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, I'd like to ask you to challenge you with the notion, has America forgotten her God here this time of year at Thanksgiving? I hope you've had a blessed Thanksgiving. And I just realized every year that it seems more and more of us in America seem to have forgotten the God of America.

And it's my task, at least on this day, to help you remind yourself and your family that indeed it is the God of the Bible who is still the God of this land because we have covenanted with him over the years. But have we forgotten? And what are the consequences? For forgetting the God with whom we have covenanted here in America. The prophet Jeremiah says this about Israel who forgot him.

He says, this is your lot, the portion I have decreed for you, declares the Lord, because you have forgotten me and trusted in false gods. Yes, Israel, at the time that Jeremiah wrote this, had forgotten their God, and he had dealt them a portion, a portion of judgment for forgetting him and trusting in false gods. Has that happened to America at this stage of her life? On Thanksgiving, we celebrate the uniquely American religious holiday, don't we? And it's my favorite American holiday.

It's my favorite American holiday. The Plymouth Colony, for example, and every colonial constitution that followed expressly declared that said colony was established on behalf of King James and for Jesus Christ and his gospel. And it began with the Plymouth Compact, which was cut in November 1620. And the Plymouth Compact begins like this. In the name of God, amen.

We whose names are underwritten, the loyal subjects of our dread sovereign Lord King James, by the grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King, defender of the faith, having undertaken for the glory of God and in advancement of the Christian faith and the honor of our king and country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia. Yes, for the glory of God and the advancement of the Christian faith. This was the Plymouth Colony and the preamble to the fundamental orders of Connecticut, too, which was really our first real constitution. It goes like this.

For as much as it hath pleased almighty God by the wise disposition of his divine providence, so to order and dispose of things that we, the inhabitants and residents of Windsor and upon the river Connecticut and the lands thereunto adjoining and well-knowing where a people are gathered together, the word of God requires that to maintain the peace and union of such a people, there should be an orderly and decent government established according to God in order to dispose of the affairs of the people at all seasons and occasions shall require.

We do therefore associate and conjoin ourselves to be as one public state or commonwealth and do for ourselves and our successors preserve the liberty and purity of the gospel of our Lord Jesus, which we now profess as also the discipline of the churches. And for these things, then, a government in Connecticut was established, the fundamental orders of Connecticut drawn out by Reverend Thomas Hooker. So, of course, today, these truths, that is, that colonial governments, at least, were established in the name of God in order to propagate the gospel, these truths are largely forgotten.

And when they are remembered, they're snickered at as quaint and old-fashioned, at best and dangerous and racist, at worst, right? What very few people realize is that there are consequences for despising covenants, for swearing in the name of God and then breaking that oath. There are consequences. Israel experienced them, and so are we experiencing consequences for being covenant breakers. I want to make two points with you here today.

Remembering Thanksgiving. I love Thanksgiving. Number one, forgotten. God sovereignly brings consequences for a nation's response to the covenant, either blessing or cursing. There are consequences for a nation's response, positive or negative, to the covenant.

Dear listener, Thanksgiving is that day when we bring our heartfelt gratitude and thanksgiving and thanks to the God with whom we have covenanted, who has so blessed us that we have known a prosperity and an abundance beyond that of any nation in history. Every Christian's heart should be bursting with Thanksgiving at this time of year. I lost my aunt and uncle this year, one of my aunts and uncles whose home we often had the Bass Family Thanksgiving dinner. Oh, yes. Faith, food, family, and football were an integral part of that day.

The last Bass Family Thanksgiving dinner that Deb and I attended was there at their home. And my grandfather would always stand at the head of the table and he'd raise his big, gnarly farmer's hands in the air. And he would pray a short, simple, sincere prayer of thanks to the Almighty. He had been saved as an alcoholic when he came to Jesus Christ. And he was especially emotional about it at this time.

He had a lot for which to be thankful. We were all part of the Reformed Church of America, where there was still a remnant of the idea of covenant keeping. I grew up learning to keep my covenants. A handshake was a contract. My word was my bond.

That was essential to being a man of integrity and a Christian, at least where I grew up. And although my uncles couldn't always articulate it perfectly, there was an understanding that America was in a covenant with God and that honoring him as a nation was important. Simply put, as my Uncle Wayne was fond of saying, we are a Christian nation, David. And in fact, the U.S. Supreme Court used to agree to that. This is a quotation from the U.S. Supreme Court case, Church of the Holy Trinity versus the United States.

