“The Charge of the Light Brigade: Why All the Noise?”
Jer. 4:11-12, 22-28 & 8:18-9:1; Mt. 24:3-14 & 36-44
Jesus, and the New Testament authors, spoke frequently about his second coming. One scholar indicated that 1 out of every 15 verses in the New Testament speaks about it. And yet we seldom discuss it – in fact, we often act as if we don’t know what to do with it. We can take some comfort in the fact that Jesus’ followers didn’t know either. Jesus said to them (Lk. 12:54-56) "When you see a cloud rising in the west, immediately you say, ’It’s going to rain,’ and it does. And when the south wind blows, you say, ’It’s going to be hot,’ and it is. Hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky. How is it that you don’t know how to interpret this present time?” How do we interpret our present time? Do we understand the signs? Do we believe, as I indicated last week, that we must make some noise? Have we grasped the significance of the moment in which we live?
Let’s take a look at THE SIGNS OF OUR TIMES. First, consider the lessons of history. There is an INTELLIGIBLE CYCLE OF HISTORY. Alexander Fraser Tyler, in his 1770 book Cycle of Democracy, wrote, “A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover they can vote themselves largesse (generous gifts) from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising them the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over a louse fiscal responsibility, always followed by a dictatorship. …What is supposed to happen in a democracy is that each sovereign citizen will always vote in the public interest for the safety and welfare of all. But what does happen is that he votes his own self-interest as he sees it...which for the majority translates as ’Bread and Circuses.’…Bread and Circuses is the cancer of democracy, the fatal disease for which there is no cure. Democracy often works beautifully at first. But … when the plebs discover that they can vote themselves bread and circuses without limit and that the productive members of the body politic cannot stop them, they will do so, until the state bleeds to death or in its weakened condition the state succumbs to an invader..." Have you seen that anywhere?
In his book When Nations Die, Jim Black gives the following factors that signal the collapse of a civilization: increase in lawlessness, loss of economic discipline, rising bureaucracy, decline in education, weakening of cultural foundations, loss of respect for traditions, increase in materialism, rise in immorality, decay of religious belief, and devaluing of human life. Have you seen that anywhere?
We can also see signs of our time in the INTENSIFYING JUDGMENT OF GOD. According to Jesus the signs are obvious:
FALSE RELIGIONS – consider the rise of Islam and other non-Christian religions that are gaining in popularity and power
TRIBULATION – All we need to do is track the record of terrorist attacks over the past ten years; or count the number of wars currently being fought; or consider the rising threat of nuclear and chemical weapons. While we hear very little of it, we cannot ignore the persecution of Christians around the world. While our nation is embroiled in whether or not someone has the right to burn copies of the Koran (I’m not discussing the core of that issue here) the fact is that in countries around the world Bibles are burned everyday and those who owned them are imprisoned, tortured, or worse.
VIOLENCE OF NATURE – There has been an increase in the intensity and frequency of earthquakes, tsunamis, and floods; a rise in pestilence and uncontrollable diseases.
FAMINE – Because of the violence of nature and the sinful neglect of humankind, more people suffer from starvation and lack of proper nutrition.
DECREASED MORALITY – Since Roe vs. Wade America has been sliding down the slippery slope towards a culture of death which, in the words of the Manhattan Declaration, “…cheapens life in all its stages and conditions by promoting the belief that lives that are imperfect, immature or inconvenient are discardable.” Additionally the erosion of marriage and family life has taken a tremendous social toll as evidenced in out-of-wedlock births, mixed and blended families, and promotion of multiple forms of partnerships.
LAWLESSNESS – American prisons are bursting at the seems at rates higher than anywhere in the world, and many Americans live in fear.
The issue here is not “Did God send all of this?” I cannot tell you if God orders up all the storms and tragedies – I do know, as you do, that He obviously allows them. But the point, according to Jesus, is that these are all a result of the fact that there is sin in the world – Paul even said the whole earth (Rom. 8) groans for redemption. They are part of God’s judgment and THEY ARE MEANT TO POINT US BACK TO GOD. In response to the question “When will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” Jesus listed all these signs and then concluded, “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.”
