When Nation Forgets God

We have never been in a more dangerous place than right now--not during WWI, WWII, the Korean War or Vietnam, the tumultuous sixties, or during the Cold War.

I'm not saying these things to make you unsettle you, but I am saying it to make you aware.

Jesus once said, "When evening comes, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red,’ 3 and in the morning, ‘Today it will be stormy, for the sky is red and overcast.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times" (Matt. 16:2-3).

If anyone knows, God's people should be the ones to know and understand the signs of the times!

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Now, the FIRST thing we need to understand is that our God is not only the God of individuals, but is also the God of all the nations of the earth.

Listen to Isaiah, "Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket; they are regarded as dust on the scales; He weighs the islands as though they were fine dust" (40:15).

He blesses nations, and He also judges nations.

For instance, the Bible says, "Blessed is the nation whose God is The Lord" (Ps. 33:12).

The Bible clearly warns that if a nation turns away from God, dire consequences are in store because of God's certain judgment-----especially if that nation has had much light!

Take, for instance, God's Word to Judah in Jeremiah's time; listen to how He describes them and see if it sounds familiar:

"My people have....forsaken Me..." 2:13

"They have perverted their way...they have forgotten The Lord their God." 3:21

"They are expert at doing evil, but to do good they have no knowledge." 4:22

"They have refused to receive correction...they have refused to return to Me...they have made their faces harder than rock." 5:3

"They...do not obey the voice of The Lord their God.......Truth has perished and has been cut off from their mouth." 7:28

"They have rejected the Word of The Lord..." 8:9

Instead, "Everyone follows the dictates of his evil heart." 11:8

"They have forgotten Me and trusted in falsehood..." 13:25

As for their many sins, God asks, "Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? No! They were not at all ashamed, nor did they know how to blush." 6:15

And finally, over and over again God brings up their murdering of their own children....

He warns against the "shedding of innocent blood," and condemns their practice of sacrificing their children to the false god of Molech.

God says, "I did not command this, nor did it even come into My mind." 7:31

In other words, the killing of your own children is as foreign to Me and my will as anything could possibly be!

Now, listen to God's final response to all of these things: "Shall I not punish them for these things? says The Lord. Shall I not avenge Myself on such a nation as this?" 9:9

And in 11:11 He says, "Behold, I will surely bring calamity on them which they will not be able to escape."

So, we learn from these passages regarding Judah that The God of the Bible is over the nations of the earth, and He weighs them in His scales!

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Another thing we learn from the Bible is that some things are judged by God at the end of time, but He judges nations IN time.

And in the New Testament in Romans 1, the apostle Paul gives four steps in the decline and judgment of a nation that forsakes God:

As I read these, think again of America:

FIRST, a nation rejects God (it removes God from sight and sound, erasing Him from the public square and from its very mind).

THEN it turns to false religion (worshipping things that are not God---idols, false deities, self, phony substitutes).

THEN it sells out to sexual immorality and descends into violence (all the nations in history that forsook God turned to the worship of sensuality while violence mushroomed).

FINALLY, God judges it: A nation under God's judgment begins to decline, weaken, unravel, and self-destruct...

And history shows that virtually every time, barbarian armies were allowed to enter and destroy it---

Think Israel (Assyrians), Judah (Babylonians), Jerusalem in Jesus's time (the Romans), and Rome (Goths, Huns).

Ladies and gentlemen, It pains me to say it, but America is in the crosshairs of God's judgment!

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Now, most Americans (and Christians in particular) have typically believed that God will not judge America--that it is invincible, or somehow special....

The reasons they give usually include things like:

America's strong Christian heritage.

Our nation's commitment to freedom and liberty---both in our constitution and in our national practices for over two centuries.

The high level of education and civilized culture that has characterized America.

These are all valid reasons, and on the surface they seem airtight---But they are not.

Because when a nation turns from God, it's just like an individual person who turns from God...

Their past walk doesn't shield them from painful consequences if they walk away today!

Nor does their past protect them from falling into tragic deception now!

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Let me give you an example....

Pre-Nazi Germany had a strong Christian heritage.

Germany was the very heartland and launching pad of the Protestant Reformation.

Martin Luther, the torch and light of the Protestant Reformation, was a German!

When Nazism began to cast its ominous shadow across the land, Germany was filled with highly educated people.

It was a land of literary giants and scientific geniuses.

It was, in fact, one of the most advanced civilizations on earth!

It also had a democratic government-----Hitler was ELECTED to power.

