God Bless America

Introduction

The resurgence of certain songs I find to be very interesting. I refused as a young person to listen to anything that wasn’t current. And yet, a lot of young people today will listen to retro rock songs from my era. Journey is still popular in the year 2012, which I find to be rather fascinating. The Neil Diamond classic, 50 years old. Sweet Caroline. You hear that song these days. In fact, it’s become a sports anthem. You’ll go to baseball stadiums or football stadiums or basketball arenas, and you’ll hear Sweet Caroline. When we were worshiping in Auburn, there was a family there that we got really close to, the Roberts family, and Jimmy Roberts is an absolute character. He just called me out of the blue last week.

And from time to time we talk and text, we’re big sports buddies too. And when you go with him to the baseball game, and Sweet Caroline is played over the loudspeakers, man, he’s singing at the top of his lungs. And it’s hilarious to hear him sing Sweet Caroline. Another interesting song that has resurged in recent days, if that’s a word, God bless America. You hear that a lot more these days. I knew that song as a kid, but you’re hearing that a lot more now. And why? Remember 9-11? A little over 10 years ago. And then at baseball games, and I think this started perhaps in Yankee Stadium, where as they sang at the seventh inning stretch, take me out to the ball game, following that, God bless America.

And then the Irish tenor, Ronan Tynan, or whatever his name is, who could so beautifully sing, move us to tears almost, singing God bless America? He’s still in high demand to sing that song. And so that’s become something that goes along with the seventh inning stretch. Take me out to the ball game and God bless America. Also, God bless America is the amen of almost every political speech these days. Whether you’re Republican or Democrat, it’s the way to wrap it all up. God bless America. That seems the way it would be the way it ought to end. But as I listen to that song repeatedly, and I hear politicians say it, I wonder. What does God think about it? How do we feel about America in relation to God?

1. Increasing Immorality in Our Culture

For whom should a Christian vote? What role should we play in government? What issues really matter? Is one candidate more God approved? These are questions that we think about at this particular time of year when there is a great national election about to occur. My question is: how does God feel about America when we have in our culture increasing immorality? Statistics on homosexuality, pornography, child pornography, drug use, drinking. Increase year after year in this nation. In fact, I don’t know if you’ve heard this, but on the ballot in three states next month is the legalization of marijuana. And those states are Oregon, Colorado, and Washington. And there have been appeals made from medical sources to the Surgeon General of the United States to get involved in this election and to make a statement about the harm and danger that could come from the legalization of marijuana.

And he’s been absolutely silent to this point. There has been no response, despite the appeals from many in the medical field. But even more. Almost unbelievable to me.

That famous incident of 1973, that famous ruling of the Supreme Court. In 2002, 1.29 million abortions took place. That’s 2002. But that’s down 5%. That’s down 5% from about 1.36 million in 1996, and but it’s down by nearly 27% since 1980. So the trend is fewer and fewer abortions. However, remember, in one year alone, 1.29 million abortions. More than half of abortions occur in women younger than the age of 25, with a third of all abortions occurring in women age 20 to 24. And nearly half of all pregnancies where abortions occur are unintended. But here’s the shocking statement from that website that I want you to hear. Abortion remains one of the safest medical procedures available. Safe for whom? It is more dangerous to carry a fetus to term than to undergo an abortion before 21 weeks.

The risk of death and childbirth is 11 times higher. So if you carry all the way to term, the risk of death increases for the woman. I think the risk of death for the unborn in an abortion is pretty severe. Like 100%. Most data suggests, this is interesting, that only a self-limited sense of loss and guilt occurs after a woman has an abortion. And there seems to be minimal to no long-term emotional and psychological sequelae. Never heard that term before. Sequelae, that is a pathological condition resulting from a disease, injury, or other trauma. In other words, there’s no long-lasting effects. Anxiety systems have been, symptoms have been identified as the most common adverse response in the short term. But women denied abortions often experience resentment and distrust, and their children may face social and occupational deficiencies.

Isn’t that phenomenal? Isn’t that amazing that kind of statement would be made in defense of quote the mother’s right to choose? Since 1973, and Roe v. Wade, and this is a statistic that goes to 2004, there have been in America, and this is a rough estimate, but forty eight million.

And so if we carry out the math, even in declining numbers of abortions, still averaging roughly a million a year.

