Proclaim Liberty | James Buntrock

Ahead of Independence Day, this message is about remembering what God has done, for Israel and for this nation, so it can be passed down to the next generation. Drawing from Psalm 78, Psalm 103, and Exodus 3, it traces God's deliverance of the oppressed from Egypt through the American founding, tying the Mayflower Compact and the Declaration of Independence to that same pattern of a people crying out and God answering, then moves through Leviticus 25 and the idea of Jubilee, noting that America is currently in its fifth fifty year cycle, which leads into the shared death date of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson on the nation's 50th anniversary, John Quincy Adams calling the Declaration the nation's Ark of the Covenant, and a walk through the symbolism of the Great Seal, including the lesser known, more overtly biblical designs proposed by Franklin and Jefferson, before closing in Luke 4 and Galatians 5, connecting Jesus proclaiming liberty to the captives with the nation's own story of freedom, and calling for restoring religion and morality as the real foundation rather than adding more laws.

Transcript

Opening Prayer Over The Word

SPEAKER_00 0:01

But as is our custom here, let's hold up our Bibles and you're already seated, but let's just hold them up and let's honor God and say these words after me. Heavenly Father, thank you for your holy written word. Holy Spirit, I invite you to breathe life on this word. Make it come alive to me. Fill me with your word. Fill me with your anointing. I'll be faithful to speak this word and to be a doer of this word wherever I go. And I thank you for the fruit that abounds to your kingdom in Jesus' name.

Remembering God Across Generations

SPEAKER_00 0:42

Well, we're gonna start today in Psalm chapter 78, and we're gonna read a few verses out of this. So Psalm 78, verse 4, and just like we began on those Wednesday nights in Psalm 78, we're gonna do the same thing again here this morning. So Psalm 78, verse 4 says, We will not hide them, and that is God's instructions and his wonderful works that it's referring to. So we will not hide God's instructions and his wonderful works from their children, telling them the generation to come the praises of the Lord and his strength and his wonderful works he has done. For he has established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel which he commanded our fathers that they should make them known to their children, to the generation to come might know them, the children who would be born, that they may arise and declare them to their children, that they may set their hope in God and not forget the works of God. And we'll skip down to verse forty. Verse forty says, How often they provoked him in the wilderness and grieved him in the desert. Yet again and again they tempted God and limited the Holy One of Israel. They did not remember his power the day when he redeemed them from the enemy. And so we've got a condition in Israel where they saw some spectacular things. Spectacular things. I mean, I don't know how you forget that God parted the Red Sea and drowned your enemy in the water, how he led you through the desert with a pillar of fire by day and a cloud by night, how he caused water to flow out of a rock when you were thirsty, how he brought manna from heaven. He got heaven's food and had it ubered down to them in the wilderness. He took care of them and he was faithful, and he's still faithful today.

