Latest / Journey Elgin / Sunday Message July 5, 2026- "The Source of Freedom"
Transcript
- Phillip Thomas: I'm I'm looking forward to the next few weeks but I've but I've also been been struggling. I've been in a weird place and I and I I I share that 'cause ⁓ I'm strangely emotional. I mean I I get emotional on a on at times, but strangely emotional just kind of over the last couple of weeks as I'm ⁓ you know, thinking about things and ⁓ and I finally and and one of the emotions is a dangerous emotion. There's there's a lot of anger. And so I'm trying to to figure out where is this coming from, right? And ⁓ and I and I I think it's I've it's I think I've kind of pinpointed it. ⁓ but then it becomes well how can I communicate that in an effective way? How how can I share this and articulate this? And I may f fail miserably because I don't know the answer to that yet. But one thing that been talking about for a while is the the nature of the spiritual battle that we're in. And it it it it sometimes can be hard to recognize. Sometimes people put too much emphasis on it. ⁓ but there is clearly a spiritual battle going on. And ⁓ and I think the last few weeks is I am more acutely aware of the damage that the spiritual battle has been doing over decades. And while myself and most Christians were sleeping. And I'm I'm putting the I'm pinpointing mainly church leadership. I I'm I'm I'm thinking about the the people who ⁓ I have worked with, the people who I went to seminary under, and and I I I don't know if they were deceived or if they were deceivers. The problem is is once you're deceived, then you become a deceiver if you're not careful. Even if you're not intentional about it. And and I and I'm seeing that this is a much bigger picture than than what's happened over the last four or five years. Right? That that this goes back that that we have not been talking about how God has been active in the affairs of men from the beginning. God has been working. And and the way that we have started approaching things, specifically the way that we have even approached history and the teaching of history, it has been intentionally trying to get us to remove God's ⁓ presence in the way that we teach history. And I I am the last generation, I'll be fifty years old this year. I believe I'm the last generation, and and part of it is because I grew up in a little podunk backwoods town. That I'm so thankful I grew up in, but that that they still taught some basic truth of history. That God worked in the affairs of men, even in the founding of this flawed country. Right? I can remember, and I promise you, they are at the house somewhere because my mom kept everything. We the these little pictures of the pilgrims at Thanksgiving, and actually portraying the basic. True premise of what Thanksgiving was. Not that we have to humble ourselves and say, ⁓ but this led to bad things that happened. Bad things have happened throughout the history of the world. But God is working in the midst of that darkness. And what we have been doing, what history has been doing to for generations, even Tim, who turns 96 next week, even him, even him, his history was already beginning to start warping. Things and start moving us away from what is true. Where now all of a sudden we just focus on the darkness and we don't see the light, and we haven't seen the goodness of God that has led us to this place in history. And the church has failed to point people to what is true because we're so scared. ⁓ that we're going to get political. We're so scared. That we're going to be too patriotic. We're so scared that we're going to elevate the kingdom of America over the kingdom of God. And those are things we need to worry about, yes, because I am a citizen of the kingdom of God first and foremost and only. But I am also an earthly citizen. Everyone is an earthly citizen. We are called to engage the world that we are in. And I am a citizen of the United States of America as well. And we have a responsibility. To make sure that we keep the truth of of how we got here. We need to guard that. And the church should have been the ones guarding it more than anything else. And they have not. I ⁓ I I remember being in seminary and and you know and I I had just the basic understanding of the founding of the country and that these were flawed men who didn't get everything right, but that but that they were trying to instill biblical principles into the founding of the of the country. Right? Right. And then I get to seminary and it's like, well, need to be careful with that. Because you know they weren't all Christians, in fact, most of them were deist. Okay. How many have heard that term deist? Okay. It just just look at any modern history book. You'll see deist. I I I just want to give you the definition, and then down the road, I hope that you remember here's the definition of a deist is someone who believes in the existence of a supreme being. God as the creator of the universe, but rejects, but rejects the idea that this God actively intervenes in the world or reveals himself through organized religion, scriptures, or miracles. All right. That's the definition of a a deist. Today we would probably call that more of an agnostic, someone who believes that, yes, there's a creator, but he doesn't really do anything. Right? That makes sense. That has been what in academic circles, whether you were aware of it or not, has been ingrained in multiple generations. Now, why would that be? What what is the reason? Okay, one is it's true. If it's true, then that's what we should teach. That they were all deists, right? And that they just kind of wanted the idea of God. And if that was true, then teach the truth. I'm not scared of teaching the truth, even if it goes against what I thought was true. Does that make sense? So if it's true, teach it. But if it's not true, what's the motivation? What's the motivation for because even a casual glancing, you see references to God and scripture all through our founding. So you have to at least acknowledge that it's there. But you don't really want people to go too deep into this, right? Because if they go too deep, they may