"A Nation the Lord Makes" By Brother Parrish Lee July 24th,
2016
What an awesome time of worship,
amen? I tell you what: The Bible says that He seeketh the true
worshippers to worship Him. And, I used
to wonder what this whole church-music thing was all about, you know? People used to tell me, you know, you see
people get excited, some people get kind of happy, and you have all these
voices coming together. It’s like
they’re all looking at the same thing; I couldn’t see it before. Thank God Who brings us—thank God Who brings
us the victory. Amen. I want to say, welcome back, Jessy
Gulley. He’s been through some
tribulation, but what he kept telling me, over and over and over, “I can’t wait
to get back and worship with the believers!”
Amen. We’re very blessed people. We had a blessed service; even if we were to
go home now, we’ve had a blessed service.
Just to know, in 2016, in July, if it’s hot on the outside, God makes it
all right on the inside. We’re taking this month to talk
about—it started off with, July 4th, of course is the great time,
the birthday celebration for our nation, and so our verse for the month has
been: Isaiah 60:12 For the nation and kingdom that will not
serve thee shall perish; yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted. Before I go another step, I must
first give honor to that same God, Who does everything for us, and in His name,
who is the head over all of our lives.
Our Redeemer, our Maker, the One Who makes bridges over the troubled
waters for us, the One Who is our sustainer, Who gives us strength when we
don’t have any, the One Who gives us answers, and, sometimes, we think it’s us,
because it just comes to us, but He’s that merciful, He’s that loving and
wonderful. The One Who gives us comfort
when we’re suffering, the One Who makes us able to make it when we wonder how
can we ever make it. And the One Who
gives us revelation after revelation, things that are fruit for us, and meet
for His purpose. Giving honor to Him,
and giving honor to all those who have come and gone before us: Our founding pastor, he and his family, our pastor,
he and his family, and all those who have come to stand in the gap and make up
the hedge. Giving honor to all those who
have allowed their service to be given unto the Lord. And, giving honor to all of you who have come
to present yourselves to that self-same God, this morning, the twenty-fourth of
July. As we said, our theme for the
month—our Scripture theme—is from the Book of Isaiah: Isaiah 60:12 For the nation and kingdom that will not
serve thee shall perish; yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted. We talked a little bit about this,
but our Scripture theme for this morning—a Scripture verse we’ve heard many,
many, many, many times. It’s preached on
thousands of times a year, but, today, this is our Scripture theme, as we talk
about our Godly heritage. Isaiah 9:6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son
is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be
called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The
Prince of Peace. If we could bow our heads for just
a moment. Lord, we thank You, as we come
into Your mighty presence. It’s amazing
the protection You provide over our lives.
It’s amazing the provision You provide for us every single day. We never want to take anything for granted,
God, because we know all things come from Yu.
The Bible says every good and perfect gift comes from the Father of
lights (James 1:17). And, Lord, we thank
You for Your presence that is ever with us, even when we’re not paying
attention. And, God, You are that kind
of loving God for us. God, we turn over
to You, we turn our hearts and our minds, God, we turn and give You praise, and
give You honor, and give You glory, and to hear, whatever it would be, thus
sayeth the Word of the Lord. God, Your
words speak to us, and they are sweeter than any bird singing, sweeter than the
wind, as it caresses the trees, sweeter than the ocean that laps into the air,
and makes its own song. Your Word, God, as
Job said, is esteemed more highly than our necessary food (Job 23:12). God, You are that kind of good, and we give
glory and honor to Your name, this day.
This we pray and claim in Jesus’ name, and everyone said, amen. Amen. We’ve got a wonderful month, this
month, everyone, as we’ve talked about our Godly heritage, and the first
message of the month was talking about our Godly heritage and we talked about,
at the beginning, the forming of our founding fathers were diligent, to try
their level best to follow the principles, the Godly principles for the nation,
because they believed, earnestly, except the Lord build the house, they would
all labor in vain that built it (Psalms 127:1).