Miracles In American History

SPEAKER_00 2:54

And so over the last uh or the first three Wednesdays in June, um I presented testimonies of God and his amazing interventions throughout this nation's history. I don't want to forget what he did for us, for us in this country. We talked about how the pilgrims fled the tyrannical rule of the British king and landed, and when they landed in Plymouth, Massachusetts, how they carried that precious Bible, that Geneva Bible. And I had a Geneva Bible here from 1599, a real one. How they brought that Bible with them, how he he established or they established a covenant with God through the Mayflower Compact. And they declared their purpose for being here, for self-governance, for setting foot on these shores, uh was to under have having undertaken all for the glory of God and the furtherance of the gospel of Christ. We walked through the imagery of the very little-known large monument in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Everybody's familiar with Plymouth Rock, and we talked about the National Monument of the Founders. And if you don't know what that is, go back to these Wednesdays and pick this up because that monument preaches a sermon for this nation that this nation needs right now. And uh and it was it was constructed by the descendants of the original pilgrims. We talked about how God provided escape. So just like the Israelites, they escaped Egypt, they escaped, escaped Pharaoh with God parting the Red Sea. Um, God provided a way of escape for Washington and his 9,000 troops when he was cornered up against a river and blocked in by 32,000 troops that were much better armed. And so the miracles that we have in this nation are reminiscent of miracles that we have in this Bible. We talked about the faith of our founders, the 56 signers of the Declaration, the pastors known as the Black Robe Regiment, and Benjamin Franklin's call to prayer at the first Constitutional Convention, and how they forgot to pray, and how God graciously answered their prayers. And I got to share with you the story of Abraham Lincoln and how he got saved while looking over the battlefield at Gettysburg and seeing the graves of the soldiers there. And how he called the nation back to God with prayer, a national call to prayer. And I presented to you the uh the historical evidence that we are, in fact, a Christian nation. And we got to unravel the fallacy of the frequently parroted phrase, separation of church and state. And so you should be armed with the answers to these things and be able to help others going forward. You should be able to diffuse the fragrance of the knowledge of Christ in this nation to people who are here. And you get to hear the uh the unlikely appeal for unified prayer, someone who understood the power of unified speech and how General Patton wanted his troops to pray the same words. And he he he unified his troops in the power of prayer, and how God graciously answered those prayers and it saved the world from a domination of an evil satanic Hitler because God intervened, and so we we got to hear about these things. And then last Wednesday was the showing of the movie A Great Awakening, which is the story of George Whitfield, and we wouldn't have a nation if it weren't for him. Um, why do I say that? Because he preached the gospel to the point that people came alive, they woke up, they climbed out of their graves, not literally but figuratively. They woke up to the truth of God's word. And Benjamin Franklin said he was the revolution. In other words, we wouldn't have that revolution without the gospel being preached. We wouldn't have the awakening without the gospel being preached. And so we're continuing in that celebration of our 250th birthday of this nation.

Declaration Principles And Self-Governance

SPEAKER_00 6:41

And uh and that that began with the document of the Declaration of Independence. And the second paragraph of that document reads, We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal and that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights. Among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, having derived their just powers from the consent of the governed. The just powers from the consent of the governed. That's self-governance. When the just powers come from the consent, the authority of the governed. That's self-governance. That's not a king. And so it's the opposite of a king. How many know that a king was not God's plan for man? You know, he warned the Israelites. He warned them in 1 Samuel chapter 8 that a king would take their sons to war, force their daughters into servitude, confiscate their best lands, tax their crops and their livestock, and turn them into slaves. And that's what kings do. Well, that's what most kings do. That's what earthly kings do. We have a king of kings and a lord of lords, and his name is Jesus, and he didn't come to bring bondage, he came to set people free. And so the people would be reduced to serving the king's interests. And God said in that in that passage there, when they cried for relief from their burdens that they had chosen, God would not answer them because they had chosen their own penalty, their own punishment, their own faith. But this nation began with the rejection of the earthly king. That's scriptural. This nation began with that. And that our rights come from God. And that among those rights are life. Jesus came to give life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness. And Washington declared that for our constitutional republic, it's not a democracy. People confuse this nation with a democracy, but it's a representative form of government, it's a constitutional democracy. And George Washington said in order for this to work, religion and morality are indispensable supports. They are foundational. And so if we have problems in this nation, it's probably we better check the foundation. Jay was talking about an inspection report on real estate last week. And if there's a problem with the foundation, we better fix it. And I can tell you there's some problems with our foundation right now. And we've got to go back and shore these things up. Religion and morality. John Adams said that our constitution was only meant for a religious and moral people and is wholly inadequate to the that of any other. And John Adams was the second president of our of our of our state, I mean of our of our nation

