Admonition Podcast

Good morning.

In just a few short days, America will celebrate its two hundred and fiftieth birthday, in
a sense.

For two hundred and forty-nine days and few or four hundred two hundred and forty nine
years and quite a number of days ago, the Congressional Congress wrote a declaration.

It began 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 laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them.

A disdecent respect to the opinion of mankind requires that they should declare the cause
which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self evident.

That all men are created equal, and that they are endowed by their Creator with certain
unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just
powers from the consent of the governed, that whenever any form of government becomes

destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it and to
institute new government.

Laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such forms as to
them shall seem most likely to affect their safety and happiness.

The individuals who wrote these words wrote them, many of them being those who believed
firmly in the God of the Bible, many of them representing constituents and individuals in

their home states that believed firmly in the God of the Bible, and believed that because
God exists, rights exist.

Because God exists, there's someone higher than the government.

And because God exists, there's someone higher than the king.

Wanna read you another short passage.

This comes from a song, country music song.

Johnny Cash sang years ago.

I thought maybe it might be a good lead in to the thoughts of our lesson.

I do encourage you, if at all possible, to be back this afternoon.

Cause today's lesson is really kind of a two part lesson.

We're going to talk about this idea of independence this morning.

This afternoon we're going to talk about what do God's people do when their nation falls?

And of the two lessons, I suggest that perhaps the second one is the more important.

But Johnny Cash wrote sang song years ago.

I walked through a county courthouse square on a park bench, an old man was sitting there.

I said, your old courthouse is kind of run down.

He said, nah, it'll do for our little town.

I said, your old flagpole has leaned a little bit, and that's a ragged old flag you've got
hanging on it.

He said, have a seat, and I sat down.

Is this your first time to our little town?

I said, I think it is.

He said, I don't like to brag, but we're kind of proud of that ragged old flag.

You see, it got a little hole in that flag there when Washington took it across the
Delaware, and it got powder burned the night that Francis Scott Key sat watching it

writing, Say can you see?

It got a bad rip in New Orleans when Packingham and Jackson tugging at its seams and it
almost fell at the Alamo beside the Texas f Texas flag, but

She waved on though.

She got cut with a sword at Chancellorville.

She got cut again at Shiloh Hill.

There was Robert E.

Lee, Beauregard, and Bragg, and the South Wind blew hard on that ragged old flag.

On Flanders Field in World War I, she got a big hole from a Bertha gun.

She turned blood red in World War II.

She hung limp, and lo, a time or two.

She was in Korea, Vietnam, she went where she was sent by her uncle Sam.

She waved from our ships upon the briny foam, and now they've about quit waving back here
at home.

In her own good land she's been abused, she's been burned, dishonored, denied, and
refused, and the government for which she stands is scandalized throughout the land.

And she's getting threadbare, and she's wearing thin.

But she's in good shape for the shape she's in, 'cause she's been through the fire before.

And I believe she can take a whole lot more.

So we raise her up every morning, we take her down every night, we don't let her touch the
ground, and we fold her upright.

On second thought, I do like to brag, because I'm mighty proud of that ragged old flag.

You know, when you think concerning this nation that we live in.

It is a nation with a present time.

It is a nation that we can look at and say, well, there's a lot of problems with this
nation that we live in.

There's problems in the government, there's problems in the cities, there's problems in
the states, there's problems in the counties, there's problems in the homes, there's

problems in the schools, and all of those statements would be true.

But as you consider what gave birth to this nation, what gave birth to this nation was a
desire based upon the knowledge of the existence of God, that people should have a right

to worship and serve their God and serve their homes and their families in equity.

In justice, in liberty and in freedom.

All of those are Old Testament and New Testament concepts.

All of those are ideas and ideals that are formulated not in the thoughts of human
psychology and not in human philosophy, but in the words of Scripture.

And there were things going on in that day and time from which a group of colonies
determined that they needed independence from a king in England.

