"If free speech means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear." So said George Orwell. And of course, he's right. Anything else is not free speech. It's censorship. And where there is censorship, where there is no free speech, there cannot be freedom, because free speech is at the core of being free people. And that's the book of Daniel. The book of Daniel is about God's preacher, Daniel, but also Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego, telling Nebuchadnezzar things he does not want to hear. Challenging his political mandates, like his mandate that all the people should worship a statue of himself as God. That's an abuse of power. And Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego challenged it in the name of God. In our chapter this morning, it's 20 years later. Nebuchadnezzar is dead. And now his grandson, Belshazzar, is now king. Now, Belshazzar today, in our culture, would be called a progressive. He would be called a progressive because he quickly leads the people of Babylonia backward into paganism and immorality that his grandfather had delivered and elevated the country from. In America, the same thing is called progressive. No, it isn't. It's regressive. And I refuse to call progressive a lot of people that the far left call progressive, because they are leading America backward from the roots that founded this country. And that's cancel culture. It takes America backward. Cancel culture, it just begs the question: What culture do they want to cancel? The roots of America. That's the culture. The Christian culture of America. The situation in this chapter is that the Persians have conquered Babylon. They've conquered all of Babylonia's armies. And here they surrounded the city of Babylon and threaten to conquer it, and eventually they do. But Belshazzar is convinced that Babylon is invincible, impregnable. Like a lot of people thought, from 600 to about 1100 AD, that Constantinople was impregnable and unconquerable. The Muslim armies failed again and again to conquer it. But one night, it fell. Just like Babylon does. But Belshazzar is confident that it will not fall. So he throws this wild, drunken sexual orgy for several thousands of his political leaders and supporters, and their wives, and their concubines. And he calls for the golden goblets that his grandfather had stolen from God's temple in Jerusalem when he conquered it. He calls for those golden goblets to be brought out, so that the people can drink wine from them. It's a sacrilege against God. And suddenly, there's supernatural writing by God on the wall of the banquet hall. No one can translate it. Just three words. Except Daniel. Daniel can translate. Mene: your days are numbered. Tekel: you have not measured up to God's standards. Parsin: your kingdom is judged and now will be conquered. And that very night, the Persians dammed up the river, the Euphrates, that ran through the city under the wall, and then walked across the dry riverbed, found no resistance, because everybody was in the party, and conquered the city. And Belshazzar is dead. Not even great Babylon, with all of its armies, can stand up against the judgment of God. No country can, no matter what a superpower it is. The people were warned for years, but ignored the warnings. And then, one night, the writing is on the wall, and the judgment of God comes swiftly. And there is no second chance, because it had so many chances before. The date of that night is known in history. It is fixed as October 12, 539 BC. And I make mention of that only to make the point that we're not reading myth. We're reading history when we read the book of Daniel and the fall of Babylon. It is a fact that God's judgment came upon the nation that had once been believers in the God of the Bible, and had followed Him, and were worshiping Him and not idols. But in less than 20 years, the progressives in Belshazzar brought the nation backward into paganism and immorality, and they lost the favor of God. A country can lose the favor of God, just like an individual can. So the obvious question is, is the writing on the wall for America? I'm not a doomsayer. But I read the Bible and look at the news. Bible in one hand, and the news in the other hand. And all serious-thinking Christians must do the same. We read the Bible, and then we read the news, because so often there's a parallel, and there's a warning. Just as this is. There's this widespread myth, though, that Christianity should not meddle in politics. The idea is that preachers should stick to the Bible and stay out of politics. Occasionally, I've been told that. But the Bible is full of God sending His preachers against corrupt kings and policies. Against their mandates that are contrary to God's Word. Only people who don't read the Bible and don't know history say that Christianity should stay out of politics. In fact, that idea is recent, in our century. Never before in the church had that idea ever been. Just recently, in our century, it has cropped up, and it's wrong. My gosh, what was Daniel doing but being political and criticizing two kings of Babylon, with their policies? Politicians do not get a free pass from God's Word, no matter how many votes they get. [applause] So it's a good question: Is the writing on the wall for