And stand with me for the reading of God's Word, our text is Psalm 44, verses 1-10. We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us the works that Thou hast done in their days in the old time, how Thou hast driven out the heathen with Thine hand and planted them, how Thou hast destroyed the people and caused them to grow. For they inherited not the land by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them, but thy right hand and thine arm, and the light of thy countenance, because thou didst favor them. Thou art my king, O God, send help unto Jacob. Through thee have we thrust back our adversaries. By thy name we have trodden down them that rose up against us. For I do not trust in my bow, neither can my sword save me. But thou hast saved us from our adversaries, and hast put them to confusion that hate us. Therefore will we praise God continually, and will confess thy name forever, Selah. But now thou art far off, and put us to confusion, and goest not forth with our armies. And that ends the reading of God's word, and let's pray. Father, help us to understand the text and use it properly in light of our own history, we pray. In Christ's name, amen. And please be seated. Well, we're in this series, as we've begun last week, on that final section in the Westminster Confession of Faith on the doctrine of the civil magistrate. And last week we explored the question, is America a Christian nation? And I hope that you remember the point I made in answering that question. You know, when you ask that out in the world, men answer according to what they want it to be. They want the answer to be, if they're haters of Christ, no. And so that's how they answer. And on the other hand, Christians who who want it to be otherwise, who want the nation to submit to Christ, always study arguments to prove that it is, in fact, the case. And so, the enemy goes about to depreciate the history, ignoring it or explaining it away in one direction. For the Christian, it's about understanding the truth of the history. Well, in the four short essays I read from that CNN site, it was one glaring issue. I don't know if you caught it as we read those things. But the writers who deny that America is a Christian nation are forced to make their point beginning with the United States Constitution. And that's like fast-forwarding in American history to Washington, Adams, Madison, and Jefferson. That is, they build their argument on Constitution forward, and they ignore the first three centuries of American history. There are 115 years between Columbus' discovery and the first permanent settlement on these shores. There's another 182 years between that settlement, between Jamestown, and the Constitution's ratification. And so more time elapsed from Columbus to the Constitution than has elapsed since. However, in the language of the day that we're dealing with, it's designed to ignore that fact. The anti-Christian historian speaks of the founding fathers, and by that he means the generation that fought the Revolutionary War and then framed the Constitution of the United States. And from that, he claims our founding was not Christian. Now, that begs the question of the design of the Constitution. That's something we'll take up later. But do you see how language frames the debate? If we talk about founding fathers, well, when was the founding? Well, it was the Constitution. And we're ignoring more history before than the history we want to deal with since. And so you need to make distinctions, and that's what is critical to us. The true founding fathers, and this is the sense in which I'm going to use the term, the founding fathers are the founders of colonial institutions. And we can talk about constitutional framers later, but founding fathers are the ones who began the institutions on these shores. And constitutional framers framed the U.S. Constitution and so on. So that's a distinction that I'll make in correcting the language that circulates in our day so that you can have a better understanding of what the circumstance is. Well, the entire program for colonizing the New World was decidedly a Christian program. And this was the case beginning with the explorers, even before the Protestant Reformation. The explorers, the men who sailed the seas to discover new lands as it was, were about spreading the Christian message. Consider, for example, Christopher Columbus. Now, when you talk about Christopher Columbus, I have to stop for a minute and say, well, wait a minute. Christopher Columbus, that's right. I was raised in government schools. My parents didn't know any better, and sent me to government schools. And the government schools told me, well, that man thought the world was flat, and Columbus had a revolutionary idea. Maybe it was round. He saw a ship mass coming across the ocean, and it sort of came up, and the closer it got, and so Columbus Speculate well, you know, maybe the world's around. This is what I was told as true history taught in the government schools Which is pure nonsense But that's the level of misinformation that they have to go to to keep the truth from being known I Told you one of the CNN writers was a liar Men knew the world was round The speculation concerned the size of the sphere. And the reason for the voyage, though, is another story entirely. And so I'll give you the words of Christopher Columbus in his journal. You know, the captain kept the journal of the voyage, dedicating that