And, we talked a little bit about how they would call prayer meetings
for the nation. Yeah, a prayer meeting
for the nation. And, even governors, in
the beginning, governors, the governor of a state, would call a fast and a
prayer-time, so that they, as a state, could find themselves in the divine
providence of God. Can you imagine
Governor Rauner stepping out, “All right, everybody, we’ve got some problems,
here, in Illinois, so I’m calling a week of fasting and prayer?” Could you imagine? Can you imagine either one of our
presidential candidates, either one—not getting into politics this morning—but,
could you imagine the president of the United States saying, “We’ve got some
issues that we need to face, and we need the Lord to intervene, so I’m calling
for a time of prayer and fasting for our nation.” Could you imagine? Could you imagine? They would probably run him out of town. They would do something. They would say, “Hey! That ain’t for everybody!” Bot, those to whom it is for, we will pray
and fast for our nation. What a time,
giving God’s solutions! But this is what
our founding fathers would do; they would call for a time of prayer and
fasting. We all had the privilege in
that service, that we had three of our sisters come up, and they testified
before the Lord. They weren’t born in
this country, so they testified of the blessing that this country meant to them.
And they went on, after they
testified—beautiful testimonies—after they testified they each spake a blessing
for our country and for our ministry in their own native languages. Beautiful, beautiful time. The next message we had this month
was “Proclaim Liberty.” Proclaim
liberty. There were four main points: “One Nation under God.” We are to be one nation united under
God. And the second point was,
“Indivisible,” because a people divided can’t stand, was the point that Brother
Jessie brought out. We also talked
about, “Liberty and Justice for all.” And,
“Everyone needs to be free, but not everyone wants to be free.” And, our message last week,
Brother Chris Ulrich, as he preached, “In God we trust” and he said to “Turn to
God,” that was his first message point, but, inn that, he mentioned something
about revisionist history, and how there is a movement that is destroying
historical evidence, so that they can literally change history, and that is
prophesied in the Bible, talking about the last days, how they will think to
change dates and times (Daniel 7:25), but he talked about, “Turning back to God,”
where he mentioned not removing thy neighbor's landmarks, not removing thy
neighbor's landmarks, and, lastly, he talked about, “Trusting in the Lord.” Trusting in the Lord. Messages for our nation. Part 1: Man Makes a Nation Ever since the beginning of time,
man has really thought that they have known how to have a proper
civilization. You go, and you see so
many civilizations that have risen up, and they each have their own niches. And, some civilizations that have risen up,
they say that the main focus that they have to have in their civilizations has
got to be the family unit, because if they have strong families, then they’ll
have strong workers, and they’ll have a strong military. And, then, others would come along, and say,
“Well, we need to have, really, we need to have, as a nation, we need to,
really, focus on a good economy, because, if our economy is great, our nation
will be great.” And then others would
raise up, and they say, “Well, we need to have a certain governing style,
because, if we can make our governing style right, then our nation will last
for hundreds of thousands of years. It
will last perpetually.” But, ever since the beginning of
time, man has gotten God’s Kingdom wrong.
We’ve had the Children of Israel, and you would think the Children of
Israel—mighty interesting y’all sang that song—you would think that the
Children of Israel, they started with Abraham, they started with the man who
was the Father of Faith—that’s got to be wonderful—started with Abraham, and
God told him that from him, even in his later years, he would be a father of a
great nation—actually, two nations—but he would be the father of a great
nation; you would think the Children of Israel would learn the principles of
God and that’s where they would stay.
But, the Children of Israel, though they had the promise, and, though
they had the law, and they had many things come, they were not successful in
seeing the entirety come to fruition.
And, that, that was for a reason.
You see, they had gotten something wrong at the beginning. If we could to go to the book of First Samuel,
we’ll see that their error started before they ever had their second king. Their error, the error of the nation, the
Children of Israel, started before they ever had their second king. 1Samuel 8:6-7 But the thing
displeased Samuel, when they said, Give us a king to judge us. And Samuel
prayed unto the LORD. And the LORD said
unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto
thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should
not reign over them. “That I should not reign over
them.” So, God says, “They have rejected
Me.” That would mean that God was their
first king. God was their first king, but
they said, “Give us a king to rule over us.
Give us a man, like everybody else.
If we were to look at verse five, they wanted something like every other
nation that was around them. Give us a
man, and, amazingly so, God said to hearken unto their voice. Listen to what they say—God remembered that,
that they asked for a man that would be over them. And, now, we’re going to go back
to our Scripture theme for the day. Part 2: GOD Gives a King Isaiah 9:6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son
is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be
called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The
Prince of Peace. Now, the government that would be
on His shoulder, this word, ‘government,’ here, it literally means empire, but
it stems from the root meaning, power. In the older times, if you had an office,
if you had a position, if you were special or important, and you wanted to be
known among people, they would know that by how you were dressed. If you had an office, many times, your
insignia would be on your shoulder, and everybody would see, if you were the
holder of the key, they would see that emblem, there. If you were the holder of the magistrate, or
treasurer, or whatever the position might be.
