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Greetings. This is Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church with a

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moment of truth, where we challenge you to think through an important issue of life and faith.

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And today, I'd like to ask you to challenge you with the notion, has America forgotten

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her God here this time of year at Thanksgiving? I hope you've had a blessed Thanksgiving.

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And I just realized every year that it seems more and more of us in America seem to have forgotten

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the God of America. And it's my task, at least on this day, to help you remind yourself and your

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family that indeed it is the God of the Bible who is still the God of this land because we have

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covenanted with him over the years. But have we forgotten? And what are the consequences?

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For forgetting the God with whom we have covenanted here in America. The prophet Jeremiah

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says this about Israel who forgot him. He says, this is your lot, the portion I have decreed for you,

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declares the Lord, because you have forgotten me and trusted in false gods. Yes, Israel, at the time

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that Jeremiah wrote this, had forgotten their God, and he had dealt them a portion, a portion of judgment

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for forgetting him and trusting in false gods. Has that happened to America at this stage of her life?

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On Thanksgiving, we celebrate the uniquely American religious holiday, don't we? And it's my favorite

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American holiday. It's my favorite American holiday. The Plymouth Colony, for example, and every colonial

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constitution that followed expressly declared that said colony was established on behalf of King James

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and for Jesus Christ and his gospel. And it began with the Plymouth Compact, which was cut

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in November 1620. And the Plymouth Compact begins like this. In the name of God, amen. We whose names

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are underwritten, the loyal subjects of our dread sovereign Lord King James, by the grace of God, of

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Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King, defender of the faith, having undertaken for the glory of God

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and in advancement of the Christian faith and the honor of our king and country, a voyage to plant the

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first colony in the northern parts of Virginia. Yes, for the glory of God and the advancement of the

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Christian faith. This was the Plymouth Colony and the preamble to the fundamental orders of Connecticut,

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too, which was really our first real constitution. It goes like this. For as much as it hath pleased

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almighty God by the wise disposition of his divine providence, so to order and dispose of things that

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we, the inhabitants and residents of Windsor and upon the river Connecticut and the lands thereunto

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adjoining and well-knowing where a people are gathered together, the word of God requires that

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to maintain the peace and union of such a people, there should be an orderly and decent government

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established according to God in order to dispose of the affairs of the people at all seasons and

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occasions shall require. We do therefore associate and conjoin ourselves to be as one public state or

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commonwealth and do for ourselves and our successors preserve the liberty and purity of the gospel of our

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Lord Jesus, which we now profess as also the discipline of the churches. And for these things, then,

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a government in Connecticut was established, the fundamental orders of Connecticut drawn out by

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Reverend Thomas Hooker. So, of course, today, these truths, that is, that colonial governments, at least,

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were established in the name of God in order to propagate the gospel, these truths are largely forgotten.

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And when they are remembered, they're snickered at as quaint and old-fashioned, at best and dangerous

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and racist, at worst, right? What very few people realize is that there are consequences for despising

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covenants, for swearing in the name of God and then breaking that oath. There are consequences. Israel

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experienced them, and so are we experiencing consequences for being covenant breakers. I want to make two points

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with you here today. Remembering Thanksgiving. I love Thanksgiving. Number one, forgotten. God sovereignly

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brings consequences for a nation's response to the covenant, either blessing or cursing. There are

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consequences for a nation's response, positive or negative, to the covenant. Dear listener, Thanksgiving

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is that day when we bring our heartfelt gratitude and thanksgiving and thanks to the God with whom we

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have covenanted, who has so blessed us that we have known a prosperity and an abundance beyond that of

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any nation in history. Every Christian's heart should be bursting with Thanksgiving at this time of

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year. I lost my aunt and uncle this year, one of my aunts and uncles whose home we often had the Bass

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Family Thanksgiving dinner. Oh, yes. Faith, food, family, and football were an integral part of that day.

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The last Bass Family Thanksgiving dinner that Deb and I attended was there at their home. And my

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grandfather would always stand at the head of the table and he'd raise his big, gnarly farmer's hands

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in the air. And he would pray a short, simple, sincere prayer of thanks to the Almighty. He had been

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saved as an alcoholic when he came to Jesus Christ. And he was especially emotional about it at this time.

