I have several scriptures that I'd like to read to you in preparation or in introduction to this morning's sermon. We will read these scriptures rapid fire and then I'll introduce the sermon and then we'll dive in. Turn with me first of all to Proverbs 1434. Righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people. Turn with me to Isaiah chapter 3. I'll tell you what, let's stay in Proverbs for a bit. Turn to Proverbs 16, 12. It is an abomination to kings to commit wickedness, for the throne is established by righteousness. Proverbs 25, 5, take away the wicked from before the king, and his throne shall be established in righteousness. Proverbs 28, 15, as a roaring lion and a ranging bear, so is a wicked ruler. over the poor people. Proverbs 29, verse 2, when the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice, but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn. Verse 4, the king by judgment establisheth the land, but he that receiveth gifts overthroweth it. And down to verse 12, If a ruler harken to lies, all his servants are wicked. And then finally, turn with me to Isaiah chapter 3. And we'll read the entire chapter. For behold, the Lord The Lord of hosts doth take away from Jerusalem and from Judah the stay and the staff, the whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water. The mighty man and the man of war, the judge and the prophet, and the prudent and the ancient, the captain of 50, and the state of the honorable man and the counselor, and the cunning artificer, and the eloquent orator, And I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them. And the people shall be oppressed, every one by another, and every one by his neighbor. And the child shall behave himself proudly against the ancient, and the base against the honorable. When a man shall take hold of his brother, of the house of his father, saying, thou is clothing, be thou our ruler, and let this ruin be under thy hand, in that day He shall he swear, saying, I will not be a healer, for in my house is neither bread nor clothing. Make me not a ruler of the people, for Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is fallen, because their tongue and their doings are against the Lord, to provoke the eyes of his glory. The show of their countenance doth witness against them, and they declare their sin as Sodom, and they hide it not. Woe unto their soul. for they have rewarded evil unto themselves. Say ye to the righteous that it shall be well with him, for they shall eat the fruit of their doings. Woe unto the wicked, it shall be ill with him, for the reward of his hand shall be given him. As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err and destroy the way of thy paths. The Lord standeth up to plead and standeth to judge the people. The Lord will enter into judgment with the ancients of his people, and the princes thereof, for ye have eaten up the vineyard, and the spoil of the poor is in your houses. What mean ye that ye beat my people to pieces, and grind the faces of the poor, saith the Lord God of hosts? Moreover the Lord saith, because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with stretched forth necks, and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet, therefore the Lord will smite them with a scab of the crown of the head, of the daughters of Zion, and the Lord will discover their secret parts. In that day the Lord will take away the bravery of their tinkling ornaments about their feet and their calls and their round tires like the moon, the chains and the bracelets and the mufflers, the bonnets and the ornaments of the legs and the headbands and the tablets and the earrings, the rings and nose jewels, the changeable suits of apparel and the mantles, and the wimples, and the crisping pins, and the glasses, and the fine linen, and the hoods, and the veils, and it shall come to pass that instead of sweet smell, there shall be stink, instead of girdle, a rent, and instead of well-set hair, baldness, and instead of a stomacher, a girding of sackcloth, and burning instead of beauty. Thy men shall fall by the sword, and thy mighty in the war. and her gates shall lament and mourn, and she, being desolate, shall sit upon the ground." May God add his blessing to the reading and to the hearing of his inerrant, infallible, and inspired word. This January, We believe, as in every January, that for some time now in our nation, whoever is elected president this week will, around the 20th or thereafter, sometime after his inauguration, will give a State of the Union address, a State of the Union speech. And I thought that it might be good for us to consider the state of our union, perhaps before the election rather than after, that we might better be informed in our voting if we plan to vote. It is not my intent today to get into the debate that has raged or been discussed in Presbyterian circles in the past couple of hundred years, whether or not it is lawful for Christians to enter into civil government and to vote and so on. We make the assumption today that Christians do have the right to vote, that it is lawful for them to do so, that it is lawful for them to take up the office of a civil magistrate. if they would so choose to do. So what I plan to do then today is in the morning and afternoon service to talk with you about the state of our Union. And while I agree with the theory of having our president report to his boss, that is the American people, on the state of her flocks, I cannot help but think that this State of the Union address is, practically speaking, ill-timed. The candidates are all espousing their view of the State of the Union and proposing their remedies, but in the cacophony of voices, even contradictory voices, how can we really ascertain the State of our Union today? And the address that is often given that first month of the year