INDEPENDANCE DAY 2026

Live from Living Word Lutheran in Graham Wa

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:03

This is what the Word of God says. For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. Look, I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law, you have fallen away from grace. For though the Spirit, by faith we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love. This is the word of the Lord. Want to just kind of do a little framework here and remind us of circumcision and what it meant at that time. Now, circumcision represented the practice of the Mosaic Law. It was the sign of the Mosaic covenant. It was a commitment to practice the law in thought, word, and deed. Does everybody know what circumcision is, or do I need to give a quick lesson? That's a joke. It's okay. You know, Paul was now preaching circumcision of the heart. And he was always preaching grace that the law was always pointing to. And the more you study the Old Testament law and practices and rituals, the more you see how the Old Testament does point towards grace, does point towards the coming of the Messiah. The people in this time of Galatia, they'd forgotten the God of the law and they'd turned their hearts to the law itself, thus missing entirely the whole point. The law showed people the weight and sacrifices needed for the atonement of their sins and how it was impossible to satisfy. The law was to remind God's people of the future Messiah. And remember that both sin freedom from sin and death would be accomplished through the Messiah. They became bound by the letter of the law, not the promise and hope of the law. And kind of with that framework, I want to shift our attention to the Declaration of Independence. It's been very interesting. 250 years we're celebrating, and we're looking at our nation, and there's so much controversy around being dedicated to America, being dedicated to our nation and to our way of life. But there's so many things that we cannot deny about America and why America is such a great nation. And number one, it's a great nation because God made it great. God made the people great. God founded our nation, and we're going to look at that in a little bit. But why is America great? We offer global security. We are one of the most innovative people on the planet. We have free and unregulated markets. You can start a business. There's so much freedom that you can do to support your family and pursue your dreams. We have a great history, obviously. We heard just a little bit about it right there. We do have a very diverse culture, and that's a that's a beautiful, beautiful thing. People now take that and make that our distinguishable pillar, but that's just a part of who we are. We have amazing founding fathers. We're going to hear from a couple of them in just a minute. And we have amazing documents that found and establish our nation. We are free. We are a free people. While the freedom, yes, under attack, but it's always going to be under attack. Freedom will always be under attack. We are a republic. We have a democratic process. We can elect our leaders and our representatives, and we have amazing opportunity. America was forged to create the greatest society on the planet. And it was born 250 years ago at the signing of what Charlie Kirk would say, the late great Charlie Kirk would say, is the greatest political document in history. There was a cry among the 13 colonies 250 years ago to break away from the oppression of Great Britain. And before this was signed, about a year before it was signed on July 8, 1775, the 13 colonies sent what was known as the Olive Branch Petition to King George as a final petition to say, hey, we want to be free from your rule. King George rejected it in August. Thus, the second congregate Continental Congress decided we've got to put together a committee of five men that are going to draft a statement of independence. And in those, in that uh committee of five men, there was John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston. Now, four of these men, we know for a fact, were Bible-believing Christians. And I'm going to read a quote from each of them very, very quickly. John Adams, this is what he said. The Holy Ghost carries the whole Christian system in his truth. Not a baptism, not a marriage, not a sacrament can be administered but by the Holy Ghost. There is no authority civil or religious. There can be no legitimate government but what is administered by the Holy Spirit. This is someone who influenced that declaration of independence. Benjamin Franklin, we've all heard of him. He said, I have lived a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth, that God governs the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without it notice, without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid? He knew that for America to rise, God had to be with them. Thomas Jefferson said, who was one of the main guys who penned it, uh, the doctrines of Jesus are simple and tend to all the happiness of men. I'm a Christian in only in the only sense in which he wished anyone to be sincerely attached to his doctrines in preference to all others. Thomas Jefferson put the doctrines of Christ first. Roger Sherman, it is the duty of all to acknowledge that the divine law, which requires us to love God with all our heart and our neighbors as ourselves, on the pain of eternal damnation is holy, just, and good. The revealed law of God is the rule of our duty. And then, of course, Robert Livingston, I'm not quite sure about his faith, but he was a foreign dignitary and was very, very influential in the Louisiana Purchase. All that to say that this declaration of independence was influenced by at least four men who put the doctrine of Christ first. And here we are, 250 years later, enjoying freedoms that men found in Scripture, in their faith. I'm going to read now as well the preamble, just the preamble, to the Declaration of Independence. And this is what it says. It might be on your sermon, companion. It says, the unanimous declaration of the thirteen United States of America, when in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth the separate and equal station to which the law of nature and nature's God entitle them. A decent respect to the opinions of mankind require that they should declare the cause which impel them to the separation. Now, obviously, here at Living Word, we preach the Bible, we don't preach politics, we don't preach business, we don't preach popular culture. Opinion doesn't matter so much, we preach scripture. But I do think that it is very, very interesting to note the spiritual undertones in that preamble that I just read. And I kind of want to break them down just over the next five minutes and see if we can't really just have a new appreciation for what God did at the founding of our nation. Now there's one point that he said that was in this preamble that I think was very powerful. It said, dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another. America wanted to break the political bands that held them to Great Britain. Now, Paul says in the very first verse of chapter 5 of the Galatians, he says, It is for freedom that Christ set us free. There was this desire to be freed from sin, death, legalism, the religious practices, the law. They were desiring freedom. And it was the only reason that they desired freedom. Well, the only reason that Jesus Christ came and died on the cross was to set us free. To be that atonement for sin and death. And it's so fascinating that God protected