Independence, Dependence and Interdependence

The title of the sermon today is Independence, Dependent, and Interdependence. Independence, Dependent, and Interdependent. This is a different kind of sermon, not the kind that I usually give where I go through lots of scriptures. The sermon is, of course, in keeping with the day we'll be observing as a nation on Monday, July 4th, Independence Day. The sermon will help you understand something about the founding of the U.S., its history, the world today, and prophecy. The extension of it into prophecy to some might be esoteric a bit, but if those of you who have an ear to hear, let him hear. As I give the sermon, what I would encourage you to do is key topics, keywords that you want to know more about, to just write those down, then go to the Internet and search these topics. I mean, every person basically that has a computer today and access to the Internet, you can go to graduate school on just about any subject that you want to name. If you just mind to get in there and dig it out, and really, in some cases, you don't have to do all that much digging. So on Monday, the day after tomorrow, the United States will be celebrating Independence Day. On July 4, 1776, 56 bold, freedom-loving men signed the famous Declaration of Independence. Have you ever wondered what happened to those men who signed the Declaration of Independence? Five signers were captured by the British as traitors, tortured before they died. Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned. Two lost their sons in the Revolutionary Army. Another had two sons captured. Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or hardships of the Revolutionary War. What kind of men were they? 24 were lawyers and jurists. 11 were merchants. Nine were farmers and large plantation owners, men of means, well-educated. But they signed the Declaration of Independence knowing full well that the penalty would be death if they were captured. They signed and they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor. Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy platter and trader, saw his ship swept from the seas by the British Navy. He sold his home and properties to pay his debts and died in rags. Thomas McKeeam was so hounded by the British that he was forced to move his family almost constantly. He served in the Congress without pay. His family was kept in hiding. His possessions were taken from him and poverty was his reward.

Vandals or soldiers or both eluded the properties of Ellery, Clymer, Hall, Walton, Gwinnett, Hayward, Rutledge, and Middleton. Francis Lewis had his home and properties destroyed.

His wife was jailed and she died within a few months. John Hart was driven from his wife's bedside as she was dying. Their 13 children fled for their lives. His fields and his grist mill were laid waste. For more than a year, he lived in forests and caves, returning home after the war to find his wife dead as children vanished. A few weeks later, he died from exhaustion and a broken heart. Norris and Livingston suffered similar fates, and such were the stories of the American Revolution. These were not wild-eyed, rabble-rousing ruffians. These were soft-spoken men of means and education. They had security, but they valued liberty more.

That kind of liberty that they valued more was civil liberty, political liberty. To some degree, for some in the background, was religious liberty. Standing tall, straight, and unwavering, they pledged, quote, for support of this declaration with a firm reliance on the protection of the divine providence, and maybe we'll see somewhat about how they thought, most of them thought, about God, we mutually pledged to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.

The United States has been known as the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Our coinage we write, and on our dollar bills and other paper money we write, in God we trust. Our soldiers have gone to war for decades under the mantra of securing freedom for our homeland and also for the peoples of the world. So remember the title of today's sermon, independence, dependence, and interdependence. So let's define our terms. First of all, independence. The state of not having to rely on outside sources for sustenance. We talk about a person being independent. Doesn't need anybody really to help him in some ways.

Self-sustaining. Freedom from control. Freedom from dependence on or control by another person, organization, or state. We talk about how great it is to be, quote, independent. No one is really independent.

Then, dependent. The state of relying on someone or something to meet certain needs, as in the case of a family member who is supported financially by another member of the family.

A nation, a state, an organization, an institution that must rely on resources outside their boundaries and systems to sustain itself. And then, interdependent. Relying on mutual assistance, support, cooperation, or interaction among constituent parts or members. In the vernacular, we say we depend on each other. We are interdependent. God and Jesus Christ are the only two beings that have inherent immortality abiding within them. And in that sense, they are truly independent. Let's look at John 5 and verse 26. John 5 and verse 26, we'll see that God and Jesus Christ have eternal life abiding within them. John 5 and verse 26. For as the Father hath life in Himself, God has life in Himself. Eternal life. God has always existed and will always exist. The Word has always existed and will always exist. The one who became Jesus Christ.

For as the Father hath life in Himself, so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself. On the other hand, the whole creation and living creatures depend upon God for their substance. When all is said and done, we are dependent upon God. Let's notice Acts 17. Acts 17, the backdrop of Acts 17, is Paul is on Mars Hill, and he is confronting the learned ones of Athens, Athens, Greece, the cradle of Western democracy, the so-called homeland of Western democracy and Western education.

