How the Supreme Court Has Put America Under a Curse

Matthew's Sabbath once again. Well, today I was scheduled to talk about, continue my series on leadership, and I've been talking about the last few Sabbaths, but I'm going to postpone the leadership series to talk about something else today. Let's begin by turning to Hosea, chapter 4 and verse 6. Hosea, chapter 4, beginning in verse 6.

The prophet Hosea wrote, My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for me, because you have forgotten the law of your God. I also will forget your children. So the message starts out as a declaration of condemnation for religious leaders, frankly, whom he calls priest, who have forgotten about the law of God, who instead of having knowledge have become stupid. Verse 7, The more they increased, the more they sinned against me. I will change their glory in the shame. They eat up the sin of my people. They just love sin. It's just like eating a big meal. Love to watch people sin. They enjoy watching people sin. They condone sin. It says, They set their heart in their iniquity, and it shall be like people, like priests. So I will punish them for their ways and reward them for their deeds. For they shall eat, but not have enough. They shall commit harlotry, but not increase, because they have ceased obeying the Lord. Well, the prophet Hosea had a powerful message for the people of his day and for the people of our times. As a nation, we are being destroyed for a lack of knowledge. And that knowledge, my friends, is an understanding of God's law.

It's interesting how you see movements occur, particularly in the United States. It usually starts with so-called religious people, normally of the Protestant wing of liberal Protestantism, who begin watering down or outright rejecting the law of God. And this leads people, who looked at them as, quote, religious leaders, who say, well, my conduct must be acceptable, because Reverend so-and-so says it's okay. Pastor so-and-so doesn't have a problem with this. Father so-and-so doesn't have an issue with my lifestyle or the way that I act. And the end result is an even more erosion of morals and values. In the recent Gay Games held in Cleveland last year, over 18 churches were, quote, faith partners in the Gay Games. Well, recently I've been giving a series on leadership. Today I'm going to postpone the leadership series. I'm going to talk about the United States. So this is a sermon not on leadership, but on loser-ship, with a nation that is going down the drain. About a week ago, the U.S. Supreme Court, in a five-to-four decision, made a decision, a judgment, which in effect forces all states to allow civil marriages between same-sex couples. This was yet another destructive decision by a court composed of nine individuals who have systematically poisoned this one great nation with immoral and perverse judgments. First of all, for many years, during the crucial issue of slavery, the Supreme Court sat on its hands and did nothing. It took an executive, a president, to change the sin of slavery and the free people. No thank you to the Supreme Court. In the last 50 years, though the names have changed, the faces have changed, the level of mediocrity remains the same. We've had issues like taking prayer out of schools. Look how well that has worked. We've decided that it's okay to abort innocent human fetuses, resulting in millions and millions and millions of lives that never had an opportunity to live. We've had laws that have allowed obscenity and restricted space from their previous ability to clamp down on pornography. The result of that is the United States is the pornographic king. Why, we export billions of dollars in pornographic tapes and movies and so on throughout the world, and we wonder why conservative nations hate our guts.

Become a nation of porn addicts. And now, this brilliant decision on marriage. Thomas Jefferson in 1815 wrote this to W.H. Torrance. He said, the question of whether judges are invested with exclusive authority to decide on the constitutionality of the law has been heretofore a subject of consideration with me in the exercise of my official duties. Certainly, there is not a word in the Constitution which has given that power to them any more than the executive or legislative branches. So, Jefferson was saying the Constitution has no such thing as judicial review. The Constitution did not grant to nine individuals, nine lawyers, I might add, the ability to restructure and resocialize the United States. I'd like to read part of the dissent from Chief Justice Roberts.

He said, today, however, the Court takes the extraordinary step of ordering every state to license and recognize same-sex marriage. Many people will rejoice at the decision, and I begrudge none of their celebration, but for those who believe in a government of laws, not of men, the majority's approach is deeply disheartening. Supporters of same-sex marriage have achieved considerable success persuading their fellow citizens through the democratic process to adopt their view.