2. Out of Sight, Out of Mind

Since Roe v. Wade passed the Supreme Court. I want you to look at that number. Or the number 1.29 million, an annual number. Is that just a statistic to us? Joseph Stalin said once, a single death is a tragedy. A million deaths is a statistic. Well, you know he ought to know. Stalin killed more people than Adolf Hitler. Do we feel any moral indignation about such a Holocaust as this? In the last 40 years in the United States of America, roughly 55 million abortions.

Never got a chance to live as you and I have.

Those 55 million never got that opportunity, and they never had a say. Documentaries and movies on the Holocaust of Adolf Hitler make us shudder, and rightfully so. Johnny Parton was a good friend of ours that we worshiped with in Baytown at the East Side Congregation, and he was involved in World War II. And when he talks about the things that he saw in the liberation of some of those camps in Germany, he breaks down in tears as he told them to us. And so when we think about things we’ve seen depicted in terms of Holocaust, it’s horrible. It’s horrific. Did the German people just accept the reclassification of Jewish, Polish, and Slavic people as subhuman and then decide it was okay to kill them? Could they just say, well, it was the law, what could I do?

You know that’s exactly what they did say at Nuremberg. It was the law, what could we do? Germans knew it was happening, but it was out of sight, out of mind. They did not see it happening. So they could ignore that it was happening. How long has it been since you thought about the fact that on a single day in the United States of America, 3,000 unborn children are put to death? Out of sight, out of mind. 3,000 a day. Over a million a year. 55 million. Since Roe v. Wade passed. Have you ever seen the silent scream video? You get to look at an abortion from the perspective of the one in the womb. Not a pleasant sight to behold. Righteousness exalts a nation. But sin is a reproach to any people.

Proverbs 14 and verse 34. And the passage that is often quoted with that one that I’ve done many times, Psalm 33 and verse 12, blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. Let me tell you something about that verse in particular. I believe that verse, blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, has a peculiar application to the nation of Israel, who, as a nation, had a covenant relationship with Jehovah. And so that was a very unique passage for a unique relationship between a nation and Jehovah. The United States of America have never come into a covenant relationship with God as a nation. As the nation of Israel did.

Than Indiana, Floyd’s Knobs, to be exact. You’ve heard of it, right? Floyd’s Knobs, Indiana. You need to hear about that thriving metropolis. Actually, now it’s a suburb of Louisville, Kentucky, on the northern side of the Ohio River. It’s really sort of uptown now. But I was growing up in Floyd’s Knobs, Indiana. We never heard the name Mohammed. I don’t believe I heard it once growing up. Or Islam. Or Muslims. Or even Hindu for that matter. Perhaps in my teenage years, there were some Bible classes where we were studying world religion, and some of that came up, but that was just something we didn’t deal with. There was nobody in my school who practiced those religions. And now we have the proliferation of that and many more in our culture.

3. The Role Government Is Supposed to Play

Jesus Christ, not honored in many of them. Even God, who is our creator. And so the question comes to us. Well, what can we do about it? You pretty well explained the circumstances, Tony. I understand exactly what you’re talking about. So what are we, as Christians, to do about the evils of the culture that we live in? What about the role government is supposed to play? I want you to look in Romans chapter 13. Romans 13. And this is not spoken from the standpoint of government officials who are Christians. God dealt with governments in Old Testament times and even New Testament times, and they serve a purpose, as we see in Romans 13, and God’s purpose for them is to be a minister of God to you, he says in Romans 13 and verse 4.

And that they are to punish the evildoer, and they are for the praise of those who do right. And I’ve got to tell you, I’m very thankful that we have a police force that implements the principles of law, and murderers are punished, and thieves are punished and prosecuted. And those guilty of many sexual crimes are punished. And that’s a good thing. And we have religious freedom in our country. And that’s a good thing. And as it should be. That’s what God desires for governments to do. If you look in 1 Peter chapter 2, again another passage similar. In fact, I would tie those two together if you don’t have a cross reference, cross-reference those. 1 Peter 2, 13 and 14, where it says again, submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority, or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right.

Now, obviously, there’s a limitation to that submission. We are to obey God rather than men, Acts chapter 5 and verse 29. And when religious authorities were telling Peter and John and the apostles, speak no more in the name of Jesus Christ, they kept right on doing it. And said, We must obey God rather than men. Acts chapter 5 and verse 29. But where we can, where it does not cost us to violate our faith and the principles of righteousness, we are to submit to every ordinance of human government. I’ll tell you what else is involved in this. Our particular government. This is not true in every nation of the world, but in our particular government, every person who is a citizen of this nation can be a participant in government.

