God's Promises and Our Great Nation

Well, brethren, you can see why Mr. Blakey's a difficult man to follow. Thank you very much. That was very beautiful. Very much so. Well, if you're like me, you probably celebrated the Fourth of July in some way yesterday. As an American, I am very proud to be an American. I personally believe that when I was born in this world on that cold November day of 1953 that I won the lottery because of all the places on earth I was born here. Now, I've been to Wales, and I've been to Italy, where my grandfathers came from. And they're nice places, but they're not the United States. The opportunity that they had for those generations and even the generation that exist today are not as rich and as wonderful as that which exists in the United States. But, on the other hand, as a pastor, I know not only of the potential that America could have been, but the kind of nation that God desired it to be and how far short the United States has fallen in its original purpose since the time of its founding when a unique group of individuals whom we call our founding fathers, through their own blood, sweat, and tears, worked very hard to carve out a nation. I believe something that the Winston Churchill once said, he said, democracy is the worst form of government, he said, except compared to all the others. You see, it's the lesser of all evils. Mankind, since the time of Garden of Eden, rejected God's governance, rejected God's way of life, and we have been struggling as human beings that govern ourselves through all kinds of various forms of government for thousands and thousands of years. And the lesser of all evils we have discovered is the secular type of government that we are under today that started out as a republic and has evolved into a democracy. It was a sweltering hot summer in Philadelphia in the year 1787. It had been by that time six years after independence, and the 13 colonies were struggling. They were on the verge of blowing apart. After so much hope, after independence, that they could forge a nation that could become great. They were on the verge of blowing apart. About 30 delegates from 12 of the 13 colonies met in a small room in the state house in Philadelphia during this very historic constitutional convention. And the quarrels between the states were deep, and they were divisive. There was no real union among these 13 colonies. And again, this was six years after independence had been achieved from Great Britain.

Each state raised or lowered tariffs between each other. States coined their own money.

There was no central bank, no central money. The northern states insisted upon representation according to population because they had more people than the south. The southern states claimed representation should be based upon land under cultivation because they had great estates and plantations and all kinds of acres that were being formed, farmed. The small states feared they would be controlled and overwhelmed by two primarily very large powerful states in the south with Virginia that dwarfed all the other southern states and in the north New York, which dwarfed the power of the states in the north. There were many problems in issues, and the subject of slavery simmered over every major issue between the northern and southern states. Almost all the states were suspicious of a strong federal government interfering in the state's ability to do its rights and make its own decisions. By this time, the delegates had been arguing for four long weeks, and the convention was about to disband in failure. It would come to the brink of literal collapse many, many times, and this was one of them. History records that it was only the personality of a man named General George Washington was the only unifying force. He was the one individual that southerners and northerners both respected, and he happened to be the president of this convention. In the future, he would be the first president of the United States after this constitution was formed. But again, it was on the brink of collapse. These 13 colonies had come so far since a fighting had originally begun in 1775, but it was on the brink of literal failure. Let me quickly recap some of the events that occurred before this convention.

In 1775, the battles of Lexington and Concord began a war for freedom from the United States, who wanted freedom from the most powerful nation on earth at that time, and that was Great Britain. Few gave the unorganized and undisciplined patriots any chance of success in order to defeat Great Britain. A year later, on July 4th, 1776, the Second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence, and this document acknowledged the presence of God three times in its text. The divine providence of God was used as a reason, as a justification, for their rebellion against the British crown. I'm going to quickly read the three references in the Declaration of Independence. Here's number one. Quote, when in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth the separate and equal station which the laws of nature and nature's God entitled them a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. So they were saying, nature's God is what entitles us to say these things. Nature's God is what gives us the right to rebel against Great Britain.

Further in the document, it says, quote, we, the representatives of the United States of America in general Congress assembled, appealing to the supreme judge of the world, capital S, capital J, according to the document, the supreme judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions do in the name and by the authority of the good people of these colonies solemnly publish and declare that these united colonies are and of right ought to be free in independent states.