journal to the king and queen who sent him on the voyage. That was Ferdinand and Isabella. of the Spains, and he writes back, and this is how the Journal of First Voyage opens. In the name of Jesus Christ, because most Christian and very exalted and very excellent and very powerful princes, king and queen of the Spains and of the islands of the sea, our lords, in this present year of 1492, after your Highnesses had made an end to the war of the Moors, who were reigning in Europe, and having finished the war in very great city of Grenada, where in this present year, on the second day of the month of January, I saw the royal banners of your Highnesses placed by force of arms of the of the towers of the Alhambra, which is the fortress of the said city. And I saw the Moorish king come out of the gates of the city and kiss the royal hands of your Highnesses and the hands of the Prince, my Lord. And then in that present month, because of the information which I had given your Highnesses about the lands of India, and about a prince who was called Great Khan, which means in our Romance language, King of Kings, how he and his predecessors had many times sent to Rome to beg for men, learned in our holy faith, that they might be instructed therein. and that the Holy Father had never furnished them, and so many peoples, believing in idolatries and receiving among themselves sects of perdition, were lost. Your Highnesses, as Catholic Christians and princes, loving the Holy Christian faith and the spreading of it, and the enemies of the sect of Muhammad, And of all idolatries and heresies, decided to send me, Christopher Columbus, to the said regions of India, to see the said princes and peoples and lands, and learn of their disposition, and of everything, and the measures which could be taken for their conversion to our holy faith." See, that's what Christopher Columbus' voyage was about. The spread of the gospel, this is pre-Reformation. This is before the Protestant Reformation, not long before it, 1492. But Columbus' voyage was about the spread of the gospel to the ignorant, idolatrous peoples of the world. And Ferdinand and Isabella financed it for that purpose. So it wasn't about Indian trade routes. It wasn't about the world being flat. It wasn't about all the stupid things that the enemies of Christ want to teach as the reality of the exploration and the founding of this nation. Now, the same thing is true of the English efforts. If Columbus was financed by the king and queen of the Spains, plural, The English efforts were the same kind of thing. The First Charter of Virginia, granted by Queen Elizabeth, grants authority to take possession of all remote and barbarous lands unoccupied by any Christian prince or people. Now, that's offensive to the modern mind. Yes, indeed, these were lands of barbarians. as all non-Christian lands in the world are. And indeed, the Indians that Cortes met practiced human sacrifice. The pyramids in Egypt, with the steps going up, they used to march men for a breast. For miles the line stretched. They marched them up the steps of the pyramid and sacrificed, and human sacrifice on the tops of the pyramids. The blood poured down the steps. And that's what Columbus found when he came to Mexico. That's why the people of the place rose up and said, unless a deliverer has been promised us, you see. ignorant savages, barbarous people. That's what it was here, and yet, as I've said before, they play their little songs and they write their little songs. Cortez is the killer, in the words of Neil Young. And then the conquistador is the savage in modern paganism. No, but the reality is these were barbarous people, and the Christian kings of Europe saw opportunity to evangelize them. That's what the New World Exploration was about. In the reign of James I, who was Elizabeth's successor, the English, having been unsuccessful in establishing a permanent colony to this point, Virginia then was divided into two districts, northern and southern. Jamestown was established in 1607 with the same Christian intent. In 1620, the Pilgrims embarked for the northern part of Virginia, but were blown off course. finding themselves beyond the geographical boundaries of Virginia's authority. And remember, they came to Virginia, they were under the charter of Virginia, but if they were blown off course and landed somewhere else, theoretically they weren't in the geographical boundaries of Virginia. There was no charter. So they penned what is known as the Mayflower Compact. In the name of God, amen. We whose names are underwritten, the loyal subjects of our dread sovereign Lord King James, by the grace of God of Great Britain, France, and Ireland King, defender of the faith, etc., having undertaken for the glory of God an advancement of the Christian faith in honor of our king and country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia. Do by these presents solemnly and mutually, in the presence of God and one another, covenant and combine ourselves into a civil body politic for our better ordering and preservation and furtherance of the ends after said. and then they go on to speak about their own submission and so on. It's done at Cape Cod, the 11th of November, in the year of the reign of our sovereign Lord King James of England, France, and Ireland, the 18th, of Scotland, the 54th, and of Dominy, 1620. Now, the Pilgrim story is one of an amazing providence of God in their settlement. And, of