Welcome to Affirm Foundation presented by Princeton Ministries with Dr. Ken Smith. This is Carol Smith, Ken’s wife. Please enjoy.

It’s the Memorial Day weekend, and it’s a holiday that has been commemorated with a special purpose. And that is that, as Americans, we would remember those Americans who have given their lives that you and I might enjoy the freedom and liberty that is ours.

It’s a day when it is fitting for us to pause and to remember that all that we have received is the result of a previous generation. That the liberties that we have are not some type of instant powder that suddenly was mixed into the concoction of America. And today suddenly we have freedom. No, it has come at a great price. The Memorial Day weekend, and that day which has been set apart, is a day when we are called upon to remember the more than 25,000 Americans who gave their lives during the American Revolution.

The more than 2,200 soldiers who died in the War of 1812. The over 13,000 who died during a little-known Mexican War. During the Civil War, over 500,000 Americans would give their lives in the pursuit of freedom and liberty. And then the Spanish-American War, some 2,400 Americans shed their blood that we might enjoy freedom. And then the turn of the century where 116,000 soldiers died during World War I. To say nothing of World War II, 405,000 dead that you and I might sit here and enjoy the freedoms that are ours. Korea, 54,000 soldiers. Vietnam, 56,000 soldiers.

The names and the places of each one of those people who have died on some distant battlefield has long disappeared from most of our memories. We are even as Americans hard-pressed to list the names of the wars and the people who have given themselves that we might enjoy liberty today. And even the names of some of those battles which were headlines in previous decades and generations.

Now for many of us, the only place that we hear about them is in the playing of Trivial Pursuit. And as we think of places like Bunker Hill, Bull Run, Gettysburg, Verdun, Trentino, the Battle of the Bulge, Normandy, the Pusan, the 38th parallel, the Ho Chi Minh Trail, Saigon, Beirut. Those are names and places that other than a slight memory jog do many Americans remember with any degree of detail. I believe it’s our purpose as Americans and also as Christians to pause and to remember and to give thanks for those who have given down their lives that we might enjoy the freedom that we have today.

I know that it’s very unpopular in certain circles to talk about patriotism. It is very unpopular to talk about wars and soldiers, to talk about the values of which men and women gave their lives. And yet I believe that as Christians we have a responsibility to remember, to remember those who have given, especially to us who enjoy the fruit of this liberty. But it’s equally important as Christians that we remember that there have been those who have given their lives that you and I as Christians might enjoy the benefits of being Christians.

The book of Hebrews, Chapter 11, is a roll call of some who have died. It is a roll call of champions of the faith, men and women whose names we may not be able to recall other than one or two truths about them. And yet the writer of Hebrews takes an entire chapter to call to our memory those who had fallen and given their life, either the commitment of their life to follow the Lord or the actual giving of their physical life that the name of the Lord might continue to be spread. He reminds us that we are to remember that in faith Abel, do you remember Abel? Abel who was the first slain person of all of civilization, slain by his brother. And Abel is one that we are told as Christians to remember, remember the faith that the Lord had given to that man. We’re told also to remember Enoch. Enoch we know very little about other than the fact that Enoch was translated to heaven.

He is one of the few in the scripture who simply never faced death. He went to be with the Lord. We’re also told to remember Noah. Why would we want to remember Noah? Well, we know of his faith and his faith was counted as righteousness. But did you realize that as you look closely at the building of the ark, that it took some 100 years from the time that Noah was told to build the ark before it actually started to rain. 100 years of a building project that had to be sneered at and laughed at and what foolishness.

How many of you are involved in some project for the Lord that people look upon your eagerness and your zeal and they smile. And they say, what in the world are you doing? What have you committed your life to? Well, then remember Noah and his faith. Remember Abraham, we are told. Abraham, who by faith was willing to give his son Isaac a sacrifice, a sacrifice of all that he had an example to us as Christians. That the faith of Abraham should be the faith that we seek after and that we would ask the Lord for the faith of this man. Sarah, who at 90 years old, we are told, learned that she would be with child, but she believed the promise and the Lord blessed her with that son. We are told that by faith, Moses is an important person for you and me to remember. Why? We are told that Moses refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter and rather he chose to suffer than to enjoy the fruit of sin for a season. Are there things that you would like to be doing that you look at your friends and you say, now there is where the action is. That’s where life is really on the fast track. And if I could just have some more money, I could really enjoy that way of life.

The scripture says, wait a moment, remember. Remember there was a man by the name of Moses who could have stayed on that fast track, but he chose by faith to follow the living God.

