A Special Message For America, Part 2

[0:00] To me, in honor of my 80th birthday, which will be tomorrow, 80 years ago tomorrow, my mother was a very busy lady. And life is good.

[0:15] It has a lot to offer, despite the fact that we are fallen beings and we live in a fallen world. We have so very much for which to be thankful. And I don't know, you probably don't even realize it, but you've already given me a huge gift for my birthday.

[0:33] And that is just by being an audience that indulges me while I try to deliver this content.

[0:43] And I must tell you, I guess I've been speaking to this body now for 45 years. And in all of those 45 years, I have never had so much difficulty and turmoil putting together a message as I have these two.

[1:05] It's really been something. And I've asked myself, why is this so difficult? Well, Marv, maybe it's because you're 80. You know, you ought not to expect things to get easier.

[1:20] Maybe that's it. Maybe it's the delicate nature of the material because, you know, probably not everybody is going to be happy with the message. And probably some will think that I'm being too political.

[1:37] I got a note from somebody some months ago. When I touched on some areas that they thought was too political and they proceeded to read me out in this note and said, And enough is enough.

[1:54] I thought, wow. Of course, they didn't sign it. So I have no idea who the person is. But I am submitting everybody's handwriting here to a specialist.

[2:11] I'm going to get you. So anyway. Well, whatever. Look at this.

[2:25] And look at this. It's these two messages. I've never done this before.

[2:37] Never had to do this before. There's something. And in writing these, I've written and rewritten, torn up and thrown away and started over.

[2:48] I don't know how many. And I've had a horrible time, seriously, organizing this material. Because it's so interrelated. And you don't want to be repetitive and go over the same content.

[3:01] And yet sometimes it's inevitable. And it has been a real hassle. I don't know if this is my way of telling you that you ought to start looking for another preacher.

[3:13] Or what. But it's been something. Well, in connection with our message this morning, and we spent some really significant time on the race relations issue in this country.

[3:29] And it is a really big problem. And it has been exacerbated by what happened not too long ago in Missouri and what took place recently in Baltimore. There are reasons for all of this.

[3:40] And it's very easy for the majority to just come down on the minorities and say, well, that's just the kind of people they are. And they're this and they're that. And they're that.

[3:50] But there are reasons for behavior. And we touched on some of that in the first session. Some years ago, we showed a video here that Ken Ham produced with Answers in Genesis.

[4:05] And he has since provided a new version. And it is so outstanding. It is really extraordinary. And I showed the original one here at Grace probably, I'd say, seven or eight years ago, which means it was probably about 15.

[4:24] But anyway, this message that Ken Ham delivered is called One Race, One Blood.

[4:35] And I told Marie, if every American could just see this video, and of course they'd have to believe it, racial discrimination and racial hatred would effectively be put to bed tonight at about midnight.

[4:58] And that would be the end of it. Because it points out so wonderfully, and yes, scientifically points out, that there is not a black race and a brown race and a yellow race and a red race.

[5:14] There is one race. And it's called the human race. And the scriptures make this very clear, especially in Genesis 17, where the apostle Paul talks about God has established one blood.

[5:29] All people of one blood. Now, we've got a few different types. We've got the A's and the B's and the O positives and all the rest. But it's still essentially one blood. And we have just made racial issues something that they should never have become.

[5:46] And the reason we have done that is because there is ingrained in every one of us, unfortunately, a sense of, well, I won't say in every one of us, because not everybody has a superiority complex.

[6:01] Some have an inferiority complex. But we tend to think that our race is the best. Of course, we all know, nationally speaking, that the United States of America is the best country in the world, don't we?

[6:13] We all know that. That's not opinion. That's objective fact, right? Baloney. We're expected to be prejudiced toward what we love.

[6:24] And we love this country. And, of course, we think it's the best. But that doesn't mean that it is. It just means that that's the way we feel about it. And that's the way you ought to feel about your homeland. There's nothing wrong with that.

[6:34] But in this video, Ken uses the illustration. And this, by the way, is so very well documented.

[6:47] It's not argued at all. About Noah getting all those animals in the ark.

[7:02] And he pointed out that he didn't have to have a collie and a Pekingese and a St. Bernard. And, you know, he just had two dogs, a male and a female.

[7:14] And within the bodies of those dogs, they had a genetic composition that would allow for every imaginable kind of breed to come from that.

[7:29] And the same with the felines. And the same with the equines. He didn't have to have a horse and a mule and a donkey and a zebra. But all of those things. And this is pointed out in this video how it's not only that way with dogs but with people.

