History's so important to be preached and taught. If you don't know where you come from, you don't know where you're going. And you don't appreciate it. But what I was gonna say a while ago, a lot of people look for miracles when, if you see providence, you see miracles every day. Providence of God. How God does things and how God prepares things. So tonight I wanna talk to you about the events that led to the American Revolution. And I know you've heard these, if you've been to school, Christian school, public school, probably you've heard these. But maybe not in, you know, consecutively how it all happened. We hear all these different things, but probably been a long time since we thought about it. And there's a reason things are the way they are, and how they happened like they did. Now, Britain was a mighty power. There never been an empire like Britain, never. They controlled more land mass and population than any empire in the history of the world. That includes Nebuchadnezzar, Babylon, that includes the Iraqis, that includes the Persians, Iranians, that included Alexander the Great, and that would include Roman Empire. Roman Empire never, never could touch the British Empire. And they were that little old bitty nation over there. I mean, England, just a little island. And then off from England, you got Scotland, you got Ireland, and you got the Hebrides Islands, all from Scotland. And to think that that little island could control the world. I mean, all the riches. You talk about greed, but them Brits were greedy. They controlled India. They controlled the Far East, Hong Kong. I mean, it wasn't like 1999 that they gave that back to the Chicoms. Big mistake, you should've never done that. And then they controlled much of China, they controlled Africa, India, the Middle East. I mean, it's everywhere. Plundering people's minerals, wealth, and to do that, to sustain that, they had to have a mighty navy. And England always had the, the Royal Navy was the greatest navy in the world. And they were people of the sea. Of course, when you're on an island, you better have a Navy. And of course, they didn't have airplanes back then, but they were such a powerful, powerful nation. So when Christopher Columbus discovered America, and in 1492, now it's already been discovered, but not to the knowledge of the world. So in 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue. So he come over here from Spain, And he hounded the king and queen, old Ferdinand and Isabel. He hounded them, the king and queen of Spain, to give him a charter to come to the Indies. The reason we call Indians Indians is because Columbus was going to India. India, that's the other direction. He is trying to find trade routes to where there wasn't so many pirates. That's what he's doing. That's how he convinced them. But Columbus always said that God the Holy Ghost put on his heart to sail this direction. And so he come and of course, there's nothing to brag about them Spaniards. They just wicked, bloodthirsty people. And God didn't let the Spaniards have it. He didn't let the French have it. The Seven Year War, French and Indian War, didn't let the French have his country. He gave it to the English. He gave it to the Brits. Why? Because they had a Bible. They had a Bible. And they had true Christians that come over here. Most of the pilgrims that came were Christians. Now, a lot of their offspring were not. They got caught up in ritualism, but a lot of them were Christian people. And a lot of the first brand of the Puritans at 1627 Massachusetts Bay Colony were saved also. Many of them were. And then they had great preachers like John Cotton and Increase Mather, John Mather. and they had some great men, but still they got caught up in that false doctrine that they were gonna be the nation of Israel. And I say that and say that and say that. If you don't understand that right there, you don't get it. You don't get why they did what they did. The reason they tried to enforce the law of Moses, they thought they were the Israelites. They thought it was modern day Israel. And the key to have the bliss of Israel, you gotta keep the covenant that God made with Israel on Mount Sinai. And they thought God made a covenant with them. They was gonna come over here. They even called America the new Jerusalem. Called it the new Israel. and they come over here to live by the law of God. Therefore, if you got somebody like a Baptist that's saying your baptism ain't legitimate, you got somebody that is a dissenter, and what you say, you gotta get out the false prophets, you gotta get out false doctrine. That's how they justified doing what they did. So that gives the context of why that the Puritans and even the Anglicans were so hard on everybody else. I mean, if you think you got a mandate of God, You got God's mandate to start a nation and you're the new Israel, you're gonna go by that Bible too. But it's totally, totally misunderstanding rightly divided scripture. You gotta get Israel right, the church right, and the world right, if you're gonna understand this Bible rightly divided. So that's the background of them. So they come over here, and when America was settled, it was mainly a coastal colonies. I mean, within 75 miles of the Atlantic Ocean, it's where about all the population was. And in Boston, Boston, Boston, about 13,000 people. Well, they brought 6,000, 7,000, 8,000, one time 9,000 British troops. It occupied Boston. You could understand the anger that was among these colonists. And so, but in Psalm 78, says here, give ear, O my people, to my law-inclined thine ears, to the words of my mouth. I'll open my mouth in a parable, I'll utter dark sayings of old, which we've heard and known, our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children, sure unto the generation to come, the praises of the Lord, and his strength and his wonderful works