I'm gonna pause for a moment and ask Micah, Will you bring my notebook that's sitting on
the pew there and bring it up to me?

'Cause that's got my sermon notes in it.

And I'll get most of them right, but I might leave one or two out.

Thank you, son.

My wife will tell you if I forget, if she's not around, sometimes I'll leave my head
behind.

Snap screwed on.

I want to spend some time with you this morning thinking about three things.

As we consider this birthday of America's independence, three things from which we must
not declare independence.

As you think concerning the words that those individuals wrote 250 years ago, they made it
clear that they weren't just revolting.

They weren't starting j as a matter of fact, they weren't starting a revolution.

They were simply out of respect declaring why they could no longer remain under the
authority of a certain king.

And so they were declaring their independence with respect.

By writing it down.

But three things from which we must not declare independence.

Turn to Acts chapter seventeen.

In Acts chapter seventeen

Paul is standing in Athens.

And he is discussing with the philosophers of the day, the people of the day who gathered
in their time to there at Mars Hill discuss the new things that they heard, the the new

ideas that they learned, about the new gods that they could worship and follow.

And so Paul stood, verse twenty two, in the midst of the Areopagus and said, Men of
Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious.

For I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an
altar with this inscription to the unknown God.

Therefore the one whom you worship without knowing him I proclaim to you.

God who made the world and everything in it, since he is Lord of heaven and earth, does
not dwell in temples made with hands, nor is he worshipped with men's hands as though he

needed anything, since he gives to all life, breath, and all things.

And he has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on the face of the earth, and
has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings.

So that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for him and find him,
though he is not far from each one of us, for in him we live and move and have our being,

as also some of your own poets have said, for we are also his offspring.

Therefore, since we are the offspring of God.

We ought not to think that the divine nature is like gold or silver or stone, something
shaped by art and man's devising.

Truly these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to
repent, because he has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness

by the man whom he has ordained, he has given assurance of this to all by raising him from
the dead.

Paul makes it clear whether it be a nation, whether it be a people, whether it be any of
humanity, no matter who they are or where they live, they cannot declare independence from

God.

Paul said there in verse 28, for in him we live and move and have our being.

This nation could exist without the influence and the authority of the King of England.

But not one of us can exist without the authority and the influence of God in heaven.

And yet many through time have attempted to declare independence from God.

They have attempted to argue that they do not need a God, they do not need a spiritual
being, they do not need an authority of power greater than themselves.

They can live of themselves and by themselves.

But they cannot.

None of us can.

More so than just in our physical lives.

Truly we cannot declare independence from God in our physical lives in this physical
world, for it will cease to exist if he ever determines that it will.

But even more so in our spiritual lives, turn to John chapter seventeen.

In John chapter seventeen, Jesus, as he was preparing to go into the garden, preparing to
be betrayed, preparing to be crucified for our sins, prayed to the Father.

In John chapter 17 and verse 1, Father, the hour has come, glorify your Son, that your Son
also may glorify you.

As you have given him authority over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as
many as you have given him.

And this is eternal life.

Jesus gives us a definition, a defining picture of eternal life.

He says, and this is eternal life that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus
Christ, whom you have sent.

Jesus makes it clear in our spiritual lives we may not have eternal life while declaring
independence from God.

For eternal life is fellowship with God.

It is knowing who God is, knowing Him in a personal way in eternity.

John would write further in first John chapter three.

Passage which I firmly believe is directly tied to the statement that Jesus made in John
17.

And in first John chapter 3, he says, Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed
on us, that we should be called the children of God.

Therefore the world does not know us because it did not know him.

Beloved, now we are the children of God, and it has not yet been revealed what we shall
be, but we know that when he is revealed, we

We shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

John tells us that not only can we not declare independence from God and have eternal
life, but rather that eternal life will be with the Father and with the Son, and we will

see them as they are.

