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. Today, what are principles 24 and 25 of the Constitution, principles of the Constitution, 24 and 25, that are in the book, The 5,000-Year Leap? Now, if this is brand new information for you, then you must understand that our founding fathers established our Constitution based upon a number of principles for government and not upon random improvised thoughts. No.

Men like Adams and Jefferson and Franklin spent their lives studying what Adams called the divine science of government. Called this precisely because they felt that God himself had given man both the objective principles for happiness in government and the subjective gifts of heart and intellect to discover them. Now, what I have discovered is that the book, The 5,000-Year Leap by Cleon Skousen, has gathered together and summarized the basic foundational principles upon which our Constitution is based. We have already made our way through the first 23 principles, principles. And today, we stand ready to articulate principles 24 and 25.

Now, after you are done with hearing them, and if they resonate with you as being true, well, then I urge you to go ahead and get this book through Mr. Skousen's organization, The National Center for Constitutional Studies. The National Center for Constitutional Studies. And it can be accessed at nccs.org, nccs.org. Well, principle 24 is this. A free people will not survive unless they stay strong.

A free people will not survive unless they stay strong. Yes, freedom, liberty is something that is taken. It's not given to you. Those who are free and live in a constitutional republic and live under liberty must generally take it take it for themselves. And oftentimes, they have to wrest it out of the death grip of tyrants in order to do so.

And a free and prosperous people will not survive even. Once they've obtained their liberty, they will not survive in that liberty unless they stay strong. While this may seem obvious to any reasonable person in any realistic world, we must understand that reasonable men and women do not govern us today. And we have created for ourselves an unrealistic world in the United States of America. Most of us are sheeple.

Most Americans, I'm afraid, though, this is beginning to change. Many are waking up. But so many Americans are naive, brainwashed Pollyannas when it comes to the goodwill they think of their government. Government only wants to help. Government only wants to make your life better.

I'm afraid that is not the case. Oh, our current president is Exhibit A in this regard. Oh, we have thrown our way around all over the world, for example. We have asserted our will in places like Iraq and Afghanistan and Ukraine. Oh, Biden is seen across the world as weak and pusillanimous, which invites aggression.

I have a whole lecture on this, dear listener, on why weakness invites aggression and why our government, the present administration in particular, has invited aggression all across the globe and will do so further if they are not stopped. While weakness is invited by things that Biden has done, for example, closing down our oil and gas production, causing us to depend upon importation of oil and making us vulnerable and at the whims of places like Saudi Arabia and Iran. He has increasingly shipped our industrial base overseas. That's been happening for years.

That's we've been hemorrhaging jobs ever since the 90s and then arms production in particular. We have seriously depleted our arms storehouse, our arms stockpile by sending them all to Ukraine. We have seriously depleted many of our defense capabilities by supplying Ukraine with our modern technology and weapons. In fact, it's estimated that we couldn't fight a two-front war, an all-out, full-tilt two-front war, which America has always tried strategically, at least, to plan for, for any longer than six weeks, that we would run out of ammunition before six weeks had transpired. So we have also thrown open our borders.

This has especially weakened us as a country. We are not a strong country anymore in primarily because we have thrown open our borders to completely unvetted illegal immigrants. Yes, we have, for example, and I've spoken on this here before, that we have seen a steady stream of Chinese nationals coming in across the border, and they have even streamlined and customized their own path in with stopping points for Chinese nationals exclusively. They travel together. They are dressed almost in semi-military uniforms, Chinese nationals, military-aged men, and they are streaming into our country.

And there have also then been, of course, you've heard perhaps cartel gangs from Guatemala and Venezuela in particular that have been streaming in for years now. In fact, most people admit that they now control the border. It's not ICE that controls the border anymore. It's not our border patrol that controls the border between Mexico and America. No, it is the cartels, the human trafficking and drug cartels that now control our borders.

And of course, drugs have been flooding, and this makes a country weak as well, doesn't it? With the fentanyl is notoriously has been flooding into our country across the border and has been weakening the national will and resolve and health and strength and vitality of America. America is weak because of the drugs flowing in across our border. And then, of course, there are the Iranian men of military age, men from the Middle East, others as well, who are forming sleeper cells so that if, indeed, in case war breaks out in the Middle East, they will create havoc here behind the lines.

