Our time in the Word of God this morning is somewhat unique in that what we're gonna do, we rarely do. Once a year, and not every year, we're gonna talk about politics and religion. And the crowd gasped. I don't especially like the word religion when referring to our faith, but in our vernacular today, everyone understands what we mean when we say politics and religion. It's been said that if you want to ruin Thanksgiving dinner with the in-laws, bring up one, politics or religion, at the table and see what happens. Bring up both and you will start a civil war. Well, politics and religion at one time in our nation's history used to be a legitimate topic. in the American churches, going all the way back to before there was a US of A. The mixing of the two was, quite honestly, very commonplace in America's earliest churches, continuing throughout most of our history until probably the last 100 years or so. You know, I'm going to have to modify that statement. I used to say 100 years or so, when 100 years back would have been 1899-1900. Now that's 1924. And what I really mean is 125 years ago. Election sermons, politics, and religion from the pulpit have been declining for years. It really took a hit when the federal government decided that there's this humongous wall of separation between church and state and therefore we had no business advising the government about anything or informing our people of anything that the government had to do. Let me just tell you that's a bald-faced lie. deal with that in a little while. It was the Puritan pastor, John Winthrop, on board the sailing ship, the Arabelle, sailing to the New World, who called New England a city on a hill. He got it from the text of scripture. He did that in his sermon aboard that ship in 1630, more than 100 years ago. Now, we need to remember something about those early churches. They were mostly Puritans slash Congregationalists. The Puritans were Anglicans who were trying to purify the church. And they came across here. And then the dissenters and so forth, they came over here and they formed churches in New England. They are today the Congregationalist Church, a bunch of white buildings, dead bones inside. The church was Israel in their covenant theology thinking. It functioned under a covenant, one that is not mentioned in the Bible. Some will say there are two covenants that are not mentioned. And the church was an official entity wedded to the state. We Baptists are definitely not that. Anyone doesn't agree or understand, see me afterwards. Plan to spend the day in my office. But that errant theology ran deeply into their thinking. It impacted them a lot. I did a little research this week on the concept of election sermons, just because that's the history professor in me. There's a pastor of the Third Baptist Church of Marion, Illinois. His name is Obi Tyler Todd. I'm glad that's not my name. He's also a history professor at Luther Rice College and Seminary. And he wrote that the first actual election sermon that's recorded was written by John Cotton in 1634. And in 1638, Thomas Hooker preached a sermon where he, quote, argued for popular control of civil government, laying the seeds of democracy that would come to define New England, especially during the Revolution. And I scratch my head and I go, democracy? We're not that. The influence of election sermons and the church in general was especially important in the late 18th century as the colonies declared their independence from Mother England. Can you imagine if Congress did today what it did way back then in 1774? In 1774 and 75, the New Continental Congress proclaimed days of fasting and prayer, calling Americans to confess and repent of their sins. Can you imagine if they issued such a statement today? Can't you just hear the cries for separation of church and state? Words that do not even appear in the Declaration of Independence or the US Constitution. Don't get me started. I'm fighting it. Can you see me fighting it? And don't get the idea that we Baptists, by the way, avoided engagements with the state. Remember, I've taught you in the past that Pastor John Leland, a Baptist pastor in Virginia, withheld or threatened to withhold his vote to ratify the Constitution if they did not include a Bill of Rights. He won. We have a Bill of Rights. In 1779, the General Court of Massachusetts asked Pastor Samuel Stillman of the First Baptist Church of Boston to deliver an election sermon. In 1802, Thomas Baldwin, the pastor of the Second Baptist Church, delivered an election sermon to the assembly. Governor Caleb Strong was in attendance. The text that we can find, if we research the various election sermons that you can get in print, run all the way from Joshua chapter 23, where Joshua is about to pass away and encourages the people, to John chapter 17. And I'm sure that they run everywhere before that, after that, and in between those passages. Now in the early years, because of that covenant theology, the theme of building the city on the hill as the fulfillment of their covenant with God was an especially prominent theme. It ran through everywhere. But another prevailing theme of many of those sermons was the idea that Christians must fulfill their God-given responsibility to, one, promote the gospel, and two, to be salt and light in a terribly dark world. Now, they viewed the world as terribly dark back then. Can you imagine what they would think if they saw it now? I think election sermons are more needed now than they were back then. And because they were mostly proponents of the state-church relationship, Christian involvement in elections and in the state was essential to good governance. Indeed, what would a message like this be if we did not listen to a few of things that the founding fathers said? For instance, one of my favorite, you've heard it before, John Adams said our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other kind of people. Adams and Jefferson, bless their hearts, they started out as