And Paul confronts the philosophers of the day and those who seem to be religious. And down later after that confrontation, he's still speaking in verse 24, God that made the world and all thinks therein, seeing that He is Lord of heaven and earth, dwells not in temples made with hands, neither is worship with men's hands, as though He needed anything. God is independent, self-sufficient, self-sustaining. He has life within Himself.

Seeing He gives life to all and breath to all things, and hath made of one blood all nations of men to dwell on the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed. And the bounds of their habitation will come into play later in the sermon, because the bounds of their habitation is also repeated in Deuteronomy 32 and verse 8. That harkens back to Genesis 10.32 when God divided the nations. See, God is the author of nations. God is the author of sovereign nations.

God is the one who separated the descendants of Noah at the tower of Babel. That they should seek the Lord, if happily they might feel after Him, and find Him, though He be not far from everyone. For in Him we live, and move, and have our being. And certain also of your own poets have said, for we also are His offspring.

Also in Hebrews, turn forward please, Hebrews chapter 1.

We have people, of course, who claim to be atheists. Remember what Psalm 14.1 says, only the fool is set in his heart, or the fool is set in his heart. There is no God.

In their intellectual vanity, and one of the great sayings, my wife has quite a sense of humor, and she comes out with some pearls quite often, of people who do various things. And she said this in context of people at that time, a few years ago, were leaving the church. And her phrase was, they are lost in their own intelligence. They think that they know it when actually they know very little. In Hebrews 1.1, God, who at sundry times and different manners spoke in times past and of the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken to us by his son, whom he has appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the world. Now, you know that Romans 8.17 says that we're heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ, so that tells you what we have in store for us, who being the brightness of his glory, express image of his person, upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sin, sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high. So we can clearly see there are only two beings that we could say at the present time that are truly independent. No human being is independent. Even the universe is not independent. It says that he upholds all things by the word of his power. Now, we can experience some degree of independence, but all human beings are, to some degree, dependent and interdependent. In order for a nation to be independent, it must possess all the resources necessary to sustain life. In many areas of the world, possess the necessary resources to sustain life. In many areas, don't. But you've got to have food, clothing, shelter, and water. These are absolute necessities. You also have to have cultivatable land and a favorable climate for a food supply. You also need the seas. There are many aspects that go into being a self-sustaining or independent nation. The United States of America possesses more than necessities for a high standard of living than any nation on the face of the earth. Until a large degree, it's just here. It's by nature what was here. God placed the Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean, the Gulf of Mexico, the Pacific Ocean, the many rivers and streams, all the fertile land, and everything that you see.

A nation akin to what God said He was giving to Israel when He led Israel into the Promised Land at the hand of Moses, later Joshua. A land flowing with milk and honey. There's never been such a land in the sense of being able to sustain itself. Yet, with each passing day, we become more dependent and interdependent on the other nations of the world. And it's by design.

Satan, according to 2 Corinthians 4,4, is the God of this world. And you remember, and I've reminded you in sermons already, where Satan took Christ up onto this high mountain, showed Him the kingdom to the world, said, All these will I give you if you bow down and worship Me. See, we lost our independence a long time ago.

And I might add, we lost our innocence and self-respect.

It took five years of bloody battles against the British forces of King George III.

And for those of you who might think that I'm anti-British, my mother's maiden name is Eunice English.

I am English, Scots, and Irish by descent.

The British, unfortunately, have gone the way of the rest of flesh, along with the U.S. But anyhow, it took five bloody years for the Revolutionary Army, under the leadership of George Washington, to finally attain what's called independence, that battle where Corvallis surrendered at Yorktown. However, the French also played a mighty role in us attaining our independence. The Founding Fathers left one legacy, however, that should not be celebrated on Independence Day, which affects us all, and it grows every day. It's to the point that it's almost meaningless to repeat the number of trillions of dollars that the United States owes.

The United States will never pay its debt. There is no way. We could hardly even pay the interest on the national debt. Do you know one of the main reasons why the interest on the national debt is so high? Most people don't even know this, that upon the creation of the Federal Reserve, basically all the monies that go into circulation in the United States are borrowed into circulation, the exception being the hard money, the coins. Congress passes an act of x million or billion to do a certain project. Then they borrow that money, and it's borrowed in the form of U.S. Treasury notes and bonds, and it's borrowed from the Federal Reserve at the prime rate.