course, they were blown off course. That was the first providence that led to the Mayflower Compact. They were blown to a place where the warlike Patuxet tribe had been wiped out by a plague. So the land was uninhabited. The other Indians were afraid of the plagues. They were afraid of the plague there, and they didn't go and settle there. And that was approximately three years before the Pilgrims landed. And on and on the provenance goes Bradford, William Bradford, who wrote a story of this called Of Plymouth Plantation, tells of some of the things. He says, all this while, the Indians came skulking about them and would sometimes show themselves aloof off, but when any would approach near them, they would run away. And once they stole away their tools where they had been at work and were going to dinner, But about the 16th of March, a certain Indian came boldly amongst them, and spake to them in broken English, which they could well understand, but marveled at. At length they understood by discourse with him that he was not of these parts, but belonged to the eastern parts, where some English ships came to fish, and with whom he was acquainted, and could name sundry of them by their names, amongst whom he got his language. He became profitable to them in acquainting them with many things concerning the state of the country in the east parts where he lived, which was afterwards profitable unto them, and also of the people here, of their names, numbers, and strength, of their situation and distance from this place, and who was chief amongst them. His name was Samaset. He told them of another Indian whose name was Squanto, a native of this place who had been in England and could speak better English than himself. Now all that is related to God's providence in dealing with the founding here of Plymouth Plantation. And that plantation was swallowed up by Massachusetts Bay in the course of time. And so you have Virginia, 1607, Plymouth, 1620. These are the two, two of the three parent colonies. And again, don't miss the fact that it's for the glory of God and advancement of the Christian faith, they said they had undertaken the voyage. Well, the other parent colony, and by parent colonies what I mean is these are the original colonies from which the other colonies were spinoffs. So you have three parent colonies. The other parent colony is Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania was given charter by Charles II in 1681 in the following words. Charles II, by the grace of God, King of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland, defender of the faith and company, to all whom these presents shall come greeting. Whereas our trusty and well-beloved subject, William Penn, Esquire, son and heir of Sir William Penn, deceased, Out of a commendable desire to enlarge our English empire and promote such useful commodities as may be of benefit to us and our dominions, as also to reduce the savage natives by gentle and just manners to the love of civil society and Christian religion, have humbly sought leave of us to transport an ample colony unto a certain country here and after described in the parts of America not yet cultivated and planted, dot, dot, dot, et cetera." So what's the purpose? What's Penn's purpose in coming here? Extend the dominions of English, provide commodities, evangelize the savages. That's 1681, Charles II's charter for Pennsylvania. Well, in 1682, William Penn, who incidentally was a Quaker, wrote his frame of government for the colony. Here is the preface to Penn's frame of government. When the great and wise God had made the world and all of his creatures, it pleased him to choose man his deputy to rule it. To fit him for so great a charge and trust, he did not only qualify him with skill and power, but with integrity to use them justly. This native goodness was equally his honor and his happiness, and whilst he stood here, all went well. There was no need of coercive or compulsive means. The precept of divine love and truth in his bosom was the guide and keeper of his innocency. But lust prevailing against duty made a lamentable breach upon it, and the law that before had no power over him took place upon him and his disobedient posterity, that such as would not live conformable to the holy law within should fall under the reproof and correction of the just law without in a judicial administration. This the apostle teaches in diverse of his epistles. The law, says he, was added because of transgression. In another place, knowing that the law was not made for the righteous man, but for the disobedient and ungodly, for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers, for whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, and for man-stealers, for liars, for perjured persons, But this is not all. He opens and carries the matter of government a little farther. Let every soul be subject to the higher powers, for there is no power of God. The powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God, for rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Will thou not be afraid of the power? Do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same. He is the minister of God to thee for good, wherefore ye must need be subject not only for wrath, but for conscience sake. This settles the divine right of government beyond exception, and that for two ends. First, to terrify evildoers. Secondly, to cherish those that do well, which gives government