that he hath done. It amazes me that for, you might say, 5,600 years, that God hid the very existence of this nation, this country, from the known world. I mean, it's the richest place in the world. There's no place like America. We got more oil than Saudi Arabia does. We just got a bunch of idiots that don't want us to get to it. because they want to run this great new deal and bankrupt America so they can institute communism and socialism, be that as it may. But this nation with its great wealth, I mean protected by, I mean today, protected by Canada, protected by South America, protected by the Pacific Ocean, protected by the Atlantic Ocean. all this wealth, all this land. I mean, mountains and valleys and deserts and everything you think of is in America. I mean, North Carolina's got beaches, North Carolina's got mountains, North Carolina's got flatlands, North Carolina's got hills, North Carolina's got agriculture. I mean, right here in just this state. Look at the wealth of this state here. But they come to America in order to have religious liberty. That's what they did. But they got over here and the high standard of living in the world was the colonies of America. God blessed them from the start. They got to raising all that cotton. They got over here raising all that sugar cane. Boy, that's a big crop. Boy, they used to sweeten everything in Europe with honey. Now they got sugar. Man, they got that from Jamaica, all down around the Bahamas, down towards South America, all of those islands down there, raising all that sugar cane, and raising it here, in and down in the climate of Louisiana, raising all that rice. racing cotton in the South. I mean, you got all these beaver pelts and mink pelts, and you got all this wildlife and all this lumber. England was out of lumber. Europe had went through its trees. And America, all this virgin timber. I mean, this was a land of milk and honey. if you just have the infrastructure or the road system to get to it. Therefore, they use the rivers and they use the oceans and all that to transport their goods. So we're trading with Europe, Europe's trading with us. For all these years, we've been more or less independent colonies. England's left us alone. I mean, we more or less were self-governing. And this went on until like 1650s, 1660s, 1663, after the French and Indian War. And what happened then was, was in the French and Indian War, because England thinks they gotta control the whole world, they're stretched thin, you gotta have a massive navy to protect all your interests around the world. And therefore you got huge expense. And the French and Indian war, the French came to take this country and they allied with the Indians and promised them that they would give them land and all these promises if they would fight against the British. Well, you know, there's another big warfare out there. The French and the British have hated each other for a thousand years. Man, they've fought 27 wars, and England's won almost every one of them. And so the French want this place. They want the wealth. They own Louisiana. They own New Orleans. They've got the port. They've got the Mississippi River. That's big time. America could have never expanded west till the War of 1812, when we got the Port of New Orleans and the Mississippi River. That opened up this whole thing for western expansion. So you got the Spaniards want this place, the French want this place, and the Brits want this place, and when everybody's wanting the same piece of property, you're gonna have a war over it. So the Brits come over here and they fought with us. And what was happening was the Indians who were being paid by France, armed by France to kill our colonists, those especially in the border places of Pennsylvania and places like that, they were killing a lot of our people. And man, that was stirring the whole thing up. And that war's where George Washington got his feet wet in being in the military. But the French and Indian War, finally Britain won it, but it cost them dearly. Tons of money was spent by the Brits on the French and Indian War. Well, what they thought was this, it's only fair, and think about it, it was, it was how they went about it. They were right in wanting America to pay their taxes. I mean, they come over here, sent their navies. They sent their troops. They spent seven years over here to protect us and to protect us from Indians. I think they ought to get some money back for that. Now, if you don't even see it, you got to be fired. You can't just be so prejudiced against everybody that you don't see the big picture. It's not that they wanted help in repaying this massive debt of millions and millions and millions of dollars in that day. It was how they went about it. So there's a series of events that escalated and it was all over money. And it always is. Every problem in the world that's being caused over cheap labor. Oh yeah, I don't wanna get into that. But here is the 13 colonies. I mean, we're making money. Boy, we're wealthy. I mean, the standard of living has skyrocketed. Our people's got China. I mean, they got the riches. And people's making money hand over fist. And we don't wanna mess that up. Who wants to mess that up? You got all this agriculture down south. Who wants to mess that up? Who wants to mess up what's happening up north? I mean, all these poor support New York, New York Harbor, and the Boston Harbor, all these trades coming in and out. Who wants to mess with that? It's gonna take some mighty events to happen for America to become an independent state. God's behind all this. Cause this is really insanity. I mean, it's insanity for a bunch of squirrel hunters to think they can defeat the world's greatest army. Don't never forget, the Redcoats are the world's greatest army. And they got the world's greatest navy. And so, I mean, we're going to stand up against