So we're not really borrowing from ourselves, we're borrowing from an independent group of bankers that have the title Federal Reserve. That would be a key word I would pursue. The United States went into the red the first time in 1790 when it assumed 75 billion in war debts of the Continental Congress. Alexander Hamilton, the first Treasury Secretary, said, and listen to this quote, a national debt, if not excessive, will be to us a national blessing.

Some blessing. Since then, the nation has only been free of debt one time, 1834 to 1835, and guess who was President of the U.S. at that time? It was old Hickory Andrew Jackson from Tennessee. After the war, we'll a little more about that in a moment, after the war, Washington and his aide Alexander Hamilton knew that the 13 states, while politically independent, were dependent on Europe for the necessities of their national life. So many of the things were manufactured, even clothing and other necessities for life were being still being imported from Europe. And as noted earlier, without French ships and guns, French muskets and troops, the Americans could not have forced General Cornvallis to surrender Yorktown. At the Constitutional Convention of 1787, both Washington and Hamilton were determined to make America's political independence permanent and began to try to cut the umbilical cord from Europe.

Of course, Britain has never accepted the fact that the United States claims to be an independent nation. And you know about the so-called War of 1812, which was actually fought in 1814, where the British once again tried to bring America back into its sphere, into its empire.

In the Constitution that came out of the Convention, the states were prohibited from imposing any tariffs on the products from other states. So interstate commerce flowed freely. You could have trade between Georgia, the Carolinas, Virginia, and all the way up into New England. No tariffs, thus creating the greatest common market in history, eventually, the United States of America. Second, the U.S. government was empowered to raise revenue by imposing tariffs on foreign goods, but explicitly denied the power to impose taxes on the incomes of American citizens.

So we have come to the point that we are taxed beyond belief. Income tax, one of the things of all the things that get me in addition to income tax is property tax. You don't really own the place, I guess, even if you so-called have paid off your mortgage, they can get your place if you don't pay the taxes.

Now the president, of course this began with, to a large degree, with Reagan, and then continued with the succeeding presidents of Bush and then Clinton and George Bush Jr. and continues today with Mr. Obama. And that is so-called free trade, free market system, supply and demand economic self-regulating markets are ways to economic prosperity. Well, it wasn't for the fact that you have these mega-corporations who basically the wealth of the world is owned by about 500 corporations. And some of these mega-corporations can develop a monopoly on almost anything that you want to name. So yeah, I shop at Walmart, the Chinese supermarket of the world.

I guess if you can't beat them, join them. Bananas, just what I've noticed here, since being here, groceries are a lot less expensive in the Houston area. Bananas, they're 44 cents a pound. They recently went up there to 46.

So I go into into Brookshire's here, bananas 59 cents a pound. Tropicana orange juice, the 290s in Houston. At Brookshire's, it's in the 350s to 370. Kroger 336 yesterday. And then several other things that you can name.

What the free market thing has done as it resulted and the doing away with government regulations is that it enabled these corporations to develop monopolies around the world. And the mom and pop businesses and all that were squeezed out of operation.

And then in addition to that, you had, of course, the unions. And I am for unions up to a certain degree. See, my daddy was a working man. And the early part of his life after marriage, if you got married, my mother and so on, we were on the farm. And eventually, after World War II, industry came to the south.

And so you go to work in the mills and they will pay you a meager wage. You've seen the movies about the unions and all of that. See, for anything, though, your potential strongest point is potentially your weakest point from our own personalities, talents, and abilities to that of business and corporations and so on and unions.

So we came to the point with unions in the steel industry, the automobile industry, that people working in the steel mills in Pennsylvania, and the automobile factories in Detroit and so on, a lot of those workers making more than PhDs in physics because of the unions. And then the corporations, they want the profit. And so what has happened is that now these corporations have gone abroad, the cheap labor abroad.

Globalization and world community are now the watchwords of the day. The nations of the world have returned to the Tower of Babel. English is the language of Babylon, with over 70 percent of the world's business conducted in English, and about 70 percent of the material on the internet is in English.

Most Americans are not aware of it, and if aware, have not accepted the reality of globalization. In simplest terms, globalization means that the world's economies are linked together. The elite have created a system in which the nations are dependent and interdependent on each other. So a few years ago, we go looking for another car. We say, oh, it was back during another energy crunch. So maybe we're going to get a Volkswagen. Good gas mileage. So we go look at the Volkswagen. Great German engineering, great all of this. From Germany, you know how skilled and industrious the Germans are.

You heard all that line before, and so you look at it. My wife was looking there. The engine was made in Japan. It was assembled in Mexico. I probably never saw the light of day in Germany. My claim, it was a German engineered. Oh, by the way, here is, I guess, about the most meaningful definition of globalization you can find. What is the truest definition of globalization? Well, the answer is the details that surround Princess Diana's death. How come?

