Welcome to from the pulpit and classic sermons
each week We bring you a different message
from some of history's greatest speakers in the
Christian faith and powerful sermons for modern preachers
to this week We have Vance Abner with
his message the country and the church And
the church There are some parallels that can
be drawn here.
And of course you're familiar with those familiar
verses in first Peter 2 Where we read
there's some good advice about country and our
duty as Christians Beginning with the 13th submit
yourselves to every ordinance of man for the
Lord's sake Whether it be to the king
is supreme or under governors as unto them
that are sent by him for the punishment
of evildoers And for the praise of them
that do well for so is the will
of God That with well-doing you may
put to silence the ignorance of foolish men
as free and not using your liberty for
a cloak of maliciousness But as the servants
of God and then he sums it all
up honor all men Love the brotherhood fear
God honor the king Our country is about
200 years old as a Independent nation The
Church of Jesus Christ about 2,000 years
old many of the conditions that exist in
the country today are parallel that by Similar
conditions in the church and when I say
the church, I mean the professing church at
large You'll understand The same story in America
now as Rome you in our last days
same symptoms Same disease Said fares the land
the hastening ills of prey where wealth accumulates
And men decay We say it can't happen
here.
That's what they said.
They said it in Athens.
They said in Rome They said it in
Egypt But the Parthenon and the Colosseum and
the pyramids bear silent witness.
Otherwise History repeats itself.
And the only thing we ever learned from
history is that we don't learn anything from
history to begin with Both in America and
in the church.
We are rich in what money can buy
and poor and what it can't buy You
remember the story of the Pope walking along
with Thomas Aquinas amidst all the glories of
the Vatican and saying No longer is the
church have to say silver and gold have
I none and so Tom his listener said
No, and neither can she say rise and
walk The church can stand anything better than
popularity and prosperity We're poor when we're rich
for rich when we're poor We're secure in
danger, but endangered by security I heard of
a hillbilly walk down the street sometime ago
by a furrier's shop And there was a
leopard skin coat hanging and out there And
he looked at it in a minute and
said that old cat was better off before
he was worth so much That's possible in
the nation.
It's possible with people in Revelation 318 Jesus
tells us that he wants three things for
the church you know, I'd read that for
years and years and years and then one
day it just jumped out of the Text
and grabbed me you've had that happen He
wants three things for his church and the
first of them was that thou mayest be
rich not get rich God doesn't want the
church to get rich but be rich in
all that she has As the bride and
the groom who though rich for our sakes
became poor We through his poverty might be
made rich and both in America and in
the church Our problem today is material plenty
and spiritual poverty They had to see a
rich and increased with goods and don't need
a thing That's material prosperity But wretched miserable
blind poor and naked that spiritual poverty I'm
concerned about the condition of our country.
I'm bothered about its financial condition I can't
even think in terms of trillions of dollars
Neither can you maybe but we spend billions
on nuclear armaments And probably don't have a
friend in the family of nations and the
moral degradation bothers me Everybody wants their rights
and nobody wants to do anything about their
responsibilities We lack the moral and spiritual integrity
to handle the problems that science has raised
And in fact is if we'd had it
we wouldn't have some of the problems Because
they've slipped up on us because we didn't
handle them The real problem has always been
sin and Science does not have the answer
to sin When I think of the drug
craze and the sex craze drug crazy sex
crazy show crazy sports crazy land devourers broken
homes Unmarried couples by the million living as
man and wife teenage single parents Homosexuality age
of Permissiveness when men becomes his own God
Humanism getting ready for the man who will
claim to be God a little later on
No king in Israel.
Every man does not what's right In his
own eyes, that would be bad enough, but
what he wants to do whether it's right
or not No nation can survive that Every
time we have a disaster Tornado or something
like that you read immediately that they had
to be on the guard against looters Well,
where are those fellows all the time right
here among us?
