2025-07-06 Reliance Upon Scripture – An Independence Day Sermon

We are an unusual country

• The average country throughout history survives only 150 years
  • Now we’ve begun on our 250th year as a country
• What accounts for our longevity?
• The average length for a constitution in other countries is only 17 years,
  • We’ve had ours nearly 238 years (14x longer)
• Our 4% of the world’s population produces 24% of the world’s gross domestic product.
• And every year we produce more inventions and technology than the other 96% of the world combined.
• We continue to send out the most missionaries by far
• And continue to receive the most legal immigrants

 

What accounts for our unusual blessing? Our success, longevity, and freedoms? What has made the difference here?

 

“It is the Bible that made America. Not every Founding Father was a Christian, a Bible-believer, or a paragon of virtue. Not every president has honored the Bible. Not every leader has appreciated its influence. Some of the Founding Fathers were disciples of Enlightenment rationalism. But even they were intimately acquainted with the contents of the Bible. They vigorously studied Scripture and respected its ethical teachings.”

– Pastor Robert J. Morgan

100 Bible Verses That Made America

 

Benjamin Franklin, on June 28, 1787 to the assembled Constitutional Congress:

 

Count the number of Scripture references you recognize.

(The Answer is at the bottom of the Sermon Notes.)

“In this situation of this Assembly, groping as it were in the dark to find political truth, and scarce able to distinguish it when presented to us, how has it happened, Sir, that we have not hitherto once thought of humbly applying to the Father of lights to illuminate our understandings?

In the beginning of the contest with Great Britain, when we were sensible to danger, we had daily prayer in this room for Divine protection. Our prayers, Sir, were heard, and they were graciously answered. All of us who were engaged in the struggle must have observed frequent instances of a superintending Providence in our favor… [H]ave we now forgotten that powerful Friend? Or do we imagine we no longer need His assistance? I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth–that God Governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid?

We have been assured, Sir, in the Sacred Writing, that ‘except the Lord build the House, they labor in vain that build it.’ I firmly believe this; and I also believe that without His concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel…”

I therefore beg leave to move–that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven, and its blessing on our deliberations, be held in this Assembly every morning before we proceed to business…” 

 (The Answer is at the bottom of the Sermon Notes.)

·
After Gen. George Washington led the delegates to a prayer service at a nearby church, where there was intercession for God’s hand to be upon the delegates and their work, they closed in the Lord’s Prayer and went back to work.

 

“It is impossible for the man of pious reflection not to perceive in it a finger of that Almighty Hand, which has been so frequently and signally extended to our relief in the critical states of the Revolution.”

–        James Madison

 

The Constitution itself was created on the wisdom of the Scriptures.

 

Jeremiah 17:9 (NLT2) The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?

·        John Adams cited Jeremiah 17:9 specifically on multiple occasions to explain why we needed the separation of powers (for checks and balances), as didsigners of Constitution George Washington and Alexander Hamilton

 

·        The 3 branches of Government (Judicial, Legislative, and Executive) come from  

 

Isaiah 33:22 (NIV84) For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king; it is he who will save us.  

 

 

·        True or false: The Constitution guarantees a democratic form of government.

 

Article IV. SECTION 4

The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government…

 

·        That form of government came from

Exodus 18:21 (NIV84)  But select capable men from all the people—men who fear God, trustworthy men who hate dishonest gain—and appoint them as officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens.  

 

·        Noah Webster specifically cited Exodus 18:21 in support of republicanism, as did Declaration signers John Witherspoon and Benjamin Rush

 

 

Article II, Section 1, Paragraph 5: “No person except a natural born citizen…shall be eligible to the office of President”

·        That idea came from: 

 

Deuteronomy 17:15 (NIV84) Be sure to appoint over you the king the Lord your God chooses. He must be from among your own brothers. Do not place a foreigner over you, one who is not a brother Israelite.  

 

Biblical Principle	Scripture	Constitutional Concept
Separation of Powers	Isaiah 33:22	Three branches: legislative, executive, judicial
Human Nature is Fallen	Jeremiah 17:9; Romans 3:23	Checks and balances to limit power
Rule of Law Over Rulers	Deuteronomy 17:14–20	Written Constitution binding on all
Choosing Leaders from the People	Deut. 1:13; Exodus 18:21	Representative democracy
Freedom of Conscience	Matthew 22:21; Acts 5:29	Religious liberty (1st Amendment)
Equality and Human Dignity	Genesis 1:27; Acts 17:26	Equal protection and individual rights
Justice and Impartiality	Deut. 16:19–20; James 2:1–9	Fair trials, impartial judiciary
Witnesses and Due Process	Deut. 19:15; Proverbs 18:13, 17	Due process, 5th–7th Amendments
Distrust of Mob Rule	Exodus 32; 1 Sam. 8; Matt. 27; Acts 19	Rejection of direct democracy; preference for a republic

 

“The future and success of America is not in this Constitution, but in the laws of God upon which this Constitution is founded.”

— James Madison (1751-1836)

Father of the Constitution

4th President of the U. S.

 

 

“Trying to explain American history without its Bible is like trying to understand the human body without its bloodstream. Had there been no Bible, there would be no America as we know it. The nation would not have been born as it was. Perhaps it would not have been born at all.”

