The Bible and The Peoples Papers
By the way, thank you for the Privileges of living in the freedom that is ours in Christ. And that freedom we share with Believers all around the globin.
The early days of the church. We pray that we would. Use our spiritual freedom.
Our Biblical Insight the wisdom given to us by the holy spirit that we might know the great privileges. We have to live. As Citizens in this country. Help us to know better. The document that we called the Constitution. And live better the freedoms. That it seeks to enshrine. In Jesus name, we pray. Amen.
When we think about the constitution of their all kinds of ideas and attitudes people have about it. Some people think that it descended from on high on the in the hands are on the wings of the Angels Jefferson and Madison. Okay, you would hit you would think that it was biblically inspired document and it's probably read just about as much then other people would say that, it is the concoction of the enlightened witch's brew of human pain. But neither one of those extremes is correct, and we're very thankful. But you see when we think about the Constitutional Convention that began there in May of 1787.
We think of a marvelous and, and almost miraculous.
Congregation and we'll talk about that some this morning, because as we come up to this anniversary and as we have so many questions of constitutionality of laws and and executive orders, and other things, we as Christians need to know this document, and we need to know it in light of its Origins. And also and its implications. So we'll think about some of those Today, George Washington, and the Marquis De Lafayette and the Constitution appears to be short of a miracle. You know why he said that?
Because he had to sit as president over the Constitutional Convention and hear all these guys argue and throughout the summer of 87 and it was a hot summer and the tempers were probably just as hot on many of the issues. This document is certainly one of almost the most miraculous parts of our country and actually gives us the foundation for our country's government. Now, there are other documents will talk about those but this document is the basis for our laws. It is in an in a direct sense. Now, the implications that we're going to find out today is behind this document. And before this document or many others, and at the route, we're biblical principles and we're going to see them. John Adams referred to the Constitution as the greatest single effort of national deliberation that the world has ever seen. 110, and he was right there. Joe to tell with a lot of what was going on. Actually, he wasn't at the constitution convention cuz he was representing the usn along with Jefferson hammering out the rest of the, the Treaty of Paris that came about because the revolutionaries. Okay. So, that's just contact later on though. He writes in a letter to the, a particular Massachusetts militia, and he said, our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other. We could explore that, but it's interesting to see that Adams was not and neither was Jefferson for that matter. The hardened secularist, that many people today would have, you think now how the O is The Constitution, how low is even the Declaration of Independence? How are they based in the Hebrew Old Testament and the Greek New Testament? How did that happen? And what was the, the route that there was taken to get to our constitution? Now, the Constitution has no quotes from scripture in it. It it doesn't even mention God. So how do we say that this is so well because behind those laws, and those principles of governance, are biblical principles that existed long before they did in any governmental environment outside of the Hebrew Old Testament. Now, why do should we even be interested in this? Well, for a couple of reasons first to be accurate and to be factual and to be good citizens? But more than that to be good, representative of the God who gave us the great privilege of being born or being naturalized citizens here. I'm going to move quickly through this. If you want to know more. If you have questions, you can ask me later being an old Civics teacher and of the world in an American history teacher. I love this this chart ancient history back in the from creation. God gave certain principles from the very beginning and creating mankind. He said let us make man in our own image and sell the image of God. The Imago Dei that is refer to in Genesis 1. Verse 27 is a Cornerstone for Understanding our rights and privileges to life, and then the implications of Liberty, the Greek, and Roman cultures of the ancient past. Did I contribute to the Renaissance that have preceded, the enlightenment, which had preceded the time of the Revolution and the United States are in the colonies and then later on and France had a great influence, but it was not the exclusive influence. The Greek and Roman cultures, tolerated, many things, infanticide slavery, all kinds of other things that we should not. And should have tolerated, but they were exhausted and oftentimes fancifully. So by the people of that era because they were still living in the backwash of the Enlightenment era. Then the Middle Ages came Church. Canon law is is primarily Catholic, but it was taken from the rigors of and the requirements of the Old Testament to give direction to various parts of the Roman Catholic church, and the governments of the secular in was called the secular localities. Then there is the man. The card AMEX card was the first of the document that limited the power of kings and that was in very early time. And I think it was 1050 Beast. I did then we have other things during the Reformation in the Renaissance that came on what are the things are really? Very interesting. Is