In 1892, the Supreme Court said, in that case, and I quote, our laws and our institutions must necessarily be based upon and embody the teachings of the Redeemer of mankind. It is impossible that it should be otherwise. And in this sense, and to the extent our civilization and our institutions are emphatically Christian. When the Reverend Thomas Hooker took his band of colonists from the Massachusetts Bay Colony into the Connecticut River Valley in 1638 to establish a new colony, what form of government might you think they adopted for their fledgling labor? Huh?

They said there should be an orderly and decent government established according to God to maintain and preserve the liberty and purity of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Right? And this government, the fundamental orders of Connecticut were shaped after a government they already had, that is that of the church. Yes, they already had a church government and they formed their civil government in that same pattern. Oh, Thomas Hooker was a congregationalist minister and consequently they framed their civil government after the congregational form of government.

Yes, from the church, Connecticut Chief Justice Simon Baldwin said back in 1925, Connecticut Chief Justice Baldwin said, never had a company of men deliberately met to frame a social compact for immediate use, constituting a new and independent commonwealth with definite officers, executive and legislative, and prescribed rules and modes of government until the first planters of Connecticut came together for their great work on January 14th of 1638. Oh yes.

Now, this fundamental order of Connecticut, this constitution, drafted primarily by Roger Ludlow, who was an elder in the church, it was the first compact between a government and the people to uphold the Reverend Hooker's proclamation that the foundation of constitutional authority was with the people. Oh, does that sound familiar? Consequently, when our founding fathers debated the form of government they would adopt in that hot summer of 1787 in Philadelphia at the Constitutional Convention, they not only had the great Montesquieu or John Locke, even Cicero and the great Frederick Bastiat at hand.

Oh, but they also had at their elbow several constitutions that had already worked. And those were the 13th constitution of the colonies, most luminously, Hooker's fundamental orders of Connecticut. And of course, the opening words of our constitution is taken in principle from Hooker's famous sermon that established constitutional authority. And that opening phrase, of course, is we the people. Also, while they debated what they would call this body, they called it instead of a congregation or Congress, right?

They could have chosen either one. They chose, of course, Congress. But Congress is also a word for the congregation of the people in church. Oh, Massachusetts was not far behind either in its aspiration to make of its colony a beacon of the gospel of Jesus Christ to the world. As the Massachusetts Bay Colony prepared to disembark under the shores of the bay, the Reverend John Winthrop preached a sermon called A Model of Christian Charity to his people.

And he noted, too, in that sermon, that if they kept covenant with Christ, and I quote him, the Lord will be our God and delight to dwell among us as his own people and will commend a blessing upon us in all our ways so that we shall see much more of his wisdom, power, goodness, and truth, than formerly we have been acquainted with, we shall find that the God of Israel is among us, when ten of us shall be able to resist a thousand of our enemies, when he shall make us a praise and glory, that men shall say of succeeding plantations, may the Lord make it like that of New England, for we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill, the eyes of the people are upon us, unquote, John Winthrop.

And of course, famously, America would carry that torch as a city upon a hill, the eyes of all people are upon us. And indeed, America was for generations just that, a city upon a hill, has it not been? Almost every country formed in the 20th century used our constitution as a model. Peoples of all tongues, tribes, and nations have envied and sought to copy our liberty, our prosperity, and our freedom. No country has sent more missionaries abroad on behalf of the gospel or been more generous in helping in natural disasters.

America is a generous people after the model of the gospel. And so, at Thanksgiving, I strive to remember these things, dear listener, remember the goodness of the Lord, remember my covenant obligations, too. Even as Daniel Webster said, and he said, famous, I love this quote, he says, let us not forget, let us not forget the religious character of our origin. Our fathers were brought hither by their high veneration for the Christian religion. They journeyed by its light and labored by its hope.

They sought to incorporate its principles with the elements of their society and to diffuse its influence through all their institutions, civil, political, or literary, unquote. Oh, but most of us, even so-called Christians, have lost this memory, have we not? We have lost this memory. We have forgotten. And that brings me to point two.