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He had a lot for which to be thankful. We were all part of the Reformed Church of America,

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where there was still a remnant of the idea of covenant keeping. I grew up learning to keep my

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covenants. A handshake was a contract. My word was my bond. That was essential to being a man of

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integrity and a Christian, at least where I grew up. And although my uncles couldn't always articulate

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it perfectly, there was an understanding that America was in a covenant with God and that honoring

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him as a nation was important. Simply put, as my Uncle Wayne was fond of saying, we are a Christian

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nation, David. And in fact, the U.S. Supreme Court used to agree to that. This is a quotation from the

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U.S. Supreme Court case, Church of the Holy Trinity versus the United States. In 1892, the Supreme Court

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said, in that case, and I quote, our laws and our institutions must necessarily be based upon and embody

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the teachings of the Redeemer of mankind. It is impossible that it should be otherwise. And in this

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sense, and to the extent our civilization and our institutions are emphatically Christian. When the

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Reverend Thomas Hooker took his band of colonists from the Massachusetts Bay Colony into the Connecticut

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River Valley in 1638 to establish a new colony, what form of government might you think they adopted for

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their fledgling labor? Huh? They said there should be an orderly and decent government established

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according to God to maintain and preserve the liberty and purity of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

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Right? And this government, the fundamental orders of Connecticut were shaped after a government they

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already had, that is that of the church. Yes, they already had a church government and they formed their

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civil government in that same pattern. Oh, Thomas Hooker was a congregationalist minister and

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consequently they framed their civil government after the congregational form of government. Yes, from the

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church, Connecticut Chief Justice Simon Baldwin said back in 1925, Connecticut Chief Justice Baldwin said,

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never had a company of men deliberately met to frame a social compact for immediate use,

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constituting a new and independent commonwealth with definite officers, executive and legislative,

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and prescribed rules and modes of government until the first planters of Connecticut came

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together for their great work on January 14th of 1638. Oh yes. Now, this fundamental order of

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Connecticut, this constitution, drafted primarily by Roger Ludlow, who was an elder in the church,

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it was the first compact between a government and the people to uphold the Reverend Hooker's

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proclamation that the foundation of constitutional authority was with the people. Oh, does that sound

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familiar? Consequently, when our founding fathers debated the form of government they would adopt in

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that hot summer of 1787 in Philadelphia at the Constitutional Convention, they not only had the great

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Montesquieu or John Locke, even Cicero and the great Frederick Bastiat at hand. Oh, but they also had at their

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elbow several constitutions that had already worked. And those were the 13th constitution of the colonies,

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most luminously, Hooker's fundamental orders of Connecticut. And of course, the opening words of

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our constitution is taken in principle from Hooker's famous sermon that established constitutional authority.

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And that opening phrase, of course, is we the people. Also, while they debated what they would call

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this body, they called it instead of a congregation or Congress, right? They could have chosen either

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one. They chose, of course, Congress. But Congress is also a word for the congregation of the people

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in church. Oh, Massachusetts was not far behind either in its aspiration to make of its colony a beacon of

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the gospel of Jesus Christ to the world. As the Massachusetts Bay Colony prepared to disembark

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under the shores of the bay, the Reverend John Winthrop preached a sermon called A Model of

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Christian Charity to his people. And he noted, too, in that sermon, that if they kept covenant with

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Christ, and I quote him, the Lord will be our God and delight to dwell among us as his own people and

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will commend a blessing upon us in all our ways so that we shall see much more of his wisdom, power,

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goodness, and truth, than formerly we have been acquainted with, we shall find that the God of

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Israel is among us, when ten of us shall be able to resist a thousand of our enemies, when he shall

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make us a praise and glory, that men shall say of succeeding plantations, may the Lord make it like

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that of New England, for we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill, the eyes of the

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people are upon us, unquote, John Winthrop. And of course, famously, America would carry that torch

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as a city upon a hill, the eyes of all people are upon us. And indeed, America was for generations

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just that, a city upon a hill, has it not been? Almost every country formed in the 20th century

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used our constitution as a model. Peoples of all tongues, tribes, and nations have envied and sought to

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copy our liberty, our prosperity, and our freedom. No country has sent more missionaries abroad on behalf

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of the gospel or been more generous in helping in natural disasters. America is a generous people after

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the model of the gospel. And so, at Thanksgiving, I strive to remember these things, dear listener,

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remember the goodness of the Lord, remember my covenant obligations, too. Even as Daniel Webster said,

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and he said, famous, I love this quote, he says, let us not forget, let us not forget the religious

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character of our origin. Our fathers were brought hither by their high veneration for the Christian

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religion. They journeyed by its light and labored by its hope. They sought to incorporate its principles

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with the elements of their society and to diffuse its influence through all their institutions,

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civil, political, or literary, unquote. Oh, but most of us, even so-called Christians, have lost this

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memory, have we not? We have lost this memory. We have forgotten. And that brings me to point two.