the lineage of Christ from Abraham on. And you look, we just looked at Samson, what a failure that guy was in so many different ways. You look at all throughout Scripture, you see how many times that Satan tried to break that lineage, but God sustained them all the way to lead us up to the cross. Paul then goes on and he says, Stand firm then. Once we have been set free, we put our feet down strong and we do not give up any ground. The 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence were signing an act of treason, an act of rebellion. And in fact, I didn't realize this until just this week, but John Hancock is the biggest signature on the document. And he wrote it so big because he wanted King George to be able to see his name without his glasses. I guess King George was like blind or something. But he wanted it to see it. He was making a statement that I am going to rebel against what you are oppressing me with. This was not a defensive stand. This was an offensive stand. Our stand against legalism, our stand against temptation, our stand against the forces of darkness in our homes, our community, and our nation must be an offensive stand. We have the high ground. We have the victory. Rebelling against the culture, rebelling against the world, rebelling against the system of the prince of the power of the air, rebelling against our very nature of disobedience. And there is only one solution that will set us free from the oppression that we are rebelling towards, and that is Christ. Freedom in Christ is the ultimate human destination, spiritually. We're seeking independence for all the things that weigh us down. Christ is the ultimate declaration. Destination, excuse me. He goes on to say the separate and equal station in the Declaration of Independence. He says, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and nature's God entitle them to. God created nature with certain parameters, with certain boundaries. What are those things? There's many of them, and we could probably fill them in, but life is valuable. Okay? Man rules creation. Creation doesn't rule man. Society needs order. We have freedom of choice. The family unit is the foundation of society, plus so many others. When we have those things, we know that these are things that God created and put parameters in order for our life to be successful. We look at the culture today and we have surrendered those things and look at the problems we're having. Paul then says, if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. In other words, if we say we want to stay oppressed but enjoy the freedoms when we have it, if we stop, if we take a step back and we look at the tapestry of our world, the engineering of mankind, we cannot deny that there is a creator from outside of the world. We also cannot deny that mankind has broken that creator's design and we cannot fix it on our own. And that's kind of what modern politics has become, especially here in America, is we are trying to fix the problems that we ourselves created instead of going to God and say, God, fix me so that I can, so that you can through me fix the problems that we created in the first place. Politics and government were designed by God to protect mankind's need to worship their God, to function as a healthy and righteous society. America has strayed so far from that, the government has now become the hope and redeemer of her people. America has one solution, the ultimate atonement of Christ, from the White House to your house, and every house in between. We must allow Christ alone to draft our petition from sin and death. And the final point I want to draw from this preamble is this. It says that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. In other words, here's the reasons why we want to be free from you, King George. We want to be free from England. They wanted the freedom of worship, is the number one reason why. Now, back in the colony times, a pastor would have to take his sermon, put it in the mail, send it across the ocean so it could be approved by King George or his people before he preached that sermon. They wanted freedom to preach the word of God. They wanted freedom to worship. A lot of people don't talk about this, but there used to be church services every Sunday in the Capitol building. One of the biggest churches in the area or of the 13 colonies gathered at the Capitol building. And now there's the term separation of church and state that is now using that to silence the church's influence into the political realm, into the direction of our nation, which, by the way, that term was written to a Baptist conference in 1804. 1802 or 1804 by Thomas Jefferson because the Baptists were worried that the state was going to come and again control what they were preaching and how they were teaching and all that. And Thomas Jefferson says, nope, we're going to put up a wall so that they can't come in and influence what you're doing. Now, the progressive movement has created what we call Christianity or progressive Christianity, which isn't Christianity at all, where they have literally rejected Christ and the authority of Scripture and adapted kind of like progressive social justices practices into the way of uh that that would be the salvation. Okay? They have said they have taken Christ, they have made him into kind of their mascot, and now they are basically preaching all the things that the world are preaching, thus deceiving people by calling it Christianity, and it's not Christianity at all. It's Marxist propaganda, but we'll leave it at that. No one seems to have a problem, however, with Islam shaping our government. Have you ever noticed that? No, no one has a problem with that. In fact, the mayor of New York City he holds Muslim prayer hours at City Hall. No one bats an eye. But show up to the national prayer breakfast. That was actually the national prayer breakfast was uh established by Eisenhower in 1951, I believe it was. Uh and congressmen and women will protest that. Oh, you can't have a prayer breakfast separation of church and state, but all the Muslims are okay. America has once again been burdened by the yoke of slavery, of legalism, sin and death. We no longer cherish and celebrate our biblical roots of faith as they have become a crutch and not our crown. Two hundred and fifty years ago, our forefathers of our nation signed a declaration of intent that they would now be free from tyranny and the control of England. In so many ways this models the very proclamation that Jesus Christ made on the cross of Calvary. John nineteen, twenty-eight through thirty says this. After Jesus, knowing that all was finished, said, and he did this to fulfill Scripture, he said, I thirst. A jar of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. When Jesus received the sour wine, he said, It is finished. And he bowed his head and he gave up his spirit. And that is our declaration of independence for sin and death. Jesus signed his John Hancock over our souls and said, No longer does sin and death have any legal rights to your soul, spirit, or body except that which you give it. And we have been redeemed by his blood, and we are free for eternity, those of us who are in Christ. The cross of Christ is our declaration of independence, and we can be free. We can live free. No longer guilt, no longer shame, no, no longer the things that weigh us down, that hold us down, that bombard us. No temptation can seize us except what that is common to man. We have been free. And no longer will we be oppressed, we will be a royal priesthood and a holy nation.