Alright, notice with me as we turn to Matthew chapter 24. I'd like to read verses 6 and verse 7. In the context here, we find the Lord speaking in verse 1 and 2 about the destruction of the temple that did take place in AD 70. And we find that the disciples asked him some questions in verse 3. But notice, I want to just kind of take verse 6 and 7 to begin my message this morning. I'm preaching this morning, I'm titling the message, America's Wars and the Christian. And last Sunday morning, we preached the message titled, Ears to Hear. Wednesday night, we preached the message titled, America Forefathers. And the booklet is laying on the table. It's got a lot of quotes in it. We did six months ago a title, God Gave Them Up, and there's some quotes in there that I actually gave some of those this past Wednesday night, and so I hope that you'll pick that up and look at it. Notice as we come here and read these two verses to begin our message, verse 6 and verse 7. We find here, and it says, And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars, see that ye be not troubled, for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nations shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there shall be famine and pestilence and earthquakes in diverse places. And I'll read verse 8. All these are the beginning of sorrows. Heavenly Father, we do come to Thee this morning humbly, and we ask, Lord, Thy will to be done. Lord, we ask, Lord, that You would speak to our hearts. Help me, Lord, as I try to convey what I believe that You have laid upon my heart. And Lord, we just pray that Thy will to be done, in Christ Jesus' name, Amen. You may be seated. Now, I have papers laying on both sides of quotes and information, and I have laying behind me, I will not use all of this, but I have it here in case I want to use it. We have about 12, 14 sermons on the subject of war. And so I'm not going to go over all of them. Last year we preached a message titled, Blind Patriotism, and the year before that, Christianity and War. But I'm not going to spend any time going back over that. I'm not going to spend any time, even speaking of my own ten-year military experience, and the only reason I've ever done that is to be able to shut the mouths of the critics when they say, well, you don't know what you're talking about. And so I'm not going to deal with that either. But notice now, as we come here to our text, and I want to read these two verses again and then skip down to about verse 15 or 16 and read a few verses there. And as we come here this morning, And I have done this for a number of years before we get to the 4th of July. And you say, what will you be doing on the 4th of July? I don't know. I may cook a hamburger. I don't know what I'm going to do yet. I may work. I'm not sure what I'm going to be doing. But my goal every year is to bring some balance to the celebration in this country of the 4th of July. And what I want to do this morning, as I have done several times, I will even repeat myself this morning, as I have in the past, but should Christians fight in American wars? The reason I mention America, I'm not too worried about Russia and North Korea, ancient Rome, because I don't live there. But I speak about America because I live here, because I love this country, I pray for this country, as I told you Wednesday night, I obey the laws of this land, and still yet as the prophets of old, we must speak of the good and the bad. That's what we see in Holy Scripture. And so the question, should Christians fight in American wars? I'm talking about from the very beginning in 1776 until the current wars that are going on now. Now you see the list of wars that I've mentioned? And by the way, let me just tell you, here's a list, some of them you've probably never even heard of, here's a list of 23 wars, no, 24, 25 wars right here that America has fought in. And so just, I only wrote down seven, and I probably will not even be able to get through these seven, but I'll at least make mention of them. I've got in your outline the Revolutionary War, Civil War, World War I, World War II, Korean War, Vietnam War, and the current wars. There's about seven of those going on right now, and we're real close to getting into another one with Iran. My argument this morning will be totally from a biblical point of view. I will not argue from our forefathers and Declaration of Independence, but my argument will be totally from a biblical point of view. And I'm not going to argue from political leaders, generals, presidents. But in each war that America has fought in, beginning in 1776, there have always been those Christians that have refused to fight. And we have time, I'll give you several quotes by some of them throughout the years. When we talk about America's wars, we're not talking about self-defense, so that argument can't be used. None of our wars have been involved and centered around self-defense. Not a one of them. And the just war theory, I do not believe can be applied either. We've talked about that in the past. Because fallen man cannot carry out holy wars. Even in ancient Israel, God directed many of their wars. He told them when and where and how to fight. And so neither one of these arguments will say, well, self-defense, if you believe in self-defense, that's fine. But none of America's wars have been centered around self-defense, not a one of them. Now, if you want to talk to me about that, I'd love to do that. And the just war theory just will not work either. The reason I say the just war theory does not work is because most of our wars, we have been lied into them. We have been lied into the wars. Leaders lie. But when we come to the Scriptures, we find that facts are a stubborn thing. They keep getting in our way. And not only that, truth is the first casualty of war. Truth, the first casualty of war. So our argument this morning is going to be from totally a biblical point of view, not forefathers, not the Declaration of Independence, but what does God have to say to us? Now, notice with me as we read verse 6 and 7 again, and the reason I read these verses is that I want you to notice that nations will fight, nations have always fought, and nations will always fight in the future until Jesus Christ comes. And He says, and you shall hear of wars and rumors of wars. Now, this was true in the first century. You shall hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you be not troubled, for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. Notice in verse 7, for nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. So very clearly we see that nations will fight, lost men will fight, they will war until the very end. Now, notice with me as we come down to verse 15. Now, I want to give a long introduction before we get into our outline. And notice in verse 15, I want to read from there, I think, to about verse 20. Now, I want you to notice that Christians in the first century did not take up the sword They did not kill. They did not fight for their home city, Jerusalem. Only the Jewish zealots who were considered as patriots, they're the ones that fought in the wars, especially from AD 66 to AD 70. Now notice what he tells the Christians here. He's talking about the destruction of Jerusalem. Jerusalem was the covenant city, the holy city at one time. And he says in verse 15, he said, And when ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, whosoever readeth let him understand, then let them which be in Jerusalem flee into the mountains. So he told the Christians, when you see the armies of Rome come, you flee. Now the Zealots did not flee. Others in Jerusalem did not flee. And there was over a million killed and over 200,000 carried into captivity into slavery. But according to historians, there was not one Christian killed in Jerusalem in A.D. 70 in the five-month siege. But there was over a million Jews that did die. So he says unto the Christians, he said in verse 16, Then let them which be in Judea flee to the mountains. Let them which are on the housetop not come down to take anything out of the house. Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. And he continues on in verse 19 and 20, But woe unto them that of a child, and to them that give suck in those days, but pray that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath day. Now, when he says in verse 15, When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, you can read about this in Matthew 21 and Mark 13 and Luke chapter 19 and Luke 21, He's talking about the Roman army that would come and surround Jerusalem. Notice with me as we turn away and turn to Luke chapter 21. in Luke chapter 21, a parallel passage, and notice here, as we come to this, in Luke chapter 21, and I'm reading here from about verse 20, and notice here, a parallel passage, and notice what he says, now what I'm getting at is that they, the Christians, in around AD 70, they fled to Pella, a town near Decapolis, across the Jordan River. The Lord says, when you see the abomination of desolation, when you see the Roman army come, He said, you flee and you will be saved. But we find that the zealots, the patriots of the day, they did not flee, they stood their ground and they died, or either they went into captivity. Josephus, the historian, said that not one Christian perished in Jerusalem during this time because they obeyed the Word of God. And by the way, there was one zealot by the name of Simon that did not die. You know why? Because he was converted to Christianity and became one of Jesus' apostles. Read about him in Luke 6 and other places. So in the New Testament, not one single example of armed resistance of any kind to the church. And the Jewish wars, Luke 23 also speaks of them in verse 27-31. Luke 19 verse 41-44 speaks of the destruction of Jerusalem in 87. The Jewish wars, that is the wars, there were many wars in the first century. The wars between Jewish zealots and Romans began in A.D. 66 and ended in A.D. 70. It was a long and bloody battle. Now notice as we come here to this passage, and you've got to remember, there's no account of a Christian ever taking a life, but there are accounts of Christians giving their life. And I've said this every year for many years. Jerusalem was considered as a holy city. And yet, Christians did not fight for the holy covenant city of Jerusalem. Think about that. Christians were considered in the first century as disloyal and betrayers in times of national crisis. They were considered as that. Does that sound familiar? You see, the church is not a theocracy as ancient Israel. The church does not possess land and boundaries and borders and civil laws as ancient Israel did, and God was directing their wars. God is not directing our wars today. The church does not have kings and priests and geographical boundaries with God directing its wars. That's why I stand against the Crusades as well. And so the church is a holy nation, 1 Peter 2, 9. The church is made up of strangers and pilgrims. And you see, the zealots were the patriots of the day. We hear that word patriot a lot today in our country. The zealots were the patriots. They took up resistance. But the Bible tells us clearly in 2 Corinthians 10, 3 through 5 that we are in a spiritual warfare. Our weapons are not carnal. And we're told in 1 Timothy chapter 2, the first part of the chapter, to be a good soldier of Jesus Christ. And we're told in Ephesians 6 to put on the whole armor of God because we are in a spiritual battle. Last year I preached on blind patriotism, and patriotism blinds us to the allegiance of Christ and to His teachings and to His principles. I mean, the Lord even told Peter in Matthew 26 when He cut off the servant's ear. He said in Matthew chapter 26, verse 52, for those that take up the sword shall perish by the sword. Then in John 18, verse 36, speaking of His kingdom, He said, My servants do not fight. He said, My kingdom is not of this world. If it was, then would My servants fight. And not only do we see this in the scripture that the Christians did not take up the sword and war against other nations, but we see this in early church writings. As a matter of fact, the first 300 years, this is what I've come up with in the last 15 years, the first 300 years of Christian history, not one writer justified war. And I read a book last year, about a year, maybe two years ago, titled Caesar and the Lamb, and the author had come to the same conclusion. It wasn't until Constantine that we find that you start hearing more about war. Before Constantine, all Christian writers were against war. And from Constantine into Augustine or Augustine, there became a new policy. There was the marriage of church and state, an unholy matrimony, and the just war theory came about. Catholics, Protestants, Baptists, they all jumped on the bandwagon with that. And the Middle Ages, we found that there was much persecution. You had the Crusades and those kind of things. The Crusades, the Pope even promised heaven to those who would die in battle. Does that sound a little like Islam? And the Crusades, they were political, economic, and religious. The result of Crusades were bad theology. You think about the Inquisition in France, Spain, and in much of Europe, the result was from bad theology. And basically, the Catholic Church persecuted those who disagreed with them, calling them heretics, and thousands were tortured and killed. There's nowhere that you can find any of this kind of theology in the Bible. And I've got several quotes here behind me and beside me of early church writers. So, in the New Testament, we see clearly that the church never took up a sword. You've heard me preach on this many times in the last 15 years. And then the early church writers, Justin Martyr said, we who formerly murdered one another now refrain from making war even upon our enemies. We beat our swords into plowshares. And I can go on and on with quote after quote of historians, early church writers. I've probably got 50 quotes that I could give you. And I've given you some of those in the past. So when we look at America, America is a warring nation. There's far more than just a few little wars that we think of. This nation has hardly had many decades without some war. The reason we don't think