If you were in the military, many times your designation would be by
your insignia on your shoulder. We see
that continued on until today. We see
that on uniforms, either military, or firemen, policemen, even airline pilots. They wear their insignia, their ranks, their
positions; they wear them on their shoulders.
Letting everyone know that, “This is my ranking. This is my authority level. This is—when I come on the scene, this is
where I belong. It places them quite
rapidly. But, being placed on the
shoulder doesn’t just mean, for everybody to know, it also means it’s a place
of support. So, the government being
placed on this Son’s, that Child’s shoulder, means that He would support that
government that He was going to make. He
would support that particular government.
It goes on to say that He would be wonderful to them. He would be—this One, whose government was on
His shoulder, this One, Who was the leader, was going to be wonderful to His
people. And He would counsel them. You would be able to go to Him, and He would
be able to give you answers, and comfort, and reasons, and harmony for your
life—make sense of everything that’s going on around you. Let you know your purpose, and how you fit
in. That counsellor. That wonderful counsellor. He also would be, not just a god to his people,
but He would be a mighty God a powerful God.
Not like money is to some people, and we’ve seen people worship money,
but we know how money is; money runs out.
He wouldn’t be a god like possessions, because possessions seem to lose
their luster, after a while. This would
be a mighty God, a powerful God, a God who would fight for you. That God, who would be, not just mighty and
powerful, but He would use His power for His people. He would also be an everlasting Father. And, this is significant because—especially
back in the time of Isaiah, and the older populace—the father was to be the
head of the house. The father was
supposed to be the one who would make provision, make a way, and make
circumstances available so the family—“So, my family’s going to be fed, and my
family’s going to be clothed, my family’s going to have shelter, my family’s
going to be safe.” The father, that was
his position. His job was to actually be
over the family, but, so many times, when there was a war, the father’s
responsibility was to go and fight. If a
father would die or be killed, that was a great loss to a family. And they would have to make do—sometimes they
would remarry, but that wasn’t as common—but they would have to make do,
without, and they would, you know, simply talk about the loss of the dad, the
loss of the father. But, this one here,
Who was going to provide protection, who was going to provide provision, who
was going to make sure you were going to be taken care of, this One, here, was
going to be an everlasting Father. He
was going to keep doing it, forever. And
he was to be the Prince of Peace. The
Prince of Peace, to make sure your house had peace in it. You know, the things that help bring peace on
the household. I was raised in a
family—well, when I would be at my father’s, on my father’s side, there was
ten—five brothers and five sisters. So,
in that house, generally, there wasn’t a whole lot of peace, until dad would,
you know, be woken up from a nap or whatever, and, then, all of the sudden,
peace would come down, as he would come down the stairs, and all the kids would
find peace in their mouth and their hearts, lest he would come and show why we
needed to have peace in the house, and he would deal with accordingly. This One, this Prince of Peace, this Ruler
who gives peace, Who makes sure peace is there, Who establishes peace, this One
was going to make sure that all the things that bring peace were available to
the people of His government. A few weeks ago we used a
Scripture that our founding fathers used, when they were setting up our nation;
they based it on this Scripture in Isaiah. This is something that our founding fathers,
when they were establishing the nation—you understand that, at that time, we
were still under ruling from England, and they had just broke away, the
revolution was going on, they were just winning, and they had to establish what
kind of nation we were going to be, how they were going to base it on, and our
founding fathers went to this Scripture, and used this Scripture as a guideline
for ruling a nation. The Bible says: Isaiah 33:22 For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our
lawgiver, the LORD is our king; he will save us. And, quite simply they said,
“According to this Scripture, we need our government, to rule, our government,
we need a judgment branch of government, and there we have the judicial
branch. We also need a law-giving part
of our government, and there we have our legislative branch, and we also need a
king branch of our government, from there we have our executive branch of
government. You see, they based it on
Godly principles. And, for the most
part, over the last 200 some-odd years, we’ve done okay as a nation. Building it on Godly principles has gotten us
this far. We’re not perfect; we’re still
a work in progress, but we still have a ways to go. And that’s us doing it in our very best
ability. But though our forefathers based
our nation on that scripture, as Christians we know that the Lord himself
fulfills this Scripture. The Lord
himself fulfills this Scripture. For He,
number one, is our Judge. The Bible
says: Matthew 28:18 And Jesus came and
spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in
heaven and in earth. 2 Corinthians 5:10 For we must
all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things
done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. The Lord is our judge. What other judge would you rather have? What a judge He is. And, He also is our lawgiver. He also is our lawgiver. John 8:2 And early in the morning he came again into
the temple, and all the people came unto him; and he sat down, and taught them.