An English princess with an Egyptian boyfriend crashes in a French tunnel, driving a German car with a Dutch engine, driven by a Belgian who was drunk on Scottish whiskey, followed closely by Italian paparazzi on Japanese motorcycles, treated by an American doctor using Brazilian medicines. This is said to you by an American using Bill Gates technology. You're probably reading this on your computer that uses Taiwanese chips and a Korean monitor assembled by Bangladesh workers in a Singapore plant, transported by Indian truck drivers, hijacked by Indonesians, unloaded by Sicilian longshoremen, and trucked to you by Mexican illegals.

That, my friends, is globalization. As globalization progresses, Americans are taxed and controlled more and more with each passing day. We have become, again, a dependent nation. We have borrowed from China and Japan to the point that we're awash in red ink with the government talking about defaulting on its debts. There's a big controversy going on in Congress now between the Republicans and the Democrats as to whether or not they're going to extend the debt limit. And they say, if you don't extend the debt limit, then you default on your debt.

As I mentioned earlier, the truth is, and we all know it, the national debt will never be paid off. We borrow from China to buy Chinese goods. So go to Walmart, go to Lowe's, go to Home Depot, go to any of these mega centers and see if you can buy something made in the U.S. It is possible, but it won't be. It'll be a chore. We are as dependent on borrowing as we are on foreign oil, with Japan and China holding billions in U.S.

reserve currencies. According to the Treasury Department, which updates the number to the penny every few days, the national debt, and this was some time ago, there's no need to read that figure. It's $11 trillion, $518 billion, $4,000 and on and on it goes. Technically, we are at the mercy of foreign lenders, so why doesn't the U.S. economy collapse in on itself? That's the $64,000 question that you used to say. Of course, that's just chicken feet in today's quiz shows. The answer lies in this story. There is an old monkey tail from Africa that is very pertinent to the world's financial system. The tail tells us of how the native hunters there use a special jar to catch wild monkeys.

When a monkey sees a hunter approaching, she instinctively climbs up the nearest tree. The hunter then places an earthen jar very happy at the base of the tree, along with a handful of rice inside the jar.

Then he walks away and hides nearby. Eventually, the monkey climbs down from the tree and curiosity takes over. The monkey smells the rice inside the jar and instinctively shoves his or her hand inside to grab a handful of rice. The hunter who is watching this scene immediately walks toward his captive. The monkey sees the hunter coming but discovers that he cannot pull his hand out from the heavy jar while holding the fistful of rice. He cannot put these two facts together. As the hunter gets closer and closer, the monkey struggles frantically trying to escape, but in vain, cannot escape because the monkey won't let go of the handful of rice. In the end, the result is quite predictable. All is lost. The monkey is caught, along with the original handful of rice in the jar.

For the nations, corporations, and individuals struggling to survive, the rice is the credit or money that is loaned to them by the government or the banks. And of course, when the money gets tight, the economy slows down. The Great Depression, you had the same resources, you had the same manpower as you had before it began, did not have the medium of exchange. The system is designed by the financial system to enslave the world, and it has. You and I. Basically, every person on earth is enslaved by this system. Oh yes, there are wars, rumors of wars. There are people dying today. Probably some have been killed in Afghanistan or Pakistan or Iraq or Syria or Libya or some other place. And they're fighting to a loss, many of them, in the name of freedom. You know, George Bush's mantra of, it is the God-given right of every person to enjoy freedom.

People of the world have been enslaved without the bankers firing a shot. As you know, the real battles has to do with controlling the world's gold and is being waged every day in the great financial centers of the world. What are the great financial centers of the world? New York, London, Paris, Frankfurt. And then you go to the east, Hong Kong. If you ever get a chance to go to Hong Kong, go there. Singapore, to some degree Beijing, Tokyo, and back to the U.S. The age-old adage of, he who controls the gold makes the rules is as true today as it ever was. So who is the author of this system? Of course, it's Satan, the devil. So as we look at our world today, we must never forget that spiritual warfare is being waged in high places. Now we turn back from Hebrews to Ephesians 6 and verse 10. Ephesians 6 and verse 10. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. What is one of the main wiles of the devil? In these temptations that Satan brought to Christ, turn the stones into bread, jump off the pinnacle of the temple, or I'll give you the kingdoms of the world. So, see, the main thing has to do with, and what was the requirement to have the kingdoms of the world? It was to worship Satan. Satan is on an insatiable quest to be worshiped. And when this evil system that Satan has designed reaches its zenith, its pinnacle, it says in Revelation 13, 8, that all the world wandered after the beast. And everyone whose name was not written in the Lamb's Book of Life would be deceived. Who are you going to worship? We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Now we go to Revelation 13, 8, that I loosely paraphrased. Revelation 13 and verse 8. Revelation 13 verse 8. And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him. So he eventually, for a short season, reaches this age-old desire to be worshiped, to break prophecy. But he won't break prophecy, because we already know what's going to happen. And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the Book of Life of the Lamb, slain from the foundation of the world.

