America Today

JEREMIAH 18:1-12

Jeremiah was Judah’s last prophet before going into Babylonian Captivity. He was called by the Lord to begin his ministry during the reign of Judah’s boy king, King Josiah. In [2 Kings 22:1-23:30] we are given the record of Josiah’s reign. Josiah’s father (Amon) and grandfather (Manasseh) were evil men whose love for sin and wickedness led them to forsake the True God of Israel and attempt to replace Him with false gods who accepted and even encouraged sin and wickedness in the lives of their followers. (That is the kind of god America has now adopted.) We have “… changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man …” [Romans 1:23] they would also lead the Nation of Judah into forsaking the Lord for pagan gods and to live wickedly as well.

They were not only seduced but they became the seducers of the nation. They were not the servants of Jehovah God, but the servants of the Evil One, doing his bidding for him. From the highest office in the land you had sin and wickedness practiced and encouraged among the people and the worship of the True God purged from the land and new pagan gods established in His place. (Sounds very familiar, doesn’t it?)

After the death of Amon, his son Josiah ascended to the throne at the tender young age of 8 years old. Josiah was just the opposite of his father and grandfather, in that he did what was right in the sight of the Lord, [2Kings22:3] and used his authority as King to purge Judah and Jerusalem of these pagan gods and their worship. To rid Judah of any reminders of these pagan gods his nation had worshiped during the reigns of his father and grandfather, [2Chronicles 34:3-5] he had all their shrines and altars completely destroyed. He would later repair and reopen the Temple that had been closed for years, (during which time it was turned into a storage site).

Once the Temple was reopened he restored the worship of Jehovah (the One and Only True God), the sacrifices and the celebrating of the Passover Feast. In addition, he reintroduced the nation to the Word of God after discovering the nation’s sole copy of the Law in the House of God while they were in the process of repairing it. The nation’s sole copy of the Law had been lost in the House of God while it set abandoned and defiled for years. Here was a nation that was “. . . being destroyed for lack of knowledge . . .” [Hosea 4:6].

Without the Word of God they had no idea who the Lord was, nor what He expected of them as His people. It was left up to the imaginations of their darkened minds and hearts (and the lies of the false prophets who were just as profane and as much in the dark as were the people) [Jeremiah 23:11] to create an image of God for the nation. The image they created was one in which their God was as corrupt as they were. [Romans 1:22, 23]

America has done the same, for decades we have not wanted “… to retain God in our knowledge…” [Romans 1:28], so we have done our best to rid our society of the Word of God, beginning at the school house where the minds and beliefs of our children are just beginning to be shaped for life.

The Church has even lost the Word of God in the Lord’s own House today pulpits are filled will feel good sound bites that are straight from the depths of hell and are leading to destruction!

With the Truth of the Word of God now all but eliminated from our society, we too have created from our darkened minds a corrupt image of God. We no longer have a God who is Holy, but now our God is one who creates some men and women as homosexuals and lesbians and sees homosexuality as a normal and acceptable life style.

America now has an image of God as one who sees nothing wrong with slaughtering 1.2 million babies a year in abortion clinics.

Judah was living under this delusion and corruption.

All of that was about to change with the coming of the Prophet Jeremiah. They were soon to learn that their God was a Holy God who expected His people to be Holy as well [1Peter 1:14-19] or experience His terrible displeasure. Josiah’s reforms and revival were well-intentioned, but they were merely pretense, superficial and ritual for the people and not the result of a changed heart towards the Lord. [Jeremiah 3:6, 10; 4:1-2] Even though the people had been legislated to return to their religion, they did not return to the Lord Himself. [Hosea 7:16]

Their life of idolatry, injustice and immorality continued on as before. The only difference now was that they were claiming to be a follower of Judah’s ancestral God. They lived the same life of sin as usual –the only difference being that they had changed the name of their god and the place of their worship. But they were the same old sinners that they had always been. Jesus encountered the very same people during His ministry. They called themselves Pharisees, but Jesus called them: “Hypocrites –people who drew near unto Him with their mouth and honoreth Him with their lips, but their heart was far from Him.”[Matthew 15:7, 8]

It would be in the midst of this superficial revival of religion that the Lord called Jeremiah to warn his nation of impending judgment from the Lord, if they did not quickly amend their ways, repent and return to their Lord

You can imagine how unnecessary, unappreciated and out of step Jeremiah and his message must have seemed to the nation and to the religious establishment in particular. They had stopped going to the pagan altars to worship their pagan gods. They were now going to the Temple, making their sacrifices and giving their offerings. The false prophets, who claimed to be speaking for the Lord, were telling them that they were good people deserving of health and prosperity from the Lord and that Jeremiah was just a not not to be taken seriously.

