in Africa. I think this is worth noting. In Sudan, we have reformed Presbyterian missions. And of course, this congregation has some connections there. Who's there? Yeah, yeah. The son of a son of the congregation, the grandson of a pastor of this congregation. There would be some other connections, I'm sure. We manage to get our DNA pretty well intertwined, don't we? But at any rate, slavery is not just something that happened. Number one, it was in the West. It was in Christian England. It was in Christian America. where one in the U.S., one in ten Americans died in the Civil War. Many and most of those people who were involved in the Civil War, fighting in the Civil War, were not fighting over states' rights versus the power of the federal government. A huge motivator for all of that was slavery. The Reformed Presbyterian Church in Illinois raised an infantry company. And by the way, I'm wearing the uniform of A.C. Todd, R.P. Pastor, who raised a company out of the Sparta congregation. It was called something else then at the time, I think Eden Prairie. But at any rate, and was elected the company commander, and he spent the next couple of years leading men in combat, and as the chaplain of the 10th Missouri Voluntary Infantry Regiment. One of his memoirs, a cute little incident, one of the boys from his home church had done some things he shouldn't, and so as commander he sentenced him to the brig, and that night he switched hats and visited him as his pastor. That congregation and that entire company, and there was another from I can't say it at any rate. They were there because of the slavery issue. They didn't care. They were Scots immigrants, and they didn't care about whether you were going to put states' rights above the Constitution or the Constitution above states' rights. They were there because of the slavery issue. And that's what motivated virtually all of our people who were involved in that. And slavery was dealt with. just interesting that people will still throw that up as America and Christians were slavers. No, put an end to that. Where is it practiced today? In Sudan you can today go and buy little boys and little girls. The slave trade is still active not all over the country but anywhere where you have the strong military presence of the army of northern Sudan. who are those boys and girls you would buy? They are probably Christians. They were probably overwhelmingly likely to have come from Christian villages which were targeted and attacked because they were Christian. The government of northern Sudan offers to as a recruitment incentive, we can't pay you a lot but you can go down south and pillage, plunder, rape, burn, destroy and whatever slaves you bring home you sell and that's your money. believe that? 2016? It still goes on. They have not the fear of God. They have not the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are no better than they, but God in His mercy has taught us some things. Human worth and dignity for instance. We let's just kind of let it go at that. As an internal summary statement, modern liberals who promote abortion, euthanasia, and pornography, and or human slavery, are not offering us progress, but it is instead a return to pre-Christian paganism. That's what each of those things is about. We talked again at noon about the worship of Moloch. way if you ever notice in the news from the Middle East watch for the word Alawites. The Reformed Presbyterian Church had a particular work among the Alawites and they are the modern continuation of the old Canaanite religions prior to the children of Israel coming into the Promised Land. There are still remnant factions and small Alawite communities in Syria and Lebanon today. And yes, they still hate the Jews, and they hate the Jewish descendants, that would be you and me. And they hate Jesus Christ. Nothing has changed in 3,000 years. But our God is able? The answer isn't. jump up and do something. But what we were doing? Praying. Praying as Don read this morning in the Scripture for kings, and rulers, and all those in authority over us. Whether it's school teachers, highway patrolmen, whoever. Those who have authority over us that we might lead a godly and peaceable life. God is honored by that. Further impacts of Christianity. talked about education so that people could read the Bible for themselves and not depend on a supposed priest to be an intermediary between them and Mary, or them and Jesus, or them and God. Do you understand the incredible liberty that you are reminded of all the time? You don't go to a priest, you go to the Scripture and meet the Holy Spirit and Jesus the Son of God. And you go direct to God. What liberty is that? Women, one of the... I just lost it. The Jewish writings, it's not the scripture. It's like the Hadith, the Muslim Hadith. At any rate, One of the lines from this which is esteemed only slightly lower than the Scripture, it says, better to be a dead male dog than to be a woman. I like, does that make anybody feel really good? Respected? Valued? Probably not. I think it's interesting that the National Organization of Women continues to bash Christianity as oppressing women and putting women down. Bolani, women were already put down in Judaism. They are still to this day put down in Islam. You can buy and