4. Who Do We Vote For?

And when you reach the age of 18, as some of our young people have, you can vote. I remember turning 18 and thinking, I can vote now. That’s something that Christians can do. You can vote. We can vote for local officials and judges. Hey, there’s a Christian who’s a judge in our area. Brother Ellis that worships at Southside, and he’s been in the newspapers more than once for his very conservative judgments. You can vote for people like Christians who are involved in the process. And you can vote find out information about those and vote for those whom you believe will best uphold the principles of righteousness that we read about in the New Testament so we can participate in this process. But who do we vote for?

Admittedly, choosing the best candidate in these elections is sometimes difficult for us. We can’t do it on the basis of party. Now we might think one party is in more in line with the principles of righteousness that we read about in the scriptures, and we may pretend to vote that particular party, but that can change. I’ll just use this as an example is that the Democratic Party, in regard to, in the years gone by, many decades ago, were noted as being for the working man, and we sort of lost that distinction in the year 2012 as the Democratic Party being the working man party. Now, they still worked that as a party platform, but I think a lot of America has clued in that they’re not really sure who’s for the working man anymore.

What have all the debates been about? Who’s going to be the kindest to the middle class? How many times have you heard the term middle class? They’re all trying to be the party for the middle class. And so, what issues are we supposed to vote about? What’s the biggest issue? It’s always the economy. The economy is always the big issue, but there’s foreign policy.

Environmental issues, well, those aren’t as important, but they get announced from time to time. There’s immigration issues that come up. And now, because of the rising health care costs, there is health care reform. And our seniors and the needs of seniors in regard to medical care and social security and Medicaid. Those are now big issues, and that relates to the economic side of things. But what about the issue of morality? What about the issue of the deaths of all of these children? David Barnes, some of you know him. He preaches in San Jose, wrote not very long ago, these issues, the ones I’ve been talking about, these issues all fade into obscurity and irrelevance when compared to abortion. Here’s what he said. Can you imagine someone asking for support of Hitler based on his economic stimulus package, which he had, and his strong border expansion policy, which he also had, all the while ignoring the final solution?

Hitler tried to hide the final solution even from many Germans. But here’s the thing. Abortion is not hidden from the eyes of our nation. We know it occurs. We know it happens at a proliferating rate, that around 55 million abortions have occurred in the United States in the last four decades. I want to tell you, I struggle to get my mind around that number. So who are you going to vote for? Somebody said, well, you pretty much made it plain without saying who you’re going to vote for in the presidential election. I want to tell you have to vote your conscience, and I’m not going to tell you how to vote. I’ve gotten in trouble on the issue of politics before. And I was just, in that time, I was just making some observation about the character of the candidates and which one I thought was more righteous as a person.

But I didn’t mean he was right with God. I think he probably wasn’t. And I got in trouble for that. And I may get in trouble for this. But whether we’re talking about the presidential election or senatorial elections or the House of Representatives, which issue should matter the most? Yeah, the economy is important to me, but can Christians function in a poor economy? We’ve been doing it. At least poor as we regard it. These gas prices are awful. But what about these unborn children? What about the sanctity of human life? What about scriptures as David talks about being fearfully and wonderfully made? As God fashioned him in the womb in Psalm 139, 13 and 14. What about children being a blessing of the Lord? Psalm 127, 1 through 3.

Who is going to defend the innocent? You know, one of the great problems that God had with Israel, and I pointed out this to you recently when he judged them, when the Babylonian invasion came and destroyed Judah and they were taken off into captivity, is that there was nobody to plead the case of the innocent, nobody to help the orphan, nobody to help the widow, nobody cared about the innocent. Do we care? Somebody. Somebody might think that the economic issues are really important. Taking care of poor people. The economic issues, they have something to do with taking care of the poor in our culture. Well, the poor in our culture are not like the poor in a lot of other cultures. But admittedly, there are some poor in our culture.

Do you really think that either candidate, in terms of our presidential candidates, that either one of them is going to let the poor go hungry? I don’t think so. There are government programs in place. I believe those government programs are still going to be in place. What about this issue of abortions, though? Is that really? Is there really something we can do about that in regard to voting? I want to tell you who said that there is something that could be done. Biden, Vice President Biden said it in the debate last week. Remember when the question, some of you who watched that, the question was raised about abortion and the stance of Ryan and Biden on that issue. Do you remember what Biden said? He said in the next four years there could be two Supreme Court justices replaced, and he was concerned, and he said this specifically about Roe v.