And he gave up the palace and he gave up the titles and he went as a shepherd for 40 years and the Lord would use him in a mighty way. Remember the life of Moses by faith. Remember, too, we are told to remember Rahab. Rahab, who was a prostitute in the city of Jericho, was in that city that two men would come one night, spies, Joshua and Caleb, and they would come to the home of Rahab for protection. Rahab did not cry out. She did not bring the officials in. She protected them.

And so the battle of Jericho ensued. It was a great victory. And whatever happened to Rahab, we are told that she left the city of Jericho and she travelled with Joshua. And Rahab’s name is one of the few women’s names listed in the genealogies that would lead to the birth of Jesus Christ. Are you caught in a dark side of life and you say, how can I ever get out of this? Then by faith, remember Rahab and how the Lord would take a life that seems full of darkness and bring it into his light.

He tells us time would fail me to tell you about Gideon, Barak, Samson, David, Samuel. There’s not enough time for me to tell you of all of the men and women who have given their lives that you and I could receive the grace of Jesus Christ and to know that that had been communicated from generation to generation. We should remember the prophets. We know the name of Isaiah. But did you know that his life would end in being sawn in pieces during the reign of King Manasseh?

We remember the name of Jeremiah, who would preach for some 50 years. No one would listen. The nation would turn their back against his word. He’d be cast into prison. And how is Jeremiah known to us as the weeping prophet? Remember Jeremiah and the faith that the Lord had given to him. Remember Ezekiel. Ezekiel, we are told, who prophesied for some 20 years. One of the prophecies was that the city of Jerusalem would fall. And on the day when the city of Jerusalem fell, his wife died on that day.

Remember Ezekiel. Remember the faith that the Lord gave to this man. Ephesians 2.20 tells us that we are all members of the household of God and that this household of God has been built upon the foundation of the apostles and the prophets.

And as Christians, as we would remember at Memorial Day, that we would remember those apostles who gave their lives. And how did they die? Matthew would die by the sword in Ethiopia. Mark would be dragged in the streets of Alexandria. Luke would be hung from an olive tree. Peter would be crucified upside down. James would be beheaded in Jerusalem. The other James would be beaten to death. Bartholomew whipped. Andrew crucified. Thomas, that doubter who became a believer, he would die by the sword in the East Indies. Jude would be killed by the piercing of arrows. Mathias would be stoned and then beheaded. Barnabas would be stoned. Paul, in the end, beheaded.

It is important for us as Christians to remember the foundation of these apostles. One of the most famous and popular to this day books that is sold in the Christian world is a book called Fox’s Book of Martyrs. Even though it was written centuries ago, it still is listed as one of the most popular and best-selling books in our own generation. And what Mr. Fox did was compile in that book the life and the death of as many known Christians who had been martyred for their faith. He tells us about John Wycliffe. John Wycliffe, who lived in a world of ignorance and darkness, where there was no scripture for men and women to read. Wycliffe believed that it would be important to translate the scriptures that anyone could read it in their own language. And when Wycliffe died, he was so hated that the decision of the church was that his body would be dug up, his bones would be burnt, and that the ashes would be cast into the River Thames. He died in 1384. Remember John Wycliffe.

John Huss, who preached the gospel of Jesus Christ. Huss was finally pursued and caught, and if he would simply deny his faith in Jesus Christ, he would have been given freedom. Instead, on that day, Huss said this, I teach all men repentance and the remission of sins according to the verity of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I’m ready to suffer death. And on that day, John Huss would feel the heat of the faggots as they would burn under his feet. And as the flames would rise ever higher and higher, we are told that he sang, Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God, have mercy on me. He died July 6th, 1415.

A popular publishing house today is the book House of Tyndale. It is named after William Tyndale, who believed that the scriptures ought to be translated into English. Tyndale spent his life doing that. In the end, he would be betrayed by a friend who would turn him over to the authorities.

Tyndale was seized. He was placed in a court setting, but he was given no lawyer. No one spoke in his defence. He was found guilty. He was tied to a stake. And William Tyndale was strangled to death by the hands of the executioner. And having been strangled to death, he then was taken and his body burned. And we look at the name of Tyndale, and we say, they put out such nice books. Remember William Tyndale.