about it as much is because there's always somewhere else. Now the Revolutionary War was here, the Civil War was here, but most of our wars have been abroad. So we really don't think about them as much and we don't really feel the consequences of that. But when you've got 22 veterans killing themselves every day, And since World War II, there has been over 70 interventions by the U.S. And most presidents would not qualify for a peacetime president. And when we could kill civilians today, and we've done this for years, we call it collateral damage. I have a real problem with that. I have a real problem with that. And the U.S. is very, very guilty of many war crimes. I've got a whole message in this pulpit titled, Atrocities of War. And again, I mostly deal with America. Russia, Germany, Japan, they have committed many atrocities, but I don't live in Russia, Germany, or Japan. And again, I've got so many quotes here. John Pilger said, in the last half century, the U.S. has overthrown over 50 governments, many of them were democracies, and in the process, 30 countries have been attacked and bombed with the loss of countless lives. And you look at our military budget, over 700 billion, the largest in the world, and you look at all of that, and no doubt America is a warring nation. And when you consider this, what we're looking at right now, let's go ahead and read her text, and then we'll go to Romans chapter 13. But notice as we come here, we read from verse 20, and this is a parallel passage, and he said, when ye, he's talking to Christians, when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, that's the abomination of desolation, he said, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh. Let them which are in Judea flee to the mountains, let them which are in the midst of it depart out, and let not them that are in the countries enter therein. For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written might be fulfilled. But woe unto them that are with child, them that give suck in those days, for there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people, that is Israel." That happened in A.D. 70. Verse 24, And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into the nations. And Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. So God tells the Christian, you are to respond to the armies of Rome different than the zealots, the patriots, and so forth. He said, here's how you're to respond. You're not to fight, you're to flee. Now again, when we talk about America's wars, There's none of, you know, people want to argue about self-defense and all that. We don't even have to talk about self-defense. Believe in it, fine. But the point is, is that in America's wars, none of these wars were self-defense. None of them. I'll give you an example. Turn with me to Romans chapter 13. In Romans chapter 13, I'm going to give you just a few examples. Again, I'm moving some stuff around here. I'm not going to use all of this, but I'm going to use some of it. But let me give you just a few examples with this. If we look at the Christians in the first century, why did they not fight? Because they were following the orders and commands of Jesus Christ. And not only that, when we look at the first century, Jerusalem was in sin. They had rejected the Savior. And in Revelation 11 and 8, Jerusalem is called Sodom and Egypt. We could call America that today. In ancient Rome in the first century, Nero reigned. It was a republic. They were a proud nation, but they were wicked and idolatrous. They won many wars. They were rich and powerful at this time. Should Christians that were Roman citizens have fought for the Roman Empire? I think most of you would say no. What about China under Mao in the 1940s? What should the Christians do? Should they have fought when he killed millions of his own citizens? Should have Nazi Germany, if you and I had been living in Nazi Germany in the 1930s and 40s, should we have, as we were Christians, should we have fought for Nazi Germany? You see, when we talk about patriotism, we can talk about America. America has committed some of the same crimes. Hey, we've killed 60 million of our own citizens through abortion. That's not counting other crimes. Nazi Germany was a democracy. When Hitler came to power, he was voted in. He was voted in by the public. And he promised jobs, he promised to restore prosperity, he promised to restore the military. In other words, he promised to make Germany great again. He did do that. And 95% were Protestants and Catholics in Germany. 20,000 Protestant churches. The majority of Christians went with Hitler to defend the homeland, as they said, and they were patriotic. The soldier's belt buckle had God with us. And Hitler spoke of God and Christ. He claimed to be a Christian. Here's a quote he said, My feeling as a Christian points me to my Lord and Savior. I am fighting for the work of the Lord. And pictures of him leaving churches and going into churches just like our politicians have done for the last 50 years. So should the Germans, Christians have fault? You would say no. What about Russia? And Stalin in the 1930s killed over 20 million of citizens and so forth. Should Russians have fought Christians in the military? And again, I could go on and on. America has murdered over 60 million of its own. The sodomy, it's rampant. We're in endless wars. And on and on we could go. And so I'm simply saying to you, as a Christian, I need to be followers of Jesus Christ no matter what country that I live in. The church is a holy nation, but the church is not to take up the sword. Now, notice as we come to Romans chapter 13. In Romans chapter 13. Now, I'm going to read the first eight verses, and we're coming to our first point now in our sermon, the Revolutionary War. This began in 1776. It was an eight-year war for the independence of the colonies. Now, I spoke to you Wednesday night about American forefathers. And I want you to think about this. When we come to the Revolutionary War, and let me just make just a few statements before I begin reading this passage. We find that there were about 25,000 died, many wounded, Now think about this, there were Christians, they were citizens of one another, they were neighbors, they were friends, and they began fighting each other. There was many atrocities, persecutions, torture, the destruction of property, putting the country in debt, and on and on. Brand new country and putting it in debt. All were British citizens in the colonies. Now I want you to think about this. Again, there were Christians fighting Christians. There were friends fighting friends. Neighbors fighting neighbors. Citizens fighting citizens. They were all British citizens. There were three factions of people. There were what was called the Patriots or the Whigs or the Rebels. and they stood against England, they were the Loyalists or the Tories, and they stood for the crown, and then there were those that were neutral, and they were considered as traitors because they didn't take either side. And again, Really, what you saw in the Revolutionary War, it was really a civil war. They were all citizens of