This sermon was originally preached in 1964. The current events mentioned are different, but the message is relevant today.

Exodus 20:1-17

Anyone who faces reality at all today is aware of many perils that we face nationally. Our position as the champions of freedom in the world today is being sorely tested, in Vietnam, in Berlin, in Cuba, and every trouble spot in the world. Internally, we are beset by the problems of civil rights, morality, and crime. We are tempted to cry out, “How long, O Lord, how long can this continue?”

In our questioning, we need only to look into history, and there we find how God watches over a people.

Israel was at the point of being extinguished by famine when God delivered them by providing a place of refuge in Egypt under the care of Joseph. Is this an example of a God who could deliver His people once, but could not foresee what would happen in a few years under the control of another Egyptian ruler?

As we follow the events in the book of Exodus, we see a God who watches over His people, not just part of the time, but at all times.

• Strong leadership
  • Moses – in Israel’s darkest hour, God gave leadership through Moses
    • An incredible infancy and youth
      • Spared from certain death
      • Given the best training for leadership
    • Unusual call
      • From shepherd to leader
    • Unparalleled leadership
      • From refugee to emancipator
      • Fulfilled only because the great I Am was with him every step
• Desire for liberty
  • Proud people in slavery
  • Strong people find liberty
    • Against insurmountable odds, they fought for their freedom

One of the strongest motivating forces in a man is the desire for freedom. God used that force with Israel to watch over His people.

• Giving them a law
  • Purpose of the law
    • To keep them from turning back to bondage
      • They had been in bondage because of disobedience
        • When in a strange land, they had forsaken the true God
    • The was given to remind them of their responsibility to God
  • Keeping God’s law leads men in the way of righteousness

This is one example of God’s watchful care over His people. But what of our day and our nation?

It was the desire for religious liberty that led men to this land. It is this same desire for liberty that has made us strong through the years.

Certainly, we can see God’s hand upon our people, as strong leadership was raised up as our nation grew. Men of faith and foresight formed this union to preserve all of the things that we hold dear today.

How we need, on this day, the same leadership to lead us through the perils we face, both externally and internally, as a people.

Perhaps the most important of all factors is God’s law. We can have a desire for liberty, strong leadership to guide us, but if we fail in our adherence to God’s law, there is nothing that will deliver us from strong oppression.

If God did not spare the nation that He had singled out from all nations when they disobeyed, neither can we be expected to be spared from God’s wrath when we walk in the ways of evil.

We sign as we have for many years, “God Bless America”, but if we want God to bless America, we shall have to bless God in America.

We can anticipate God’s watchful care upon us as long as we honor Him and adhere to His words.