sell a woman like you buy and sell a cow. Jesus had women among His disciples. He depended on them, they ministered to Him. What does Paul do? He goes down to the river and what does he find? A bunch of women having a prayer meeting on the Lord's Day. And instead of saying, now you can't do that. What does the Holy Spirit do there? Brings out the Gospel in a whole new region. Christianity exalts women made in the image of God fully the equal of men. There is nothing about male superiority and female inferiority. Let me say it that way, yeah. Dignity and worth of women. Why do I have to treat a child decently? Because a child is made in the image of God. The child has an immortal soul. If you kill a gorilla, I'm sorry, but he's dead and that's it. a child by molestation, physical murder, whatever else. That is an image bearer of God Most High. That is an image bearer of Jesus Christ the Savior of the world. The kid has value. And even though I'm bigger than he, and stronger than he, and I can coerce him into obedience, it's not right. And so Christianity exalts children as well. Where did public health come from? The origin goes back to the Old Testament and the dietary laws. Why should people not eat pork in the Old Testament? Disease? Pork, you're familiar with trichinosis? And no, trichinos are not people that come from south of the border, those are chicanos. The disease trichinosis, very, very hard on the human body, let's say it that way. would have been an issue. They had no way of keeping things sanitary. How would they preserve the meat? So, don't eat. Not because God is denying them something good, but because at that time it would have been dangerous. In the New Testament we are told that all things, Paul says, that all things are good and to be received with thanksgiving. We are not told you can't eat pork. But those regulations public health originated in the people of faith and Christianity carrying that out. Yes, you're free to do this and that and the other, what's the effect on you, on your body? The body that Christ gave you as a house for your soul. And so these sanitation issues were Christian issues. Who made the issue about clean drinking water? Christians. talk to the folks in Sudan, talk to young Ferris about, and this may be a little graphic for you, I'm sorry, but this is simply biology, and it is true, certainly in Sudan and many other places, most of Africa, you have certain biological needs that sees you, you know, kind of temporarily whatever, and frankly in those areas, they just drop trowel and they do what needs to be done right there and go on. So, you have human excrement and urine all around. Now, what does that do for your health? Okay. All sorts of diseases carried by that. And then, of course, that attracts flies. The primary cause of blindness in Africa today is the tsetse fly. Where does the tsetse fly live? It's also related, of course, to the rivers and the swamps. And so Christianity came and tried to teach, and our missionaries as of 5 or 10 years ago in Sudan are trying to teach basic health. Yep, you need to go to the bathroom, got it. There need to be places to do that and there need to be ways of dealing with the product of that. Oh, and you need clean water. to India and somebody in your family will take a bucket and they'll go down to the holy Ganges and get this water because it's really good, but 10 yards up there's a guy urinating in it, and 50 yards up there's a dead water buffalo lying in it. What did they do about it? Nothing. Western missionaries understanding the necessity for clean water, making some great analogies. You know Jesus cleans us up inside and so on. Great missionary tool. And so we still have some mission organizations today in the country of Bangladesh that are drilling water wells. And And the problem is, yeah, we can get them up, and we get them working, and everything is fine. But in much of Africa, to include the Sudan, this is a problem in some places, in southern Sudan even. Well, you white guys made it. It's your job, then you maintain it. And they won't try to fix. And they won't try to take care of it. You say things like, don't go to the bathroom within 25 yards of this place you draw in your drinking water. Why? That's just some white guy's thing, and I'm going to do what I want. saying Christians developed all this stuff, the health laws, the dietary laws, the pattern of cooking. The American Indians, let's face it, they ate much of their food mostly raw. Sanitation, clean drinking water. Illicit drug use. Yes, the British Empire subsidized opium in China. And out of that what happened? was a really bad deal wasn't it? It was. The Boxer Rebellion and all that stuff. And they said, oh, that was massively destructive and they outlawed the drug trade in other parts of the Empire. And we were wrong. We fixed it. It's called repentance. At a national level. Economic liberty. not only in socialist and communist countries, but across the Middle East. You find this other places as well. There is not much entrepreneurial activity going on because you've heard of the golden rule. Those that have the gold write the rules. Well, they have the gun rule. Those who have the guns write the rules and they get the gold. So, if you start some business in your little hovel