them? Are you crazy? Have you lost your mind? I mean, they're a trained military force. They're professional soldiers. We don't even have a professional army. We don't even have an organized army. All we got is militias. And all that started during this period of time. What's God gonna do to band together the colonies where they're not just separate states, but where they're the United States? Well, first thing he did was to send George Whitefield. And before Whitefield got here, revival broke out under Jonathan Edwards in Connecticut, Delaware, and in Massachusetts, Connecticut. And God used Whitefield to unite all the colonies together spiritually, religiously. He dies in 1770. So here's the timeframe. And then, well, how in the world are we gonna be brought together As what? The first constitutional convention, Georgia didn't even show up. Why? They don't wanna mess with our money. Don't mess with our trade. We ain't got no dog in this fight. We ain't boss of Massachusetts. But what happened was, was the Brits used such a heavy hand of being tyrants. And that's what the persecution of the British army is what brought America together. That's what made us the United States and not individual colonies. Cause back then, your colony's like a country. I mean, you had like the Commonwealth of Virginia, and even later on the Republic of Texas, you got these plain, they're all like their own little country. How's this all gonna be brought together to be the United States? And it was over persecution. So here the British crown is trying to revamp some of this money. And so in 1765, they instituted the Stamp Act. Now, that was to try again to counteract the massive debt that they incurred during the French and Indian War. And the Stamp Act was the first time that the colonies were taxed in a wide range of transactions in the colonies. What got the, listen, it's not that they're taxed, it's how they work. You don't give people a say. They got no say. And they've been, I mean, for all 1607 and 1620, and you get up to 1765. So we're talking about 100 plus years, 130 years, where we've been self-governing people. And then the strong arm of Britain's gonna come down on us with a hammer, and they're gonna start demanding taxes from a free people. Are you serious? You see, that's the problem here. If they'd been taxing us all along, it wouldn't have been no big deal. But we looked at ourselves as independent. Man, America's got that independent spirit. Real Americans still do. Amen. Don't tell me what to do. I bow to no king but King Jesus. Amen. So all legal documents and printed materials like wills and deeds and newspapers and pamphlets and playing cards and even dice. were all taxed and had to have the insignia of the tax, the stamp tax up on every piece of paper. And back then, that's big time. I mean, paper was an expensive thing. So everything you'd done, they were taxing every, I mean, just about every interaction you got. So the colonies, you know, before, they had collected their own taxes. their own taxes. They had governed themselves. They had the community. I mean, just like in Boston, for example, they had the community council. And they were self-governed. They were voted in by the people. It was a democracy. It was a republic. And the people were represented by their own representatives. And of course, that's the way that America's always been. And the colonies so resented, the British suddenly imposing their will on them. and give them the college no say. Are y'all getting this? I think you do. It all makes sense. But to show you, you look how America today rolls over for everything the government tries to do on us. We ain't got that spirit no more. No, no. The colonists resented not only having to buy goods from the British, but having to pay tax on them also. The taxes never got collected and there was massive riots. Listen, they'd die over paying taxes. And it wasn't the money, folks. It was a principle of it. It was a tyranny of it to them. Violators of the stand back could be tried and convicted without jury trials. That ain't gonna fly. That ain't gonna fly. Here's the man don't pay a tax, you gonna put him in jail? And you're not even gonna let him have a jury trial? And what they've done for the worst, the criminals, what they call criminals and breakers of the law, they wouldn't even let them have their trial in America. They'd send them back to England. You know what happened then. When they got tried there, they got put in the Tower of London. That's where they tortured you till you died. And here's these free blooded, red blooded Americans. Here's this heavy hand of the British. And so to deescalate the thing, politician, statesman, Benjamin Franklin, convinced the British to rescind it. said this ain't gonna work. They're not gonna pay you tax. I mean, they're gonna rebel. They're not gonna do it. You're gonna have blood running down the streets. You're gonna have to send your men over there. They're gonna die, you're gonna die. You're 3,000 miles away. Are you thinking about what this gonna cost you? You think you're getting money from tax? Do you know what it's gonna cost you to enforce this against those people that's gonna rebel? So when that happened, when the British backed up, that give the Americans confidence that future demands of the parliament, they just rebel against them. You know, if you tell your child you're gonna get a weapon, you do this and you don't give it to them, man, they think the next time you're gonna do the same thing. Patrick Henry, fiery speech against British tyranny with his resolutions that denied Parliament's right to tax the colonies, called on the colonies to resist, was printed in newspapers across the colonies. Boy, that Patrick Henry's a firebrand. This happened before that St. John's Church speech, give me liberty, give me death. Man, he's starting to pot