the Mayflower Compact. The Mayflower Compact was really. It was not much. And I guess, maybe a couple hundred people Mack's that were on the Mayflower. And they had come to the New World. They were about to land and disembark, and they realized they weren't where they were supposed to be. They was supposed to be further south in Virginia. They were far north and what is now called, Massachusetts and their Charter from the King covered only that territory down in Virginia. So what are they? How they going to govern themselves. Well, there are two primary factions on the Mayflower. One was the separatists, the pilgrims. And then the other was the secular people Soldiers of Fortune and others that were that had come along to try to make their fortune in the New World. They were largely paid by the company that supported the the and under it. I run to wrote the the Excursion. Well, they had to decide something. I think about this these These are these are people who are not that, they secular people were not what we would call heavily influenced by the religion of the separatist matter, fact, but listen to these words, these people even agreed with in the name of God and amen, having undertaken for the glory of God, and the advancement of the Christian faith and the honor of our King and Country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the Northern parts of Virginia by these presents, these people present is what it means there.
Solemnly and an inn, and mutually in the presence of God and one another Covenant, and combine ourselves together into a civil body. Politic. So there. They mention God at least three times and stirred implication that they were there for the furthering of the Christian and whether or not they actually did, that is another story. But at least that was their Heritage and that was what they put in their document and guess what? This became a model, even though it was very small and remote became a model for many of the state Charters or the colony Charter that came after it even very extensive ones even into the next group that came and ended up in Massachusetts. So that document along with others legal documents electrex. That means that the law is King. There's a principle that became accepted and realized in English law. And that is that the law is king. The king is subservient to the law. And that was something that had not been recognized largely in European and any other culture for that matter, but it was derived from scripture and we'll take a look at that. Well, I'll give you the address and it's in the little study sheet that you have there. So. The Glorious Revolution came and the King was even further submitted to Parliament. And then, of course, the the enlightenment stir this on even further the colonial Charters, as I mentioned earlier, were written. And then the Great Awakening and the Westland Revival were occurring in the colonies and it ain't and the truth of the word of God were becoming more and more readily understood and and applied and apply to the areas of government. And so this is where the US Constitution the Declaration. First of all, the Declaration mentions God extensively, we hold these truths to be self-evident. That all men are created equal and they are endowed by their what creator, with certain inalienable rights. Okay. I mean, it's right there and it's mentioned a couple of other times further down in that deck. There's a copy of it out there if you don't have one or access to one online, but then the Declaration was not though, a governing document. It was just setting forth the reasons for declaring independence from England. And so they needed a governing document in this new group of a rebellious colonies. And so in 1777, they established a or actually they, they they print they they agreed on in the in the colonial Council. They agreed on the Articles of Confederation and the Articles of Confederation became the rule of the land during the waging of the war of a revolution of the of the Revolutionary War. This is a reason that the first president of the United States was not George Washington. It was the president of the colonial magistrate that was ruling under the Articles of Confederation and the Articles of Confederation. Well, I will be generous, they lack something's. And so they had to get together and form a constitutional convention to bring about this. Think about this, all of these people, many of them had been there for the signing of the Declaration and and they had been there for the rigors, many of these men had lost their fortunes are they had lost sons and and families and homes during the Revolutionary War. And so they had a big stake in this country and they didn't want to lose it. And so they gather together in one of the first things that have Was Benjamin, Franklin. Made a suggestion. Now, you, if you know anything about Franklin, he was not a average. He was not a churchgoing man. In the sets of supporting individual churches. He did attend church, but mainly, as an interested Observer, he actually became a very good friend with a great evangelist. That George Whitefield who came to the United States in the United States in the early days there. But we'll talk about that later. But what some people would say, at the Paragon of secularism. This is what he said. I have lived a long time and the longer I live, the more convinced convincing proofs. I see of this truth that God governs in the Affairs of men and If a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, her, there, it is probable that an Empire can rise without his age or is it problem probable that an Empire can ride without his? We have been assured sir in the sacred writings that except the Lord build they labor in vain who built it from Psalm 127, you see?