Then at the conclusion of this Declaration of Independence, it says, and for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine providence, capital D, capital P, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, fortunes, and sacred honor.

Very powerful words from the founders of this nation who said our authority, our entitlement, our right to be separate and free comes from nature's God. It comes from the supreme judge of the world. It comes from divine providence. In 1777, continuing our little historical recap of the events of our revolution, the Second Continental Congress adopted the Articles of Confederation in an attempt to unite the colonies, and four years later they were accepted by the states in 1781. And this is what, by the time of this convention, the United States was living under a very loose document with no central government called the Articles of Confederation. After eight years of war, the colonies won their independence from Great Britain in 1783.

So here we are in this convention in 1787, and it seemed that all the events leading up to freedom, to the founding of this nation, may have been in vain.

And on June 28, one of the most critical times during the convention, its most elderly statesmen arose to speak. Next to George Washington, this 81-year-old man was one of the most respected and revered patriarchs of the revolution. The elderly statesman asked the president of the convention, who happened to be George Washington, if he could speak to the delegates, and his request was granted. And at this critical moment, he rose and spoke quietly. But before we find out what he said, before we read what he said, I believe we should understand what he understood. For I believe he had a deep understanding of America's purpose and destiny. This very man, who was also part of the committee to create the great seal of the United States, suggested that the great seal of the United States be Moses standing by the edge of the Red Sea. He wanted the seal to reflect Israel safely crossing the Red Sea while the armies of Pharaoh were being destroyed. And that still exists. Sketches of it still exist. You can find it on the internet. And it had this motto, Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God. This is what he believed. To view this destiny before we find out what he said, I think it would be good for us to go to Scripture and see that God's intention was that the descendants of Abraham be a very special people and be a blessing to this world. So let's go to Genesis 17, verse 5, if you will turn there with me. And you will see a promise that God gave Abraham because of Abraham's faith and obedience to God. Genesis 17, verse 5.

God said to this man, Abraham, he said, No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations. So you're saying out of your lineage will become many nations in the earth. And I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make nations, again that's plural, nations of you and kings shall come from you, and I will establish my covenant between me and you, your descendants after you and their generations for an everlasting covenant to be gone to you and to your descendants after you. Also, I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan as an everlasting possession, and I will be their God. God said to Abraham, As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you throughout their generations. So this is a promise that God gave to Abraham, again because of his obedience and his faithfulness to God. Let's drop down to verse 15. Then God said to Abraham, As for Sarah, your wife, you shall not call her Sarah, but Sarah. So he changed not only Abraham's name to Abraham, but Sarah, Sarah shall be her name. And I will bless her and give you a son by her, that would be Isaac. Then I will bless her and she shall be a mother of nations, that's plural.

Kings of peoples shall be from her. God gave specific promises to Abraham and Sarah. He told them that many future nations would be descended from the two of them, and God would also give his descendants the land of Canaan. But a little bit later on, God even adds on to that promise. If you go to Genesis 22 and verse 16, more obedience from Abraham impresses God. When God detest him, said, I want you to take your son Isaac up and I want you to sacrifice your son Isaac. And God never intended him to literally sacrifice his son Isaac. He wanted to test Abraham's attitude to see if he had the faith that God could resurrect his son Isaac, if he had to go through with it, or just being obedient to what God instructed him to do. And because of that, because he passed the test, and I'm sure you're familiar with the story, the last minute, God provided a substitute for his son. A ram was caught in the thickets, and it would all symbolize what God the Father himself would have to do thousands of years later with the literal sacrifice of his son Jesus Christ. That's what all that test was about, to see if Abraham would be willing to make the kind of sacrifice that God the Father would someday make to this world. Here's what he told him in verse 16.

And said, By myself I have sworn, says the Lord, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son. That's his only son of promise, that is. Verse 17, blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and the sand on the seashore, and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. That's biblical terminology, that your descendants will be very powerful militarily. And around this world they will control significant military strategic positions on the globe that will give them power, will give them preeminence, that will give them strength as nations.