They didn't just drop down for that occasion
My Bible says we're sheep among wolves You
find that out if you get out much
among them a Generation that's never learned how
to work for the most part will turn
into anarchy if things get worse It's a
sad time You might as well try to
damn up Niagara Falls with Toothpicks as to
hold back the flood tide of lawlessness that
will sweep in when the great Hinderer is
removed Cheap Christianity Laodicean Church, I know we
have the 4,000 who have not bowed
the knee to be Bale, but millions of
church members have only a form of godliness
without the power We used to have too
much respect for church to join it unless
we were converted Now everybody comes in and
as in the days of Constantine out to
Christian eyes Paganism it turns around pagan eyes
in Christianity The standard is so low and
the majority of our church members live with
so such low Ab you'd have to backslide
to be in fellowship In the second place
America has lost her regard for the flag
Stars and stripes have become chief commonplace Gone
are the days when it brought tears to
our eyes and a lump in our throat
and a tug at our hearts Now all
the white no longer means purity and the
blue doesn't mean Lord in the red Doesn't
stand for the blood of martyrs who gave
their lives That we might have the land
of the free in the home of the
brave and the banner of the church is
the cross And God forbid that we glory
in anything else than that, but it's the
cross of Christ Mind you because a Christless
cross is as meaningless as a crossless Christ
Let him come down from the cross and
we'll believe in they say and they would
they'd accept him today if you leave the
cross out of it, but He's not just
the paragon He's the propitiation and the cross
is the symbol of our faith The vertical
beam that speaks of our relationship to God
love the Lord thy God and the horizontal
beam Thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself
on these hang all the law and the
prophets Paul wanted to have a conscience void
of offense toward God and man and the
way he did it was exactly that way
He stayed right with the cross right with
God and right with people How about you
this morning, I don't carry a crucifix around
but many times in my meditations I find
myself saying Lord, how am I doing in
my relationship to you?
Is there any point of rebellion in your
heart between you and God?
And how about you and people?
Is there anybody that's mad at you and
you you haven't done the thing?
The Bible says do Jesus says In application
you bring your envelope to church for the
offering and remember your brother's mad at you
Hang on to your offering.
So you get right with your brother I
sure would spoil a lot of offerings over
the country some of our churches get right
with your brother That's what the book says
But the church today has devised a new
cross an ornament to wear around the neck
a Commonplace symbol twisted out of context a
charm kind of a holy horseshoe and I
Think a W toaster never wrote anything better
than the old cross and the new If
you've never read that it's been translated in
other languages.
I think that was his masterpiece It doesn't
interfere this new cross with godless living Never
goes against the grain of the old nature
Sunday morning church goers saying and sometimes I
get nervous as I hear them make their
way through it to the old rugged cross
I'll ever be true.
It's shame and reproach gladly Bear God help
us.
We're not bearing it any kind of way
much let alone gladly I saw later told
me the other day said the kids here
were supposed to Give a program one night
and they illustrated this business of putting well
I the way I put it putting cushions
in the church instead of crosses these days
So they were supposed to come down the
aisle saying it onward Christian soldiers marching as
the war and at the last minute some
of Morning each each of them wanted to
bring a little cross along with them.
Well, it was too late.
Some later said But if you had one
anyhow, but they didn't like it He took
them away and hid them in the Sunday
school room when you start that and the
kids rebelled you're in trouble They came down
saying an onward Christian soldiers marching as the
war with the cross of Jesus hid behind
the door I don't blame the kids.
I don't blame them at all.
That's why we've hit it We've hit it
behind the door It's about time the stars
and stripes meant something in America about time
The cross of Jesus meant something again to
the church during the First World War Caruso
came to Atlanta to sing for a patriotic
rally and that man in whose throat was
lodged Perhaps one of the greatest voices that
mankind's ever known sang finished with the starspangled
banner but when you reach that last note
instead of the normal place where you saying
it he lifted it an octave and They
said it didn't nearly half an hour to
get that crowd quiet Because that did something
To I'd like to see a church full
of professing Christians really get happy sometimes singing
in the cross of Christ Our glory Towering
over the wrecks of time all the light
of sacred story gathers around its head and
sublime the way we saying it now You'd
think it was a lullaby instead of a
reveille.
It's supposed to wake us up in the
third place The Constitution of the United States
means might a little to Americans today and
the Bible means might a little to the
average church member Daniel Webster said this about
government if you take one word out of
what he said you can apply it in
all directions You may look at government and
see it possesses all the external marks of
freedom and yet find nothing of the essence
in it No vitality Just as you may
contemplate an embalmed body where art has preserved
proportion and form amid nerves without action and
veins without blood The Constitution needs to come
to life again today and the Bible needs
to come to life in our experience To
the average church members almost a dead book.