Thirdly, we see signs of our time in the INCREASING ATTACKS OF SATAN. I encourage you to read Revelation 12 today. It is a symbolic account of the activity of Satan. This is a summary of the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus. As verse 6 relates, when Jesus died he was snatched up into heaven. So Satan cannot go after Jesus, who is seated in heaven. Since Satan can no longer fight against Jesus, HE HAS TURNED HIS ANGER AND ATTENTION AGAINST
THE CHRISTIANS WHO TRULY FOLLOW JESUS. He knows he’s living on borrowed time, so he will make the most of the time he has. If you hear nothing else this morning, hear this: WE ARE LIVING IN ENEMY OCCUPIED TERRITORY. Wherever the seeds of Christ’s Kingdom are sown, there will be opposition. Wherever firm commitments are made, Satan will go to war. Since this congregation made a commitment to the build for the future, I can’t begin to tell you the signs I’ve seen of Satan’s increased activity. I tell you, he is not happy. And he will increase his efforts to defeat us. As Martin Luther wrote, “For still our ancient foe doth seek to work us woe; his craft and power are great, and, armed with cruel hate, on earth is not his equal.”
WE ARE ENGAGED IN A SPIRITUAL BATTLE. Ephesians 6:12: “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” The Christian journey is not like walking through a beautiful rose garden. It’s not even like arm wrestling. It is total combat – all out war. The Bible consistently presents this world as a battleground. Jesus even said that since the world hated Him it would hate us, and since it persecuted Him it would persecute us. That’s why Paul used such terms as “wrestle,” “soldiers,” and “armor.” There are forces at war against us.
In America we see this battle fought in the political arena every day. Rabbi Daniel Lapin wrote a magnificent book entitled America’s Real War. In it he asserts that we really can no longer truthfully say “one nation under God.” There are, he correctly states, two Americas – one which believes in God as the source of life and one which does not. And the population is split 50-50 among the two sides. Simply put, the approaches to science, education, morality and rights, respect for life, and the view of personal responsibility are all based upon some foundation. If God is the foundation one set of beliefs and principles develop; if it is not God another set develops. Thus we have become very polarized in America.
How did we get to this point? Let me offer an analogy. Let’s say Barb and I were going to host a non-Christian exchange student. We would have three choices when it came to our religion. We could continue to practice our faith as we always had while inviting her to participate in any way she desired; we could cram it down her throat and force her to adopt our ways; or we could stop practicing whenever she was around so as not to offend her. Or, I suppose there is a fourth option – we could practice here religion to make her feel comfortable. Hopefully most of us would choose to continue to practice the way we always had. She is, after all, a guest in our home and would expect us to be who we are. Now think about America. For years we have been backing off from practicing faith. Slowly we have made religion a private affair, not to be shared with those who do not or might not want it. We have invited guests in and failed to say, “This is America. This is who we are. We invite you to participate in and learn of our ways. But know that these are the values and this is the foundation we hold dear.” Instead we have backed off and retreated. I recall hearing, during a discussion about whether or not to post the 10 commandments in schools, a lady – who was a Christian – say “Here we are inviting all these refugees from Kosovo so graciously – and now we want to force the 10 commandments on them. Why do we want to offend them so?” Hellooooo! I’m not for cramming anything down anyone’s throat, but is it not possible that they would love to know who we are and why we are so graciously receiving them? But that is no longer the way it is. YET NO FAMILY, AND NO NATION, CAN SURVIVE IF IT WILL NOT CONTINUE LIVING BY ITS PRINCIPLES in the face of guests who arrive. To stop practicing those principles brings a nation back to the time of the kings when “everyone did what was right in his own eyes,” and there was chaos. Christians in America have, too often, stood silently by while Satan and his army have subtly attacked our minds and then our hearts.
So we should not be surprised that our freedom of religion and our freedom to practice our faith are under attack in America. Here are just a few examples. Have you heard about Jennifer Keeton, 24, who is pursuing her master’s degree in counseling at Augusta State University. But after her professors learned of her biblical beliefs -- specifically her traditional, conservative views on homosexual conduct -- from both classroom discussions and private conversations with other students, the school imposed a "remediation plan" to change her views. And unless she completes this "remediation plan" to their satisfaction, then she can be thrown out of the school’s counseling program. David French, senior counsel with the Alliance Defense Fund, correctly said "Jennifer is not interested in being indoctrinated, she wants to be educated." She wants to learn about the counseling profession, she wants to be a good counselor -- but being a good counselor does not require that one surrender their most fundamental religious beliefs."