from the executive branch of our government may or may not be representative of the way things really are. And so my contention is, would it not rather be better than waiting until January to talk about the state of our union today? And if we are able to know the state of our union, would we not be better equipped to elect a president and other officials that we judge better able to address the specific state of our nation? Now, I do not consider myself an expert in politics or government or in being an executive. I would not presume to give advice to a president with regard to the affairs of state. However, I do know something of God's word and what God says about the state of our nation. And I am an ambassador of the great king, and so I cannot keep silent in the face of the current state of our union. I must speak a word. from the word of God to address those concerns. And such a word, I dare say, will not be heard this January. But it must be heard as often and as loudly as one can speak, so he may run who hears it. And so, my fellow Christians and my fellow Americans, I must tell you that the state of our union is abominable. It's abominable. The lack of respect that we have in this country for all forms of authority is abominable. Children disrespect their parents, and that publicly, without repercussion. Leaving biblical child-rearing, we are, as a society, raising rebellious, self-willed, arrogant, and lawless children. Parents do not take responsibility to correct the manners of their children, even if it is costly. There are many places in this country where corporal punishment of children is illegal, and parents that practice spanking according to the scriptures are accounted as criminals and liable to penal action by the state, including the removal of their children from the home. Notice I did not say that I'm in favor of beating children, but I am in favor of spanking children. because God commands us to spank our children to correct their manners. Officials in the state are commonly disrespected. They are maligned, they are ridiculed, and such behavior is encouraged and not discouraged. The rancor and disrespectful speech of our political system is a testimony to this. We give our allegiance to foreign entities and treat them as our fathers, and in so doing, we refuse the fathers of the past and overturn the precepts of those who founded our nation. The virulent speech against authorities even as high as our president is a national shame. Police officers and other law enforcement officials, those ministers of God for good, are often maligned, called names, shot at, their lives hazarded. Such is their reward for hazarding their own lives for the greater cause of order in our society. Even in the church, where we might have a greater expectation of respect for authority, such is played out over and over again in the refusal of many in the church to be instructed, to shop for counsel, to even ask or receive counsel, We see the bumper sticker on our vehicles, question authority. And while that is not perhaps such a bad idea, we have gone far beyond questioning authority to ridiculing and disrespecting authority and have become suspicious of authority. And hence, we have given ourselves leave to disrespect and disobey authority. And while it is true that authorities are not clean, that many have abused their authority, the abuse of authority is no excuse for disdain and disrespect for those God-ordained institutions, which is so prevalent in our society. Turn with me in your Bibles, please, to Leviticus chapter 19. Verse 32, Thou shalt rise up. before the hoary head and honor the face of the old man and fear thy God. I am the Lord." Do you find it interesting that the Lord has strung those three together? I do. I find it very interesting. Because if you will not rise up before the hoary head, And if you will not honor the face of the old man, you will not fear your God. We have become a nation not of God-fearers, but of God-haters. And this is witnessed by the horrible and abominable treatment that we have of those who are in authority over us. In 1 Peter 2, Verse 13, Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether it be to the king as supreme or to governors as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of them that do well. For so is the will of God that with well-doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men as free, and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness, but as the servants of God. Honor all men, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king, Peter tells us. Now the treatment of authority that we have in this country is more reminiscent of anarchy than it is good order. Finally Romans 13, 1 through 7, let every soul be subject unto the higher powers, for there is no power but of God. The powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God. And they that resist shall receive to themselves a slap on the wrist. Sorry. Damnation. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Wilt thou then be not afraid of the power? Do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same, for he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid, for he beareth not the sword in vain, for he is the minister of God, a revenger. to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil therefore ye must needs be subject not only for wrath but also for conscience sake for this cause pay ye tribute also for they are God's ministers attending continually upon this very thing rendered therefore to all their dues tribute to whom tribute is due custom to whom custom fear to whom fear honor to whom honor brothers and sisters with the the way we view authority in this land, and the way we disrespect authority, and the way we see such disrespect for authority flouted and thrown in the face of authority, the state of our nation is indeed abominable. As far as the respect for and sanctity of human life, the state of our nation is abominable. It is abominable. Murderers can expect in one of the most strict states in our country, that's our state, to spend maybe 10 years in prison. And that is a prison system that supports them, feeds them, educates them, takes care of their every need. 25% of convicted murderers receive the death penalty. Of those 25% nationally, only a very small percentage are ever executed by the state. One statistic that I read yesterday said less than 5% of those on death row will ever be executed. They will probably die of old age in prison first. 