actually start believing that there's an active God who is working in the affairs of men, who is working through the lives of flawed men and women to bring people to the ultimate truth. And if you're trying to hide that, you start using terms like dias. You see, the creation of the United States of America In many ways, was the culmination of a massive work of the gospel message permeating the world. At the once the United States was founded, which was founded because of the first great Great Awakening, and then the second Great Awakening hits. And whenever that second Great Awakening hits, the power of the Holy Spirit descends upon the world like never before. The population of Christians explodes because of how God used this nation. Flaws and all, because we are all flawed. We live in a fallen world. But yet God is in pushing light into that darkness. And He used this country in a very unique way, in a powerful way. And it is important that we recognize that. You see, freedom doesn't just happen. Couple quick verses that are important for us to hold on to. One is Second Corinthians chapter three, verse seventeen. It says now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. Now that is talking about freedom from sin, freedom from the consequence or the the the The eternal consequences of sin, right? But it is this idea of freedom that extends beyond more than just the payment that happened on the cross. It's a freedom for all of mankind. It's a freedom that we should push for because God created us to be free, both in a spiritual sense. And in a real sense, in ⁓ Proverbs, ⁓ it says this it says, the righteousness exalts a nation, exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people. There is a connection with worldly governance and God's presence and how God is is working. And we need to understand that those two should should mesh. But they never really fully have. And so to understand the history of America, to understand where we came from, you actually need to go back thousands of years. And you have to go back to this group of flawed people that that God called to himself. And he called this guy named guy named Abram. And he he said, I want you to pack up. And go across the desert, and you're gonna start we're gonna start something new. And so the guy does it. What does God credit him with? Righteousness. Because he believed, but then he got up off of his couch and he walked across the desert. He put action to his faith and his righteousness. And so he begins the process of this people group that are st stemming from Abraham. And then it goes to Isaac, and then it goes to Jacob. And then this group of people, they end up being enslaved by the ⁓ under the strongest and most one of the most powerful ⁓ nations at that time. And they are enslaved and they grow and they grow and they cry out to God. It is they didn't want to be slave, they wanted to be free. And so God sends Moses and He brings them out of Egypt, out of the bondage of slavery. And we see the Passover, right? That is that is pointing is a present reality of how God is bringing them out of literal physical slavery, but is also looking forward to what God's ultimate work is in the world. That He's l already looking forward to the coming Savior where everyone will be able to be free and will find freedom in Christ. But he he brings the people out and they go and they go to the Mount Sinai and God gives them the law, a law. That brings freedom. Right. And and that group of people is so flawed, and God is offering them so much, and they keep just rejecting it and they keep complaining and they whine. And God has laid out a new ⁓ land for them. And they don't want to do it because they're scared to death. So they end up wandering in the wilderness for 40 years. But it is during that 40 years that God does something else. He says, Here's how you govern yourselves. And he sets things up and he says he says, You have different tribes. And so the different tribes, you are going to come together and you're going to get people who represent you. And those people are going to get together. And then they are going to bring things to Moses. We start to see an actual representative form of government right there in the pages of the Old Testament that begin to form this people group. And then they finally they they get the courage enough to cross the river and to go into ⁓ to the promised land. And they become a people and they begin to grow and they begin to be more powerful and and they are they are self-governed. They have judges that are there. They have priests. But it but ultimately it's the people who govern themselves because God has made us free. He has set us free so that we can govern ourselves. And we do that by seeking righteousness by living righteously, that we put our own governors on our lives, right? And when we do that and whenever a people group does that, then they don't have to rely on a worldly system to tell them what to do because they are following the precepts and the foundational principles of God. That this never happens. What do we do? We always want a human leader to lead us. What does that always lead to? It leads to tyranny. And what what happens with this group of people who God blessed, who God said, Hey, here's how you do it. Well, they get to the point they don't really want to govern themselves. Why? Because they're fallen people just like we are. That is our s sinful nature that is taking over. And so they begin to push back and they actually tell God, We want a king. And why do they want a king? They specifically say, because we want to be like everyone else. And we want the king to fight our battles for us. We don't want to govern ourselves. And so what happens? They get a king. Kings are okay at the beginning. We have one, King David, did some amazing things. King Solomon, the the nation grew to prominence, very wealthy. And then things start to change. Why? Because the kings quit pointing people to God. And the people start to stray. And you have this up and down, good and bad kings, and the nation struggles. And every time they move away from God, they move they they experience more and