Greetings. This is Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church, and I'd like to challenge you today to think through an important issue of life and faith, and that is part two of the men of Issachar. Just as Israel had the men of Issachar who had understanding of the times to know what Israel ought to do, as the Bible says, So we in America, in particular the church, needs men today who understand the times in which they live, and then consequently to know what the United States of America ought to do. This is part two of that series, and last week we looked at the first part of 1 Chronicles 12, verse 32.

This is one of those hidden away verses, if you will, that we might tend to breeze right through when we're looking at the genealogies, and there is just a beautiful layout, genealogy, if you will, in 1 Chronicles 12. And verse 32 kind of leapt out at me when I was reading my Bible, and during the time of David's ascendancy in his kingship, there were men who rallied to his side, tribes of Israel that rallied to his side to help him establish his kingdom firmly within Israel, and the tribe of Issachar was one of those.

And the Bible in 1 Chronicles 12, verse 32, says this about those men, men of Issachar who had understanding of the times to know what Israel ought to do. Every king, every ruler, every body of governance, every magistrate needs these kinds of men, regardless of the period and time in history. Of course, in the course of redemptive history, that meant that Israel had King David, which indeed becomes Israel's greatest king, had then by his side men of Issachar who had understanding of the times to know what Israel ought to do.

And he consulted them, just as every magistrate today needs wise men of God, to consult and to know what the United States of America ought to do. And last week, we took the first part of that, and we saw what it means to know and to have understanding of the times. This is so crucial. If you're off in la-la land, off in left field, as progressives are, then you will not understand the times. In fact, you will stumble into them, and you will be led by the nose by those who have nothing but evil intent for the United States of America and our world, our greater world.

And we've treated that in the past as well in past broadcasts, just precisely of which that consists. So we know what we're facing, and we need men of Issachar who know what they're facing, right? And not progressives, because progressives have been, and I have a whole lecture on that coming up too. What are they thinking? That'll be the title of that series.

What are they thinking? That is, what makes a progressive a progressive? And what is the makeup of his mind and heart and spirit? Right. And we'll be touching on that in days to come.

But in the meantime, we must have just the opposite of the progressive and have men of Issachar who know and understand the times, and then consequently, as a result, know what Israel ought to do. And so we looked at what that means last week, that is, how to begin to understand the times in which one lives. And that has to come first, you have to know what you're facing before you're going to beat it. You have to know your enemy. If you're indeed going to know what it is you're going to have to do to fight it.

And then secondly, you need to know what comes in its place. What has God ordained? What does he intend to have established in the place of what is already dysfunctioning, if you will? So we looked at that last week. And this week, we want to look at part two of that verse, that is, to know what Israel ought to do.

And for the men of Issachar in our own day and age, for what the United States of America ought to do. So let's look at that, okay? Verse 32b, as of the men of Issachar in Israel, so the church needs men today, who in consequence of understanding, know what to do. Brother and sister, it is one thing to have a command of the facts on the ground, but it is another thing to then proceed to action. Issachar knew and presumably led Israel in anointing David as king, for example, and they helped him subdue the rest of Israel under him, right?

Psalm 144, David exclaims with great exaltation. Psalm 144, he says, Blessed be the Lord, my rock, who trains my hands for war and my fingers to fight. He is my steadfast love and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer, my shield and he in whom I trust, who subdueth my people under me. Yes. And Issachar helped to subdue Israel under King David.

Now, it's not always a simple thing to act upon the knowledge one has. One may have good knowledge, but that doesn't mean he's going to act on it. For example, Stalin knew for months in 1942 that Germany was building up its forces on the border with Ukraine for an invasion, finding how Ukraine figures in so many wars. But Stalin did not act on it, believing that the Molotov-Ribbentrop non-aggression pact would be honored by Hitler. But not until Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa did Stalin then realize his failure to act on the knowledge that he had.

And Americans have known, more recently, of course, Americans have known for years that the flood of unchecked, unvetted, illegal immigrants would bring in criminals and gangs and military-aged males to the country with disastrous effects. We knew this. And especially now that Venezuelan gangs like Truende Aragua are terrorizing Americans with drugs and human trafficking, trafficking, excuse me, and extortion taking over that apartment building in Aurora, Colorado, for example. We are beginning to understand our failure to act any sooner than we have. Now, President Trump is indeed acting.