We are to be eternally blessed in a home in heaven.

We must not declare independence from God.

In Ephesians, Paul would write in Ephesians chapter two.

And he would write to this church, and he said, And you he made alive.

Now Paul wrote concerning our physical existence, or spoke concerning our physical
existence there at the Areobagus and said that in him we live and move and have our being.

But as he writes to the church at Ephesus, he's not talking about their physical being.

He's not talking about their physical life.

He is talking about their spiritual life, and he says, And you he made alive.

Who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of
this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the Spirit who now works in

the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of
the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature

children of wrath just as the others.

But God, who is rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us.

Even when we were dead in trespasses made us alive together with Christ, for by grace you
have been saved, and raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places

in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding great exceeding
riches of his grace in his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves it is the gift
of God, not of works, lest any one should boast, for we are his workmanship created.

in Christ Jesus for good works, which God has prepared beforehand that we should walk in
them.

We cannot declare independence from God, for our spiritual life was created in God and by
God.

Our spiritual existence and our salvation and our hope for eternity

abides exclusively, singularly in God.

For salvation is his gift.

It is not earned, it is not merited, it is received because it was given.

But we as Christians, we as those who have died to the world and died to sin and risen to
walk in newness of life, Romans chapter six, verses three and four, in that watery grave

of baptism, as it is described there, have risen to walk in newness of life, and now we
are his workmanship prepared for good works.

It is not enough to say I pledge allegiance to God.

If you don't don't then do the works that He's given you to do.

It's easy to pledge allegiance to a nation.

The nation doesn't require much of you except show up, pay taxes.

Follow the law, don't get kicked out.

It's pretty easy to pledge allegiance to a king, so long as he doesn't tell you to go to
war.

But God's commitment when you pledge allegiance to the Lord, when you confess the name of
Christ, Romans chapter ten, verses nine and ten, is a commitment to live every single day

doing the work God has prepared you to do.

But you cannot, you must not declare independence from God.

But Paul, as he writes here in Ephesians chapter two, makes it clear that it is not just
God the Father that we must hold allegiance to.

But rather that God gave life to us in Christ Jesus.

And that we must hold allegiance to Christ.

Turn to Colossians.

Paul would write to the church at Colossae in Colossians chapter one and beginning in
verse 15.

And he would write to them, and he says, He is the image of the invisible God, speaking of
Christ, the firstborn over all creation.

For by him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and
invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were

created through him and for him.

And he is before all things, and in him all things consist.

And he is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the
dead, that in all things he may have the preeminence.

God the Father makes it clear you cannot have independence from Christ and allegiance to
God.

That God has put all things, as the Hebrew writer would state, under his feet.

As Paul would write here in Colossians, he has made him to be head over the body, the
church, who is the beginning and the firstborn from the dead.

If we desire a home in heaven, if we desire an eternity with God, if we desire a salvation
from the sin and the iniquity in this world, then we must not declare independence from

Jesus Christ.

Paul would go on, verse 19, for it pleased the Father that in him all the fullness should
dwell, and by him to reconcile all things to himself, whether by him, excuse me, reconcile

all things to himself, by him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made
peace through the blood of his cross.

And you who are once alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now he has
reconciled.

Paul says there was a time where you had independence from God.

Because you were in a state in which you were lost.

You were in a state in which you were succumbing to the wickedness of this world and you
were involved in those things which God says, I will have no fellowship with them.

John would write in first John.

That God is light and in him is no darkness at all.

To declare independence from God, to declare independence from Christ is to declare, I
will walk in darkness and do not the truth.

But Paul will go on, and he will write, and you who were once alienated and enemies in
your mind, by wicked works, yet now he has reconciled in the body of his flesh through

death, to present you holy and blameless, and above reproach in his sight, if indeed you

Continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the
gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which pa I,

Paul, became a minister.

