was, we offered one of these little books, Seventeen Seventy-six, from two nineteen-seventy-six. We have a number left. If you didn't get one, we'd like to have one for a family. So, if you'll see that one member of your family gets one at the end, I think I'll have them over here both sides on the auditorium. I hope you'll get one of these little books. Now, shall we turn over in our Bible to Hebrews, chapter eleven Hebrews chapter eleven and verse thirty two and what shall I more say for the time would pale thee to tell of Gideon and of Baruch and of Jephthah of David also and Samuel and of the prophets, who through faith subdued kingdoms. Notice that. He brought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness, were made strong, whacked valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens, or their enemies. A couple of other scriptures I'd like to read, but I'll just quote them. You'll find over in Proverbs fourteen thirty-four, Righteousness to exalt the nation, but sin is a reproach to any people. But also there's a lovely text in Timothy, or rather in Psalm chapter eleven, if the foundations be destroyed, what? can the righteous do. Now, this is my message for the bicentennial Friday morning. At ten o'clock, I was going to speak on, as I mentioned last Sunday, I had made up a mind to go on through with the Corinthian studies. But about ten o'clock on Friday morning, I thought, well, maybe we should speak on the bicentennial day. of the birthday, celebrating the birthday of this great nation. I don't think I'll be around for the five centennial. I wasn't here for the first century of this great country's birthday. So I'll have what I say this morning on the high centennial. I called into the Albany Herald and asked if it was still time to change my subject. And the man went to the printing department and came back. He says, yes. I said, all right, and the first thing I could think of in this connection was the hymn we were singing, as you saw on the paper, Faith of our Father's Living Still. You know, it's remarkable when you think of the births of a nation. The first nation that had a birthday, as such, and of interest to God, is the nation of Israel. Prior to that birthday of that nation in the twelfth of Exodus, They were just families and tribes. And I'm going to read a verse to you over in Genesis forty-six, and verses three and four, and God said, I am God, the God of thy Father. Fear not to go down into Egypt, for I will there make of thee a great nation. I will go down with thee into Egypt. How wonderful for the Almighty God to say of a certain people, I will make of thee a great nation. And I will be with thee, and no nation is great, unless God is with that nation. And so we have the birthday of the first nation we know of on earth, the nation of interest and concern to God. simply because through this nation we got the Bible. Through the nation of Israel we got our Savior. And through this nation we'll have our King in the day to come. How wonderful then that God has promised a nation, he selected that nation, and it's the only nation with the real future. God never made promises to any other nation For the future that Israel has been come. I don't know whether you took time to read the editorial last night. I thought it was remarkable. I tripped it up. Because you'll notice how everything is migrating to the Middle East. And that little nation, more prosperous and more powerful today than any time in her history, other great civilizations have come and gone, they've been born and died, but the little nation of Israel has survived a century. And he said this relative to the situation of the world. Just one paragraph. What is the pronouncement for today? The Middle East constitutes the most explosive area on earth. All those Arab countries are, with all their money, are buying up all kinds of armor. Aeroplane, some of the best, are even getting to know something about nuclear energy. And there is a place this world has docked to walk. Now, the United States is a wonderful nation, a wonderful country. But that's where the final battle is going to be. And because of those nations and their great resources in oil, they've got untold wealth, and they're buying armaments and weapons of destruction. So and to so another indication of the emergence of Israel and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. How wonderful to think of the great civilization that we live in today. The United States had her birthday two hundred years ago. And one could only thank God for Israel, or for this nation rather, and the place she has had in history. Because people fled from bondage and slavery and tyranny on the continent, and came to this country, saying a terrific fight. for coming over here and enjoying liberty, free from political and religious bondage and tyranny over in Europe. And so they came here, and in God's calendar or on God's calendar, a mere two thousand years, or today, or two hundred years, rather, just a few minutes in the reckoning of God. The Declaration of Independence was drawn up and signed by that noble group of men. They had passed through much, much agony of mind and of heart. And they drew up that wonderful article, that wonderful manuscript, that document known as the Proclamation of Independence. And what those fathers were interested in was the foundation of a coming nation. They were interested in that declaration of independence, and how long would it last? That's why they sought to put everything into the foundation of this nation. And they did a wonderful job. I don't think there is an article drawn into print to surpass it, the Declaration of Independence, and the thing that they were so particular about, drawing over every word, dotting every eye and crossing every teeth, they spent hours and hours in prayer seeking divine guidance for that marvelous document that we praise God for to this day. Why the earnestness about these men and their great concern for this doctrine? Because they knew, and I suppose they felt that this document would last, and never be destroyed, never cease to be tested on the people of this nation. But that's not the case. In this little book... some of you already have, and you'll get one at the end if you didn't get one. You'll find how he refers to that document and how these founding fathers wanted to embed those principles in what? And they speak of a certain expansion bridge, or this brother does, and how there's a certain expansion bridge in this world. I don't know which one he has references. And the great cables of that expansion bridge are embedded in solid rock. Not concrete, but solid rock. I'd like to know where it is. But I do know something about another bridge. And it's a world-renowned bridge, and that's the ambassador bridge. It runs from Detroit over to Windsor, Canada, and I've crossed it many times every time I go north, and when I come back, and Lord willing, in a week or two, I'll be crossing it again. But I remember when it was being built. It almost, we almost thought it's impossible for such an extent, without pillar, could cross the Detroit River. And do you know there were hundreds of heavy cables inside a huge tube, and that tube went to concrete, thousands of tons of concrete, about a hundred foot square, and those cables inside that tube went of a quarter of a mile into the Canadian side and the same on the other side. Why did they do it? And of course, at a time, they flanced, it was because going up to the expanse and the other side coming up. Certainly because they knew the tremendous pressure that was going to be upon those tables. Would it stand the test? Would it stand the trade? And with some apprehension that day came when they were going to test it. My sister Olive, my elder sister, who passed away three years ago, she was among the first of that great crowd that started from the Canadian side. Equal to that, a crowd came from the Detroit side. The dignitaries at the fore, they came to the line in the middle of that bid, the Canadian and the American. and the line you crossed it to the one or the other and the two flags are flying there today. So she told me herself, she said the bridge was packed with humanity and that's the only time they recall it ever swayed. Millions and millions of people have crossed that great bridge since then. That heavenly was its greatest test, tax-rich humanity. They screwed the test. But remember, the Ambassador Griggs will someday break. It can't last forever. Here's the foundation. Why will it not last forever? Because man needed it. And it's got to yield to time. when they built the great Colosseum in Rome. They call it the Eternal City. They thought when they built that hundreds of years ago, it would never crack. It would never yield to time, but it has. They don't have enough money today nor the men to replace that Eternal City. Everything man has built. will crumble into court. And so we find these foundations upon which man builds and trusts. They're made by men. They're going to yield. We only know too well that the declaration of independence a mere two hundred years, and this nation is beginning to crumble. Those remarkable expressions on that document do not have the importance nor the grip upon the hearts of the Americans at one time. And if this nation declines in the next twenty-five years, as it has in the twenty-five years past, I don't think we'll have a try centenary. This document, this wonderful document, has lost its power at great on the hearts of the people of America. Foreign nations no longer tremble at that marvelous doctrine, or do they end as they want to? In other words, it's facing its test today. I don't think there's a day since this declaration was written that That declaration has been under such a stress and a strain and a test as today. What a shame to think of our people have departed from that wonderful doctrine. If you look around today, we see the rise in triumph. We see all that's going on in the political arena. the sandals, the cover-up, the payoff. Things are going on today make you blush unsought of fifty years ago. In the religious world, in the political world, the entertainment world, and all the news media. Oh, the filth and the corrupt that are coming out over the tubes and the airways to feed our youth. Foundations of this nation are being destroyed. He's passing this. And if the foundation be destroyed, what can the righteous do? Nothing. Nothing. But how one loves to think of another foundation. what foundation is that? That's the foundation upon which we as Christians put our confidence and put our trust. Here is a foundation that cannot be destroyed. What's in this foundation? Well, there's a lot in this foundation, but all I can say is the only reason God has spared this country As he spared England, he has a purpose. When I was a boy going to school, we used to sing every day almost, Britannia rules the way. That was Little England. Britannia rules the way, and she did, with her great navy. How we love to sing that and put