He has men of Issachar around him who are advising and helping him to act in these things. But it should have been done a long time ago. And if you do not act upon what you know is right, oh, dear listener, the Apostle James notes the consequences for doing this. He says in James chapter 4, so whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin, unquote. But Issachar, they knew the time to a night David King was propitious.

And with others, as in verse 40 of chapter 12 of First Chronicles, I quote now verse 40, they came bringing food on donkeys and on camels and on mules and on oxen, abundant provisions of flour, cakes of figs, clusters of raisins, and wine and oil, oxen and sheep, for there was joy in Israel. Well, dear listener, we have reached a similar crossroads in our own day. Do we have such godly men as did Israel, men of Issachar, men who have understanding of the times to know what the church and the country ought to do? Very important for the church to have its bearings and to have its head screwed on straight.

Because once again, as we say again and again, as goes the church, so goes the nation. Now, one of my favorite examples of a man of Issachar who knew what the church ought to do is one of my favorite men in church history, J. Gresham Machen. You may not know him, but he was a Presbyterian minister back in the 20s, 1920s, and 30s, J. Gresham Machen. He helped to found our own Orthodox Presbyterian church, of which we are members.

But Machen was also asked to help in the larger cultural and church issue that was raging at the time, that is the modernist fundamentalist controversy, as it was known, the modernist fundamentalist controversy of the 1920s, the early 20th century. And it was raging at the time in the country. Pick up an American history book and you'll find this out. Well, the Presbyterian church in the United States had delineated five fundamental doctrines without whose affirmation no minister could be ordained, because many in the Presbyterian church were denying these five truths. Number one, the inspiration and inerrancy of the Bible.

Number two, the virgin birth of Christ. Number three, the substitutionary atonement of Christ's death. Number four, the bodily resurrection of Christ. And number five, the historical reality of Christ's miracles. The Presbyterian church in America, at least most of them, insisted that these things be affirmed because they were being denied by so many in the church at the time.

Now, a wealthy Presbyterian layman, a man named Lyman Stewart, asked a number of conservative scholars to publish works that defended each of these five fundamentals. And then he was going to distribute that work to the wider American public, a great religious cultural venture. And Machen was asked to treat of the virgin birth. And so we have his masterful book, The Virgin Birth. Still worth reading today, dear listener.

Now, J. Gresham Machen was a man of Issachar in this sense. No one understood the times better than him, and no one acted knowing what the Presbyterian church and America, the country, should do better than him. We would not have the Orthodox Presbyterian church if not from men like J. Gresham Machen. But unfortunately, one of the legacies of this controversy, which is very crucial to even what America is today, we don't often understand this, but that fundamentalist modernist controversy back in the early 20th century determined so much of the cultural times subsequent to it.

Oh, the evangelical wing of the church during this period, during this controversy, got beaten so badly and humiliated so thoroughly that the evangelical church went into retreat and has never fully recovered from this defeat. Do you know this part of your history, dear Christian? Some of the habits, some of the practices, some of the attitudes of the contemporary church today are derived directly from this controversy and the way the evangelical church was beaten into submission by cultural secularism at the time, which included evolution, Darwinist theories, for example.

And exhibit A in this controversy, dear listener, is the Scopes trial, the Scopes trial, also known as the monkey trial. And in this trial, so badly did William Jennings Bryan and other conservative Christians come off in that debate that it has come down to us known as the Scopes monkey trial. Oh, dear listener, having to do with Darwin and evolution. In Dayton, Tennessee, in 1925, John Scopes was a high school teacher, and he was charged with the crime of teaching evolution in the classes. Tennessee had outlawed, made illegal teaching evolution in the schools.

And it was that trial then started out slow and modest, but gradually was hyped and amplified in the press all over the country. And that little courtroom in Dayton, Tennessee, I've been there, I visited it, spent some time there. Well, that little courtroom in Dayton, Tennessee became a media circus. And of course, the media who was on the side of evolution called it the trial of the century, right? Great drama, trial of the century.

