The Approaching Storm
By Pastor Jim May
This next Tuesday will mark the 6th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in New York, Pennsylvania and Washington D. C. The memories of that day are so vivid that it doesn’t seem like 6 years have passed, but time marches on. Every year, as this date rolls around, our nation goes on high alert. There are a lot of people, including the news media, members of congress, politicians and others, right down to the ordinary man on the street, who seem to lose sight of what happened that terrible day. Thank God that we have a vigilant president, military and law enforcement agencies in this country that never forget that we are at war with a diligent and powerful enemy.
As the date rolls around, suddenly there is a renewed awareness of the dangers to our land. But where are they the rest of the year? Unless something happens almost weekly, it seems that most of the people in the country forget that the danger even exists. We get so caught up in daily living and satisfying ourselves that we just forget that there is an enemy within the gates.
Not all of the people living in America who are of the Muslim faith are bad people, anymore than all of those who claim to be Christians really are. Most of them want to just live in peace just as you and I. But there are always those radical people around. Those who are sold out and whose ultimate goal is either the total destruction of our country, or the conversion of the nation to Islam. These are the ones that we need to be aware of, but the problem is that we really don’t know the heart of a man and only time will tell of their true intentions.
We walk a fine line between enjoying our freedom and becoming a police state, and I believe that we coming closer to being a police state than a democracy all the time. With every law that is passed to protect us from attack, we lose a little more freedom. Just one trip through the airport will convince you of that fact. Fear drives us to surrender our freedom for the sake of safety.
What has brought America to this point? Why are we a nation filled with paranoia? Where is the peace that we once enjoyed? Not only do we have enemies that are outside the borders and infiltrating the country, but worse than that, we have internal unrest that is like a seething pot that is ready to boil over at any moment. We are fearful of walking the streets in many places, even in broad daylight, much less after dark. Peace and safety are getting harder to find and crime in so rampant that stopping it is impossible.
I am convinced that God is sounding the final warning to America as a nation. In my short lifetime I have seen this nation begin to unravel. If you were born more than 10 years ago, this nation is no longer the nation it was when you were born. I shudder to think what will be 10 years from now should the Lord tarry.
I cannot lay the blame for America’s demise at the feet of our politicians. Oh they helped us to get to the place we are now for sure, but it’s not just their fault. We can’t blame any one president for our downfall. No matter what your party affiliation, or who we elect, they can make a difference for good or bad, but in reality it’s not the leaders who are really at fault.
The real culprit that contributes so much to the weakening and who are helping to usher in the day when we will no longer be a free nation under God are those who belong to the Christian church and refuse to serve the God that they are supposed to believe in.
We are walking right down the same path that Israel walked thousands of years ago. The names may be different and the places may not be the same, but the attitude and actions are completely alike.
Turn with me over the Book of Isaiah and the 66th chapter. I want to let you see where we are and why we are a nation on the brink of disaster. It’s only a matter of time before another strike comes and we will be powerless to stop it. Fear is such a powerful force in our country that even the threat of disaster makes us tremble in our boots. And why is that fear so great – It’s because we have cast aside our faith in God. We have thrown our Love for God aside to chase after our own way. We have lost our first Love.
1 John 4:18, "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love."
Instead of embracing the Love of God, we have grabbed hold of the love of the world and the love of money and the things it can give. We threw aside God’s Love and picked up fear instead, and now we are paying the price.
We threw God’s Love out of the schools and now we have fear stalking the campuses; fear that some lunatic, demon-possessed student will mow down his classmates with an Uzi machine gun. Fear that, no matter how we drive some maniac with road rage will kill us over something that is trivial. Fear that someone will think its fun just to drive by and shoot you just to see if they can. Fear that some disgruntled co-worker might just come in an go on a killing spree on the job.
2 Thessalonians 2:7 says this, "For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way." I know that this verse is referencing the coming and revealing of the Antichrist, but I also want you to know that it is still the church what “let’s” fear rule the land today. We had the power, through our Lord Jesus Christ, to not let our nation sink so far into sin, but we chose to sit idly by, smug in our own salvation, while the rest of the nation fell deeper and deeper into sin.
Could we have stopped this downward spiral? I believe that if the church had spoken up, stayed prayed up and kept filled up with the Holy Spirit, we could have made a vast difference in this land. But we stood idly by while Madelyn Murray O’Hare took prayer out of our schools and replace it with anarchy. We sat in front of the TV, mesmerized by the entertainment that it provided, and allowed homosexuality, bestiality, occultism, witchcraft, murder and crime to be glorified without saying a word against it. We wouldn’t go to prayer meeting or study the Word of God, but we never missed a sporting event, never missed a day of word, and read every best seller novel to hit the bookstands.
We built huge houses of worship, but denied God entrance at the door because we wanted to worship him our way and not His way. We created a little box for God to live in called a sanctuary and said, “That’s where you can live God, and we will come by to visit once in a while when we get the chance.”