a life beyond corruption and makes it durable in the world as good men shall be. so that government seems to me a part of religion itself, a thing sacred in its institution and end. For if it does not directly remove the cause, it crushes the effects of evil, and is as such, though lower, yet an emanation of the same divine power that is both author and object of true religion." the founder of the third parent colony, Pennsylvania. You notice he gives a historical introduction to the whole issue of civil government taken from the fall of man in the book of Genesis. And then he quotes the scripture, scripture's teaching about civil government. And then says, you see then that civil government is a part of religion itself. It's sacred. God has instituted it for his own purposes. And then here's what governments do. That's how William Penn frames the whole concept of governing the colony that he is given by charter from the King of England. Well, it's not merely the charters and constitutions. of founding fathers, or the intent of the explorers and later governors of the colonies, but also the laws themselves, which are lifted directly from scripture and were intended to bring the gospel to men. Now, Greg Bonson, in his work Theonomy and Christian Ethics, cites the Massachusetts body of liberties as a model of civil polity. And again, I'll give you the introduction. The free fruition of such liberties, immunities, and privileges as humanity, civility, and Christianity call for as due to every man in his place and proportion without impeachment and infringement have ever been and ever will be the tranquility and stability of churches and commonwealths. and the denial or deprival thereof, the disturbance, if not the ruin of both. We hold it, therefore, our duty and safety, whilst we are about the further establishing of this government, to collect and express all such freedoms as for present we foresee may concern us and our posterity after us, and to ratify them with our solemn consent. We do therefore this day religiously and unanimously decree and confirm these following rights, liberties, and privileges concerning our churches and civil state to be respectively, impartially, and inviolably enjoyed and observed throughout our jurisdiction forever. Number one, no man's life shall be taken away. No man's honor or good name shall be stained. No man's person shall be arrested, restrained, banished, dismembered, or in any ways punished. No man shall be deprived of his wife or children, no man's goods or estate shall be taken away from him, nor any way in damaged under color of law or countenance of authority, unless it be by virtue or equity of some express law of the country warranting the same, established by a general court and sufficiently published, or in the case of the defect of a law, in any particular case, by the word of God, and in capital cases, or in cases concerning dismemberment or banishment, according to that word to be judged by the general court." So, it's the word of God. It's the law of God that is the standard by which human laws shall be judged And if there's a defect in the publishing of human laws, we have recourse to the word of God as the court understands it and interprets it. You might be interested in the capital offenses that are contained in the body of liberties. And that was point number one, the depriving man of life. Point number 94 under the body of liberties is the capital laws. If any man, after legal conviction, shall have worshipped any other god but the Lord God, he shall be put to death. If any man or woman be a witch, that is, have consulted with familiar spirits, they shall be put to death. If any person shall blaspheme the name of God, the Father, Son, or Holy Ghost with direct, express, presumptuous, or high-handed blasphemy, or shall curse God in a like manner, he shall be put to death. If any person committed any willful murder, which is manslaughter committed upon premeditated malice, hatred, or cruelty, and not in a man's necessary and just defense, nor by mere causality against his will, he shall be put to death. If any person slayeth another suddenly in his anger or cruelty of passion, he shall be put to death. If any person shall slay another through guile, either poisoning or other such devilish practice, he shall be put to death. If any man or woman shall lie with any beast or brute creature by carnal copulation, they shall surely be put to death, and the beast shall be slain and buried and not eaten. If any man lieth with mankind as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed abomination, and they both shall surely be put to death. If any person committeth adultery with a married or espoused wife, the adulterer and adulteress shall surely be put to death. If any man stealeth a man or mankind, he shall surely be put to death. If any man rise up by false witness wittingly and have purpose to take away any man's life, he shall be put to death. If any man shall conspire and attempt any invasion, insurrection, or public rebellion against our commonwealth, or shall endeavor to surprise any town or towns, fort or forts therein, or shall treacherously and perfidiously attempt the alteration and subversion of our frame of polity or government fundamentally, he shall be put to death." the ethics portion of what we've studied in the Word of God, you realize that these were simply lifted from Scripture. These are the capital offenses that Scripture