The Price of Freedom — Being Salt and Light
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· 7 viewsChristians are called to be change-agents in the culture wherein they live.
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Text: Matthew 5:13-16
Theme: Christians are called to be change-agents in the culture wherein they live.
Date: 06/13/2021 File Name: The Price of Freedom.wpd FileID: NT09-5
In 1892, a Baptist minister by the name of Francis Bellamy, penned the original pledge to the American Flag. It was written for U.S. schoolchildren to recite in Columbus Day commemorations on the 400th anniversary of the discovery of America. His original pledge read as follows: “I pledge allegiance to my Flag and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
In 1924 the National Flag Conference, under the leadership of the American Legion, changed the Pledge's words from, 'my Flag,' to 'the Flag of the United States of America.' Then, in 1954, Congress added the words, 'under God,' to the Pledge. The Pledge was now both a patriotic oath and a public prayer.
It now reads: “I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” One of the finest commentaries you’ll ever find on our American Flag pledge was recited by one of America’s great comedians — Red Skelton — in 1969. I never cease to get choked up when I hear him recite it. Sadly, an entire generation of American teenagers and children have never heard it. Let’s listen to it now. (Play)
I. THE THEMES THAT MAKE AMERICA GREAT
I. THE THEMES THAT MAKE AMERICA GREAT
1. there are 31 words found in the Pledge
a. in those 31 words we find four great themes which account for much of the greatness of our nation
b. they are:
1) Loyalty to Country
2) Unity of the People
3) Reverence for God
4) Freedom for All
2. what our forefathers called the “American experiment” is woven into these four themes
a. let me speak briefly to each one.
A. FIRST, LOYALTY TO COUNTRY
A. FIRST, LOYALTY TO COUNTRY
• I pledge allegiance to the flag ... and to the Republic for which it stands . . .
1. I must admit — and without shame — that I’m one of those “Our country, right or wrong” kind of patriots
a. I love the United States of America
1) I love the idea of freedom that our nation and its flag have stood for since Dolly Madison first stitched together our national banner
2. but I would add some commentary to that belief: “Our country, right or wrong. When right, to be kept right; when wrong, to be put right.”
a. our loyalty to nation must never be a blind loyalty, but one forged by a knowledge of our heritage and our history
ILLUS. Teddy Roosevelt, our 25th president, once said: "Our loyalty is due entirely to the United States. It is due to the President only and exactly to the degree in which he efficiently serves the United States. It is our duty to support him when he serves the United States well. It is our duty to oppose him when he serves it badly."
b. President Roosevelt astutely observed that a Patriot’s loyalty is not to a political party, not to a special interest group, and not to a sub-culture within the culture
3. our loyalty is to our nation and — even more than that — to the ideas that initially formed our nation
ILLUS. When our nation’s leader take the oath of office, they do not pledge allegiance to the office. They pledge allegiance to a political party. They do not pledge allegiance to a person. They pledge to defend and protect a document. They pledge allegiance to the ideas and principles that formed our nation.
a. you simply cannot appreciate America if you do not understand the principles that became the core of who and what we are
b. ideas like . . .
b. ideas like . . .
1) Representative Government elected by the people
2) the Right of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness
3) fundamental freedoms of Assembly, Speech, Religion, Property, Trial by Jury, and Bearing of Arms
ILLUS. As John Adams signed the Declaration of Independence, he said, "Whether we live or die, sink or swim, succeed or fail, I stand behind this Declaration of Independence. And if God wills it, I am ready to die in order that this country might experience freedom."
c. it was that kind of patriotism and loyalty which led men, armed with little more than hunting rifles, to engage in battle with what was the most powerful nation in the world
1) many of our forefathers paid a terrible price in the Revolutionary War, but finally they won the victory so that you and I might be citizens of this land of the free and home of the brave
B. SECOND, UNITY OF THE PEOPLE
B. SECOND, UNITY OF THE PEOPLE
• the United States of America . . . Indivisible
ILLUS. Some years ago at a Missions Conference, I head one of our International Missionaries to the Philippines tell an interesting story. They had been assigned to minister to the Agta Negrito Indians, one of many indigenous tribes of the country. The missionary couple had set up a croquet game in their front yard. Several of their neighboring tribesmen became interested and wanted to join the fun. The missionaries explained the game and started them out, each with a mallet and ball. As the game progressed, opportunity came for one of the players to take advantage of another by knocking that person's ball out of the court. A missionary explained the procedure, but his advice only puzzled the Negrito friend. "Why would I want to knock his ball out of the court?" he asked. "So you will be the one to win!" the missionary said. The tribesman, clad only in a loincloth, shook his head in bewilderment. In their culture, competition among friends and neighbors was virtually unheard of. The game continued, but no one followed the missionaries' advice. When a player successfully got through all the wickets, the game was not over for him. He went back and gave aid and advice to his fellow players. As the final player moved toward the last wicket, the affair had become very much a team effort. And finally, when the last wicket was played, the Negritos all clasped each other and began shouting, "We won! We won!"