Founders On Devotion And Freedom’s Cost

SPEAKER_00 9:35

here. And uh I've got a quote from a letter that he wrote to his wife Abigail. And he wrote this letter on the day after, so little timeline lesson for you here. Uh, Congress voted to declare independence on July 2nd, 1776. So the vote was taken on July 2nd, and then they took a few days to pin the words and get it just right, and then the declaration uh was adopted by Congress on July 4th, and then eventually they got all the signatures on there. Uh I think it was the next month. So on July 3rd, in the middle of this, Congress has just voted to declare independence. They voted and passed this on July 3rd. He writes these words to his letter, to his to his wife, and he says that this day ought to be commemorated as a day of deliverance. And how do we commemorate this day? By solemn acts of devotion to God. He included some other things in there. He said it ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade and shows and games and sports and guns and bonfires and illuminations and Air Force flyovers and Navy flyovers and tall ship festivals and New York Harbor and all these things from this time forward and forevermore. And that's all good. And we ought to celebrate in a big way. But number one, he said it ought to be commemorated as a day of deliverance by solemn acts of devotion to God. That's number one. A year later, he wrote another letter to his wife. You know, why did he write letters? Because he was an important guy and he's traveling around different places and she wasn't with him. But uh on April 26, 1777, he wrote another letter to her, and at the end of his letter, he closed with this. He said, posterity. So how many know he's what posterity is? That's us. That's the descendants of everyone from that day. So he's talking to us. He said, posterity, you will never know how much it cost the present generation to preserve your freedom. I see, he said, I hope you will make good use of it. If you do not, I shall repent in heaven that I ever took half the pains to preserve it. That's a warning to us today. He was writing in his letter to his wife that day, but he was addressing us, posterity, you will never know how much it costs this present, this present generation to preserve your freedom, to preserve our freedom. Like we can watch movies, there's a movie out, the young George Washington, you can watch things on the revolution, and you can get an idea of it, but you will never completely wholly understand what it truly cost for our freedom today. And people have been praying, paying a price throughout history to preserve the freedom. You know, it's one thing to preserve it, it's another thing to obtain it for the first time. So let's look at Psalm 103.

God’s Benefits And Justice For Oppressed

SPEAKER_00 12:40

Psalm 103, verse 1. We're going to read the first eight verses. It said, Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not his benefits, who forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from destruction, who crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies, who satisfies your mouth with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagles. The Lord executes righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the children of Israel. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in mercy. I'm so glad he had mercy in there twice. Because we need his mercy. But it said in there in verse 6, the Lord executes righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. He executed righteousness and justice for the Puritans who were oppressed under the earthly king's rule in England. He executed righteousness and justice. The result of that righteousness and justice was the birth of this nation. Let's look at Exodus chapter 3. We're going to flip around in a few verses today. Exodus chapter 3, verse 1. It says, Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian. And he led the flock back to the desert and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire amidst a bush. So he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed. Then Moses said, I will now turn aside to see this great sight, why this bush does not burn. So when the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and says, Moses, Moses. And Moses' response was, Here I am. When God's calling you, your response had better be, Here I am. And the Lord, it's it, and then it said, uh Then he said, Do not draw near this place, take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground. Moreover, he said, I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face and was afraid to look upon God. And the Lord said, I have surely seen the oppression of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and bring them up from the land to a good land, a large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Ammunites, the Perizzites, the Hyavites, the Jebuzites, if your pastored here, he'd say the Bud Lites and the Seleelites. Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come to me, and I have so seen the oppression of which the Egyptians oppressed them. Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh, that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt. The Israelites were oppressed, and they called their oppressors the taskmasters, and God heard their cries. When there is an oppression, God hears the cries of the oppressed. And he said, I am come down to deliver them.

Jubilee And Proclaiming Liberty

SPEAKER_00 16:22

So let's go to a fun chapter, a fun book. Leviticus. We don't ever get to read anything out of Leviticus around here. Leviticus 25. I'll give you a couple of minutes to find it. It's right after Exodus. And before numbers. Verse 8. Genesis, Leviticus 25, 8, and it says, And you shall count seven Sabbaths of years for yourself, seven times seven, and the time of seven Sabbaths of years shall be to you forty-nine years. Then you shall cause the trumpet of the Jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month on the day of atonement, and you shall make the trumpet to sound throughout all your land, and you shall consecrate the fiftieth year to proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, and each shall return to his possession, and each of you shall return to his family. So in the culture of the Israelites, if the Israelites were there was a we call it indentured servitude, but you know, sometimes people were sold into slavery for a period of time. Maybe they had a debt to pay, maybe they borrowed and they couldn't pay, and so they had a period of time to work. The period of time that they were allowed was seven years, and then they were set free. So God instituted this practice with the Israelites so that nobody would be in bondage for eternity, but it was a debt that was paid, and when it was done, it wasn't owed anymore. And so there was a freedom, there was liberty proclaimed throughout the land after the seventh year. And so he's talking about a special thing here that you should, he's calling this the Jubilee, the seven sets of seven years. So that's 49 years. And in the 50th year, you shall proclaim liberty throughout all the land, all its inhabitants. He said you should commemorate that as a day of deliverance with solemn acts of devotion to God. And that during that Jubilee, you ought to have pomp and parade and shows and games and sports and guns and fireworks and flyovers and tall ships and all those things. You shall celebrate that in the 50th year. You know, in Bible math, when I look at how old this nation is, we are in the fifth Jubilee celebration of this nation. We are in the fifth, fiftieth year. And we ought to celebrate. And we are celebrating. And we have been, and I don't think it ought to end today. I think we ought to continue to remember God's works, his goodness, his faithfulness. We ought to remember his favor upon this nation, what he's done for us, and to continue to teach this and to tell this to our children and to their children, and to the, if you're a great grandma to their children, and never forget, we need to continue to do this. This is the fifth, fiftieth year, and it's a Jubilee celebration for this nation today.