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Forgotten. God sovereignly judges those nations who forget him and rather trust in lies, trust in false

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gods. God sovereignly judges those nations. Well, the life of the church and its principles of the gospel,

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they were intimately bound up with the civil government of the nascent states being formed in

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America, those early colonies. But it hasn't taken long to forget, has it? There seems to be two main

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responses in our culture today to Thanksgiving, to gratitude, to forgetting the goodness of God.

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One of two main responses. Number one, there's benign indifference, what I call benign indifference.

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That's been with us a long time. And such people are fond of calling Thanksgiving turkey day, right?

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Did you have a happy turkey day? Have a fun turkey day. Oh boy. And these types of people see it as

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little more than another holiday in the season where they get a four-day weekend and they can gorge

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themselves on food in front of the TV while watching the Dallas Cowboys. Oh, God, covenant,

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and Thanksgiving are far from the hearts of the benignly indifferent. Most Americans have big soft

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butts and tiny hard hearts. Most Americans, the benignly indifferent, have big soft butts and tiny

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hard hearts. And that goes for many, many Christians too. Or the second response that we see more often

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today is the politically correct contempt. There is politically correct contempt for Thanksgiving.

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Despising Thanksgiving has long been a virtue signal for your average progressive. The pilgrims

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were little more than racist colonizers, exploiting the indigenous peoples and appropriating their land.

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And recently, those who espouse the pernicious critical race theory add the importation of slaves to the

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colonies as another reason to reject Thanksgiving, this uniquely American religious holiday. Consequently,

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we have increasingly forgotten the God with whom we have made covenant for over 400 years. We've gone from

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being a city on a hill to being a homeless tent city in a dumpster, haven't we? The biblical concept of

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forgetting is quite clear, more than just a momentary lapse of memory, the biblical concept of

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forgetting. Rather, it's a wholesale abandoning of God's law and his worship for idolatry and for

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immorality. Oh, as we saw, I have seen your abominations, your adulteries and neighings, Jeremiah says to

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Israel, your lewd whorings on the hills in the field. Woe to you, O Jerusalem. Oh, woe to us,

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America, as we have forgotten the God with whom we have covenanted these last 400 years. It is critical

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to understand the breakdown of covenant renewal and remembrance. There's been a breakdown of

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remembrance, has there not, in forgetting. The covenant was to be read in the congregation of the

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people in Israel that it might be remembered by them. Oh, Deuteronomy chapter 31 says about the

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people remembering. And Deuteronomy, Moses said to Israel, he said, at the end of every seven years,

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at the set time in the year of release, at the Feast of Booths, when all Israel comes to appear before

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the Lord your God at the place that he will choose, you shall read this law before all Israel in their

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hearing. Assemble the people, men, women, and little ones, and a sojourner within your towns,

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that they may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God, and be careful to do all the words of

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this law, and that their children, who have not known it, may hear and learn to fear the Lord your

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God. Unquote. That was expected of Israel to remember, to read the law, and to be reminded

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regularly that they were in covenant with God. Our covenant renewal service at our church is

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patterned after this way. And the king was to be reminded too, that is, those who govern, Deuteronomy

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says, and it, that is a copy of the covenant, shall be with him, that is the king, and he shall read it

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in all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, by keeping all the words of

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this law, and these statutes, and doing them, that his heart may not be lifted up above his brothers,

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and that he may not turn aside from the commandment, either to the right hand or to the left, so that

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he may continue long in his kingdom, he and his children in Israel. Unquote. So, when this discipline

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breaks down, dear listener, the people forget, and they lapse into decadence, and sin, and corruption.

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It happened in Israel, it's happening in America. Sometimes it's difficult to know which comes first,

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though, the temptation and the fall into sin that causes a forgetting of the words of the covenant,

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or vice versa. But it is certain that they are bound together in a death grip, in a deathward,

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downward spiral for the people. And there are consequences too. Israel came under God's awful

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judgment for forgetting. God told them, Jeremiah told them, this is your lot, the portion I have measured

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out to you, declares the Lord, because you have forgotten me and trusted in lies. It is popular

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today among squishy evangelicals and co-opted Christians. It's popular to dismiss as irrelevant

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and inconsequential the fact that we are no longer a constitutional republic. I recently had somebody

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say to say to me, we haven't been a republic for decades. Well, and then they always claim

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Romans 13 as a cop-out, right? We are to be submissive to the authorities because God has

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established them, excuse me, that government is government and that we are obliged to obey it,

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no matter what kind of evil monstrosity it is, or what kind of beast is at its head.