– Pastor Robert J. Morgan

100 Bible Verses That Made America

 

On Salavery & the US

• Before the founding of the US, King George of England forced slavery upon all the colonies
• 96 other nations around the world today have still not outlawed slavery
• Yet the US grew under the teachings of Scripture, including the story of the Exodus of God’s people from slavery and many other verses that speak against slavery such as

Galatians 5:1 (NIV) It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

·        Because of the influence of Scripture, we were

o   Founded upon the principle that God has created all men equal

o   Committed to pay a high price in blood to secure freedom (±750,000 lives)

o   The 1^st nation to abolish the slave trade

o   The 4^th nation to abolish the practice of slavery

·        Thanks be to God for the influence of His word!

 

2 Timothy 3:16-17 (ESV) ¹⁶  All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, ¹⁷  that the man (and woman) of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

·        Hear what our Founders and other Political Leaders have said about the Bible

 

“The Bible contains the most profound philosophy, the most perfect morality, and the most refined policy that was ever conceived on earth. . . . I believe [it] to be the only system that ever did or ever will preserve a republic in the world.”

–        John Adams [1]

 

“The Bible is the best of all books, for it is the Word of God and teaches us the way to be happy in this world and the next. Continue therefore to read it and to regulate your life by its precepts.”

–        John Jay[2]

1^st Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court

 

“No human society has ever been able to maintain both order and freedom . . . apart from the moral precepts of the Christian Religion. Should our Republic ever forget this fundamental precept of governance, we will then be surely doomed.”

–        John Jay

1^st Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court

 

“In regard to this Great Book, I have but to say it is the best gift God has given to man. All the good the Savior gave to the world was communicated through this Book.”

–        Abraham Lincoln

September 7, 1864[3]

“Hold fast to the Bible as the sheet-anchor of your liberties; write its precepts in your hearts, and practice them in your lives.”

–        Ulysses S. Grant [4]

June 6, 1872

 

“A very large number of people tend to forget that the teachings of the Bible are so interwoven and entwined with our whole civic and social life that it would be literally—I do not mean figuratively, I mean literally—impossible for us to figure to ourselves what that life would be if these teachings were removed.”

–        Vice President Theodore Roosevelt[5]

 

“The foundation of our society and our government rest so much on the teachings of the Bible that it would be difficult to support them if faith in these teachings would cease to be practically universal in our country.”

–        President Calvin Coolidge [6]

 

 “We cannot read the history of our rise and development as a Nation without reckoning with the place the Bible has occupied in shaping the advances of the Republic.”

–        President Franklin Roosevelt [7]

 

“In proportion as the genuine effects of Christianity are diminished in any nation . . . in the same proportion will the people of that nation recede from the blessings of genuine freedom. . . . I hold this to be a truth confirmed by experience. If so, it follows, that all efforts made to destroy the foundation of our holy religion, ultimately tend to the subversion also of our political freedom and happiness. Whenever the pillars of Christianity shall be overthrown, our present republican forms of government, and all the blessings which flow from them, must fall with them.”

–        Jedidiah Morse

In a sermon marking Washington’s inauguration

 

“Let the children who are sent to those schools be taught to read and write. Above all, let both sexes be carefully instructed on the principles and obligations of the Christian religion. This is the most essential part of education—this will make them dutiful children, teachable scholars, and afterwards, good apprentices, good husbands, good wives, honest mechanics, industrious farmers, peaceable sailors, and, in everything that relates to this country, good citizens.”

– Dr. Benjamin Rush

 

 “The Bible contains more truth than any other book in the world.”

– Dr. Benjamin Rush

A Defense of the Use of the Bible as a Schoolbook

 

The Bible is the best of all books, for it is the Word of God, and teaches us the way to be happy in this world and in the next. Continue therefore to read it, and to regulate your life by its precepts.

–        John Jay

1^st Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court

 

 

As we stray from the Word, Romans 1 becomes inescapably more true in our lives and our culture’s:

Romans 1:28-32 (NLT2) ²⁸  Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done. ²⁹  Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip. ³⁰  They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents. ³¹  They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy. ³²  They know God’s justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too.

 

 

Collect 101: Before The Reading of Scripture

(Always prayed on The Second Sunday in Advent )

Blessed Lord, who caused all Holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that by patience and the comfort of your holy Word we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

 

·        We are to hear the scriptures read

·        To read them ourselves

·        To mark them – which means we are to study them

·        To learn them – memorize them

·        And inwardly digest them – meditate or think deeply about them

Because “The whole Bible was given to us by inspiration from God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives; it straightens us out and helps us do what is right.  It is God’s way of making us well prepared at every point, fully equipped to do good to everyone.” – 2 Tim 3:16-17 (LB)

 

 

 

 

______________________________________________________

ANSWER (Franklin’s Biblical Allusions)

In those eleven sentences, Franklin had specifically referenced or quoted by memory eight different Bible phrases that appear in thirteen different Bible verses:

1.      “groping in the dark” (Job 12:25)

2.      “the Father of Lights” (James 1:17)

3.      “illuminate our understanding” (James 1:5)

4.      “a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice” (Matthew 10:29, Luke 12:6)

5.      “can an empire rise without His aid” (Daniel 4:17, Psalm 75:7)

6.      “except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it” (Psalm 127:1)

7.      “the builders of Babel” (Genesis 11:1-9)

8.      “a reproach and a byword” (Deuteronomy 28:37, 2 Chronicles 7:20, 1 Kings 9:7, Psalm 44:14)