That ends today. Five lawyers have closed the debate and enacted their own vision of marriage as a matter of constitutional law. Stealing this issue from the people will, for many, cast a cloud over same-sex marriage, making a dramatic social change that much more difficult to accept.

The majority's decision is an act of will, not legal judgment. The right it announces has no basis in the Constitution or this Court's precedent. The majority expressly disclaims judicial caution and omits even a pretense of humility, openly relying on its desire to remake society according to its own new insight into the nature of injustice. As a result, the Court invalidates marriage laws of more than half of the states and orders the transformation of a social institution that has formed the basis of human society for millennia.

From the Kalahari Bushmen to the Han Chinese, the Carthaginians and the Aztecs, just who do we think we are? That was Chief Justice Roberts. Even more scathing is Justice Scalia's comments. I'll be just a few. Today's decree says that my ruler, he has capital R, my ruler and the ruler of 320 million Americans coast to coast is a majority of the nine lawyers on the Supreme Court. The opinion in these cases is the furthest extension of fact and the furthest extension one can imagine of the Court's claimed power to create liberties that the Constitution and its amendments neglect to mention. This practice of constitutional revision by an unelected committee of nine always accompanied, as it is today, it's accompanied by extravagant praise of liberty, but it robs the people of the most important liberty they asserted in the Declaration of Independence and won in the Revolution of 1776 the freedom to govern themselves.

Continuing, he says, what really astounds is the hubris reflected in today's judicial push.

The five justices who compose today's majority are entirely comfortable concluding that every state violated the Constitution for all of the 135 years between the Fourteenth Amendment's ratification and Massachusetts permitting same-sex marriages in 2003. They have discovered that the Fourteenth Amendment is a fundamental right within it overlooked by every person alive at the time of the ratification and almost everyone else since that time. They see what blesser legal minds, minds like Thomas Cooley, John Marshall Harlan, Oliver Wendell Holmes, learned at hand, Louis Ben Dils, William Howard Taft, Benjamin Cardozo, Hugo Black, Felix Frankfurter, Robert Jackson, and Henry Friendly could not. They are certain that the people ratified the Fourteenth Amendment to bestow on them the power to remove questions from a democratic process when it is called for by their reasoned judgment. And it becomes a little sarcastic here. These justices know that limiting marriage to one man and one woman is contrary to reason. They know that an institution as old as government itself and accepted by every nation in history until 15 years ago cannot possibly be supported by anything other than ignorance and bigotry.

And they are willing to say that any citizen who does not agree with that, who adheres to what was until 15 years ago, unanimous judgment of all generations and all societies stands against the Constitution. So those were the remarks of Justice Scalia. How long has there been the institution of marriage? Well, the institution of marriage goes all the way back to the beginnings.

Genesis chapter 1. In Genesis chapter 1, God gave two great covenants to the human race. There were no Jew. There were no Gentile. We just add them in Eve. And in Genesis chapter 1, God gave two great powerful covenants. One was that God personally instituted a relationship between one man and one woman. And He told them to make lots of babies. He said, Be fruitful and multiply. Genesis chapter 1 and verse 28. That's how far back the concept of intimacy between one man and one woman goes back. The second gift of God gave humanity is He rested on the seventh day and gave humanity the gift of His Sabbath day. Let's go to Matthew chapter 19 and verse 3. If you'll turn there with me. Matthew chapter 19 and verse 3. And let's see what Jesus Christ said, what marriage is.

Matthew chapter 19 and verse 3. The Pharisees also came to Him, came to Jesus Christ, testing Him and saying to Him, Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason? If my wife burns my toast this morning, can I say, I divorced three times and you're out of here, your history, your toast? Bad pun, I'm sorry. Gave my writer the day off. So may a man divorce his wife for just any reason? And He answered and said to them, Have you not read that he who made them at the beginning made them male and female? And He said, For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife and the two shall become one flesh. So then they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate. So Jesus was basically saying there are only a few extreme reasons why divorce is permissible, adultery being one, abandonment being another, but not because you just don't like each other or not because your wife burnt your toast or your husband didn't cut the grass last night and he was supposed to and many other reasons people come up with in our day and age. Jesus reaffirmed what He established at the original creation because He was there. Marriage is a divine institution between one man and one woman. It is God who joins together this union because the natural special intimacy of a sexual relationship represents something deeply spiritual and meaningful to God.