reveals. Massachusetts' body of liberties. Well, in 1638, three towns that had been under prior government of Massachusetts Bay organized themselves under the fundamental orders of Connecticut. Here is the preamble. For as much as it hath pleased the Almighty God by the wise disposition of His divine providence to so order and dispose of things that we, the inhabitants and residents of Windsor, Hartford, and Wethersfield, are now cohabiting and dwelling in and upon the river of Connecticut, and the lands thereunto adjoining, And well knowing where a people are gathered together, the word of God requires that to maintain the peace and union of such a people there should be an orderly and decent government established according to God, to order and dispose of the affairs of the people at all seasons as occasion shall require. Do therefore associate and conjoin ourselves to be as one public state or commonwealth. and do for ourselves and our successors and such that shall be adjoined to us at any time hereafter enter into combination and confederation together to maintain and preserve the liberty and purity of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, which we now profess as also the discipline of the churches, which according to the truth of the said gospel is now practiced among us. as also in our civil affairs to be guided and governed according to such laws, rules, orders, and decrees as shall be made, ordered, and decreed as follows." Now, I have a seven-volume set of every charter and constitution from 1492 to 1908. You want me to keep going? But the point is a simple one, isn't it? See, we could continue this study for weeks, but it's a simple point. America was founded by Christians as a Christian effort. And from the exploration prior to the Reformation to the settlement, it was designed to be this. And we have, on one hand, an effort to spread the gospel, and on the other hand, the effort to erect institutions in obedience to the gospel. So evangelism on the one hand and obedience, reason from the Word of God on the other, they ask the question, what does God require of us? And these men we're talking about, the generation we're talking about, these are the founding fathers of American institutions. And we better get to our text, Psalm 44. Psalm 44 is interesting in that it covers a Jewish history which is much the same as the American history that we're dealing with. We can talk about the founding fathers. We can talk about the faith of the early generations. We can talk about the inception of this Jewish Republic or Hebrew Republic back then. The psalmist opens and he says, we've heard with our ears, O God. Our fathers have told us the works that thou has done in their days in the old time. So again, the parallels are quite amazing and quite instructive, I think. And in these verses, the psalmist recounts Israel's history, the great works God did in founding them as a nation. And I've left behind the fleet of the Duke de Anvil. You know, there was a time when France was angry over the loss of Louisbourg, and they raised the fleet, the largest fleet of that century, and they said, we are going to lay waste the entire sea coast from Halifax to Nova Scotia. And we're going to wipe out every English settlement on the east coast of this new continent. And of course, and so they made these great preparations. They had times when the fleets were supposed to rendezvous. God crushed the fleets. Something like 70, I forget. ships of the line and various things like that. He smashed them all together in storms, three times storms, another time plagues when they landed to recruit French and Indians. And the writer says, New England stood still and saw the salvation of God. See, that's the history. Just like the psalmist says, our fathers told us the works that you did in their generation. And that is our story as well. And of course, they've tried to take, they, the anti-Christian element in this country, has tried to take away the true history of America's founding. the Christian history of America's founding. They've tried to take away the works of God. They don't want you to know what the Founding Fathers said and what they believed and what they were trying to do. They'd rather change the names and call a later generation Founding Fathers and then talk about their deism and their agnosticism and anything else they can find to put a blight on what American institutions were supposed to be. Well, again, our psalmist says we've heard, we know, we understand. We've heard with our ears. Verses two to three here are important also because they give credit to the Lord particularly. Now, this is one of the things that we should recognize as the beginning of an answer, the beginning of a turning to God is to give God credit for what he did. How thou hast driven out the heathen with thine hand, and planted them? How thou hast destroyed the people, and caused them to grow? For they inherited not the land by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them, but thy right hand, and thine arm, and the light of thy countenance, because thou didst favor them." Now that's, it's really fascinating, but You realize, if you know Israel's history, there were many times in Israel's history where swords won the day. I mean, how many times did Joshua defeat the Canaanites? Well, through 13 chapters of Joshua, it was a combined army of Israel destroying the Canaanites, any force that could rise