up the whole time. Him and Samuel Adams and John Adams and John Hancock and those men like, man, the guy's name just slipped my mind. But old Dr. Warren, man, these guys, they meant business. And they wanted liberty and they wanted freedom. So here's Patrick Henry. I mean, God's powers on this man. This ain't just some politician. I mean, God fell on him when he gave a speech. Everybody ever heard him said the same thing. He'd make people do things they didn't even want to do. He convinced people of doing things they said they'd never do. That's the power this man had. And when all this publication went out of Patrick Henry's resolutions and his demand that we fight and we resist, Then the colonists were brought together for the cause that Patrick Henry outlined in these writings. Two years later in 1767, Parliament tried to exert their authority again by passing the Townshend Act. Here they go again. to collect taxes on British goods imported to the colonies. A tax on china, tax on glass, a tax on lead, a tax on paint, a tax on paper, a tax on tea. I mean back then, I mean you might as well go ahead and take my gun, don't mess with my tea. You know the Brits and their tea. That's where all these people come from is England, most of them. Don't mess with them colonies tea. and they're taxing their tea. Some of the revenue raised by the Townshend Act was to pay the salaries of colonial judges and governors to buy their loyalty to the British crown. There again, there's England coming here buying judges, buying magistrates that's gonna rule the way they want them to rule. So the people are not being governed by fire-minded people, they're being governed by those that's loyal to nobody but the crown of England. Then the crown of England established a board of customs commissioners to stop smuggling and corruption. Now, dear people, there's always self-interest in everything. Samuel Adams and John Hancock were big businessmen and they were involved in illegal trading. They were bringing stuff in without paying duty. And without paying taxes, I guess they do want to rebel against England. So a lot of these guys, it ain't always righteous causes. There's always money involved. But they set up these commissioners to stop smuggling and corruptions among local officials in the colonies who were often engaged in illegal trade. Americans struck back by boycotting British goods. They were willing to suffer. They boycotted British goods, don't you? Hey, that's where, hey, you ever seen that sign? That's where it come from. Don't tread on me. You ever seen that snake? Y'all like that? Don't tread on me. That's back then, that's where that come from. Boy, I like that fly, that stirs me up. So they boycotted British goods. They were subject to taxation and began harassing, harassing the British custom commissioners. Man, if it's snow, they throw snowballs, they throw ice at them, they throw rocks at them. I mean, these colonists mean business, friend. British soldiers occupied Boston and were quartered in their ends, their houses and their businesses. How'd you like to have a town of 13,000 and you got six, seven, eight, 9,000 British soldiers coming in to requisition your homes and your barns and your empty buildings? That ain't gonna fly. So you can understand, I mean, they should have went with their little old tents out in the countryside. If you're gonna occupy Boston, don't go in there. Now, some of them did pay rent for the houses, but not all of them did. The British Declaratory Act gave the British complete power over legislation in the colonies. That ain't gonna work. You gonna pass all these laws? You got legislative power in the colonies? You got over in the parliament, you gonna come in here and set up your people? You gonna pass your laws on us? So what's happening is, over a period of time of about 10 years, 15 years, it's just one act after another. Then comes along the Stamp, Tax, and Townsend Act, but the Sugar Act. Oh, the Stamp Act, Townsend Act, enacted trade restrictions, but that insult to injury. The British passed the Currency Act. that would stop the colonists from making new paper money and keep them relying on British currency. In an effort to quell the resistance, England sent troops to occupy Boston, which only deepened the anger. The Declaratory Act of 1766 stated that Parliament had the same authority to tax Americans as it did those who lived in Great Britain. Well, we are a colony of Britain. Now we look back, we see the British side of this thing, but not that tyranny, not that heavy handedness. And when you give people freedom, you give them liberty, you let them self-govern, you let them produce their money, you let them make their laws, and then you just all, I mean, overnight take that away from them, uh-uh. That ain't gonna work with red-blooded people. Then the Boston Massacre is another event that happened that brought on the American Revolution. It occurred March the 5th, 1770. Whitefield died in September, I think, 30th, 1770. This would have been several months before that. It happened on King Street in Boston. It was a frigid snowy evening. Tensions were building between the British occupiers and the Boston residents, and it all boiled over. I mean, these colonists, man, they got some sand for in. They walk down the street and see one of them red coats, man, they're mocking them and talking to them. You know why? Because they seen them as tyrants. It's how you see people. It's how you're gonna react to them. Now, earlier that day, earlier that day that this Boston Massacre took place, there was a disagreement between an apprentice wig maker, they always flesh me out, that wig wearing man. Them men wearing them white wigs. How the who come up with that? That's sort of effeminate to me. But it wasn't back then, it was a sign of prestige and dignity. Don't mess with my wig maker now. So