[7:45] Adam and Eve had within their physical bodies the capacity for every kind of variation that you can imagine that would produce people of different colors, different skin colors, different hair texture, different slanted eyes as opposed to the Western kind of eyes and the high cheekbones and all of this.

[8:12] All of these variations were incorporated in that original gene pool that Adam and Eve had. And I hope you'll be able to see that.

[8:23] But I'm departing from what I plan to bring next week because of the content this morning. So we're going to show the first part of that video at 9 o'clock. And if you want an eye-popping, eye-opening thing, you be here.

[8:37] You will not regret it. It's remarkable. It will answer a lot of questions about the differences in people, the differences it breeds, and so on. And it is extremely well done.

[8:50] So think about that. And in keeping with what I was just talking about, answers in Genesis, I received a four-page letter from them just a couple of days ago.

[9:04] And it's talking about the very thing that I'm talking about this morning, too, about the decline of Christianity and the decline of churches in this country and what's happening, what's taking place, and why.

[9:17] And it's two sheets, four pages. And it is in the literature rack back there. So please pick up a copy when you leave. Just look for it.

[9:27] And it's addressed to the church. And it's got the June 24 date on it. And there's a bunch of them stuffed in that back there. And I really would encourage you to pick up one on your way out.

[9:38] You will appreciate that. So that will be 9 o'clock next Sunday morning. We're going to do that. The video or the CD that we offered you last week from the first session that Dr. Al Mohler delivered has been available.

[9:57] And we ran out of them last week. But this will resupply. There's a quantity of them back there now. And this is the first of his messages called Faithful Living in a Post-Christian Age.

[10:10] And you really need to pick up one of these. If you didn't get one last week, you will enjoy it very much. It's very enlightening. Volume 21 of Christianity Clarified is being offered for the June edition.

[10:24] And this contains 20 three-minute segments on all kinds of subjects. The Bible is a big deal. The origin of today's world. Transformational Christianity.

[10:37] How and why faith originated. The divine rationale for faith. Truth alone deserves belief. Here's an interesting one.

[10:48] What's behind Christian nerdiness? Do you know any Christian nerds? We are awash in Christian nerds. What makes them nerds?

[10:59] Talks about that. Coming to Christ. Why some have not believed. And this was one of my favorites. An illusion of being in charge.

[11:11] And it is an illusion. And then many of you remember the series we did on Notitia, Ascentia, and Fiducia.

[11:26] The three levels of belief that's included on here as well. And what that involves. So that's volume 21. And 50 are projected.

[11:39] We don't know whether we'll be able to complete 50, but that's our goal. So they are back there as well. If you are a July baby, you're encouraged to look over all of our books that are back there.

[11:55] Books and Bibles. And as our birthday gift to you, you are free to select any book or Bible that you want for your birthday. And happy birthday to you. We got other July babies out here.

[12:07] Hey, got some colleagues. Yeah. Okay. Great. This Friday, the 10th of July, a group of teenagers and college-age kids are going to meet here for pizza at 630.

[12:24] And there will be games. There may or may not be a video. I don't know if they want to see a video again or not, but that will be up to them. Because as we indicated on the back page here of the bulletin, there may or may not be a video.

[12:40] There may or may not be table games. I don't know what they'll want to do, but I'm sure they'll come up with it. And as I said, the prerogative of predictability belongs to young people so they can decide what they want to do when they get here.

[12:54] I don't know if you are aware of it or not, but I certainly am because I have seen it in action over the years in the time that I have been around.

[13:12] And that is this. The natural inclination for any institution is toward moral, spiritual, and ethical degradation and declension.

[13:28] You need to know that. I say that's the natural inclination. Because the second law of thermodynamics that says everything with age, with time, with use, tends to move from order to disorder.

[13:46] You never find your car or your house making self-improvements in a positive way.

[14:00] But it always declines. It goes downhill. It rots. It rusts. But it never goes up. It's always down.

[14:11] That's the second law of thermodynamics. And that's the way it works. And it works that way spiritually, too. For institutions and for individuals.

[14:22] And the only way that you can prevent it is by preventive maintenance. By addressing issues as they arise and putting in the necessary ingredients to shore it up, to update it, to improve it, to repair it, to fix it, whatever.

[14:41] And this is an ongoing battle. And you who are homeowners know what I'm talking about. And our bodies are the same way. And 2 Corinthians 5 makes it very clear that our bodies, and the word that's used in the original there, literally means they're falling apart.

[14:58] Coming apart. And with advancing years, we can attest to that. And those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about, you just wait. You will.

[15:09] You will. Well, this natural declension is true of churches, educational institutions, including great universities, and nations as well.

[15:20] Not accepting the United States of America. I told the folks in the earlier session to think of this nation as a depository of a great spiritual amount.

