In God is Our Trust is a sermon teaching us that the United States was founded by people who were Christians or at least held Christian principles. There was never a day in our country that everyone was a Christian. It wasn’t true in the past, in the present, and will likely not be in the future. But even those who were not Christians upheld or at least respected and honored Christian principles.
Historical Figures Who Upheld Christianity
Patrick Henry famously said, “Give me liberty or give me death.” when speaking at a church. Henry was one of the ratifiers of the Constitution of the United States. He wrote, “It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists but by Christians. Not on religions but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For this reason, people of other faith have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and the freedom to worship here.” He said that everybody is allowed to be here and worship here according to what other writers said, “as dictates their own conscious either to believe or not to believe.”
Alexander Hamilton, a signer of the Declaration of Independence wrote, “I have carefully examined the evidences of the Christian religion, and if I was sitting as a juror, upon its authenticity, I would unhesitatingly, give my verdict in its favor.” He was saying if the Christian faith were on trial as being real or not, he would have to say yes, that it is real.
Samuel Adams who is also a signer of the Declaration of Independence wrote, “I rely on the merits of Jesus Christ for a pardon for all my sins.” That is the only way any of us can get a pardon of our sins, by relying on the merits of Jesus Christ. It means we realize we are sinners and our sin separates us from God. But that God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten son, Jesus Christ to die on the cross and pay for our sins so that whosoever, that’s anybody, should not perish but have everlasting life. So we trust not in our own works or our own righteousness, or in anything we’ve done or accomplished. But we trust in the righteousness of Jesus Christ to pay for our unrighteousness and our sin. And that’s what Samuel Adams said he believed.
In 1782, a resolution was passed and it read this way, “The Congress of the United States recommends and approves the Holy Bible for use in all schools.” In 1963, not a law was passed to change that 1782 resolution by Congress, instead, a court ruled to take the Bible out of our schools, not by a law that was passed but by a court decision.
George Washington was not a perfect man. He was human, that is to say, he was a sinner like all of us and he said so himself. But he was a man of faith and a man of prayer. One of his prayers contained the following words, “Oh, eternal and everlasting God, direct my thoughts, word, and work. Wash away my sins in the immaculate blood of the lamb and purge my heart by the Holy Spirit. Daily, frame me more and more in the likeness of thy son, Jesus Christ. And living in thy fear, dying in thy favor, I may in thy appointed time obtain the resurrection of the justified unto eternal life. Bless oh Lord the whole race of mankind and let the world be filled with the knowledge of thee and thy son, Jesus Christ.” He believed in carrying out of the great commission that all the world should hear the Gospel.
In 1789, Washington recorded these words, “We beseech thee, God, to pardon our national and other transgressions.” He prayed a prayer of confession of sins individually and nationally. The idea came from the Bible. Daniel prayed and prayed to confess his own sins but also the sins of his people, and we ought to do the same thing.
In the twentieth century, Christian philosopher, Francis Schaeffer, wrote, “One of these days, if we don’t change, we’re going to wake up and find the America that we once knew, gone.” We need to get back to humbling ourselves before God. We need to get back to acknowledging our sins and repenting of our sins, and pleading with Him to forgive us our sins. We ought not to be too proud to admit that we’re sinners or call on God for forgiveness.” Schaeffer was saying that we need a deep spiritual revival all while truly trusting in the Lord Jesus as our Savior and Lord. You can trust the Lord to save you and He will just as He had promised. To make Him Lord, you need to surrender your heart, mind, and soul to Him. One decision is on a matter of salvation while another decision is a matter of spiritual growth and surrender. The key word in the Christian life is surrender. Surrender ourselves to the Lord and not go our own way, not trusting our own righteousness.
Adrian Rogers, a pastor, says there are particular national sins that we can repent of and confess to God. He listed some of them and said sin brings judgment, confession brings forgiveness. Many people want to eliminate God and in particular Jesus from our society. But by doing this do we not invite judgment?
Rogers list includes sins such as these: We need to confess our greed. We are a materialistic nation. We need to confess our neglect of the poor. We need to ask God for forgiveness for thinking we are better than any other of God’s children. We need to confess our sexual immorality. We need to repent of our merciless killing of the unborn. We need to confess and reject the godless humanism that infiltrated our schools.
Are We Willing to Get God’s Blessing?