the wig maker and a British soldier got into it. That led, because the British soldiers mistreating his wig maker, that led about 200 colonists, hey, you touch one, you touched all of us. That's the way they were. That's what brought America. Wouldn't you like to have that kind of union in the church? Devil, you touch one, you touch all of us. We weep together, we rejoice together, we shout together, and we cry together. We fight together. This led to a crowd of 200 colonists surrounding seven British troops. The Americans began taunting the British 200 up now, throwing ice and snowballs and stones at them. The soldiers panicked. One fired his muskets. When the others heard the fire, they unloaded their muskets too. When the smoke cleared, three Americans were dead. Two more were about to be dead. They were mortally wounded. These five men killed were Crispus Atkins. Samuel Gray had a fist-sized hole, fist-sized hole in his head. James Caldwell was shot twice. Samuel Maverick, Patrick Carr would soon die. That was the event of the Boston Massacre. John Adams knew when that happened. What happened next was big time. If the colonists hang these men, because they had snow thrown at them, they've had ice thrown at them, stones thrown at them, those colonists shouldn't have done that. I mean, the problem's the parliament. The problem's the government of England, not those soldier boys. You gotta look at stuff at both sides. Guess who defended the British troops? John Adams, and he got them off. And they were not convicted because they were said to have been provoked and in fear of their life. And so, that sort of cooled things off. See, John Adams was a true patriot, but he also had wisdom. Then the next event was, thank God I love this, the Boston Tea Party. Boston, now don't mess with my tea now. Hey man, that was December 1773. The British eventually withdrew their forces from Boston and repealed much of the onerous towns in that. So, we so rebelled. I mean, what you gonna do? We're 3,000 miles away from Parliament. What you gonna do? I mean, they're not gonna pay it. Listen, they're not gonna bend their bow. You're gonna have to kill them first before they yield, especially that bunch in Boston. That's why Boston's the most important city in America. That's where these Baptist boys and a lot of these guys got saved here in Whitefields in Boston. That's where the Minutemen were. That's where the Sons of Liberty were. That's where them great patriots are. Amen, a lot of them. So they left in place the tea tax. Hey, don't mess my tea now. Boy, they really got stirred up over his tea tax. You know why? Because the British parliament is putting their finger on the scale to bankrupt the American tea businessmen. Parliament gave the East India, East India, that's a big company. When William Carey went to England, or went to England, he was from England. When William Carey in the 1790s went to India, it was East India Company from Britain. that give him so much trouble. And they really didn't want him to evangelize the people because they thought it would hurt their business. I mean, this is government and business hooked, I mean, hip to shoulder. Parliament gave the East India Company tax breaks duty free. so they could undercut the American merchants who imported from Dutch traders. Are you seeing what's happening? So they're giving this East Indian Company, they are subsidizing them from the government and they're bankrupting the tea sellers in America because they can't compete. Well, that deeply resented the people in America, of course, and the colonists wanted to trade with whosoever they wanted to trade with. They wanted to trade with France. They wanted to trade with the Dutch people, Holland. They wanted to trade there, but they wanted to trade with India. They wanted to trade with Africa. They wanted to trade the whole world. And here's Britain trying to cut their throat to make them dependent on them. So the sons of liberty, man, I'm telling you what, they had a spine about the size of a trombone. Signs of Liberty Joseph Lawrence who started all this. Sons of Liberty decided to confront the British head on. Here's the story. This is funny. So they disguised themselves as Mohawk Indians and they boarded three ships in Boston Harbor. Listen to this. They destroyed more than 92,000 pounds or 45 tons of British tea by dumping it into the harbor. They dumped 342 chests of tea into the Boston Harbor. Don't mess my tea! Oh yeah. Boy, they stirred up. Boy, I wonder how they'd be marching today on all this tyranny going on in Washington, D.C. You know how much tea that was? It'd be worth $1 million today that they dumped in the Boston Harbor. but they didn't vandalize the ships. They didn't lay a hand on none of the crew. Matter of fact, when they had broke one of the padlocks to get into that tea, they went back the next day and replaced the padlock. This wasn't against the people on the ship. This wasn't a war against them. It was a direct attack against the tyrants in England. Well, you can just imagine how this infuriated the British. Why? Well, it's interesting to know that the shareholders in the East Indian Company were many of them's members of parliament. Like this bunch up here in Washington that's playing on the stock market and they got inside information and they go up there with hardly any money and come back multimillionaires. Are you serious? That's how they're doing it. Right, look how many hundreds of millions of dollars is Nancy Pelosi worth today? Right, they go up there and do all that trading. I mean, it's the biggest scam in American history what's going on up there. But they infuriated the British. Listen to this. Those in the parliament that own shares in the East Indian Company. Now watch this. So the East Indian Company is in big financial trouble. And this uptake, Yes, why? They're playing