1. that’s the kind of unity our Pledge of Allegiance refers to
a. it’s not a unity of Republicans against Democrats or Liberals against Conservatives
b. it’s not a unity of Black Americans against White Americans or Hispanic Americans against Asian Americans
c. it’s not an ‘us’ against ‘them’
2. the Constitution of the United States begins with the great affirmation, We the People
a. despite the fact that we have become the great melting pot of the world’s people and cultures . . .
b. despite the fact that we are the most ethnically, culturally, and religiously diverse nation on the face of the earth, our credo has always been we the people — an American people
1) each citizen of our nation is a citizen of the United States, while at the same time, he is a citizen of one of the 50 states
2) each state is a member of the United States, and at the same time, has a meaningful relationship to each of the other forty-nine states of the Union
3) when this kind of unity exists between the citizens that make up the states and the states that make up the United States, the result is a Union that is strong and dynamic and cannot easily be broken
c. this principle of the union of the whole with the unity of its citizens gave birth to our nation and we should not abandon that principle
3. it is the duty of every American citizen to look at a fellow citizen and consider ourselves “we the people”
C. THIRD, REVERENCE FOR GOD
C. THIRD, REVERENCE FOR GOD
• One Nation under God
1. this is the next great theme of our Pledge to the Flag
2. the overwhelming conviction that was predominant in the minds of our Founding Fathers was that the individual’s basic rights are God-given
a. they do not come from man!
3. when our forefathers came to this country and formed our system of government, they were convinced that there was a Higher Power who determined the destinies of men and nations
a. the principles of Christianity were so deeply entrenched in the establishment of America that one must conclude that without Christianity, there would never have been a country such as the United States of America
ILLUS. John Quincy Adams, 6th president of the US, said, "The highest glory of the American Revolution was this; it has connected in an indissoluble bond the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity."
1) you might say that the fruit does not fall far from the tree for John Adams — John Quincy’s father, and 2nd U.S. President, said, “Our Constitution was made only for a religious and moral people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of any other.”
b. regardless of what many historical revisionist are now writing, (i.e. the New York Times and it’s 1619 Project) this nation is the first nation in all of recorded history to be established for the express purpose of acknowledging the sovereignty of God and the dignity of man
ILLUS. In the early 19th century, a young French nobleman by the name of Alexis de Tocqueville, took a tour of the United States. The result of that tour was a monumental book entitled, Democracy in America. In that work, de Tocqueville writes: "I sought for the greatness of the United States in her commodious harbors, her ample rivers, her fertile fields, and boundless forests — and it was not there. I sought for it in her rich mines, her vast world commerce, her public school system, and in her institutions of higher learning — and it was not there. I looked for it in her democratic Congress and her matchless Constitution — and it was not there. Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because America is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great!"
c. that great truth has not changed — it is almost prophetic
1) America’s great hope still lies with her churches and the people of God and the preaching of righteousness that is found in Christ
4. Jesus taught that the greatest commandment of all is for each person to love God with all of his being
a. He showed us that this is the beginning point of all that matters about life and existence
b. He also showed us that the second greatest commandment is to love others as we would love ourselves
5. it is only when we have the proper relationship with God that we can fully and appropriately relate to our fellow citizens
a. this is the type of framework in which the government of the United States was formulated
b. it comes straight out of our Christian heritage
D. FORTH, FREEDOM FOR ALL
D. FORTH, FREEDOM FOR ALL
• Liberty and Justice for All
ILLUS. The early settlers of the United States were people who ranged from rugged frontiersmen to polished and cultured aristocrats. Some had been trained in the best universities of the world, some had received their training by carving a living from an unfriendly wilderness. Some had come from strong and powerful families on the European continent, most came from poverty. Some came from the highlands of Scotland and Ireland, some from the seafaring peoples of England, France and Spain. who were religious dissenters. They all desired to be free! They came to understand that resistance to tyrants is obedience to God. The result was a Revolution and the establishment of a Union of States.