And yet Germany walked away from its strong Christian heritage and spiraled into the tragic nightmare of Hitler's Nazism.

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Now, Let's talk about America.

Let me give you my own "State of the Union" from a Biblical perspective....

In the 1960s America began to decisively and systematically throw its Christian heritage away.

It happened quickly in a series of quick punches to the gut of America:

The sexual revolution was launched with an entire generation throwing Bible morality under the bus.

Eastern mysticism burst through the gates to fill the spiritual void of a forsaken Christianity.

The drug culture rushed in and flooded the streets and schools.

And secular humanism, which places man as his own god, was crowned king in the halls of academia.

The Judeo-Christian foundations of our land came under fierce, sustained assault, And this fierce assault is accelerating dramatically today.

We call this assault on Judeo-Christian values, "The Culture War."

It is a battle between the principles and guidance of God's word, and the unbiblical world-view of the pagan godless.

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Unfortunately, taken as a whole, the culture war has been won by the secularists and pagans....

We can no longer honestly claim to be a "Christian nation."

And here's the BITTER PRICE...

Without the safeguards of Christian morality that Jesus called "light" and "salt", the demons of hell have literally been unleashed.

The Bible says, "If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?" (Ps. 11:3)

We are now witnessing on a daily basis Satanic, senseless, brutal killings and gross, mind-numbing immorality on a scale that is unprecedented in history.

Did you know, for instance, that the marriage of people of the same gender is found nowhere in history but perhaps with the insane Roman Emperor Nero?

And worse, Churches that are supposed to be "the light of the world" and "salt of the earth" have capitulated to the world and are endorsing both homosexuality and same-sex marriage.

And many other churches and denominations have surrendered to the demands of PC "tolerance" by embracing heresies like "there are many roads to God."

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And then there are our children and their schools....

While in some ways our level of education is acceptable.....American education has thoroughly kicked God out of our schools from the pre-school all the way to the graduate level.

The Bible says that when you do this, you will only produce educated fools!

What we have now in America is a pagan education that teaches our children there is no God, and that they are simply random accidents of evolution.

Since they're being taught they are nothing more than a higher species of animal, we shouldn't be surprised that they're acting like it!

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In short, a decline is happening all around us that is almost dizzying.

Because we have rejected God as a culture, our society is rapidly becoming depraved.

"Woe" cried Isaiah, "to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness..." (Is.5:20)

One author titled his powerful book, "Slouching Toward Gomorrah" speaking of American moral decline.

And stunningly, immorality and perversion are not just being encouraged, but in some cases even coerced by our own government!

Romans 1 says, "They know God’s justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too." (vs.32)

Immorality is not just tolerated, it's celebrated in America!

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And I must add: Just like in Jeremiah's time, our government leaders, particularly on the national level, have become so corrupt we can no longer believe a thing they say!

Jeremiah wrote of his own country, "Greed has corrupted this culture, from the least to the greatest: everyone is tainted with...lust for what they don’t deserve. The prophets and priests are no better. Their lives reek with endless lies" (8:10).

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Now the question today is, Where does all this leave us?

When a nation begins to rebel against God, the first thing He will do is raise up prophetic voices to call the nation to repentance.

This has happened, beginning in the 1970's with David Wilkerson who cried out that judgment was coming to America.

And more recently, Jonathan Kahn, whose best-selling book "The Harbinger" clearly and undeniably reveals the coming judgments of God on America.

If the nation refuses to repent after hearing God's prophets, then God sends remedial (chastising) judgments in many forms until, because of a lack of repentance, the wound becomes incurable.

When the wound becomes incurable, God then moves a nation from judgment to destruction.

Charles Spurgeon said that God’s hand is “very helpful when it uplifts, but it is awful when it presses down.”

There is hardly a pastor or theologian that would not agree that right now, America is under the remedial judgment of God.

We are feeling His mighty hand pressing down.

His remedial judgments include the removal of His hand of protection, of His provision, and of His blessing.

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Now, I want to bring a final word of encouragement and direction to the Christian:

FIRST, God promises to watch over and care for His own that are seeking His face....

SECOND, there is no better time to boldly stand up and preach the gospel to a nation than when it is under the judgments of God....

THIRD, Jesus said, "When you see all these things taking place....lift up your heads, your redemption draws near!"

And finally, God's judgments are the precursor to destruction if we don't listen, but they are the precursor to revival and awakening if we will hear Him and cry out to Him!

LET'S PRAY that America hears and cries out!

PRAY

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