10-11-2020 – What Should We Vote For?

Bible Text: various | Speaker: Pastor Mike Hale |

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America’s greatness parallels her acknowledgement, application, and adherence
to certain basic principles of the Judeo-Christian Faith. The philosophy and practice
of our founding fathers was guided by Biblical principles, and we need to vote for
those who hold these principles dear.
1. Sanctity of Human Life…
The Bible condemns murder.
Exodus 20:13, “You shall not murder.”
Aborting a baby is murder.
Exodus 21:22-25, “If men struggle with each other and strike a woman with child
so that she gives birth prematurely, yet there is no injury, he shall surely be fined
as the woman’s husband may demand of him, and he shall pay as the judges
decide. But if there is any further injury, then you shall appoint as a penalty life for
life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound
for wound, bruise for bruise.”
Psalm 139:13-16, “For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s
womb. I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; wonderful
are Your works, And my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from You,
when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth; Your
eyes have seen my unformed substance; and in Your book were all written the days
that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them.”
America once led the world in upholding the dignity and value of human life; but
today it legalizes the murder of millions of babies through abortion. And so, today
with have a society that shows more concern for the protection of plants, animals,
fish and birds, then it does for that of human life.
2. Marriages and Families…
God ordained that marriage be between a man and a woman.
Genesis 2:21-24, “God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept;
then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. The Lord God
fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her
to the man. The man said, ‘This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.’ For this reason a
man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall
become one flesh.”
Hebrews 13:4, “Marriage is to be held in honor among all, and the marriage bed is
to be undefiled; for fornicators and adulterers God will judge.
Genesis 4:1-2, Now the man [Adam] had relations with his wife Eve, and she
conceived and gave birth to Cain, and she said, ‘I have gotten a manchild with the
help of the Lord.’ Again, she gave birth to his brother Abel.”
Genesis 5:3, “When Adam had lived one hundred and thirty years, he became the
father of a son in his own likeness, according to his image, and named him Seth.”
This was the first family – a husband and wife (who had been made in the image
of God), purposed and provisioned to become a mother and father, in order to fulfill
God’s plan for them to have and to raise their children in accordance with the
principles and precepts God revealed to them.
Ephesians 5:22-25, “Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For
the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church…
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up
for her.”
Ephesians 6:1-4, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. ‘Honor
your father and mother’— which is the first commandment with a promise— ‘that it
may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.’ Fathers, do not
exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of
the Lord” (cf Proverbs 6:20; 23:22, Colossians 3:20).
A society is only as strong and healthy as the individual marriages and families
within that society. Marriage as God ordained it, is the union of one man with one
women, committed to one another in Christ; family as God ordained it, includes the
children given to the man and woman by God, who are to be raised to know and
honor God.
Common law marriages and same-sex unions are not recognized by God as
marriages, and the godless notion that it takes a village to raise a child is an
abomination to God and a detriment to our society and civilization as a whole..
3. Common Decency and Modesty…
Common decency begins with the covering of human body parts that are
associated with male and female sexuality, as was exemplified in the story of
Creation.
Genesis 2:25, “And the man and his wife were both naked, yet not ashamed.”
In Genesis 3:1-19, we are told that a serpent (Satan incarnate, cf. Revelation
12:9; 20:2) deceives Eve into thinking that not only does the forbidden fruit of the
tree of the knowledge of good and evil look good, but it will taste good and make
her wise, so she eats it and gives some to Adam. God calls out to them, but they
are afraid, hiding, ashamed of their nakedness. God said, ”Who told you that you
were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”
God renders judgement on Adam, Eve, the Serpent, and all of creation.
Genesis 3:21-23, “The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife
and clothed them. And the LORD God said, ‘The man has now become like one of
Us, knowing good and evil.’”
The loss of human innocence and decency is clearly shown in America today,
where modesty, chastity and abstinence are mocked, while pornography has
flourished and is advertised at our news stands, on television shows and in theaters
where obscenity, profanity, nudity and sex, are popularized.
2Timothy 3:1-5, “But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come.
For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers,
disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious
gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless,
conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of
godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these.”