1. if Americans have a birth-right, then freedom remains that birth-right
a. freedom, however, does not mean I am able to do whatever I want to do whenever I want to do it, to whomever I want to
1) that's the worst kind of bondage
b. freedom means I have been set free to become all that God wants me to be, to achieve all that God wants me to achieve, and to enjoy all that God wants me to enjoy by being a servant to others
1) that’s how our Founding Fathers understood freedom and that’s how we ought to understand it
2. as Americans, may we never forget that liberty and justice are for all men — not just those fortunate enough to afford a high-priced lawyer
a. we fought a revolution to gain our own freedom
b. since then — and with few exceptions — we have spent an enormous amount of energy, resources and blood protecting not only our own freedom, but the freedom of other nations and peoples
3. These are the Themes That Make America Great
II. THE THREATS TO AMERICA’S GREATNESS
II. THE THREATS TO AMERICA’S GREATNESS
1. I would be remiss this morning, if I did not share with you my concerns for America
A. A BATTLE OF WORLDVIEWS
A. A BATTLE OF WORLDVIEWS
1. a remarkable culture-shift has taken place around us
a. the most basic contours of American culture have been radically altered
1) the Judeo-Christian consensus the nation was founded under has given way to a post-modern, post-Christian, post-Western cultural crisis which threatens the very heart of our culture
b. the worldview of most Americans is now thoroughly secularized
1) we Americans have become our own best friend, our own therapist, our own priest, and our own lawgiver
2 the evidence is overwhelming
a. 1st, moral relativism has so shaped the culture that the vast majority of Americans now see themselves as their own moral arbiter
1) truth has been internalized, privatized, and subjectivized
2) absolute or objective truth is denied outright
3) research indicates that most Americans believe that truth is internal and relative
a) no one, the culture shouts, has a right to impose truth, morality, or cultural standards
b) and in shouting that they don’t realize that they are imposing their truth, their morality, and their cultural standards on the rest of us
4) the result has been a more revolution that has turned sexuality, and gender on its head
ILLUS. Theo Hobson is a major British theologian who has written about how moral revolutions take place. Hobson writes that for a full moral reversal to take place three conditions must be met. The first is this: what was condemned must be celebrated. The second is that what was celebrated must now be condemned. And thirdly, those who will not join in the celebration will be condemned.
a) the result is that if you do not celebrate every perverted aspect of the LGBTQ agenda, you’re — and here’s that phrase I love to hate — you’re on the wrong side of history
b. 2nd, courts acting as mini-legislatures invent new rights that real legislatures would never enact
1) the result has been the constitutional denial of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for the weakest and most vulnerable of our citizens — babies in their mother’s womb
2) the result has also been a redefinition of marriage and the family that threatens to destroy the foundation of human flourishing
3) the result has been the dismissal of gender reality for gender fluidity that is destroying women’s sports
4) the result has been an abandonment of truth in favor of political arguments over rights and privileges
c. 3rd, the most influential sectors of society are allied in furthering the process of social disintegration
1) television and mass culture have so shaped the American consciousness that many citizens are now intellectually unable to sustain a serious moral conversation
2) those who attempt to engage the American people in a serious moral conversation are met with immediate dismissal or — more worrisome still — “cancellation” of your voice within the culture
d. 4th, educational institutions are quickly becoming the indoctrination centers of a leftist-progressive agenda
1) their newest hobby-horse of vain philosophy is Critical Race Theory and Intersectionality
2) this newest agenda threatens to divide America as it has never been divided
B. THE CHURCH’S AGENDA IN A SECULARIZED CULTURE
B. THE CHURCH’S AGENDA IN A SECULARIZED CULTURE
1. in candor, we must admit that the Church has been displaced
a. once an authoritative voice in the culture, the Confessing Church is often dismissed, and even more often ignored
b. at one time, the influence of the Church was sufficient to restrain cultural rebellion against God's moral commandments, but no longer
1) the dynamic of the culture-shift marches onward to the left and a complete secularization of the culture
2. we must understand that, in the Christian worldview, culture is important, but never ultimate
a. beyond this, we acknowledge that God is sovereign, and His providence rules over all
b. I am reminded of the solemn warning that God gave to another nation, which was experiencing the thrill of independence after centuries of slavery
1) although it was written over 3,000 years ago, this warning could very well apply to the United States today
“For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing out in the valleys and hills, 8 a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, 9 a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper. 10 And you shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the LORD your God for the good land he has given you. 11 “Take care lest you forget the LORD your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today, 12 lest, when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them, 13 and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, 14 then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery,” (Deuteronomy 8:7–14, ESV)
3. the mission of the Church in the midst of this cultural crisis is to proclaim the truth and reach out to the casualties
a. in the face of rampant relativisms, the believing Church must proclaim the truth of God's Word, the permanence of His commands, and the reality of His judgment
b. in his Sermon on the Mount, Christ tells His disciples that their presence in the culture will make a difference
1) you ARE the light of the world You ARE the salt of the earth
2) in the original language these statements are in an emphatic tense, and as such, we can rightly interpret the passage as Jesus telling His disciples – and us – that "you and you alone" are the salt of the earth and the light of the world
4. the most important thing to proclaim is Christ crucified
a. because believers have been set free from our bondage to the law, to sin and to death, we ought to seek to become bond-servants of Jesus Christ
b. as bond-servants we are to be cultural change agents — salt and light
Be proud to be an American. But never forget that America owes her existence to a God – who in the workings of His providence – raised up a nation to be a righteous people and liberty’s great defender. If any ought to be model citizens, it ought to be Bile-believing, church-going Christians. We should be known as law-abiding not rabble-rousing, obedient rather than rebellious, respectful of government rather than demeaning of it. We ought to be a godly people, doing good & living peaceably within an ungodly society, so that the saving power of God is clearly seen.