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Huh? This attribute betrays a fundamental ignorance of covenant and the consequences for the breaking

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of covenant, for forgetting its provisions even though we are still under them, and God still

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holds us accountable to the provisions of the covenant we have made. America, don't be a land

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of fools. Don't continue to be a land of fools, United States of America. You are only beginning to see

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judgment visited upon you, especially those of you who claim to be followers of Christ and keepers of

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covenants. You are already under what military planners, I covered this a bit last week, what military

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planners call full-spectrum dominance of the human domain. You are already coming under full-spectrum

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dominance of the human domain by our enemies, right? We've seen the full-spectrum here, whether

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it's artificial intelligence, AI surveillance, and curtailance, right? You have been surveyed, curtailed,

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and controlled under artificial intelligence. Another arm of this full-spectrum dominance is your supply

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chain breakdown, right? That's going to be felt increasingly as the winter goes on with shortages

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of food and materiel and energy, especially during the cold winter months. You are also being dominated

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in a full-spectrum dominance by big pharma, big med, and big government. Oh, they are slow killing you,

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right? And many are beginning to feel it in their bones now, aren't they? Not only in their bones with

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vaccines, but also with increasing sicknesses, you have been locked up, masked up, and vaxxed up now in a slow-kill

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process. We are also under a full-spectrum dominance of brainwashing and propaganda. This is all a part of the

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judgment of God upon America. Wake up, America. But mostly and chiefly, then, we are under a spiritual war.

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Under a spiritual dominance with our enemies in the heavenlies who are playing 3D spiritual chess

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while America is playing spiritual checkers in comparison. Oh, dear listeners, dear friends,

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if you write this off, there's Pastor Bass again with another conspiracy theory. If that's the case,

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then I write you off as a naive, brainwashed Pollyanna. Your judgment is well-deserved if you

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think this is all a conspiracy theory. We are paying the price. America is paying the price

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for forgetting. Our forefathers warned us. Daniel Webster said very presciently, he said, and I quote,

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if the power of the gospel is not felt across the length and breadth of the land, anarchy and

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misrule, degradation and misery, corruption and darkness will reign without mitigation or end,

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unquote. That is so true. It's true of every nation, and it's becoming more and more true of

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America. The power of the gospel needs to be felt again across the length and breadth of the land

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so that what is already transpiring, what is already beginning will stop. That is anarchy and misrule,

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degradation and misery, corruption and darkness is reigning, and it will reign without mitigation or

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end until the power of the gospel is felt again across the length and breadth of our land. And what

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is required for this is the power of the gospel, dear listener. Oh, in our church history course,

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we are seeing the power of the gospel to transform a society and culture, even as it did in ancient

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Rome. The gospel spread in that ancient world, not because of huge crusades led by charismatic

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preachers, but no, rather because individual believers shared Christ in their lives and whose lives

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were then witnessed to their neighbors. Oh, this has to happen simply again, right? Believers used to give up

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their lives of sin, and consequently, the booze, the brawling, and the babes. That brought so much sickness,

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disease, and misery. People saw the difference in Christian lives, and there was not the loneliness and

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despair of despair of the ancient world. Christians had community in the life of the church. There's no

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magic to it. The church followed Paul's exhortation to the Thessalonians, and that was, make it your

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life's ambition to lead quiet lives, to mind your own business, and to work with your hands, as we told you,

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so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders, and so that you will not be dependent on

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anybody, unquote. Oh, the Christians won the respect of outsiders and won them, in fact, to Christ. Imagine if the

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gospel reformed America now to this depth and extent again. It couldn't help but resonate profoundly

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throughout all segments of our society that is in culture and government and politics, and it needs to again.

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The gospel needs to resonate again throughout America. It has in the past. It is the heart and soul

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of keeping covenant. We have made covenant with God. We must keep that covenant. It won the ancient

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empire then, and it can win the empire now. Oh, dear friends, dear listeners, remember these things

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and what remains of our Thanksgiving weekend, and renew those things, not only in America, but first and

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foremost in your own heart and mind. This has been Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian

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Church. We meet for holy worship on Sundays. I urge you to join us on Sundays at 10 a.m. at 101 4th Street

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on the corner of 4th and Boulevard, and come and join us, too, for our church history course that's still

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going on. We're still very early in the process. Our church history course is meeting these days at

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Leo's Place at 7 p.m. on Thursdays, Thursday evenings, our church history course at Leo's Place at 7 p.m.

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Come and join us, and come and join us once again for our worship services. Maybe you've been thinking of

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crossing our threshold, finding out who we are, and I invite you to do so on Sunday at 10 a.m. at 101 4th

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Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard. Call us for more information, 208-523-0196. 208-523-0196.

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Call us now for more information, 208-523-0196. 209-1196. 209-312-0196. 209-423-0196. 211-523-0196. 211-823-0196.

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211-926. 222-0196. 222-023-0196. 222-0196. 211-824.

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222-0196. 222-0196. 211-923-0196. 211-823-0196. 211-923-0196.