friends, then they went to war with each other, and then before they died, they made up. And when they did, when they patched up their friendship, they engaged on a tremendous letter-writing, sorry, no Twitter, no tweets, no emails, letter-writing. And in a letter that Adams wrote to Jefferson, dated June 28, 1813, he wrote about the general principles, that's 1813, So 76 to 1800 is what, 24 Marianne and 13 more is 37 years later, right? So they still had 13 years yet to live because they both died on July the 4th, 50 years after the Declaration of Independence. Adams wrote this to Jefferson about the general principles. What were these general principles, he asked Mr. Jefferson. I answer, the general principles of Christianity. Don't tell me we were not founded on Christianity. Don't tell me that. Now I will vow that I then believed and I now believe that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable, biblical words, as the existence and attributes of God, and that those principles of liberty are as unalterable as human nature and our terrestrial mundane system. Whew. So. In the spirit of the founding fathers and paying homage to John Adams, who wrote, it is the duty of the clergy to accommodate their discourses to the times, to preach against such sins as are most prevalent, and to recommend such virtues as are most wanted, I offer this election sermon. Ready? Our times are very similar to those which Thomas Paine wrote of. He penned these words. These are the times that try men's souls. You think? Yeah. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country. But he that stands by it now deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Thomas Paine wrote that in the book called The Crisis, the pamphlet. And it was dated December 23rd, 1776. Indeed, elections have always been a time of choosing. And every election lately has been described as the most important election in our lifetimes. Even Victor Davis Hanson has said that, exactly that. And in this time of choosing, we as true Christians ought to remember what God has to say about choice. John Jay, the first Chief Justice appointed by General Washington, George Washington, this first Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court understood how God would direct people to choose. Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers. And it is the duty as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers. That's pretty clear cut to me. But what are Christians to do? What are we to use to guide us in choosing when Christians are not on the ballots? How are we to decide? Well, before I get to how, I want to look at another question, which I have noted in the last number of years, some very well-meaning, but very misinformed Christians ask. Here it is. Number one, why should I vote? I belong to heaven. I'm not a citizen of this country. I'm a citizen in heaven. Why should I vote? I'm not of this world. Why should I even get involved in politics? Why vote? If God is in control anyway, then my voting won't change anything. I hate to admit this, but my own father came to that conclusion as he was about 80 years old, a year before he died. He was so discouraged. Now I can tell you of all the elections where the results were determined by a difference that is in the single digits, it's a long list of those elections. Or that the last presidential election was actually determined by a mere difference in 14,000 votes divided amongst three states, Because of our electoral college system, which interestingly, certain groups of people want to get rid of. The wisdom of the founding father screams from the grave. But a true Christian has a higher responsibility than just the outcome. And God does indeed control the outcome. We read that in the scripture. Daniel wrote, he changeth the times and the seasons, he removeth kings, he sets up kings, he gives wisdom unto the wise and knowledge to them that know understanding. And we read in Romans chapter 13, verse one, that every soul be subject to the higher power, because there is no power but of God. He put him there. The powers that be are ordained by God, even if we don't like them. A true Christian's responsibility goes beyond mere assent to God's will, beyond the recognition of God's sovereignty in civil government and in elections. It goes to our responsibility before God to represent him as his ambassadors. The text tells us we are ambassadors for Christ. We must vote because, number one, we have influence and we've got to use it. We are responsible to exert as godly an influence on this world as we possibly can. And since God has raised up this nation, since God guided the founders to establish our government on the Judeo-Christian principles that they found in the Bible, we've read enough of those quotes already, then we must fulfill our obligation as citizens, as beneficiaries of God's grace being in this country to exercise our preferences in our leaders, as John Jay said, by casting our ballots. Matthew chapter 5. Turn there for me, please. Matthew chapter 5. And look with me, beginning in verse 13. Jesus said, chapter 5, verse 13, you are the salt of the earth. but if the salt have lost his savior, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, to be trodden under the foot of men. You are the light of the world, a city that is set on a hill. Does that sound familiar? Cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick, and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father, which is in heaven. There's our influence. We have influence. Use it. Salt preserves. We know that. We ought to preserve our foundational form of governance. We are a republic, not a democracy. One could say that the term conservative naturally rises from SALT being a preservative. The founders, incidentally, despised democracy. James Madison in Federalist Paper Number 10 said, that in a pure democracy, quote, there is nothing to check the inducement to sacrifice the weaker party or the obnoxious individual. He also