America? Well, consider the first fact. America's decline morally, and the rejection of Jesus, has been breathtakingly fast. The courts have removed God from our public schools. Until the 1950s, our schools actually taught the Bible. And in its beginnings, our nation actually taught children to read their ABCs by biblical stories. And then suddenly, the Bible and the mention of God became forbidden in our schools. And it was done under the banner of multiculturalism, which I'm sure you've heard. And when you hear this word "multiculturalism," remember that C. S. Lewis said, "If you want to know where your sin is, look underneath your virtue, which tries to camouflage it." And it's so true. We virtue-ize what is evil and sin. Like gossip: "Oh, it's just telling the truth." We've covered up sin in God's eyes with the virtue of honesty. And that's multiculturalism. It says we've become a nation of many cultures, and so the Bible can no longer be taught in schools, and Jesus no longer prayed to, because really, that's offensive to people of other faiths. So under the banner of sensitivity, in a slick way, we're de-Christianizing America. C. S. Lewis was brilliantly perceptive when he wrote, "If we laugh at patriotism, why are we surprised that traitors are in our midst?" Think about that. We laugh at patriotism today. Likewise, if we stop teaching God and the Bible to the nation's children, if we laugh at Christian devotion and belief in God, why are we surprised at the immorality in our country, and especially of our leaders? They grew up in these schools over the last 40 years. Their conscience has not been sensitized by the Word of God. If you're an atheist, then whatever you think is right is right. We have several generations without any exposure to Jesus and God's Word. So why would we be surprised at the daily immorality, almost daily immorality, that we read about in our nation's leaders and our state's leaders? This moral chaos, lying, deceit, unfaithfulness, greed, self-centeredness in political leadership. Why are we surprised at that? The goal of most politicians, not all, is simply to stay in power. And whatever it takes, they'll say what Gallup poll says to say, to stay in power and get votes. And that's why videos have been shown of leaders, political leaders, from 10 or 15 or 20 years ago, where they're saying the exact opposite of what they're saying today. We are no longer a Christian nation. We aren't. Did you know that less than nine out of 10 people in Salinas belong to a church, or ever go to worship? Nine out of 10. 98% of churches in America have less than 100 people in worship. The stats are that 4,000 churches are closing every year in America. Did you know that today we have less than half the number of churches in America that we had in 1950? Cancel culture. It's trying to turn Christmas into a winter holiday, and Easter into a spring holiday. The effort is being made by cancel culture to obliterate from memory the two most important days of Christianity: the birth of our Lord Jesus, and His death on the cross for our sins. And we don't think God's patience is running thin, and that the writing may be on the wall? America is being called a cut-flower nation. That's what historians are saying. The metaphor that they're using is that you go to the garden, and you see a beautiful flower, and you cut it from its roots, and you put it in a vase of water. Very quickly, it decays and dies, because it's been cut from its roots. And what historians are saying is that increasingly, the far left and cancel culture is cutting America from its Christian roots. And that's why we're seeing the collapse of morality, family life, parenting, and all the rest. Do you know that cancel culture wants to rewrite Christian history, to say that our roots in the beginning, at Plymouth Rock and the 13 colonies, were not Christian? Now, I've preached about eight sermons on that and given you the evidence that that is just nonsense. The charters of all 13 colonies all talked about evangelizing the nation, promoting the cause of Jesus. And the first Congress actually published the Bible to be distributed at the government's expense. There's so much that's being said and rewritten that's not true. Do you know about the 1619 Project? The Project 1619? You should. You should go home and Google that, because it is really an insidious project in the schools in New York, and some in California, of rewriting American history to obliterate its Christian roots. I was stunned when I read about the 1619 Project. All I can say to us is, don't drink the Kool-Aid. Niall Ferguson, who's one of Oxford's greatest historians, has written this massive book that I have, but you should not get it. It's 1,200 pages. It's called Colossus: The Rise and Fall of the American Empire. I'll quote him: "The collapse of Rome happened in a single generation. Other great empires have collapsed just as swiftly. Could this be the generation of the collapse of America?" End of quote. Is it? Will Durant, the great historian of civilizations, wrote this: Rome collapsed not because of enemies outside its walls, but because of destructive morals, and a government becoming bigger and bigger and more controlling, choking taxes, and the fact that fewer and fewer people were producing