Oh, everybody has one once in a while
I quote it.
It's in a pew rack at church and
gathers dust on tables, but Although we say
lovely things about it in tribute few there
be who make it the rule of their
lives My friend Adrian Rogers who has a
tremendous church now Bellevue following Robert G Lee
the other day, you know Madame O'Hare
Was worrying because they didn't have any holiday
for her crowd No national holiday said I
know a good one April Fool's Day I'm
a new like to go hear Bob Ingersoll
who was quite an ardor but an infidel
and He came out and said well that
really did things to your mother's old-time
religion but it didn't because Mother said she
wouldn't cross the street to hear Ingersoll lecture
on the mistakes of Moses But she'd go
a long way to hear Moses speak on
the mistakes of Ingersoll There's a wonderful thing
about this old Bible It's been said That
if you dig into it you have a
feeling like an electrician Rewiring an old house
where the power has not been cut off
you'll get a shock get a charge Church
members are ignorant of the Bible and the
Constitution over to open now We're not the
worship the Bible that would be bibliologically, but
it's the only authorized textbook of our faith
Jesus said when the disciples said we don't
understand what you told me Well, how can
we eat your flesh and drink your blood?
You know that I wonder what would happen
to the average calm satisfied see date American
congregation It's a preacher bore down on that
and some morning when they had the Lord's
table Observe and say you've got to eat
his flesh and drink his blood or you
don't even have the life in you Well,
no wonder they ask and you said the
words That I speak in you their spirit
and their life Then we have another problem
too many people in America are only Americans
in name and Un-americans and anti-americans
in conduct And the church has a corresponding
ailment community church members name only members of
the church, but not members of the family
of God I Remember the First World War
and how Teddy Roosevelt a lamb basted people
who had a double order Some to the
other crowd and although now citizens of this
country.
He called him hyphenated Americans He said this
country is not a polyglot Borden house Hi,
mr And the Bible says a friend of
the world is the enemy of God I
have been in some churches that I've I
think the Lord's crowd has been well compared
to sheepfold But I get in some more
like a zoo as I go about Did
you hear that church the other day a
little church had a sign out in the
front?
It had so many church splits and divisions
over the community I get harmony church number
two No, no, what happened over number one?
Hyphenated Americans he that is not with me
is against me he that gather is not
with me scatters abroad America needs better Americans
the church needs better Christians One of the
great leaders in my denomination the Southern Baptist
at years go gone by dr Gamble said
the trouble with us Baptists is we're many
but we're not much That's him to think
over.
It's the quality that bothers me We're so
anxious today to run up a big Roll
of statistics that somebody said the Bible says
we shall reap if we faint not But
in our zeal we faint if we reap
not so that's the wrong way to go
about it I've just been out in Los
Angeles at the Southern Baptist Convention speaking to
the pastors And that's a crowd of pastors
to face But I said to them Southern
Baptists have never been noted for an inferiority
complex We brag a lot I said now
we're out here in Los Angeles, they got
a lot of smoke I think we could
blow it out in three days But I
told him this I said, but it reminds
me years ago They had more smoke than
usual and the meteorologist said this and it
has a double meaning It will take a
wind from elsewhere To clear up this situation
I Said we need the wind that blew
at Pentecost To clear up our situation.
That's the only thing that'll do it and
I wonder we they say we're the soul
of the earth My soul if we're the
soul of the earth, why is it so
corrupt?
I know the world's not going to be
converted, but it'll be a lot better than
it is If we're the soul of the
earth and if we're the light of the
world, why is everything so dark today?
I Haven't found a satisfactory answer for that
except that we're not letting our light shine
And we're not remembering that God made of
us the soul of the earth to rub
us into the carcass of a decaying civilization
Makes have some effect on it not conversion
of the whole world.
No, but as many as you can and
then America suffers from a low-grade patriotism
if we had any I Remember World War
one and the boys leaving for France Their
sweethearts weeping at the high school where I
was a student.
Oh We were going over to make the
world safe for democracy It's never been safe
for anything since but anyhow, that's what they
went for and they were willing to give
their lives Down in Florida Shell Point Wonderful
resort plays a met an old general who
was beside George Patton in World War two
and George Patton is pretty rugged man, you
know, but he said one day we were
standing there in the Battle of the Bulls
They brought along a bunch of soldier boys
all shot up Some of them would die
in a couple hours George went over to
him said how are you boys?