Forgotten. God sovereignly judges those nations who forget him and rather trust in lies, trust in false gods. God sovereignly judges those nations. Well, the life of the church and its principles of the gospel, they were intimately bound up with the civil government of the nascent states being formed in America, those early colonies. But it hasn't taken long to forget, has it?

There seems to be two main responses in our culture today to Thanksgiving, to gratitude, to forgetting the goodness of God. One of two main responses. Number one, there's benign indifference, what I call benign indifference. That's been with us a long time. And such people are fond of calling Thanksgiving turkey day, right?

Did you have a happy turkey day? Have a fun turkey day. Oh boy. And these types of people see it as little more than another holiday in the season where they get a four-day weekend and they can gorge themselves on food in front of the TV while watching the Dallas Cowboys. Oh, God, covenant, and Thanksgiving are far from the hearts of the benignly indifferent.

Most Americans have big soft butts and tiny hard hearts. Most Americans, the benignly indifferent, have big soft butts and tiny hard hearts. And that goes for many, many Christians too. Or the second response that we see more often today is the politically correct contempt. There is politically correct contempt for Thanksgiving.

Despising Thanksgiving has long been a virtue signal for your average progressive. The pilgrims were little more than racist colonizers, exploiting the indigenous peoples and appropriating their land. And recently, those who espouse the pernicious critical race theory add the importation of slaves to the colonies as another reason to reject Thanksgiving, this uniquely American religious holiday. Consequently, we have increasingly forgotten the God with whom we have made covenant for over 400 years. We've gone from being a city on a hill to being a homeless tent city in a dumpster, haven't we?

The biblical concept of forgetting is quite clear, more than just a momentary lapse of memory, the biblical concept of forgetting. Rather, it's a wholesale abandoning of God's law and his worship for idolatry and for immorality. Oh, as we saw, I have seen your abominations, your adulteries and neighings, Jeremiah says to Israel, your lewd whorings on the hills in the field. Woe to you, O Jerusalem. Oh, woe to us, America, as we have forgotten the God with whom we have covenanted these last 400 years.

It is critical to understand the breakdown of covenant renewal and remembrance. There's been a breakdown of remembrance, has there not, in forgetting. The covenant was to be read in the congregation of the people in Israel that it might be remembered by them. Oh, Deuteronomy chapter 31 says about the people remembering. And Deuteronomy, Moses said to Israel, he said, at the end of every seven years, at the set time in the year of release, at the Feast of Booths, when all Israel comes to appear before the Lord your God at the place that he will choose, you shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing.

Assemble the people, men, women, and little ones, and a sojourner within your towns, that they may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God, and be careful to do all the words of this law, and that their children, who have not known it, may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God. Unquote. That was expected of Israel to remember, to read the law, and to be reminded regularly that they were in covenant with God. Our covenant renewal service at our church is patterned after this way.

And the king was to be reminded too, that is, those who govern, Deuteronomy says, and it, that is a copy of the covenant, shall be with him, that is the king, and he shall read it in all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, by keeping all the words of this law, and these statutes, and doing them, that his heart may not be lifted up above his brothers, and that he may not turn aside from the commandment, either to the right hand or to the left, so that he may continue long in his kingdom, he and his children in Israel. Unquote.

So, when this discipline breaks down, dear listener, the people forget, and they lapse into decadence, and sin, and corruption. It happened in Israel, it's happening in America. Sometimes it's difficult to know which comes first, though, the temptation and the fall into sin that causes a forgetting of the words of the covenant, or vice versa. But it is certain that they are bound together in a death grip, in a deathward, downward spiral for the people. And there are consequences too.

Israel came under God's awful judgment for forgetting. God told them, Jeremiah told them, this is your lot, the portion I have measured out to you, declares the Lord, because you have forgotten me and trusted in lies. It is popular today among squishy evangelicals and co-opted Christians. It's popular to dismiss as irrelevant and inconsequential the fact that we are no longer a constitutional republic. I recently had somebody say to say to me, we haven't been a republic for decades.

Well, and then they always claim Romans 13 as a cop-out, right? We are to be submissive to the authorities because God has established them, excuse me, that government is government and that we are obliged to obey it, no matter what kind of evil monstrosity it is, or what kind of beast is at its head. Huh? This attribute betrays a fundamental ignorance of covenant and the consequences for the breaking of covenant, for forgetting its provisions even though we are still under them, and God still holds us accountable to the provisions of the covenant we have made. America, don't be a land of fools.