Thus was the beginning of Jeremiah’s ministry, and for the next 40 years (a generation) he would continue to preach the same warning while the end of the nation kept drawing nearer and nearer. Jeremiah would become very irritating to the people who saw no need for change. They would become more hostile towards him. The persecution from his people grew worse and worse with no visible evidence that he was getting through or making any difference upon his nation.

In [Jeremiah 8 verses 20-22], Jeremiah gives voice to the horror and despair that he is feeling for the fate of his doomed nation. As the passing of a Harvest Season that failed to produce fruit, gives rise to despair for a future without the availability of food, so the days the Lord had given them the opportunity to repent and return to Him failed to produce repentance and now the Lord had shut the door for the opportunity to repent and judgment is now their inevitable future. The end was now upon them.

Could the same be true for America as well? Could the Lord’s judgment of us be inevitable?

It is evident to me that the moral and spiritual free fall that America has been experiencing for years necessitates, in the absence of our Lord’s Return, either Revival or Judgment, the status-quo cannot and will not continue much longer.

Like Judah in the days of Jeremiah, the option and opportunity for Amer­ica to repent and return to the Lord, and averting judgment, is quickly passing us by.

I am going to show several comparisons between our Nation as it is today, to the Nation of Judah as it was when she was at her very end, just days from her final judgment.

Let me say a word of warning to Christians. If America falls under the Lord’s judgment, those who will suffer the most will be those who call themselves a Christian. We will be blamed for the fall as sure as King Ahab blamed the judgment of God his nation was experiencing upon the prophet Elijah.[1Kings 18:17,18] The Lord will see to it that judgment will begin with His own,

1 Peter 4:17 KJV 1900

17 For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?

A dark and foreboding cloud of judgment is looming over our nation, and it is getting larger and darker with every passing day that we fail to see Genuine Revival among the people of God. It is getting ready to burst asunder allowing the full wrath of God to fall upon this beloved nation we call America.

I. NATION DIVIDED

King David had united the nation under his rule and that unity continued throughout the reign of David’s son and successor, King Solomon. During his reign, King Solomon began a massive government expansion, with a huge building program of cities and buildings throughout the land and military expansion. This resulted in increased taxes on the people and influx of foreign/pagan workers which brought in FALSE GODS WITH THEM.

Upon the death of Solomon, his son, Rehoboam, succeeded him to the throne. At the inauguration of Rehoboam [1Kings 12:1] the people of Israel pleaded with him not to continue the massive growth of government and the heavy tax burden that his father had started, but Rehoboam and his advisers were tone deaf and indifferent to the voice and wishes of the people and chose to continue to expand and increase the burden upon the people.

In response the people revolted, breaking away from Rehoboam’s rule and established a new nation made up of 10 of the 12 tribes of Israel. They became known as Israel with their own capital at Samaria. The tribe of Judah and Benjamin became the Nation of Judah with Jerusalem being its capital – the people to which Jeremiah is called of the Lord to prophecy to.

Does not that sound eerie similar to America today? We have seen an unprecedented expansion of government and government employees and their intrusion into our lives. We have seen the massive spending of government increasing the tax burden upon its people and a national debt that is robbing our posterity of their future. We have seen also the rise and revolt of the Tea Party and others demanding that Government stop the spending, cut the budget, live within its means and stop the massive expansion of government. Its massive spending is leaving people with less and less of own money and uncle Sam in­truding more and more into lives and families –robbing our posterity and threat­ening our future. And what have we seen from our President and Congress? They too are TONE DEAF and indifferent to the wishes and voices of the people. And they too continue to want to spend more and more.

There is not only the divide between the government and the people; there may be more issues that are dividing us today than at any other time in our history. There is the abortion issue with the pro-life on one side and pro-choice on the other, both unyielding in their stand. There is the marriage issue with tra­ditionalists demanding it remain between one man and one woman and on the other side there are those who are trying to institute gay marriage as the Law of the land and both are unyielding in their demands. There are Capitalists and Socialists –the Capitalists believing in the small government and the Free Enterprise system and individual responsibility, and the Socialists who believe in big government and fewer personal freedoms and responsibilities, both unrelenting in their beliefs.

