Greetings. This is Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church with a moment of truth, where we challenge you to think through an important issue of life and faith. And today, in keeping with this past 4th of July, it was such a delightful celebration for us and our church as we ministered to crowds along the parade route. Our church is right on the parade route on the corner of 4th and Boulevard. And so we, every year, just have great opportunity to minister liberty and some ice-cold water on the 4th of July from our place.

And in keeping with the 4th of July gone past, I would like to challenge you to think through the issue of the Christian origins of the American Constitution. Now, this topic has more to do with your Christian faith than you may realize, and also has more to do with you and your family's future than you may realize. By the Christian history of our Constitution, I mean the Christian history in its broadest sense, that is, the impact of Christianity on the West, our culture, society, and our politics, and the Constitution in its broadest sense, that is, our entire way of American life, conditioned by our founding document.

As I have pointed out to you in the past, our schools, our media, our culture are engaged in the process of inculcating and historical amnesia, and historical blackout on the American people, that we might forget the Christian origins of the American Constitution.

The political structure of our nation, including our cowardly delegation to Washington, as it is presently constituted, knows that if most Americans ever knew the principles upon which this nation was founded, and the biblical philosophy which informed the Constitution, and if this nation knew its founding document as past generations to do it, then we would reject the agenda of the progressive left with a resounding no. So, for further documentation, information on this topic, please refer to our other articles on our website, other recordings series on our website that remembers our Christian past and heritage.

Today, we want to lay the groundwork for the Christian origins of the American Constitution by examining the origins of government from a Christian perspective. Is government a mere invention of man, happenstance, randomly put together without any reference to God? Or has God established a framework within which He rules the world? Hmm, can you guess which option we're going to pursue today? In fact, I would like to address the origins of government by asserting three points today.

There's many more, but I want to assert three important ones and establish them from the Bible and history. Number one, God is the ultimate sovereign ruler of all creation. We believe this. Any Christian worth his salt believes this and asserts this as the first point in government. God is the ultimate sovereign ruler of all creation.

May be self-evident to any Christian who reads the Bible. Any need of proof, right? This principle is swiftly being forgotten and expunged from our collective memories by the socialist left in our nation. As early as the 19th century, Horace Mann, one of the driving forces in the establishment of public schools in America, along with Thomas Dewey, one of his leading philosophers, said, what the church has been for medieval man, the public school must become for democratic and rational man. God will be replaced by the concept of the public good.

Did you know that that was Horace Mann's philosophy and his intention for the church and God in American schools? This philosophy is directly counter to what our founding fathers believed. For example, one of our nation's earliest documents acknowledges God's sovereign rule in its very opening paragraph.

And this is the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut from A.D. 1639, one of the resources the founding fathers used to create the Constitution and the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut say this, for as much as it has pleased the almighty God by the wise disposition of his divine providence, so to order and dispose of things that we should have an orderly and decent government established according to God, unquote, from the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut, 1639. Now, our founding fathers were only recognizing what the Bible clearly asserts over and over again.

As we see in Daniel chapter 4, King Nebuchadnezzar confesses, his dominion, that is God's dominion, is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation. All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the hosts of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay his hand or say to him, what have you done, unquote. What an expression of sovereignty.

And this includes, of course, our own Supreme Court, which recently denied Judge Roy Moore, the Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, the right to display the Ten Commandments in the foyer of the Alabama Supreme Court chambers, right? You remember that from a while ago now. And the Supreme Court in this decision, many, many others, has clearly demonstrated that it denies the sovereignty of the God of the Bible with great scorn and arrogance, but, of course, it is to of no avail. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation, right?

Let me assert, secondly, not only is God the only sovereign of all government, and he rules the world, and his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and not only that, but secondly, God has sovereignly chosen to govern us in a covenant economy. Secondly, you must know God's economy if you are going to deal in justice and mercy. If you're going to deal, then, in dominion and revolution, God has sovereignly chosen to govern us in a covenant economy. How do you relate to God, dear listener? Those of you who do so on a regular basis when it comes to seeking salvation and blessing and the favor of the Almighty, how do you deal with God?

Do you come to him any old way you please, or do you come to him on the terms he has established? If you come to him casually and ignorantly in the first way, that is, you will die. Only if you come to him on the basis of his God-given way will you live through Christ. What way has then God established? First, God traffics in salvation and damnation, grace and wrath, justice and mercy, in a particular economy, that is, a covenant economy, not in dispensations.