more devastation to the point that the kingdom ceases to exist as it once did. That happens about 400 years before Christ enters the picture. In history, the same thing is happening. All other nations are trying to figure out how's the best way to govern ourselves, and nearly all of them were were monarchs or dictators, and it always led to tyranny. Then there was this little group in Athens that tried To implement some self governing things, but they try to do it based on human reason. And so it eventually d devolves and dissolves into what becomes the Roman Empire, and then it becomes ruled by the Caesars. So the tyranny begins to increase again. But ironically, with the rule of the Caesars and their desire for power and their desire to expand a kingdom, they provide all of the necessary tools. For the gospel message to explode through the known world. They build roads, they provide some level of safety, they do all of these things, and it's at that moment that God enters into the world again in an amazing way with the gospel message and the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And the moment that he burst forth from that tomb, everything started to change, and the journey begins to point us to where we are now. And so the the gospel message begins to expand, and that same ⁓ tyrannical government tries to snuff it out, but it can't because the darkness will not overcome it. And tyranny is darkness. Christ offers freedom. And that message continued to permeate the world and it continued to change, and then it continued to morph. And and the there's there's mixtures of good and bad in all of this. And and ⁓ you see. That the as the church gains power and all of a sudden that same Caesar who had been against Christianity now adopts Christianity and it starts bringing in some pagan practices to it and ⁓ and it still has that hierarchical system, but it's moving in the right direction. It's moving toward freedom. And things continue to go go on, and eventually you get things like the Magna Carta, which for the first time in human history, there was an acknowledgement. That the king actually has to obey law. Right? We think, well, Doug, aren't you supposed to? That was never thought about before. How did that even come about? Because of the influence of the biblical message, the gospel message, that everyone is subject to a higher law, right? Everyone, even the king. ⁓ But things continue, and there's still that thirst for power and for domination. And you have the ⁓ the Protestant Reformation that's beginning to push back against that and no longer wants the tyrannical ⁓ reign of even the church. That no, all are created equal. And you start having all kinds of back and forth, and eventually you get this group of people that are willing to get on a tiny little ship called the Mayflower and cross an ocean because they want to establish a bright and shining city on the hill. The reason they did it. Was to expand the kingdom of God. And you also had other people that were coming over here that didn't care about that, right? But you had tons and tons of colonies that began to form. And at the heart of all of them was the gospel message. All of them. They were not arguing about which God to follow. They were arguing about which denomination to have. And so you you get to the point where now you have. These these ⁓ men who are so tired of the tyranny because they have actually read the scriptures. They've actually studied the scriptures, and they're like, This is not right. God is a God of freedom and liberty in a spiritual sense, but he also wants us to replicate that in the way that we govern. And so they get together and they they create the most unique system of government ever. Created. And we are told that they were just deist and it just happened to turn out this way. No, it turned out this way because God governs in the affairs of men. Remember that definition of deist, that my esteemed professors that have all the earthly recognitions of telling us that they are smart. That they hammered. They hammered the importance of separation of church and state. ⁓ you're the church. Don't get involved in that political stuff. And then it's like, wait, separation of church and state, where is that? It's got to be in the Constitution, right? No, it was in a letter that Thomas Jefferson wrote. And basically the Danbury Baptists were worried that the Presbyterians were going to make them become Presbyterian. And that the government was going to support that and make a Presbyterian church. And so Thomas Jefferson said, No, there's a separation of church and state. The state cannot make everyone be Presbyterian. And then if you don't if you if you're like, no, that's not what he meant. He meant there needs to be a full separation, right? It would be interesting to know that on the Sunday after he wrote that, he goes to church. Where did he go to church? In the United States Capitol, because they held worship services there for years. And guess what? What God were they worshiping? They were worshiping the God of the Bible. That's who they were worshiping. But they were all deist. George Washington, this is in during his farewell address in the seventeen ninety six, of all the dispositions and habits. Which lead to political prosperity. So what leads to political prosperity? Religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness. He says you cannot be patriotic and get rid of these pillars of morality and righteousness. Says these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens, and let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. And listen, when they say religion, they are talking about Christianity. I'm sorry I'm angry, but I that was drilled to me. They're just talking about religion as a whole. Bullcrap. They were talking about the one true faith. That's it. Now you don't have to agree with this. You're in America. But what is true? What's the motivation behind not teaching the truth? It is to draw people further away from God. And that's what they have done. And they've been effective at it. It says whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect the national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle. After the French Alliance, when Washington hears that the French are actually doing something good, says it having pleased the almighty ruler of the universe to defend the cause of the United S American States. Wait, he's a deist. And here he is, he's saying the ruler of the universe is defending the cause of the United States. Well, he's a really crappy deist. If d they gave out cards for being a deist, his card was taken. And he says to defend the cause of the United States and finally to raise up a powerful friend among the princes of the earth, to establish our liberty and independence upon a lasting foundation, it becomes us to set apart a day of gratefully acknowledging the divine goodness. After Yorktown, whenever the battle was finally won. He urged his troops with serious and deportment of gratitude of heart with the recognition of such ⁓ reiterating and astonishing interpositions of providence that demands us. He's telling his people we need to remember how God has worked here. Listen to this. This is a letter in seventeen seventy eight. After reflecting on the turn of the war, Washington writes this. The hand of Providence has been so conspicuous in all of this that he must be worse than an infidel that lacks faith and more than wicked that has not gratitude enough to acknowledge his obligations. So what is he saying? He would be saying to the professors that tried to tell me that they were just all deist. He would say, You are an infidel and more than wicked because you were not acknowledging how God actually was working. in the affairs of men. The most secular of all founding fathers, Benjamin Franklin. A strong case can be made that he is not in heaven today. And by the way, there are founding fathers that are not in heaven today. Benjamin Franklin, one of the most skeptical, one of the ones that through most of his life, the term deist probably would fit. Well he is now listening and getting close to the end of his life and the the constitution is now being formed and it is not going well. And he begins to speak. Says in the beginning of the contest with Great Britain, when we were a sensible of danger, we had daily prayer in this room for divine protection. Our prayers, sir, were heard, and they were graciously answered. All of us who were engaged in the struggle must have observed frequent insistences on the superintending providence in our favor. To the that kind of providence we owe this happy opportunity of consulting in peace. On the means of establishing our future national felicity. I have lived, sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow can fall to ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid? We have been assured, sir, in the sacred writings. That accept the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. I firmly believe this, and I also believe that without his concurring aid, we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel. This is the least religious person involved in the founding of this country that is acknowledging that God is governing in the affairs of men. Why are we teaching this garbage to hide this kind of stuff? Because we are in a spiritual battle and the hour is late. People don't want you to believe that God actually governs in the affairs of men. No, God is working. And if and we need to act that way. And too often the churches and the way that we have taught this has kind of just said, well, you know, God worked up until Jesus. And then ⁓ we somehow we just got here. No, God has been working through all of that. Now you may say, Yeah, but they sure don't use the word Christian or anything like that. Guy named John Adams, one of the inner circle. He's writing to Thomas Jefferson a few years later. Says, because we have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions, unbridled by morality and religion, avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry would break the strongest cords of our constitution as a whale goes through a net. So what is he saying? That the nor that that our constitution, that our government will not be able to hold the fallen, sinful nature. He says, our constitution was made only. For a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other. And so my professors would say, Yes, he's just talking about religion in general. ⁓ keep reading the letter, morons. The general principles. The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence. Again, why is this being hidden? You have to think about it, it is pointing to a much Bigger thing. Why is this stuff hidden? The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were the only principles in which that beautiful assembly of young gentlemen could unite. And what were these general principles? What what they actually said something about that? He said, I answer the general principles of Christianity in which all those sects were united. What is he talking about? He's talking about the Baptists, the Presbyterians, the Anglicans. That's what he's talking about. And the general principles of English and American liberty. Now I will avow that I then believed and now believe that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God. Why aren't we not taught that? This one I don't know. Maybe I hope more of you knew this than I did. In seventeen eighty three The British have surrendered. The United States of America is is actually a nation. They gather with representatives from the United States, Great Britain, and with France to draft a treaty, as you do. Arguably, this is the first official act of our nation in the establishing of this treaty. Just first two lines. One is the title The Definitive Treaty of Peace seventeen eighty three. Here's how it starts, and then it lists all the terms. In the name of the most holy and undivided trinity. Now. For those who are over educated. That is referring to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit that permeate this book. They don't permeate the Quran. They don't permeate Buddhist traditions. They're not through just a random three of the thousands of Hindu gods. There's