wealth by working, and instead were on the dole. Does that sound familiar? I was stunned when the Democratic Party eliminated belief in God from its platform in the 2020 election. Did you know that? Never before in history has an American political party eliminated God. That does not bode good things. Politicians for both parties support abortion, and even full-term abortion. A baby's born, and it's killed. The $1.9 billion COVID relief package includes millions for Planned Parenthood, a factory for killing. We really should know what's in this package, because this package is really not about helping small businesses survive, and helping people out of work survive. Most of the money is earmarked for far-left causes, and the causes of cancel culture. It's been snuck in. The latest success of cancel culture is an executive order by the president, forcing schools to allow students to compete in sports based upon their gender identity, their chosen gender identity, not their actual biological identity. In other words, a boy can claim that his gender identity is feminine, and that must be accepted, because that's what he claims. And that means he can compete against biological girls in sports. He can also use their restroom and shower with them. Cancel culture has trumpeted this as a gigantic step forward for women's and transgender rights. It is not. It is an enormous setback for women's rights. It has made it possible for genetic boys to compete against genetic girls. It is actually an attack on women's rights, and it absolutely will end sports for girls in our schools. I'll give you an example. The fastest female sprinter in the world has a record of running the 400-meter dash in 49.26 seconds. But in 2018 alone, almost 300 high school boys shattered that record. Can you imagine gender-identity boys playing basketball against girls? And soccer, or any other sport? Cancel culture is really only interested in pushing transgender rights. The only hope for America is Christians speaking up and being informed. We should know these things are happening. What evil really counts upon is Christians being asleep, not knowing what's happening in their country, because we're so absorbed with our own daily life. We must speak up. And that means we must be informed. The Bible in one hand and the news in the other, and push back against what is evil in God's eyes. Otherwise, we're going to become another Babylon. Many think that America is invincible. But Babylon could not stand up against the judgment of God. And neither could Egypt, and neither could Rome. Dominant countries can turn to dust, because they fall from within. Some of you are thinking, "Well, Pastor Mike, you don't seem very happy this morning." Well, I'm not. I'm not happy when I see how America is being ripped from its roots. The sort of deceit that's going on. The Kool-Aid that's being passed around, that good people are drinking because they're just not informed. But I'm most upset that Christians are passive. George Orwell said, "In a time of deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act." I want you to know, I'm a rebel, and I intend to continue to be a rebel. And America needs more Christians rebelling. Secondly, this fact: BLM and leftist politics are pushing anarchy and socialism. If we do not stop this, we will lose America to anarchy and socialism. Black lives matter. I honestly don't know anybody in my circle of friendships who does not believe that. We also believe all lives matter. But definitely, black lives matter. And yes, there are some rogue cops who have killed a black man, and rogue cops have done awful things against black people. But did you know more white people are killed by cops than black people, by far? And moreover, BLM should be very careful. They're actually hypocritical, because the fact, the indisputable fact, is they have ambushed black cops, and they have burned down and destroyed black businesses. You wonder, do black lives really matter to this group? BLM is, in fact, Marxist. Three of its founders admit publicly that they are Marxist. In fact, they brag that they're trained Marxists. A lot of people don't know that. And it's not a Christian group, by any means. Nowhere is Jesus lifted up in its writings. And its morality is absurdly unbiblical. All three of the founders are lesbians and push lesbianism. In fact, in their platform, there's no mention of men. And the reason is, they want to destroy two-parent families. That was actually in their platform, but recently they took that page off the website, because it was getting so much flak. But that's really where BLM is. It's Marxism. Because Marxism wanted to destroy two-parent families, because then they had the children and could indoctrinate the children. BLM has gone on record as praising Castro and his communist, socialist revolution. Which, by the way, impoverishes Cubans. Just as Marxism impoverished Russians. Have you been to Russia? You know what I mean. And they have praised the politics of Venezuela and its socialism, even though it's bankrupt and the people are starving. Socialism sounds good, especially to young people. But socialism impoverishes a nation. It has never in history prospered the people of a nation. BLM has publicly thanked Castro, before his death, for