Independence Forever And A Providential Day

SPEAKER_00 19:17

And so I've got a, you won't be able to turn there because you probably don't have it, but I've got a publication here from uh uh Hillsdale. It's called Imprimus. If you don't, I I I recommend these, and and there's there's good good nuggets of truth in here, and so Claire had read the article and she pointed me this direction. She's gonna get credit for this. But uh the article is from Christopher Flannery, and uh this was just published in the in the uh in Primus uh publication here, and in it um he's describing a scene where two presidents are really old. And so we're I'm gonna read an excerpt from this. It says John Adams left his legacy in freedom not only with his life uh but in his death. In 1826, at the age of 90, one of the surviv surviving signers of the Declaration of Independence, a former president, so we're talking about John Adams here, had an invitation from the mayor of Washington, D.C. to attend the 50th celebration, another Jubilee celebration. There's no accident. You know, God cares about numbers. He had a book called Numbers. He cared about counting people and census and years and feasts on particular days, and there was a set time, there was a Moed time for things. Things don't happen in time by accident with God. There are set marks with God. And if he calls something an important year, we ought to call it an important year. And so the 50th celebration, the Jubilee year, is an important year for us. And so here, John Adams, age of 90, he's been invited by the New York, but I'm sorry, the mayor of Washington, D.C., to attend the celebration of the 50th anniversary of America's independence. And he was old and hard to get around and not in good health, and so he declined the invitation. Um but four days uh four days before the anniversary date, um, they sent a committee to come visit him, and uh they asked him, Will you will you give us a statement to read so that we can read at this celebration? And he said, he thought for a minute and he said, I will give you independence forever. And he stopped. And they said, Would you like to add anything else? And he replied, not a word. Independence forever was his contribution to that 50th celebration of our nation's freedom. And so this same group that was planning this went to Thomas Jefferson, and he got Thomas Jefferson got the same invitation. Uh and and Thomas Thomas Jefferson, also old, was not able to attend. Um but he wrote these words, and it was quite a bit wordier than um Independence forever. Thomas Jefferson wrote this for his statement. He said, May it be to the world what I believe it will be, to some parts sooner, to others later, but finally to all. The signal of arousing men to burst the chains under which the monkish ignorance and superstition had persuaded them to blind themselves and to assume the blessings and security of self-government. All eyes are opened or opening to the rights of man. In other words, there's an awakening. We're still awakening to this. All eyes are opened or opening to the rights of man. The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favor few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately by the grace of God. In other words, all men are created equal. You're not born into kingship, you're not born into greatness, you're not born were equal. All men created equal by the and he said, These are the grounds of hope for others. For ourselves, let the annual return of this day forever refresh the recollections of these rites and the undiminished devotion to them. So that was four days before the 50th celebration.