up that was big enough to drive the children of Israel out of the land. And after that, again, they divided it up by tribe and said, now you go take your area. Well, you know, they beat the big armies and then divide the land up and say, now you go and take your area and you go and take your area and divided up their army then and still won the day. But it was swords the whole time. Wasn't it? Well, not exactly. You see, the point is that these verses recognize not to give honor to the human means of this thing. Despite the fact that men won victories with swords, they're saying it's not by our sword that we won victory. You see, it's your right hand, it's your power. We understand that. So we understand that though we conquered a land, so to speak, though we came and took possession of a land, it wasn't in our power, it wasn't by anything. We did. It was your providence, your right hand. We give you the credit for what we are and what we have. You alone, Lord, and nothing in man. Now that's verses 2-3 and the significance of it. And that was graphically portrayed to that first generation in Exodus 17 verses 8-13. Let's turn back there because this is what the Lord was showing them as they entered into the promised land. Exodus 17 verses 8-13. Then came Amalek and fought with Israel in Rephidim. And Moses said to Joshua, Choose us out men and go fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in my hand. So Joshua did as Moses bade him and fought with Amalek. And Moses and Aaron and Hur went up to the top of the hill. And when Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed. But when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. Now Moses' hands were heavy, therefore they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat upon it. And Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the one side and the other on the other side, so his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. And Joshua discomfited Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword." Now you see the situation? It's God showing that the power is not in man. That when Moses holds up his hands and he holds up the rod of God, Israel prevails. When God is on their side, they prevail. And that was a lesson that they learned going into the promised land. So you see what the psalmist is saying in verses 2-3 is a recounting of that lesson. He's taken the position of the founding fathers of His nation. And He said, we understand that it wasn't by our power that we got these things. It was your right hand, your power, your work in our generation that gave us what it gave us. And that was the beginning of their wilderness experience, the beginning of their battles. God is showing where the real victory lies. And you see, it's the right thing, therefore, to confess that before God, especially if you desire to see reformation. If you desire to see reformation, you have to take the position of the ones who were blessed in the first place. With God's right hand in giving them the land, you have to have the faith of those men in taking up this thing, in rehearsing this to God in verses 2-3, this latter generation psalmist, takes the position of the founding fathers and says, I recognize that we didn't get anything by ourselves. It was your hand. Well, in verse four, the psalmist, again, for this present generation, takes up the faith of his fathers. Thou art my king, O God. And he does that before requesting help. Send help unto Jacob. His prayer to God for help is, again, from the standpoint of recognizing God's work and taking up the position of these founding fathers of His nation. He's placed Himself not in line with modern pride, not in line with modern apostasy. He's taken the position of the founders and cried out to God on that basis. You're my king, help me. You did it in the first place. We didn't get it by our power. And that's the standpoint from which he petitions God for help. Note the confession in verses 5 to 7. And again, Through thee we have thrust back our adversaries. By thy name we have trodden them down that rose up against us. For I do not trust in my bow, neither can my sword save me. But thou hast saved us from our adversaries and has put them to confusion that hate us." And again, that lesson, that whole situation is about what God did in history for this people to bring them to the present condition. And he offers praise to God for what God did to bring them. Now, again, we can find all of this in our own history. The Pilgrim story is a fascinating one. You know, that God would wipe out a nation of pagans, open up a land to them, blow them off course and bring them to that land. send an Indian, the last survivor of the Patuxet tribe, who had been kidnapped by Captain Dermer, shipwrecked with him, then jumped ship to come back to his land and wasn't there for the plague and so didn't die. And yet he had been in England, spoke English, and as a last survivor was ready to show them around and show them how to handle the place and who the other neighboring tribes were. I mean, all of that is God's providence. in dealing with the Pilgrim Nation. In the first year, the first winter that they spent there, they were 11th of November in Cape Cod, half of them died by spring of 105 people. They didn't come with power. This was a church migrating to spread the gospel in this barbarous land. So, again, all of these things apply. It's not by our power that we got any of these things. And