the same country. It was a civil war, and much of it was supposed to have been over taxes. Well, those taxes were implemented to help pay off the French and Indian war that the colonies benefited from that went on for many years. And we pastors stand and tell people, you need to pay your taxes today, and the taxes are 10 or 15 times higher and more percentage than they were back then. And at the same time, many pastors defend what they did, you know, in the Revolutionary War. Why are we telling people to pay taxes today if we think that is okay? The Boston Massacre, it all was a big lie. It was not a massacre. There weren't that many died. Paul Revere's picture was propaganda. John Adams, who became the second president, we talked about him Wednesday night, he defended the British soldiers in a court of law. because the British soldiers were provoked by a mob to fire that shot, and I think there were twelve that died. And when we look at the Sons of Liberty, and we look at this closely, and really, I mean, look at all the history, not just what we want to look, we've got to ask the question, were they patriots or terrorists, because they burned houses and businesses, and they committed many atrocities. Now that don't sound like Christians to me. And so I am simply saying to you is that we get a lopsided view. I try to look at everything. I try to look at the good, the bad, everything. I try to read all the history that I can and not just from a one-sided deal. Now, when we talk about the Revolutionary War, we find that Hitler studied the U.S. policies of extermination of the Indians in America. And he actually said, he said, the Jews represent the lowest form of human beings. My first and foremost task will be to annihilate them. He studied what we did to the Indians. By the way, in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, did the Indians get their freedom? No. We're exterminating them. And even up after the Civil War, And the thing about it is the Cherokees was removed from their own land in the early 1800s and carried to Oklahoma and put on reservations. Their land was taken away from them. So did the Indians and the blacks, did they get their freedom through the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence? You see, we've got to look at things biblically, but we've also got to be honest with history. Again, facts are stubborn things. And truth is the first casualty of war. George Washington, in reference to the peace churches, they've always been peace churches, not many of them, but there's always been peace churches. The Anabaptists, the Quakers, the Brethren, the Amish, the Mennonites, and different ones like that. The German Baptists. He said with the peace churches, he said they chose rather to be whipped than to bear arms. And he released some of them because of their conviction. And here's a letter that was drawn up during the war of American Revolution by German Baptists and Mennonite churches in 1775 given to the Pennsylvania legislation. And they're basically, I'm not going to read the whole thing, they're basically saying we have dedicated ourselves to serve all men and everything that can be helpful to the preservation of men's lives. In other words, they're saying we cannot take up arms. And here's a quote, it said, We are not at liberty in conscience to take up arms to conquer our enemies, but rather to pray to God, who hath power in heaven and earth for us and them. They said, we're here for the preservation of life, not for the taking of life. What does that sound like? That sounds like Jesus and the apostles and what we find all through the New Testament. And so, as we come here and we come to the Revolutionary War, I want you to notice with me, as we read in Romans chapter 13, and when I read through this section, I beg of you, and I know that you would agree with this in this church, but I beg of you to read chapter 12, verses 14 and verses 17 through 21, and then read in Titus chapter 3 and verse 1, read 1 Timothy 2 verses 1 through 3, 1 Peter 2, verses 13-17, and these verses I'm giving you, there's no personal vengeance. You're to submit. You're to pray for the leaders. You're to honor the king. In Matthew 22, verses 15-21, Jesus said, pay your taxes. In Luke 2, verses 1-5, Joseph and Mary obeyed and going and paying their taxes, fulfilling prophecy that where Jesus would be born. 2 Peter 2.10 and Jude 8-10 says, despise not government, you will be judged if you do. In Acts 5.37, Judas of Galilee, a zealot, who opposed the paying of taxes in the days of Joseph and Mary, he opposed the paying taxes, many followed him, and you know what happened to them? They perished. Somebody said, was there any way that you can disagree or disobey any command of government? Yes, Acts 5.29 says, we ought to obey God rather than man. In other words, they would not quit preaching Christ, but they never killed anybody. They never killed anybody. They never took up the sword. They never overthrew the government. They just said, we're going to keep preaching Christ. We're not going to give up, you know, living for Christ. So there's a multitude of verses, not one or two, a multitude of verses in the New Testament that clearly point this out. He says beginning in verse, well let's just back up in chapter 12. We run out of time, we'll just run out of time. Notice in chapter 12 verse 14, Bless them which persecute you, bless and curse not. Verse 17, Recompense to no man evil for evil, provide things honest in the sight of all men, If it be possible, as much as life, when you live peaceably with all men, dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath, for it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord. Therefore, if thine enemy hunger, feed him. If ye thirst, give him drink. For in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. Verse 21, Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. I told a man here recently, I said, take that and think about it and meditate on it for about a year. Just those verses and nothing else. Now notice as we begin reading in chapter 13. In chapter 13, we see the Christian's duty, and I'm going to give you two words. Submit and support. Submit and support as we read through this text. Now notice what he says, and keep in mind, Paul wrote this in the first century, around 60 A.D. The Roman government was in power. Nero was on the throne. Paul and Peter both are later executed. See, Paul writes this and Peter writes 1 Peter 2, verses 13 through 17, honoring the king, being obedient. This is the will of God. They're both executed, martyred in Rome by Nero. And we find that as Paul writes this, the Roman government was one of the worst governments that had ever existed. Out of Babylon and Greece and Medo-Persia, Rome was the worst. It's called the fourth beast in Daniel chapter 7. And it said there was nothing like it. It was a wicked government. It's called a beast in Daniel 7 and Revelation 13. It said it would devour the whole world. It made war against the saints, Revelation chapter 13. And still yet, Paul writes this letter during the reign. Now notice as we read this. He says in