I'd like to preach a little bit about America tonight. That would be all right. Amen. You know what we've heard this, what we've heard this week is America needs, America needs to guard her mind. America needs something because they're going, going, and soon they'll be gone. Amen. America needs to fight a good fight. Amen. America knows how to, needs to get the edge back. Amen. I mean, America needs that, amen. America needs to have some actions, amen, that was preached about this morning, amen. I mean, I'm thinking America needs this, what's been saying here, I mean, America needs some qualities like Noah had, amen. I mean, America needs, hey, many Americans out there need, no, you're not alone, we're with you. There's little churches all over America that I visit, and sometimes there's just nobody that cares about them, amen? And they're just out there by themselves, and they need to know that they're not the only ones, amen? And America needs that, amen? Amen? America needs to know why Jesus died on that cross. Amen. There's some things America needs to know. America needs to be reminded again where she came from and what God has done. Amen. James chapter 1. We'll read one verse and hop off into this thing. Let's go to the Lord in prayer first. Dear Father, we come before you. Lord, we can do nothing without you, Lord. Lord, we stand here among great men, and Father, if anything's gonna be worth anything tonight, you're gonna have to do it. Lord, I have knowledge, but Lord, without the spirit of God, without that engine of righteousness in a man, nothing will happen, Lord. Now, God, I pray, touch me, Lord, and use me this night God, I'll give you the glory for it, in Christ's name, amen. In chapter two of the book of James, chapter one of the book of James, in verse 25, it says, but whosoever, but whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continue therein, continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deeds. I like to preach about the perfect law of liberty. That very statement tells us that you cannot have liberty without law. There is no way to have liberty without law. Why did all the many people come to this great nation? Let me tell you why they came. They came for liberty. They came because they was oppressed. They came because they was overtaxed, amen. And they came because they had nowhere else to go, amen. Many of the, many, when America opened up and they started coming across here in boats, all kinds of people came. Rich men came, and businessmen came, and soldiers came, amen. But the two groups that stayed, some of them, the first year, half of them died, amen. It was a cruel country. It was a hard place, amen. Hey, you know who stayed? The Christians stayed. You know why they stayed? They didn't get on a boat and go back. You know why? Because they had no options, amen. There is no other place to go, Christian. If we don't start standing up here and letting America know, there's no place else for us to go. There's not another country that's never been disturbed. This is it. This is the last stand. This is the place, amen. The other people that had no option were convicts. And I enjoy preaching to convicts, amen. You don't have to convince them like church people that they need God. They know they need God. Our country. We look back. First I'd like to talk about the sounds of liberty. The Great Awakening from 1734 to 1750. Three men are well known for that, George Whitfield, Jonathan Edwards, and Gilbert Tennant. All three of them completely different personalities. John Edwards would stand and read. a message and put people under conviction. It wasn't his style, it was the power of the Holy Ghost. I'd take the power of the Holy Ghost over style any day. George Whitfield was one of the greatest orators that ever preached in all the land. He stood in a five-acre field and preached, amen. They said his voice could carry for miles, amen. He was an amazing man. He preached 10 times a week. He averaged preaching 10 times a week his entire life. He was a great orator. Charles Tennant was a fiery man. He didn't care to make people mad, and he did do that. Amen. Three different completely type of men, but God used them in this great awakening of America. Amen. The preacher sounded the gospel trumpet in the churches, in the fields, in the streets of the American colonies, enlightening them to the doctrines of God and the ideals of liberty. The New England movement. would eventually gain enough support to establish a school all its own in 1741, which they called Princeton. The first president of the college was Jonathan Edwards. Amen. Then Samuel Davies, and then John Witherspoon. He was a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Their motto, the school's motto was this, under God's power she flourishes. We need to get, the church needs to get back under God's power. This nation needs to get back under God's power. You'll find that every university at that time was founded by the church. All of them had reverence for, and all the men that went to those schools were required to study theology. Do not tell me the signers of the Declaration of Independence did not have a Christian education. You look at every one of them. You look them up. They were doctors and lawyers and judges and businessmen and merchants, amen. They were educated