And verse 18, In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice. Now verse 18 was a double promise. The first part of that promise is that through his lineage, that his descendants would become wealthy, that his descendants would create a civilization that made it possible for there to be a thing called a middle class. They would make it possible for technologies to develop, for medical advances to occur, to extend human life, for education to become universal. And all of these things that his physical descendants would do throughout history.

Secondarily, this was a promise of the fact that Jesus Christ would come from the lineage of Abraham and all the earth would be blessed because of the good news of the gospel message and the life and the example of Jesus Christ. What he taught and who he was and the fact that he is a king of a soon coming kingdom upon this earth. So God expanded his promises to Abraham and he's now told that his descendants would be as the stars of the heaven or seashore sand. What does that mean?

Just try counting it. Just go to your favorite beach, whatever that may be, and start counting the grains of sand and see how well you do. So many descendants, they cannot be counted.

Abraham was also told again he would possess the gates of his enemies, the strategic military areas of the world that would help him to maintain his power and his strength.

So the first opportunity that God gave the descendants of Abraham to be a great people was the very people he brought out of Egypt and made a nation. They were a group of people who had been slaves in Egypt and he brought them out and he said, I want to make you a great nation and I want you to be a model to the other nations of the world. I want other nations to see that a people who love my law, that the people who worship the one true God are a people who are blessed and that God's way works, and I want that example and that model that would be reflected from you, Israel, to have a positive influence on all the world. Let's go to Exodus chapter 19 and read in verses 1 through 8 what God said he wanted to do with ancient Israel. Exodus chapter 19 verses 1 through 8.

They are on the eve of receiving the Ten Commandments and this is what God said he was willing to do if they would remain obedient and loyal to him. He wanted them to be a great people. Exodus chapter 19 beginning in verse 1 in the third month after the children of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt on the same day they came to the wilderness of Sinai where they departed from Rephidim and came to the wilderness of Sinai and camped in the wilderness. So Israel camped there before the mountain and Moses went up to God and the Lord called to him from the mountain saying, Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the children of Israel you have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore you on eagle's wings and brought you to myself. He said, you are my special possession. I did all this for you. That's what God is saying. Verse 5, Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to me above all people for all the earth is mine. And you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel. So Moses came and called the elders of the people and laid before them all these words which the Lord commanded them. And Moses said to the people, withdrawing from the scriptures right now, Do you want to be a holy nation? Are you willing to take up the yoke of being a kingdom of priests? Are you willing to be a special treasure of gods and be a light and a model nation to this world? Verse 8, And all the people answered together and said, All that the Lord has spoken we will do. So Moses brought back the words of the people to the Lord.

God's intention was that Israel could have been a model nation for the world. All peoples could have seen that the eternal God gave Israel his laws, and when those laws were kept, the blessings would follow. But unfortunately, Israel failed in their task miserably for a brief period of time. Israel was a nation of splendor during the reigns of David and Solomon. Oh, for such a short, brief period of time. But the nation was divided, and eventually both Israel and then Judah went into captivity. They never reached their potential. They never achieved what God wanted them to achieve because they disobeyed God. They rejected God and they rejected his laws. Let's now go to Leviticus chapter 26 and verse 14. If you will turn there with me.

Leviticus 26 verse 14. A Scripture and a prophecy that not only applied to ancient Israel but applies to any nation that says that we exist, our entitlement comes from the God of nature. We are here because the supreme judge of the world says it's okay for us to rebel and form a people and form a new civil body politic. This is what happens not just to ancient Israel but to modern Israel and any nation that says that God is the foundation of our existence and of our being. Leviticus chapter 26 verse 14. But if you do not obey me and do not observe all these commands and if you despise my statutes or if your soul abhors my judgments so that you do not perform all my commandments but break my covenant, I also will do this to you. I will even appoint terror over you, wasting disease and fever which shall consume the eyes and cause sorrow of heart. Think of all the diseases that are rampant, all the cancers in this great nation of wealth, yet ravaged by disease. And you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.

I will set my face against you and you shall be defeated by your enemies. We lost a war in Vietnam.