And everyone who could get his hand to
his head saluted and said fine general Said
we walk down the road a little bit
and he never said a word and I
never said a word and finally curiosity got
The better of me and I looked at
him and tears were streaming down that rough
old face Because that was it There was
patriotism and willing to die for something and
I think of Paul and that long list
of things he'd been through shipwrecks and everything
else under the Sun and yet I'm sure
that when the Lord called over the parapets
of heaven to how you doing?
So he was in pretty bad shape most
of the time.
He said fine Do we do that?
Certainly we should I Know we folks more
lately than Paul Harvey says we were afraid
to win in the shame to lose Said
rightly and we're in a new internationalism and
lost our national identity sometimes Forgetting that a
man's a better citizen of the world of
nations if he's true to his own nation
Better member of the human family if he's
a good member of his own family.
I heard Douglas MacArthur say Strange voices are
heard across the land about this old and
proven concept of patriotism Seductive murmurs are arising
now that it's outmoded and that we are
provincial and immature and reactionary and stupid When
we idealize our own country that there is
a higher destiny for us now under another
more general flag He said rebuke it from
the platform Rebuke it from the pulpit and
I put in my little ten cents worth
today in that direction just as America's gone
International and in some strange ways the church
has gone universal in some rather odd ways
I know of a heard of a fellow
who I wanted to sing in the choir
but didn't want to join the church and
preacher said what church you belong to I
belong to the Invisible church preacher said I
suggest you join the invisible choir I Believe
we all belong to something.
I believe in tying up with the local
fellowship We have a lot of these movers
Sometime ago.
I heard of a fellow who was about
his fifth move I think from denomination to
denomination and he said to his pastor pro
-tem Because any pastor he had was pro
-tem said I think I'm thinking about coming
to your church Well, the preacher said never
does any harm to change labels on an
empty bottle Well said But in such a
time We need a rebirth of patriotism in
the country and a rebirth of Pentecost in
the church and it won't happen Until we
humble ourselves and pray and seek God's face
turned from our wicked ways.
I Don't hear much about that in Washington.
I haven't heard anything much about it from
there in a long long long time Pride
goeth before destruction haughty spirit before a fall
God resisted the proud and giveth grace to
the humble and Our forefathers when they came
over here some of them Had a desire
to build a new nation on Christian principles
puritanic and the pilgrim group but Unfortunately, they
came along with them another crowd who had
been infected and infested with the philosophy of
Tom Paine and The viewpoint I'm sorry to
say of Thomas Jefferson who said that the
gospel contains no mystery and he never read
great as the mystery of godliness and Said
that Jesus Christ never thought of himself in
terms of human excellence and anything but human
action Well somehow everything got mixed in and
to this day the brotherhood of man is
confused with the fatherhood of God and we're
trying to create a false millennium counterfeit kingdom
of God on Unregenerate society and won't work
I've heard a number of my preacher brethren
lately who are uneasy about this land and
they're not that kind But they said things
aren't turning out so well It sort of
started in 19 and 12 Old Mordecai ham
used to have a sermon on the sinking
of the Titanic He said God was trying
to give us an object lesson.
We didn't get it We were so smart
We built one that one of them even
said even God can't sink it And the
only thing it ever did was sink on
the first trip I Was 11 years old
and I remember how as a country boy
that thing that did something to me and
There are books galore about the Titanic.
I don't know how many in our library
in my town Movie about it and they're
going over now to have another look to
add it if they can get at it
this time Quite a problem, but with the
new paraphernalia, they think they might be able
to they know it's there and they had
a glimpse it corresponds to the proportions, but
The strange thing about it all was that
it seems as though God said you're not
as smart as you think you are I'm
gonna take a hunk of ice.
He is plain old ice and Slit the
side of this thing and show you you're
not as smart as you thought you were.
I Think there was a lesson in it.
I Don't think we learned it.
I know one thing at the offices of
the line that made the Titanic in and
the lines in New York that Were a
back of it, too They had when it
was all over only two lists Lost and
Saved and I'm living in the world or
so far as God's concerned.