wrote, democracies have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths, ooh. 1787, the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Virginia Governor Edmund Randolph said, in tracing these evils to their origin, every man had found it in the turbulence and follies of democracy. And our old friend John Adams wrote, remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There was never a democracy yet that did not commit suicide. Finally, Alexander Hamilton, not one of my favorites, but we are now forming a Republican form of government. Real liberty is not found in the extremes of democracy. but in moderate governments. If we incline too much to democracy, we shall soon shoot into a monarchy or some other form of dictatorship." What did the cartoon or the meme say? Democracy is two wolves and a lamb deciding what's for dinner. So while salt preserves, Light illuminates, the text says. Light enables us to see the way and to guide others to the truth, to the gospel, to the truth, to all truth, to God's truth, on any and every issue. That's what the Bible's for. That's why we have to know it. In John chapter 12, Jesus said unto them, yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness come upon you. For he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth. While you have light, believe in the light, that you may be the children of light. These things spoke Jesus and departed and did hide himself from them. So we have influence and we must use it. Secondly, we have the power of prayer, and we must use it. First Timothy chapter two. I exhort therefore, Paul wrote to that young pastor, that first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings, for all that are in authority, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. Now I wonder, and you probably have too, if all true believers in the past and the present, had actually been praying as they could or should have in all the years past, would we be in as bad a shape now as we are? I wonder. The purpose, maybe the goal is a better word here, in this instance of our prayers, is that we may lead a peaceable, quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. Wouldn't you like a little more of that? I sure would. Furthermore, Paul's words to Timothy are not left to our choice. Well, I don't like that leader, so I voted for his opponent. Therefore, I don't feel obligated to pray for him or her. I am sorry, but that is structured as a command. We don't have a choice. We must pray for those that have authority over us. We must pray. We have influence, and we have the power of prayer. Use them. Third, we have a responsibility. I'd like to say use that too, so I would alliterate it, but I can't. Fulfill it. We have a responsibility. Fulfill it. In Romans chapter 13, which we read, I will not read the first five verses again. that every soul be subject to higher powers, God has put them there. For, verse four, he is the minister of God for good. And when Paul wrote those words, no one voted for anything. Rome had an emperor, a tyrant actually, by the name of Nero. You remember him. Put Christians on spikes outside the city and lit them on fire. We live in a constitutional republic, and we have the right and privilege to have a say in who leads our nation. Abraham Lincoln put it this way, we are a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. And you know when he said that? When we were divided in the Civil War at Gettysburg. Let me repeat John Jay's words. Providence, that's their way of saying God, has given to our people the choice of their rulers. It is the duty as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian nation that we select and prefer Christians for our rulers. So we have a duty as well as a privilege to choose, and we do that by voting. That's how we do it. So with all due respect to those well-meaning Christians who ask, why should I vote? You do not have the option to stay home. You do not have the option to claim citizenship in heaven and not vote here on earth. You have an obligation. You reap the benefits and the blessings of this nation. You must also exercise the responsibilities of citizenship. It's a Christian's obligation. So we must vote because we have influence, because we have the power of prayer, and because we have the responsibility. Our second question still awaits. How do I determine who to vote for? I really wish the Bible came out with a verse that said, in the year 2024, 2020, vote for so and so. The Bible does not just outright tell Christians. living under a Republican form of government, how to select its leaders. There is no chapter or verse that we can turn to that says, when elections occur, these are the standards by which you measure the candidates. There is no chapter like that. An election sermon, while many have used a passage of scripture, cannot refer to a particular biblical event or appalling letter, because there are none. That said, We have then to rely on biblical principles to help guide us in making our choice. Our method for this morning is to take a few of the current day issues and hold them up against God's word. What does God's word? I've already said all the answers are here. What does God's word have to say about some of the issues that we are facing? And in this way, we are applying the biblical principle to the current day issue, and then therefore to the candidates. Now, I'm prohibited by law, some law somewhere, some guideline. I can't use names. I won't use names. But you will know. Abortion. You know, for a good, true Christian, this is not even an issue. We shouldn't need to ask. And the Bible is exceedingly clear. David said, you have possessed my reins. You covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise thee. I'm fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are thy works. My soul knows it right well. What do we have there? We have personhood before birth. And then in Psalm 51, when he was confessing his sin, he said, you know, I was shapen in iniquity