Can we have the blessing of God again? Can we have a revival? The answers are yes! We can if we will. If we are willing to give our heart to the Lord and willing to surrender to Him. Tell the Lord you’ll do His way, not yours. Not what you want, but what He wants. If you are not willing to do those, then no, we won’t have a revival.
The phrase “in God is our trust” in our anthem The Star-Spangled Banner, means “in God must be our trust” which brings us to Psalms 33. This psalm takes us back to what it means for us as individuals and as a nation to truly say “in God is our trust.” The psalmist opens the psalm saying rejoice in the Lord — be happy that you know God and be happy you can have a relationship with God. He is not so far separated from you that you cannot come and have a relationship with Him. The only thing that separates you from God is your sin. But if you confess your sin to God, He will forgive you of sin and cleanse you from all unrighteousness.
The psalmist goes on telling us to praise the Lord with music and song. Our music should raise everyone’s thoughts to God and not to ourselves. When we sing it should be directed to the one who gave us that skill, not the one who is exercising the skill. The world has its own music and song, but we sing a different song than what the world is singing. Music and thoughts are a great way to express our feelings. But when we come to the Lord we should sing a new song, a song of a soul set free by grace through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. And that our singing should direct not only our own thoughts but the thoughts of others to Him. We can offer to the Lord the best we have.
Our knowledge of God and what we know in our belief about God should and must come from His Word, not our ideas. Down through the ages, philosophers have formulated their own ideas about God. Why not come to the written Word of God, where the revelation of God Himself is given us so that we can understand.
How Did We Get Here?
How did we get to where we are today with theology? We’ve come to a point where we don’t take the Bible literally. We begin to allegorize it. If the bible didn’t mean what it says and if it means only what you want it to mean, then it is meaningless. We need to get back and say this is what the Bible says and that is what it means. If you want to take your Bible seriously, then you’re going to take it literally. We learn from parts of the Bible that are figurative and meant to be illustrations to learn from. The Bible will tell you it if it is figurative as in the use of parables or using the phrase “something like” for example, but we still take it word for word to learn from.
When it comes to you’re right, I’m right, or God’s right, the answer is simple, God is always right. If our thoughts don’t line up with God’s then we are the ones that have to change, not the Bible. Some have changed the Bible to read what they believe. That’s backward. If the Bible doesn’t say what we believe, then we need to change. We are not God, we do not dictate what is truth. We are the ones that need to come and accept the truth. It’s already been given.
The Lord says to us that His Word is right and all work is done in truth and we need to know and understand truth. There are people that say there are no absolutes. There’s a difference between theology and mythology. Things that are real are real and things that are true are true. The Bible is truth and truth is what we have to guide ourselves by.
The Earth is full of the goodness of the Lord. You can find a lot of bad in this world but also a lot of good. The Earth is not Heaven but the goodness in it might be a preview of what Heaven is like. We need to get back to believing that God is the Creator of this world and that He made it by the breath of His mouth, by His Word. Not only did God create everything but He is the force that keeps it all going. There is an order in the universe because God keeps order.
We think we’re so smart we’ve got it all figured out. But the foolishness of God is wiser than men, meaning the least thought that God has is greater than the greatest thought that man has. Why don’t we just take God at His word?
The Blessed Nation
We enjoy God’s blessing, His goodness towards us makes us happy. The psalmist writes that blessed is the nation whose God is the Savior and he writes about Israel. The entire psalm is written as a reiteration of God’s covenant with His people of Israel. If any nation does what Israel is exhorted to do in the psalm, would that not make the Savior their Lord, might they not also be blessed? Could we not conclude that any nation that would make the Lord their Savior might have an inheritance from Him? If we would turn our hearts to the Lord Jesus and submit ourselves to Him, surrender ourselves to Him, might we not be blessed?
The prosperity we’ve had, the freedom we’ve had, is due to the hard work of many people but it would not have occurred were it not for the blessing of God. If we would honor Him and give Him control of our life, do you not think we would see a great moving of the Holy Spirit among our land and outpouring of His favor and of His power? Isn’t this what we need? If we can truly say “in God is our trust,” then can we not be as the another writer wrote, “the Heaven rescued land”? Could we not then be the land of the free and the home of the brave?
If you want to have a good country, a good state, a good county, a good city, a good neighborhood, then be good people. Because a neighborhood, city, county, state, and country is made up of the people who live there. If you want to have a good nation, you’ve got to have good people. Start doing right and things are going to turn out right. You can’t do wrong and get away with it. But you can do right and be blessed for it. If we honor Him and give Him control of our life, then we can truly say “in God is our trust.”