1.6% million abortions continue every year in our country, 100 of which, hear me well, 100 of which are third trimester abortions. That doctors perform and that people require this is a blight. That we claim it as a right and our magistrates consider it so is an abomination. We engage in this country in exercises that cost thousands of lives overseas in nation-building military exercises. Although these exercises are touted as necessary for national defense, they are in large part unjust and unprovoked. To facilitate such acts, we have circumvented the Constitution of our United States and granted to the President prerogatives which never ought to be his to exercise unilaterally. It used to be in this country when we were a nation of laws, that we could not go to war without a declaration of war from the Congress of the United States. The President now, under the War Powers Act, can send troops anywhere he likes, at any time he likes, for any duration he likes. And this is wickedness and a disrespect for human life. We promote entertainment venues that glorify gratuitous violence. And many of these games have become so realistic that the lines between truth and fiction have been and will increase in their blurriness as the body count grows. There was a day in Western society, many of you will remember this, not in our generation or even in my generation or even in the one before, but way back, maybe three or four generations, it used to be that stage plays were built on the popular songs of the day. You couldn't do that today. The stage plays would be bloody, murderous. Some of the songs that are promoted and called free speech in our society glorify the killing, the unjust killing of people, sometimes law enforcement. The respect that we have for human life in this country is abominable. The inconvenient and the elderly are targets of this new pragmatism I don't know if you remember it, you ought to remember it, because it's one of the most shocking statements ever to come from a government official. The government of Colorado, some 20 years ago, stood up one day on his podium, the bully pulpit that he has, and says that the elderly have a duty to die. Why, we might ask? Because they're inconvenient? There is a national debate raging about using the body parts of aborted children to treat the illnesses of those who are infirm among us. This is monstrous. It is abominable. It was only a short while ago that a warning had to be given at the showing of the original Frankenstein motion picture because it involved a man entering into a sphere which was formerly thought the realm of God alone. And that because a mad doctor took parts from the dead, not created a market for them. We have surpassed the abominable Dr. Frankenstein in our national debate. Would that governor of Colorado that stood up and said that we have a duty to love instead of they have a duty to die. In the field of bioethics, the same is true. A basic material understanding of human life has turned our endeavors in science into viewing the body as a complex bio-machine with interchangeable parts. This thought often takes the form of thoughts as chemistry rather than the biblical understanding of an immaterial nature of man. We have come full round with B.F. Skinner. And we have pressed beyond freedom and dignity to the place that there is no freedom and no dignity left. Turn with me to Genesis chapter 9 verses 1 through 7. And God blessed Noah and his sons and said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth. And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every fowl of the air and upon all that moveth upon the earth and upon all the fishes of the sea. Into your hand are they delivered. Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you. Even as the green herb have I given you all things, but the flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, ye shall not eat. And surely your blood of your lives will I require at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of every man. At the hand of every man's brother will I require the life of man. Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed. For in the image of God made he man. man is made in the image of God. And when we strike at the image of God in man, we strike against God himself. The atheists that run our country and agnostics that run our country have no authority over them. They are living in the days of the judges. And so there is no authority that comes from God. that will tell us to respect authority. There is no authority that comes from God to tell us to protect and support the image of God and the sanctity and dignity of human life. In terms of marriage and intimate relationships, once again, brothers, sisters, the state of our nation is abominable. Divorce rate continues at nearly 43 percent of all first time marriages. This results often in families with children raised in circumstances where mother and father are not living together and directs obstacles to godly child rearing. The divorce rate in our nation conclusively shows the break between the church and the state and how rather than working together they have become at odds with one another Rather than the profitability of having the church and the state work together for the keeping together of families, our state has sanctioned divorce for any reason, for any cause. If that were the only problem, many do not bother at marriage at all any longer, but consider it an outmoded, old-fashioned, and patriarchal situation, which is at best passe and at worst oppressive. 