the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, because our nation Was intentionally created on Christian principles. And what's awesome about it is that you don't have to believe that to be part of this nation. Because they believed in freedom. Because why did they believe in freedom? Because freedom comes from Christ. And so even though there would be people who disagree with this, they were holding on to what is true. And that got them to the point where they could write these words. I'm just gonna write read a few. When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitles them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires they should declare the causes that impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self evident. Those words had never been written in the formation of a government before. That all Men are created equal. Thomas Jefferson's first draft actually specifically called out slavery and the abolition of slavery, and it had to be removed because of Georgia and South Carolina would not sign it. We were this close from the establishment of our country of abolishing the evil of slavery. But these words created the path for the abolishment of the evil of Of slavery. Jefferson knew that. All men are created equal. They are endowed by who? They're endowed by the government? They're endowed by the king? They're endowed by the really smart people who know more than you? No, they're endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights that among these are life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men. Deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, to institute a new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its power in such form as to them shall seem most likely to affect their safety and happiness. Prudence indeed will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light or transient causes. And accordingly, all experience has shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. They are thinking about whenever in Samuel that the people decided, no, we want a king. Why? Because we want the king to fight for for us. They were giving up their freedom. And people that our sinful nature, that is what we will do. It is only When we are a godly people, that we will seek to do the hard thing and that we will seek to actually live free. They're recognizing that. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, their duty to throw off such a government. After it goes through all of the Usurpations, all of the things that are saying this is how you have violated the laws of nature and nature's God, which who is that? It's this God right there. He says, We have not been wanting an attention to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time attempts by their legislature to extend ⁓ jurisdiction. We have reminded them, we have appealed to them. Right. Says they too have been deaf. We therefore announce our separation. We therefore, the representatives of the United States of America and General Congress assembled, appealing to the supreme judge, look how the language changes, to the supreme judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions. What are they saying? They are appealing to God, saying if our actions are not just, do not let us succeed. Because they know that there is a supreme creator who is the supreme judge and that they will be held accountable, not to Great Britain. They're yeah, they're t they are committing ⁓ treason, but they are concerned about the supreme judge who will hold them accountable for their actions. And then it goes on. It says to establish commerce do all other acts and things which independent states may do, and for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine providence, a deist cannot write that sentence. We mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor. I don't want you to leave this place. being more proud of America. I don't want you leaving this place, being more patriotic. I don't want you to leave this place saying, ⁓ we've got to save the country. I want you to leave this place knowing that God works in the affairs of men. And this country is a result of the gospel message spreading across the world. And we have a responsibility to hold that governmental earthly governmental system together in order that the gospel message can continue to be spread unfettered. And understand we are in a place where liberty and freedom and the principles of Almighty God were found were weaved together in the tapestry of the creation of this country. And there are way too many people, and they include people in the church and teaching in the church that are trying to remove those foundations. And whenever you remove the foundations of any structure. What happens? It begins to crumble. Who would want a governmental system, flawed though it c was, because humans are flawed? Who would want a governmental system that is intentionally founded on the gospel of Jesus Christ and on the principles of God? Who would want that structure to curr to crumble? That's right. It's the enemy. And he's been working ye for years. long before I even was aware of it. And that's where the anger that I have is that I didn't realize that whenever I was being told that in seminary, that that the spiritual battle was raging and the lies were being embedded in order to cause the kingdom of God to crumble here on earth. Of course we know that that will never happen. But we need to stand up for it. We need to stand up for what is true. We need to remember that God governs in the affairs of men. But it only works when men actually take responsibility for governing and instituting the principles that God gave humanity. He has called us to do that. Be excited about what God has done. Because this country has brought More good into this world than bad. It's done both because it's flawed. But the closer we are to the goodness of God, the closer we are to experiencing his kingdom here on earth. And we have a responsibility of pointing people in that direction. Don't go make good Americans. Go introduce people to the God who created the goodness of America. And that is Jesus Christ. Let's go to him in prayer.