We'll talk about that in a few minutes. But first let's see what the law of God says. Leviticus chapter 20 and verse 13. Leviticus chapter 20 and verse 13.

God told Moses to write down his values. And here's God's values.

If a man lies with a male as he lies with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination. They shall surely be put to death. Their blood shall be upon them.

I know that sounds harsh under the 21st century values that we have as Americans.

That God was dealing with a physical nation. God was dealing under the old covenant with a system that exacted punishment immediately. The Old Testament instruction for this kind of action was death. Under the new covenant, God patiently extends mercy for this sin because of the shed blood of Jesus Christ while he patiently waits for repentance to occur. But make no mistake, mercy and compassion is not acceptance of sin. Jesus told the woman caught in another type of sexual sin, adultery. He told her to go and sin no more. That's in John chapter 8 and verse 11. The reward for unrepentant sin is far more than physical death like someone would have experienced under the old covenant. It is ultimately a spiritual death, a cessation of consciousness, of all feelings of joy, of intimacy with family and God for all eternity. Now, if that sounds strong and you're saying to yourself, well, Mr. Thomas, that to me sounds judgmental. If you think I'm judgmental, wait until you meet God. Verse 13 says in God's word translation, when a man has sexual intercourse with another man, as with a woman, both men are doing something disgusting and must be put to death. They deserve to die. End of quote. Again, that's from the translation God's word. The difference between the old covenant and new is that under the old covenant, the penalty was performed immediately. Under the new covenant, all sinners are on death row. And they can only be pardoned, not by the government, not by religious leaders. They can only be pardoned by genuine repentance and acceptance of the blood of Jesus Christ for the remission of their sins. And until that happens, they are on death row, awaiting the judgment that according to God's law is what they deserve. Let's go to Romans chapter 1 and verse 20. Maybe something changed. Maybe Paul, would you smarter than Moses? Maybe Paul was smarter than Jesus. There are some forms of Christianity that believe that Paul is the real founder of Christianity. I was listening to a lecture by a renowned theologian last summer on Audible, an entire college class. And what this liberal Protestant theologian basically said was that Jesus Christ never claimed to be divine. He never claimed to be the Son of God. He claimed to be an apocalyptic prophet. Paul is the one that proclaimed Jesus and interpreted his life as being the Son of God and the Savior of sins.

Prestigious University. If I mentioned the name of the university, you'd say, well, I've heard of that.

Thousands of young minds are being fed that kind of sludge about the Word of God and theology each and every day. But that's where the mind takes off when you believe that you're smarter than this book. And you know, I do have a problem with parts of Christianity that have degenerated to the point where all they've made is an abracadabra Jesus. Where their entire theology has become all you have to do like any pagan magician is say a few magic words. I believe in Jesus and Twinkie Dinkie!

Everything changes and the genie jumps out of the bottle and now you are saved for eternity.

It's a religion that has no values, no morals, expects no decent conduct. All you have to do is believe in Jesus. And what you do with that kind of a theology is you degenerate religion down to being about as respectable as the Mickey Mouse Club. And unfortunately, it's the preachers, it's the theologians, it's the teachers of this branch of Christianity that has driven this movement that we're talking about today. They spearheaded this movement because what Moses said or Jesus Christ said or Paul says has no meaning to them. And we shouldn't be surprised that the Supreme Court basically did what liberal Protestantism has done. The Supreme Court has decided that the Constitution is a living document, meaning it doesn't matter what the words actually say. That was for their time. Our generation must redefine what the words say. And more with the Supreme Court have got this brilliant understanding. They got it from theologians. They got it from mainstream Protestantism, which says it doesn't matter what the words say in this book. Our generation, our counsel this week, our papa, our holy father, our whoever, will decide what this really means. And that's how we've gotten to the state that we are in today. Let's go to Romans chapter 1 and verse 20. Paul says, For since the creation of the world, his many invisible attributes are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse. So Paul is saying that even people in this world who are honest with themselves can look at the creation, and there without excuse you have to, if you honestly look at the creation, you have to acknowledge a creator behind it. And I was out walking in my yard yesterday, and I was looking at some flowers and looking at some beautiful things in God's creation. And I thought about this.