We spent a lot of human blood and treasure in Iraq and look how well that's turned out. Most likely, Iraq will blow apart eventually in a civil war and will no longer be a nation. How many American soldiers died in vain in Iraq? We're now preparing to leave Afghanistan. Where do you think Afghanistan will be 10 years from now? There's a reason that they called the president of Afghanistan the mayor of Kabul. It's because the only thing he ever controlled was the capital city and the rest of Afghanistan was like a wild west. Now, when American troops leave Afghanistan, what do you think is going to happen to Afghanistan? All the human toll, the American treasure, our wealth, the blood of our boys in battle, all in vain. He said, you shall be defeated by your enemies. Those who hate you shall reign over you and you shall flee when no one perceives you. Just take a look at what nations hold our national debt, China being one of them. It holds a significant amount of what of our 16 trillion dollar national debt that we have. And after this, if you do not obey me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins. God was offering Abraham's blessing to a nation, a very special generation that left Egypt as slaves. But the people were not faithful to God and his laws. From the very beginning, they constantly complained and rebelled against God. And after the death of Moses and Joshua, the nation degenerated into chaos, as recorded in the book of Judges. God withheld his promised blessings from that nation, as I said, except for a brief period of time of David and Solomon. The rest of the history of Israel and Judah were unremarkable for who and what they were. But God wasn't done yet. Eventually, Jesus Christ was born, the New Testament scriptures were compiled, the printing press was invented, and then in England, God-fearing individuals felt as if they were religiously oppressed because they would not conform to the teachings of the Anglican Church of England. They were called separatists, meaning they wanted to be separate from the domination of the Church of England. The pilgrims who established the first successful colony in New England were separatists. God was going to allow the descendants of Abraham another chance to become a great model nation to the world. And if you study history, the intervention of God is absolutely remarkable. First, he allowed European powers to discover a large, wealthy continent, North and South America, with rich farmland, fresh water, great mineral wealth, and abundant natural resources. That's our continent. He intervened in world affairs to allow Great Britain to gain dominance in North America. The Native Americans were obviously here before most of us were in our descendants. And you know, history records that a very small percentage of Native Americans were murdered. There was no such thing as a mass genocide. What killed 90% of the Native Americans was disease. They did not have an immunity for the diseases that the Europeans had grown immunities towards. The Spanish were here before the British, the French, the Dutch, they were all here first. But through a series of events, Britain gained dominance.

And God set in motion British colonizers who traveled the North America for religious freedom or opportunity. These colonizers were loyal to the British crown, but they were also determined not to allow England to limit their freedoms or control their destiny. Here's something that you may not know. The very first group of those who were coming to America came over on a boat called the Mayflower. Before they even got off this ship, here is something they agreed to called the Mayflower Compact. This was written in 1620 before they even got off the ship.

Here it is, in the name of God, amen, we whose names are underwritten, having undertaken for the glory of God and the advancement of the Christian faith, a voyage to plant the first colony, due by these presents solemnly and mutually, in the presence of God, combine ourselves into a civil body politic, end of quote. They said, we do this in the name of God. Who led us here? God. Who gave us the right to step off this boat and establish our feet on this land? They're saying God did. Eventually, four of the British colonies in the New World created the Articles of Federation, called the Articles of Federation, and I'd like to quote it to you, quote, whereas we all came into these parts of America with one in the same end, namely to advance the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ and enjoy the liberties of the gospel in purity, we therefore conceive it our bound in duty, that as in a nation and religion, so in other respect, we be and continue to be one, end of quote, to advance the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ and to enjoy the liberties of the gospel in purity.

That's what they said before there was a nation, before there were 13 colonies, before there was a declaration of independence. But God intervened greatly, and against all odds, the United States was able to wear down the British Empire and receive its independence. Here's what George Washington said about that. He should have known more than anyone else because he was the general involved in most of the major battles. Here's what he wrote, quote, no people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the invisible hand which conducts the affairs of men more than the people of the United States.