37%, 37% of babies born in the US today are born out of wedlock. 37%. And there are ethnic groups in which this statistic soars. 75% of a particular ethnic group of their babies are born out of wedlock. Many today contemplate never getting married at all, simply living with their consorts. The state has facilitated such disrespect for the holy institution of marriage by developing ways of reaping the benefits socially of marriage without having to sign on the dotted line, without having to acknowledge the authority of God in marriage. Fornication is expected of our youth, and the culture does its best to promote this evil in them. Lascivious songs dominate the airwaves. Remember I told you a second ago about how some songs used to be the fodder for stage plays? That's a scary proposition today. Television and movies glorify promiscuity and fornication, and most in a shameless fashion, general lewdness, crude jokes, indecent exposure run rampant. Not only, however, in the youth is this problem found, the rise and propagation of quote, unquote, gentlemen's clubs, and let me tell you, brothers and sisters, there's nothing gentlemanly about them, is a $2 billion a year industry. I told you it was abominable. not to be outdone. Pornography is also a multi-billion dollar industry in this country. Between video and internet sales, hold on to your wallets, six billion dollars are spent every year. You wonder why the Lord is striking at our financial institutions. The effects of this toxic trash are far-reaching. objectifying people as parts, as objects of pleasure, isolating self-serving effects or devastating broken homes, ruined men, ruined women. 12% of all websites are pornographic. 12%! And there are other more disturbing statistics not for public consumption. Homosexuality is fast becoming accepted as simply an alternate way of living. Some states have passed laws vindicating or allowing homosexual marriage. Massachusetts, California, and Connecticut, to name three in our country. This is abominable. The vocabulary in our society is also undergoing a change. Marriage is being replaced with partnership. Husband and wife are no longer politically correct terms. partner has taken the public preference. And such changes are harbingers of a more abominable culture to come. Turn with me in your Bibles, please, to Leviticus chapter 18, verse 19. Also, thou shalt not approach unto a woman to uncover her nakedness as long as she is put apart for her uncleanness. Moreover, thou shalt not lie carnally with thy neighbor's wife to defile thyself with her. And thou shalt not lend any of thy seed to pass through the fire to Molech. Neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God, I am the Lord. Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind. It is abomination. Neither shalt thou lie with any beast to defile thyself therewith. Neither shall any woman stand before a beast to lie down thereto. It is confusion. Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things. For in all these things the nations are defiled which I cast out before you. And the land is defiled. Therefore do I visit the iniquity thereof upon it. and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants. Ye shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments, and shall not commit any of these abominations, neither any of your own nation nor any stranger that sojourneth among you. For all these abominations have the men of the land done which were before you, and the land is defiled. that the land spew not you out also when ye defile it, as it spewed out the nations that were before you. For whosoever shall commit any of these abominations, even the souls that commit them shall be cut off from among their people. Therefore, ye shall keep my ordinance that ye commit not any one of these abominable customs which were committed before you, and that ye defile not yourselves therein. I am the Lord your God." As it relates to ownership, personal property, theft, our situation is also abominable herein. Excessive taxation is a blight on our nation. I was shocked last night when I was looking for this statistic. How many of you know what the tax-free day is? Have you heard of the tax-free day? The tax-free day is the day during the course of the year, counted from January 1, that you must go through and work as far as your wages are concerned to pay for the cost of government over you. Now, it includes all levels of government. federal, state, local. It includes license fees and other things. It's the cost of you as a citizen doing business in the United States of America and how much of that cost goes to financing and paying for the government as a proportion of the year. I remember when the tax-free day was April. Then I remember I was horrified when it moved to May. And of course, this is for the average of wage earners. Take everybody, make a mean, there you go. Today, the tax-free day is in the middle of July. You work seven months, or six and one-half months, to pay for the government and the administration over you. six and one-half months. Brothers and sisters, that is national theft. Now, before I go farther on this topic, let me be clear. Pay your taxes. Don't do anything foolish. We've talked about the Fifth Commandment and the abuse of power, and the abuse of power does not give you leave to throw it off. You understand? Pay your taxes. Pay the fees that the government requires of you. Do what the government requires of you. Don't be