The Declaration As A National Covenant

SPEAKER_00 23:23

On the 50th celebration, both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson left this earth. They died the same day, on the 50th Jubilee, on the 50th birthday of this nation. And John Quincy Adams, so that's the son of John Adams. John Adams was the second president of the United States. John Quincy Adams is the sixth president of the United States. John Adams, John Quincy Adams, his son, called it a manifestation of divine favor for both of these two great men to depart this earth on that 50th Jubilee celebration and continue their celebration in heaven. Daniel Webster, how many know who he is? He wrote a book of words, a lot of words. All the words. Daniel Webster, who delivered the eulogy, called it a dispensation of divine providence. For these two men to leave this earth on the 50th Jubilee celebration of this nation and continue the celebration in heaven. In a later speech, John Quincy Adams, so we're talking about the sun here, after telling the biblical story of the children of Israel and how they left Egypt and traveled through the wilderness and how God led them by a pillar of fire by night and a cloud by day and drowned the enemies in the Red Sea and all that through the wilderness and into the promised land. After he recounts the entirety of that story, John Quincy Adams gave a speech and he said these words Fellow citizens, the Ark of your covenant is the Declaration of Independence. So what was the Ark of the Covenant? The Ark of the Covenant was a box. And it was a special box that the priests would carry. And the box carried the presence of God. They couldn't touch the box or they would die. And so there were special protocols to carry this box. And wherever they carried the box, the Spirit of God led them through the Jordan River. The Jordan River parted. When they set foot into the Jordan River, it parted. The presence of God parted that river, and he led them into the promised land. It also contained the Ten Commandments, the tablets that Moses had brought down from Mount Sinai. And so it was a it was a it's called the Ark of the Covenant. And it represented the covenant that they had with God, and God was holding up his end of the covenant. And so John Quincy Adams says here, fellow citizens, the Ark of your covenant is the declaration of independence. All of your blessings would come from adherence to the Declaration's principles, and all of the curses would come from the departures of those principles. He said, Lay up these principles then in your hearts and your souls, bind them for signs upon your hands, that they might be frontlets between your eyes, teach them to your children, speaking of them when sitting in your houses, when walking by the doorway, when lying down, when rising up, write them in the door plates of your houses, upon your gates, cling to them as the issues of life, adhere to them as the cords of your eternal salvation. So your children's children, at the next return of this day of Jubilee, after a full century of experience under your national constitution, celebrate it again in full enjoyment of all the blessings recognized by this commemoration of this day, and all the blessings promised to the children of Israel as a reward for their obedience to the law of God. I mean, he's pulling scripture out and he's paralleling the Declaration of Independence with the covenant this nation has with God, and he's pulling out all the all the quotes and imageries here from Deuteronomy chapter 6 to bind God's word in your heart, to carry it with you, to talk about it, to have it in your doorways, to have it between the frontlets of your eyes, to tell your children's children, to never forget, to always speak of these things. And here he's saying the same thing of the Declaration, specifically the principles of the Declaration of Independence, which come from God's Word. It's based on God's word. And we can never forget.

