“The Need for Separation”
February 16, 2014
2 Corinthians 6:14-18
“Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said:
“I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.” Therefore, “Come out from them
and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.” And, “I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”
Do you want God’s blessings on your life? Do you want to be sons and daughters of the Lord God Almighty? God wants to live with us and walk among us and be our God. But He asks one thing of us- NO! He DEMANDS one thing of us – that we be separate from the world. That we not compromise.
To me, it is kind of like being on a team and the coach asking you not to play for the other team but only for his team. But the other team has such nice uniforms and they have new equipment and they seem to be winners. Sometimes it seems like they even have more fun! “Maybe we could kind of support both sides.”
God says in the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20:1-3,
“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. “You shall have no other gods before me.”
Deuteronomy 6:13-15
“Fear the LORD your God, serve him only and take your oaths in his name. Do not follow other gods, the gods of the peoples around you; for the LORD your God, who is among you, is a jealous God and his anger will burn against you, and he will destroy you from the face of the land.”
God is very clear than He requires total commitment, complete allegiance to Him. He warns,
Deuteronomy 13:6-8
“If your very own brother, or your son or daughter, or the wife you love, or your closest friend secretly entices you, saying, “Let us go and worship other gods” (gods that neither you nor your ancestors have known, gods of the peoples around you, whether near or far, from one end of the land to the other), do not yield to them or listen to them...”
Deuteronomy 30:15-18
“See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. For I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in obedience to him, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess.
But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.”
There is a reward and a curse before us. If we serve only the Lord, we will be blessed. If we are drawn away to other gods – we will be destroyed. So much of the Bible is history of the failure of Israel to follow completely God’s Commands. They were continually going off and following other Gods. They didn’t reject God – they just added some other god or gods. They just compromised. They talked the talk of following God – but they didn’t walk the walk. They claimed the promises of God and claimed to be His people – but they weren’t. They did their own thing and went their own way – suffered for it.
Our forefathers, when they created this country were fully aware of all this. And they determined to build this nation on the Bible and on Christ. That’s hard to believe isn’t it? We have been lied to. We have had our history rewritten and then forced on us from kindergarten on because a lot of people don’t want to believe that we are a Christian nation – or I should say – we WERE a Christian nation. They want to separate the Church from the state. The want to separate politics and religion. Let’s look at a few facts. First of all, let’s look at why the pilgrims came over here. The Mayflower Compact says it pretty well. A portion says,
“Having undertaken, for the Glory of God, and advancements of the Christian faith...”
The New England Charter says,
“…to advance the enlargement of Christian religion, to the glory of God Almighty.”
Rhode Island Charter of 1683, begins: “We submit our persons, lives and estates unto our Lord Jesus Christ, the King of kings and Lord of lords and to all those perfect and most absolute laws of His given us in His holy Word.”
The reason for coming to America was to advance Christianity. It was to evangelize the New World. There is ample documentation of that fact. History revisionist would try to convince you people came to America to seek gold or land or some other selfish motive. But the documentation is clear that our forefathers came to establish a ‘Christian’ nation where Christ was King. They firmly believed that there was a blessing in following God and they wanted to create a nation that was blessed by Him.
When they were wrestling with the process of creating this nation, things got pretty heated at times. During one of these times Benjamin Franklin, who historians claim was one of the least religious people of the patriarchs, stood and addressed the Continental Congress with these words:
“In the beginning of the contest with Britain, when we were sensible of danger, we had daily prayers 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 instances of a superintending Providence in our favor…. Have we now forgotten this powerful friend? Or do we imagine we no longer need His assistance? 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 man. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid?”
Did you notice what Ben Franklin was quoting? It was the Bible; it was the words of Jesus. It was Jesus he was imploring the founders to pray to. Jesus was their God. Jesus was their King. Their cry was, “No king but King Jesus!” The Bible was their textbook.
“President John Quincy Adams said, “The first and almost the only book deserving of universal attention is the Bible.”
President Andrew Jackson said, “Go to the Scriptures... the joyful promises it contains will be a balsam to all your troubles.”
President Woodrow Wilson said, “...the Bible...is the one supreme source of revelation of the meaning of life, the nature of God and spiritual nature and need of men. It is the only guide of life which really leads the spirit in the way of peace and salvation.”
It seems pretty clear that the majority of our forefathers were Christian and believed the Bible was the Word of God and ought to be used by the people of this new republic.
