He said, "The problem is, one weighs one ounce more than the other." He said, "Gentlemen, we need a standard."
As a result, the House Weights & Measurement Committee came into existence, & it is my understanding that in Washington, D.C. even to this day, there is a set of scales so delicate that you aren't allowed within ten feet of it because body temperature will affect its effective-ness.
So today, one pound is the same in TX as it is in OK. And a bushel is the same across the land because now we have standards by which we measure everything.
ILL. The story is told of a fisherman whose wife gave birth to their first child at home. Following the birth, the doctor asked him, "Do you have some scales so we can see how much the baby weighs?"
Well, the only scales he had were his fishing scales. So they used them to weigh the baby, & according to his fishing scales that little baby girl weighed 25 lbs.
Pres. Adams was convinced that the U.S. needed permanent standards that could be relied upon. The same is true in our spiritual lives. We need a standard, & that standard is Jesus Christ. When you look at Jesus you can hear God saying, "This is what I had in mind when I made you. I want you to be like Jesus."
In Acts 17:30 Paul says, "In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now He commands all people everywhere to repent. For He has set a day when He will judge the world with justice by the man He has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising Him from the dead."
B. The humanist would say, "There is no God, therefore there are no absolute standards. What is right & what is wrong should be determined by majority opinion. If everybody is doing it, then it must be all right."
We need to understand the times, & change what's going on in our world. I'm convinced if the church doesn't do it, then there is no one else who will. The government can't. Society won't. If not the church, then who? Who is going to change our world for the good?
SUM. We really don't have a multiplicity of problems. People say, "Our problem is education." "Our problem is poverty." "Our problem is government." No, our basic problem is that we've ruled God out of society. When we get back to God then healing will come to our land.
IV. BETWEEN THE ETERNAL & THE TEMPORARY
A. One last battle is the eternal versus the temporary. As Christians we believe that when we become Christians then God comes into our lives & offers us abundant life with love & joy & peace that passes all understanding, & that finally when we leave this body we will be with Him for all eternity.
ILL. Paul Benson died a few years ago of cancer. His last book was entitled "See You at the House." In it he wrote about dying because he knew that he was facing his own death. He wrote, "I used to think that when you die prematurely it's like leaving a party early & you're going to miss all the fun.
"Then I realized there's also a party going on in heaven, & all we're going to do is leave one party & go on to another, a greater party than the one we've been attending. And that changed my whole outlook."
Jesus said, "In my Father's house are many dwelling places." And one of these days we will see each other at His house, & all of this life will be behind us. We'll be free to rejoice in the glory of our God, & to enjoy what He has prepared for us, if He is our Savior & Lord.
SUM. But in the meantime it doesn't pay for us to bury our heads in the sand & pretend that everything is just wonderful. It is not! The times are changing & a feel good religion just isn't enough.
INVITATION. This morning if you are here & you’re outside of Jesus we extend His loving invitation. We want you to know that He went to the cross & died for you. He gave His life for you. And because of that we have the promise of everlasting life.
We invite you to accept Him as your Savior & make Him your Lord, if you have not already done that. Or if you are a Christian, then we invite you to join us in serving Him here. We pray that you will come as we stand & sing.