Treaty Of Paris And The Great Seal

SPEAKER_00 27:23

So on July 4, 1776, after they approved the wording of the Declaration of Independence, they said we're going to have to have a national seal. Because we're going to be a nation, and every nation has a national seal. It's the coolest thing. Everybody has one, and we want to be cool kids too. So we got to, oh, it was an official thing representing the nation. And it was an official thing on documents. And so they said we've got to have a national seal. And so they put together a committee. Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams were members of that committee. And they all submitted designs a month into that process. But then, you know, we've got a major war happening, and so there were delays. So four years later, they picked up the project of, you know, we need a national seal. And so a second committee was formed. But then they didn't get it done until two years after that, a third committee was formed. And the reason they formed the third committee is because this nation was in peace talks in Paris, France. In other words, we're about to have a peace treaty signed that makes our nation a nation and puts us on the world stage equal with other nations. And so that peace treaty, and Lee, if you've got that slide, you can pull it up. That peace treaty is called, in our history books, it's called the Treaty of Paris 1783. And that doesn't do it justice. And I spoke of these things on one of the Wednesday night series. The Treaty of Paris 1783 is the treaty that ended the Revolutionary War. And again, put us on equal playing field with all of the other nations. We're negotiating from nation to nation at that level. But the actual title of that treaty is not the Treaty of Paris 1783. The actual title of that treaty is this: In the Name of the Most Holy, an undivided trinity. They titled the peace treaty document that made this nation a nation on the world stage. They titled it in the name of the most holy an undivided trinity. This day ought to be commemorated as a day of deliverance by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. In the name of the Most Holy and Undivided Trinity. That's what we'll call the treaty that made us a nation. So I don't know if you can pull those seals up. They're in an email to the sound team there. We'll skip that one and we'll move on to the next one. When they finally did have a seal, the description of the seal, it was never a piece of artwork that was submitted to Congress. That seal was a description of the artwork that was produced, but it was in word form. And so Congress has the word form of the seal that we still have today. And if you wonder what this seal looks like, you can look to the back side of the $1 bill. Because on the back side of the $1 bill, it has on the left side the front of the seal, and it has on, I'm sorry, yeah, the right side of the $1 bill. It's your right, my left. It has the front side of the seal, and on the other side, on the left side of the dollar bill, it has the back of the official U.S. seal. So if you wonder what this seal is, there it is on the one dollar. Does anybody need a dollar to look at the seal? I'm going to describe it to you in words as I'm looking at it on our one dollar bill. The $1 bill on that front seal, it has an eagle, a bald eagle. And the eagle, and this is described in Congress so that you know what this is. The symbol of the eagle is strength and power and freedom. And it's the sole supporter of the shield, indicating that the U.S. relies on its virtue, on its own virtue. The shield has 13 red and white stripes that represents the states that were joined together. The blue bar at the top symbolizes Congress holding them together. And so if you look at that, there's a shield with a blue bar and 13 red and white stripes. There's an olive branch and arrows held in the eagle's talons, and they represent power and peace, power of peace and war. The eagle's head faces to the right, and it's facing the olive branch, and it's a signal to the strong preference for peace while remaining ready to defend itself in war with the arrows. There's a constellation of 13 stars surrounded by a burst of light or glory representing the new nation taking its place among sovereign nations. Then there's the phrase e pluribus unum, which is on a scroll held by the bald eagle's beak. And the e pluribus unum emblazoned on the scroll is the Latin that translates out of many one, and it symbolizes the creation of a single, unified nation from 13 states. On the reverse side, and this gets a little bit controversial because there's all kinds of conspiracy theories about this, but you have to, you want to understand the real, you have to go to the original. And the original was a design with a written description and its symbolisms and purpose. That's what this means. You can't go assigning Masonic things or other other things to this imagery here because that's not what the intent was. It's written in Congress, it was passed by Congress. This is a record of the intent. And so on the other side of the seal is the unfinished pyramid, and it symbolizes strength, endurance, and the potential for future growth. It has the Roman numerals, which stand for 1776, the year of our independence, at the top of that pyramid, and it's an unfinished pyramid, and so we're still growing, we're still improving, we're still getting better. At the top of that pyramid is the eye enclosed in a triangle, which represents divine guidance from God. It's providence shining on the new nation. And it's based on God giving us inalienable rights that we're born with. And it's the approval of the nation's endeavor. So it's God's approval on this nation. The eye there located at the top of that pyramid. And the motto there, uh, Anuit Coeptis, which is Latin, means he, God, has favored our undertakings. God Almighty, the Creator. And they're not confusing it with other gods. It's the God of creation, it's the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It's it's the God, the Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. That God in this symbolism is showing approving of our undertakings of this nation. And then it has novus ordo seclorum, also Latin, meaning a new order of the ages. And this motto signifies the beginning of a new era for the United States in the world. It changed the world when we came on the scene. So that's it for that image right there, the seal, the front and the back, as is on the dollar. But I want you to know that there were other seals that were submitted that didn't make the cut. And I'm a little annoyed at that because both Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson used much stronger biblical imagery in the seals. But Benjamin Franklin's seal, I believe we got a picture of that one, if you can pull that one up. Benjamin Franklin's design depicted the guiding pillar of fire, showing Moses with his outstretched arms and the Egyptian army drowning in the sea. That was a strong contender to be the national seal for the United States. And Thomas Jefferson submitted one, a separate one, that showed the children of Israel being guided by the pillar of fire by night and the cloud by day through the wilderness. And so it was a very similar thing by Thomas Jefferson. What is important about this? Why are we talking about the national seals? I'm talking about this, the drafts that didn't make the cut and why these were important. Because the Puritans viewed themselves as oppressed under a sovereign king, where God heard their cries and came down and delivered them out of oppression and into the promised land, a land flowing with milk and honey and the blessings of God. That's this country. And the pilgrims, the pilgrims, the Puritans really saw themselves as that. People of that day related very much so to the Israelites and their plights, and they saw the same God as being the one who delivered them into this land. This day ought to be commemorated as a day of deliverance. The day we were delivered by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty.