sheltering Assata Shakur. Do you know about her? Oh, she's a cop killer and a terrorist who fled to Cuba, and who is one of the inspirations of BLM. Why do we ignore these facts and allow a title to fool us? They are anarchists, creating racial division, not unity. And they are creating anarchy. And yet many corporations have not bothered to check out, really, the founders and what's going on here. And they have drunk the Kool-Aid. Why? Well, part of the reason is fear. Fear of being called racist. And this is becoming one of the great fears in our country. Just about everybody's being called a racist. I mean, if you happen to disagree with cancel culture or the leftist agenda, you will immediately be labeled as a racist. I will be labeled as a racist because I dare to challenge BLM's claims. It's one of the quickest criticisms in our day today. But we ought not to be silenced by being called these labels. If you're not a racist, don't worry about it. Speak up, and not be silenced by these things. Frankly, I'm tired. Really tired of hearing so many people accused of being a racist. Antifa is proudly Marxist and proudly turns peaceful protests into rampaging, destructive riots. They did it in Portland. They did it in Seattle. That's just a fact. They openly call for violent revolution in America. And why in the world they are not corralled and silenced is beyond me. It's because cancel-culture politicians want this to happen. Because people give up more and more rights as they fear things. The more we fear, the more we give up rights to the government. Did you know that BLM actually went to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, to riot and to rampage and destroy businesses, like they did in Seattle? That happened a few months ago. But the citizens of that city got the news that they were on buses coming. They got their weapons, lined the streets in front of businesses. And when the buses of BLM drove into town and saw all these armed citizens, they turned around and drove out. I have friends who were part of that. That's what needs to happen more in America. People standing up against these kinds of groups. Our president is pushing open borders. Suddenly, we have a crisis on our hands on the southern border. And open borders really sounds... it's so loving, for people who are disadvantaged. But, I mean, how many people are we talking about? 10 million? 20? 50? Tom Homan was, for 35 years, a Border Patrol agent and the acting ICE director. He wrote that last year was a historical low in illegal crossings. But after only 40 days of Biden's presidency, we have hit an historic high in illegal crossings. Why suddenly were there, or are there, 4,000 arrests a day being made, with another estimated 1,000 illegals escaping? When Homan wrote about this, he was attacked as fearmongering, and his experience as a border agent meant nothing. People don't seem to realize that they're catching groups of Middle Eastern men who could be terrorists infiltrating, Chinese infiltrating, drug pushers infiltrating. All kinds of people that are threats to America also coming across the open border. Open borders, ultimately, are a threat to the security of any nation. That's just a fact. But cancel culture will call you a racist and a bigot if you say that. Why does cancel culture want open borders? Well, think about it. Because illegals will need government handouts, which will make them dependent upon the government, and they'll vote for that government. And the government will have to get bigger and bigger to handle the mass of people, which is just another step towards big, big, big government, and socialism, and power for politicians. Many politicians want bigger government, because that's power. And once you have power, you never get enough of it. This country was built on hard work and initiative. Socialism will rob dignity and ambition in people. Putting people on the dole robs dignity from people, which only comes from work. America was not built on this. America was built on people being self-sufficient, and independent, and being creative. Last week, 108 illegals were caught in Texas. Virtually every one of them tested positive for COVID. So what did our government do with them? They were not sent back to Mexico. Our government put them on buses going to various cities, and many, like Minneapolis and New York. And we're so uptight about masks and getting vaccines, and we send tested-positive COVID people into our cities? You have to ask why. There's only one rational explanation. The fact is, politicians don't want the epidemic to stop. They actively sent infectious people into America's heartland. Why? Because politicians often say, "Never waste a crisis." Never waste a crisis. And what they mean by that is, when people are afraid and there's a crisis, they give up more of their freedoms. Which is exactly what's happening in America today. They want us to be in crisis, because more and more can they take freedoms away from us. We have to think about these things clearly, as to what is happening to us. The writing is on the wall if we vote for leftist politicians. It looks loving, but it will kill the American spirit. Fact number three: there's a worse problem. Censorship. The writing is on the wall. Six books of Dr. Seuss have been