Are we a Christian nation? Not any longer – but we were. Patrick Henry made a very clear statement. He said,
“It cannot be emphasized too often or too strongly that this great nation was founded not by religionists but by Christians; not on religions but on the gospel of Jesus Christ....It is for this reason that people of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity and freedom of worship here.”
Even the Supreme Court ruled in 1892, in the Church of the Holy Trinity vs. The United States:
“Our laws and our institutions must necessarily be based upon and embody the teachings of The Redeemer of mankind. It is impossible that it should be otherwise; and in this sense and to this extent our civilization and our institutions are emphatically Christian….This is a religious people. This is historically true.”
Our country has been blessed above all countries in the world – maybe in all of history except, perhaps, for Israel when she was following God. And the reason is because it was build on the God of the Bible and His precepts. Thomas Jefferson many revisionist claim was not a Christian but He said,
"I am a real Christian – that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus Christ." --The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, p. 385.
Jefferson went on to say,
"God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the Gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that His justice cannot sleep forever; That a revolution of the wheel of fortune, a change of situation, is among possible events; that it may become probable by Supernatural influence! The Almighty has no attribute which can take side with us in that event." --Notes on the State of Virginia, Query XVIII, p. 237.
Jefferson knew that it was God who gave us liberty and he feared for the day when we forgot that. That day has come and can God’s judgment be long in coming?
I was asked a couple months ago to be on the Jefferson Action Committee. One media person said that it is the most important committee in America right now. We are in the process of starting the Republic of Jefferson. It’s on the June Ballot. All that means is that the people are voting to belong in the Republic of Jefferson. From there, if it passes in June, the people will vote to build a new republic. They will decide on the government and infrastructure and all the rest.
When I was asked to join I was cautious. I prayed about it. I check it out. And the more I prayed and thought about it the more I realized that I need to do all I can to turn the people and the nation back to Christ and the Bible. This movement may simply be a stage to vocalize our message. Maybe we can actually create a territory where Christ is King. I don’t know. But with our government, especially our state, using our Christian tax dollars to support things that God is opposed to and that our founding Fathers were opposed to – a time has come to do something.
Do you know whose fault it is that our country has deteriorate spiritually the way it has? It is the Pastors and Churches and Christians fault. Our forefathers carefully made a special amendment that our government should make NO LAW having to do with religion. They knew that to do so would put the government above God. But in the late fifties when the government passed a law that church should be tax exempt - the church thought it was a terrific idea never realizing that it was agreeing to put the government above God. Prior to that the church, any church, was considered hallowed ground. You could run to it for sanctuary and be safe. The ground the church was on belonged to God. When we allowed the government to have authority over God it wasn’t long before we stopped prayer in the schools – then we took the Bibles out, too.
Little by little the government has taken more and more authority from the church and God. Common law or God’s law is no longer the law of the land - precedent law or man’s law is the rule. It is no wonder the Supreme Court has such difficulty in interpreting law. The Constitution was written with Common Law in mind. It was the God of the Bible and the law of the Bible that was regarded as the basis for truth. No longer is that true. Truth is how they (man) chooses to define it. The law is what they decide it is. So the Christian’s tax dollar goes to murder babies and support homosexual marriage and things that are an abomination to God. It is the law.
The problem today is like Israel of old, we have compromised and allowed other god’s to infiltrate our churches and our beliefs. We have allowed something else to take God’s place as authority – the government.
Some may quote Romans 13 that says,
“Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God.” Romans 13:1
Our Founding Fathers were aware of that verse when they created this nation. Their interpretation was that if a government or king went contrary to God - he did not have the authority to do so. The authority that is real and of God and established by God does not do anything contrary to God’s will but works to accomplish what God desires. If a government asks us to do something contrary to God – they do not have the authority to do so. It is our right and responsibility to resist such government. The preferred method is of course peaceful. The Jefferson Republic Movement does not have a militia or military and has no place for violence. But we do want to make some peaceful changes –through the people. It is “We the People” who decide everything in the new Republic. That is the way our country was founded.
So where do you come in? First, devote yourself to God. Make Jesus your King as well as your Savior. Secondly, get educated. Learn about our country and how we were founded. Thirdly, get involved. From voting to running for office – get involved. Let’s take this country back for Christ. QUESTIONS