[15:35] And you can make withdrawals from that. And some significant withdrawals have already been made, where we've taken something of value out of the body politic.

[15:47] And we have left it less well off than it was before. And two of those huge things had to do with the subject of abortion and racism.

[15:57] And we've discussed those. So, there needs to be an infusion of spiritual values with an ongoing dependence upon and confidence in the revealed word of God.

[16:09] All institutions, as those mentioned, that have not employed this required infusion are in moral and spiritual degradation or have already achieved such.

[16:22] This is true regardless of how costly their annual tuition is, or the size of their endowment, or their national prestige.

[16:33] When the divine wisdom of scripture is displaced in favor of human wisdom, as egocentric man is prone to do, moral and spiritual degradation are well on their way.

[16:57] Whatever. Whatever. Whatever is the world's answer to what we solemnly hold and avow as moral absolutes.

[17:09] They don't see them that way. As far as they are concerned, we live in a world of relativity. And while moral absolutes are firm and fixed, moral relativity is flexible.

[17:25] And that's one thing they like about it. It is a to each his own. And probably the simplest and easiest and briefest definition of moral relativism is whatever.

[17:41] Whatever comes with no restrictions. And man likes to have no restrictions. Whatever suits his fancy quite well. People do not like restrictions because we feel that they hem us in.

[17:59] And if we only understood the nature of restrictions lovingly placed upon us, as God has done so in his word in so many places, they are not to rain on your parade.

[18:12] They're not to ruin your good times. They are to protect you. So that you will have good times. They are for your own benefit. God isn't some big celestial bully up there who just likes to throw his weight around by making a bunch of demands on people and placing them under restrictions.

[18:30] That's not what the God of heaven is about at all. He has given us parameters within which we are to operate because they are for our safety and security. And they will enhance our enjoyment and extend it.

[18:43] But the nature of human fallenness is such that we tend to resent that. We don't want anybody telling us what to do. And that, too, is part of our fallenness.

[18:54] You know, I've often said that the greatest consequence of the fallenness of humanity is the ingrained self-centeredness that we all have.

[19:05] That is the really large consequence of moral fallenness is that we all tend to want to go our own way.

[19:16] We are all essentially self-centered. And we as Christians operate to a different standard, march to a different drummer. And sometimes it's easy for us to expect that everybody else ought to do that, too.

[19:30] And we lose track of the fact that not only is the rest of the world not interested, the rest of the world couldn't do that even if they wanted to. Because they haven't been provided with the wherewithal to respond like those who are believers in Christ.

[19:49] So it's a number one mistake for Christians to expect non-Christians to manifest Christian behavior. They're not going to. They don't even know what it is.

[19:59] But they know that they enjoy the no restrictions of their life. So what you know what this boils down to is the world is just being the world. That's what it is. Don't expect anything more out of them.

[20:12] Just be grateful for what you have in Christ and then be willing to share it with them. Because they don't have the capacity to please the Lord that you have by being in Christ.

[20:24] And don't forget where you once were. Same place where they are now. And sometimes we get so far removed from our salvation experience that we forget what it was like and how blind we were before we came to faith in Christ.

[20:43] We have described the USA in different ways over the past several months.

[20:53] But an analogy that I would like to use once again is, and this is the way I see it. You've all seen these wonderfully woven tapestries that people have put together with looms or with thread and how they are strategically constructed in such a way that if the right threads are pulled, the whole thing just comes unraveled right before your very eyes.

[21:24] That's the way I see this nation of ours. That's what's happening. We are like a great interwoven fabric that represents this nation.

[21:41] And if you pull on the threads, it just comes undone. We have a principal thread puller in the Oval Office right now.

[21:52] In fact, he has made it very clear, even hours before he was inaugurated as president, he made it very clear that he was going to fundamentally change these United States of America.

[22:12] And that is precisely what he has begun to do, and he is succeeding in a rather dramatic fashion. Numerous other thread pullers are found in both houses of Congress, and some occupy a seat on the Supreme Court.

[22:29] Politics has to do with the way a body politic conducts its government on various levels from local to federal. The conducting of all politics is based on the value system a political entity has in place.

[22:45] Value systems are of necessity determined by one's moral standards and persuasions. And this is why, as I say and will insist until the day I die, you cannot separate morality from politics.

[22:59] Because all political legislation, all of the laws that are passed, are invariably based on someone's view of right and wrong.

[23:13] And they take that and vote on it, and maybe it passes, and maybe it fails, but if it passes, then that becomes the law of the land. But everything has a moral base.