Well, all of America's eyes were on that trial. The then famous, you may not have heard of him, but many have, especially if you study a little bit of American church history, you know, William Jennings Bryan. At this time, William Jennings Bryan was America's evangelical, and he was the eloquent spokesman for Christianity. And he came to be the star witness for the prosecution. And he was going to magnificently defend the biblical view on the origins of man and goodly trounced evolution, right?

Well, Bryan and the conservatives were really outflanked by the evolutionists in this little game. And they were led, the evolutionists were led by the famous defense attorney, Clarence Darrow. For the days of those trials, for three days in a row, the evidence for Darwin's theory of evolution was meticulously laid out. And many Americans heard it for the first time. Darrell attempted to make it sound as rational and scientific as possible.

Yes, the scientific theory of evolution. But on the other hand, Bryan was admittedly unprepared. This was his fatal flaw. He was arrogant and presumptuous. He assumed that his position was the correct one, and that all he had to do was cite a few Bible verses, and the case would be made.

Many evangelicals make this mistake, do they not? Cite a few Bible verses, and the case is made, and that's it, right? A very clever Clarence Darrow, in cross-examining Bryan, utterly humiliated Bryan on the witness stand, when, for example, Bryan could not give a reasoned scientific understanding of the biblical view. Well, it is often said that conservatives won the battle because Scopes, the teacher, was convicted of the crime of teaching evolution in his classroom. So, they won that battle, but they lost the larger war over evolution.

America, at the time, was fascinated and obsessed with all things science. And Darrow had done a masterful job of making Darwin and Darwinism and evolution, of making it all sound scientific. There was indeed a glow, a patina of varnish over the doctrine of evolution. And Americans bought it and swallowed it. And Darwinism took on warp speed, if you will, at this trial, the Scopes trial, and the monkey trial, as it was also known, and Bryan being the chief monkey.

Williams Jennings Bryan had come off as an ignorant buffoon who was a Bible thumper and nothing more. And William Jennings Bryan was never the same. He was destroyed. He was humiliated. He was broken.

In fact, he died two weeks after the conclusion of the trial. And many say it was that moment that killed him. Well, in a larger sense, evangelicalism in America died a kind of public death, too. Not a lot of Americans realize this, but many views on culture and society and politics, the separation of church and state, for example. All of these things come down to us because of that humiliating period of time when, indeed, evangelicalism and Christians in general were not prepared to defend the biblical view of creation and do it in a scientific and rational manner.

Conservatives retreated from the public square. They abandoned politics and culture altogether. Meanwhile, as, conversely, evolution and secularism came on with a vengeance, a new strength. Many factors contributed to that retreat, that banishment to the cultural wilderness, if you will, but it was the Scopes trial that was our Waterloo. And over the decades, the church in America has come back somewhat to its calling to impact the larger culture with the gospel, including politics, to be men of Issachar, or gradually scratching and clawing our way back, as well as saving souls and anticipating Christ's return.

But that John the Baptist in the wilderness mentality has never quite gone away. And so many American evangelicals still embrace it. It still lingers in our souls. One of my favorite old-time preachers, Reverend J. Vernon McGee, many of you gray hairs remember him, just a marvelous Baptist preacher. I love listening to him.

Well, he used to say, and I quote, we must not soil the garments of the gospel with politics and culture. He was famous for saying that. We must not soil the garments of the gospel with politics and culture. To the delight of myself and my fellow fundamentalists, but I've come to see that that that sentiment is misguided and just plain wrong. It is characteristic of his generation.

It is characteristic of the fundamentalist modernist controversy. It is characteristic of the mentality of retreat and defeat that was reigning during that period. And it's still a hangover in the mentality of so many American evangelicals today, right? Do not soil the garments of the gospel with politics and culture. There's a separation between church and state, right?

That is far too cynical and limiting of the power of the gospel. You cannot hold this view for long and parallel believe in the power of the gospel in every realm of life. Dear listener, when the gospel transforms, it transforms everything, including politics and culture. When the gospel is lived out by serious believing Christians, the church has always taught this and it's practiced it. And the world is a far different and better place than it would have been without doing this.