notice, though, that's the beginning of this psalm. Because at verse 9, "...but now thou art far off, and puttest us to confusion." See, this is a psalm of the latter days. This is not merely a psalm that reverses the glories of Israel's history and takes the faith of the Founding Fathers. The psalmist does that in order to deal with the present crisis in his nation. He takes the position of the Founding Fathers to deal with the present crisis in his nation. He takes the faith of those fathers. You're my God. You've given us all this thing in order now to petition God about the disaster that is the modern world in which he lives. Now, there's a lesson for that in us. Or there's a lesson in that for us. You know, we have to do that same thing. It's not that we take blind adherence to what our history was. But we've got to take the position of the men that came here, faith in God. We've got to take the position of the men that came here that it is a barbarous land unless the gospel prevails in that land. We've got to take the position of the founders that the law of God is the standard by which we erect civil polity and civil governments. We've got to take that position if we think we can deal with the circumstances of the apostasy of our nation today. If we're going to attempt to deal with these things, we've got to understand what it was and what they believed and take what's true in that position in order to bring it forward. And quite frankly, that's the circumstance, that's the problem in our world. We don't have the same faith of the founding and therefore the institutions have been altered and reinterpreted and made to be something they were never designed to be. Now, that's what we're going to take up, but so much on the founding fathers. And I think we can close for now with another testimony of this same attitude. And I've taken this also from Bradford's history of Plymouth Plantation. And he says this, but here I cannot but stay and make a pause and stand half amazed at this poor people's present condition. And so, I think, will the reader too when he well considers the same. Being thus past a vast ocean and a sea of troubles before in their preparation, they had now no friends to welcome them, nor inns to entertain or refresh their weather-beaten bodies, no houses or much less towns to repair to to seek succor. It is recorded in Scripture as a mercy to the apostle and his shipwrecked company that the barbarians showed them no small kindness in refreshing them. But these savage barbarians, when they met with them, were readier to fill their sides full of arrows than otherwise, and for the season it was winter. And they that know the winters of that country know them to be sharp and violent, and subject to cruel and fierce storms, dangerous to travel to known places, much more to search an unknown coast. Besides, what could they see but a hideous and desolate wilderness, full of wild beasts and wild men? And what multitudes there might be of them they knew not. Neither could they, as it were, go up to the top of Pisgah, to view from this wilderness a more goodly country to feed their hopes. For which waysoever they turned their eyes, save upward to the heavens, they could have little solace or content in respect of any outward objects. For some are being done, all things stand upon them with a weather-beaten face. And the whole country, full of woods and thickets, represented a wild and savage hue. If they looked behind them, there was a mighty ocean which they had passed, and was now as a main bar and gulf to separate them from all the civil parts of the world. If it be said they had a ship to suffer them, it is true. But what heard they daily from the master and company, but that with speed they should look out a place with their shallow, where they would be at some near distance? Yet it was muttered by some that they would turn them and their goods ashore and leave them. What could now sustain them but the Spirit of God and His grace? May not and ought not the children of these fathers rightly say, Our fathers were Englishmen, which came over this great ocean, and were ready to perish in this wilderness. But they cried unto the Lord, and He heard their voice, and looked on their adversity. Let them, therefore, praise the Lord, because He is good, and His mercies endure forever. Yea, let them which have been redeemed of the Lord show how He hath delivered them, from the hand of the oppressor. When they wandered in the desert wilderness out of the way and found no city to dwell in, both hungry and thirsty, their soul was overwhelmed in them. Let them confess before the Lord his loving kindness and his wonderful works before the sons of men." Let's pray. And Father, as we come to the history We understand that it is so much like what we read in scripture. It's your hand, your arm, your power that delivered our fathers into this land, that gave them the land, that drove out the barbarians, that turned the barbarians to yourself. We recognize it's not anything in us. It's nothing we have done. We've been given these gifts and we've corrupted ourselves with the gifts. And we pray you would create in us the faith of these founding fathers to make us to understand our history, that you would turn us to yourself, that we might truly confess the truth of your word and apply it to the circumstances of our world. We pray you would do it for your own glory in lifting us up in Christ's name. Amen.