out our little chest, but here is a We were part of a little nation of some forty million of people at that time in that little aisle off the mainland of the Europe. Her sea lanes of commerce, her paths of her navy were like spiderwebs going in every direction all over the world where she had her colony. And her proudly proud navy was unchallenged. Tanya ruled the way, and she did back then. The color of England on those maps was red, and you could look over the map of the world, and oh, you thought of that little spot, and to think of what it is. In the Second World War, because England began her decline at the First World War. Now she no longer rules the way she'd been overtaken by the United States and Russia. But back in those days when you think of how Britain used to rule the world practically with her Navy and went in and conquered country after country after country, back in the Second World War, I had a strong leader with me, the name of Ray Shuster, and he was all the time plugging for Hitler. And of course that didn't sit well with me and Englishmen. Anything that came out in favor of the Allies, he would ridicule just propaganda. Anything that came out favorable or against Hitler, he would say, ah, nothing of that, that's not true. So one day I said to him, Ray, He used to bring up how England went in and conquered these countries with her Navy and her arms. I said, Ray, do you know what happened when England went in and conquered these lands and these countries and made these colonies? No, he said, what happened? I said, the missionaries with their Bibles went in after the Army and after the Navy. Great Britain opened up all her colonies for the word of God and for the missionaries. And from that little scarlet aisle, missionaries went all over the world. I said, watch following your Hitler army, carnage, bloodshed, atheism. And I said, if Hitler wins this war, It'll be a sad day in the history of the world. England always opened up ways. That was the policy of the count. Because in every reconquered country, it was open up, opened up for the Bible and the missionaries under the name. General Allenby was the man that very general who took over Jerusalem. When he went in, he lifted his hat, but he walked into that holy city, not a shock with pride. Great Britain had for days, but her son is seven. This country seems to replace England. She's standing up for the Jewish nation. God has made it plain that any nation that curses Israel, God will curse. Any nation that blesses Israel, God will bless. Hitler went down in the bath of blood because he killed six million Jews. The United States, thank God, is standing for Israel. And God will stand with us. How she stood the test she's recently passed through, I know not. Those awful days of a few years ago when our college campuses erupted with rebels. And every fiber of this great nation was tested. And then the Vietnam War. And what it is. But she still stands. And today, wherever the United States her flag flies, there's freedom for the Word of God and for missionary. And today the United States is the main base for foreign missions and missionaries. There are more missionaries going out from the United States today than any nation. Yes, and more money is going out. to the missionaries on port and field from this country. For I believe there are more born-again Christians in the United States than any nation on earth. The United States has a great opportunity. But don't forget, the devil's got his eye and aim set on this country. And she's beginning to crumble at the pound gate. They are out to destroy the Declaration of Independence. And the days will come when that flag will no longer flutter over our crowd captain. Oh, the production is the heart of our nation. It's dropped afar. Sin is a reproach to any of you. How long it will take. Only God knows. But this is America's hour. And if the United States were to go down, all the money that leaves its shores, the missionaries that leave this land, it either has to come home or be murdered on foreign fields by nations, anti-Soviet, anti-Gaud and anti-Bright. How wonderful to know that this country, and we need to pray for this country, that God will spare. We're getting back to foundations that I want to speak on that are more important to me than any other. That is the foundations that Christians have. We have a declaration of independence. We have foundation stones that are vital. not only to ourselves as individuals but to this nation and to the world. And if these foundations be restored, what will the righteous be to say very much? Just as the people on that ambassador's page trusted that British fan, just like Israel, When she came up out of Egypt, she was delivered from bondage and slavery by the blood of the Lamb and the power of God. So I believe this nation was started by men of God, behind a lot of prayer, no doubt about that, that they might perpetuate the Bible. And these spiritual founders... And if these spiritual foundations are destroyed, what are we going to do to Christians? In other words, we've rested our all upon these foundations. I've risked my all upon these foundations. What are they? I'm lifting my all for eternity upon the inspiration of the Bible. It's under the tax, this blessed book. Yes, it's the word of the living, God. I believe everything in that Bible from Genesis, the Revelation. That is under the tax in it has been, but it still stands. That's the foundation the devil would like to destroy. None of this stuff about it