The Lord teaches us. Again, in the Book of John, the Bible says: John 13:34 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye
love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. I don’t know about you, but I was
an only child from my mom’s side. I
didn’t know how to love other people real good.
So, when I had had a certain type of love, it’s kind of a selfish,
personal, conditional type of love, you know?
I love you, as long as you don’t touch my food. I love you as long as you do what I say, and
we can agree on everything, as long as it’s my way. That kind of love, you know, I’ve got it
figured out for myself; that’ll make me happy if I get everything my way. And, yet, when you get in the presence of
this Lord, this master, you find that the love you might have had before you
came to know Him don’t compare to the love that He has. Oh, it is thrilling! It’ll wash away even your deepest sins. It’ll wash away scars. The love that He has builds bridges, and not
walls. It is a protecting love. Healing love.
It is an all-encompassing love; whatever you need it to be. The love of God is that magnificent; in fact,
the Bible says that God is love. And, He also is our King. The Bible says: Revelation 5:9-12 And they
sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the
seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood
out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; And hast made us unto
our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth. And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many
angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of
them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands;
Saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb
[What kind of King is that?] that was
slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and
glory, and blessing. Worthy is the Lamb. God is our King. Part 3: The Land Of God's Kingdom When Israel was a nation, God took
them into the Promised Land. That land
was to be theirs, but they had nations, and they had different governments over
time, and there were times when they wouldn’t listen to God, wouldn’t listen to
God, wouldn’t listen to God, and they had to pay for those times, and God had
to stop protecting them, because they were pushing God out, even to the point
where they would lose their land, and, again went into captivity. The land of God’s Kingdom. So, they went into captivity, and the land
that was theirs before as no longer theirs.
They became slaves, they became into captivity, they became captives to
other nations. So, the nation of Israel,
if you had looked on a map, you would not have seen so much Israel. If you wanted to find the nation of Israel,
you had to find the people. And, if you
found the people of Israel, you found the nation of Israel, for, you see, God
was showing them it's not about the land; it is about the people. It is about His people. And, from this, we’d like to go
to: Luke 17:21 Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo
there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you. You become a child of God; He is
your judge—He is inside of you, telling you what to do, what not to do, where
to go, where not to go. He is your
lawgiver; He lets you know what is good for you, what is not good for you. And he is your king. He is your king. You become a child of God, He is your king,
He is your judge, He is your lawgiver. Somebody once told me a little story
about this judge, and he said, “You know, there was a point in time when this
woman was getting ready to be sentenced by this judge, and how her crime was
really bad. It was really, really
bad. But, she owed so much, she couldn’t
pay. She couldn’t even pay to have bail,
or pay the fine, or anything, and she was going to be facing a long sentence,
if she couldn’t pay, if she couldn’t give restitution. As the judge came up and brought the gavel
down, he told her to pay for the crime, and she began to weep. Because, she didn't have what it took to
pay. And the judge said, ‘Pay for your
crimes.’ And she didn’t have it, and she
wept louder and louder, but there was nobody there to help.” And, so, they told me that the judge actually
laid down his gavel, he stood up from behind his judge seat, walked around the
chair, took off his robe, and hung it back on his seat, he walked down the area
where his seat was, passed the witnesses, the accusers, all the way over to where
the woman was. And, this judge put his
arm around the woman, as she wept and sobbed bitterly. And then this judge reached into his pocket,
took out enough money to pay the fine that she couldn’t pay. In amazement, this woman was so shocked, and
then the judge gave her another hug. And
then he left from her side, and went back across the median, where the lawyers
were, passed the witness stand, and went back up to his seat, put on his robe,
sat down, lifted up to gavel, and struck it and said, “You are accused of a
crime. You must pay the fine. Do you have the money to pay?” She said, “Yes, judge, you just gave it to
me.” And he hit it, and said, “Case
dismissed.” And, as they were telling me
that, they said, “That is what the Lord Jesus has done for us.” We were all accused, we were accused of a
crime, and how He went passed every witness, He went passed every witness to
get to us, when we were dead in our sins.