No, no, no. Only in a covenant economy. This day have I established my covenant with you, God told the Israelites under the Old Covenant or Testament. And our Lord himself declared, this cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood. When he established his new covenant with his people.

When God looks down from heaven on the sons of men and in his mercy interacts with them, he doesn't have to do that, but he does, doesn't he? Well, then God does so in the way of his choosing. You would not attempt to buy your groceries at the local superstore, for example, with yen or euros or pesos, would you? No, we live in a nation where the currency is dollars, and the economy is a free market capitalist economy. To live in America in any other way is silly, and one would quickly find himself hungry, alone, and alienated from our life and ways, right?

So it is with God's economy. God traffics in salvation and damnation, grace and wrath, justice and mercy in a particular economy, a covenant economy. To live in the kingdom of God in any other way is sinful and disobedient. And this is precisely why so many in false religions find themselves hungry, alone, and alienated from God's way and life. God does not relate to us on the basis of the Quran, or the cosmic cycles of Buddhism, or the dispensationalism of modern evangelicalism.

No, rather, God relates to us on the basis of an economy of his own choosing, a covenant economy. And our founding fathers recognized this, too. All of them who were Christians saw God working and governing the world in a covenant economy. So much so that they dealt with one another in arrangements structured like biblical covenants, which they likewise called, surprise, surprise, covenants. From Webster's Dictionary from 1828, he defines covenant as to enter into a formal agreement, to stipulate, to bind oneself by contract, to bind oneself by contract, a covenant.

Here's a word which has faded from the American lexicon in our day, but which was familiar to the age of our founding and all through our tradition to the recent past. In fact, it has been argued, and I would concur, that the peculiar characteristics of American constitutionalism, that is, government by consent of the governed, reliance on a written constitution, and belief in a higher law. These were all derived from the church polities of the 17th century. As Professor Donald Lutz notices in one of his works, he's at the University of Houston.

He says, it is the church and civil covenants of the 17th century America, which were the written documents that influenced the practical political affairs of the colonists. They had a formative influence upon the development of American constitutional principles. Unquote. Church and civil covenants of the 17th century helped shape the constitution, dear listener. All through the Federalist Papers, for instance, the constitution as it was defended and explained, was referred to as a covenant.

This is only proper for all through our history. The founding documents from which our constitution was derived are called covenants. Yes, having then undertaken for the glory of God, as the Mayflower Compact calls itself. It's a synonym for covenant, the Mayflower Compact. It says, having undertaken for the glory of God and the advancement of the Christian religion and honor of our king and country, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politic.

Unquote. From the Mayflower Compact of 1620. And as Professor Lutz says about this, note what he says. From the Mayflower Compact, a continuous tradition leads straight to the federal constitution of 1787. Unquote.

Dear Christian, dear listener, dear brother and sister in Christ, when once you look into the history of our nation's founding, it is impossible to escape the conclusion that this covenant tradition has deeply informed the spirit of our constitution as well. Ever since the Puritan John Winthrop, who was the founder of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, ever since he stood on the deck of the Arbella and told his listeners, his fellow colonists, that their colony was to be a shining city upon a hill, we Americans have believed that we are a chosen people singled out by God for a special commission.

In fact, Winthrop says in his sermon, a model of Christian charity preached there on the deck of the Arbella before they disembarked to found the Massachusetts Bay Colony. He said, the eyes of all people are upon us so that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken and so cause him to withdraw his present help from us, we shall be made a story and a byword through the world, unquote. Now, our founding fathers were utterly convinced that the constitution represented a new covenant with God.

John Adams, in his defense of the constitution, says this, John Adams, the people of America have now the best opportunity and the greatest trust in their hands that Providence ever committed to so small a number since the transgression of the first pair. That would have been Adam and Eve. Adams goes on to say, if they betray their trust, they will merit even greater punishment than other nations have suffered and the indignation of heaven, unquote. If we betray our heritage, dear listener, dear brother and sister, we have earned the indignation of heaven.

Now, taken together, the covenants of the 17th century and the constitutions of the 18th century, these were all expressions of our intrinsic sense of mission. Even our Bill of Rights was shaped by the Christian tradition of covenants. Every 17th century covenant contained a statement of fundamental values and principles that formed its basis. These shared values and principles bound the individuals who subscribe to the covenant together, making them a unified people in the sight of God. Likewise, the 18th century Bill of Rights appended to our constitution expressed the fundamental values and principles of that document and her people.