If any man have an ear, let him hear. Satan has not been deterred from his insatiable quest to thwart the plan of God, become the object of worship, with the ultimate goal of destroying humankind. His plan continues to move along seemingly unabated. Who will stand in the gap? Who will cry aloud and spare not? But never forget that Satan can only do what God allows him to do. Let's go back to Galadians. Galadians chapter 1 verse 13. Remember that what we read from Hebrews 1.3, that by the word of his power he upholds all things. Galadians 1.13, who had delivered us from the power of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of his dear son, in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins, who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature. For by him are all things created that are in heaven, that are in earth, visible, invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created by him and for him, and he is before all things. And by him, all things consist. So God is still in control, and God is in charge, as we say. And it seemed that for a long time, God placed a hedgerow against around the United States. For several decades, the United States enjoyed a modicum of independence, but greed, jealousy, the lush for power is a powerful seductress. We see it even in the Church of God.

Remember 1 Timothy 6, verse 6. Let's go there. 1 Timothy, Pastor Olapistol, Paul writing to the young evangelist, Timothy. 1 Timothy 6, verse 6. But godliness with contentment is great gain. Oh, if we could be content. We cannot be content. There is no telling, and I know people who have attended church in the Big Sandy area in decades past. If they had been content with what they had, where would they be today? Millionaires, maybe billionaires. But we have a tendency to overextend. 2 Timothy 6, verse 6. Godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world. It is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment let us therewith be content. But they that will be rich fall into temptation and to snare and into many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil which some coveted after they have erred from the faith, pierced themselves through with many sorrows. See, Paul says they erred from the faith. They erred from the faith. They were church members. But you, O man of God, flee these things and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. Fight the good fight of faith. Lay hold on eternal life. Profess a good profession before many witnesses.

I don't guess I've ever told this and I don't know why it just popped into my mind at this particular point. But before the infamous sermon that was given here on December the 24th, 1994, the pastor general went to Atlanta, Georgia to give a sermon, one of which he said he called me on Friday morning before he left. He wanted, I guess, to fill me up. Where did I stand?

And he talked about something that wasn't really the reason why he called was an excuse for calling. But anyhow, he came down to I got two sermons in my hand. One Matthew 5, think not that one jot or tittle will be erased from the law. Which sermon was given here up at the Field House or played up there in November of 1994.

And the other sermon about basically that the law is done away with. He said, if I give the sermon on Matthew 5, I'm told that half the congregation will walk. And if I give the sermon on the other topic, I forgot what he called it. I call it the law is done away with. The other half will walk. Oh, you know, it's like, what am I going to do? I'm in great torment. And I wrote him after the conversation, I wrote him these verses we just read right here about laying hold on eternal life. Of course, a lot of people don't lay hold on eternal life. They want something else. The Bible makes it clear that in the last days, the rich will be oppressing the poor, and the cries of the oppressed is one of the elements that moves God to intervene. Let's go to James chapter 5. You may not think of James as a book on prophecy, but one of the most important prophecies understanding prophecy in our world today is found in James 5. In James chapter 5, "...go to now, you rich men, weep and howl, for your miseries that shall come upon you." I've forgotten exactly what the percentage of the wealth is, but it's way over half of the world's wealth is managed by 2% of the world's population.

Your riches are corrupted and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver is cankered, and the rest of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. You have heaped treasure together for the last days.

Behold, the hire of the laborers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, cries, and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the eternal of Sabooth. It is said that over 50% of the world's population go to bed hungry every night while we are awash in food.

I'm sort of camping out at the place as we are doing right now.

Not having the full store of groceries or utensils, we've eaten out quite a bit. Riots. Go to riots.

It's a high class place.

Go to riots, and I'm telling you, my eyes always exceed my stomach there, and I pile it on. You know, it's about like that, like that. I don't eat it all. I tell myself, I'm going to eat it, and then the plate before you eat weighs five pounds, and then after you eat weighs two pounds. So here's two pounds of food. What some people in the world would not give were that two pounds of food.