[23:23] You cannot engage in pure politics, divorced of moral issues and moral qualities. It's an absolute impossibility. Moral standards are established by whatever or whomever the political entity acknowledges as their ultimate authority.

[23:45] Who do you think are Congress and the Supreme Court and the Executive Office?

[23:58] Who do you think they recognize as their ultimate authority? Is it a stretch to say, themselves?

[24:13] Themselves! Who else is there? You say, well, there's God. Not as far as they're concerned. No.

[24:24] Not as far as they're concerned. He has been systematically excluded from the government sector. Even from the public square.

[24:36] More and more as time goes on. And what this amounts to is that one who has traditionally, from our outset, been regarded as the supreme authority, no longer has a job.

[24:53] It's been taken over. By our executive, our legislative, and our judicial branch. And just very lately, we have seen these in dramatic fashion, exercising their authority.

[25:09] And any time you displace divine authority with human wisdom, you have created that slippery downward slope.

[25:20] And we started in 1972 with removing prayer and Bible reading from the public institution. That is, in effect, rejecting the ultimate authority and replacing it with another.

[25:37] And you will replace it with another because it is impossible for man to function out of a vacuum. Whatever he rejects and sets aside, he will replace with something else. It's inevitable.

[25:48] So, we know what we have replaced it with. Secular humanism has become the new official authority. Those of an atheist persuasion, along with the ACLU types, have literally taken over the U.S. ship of state.

[26:06] Many, even some who are Christians, deny this has occurred. But its reality is undeniable and is confirmed by one court ruling after another.

[26:17] If one protests by saying the U.S. remains a nation that is largely Christian with its traditional freedoms and standards intact, they are simply self-deluded.

[26:27] The issues of life and liberty and living are determined by whatever is accepted as ultimate authority.

[26:39] And that's where we are. The first casualty of corruption in any institution, whether government or business, is always truth and its demands.

[26:51] I can well remember today, because I'm old enough to remember, when truth was such a priceless commodity in this nation.

[27:08] Truth and honesty, reliability, dependability, trustworthiness, etc., were all taken for granted and held in very high esteem.

[27:18] And today, truth has suffered. I think it was Winston Churchill who said, the first casualty of war is truth.

[27:33] Well, sometimes the first casualty of peace can be truth also. We are faced with all kinds of situations where truth is more expediently just set aside than it is faced.

[27:55] Did any of you see the footage some months ago? Well, I guess it was, yeah, it was some months ago. But when the man who was then the Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid, made statements in public from the floor of the Senate that Romney, who was running for president, had not paid his income taxes for the last 10 years.

[28:34] You remember that? Did you see that? Now, he wouldn't say that out in a public forum apart from the Senate.

[28:44] And do you know why? Because when he spoke from the floor of the Senate, he was immune to prosecution. He couldn't be sued, in other words, for anything he said.

[28:56] And he asserted that he had it on good authority that Mitt Romney had not paid his income tax for several years. And he didn't have a shred of evidence for it, didn't present any evidence for that.

[29:10] And of course, as it turned out, it wasn't true at all. But why would he say something like that? He knew that it was a blatant lie. And sometime later, I saw him interviewed by a lady.

[29:22] I don't even remember what her name was. And she asked him about that. And he admitted to her on camera that it wasn't true and that he knew it wasn't true.

[29:36] And he said it anyway. And she asked him, what do you think about that? Do you think that was the right thing to do?

[29:48] And you know what his answer was? His answer was, well, Romney didn't get elected, did he? Can you imagine?

[30:00] This is a bold, bald-faced lie coming from a man in a position of authority as the leader of the Senate of these United States.

[30:18] And it didn't make any difference to him that it wasn't true. All that mattered is, can you get somebody to believe it? That's amazing.

[30:32] This man occupied one of the highest positions in this country. Deliberately lying like that? And as regards our president, if anything that, what's his name, Jonathan, yeah, Jonathan Gruber.

[30:56] Gruber. Okay, thank you. If anything he said is verifiable and true, then there is no way that our president and those who put together the Affordable Care Act, there is no way they could not have known.

[31:14] There will not be any possibility of if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. If you like your plan, you can keep your plan. And the average family will save $2,500 a year in insurance premium.

[31:26] There is no way they could not have known that. And they sold it on that basis. That should be sufficient grounds right there.

[31:37] Nothing else. Just that. For repealing the whole thing as a fraud. It was misrepresented. It was deliberately misrepresented.

[31:47] And the whole of the Democratic Senate went along with it. Not one single Republican voted for it.

[31:59] Folks, that is unconscionable. That is absolutely, completely, totally unacceptable. If President Obama has not deliberately misled this nation, he has given us every impression that he has deliberately done it.