men. In that day, the church was firmly in control of education. They were firmly in control of welfare. If you wanted an education, you hadn't come to the church. If you wanted help, you had to come to the church. But the church got lazy and turned everything over to the government. And we're a sideline anymore. We're not mainstream, amen. When America started, the church was the center of it all, amen. Don't tell me we didn't start as a Christian nation. These men had a Christian education because there was no other education available. I'll go on. Harvard University. Reverend John Harvard. You know what their motto was? For Christ and the church. Established in 1638. This was one of the requirements. John Harvard said, let every student be plainly instructed and earnestly pressed to consider well the main end of life and studies is to know God and Jesus Christ, which is eternal life. Amen. That's the way those colleges started off. Amen. They're not like that now. Rutgers University, Reverend Theodore Feelingston, 1766. Their motto was, the sun of righteousness shine upon the West also. Amen. Listen, I'm telling you, one day in my life, I was awakened by the preaching of God's Word from the devil's spell, being raised in a society that no longer taught God in the school system. They didn't want you to teach about God. They didn't want to talk about God, amen? But they had outlawed God's Word, the final authority for man. But light shined into my prison, built by my own ignorance. and revealed to me the chains of sin forged from the, forged from the fire of my own lust. It was then that I saw the everlasting punishment of hell and came to God as a beggar and pleaded for my soul. And if you've never done that, you're not saved. You're just playing church. If you never came to him like a beggar, I don't think you're safe. I knew I was going to hell. I knew there was no hope for me. I mean, I was taught all my life that God was just fiction. The book, that was just nothing. That was just a religion made up. Not only in grade school, not only in high school, but I went to college, West Virginia University, and then on to Glendale State College, amen. And all through it, in order for me to get saved, I had to overcome my education. The thing that the church, one has, once had full control. Listen, you all want to change children. I'll tell you how the government did it. Education. But you ain't got time for it, I know. No, it's too expensive, I know. But that's how the government got your kids. That's how the world got your kids. So you can make fun of me if you want to. History will tell you the same thing I'm telling you. We soon forgot what this nation used to be. Until around the 1950s, America had pretty good control of education and welfare in America. Then entered that new plan. Then entered welfare, public education. And so America started going down. When the church stepped out, Satan stepped in. And it still happened to today. You won't knock on doors, amen. You won't do anything for God anymore, amen. Satan will. Let him have the kids. Let him have those drunks. Let him have those hard ones. Just let him go to hell. Amen. They need the same liberty that I got. It says in 2 Corinthians 4, 3, that if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost, in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them. I had a blinded mind. That's what I had. I couldn't see. Amen? And God sort of blinded the minds of them which believed not. Blessed the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine onto them. Thank God for the everlasting light that shined into my prison one day and set me free, amen, and made me a son of liberty, amen. That brings me to my next point, the sons of liberty. The sons of liberty were educated far better than we have been. You can read their writings and tell that they were better educated than we are. Amen. These founding fathers of our great nation became the sons of liberty through the preaching and teaching of the precious word of God. because of their education, because they knew God. They knew that God was the only one that could make this nation great. Therefore, they fashioned the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States from the eternal principles of the King James 1611. The authority at that time. The authority of America at that time. Amen. Amen. They weren't normal men. They were sons of liberty. They were enlightened men that knew in order for this nation to survive, God would have to be the centerpiece. May I read you some quotes? Patrick Henry. Bad men cannot make good citizens. It is when the people forget God that time forges their change. A state of morals, you need to have a poor state of morals. A corrupted public conscience is incompatible with freedom. No free government or the blessings of liberty can be preserved to any people but by a firm adherence to justice, moderation, temperance, ugality, and virtue, and by the frequent recurrence to the fundamental principles of God. That's a song of liberty. John Adams said this, the only foundation of a free constitution is pure virtue. And if this cannot be inspired into our people in a great measure, then they have it now. They may change their rulers and the forms of government, but they will not obtain a lasting liberty. You can't have liberty without a standard. Amen. John Adams went on to say, we have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion, avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Listen, if there is a moral majority in America, that's the only thing that's keeping us afloat. Amen. Amen. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inaccurate, not sufficient to the government of any other. Benjamin Rush, the signer of the Declaration of Independence. I hope this is the only foundation for a useful education in a republic is in religion. Without this, there can be no virtue. And without virtue, there can be no liberty. And liberty is the object of life of all republican governments. Without religion, I believe that learning does real mischief to the morals and principles of mankind. Noah Webster said this, I am persuaded that no civil government of a Republican form can exist and be durable in which the principles of that religion have not a controlling influence. Amen. Amen. John Jay, the first Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. The Bible is the best of all books, for it is the word of God and teaches us the way to be happy in this world and in the next. Continue, therefore, to read it and to regulate your life by its precepts. John Jay was the first Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, and he was also the president of the American Bible Society in 1821. And that was originally formed by the government. Amen! Amen. There's many others, but I don't want to take the time. George Washington said this, though, religion and morality are the essential pillars of civil society. You have no morals, amen? Benjamin Franklin once said this, only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters, whereas true religion and good morals are the only solid foundation of public liberty and happiness. It is hereby earnestly recommended to the several states to take the most to do the most they can to educate their people. That was sent from the Congress to the people, Benjamin Franklin wrote. Listen, we have the sounds of liberty. that brought this country into being. And we have the sons of liberty. Amen. And we have the standard of liberty. Continueth therein. We look at the sons of liberty. Those are ones that looked into it. Amen. We have the standard of liberty. That's the ones that continueth therein. This blessed book, this King James 1611 Bible, Our Constitution has a standard of America. Amen. The Constitution of the United States is our standard. The president is the chief officer, the authority. The Constitution is the standard, and that brings security and separation to our nation. Amen. It is the president's job to protect and uphold. He takes an oath to the best of his ability to protect and uphold the Constitution of the United States. If there's any president that should have been impeached, that's an impeachment right there. When you try to do away with the Constitution of the United States, that is impeachment ground, amen. And the previous president should have been impeached, amen, because he wanted to get rid of it, amen! He swore an oath to uphold it! And we as preachers, we swear an oath by that book, that standard to preach the word of God. Amen. The King James Bible, Christ is our authority. The Bible is our standard. And if you have an authority and you have a standard, you have security and separation. Do you know the Constitution of the United States is even above the president? Do you know that God made his word above his own name? Everything that He asked us, He asked us to take to the standard, He said, I'm standing with you, amen. I'm not leaving the standard, I'm not leaving His Word, and He won't leave it either, amen. Everything that He said there, it goes for Him as well as it does me, amen. And I'm a son of liberty, amen. I'm a son of God, amen. I got a standard to live up to and the church needs to get back to living up to a standard. America needs a standard again. It used not to be. What could the government do for us is that how can we help our government? How can we keep our nation going? How can we be working people? How can we be a blessed people? How can we be a holy people? We need to get back to the standard. See, if you have an authority, which is Jesus Christ, and you have that book and you're going to hold yourself to the standard, you don't have to worry about separation. It comes naturally. The ones of you that have been bothering with separation, it's because you don't believe the book. You are your authority. Well, I just don't understand it that way. It's pretty plain English. I know we're not as smart as our founding fathers, but we're not yet that dumb. Amen? Then we see the struggle of liberty, the doer of the work. There are many battles fought in America, many miracles. You ought to read this history of the battles in America. There's Valley Forge, the Hudson, God would bring in fall. He'd bring in a tremendous rain. He'd let our troops cross the river and then bring a rain that the British couldn't get to them time after time after time. God worked in a marvelous way in our country. He's still working in our country. He's still working in this church. Even though some of you forgot about him and you don't pray to him, you don't mention his name and you won't praise him, amen. That's gonna keep him