Gtcotr/ws070319
Tomorrow
we celebrate the 243rd birthday of our great nation, The United
States of America. As you open your Bibles to the Book of Acts, chapter 4,
which will be our text for this evening, allow me to read our Declaration of
Independence … It may have been a while since you’ve read it in full.
In Congress, July 4, 1776.
The unanimous Declaration
of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one
people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another,
and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to
which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to
the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which
impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be
self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their
Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and
the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted
among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That
whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the
Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government,
laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such
form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be
changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath
shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable,
than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.
But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same
Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their
right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new
Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of
these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter
their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great
Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct
object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove
this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent
to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his
Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended
in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended,
he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass
other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those
people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right
inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together
legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the
depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into
compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved
Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his
invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long
time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the
Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at
large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all
the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to
prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws
for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their
migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the
Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing
Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges
dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount
and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude
of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and
eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in
times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render
the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with
others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and
unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended
Legislation:
For Quartering large
bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a
mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the
Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade
with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us
without our Consent:
For depriving us in many
cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond
Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free
System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an
Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once
an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these
Colonies:
For taking away our
Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the
Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own
Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us
in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated
Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against
us.
He has plundered our seas,
ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time
transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of
death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty
& perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally
unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our
fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their
Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall
themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic
insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of
our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an
undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these
Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our
repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose
character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be
the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting
in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time
of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over
us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement
here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have
conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations,
which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too
have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must,
therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold
them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the
Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress,
Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our
intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these
Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of
Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all
Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them
and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that
as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude
Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and
Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this
Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we
mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
56
men signed their names to this declaration and placed their lives in the hands
of Almighty God for the providence of His will. This is truly a Declaration of
Independence from Great Britain but it is also a powerful Declaration of Dependence on Almighty God.
Independence
Day is the day you decide to go free from the tyranny of man and this world and
to give yourself over to God and His superintending will. Independence Day is
not the day the war ended but rather, the day the war began. Have you found Acts,
chapter 4?
Acts 4 NKJV
18 And they called them and
commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus.
19 But Peter and John
answered and said to them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen
to you more than to God, you judge.
20 “For we cannot but speak
the things which we have seen and heard.”
21 So when they had further
threatened them, they let them go, finding no way of punishing them, because of
the people, since they all glorified God for what had been done.
22 For the man was over forty
years old on whom this miracle of healing had been performed.
23 ¶ And being let go, they
went to their own companions and reported all that the chief priests and
elders had said to them.
24 So when they heard that,
they raised their voice to God with one accord and said: “Lord, You are
God, who made heaven and earth and the sea, and all that is in them,
25 “who by the mouth of Your servant David have
said: ‘Why did the nations rage, And the people plot vain things?
26 The kings of the earth took their stand, And
the rulers were gathered together Against the LORD and against His Christ.’
27 “For truly against Your holy Servant Jesus,
whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the
people of Israel, were gathered together
28 “to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose
determined before to be done.
29 “Now, Lord, look on their
threats, and grant to Your servants that with all boldness they may speak Your
word,
30 “by stretching out Your
hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of Your
holy Servant Jesus.”
31 And when they had prayed,
the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all
filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness.
There is a marked difference between a
Rebellion and a Revolution. Rebels are against others having the right of rule
over them while Revolutionaries only wish to return to what is just and true.
The word “revolve” means to come back around
to the place where you first began. The revolution God hopes for His children
is that they would:
·
Recognize the injustice and tyranny of this
world and the enemy of their soul
o
The devil and his minions wish nothing but
the domination and control of every soul for their own selfish goals and gains.
o
Those who are influenced and controlled by
the devil and this world system are only interested in what benefits them.
·
Become a revolutionary in the Army of God.
o
Not a rebel who only complains or strikes out
against authority
o
But a person who pledges their all for the
cause of Christ and is willing to pay with their lives, their fortunes and
their sacred honor.
Such was the case with Peter and John. They
only wanted people to be healed and happy and in right relationship with the
Lord God. Peter and John threatened no one, hurt no one, spoke evil of no one,
defamed no one, and were not rebellious in some selfish attempt to benefit
themselves.
Peter and John spoke as true servants of the
Lord. They simply said: We must obey God and busy ourselves teaching about the
love and healing power of Jesus. This threatened the religious leaders in
Jerusalem just like King George was threatened by the good will and hopeful
intent of those 56 men who signed their names to the Declaration of
Independence.
This evening I want to encourage you to be a
revolutionary in the Kingdom of God. Continue to love and bless and pray for
others while believing that God is a good God and that He is willing and able
to do anything to help His children. Be a Believer and teach others the way of
Christ.
The only pray Peter and John and the rest of
those Believers prayed on that day was that God would heal and bless and
strengthen His children in the name of Jesus. That was a revolutionary idea …
That was their Declaration of Dependence on Almighty God.
The 56 Signers
Georgia
Button Gwinnett
Lyman Hall
George Walton
North Carolina
William Hooper
Joseph Hewes
John Penn
South Carolina
Edward Rutledge
Thomas Heyward, Jr.
Thomas Lynch, Jr.
Arthur Middleton
Massachusetts
John Hancock
Maryland
Samuel Chase
William Paca
Thomas Stone
Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia
George Wythe
Richard Henry Lee
Thomas Jefferson
Benjamin Harrison
Thomas Nelson, Jr.
Francis Lightfoot Lee
Carter Braxton
Pennsylvania
Robert Morris
Benjamin Rush
Benjamin Franklin
John Morton
George Clymer
James Smith
George Taylor
James Wilson
George Ross
Delaware
Caesar Rodney
George Read
Thomas McKean
New York
William Floyd
Philip Livingston
Francis Lewis
Lewis Morris
New Jersey
Richard Stockton
John Witherspoon
Francis Hopkinson
John Hart
Abraham Clark
New Hampshire
Josiah Bartlett
William Whipple
Massachusetts
Samuel Adams
John Adams
Robert Treat Paine
Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island
Stephen Hopkins
William Ellery
Connecticut
Roger Sherman
Samuel Huntington
William Williams
Oliver Wolcott
New Hampshire
Matthew Thornton