Every step by which we have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency, end of quote. At later writings, he referred to America. George Washington called it the second land of promise. Of course, ancient Israel being the first land of promise, modern Israel being the second land of promise. So again, as I said, eventually the Americans wore out the British resolve to stop the rebellion, and against all odds, America gained independence from a much wealthier and more powerful nation.

And the nation continued to grow and became wealthy. It even survived the tragic civil war as its punishment for the sin of slavery. What a contradiction that people who were willing to die for freedom, their own freedom, were unwilling to give freedom and liberty to enslaved peoples that were already here. And a terrible price was paid for that. But in spite of a tragic civil war that tore the nation apart and caused the death of many soldiers, the United States continued to grow and expand and become wealthy.

And by the end of World War II, only about 70 years ago, the United States was considered a great nation dominating the world. So we have not been a superpower for a long period of time. 70 years, if you look at the history of nations, how long Rome lasted, how long Egypt lasted, how long Babylon lasted, and all these great empires, 70 years is a very short period of time. So with that background, let's return to the Constitutional Convention of 1787. It's about ready to fall apart.

A lot of divisions with all of these individuals. And at that time, it was none other than Benjamin Franklin, an 81-year-old patriot who was about to speak to the divided delegates. And here's what he said, and I'll quote from him directly, addressing George Washington, who was president of the Convention.

Mr. President, the small progress we have made after four or five weeks' close attendance and continual reasonings with each other are different sentiments on almost every question.

Several of the last producing as many nays as yeas is, me thinks, a melancholy proof of the imperfection of human understanding. In this situation of this assembly, groping as it were in the dark to find political truth and scarce able to distinguish it when presented to us, how has it happened, sir, that we have not hitherto once thought of humbly applying to the father of lights to illuminate our understandings? The original writing is Father F, lights, L. Continuing in the beginning of the contest with Britain, when we were sensible of danger, we had daily prayers in this room for divine protection. Our prayers, sir, were heard, and they were graciously answered. All of us who were engaged in the struggle must have observed frequent instances of a superintending providence in our favor. To that kind providence we owe this happy opportunity of consulting in peace on the means of establishing our future national felicity.

And have we now forgotten that powerful friend? Or do we imagine we no longer need its assistance? I've lived a long time, sir, and the longer I live the more convincing proofs I see of this proof.

Of this truth. The more 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, it is probable that an empire can rise without his aid. We have been assured, sir, in the sacred writings that except the Lord built the house, they labor in vain the build it. I firmly believe this, and I always believe this, and I also believe that without his concurring aid, we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel. We shall be divided by our little partial local interest, our projects will be confounded, and we ourselves will become a reproach and a byword down the future ages. And what is worse? Mankind may hereafter, from this unfortunate instance, despair of establishing government by human wisdom and leave it the chance war and conquest.

His concluding sentence was, I therefore beg to move, that henceforth prayers, imploring the assistance of heaven and blessings on our deliberations, be held in this assembly every morning before we proceed the business, and that one or more of the clergy in this city be requested to officiate in that service. Franklin said that on June 28, 1789. So what do you think happened? What would you have done? Well, the convention, except for three or four persons, thought that prayers were unnecessary, and they defeated the resolution. Now, the next day, they took the next day off, and some sought God's guidance, I'm sure, through personal prayer and fasting. But the convention convened without asking God for his guidance and direction and intervention. And a constitution was approved by the colonies and one that was greatly flawed because the delegates left God out of the process. It was an unsound and unappreciated and unbound and unbalanced compact. It was a compact that allowed slavery to continue.

It was a compact in which it did not protect individual rights. Thomas Jefferson, who was the U.S. Representative in France during this convention, went ballistic when he saw the final copy because he said, there are no personal rights. What about freedom of religion? What about freedom of speech? What about these personal individual liberties? It should be guaranteed and enshrined in it. And through his influence and others, four years later, they passed the first ten amendments to the constitution to guarantee individual rights. But the issue of slavery was not resolved. The nation had not lived up to its declaration that all men are created equal and have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And because they refused to confront this sin going on in the nation, until generations would suffer its effects. Jefferson's original draft of the Declaration of Independence condemned slavery, but it had been removed by the convention as they edited it. Seventy-five years later, the nation would have a tragic civil war. Six hundred and fifty thousand soldiers would die in the civil war. That's more American soldiers than our other wars.