Verse five, you've lived in pleasure on the earth, have been wanting, you've nourished your hearts as in the day of slaughter. You have condemned and killed the just, and he does not resist you. Be patient, therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waits for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it until he received the early and latter rain. Be you also patient, establish your heart, for the coming of the Lord draws nigh. See, one of the things that gets the attention of God and that the coming of the Lord draws nigh, you look at verse four, the cries of those who have reaped your fields have entered into the Lord, in the years, the Lord of Saboa.

God is not going to let this go on forever. Satan appeals to greed, to jealousy, the lust of power that is inherent in human nature to seduce the sons of men. Many of the men who set out to make the world a better place are driven by good intentions, but apart from God, all of our righteousness is as filthy rags. Good works will never save the world, but it doesn't mean you shouldn't do good works. Satan hates sovereign and independent nations and individuals. Over the millennium centuries, we have seen and heard of wars and rumors of war, kingdom against kingdom, nation against nation. But of all these wars, all of these wars, they did little to return the people of the world to Babylon to bring them together so they would be dependent and interdependent. In fact, many of these wars Hitler thought he was going to conquer the world and bring all the nations of the world together.

And there have been many other attempts to develop the Third Reich or the Fourth Reich or whatever you want to call it, and they have been unsuccessful. So how do you get people to return to the Tower of Babel? Perhaps some insight can be gleaned from the motivation of the people to build the First Tower of Babel. They were fearful that they would be scattered abroad, not be able to make it on their own. They traded independence for dependence and interdependence. So let's go to Genesis 10, and after the flood, we see what happened there. After the flood, Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and it was one of one of the grandsons, the son of Ham, Nimrod, that became a mighty hunter before the Lord, which basically means in place of God. In Genesis 10, verse 1, the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and under them were sons born after the flood, and it names them.

And we come down to verse 8, and Cush begot Nimrod. He began to be a mighty one in the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord, wherefore it is said, even as Nimrod, the mighty hunter before the Lord, and the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Ibrech, and Akkad, Calna, and the land of Shinar. The land of Shinar is the land of Babel, as we shall see.

Then we go to chapter 11, verse 1. And the whole earth was of one language and of one speech, and it came to pass as they journeyed from the east that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there. And they said one to another, Go let us make brick and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone and slime they had for mortar. And they said, Go, let us build us a city and a tower whose top may reach into the heaven. Let us make us a stone. Let us make us a name that we may not be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. Verse 4 is very important to understand because basically verse 4 is in rebellion against what God intended in chapter 10, which we went from chapter 10 to there. Now we go back to chapter 10, and we notice in chapter 10 with regard to what God did. In verse 12 of chapter 10, and risen between Nineveh and Calvary, the same as a great city, and it goes on talking about the various ones that descended from Noah. And we come to verse 25, And unto Eber were born two sons, the name of one was Peleg, for in his day was the earth divided, and his brother's name was Joktan. And then verse 32, sort of a summary verse, these are the families of the sons of Noah, after their generations, in their nations, and by these were the nations divided in the earth, after the flood. For there are 70 families there, and God gave them their various inheritances on the face of the earth. Now in rebellion against that, and in view of that, they said, let us go and build this tower. We do not want to be scattered abroad over the face of the earth. In verse 5, And the Lord came down to see the city, this is chapter 11 again, the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children and men built, and the Lord said, Behold the people, there's one, they have all one language. This they begin to do, and now nothing will be restrained from them which they have imagined to do, so let us go down, and their confounder language, that they may not understand one another's speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad from there upon the face of all the earth, and they left off to build the city. Therefore is the name of it called Babel, because the Lord did their confound the languages of all the earth, and from there did the Lord scattered them abroad upon the face of all the earth. Now quickly to Deuteronomy 32.8. See, he gave them an inheritance over the face of the earth. They rebelled against that. They said, No, we want to be protected by Nimrod. We want his security. We don't want to be out on our own. We don't want to be independent. Apparently, they want to be deepened. So you see various situations that have arisen in the world in recent times in which terrorist activities have resulted in increasingly restrictive laws and doing away with some of the rights of the public in the United States. In Deuteronomy 32, in verse 8, when the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel. The number of that had harkens back to when Jacob went down into Egypt, 70 families there in Genesis chapter 10. So God is the author of sovereign nations. In order to bring the peoples of the world back to the Tower of Babel, Satan has to make the peoples of the world dependent and interdependent. And that's what's happening. In fact, it has happened.