verse 1, 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 damnation. The rulers are not a terror to good works with the evil. Will thou then be not afraid of the power? Do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same. For he, the ruler, verse 4, 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, avenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscious sake. So the first five verses is dealing with, clearly, our submission to authority that is ordained by God. And we find here in verse 5, for wrath's sake, that is judgment, and for conscience' sake, which is for Christ's sake. Now you can work on that for the next two years, and I don't think you're going to come up with any different than what we just read. Now notice in verse 6 through 8, he talks about support. Verse 5 is a submission, and verse 6, 7, and 8 is supporting, paying our taxes. He said, for this cause pay ye tribute also, For they are God's ministers, attending continually unto 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, owe no man anything but to love one another, for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law." So we find here as we read through this, this letter is written during times of persecution. Peter and Paul were martyred by this government, and Rome was a pagan empire. There's no other way to look at it. Persecuting the Christians, and we have the issue of submission, and we have the issue of paying our taxes, and then we see here, notice, as I just mentioned in chapter 12, living in peace, The kingdom of God, according to chapter 14, verse 17, is righteousness, peace, and joy. And so we find the gospel that we preach, Romans 10, I believe it's verse 12, is called the gospel, it's actually verse 15, the gospel of peace. So what are we going to do with this chapter? What are we going to do with all the other chapters that if we get to thinking, well, we're just going to overthrow this government. I mean, there's ten times more taxes today than there were in 1776. And we're just going to overthrow this whole thing. What are we going to do with Romans 13? What are we going to do with 1 Peter chapter 2 and Titus chapter 3 and verse 1 and Matthew 22 and Luke chapter 2 verses 1 through 5 and a multitude of other passages? What are we going to do with them? And so I say that the founding fathers had a faulty view of Romans chapter 13 because of the influence of Freemasonry, the enlightened age and the age of reason that there was a faulty view of this chapter. Now years ago I used to look at this and say, how do you get around all of this? And I can't find an out. I find that if Paul and Peter writes under a horrible government that is persecuting them and puts them to death shortly after they write these letters, and putting Christians in prison and everything else, I surely cannot, in my own country right now, say that my government is bad enough that I could overthrow it, or that anybody could overthrow it. Now, you can do whatever you want to do with it, but I'm sorry, I just... What are you going to do with these passages? I preached this eleven years ago, And a man sitting right over here got mad and got up and walked out and never came back again. Slandered me as he went out and never came back again. And he said, you sound like you're an IRS agent. I said, no, I'm just trying to be obedient to the Scripture and teach you the same thing. Turn with me please to 1 Timothy chapter 1. And by the way, when you think about Vengeance is mine, the Lord says. Live peaceably with all men. Here's a quote I gave you, I think it was last year, The Best Revenge, that it says, Evil for good is devil-like, evil for evil is beast-like, good for good is man-like, and good for evil is God-like. How true that that is. 1 Timothy chapter 1, notice here, 1 Timothy chapter 1. Now, let's come to our next war, and that would be the civil war. Take these one at a time, briefly. We have a whole message on slavery and men-stealers in an article now titled Men-Stealers. But what about the Civil War? Again, it wasn't a war of self-defense. And I believe that it was God's judgment upon this nation as a whole. And one of the reasons was slavery. I think there are many others. People argue, you know, the issue of states' rights. Well, the southern states wanted to keep their slaves. I gave you quotes on this. And my heroes are Jesus Christ and the apostles. They're not federal generals or confederate generals. This was a four-year war, 1861 to 1865, over 600,000 died, many wounded, property destroyed, lives changed forever. Total war was waged, especially by the North upon the South. Brother against brother, reading the same Bible, praying to the same God, trusting the same Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, citizens of the same country, Christians killing Christians. I mean, you really think about that. You really think about that. There's a man that I hadn't heard him preach on tape in many years. And I went back and pulled up one of his sermons. And he preached an entire message on a sniper that was a Confederate, Jake Henson. And he preached about his revenge he took over his two sons that were killed. And that he killed over a hundred people. The entire sermon by this preacher. This Baptist preacher is going through the details of how he killed, when he killed, and the blood that was spilled, and all that, praising this sniper for killing all of these people, over a hundred people. I thought, this is pathetic. This is pathetic. America got its first psychiatric hospital as a result of the Civil War that I think still exists in Washington, D.C., still operating today. Got its first at this time. Well, was it over slavery or was it over states' rights? Does it really matter? Because states' rights was that we can keep our slaves. And there is no way to justify slavery, period. To steal somebody and make them a slave or to sell them. And I gave you the quote of the Confederate States of America's vice president, Alexander Stephen, cornerstone speech, March the 21st, 1861. I've given that to you twice, I think, in the last year or so. And basically, In this speech, he's upholding slavery. And he said, the new Confederate Constitution has put at rest forever all the agitating questions relating to our peculiar institution, African slavery, as it exists among us, the proper status of the Negro in our form of civilization. And then he goes on to say, those ideals of the U.S. Constitution were fundamentally wrong. They rested upon the assumption of the equality of race. This is an evil. Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite ideas. Its foundations are laid. Its cornerstone rests upon the great truth that the Negro is not equal to the white man, that slavery, subordination to the superior race, is his natural and moral condition. I'm sorry. That's wrong. That is wicked and that is out of hell. Am I going to march off and fight for those kind of statements? I might have years to go, but I surely wouldn't in the last 15 years, last 20 years. And I got many other quotes here about that. This is really sad when you think about it. Well, notice with me as we come here, and I'm going to read, let me just read one verse, because we're already 47 minutes into this sermon. Let me read in 1 Timothy. Notice in chapter 1, I'm going to read verse 10. If you're taking notes, write down verses 8 through 10. But notice here in verse 10, He says, For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for men-stealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine. Here's what I'm doing. I've got a whole message on this. And I've got a whole article on men-stealers. We find here, that he, men-stealers, notice that, is listed with those who shall not inherit the kingdom of God. It's listed with the lawless, the disobedient, the ungodly, the sinner, the murderer, the whoremongers, the sodomites, and the liars. Men stealers. What does that mean? That's a kidnapper. That's a trade slave dealer. To enslave somebody is one of the worst kinds of evil. In the Old Testament, in Exodus 21-16, Deuteronomy 24-17, it was punishable by death. To steal a man. Remember Joseph. To steal a man and to take him and put him under slavery or to sell him is I mean, it was punishable by death even in the Old Testament. So there's no way that it can be justified. And I've heard Southerners say, and I am a Southerner, and I've heard Southerners say, well, you know, they sold their own people in Africa. Does that make it okay for me to buy them? Does that make it okay for me to buy a slave and sell a slave, or whatever, just because they sold their own people? No, no, that's two wrongs. That's two wrongs when I do that. You see, I've read all the books. I've read the books, The South Was Right, The Real Lincoln, Was Jefferson Davis Right, The Call of Duty, Southern by the Grace of God, I've read all of those. I preached on the confederacy. I wrote an article on the confederacy. I used to go for a few years to Confederate veterans meetings and whatever. I know what this is all about. I know what it's all about. Turn with me please to James chapter 4. World War I. Notice in James chapter 4. Reading in verse 1 and 2. World War I was called the Great War, was it not? The Great War. The war to end all wars. Amazing. Notice with me as we come here and reading verses 1 through 4. 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, yet ye have not, because ye ask not." Notice in our text, wars and fighting, where does it come from? The true origin of wars and fighting, whether it be an individual or nations, is clearly from the Adamic nature. from the Adamic nature. And when we come to World War I, and here's something I wanted to say earlier as well, my goal in my preaching and this positive preaching that I bring in this pulpit every week, I think is very positive. I told my wife, Sunday night, I said to her that we're very positive because what we're preaching liberates the soul from sinful thinking. In other words, it liberates us from ourselves, from our Adamic nature. And so it frees us from our own opinions and our own philosophies, our own background, the way we were raised or the way that we were educated. That's positive preaching. My preaching is probably some of the most positive preaching in Alabama, because it liberates us from... We're not hooked into, well, my forefathers, I've got to defend them, you know, back in 1776, or I've got to defend my southern heritage and whatever, and I've got to defend... I don't have to defend anybody or anything. All I have to do is believe Christ and follow Him. I don't even have to defend Christ. He takes care of Himself. And His Word takes care of itself. So what I'm saying is this is positive preaching. It frees us. It liberates us. It sets us free from my opinion. I've had some horrible opinions in the past. And I've had some horrible philosophy in the past. Even since I've been a Christian, there's things I believed that were just wrong. And so I've had to change. You know what? It's liberating. I was sitting in there the other night and I was telling my wife what I'm going to be preaching on and I said, this is freedom. This is liberation. And when you can just be free and you're not always on edge and trying to defend the South or defend the American Revolution or defend World War I or World War II. What about World War I? Over 20 million died. I mean, Europe was devastated. And you know what? You can ask a hundred people, how did this start? And a hundred people will probably tell you they don't know. It's like in Vietnam, I've seen interviews in Vietnam, they said, what do you think we're here for? They're out there fighting. You know, one interview, a man's shooting a gun over a wall, and the reporter's down there, well, what do you mean? He said, I don't know what we're here for, I just want to go home. He said, I'm trying to stay alive. Well, in World War I, I've studied this, and I still to this day don't know exactly Why they went to war, it actually partially started over an assassination, but it also started over a lot of other things, and most people don't even know why it started. It's like in a bar room. Two people get in a fight. You've got 50 people in the bar, two get in a fight, there's 50 fighting, some cut and dead and hurt and put in the hospital. Well, what was the fight about? I don't know, but it sure was good. You know, we won. They don't even know what they're fighting for. And that's World War I. Devastation in Europe and even for America as well. I'm not going to give you the quotes of Winston Churchill. He was a bad man too. He gets praised like some of our leaders. He was a bad man. Here's the book. I've had this for ten years in print, but I've never had the actual book. I copied it off the internet. This book is written by Smedley Butler in 1935. I've recommended this to a lot of people. A lot of people call me and ask me about subject of war. I said, read this book. He was the most decorated American soldier of his time. He served in the Marines as a general. He served for 33 years. And he said his Marines gave their lives for United Fruit Company's control of Central America. He said he was a gangster for capitalism. He said, I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. He said, a few profit and many pay the price. He wrote this book in 1935, Predicting World War II, because he understood something about war. And in this book, and again he served in many operations in the Caribbean, Central America, and also in World War I. And throughout the pages of this book, he tells us that in World War I, that there was 21,000 new millionaires and billionaires that were made in the United States because of that one war. He said, these are the ones that we know of. And throughout this book he speaks of who makes the profits, he mentions the businesses, the bankers, millions and billions of dollars. He goes into detail with DuPont and Bethel Steel and a whole lot of different companies like that. But he also, one of the things that struck me in this, and you've heard me quote from this a little bit, he speaks of the money that's made in the shipbuilders and all of that, but one of the things that really stood out to me was this. He said, the soldiers pay the biggest