All of this because our border has been thrown open completely to unvetted illegal immigrants. And Mayorkas, head of Homeland Security, should not only be impeached, he should be convicted, he should be tried, convicted, and thrown in jail. He is deliberately weakening the United States. If you look in his background, you find out that for his entire adult lifetime, he has hated the United States and thought that it should be weakened and destroyed. And yet he's head of Homeland Security, ironically enough.

Well, all of these things have conspired and combined to make America weak. Benjamin Franklin was fond of citing this Italian proverb, which is, make yourselves sheep and the wolves will eat you. Make yourselves sheep and the wolves will eat you. Well, Biden and his administration swiftly making of America a nation of sheep and the wolves are licking their chops. Even now, while Americans are distracted by childish schemes of free government health care or student loan repayment, and they're focused upon sensational stories about TikTok, all these things, our enemies are planning our destruction and executing that plan.

Oh, pastor, you may protest. You're just being sensational and paranoid. Who could possibly be planning to hurt us? Isn't President Biden watching over us and guarding our national security? That is part of the naive, brainwashed, Pollyannish attitude that so many Americans have adopted.

No. If this is your response to me, well, then I have two numbers for you. Nine and 11. The entire Biden administration has been one big senior moment, hasn't it? As he has dealt with the strength of our nation and another 9-11 could easily transpire if we are not careful.

Ah, no one saw that coming, did they? No, they didn't. And we've learned so much about 9-11 since then, too. All of this demonstrates a wrongheadedness, a soul sickness concerning the prime directive of our federal government. That is the protection of our borders, the protection of our safety, and the Constitution defending the Constitution of the United States of America, to which all of our government officials swear allegiance.

Do they not? Men like Ronald Reagan or Dwight Eisenhower, George Washington, they understood this clearly. In fact, our founding fathers knew this as a principle. As Benjamin Franklin puts it, he said, protection is as truly due to the people as obedience is due from the people to the government, unquote. Oh, yes.

It is a reciprocity between government and people. Government owes us protection and safety and security. They owe that to us. We, in turn, owe them obedience. But when that compact is broken, all bets are off.

And believe me, your government has no intention of securing your safety. In fact, they have put you deliberately at risk. They do not want to protect you. They hate you. They are bent on destroying you and subjecting you under tyranny.

They are no longer protecting. Consequently, we must no longer obey. How arrogant of our leaders today who expect obedience from us, but they refuse to protect the very people from whom they derive their power. Our leaders are wrongheaded and they are soul sick when they do the things government was ill-designed to do, like provide health care or welfare or underwrite the economy. That's not what they were designed to do.

While they, on the other hand, neglect the very things for which God ordained government, raising armies, providing for national defense, remaining a neutral policeman and referee in the marketplace, these kinds of things, for example. Well, to a man, our founding fathers insisted that government fulfill this prime directive, that it was indispensable to a free republic. George Washington built a fire under Congress in his fifth annual address.

He says, I cannot recommend to your notice measures for the fulfillment of our duties to the rest of the world without, again, pressing upon you the necessity of placing ourselves in a condition of complete defense and of exacting from them, that is, our complete defense preparations, the fulfillment of their duties towards us, unquote. In other words, one of the true things the federal government is wired to do and charged to do by our Constitution is provide for our complete defense and then monitor meticulously the fulfillment of those duties. Yes, it was a constant and vigilant discipline understood and practiced by our founding fathers.

Washington, as general of the Continental Army, understood the necessity for military strength. As Dr. Skousen puts it, he says, the founders passed on to their posterity a policy of peace through strength. They were peace-loving, but not pacifists, unquote. No great nation has ever achieved greatness without being a martial nation. This is irrefutable.

Warfare and violent struggle are part of the status quo between nations, and so it has been since the tribes of Babylon clashed on the plains of Shinar, and so it will be until the last great battle transpires at the end of time. Lest we forget, the land of the free and the house of the brave was born in blood. Our very national anthem is violent and militaristic, isn't it? As you listen closely to it, as General Patton puts it, Americans have always loved a good fight. The naive progressive defeats his own argument every time he tries to prove that violence never solved anything.

Oh, dear listener, martial resistance to British dragoons certainly solved the tyranny of the King George in our revolution. Martial resistance to the Third Reich solved Hitler, and the atomic bomb solved the vicious bloodletting tyranny of the Japanese Empire and the need for a bloodbath in an invasion of the Japanese homeland. Oh, the truth is that the just selective use of violence does solve problems and injustices. The just selective use of violence does keep our country safe and ensures our freedoms and rights as citizens.