contains the Word of God. It is the Word of God. God breathed that one strand of the mighty table that I am trusting for eternity. Then the other is the deity of Jesus Christ. Yes, the deity of Jesus Christ. He was the eternal Son of God. He was with the Father. in eternity past. He says that in sense no less than seven times in John's watch. His beginning was not at deathly end. He was with the Father in eternity past. He was equal with God. Friend, that is essential if we're going to survive as Christians in this world. And if the Bible is going to survive Because that's the very power of the word you do away with that. The Bible's loss is pounding. Another foundation is his virgin birth. Born of a virgin. Yes. Born of a virgin. With no earthly power. Conceived by the Holy Spirit. That's another strand or another chain. for these precious truths on which we rest. Then the blood atonement of Christ is going to the cross and shedding his precious blood. Yes, that crimson fluid that flowed through Emmanuel's veins, that's the only way a man can be saved. The precious blood of Christ is atonement. At the cross is another cave. and it'll stand. And there's another, and that is his resurrection. How wonderful the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. He rose from the dead. His body was changed. He had a glorified body. And he came forth from the dead to prove He was the son of the living God. He said, I have power to lay down my life. I have power to take it up again. No man in the history of the world of the human race ever took up his life and came out of the grip of death only the Lord Jesus Christ. Then the Spirit coming, how the Spirit came on the day of Pentecost to give birth not to a nation. but to the church, and yet Peter speaks of it as a holy nation, a peculiar people. And so it is a spiritual nation, and the spiritual nation known as the church had its birthday on the day of Pentecost. And as Israel became a nation when the blood was shed in Egypt, and applied on the upper lip of both on the two-side poles, And by the power of God, they were brought out of it. That was the birth day of the First Nation. Blood was the basis of that birth, and the power of God was delivered. And the birth day of the Church of Spiritial Nations took place two thousand years. And the day of Pentecost, again the blood of Christ, is the basis of its life. The church which he purchased with his own blood. And it took the power of God to raise the one who shed his blood. And it's the power of God through the Spirit that applies the effectiveness and efficaciousness of that blood to the one who believes. And so we find these wonderful foundations with the Spirit's coming. She's a person. And I think thirteen times in a few verses, Brother Beck read on Wednesday night, you have the masculine pronoun he, he, him, and only about five are referring to the personality of the Holy Spirit. Yet these are foundation truths. also the fact of the new birth, that's a foundation for, that's another mighty table, that supports the bridge over which we pass from death to life, from earth to heaven. How wonderful, except a man be born again, he cannot enter the kingdom of heaven, he cannot. It's an absolute impossibility for anyone to go to heaven on the basis of his good life or his good character or any righteousness he has. The word of God to remember this table is just as essential as the other tables did mention, such as the virgin birthed, blood at home of his resurrection. This is just as essential. Man cannot save himself. He's got to be tricked by the Holy Spirit of God, for He'll never enter heaven, because only blood-washed tongues are there, the ransom and the devil. Then another mighty Savior, Christ coming again. He's coming and he's coming soon. Make no mistake about that. The stage is being set. Nations are taking their place on the stage, and soon the curtains will pop, and the Son of God will come, and everyone who's washed in the precious blood of Christ, unborn of the Spirit will be caught up to an even in the air. If you're not saved, I don't care how good you are, you'll be left behind for judgment. Go to coming again of the Lord Jesus. The men are being glorified with them, a body like his, that another nightly table. And these tables will not yield. Declaration of independence has lasted two hundred years, and its cracking is yielded to this wind and panties of men. But this table and this foundation will never crack. It will never yield. It will stand the test of time. It will stand the test of eternity. Here are these foundations, too. Oh, how wonderful. Yes. He sent out us. If the foundation be destroyed. If. hypothetically if means a question mark Paul brings out another text over in first Corinthians fifteen four and if Christ be not risen then our preaching is vain and your faith is vain if hypothetically if but friend that is slaughtered and knocked down by what Paul says over in Timothy, second Timothy, two nine, says, and it's a triumphant assertion, nevertheless the foundation of God stands assured the Lord knows then that it is. Nevertheless, the foundation of God stands assured having this field, the Lord knows then that it is. Anything in the way of a hypothetical nature is knocked over with this fact, thought, no, then that are his. Because the resting upon this mighty foundation, these tables can never yield, nor snap, nor age, nor corrode, or erode. These are just shining steel. After two billion years, these tables will be just as strong as they