And how He took out for Himself to pay that for which we couldn’t
pay. How He had compassion on us, and
put His arms around us, and loved us.
And said, “Do you have the payment for your crime?” and we said, “Yes,
Lord, You paid it. You paid for
us.” And I thought that story was very
appropriate, as we go to the Book of Isaiah; we see here, the Bible says: Isaiah 53:4-5 Surely he hath
borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken,
smitten of God, and afflicted. But he
was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the
chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. But, the greatest transgression,
in the midst of that, and God bringing the government, and bringing the
Kingdom, the greatest transgression was that this Lord, King, and, as said they
were waiting on their Deliverer, their Savior, and they received Him not. The greatest transgression was to treat Him
badly, and then reject Him, despise, wound Him, and, yes, even beat Him and
mock Him. And even for those who said
they loved Him to run away. The greatest
transgression was to abandon everything that God gave, simply because they
didn’t want it. But, you see, the Lord,
in His government, has a remedy for that also.
In the Lord’s government, He has what is called a ministry of
reconciliation. 2 Corinthians 5:19 To wit, that
God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their
trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. What a magnificent nation
that is, God’s Kingdom. What a wonderful
land to be and to have that Kingdom inside of us. And, lastly, talking about God’s
kingdom, before I joined the service—I was in the Navy—basically, Baltimore was
all I figured I ever needed. That’s
where I come from; I’m from Baltimore. I
don’t need to go anywhere; I don’t need to taste any other kinds of food, I
don’t need to see anybody extra, I don’t need to see any of that stuff you see
on TV. Baltimore has everything I
need. What a closed mentality. I would have been happy, until the Navy came
along, and ripped me up out of all that.
They didn’t care where I liked being, they took me where they wanted me
to be. And I got a chance to see
Illinois, and, you know what? There’s
some beautiful places in Illinois. I got
a chance to see Florida, and there’s some beautiful places in Florida;
different beauty from Illinois, different beauty from Maryland, but, beautiful,
nonetheless. I got a chance to see Texas. I got a chance to see California. I got a chance to see Washington State. I got a chance to see Pennsylvania. I got a chance to see New York. I got a chance to see all these states,
twenty-four of them, and they each have a certain beauty to them. They each have something beautiful and
significant, if you would be willing to open up and acknowledge that,
“Wow! These trees are different, these
birds are different, this border’s different, this land is different, the
mountains over here are great,” or, “The valleys are awesome!” Whatever it is, you’re able to see so many
different beautiful things. Then I got a
chance to visit twenty-four different countries. Twenty-four different countries. Didn’t have any desire to go to any other
countries, and, yet, the Navy took me there, and God was trying to show me that
I need to open up. I need to open
up. It’s for a reason. And, what God did, He showed me—I went to the
Med. I went to Greece, and I went to
Italy. I went to Israel. I went to Egypt. Wow!
Amazing cultures and countries. I
went to Africa, several places in Africa.
I went to Australia. I went to
Japan. I went to China. I went to Hawaii. I went to twenty-four different
countries. I got tired of going to so
many different places. Actually, I had
the nerve to get tired of learning. What
is that about, huh? Anyway, I was
exposed to so much, and it changed me in ways, I had to acknowledge that where
I was wasn’t good enough to be where God wanted to take me. I say that about this world, the countries
and the states, because, in God’s Kingdom, in God’s government, in God’s world,
in God’s land, and God’s land has moved into the people; it is moved into God’s
people. There lies beauty. The beauty now lies in God’s people, who
worship differently, who speak
differently, who read the same passage in the Word, and get something
different out of it, who sing differently, in a wonderful harmony, who come up
and fellowship, so many different ways, and they break the bread of
righteousness from one to another… The
Bible says the righteousness of God from faith to faith (Romans 1:17). And His beauty has moved into people, that we
can all see that God’s beauty is in them.
As many people as believe in God, that’s how more extensive His beauty
is. So, as we wrap this up, I just
wanted to say that all need to be careful, to make sure that we taste of God’s
beauty in the lives of each of His saints.
Give the Lord a praise. Sermon notes by Pete Shepherd |
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