with the business market, and they're making it conducive for the East Indian Tea Company to make all this money. Why? Because many of those in Parliament had paid 1,000 pounds sterling for a share in the East Indian Company. What would 1,000 pounds sterling be today for one share in this company? It'd be a million dollars. Boy, we talking about big money for him. And when they dumped a million dollars in the Boston Harbor, and it wasn't just that million dollars, they was gonna keep dumping it. But this wasn't the end, they knew that. I mean, they're dealing with a bunch of rebels over here. So John Hancock and Samuel Adams, prominent tea smugglers, sons of liberty, protested taxation without representation. You've heard that. Then you got next is the Coercive Act of March to June, 1774. This is known by another name. What do we know this today? The coercive act. They called it the intolerable acts. They said this is intolerable. We will not put up with this. And I mean that the blood of these patriots is a bull in my mouth. You keep poking the bear. That's what they're doing, ain't it? They've weaponized our government against the people. That's what they're doing right now. They're poking the bear into, oh yeah. In response to the Boston Tea Party, the British determined to tame the rebellious colonists in Massachusetts. You might as well, listen, you might as well sing Dixie backwards. You're not gonna tame them. They're not gonna be tamed. Not when you've taken their liberty from them. In spring of 1774, Parliament passed a series of laws called the Coercive Tax or the Intolerable Acts, which closed Boston Harbor until restitution was paid for the destroyed team. And they said, we're gonna shut you down. And there's no goods coming in here. And there's no goods coming out of here. And that all had all those British soldiers over in New York Harbor. I mean, they're trying to starve us out. That's what they're doing. When Adolf Hitler attacked Russia in World War II, called Operation Barbarossa, named after Frederick Barbarossa. When he done that, he didn't go in there to conquer the Russian people. He went in there to starve them out and kill them. He wanna kill all them Russian people and take their land for living space. So here we've got, they're gonna close down Boston Harbor. Food can't get in here. You can't sell to other countries. You can't make money. So this is what they're doing. Now notice this right quick. So we're not gonna have this siege of Boston Harbor until all that money's repaid. Then they replaced the colony's elected council with one appointed by the British. This gave sweeping powers to the British military governor, General Thomas Gage, and forbade town meetings without his approval. Martial law was enacted. You just don't treat Americans like that. Not real Americans. This is just not gonna work. So another provision protected British colonial officers who were charged with capital crimes from even being tried in Massachusetts. If they had killed one of the colonists, they couldn't even be tried over here. So that's just a get out of jail free card, you know. But the most provocative provision was the Quartering Act which allowed British military officials to demand accommodations for their troops in unoccupied houses and buildings and towns rather than having to stay out on the countryside. Again, sometimes there was an expense pay. but they're forced. You gotta take us in. It's not, can I rent your room? No. I'm gonna pay you, but you're gonna rent me that room. And your wife, like Clint Eastwood, I want fried chicken tonight. Yeah. I want apple pie tonight. You know, he took over that town. Well, that's another story. That's another history lesson we won't get into. But, how'd you like it? Even if a man give you a fire wage, come in on you, well, I want the master bedroom, and I'm gonna pay you for it. But old Cardinal Wallace here, Cardinal here, he wants your master bedroom. And therefore, this quarter night, let them demand that they move in with you. How would you like that? Folks, that just ain't gonna work with real red-blooded people. So here's what we got, they're not gonna comply to that willingly. And all this Boston, where the British was targeting Boston, they're coming at them. All of this is targeted at Boston. Like they're doing right now, certain politician who used to be president and they're terrorizing him night and day to put the fear in anybody that supports him. That's what they're doing. And that's what they've done here. They're gonna sow, put Boston under their thumb, then nobody else gonna rise up. They're gonna make them the example. That's what they're intended on doing. So Parliament's coercive acts led all the colonies except Georgia to unite behind Massachusetts and boycott trade. And of course, Georgia will finally get in. Second Constitutional Congress, they were there. What brought about this unity? If they do it to them, they'll do it to us. Folks, listen to me. Man, I mean, some of these court cases that we just won, man, thank God we did. Because if they did that to them, they'd do that to us. See, what they always do, they go to these deep blue states to where they're just godless. And they can win in the lower courts. And usually, the federal court system that represents those deep blue states, they're just as liberal as the local courts are. And then if you get it to the Supreme Court, you got a chance right now of getting a favorable outcome. But I'm telling you, what the government's trying to do, they run an experiment on us called COVID, they locked everything down. That was all a political run. Find out how much they could coerce the American people. And ain't no need you arguing with me, because I'm right about that. That was a political test. You see how hard it was to relinquish that power. Even when there was no danger, much of covet