So how do you make the peoples of the world dependent and interdependent? Simple. Through economic globalization, dependency on fossil fuels, the next big step is to control the world's food supply. And Monsanto has basically developed a monopoly and just go on your internet, write down Monsanto, M-O-N-S-A-T-O, and seeds have developed a monopoly on seeds. You've got to have seeds to plant crops. So one of the next big steps is to control the world's food supply. Of course, to say this is simple, it's not the case that all many factors have come into play in order for this world to be made into a so-called global community. Once again, the great motivating factors are greed, jealousy, lust for power, and, most importantly and significantly, Satan's insatiable quest to be worshipped.

Why weren't alternative energy solutions pursued with great urgency after the Arab oil embargo of the 1970s? Forty-one years ago, almost, for sure in the 30 years. Remember Jimmy Carter's line that the energy situation is the moral equivalent of war as we crept along on the interstate at 55 miles an hour with demigramming like a chest or a cat. That's demicata. And it saved the world.

Why have so many U.S. corporations outsourced their manufacturing to foreign nations? Why have they even outsourced service and technical support service to foreign currencies? My computer goes down and I call India.

Hello, this is George speaking to you from India. Well, I can't blame the Indians.

If there is no emerging New World Order, what is global governance all about?

Of course, one of the big things has to do with the profit margin. Who are the big movers and shakers? Obviously, it is those. The heavyweights, the elite, who push for global government. Remember, one cannot create a global economy without global government to manage, oversee, and control it. So we have seen within the administration of Mr. Obama, to a large degree, we all must admit that he inherited many, much of this, from the former administration having to do with the automobile industry and other main and the banking industry in the U.S. And so the government took over, basically, the main automobile manufacturing companies, the big three or big four, however many you want to name, but especially big three. And also, to a large degree now, has taken over the banking situation.

In a letter written to Colonel E. Mandel House, who served in Franklin Delano Roosevelt's administration, Roosevelt wrote the following. Quote, the real truth of the matter is, as you and I know, and of course House was a one-worlder and did much to try to overthrow the sovereignty of the U.S., the real truth of the matter is, as you and I know, that a financial element in the large centers has owned the government of the U.S. since the days of Andrew Jackson. End of quote. Now, what did Andrew Jackson do? See, there was a great debate at the beginning of the U.S. with regard to whether there would be a great central bank that Hamilton wanted, or whether there would be a bank that was more controlled by the apocalypse. And eventually, of course, there was a duel in which Hamilton was killed, not necessarily just over this issue. But Andrew Jackson did his best to rid the United States from the death grip that the international bankers were beginning to exert on the country. He may have been the last president to actually oppose the bankers. In discussing the banking renewal bill with the delegation of bankers in 1832, Jackson said the following. Quote, gentlemen, I have men, I have had men watching you for a long time, and I am convinced that you have used the funds of the bank to speculate in the breadstuffs of the country. See, that's what the banks did in the 80s and the 90s in bringing on this calamity after the turn of the century of speculating hedge funds and all kinds of various financial instruments trying to get ahead of the game and using your money. And when they lose your money, then they want you to pay their debt. And we do.

I am convinced that you have used the funds of the bank to speculate in the breadstuffs of the country. When you won, you divided the profits amongst you. When you lost, you charged it to the bank. You tell me that if I take the deposits from the bank in a nullish charter, I shall ruin 10,000 families. That may be true, gentlemen, but that is your sin. Should I let you go on, you will ruin 50,000 families. And that would be my sin. You are a den of vipers and thieves. I intend to rout you out, and by the eternal God, I will rout you out. Unfortunately, the international bankers proved themselves to be too formidable for Jackson and succeeding presidents. And in 1913, with the collaboration of Woodrow Wilson, the bankers were given charge over America's financial system by the creation of the Federal Reserve. Why have they created an independent central banking system to control the financial system of the U.S. and have the audacity to call it the Federal Reserve System? The U.S. government, as we've already noted, borrows money from the Federal Reserve at the going rate. And this is why we can't forgive our national debt. We didn't borrow it from ourselves. We borrowed it from the Federal Reserve, and we printed the so-called U.S. Treasury notes. Why do we borrow from the Chinese and Japanese is because they bought up those notes and hold those currencies, quote, and reserve. So we could go on and on, but hopefully we get the picture. All of this is to cut off your nose and spot your face. England's former Prime Minister Tony Blair said in 1999, we are all internationalists now, whether we like it or not. He continued saying, on the eve of a new millennium, we're now in a new world. We need new rules for international cooperation, new ways of organizing our international institutions. He also said, quote, today the impulse towards independence is, I'm sorry, interdependence. The impulse toward interdependence is immeasurably greater. We are witnessing the beginning of a new doctrine of international community. In 1999, later, Blair said globalization has transformed our economies and our working practices, but globalization is not just economic. It is also a political and security phenomenon. So the United States today does not go to war just in the name of the U.S. We have resolutions passed by the U.N. And then, after resolutions are passed by the U.N., and as NATO agrees, then we may take action. And then, of course, there's what's called executive orders in which the presidents in recent times have sidestepped Congress in taking certain actions abroad. And one of the latest, of course, is the intervention in Libya. Yet in the good old U.S.A., the land of the free and the home of the brave, our people are more infatuated with the behavior of celebrities and well-known murder trials than their concern with the continuing loss of national sovereignty and independence.