Paul makes it clear that in order to remain in fellowship with God, in order to remain one
who is in allegiance to God, in order to be one who is in fellowship with God and not

independent from him, but one and unified with him, you must not declare independence from
the gospel.

We cannot have our lives separated from the gospel, for it is our hope.

It is that by which He has purchased our redemption and washed us through water by the
Word.

We must not declare independence from God.

We must not declare independence from Jesus Christ.

We must not declare independence from the gospel.

But we must also not declare independence from the church.

Some having left the body of Christ, having left the church that belongs to Jesus Christ,
have said, you know what, I I I think I'll keep Christ, and I'll keep God the Father, and

I'll even keep a form of his gospel, but the church I don't want to have anything to do
with.

You cannot be unified with God, unified with Christ, and unified with the gospel and at
odds with the church.

Not because the church stands as an independent power, the church has not declared
independence from God.

Rather, because when you are in fellowship with God, you are in fellowship with all those
who are in fellowship with God.

And those who are in fellowship with God are those who have been bought, purchased,
redeemed, and have been added by the Lord to the church.

In Acts chapter 2, verse 47, we read that such as those who were being saved were added
daily to the church.

They were added when they were willing to repent of their sins and be immersed in water
for the remission of those sins.

They were added to the body of Christ.

But we cannot and we must not declare our independence from the church.

In 1 Corinthians chapter 12, Paul will write concerning the body of Christ.

For as the body is one and has many members.

But all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ.

For by one spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether
slaves or free, and have all been made to drink into one spirit.

For in fact the body is not one member, but many.

If the foot should say, Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body, is it therefore not
of the body?

Paul looks at the visual illustration of our physical bodies and says, you know what?

The foot looks at the hand and says, You know what?

Since I can't be that hand which does so many great things, that articulates in so many
different ways, that that writes books and that that that uh does all of these wonderful

things and builds all these magnificent things, since I can't be the hand, I'm just going
to declare independence from the body.

Luckily it's a foot, it can walk away.

But Paul says, no, that's not how it works.

For we are all members of the same body.

He goes on to say, if the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing?

If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling?

But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased.

And if they were all one member, where would the body be?

But now indeed there are many members, yet one body.

Now some will come to this passage and they'll say, See, there's there's thousands of
denominations, but it's one church.

You can't get that from the book of Cor First Corinthians.

How do I know?

Well, long before he got into chapter twelve, we were in chapter one, chapter one, verse
ten.

Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak
the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined

together in the same mind and in the same judgment.

For it has been declared to me concerning you, my brethren, by those of Chloe's household,
that there are contentions among you.

Now this I say, each of you says, I am of Paul, or we could say Luther.

I am of Apollos, and we could call the Pope's name.

Or I am of Cephas, or I am of Christ.

Is Christ divided?

Was Paul crucified for you?

Were you baptized in the name of Paul?

Paul has already established there is no authority for divisions, which is, by the way,
what the word denomination means.

There's no authority for divisions in the body of Christ.

First Corinthians chapter twelve isn't dealing with divisions, it's dealing with members.

It's dealing with individuals in the church at Corinth.

The context was the difficulties they were having over the miraculous gifts.

And some of them wanted to be in charge, and some of them wanted a greater gift, and some
of them thought they had a lesser gift.

And Paul says: you can't have a body if all of you are a foot.

And you can't have a body if all of you are an eye.

And you can't have a body if all of you are a mouth.

The members here are not churches, they're not denominations, they're Christians.

And they're part of the same congregation.

He says, And if they were all, verse 19, one member, where would be the body?

But now indeed there are many members, yet one body.

The I cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you, nor again the hand the head to the
feet, I have no need of you.

No much rather those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary, and those
members of the body which think to we think uh to be less honorable, on those we bestow

greater honor, and our unpresentable parts have greater modesty, but our presentable parts
have no need.

But God composed the body, having given greater honor to that part which lacks it, that
there should be no schism in the body.