Even the people that our Arrow would call the most secular and the least traditionally religious like Jefferson. And Benjamin Franklin and even Thomas Paine, who was an out-and-out skeptic quoted scripture. And they used it because it was so much a part of the culture and so much a part of their understanding of what was learning and what was obviously wisdom to them. So this group of people formed a reason Madison was the head, it was one particular committee to write this, but he had a lot of input from a lot of different people and they argue. Like I said throughout that summer of 87 and they came to the point that they agreed on something. They had a great compromise. That wasn't so great. Actually, and it does the Southern States from separating from the union at that point. So, what is the foundation of structure of our constitution here, you have in your notes. More written an article form than in our regular, note for him. But I have in there several passages of scripture. Now. I'm not being exhaustive here or else you would be exhausted and maybe fall asleep before I finish. So let's think about this, the foundational core Rock of our nation. And the Constitution is there is an eternal God is established absolute truth. These people believed in it. Now, even the people, I'll let you in on something. Even the people who fight most vociferous Lee for the fact that everything is relative. They believe in absolute true to they know that when they are standing in their kitchen and a glass slips out of their hand that it's going to hit the floor. They know that. Because gravity is a absolute based on the the force that is founded in physics. That is that they believed in certain absolute truth, but they would say, they don't believe in Morley absolute truth. Then I would say very quickly. What do you think about the attack on the Twin Towers back in 2001? Was that evil? Or was it just A relative advantage on any any that you could say yes or no to will. Of course, they're not going to to make this while they might make a stupid statement, but they would not sell you that it's not evil. You see, people do believe in absolute truth. And this absolute truths are extensive when it comes to understanding scripture and its purpose. Now, one of the core truth is found in Genesis 9:6, where are the Lord institute's capital punishment. And what does he base? Capital punishment on. But that true that we looked at earlier in Genesis chapter 1, verse 27, that we are created in the image of God and that has vast implications and our president. This week. As I said, in our announcement time has Sue. The state of Texas for trying to Support that belief that human life is. Worth protecting. And then they will have all their arguments that they will fling at. But they do not do deal with the reality and the life of that unborn child they refused to do. So, they try to denigrate it and all of these others steps if they go through of imagination, but they just doesn't support that. We believe in our constitution. Dan is founded on the fact that there is an eternal God and absolute truth. There are three primary stones are are are parts of this Foundation. The first one is the
The equality that we all possessed that we are created in the image of God. The second one is that man's Nature has been impacted greatly by the Fall. This Duo.
Understanding of human nature was the Cornerstone of several of the walls that are part of the Constitution. The fact of Genesis chapter that men may choices and that those choices have the Adam and Eve made choices and sand has impacted every single human being ever since Ecclesiastes. Your statement, there in Ecclesiastes chapter 7 verse 20. A man alive who does not send and then could you ladies to? But I recognize to that. The scripture for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. All of these things are basic understandings mad at send. Shaded that one of the reasons for what? We'll see next at the next level is because I wanted to implicate one of the purposes for the checks and balances just because of this very Fallen nature. He said actually, George Washington said, when it comes to the articles, I think we were more optimistic than we should have been. That was a paraphrase, of course, but it didn't take into account some of these things. Then there is the rule of law. And that is that law is greater than any individual. That is that all of us fall under the laws, the rules and principles that are that come from the absolute truth, the equality of mankind. And the fact that we're falling Even in the Old Testament in the recent days. I've been reading through the the the Torah, the first five books and now I'm up to Deuteronomy and I have seen this so many times. That basic principles of jurisprudence are found are like the fact that Kings and Israel were required to follow them all. They were even supposed to write a copy of the law for themselves. So they would be intimately acquainted with it and have written that out for themselves and keep that copy for themselves for their own personal consultation. Now, I don't know that any of them did it, maybe David, possibly Solomon, but I don't know if any others did but that that rule of law that applies to all people, Eve, 2. People that come into the country that they would be protected, but they would also have to follow the laws of the biblical standards from the Old Testament rule of