and sin did my mother conceive me. There you have personhood in conception. But you also have the sinful condition. So a true Christian cannot support or vote for a person who favors abortion. Right? But pastor. Both of the candidates this year favor abortion. One's extremely radical and one has some, what do they say, reasonable restrictions. I can't bring myself to vote for a candidate who permits even highly restricted abortion because as Patty pointed out in the car that Ken Ham said on Facebook this week, it's still abortion. He's right. However, that runs smack up against what we've already established, we must vote. To not vote is to abrogate our responsibility. And in fact, a non-vote is a vote for the worst of the two situations. So what does more? Not voting is worse than voting for the less than ideal. Two, illegal immigration. This one is interesting because the answer is in the term itself. Illegal means illegal. A Republican form of government has been described as governance by law rather than governance by men. John Adams wrote a series of articles that were published under a pseudonym. I struggle with how to pronounce this. Novangos. Number seven, 1775. They define a republic to be a government of laws and not of men. So we didn't make that up. That comes from Adams. Our nation was built by people from other nations, always has been. England, Spain were first, France, Portugal. History records three major periods when Europeans made large migrations to America. Our very first immigration law was passed, y'all know about this? 1790. 1790, called the Naturalization Act. In the mid-19th century, the middle part, the 1800s, Irish and German immigrants made huge advances to America. 1860 to 1890, the Chinese came in droves. They were responsible basically for building transcontinental railroad from California to the Midwest. In 1892 to 1954, 12 million came through Ellis Island sitting in New York Harbor. My own grandfather was among that crowd in 1904. He was five years old. In 1939, there were massive migrations from Germany and Eastern Europe by Jewish people. You know why. But the major difference between the historical reality and the current issue is simply legal versus illegal. Now, a true Christian, we've already read this in Romans 13, ought to always obey the laws of the land and should not give their vote to anyone who encourages others to violate the law of the land. And in fact, violates the law of the land themselves by not taking their proper place of authority and stopping what is an illegal activity. If a republic is a nation of law, then we follow the law, unless, as Peter wrote, it directly contradicts the greater law of God. It's really no more complicated than that. Third one, third issue, the economy. This is a huge question. We understand from the Bible, and we've read it already this morning, that all human beings are to be good stewards of God's creation. That goes all the way back to Genesis, by the way. We ought not pollute. We ought not to destroy. We are, in fact, though, to subdue and use to man's benefit the natural resources the good Lord has given to us. We also understand from the Bible that the worker is worthy of his hire. Jesus said in Matthew 10, the workman is worthy of his food. Paul wrote to Timothy, the scripture says, thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn and The laborer is worthy of his reward. The Old Testament is loaded with God's, I don't know if we realize how many times, God's admonitions about honesty in our business dealings. Jeremiah, of all places, a prophet, chapter 22 wrote, woe unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness and his chambers by wrong, that uses his neighbor's service without wages and giveth him not for his work. That's pretty clear. Well, what does this say about our vote and the candidates? goes much further than our jobs and our salaries. That's a personal level. It speaks to, one, the proper use of natural resources, two, proper wages and benefits, that's the employer-employee relationship, and three, proper laws which control a national economy. It's more than which candidate will reduce my taxes. That's a personal issue that I can get aggravated about all by myself. Which candidate will better manage those resources, protecting the environment while properly managing the government's tax receipts, and in general, promote an improvement in this economy? Which candidate? I noticed I said promote, not create. Government doesn't create anything. Government does not create a product. Government does not sell anything. If you want to say government creates something, it creates debt. And they're good at that, aren't they, Tom? In other words, we should vote for a candidate who would encourage the passage of laws which foster a good economy rather than hinder an economy. A candidate that wants to leave the natural resources in the ground, whether it's crude oil or trees for lumber, or rare earth elements for modern day technology, is not promoting the betterment of our living conditions or the economy. A candidate which wants to control each and every facet of the employee-employer relationship, regulate everyday life, and tax us beyond reason is not promoting a good economy. Remember God's words when Samuel went to him and said, the people are demanding a king. Do you remember that? Well, if you don't, I got it. First Samuel chapter eight, verse 10. Listen to this. Samuel told all the words of the Lord. So this is a divine warning, not a Samuel warning. Unto the people that asked him for a king. And he said, this will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you. He will take your sons and appoint them for himself, for his chariots and to be his horsemen. And some shall run before his chariots. That's the cavalry. No, that's the infantry. and he will appoint him captains over thousands, and captains over fifties, and will set them to ear his ground, and reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and the