[32:20] And, if anybody thinks I'm saying this because he's black, well, all I can do is deny it.

[32:35] Besides, he's as white as he is black. Makes no difference. Skin color makes no difference. All that matters is a man's integrity and his honesty.

[32:46] And, it doesn't make any difference to me if you're Republican, Democrat, conservative, or liberal. If you violate cherished standards that has guided this nation from its outset, one of the chiefest of which is truth, and honesty, and justice, and openness.

[33:06] If you violate those, you have every reason to expect the clergy to come down on you. And, God help us if we don't. Clergy has been too silent for too long.

[33:21] I lost my place. Here's a big item. I hope, especially you young people, will pick up on this.

[33:35] Man's subjectivity tends to get in the way of his objectivity and we thus go down the wrong path. How does subjectivity trump objectivity?

[33:47] Feelings over facts happens all the time. Facts are objective, cold, hard, inflexible. Feelings are subjective, warm, soft, flexible.

[34:02] Human life is complicated because both of these are essential and both make up the mix of daily living. our nation and perhaps the western world has generally been unconsciously struggling to engage both of these realities, realizing the legitimacy of both while trying to keep each in its proper place.

[34:26] The Christian and biblical position regarding these two tensions is that the objective characterized by facts must provide the base or platform for humanity and the subjective.

[34:42] Facts and objective truth are synonymous. Facts are truths and truths are factual. There is no flexibility here but a sometimes unattractive rigidity.

[34:56] Nonetheless, facts and objective truth must provide the baseline for human existence. Bottom line is, it really doesn't matter how you feel.

[35:07] That doesn't change reality. Doesn't change facts. And what we are called upon to do for responsible living is bring our subjective feelings in line with objective facts.

[35:20] If you set aside the objective facts and just go with subjective feelings, it's going to feel better because it's warm and soft and fuzzy and flexible. But it can also be destructive.

[35:32] It's got to be rooted in objective reality. While this is undeniably true of the physical condition, human volition is a major player and decider in the non-physical aspects of life, particularly the moral and the spiritual.

[35:52] In other words, let me make this distinction. I think this is important. Physical facts and objectivity are meekly surrendered by us as humans because we have no choice.

[36:08] You have no choice but to submit to objective facts. They are nature's way of providing parameters.

[36:19] There are physical laws of gravity and it doesn't make any difference how you feel about it. That's not going to change it. entropy is a reality because these things, laws of gravity and the law of entropy, everything disintegrates from greater to lesser.

[36:40] They are dominant and we cannot change them. Our human volition, no matter how great its desires, cannot override the stark cold reality of the physical world and its ways.

[36:53] We must give place whether we want to or not. While this is undeniably true of the physical, human volition is a major player and decider in the non-physical aspects of life, particularly the moral and spiritual.

[37:11] These areas make up an equally vital part of the human experience as does the physical. All other biological life, all other biological life, all of the animal kingdom, must contend only with the physical.

[37:31] But we humans must contend with both. Our being endowed with volition demands it. We must deal with life and with each other on an entirely different level than does mere animal life.

[37:46] Our objective, factual facing of life must add to itself the subjective feelings and emotions of which we are capable. In large part, this is what it means to be human.

[38:01] The nub of the matter is whether or not there are fixed moral laws relating to the spiritual in the same sense that there are fixed physical laws relating to the material.

[38:14] If there are not, then morality and its expression must be fluid and personal or subjective. This brand of morality is primarily, if not exclusively, ordered by each individual based upon his or her personal feelings and subjectivity.

[38:36] This is the rationale espoused by moral relativism and it is inundating the nation. We are up to our eyeballs in moral relativity.

[38:50] It has been an acceptance since the mid-20th century and the influence of situation ethics promoted by Joseph Fletcher and others.

[39:03] Its appeal is alluring in that it allows the individual to be the sole determinant of right and wrong when confronted with moral choices. And this is precisely where we are.

[39:14] This is why the world and our world here in the U.S. of A. in particular is in such chaos right now is that moral relativity is running the show, calling the shots.

[39:28] And this comes right back to the whatever. You have your truth, I have mine. The positive remedy for treating any negative condition lies squarely on and begins with an accurate diagnosis.

[39:45] diagnosis. Whether or not the many items addressed in our earlier presentation reflects an accurate diagnosis is something each listener will have to decide for himself. Because I believe them to be accurate, even if far from complete, the following correctives are proposed.

[40:03] But more than merely being proposed, they are set forth as the only remedy that can rescue this nation drowning in moral and spiritual bankruptcy. There is a minus balance already remaining in our national account.