guy shows up with a gun, now it's his business. Christianity says that you have a right to private property to the fruit of your labors. This shows up, and again this is a short history lesson. France, the Huguenots or Huguenots, however you want to say it, they're just your average French peon, in Geneva, Switzerland. John Calvin is taking, who is himself a Frenchman, born in Noyon, is developing schools, colleges, seminaries, and teaching people to send them back into France. And all the students know, when you go back, immediately you're an outlaw, and by the authority of the federal government in the king, Louis XIV, be killed by any peace officer or anybody else. But they went back with the Gospel and many of them did die. But they didn't all die before they got the Gospel out. And so the Huguenots are converted and they become Reformed Christians. And they've been heavily drinking before, alcoholism a major problem, the adultery and all that stuff. And these men and women are converted to Oh, and then they quit drowning their sorrows in alcohol. They quit philandering. They start being husband and wife. They start being parents. They start teaching their kids. And they start taking seriously, I've got bills to pay. Oh, I need a job. I can't find a job. I'll start making something. Shoes. Clothing. I'll start milking a couple cows and selling the cream." And they begin to be middle class people. The reason that Louis XIV came after him was not because he was a Catholic, it was because he wanted money. He used the Catholic religion in a very false way. I mean it was an issue, ok. But it had to do with economics. He sees a middle class which has arisen in France that is not common across Europe at all, and they've got money. only got 18 bazillion dollars, I need another." So, he's ready to take it. The Huguenots became totally counter-cultural because they became Christians. And they began to live it out in their homes, in their communities. Education, printing presses that took off and so on. This is gift of Jesus Christ. the spread of Christianity. And we today are the recipients of that same grace. All these blessings of which we have spoken can be traced to the spiritual and cultural revolution begun by Jesus Christ and carried out by His disciples. In closing, I'm not going to give you the scientific citation, I can't at the moment, but A study done by, it's an Asian, I think it's University of Singapore. It's an Asian university and done by an Asian. study. He said, I wonder what's the source of all of the advancement in Asia in the last 200 years? And so a non-believer writes this great research project. I was referred to this by a Christian missionary in South Africa. this guy's conclusion, the Asian's conclusion is it was the Christian missionary. Remember the source here, this is not a religious source. Christian missionaries came and brought, and he kind of enumerates this stuff. He acknowledges that anything good in Asia is a result of Jesus Christ as brought by Western missionaries. Praise God, world transforming. They've got a long ways to go, but so does America. but they are where they are by God's grace, just as we are where we are by God's grace. I hope it drives you to praise Him a little bit more, to love Him a little more, to appreciate Him more, maybe to tell somebody about it. Let's pray. Lord God, Heavenly Father, we rejoice to know Your Son, Jesus. You sent Him not to be a good example, but to die as the Savior, the one who would pay the penalty for our sin and reconcile us sinners to a perfect and a holy and a just Heavenly Father. We rejoice in Jesus. Thank you that Christianity isn't just some sweet, happy little escapist religion. It is the truth. It is a truth that makes us free eternally from sin It is a truth which has liberated men and women, of course, obviously, from ignorance, from disease, illness, bad health, liberated people from physical slavery, psychological slavery. Thank you that Christian drug therapy often works, at least it has a far better track record than secular drug programs. Thank you that Jesus is alive and well in our country, in our world. Lord enable us to sing His praises, to tell other people about it. Give us joy in our Savior that is beyond just what will happen when we die. But give us a joy in Jesus Christ day-to-day, this day, this week. Take honor to yourself through the testimony of these, your Lord, thank you for the gift of the Sabbath day and our freedom from the cares and concerns of the world. So bless us the balance of the day as those whom you have elected out of this congregation and ordained to duty and to responsibility as they meet. Would you, O Lord, so guide their minds, their hearts. will make decisions that are God honoring, obedient to Scripture that will be a blessing to the congregation and to the world. For we sit on the edge of a college campus which has had a worldwide ministry since its inception. So, O Lord we pray for Sterling College, for this congregation, for the elders who meet this day that Jesus Christ will be exalted among us. Enable us so to live for Him who died for us. that He would be pleased to call us His brothers and sisters. He would smile upon us as we seek to do His will. It is in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.