This is a cell phone. Many of you have this. Did you know that this phone exists because, given enough time, all the pieces and parts over millions and millions of years came together.

The chips, the glass, everything came together by mere random chance over a period of millions of years. This phone was assembled to work as well as it does and to do what it does. And, unbelievably, at the same time, a network also evolved, allowing this to have Wi-Fi access. And all of that occurred by random chance because, given enough time, I could go to a museum and I could see phones like this that are a lot bigger, some of them 20 years ago that looked like a boot. And I could look at all of those phones and say, wow, these are fossils! These prove that this phone is nothing but a product of random chance. No, my friends, this phone was created. It is a product of hundreds and hundreds of different engineers, all creators, all people created with the mind of God who, over time, have developed the technology that we have today. It didn't happen by chance. It happened by a creative process through an intelligent mind. This phone is not as complicated as a simple flower that God has created with all of its chromosomes, DNA, and everything involved in a simple plant.

It's far more creative than what man has created. So what Paul is saying here as he begins Romans chapter 1 is, if you're honest with yourself, all you have to do is look at the world and see things that are made, even his eternal power in Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew of God, probably should insert a word in there, they knew of God, they certainly didn't have a relationship with him, they did not glorify him as God, nor were they thankful, but became futile in their thoughts and their foolish hearts were darkened.

Professing to be wise, they became fools. Kind of sounds like some parts of the United States government to me. Professing to be so judicial, so wise, so enlightened that we can even see things in the Constitution that was never there before, that generation after generation has never noticed, we found, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image, into an image made like corruptible man and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things, in other words, worshiping and idolizing the created and instead of the creator.

Verse 24, therefore God gave them up to uncleanness, the lust of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for a lie. That's what that decision did in the Supreme Court a week ago yesterday. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason, God gave them up to vile passions, for even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature.

Likewise, also men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error, which was due. Of course, at that time, because medicine wasn't so progressed, there were a tremendous number of diseases that would have catch by that behavior. How many millions, literally millions, died of the AIDS virus in the 1980s and 90s? Do we forget that? Granted, there were some people who died of AIDS, unfortunately because of blood transmissions, and there were also a smaller number that died because of adultery, heterosexual relationships that were adulterous.

But the majority of people who died in the 1980s, the AIDS virus, were practicing homosexual acts. Continuing here, verse 28, and even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind. Do those things which are not fitting, being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness, they are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unliving, unforgiving, unmerciful, who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death.

Well, Paul says it's the same penalty as Moses said. Paul isn't very much enlightened here. Maybe he was just having a bad day. Not only do the same, but also prove of those who practice them. You know, there are a couple of phrases here that I thought of maliciousness and another phrase in here, haters of God. Someone, I think it was Joe Horton, sent me a picture of a gay rally in San Francisco. Okay? And they're just so cute. There are pictures of a man dressed up as Jesus Christ hanging on a cross, kissing other men who are coming up to him to kiss him on his lips. So that's basically them saying to all of you religious people, up yours.

That's the attitude. As Paul said, you're maliciousness and haters of God. In 1 Corinthians 6, Paul also confirms that among the continued sins that will not inherit the kingdom of God is fornication and adultery and homosexuality.

So why? Why do all of these sexual sins, and that includes fornication and adultery, homosexuality, why do all of them distort what God's plan is? Well, all pervert God's gift of an exclusive intimate relationship between one man and one woman.

Fornication, adultery, and homosexuality wound the family. It destroys children who are involved in those kinds of relationships. It harms their lives. The wounds harm the people who are involved in these kinds of sins.