So why is this important? Why do I mention this? It's because, brethren, our founding documents established a cord of solemn obligation which binds us in a national covenant relationship to the law of God. We said in a number of our founding documents from the Mayflower Compact to the Declaration of Independence that God has brought us here, that God has given us the right to liberty, that God has given us the ability to form a new nation. That's a compact. That's a national covenant. However, our Constitution was flawed because too many delegates had forgotten to seek God's guidance in its creation. And since that time, we have continued to stray from God's law and as a nation we have paid a terrible price. As I mentioned earlier, our national influence and our greatness occurred after World War II about 1945. It occurred for a number of reasons. First of all, other great powers were diminished. Britain went bankrupt during the war. France had been defeated. It was bankrupt. Germany had been devastated during the war. And the two major powers left standing after the Second World War were the United States and the Soviet Union. Eventually, the Soviet Union imploded because of its type of government. But we are a nation who has forgotten its friend, as Benjamin Franklin would say. And I would just like to mention three ways in which the United States has violated God's law and has forgotten its friend. The first is an acknowledgment of what and who God is in our culture. It had been forming for a long time, but finally came to a head in the Supreme Court in 1962 and 1963, two separate cases. In one case, they ruled that public prayer in public schools is unlawful. So all prayer in schools was taken out of the school system. The second one said that the corporate reading of the Bible and the recitation of the Lord's Prayer in public schools was unlawful. So all recognition of God in our culture was removed. At least that was the beginning of it. Eventually, the Ten Commandments were removed from courtrooms in many areas in the United States. Then it degenerated in the lunacy of telling graduating high school seniors they could not have a prayer during their high school graduation address. Then students were told that you couldn't have a prayer before the Friday night football game because you could not invoke a deity. That was a violation of the separation of church and state. And from that point on, our culture has done everything it can possibly do to remove a semblance and an acknowledgement of who and what God is from our government and from our culture.

And that is violating God's law. That is forgetting the supreme judge of the world who gave us everything that we have. That is an affront and a blasphemy towards the God who gave us the undeserved blessings that we all have as Americans and have as a nation. So the first sin, great sin, that has occurred since 1945 was the acknowledgement of what and who God is in our culture. He basically has been removed. The second great sin that has occurred since that period of time was decided in 1973 by the Supreme Court decision Roe versus Wade that allowed abortions to be performed in the United States. According to the Gutmacher Institute, since 1973, roughly 50 million legal-induced abortions have been performed in the United States. 50 million.

What just strikes me as such a contradiction is we hesitate to kill murderers or kill individuals who are degenerate and have committed very heinous crimes because we're afraid it's cruel.

Because we're afraid they may suffer a little bit before they die. Oh, we may have a fear that some of them are innocent, and let's not execute any of them because one of them may be innocent. So that's one view of why people don't believe in capital punishment. Yet we've annihilated 50 million innocent unborn children who never did harm to anyone, who never hurt a soul, whose potential was snuffed out simply because of a genocide. A government-sanctioned genocide is what it is.

And our nation will pay a terrible price in the curses that are coming upon the United States as revealed in biblical prophecy because of this government-sanctioned genocide.

The third great sin that the United States is responsible for is the destruction of the family.

The family is the bedrock of any human culture. I read last week even a statement about the Roman Empire. What really caused the collapse of the Roman Empire was the degeneration of the family.

And since the 1960s, the government, our government, has systematically destroyed the American family.

And this was done by rewarding individuals who had children out of wedlock with government assistance and punishing poor people with less assistance or none who chose to marry.

And you know what you get? You get what you reward in a culture.

In any culture, just like in a home, you get back what you reward. If you reward it, you get more of it. When the federal government's war on poverty began in 1964, only 6.3 percent of children in the United States were born out of wedlock. Over the next four decades, the number rose rapidly. By 2008, four out of ten births occurred outside of marriage. So, in 50 years, the percent has increased from 6.3 to 40.6 percent.

