God And The Nations - Part 2 - The State of The Nation
Today we will be reading from Jeremiah 18:1-12
Last week we started taking a look at God and His interaction with the nations of the earth.
The first thing we did was to take a look at Acts 17:26 where it says:
From one man, Adam, God made all the nations.
Not only did He make all of the nations but He also ordained or determined when they would take place in history and where on the earth they would be located.
That is what we saw regarding the relationship between the nations and the Lord in general.
But what about the relationship between the Lord and the nation of the USA specifically. What did we find?
Here are two of the questions we asked:
Is America a dominant nation on the world stage because we have made it so or is America a dominant nation on the world stage because the Lord God has raised us up according to His plans and His purposes?
And, did the Lord God raise us up because many of our founding fathers were devout Christians or did He raise us up by selecting devout Christians to be our founding fathers? Or did He raise us up for some other reason altogether, a reason known only to Him?
To help us with the last question we went back and looked at some quotes of our founding fathers and saw that many of them were indeed devout followers of Jesus Christ.
But, does God take that into account? Apparently He does because in Psalm 33:12a it says;
“Blessed is the nation whose God is (Yahweh) the LORD.”
Finally, we looked at another factor in trying to find an answer and we found that the blessing and curse that is repeated three times in the Bible is that, “The nation that blesses (Israel) will be blessed and the nation that curses (Israel) will be cursed.” Numbers 24:5-9
Now, these last two things will certainly help a nation to be a blessed nation but what ultimately happens when the Lord decides to raise up of destroy a nation?
Let’s read Jeremiah 18:1-12 (prayer for help)
Is there any place in that passage where we see United States of America? Not specifically by name but in general we can see a category the USA could fit into.
You see, in Jeremiah 18:9-10 the Lord says, “And if … I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be built up and planted, and if it does evil in My sight and does not obey Me, then I will reconsider the good I had intended to do for it.”
OK. So, let’s just assume that the Lord God intended for the United States to be built up and planted in His sight. And that He did this according to His plans and purposes.
And let’s assume that He did this by placing godly men in charge of the founding of the nation.
And let’s also assume that the nation has been blessed ever since Israel once again became a nation because we have blessed Israel and have not curse Israel.
That brings up the question …
Has the United States done evil in the sight of the Lord?
Has the United States been disobedient to the Lord?
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Let’s read from Romans 1:18-32 (NLT)
But God shows His anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness. They know the truth about God because He has made it obvious to them. For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see His invisible qualities - His eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.
Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship Him as God or even give Him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools. And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles.
So God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other’s bodies. They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator Himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen. That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other. And the men, instead of having normal sexual relations with women, burned with lust for each other. Men did shameful things with other men, and as a result of this sin, they suffered within themselves the penalty they deserved.
Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, He abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done. Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip. They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents. They refuse to understand, (they) break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy. 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.” (End of reading)
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Now, does ANYTHING in there sound familiar?
Does THAT sound like much of the United States today?
Wickedness in America is rampant!
God is mocked. That is, the only TRUE God is mocked.
Every other so-called-god gets a pass.
Sex is the king of sins in America today. Soon the alphabet will run out of letters to put into the acronym that describes the sex-outside-of-Biblical-marriage culture.
Sex in America has gone far past the sins of sex before marriage and adultery. Sexual perversion has become rampant.
For example, men dressed as women used to be known as transvestites. Now they are known as drag queens and they attempt to be as sexually provocative as possible. And in many places these men are allowed to go into public libraries and read books to groups of children WHILE they are in drag.
What’s another example of how lost we have become?
There is an entire business industry called sex tourism. This is where sadistic men travel around the globe and pay to rape sex slaves. Many of these women and young boys and girls who are being repeatedly raped day after day after day will end up killing themselves in order to escape the endless torture.
And … this hideous sin is flourishing in America today.
What else shows the hollowness in the heart of many Americans?
Illegal drugs come pouring into America across our northern and southern borders.
Illegal drugs come pouring into our country through sea ports on both the east and west coasts and through our airports as well.
Why? Because Americans WANT them! The souls of many in our country are so hollow that they will try ANYTHING to fill them; even if it kills them.
In a country where people used to be insulted by the thought of receiving charity from someone else we have turned into the gimme, gimme, gimme some more culture!