Jesus’ Mission To Set Free

SPEAKER_00 36:18

Jesus began his ministry in Luke chapter 4, verse 18, he said, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, he has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. Jesus spoke those words, launched his ministry, closed the book, handed it back to the attendant. Everybody's looking at him in the synagogue there, and then he sat down and said, These scriptures have been fulfilled in your hearing today. What was he saying? He's saying, God heard the cries of the oppressed, and I am come down. I came to proclaim liberty to the captives and set at liberty those who are oppressed. That's why he came. He heard, he responded, he came, he showed up, and he started taking care of business. Jesus said that you shall know the truth. And the truth will make you free. And it's not just simply having a head knowledge of the truth, but it's taking the truth of God's word and what Jesus did and applying it in your life, putting it to work in your life. And when you put this word to work in your life, then you are truly free. And whom the Son sets free is unquestionably free. There is no doubt as to your freedom. One of the most quoted verses during colonial times was Galatians 5:1. That says, Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty whereby Christ has made you free, and do not be entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Don't go back to the trouble. The Israelites had a problem of going back to the trouble over and over and over again. And history likes to repeat itself. Why does it repeat itself? Because you forget the history. The Israelites forgot God, they forgot his wonderful works, they forgot his faithfulness, they forgot his law, they forgot his covenant, and they found themselves back into a condition of bondage. They rejected God, they wanted to have a king, to be just like all of the others, and they found themselves back in bondage. They were under a king or a Pharaoh. It was bondage. They cried out, help me, help me. God said, I hear your cries, I am come down. He brought them out of and into a promised land. They said, We had enough of this freedom. We want bondage again. Give us a king. And they had bondage again. And so this is a stern warning right here in Galatians to stand fast. Don't go back to the old. Don't go back to the bondage. Don't go back to the thing that held you down. Don't be entangled anymore. Christ has made you free. That was the message of George Whitfield throughout our throughout our land. He preached Christ. He preached salvation. He preached liberty. He preached freedom from oppression. And then in verse 13, Galatians 5, 13 says, For you, brethren, have been called to liberty. Only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. Do you love one another? Do you love your neighbor? Do you love your country? Then don't give it up to the devil. I tell you, Jesus loves this country more than all of us can possibly love this country. God loves this country more than people in America love America. You know how I know? Because God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth on him would not perish but have everlasting life. For God so loved the cosmos. You know what the cosmos is? It's everything. It's not a person, it's not a people group, it's not people in general. God loves people groups, he loves people in general, but he loves the entirety of everything that he created. He loves it all, and he loved it all so much that he gave his only son for it. To restore a right standing of people to him and to bring them into the God-given authority that he gave them in the very beginning, to bring them into that position of authority where they could be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, subdue it, have dominion over it. That's what he intended for man, to walk in in union, to walk in communion with God, and to do all those things, to be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, subdue it, and have dominion over it. That's what God intended for man. And God found himself, man found himself getting into bondage, and God heard the cries and came down and delivered them, miraculously delivered them time and time again. And here we are, we're a product of his deliverance. This nation is a product of his deliverance. This nation is a product of Jesus giving himself on the cross. It's no less important. It's not a secondary thing. Our liberty that we have in this nation is not a secondary thing. It is the primary thing. It's the primary thing because Jesus said so. He came to do all those things, to preach the gospel to the poor, to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. What does that mean to proclaim the acceptable? To proclaim that we are free. It's a jubilee. It's a jubilee. That's what he was proclaiming. And he said, I am your jubilee. And so we ought to love one another. We ought to love our neighbor just as ourselves. We ought to love our country and to not give it up to anyone who says otherwise.