Wade. Well, because his opponents, Romney and Ryan, though they would allow abortion for a few cases, is their platform. Their personal convictions, and Ryan made that very clear, his personal convictions were that he was against abortion. And that’s what concerned Biden. See, that see, this is his personal convictions. And I want to tell you, if Roe v. Wade could be overturned by the replacing of two Supreme Court justices, I’d say I want to vote for the guy who could get that done.

And they didn’t get it done. Well, there’s a lot that goes into that. And the appointment of the Supreme Court justices is one of the great keys to the overturning of those kinds of laws that have already been enacted, and that’s why everybody keeps talking about Roe v. Wade, 1973, because that ones that got put into place. Sort of hard to change it. A Supreme Court decision. I don’t know if you vote for Romney and Ryan that’ll take place or not. And again, I’m not telling you that’s who you have to vote for. I’m just telling you that’s something Christians can do. And needs to be considered. Well, when all that’s said and done, poor us. We live in Texas and we know which presidential candidate is going to get elected as far as Texas is concerned.

It’s pretty much a foregone conclusion. That President Obama’s not going to win in the state of Texas. And so, how much does my vote really matter? I still think we ought to take advantage of the process. And whether or not anything ever happens, this stat tells us of a great evil that is occurring in our culture. And while our vote may only do minimal good, let me tell you what will do more good and what Christians ought to focus on even more than pouring over CNN and Fox News, what’s happening in the election and who’s going to win. Oh, perhaps Romney’s going to overtake Obama, and people are excited about that in Texas at least. But even more than taking part in the political process, and we’ve been given that privilege.

5. We Can Teach the Gospel

Let me tell you two things that we need to do. Number one, what can Christians do? We can teach. We can teach the gospel. We are citizens of heaven more than we are citizens of the United States.

And the individuals that we teach to come to know the Lord changes that person’s morality. I don’t see about how me as an individual, even as a preacher, that I could affect 300 million Americans and change that many people, but we can change people one person at a time that we and other Christians bring to the Lord and they receive instruction from the Word of God. One vote versus how many people can we teach. Let me tell you what else we can do.

6. We Can Pray

And I think we need to be praying about this number. But there might not only be a decrease in the number of abortions, but there might be a dramatic decrease because of the sanctity of human life. We can pray. In fact, in 1 Timothy chapter 2, we are instructed to do that. And whoever is elected, whether it is be the one that I think can steer us in a direction toward an increased morality, more consistently with the principles of righteousness, whether that person is elected or not, regardless of who might be elected, even in regard to local political races. I urge that entreaties, 1 Timothy 2 and verse 1, I urge that entreaties and prayers and petitions and thanksgivings be made on behalf of all men for kings and all who are in authority, in order that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity.

This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior. And in verse 8, I want the men in every place to pray, lifting up holy hands without wrath and dissension. I think we should be praying about this election. And I think we should pray for our present officials and give them the respect that they deserve as our officials. And then when new officials are elected, I think we need to pray for them. And we ought to pray that hearts become sensitive to the truth. And that more and more will submit themselves to the reign of the king. And maybe there’s one in this audience tonight who needs to submit yourself to the reign of the king. Again, one person at a time. That’s how this gospel works in the lives and hearts of individuals.

Conclusion

And perhaps you’re one in this audience who needs to submit to the ultimate king. Because ultimately, is what we read about in Isaiah and we’ll be studying in a couple of weeks. Nations and rulers come and go. They’re but a drop in the bucket to God. And when God is done with a nation, he lifts nations up and he destroys them. Ultimately, if time continues, who knows what God will do with this nation. But when he decides it’s over, it’ll be over. And someone will replace, or something will replace this great democracy that we’ve enjoyed in the United States of America. But our hopes are not in the future of any nation or government. Our hopes are in God and in eternity with Him. And are you ready for that?

I don’t know that this election’s even going to take place, do you? Are you sure? Well, there’s been a lot of energy and effort spent toward this election. I guess that’s all well and good, but we don’t have any guarantee that election day is ever going to come. Perhaps today will be the last. Will you be ready to meet the Lord? We seem to encourage your response if need be, Dave. So stand and sink.