Dramatic. Some people who study statistics say by 2016, more children in the United States may actually be born out of wedlock than in wedlock. That's only two years away.

In some of our minority communities, the number has rose from 20 percent of children born out of wedlock in 1960 to 73.2 percent in 2010.

And this is a result of government social engineering.

What's the result of this situation encouraged by our secular government?

Well, let me give you some statistics here, if I can.

71 percent of all poor families with children are headed by single parents.

Statistics show that children of single parents are more likely to be poor, as adults grow up to be poor, more likely to drop out of high school, more likely to commit violent crimes, and are adverse to marriage themselves, because they've never seen it. It's not in their families, not part of their family culture, so they don't buy into it. But our government is not through with this story. It's not about the family. The U.S. government had to work very hard to get the American family to where it is today. Now, I want you to think about this. Initiated by President Lyndon Johnson in 1964, the war on poverty led to the creation of more than three dozen welfare programs to aid poor persons, and helping poor persons is a wonderful thing. There's certainly no problem with that. Part of our Christian calling is helping the poor. The government has spent 16.7 trillion, by the way, just about almost the exact number of our national debt, 16.7 trillion on means tested aid to the poor since 1963. And as far as numbers go, there are more poor people today than there were in 1964. So what have we achieved? By rewarding the wrong things.

Let's take religion out of it for a minute as the reason to be married.

Let's look at it even from a secular carnal point of view. Marriage brings two incomes to a relationship which helps you to live a little better than one. Marriage provides two people, if it's at least a semi-balanced relationship, who share ideas and thoughts and make better decisions because two heads are better than one. Marriage provides a bonding for children for the next generation so they can receive the full amount of love and the balance between the male and the female perspective of life because they live with a mother and father. Statistics show that marriage greatly reduces poverty. Statistics show that marriage produces children that are far less likely to drop out of high school, to commit crime, to end up in prison, or to be involved in other drug or other deviant behavior that pulls our entire culture down and continues to feed the cycle of destroying the American family. But our government isn't done yet. That was only the tip of the iceberg. Now they want to redefine what a family is by legitimizing same-sex relationships. I'd like to read you something from Gary Hall. Gary Hall is Dean of the National Cathedral. Now, the National Cathedral is a large, I believe, Anglican church that exists in Washington, DC. And who gave it the name of National Cathedral? I really don't know. But here's what he said. He said what he said from the pulpit, quote, Homophobia is a sin. Heterosexualism is a sin. Only when all our churches say that clearly and boldly and courageously will our lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth be free to grow up in a culture that totally embraces them as they are.

As a highly visible Christian institution, Washington National Cathedral wants to do all it can to let young people know their sexual orientation is a gift, and the religious question should be about how they responsibly use that gift. End of quote. Churches used to preach repentance. I'm old-fashioned. Churches used to preach change, repentance from sin. Churches used to preach about becoming a new creature in Christ in which you gave up what you want and your will and your desires, and you tried to develop the mind of Christ himself. That's what churches used to teach. Now they preach embracing sin and call it a gift that should just be used responsibly. In my beloved city next month is coming up the Gay Games in Cleveland. Another jewel in the crown aside from the city that had a river catch fire and a city that had free beer night in which a group of drunken slugs ran through a stadium and literally had a baseball game cancelled and humiliated the city nationally. Now we are having the Gay Games in Cleveland next month. If you look on their homepage, which I did, you will find 18 churches are listed as faith partners of this event, including some Methodist congregations, some Church of Christ congregations. And why has all of this become possible? Why has all of this happened? Because our own government itself, usually from the dictates of unelected judges, have decided arbitrarily that same-sex relationships are equal to a relationship between a man and a woman. And they're not done yet. That, too, is only the tip of the iceberg. Let's go to Deuteronomy chapter 8 and verse 11.