lawless. Don't do that. But understand this. Work within all lawful means for the reform of a tax code and a structure over us that is indeed rapacious. That we must work for six-and-a-half months to pay for the government over it. You remember what Joe the Plumber said. He said to one of the candidates when he said that this particular candidate said, you know, I want to spread the wealth around. He said, that sounds like socialism. It's already here. It's already here. If you're working six-and-a-half months, socialism is already here. We just haven't realized it yet. So excessive taxation is a blight on our nation. The tax-free day is now sometime in July. We have recently seen our federal government assert itself into the banking and insurance industry by way of ownership. This trend, I believe, will continue, and these institutions who have squandered their public trust will receive federal dollars excessively taxed from our citizenry and the control that comes with it. Make no mistake. The $700 billion that was recently appropriated by the Congress and the executive branch of this country to buy up stakes in banking and insurance industries will be a power grab if it is anything else. Don't be mistaken there. They will have the fingers into your bank account and mine. Theft is a national scandal with shoplifting totaling by some reports, listen to this figure, 20 to 25 million dollars of retail goods stolen per day. 20 to 25 million dollars a day in theft of goods. I can't even do that math. The scandal in our nation's economy about folks signing up for mortgages and other contracts and not paying or never intending to pay is abominable, including here is defaulting on loans, bouncing checks. There are currently over 750,000 homes for sale across our country that are foreclosed properties. people defaulted on their loans. 750,000. Property seizures, annexing, enclosures, et cetera, by an authority also adds to the list of theft in our nation. Workers steal from their employers not only by taking things, but by stealing time. 25% Now listen to this. Workers freely admitted to spending 25% of their time on the computer on personal pursuits at work. Identity theft occurred in 6.5 million homes in 2005 with no signs of it slowing down. Theft and burglary total at least five billion a year in losses five billion with a B Dollars a year in losses Turn with me to Proverbs chapter 22 Verse 28 Remove not the ancient landmark which thy fathers have set. Seest thou a man diligent in his business? He shall stand before kings. He shall not stand before mean men. You see, that is an antithetical proverb there by Solomon. The first portion Removing the ancient landmarks. What does that mean? Well, that means taking taking the that that stick that stake that you've driven in the ground at the edge of your property and Every year maybe taking just going out in the middle of the night and taking five foot of your neighbor's land Maybe every year just another five feet every year just enough five feet pretty soon. You're in his backyard. You're stealing his land don't remove the ancient landmarks, but they're a The antithesis of that is a man who's diligent in his business. Proverbs 23, verse 10. Remove not the old landmark and enter not into the fields of the fatherless for their Redeemer is mighty. He shall plead their cause with thee. I've given you estimates here, haven't I? The Lord knows every dollar that's been stolen. And those dollars, the cry of those dollars, if you will, have reached up into the ears of the Most High, haven't they? In terms of us being a people that know and speak the truth, again, our practice is abominable. We are not a nation given to the truth. We are a nation given to lies and falsehoods. Facts are not neutral, but are seen, interpreted, and reported in a biased fashion. Further, as a nation of folks who have repudiated a commitment to objective truth, absolute truth, we have become a nation of pragmatists, where the end justifies the means. So we lie. We lie if it means that we will achieve what we believe to be a proper end. We do evil that good may come or a perceived good. We twist the truth and report only those data pertinent and supportive to our case and leave out those inconvenient truths which militate against it. Do you believe that the agnostics and atheists that are in charge of this country will tell you the truth of what's going on or rather will they tell you what you need to know so they can get your support so they can press their agenda? You tell me what you think it is. I think we're unanimous in the understanding of what's going on. We have ceased having conversations of give and take with an absolute standard for truth, and we press our agenda, recklessly abandoning facts for our own self-interest or perhaps a perceived altruism. Our national debate on issues is not governed by any truth commitments, but by groupthink and cronyism where our people are always right and they are always wrong. We discuss things like children and maintain our views even when it flies in the face of our own commitments because we want it both ways, and if truth and consistency are made casualties thereby, so be it. We hold contradictory propositions with equal zeal, not even reckoning the damage done to rational conversation and thought. We would rather that words cease to mean what they mean, that truth be inexpressible, than that we are found to be liars or guilty. We would rather destroy our society than be told we're wrong. I looked at statistics on perjury. There are no statistics on perjury. Do you know why? Because most judges and most prosecutors believe it takes place in every case. In every case that comes before the bar in this country, most prosecutors and judges believe that there is some perjury that goes on. You remember that I'm kind of a fan of Vincent