On and on we could go, but it is clear that never in the History or our Republic have we had so many issues that divide us and never since the Civil War has this nation been so divided and polarized as we are today! [Luke 11:17] “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and a house divided against a house (itself) falleth!”

II. NATION IN DECLINE

Judah was not only a Nation Divided, it was also a Nation in Decline. It was no longer the envy of the world. No longer was it the World’s Sole Super-Power, militarily or monetarily as it had once been under the reigns of King David and King Solomon. No longer where they so blessed of the Lord that they could loan to other nations and reign as the world’s sole Super-Power, as the Lord had promised them they would be if they were faithful in their obedience to Him. [Deuteronomy 15:6]

Today, America too, is a Nation in Decline. We are no longer the world’s sole Super-Power, militarily or monetarily. We too see the rise of other nations to challenge our Super-Power status. These too are nations that are not our friends and often set on our destruction!

In the Bible we see that when the morals of God’s people plummeted you would also see the military power of their enemies on the rise until the Lord would see the time was right for them to be unleashed as His rod of judgment upon His apostate people. That may very well be what we are watching take place in the world today. The possibility (probability) that the Lord is dealing with us as He did Judah cannot be discounted.

III. PEOPLE IN DEFIANCE

Judah was a nation in defiance to their covenant God. Jeremiah is told by the Lord to rebuke them on His behalf for Forsaking Him, [Jeremiah 2:13, 17] for Forgetting Him days without end, [Jeremiah 2:32] and for doing something that no other nation had ever done, and that was Changing Their Nation’s God. What made it so appalling and horrible for Judah was the fact that they were the only nation whose God was the True and Living God. They exchanged Him for many false, imaginary, and meaningless gods. [Jeremiah 2:10, 11] We are told that they had gone from worshiping the One True God, to having as many gods as they had cities. [Jeremiah 11:13]

America has always been a pluralistic nation, offering the freedom of religion to its people, but from our very founding it has also been a nation in which Christianity has always been the dominate Faith of our people. That is no longer true in reality. We have become like Judah of old, our nation now tolerates all gods except the Christians God, Jesus Christ, the God of our ancestors and of our history. We too are abandoning Him and opening our doors to any and all of the false gods of the world. In every city in America there stands houses of worship for every faith known unto man, and on top of that, America like Judah has made the works of our own hands our gods as well. [Jeremiah 1:16]

The decades of carnality and apostasy in the Christian Church has weakened our faith and allowed our society to believe that all faiths are equal, that Salvation is not exclusively in Jesus, and to say so, is to be intolerant. Toleration of differing Faiths in America has become such a virtue that it will no longer tolerate the Christian Faith and her God, because we do not believe in many gods but One God, we do not believe in many ways to salvation, but one way, through Jesus and Jesus alone. [John 14:6] Now America is tolerant of all faiths and gods except the Christian Faith and the Christians God.

Judah’s Defiance to the Lord may pale in comparison to America’s, the nation who once considered herself a Christian Nation, the nation who once said that they were, One Nation under God. America has always considered ourselves a nation founded upon the Judeo-Christian Ethic (Old and New Testaments),a nation to whom we owe our glory to the Lord alone, [Psalms 33:12] a nation that has never had any hesitation or embarrassment to call itself a Christian Nation. Those days are becoming a thing of the past.

Prayers in our house of representative to ALL GODS, ETC.... The Lord will not share His glory, [Isaiah 42:8] nor will he be denied it, as Babylon’s King Nebuchadnezar (Judah’s captor) would later learn the hard way. [Daniel 4:28-37]

Judah paid a high price for defying their God.

Look at what has happened to our children, our teachers, our families and marriages, and our country since outlawing our Children from being able to ask God’s blessing upon them. Since America decided to defy our God and kick the Bible and Prayer from our schools, our schools have been stricken and consumed with violence, vice, lower test scores, higher dropout rate and teacher incompetence. And everything we have tried to rectify the problems has done nothing but worsen the problems. Our Families have been torn asunder by abuse and divorce.