Don't continue to be a land of fools, United States of America. You are only beginning to see judgment visited upon you, especially those of you who claim to be followers of Christ and keepers of covenants. You are already under what military planners, I covered this a bit last week, what military planners call full-spectrum dominance of the human domain. You are already coming under full-spectrum dominance of the human domain by our enemies, right? We've seen the full-spectrum here, whether it's artificial intelligence, AI surveillance, and curtailance, right?

You have been surveyed, curtailed, and controlled under artificial intelligence. Another arm of this full-spectrum dominance is your supply chain breakdown, right? That's going to be felt increasingly as the winter goes on with shortages of food and materiel and energy, especially during the cold winter months. You are also being dominated in a full-spectrum dominance by big pharma, big med, and big government. Oh, they are slow killing you, right?

And many are beginning to feel it in their bones now, aren't they? Not only in their bones with vaccines, but also with increasing sicknesses, you have been locked up, masked up, and vaxxed up now in a slow-kill process. We are also under a full-spectrum dominance of brainwashing and propaganda. This is all a part of the judgment of God upon America. Wake up, America.

But mostly and chiefly, then, we are under a spiritual war. Under a spiritual dominance with our enemies in the heavenlies who are playing 3D spiritual chess while America is playing spiritual checkers in comparison. Oh, dear listeners, dear friends, if you write this off, there's Pastor Bass again with another conspiracy theory. If that's the case, then I write you off as a naive, brainwashed Pollyanna. Your judgment is well-deserved if you think this is all a conspiracy theory.

We are paying the price. America is paying the price for forgetting. Our forefathers warned us. Daniel Webster said very presciently, he said, and I quote, if the power of the gospel is not felt across the length and breadth of the land, anarchy and misrule, degradation and misery, corruption and darkness will reign without mitigation or end, unquote. That is so true.

It's true of every nation, and it's becoming more and more true of America. The power of the gospel needs to be felt again across the length and breadth of the land so that what is already transpiring, what is already beginning will stop. That is anarchy and misrule, degradation and misery, corruption and darkness is reigning, and it will reign without mitigation or end until the power of the gospel is felt again across the length and breadth of our land. And what is required for this is the power of the gospel, dear listener.

Oh, in our church history course, we are seeing the power of the gospel to transform a society and culture, even as it did in ancient Rome. The gospel spread in that ancient world, not because of huge crusades led by charismatic preachers, but no, rather because individual believers shared Christ in their lives and whose lives were then witnessed to their neighbors. Oh, this has to happen simply again, right? Believers used to give up their lives of sin, and consequently, the booze, the brawling, and the babes. That brought so much sickness, disease, and misery.

People saw the difference in Christian lives, and there was not the loneliness and despair of despair of the ancient world. Christians had community in the life of the church. There's no magic to it. The church followed Paul's exhortation to the Thessalonians, and that was, make it your life's ambition to lead quiet lives, to mind your own business, and to work with your hands, as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders, and so that you will not be dependent on anybody, unquote. Oh, the Christians won the respect of outsiders and won them, in fact, to Christ.

Imagine if the gospel reformed America now to this depth and extent again. It couldn't help but resonate profoundly throughout all segments of our society that is in culture and government and politics, and it needs to again. The gospel needs to resonate again throughout America. It has in the past. It is the heart and soul of keeping covenant.

We have made covenant with God. We must keep that covenant. It won the ancient empire then, and it can win the empire now. Oh, dear friends, dear listeners, remember these things and what remains of our Thanksgiving weekend, and renew those things, not only in America, but first and foremost in your own heart and mind. This has been Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church.

We meet for holy worship on Sundays. I urge you to join us on Sundays at 10 a.m. at 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard, and come and join us, too, for our church history course that's still going on. We're still very early in the process. Our church history course is meeting these days at Leo's Place at 7 p.m. on Thursdays, Thursday evenings, our church history course at Leo's Place at 7 p.m. Come and join us, and come and join us once again for our worship services.

Maybe you've been thinking of crossing our threshold, finding out who we are, and I invite you to do so on Sunday at 10 a.m. at 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard. Call us for more information, 208-523-0196. 208-523-0196. Call us now for more information, 208-523-0196. 209-1196.

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