Bugliosi. You remember that? Vincent Bugliosi was the man that prosecuted Charles Manson. Vincent Bugliosi is a man, if he was in charge when the Simpson trial was taking place in Los Angeles, I believe we would have had a different outcome. Here's a sharp guy. Vincent Beliosi says that perjury is so common it is expected. It is expected. And it is rarely prosecuted. In fact, so rarely is it prosecuted because it is so common that those people that are prosecuted for perjury always cry foul. Why are you singling me out? We are a nation of liars. I don't know if you remember a couple years back, at least, there was a movie that came out, a particular comedic actor in it, a talented guy. The name of the movie was Liar, Liar. And the premise of the movie went like this. Something supernatural happened to him where it was impossible for him to tell a lie. Every question that he was asked, he had to tell the truth. Even if it was difficult, uncomfortable, or detrimental to him, he was forced to tell the truth. When it was embarrassing, when it was uncomfortable, when it was detrimental, no matter what, He told the truth. And that movie, I thought, was a very interesting study in how much lying has permeated our society to watch a man go through his life and be forced to tell the truth. It sparked a national debate. The talk radio programs were filled with people that talked about the necessity of lying every day in order to get by and live properly in our society. Listen, we are a nation of liars. Do you think that the atheists and agnostics that run this country, do you think they'll tell you what you need to know? Or do you think they'll tell you what they want you to know to press their agenda? Do they have any truth commitments? No, we've become a nation of pragmatists. We console ourselves as a society with telling lies that a greater good may come. Well, we needed this end, so we told lies to get there. We don't do evil that good may come, do we? Turn with me in your Bibles, please, to Romans chapter 6. Oh, I'm sorry, not there. Isaiah 59. two instructive passages from Isaiah and Jeremiah. Isaiah chapter 59 verse 12, For our transgressions are multiplied before thee, and our sins testify against us. As for our transgressions, I'm sorry, for our transgressions are with us. And as for our iniquities, we know them in transgressing and lying against the Lord and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood. And judgment is turned away backward and justice standeth afar off for truth is fallen in the street and equity cannot enter. Yay. truth faileth, and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey. And the Lord saw it, and it displeased him that there was no judgment. It turns me over to Jeremiah chapter 7, verse 25. Since the day that your fathers came forth Out of the land of Egypt unto this day I have sent unto you all my servants, the prophets, daily rising up and early and sending them. Yet they hearkened not unto me, nor inclined their ear, but hardened their neck. They did worse than their fathers. Therefore thou shalt speak all these words unto them, but they will not hearken unto thee. Thou shalt also call unto them, but they will not answer thee. But thou shalt say unto them, this is a nation that obeyeth not the voice of the Lord their God, nor receiveth correction. Truth is perished and is cut off from their mouth." Covetousness. This also is a national abomination. Covetousness is an abomination in our society. Our callings are no longer considered ways to be of service, but ways to get rich or to live the life you deserve. We promote envy. We appeal to our baser desires for power, ease, the flesh, all to sell products and services. We promise untold riches with ad campaigns replete with luxurious homes, boats, cars, faraway exotic locations. We populate these ads with glamorous men and women talking about the life of the privileged and wealthy, promising that you too can experience the life that you deserve. Certainly, this affects the state of our nation in that we are so in love with stuff and the envy and power that it brings that we will do almost anything to get what we want. Indeed, the words of the Apostle James are appropriate. James 1, one through four, from whence come wars and fighting among you? Come they not hence, even of your lusts, that war in your members ye lust and have not, ye kill and desire to have and cannot obtain, ye fight and war, ye have not, because ye ask not, ye ask and ye receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts, ye adulterers and adulteresses? No, ye not. that friendship of the world is enmity with God. Whosoever, therefore, will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. And also in the words of the Apostle Paul to Timothy in chapter 6, 1 Timothy chapter 6, verse 6, Godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment, let us be there with contentment. But they that will be rich, fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil, which, while some covet it after, they have heard from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows." Even worse than this, there is an entitlement mentality that goes along with this kind of covetousness. You know what I mean by an entitlement mentality? Let me describe it for you. When we were back in California, I worked with a young man. He was I was a young man back then. We were close in age. He was a few years my junior. And his dad was it was a very wealthy man and lived in Santa Maria, California, and had a sprawling ranch in in Santa Maria. Very nice place. And I don't know those of you who know Santa Maria, California, you know, it's pastoral rolling hills. Very, very pretty place. And his dad had, I don't know, 50 acres or so in Santa Maria, which is, in those days, a lot of land. And we were together in Southern California at, I