See how connected they are. Professor Lutz says again about the Bill of Rights. He says, and I quote, the reverence in which the Bill of Rights is held today is, in large part, a product of America's covenant tradition. Not dispensational, but covenant tradition. The evidence for the loss of this covenant tradition is all around us, dear listener.

Gone from among us is the ingrained, well-disciplined practice among our citizens that our constitution is a formal agreement to stipulate, to bind oneself by contract, as Webster put it. Americans will no longer be responsibly bound by anything, will they? But only chant, my rights, my freedom. Most Americans, especially our children, have no concept that a constitution, a covenant, entails responsibilities as well as rights and freedoms.

Obedience to law, good faith behavior towards one's fellow citizen, and the acknowledgement of God in all things pertaining to America's good has been utterly lost on today's gang-banging, turned-around, cap-wearing, rap-listening, foul-mouthed, surly-insulin, ignorant, diseased generation of youth. When a self-indulgent soul dies to the reality of his responsibility in a covenant relationship and merely mouths the mantra of the left, my rights, my freedom, well, that dead soul will soon degenerate into the state of abject misery he fears most. Complete and utter slavery. And this is where we're headed.

America will continue to languish and fail unless and until she returns to the biblical model of the covenant. This is how God has chosen to relate to us and the model by which we are expected to faithfully relate to one another. It is, in fact, the very model, the covenant constitutional model, the very model upon which our own constitution was framed. Foundational to the idea of government, then, is the irreplaceable concept of covenant. The third point I want to make with you today, underlining, in fact, underlining, in fact, the origins of government, civil government, number three.

The first and rudimentary government is self-government. The first and rudimentary government is self-government. Why do we use the word government to describe God's rule over the self? Oh, in our day, the use of the word government has narrowed to refer primarily to the federal government in Washington, D.C. You ask people today, what is government? Oh, it's that monstrosity over in Washington.

Or the government will take care of us through its programs. This is the modern concept of government. Well, once again, Webster's 1828 Dictionary defines the traditional understanding of government. That is direction, regulation, control, restraint. He goes on to say, these precepts will serve for the government of our conduct.

Men are apt to neglect the government of their temper and passions. Citations from Webster's Dictionary in 1828. Government, in its broadest sense, was seen to be operative in five different spheres. Understand this, dear listener, five different spheres of government. That is the self, the family, the school, the church, and then the civil sphere.

The beginning and basic sphere, though, of government begins with a self. Unless you can govern yourself, you won't be able to control another thing. If a man cannot govern himself, what hope is there for the government of the remaining four spheres? Gary DeMar, in his book, God and Government, puts it this way. Government, in our older definition, is moral and personal before it is practical and institutional.

Without self-governed individuals who follow some moral code, we cannot expect good family, church, and civil governments to be developed. Self-government, under God, is the foundation of any society, unquote. Yes, dear listener, from the beginning, self-government has formed the very basis of character and personality for the godly man. God said to Cain, the very first man born to our first parents, Adam and Eve, he said to Cain, why are you angry? That is, he was angry with his brother Abel, about to kill him.

But God goes on to say to Cain, and why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it or govern it, unquote, from Genesis chapter 4. Cain's failure at self-government resulted in the earth's primal murder.

And ever since then, all disobedient and ungovernable men have followed in Cain's footsteps in being utterly incapable of governing their hearts, passions, and appetites. Sin, like a ravenous wolf at our heart store, has desired us. It has stalked us. It has devoured us in our ungovernable lusts and passions.

The unbridled lust of the gay community, the cynical greed of Enron executives and Clinton family, the mushrooming credit card debt, and the personal bankruptcy of the American consumer, all these things, the lawsuits that spring up like poisonous weeds, as Amos puts it, the violence and murder and assault and rape and road rage, the rampant divorce, sexual immorality of our mores and media, all of these and much, much more, testify to the complete breakdown of self-government in American life and culture. My rights, my freedom, damn my responsibility, most people say by action if not in word.

We cry this, almost every spoiled, self-indulgent crybaby American cries this when asked to define what is America. And we are left broken, empty, and disillusioned. As Proverbs 25, 28 puts it, a man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls, unquote. America is, as 9-11 amply demonstrated, like a city broken into and left without walls. As Gary DeMar puts it in his book, God and Government, the central focus of all realms of government is the regenerating work of Jesus Christ.