What God originally intended from the beginning was a very special, precious relationship that he gave to one man and one woman in a monogamous relationship whom had been designed with all the right natural parts. Get it? Parts that were designed to fit together. And God designed this because through the intimate, monogamous relationship of a couple who truly love one another and engage in their parts fitting together as the creator designed is the closest experience one can have in this physical lifetime to what intimacy is like in the kingdom of God. It is a precious, a special gift that God gives human beings that is not to be trampled on, that is not to be violated, that is not to be perverted by any other type of sexual act. This is a relationship that goes beyond climax. It is a relationship of intimacy between a husband and a wife who share a deep sense of love for one another and share that love through parts that were designed to properly fit. And any diversion from that, any diversion from that adultery, you violate the monogamous relationship, fornication. You know, I've had children or teens ask me what my definition is of fornication and I tell them this. Adultery is unfaithfulness to your mate after marriage.

Fornication is unfaithfulness to your future mate before marriage. So that's the definition of fornication. It also causes wounds, it also usually is embedded in lust and an act of quick, passionate desire. Most fornication certainly has nothing to do with an intimate relationship between two individuals. So again, why is marriage, the relationship between one man and one woman, so important to God? Let's go to Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 23. Why does the entire Bible, from cover to cover, support only one definition of marriage and call all sexual experiences outside of it sin? Something worthy of death. I've been hard on homosexuality today, but we need to understand that adultery, unrepended, also the penalty is death.

Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 23. Paul writing here about the marriage relationship, For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church, and he is the savior of the body. Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let wives be subject to their own husbands in everything. Some folks want to make this a power play.

And again, I want to remind all of us that in any healthy organization, there can only be one head.

I'm sorry, two-headed snakes are in pickle jars on Coney Island. All right? It's not natural to have two-headed snakes, two-headed goats, two-headed dogs. Those are freaks. God had to design somebody within a family to be the final arbiter of a difficult decision, and any decent husband is going to ask his wife's opinion, and be all open ears and listen and hear her out, and allow her to express her opinion on any difficult decision, and weigh it heavily before he has to make a final decision. But the instruction here is that somebody had to be designated to make a choice in the hard decisions, and God ordained that the husbands would be the one in an attitude of love and service, be the ones to make that decision.

He says, therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their husbands in everything. Let's put some of this together. Paul states in Galatians chapter 4 and verse 26 that heavenly Jerusalem is our mother, and that kingdom, that heavenly Jerusalem, Zion, will be brought down to earth at the return of Jesus Christ. So Paul says that heavenly Jerusalem, that culture, that environment, the values of that kingdom, he calls it our mother. God is our father. We could relate to numerous scriptures regarding that. Jesus Christ is his son. Jesus is called the firstborn of many brothers in Romans chapter 8 and verse 29. In Romans chapter 8 and verse 16, we are called the children of God. I want you to notice how the complete family relationship is expressed in these terms and why the concept of family is so important to God. You have a father, you have a mother, you have children, and it goes even further. Verse 25, husbands love your wives just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for her that he might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that he might present her to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.

This continues on the marriage and family theme right here in these verses. The church will become the spiritual bride of Christ as revealed in Revelation chapter 21 and 22.

So we see a father, we see a mother relationship, we see brethren, we see a brother, we see younger siblings to the brother, the older brother being Jesus Christ. We see the church being prepared as a bride to marry Christ upon his return. Verse 28, so husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself, for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it just as the Lord does the church. For we are all members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. So Paul again is reiterating what it said at creation, what Jesus Christ said about one man and one woman joining together to be to the, this refers to the only acceptable definition of marriage. Anything else created by man or man's courts is artificial. Verse 32, this is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ in the church. Nevertheless, let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband. So what is this mystery? The mystery is that the relationship between Christ and his church, the bride of Christ, reveals the ultimate plan of God. God is expanding his family. God wants to share. He wants to adopt sons and daughters, first those who were born physically, and then allow and accept the fact that they need a transformation in their lives. They repented their sins and they receive his Holy Spirit, which is part of God in us. And God is adopting spiritual sons and daughters into being eventually full members of his family, giving and sharing with us all glory, even sharing his name, and sharing the gift of eternal life. That is why the whole concept of family, the whole concept of intimacy between one man and one woman who were designed with parts that naturally fit and represent the intimacy that is available and possible to us in the kingdom of God.