[40:18] We are well aware of the many who will strongly disagree with our remedy, but even if they should disagree with the diagnosis, they will insist that human wisdom or more government or the election of their favorite candidate or their preferred political party can save the day.

[40:34] That persistent failed sentiment is not even worth addressing, so we will get on with what we see as the only possible remedy. All of the problems mentioned earlier have one thing in common.

[40:48] They are all symptomatic of the real problem. None of them, including abortion, homosexuality, same-sex marriage, racism, government debt, wasteful spending, lobbyists, illegal immigration, voter election fraud, issues regarding Islam here in the U.S.

[41:07] as well as abroad, public education and federal government in encroachment, as well as many other moral withdrawals not addressed like same-sex marriage, cohabitation without marital commitment, recreational sex among our youth with pervasive sexual promiscuity in our nation's colleges and universities, often condoned or even encouraged by the administration, a scary number of freely admitted atheistic Marxist communists, communists, not my accusation that they are communists, their admission that they are communists, indoctrinating our youth for whose education parents are spending $30,000 to $40,000 a year.

[41:53] Just to add a few more, we lack the time to address. These and those all fall into the symptom category as opposed to the root cause of the problem.

[42:07] These all make their withdrawal from our national moral bank account with precious little being added as a positive asset. And while we appear to be drowning in the debt of moral and spiritual bankruptcy, yet we are still afloat.

[42:24] How can this be explained? I attribute it solely to the mercy and long suffering of God who with outstretched hands beckons us to true repentance and renewal as a nation.

[42:35] If we refuse, our end is certain and more than justly deserved. With all these moral negatives inundating and dragging down our nation being identified as symptoms and the real root of them all being spiritual, it should be seen as axiomatic that our only hope and solution is also spiritual.

[42:58] Much of the world doesn't even understand what that means. And many who believe they do think I am merely telling them to go to church. I am not. I am telling them to go to God in repentance, contrition, seek him through faith in Jesus Christ who provides the basis for God's forgiveness.

[43:18] Then they can go to church. church. Those who have difficulty with the concept of spiritual and moral assets and liabilities can better understand the kind involving dollars and cents.

[43:35] Still, these are inseparably connected. Because our government has so little concern for morality, they see our nation's expenditures purely as financial and political, particularly as political.

[43:50] The majority of them have no interest and see no need for the country living within its financial means. Their attitude would be under the guise of why do that when there is so much more we can do for the American people.

[44:06] Besides, we can always print more money and we can always generate more revenue by raising taxes and finding more things to tax. But be reminded, we are doing this for the benefit of the American people.

[44:19] How the American people benefit from an $18 trillion debt passed on to future generations with obligations of untold billions just to secure and service the interest on the debt is something Congress has yet to explain.

[44:34] But not to worry because they're working on it. And remember, it's all for the benefit of the American people. If Congress were half-heartedly serious about benefiting the American people, they could show that good faith by some basic gut-level changes that actually mean something in place of their usual predictable rhetoric in which they try to persuade us they are working in our best interests by continually referring to, use the word, reform, because history has proved repeatedly what happens when Congress reforms anything.

[45:20] We don't need your reforms. We need some serious deletions. Changes that make a difference and would truly benefit the American people would include but not be limited to the following.

[45:32] Number one, for Congress to place themselves personally under every rule and regulation they legislate for the public, refusing to exempt themselves from whatever laws or statutes they enact.

[45:46] Number two, completely abolish, dismantle, destroy, defund, and send to oblivion the internal revenue system and all its 20,000 pages of complex, contradictory, and confusing regulations.

[46:00] This institution of the IRS has been a 100-year failed and deeply resented experiment. It is understandably loathed by all except those bureaucrats who are employed by it and benefit from it, including those in Congress who have used it to enable their spending schemes.

[46:20] A blue-ribbon panel containing not even one elected politician should be tasked with the responsibility of devising an entirely new system of producing revenue to be voted on at a general election.

[46:34] And Congress can then be assured they are doing the will of the people when they formally pass the bill produced as a result of the electorate, thus fulfilling the constitutional mandate for revenue to be raised by the House of Representatives.

[46:48] The IRS has so thoroughly corrupted itself that reform is out of the question. It must not continue its existence because mere reformation would still make it susceptible to corruption in the future.

[47:02] The use of the IRS to target any group of citizens with whom they may be in political disagreement is an abomination and an affront to all America stands for. Those guilty should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law, with said prosecution being removed from anyone in the current administration.

[47:21] It would call for a special prosecutor. Lobbyists and their methods and motives involvement needs to be addressed. These and the special interest groups that employ them are rife with corruption or potential for corruption.