instruments of his chariots. He will take your daughters to be confectionaries, and to be cooks, and to be bakers, and he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your olive yards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants. Is that happening today? He will take your menservants and your maidservants and your goodliest young men in your asses and put them to his work. He will take the tenth of your sheep. You shall be his servants. He shall cry out in that day because of your king, which you shall have chosen, and the Lord will not hear you in that day." Number four, foreign policy. I'm going to confine this to one nation, Israel. God's chosen people. Which candidate is better with respect to Israel? Now, that again, like abortion, would seem to be a no-brainer for a true Christian. We don't have to look very far to see the anti-Semitism that is rapidly rising throughout our country. It is openly visible in every university or college which is taking government funds and in the halls of Congress. And make no mistake, Congress is up for election, too, this year. Every two years, this is basic American government 101. I taught it. Every two years, the entire House is up for re-election. And every two years, one-third of the Senate is up for re-election. Do you realize how much of a significant change one election of the entire House could make? We've never seen a 100% turnover in the House. I almost want to see it just to see what it looks like. Just to see the wall go, what happened? Just to see CNN go, the people have lost their minds. No, the people have retaken control. Sorry. President James Garfield said in 1877, note that date, now more than ever before, the people are responsible for the character of their Congress. Now I'm going to read you the rest of that quote, oh, about 1230. A smaller point here, just a comment. We cannot vote for the president alone. Educate yourself. Brother Nat gave this to me Wednesday night. It's available online. Vote DavidsonCountyNC.gov. There it is. It's a sample ballot. It lists everything in all the districts of Davidson County. So go get one for Forsyth County or Davie County. Go into that voting place informed. Now, big third point. The first question returns. How do we choose the person? How do we choose the person? We've seen our responsibility. It's our obligation. True Christians must vote. And we've looked at a few of the more bigger current issues. The hardest part is the person. How do we choose the right person? We want to choose, obviously, according to the issues, the one who will agree with our positions biblically on said issues. But these are still people. And unfortunately, we all too frequently do not have, as John Jay said, it is our duty as well as privilege and interest of our Christian nations to select and prefer Christians. And even those who say they're Christians. The guy currently running for the Republican ticket for vice president says he's a Christian. He's Roman Catholic. It's entirely possible for a Roman Catholic to be a Christian, I agree. But I don't know. That does not tell me enough about his spiritual condition to determine if he's a real. This is why I now say true Christian almost all the time. I don't know. And I really like him, but I don't know. Samuel Adams, John Adams' cousin, said, number one, character, character. Nothing is more essential to the establishment of manners in a state than that all persons employed in places of power and trust be men of exceptional character. Samuel Adams. Leaders must be men and women of character. Doing what is right when no one is watching. Doing what is right simply because it's right. Lord Acton said, power tends to corrupt. And absolute power corrupts absolutely. And then he added this. I mean, most people stop there. But he also said this. Great men are almost always bad men. Ouch. Wisdom. The ability to use knowledge correctly. Apply that said knowledge to the betterment of all. Leadership. You've heard this one before. 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. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." John Adams, 1798. Now that Garfield quote, now more than ever before, the people are responsible for the character of their Congress. If that body, wait till you hear this, if that body be ignorant, reckless, and corrupt, it is because the people tolerate ignorance, recklessness, and corruption. If it be intelligent, brave, and pure, it is because the people demand these high qualities to represent them in the national legislature. If the next centennial does not find us a great nation, It will be because those who represent the enterprise, the culture, and the morality of the nation do not aid in controlling the political forces. I told you to remember the date, 1877, 101-year-old country. And he looked ahead and said, 100 years from now, And we're beyond that. And we fit exactly what he said there in the first part. Our nation no longer fits the description that so many of the founders gave to it when Garfield wrote those words. He could not write those words today. I seriously doubt we will ever be a Christian nation again. I just don't see it. I firmly believe we're not only in the last days, we're in the last of the last days. I don't see us as having very many true Christians as candidates. So we're left to choose from among them those who will do the least harm. What a sad, sad place we are in. But the Lord knows. He has allowed our people to become, what did he say? Ignorant, reckless, and corrupt. And by and large, the American public is voting in people just like that. It is still possible to hold the candidates and their positions up against the word of God. and choose the best we can. To not choose is to shirk our responsibility and allow evil to prevail. Edmund Burke said, the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. Paul wrote to the Ephesian church. It's a little bit out of its context. wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness.