{"id":19174,"date":"2016-08-28T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-08-28T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/the-bible-and-voting-part-8\/"},"modified":"2016-08-28T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2016-08-28T05:00:00","slug":"the-bible-and-voting-part-8","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/the-bible-and-voting-part-8\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bible and Voting – Part 8"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[65],"series_event":[466],"sermon_service_type":[472],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-19174","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-proverbs","series_event-the-bible-and-voting-2016","sermon_service_type-main-service","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"The Bible and Voting - Part 8","sermon_date":"20160828","sermon_month":"8","sermon_year":"2016","sermon_notes":3899,"sermon_slides":3903,"sermon_mp3":3905,"sermon_id":"828161025114","series_or_event":466,"service_type":[472],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":65,"chapter_and_verse":"14:34","sermon_transcript":"Andy Woods\n\nSUGAR LAND BIBLE CHURCH\n\nAugust 28, 2016\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The Bible and Voting, Part 8\n\nI knew it was just a matter of time before the Obama Administration got wind of my sermons and tried to shut our power down but they didn\u2019t succeed, we\u2019re still functioning.\u00a0\u00a0 That was a joke\u2026 okay?\u00a0 If we could take our Bibles and open them to the book of Genesis, chapter 10 and verse 32.\u00a0 The title of our message this morning is The Bible and Voting, Part 8.\u00a0 And as you\u2019re turning there, as I mentioned last week I did write a little book called The Middle East Meltdown, and we gave them away to the church last week; there\u2019s still a few out there on the name tag table so if you didn\u2019t get one or your spouse didn\u2019t get one, because we\u2019re trying to limit them one to a family if possible, please go and pick up a signed copy of the book .\u00a0 Does everybody have that book?\u00a0 Did anybody read that book?\u00a0 Oh good, wow, that\u2019s impressive, and\u00a0 you came back for church.\n\nOne other thing you\u2019ll find on the name tag table is a conference that\u2019s coming up at West Houston Bible Church, a free conference. West Houston Bible Church may be about 20 minutes from here, and the title of it is Israel Today, Understanding Critical Issues All about the nation of Israel<\/em>. \u00a0It goes Thursday night, Friday night, Sunday morning, Sunday night, that\u2019s September 8-11.\u00a0 And it\u2019s all about a very important issue, the nation of Israel and what is to be our response to the nation of Israel.\u00a0 You\u2019ll see there\u2019s some really good experts that Pastor Robert Dean has asked to participate in or speak; he even gave me a session believe it or not.\u00a0 I\u2019m going to be speaking on why the Christians should support Israel and if my timing is right I might preach that same sermon next week here Sunday morning.\u00a0 But they have all kinds of live streaming and so if you\u2019re interested in that I encourage you to pick up this flyer at the name tag table.\n\nWe are moving into politically incorrect territory; politically incorrect but biblically correct as we like to say, and it has to do with this whole issue of The Bible and Voting.\u00a0 And what we\u2019re trying to accomplish here in a sermon series that really we started on Independence Day weekend, we\u2019re not trying to get into major names of candidates, political parties, poll numbers, but we\u2019re trying to really look at a series of issues where God has actually expressed an opinion.\u00a0 We\u2019ve seen the clear mind of God on a number of political issues that people debate.\u00a0 And people sometimes act, as they\u2019re debating these, that God hasn\u2019t said anything about them at all.\u00a0 And so what we\u2019re doing is a topical Bible study trying to unearth what the Scripture says concerning Bible positions on political issues.\n\nAnd we\u2019ve taken a look at several economic issues and then beyond that we moved on to social issues, we took a look at several social issues, the right to life, same sex marriage and a litany of them.\u00a0 Last week we moved into the whole subject of foreign affairs and we really spent our time talking about the nation-state that God is the author of the nation-state and He is not in favor of global governments and we tried to unpack that.\u00a0\u00a0 And this morning we\u2019re getting into an issue that\u2019s highly related and this has to do with the whole issue of borders, but borders around the country.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0And when you get into this subject of borders around the country we have to begin to understand that God has actually said something about this.\u00a0 And as we look at the mind of God it ought to inform us concerning how we vote or who we vote for, not just in this election cycle but really in any election cycle.\n\nI\u2019ve tried to couch all of these in terms of a question that you could ask of various candidates and here\u2019s the question that we\u2019re looking at this morning; it\u2019s a little wordy so bear with me. Will the candidate enforce our national borders or does he or she favor an open border policy, or a pathway to citizenship to those who have entered the country illegally?\n\nLet me rephrase that or restate it: will the candidate enforce our national borders or does he or she favor an open border policy, or a pathway to citizenship to those who have entered the country illegally?\u00a0 Now would you not all agree with me that this issue is a hot issue in our culture?\u00a0 It\u2019s an issue that is really taken center stage.\u00a0 People today are really not debating abortion like they once did, and other issues, but this issue of borders, particularly national security, has really moved to the forefront of our thinking.\n\nAnd really the question is does the Bible actually address the issue?\u00a0 Does God have anything to say about this, and I believe that He does.\u00a0 There are many voices today and I\u2019ll give you some examples that will argue that insisting on some kind of form of border enforcement, border protection is unchristian, it\u2019s unbiblical they say.\u00a0 In fact, they would argue that it\u2019s immortal to do so.\u00a0 I\u2019m going to show you today that I think the Bible teaches the opposite, and the Bible actually has a great deal to say about this issue, like it does so many issues that we\u2019ve had a chance to look at.\u00a0 So we\u2019re going to divide this into two parts; number 1, I want to lay out, if I could, a biblical\u2026 see this is not my personal opinion, what I\u2019m trying to get into is the Bible, I want my opinion to come from the Bible, a biblical case for border enforcement and then I\u2019ll take you through some objections to what I\u2019ve said and show us how to navigate our way through these things.\n\nBut what you\u2019ll start to discover as you get into this issue is now everybody is quoting the Bible.\u00a0 They\u2019re not quoting the Bible related to homosexuality or abortion but suddenly when it gets into this idea of an open border mentality, suddenly everybody gets biblical.\u00a0 Candidates, or politicians, get biblical and they start sounding like pastors.\u00a0 And the question is, are they using the Bible accurately?\u00a0 Are they using the Bible correctly?\n\nNow last week we got into the whole subject of the nation-state.\u00a0 We saw that God is in favor of the nation-state, the individual nations, and not world government and we developed that, really, from the tower of Babel.\u00a0 So notice, if you will, and this lesson kind of builds on last week, notice, if you will, Genesis 10 and verse 32, the dawn of human history just after the flood.\u00a0 It says this: \u201cThese are the families of the sons of Noah, according to their genealogies, by their nations;\u201d plural, \u201cand out of these the nations were separated on the earth after the flood.\u201d\u00a0 Notice it talks about \u201cnations\u201d being separated.\u00a0 Now how in the world did that happen?\u00a0 I\u2019m glad you asked because the next chapter, Genesis 11, tells us how.\n\nNotice what that chapter says, let me re-read these to you, the famous story of the tower of Babel that we read about as kids in Sunday School.\u00a0 It says this: \u201cNow the whole earth used the same language and the same words.\u00a0 [2] It came about as they journeyed east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.\u00a0 [3] They said to one another, \u2018Come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly.\u2019 And they used brick for stone, and they used tar for mortar.\u00a0 [4] They said, \u2018Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name, otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.\u2019\u00a0 [5] The LORD came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. [6]The LORD said, \u2018Behold, they are one people, and they all have the same language. And this is what they began to do, and now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them. [7] Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another\u2019s speech.\u201d\u00a0 [8] So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped building the city. [9] Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of the whole earth; and from there the LORD scattered them abroad over the face of the whole earth.\u201d\n\nThis is a record of what I like to call the first United Nations Conference or Summit.\u00a0 Of course they weren\u2019t meeting in New York City, they were meeting in a place called Shinar; Shinar is the Hebrew word for that area between the rivers.\u00a0 In fact, in Greek it\u2019s called Mesopotamia; \u201cMeso\u201d means middle, \u201cpotamia\u201d you recognize the word Potomac as a river, \u201cpotamia\u201d in Greek means rivers.\u00a0 This project was coming together in the midst of the rivers and the rivers, of course, would be the great Euphrates River and the great Tigris River, Shinar.\u00a0 It\u2019s the same area that the children of Israel were taken into captivity later on in biblical history, Daniel 1:2.\u00a0 [Daniel 1:2, \u201cThe Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, along with some of the vessels of the house of God; and he brought them to the land of Shinar, to the house of his god, and he brought the vessels into the treasury of his god.\u201d]\n\nAnd they were coming together as one group in disobedience to the direct will and command of God and they were trying to construct a one-world system, a new world order, if you will, which is a system of politics, economics and religion which excludes God.\u00a0 We know that they had excluded God because they were seeking to make a name for themselves.\u00a0 Perhaps it was a form of works righteousness whereby the sinner thinks he can climb his way into heaven and into the presence of God.\n\nJosephus, the first century historian, in his writings tells us that the reason these builders built this tower is they were saying to God we\u2019re going to get so high on this tower that the flood, should it ever come again, is not going to affect us.\u00a0 You can judge the world, God, as You did through the global flood but we\u2019re going to make ourselves impervious to Your future judgment.\u00a0 And so it was an exercise in humanism and self-absorption, without the mind of God, that these people were involved in. We know from this story that God intentionally disrupted the workers; He confused their languages so that they could not cooperate with one another and the whole project is stopped dead in its tracks.\u00a0 And from this stalled project comes the great nations of the earth.\u00a0 People that spoke one language went one direction; people that spoke a different language went a different direction.\u00a0 We\u2019re not told how many languages were created as a result of God\u2019s confusion but this is the origin of the different nations, the different ethnicities and actually the origin of separate nations, not world government, but the nation-state.\n\nWhy did God stop them?\u00a0 He says it in verse 6, \u201cNow nothing \u00a0which they purpose to do will be impossible for them.\u201d\u00a0 As we have mentioned, if only one government exists on planet earth and it falls into the wrong hands, like an Adolf Hitler, a Saddam Hussein, a Fidel Castro, a Mussolini,\u00a0 then there is no restraint against evil that can be ushered in.\u00a0 But with the concept of multiple governments, if one government gets out of control the other nations can arise and check and balance the evil taking place within that one nation, sort of like the Allies did against Hitler in World War II.\u00a0 Thank God for multiple nations!\u00a0 Thank God a conglomeration of nations oppose the diabolical plans of Adolf Hitler.\u00a0 Think if there weren\u2019t any countervailing\u00a0 influences; Hitler could have his way and do whatever he wanted.\n\nAnd the reason God set this up this way is because of His view and understanding of human nature; He says in Genesis 8:21, not far from our context, \u201cthe intent of man's heart is evil from his youth.\u201d\u00a0 [Genesis 8:21, \u201cThe LORD smelled the soothing aroma; and the LORD said to Himself, \u2018I will never again curse the ground on account of man, for the intent of man's heart is evil from his youth; and I will never again destroy every living thing, as I have done.\u2019\u201d]\n\nSo we need to take power and we need to de-centralize it because after all, \u201cAll power tends to corrupt\u201d as Lord Acton said, \u201cand absolute power corrupts\u201d what? \u201cabsolutely.\u201d\u00a0 God is into divided power, not power centralized in a man, in this case they were trying to centralize power in the name of this man, Nimrod.\n\nSo what you discover in the Bible is after this incident the normal ordering of God in post-fall, post-flood humanity are different nations.\u00a0 In fact, as you go through the Bible what you discover is many, many different references to different nations.\u00a0 There are many, many verses I have on the screen there, Old Testament and New.\u00a0\u00a0 [Since Babel, Deuteronomy 32:8; Acts 17:26; Millennium, Isaiah\u00a0 2:4; 66:18; Zechariah 14:16-18; Revelation 12:5; 20:3.\u00a0 Eternal State, Revelation 21:24, 26.]\n\nBut one of the most profound is Acts 17:26, this is Paul\u2019s address at Mars Hill and he makes reference to the doctrine of the nation-state that God established.\u00a0 Paul says in that sermon, in Greece, \u201cand He made from one man\u201d that would be Adam, \u201cevery nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation.\u201d\n\nDeuteronomy 32:8 says, \u201cWhen the Most High gave the nations\u201d plural \u201ctheir inheritance, When He separated the sons of man, He set the boundaries of the peoples\u2026\u201d\u00a0 So apparently God is into, or wants this concept of individual nations as a way of restraining evil so that people can be protected from evil, that\u2019s one of the great institutions of God, the nation-state, and they might live in some form of peace, not perfect peace, and they might, in their own individual nation seek God, and God would, of course, send information to these various nations about His Son and His plan of redemption.\n\nBut the concept of the nation-state is part of the design of God, it\u2019s part of the order of God and it is one of the ways that the Creator has established, given our innate sin nature, of keeping evil in check.\u00a0 Without the nation-state you have global government that could easily fall into the wrong hands or perhaps it falls into the right hands but the person running it become corrupted, which is easy to happen given the imperfectability of man\u2019s sin nature.\n\nAnd by the way, you see the concept of the nation-state many times mentioned even in the Millennial Kingdom.\u00a0 Psalm 2:8 says this of Jesus, \u201cAsk of Me, and I will surely give the nations\u201d plural \u201cas Your inheritance, And the very ends of the earth as Your possession.\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s interesting, even into the eternal state, probably for different reasons, God allows the doctrine of the nation-state to continue.\u00a0 He says, Revelation 21:24 \u201cThe nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it.\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s almost as if that what happened at the tower of Babel is so severe that it formed a precedent for all ages to follow.\u00a0 God restructured and reordered humanity.\n\nThus, to disrespect the doctrine of the nation-state is to disrespect God.\u00a0 To rebel against the doctrine of the nation-state, to try to reduce it to something that God never intended it to be is actually to rebel against God Himself.\n\nSo that raises a pretty interesting question; what is the sine <\/em>qua non<\/em><\/em> of a nation.\u00a0 You say what is he talking about, is he speaking in tongues up there, what is this sine qua non business?\u00a0 It\u2019s a Latin word; it simply means without which there is nothing.\u00a0 In other words, what are the basic essentials that you have to have to call yourself a nation, and if you were to remove one of those essentials the whole thing would collapse and you wouldn\u2019t be a nation any more.\u00a0 What is the basement essential of a nation?\u00a0 And most would agree a nation has to have three things or it can\u2019t be a nation: number 1, a common language; number 2, a common culture, or set of values, and the third thing you need is borders, national borders.\u00a0 You deny any one of those three things, whether it\u2019s a common nation, a common culture or common borders and you really are no longer a nation.\n\nSo this begins to help us understand the mind of God on the whole subject of borders and on the whole subject of immigration to rebel against the concept of borders is to rebel against a decree that God Himself gave at the tower of Babel.\n\nNow let\u2019s ask another question here: why borders?\u00a0 Why are borders so significant?\u00a0 Why are borders so essential to a nation?\u00a0 If you have what are called porous borders, if you have what are called open borders, and people enter the country at will without really understanding the values of a particular country, you begin to develop what are called parallel societies.\u00a0 Another name for this is multiculturalism.\u00a0 You\u2019re watching the whole experiment in multiculturalism in Europe as I speak.\u00a0 Don\u2019t take my word for it, listen to the words of German Chancellor Angela Merkel.\u00a0 She says, \u201cMulticulturalism leads to parallel societies and therefore remains a \u2018life lie\u2019 or a sham,\u201d she said, \u201cbefore adding that Germany may be reaching its limit in terms of accepting more refugees.\u201d\u00a0 She says, quote, \u201c<\/em>The challenge is immense, we want and we will reduce the number of refugees noticeably.\u201d\u00a0 On another occasion she said this:\u00a0 \u201cOf course the tendency had been to say, \u2018Let's adopt the multicultural concept and live happily side by side, and be happy to be living together with each other.\u2019 But this concept has failed, and failed utterly.\u2019\u201d\n\nAnd what she is referring to is this mass of migration into Europe, particularly from Islamic countries, people come into the culture not really respecting the culture, wanting to build their own society, a parallel society, a lot like what\u2019s happening to a large extent in the United States of America where there are actually documented cases where the Muslims don\u2019t want to function under American law; they want their own Sharia Law system.\u00a0 Merkel is saying we\u2019ve gone down that road, we\u2019ve tried it and quite frankly, it hasn\u2019t worked and beyond that it\u2019s a miserable failure.\n\nYou see borders are necessary to prevent these parallel societies from developing, otherwise things become what we would call volcanized, where different languages start to emerge and one group is speaking one language within a culture, and another group is speaking another language within a culture and there is utter confusion; there is no common cultural cohesion which holds together the nation-state.\n\nIt\u2019s a lot like the description that is given in the book of Daniel, chapter 2, verse 40 and following of the empire of the antichrist, which is described as iron and clay mixed together.\u00a0 [Daniel 2:43, \u201cAnd in that you saw the iron mixed with common clay, they will combine with one another in the seed of men; but they will not adhere to one another, even as iron does not combine with pottery.\u201d]\u00a0 The iron and the clay are of such a different substance; they are of such a different component that they don\u2019t hold together properly.\u00a0 A true nation can have no such thing or else it really is not a nation.\n\nBryan Fisher, a writer, says this: \u201cNo one has a constitutional or moral right to immigrate to the United States.\u00a0 The Constitution gives Congress unilateral authority to decide what conditions those from foreign lands are admitted in our country.\u201d\u00a0 What he\u2019s saying is it is within the right of a nation to control how to and under what circumstances people can pass through the border and become legalized citizens.\n\nNow when you begin to talk like this I know what you\u2019re thinking: boy, Andy, you\u2019re going to have a tough week with e-mail this week because you\u2019re going to be called basically every name in the book.\u00a0 Here are the common ones: Number 1, you\u2019re a racist; number 2, you are a bigot, and then my personal favorite, you\u2019re xenophobic, phobia is, as you know, is an irrational fear, when they call you xenophobic or even homophobic they\u2019re basically saying you\u2019re insane, you\u2019re not dealing with a full deck, you\u2019re one taco shy of a platter.\u00a0 Xenophobia is the idea that you have this irrational hatred of other people groups entering the country and you\u2019re just completely in love with your own country and your own culture.\n\nI would like to counter that by mentioning something extremely important.\u00a0 The fact of the matter is America is the most generous country in the world when it comes to legal immigration.\u00a0 America accepts more immigrants than any other nation on planet earth; in fact, if you want the numbers on this America accepts over eight hundred thousand legal immigrants a year.\u00a0 All of us are descendants of immigrants; nobody is down on immigrants.\u00a0 We\u2019re drawing a distinction here between legal and illegal, because you see, when somebody goes through the proper steps and stands in line and goes through the proper education they\u2019re entering a society promising not to fundamentally transform that society but to function within the boundaries and the borders and the common culture and common values with that society.\u00a0 That\u2019s why legal immigrants are given tests and exams about the United States Presidents, our Constitution, The Declaration of Independence and other founding documents of the United States of America.\n\nBut you see, illegal immigration is a different world.\u00a0 Under the rubric of the illegal immigration you can pass through a country\u2019s borders and you could have no respect for that host country.\u00a0 Or in fact, you can have an agenda in mind to shift or change that fundamental structure of that country.\u00a0 And that\u2019s why there is a reaction today, not against legal immigration but against illegal immigration.\n\nBorders, in a certain sense, function like a doctrinal statement of a church.\u00a0 Sugar Land Bible Church has a doctrinal statement.\u00a0 We have a statement of faith, and we have position statements, and that way if you want to join this church or you want to become a participating member of this church\u00a0 you know the type of teaching and the type of doctrine that you will receive here because it\u2019s all very well spelled out, laid out I think in very meticulous detail.\u00a0 And so we do not grant membership to people in Sugar Land Bible Church (with perhaps some very limited exceptions) if they have some fundamental disagreement with the doctrinal statement.\u00a0 And perhaps they\u00a0 may have a fundamental disagreement with a doctrinal statement but are you going to come into this church and create what I would call a parallel society?\u00a0 This church believes in the Trinity, suddenly you\u2019ve got a group forming over here that doesn\u2019t believe in the Trinity and now you have a lack of cohesion amongst the body of Christ.\u00a0 What prevents that at Sugar Land Bible Church is a doctrinal statement.\u00a0 Those that enter America must adhere to the rules of our culture which we have a right to set up, our doctrinal statement.\u00a0 That is our common set of values, common language, and common borders.\n\nNow let\u2019s just throw out the concept of borders for a minute; then what happens?\u00a0 Danger, danger happens!\u00a0\u00a0 Let me ask you a question: do you, in your house, where you live, do you just keep the door wide open and let anybody come in and out at will?\u00a0 Of course you don\u2019t; that would be crazy to do something like this.\u00a0 We all instinctively understand that we let certain people into our home, others we may not let into our home because I, as a homeowner,\u00a0 have a right to protect myself, my property and my family.\u00a0 That\u2019s what the nation-state under God is allowed to do.\u00a0 Otherwise you can have people passing through a border that have nefarious motives.\n\nFor example, like we saw recently in Paris; the recent attack in Paris is largely believed to have been instigated by at least some un-vetted Syrian refugees, I don\u2019t mind Syrian refugees that are vetted, but this is talking about un-vetted Syrian refugees that had crossed the national border.\u00a0 If ISIS, which claimed responsibility for the Paris attack can infiltrate the un-vetted Syrian refugees coming into Europe the great fear among Americans is that ISIS has similarly infiltrated the Syrian refugees now pouring across the American border and into the United States.\n\nIf you don\u2019t have an enforceable border you deny safety.\u00a0 Who here has heard of the Beltway Sniper, Lee Malvo, let\u2019s not forget the Beltway Sniper who killed ten Americans and injured three during his 2002 shooting spree.\u00a0 Let\u2019s not forget that he was an illegal, not legal, illegal immigrant from Jamaica after being arrested in 2001 he was not deported but was released without bond.\u00a0 Ten Americans would be alive today had this individual been properly deported.\u00a0 We\u2019re not talking about racism; we\u2019re not talking about xenophobia, we\u2019re not talking about an irrational fear of people that may have a different accent or skin color than we may have here in the United States.\u00a0 We\u2019re talking about common sense.\n\nAnd one of the great tragedies of our day and of our society is we have so bought into the concept of political correctness that common sense thinking has disappeared.\u00a0 And we need to begin to go back to the Bible, we need to go back to God\u2019s Word and see that God actually has something to say about this concept of the nation-state.\n\nI would say this, and I, of course, have compassion for anybody that would enter the country with the hope of bettering their lives.\u00a0\u00a0 This country has been so good to me individually, and my family, and many of you that I would wish it, if I could, on every person on planet earth.\u00a0 But the fact of the matter is this: if someone has entered the country illegally, has not shown proper respect for the unique culture and language and heritage and borders of the United States of America, I would say this, that they are directly violating the will of God in their actions, because my Bible says that we, as Christians, should submit to the laws of the land.\u00a0 Romans 13:1-7, 1 Peter 2:13-17, Titus 3:1.\n\nAnd the last time I checked one of those legitimate laws of the land was a borders law and policy. Titus 3:1 says, \u201cRemind them to be subject to rulers, to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good deed.\u201d\u00a0 And I know there\u2019s all sorts of words of compassion and bettering one\u2019s self tossed in the direction of illegal immigrants but there\u2019s a reason we call them illegal immigrants; they have not submitted to the laws of the land.\u00a0 They find themselves in violation of multiple New Testament passages.\n\nAnd beyond that, if somebody will not respect the laws of the land when entering the country how in the world can they be trusted to keep the rest of the laws of the land once they are in the country.\u00a0 And it sets up a precedent, if you will, for a disrespect for the law and a discarding of the legal system of a culture.\u00a0 That\u2019s where we find ourselves today.\u00a0 We find ourselves outside of (in the way we think about this) the will of God and the mind of God.\n\nAnd you say wow, this is pretty heavy stuff.\u00a0 Certainly there are some objections, aren\u2019t there?\u00a0 The fact of the matter is there are plenty of objections to what I just said.\u00a0 Some of them are articulated by visible key public figures using the Bible.\u00a0 If you\u2019ll indulge me I\u2019m going to try to address some of those. \u00a0\u00a0The fact of the matter is 1200 people, 1200 individuals daily, every day, come across the Rio Grande River and enter our country illegally.\u00a0 Most, some, are of Hispanic descent, others are what are called OTM\u2019s, Other Than Mexican, Middle Eastern, who knows what country these people have come from, who knows if they are some sort of adherent to some sort of violent Jihadist concept, like Islam.\u00a0 And this is the reality that we face.\u00a0 And it\u2019s a very frustrating issue to look at because nobody seems to want to do anything about it.\u00a0 One group of people, and perhaps one particular party likes the idea because it\u2019s cheap labor for our businesses.\u00a0 Perhaps another group or another political party likes the whole idea because we can get these people registered to vote and we think they\u2019re going to vote for us the next time around.\u00a0 \u00a0So one party won\u2019t do much about, with very few exceptions; the other party won\u2019t do much about it.\n\nNow the globalist that I mentioned last week, the one-worlders, the people that think that the problems of the world can only be solved through the implementation of a one-world government are all about the erasing of borders.\u00a0 They are about conglomerating nations into what are called regions.\u00a0 I quoted this well-known globalist, Henry Steele Commager, who wrote this: \u201cThe inescapable fact, traumatized by the energy crisis, the population crisis, armaments race, and so forth, is that nationalism\u201d in other words what God established at the tower of Babel, \u201cnationalism as we have noted in the 19th<\/sup> and much of the 20th<\/sup> century is as much of an anachronism today as with States Rights when Calhoun preached it and Jefferson Davis fought against it.\u00a0 Just as we know, or should know, that none of our domestic problems can be solved within the artificial boundaries of the states, so none of our global problems can be solved within the largely artificial boundaries of the nations.\u201d\u00a0 [cited in The New World Order, page 147]\n\nThis is what you call globalist thought, globalist think, and what they say is it\u2019s true that at one time in America the 50 states had the power but they had to kind of grow up, they had to evolve, they had to over time cede more and more of their authority to a giant federal government (that I like to call Fedzilla) and the states needed to submit to the authority of the federal government or the national government and that\u2019s how we were able to solve a lot of our problems in America.\u00a0 That\u2019s how these people think.\u00a0 So they are not in favor of what we call state\u2019s rights, the way our Founding Fathers set up our Constitution and form of government.\u00a0 The 10th<\/sup> Amendment makes it very clear, the power is really to reside with the individual state government.\n\nIn fact, The Federalist Papers say the power of federal government is few and defined; the power of the state governments are numerous and indefinite.\u00a0 Any honest study of American history will show that our Founding Fathers wanted power decentralized, kind of like what God did at the tower of Babel.\u00a0 But you see, all of that has been reversed.\u00a0 State governments have less and less power and the federal government has more and more power, and globalists are saying we need to see that same process work its way out at the international level.\n\nAll of these individual countries, like for example, the United States of America, need to bow and acquiesce to some sort overarching global framework.\u00a0 American officials need to take their primary ques, not from the people that elected them, but rather from a global coalition, global thought.\u00a0 And if you believe that that means you believe that the people you voted into office are really not responsible to\u00a0 you; they\u2019re responsible to the international community.\u00a0 This is the wave of globalism so prominent in our time.\u00a0 And if that\u2019s the way I think, I don\u2019t really care about borders of America, I don\u2019t really care about the borders of Mexico, I don\u2019t care about the borders of Canada, I really don\u2019t care about the borders between the individual European states.\u00a0 What I want to do is I want to regionalize those areas.\n\nSo Jean Monet, who is largely thought of as the father of the European Union, and I hope you understand this, that the tiny European nation-states really have very little power today.\u00a0 They are largely what I would call debating societies.\u00a0 The real source of power is in Brussels, which reigns over the region of Europe; this is the reaction that you just saw called Brexit, where the British got tired of this and voted themselves out.\u00a0 I\u2019m tired of somebody that I don\u2019t even know, somebody I don\u2019t vote for, somebody in some tiny removed part of Europe telling me how loud my lawnmower can be, how much gas I can put in my car.\u00a0 And this is the concept of regionalism.\u00a0 If you are into regionalism you really don\u2019t care about the doctrine of the nation-state or the doctrine of the borders.\u00a0 In fact, many of the things that I\u2019m saying here today from the Scripture would be viewed as a thwarting of progress.\n\nJean Monet, the architect of the European Union said just that: \u201cThe sovereign nations of the past can no longer solve the problems of the present; they cannot insure their own progress or control their own future.\u00a0 And the European community itself\u201d watch this, \u201cis only a stage on the way to the organized world of tomorrow.\u201d\u00a0 [Jean Monet, Memoirs<\/em> (New York: Doubleday, 1978), 524.]\n\nLet\u2019s form several regions around the world, let\u2019s pick a random number, let\u2019s form ten regions.\u00a0 Oh my gosh, that sounds a lot like Daniel 2, doesn\u2019t it?\u00a0 And Daniel 7, a ten-king confederacy reigning over the earth that the antichrist himself will actually subdue and reign over.\u00a0 First we move into regions, then we move into globalism and one of the great impediments along the way is not just nationalism, not just patriotism but it is the concept of borders which have to be erased.\u00a0 You see, if you are arguing for borders from the Scripture, as I am arguing today, you are arguing against both political parties (I realize there are some exceptions) that really don\u2019t want to hear what you have to say.\u00a0 You\u2019re also arguing against the regional global direction that the elites are pushing us in.\n\nAnd the question is, do these elites have arguments?\u00a0 In fact, they have a lot of arguments.\u00a0 In fact, they are so sophisticated with their argument that they actually begin to quote the Bible.\u00a0 Isn\u2019t that interesting, in a political controversy people will start quoting the Bible?\u00a0 Why are they quoting the Bible?\u00a0 They\u2019re quoting the Bible because they are seeking a source of authority for their argument.\n\nDavid French describes or summarizes these elites, quoting the Bible to argue against borders in the nation-state; writing in the Guardian, French says, Giles Frazier declared that there was no (quote) \u2018\u201cno respectable Christian argument for fortress Europe, surrounded by a new iron curtain of razor wire to keep poor dark-skinned people out.\u201d\u00a0 So that obviously conjures up imagery of Auschwitz<\/em> barbed-wire fences, and the fact that he mentions here \u201cdark-skinned people\u201d means that if\u00a0 you believe in this concept of the borders you actually are inherently racist.\n\nFrench goes on and he says his theological argument is, notice how spiritual these quotes get, \u201cthat the Passover and the Eucharist are a call to relive basic human solidarity with the refugee in the face of existential fear and uncertainty.\u201d\u00a0 Then they go on, they quote Jesus, \u201cIndeed, Jesus\u2019 flight to Egypt\u201d I assume they\u2019re referring there to Matthew 1, Matthew 2, \u201cJesus\u2019 flight to Egypt was\u201d (quote) \u201cdeliberately sampling the basic foundational myth of the Exodus.\u201d\u00a0 Close quote.\n\nMark Woods, a Baptist pastor, by the way, no connection to me whatsoever, Mark Woods, a Baptist pastor referred to (quote) \u201cthe stark and terrifying parable of the sheep and the goats, where Jesus decrees \u2018depart from Me you who are cursed into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels,\u201d this guy sounds like a fundamentalist, \u201cbecause I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me.\u201d\u00a0 [close quote]\n\nThink Progress, the name of a group, used the same Scripture to condemn Christian governors who oppose allowing Syrian refugees into their states.\n\nAnd then the President of the\u00a0 United States, I think it was Gabe, said did you see the President\u2019s speech and I said no, I try not to watch his speeches, but it was an important speech because he was doing what we call executive amnesty where with the stroke of a pen he made legal five million illegals in the country\u2026 executive amnesty, no oversight from Congress, no official law was passed, the President just decided to do that and he gave a speech defending it.\u00a0 And Gabe said he\u2019s quoting the Bible when he does this.\u00a0 I said\u00a0 you\u2019re kidding, he\u2019s quoting the Bible to defend executive amnesty?\u00a0 Then all of a sudden, as a Bible student I got interested.\u00a0 How is he using the Bible to do this unilateral act?\n\nPresident Obama himself used biblical imagery to taunt opponents of his refugee resettlement program as (quote) \u201cscared of orphans and widows,\u201d (close quote).\u00a0 \u201cAs a general matter advocates of open borders often refer to the Mosaic law requiring the Israelites to treat the \u2018foreigner residing with you\u2019 as if foreigners were \u2018native-born\u2019 and to \u2018Love them as you love yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt.\u2019\u00a0 The laws of Israel, they point out, applied equally to the \u2018foreigner\u2019 and the \u2018native born.\u2019\u201d\u00a0 [http:\/\/www.nationalreview.com\/article\/427278\/\/syrian-refugees-bible-argument-against]\n\nSo suddenly we\u2019re being subjected to these various verses from the Old Testament that indicate that the nation of Israel was to be kind and compassionate to the foreigner living in their midst, because after all, you yourselves were once a foreigner.\u00a0 I want you to understand how deep this thinking is in the minds of people.\u00a0 They\u2019re not quoting Genesis 10, they\u2019re not quoting Genesis 11, they\u2019re spuriously and rapidly going through the Bible and they\u2019re throwing verses together to justify a globalist open-borders policy.\n\nThis even came up in one of the Presidential debates, very early on, I think it was in Las Vegas, all of the Presidential candidates for the Republican side were in a debate and a question came up.\u00a0 This question was asked by a college student.\u00a0 And I want you to hear this question because this is the type of indoctrination that the youth are under constantly.\u00a0 This actually comes from CNN, Wolf Blitzer, he says: \u201cWe have another question from Facebook, let\u2019s listen.\u201d\u00a0 Here comes the question.\u00a0 \u201cMy name is\u201d so and so, I don\u2019t know if I need to read the person\u2019s name, I\u2019ll give you the university, \u201cI\u2019m from the University of Texas at Austin and my question is directed to the candidates.\u201d\u00a0 Here\u2019s the question: \u201cIf the Bible clearly states that we need to embrace those in need and not fear, how can we justify not accepting refugees?\u00a0 How can you Republicans argue that we should be enforcing our borders because the Bible,\u201d notice how spiritual this is, \u201cthe Bible clearly indicates that we need not fear, or should not fear the foreigner or the stranger amongst us.\u201d\n\nYou see, what we need to understand is we are watching the rise of the religious left.\u00a0 When I was a kid growing up in the 80\u2019s the big deal was the religious right.\u00a0 It was Tim LaHaye and Jerry Falwell and others that were quoting the Bible to promote a conservative right wing sort of political agenda.\u00a0 That was the issue.\u00a0 But that\u2019s changed; you\u2019re not seeing any more the religious right, if the religious right exists any more, they have diminished an influence.\u00a0 What you\u2019re seeing is the religious left.\u00a0 What you\u2019re seeing is people who selectively quote the Bible to promote a highly progressive or liberal agenda.\u00a0 This is the exact sort of thing that\u2019s happening on this issue of the border.\u00a0 So the President of the\u00a0 United States gives a speech.\u00a0 Here\u2019s part of the speech; in Obama\u2019s speech defending executive amnesty, his decision, Obama referenced the quote from Exodus 23:9, \u201cScripture tells us that, \u2018We shall not oppress a stranger for we know the heart of a stranger \u2014 we were strangers once, too.\u2019\u201d\n\nIn fact, let me give you the main verses that the religious left uses over and over again to promote an open borders policy.\u00a0 \u00a0Number 1, they use Exodus 23:9, you might want to jot these down because if you\u2019ve got youth in your house the subject will come up.\u00a0 Exodus 23:9 which I just read.\n\nNumber 2, they quote Exodus 22:21,\u00a0 which says, \u201cYou shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.\u201d\n\nNumber 3, they quote the book of Leviticus, Leviticus 19:34,\u00a0 I can think of some really juicy things in Leviticus 19 that they don\u2019t quote, but they quote verse 34, \u201cThe stranger who resides with you shall be to you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt; I am the LORD your God.\u201d\u00a0 And then they quote Deuteronomy 10:19, which says, \u201cSo show your love for the alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.\u201d\u00a0 After decades of saying separation of church and state, keep the Bible out of public policy, keep the Bible out of the public schools, all of a sudden everybody\u2019s gotten biblical.\n\nExodus 23:9, Exodus 22:21; Leviticus 19:34, Deuteronomy 10:19, your average Christian hears that from their teenager and they just sit their flatfooted and they have no response.\u00a0 \u00a0I want to give you the response: here\u2019s the response\u2014those verses need to be understood in the framework of the nation-state that God Himself ordained in Genesis 10 and Genesis 11.\u00a0 Let\u2019s not start the discussion and the conversation with passages in the Mosaic Law that relate to a nation, the nation of Israel; let\u2019s start the discussion in God\u2019s blueprint for the nation-state going all the way back to Genesis 10 and 11.\u00a0 Now you start to see why there\u2019s such a concerted attempt to get rid of Genesis 1-11.\u00a0\u00a0 Genesis 1-11 has been disproven scientifically because of evolution; we\u2019ve been told that for decades.\u00a0 Once you get Genesis 10 and Genesis 11 out of your thinking the doctrine of the nation-state and God\u2019s blueprint for the nation-state disappears.\u00a0 So people want to start reading the Bible late in the game.\n\nFurthermore, how about this Hebrew word translated \u201cstranger.\u201d\u00a0 What about this Hebrew word translated \u201calien\u201d found in Exodus 22:21; Exodus 23:9; Leviticus 19:34, Deuteronomy 10:19.\u00a0 Can we look at that word for a minute?\u00a0 James Hoffmeier, scholar, in his book, The Immigration Crisis: Immigrants, Aliens, and the Bible<\/em> translates the dictionary definition of the word, you might want to know the word, it\u2019s the word ger<\/em>. \u00a0That\u2019s the Hebrew word translated \u201cstranger and alien\u201d in all of these passages.\u00a0 What does that word mean?\u00a0 Quoting Hoffmeier, \u201cOne who entered Israel and followed legal procedures to obtained recognized standing as a resident alien.\u201d\n\nIt isn\u2019t talking about a terrorist; it isn\u2019t talking about someone who circumvented the right that any country has to establish its own borders. It\u2019s not talking about an illegal.\u00a0 It\u2019s talking about somebody who enters the land of Israel acknowledging the common language, common culture, and the borders concept.\u00a0 Let me read that definition to you again, because this is something you need to share with your teenager, who\u2019s getting a totally different picture of this from their college professor.\u00a0 \u201cOne who entered Israel and followed legal procedures to obtained recognized standing as a resident alien.\u201d\n\nIf you want to understand what these passages are talking about in terms of aliens entering the country, you need look no further than the Moabitess, Ruth.\u00a0 Remember the story of Ruth?\u00a0 Ruth, the Moabitess, who had Naomi as her mother-in-law and Ruth converted from being a Moabitess to being an Israeli.\u00a0 Notice Ruth 1:16, notice what it says: \u201cBut Ruth said, \u2018Do not urge me to leave you or turn back from following you; for where you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be\u201d what? \u201cmy people, and your God will be\u201d what, \u201cmy God.\u2019\u201d\n\nOne of the greatest stories of immigration in the entire Bible is the conversion of the Moabitess, Ruth, as she makes that statement, \u201cYour people will be my people, your God will be my God,\u201d she is fulfilling what that word \u201calien\u201d and \u201cstranger\u201d actually means in the Scripture, one who entered Israel and followed what we would call today legal procedures to attain recognized standing as a resident alien.\u00a0 Ruth, I can guarantee this much, was not a terrorist, she was not someone who entered the land of Israel with the agenda of changing, fundamentally transforming the culture, she was fulfilling largely what we today would call legal immigration.\n\nDid you know God Himself enforced borders in the land of Israel?\u00a0 You say does the Bible say that?\u00a0 Yes it does, look, if you will, at the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 23 and verse 3, I guarantee your teenager doesn\u2019t know this verse either,\u00a0 Deuteronomy 23:3, \u201cNo Ammonite or Moabite shall enter the assembly of the LORD; none of their descendants,\u201d look at this, \u201ceven to the tenth generation, shall ever enter the assembly of the LORD.\u201d\u00a0 Now where was Moab?\u00a0 Where was Ammon?\u00a0 Those were border states of the nation of Israel.\u00a0 Because of the sinful practices of the Ammonites and the Moabites God enforced the border.\u00a0 You\u2019re not going to enter, and He names a particular group, He names a particular nation and He says this policy holds up to the tenth generation, which is a long time.\n\nBryan Fischer explains this concept and these verses as follows:\u00a0 \u201cIt emerged over the weekend that there are staggering 1000 active, ongoing investigations into ISIS-affiliated Muslims right here, right now in the United States.\u201d\u00a0 Do we understand that there are people in the borders of this country that never passed through the immigration process or deceived their way through the immigration process.\u00a0 And in fact, are in the country, not all, but many to cause damage and harm.\u00a0 Look at what happened recently, was it in Orlando; look at what recently happened in San Bernardino.\u00a0 Look at what happened in Paris not too long ago.\u00a0 I mean, we need to wake up and see what\u2019s happening in this country and we need to, as the body of Christ, not just sit there flat-footed and acquiesce any time someone quotes the Bible to support their position.\u00a0 God has spoken on this.\n\nThere are active ISIS investigations in all 50 states; simple prudence dictates that until those cases can be wrapped up all of them, we should not add to the case load by bringing more possible Jihadies into the country; it\u2019s a form of political insanity and suicide to do anything else.\u00a0 While some may argue that this is cold-hearted, I like to say racist, bigoted and demophobic, let\u2019s not forget that God did exactly the same thing with the ancient Moabites, quote, \u201cNo Ammonite nor Moabite may enter the assembly of the Lord, even to the tenth generation.\u00a0 None of them may enter the assembly of the Lord forever \u201cbecause they did not meet you with bread and water on the way [when you came out of Egypt] and because they hired against you, Balaam, the son of Beor.\u201d\u00a0 [Deuteronomy 23:4] Because of their sins God says they\u2019re not entering, an entire nation, two of them.\n\nFischer goes on and he says, \u201cbecause of their ancient and abiding hostility towards Israel God banned the Moabites along with the Ammonites from the assembly of Israel for 10 generations.\u00a0 Such a biblical generation was about 40 years.\u00a0 This was essentially a permanent ban on Moabite immigration, even though they shared a common border with Israel.\u00a0 Bottom line: even if banning immigration from hostile nations was acceptable to God it certainly ought to be acceptable to us.\u00a0 Now rare exceptions certainly can be made. The Moabitess Ruth was welcomed in Israel, in part because she committed herself to full cultural and religious assimilation. \u201cYour people shall by my people, and your God my God\u201d (Ruth 1:16<\/a>).\n\nWhat am I trying to do here?\u00a0 I\u2019m trying to change the way we think about issues of the culture.\u00a0 I\u2019m trying to, instead of tolerating selective treatments from the Bible about something, which is what we get propagandized with routine, I\u2019m trying to get back at what God says.\u00a0 A question for any candidate for office is do they favor the reality and the enforceability of our national borders?\u00a0 Because if they don\u2019t, number 1, and they have more of a globalist, porous, open-borders mindset, number 1 they are denying a basic fundamental that we have to be a nation.\u00a0 If you can\u2019t enforce\u00a0 your borders you\u2019re even a country anymore.\n\nNumber 2, they are denying the paradigm of God that He ordained at the tower of Babel.\u00a0 God Himself is the author of the nation-state; an open borders mentality is a rebellion against the decree of God.\n\nAnd number 3, they are selectively using the Bible; they\u2019re not even understanding what those Old Testament passage that they so commonly quote, what those passages even mean.\u00a0 They haven\u2019t done any lexical work on this word ger<\/em>, or sojourner, and they\u2019re not paying attention at all to the context of those passages, ignoring the story of Ruth and so forth.\n\nLet\u2019s not think Republican or Democrat, let\u2019s not think right or left, let\u2019s think Bible.\u00a0 Let\u2019s begin to apply the Bible to every area of life, which has been my goal in this series.\u00a0 I tried to lay out the case, the biblical case for border enforcement, I tried to show you what the objections are, a quick view for the days in which we live and the battles which lie ahead.Scroll to top<\/a>\n\nShall we pray.\u00a0 Father, I pray that You will continue to illuminate and direct us as we go through this very difficult and delicate study, trying to be not politically correct but biblically correct, trying to apply the Bible to every area of life.\u00a0 I pray, Father, You will be with us next week as we talk about America\u2019s relationship with the nation of Israel and why that nation is so significant. We\u2019ll be careful to give you all the praise and the glory. We ask these things in Jesus\u2019 name.\u00a0 And God\u2019s people said Amen.","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t