I hate to have to break it to the pacifists among us, but the irony is that you would not have the freedom to practice your pacifism and proclaim it openly if someone else had not shed blood in violent warfare to give that right to you. Pacifists all over the world and other places are persecuted and jailed and deprived of property and liberty for refusing to fight for regimes and kings. Here in the United States, pacifists are protected and treated as equals in a free republic, but that is only yours because someone else went out and died or risked his life to defend those rights for you.

The irony is that even your pacifism is a right born in blood. One of the true dangers of our age is that our people have lost this sense of the constant vigilant discipline of military security and preparedness. Instead of being fit and practiced and mentally and spiritually aware, we are tired and lazy and mentally and spiritually indifferent and lackluster. We no longer see the need. Who cares, right?

Give me my free health care. Give me my bailout check. Make my next house payment. Oh, pay for my college education. Mr. President, let us skip and cut back on the needful things and spend trillions in a so-called stimulus package for the frivolous we don't need but want.

Well, in short, the true guarantor of security against our enemies is not overwhelming military hardware in million man armies, but the heart and will of the people in tune with the God of the Bible who gave them their liberties to begin with. If the people are not ready to fight, they will not raise up an army ready to fight. Our military is already falling short by 25% of their recruitment goals. No one's willing to fight for this government. But if they are prepared to fight, the men who make up the army will be ready to fight and the rest of the population will be there to arm and equip them with the best weaponry in the world.

A people must be trained and educated to appreciate the importance of being ready and willing to fight. They do not see it and they do not know this to their toenails. They'll not support and supply the military needed to defend themselves. It's also important to understand the role of the sovereign God of the Bible. He is ultimately the decider of every battle, every war, and the fate of every soldier on the battlefield.

It is a biblical fact of history that there are no stray arrows, no stray bullets, and no random shells that fall from the sky. While to the individual soldier the dean of battle represents chaos and disorder, the Christian realizes that every particle of matter is under the divine hand of the God of the Bible. The nation that acknowledges him therefore knows he is the great shepherd of their destiny. No one knew this better than General Washington.

I, he said, reflecting on the Revolutionary War, he says, the signal instances of providential goodness which we have experienced and which have now almost crowned our labors with complete success demand from us, in a peculiar manner, the warmest returns of gratitude and piety to the supreme author of all good." This is only one of the countless acknowledgments of God's hand in America's military struggles.

It is utterly imperative for every American to clearly understand and acknowledge that while we fight wars with soldiers and concrete physical weapons, it is not the calculus of sheer physical force alone that accounts for victory or defeat. The Bible says, the race is not to the swift nor the battle to the strong. No, it is imperative for us to understand and acknowledge that while strategy and tactics and inspired commanders are important to the outcome of battles and warfare, they alone do not determine that outcome.

While the morale and training of our armed forces is necessary to the survival and success of any military campaign, we must always understand that it is the invisible hand of providence that ultimately, decides all. In the end, we must confess with a psalmist, some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God, unquote. Unless and until we are ready to do this, we may do everything else right in providing for our homeland security, but we will fail at the most critical juncture, that is, arming ourselves in the complete faith of God, that He will determine the course of warfare for His glory and our good.

Then and only then will the United States be able to return successfully to principle 24. A free people will not survive unless they stay strong. Well, principle number 25 then. It all follows closely upon the heels of principle 24. Principle 25 is peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none.

Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none. This is a direct quote from Thomas Jefferson in his first inaugural address as president. The bulk of our founding fathers agreed with Jefferson. They gazed upon the continent of Europe from which they had so recently come and saw the ancient animosities and complicated relationships that existed among the national, ethnic, and religious peoples, and they saw disastrous results ensue when the passions let loose from these differences are allowed free reign.

Europe was a cauldron of vicious internecine infighting and destruction, and our founders wanted to guard the new states from sinking into a similar condition. War, bloodshed, prejudice, economic warfare, sound familiar? Incessant fighting were the legacy of those groups as they combined into factions and alliances with one another. France and Spain would combine against England and the Netherlands. Italy and Austria would form an alliance against Germany and Denmark.

Even Catholic Ireland would conspire with France to overthrow the Protestant king of England, precipitating the glorious revolution of 1688. Well, on and on we could go. To all of this, our founders gave a resounding, not here. Instead, America should stand aloof from these passions and remain a separate world power, though not isolated from the world. Washington articulated this attitude very well, and I quote George Washington on this here.