Well, I just have a few minutes to comment as we close today on why the Supreme Court has taken a jackhammer to the foundation of the United States' moral values. Today is the 4th of July, and today this nation celebrates the 239th anniversary of the signing of a document that laid the cornerstone for our nation. It was on July 4th in 1776 that the Second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence. This document acknowledged the presence of God four times within its writings. The divine providence of God within this document was used as a reason, as a justification for rebellion against the British crown. This document was a covenant between the founders of this nation and the creator God, whose providence they acknowledged and whose providence they asked for, whose intervention they sought. This was a covenant.

I'd like to mention quickly the four areas in the Declaration of Independence that we celebrate on this day so we can understand what our founding fathers intended and how they thought about having a relationship with God. It begins 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 to which the laws of nature and nature's God entitle them. A decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. Notice what the American founders are saying. They are saying it's nature's God that entitles us to be separate and equal to other nations. Who gives us that right? Nature's God is the one who gives us that right. God entitles us to dissolve our political bands with Britain. That's what they're saying in that statement.

There's another statement. We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator. Capital C with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Again, I want you to notice what the founders here say that they believed was self-evident or common sense. Here's what was self-evident. Here's what was common sense to them. God made men equal and He alone gives them special rights, including life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Governments don't give you those rights. God gave us those rights. That's what they're trying to emphasize in that statement.

Here's the third place it's mentioned in the Declaration of Independence. We therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in general, Congress assembled, appealing to the supreme judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, due in the name and by the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare that these united colonies are and right ought to be free and independent states.

Again, I want you to notice what the American founders are saying. Rectitude, I know that's a word we don't use much today. They were saying, appealing to the supreme judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions. Rectitude means strong moral integrity. Well, no wonder it's not used much in our world today anymore. The representatives were saying that they were going to God for the righteousness of their cause. If you want to know what our intentions are, which are good, they're claiming the supreme judge of the world has declared that our intentions are right. That's what they're saying. They were requesting that he, as the supreme judge, would intervene in their cause. And the fourth time that it's mentioned in the Declaration of Independence. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.

So here, the Founding Fathers were acknowledging that they were rebels against the British crown, and their lives were in God's hands. They're saying that we ask for reliance and protection from divine providence, because they were traitors. Any of them, if they would have been caught, would have been executed immediately by the British. And they said, we're going to rely on God for his protection through this founding of this nation. Brother, this was a covenant between the founders of this nation and the God whom they said entitled them to be separate and gave them God-given rights, and judged their cause as morally upright, and would rely on God's protection. In this document, they acknowledged God's omnipotence and omnipresence over this nation. This covenant with God, like any other covenant with God, comes with obligations, and it comes with responsibilities.

If you don't keep those obligations, if you don't keep those responsibilities, then you have used God's name in vain. And there's a price that we as individuals pay for that. There's a price that nations pay for that. President John Adams, our second president, wrote this. He said, we have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions, unbridled by morality and religion. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of others. So he says, you take away morality, you take away religious understanding from people. Our Constitution is worthless. It can't govern them.

George Washington 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. Later, Washington himself in his writings referred to the United States as the second land of promise. What happened?

What happened from the intention? What happened from the time when this document was crafted by men who certainly understood what liberty was and where we have degenerated today as a nation and as a people? The founders of our nation were religiously diverse individuals with their own beliefs. They were not doctrinaire. They didn't get into that. Jefferson and Adams denied the Trinity. Franklin believed in God but didn't believe in Jesus Christ. They were all what we would say off the wall in their religious beliefs. But my friends, there's one thing they all had in common. They believed in a divine, omnipotent God who directs the affairs of men and who could intercede in the course of human events. And they asked him to intercede in the course that they were on. That course would result in liberty. They believed in the moral and ethical principles of the Bible, including the Ten Commandments. Let's take a look at one final scripture before we conclude today. Let's go to Leviticus chapter 26 and verse 14.