The inner rot of our nation has so weakened us that we are in a greater danger of collapsing from within than we are of collapsing at the hand of any outside force. All the Lord would have to do to bring us down in judgment is to just do nothing. Left to ourselves we are soon to fall from within. The termites of sin, greed, corruption, selfishness, drugs, alcoholism, (I consider alcohol to be a drug and the number one drug problem in America) immorality, and sexual perversion has so ate away the core of America that it would be impossible for us to remain standing for another decade without a God sent revival.

Our forefathers could never have imagined how godless we would become as a nation. An America in which homosexuality is deemed normal and the homosexual is treated with more respect than Christians, and with more rights than the saints.

An America where mothers kill 1.2 million babies in their own wombs each and every year. An America, where pornography is protected and the Bible is outlawed. An America where the Lord’s Name can be used in vain on public TV, but may not be used in His Honor to invoke His blessings at the end of a public prayer. All of this and much more speak of our continued and growing Defiance against the Lord and the sure hastening of our overdue judgment. [Psalms 9:17]

IV. PEOPLE ENJOYING SIN

Judah was in such a moral free fall that the Lord could only compare them to animals in heat. [Jeremiah 5:7-9] “How shall I pardon thee for this? Thy children have forsaken me, and sworn by them that are no gods; when I fed them to the full, they then committed adultery, and assembled themselves by troops in the harlots’ house. They were like fed horses in the morning; every one neighed after his neighbor’s wife. Shall not I punish for these things? saith the Lord; and shall not my soul be avenged on Such a Nation As This?”

Like America, they were a sex-crazed society guilty of every abomination imaginable and without guilt or shame for being so. [Jeremiah 6:15] “Were they Ashamed when they had committed abomination? Nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they Blush; therefore they shall fall among them that fall; at the time that I visit them they shall be cast down, saith the Lord”

Marriage was not seen as sacred. Immorality and sexual perversion was rampant and condoned as a normal way of life. Look at the ugly picture the Lord painted of them. He said they were like a horse in heat that satisfies its lust with anyone willing and at any place they so happen to be at any time that is opportune.

It is the norm today. You push the buttons on your remote control and purchase and watch the vilest and perverted sex acts by people who have no shame or guilt for doing so. They even glory in their shame.

We are a pornographic society, so much so that there are reports that tell us that Americans spend more of their money each year on pornography than groceries. That tells us that like Judah, Americans must feed their lusts before their stomachs.

The Lord spoke about the godlessness and immorality of their younger generation in [Jeremiah 5:7] “… Thy children …” Today in America our younger generation have been raised in a society where every sort of immorality and perversion is accepted as normal and proper. Saving themselves for their wedding night is scoffed at. They see the abomination of homosexuality as normal and not sinful. They can swing either way.

[Jeremiah 3:3] “… and thou hadst a W-H-O-R-E-S forehead, thou refusedst to be ashamed”

We need to use the strong language of the Bible on sin to make sin look like sin.

We have so toned down our language so we will not offend anyone that in the process we have made sin seem normal and acceptable to our children. We MUST again begin to call sin “sin” if we are ever going to get people to see themselves as sinners and their wicked deeds for what they really are –SIN. Without seeing themselves as sinners and their deeds as sin they will never see the need to repent and turn to the Lord Jesus for cleansing and forgiveness.

The thrice Holy Lord made it perfectly clear to Judah through the prophet Jeremiah that it would be judged and cast down for the sexual immorality and perversion of which they had defiled the land.

If Judah, God’s covenant people, the apple of God’s eye, were not spared the judgment of their Lord, do not deceive yourselves into thinking we will be the exception. The Law of God remains steadfast; [Hebrews 13:4] “…whoremongers (fornicators) and adulterers God will judge!”

[Ephesians 5:3,5,6] “But fornication, and all uncleanness…let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints. For this ye know, that NO whoremonger (fornicator) nor unclean person … hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no man deceive you with vain words; for because of these things cometh the WRATH of GOD upon the children of disobedience!!”