from doing his job. Amen. You can go ahead, walk out on the pastor, walk out on the church. It's not gonna hurt the church. It's just gonna hurt you. You can leave the word of God. You can just get away from it all, amen. Just go ahead, walk out, get away from God, amen. It's not gonna hurt the church. Take your money. My father owns a cattle on a thousand hills. He don't mean it, amen. Hey, what you need, you need God. You need a standard. You need to get this head back. But one of the first battles that was fought on June the 17th in 1775, that's before the Declaration of Independence, was Bunker Hill. The battle was actually fought on Breed's Hill. Bunker Hill was one of the first battles fought in our nation. History reveals it was actually fought on Breed's Hill, which is the lower hill below Bunker Hill. The soldiers mistakenly set up the fortifications on the wrong hill. But on Bunker Hill, during the battle, stood a Baptist pastor, chaplain, and soldier named David Avery. This pastor said he was going to go fight. And he resigned his church and all the men in his church followed him. That's a man. He showed up his whole congregation of men marched in there. Amen. That's the kind of man I want to be involved with. Amen. Listen, David Avery, while the battle raged, he prayed. And this is his testimony. It was taken from his personal journal. I stood on a neighboring hill with hands uplifted, supplicating the blessings of heaven to crown our unworthy arms with success. To us infantile Americans, unused to the thunder and carnage of the battle, the flames of Charleston before our eyes, the incessant fire of the cannons from their shipping from the Boston. harbor. Amen. And the British infantry in various cross directions, they had the Americans in a crossfire. Amen. Together with the fire of the muskets, from more than four times our number, all heightened the majestic terror of the field, exhibiting a scene most awful and tremendous. But amid the perils of the dread encounter, the Lord was our rock and our fortress. Listen, it was impossible. Four to one. They had better weaponry. The only reason America retreated is they run out of ammo. Amen. Hey, you know what we killed? We killed 230 of their troops. You know how many they killed of us? A little bit over 100. Amen. God was with us. Listen, you know why, God? The battle wasn't really on Breach Hill. The battle's up there on, hey, it's on a higher hill, amen. Listen, listen, pastor. Listen, father. Listen, mother. It's time we take the higher hill, the higher ground, amen. It's time we get back to praying for America again, praying for our families, praying for our church. Give God to do something, amen. It's time for you to take the higher ground. Oh, it's good for those that are down there in the battle and thank God for them, amen. Hey, but there's gotta be somebody on higher ground calling on an almighty God with almighty power, amen. You're gonna change your family. You're gonna change your church, amen. You're gonna change a nation. It's gonna take the power of an almighty God. We need to take that higher. Amen. That's where it's at. Amen. We had a struggle, but Jesus Christ took the high ground for us. It says in 1 Timothy 6, 11, But thou, O man of God, flee these things, and follow after righteousness, godliness, Faith, love, patience, meekness. Doesn't say anything about TV. I like TV. And so do many of you. And probably all spend too much time watching TV. Well, you don't preach about that anymore. I wonder how much more we'd get done without TV. Without video cameras. I wonder if our days would be longer. Amen. I'm just telling you, I've left and been gone a month, seven weeks last time, never watched one bit of TV, never hardly listened to any kind of radio, amen, and I got home, turned on the TV, it's the same stuff that was on there when I left, amen. You ain't missing nothing when you miss TV, but when you miss the higher ground with the Lord Jesus Christ, you missed everything, amen. Verse 10 to the 612, fight the good fight of faith. Lay hold of eternal life, when until thou art also called and have professed a good profession before many witnesses. Paul said, I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course. I have kept the faith. There is a sacrifice. There is a struggle. I mean, if you're doing anything for God, you're going to have to wrestle with the devil. Ask him what he did to her. Sometimes, I say, Brother Colby's just like a time-out clock. He just keeps on licking, takes a lick and keeps on ticking. Brother Charlie, I mean, he's kept going. When everybody said, well, that's it. He ain't never going to get out of the wheelchair. Guess what? He got out of it. He'll preach again. Amen? Don't limit God by your feeble mind. God can do anything. He wants that. There is a great sacrifice for liberty. U.S. war casualties. This is not current with what happened in Iraq lately. But 1,343,812 dead. That flag, it paid for. It's paid for. Don't you stomp on it. I have some relatives that died for that flag. Died for it. It means something to me. Don't you stomp on that one either. I have a savior that died for that one. Amen. That represents my king. Amen. I heard that preached about I think too. Amen. Then 1,527,230 wounded. 