believe it was a Christmas party or some function, some social gathering around work. And his dad was there. And George, my friend, not really a friend, but my coworker George, had perhaps a little bit too much to drink and he looked at his dad and he said, Dad, you know, I want to have the kind of life that you have. And his dad was pretty reasonable character. He said, You know, George, you keep your nose down, you work hard, be diligent, learn all you can study, you will. He says, No, you don't understand that. I mean, I want it. I want it now. And I mean, George was serious. He wasn't just joking. He wasn't, you know, that sounds like a joke to us, right? Sounds like we're just making a joke about patience. No, George was serious. George said, you know, I want it now, Dad. And he said, I don't understand what you mean, son. He said, well, you know, you have all the stuff. Why can't I have it? I'm entitled to something too. And his dad looked at him and he said, you arrogant little, and I won't tell you what he called him, you arrogant little such and so. What makes you think that because I've worked for 40 or so years to get all that I have that you should have it without any labor at all? And yet that is the mentality that we have today. There is an entitlement mentality that we are entitled to the American dream. I've heard the candidates speak on this. And what they say, pandering to the electorate as they do, one of them said, The dream of American homeownership shall not be dashed. And here's what he means by that. Those of you who couldn't afford the homes that you bought, who couldn't make the payments and who going into those loans knew you weren't going to be able to make those payments and just got in the house so you could default on the loan. We're going to buy up those loans and help you out. You see what we're doing? We are in abominable fashion feeding into that entitlement mentality in our country. And you know why we do it? Because that's how we get elected. That's how we get votes. We buy votes. No longer do issues sell a campaign. Well, for those of you who have been paying attention, you realize that what we've just done is we have talked about Commandments 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. And we've related each of those commandments to how we view them as a nation and as a society. Commandments 5 through 10. And we have shown that on every count we are in bad shape. Brothers and sisters, I tell you that the state of our nation is abominable. And as one senator said, oh, I don't know, maybe 12 years ago, if God doesn't destroy America, he will certainly have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah. You see, this is where we are today. I'll give you just a couple more minutes. If we take up Commandments 1 through 4, we understand all the more how abominable we have become as a nation. We are a nation of idolaters, first commandment. We are a nation of idolaters following after other gods. This is abominable. Our leaders tell us that Islam and Christianity and Judaism are all compatible, monotheistic religions, expressions of the same base. We say no. We say no. Remember that Allegiance to another God was punishable by death in the Old Testament Deuteronomy 13 6 through 10 as a matter of fact so much was it was it punishable by death that those Dear family members who came to you and whispered in your ear on the pillow Let us go and serve other gods the command of Moses really the command of the Holy Spirit speaking by Moses was Your hand shall be first upon him to put into death your eyes shall not pity neither shalt thou spare It is better that one idolater die Than the entire nation be drawn away to an everlasting death Now in these days you have to clarify such statements, I'm not advocating that vigilantism and going out and shooting idolaters. It's not what I'm saying. I am saying, though, that our magistrate is pumping false religions down our throats as a populace, as a society, and as such they are abominable. Moreover, the cults are given as much protection as the true religion. Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Seventh-day Adventists, Worldwide Church of God, Armstrong, Christian Scientism. But worse than that, Shintoism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Spiritism, Wiccanism, and all. You know, we require our military chaplains to be able to do all of those duties. Because we are a pluralistic society. So we force our chaplaincy, those men who have no conscience, we force those men to minister according to the tenets of Wiccans to Wiccans, according to the tenets of Muslims to Muslims, according to the tenets of Hindus to Hindus, Shintos to Shintos, and so on, and so on, and so on. We are a nation of institutionalized idolatry. This is abominable. Further, we worship sports, which by some is called the national religion, where all of our time on the Lord's Day is spent in that pursuit. And the words of the Apostle Paul in Colossians 3, 5 ring true when he said, covetousness is idolatry. We have seen already that we are a covetous nation. In the Second Commandment, we are a nation that worships its own desires or after its own desires, and therefore we worship falsely. In most of our religious discussion in this country, there is a decided ignorance of how one ought to worship. As we set above, our Fifth Commandment responsibilities toward the Lord and how He has commanded we worship Him are unheeded and unknown. Truly, we don't even know the principle of regulated worship and why it's important in our national religious debate. Our knowledge of God and his requirements are woefully inadequate as Christians. We are a superstitious people. I don't mean biblical Christians. I mean those who call themselves Christians. We are a superstitious people easily swayed by wild interpretations