I know that there is a remnant that will serve the Lord. I believe that many of us are in that remnant. Thank God for those of you who are a part of that remnant that are holding on to God, but where are the rest of God’s people? What are they doing this morning? Why didn’t they come to visit the Lord’s House today? Have they left their first Love? Is in this building the only time and place where they meet God? Do we really think that God is nowhere else but in the church building? Don’t we know that He is everywhere we go, watching everything we do, and hearing everything we say?
My God is bigger than this house. Secondly, he doesn’t even dwell in this house. God’s home is not confined to the “Holy of Holies” of the temple, neither is his presence confined to the four walls of this sanctuary. God doesn’t live in a house of brick, mortar, wood and stone. He dwells in the heart of flesh.
You are his home. God lives in you, in your heart and in your life. He either lives in your, or you are not part of his Kingdom.
Isaiah 66:1-2, "Thus saith the LORD, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me? and where is the place of my rest? For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word."
God’s throne is found in the 3rd Heaven. It’s not in the heavens above you - the atmosphere and clouds in the sky. It’s not in the vast expanse of outer space that we see in our telescopes. Some claim that one of those twinkling points of light, many millions of light years away, may actually be Heaven itself. That’s foolishness. Heaven is not in outer space, sitting in the void of darkness somewhere. It’s the 3rd Heaven, on a whole different dimension that is spiritual and yet very real at the same time. There is no darkness there. Jesus is the Light and in him there is no darkness at all, so heaven is a place where there is one long eternal day.
John saw God seated on his throne in the Revelation. God treats this earth as his footstool and it is under His feet. What makes so many Christians believe that a God this big can be confined to a small building called a church? Do they think that God just rests at the church building, waiting for them to show up at service time, and then watches them leave him behind when they walk out the door?
God’s presence is everywhere. He is omnipresent, meaning that there is no place, in all of creation, where God is not there. To those who are faithful and true, and who truly love God, that is a great comfort, but I wonder how much comfort that is to the one who relegates God only to their spare time when there is just nothing better to do?
Yes God dwells among us, but not at the church. He dwells in the church, not at the church. You are the church. Each of us who live for God are a part of the church and God dwells in us, in a temple not made with hands. If Jesus lives in your heart, then inside of you, in your heart, your soul and your mind, lives all of the fullness of the Godhead. God the Father lives in you, Jesus is in you and the Holy Spirit lives in you. You are God’s dwelling place in the earth, and wherever you go He is already there when you arrive, and he is arriving within you, and he is following behind you as well. God is everywhere, all at once.
God is looking for a home in the earth, but he’s not looking at buildings. He’s looking for people who will have the right spirit and know that they are spiritually poor, bankrupt in the things that are eternal and who need a Savior. These will become the houses of God where He will dwell. Those who will break up the hard ground of their hearts and allow Jesus to come in and plant seeds of righteousness, who repent of their sin and turn from their wicked ways; these will be the “house” where God lives.
Isaiah 66:3, "He that killeth an ox is as if he slew a man; he that sacrificeth a lamb, as if he cut off a dog’s neck; he that offereth an oblation, as if he offered swine’s blood; he that burneth incense, as if he blessed an idol. Yea, they have chosen their own ways, and their soul delighteth in their abominations."
Israel’s sacrifices and worship went on as usual but their heart was far from serving the God that they sacrificed to. God would not honor those sacrifices. In fact, He counted their insincere worship as a sin and an abomination. To God, if our worship isn’t more than just lip serve, if we are serving and worshipping Him in Spirit and in Truth, then our service and worship are considered as worthless and even sinful. He knows that its all a lie, a put on, and that our heart is far from Him.
Israel would sacrifice an ox but the sacrifice did them no good because they still lived in sin and refused to serve God. God said that it was not counted as a sacrifice to him, and just as unacceptable as if they had sacrificed a man. Human sacrifice is sin and so is any other kind of offering if our heart isn’t right before God. Repentance must come before the worship is given, or it means nothing and only condemns us more.
Israel would offer their wave offerings, their grain offerings, their sacrificial lambs blood morning and night and all sorts of oblations, but they might just as well have poured the blood of pigs upon the altar for all that it meant. God didn’t honor it because they didn’t honor him and love him. They only wanted to carry on their traditions. They wanted to put up a good façade, but they were only fooling themselves. God knew their hearts and he counted their sacrifices as sin instead of worship.
This next part is disturbing to me when I think about it. You see, I hear people all the time saying that they pray for this or that, and I wonder just how much God really hears their prayers when their heart is far from truly serving Him?
If you remember, there was a place in the tabernacle where the priest would go to burn incense before the Lord. It was called the “Altar of Incense” and as the incense burned it filled room with a sweet aroma. This sweet aroma rising into the air represents the prayers of God’s people as they arise before God as a sweet smelling aroma. God loves to hear you pray when you Love Him and are truly seeking him. God love to talk to his children as much, if not more than we love to talk to one another.