are today. This foundation can never pass away. Christ says, heaven and earth will pass away, but my word will never pass away. How wonderful. If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous or the Christian do? Nothing. But our foundation will never be destroyed. Christ said upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not be revealed again. How firm a foundation, ye saints, of the Lord, is laid for their feet in his excellent grace. As we see the crumbling principles of the Declaration of Independence and the slow but sure decline and decay of this mighty country. Friend, there's no sign of any decay in the Constitution upon which we rest the word of the living God. the stars and stripes will cease to fly. The national anthem will no longer be sung. It's just as true that this nation was born two hundred years ago, just as sure will she die. Because a man is a failure. But when it comes to the anthem... the national anthem of God's people that will sing and ring forever. It's a hallelujah, of course. Because it cannot be. It cannot be. How confident we can be. I know one thing I'll never be here. In the next hundred years when the price certainly comes around and I don't, if our flag will slide in, And I don't have any idea I'll be here twenty-five years from now, or maybe ten. It makes no difference to me. I'm a happy man. I know my sins forgiven. I'm on the way to heaven. I know that. I've got God's word for it. Not one strand of one cable will yield. my pregress upon this blessed book, and what God declared, and before I could be lost, God would have to tell a lie. For him to do that, he would teach that he God and the universe would collapse. It is impossible for God to lie, and he tells me and he does, but if I trip to his son, I have everlasting life, and I'll never fail, that shall it drown for me. Friends, I trust your planted, and your feet of faith that planted firmly upon this solid foundation. If the foundations be destroyed, what proved the righteous do not it? But their greatest triumph would be when the Lord comes. Righteousness exalts of a nation, but sin is the reproach of any people. We've mentioned the birth of a nation, the birth of the church, but God is interested in the birth of the individual because the church is made up of individuals. When were you born again? Don't tell me when you joined the church. That's insignificant. When did you pass from death unto life? When did you put all your faith, your confidence, your hope in the precious blood of Christ? When did you have a personal acquaintance with Jesus Christ? And he came into your heart and knew you were a new priest in Christ Jesus. That's it. When were you born again? Just as Israel as the first nation that God recognized was delivered from bondage through blood and his power. Just as a church was born two thousand years on the basis of the blood of Christ and his power. So the individual is saved today on the basis of the blood and the power of God. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone, exactly. What are you going to do this morning with our Lord Jesus Christ? That's the question. I read a lot about patriotism, and this great country I've heard and read speeches of statesmen, of presidents, of theologians, and so on, historians. And they use these two words. say what our nation needs to do is get back to God. What our nation needs is a revival of religion. It doesn't need that at all. It's already got too much religion. Why do they go back to Bible land? What this world needs is the Lord Jesus Christ. What this world needs is Christianity, not religion. For the religions of day many of these religious organizations are fighting to Christianity. When did you hear one of these men use the name of the Lord Jesus Christ? It's not religious. You will tell me I needed religion to take me to heaven. I have a good right to say which one. Point is this, there's only one thing. There's only one way to heaven. There's only one foundation you can rest upon for eternity. And that is our Lord Jesus Christ. Take him out of your Bible and suggest another book. Take him out of the world. All you've got is a dead planet flying through through space with its human cargo. on to eternal oblivion. Jesus Christ is your own little. And unless you've got one hundred percent faith and trust in him, you're not a Christian. God wants you to put all your faith, all your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. And the foundation is laid at Calvary. And only what built on that foundation Fest of time and the earth. Oh, that you'd be patriotic to the Lord Jesus Christ. And this Constitution or this Declaration of True Independence and Liberty. Will you take Christ? Will you do so this morning, right now? And you'll leave here a happy birthday. God help you do so. everything our father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ we commend for thy presence we thank thee for thy precious holy word as we look around us and we see the condition that are on the right hand and on the left oh God we just thank thee for the stability and the assurance we have in Jesus Christ A rock that can never yield in the storm of time. A rock though battered by the waves of man's intellectualism. Oh God, it stands majestically amid the storms of time on a face. All the ways of men's knowledge have broken on its door. We thank thee for this rock we have, thy precious holy grace. May some this morning who are drifting in life's turbulence be, O God, may they come to Christ.