There are only two lists and then on
that Titanic there were millionaires wealthy people famous
people on down to poor folks in the
steerage But after it was all over there
were only lost and saved And on the
boat of life you have rich man poor
man beggar man thief butcher baker candlestick maker
everybody But when it's all over There's only
be the Lord and the saved I don't
know how long it's been since I've heard
anybody use that old word lost and say
my my boys lost My girls lost I've
been Listening to see if anybody ever says
it anymore Sinners are pretty hard to find
Today my boys my boys a good boy.
So is the rich young ruler, but he
wasn't God's boy It's gone out of our
vocabulary and yet those are the people Jesus
came to seek and to save the lost
And I turn over to Revelation and there's
another one that jumped out lately and sees
me Revelation 22 11 he that is unjust
Let him be unjust Still after after it's
all over and Jesus comes he that's filthy
Let him be filthy still He that's righteous.
Let him be righteous still He that's holy
let him be holy and still do you
realize dear friend this morning that there's coming
a day when we are going to reach
a point of fixation and What you are
then you will be forever How are you
getting fixed for such a thing?
Remember we're going to be congealed But then
we're going to be forever what we are
then For we have polls today for and
against and Undecided there aren't any undecided about
Jesus Christ If you've reached the age of
accountability You've done one or the other he
that is not witness against me He that
believeth is not condemned.
He that believeth not condemned already.
You're one or the other That's all there
is to it.
Billy Graham says as an American.
I'm a pessimist but as a Christian, I'm
an optimist That's about the way I feel
about it.
Frankly this morning.
I Heard of a little parade of youngsters.
They were doing pretty well except one kid
was out of step all the time And
they checked and found that he had a
transistor radio in his pocket and was marching
to music from a thousand miles away That's
what a Christian does Goes through this whole
world tuned in on heaven.
That's why you can't keep separate you'd better
not with the way this other crowds going
because You are going by the beats of
another drummer.
I Hope you are this morning and making
good time at it I'm glad as an
American to put my hand on my heart
and join and sing in the Star-Spangled
Banner This is the best patch of dirt
there is left on this whole earth They're
trying to get in over here and trying
to get out everywhere else.
It seems to me.
I Love it for rocks and reels and
all the rest of it But I still
get happier when I can sing about that
other country and that Jesus shall reign where
'er the sun doth his successive journeys run.
You know, we're out like David We're out
to crown the king.
I'm I've been working on the son.
I haven't got it to suit me yet
on that David was out to crown King
and They started in the cave of Adullam
I said mighty unpromising looking place Somebody said
the history of many a church is from
cave to Cathedral and get to the Cathedral
the different story sometimes But the thing that
makes me happy is expressed most And the
old boot black and a business firm down
our way He'd been there for years and
they all loved him He was a wonderful
Christian.
Oh, man Had his Bible right beside his
outfit there.
They all knew he was a Christian wasn't
ashamed of it One day one of the
businessmen came around said well, I see you're
reading in Revelation.
Yes Do you understand what Revelation means?
He said yes, he said I wait a
minute Bible scholars have differed on the meaning
of Revelation and you say, you know what
it's all about What do you say he
said it means Jesus is gonna win Thank
God, that's what it does mean why you
could yet 500 theologians together They couldn't come
up with anything better than that.
It means Jesus is gonna win Another Bible
with no devil on the first two pages.
No devil on the last two pages Thank
God for a book takes care of the
devil before you get through Meanwhile, I'm a
pilgrim and a stranger and what the church
needs today is to recover her pilgrim character
We're just passing through We're not citizens in
this world trying to get to heaven.
We're sitting in heaven trying to get through
this world And Paul Harvey says Christians believe
Christ will return and take over When mortals
have made a hopeless mess of self-government,
well, then he ought to come anytime Because
we've done it All we say we've got
democracy Yes And that means government by the
people and the world over the people are
not doing too well with democracy even today
But there's another one I believe in the
theocracy above all and a Christocracy that's coming
and in the meantime Let us render under
Caesar the things that are Caesar and under
God the things that are God You've been
listening to from the pulpit and classic sermon
series this week He heard Vance Havner with
his message the country and the church tune
in next week to hear Joel Rosenberg Talk
about are we living in the last days?
I'm from the pulpit in classic sermons