There is an entire industry of lawyers who will attempt to turn any accident into a windfall for themselves and, if there is any money left over they will give some to the supposed victim as well.
We all know that there is a place in the judicial system for the times when a person is seriously injured by a person’s neglect or irresponsible actions, but personal injury lawsuits abound in many cases hoping only for a windfall. Greed is rampant in the hearts of many Americans.
There is another industry of lawyers who you can hire to prove that you are disabled so you can live off the government instead of getting up to go to work each day as a contributing member of society.
Yes, there are those who are truly disabled, but, I can tell you based on the Word of God that if you CAN work at anything you SHOULD be working at SOMETHING or else it is a sin.
And this sin is not without its consequences just like any other sin.
Time will not allow us to go further but self-centered sins such as these are just the tip of the iceberg.
Much of the blame for this sinful chaos lies at the feet of the church.
We live in a society that is almost totally ignorant of who God is.
This is the rotten fruit of NOT knowing the Bible which is where we find out about WHO God is.
Recently I saw a short video clip of a discussion on religion between Joy Behar and Candace Cameron Burre.
It went something like this …
Candace Cameron Burre - “God’s standard is the 10
Commandments”
Joy Behar - “I’m good on that”
Candace Cameron Burre - “You’ve never lied?”
Joy Behar - “That’s in there too?”
Audience roars in laughter …
Is ignorance of the Bible funny?
So, how is it that the church holds a great share in the blame for the spiritual chaos that is found in the United States?
I would guess that over 90 percent of those who attend church regularly could not tell you what the Ten Commandments are or where they are found in the Bible.
How many could tell how and why Christianity is related to the Jewish faith?
People love taking a stab at singing Amazing Grace but how many people who regularly attend church in America could explain what the grace of God is?
Would they be able to explain why God’s amazing grace separates Christianity from every other religion that has ever existed on the face of the earth?
How many people who regularly attend church could be accused of being a devoted follower of Jesus Christ based on the evidence that could be found if their life was investigated?
Or, would their case be dismissed due to lack of evidence?
Does their experience extend beyond a weekly or semi-monthly trip to church for an hour?
Would they be able to convince anyone that they are deeply in love with Jesus?
Is the failure of the Church of Jesus Christ one of the reasons America is so lost?
America may have won many military campaigns but we are losing the most important battle of them all. And what is that battle?
Is it the battle for the soul of America? No!
We are losing the battle for the souls of those who are outside the kingdom of God and don’t even know it!
Thomas Jefferson was not a Christian, he was what we would call a Deist. He did not believe in the Deity of Jesus Christ and he actually took a razor and cut all of the miracles that Jesus performed out of his Bible.
In essence Thomas Jefferson would be welcomed and applauded in many churches that call themselves Christian in America today based on his disbelief in Jesus as the Savior of the world.
However, he would be unwelcomed in those same churches because he DID believe in a God of justice and judgment and the wrath of God.
Here is a quote from Thomas Jefferson.
“God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the Gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just (and) that His justice cannot sleep forever...”
I know these are hard words.
You see, when the One and Only God who is Sovereign over all puts a command in place, it must be obeyed or there will be consequences.
The greatest command of all is that we are to “Love the Lord (our) God with all of (our) heart and all of (our) soul and all of (our) strength.” Matthew 22:37
How is this love to be demonstrated?
Romans 5:8
“But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
If we REALLY love God our response will be the same …
We will demonstrate our love for Him in that we will die to ourselves and live for Him and He will then transform us from slaves to sin into sons and daughters of God.
So, based on the Word of God, judgment is coming for America.
When will it happen? We don’t know.
Is it too late? We don’t know.
We in America do have a great deal of freedom but no one really knows what freedom is until they find freedom from sin by dying to themselves and being reborn as a son or daughter of God.
Glorious Freedom
Once I was bound by sin’s galling fetters
Chained like a slave I struggled in vain
But I received a glorious freedom
When Jesus broke my fetters in twain
GLORIOUS FREEDOM! WONDERFUL FREEDOM!
No more in chains of sin I repine
JESUS THE GLORIOUS EMANCIPATOR
NOW AND FOREVER HE SHALL BE MINE!!!!!!!!
Final thoughts and leading into communion.