God Loves Us
God is looking at mankind in general. God wants everybody to get to know Him. God made us in His own image and He looks down from Heaven and beholds all the sons of men. God sees all the world’s inhabitants, that is why in John 3:16 it says “and God so loved the world,” meaning everybody, and He told us to love our neighbor as ourselves. The idea that some of us are better than others does not come from God. We need to get that idea out of our hearts and ask God to forgive us and cleanse us.
Sometimes we suffer from the sin of pride; we have an overabundance of pride. We’ve heard of large military forces being overcome by smaller ones. We still need to be strong we need to be strong physically, mentally, morally, and especially spiritually. But sometimes we are too proud and underestimate the other person. That’s why it happens. Don’t trust in the things of this world, but trust in God. Put your faith and trust in Him. Let He be the source of your strength.
Once we have trusted in our own strength, we’ve failed. But once we put our trust in the things that God has given us, then we are promised success. The Lord takes care of those who trust in Him. He saves those who trust Him from death. He gives them eternal life, but He also keeps them. He doesn’t just save them one time, He keeps them even in the worst of times. He keeps us alive forever. But what about between now and forever? What about the rest of this life? Can you depend on God to keep you there? You can depend on Him.
Enjoying God’s Blessings
The psalm doesn’t say that you will never have a problem. It’s not teaching that everything in your life is going to be rosy and not run into any trouble. Nowhere in the Bible is that promise made. Some think that being a Christian means you don’t have problems. That is not the case. The godliest people in the Bible had trouble as did Jesus. God never said you won’t have trouble, but He did say He’d deliver you and bring you through it.
The psalmist says we should pray and rest in the assurance that the Lord is our help and shield. We must trust His holy name and pray that His mercy is upon us as we hope in Him. We enjoy the blessings of God. One of the many blessings we enjoy is freedom. Freedom is fragile and each generation must work to preserve it.
When the Constitution of the United States was ratified, it is said that Benjamin Franklin stepped outside the room and someone asked him, “What kind of country do we have?” Franklin answered, “You have a republic if you can keep it.” It is also true that freedom is not only fragile but it comes at a high price. But it is one of the blessings we enjoy, and if we want to keep the blessing from God then we need to make the Lord our God. If we want His blessing then we need to turn our hearts and minds to Him and that starts with being saved. Trust Him to save your soul. He paid for your sins at the cross. He rose from the grave to conquer death and Hell, and what does He ask you to do? Trust Him and believe.
Once we’ve trusted Him for salvation, then it’s a matter of spiritual growth. Surrendering is continuous, day by day, year by year. Spiritual growth happens at a different pace for each individual. Besides surrendering there is service — first, service to the Lord and then service to other people. Another area of spiritual growth is separation, separating yourself from things that are evil. Watch your conduct and the people and places to stay away from. Stay away from temptation. It all comes down to if we want the blessing, then we need to make Him our Lord.
In God is Our Trust sermon starts with verses from Psalms 33:1-22:
1 Rejoice in the LORD, O ye righteous: for praise is comely for the upright.
2 Praise the LORD with harp: sing unto him with the psaltery and an instrument of ten strings.
3 Sing unto him a new song; play skilfully with a loud noise.
4 For the word of the LORD is right; and all his works are done in truth.
5 He loveth righteousness and judgment: the earth is full of the goodness of the LORD.
6 By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.
7 He gathereth the waters of the sea together as an heap: he layeth up the depth in storehouses.
8 Let all the earth fear the LORD: let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.
9 For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast.
10 The LORD bringeth the counsel of the heathen to nought: he maketh the devices of the people of none effect.
11 The counsel of the LORD standeth for ever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations.
12 Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance.
13 The LORD looketh from heaven; he beholdeth all the sons of men.
14 From the place of his habitation he looketh upon all the inhabitants of the earth.
15 He fashioneth their hearts alike; he considereth all their works.
16 There is no king saved by the multitude of an host: a mighty man is not delivered by much strength.
17 An horse is a vain thing for safety: neither shall he deliver any by his great strength.
18 Behold, the eye of the LORD is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy;
19 To deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine.
20 Our soul waiteth for the LORD: he is our help and our shield.
21 For our heart shall rejoice in him, because we have trusted in his holy name.
22 Let thy mercy, O LORD, be upon us, according as we hope in thee.
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