law. Also, is there to protect innocent and the helpless and you see that over and over again from Exodus on its extensively place there. So these things are cool or biblical truth that the implications of that brought about a representative Republic in ancient Israel. They came out of Egypt and they needed to have order and so they were ordered according to their tribes. And the Lord said that each tribe was to choose wise men. In their tribe to administer Justice. According to the laws that God had revealed from Mount Sinai on And that is a form of representative government. That was part of scripture. Now, a republic is, is particularly idea like that. We do not live in a democracy. Okay. I want you to understand that a democracy is that the 51% rule, that's not the case. We have laws that protect the minorities and that's part of biblical Direction and is something that we should be willing to fight for, you know, that phrase that you've heard many times. I may not agree with you a pinion. I will fight for your right to have it. And to hold it, that principle is hard of the rule of law. And the fact that we live in a representative Republic and a democracy is if I can get 50 50% + 1, I should, but we live in what we call a Democratic Republic because representatives were chosen in a democratic action to serve in a Republic. Now, then there is the checks and balances. This is what was instituted by Madison and is vital. And we see this in the scripture that when the Lord instituted the, the administration of the nation of Israel, they had Judges, they had a judicious Judiciary that follow the principles of scripture. They had a priesthood that taught those rules, the truth of scripture and then they had an administration led by Moses and then Joshua and other at the local level. So they had a three-part government, very similar to ours actually Isaiah. There's a quote that the Lord functions in like that, over his, his world. And I will talk about that at some other time, but checks and balances really help came the what we would call their, there are the judicial administrative executive then came the, we would call the, in the Constitution, the rights. We see those at the largely if and it's, it's boring document in many ways. And so make sure that you have a good cup of coffee when you start reading it, but for the When you get to the end of the the original documenting, you move into the Bill of Rights and they are the Bill of Right begins to show us certain Privileges and rights that we have. And for some reason, they were go the right of religion and speech, the freedom of the press. All of those things are part of the original part of that Bill of Rights, you know, several States refused to sign the Constitution until they got a promise from the federal government. And that is brought about by this guy named a George Mason who put these words. This is important to listen closely because of that. It's biblical allusion, George Mason said,
All men have an equal and natural unalienable, right? To the free exercise of religion according to the dictates of conscience and that no particular sect or Society of Christians ought to be favored or established by law in preference to others, that was his proposal for the First Amendment, to the Constitution, the Bill of Rights. And I know that it was simplified and shorten quite a bit to be right? The, the free exercise of religion, and not course by the government. And then the speech, and then of the press, those things were instituted, freedoms of Association, freedoms of property, and so many others are guaranteed, and they are out working of the Old Testament law, and the New Testament confirmation of that. There were some other problems, too. that were part of the The Constitution, I'm trying to get to those. And the two biggest was biggest ones. Were the fact the chattel slavery was allowed where people could own one another and particularly blacks at that time was the failure of giving not giving women the right to vote. And in many of the colonies, they didn't have equal rights, as far as being able to own property and administer property and all of those things. Those were errors and the writers of the Constitution were aware that there would be problems. They almost, as I said earlier, they almost split Into two separate countries. Over the issue of slavery and what did it take to resolve that a war and thousands upon thousands of deaths. and it is just a sad and horrible thing that, that men even wise men like Jefferson and and, and And Washington did not stand up and resist that and lead the country. Rightly these name. We're not perfect. They were Sinners, just like us. And they recognized that the document that they were putting together was not going to be perfect. That's the reason they provided for a minutes to be made. And many of the people who signed it signed it in Great Hopes that