anymore, they still wanted all that control on people. I'll tell you one thing, they better not try that again. Shut all these businesses down. Put all these businesses out of business. Then you got Lexington and Concord and this will be it. Maybe some other time I can preach on Bunker Hill. Hallelujah, what a miracle. Lexington and Concord. Isn't it amazing how in every state you got cities named after cities in England? That's where we come from. Come here, they name it Lexington, they name them Concord. I mean, and ever since George Washington had that great Nathaniel Green. You got Greene County, Greenville County. You got Greene, Greene, Greene all over America honoring. You got Washington's name. You got Jefferson's name. And what the cities in England were, they were named after the cities of England, but after we got our heroes, then our places began to be named after men and not places in England, anyhow. So Lexington and Concord, April 19th, 1775. British General Thomas Gage, had a force of 700 British soldiers. Boy, there's a lot of planning in this Sons of Liberty, Joseph Warren. Joseph Warren organized the Sons of Liberty. Joseph Warren, not Paul Revere. Joseph Warren is the man that organized the system of communication that would let all of the local colonies know, cities know, towns know, countrysides know when the British were coming out of Boston. Boy, they've been practicing this a long time. So, how old British, General Thomas Gage led a force of 700 British soldiers from Boston to Lexington where he planned to capture colonial signs of liberty leaders in Lexington, Samuel Adams and John Hancock. They were in Lexington. If they would have captured these two men, what would that have done to the cause? It would have really discouraged it. So they were gonna go seize them. Then, they were gonna leave Lexington, that's just a one horse down. They're gonna leave Lexington, and they're gonna go to Concord, and they're gonna disarm America without disarming America. They were gonna take our guns. They wasn't taking our muskets, they was taking our gunpowder. That's the only reason we lost the Battle of Bunker Hill. We ran out of gunpowder. If we hadn't run out of gunpowder, we'd have probably killed 700 or 800 of them British soldiers that day. But, so they're gonna go, they're gonna go where the armory's at in Concord and take away all of our gunpowder. On the church green, first bloodshed for America in organized military force was on the green of the church. In Lexington, on the church green, the British force was confronted by 77 American militiamen. After somebody fired, and to this day, nobody knows, and neither side knows. Eight Americans died, nine were wounded, but the system of Paul Revere, that consisted of 60 men and women who run throughout the night, and just a miracle of God had all this stuff happened. So Joseph Warren sent out Revere. He goes up through the Charles River. He sent William Downes, he sent him up the bottleneck going up the upper part of the island of Boston. And on the way, they met a doctor. His name just slipped me. And that doctor was out romancing his girlfriend, fiance. It's about two o'clock in the morning. Paul Revere and Dowey's had caught up with each other. And they were out there and met up with this man. They met all three of them together. Well, in that day, guess who had the fastest horse? Doctors do. This young man, Lord, what's his name? This young man, man, right when they got together, here comes a British, and they captured Paul Revere. And this other man dies. His horse threw him off. He had to run off, crippled, and lost his horse that night. And the only one that kept the horse was a doctor. Providentially, they met this doctor. He didn't know this coming, they didn't know He was gonna be there. And at the right time, at the right place, at the right point of the road, they run into Him. You reckon God's in this stuff. I think his name's Prescott. Anyhow, so he goes and he's got to face his horse. He said, let me go tell Concord. Man, and here comes old Pit Karen is bringing the British soldiers down to Concord and the word got out. 2,000 of those militia men from all around. Come down there that night, they come from everywhere. And they surrounded Concord. And they shot at them Brits. Man, they shootin' behind stone walls. They shootin' behind houses. Man, I mean, listen, they wasn't linin' up like them bunch of Brits. Don't know how stupid's that. They line up men, line this line here and that line over there, and we gonna shoot at each other. That ain't how country people fight. You gotta have, I mean, they climb trees, and the first thing it does, shoot the officers, you know. That's what old Cornwallis said. This is not gentlemanly for you to shoot the officers first. Men must have men to lead them or we'll have total chaos. Yeah, we wasn't trying to be gentlemen. We was trying to save our backside. So that next morning, those 200 colonists show up. and they arrest them British. Listen, if we'd have had a united front, I mean, there wasn't any standard of officers. If we would have been together and had some kind of professional army, we'd have killed every one of them. But when it's all said and done, 73 British soldiers got killed, another 174 were wounded, and 26 were missing. And right after that, had 3,000 militiamen surrounding Boston Harbor. Finally, old Thomas Gage was told, we're gonna kill you. That's what them 3,000 men said. You laid your hand on us, we're laying our hand on you. Thomas Gage said, out there's my ships. Got all that cannon power. and I won't shoot, and I won't try to burn down Boston when we leave, if you'll let us leave peacefully and go back to New York." And so they did. But the British had burned the towns of Falmouth, Massachusetts, and Norfolk, Virginia. In Falmouth, Massachusetts, the townspeople had to