But that the members should have the same care for one another, and if one member suffers,
all the members suffer with it, for if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with

it.

Now you are the body of Christ and members individually.

And God has appointed these in the church, first apostles, second prophets, third
teachers, after that, miracles, then gifts of healing, helps, administrations, varieties

of tongues, are all apostles.

Are all prophets, are all teachers, are all workers of miracles, do all have gifts of
healing?

Do all speak with tongues?

Do all interpret?

But earnestly desire the best gifts, and yet I show you a more excellent way.

As Paul writes and introduces this idea of the problem and the struggle they were having,
which will continue in chapter thirteen.

as he discusses love.

And he'll continue in chapter fourteen as he discusses the proper order of things in the
worship assembly.

He will make it clear you are all one body.

There is no authority anywhere in Scripture to have an independent Christian.

To have a Christian apart from a congregation.

To have a Christian apart from the body of Christ.

There's no authority in Scripture for independence from the church.

There's no authority in Scripture for independence from the gospel.

There's no authority in the Scripture for independence from Christ.

There's no authority for independence from God the Father.

Things from which we must not declare independence.

Two hundred and fifty years ago.

A group of men came together on behalf of a nation and declared, you know what?

We need to declare independence from England and from a king because we've been abused,
we've been mistreated.

Our rightful position has been destroyed.

It was unjustified, it was unwarranted, and it was unrepresented.

And as a result, given that we know who's the creator of this world and who is not, we are
declaring our independence from a king, from a tyrant.

As we stand here today, some may say, I feel as though maybe God hasn't done everything
that I need him to do.

I I feel as though maybe God hasn't provided for me in the way that I think he should.

I I feel as though he's he's done me more harm than he's done me good.

Perhaps we need to better understand our relationship with God.

For he's given you air to breathe, sunshine to allow things to grow, rain to water the
earth.

He's allowed you to live and move and have your being.

And he's given you Jesus Christ His Son, His only begotten Son, that you might have the
hope of eternal life at the very cost of His Son's life on the cross.

What could you argue with that God hasn't given you?

Some might say, well, you know that I I understand what God's given me, but the church,
the church, the church has done me wrong.

The church has not greeted me the way they should.

The church has not held coddled me the way that they should.

The church has not done this for me and that for me.

Maybe it's time to explore what it means to be a member of the body of Christ and to
understand what the church does for you rather what you do for Christ.

But I can tell you this.

You cannot hold allegiance to Christ outside of the church.

You cannot have independence from the church and unity with God.

There is one place where salvation is found.

It is found in the place that Jesus said, I have come to build my church, and the gates of
hell shall not prevail against it.

If you have need of salvation from this world, from being alienated and separated from
God,

If you desire not to declare independence from God, but fellowship with God, you first
have to be obedient to the gospel.

You have to hear the word of God and believe that Jesus Christ is his Son, that He is God
in the flesh, come in the flesh to die on the cross for your sins, because without Him

there is no path to the Father.

Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

No man cometh unto the Father but by me.

And having heard the word and believing that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, you must
repent of your sins, confess the name of Christ, and be immersed in water for the

remission of your sins, dying to the old man of sin, no longer in allegiance with Satan,
but rising to walk in newness of life, a new creature, a new creation, created in Christ

Jesus, reconciled to God, not independent from our Lord, but unified with Him.

Ready, anxiously awaiting when this life is over, to be able to dwell with him in
eternity, for this is eternal life, to know the only true God and Jesus Christ his Son.

And during your time on this walk, in this life, to dwell together with the body of
Christ, the church, serving God, being workmen of his service.

If you have need of the invitation of Christ, to put Christ on in baptism, you can do that
this morning.

If you're a member of the body of Christ and you've declared independence from God, from
Christ, from the gospel, or from his church.

May I suggest that you sue for a peace treaty, that you return once again to allegiance to
God.

If you have need of the invitation, why not come now?