Let us remember on this Memorial Day the Christians who have given their lives in our own century for Jesus Christ. Fox’s Book of Martyrs, as I said, is still one of the most popular books being printed and sold today to Christians. James and Marty Heffley have written a book. It’s entitled By Their Blood. It’s a documentary of the known cases of Christian martyrs in our century, the 20th century. The number of pages that is used in that book is far greater than the number of pages that is found in Fox’s Book of Martyrs. For the number of martyrs who have given their life in this century exceeds the total number of people who had given their life for Jesus Christ in all of the other previous centuries, even if you were to add them together.

There are more martyrs in our own century than ever recorded in any other century. And yet we live so often without any thought of these who have given their lives. Dick and Sandy Watson worked with Wycliffe Bible translators, and they would be buried alive for that ministry. How often do we hear about the 10,000 Christians who died in the past decade in Cambodia? In 1975, the Khmer Rouge came and decimated and took and tortured and killed over 10,000 Christians. Georgie Vins died in prison.

We’re told by Pastor Popoff, who spent some 11 years in a Bulgarian prison and then was given his freedom and has traveled throughout the United States, telling of what he saw of the persecution of Christians. He says, I have spoken around the world on behalf of the underground church. I have often asked, who here has prayed for the suffering Christians around the world? Always, says Pastor Popoff, the answer is almost no one. He asks, my people accept the suffering. They understand that this is their cross, but they don’t understand why their brothers and sisters in the free world seem to have forgotten them, even in their prayers.

It was a hot June night in 1978, Friday evening, Zimbabwe in Africa. Robert Evans, a missionary, would be at home with his wife and three-month year-old child. The house would be broken into because of his missionary concern. Robert Evans was beaten to death. His 36-year-old wife was beaten beyond recognition. And as the police came, they would find the three-month-old baby, Pamela, dead. And we need to remember at this time, Memorial Day, this family.

We need to remember Nate Saint, Jim Elliott, Pete Fleming, Roger Euderian, Ed McCully, five men who gave their lives in Ecuador to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with the Alka Indians. And even though they had in their hands rifles and they could have protected themselves, as the Indians came, they put down their rifles and all five were slain. Later, the Lord would use that to open the gospel to the Alka Indians. We need to remember Chester Bitterman, who died only a few years ago in Colombia.

We need to remember that in our own century, more Christians have died for their faith in Jesus Christ than the total of all of the Christians who have died in the first 19 centuries of the church.

So the writer of Hebrews tells us in verse 32, What more shall I say of those who, through faith, subdued kingdoms, they worked righteousness, they obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, they quenched the violence of fire, they escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, they became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens, women who received their dead raised to life,

others who were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. Still others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment. They were stoned. They were sawn in two. They were tempted. They were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented, of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains and dens and caves of the earth. And all of these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise. God, having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us.

How can we, at Memorial Day, as Christians, not remember Jesus Christ? Jesus Christ, who came into this world, had emptied himself of every possible benefit that could be his, as the Son of God. And that Jesus Christ would not take upon himself the robe of a king. He would not take in his hand the sceptre of a king. But instead he came simply, holding the staff of a shepherd. And that Jesus Christ would ultimately give his life, totally committed to the will of his Father. This memorial weekend, let us remember those who have died, that we might have freedom in this nation. But let us also remember those who died by faith.

Who, according to Hebrews 11, it is not even worthy that they should come into this world. And yet the Lord brought these men and women, and that foundation that was laid by those who have gone long before us. And ultimately you and I are called upon, because of the grace of Jesus Christ, to see the example of these men and women. And to take that example into our own lives. And to ask the Lord for the faith that we too might be listed as those of whom it was not even worthy that they should be in this world. That Jesus Christ would use you, as he would use this great roll call of saints, to the end that the name of Jesus Christ would be honored.

Let us pray.

Our God and our Father, we come on this weekend. One that nationally, we are asked to remember those who have given their lives that we might enjoy freedom. And Father, we would thank you for the freedoms that we enjoy in this land. But as Christians, we would add to that purpose, that we would pause. And with great affection, with great longing, that we would remember the great legacy, this great roll call of men and women who believed you, who followed you. Who, yes, gave that ultimate sacrifice, as you would work in their hearts and cause them to obey?

Father, we thank you for this roll call.

We pray that you would cause us to give thanks, to remember. And Father, that the memorial that we would see is the cross of Jesus Christ, that great reminder to us of what you have done. We thank you for Jesus. We thank you for this time that we can pause and reflect.

Help us to give you thanks, in Jesus’ name.

Amen.

Thank you for listening to Affirm Foundation, presented by Princeton Ministries. This programming is supported by you the listener.

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