grab their possessions and flee for their lives, and the British burned down Charlestown, right there beside of Boston, that night of the election and the Concord excursion. This senseless war crime shocked George Washington. And the way the British did was what brought about the unification of the 13 colonies. This shocked the South. The British also would offer Southern slaves their freedom if they'd take up arms and fight against the American colonists. So here's the colonists. A lot of them ain't got no dog in this fight. They don't live in Boston, just leave us alone. So 1 3rd was against war. 1 3rd was for the war. And 1 3rd, the 3rd that was against wars were those Tory sympathizers, British sympathizers. And then 1 3rd didn't care one way or the other. So you only had a 3rd that's willing to stand. Let me throw this in there and God quit. After the war, where'd all them Tories go? You know what George Washington done? because the Continental Congress had just been established. 1775, after the Battle of Lexington and Concord, and after the British finally left, and you're leading up to the Battle of Bunker Hill, during that time, 1775's when that happened, George Washington is being set aside and commissioned by the First Continental Congress to be the Commander-in-Chief. And then from there he became the commander in chief and the rest of its history. But what I'm trying to say is God got in this thing and we lost, I've told y'all this, we lost every battle in 1776 except the last two. And we lost more battles than we won, but we outlasted them. That's right, we outlasted them. But to think about the Tories, I was gonna say this, The Tory sympathizers, Washington didn't have nothing to feed his men with. What'd they do? They got it from the Tories. They raided their farms, they took their food, and they took their animals. Said, if you stand against us and stand for Britain, you ain't even worthy to have your property, and Washington took it from them. That's right. Praise God. Fight fire with fire. And the biggest Tory sympathizers was in the South. And to get to South to really fight like Nathaniel Green did was a miracle in itself. But you know where the Tories went? I know you studied this. Where did the Tories go? What happened to all the Tories after the war? Because, man, they were going to be tarred and feathered. And the colonies, Michael, the colonies knew who they were. But after this war, they're going after them. Who do you think made up Canada? They all went to Canada. That's why Canada today speaks English and that part Quebec that speaks French is where the French colonists, their citizens went after the war. And that's what populated Canada was the Tories and the French. God would let us have Canada. We tried twice to invade it, it didn't work. Benedict Arnold did one time, didn't work. Then he come back with his head between his legs, didn't work. God wouldn't let us have Canada. It wasn't God's will for America to have Canada. because we have what we got. Now, we ain't always done what's right. I mean, this divine right of kings and all this, where American government just go in and take land from Indians, and Roger Williams said, I mean, that's one thing got him kicked out of Salem, Massachusetts, kicked out of Plymouth, Massachusetts, got him banished from Boston, Massachusetts. He said, you don't steal Indian land, buy it from them. Buy the land, don't steal it from them. Boy, he had all them businessmen tore up. They come over and just take what they want. He said, it's Indian land. You don't just go in there and take our land. If you want their land, go ask them to sell it to you. If they sell it to you, you buy it from them. Don't y'all agree with that? I do. I think you do stuff like Christians. And we've had a lot of people in our history acting like a bunch of rogues. As a great hero as Andrew Jackson was, old Hickory, in some areas, his little old boy. Man, we had 12, 13, 14 year old boys fighting in the Revolutionary War. He was one of them. One of them British soldiers come in and old Andrew Jackson always had that edge on him. Man, you don't mess with him. He's a stick of dynamite. He stood up to that British soldier and that British soldier cut him. And old Andrew, trying to kill him. Andrew Jackson never forgave him for that. But he put smallpox in blankets to give to Indians to wipe them out. Now that's sin. Now that's sin. That's wickedness. But when you're the nation of Israel, you conquer the land. You kill the Canaanites. Are you getting the connection here now? And you're justified in doing it. No, when you represent Christ, you don't do stuff like that. Because the church doesn't use the sword with a blade, it uses the sword of the Spirit. All that fighting is left to the government. Yeah, Christians fight in the military. Christians take up arms. But we're not down here at the church fighting people. We do that through the military, we do that through the government. And God's established those powers. He's established the law. He's established the police force, firemen. He's established all these institutions, and it's now become any of them the enemies of the American people. You see how Satan's taking this thing apart? Ain't nobody got no confidence in the FBI. CIA, they're rogues, man. The upper echelon of that, listen. Man, the way they're IRS, the way they're coming after people, their political enemy, just weaponizing this whole thing. That's why we need a man again that's got some spine. I just know one that they can't wilt. Hey man, he's a bull in a china shop, but thank God he's still a bull. We got to have somebody that can't be no pushover. We got to have some more sons of liberty. Amen. Praise God for them we got now. Amen. That'll stand no matter what. That's statesman. Let's bow our heads. I'll ramble on and on. Father, thank you tonight for America.