God’s people are to live differently than those who reject God.
Ephesians 5:1, “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.” 5, “For this
you know with certainty, that no immoral or impure person or covetous man, who is
an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.” 7-11, “Therefore
do not be partakers with them; for you were formerly darkness, but now you are
Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light (for the fruit of the Light consists in all
goodness and righteousness and truth), trying to learn what is pleasing to the
Lord. Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even
expose them.” 15-17, “Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but
as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil. So then do not
be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is” (cf. Joshua 1:8), “This book
of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and
night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then
you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success,” (cf. Romans
12:2), “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of
your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and
acceptable and perfect.”
4. God-centered education…
God always intended for Biblical instruction to be given to our children both in
and out of the home, as we teach and model Biblical precepts and principles.
Deuteronomy 6:4-5, 6–9, “Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one!
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with
all your might. These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your
heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you
sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when
you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as
frontals on your forehead. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and
on your gates.”
Proverbs 22:6, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and even when he is old
he will not depart from it.”
In the beginning, all the schools in America used the New England Primer as
their text book – every page of this book proclaims God’s sovereignty in creating
and maintaining the heavens, the earth and all that exists.
In the past 50-60 years, God has been removed from the public education
system, prayers to God have been banned at school, and the true history of
America’s founding fathers’ deep reverence for God’s Word is no longer to be found
in text books, but instead has been replaced by secular humanism, resulting in the
lowering of moral standards and academic performance, while increasing violence,
drug & alcohol abuse, teenage pregnancies and school drop outs.
5. A Work Ethic…
Since the very early days of creation, when the curse of sin began to bring
consequences to our world and everything in it, man was forced to work for his food
by the labor of his hands and the sweat of his brow.
Genesis 3:17-19, To Adam [God] said, “Because you have listened to the voice of
your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying,
‘You shall not eat from it’; cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you will eat
of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you;
and you will eat the plants of the field; by the sweat of your face you will eat bread,
till you return to the ground, because from it you were taken; for you are dust, and
to dust you shall return.”
But even life’s most mundane routines and simplest tasks can bring great joy
and fulfillment to a person who is in a right relationship with God.
There is dignity in a day’s pay for a day’s work, dignity that our welfare system
(which gives something for nothing, expecting nothing in return), has stripped away
from millions of Americans.
America’s free enterprise system, was meant to encourage ambition, incentive,
competition, and hard work, while producing an equitable market for the things we
need; but even so, without God’s blessing no one will find pleasure, fulfillment, or
contentment in their work or the product of their efforts.
Ecclesiastes 2:24-25, “There is nothing better for a man than to eat and drink
and tell himself that his labor is good. This also I have seen that it is from the hand
of God. For who can eat and who can have enjoyment without Him?”
Ecclesiastes 5:18, “Here is what I have seen to be good and fitting: to eat, to
drink and enjoy oneself in all one’s labor in which he toils under the sun during the
few years of his life which God has given him; for this is his reward.”
Ecclesiastes 6:12, “For who knows what is good for a man during his lifetime,
during the few years of his futile life? He will spend them like a shadow. For who
can tell a man what will be after him under the sun?”
Ecclesiastes 8:15, “So I commended pleasure, for there is nothing good for a man
under the sun except to eat and to drink and to be merry, and this will stand by him
in his toils throughout the days of his life which God has given him under the sun.
Ecclesiastes 9:7, “Go then, eat your bread in happiness and drink your wine with
a cheerful heart; for God has already approved your works.”
2Thessalonians 3:6-10, “Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our
Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from every brother who leads an unruly life
and not according to the tradition which you received from us. For you yourselves
know how you ought to follow our example, because we did not act in an
undisciplined manner among you, nor did we eat anyone’s bread without paying for
it, but with labor and hardship we kept working night and day so that we would not
be a burden to any of you; not because we do not have the right to this, but in
order to offer ourselves as a model for you, so that you would follow our example.
For even when we were with you, we used to give you this order: if anyone is not
willing to work, then he is not to eat, either.”
6. God’s Covenant People/God’s Church…
Long ago God told Abraham that out of his offspring would come a great nation
of people through whom all the families of the earth would be blessed.
Genesis 12:2-3, “I will make you a great nation… …and I will bless those who
bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the
earth will be blessed.”
God made an eternal covenant with Abraham, to be shared by every true
believer and follower of Christ.
Genesis 17:7, “I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your
descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to
be God to you and to your descendants after you” (Galatians 3:29), “And if you
belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants [offspring or seed], heirs
according to promise [recipients of God’s blessings].”
This new relationship with God is made effectual through a new birth from God.
John 1:12-13, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to
become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born,
not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”
God wants a people of His very own, a people who will honor and obey Him.
1Peter 2:9, “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people
for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who
has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.”
God established the church, so that His people might know Him, belong to Him,
and serve Him through an eternal spiritual body, of which Christ is the head.
Colossians 1:16-18, “For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and
on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities
—all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and
in Him all things hold together. He is also head of the body, the church.”
1Corinthians 12:12-14, “For even as the body is one and yet has many
members, and all the members of the body, though they are 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 we were all made to drink of one Spirit.” 18
“But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He
desired.” 20 “But now there are many members, but one body.” 27 “Now you are
Christ’s body, and individually members of it.”
7. God’s Civil Government/the State or Nation…
God also established human, civil government.
Romans 13:1, “Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities.
For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by
God.”
1Peter 2:13-17, “Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every authority
instituted among men: whether to the king, as the supreme authority, or to
governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend
those who do right. For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the
ignorant talk of foolish men. Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a
cover-up for evil; live as servants of God. Show proper respect to everyone: Love
the brotherhood of believers, fear God, honor the king.”
And so, we are to pray for the leaders placed over us; but we must obey God’s
Word, first and foremost, above all authorities on earth: Jesus said (Mark 12:17),
“Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s but give to God what is God’s.”
Ultimately, everything is God’s to do with as He pleases: marriages, families,
churches, communities, institutions and nations; but these will all fail, when God’s
sovereign Word is not acknowledged, revered, and applied!
We live in a post-Christian America where the majority of its citizens are either
aggressively opposed to God or overtly indifferent toward Him.
Peter Marshall, a Scottish-American Preacher, appointed Chaplain to the US
Senate (1947-1949) declared, “The choice before us is plain, Christ or chaos,
conviction or compromise, discipline or disintegration. I am rather tired of hearing
about our rights and privileges as American citizens. The time is come, it now is,
when we ought to hear about the duties and responsibilities of our citizenship.
America’s future depends upon her accepting and demonstrating God’s
government.”
America’s greatness is equal to each of its citizens who acknowledge, apply,
promote and proclaim, God’s plan, purpose, and provision of forgiveness for sins
and eternal life through Jesus Christ the Lord.
America is in a spiritual crisis that is not going to end well, no matter who is
elected into whatever positions of authority; but we, as servants of God, should
make the effort to find out what each of the candidates believe, and how they have
voted, in reference to God’s guiding principles, as we have studied them today.
Galatians 6:9-10, “Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will
reap if we do not grow weary. So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to
all people, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith.”
We have the privilege in this country to vote for those who may end up having
earthly authority over us; but be assured of this: who you vote for, is not nearly as
important as what you vote for. In the upcoming election, who you vote for must
exemplify the greatest amount of alignment with what you vote for, i.e., the Biblical
principles we have studied here today.
How can you know what a candidate really believes of stands for? Do your
homework, study how they have voted in the past. Get a copy of the Oregon Family
Council’s Voter’s Guide [www.oregonfamilycouncil.org], and see how each candidate
expresses themself concerning the very important issues we are facing today.
As God’s people, as Believers and Followers of Jesus Christ, we are not to vote
based on a candidate being a Republican, a Democrat, an Independent, a member
of the Green Party, the Tea Party, the Protest Party or the Pajama Party, we are to
vote as Christians, in alignment with that which pleases God, as has been revealed
in and through the clear teaching of God’s Holy, Eternal, and Sovereign Word.
Colossians 3:17, “Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord
Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.” 23-24, “Whatever you do, do
your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men, knowing that from the Lord
you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you
serve..”
Pastor Mike
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