of prophecy, visions of Armageddon to come, endless discussions of whether the mark of the beast will be an electronic chip or a barcode tattoo. This is to say nothing of the encouragement to false worship by our government simply not favoring or protecting the true religion as a nursing father to the church. However, even in Protestant churches, worship is often perverse and not according to the scriptural standard. Most Protestants attending church believe that worship is rewarding when it inspires them or makes them feel closer to God. Most Protestants believe that meaningful worship is a worship that facilitates them connecting with God. That's true. What they're really looking for is a satisfying emotional experience. This is how connecting with their God is realized. Of course, this is will worship. And the concept of worshiping the Lord as a service to Him, as religious service to Him, is all but lost in today's national religious practice. In the third commandment, we are a nation of blasphemers. And this, too, is an abomination. If we were to take all of the mentions, now I know God has a counter, I don't. But I know God is counting. I know He knows everything. And so take, within the borders of this country, every time the name God or Jesus Christ is used, and put them in two bins. One bin would be a blasphemous use, and the other bin would be a worshipful use. And I dare say, the ratio would be staggering on the blasphemy side. we are a nation of blasphemers. Moreover, our third commandment teaches us or our teaching on the third commandment informs us that God is that the Third Commandment is violated when we do not make right use of the way He has revealed Himself. In other words, when we twist and pervert His Word. When candidates for our country rip the Scriptures from their context in order to be elected by religious people who superstitiously nod at the mention of Scripture in a speech, that is blasphemy and a violation of the Third Commandment. Leviticus 24 11 Verse 10 that the and the son of an Israelitish woman whose father was an Egyptian Went out among the children of Israel and the son of the Israelitish woman and a man of Israel strove together in the camp And the Israelitish woman's son blasphemed the name of the Lord and cursed. And they brought him unto Moses. And his mother's name was Shelomit, the daughter of Dibri, the tribe of Dan. And they put him in ward, that the mind of the Lord might be showed them. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, bring forth him that hath cursed without the camp, and let all that heard him lay their hands upon his head, and let all the congregation stone him and thou shalt speak unto the children of israel saying whosoever curseth his god shall bear his sin and he that blasphemeth the name of the lord shall surely be put to death and all the congregation shall certainly stone him as well as the stranger as he that is born in the land when he blasphemeth the name of the lord shall be put to death how does the lord feel about blasphemy It's pretty clear. It's pretty clear. Further, though God's Word is maligned and mistrusted, this is also a blight that God's Word is lightly esteemed. It is blasphemy. And finally, on the fourth commandment then, we have left off keeping the Sabbath day holy and have claimed that day for ourselves. This, too, is an abomination. We don't even need to report on this, so widespread is the violation of this commandment. We used to be a nation that enacted and enforced blue laws, that is, laws requiring that non-essential enterprises be closed on the Lord's Day, but no more. We promote Sabbath desecration by Sunday brunch and Sunday sales. Restaurants cater to Christians on their way home from church, and Christians stop. Christians have Super Bowl parties in their homes after church on Sunday. Employers malign and prejudice themselves against workers who require the Lord's day off to do the service that they owe unto God. The laws we have enacted as a society preventing religious discrimination so that people cannot be fired for religious observance apply equally to all false religions as well as the true so that we are lumped in with others who break the Sabbath but keep some other holy day. And this all is abominable. Turn with me to Isaiah chapter 58. Verse 13. If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable, and shalt honor him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words, Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord, and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." Yes, brothers and sisters, the state of our nation is indeed abominable. Well, it is our responsibility as Christians not just to curse the darkness, not just to call out the sins of our nations, but also to shed light, to be light bearers. And so we are out of time for this morning's sermon. This afternoon, then, we will take up what it is our duty to do based on what we have seen by this brief examination of the law of God as it respects the current practice of our nation. Let's stand and call upon the Lord in prayer. Our dear Heavenly Father, we thank Thee for this brief but penetrating examination of what we in our country face day by day. And we ask father that we would not be a people only to murmur and complain and to curse the darkness but that we would also be a people that take up the mantle of being light bearers as we according to our Lord Jesus Christ are the light of the world the salt of the earth help us father as we pursue again this afternoon to remember the abomination of our country and to because of that abomination be pressed, be stirred up to our duty as light and salt in this dark land. And we pray, Father, continually for our nation that thou would grant us repentance and reformation. We ask all these things in Christ's name. Amen. Please be seated.