[47:38] The influence peddling increasing pork production is unconscionable. Campaign financing is inseparably linked to lobbyists, their contributions utilizing every loophole and scheme to get what they want from the candidate they support.

[47:54] And it's a legal abomination. Yet, as long as it's legal, that's all that matters. It can't come close to passing the smell test, but so what?

[48:05] As long as it's legal, you won't be subject to prosecution. There is nothing that so incenses the American voter in general, or this voter in particular, more than a politician saying, just because someone gave me $50,000 for my campaign chest doesn't mean they expect or want any special consideration.

[48:28] Please don't insult my intelligence. Such a statement makes me wish I were physically able to physically throw you out of your physical office. Be thankful that even though my spirit is willing, my flesh is old and weak, so you can relax.

[48:46] Our national borders must be secured by whatever means possible. Every person in our country illegally is disrespecting and ignoring our laws and is guilty of criminal activity.

[48:58] They should be deported to their country of origin and imprisoned if caught re-entering the country after deportation. The cost of maintaining their imprisonment will be billed to their country of origin.

[49:10] How will we make them pay? Well, all we have to do is reduce the money that we give them now. applying for legal immigration should be more efficient and less time consuming.

[49:25] People who can prove they are fleeing persecution and who have skills to offer to prevent their need of public assistance should be given every consideration for legal entry into the USA.

[49:40] And it shouldn't take Congress years to change the laws that would stipulate, and this is something that is stuck in my craw. Do you realize that anyone born in the USA automatically becomes a citizen?

[49:57] That's all you have to do is just be born here. And over the years there have been thousands and thousands of mothers expectant entering their nine month of pregnancy who deliberately come into the United States just so their baby can be born in the United States and automatically be a citizen.

[50:15] And then they appeal to Americans, don't break up the family. This is obscene.

[50:28] That's what it is. Multiple cases have occurred, documented, that that is precisely what has happened. The U.S. is historically made up of immigrants.

[50:44] We cherish that reality by having received multitudes to share in our freedom and prosperity during our 200 plus years of existence. We do a great injustice to those would-be Americans who have applied for legal entry to the U.S. and have waited for years to gain permission to enter, while our government merely looks the other way toward the thousands brazenly and openly entering illegally.

[51:10] And why do they do that? Because they fully expect to benefit politically from those people who will be entering this country and eventually become voters.

[51:22] And guess for whom they're going to vote. That's the whole point. Are we so stupid that we can't see that? For those who insist there are too many illegals here to deport them, we disagree.

[51:40] Since they got here and entered our country without our assistance, they surely should be able to return to their country of origin with our assistance.

[51:51] This should be the extent of our aid to them. Voter registration. Any nation that does not secure its borders and its ballot box is not deserving of survival.

[52:04] Strict voter registration and a bona fide picture ID should be required for every election. Anyone voting illegally would incur an automatic jail sentence and a stiff fine along with being ineligible to vote for the next three general elections.

[52:21] This is how we could demonstrate the sanctity of the ballot box. This would, of course, apply to all citizens, including those living in Chicago.

[52:35] The followers of Islam, Muslims living legally in the United States, should recognize that the practice of Islam, according to the Koran, is an impossibility for anyone living in a free and democratic society as the U.S.

[52:54] Any Muslim or anyone else in this country illegally should be deported post-haste to their country of origin. Islamic Sharia law does not and will not apply anywhere within the borders of the USA.

[53:09] Muslims wishing to live under Sharia law should go where it's available and we will help them get there. Public education and the federal government.

[53:20] federal involvement and regulations imposed upon the public education system is a national nightmare, including the currently touted Common Corps program.

[53:32] This is one more area in which there is a complete lack of constitutional authority for the federal government to be involved, whether in lower grades or at the college level.

[53:42] Such has always been cared for and much more efficiently and economically by individual states. After listing the areas for which the federal government's administration is indicated, the Constitution then states that all other matters not already specified shall be left to the discretion and responsibility of the state.

[54:02] The education of our youth is surely included in this all other reference, in addition to several other areas where the feds have encroached upon state jurisdiction. Unfortunately, many states have been willing to walk away from their responsibility if the federal government would be willing to accept it.

[54:26] And the federal government has been willing to gobble up any and every previously held state obligation and has federalized it to the detriment of the entire nation.

[54:39] And I'm not finished, but just about. Okay. A lot of these things still need to be addressed.

[54:52] I just, I'm not going to have the time for it, but I've already eliminated a lot. So, how many of those letters are you going to mail out to Ed Kutu?

[55:05] Oh, well, I hadn't planned to do that, but here's a scourge. I've got to say something about this because this is just, this is just so devastating.