Religion, Morality, And The Way Forward

SPEAKER_00 42:38

Reminding you, John Adams said that our Constitution was meant for a moral and religious people. George Washington called them indispensable supports. It's the foundation of what we have: religion and morality. The problem is that our principles that came from the Bible, the principles that truly made us free, are not written in the hearts of man and in the citizenry the way it used to be. It's not meditated on the way it used to be. It's not the forefront of our thinking the way it used to be. It's not on our doorpost. It's not in our conversation. We're not telling it like we ought to to our children, to their children, to their children. Just the way God's word needs to be spoken of and treated. And so in the absence of that, you tend to lose the principles. And remember, the principles of our declaration are our ark of the covenant for this nation. It's representative of our covenant with God. You know, if we all just followed the Ten Commandments, you know, we could get into all the law that, you know, God established laws and rules and regulations for the Israelites, but if we could just boil it down to the Ten Commandments, if we could just, as a nation, have just Ten Commandments. Wouldn't be any need for any other laws. And really, we could boil it down to two commandments. And Jesus said so. He said in Matthew chapter 22, verse 35 So an attorney came to ask him a question, testing him, saying, Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law? And Jesus answered him and said, To love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength. This is the first and great commandment. And then he added another one to it. He said, And the second one is like it. And you shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all of the law of the prophets. If we could do these two things, love the Lord our God as a nation, as a people, as a people who have been delivered, as a people who once were oppressed and who cried out to God, and he heard our cries and came down and delivered us out of and into a promised land. If we could just stick to these two, love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind. And if we could love our neighbor as ourselves, we wouldn't need another law in this country. Why? Because people wouldn't be concerned about cheating somebody else out of something or stealing from them. There wouldn't be coveting anything. Because when you love what God loves and hates what he hates, you have God's morality on the inside of you. And God's morality on the inside of you will guide you better than any man-made law can possibly do. In fact, man-made laws are simply the game of whack-a-mole. You played that game whack-a-mole, you got the little mole that pops up and you try to hit it and it goes down, another one pops up, and you and it's just a relentless game of futility. Our laws are a relentless game of futility because we have lost religion and morality in this nation. Truth is, we have so many laws and oppressive regulations in this country because religion and morality are missing. So, man, you think about laws. Why is a law created? A law is created because there was a problem, because somebody did something immoral and wrong and cheated somebody somehow. Ah, we can't let them do that anymore. We need another law. We're about to have a legislative session here in Texas. They're gonna try to pass, they're gonna propose thousands of laws just for Texas. And of those thousands, you know, a few hundred of them will actually make it, and our laws, law books will get even thicker. We have these laws because man is so creatively evil, he will find a new way to work around the letter of the law and violate its spirit or intent of the law. The letter killeth, but the spirit gives life. If we understand the spirit of God's law and those two simple commands, we would never violate any of the laws. We would have justice and righteousness, truth, mercy, and grace the way God intended. And so the answer here is not more laws. The answer is to shore up the indispensable supports, the foundations of our nation. It is to shore up religion and morality in this nation. Not just any religion. This religion, Christianity, the God of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of creation, that God.

Worship, Prayer, And A Commission

SPEAKER_00 47:30

And the answer is to remember his wonderful works and to teach them to our children and to their children. I'm going to invite our praise and worship team to come up here because we're going to take time to celebrate God. We're going to take a few minutes to celebrate this day of deliverance with worship, with solemn acts of devotion to God. The answer is not more laws. The answer is to proclaim liberty. To say, wake up, sleepers. Does that sound familiar? The answer is to pick up the ministry of Christ, the believers' ministry. The answer is for you to go out and preach the gospel to the poor. The answer is for you to go out and to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, to proclaim recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, and to proclaim that this year, this 250th year, is the acceptable year of the Lord and the time when the free favors of God profusely abound. Let's give him praise. Let's stand up, let's worship our Heavenly Father. Let's give him praise. God, we are so grateful for this nation. We're so grateful for the liberty that you've given us through your Son Jesus. It's not a secondary or a third level thing. It is the main thing. You heard our cries. And you have come down and you have graciously answered our prayers and you have graciously delivered us out of bondage and into your marvelous light. Lord, I pray for this nation. I pray for the awakening of this nation. I pray for every person that's in this room, the able ministers of the gospel, to go out, to speak this truth, to do it with a heart of love, to do it with a heart of love for you and a love for our neighbor, a love for our nation. To awaken the sleepers, to awake people up to your purpose, so that this nation would truly be a covenant nation for the furtherance of the gospel of Jesus Christ and for the glory of God. We give you praise. We thank you for it in Jesus' name.