Men of Issachar. The Men of Issachar would not be in retreat and retiring to a cultural cocoon. No, they would be understanding our times, knowing what the church and nation ought to do, and then do it. Dear listener, so consequently, you must know what to do. You must be men of Issachar who understand your times and then consequently know what to do and begin to do it.

I have five recommendations for us as men of Issachar. Number one, be prepared for spiritual warfare. First and foremost, we fight a spiritual battle. We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, as the apostle Paul says in Ephesians. We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."

Yes, spiritual wickedness in high places. That runs all the way to the White House, doesn't it? Dear listener, if we are going to be aware of some of these spiritual battles, we must realize just how wicked is our enemy that we fight against. Satanism, devil worship, is rampant all through our culture these days. I would just encourage you maybe to check out this young buck online.

His name is Jay Dyer, and he has a website called jaysanalysis.com, jaysanalysis.com. And he chronicles especially the worship of Satan in Hollywood in particular, in our entertainment. It's rife throughout our entertainment, right, from movies to the Super Bowl. So, if you want to get more understanding of just how far Luciferianism has infiltrated our culture, I would just go ahead and have you check out his website, jaysanalysis.com. Secondly, that we must not only be prepared for spiritual warfare, that's our main field of battle is spiritual warfare.

But secondly, work for spiritual revival and reformation in the United States of America. Yes, conversely, not only must we be aware of our enemy, but also then be prepared for spiritual revival and reformation in the United States of America. Pray for this, work for this, preach it, preacher. Preach revival and reformation amongst Americans in our culture and in our politics, too. And that will be the only enduring transformation.

It must begin there in the hearts and minds of the people, revival and reformation in the hearts and minds of Americans. Dear listener, if we're going to make America great again, we must first make America good again. That must be precedent to making America great again. And number three, third recommendation, root out evil in our covenant institutions. God works through covenants.

He has made three great covenants in this age, in this aeon after the resurrection of Christ. Three great covenants. That is the covenant with home and family, the familial covenant. That still holds strong. There's also the covenant with the church.

This is the new covenant in my blood, Christ said at the institution of the supper. So there is a great covenant of salvation and redemption and resurrection with the church. This must be reformed too. No more Bishop Buddhas, Buddhas, excuse me, who gave that horrible speech in the nation's capital church, right, the other day in front of President Trump. No, we need reformation and revival in the church.

Root out evil in our covenant institutions. And finally, the last covenant institution is the republic with the magistrate, with the government. There is a great covenant there going all the way back to the covenant with Noah in chapter 9 of, in chapter 12, excuse me, of Genesis, right? There is a social contract that we have with our magistrates that has been broken. And God insists that we root out evil in those covenant institutions.

Then number four, recommendation number four, form those covenant institutions according to biblical principle. Know these covenants, dear listener. This is the focus. You will be unfocused in your energies until you know where to direct them. And God has established covenants, and that is the economy through which he works.

So you must focus your energies in restoring the covenant institution he has established, that is, that is, home and family, church, and the republic. Take your kids out of public schools, for example, under home and family. Homeschool them, or create schools in your churches and in your communities as an alternative to public institutions. And reform the church. Form your church as a covenant institution responsible before God.

And then finally, form a republic. Insist that our magistrates behave as covenant representatives before the living God. We will be held accountable for these things. Form, that's number four, form those covenant institutions according to biblical principle. And then finally, number five, dear listener, use your particular gifts to make these things happen.

Every one of us has particular gifts, no matter how humble and how lowly you may feel, how ineffective you may feel. No, no, no, no, no, no, dear listener. As long as you have a mind that can think and a voice that can speak, you can affect all of these institutions, and you can be a man of Issachar. Study. Know what is right.

Know your information. Get square before you. What is the lay of the land? And then make it happen. This has been Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church.

We meet for holy worship. We try to be men of Issachar. We meet for holy worship on Sunday at 10 a.m. at 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard. And besides visiting us, you can call us at area code 208-523-0196. 208-523-0196.