Quote, in the execution of such a plan, nothing is more essential than that permanent inveterate antipathies against particular nations and passionate attachments for others should be excluded, and that in place of them just and amicable feelings toward all should be cultivated. The nation which indulges toward another and habitual hatred or an habitual fondness is in some degree a slave. It is a slave to its animosity or to its affection, either of which is sufficient to lead it astray from its duty and its interest, unquote.

Therefore, the founders articulated the doctrine of separatism, whereby the new United States would not be bound by formal alliances with other nations that would commit her to wars and trade agreements that might be to her hurt and disadvantaged, but rather a policy which would commit her to free trade with all nations and friendly relations with all nations. Insofar as it was possible, this was the policy of separatism, which is not to be confused with as caricature by opponents that is isolationism.

No, our founders in no way, shape or form were naive enough to think that America could be isolated from the rest of the nations as if we existed completely self-sufficient unto ourselves. But they were also wise enough to know that she could trade with and exist among those nations without being bound to them and their destinies by treaties, which committed the American people to sacrifice blood and treasure for those nations that did not necessarily coincide with America's interests.

Oh, as Thomas Jefferson puts it, he puts it so well, our first and fundamental maxim should be never to entangle ourselves in the broils of Europe, our second, never to suffer Europe to intermiddle with cross-Atlantic affairs. America, North and South, has a set of interests distinct from those of Europe and peculiarly her own. She should therefore have a system of her own separate and apart from that of Europe. While Europe is laboring to become the domicile of despotism, our endeavors should surely be make our hemisphere that of freedom." Unquote, Thomas Jefferson.

Oh, yes. If only the despots Obama and Biden had listened to these words of wisdom from our founders. In my opinion, the United Nations, Vietnam War, all of these things, our entry into NATO and the United Nations would shock and sadden them. To them, America was poised to be a unique nation among the nations of the world, a beacon of peace and liberty. God had called her to a destiny different from that of the common run of nations in history.

Washington's own words still echo, and they exhort us to this high calling, even as he called upon his own generation. He said, observe good faith and justice towards all nations. Cultivate peace and harmony with all. Religion and morality enjoin this conduct. And can it be that?

Good policy does not equally enjoin it. It will be worthy of a free, enlightened, and at no distant period, a great nation to give to mankind the magnanimous and two novel examples of people always guided by an exalted justice and benevolence." Unquote. Oh, how far we have drifted from this principle and guidance. America is in danger of becoming, if she's not already, just another one-of-the-mill country of the world, locked in her own vicious go-round with socialist tyrannies and petty despots, bound by treaties like those with the United Nations.

The WHO, the World Health Organization, with this pandemic treaty, if we sign it, will sacrifice our sovereignty to United Nations bureaucrats. Or NATO, too. That's been in the headlines here recently. NATO and Ukraine will plunge us into World War III. Yes.

Instead, it is time to recalibrate our national course for the headings determined by our founders. Indeed, as Washington so eloquently put it, religion and morality enjoin this conduct. That is, that we observe good faith and justice towards all nations and cultivate peace and harmony with all. It's not too late to be a godly example to the world in this regard. Our founders had a much higher sense of calling and destiny than we do, precisely because they knew that God expects such behavior of a Christian people.

Will you be a peacemaker and a reconciler? Then you will shun war unless it's forced on you, and then you will fight it ferociously and doggedly. Will you advocate justice and equal opportunity for all men, especially the oppressed? Then you will not bind yourself in treaties with governments that oppress their own or other nations, but you'll work patiently for justice and harmony for the oppressed. Our dear listener, religion revealed is hypocrisy unless it is religion applied.

If, indeed, as we maintain our constitution, as it was established according to Christian principles and liberties, then we ought also to embrace and act upon the two principles articulated for you here today. That is, a free people will not survive unless they stay strong. That's principle 24 and principle 25. Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none. As you labor to redirect our national energies to these principles, pray that the sovereign God of all nations and their destinies will grant to us the spiritual reformation to the Christ of the Bible.

All right, this has been Pastor David Bassett, New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church. New Geneva meets for holy worship at 10 a.m. on Sunday at 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard. And you can call us for more information or feedback at area code 208-523-0196. 208-523-0196.