But God looked at the aroma that arose from these insincere Israelites and considered it anything but sweet. It was a condemning odor that stunk to God. Why did it stink? Because they served idols while praying and praising him. What a bunch of hypocrites! God saw what they were really all about. There false praise and hollow prayers meant nothing to him. In fact, their prayers were counted as sin, as something that was offered to idols and then to God and He wanted no part of them. They were fulfilling their ceremonial law, keeping the traditions of their fathers alive, obeying the ordinances of the Law, but held the righteousness of God in contempt by serving self or some other idol. Their prayer was counted against them as sin!
We can’t have it both ways. Either we serve God with all our heart and from our heart, giving ourselves wholly and completely unto Him, without reservation, or our service, our worship, our praise and even our prayers will be counted against us as sin. If you don’t serve Jesus with all your heart, then you don’t serve him at all, and what little you do give will only condemn you even more.
Isaiah 66:4-5, "I also will choose their delusions, and will bring their fears upon them; because when I called, none did answer; when I spake, they did not hear: but they did evil before mine eyes, and chose that in which I delighted not. Hear the word of the LORD, ye that tremble at his word; Your brethren that hated you, that cast you out for my name’s sake, said, Let the LORD be glorified: but he shall appear to your joy, and they shall be ashamed."
Now we come back to why America is in its present condition. Because the church, by-in-large, has committed so many abominations in the sight of God, through half-hearted worship, commitment and service, God has counted much of it as sin. Because of the sin of His people, who serve idols, worship flesh and seek after the things of the world more than God, He has chosen to send delusions upon the land.
Fear is a result of the sin of the church, not just the sinners of the world, but the half-hearted Christians even more. When God called, we refused to answer. When God spoke, through his Word and through His preachers, America and most of the church refuses to listen and hear what He is saying. Instead of delighting in God’s Word, we replace it with everything and anything else.
What is it that America fears worst? It is the fear that we will lose our power, our wealth and our freedoms! In case you haven’t noticed, our freedoms are leaving quickly. As they leave so will your ability to keep your lifestyle. The rich will get richer and poor will get poorer and the middle class will simply disappear. I know that there are exceptions in each case but as a general rule this is what is happening right now.
All it takes is a glance at our society to see that the majority of those who are rich do not have the same moral believes that we have. When we no longer have the power to take away their wealth at the polls, then we will lose our voice and power to change things. At the rate things are going right now, the common man has very little voice anymore and it will only get worse from here.
If you think that many of those in congress, or the majority of those who control the wealth of this nation wouldn’t sell us out to our enemies, you better wake up and smell the coffee. Most of them are bent on one thing, and it’s not keeping America free. It’s all about their ability to be in power and control, to have a country that is theirs alone, and make you their source of wealth. I am convinced that there are many in this land who would sell us to the devil himself just so they could have what they want.
Again, it’s not all their fault. They are dangerous, sinful and hateful, but it is the church who allowed them to get where they are. If we had stayed on our face before God and guarded against the powers of hell that have come into our land, then we could have stemmed the tide and raised the standard of righteousness and held up the blood-stained banner of the Cross. Instead, we joined forces with Satan and left God out of the picture.
Isaiah 66:5, "Hear the word of the LORD, ye that tremble at his word; Your brethren that hated you, that cast you out for my name’s sake, said, Let the LORD be glorified: but he shall appear to your joy, and they shall be ashamed."
There is a remnant still in our land. It is a remnant of people who still serve and love God with all their heart. I pray that we are all a part of that remnant, but only God knows your heart and mine. I believe that most of those who call Victory Temple their church home are a part of that remnant, but I also am convinced that some are not.
Those of us who will stay true to the Lord are going to become more and more despised as times goes on. People will hate you for what you stand for because it only points to their sin more than ever. Most of us will be outcasts from society and already are to a great extent. We are called irrelevant and out of touch with reality. We are called old-fashioned and stuck in the mud, all because we still want to serve God with all our hearts and be faithful to the end, not willing to compromise with the world or surrender our worship to worldly ways.
I want the Lord to be glorified in me, not the world. If you truly Love the Lord, give yourself to him without reservation. God will be your joy and your life of righteousness will stand out like a light in a dark room to those around you. Never fear, let faith arise! Jesus is coming soon and when he comes, those who are half-hearted, those who reject him, and anyone who denies him, will be ashamed as they face the judgment.
All who serve the Lord now will appear with Jesus in Glory. We may not be able to stem the tide of judgment against America anymore. I don’t know if God’s wrath against this land can be appeased without wholesale repentance from the cradle to the White House, and I don’t see that happening.
But no matter what happens on this earth, it can’t stop you from going to Heaven and enjoying eternity with the Lord. What a glorious day that will be when my Jesus I shall see!