[55:20] Pornography. Pornography. Pornography. You probably have no idea how ruinous this stuff is.

[55:32] I, I've read a book. I've read a number of books on it because this is a plague that is just infecting especially masculinity in this United States. There are some women involved in porn too, but I think it's, it's almost not exclusively, but almost exclusively a male problem.

[55:51] And it is just so devastating. I saw one authority who described pornography as, listen to this, because this is a perfect, this is a perfect description.

[56:02] The hijacking of the male brain. That's what it does. Hijacks the male brain. And I don't know if you're aware of it or not how pervasive this stuff is.

[56:15] But I saw statistics that said, if you take the National Football League and the American Baseball League, Professional Baseball League, and NASCAR, and the NBA, Professional Basketball, and you take all of those entities and all of the revenue that they garner, which is in the multiplied billions of dollars, it does not compare with the money that is made off of pornography.

[56:51] And it's just a click away on the computers. The smut that is out there is just eating this nation alive. And who needs to say anything about the proliferation of drugs, legalizing of marijuana, etc., and the gender blending that's going on, and the living together without the benefit of marriage.

[57:17] You know, I'm just tempted to, just tempted to say to these kids, and most of them, most of them are kids, and I, you know, I, how can, how can you fault these, how can you fault these kids that want to shack up together without benefit of marriage when they are so encouraged to do that, and the stigma has been removed, and nobody has a right to tell you, and how do you know that you really love them if you don't live with them for a while, you know, and would you buy, would you buy a new car without a test drive, and all of this garbage, and these poor unsuspecting kids, because, you know, when there are enough people doing something, it becomes legitimate.

[58:03] They see it as okay, because numbers count, and when you get enough people doing something, it automatically, see, this is that old relativity thing again, and it is devastating, and I'm just tempted to say to these kids that don't want to get married because, you know, they want to try it out first, do you really love this girl?

[58:29] Oh, yeah, yeah. Do you really love this boy? Yeah, yeah. But you're saying you just don't love them enough to marry them. That's exactly what they're saying. Don't love them enough to marry them.

[58:41] And I don't fault the kids. I fault our generation for having communicated these lousy, inaccurate, harmful values to them because people of authority whom they respect are telling them it's okay.

[59:01] everybody's doing it, and for them not to just fall in line with it is, I guess, too much to expect. but, well, how many times have I told you this?

[59:17] I'm not finished, but I'm quitting. Okay. And again, I do appreciate you being an audience and letting me express these things.

[59:29] you give me a wonderful 80th birthday gift that I hadn't thought of along those lines, but that's exactly what it is. And I feel better for having kind of delivered my soul now.

[59:41] the next thing we need to ask ourselves is, so what are we going to do about this? What are we going to do?

[59:51] I mean, in a practical way. I mean, in an involved way. What are we going to do? I want you to think about that, if you would.

[60:03] And, maybe next Sunday, we'll talk some more about that. Okay. Would you stand, please?

[60:13] And I'll dismiss you. Father, we realize that these are really heavy issues that we've talked about, but they are so important.

[60:25] And, if we didn't vitally and deeply care about this country, we could easily justify, just dummy up, and go with the flow, and not say anything.

[60:39] But, how in the world could we sleep at night? How could we live with ourselves? We have to speak out, because truth is at stake, and honesty and righteousness are at stake.

[60:52] And, we have an obligation, we who have the truth, have an obligation to share it with those who don't, just like somebody shared it with us once. And, we recognize that these people are, these people are, these people are, these people are, these people are, these people are, spiritually blind, and deluded, and, many of them, most of them, haven't a clue, of what, the real issues, actually are, as opposed to what they could be, for those who are in Christ.

[61:23] And, our hearts are heavy, because, because we do care. And, if we didn't care, we could just, be comfortably indifferent, and go on.

[61:35] But, how can we do that? So, would you be pleased, to take these, feeble offerings, and, use them in the hearts, and minds of these people, as individuals, and as a congregation, in whatever way, you see fit, and help us to recognize, your leading and guidance, and to be responsive, to whatever that might be.

[62:01] Thank you for, the privilege that we, continue to enjoy, being able to express, these things in a free country, without fear of, punishment.

[62:13] And, we trust that this will remain, to be the case, but, we see things going, in an ominous direction, and times, we're uncertain. We are so grateful, however, that you are the God, of it all.

[62:24] You are in charge. You know the way, that we take. You know what's happening, in the nation. You know what needs, to be done. And, you know what you want, to do, and how you want, to use us, to bring whatever, that is about.

[62:35] And, we are so grateful. Thank you for it all, in Christ's name. Amen.