Our generation has been deceived by vain talkers telling us that sin is not sin, and no matter, for there is no God who would judge you for it anyway. It is the same old lie that Satan used to deceive Eve in the Garden of Eden, [Genesis 3:4] but what the Lord calls sin in the Bible has always been sin and will always be sin, and no matter how many laws we pass to make it legal and no matter how many marches they march to try to make it acceptable with the masses, and no matter how much they try to intimidate others into accepting them and their perverted lifestyle, the Lord will never accept sin as normal, nor will he be intimidated by them nor will He be timid when it comes the proper time to pour out His judgment upon them, as surely He must!! No SIN LOVING AND EMBRACING Nation can escape the sure and severe judgment of God!! No other nation has and America will not be the first to do so!

V. PEOPLE IN DENIAL

They couldn’t believe it was their sins that had brought such devastation upon their land. [Jeremiah 16:10] “Why hath the lord pronounced all this great evil against us? Or what is our iniquity? Or what is our sin that we have committed against the Lord?”

They refused to believe that the Lord could prove a case against them for which they deserved His judgment and the false prophets in the land were eager to tell them that everything was alright and the problems would work themselves out as they always had.

Jeremiah spent 40 plus years warning his nation, but no one took him seriously, the nation as a whole remained in the state of Denial. The same was true of Noah’s society, God had determined judgment for their wickedness and like he did Jeremiah, He called out Noah to warn his society of pending judgment, but they too remained in a state of Denial, and we are told in [Matthew 24:38, 39] “For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark. And KNEW NOT until the flood came, and took them all away, so shall also the coming of the Son on Man be!”

Did you notice what the people were doing while Noah was preaching and preparing the Ark for a refuge from the judgment to come? They were paying him no attention, they were in a state of Denial, and went on with life as usual. That was a disastrous mistake and it turned out to be a drastic mistake for Judah as well, and it will be a deadly mistake for America as well.

America, the dark cloud of judgment looms over our land, and it is certain that it is soon to be raining the judgment of the Lord down upon us. Take the Lord seriously, run for the ark of refuge that is in Jesus and Jesus alone.

VI. DESTRUCTION AND JUDGMENT

[Jeremiah 39:1, 2] “…came Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, and all his army against Jerusalem, and besieged it….the city was broken up.”

Thus, the unbelievable happened, the end came just as Jeremiah had warned it would for 40 plus years. Many would be led away captive to Babylon, many would flee to Egypt, but many lay in the dust of the earth, dead, just as their beloved nation now was.

America surely awaits a similar fate if we continue in our unrepentant state. No one can look at the similarities between our two nations and then expect our ends to be different.

VII. THE MAJOR DIFFERENCE BETWEEN OUR NATIONS

Though there are many eerie similarities between our two nations there is one eerie difference between the two of us. Judah had a Covenant Relationship with the Lord. [Jeremiah 11:2, 6] The Lord had created the Nation for Himself and for His purposes. He had made them unbreakable promises. They would be the Nation through which the Messiah would come; the Messiah and His Kingdom would rule the world one day from Jerusalem, upon the Throne of David.

America has no such covenant relationship with the Lord, He has made us no promise to continue us as a nation.

All who have eyes to see and ears to hear can see that certain judgment awaits our nation, there is no question IF the Lord is soon to judge us in a severe fashion, the only question is to what degree will He judge us and do we still have an opportunity to repent and return to Him, averting judgment and experiencing His healing of our land.

There is more certainty for the individual. No matter what our nation chooses to do, you can choose to repent and rededicate your life to the Lord and know His sure love and favor no matter what the future may hold for our nation. I

But Jesus in His great love for you was willing to die upon the Cross and shed His blood that your sins may be paid for. [Romans 5:8] And His promise is sure, that if you will repent and call upon Jesus and Jesus alone to save you that He will hear the cry of your heart and honor His Word and save you in an instant.

[Romans 10:13] But I must warn you, that you too may wait too long to reach out to Jesus for forgiveness and eternal life. You run the chance of His Return

I want to ask you to be honest with yourselves and with the Lord, and to allow Him to examine your heart to see if there is any wicked way in you. If there is, I am also asking you to REPENT of it, lay it at the foot of the cross and ask Jesus for His forgiveness on the basis of the blood He shed at Calvary for you and I.

Then I am asking you to begin to pray as never before for a genuine revival among the people of God –a revival whose fire would sweep through our nation destroying the works of the evil one, purging sin from lives and setting our souls on fire for Jesus. May the Lord Bless and Revive You and our Nation!!! ~Jack Woodard 1Corithians 2:2; 2Corinthians 4:5, 7