Institutions and civil governments are made up of people who are governed by the conditions of their hearts. If the heart is in rebellion against God, we can expect undisciplined and ungovernable people. If the heart has been made new in Christ, we can expect a people who will govern their lives according to the governing principles of the Bible, unquote. From Gary DeMar in his book, God and Government. Ironically, our liberties and freedoms depend upon this first principle of self-government.

A man who cannot control his anger and rage, but wants his freedom and rights to vent it, they will assault and kill, and they have to be restrained by external government, that is the state. The man who cannot control his greed and covetousness, but wants his freedom and right to spend and acquire at all costs, will steal and lie and cheat, and have to be restrained by external government, that is the state. Do you see the point of self-government, internal government?

The man who cannot control his sexual lusts, but wants his freedom and right to express every perversion of his heart, will commit incest and sodomy and rape and pedophilia, and have to be restrained by external government, that is the state. You will be tyrannized if you cannot govern yourself. In other words, the growth of the state and its laws and the amount of police and external government in our society bears an inverse relationship to the amount of self-government amongst the individuals of that society. The greater the self-government of the citizens, the lesser the external government of the state.

The lesser the self-government of the citizens, the greater the external government of the state. And nowhere do we see this borne out with more tragic vengeance than in our own nation, dear listener. So make no mistake about this, dear Christian, if America is ever to reclaim its rightful civil government, if America is ever to reclaim its rightful family government. This is what we labor for in part, isn't it? If America is ever to reclaim the rightful church government, it must begin at the most basic primal level.

It must reclaim its rightful self-government. How can we possibly do this, dear listener? I submit to you it is only by the grace and mercy of God. Be in prayer for these things. See that this revolution takes place in your own heart first and foremost.

See that you govern yourself in all of these spheres first and foremost. And this can be done only through Christ as our hearts are renewed in him and then disciplined in him so that we live according to principles of the Bible. Self-government can only come from a heart governed by the Holy Spirit of God as he ministers the salvation wrought by the Son that is Jesus Christ. Romans 6 verse 4 puts it this way, we were buried with Christ by baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

Oh, we must walk in newness of life because we are renewed in new life in Christ. One of the fruits too of that newness of life, oh Christian, is blessed self-government. This is indeed a part of what we talked about last week. That is the process of sanctification, of becoming more and more holy, being conformed to the image of Christ, walking in his ways, behaving as he would behave, being righteous in all things, in every sphere of life, including that of culture, society, politics, and government.

Galatians chapter 5 puts it this way, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law, unquote. The rebirth of self-government in America begins with a new birth of every American who desires to be faithful first to the covenant established by our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, that is the new covenant. Firstly, we must be reborn in faithfulness to the new covenant in Christ.

And secondly, the rebirth of self-government in America begins with a new birth of every American who desires to be faithful to the covenant established by our founding fathers, that is the United States Constitution. Our founding fathers fully expected America to continue to be a Christian nation too, dear listener, not for it to languish someday as it has and descend into a decrepit progressive hellhole. No. John Adams says, our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other, unquote.

What a wise insight. And indeed, the people who are governed by this Constitution, which we ostensibly hold up as our Constitution, though I have argued elsewhere that it really is a zombie Constitution anymore and needs to be revived as we are reborn in Christ. No. If indeed our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people, then we must become equal to the moral and religious demands of the Constitution. That can only be done through Christ as we are reborn in Him and as we walk in His ways.

Because that moral and religious order that John Adams talked about was not a Buddhist moral religious order. It was not an Islamic Muslim moral order. That moral order is entirely inadequate for America too, by the way, for those of you who are thinking of coming under Sharia law. No. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people, and that was intended to be a Christian morality, a Christian religion.

It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other, as Adams puts it. Dear Christian, if you would remain faithful to the new covenant spiritually established by God, you must remain faithful to the Christ of that covenant too. And dear Christian, if you would remain faithful to the Constitution established by our founding fathers under the guidance of God, we can trace the Christian roots of the American Constitution back through the history of the West too.

If then you would remain faithful to the Constitution and reestablishment in our generation, then you must remain faithful to the Christ of that new covenant too, because we can trace our roots directly back to it. This has been Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church with a moment of truth. New Geneva meets for holy worship at 10 a.m. at 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard. And you can come out, we pray. We pray that you would come out to meet us now as a congregation.

Perhaps you've been listening for a while, interested in who we are, what we have to offer. Well, we'd like you to come and visit us at one of our worship services. Beautiful summer days, our doors open, and we meet at 10 a.m. at 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard. And you can call us for further information or comment on this broadcast at 523-0196. That's 523-0196.