Leviticus chapter 26 and verse 14. Leviticus chapter 26 and verse 14. But, this is God speaking, if you do not obey me, and do not observe all these commandments, and if you despise my statutes, if you abhor 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 in your heart. Just think of all the cancers, the wasting disease of cancer that is throughout the western world today. And you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it, and I will set my face against you, and you shall be defeated by your enemies.

Think of all the precious lives that were lost in Vietnam. Think of all the precious American soldiers who died in Afghanistan, capturing cities that have now been handed over to ISIS, and others, they died in vain. The greatest nation on earth couldn't keep a peace in Afghanistan or in Iraq.

Those who hate you shall reign over you, and you shall flee when no one pursues you. Oh, in our political correct world, if you happen to say the wrong word in television, you'll probably lose your job. Why, you'll be branded as an eternal bigot because you support marriage between one man and one woman. You'll be called old-fashioned. You'll be called homophobic. I'm sorry. I think the correct definition for me is that I'm pervophobic. I don't like any kind of perversion, and I'm against it with my whole heart. Now, I'm not a fool. I've spent my entire life knowing people that were gay. I've worked with people that are gay. I've had neighbors that were gay.

I'm not an idiot, but, brethren, I can tell you this. That there are things that human beings do that should be in a closed door. When I go to the restroom, I close the door and I turn the exhaust fan on because what I'm about to do there deserves to be hidden. And there are certain types of human conduct, though they go on and have always gone on for millennia, should not be endorsed by a government, should not be considered equal to an institution that God designed, that is the institution of marriage, and should not be held up as something to be admired or idolized.

There are certain human conducts that should be done behind closed doors and not exposed to our children on television, exposed to people through the media, and force-fed down our throats.

And you can expect that to happen. It's already beginning to happen in the media.

You can expect more of it. And you shall flee when no one pursues you, and after all this, if you do not obey me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins.

Well, God was offering Abraham's blessings to that generation who left Egypt as slaves, but the people were not faithful to God and not faithful to His laws. They made compromises.

From the beginning, they constantly complained and they rebelled against God, and eventually they broke up into two nations. And who knows, that may happen. The United States may have a civil war, and we may break up into two or more nations. Eventually, first, Israel went into captivity, and then Judah went into captivity. That is the price you pay for making a covenant with God and then using His name in vain by despising His value system known as His law.

Well, brethren, as Americans, we face a terrible future, according to biblical prophecy. I don't have time today. I had other scriptures down here that would make the hair on our next standup, talking about what the future is for the United States because of its sins.

As a nation and as a people, we've never lived up to our promise of being a model nation to the world. We could have been. But after punishment, after the punishment of this nation, which it will experience in the future, the good news is that God will not forsake us. He's working behind the scenes right now to create a spiritual nation that is to be the foundation of a new kingdom and a new world. And that kingdom, that nation, will be governed by God's laws. And it will be governed by people who are not overwhelmed with pride, people who are not just trying to get their own will done, but by spiritual beings who had been there, done that, who lived physical lives, who lived lives and made lots of mistakes, but came to a point in their lives when they repented of their sins and they received the gift of the Holy Spirit and a transformation began in their lives. And then at the resurrection, those changes that they had made, those talents that they had been developing, were transformed and magnified thousands of times over as they literally were morphed from human flesh, from corruptible to incorruptible, at the return of Jesus Christ and beings who will serve in that kingdom forever. The founders of that new nation and that new kingdom. It's you. So don't get discouraged. There are going to be difficult days ahead. There are going to be laws very similar to this one. Expect, not overnight, but expect in the near future, marriage to be legalized between fathers and daughters, between brothers and sisters. A Montana judge has already received a case in which a polygamist has said that he has the right to marry all of his wives and it's in the best interest to the state that all of these children through these various women have a father. So you need to give me my constitutional rights to marry these women, plural. So there's a whole lot of excitement ahead for us. But we need to maintain the course. We need to be people who will not be moved. We need to believe what's in this book.

Very few people do anymore. Some people believe what's in part of the book. Most people don't believe anything that's in the book. We need to be the people of the book and we need to live our lives with class and with dignity through the gift of the Holy Spirit and prepare to serve for eternity in the soon-coming kingdom of God. Have a great Sabbath.