This is what has happened to my beloved nation. As I said earlier, I'm proud to be an American, and it has given me, as an individual, greater opportunity than any nation could have on earth. It has provided a standard of living that has made me comfortable, that has made it possible for my children to live very good lives. And I'm very appreciative of that. I'm very appreciative of the liberties and the freedoms that I have as an American. But also, as an American, I am just absolutely appalled and disgusted with what my nation has become and how quickly it has collapsed in the last 70 years morally and ethically and how it has rejected its God, how it has rejected its friend in order to pursue some elusive concept of expanded human rights. Deuteronomy chapter 8 and verse 11, beware that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments, his judgments, and his statutes which I command you today. Lest when you have eaten and are full, that it built beautiful houses and dwell of them. When your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold are multiplied and all you have is multiplied, when your heart is lifted up and you forget the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage, who led you through that great and terrible wilderness in which were fiery serpents and scorpions in a thirsty land where there was no water, who brought water for you out of the flinty rock, who fed you in the wilderness with manna which your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and that he might test you to do you good in the end. What he's basically recapping here saying, remember where you came from. And then it says in verse 17, and then you say in your heart, my power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth. The government can provide everything that I need. Military weapons will keep us secure and safe. Evolution is the new God that can replace any belief in a deity. The power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth, and you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the power to get wealth that he may establish his covenant which he swore to your fathers as it is this day.

Well, in conclusion, as Americans, we face a very fearful future according to biblical prophecy, and it's not my intent today to go through some very horrifying prophecies in which the United States will receive the just rewards of our perversion and our sin and the fact that we have forgotten our friend and as our God. As a nation and as a people, we never lived up to our promise of being a model nation to the world. Very soon after we achieved greatness, we began that slippery slide down to degeneracy where we are today. We began that slide that pushed God out of every part of our government, of our body politic. We began to destroy the concept of American family, and you could have even understood the importance of that. Even if you separated religion from family, an imposol should have been able to figure out that the government should support a man and a woman living together as a family. And yet we abandoned that. And we went on a crusade of a genocide to kill 50 million unborn children. Shame on us. Shame on us as a people, shame on us as a nation. We never lived up to our promise of being a model nation to the world. But our God will not forsake us because he's actually working with a third nation. And let's go for our final scripture to 1 Peter chapter 2 and see the nation that he is working with that is going to be successful. It will not be a nation that fails. It will not be a people who forgets its God.

It will not be a nation who abandons its understanding of being a model to the people of this world. 1 Peter chapter 2 and verse 9. Here's what Peter said to the church of God. He said, but you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, and there was a time when none of us even knew each other. You were doing your thing. I was doing my thing. You were living your life your way. I was living my life my way. But God called us and he brought us together. And he said, once you were not a people, but are now the people of God. Once you had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. Beloved, I beg you, as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lust which war against the soul, having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation. In other words, they may not even respect or acknowledge you now, but there's coming a time when Jesus Christ visits the earth. When he comes back, that those people who are part of his royal priesthood, his chosen generation, his holy nation, will have prepared themselves to reign as kings and priests in the leadership positions of the nation that will be established over all the earth. And we know it, of course, as the kingdom of God.

And let our good works each and every day be a light and an example to the world, even if it isn't acknowledged or recognized now. There will come a time when the people of this world will say, that's why that person was different. That's why that person kept that seventh-day Sabbath. That's why that person honored those holy days. That's why that person kept the Ten Commandments. That's why that person refused to compromise on what they knew was the truth. Ancient Israel and modern Israel, our own beloved nation, failed in their task to respect and obey God. But the nation that God is preparing to be a model for the world, you're a member of that nation, I'm a member of that nation. That nation is the spiritual church of God. We have a lot of work to do. We have a heavy responsibility on our shoulders to prepare, to be part of that nation. But God is training us now to be leaders and examples for His coming nation to be established on this earth. That's our calling. That's why the Father called us in this lifetime. That's why we were given the gift of this Holy Spirit so that though the physical nations have failed in their potential and in their promise, that God's people will someday be a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, that is the literal foundation of the kingdom of God. Time without end. Amen.