America did not become great because of her vast resources, her superior intellect, or her sheer willpower. America became great because God made her great. The Bible says that righteousness exalts a nation, and that the nation whose God is the Lord is a blessed nation (Prov. 14:34; Psa. 33:12). In First Samuel 2:30, God says, “...For them that honor Me I will honor....”
God honored America because America honored Him and upheld His standard of righteousness. This nation was forged out by men who recognized their dependence on Almighty God. In fact, many of those founding fathers had more respect as lost sinners for the living God and His Word, than many so-called believers in the church today. They knew that neither they, nor their nation could make it without the assistance of God.
In this generation we are forever looking for better methods to deal with the perplexing problems of our day, but God is still looking for better men – men like our founding fathers who were willing to risk everything for what they believed. Many of these men had much to lose in the struggle for liberty. They were men of means, well-educated, and respected by their contemporaries. But one common thread bound their hearts together, and it was for this that they risked their wealth, their sacred honor, and their very lives to give birth to the great experiment of freedom that we call America.
These were men of conviction who stood for what they believed, no matter the cost. They were men of character, who refused to give up in the face of adversity and hardship. They were men of creative wisdom. For example, they didn’t form a democracy based on the changing whims of each passing generation. Rather, they formed a republic based on the unchanging, eternal absolutes of God and His Word.
They were also men of commitment. They were men committed to God, to His authority, and to the foundational principles of His Word. They did not hesitate to legislate morality. For the first 160 years of our history, most of our laws (for example, blue laws, divorce laws, property laws, criminal laws) were based on the laws of God.
These men of conviction, character, creative wisdom, and commitment, purchased with their own blood the freedom that you and I enjoy. Because they honored God, God honored them, and we are still reaping those blessings today.
In just 200 years, God elevated America from a place of infancy to world leadership in almost every field of endeavor – technology, industry, medicine, agriculture, aerospace, business, science, electronics, and communications. When you stop to think about it, it is really incredible! And it never could have happened apart from heaven’s aid.
But – Cause for Alarm!
But as we bask in the glory of past blessings, we have cause for great alarm, for the same God who was true to His Word and blessed America must also be true to His Word and exercise judgment if we do not repent.
America has a heritage that cries, “We cannot go without God.” Yet for the past few decades we’ve tried. We have sown to the wind and now we are reaping the whirlwind. In the ’60s, we began to openly tolerate that which was vile and sinful. In the ’70s, we began to legitimize, condone, and excuse what we had already accepted. In the ’80s we actually began to legislate that which is immoral and contrary to the laws of God’s Word.
As a nation, we have provoked the fury of Almighty God in heaven. America simply is not big enough to
shake her fist in the face of a Holy God and get away with it.
Judgment If We Do Not Repent!
The question is not, “Will God judge us?” It is just a matter of how far God’s judgment will go if we do not repent. God destroys those nations that forsake Him and reject His laws. Psalm 9:17 says, “The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.” “Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people” (Prov. 14:34). Speaking through Hosea, God says, “...Seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.... I will go and return to My place till they acknowledge their offense, and seek My face...” (Hos. 4:6; 5:15).
America is on a suicidal course with destruction and judgment because we have forgotten the God of the Bible and have forsaken His commands. Did our founding fathers die in vain? Is this noble experiment of freedom to end in the graveyard, alongside of past civilizations that likewise rejected God? Is there no hope for our children and their children?
Edmund Burke said, “The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is that good men do nothing.” That’s exactly what too many of us have done. Absolutely nothing. We are too busy making money, watching television, fixing our yard, and going to the ballgame to save a nation.
You and I live in a democratic republic – a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. That makes us the ultimate decision-maker, and before God, ultimately responsible for what takes place in this nation. We must rebuild this nation before it is too late.
The Only Hope
When a nation becomes as morally depraved, as spiritually blinded, as steeped in humanism, hedonism, materialism, as America is, there is only one power in the entire universe that can meet and overcome such evil, and that is the power of the living God. What we need is an invasion of God Himself, an outpouring of the Holy Spirit, a visitation of the manifest presence of God. And that, my friends, is revival!
Desperate times demand God’s personal intervention, and on the stage of history that has always been called a revival. The only hope that God will be exalted, the only hope that He will be lifted up once again as the Lord over this nation, the only hope for survival as a free people, the only hope for our children and our grandchildren, is an old-fashioned, Holy Spirit-empowered revival that will sweep back the tide of sin and restore the basic principles of God and His Word that made her great.
The only hope for turning this nation back to God is for those of us who claim the name of Christ to turn back to God. God’s cure for a nation proves what the real cause of the curse was all along. God said that if He could find ten righteous in Sodom and Gomorrah, He would spare the cities. But He couldn’t. God said in Second Chronicles 7:14, “If My people, which are called by My name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, I will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”
America is being judged today not just because of the wickedness of the lost, but because of the backslidden condition of the church. In fact, our nation’s sins are nothing more than a magnified reflection of the sins of the church. We complain that our children can’t pray together or read the Bible at school. But I wonder how many of us consistently read the Bible and pray with our own children at home, where we are still free to do so.
We are overwhelmed by our nation’s staggering deficit. But I wonder how many of us Christians are financially free. We are outraged by the moral perversion, adultery, and sodomy being flaunted on television and in movies and books. But I wonder how many of us men are morally pure in our thoughts, our words, our habits, and our lifestyles.
The church in our day has turned a deaf ear to the voice of God and to His prophets who cry against sin. We have adopted a philosophy of life that allows people to be comfortable at church, while living in adultery, materialism, and selfishness at home. Though we should certainly love sinners, we need a Holy Ghost revival that will cause us to live such holy lives and to preach so powerfully that unrepentant believers will be miserable every time they leave the church.
Read full article here.
No comments:
Post a Comment