part of the bill. And if you don't believe me, he said, visit the American cemeteries on the battlefields abroad or visit any veterans' hospital in the United States. Now, this is after World War I. This is 1935. And he says, on a tour of the country, in the midst of which I am at this time writing, he said, I have visited 18 government hospitals for veterans. In them are a total of 50,000 destroyed men. Men who were picked of the nation 18 years ago, the very able chief surgeon at the government hospital at Milwaukee said where there are 3,800 of the living dead that told me that mortality among veterans is three times as great as among those who stayed at home. You need, you can buy this book for $4, $4 or $5. And he talks about the hospitals, the mental condition, the physical condition, the shell shock, the thousands and thousands of lives that were destroyed. And he said in the World War, which had only been won at this time, He said, we use propaganda to make boys accept conscription, that is the draft. And he says in this, he says, so vicious was this war propaganda that even God, even God was brought into it. God is brought into every war. And he says, with few exceptions, our clergy joined in the clamor, kill, kill, kill, to kill the Germans. God is on our side. And it is His will that the Germans be killed. And in Germany, the good pastors called upon the Germans to kill their allies, saying, to please the same God, this is a part of the general propaganda built up to make people war conscious and murder conscious. And he goes on to talk about this. It's a good little book. And especially even somebody that's lost to understand about these wars. What we see here in our text that we've just read, we see here clearly the reason for wars and fightings, it has to do with lust in our text and the corrupt nature. The same spirit was on a larger scale that's in our human soul with Alexander and Caesar and Napoleon and we could go on with a list of others, Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin and different ones. Notice in James chapter 1, in James chapter 1 in verse 20, In James chapter 1 and verse 20, he says here in this passage, For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. We find here that man's wrath is usually evil and very unrighteous. He cannot carry out righteous indignation. One quote from another author, he said, The love of conquest, the ambition to rule, the gratification of revenge. That's the cause or the reason for war and fighting. Let's come to World War II. Notice we're in James chapter 2 now. In James chapter 2. I'm just going to throw some of these quotes aside. I love some of them. Even one writer said, murder decorated with a ribbon is still murder. Spurgeon even said, is it a sin to kill one, but a glory to kill a million? I love this quote here. The early church had one sword, the sword of the Spirit, and did very well. In less than 300 years, by prayer, teaching, and preaching, they had won so much of the populace to Christ, from slaves to peasants, to those of Caesar's household, that the pagan state wanted to join them, but the state church attempted to use two swords, the sword of the spirit and the sword of the magistrates. That all started to happen after about 300 years of church history. World War II. I'm reading in James chapter 2, by the way, And notice with me as we come into verse 8, he says, if you fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself you do well. The royal law. This is the supreme law of our great King. In verse 12, it's called the law of liberty. In chapter 1, verse 25, it's called the perfect law of liberty. In chapter 4, verse 12, Jesus Christ is the great law giver. And so we see here that the royal law, loving thy neighbor as thyself, you cannot fulfill that while trying to kill your neighbor. Anything less of loving thy neighbor as thyself is sin. And it's called the law of liberty because it frees us from the slavery and bondage, again, of our own thinking and opinions and philosophy. And it conforms us to Christ. See, this is the problem with most of us. The Bible tells us that we're created after the similitude of God in chapter 3 and verse 9, and that's the reason we're not to curse man, because life is a gift of God. To attack man is to attack God Himself. World War II, so much we could say about it. It was called the good war, but it was actually the worst war. There's about 65 million people died. Now when I give you figures, different people will disagree on this, but no matter who it is, it's a lot. Okay? The numbers I give you are very close. 65 million died, mostly civilians. The Brits and the U.S. bombed cities and killing many in Germany and Japan, just like others did. There were atrocities on every side. Russia, the Soviet Union, Stalin, we teamed up with him who had killed 20 million of his own citizens. He killed more than Hitler killed and we teamed up with him. Now how can you call that a just war? Stalin took thousands of American prisoners that we never got back. After the war, we divided half of Europe with Russia. You know why Korea is divided right now? We gave half of it to Russia. After we beat the Japanese who had control of Korea, we divided half of Europe and we also gave half of Korea to the Soviets. It's like we're creating our own enemies. We covered up Russia's war crimes in World War II because we were teamed up with them, we supported them. In February 1945, United States Franklin Roosevelt, President, Britain's Winston Churchill and Soviet ruler Joseph Stalin met to decide the post-war Europe's future, handing half of Europe to Soviet rule, betraying millions of Europeans to communism. Stalin's concentration counts and mass murder peaked in the 1930s, at least five years before Hitler began his mass murder, and yet we came to the aid of Russia when Hitler invaded him. It was all over politics. It was over money. It was over gaining control and things of that nature. And I'm not even going to get into the story of Pearl Harbor, but we had embargoes against Japan and Roosevelt and Churchill was already talking about the war and us entering into the world, the war rather. And an Army Pearl Harbor board, 20 October 1944, said up to the morning of December 7, 1941, everything that the Japanese were planning to do was known to the United States. And you can study that from there. Dresden? Read the story of how many people were killed, over 600,000 people killed in Dresden when the Brits and Americans bombed that city and then sent Mustang planes in to machine gun the rest of them that were standing. It was not a military city. There were refugees there, there were women and children, and there's footage of it and there's pictures of this as well. I got pictures back here. I'm simply saying to you, how can Christians participate in things like that? And even Operation Paperclip, while we were having trials to hang some of the Nazi criminals, the United States brought about 1,500 scientists who were also guilty, and they ended up in key places in the NASA and the CIA in America. You do the study of the atomic bombs and how many cities we