banned from our schools for allegedly having racist content. I'm ticked. I promise you, if they come after Popeye the Sailor Man, I'm leaving the country. And probably Bugs Bunny is racist in some way or another, because they can dig down and find something. And they go after Popeye the Sailor Man because of the way he treated Olive. [laughter] I'm out of here. The same people who called ordinary Americans bigots and intolerant because we speak up and resist policies, these same professors and politicians and students have rioted over the last couple of years to prevent conservative speakers they disagree with from speaking on their campus. Now, that's hypocritical. And we see it all through our politicians that have been caught getting their hair done. You know, I could go on. These politicians make rules for you to live by that they don't live by. And I'm saying, if you make a law, you live by it, too. Or we shouldn't. [applause] The new way to silence people who disagree with cancel culture is to say that they are offended by what we say or believe. The Kool-Aid that's being passed around, that lots of people are drinking, is that no one should ever offend anyone else by what they say or what they believe. And my answer to that is, you offend me. It's unending. [applause] It is so ludicrous that people would tolerate that. Orwell wrote, "If freedom means anything, it means the right to tell people what they don't want to hear." The free marketplace of ideas. Amazon censored a documentary about Justice Clarence Thomas, a black justice on the Supreme Court. Why? They disagree with his social views. Too conservative for them. Amazon also censored a book that challenged the movement of changing your biological identity through surgery. Do you know about this? The title of the book was When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment. Amazon became what Orwell called the Thought Police, and declared that to be a thoughtcrime. We're being accused of thoughtcrimes. Criminals because of what we think. This is what totalitarian governments do. They arrest you for thoughtcrime. It's all over America. We need to wake up and see this censorship that's happening. Social media platforms, you know this, like Twitter and Facebook, have censored not only President Trump, whatever you think about that, but they've censored doctors who are speaking up about masks, and are speaking up about vaccines. They have been censored and disappeared from the platforms. I've experienced this myself. People send me something, call me, I'll get on my computer five minutes later, and it's gone. We don't need to be protected from ideas. I can protect my own self from ideas. Alan Dershowitz, the famous Harvard lawyer, wrote this: "We must stand united against censorship, against cancel culture, and in favor of free speech. We have the right to flip the channel if we don't like what's on Newsmax. Change the channel. But don't tell carriers of cable and satellite TV to deny us the right to watch whatever we want to watch." That's right. And as I was writing this sermon, the irony of this: pornography is protected as the right of free speech. We're censoring this, but protecting pornography as free speech. We've gone wacko. [laughter] So what does cancel culture advocate? Well, AOC, my favorite politician, wants to blacklist anyone who served in the Trump administration. She says they should not be able to find a job anywhere in America. CNN's Jake Tapper agrees. Trump people should not be able to find work. The thought police of America, of cancel culture, want to punish people for whatever they think that they disagree with. This is un-American. You and I cannot be neutral. Too many of us are thinking, "Well, that doesn't affect me and my family. All this stuff is happening. It doesn't bother me." You're a Christian. Jesus said He came to destroy the work of the devil, wherever He found it. And it is our call to also destroy the work of the devil, the deceits and the lies, wherever we find it. That is our Christian duty. Creeping censorship eventually will come to you. Martin Niemöller was a pastor in Germany when Hitler took power. And he wrote something that's in the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem. And every time I lead a tour to Israel, I always take them to this Holocaust museum and walk the people up to this Niemöller quote, because it's so significant. He wrote: "First they came for socialists, and I did not speak up, because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak up, because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for Jews, and I did not speak up, because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak up for me." As a Christian, you have a moral obligation to walk in the steps of Jesus and destroy the works of the devil wherever you find it. You cannot be silent. You cannot be neutral. Cancel culture is coming after you and your freedoms. I'm not a [unclear]. I'm just reading the writing on the wall. So what will you do? Lord, I pray for us, that You'd give us courage. Help us to really fight when we need to fight, and not to be so distracted by our own luxuries and entertainment that we're uninformed. Help us, Lord, to be wise as serpents. Help us, Jesus. We pray it in Your name. Amen.