Consider also that our current administration has begun to replace the principle of freedom of religion with freedom of worship. So what? Our President and our Secretary of State claim the two terms—"freedom of worship" and "freedom of religion"—are interchangeable. But that’s nonsense. As Nina Shea at Freedom House told Christianity Today, mere freedom of worship "excludes the right to raise your children in your faith...the right to...elect your religious leaders, to carry out charitable activities, to evangelize, [and] to have religious education or seminary training." Even the Chinese allow freedom of worship. But if a Chinese pastor speaks out on political or cultural issues, prison, or worse, awaits him. Listen to how the Manhattan Declaration states it: “We see this, for example, in the effort to weaken or eliminate conscience clauses, and therefore to compel pro-life institutions (including religiously affiliated hospitals and clinics), and pro-life physicians, surgeons, nurses, and other health care professionals, to refer for abortions and, in certain cases, even to perform or participate in abortions. We see it in the use of antidiscrimination statutes to force religious institutions, businesses, and service providers of various sorts to comply with activities they judge to be deeply immoral or go out of business. After the judicial imposition of “same-sex marriage” in Massachusetts, for example, Catholic Charities chose with great reluctance to end its century-long work of helping to place orphaned children in good homes rather than comply with a legal mandate that it place children in same-sex households in violation of Catholic moral teaching. In New Jersey, after the establishment of a quasi-marital “civil unions” scheme, a Methodist institution was stripped of its tax exempt status when it declined, as a matter of religious conscience, to permit a facility it owned and operated to be used for ceremonies blessing homosexual unions. In Canada and some European nations, Christian clergy have been prosecuted for preaching Biblical norms against the practice of homosexuality. New hate-crime laws in America raise the specter of the same practice here.”
Do you understand the signs? So what do we do? What does the SALVATION OF OUR TIMES look like? First, Jesus said BE READY – BE FAITHFUL. Readily and regularly stand for and proclaim the truth of God. Fight for the right to proclaim and practice your Christian faith. Paul (1 Tim. 1:18 & 6:12) and Jude 3 clearly instruct us to fight the good fight and contend for the faith. What if every Christian in America stood up and spoke up and engaged in the battle? I guarantee the politicians – and even Satan himself – would take notice.
Second, PURSUE A LIFE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. Proverbs 14:34 states, “Righteousness exalts a nation…” Exalt means to ‘raise up, elevate, make great, bring honor.’ Righteousness means to conform to God’s ethical and moral standards as revealed in His Word. Living faithfully by God’s standards results in blessings. C. S. Lewis wrote, “If even 10% of the world’s population had (true holiness), would not the whole world be converted and happy before a year’s end?”
Thirdly, SHARE JESUS CHRIST – EVANGELIZE. Historians say that one of the gravest sins of the Holocaust in Germany was the silence of pastors and Christians. Silence is not an option. Jesus makes it very clear that we do not know when He will return – so how dare we wait any longer to be more serious about boldly, regularly sharing Jesus Christ as the Way, the Truth, and the Life – the only way to God? The great missionary David Brainerd ministered to American Indians. In his journal he wrote, “When my people were gripped by this great...Christ and him crucified, I had no need to give them instructions about morality. I found that one followed as the sure and inevitable fruit of the other....I find my Indians begin to put on the garments of holiness and their common life begins to be sanctified even in small matters...”
Fourth, CLAIM THE VICTORY! The battle has already been won by Jesus on the cross. Satan has been declawed. He can bother us, attack us, threaten us – but he cannot beat us! He’s more a lame duck than some of our defeated senators and congressmen!
Alexis de Tocqueville was a French philosopher, historian and statesman. He toured America beginning in 1831 for the purpose of observing the American people and our institutions. He subsequently published his observations in a two-part work entitled Democracy in America. These words are attributed to de Tocqueville: “I sought for the key to the greatness and genius of America in her harbors...in her fertile fields and boundless forests; in her rich mines and vast world commerce; in her public school systems and institutions of learning. I sought for it in her democratic Congress and in her matchless Constitution. Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because America is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.”
Do you understand the signs? Have you grasped the significance of the moment in which we live? As I was on my way here early this morning, God –as he so often does – spoke through a song on the radio. The refrain was “It has to begin somewhere – why not here? It has to begin sometime – why not now?” So here’s my charge: let us wake up, get up, buck up, stand up, speak up, sing up, preach up, pray up and pay up, but never give up or let up or back up or shut up until the cause of Christ is built up in our world. Will you join me?