firebombed before that, 65 cities we bombed before that. We killed 100,000 in Tokyo in one night and left one million homeless. The two bombs that were dropped Hiroshima, or Hiroshima as they call it now, Nagasaki, and that city, ground zero, was St. Mary's Cathedral, which was at the time the largest Catholic church in Japan, and there were six out of seven generals who said, we should have never done it, Dwight Eisenhower was a commander, later became president. He said we should have never done it. General Douglas MacArthur said we should have never done it. And the fleet admiral Chester Nimitz said also the same thing. So when leaders lie, then you throw out the just war theory as well. When they lie, how can it be a just war? And we see these lies over and over. George W. Bush said the reason we went into Iraq was he had weapons of mass destruction, but we found out he did not, but he had the potential. You kill a million people, destroy the nation because they had the potential? And what he was accused of never happened. They took his life too. I'm not saying he was a good man. That's not the point. The point is our wars are wicked. Southern Baptist Convention in Vietnam got on board with supporting the war in Vietnam and supporting even nuking Vietnam. We were lied into that war. The Gulf of Tonkin. Never happened. That's how they got us into the war. 9-11. Think about that. Iraq had nothing to do with 9-11. The Saudis did. We support the Saudis and we destroyed Iraq. You see, these are the things that we don't think about. Turn with me to 1 Peter 2. In 1 Peter 2, I'm going to be closing here. In 1 Peter chapter 2. You see, I'm going to skip over the Korean War, but hey, we divided that country. We divided that country. So we fought again in 1950 to 1953. And there's still the DMZ. 38 parallel, but we're the ones that divide it. You ought to read about the bombs that we dropped in Korea at that time. Notice with me as we come to 1 Peter 2, and we'll close here. Have you heard about all the rapes in World War II? It's estimated that just by the Allies, there was over 860,000 rapes. from 1944 to 1954 and occupied Germany by allied forces, the Brits, the French, the U.S. and the Soviets. That's not counting the German soldiers and the rapes that they committed. They were thousands upon thousands. The D-Day invasion in Normandy, June 6, 1944, is estimated that 3,500 rapes by American servicemen in France between June 1944 and the end of the war. Even Time Magazine reported on this in September 1945, and quote, our own army and the British army having their share of looting and raping, we are considered an army of rapists. Even a mayor in France, riding from one of the port cities in Normandy, begging the leaders of the American military to stop the U.S. soldiers from raping and molesting the women in that city. See, these are the things that we never think about. These are the things that we never hear of. One quote said, U.S. soldiers in World War II were the greatest generation of whoremongers in the history of the American military. That's the good war. And not only that, from D-Day, There were 20,000 French civilians killed within three months of D-Day landing by bombs of the Allies. Some villages in Normandy only recently began celebrating D-Day because hundreds of tons of bombs destroying cities and wiping out families there. And then the theft and the looting and all that stuff that took place. You never hear about that, do you? You don't hear about those things. Notice with me as we come The first Peter chapter 2, I've got several of verses. I want to go to Matthew 5 and talk about the peacemakers, and I'll just avoid that. But let's come down and read these passages. The first Peter chapter 2, reading from verse 21, For even here unto where ye called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps. Notice now, The key here in this passage is in verse 23, speaking of Christ, who when He was reviled, reviled not again. When He suffered, He threatened not, but committed Himself to Him that judges righteously. He says to us, the followers of Jesus Christ, in verse 21, that is, in suffering. And Christ committed Himself to the Father in verse 23 and verse 24. We find that the Prince of Peace is our example. He trusted the Father. He prayed for His executioners. We find here that he did not retaliate, he trusted. And then in chapter 4, in verse 1, the Bible says here, for as much then as Christ has suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourself. What's the next word? Likewise. With the same mind. So we are to arm ourselves. We are to arm ourselves and prepare ourselves to live for Jesus Christ and to suffer for Him. And so we are to have the like mind that Jesus Christ had. We hear people, they can quote Patrick Henry, give me liberty, give me death, amen! Then Jesus Christ would be quoted, turn the other cheek, oh me! Who's our heroes? Is it Jesus Christ and the apostles? Or is it the Lord? Or is it our forefathers? And I've went through a lot of history with Vietnam. Our current wars, by the way, this is current wars in the president we have right now. Look here. The people that have been killed. Thousands. Thousands. In Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, and other places. Right here is current wars right now. The last two years. So when we talk about current wars, they're still going on. Here are pictures of World War II. Here is a picture of My Lai in Vietnam, where C Company U.S. soldiers went in and killed over 500 unarmed people, women and children, raped women, and then sat down and ate lunch and then finished the killing. And when some of them went to court, one person went to prison and Nixon pardoned the individual just like our president wanted to pardon some people here last month. What am I saying to you? When we look at all these wars, we killed five million in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. There was atrocity after atrocity after atrocity. Not only was we lied into the war, but we killed five million people, destroying the lives of human beings. Seven out of ten in Vietnam were civilians, women and children and elderly. Nine out of ten that we've killed in Iraq are civilians, women, children and the elderly. Now, I didn't have to go through all of our history, and I never got through half of this, because look here, looky here, look what I've got. And I've not even touched what's behind me. And I'd love for somebody to say, Preacher, would you please preach on all of this that you've got here, and spend about two weeks every Sunday working. Would you do that? Would somebody do that? Stand with me, please. Heavenly Father, we thank Thee for this day, for Thy love, Thy mercy, and Thy kindness. Lord, help us to follow You. Help us to not even think about the wars and glorify them. And Lord, if we're going to support our troops, let us bring them home. Lord, help us to walk as Christ and His apostles. Help us to be faithful to Thy Word. Help us to stand for that and not any history of mankind or glorifying anyone that have pushed these wars. For it's in Jesus Christ's name we pray, Amen.