The other people will go out on Monday, probably begin tomorrow night. Some have already begun. If it's not too dry, they'll shoot a lot of fireworks, eat a lot of hot dogs, do a lot of talk and drink a lot of beer. They're celebrating Independence Day.

The very people who are destroying national sovereignty will parrot a few meaningless words and continue to do the work of the devil. So, brethren, here we are. What is the way to true independence?

There is a way Jesus Christ gave us the way. If you would, turn to John 8, verse 32.

John 8 and verse 32. When I stepped onto the campus of Delta State University, I was struck by an inscription over the door. It wasn't the main door, it was a side door, the Hall of Administration, which read, it was a quote that said, The state hath decreed that only free men shall be educated, hearkening back to ancient Greece, where only the free man could be educated. So the state hath decreed that only the free man should be educated, but God hath decreed that only educated men are free. I never forgot that quote. It became a part of my philosophy of education. I used it many times over the years at Ambassador, and also with regard to coming to understand what a true liberal arts education is. So many of the church members think, and other people, that liberal arts means a wide smattering of a lot of subjects, so that you are, quote, liberally educated in a lot of things. That's not what it's about. It comes from the word libidre, which means to set free. To set free. Liberty. You know, when the final day of atonement is literally fulfilled, now on the 50th year, the grand jubilee, that's when the day of atonement, that's when the jubilee was declared on the day of atonement, every 50 years. And one of the things it says in Leviticus is, let liberty be proclaimed throughout the land. So if we want to be free from this world system, from this Babylonian system, we have to know the truth. Christ says here, John 8, 32, and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. But you notice verse 31, that that is conditioned upon, then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, if you continue in my word, then you are my disciples indeed. And see, if you're doing the truth, if you're walking in the perfect law of liberty, there is a great liberties. What is the greatest liberty, freedom that we can experience? Is it political freedom? Political freedom is good, I guess you would say. Is it civil rights? God is not a respecter of persons.

Just because of the color of a person's skin or that kind of thing, it should not be denied the civil rights. See, the greatest freedom is to know the answers of the great questions of life. Who is God? What is God? What is His purpose? Who is man? What is man? What is His purpose?

You see, the greatest freedoms of all, to be able to answer these seven great questions of life and also to do them. And then going above and beyond that, and as a part of that, is to be free from sin and death, to be set free in every sense of the word. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. And another verse says, and if the Son sets you free, you shall be free indeed. It's the opportunity to have this great knowledge, to walk in the perfect law of liberty of God's law. It is to be free from fear, ignorant superstition, and the dogmas of men.

The truth of God provides us with a true liberal arts education, the path to true freedom, love, joy, and peace. So here we are on the eve of the eve of Independence Day 2011.

Knowing that we must lift our eyes to the hills and depend on God for deliverance. And let's read that psalm as we close. Psalm 121.

Through my life, I've been a fiercely patriotic person. I'm one who used to stand on the sidelines, dating back to the days of high school football, college coaching, and so on and so on. We did it at the ambassador before the basketball games. We played the national anthem and you'd feel the hair on the nape of your neck maybe stand up. But see, no political government, no civil government, no army, no military can really bring you what God can. Psalm 121. I will lift up my eyes into the hills from whence comes my help.

My help comes from the Lord which made heaven and earth.

He will not suffer your foot to be moved. He that keeps you will not slumber. Behold, he that keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is your keeper. The Lord is your shade upon your right hand.

The sun shall not smite you by day nor the moon by night. The Lord shall preserve you from all evil. He shall preserve your life essence. The Lord shall preserve your goings out and your comings in. From this time forth and even forevermore.