These errors, particularly that of slavery could be resolved without separation in without Bloodshed. But that was not to be the case. You see the, the Hallmarks of our country of personal freedom, and individual responsibility. Go hand-in-hand. They are part of what you find in Scripture that we have. We have great freedom in Christ. He went to the Cross to pay for a sin to give us eternal life and give us an opportunity to walk freely in a relationship with the father regardless of what kind of government we lived under. But is that kind of spiritual Freedom that produces a desire for others to be free and no other country living under no other law. Other than this constitution has sacrificed so much for so many other nations to enjoy this kind of freedom. We are far from a perfect country. Remember that? The verse, and the song America, the Beautiful. God, men dine every flaw. Confirm that I saw with self-control by Liberty in law. These things are part of God's plan for mankind and by his grace, he shed his grace on us and that we are born. But I think everyone in here as citizens of this great land. Not perfect. Not without need of great Improvement, but this great land. And when we come to Friday of this week, we need to thank God for the Constitution. Thank God, for the corrections that have taken place. We need to be using our freedoms to stand for the needs. And Reach people who do not know Christ. We need to be using our freedom, and our right to speak up for the helpless and the week. And those who are oppressed in our time. We need to take the stance. You know, what? Churches that are the Cornerstone of the communication of these rules. I mean, these principles during the time leading up to the Revolution and through the early days, even of the production of this constitution. These the people who stood most firmly for others to benefit from their Liberty, the ones who sacrificed greatest, we're believers who believe in a true God, who followed him best, they could. And they stood up for the rights of others. They open the doors to thousands upon thousands of immigrants and even billions by now who have come to this land and come to know the freedoms that we had. They were the ones at the pivotal Point who took great risk, even contrary to
the tide of popular opinion and stood for these freedoms.
Personal freedom and individual responsibility are Hallmarks of mature, believers who enjoy their freedom and they enjoy their relationship with Christ so much that they want others to have that too.
Noah Webster said the moral principles and the presets contained in the scriptures ought to form the basis for our civil constitutions and laws, all the miseries and evils which men suffer from Vice crime and bishan and Justice. Oppression, slavery and War. Proceed from there, despite neglecting the principles contained in the Bible. We're not to take the word of God and pound people into submission, and if they don't agree with us, on every single point. Persecute them. And pressure them and ungodly Fashions a weird to be lovingly and winsomely communicating the love of Christ first in the gospel, first in the gospel and then took to the principles of scripture, the we've already read that.
They should if they care about people about their families about friends about their Church in about our nation. How then should we live pretty simply, follow Christ first thing for most over and above any principles or any rules that come down from Washington or Tallahassee or the county seats? We are to govern ourselves firstly and not have other people. Try to force us into decisions that are not godly. We are to lead our families and godliness, and righteousness, and in generosity, and Grace. We are to evangelize our world sharing the good news of Christ and letting them know about him. And then we're to be good citizens. Being good citizens, doesn't always mean that you Buckle under to every dictate from on high. I wonder often about. The Christians out. West that
We're. Responsible to work with the government in. Confine the Japanese in the internment camps out there. Thankfully. Most of those Japanese-American state in the country. Many of them fought in the European theater, by the way. But I wonder about whether or not I would have complied with that or with. I would have taken an alternative of say joining the Army in and are the Navy or the Marines. These are choices and these are questions that we are part of being good citizens, but they come well after our following Christ.
Bow, your heads and close your eyes, please. Father, we thank you for this time today. It's not been a Bible study per say. But it has been a time of Education based on information. And I know Lord that.
It's a challenge that some of us would rather just ignore and go on with our routines and and not be burdened with this. But it is our responsibility. under Chris under your Truth at your education to pray for those in Authority that we would be able to they would be able to function properly according to your principles and that we Would be able to obey. In the best of senses and at the most consistency with your Trent, your truth and your love. I pray that you would help us today. You help us in the days that come that we would filter our decisions about government about personal choices, through the sieve of scripture, so that we might represent Jesus. Well in love and grace that we would lead our families properly and that we would serve you all the days of our lives and that you would grant us your grace to continue as a country and to reach more, and more people for Jesus, in his name. We pray. Amen.
So, stand is be closed. Sing God Bless America.
God Bless America.
Repeat the highlighted portions, please. It was for Freedom that Christ set us free. Therefore, keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery. Only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flash but through love serve one another. Amen.