38,159 missing. The Civil War is the greatest war of casualties, 625,000 dead. You know why? Because America is known as the best fighting force in the world. When we entered the battlefield in World War I and World War II, we tipped the scale. The Germans were actually afraid of us, because we'd fight to the last man. There was no surrender. We fought for something we loved. Listen, Baptist. Listen, say, Baptist. I'm fighting for somebody I love. Because he first loved me. I'm not worthy of him. But guess what? He made me a son. And he made me a soldier. And I'm going to fight for him. Why? Because he's worthy. Amen. You know why there's such a high total? Because we're the best fighters in the world. When we fight each other, we kill each other. A third of the chaplains in the Revolutionary Army were Baptists. They were the smallest of all the religious groups. In fact, they had to get special permission from Congress to be a chaplain. They weren't recognized as a religion. But they were the favorite of the soldiers because they not only preached to them, they not only lived with them, but they fought with them. John Gannot was the personal chaplain. He was a Baptist minister. to George Washington, he baptized him. Amen. He documented it. Amen. You know what? Because Baptists have always been fighters. And when we fight each other, we destroy each other. And our churches are destroying each other. In the church, two Baptists are so stubborn they can't get along over some little piddly thing that they're going to make a difference in the world. But they'll split the whole church because they won't quit fighting. Thank God you're a fighter. And make sure your cause is the right cause, amen. Make sure you're fighting the good fight that's already been preached this week, amen. Because us Baptists, we're hard-headed. We're mean. We're tough. We start fighting each other, we'll kill each other. Just like Americans. Amen and amen. A house divided cannot stand. Amen. Then there was a greater sacrifice on the high ground. Jesus Christ gave his blood, his body, and his life. I can imagine in heaven the trumpet sounding, the innumerable number of angels cheering as the champion of eternity stepped forward. As he took off his robe, laid down his crown, laid down his scepter. He was getting ready to become a man and go make the final sacrifice for all mankind. There was a sacrifice for our liberty. And time doesn't allow to preach any more than that about it. Amen. Then there's the security of liberty. And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil word, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God's is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord. I am saved. I am saved. I'm secure. I'm going to heaven someday. Not of what I did, but what he did. Not on my sacrifice, but there is a sacrifice to us. Romans chapter 12, verse 1. I beseech you, therefore, brethren. That means you're saved. That you present your body, a living sacrifice. He wants you to enroll in his honor. It takes a body. Why does he need a body? He's an invisible God. In order for him to be seen in this world, he needs a body to be seen. And any old body will do. Even mine. Even that little one. Even that old one. Amen. I've seen him use all kinds. Amen and amen. Sick and afflicted. Mentally challenged. I've seen him use them all. Amen and amen. And lastly, and I'll be quiet, the success of liberty. This man shall be blessed in his deed. If you looked into it, continue therein. There's a blessing. What's the blessing? The peace of God. There's no greater thing to have than peace. If you've ever been aggravated by something that just drove you crazy, there's no greater thing to happen than peace. Then there's the purpose of God. When you find out his purpose for you, that's success. And then there's a place in God for you. I had no place. I just come from a poor family. You'd never know my family was poor now. My mom said, you know, Charlie, you used to be half and half. Now look what we've got. We own land, we own a home, other things pay off. My daddy was a drunkard, but he got saved. He became a son of liberty. His life changed, his finances changed. God's been good to me and good to my family. I got saved, God called me to preach, and I seen every one of my uncles get saved. See, my brother-in-laws and sister-in-laws get saved. Listen, oh, I got a purpose. Then there's a place in God and then a position with God. Hey, I got a higher thought. I'm going to a better place. I got a great retirement. I'm not worried about it. I'm not worried that God's social security system is going to go broke. Listen, let me ask you. Don't you think the church you need to wake up with? If you're one of his sons, he proclaimed liberty to the captains. Don't you think you ought to be doing that? If you're one of his daughters? You don't hear much preaching on women, but if you study the colonial women, they were something else. One lady lost two sons, and she said, I'm glad I had two sons to give for the cause. They looked at it from a whole different way than you ladies do. There were ladies that told their sons to get out and fight. They didn't know what went for a son. They didn't dress him up in pretty little clothes and turn him into a little baby. They wanted him. America, let's get back to our roots. I challenge you to get on the altar and pray for your country.