This morning I am compelled to step out of our series on end times and address the crisis we are currently experiencing in America. This week the election results were certified by Congress. That happened in the midst of a chaotic assault on Capitol Hill that was tragic in its results. Where are we now? A party that supports abortion and same-sex marriage now has control of both houses in Congress and the Presidency. When confronted with the election dispute earlier, the Supreme Court side-stepped its responsibility and found a technical reason to not even hear the facts of the case.
So, our nation is deeply divided with a President about to take office with millions feeling he was not legitimately elected. Little superficial appeals of “Can’t we all just get along” fall way short of a meaningful resolution. As a nation we are in big trouble, and our international enemies know it. How will they respond to our current vulnerability? While we are occupied with internal conflict, what are they planning?
It is not a time for passivity. But as Christians we need wisdom from above on how to proceed from here.i The Devil is a sly fox. If he can’t trip us up in one way, he will try to do it in another way. The narrow path to follow has a ditch on each side. On one side is a response of passivity. We must persevere with our declaration of truth. The time is short, and the need is more urgent than ever. On the one hand the Devil would try to push some into passivity. But for some of us that is not going to work. By the grace of God, we will continue stand for principles from God’s word.. We are committed and we will not give up. But what does the other side of the ditch look like? The Devil would like to push others into the ditch of carnal activity—making a stand for the right thing, but going about it in the wrong way.
There are many voices out there on the internet. Sorting out who has the mind of Christ and who is speaking out of a carnal mind is not easy. The more emotional the issue, the more difficult it becomes to discern wise counsel.
I personally believe in prophetic utterance. On the Day of Pentecost Peter applied Joel’s word to the current age. He said, “And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your young men shall see visions, Your old men shall dream dreams. 18 And on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days; And they shall prophesy” (Acts 2:17-18). ii
However, the Bible has a lot to say about how to test and use New Testament prophecy. People need to be instructed in that, and I don’t have time to do that today. I will just say this and save the teaching for another time: Prophecy is a powerful spiritual tool. Like a well-sharpened chain saw it can cut through the matter quickly and powerfully. But anyone who has handled a chain saw also knows you can cut your leg off with it if you don’t use it carefully and wisely. Do not despise prophesying. But test it according to New Testament instruction.iii I will move on from that issue and hopefully deal with it more fully later.
In 2 Peter 1 that apostle shared a powerful spiritual experience he had on the Mount of Transfiguration. It was genuine, and it was full of revelation. But then he said this in verse 19: “We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed . . .” (KJV). He proceeds from there to talk about the inspiration of Scripture. In a turbulent environment we need to make sure we stay anchored in the word of God. We need to make sure we are guided by principles from Scripture.
That’s why I want to share with four principles from the Bible that must guide our decisions and actions as we move forward from where we are now. We will only have time for the first two today. So we will cover the other two next week. The first principle we must stand on is this:
I. GOD WILL TAKE CARE OF HIS PEOPLE no matter what happens.
Turn with me to Isaiah 3 and consider the promise God made to His people in verses 10-11:
“Say to the righteous that it shall be well with them, For they shall eat the fruit of their doings. 11 Woe to the wicked! It shall be ill with him, For the reward of his hands shall be given him.”
God knows who is in each group. But the message to the two groups could not be more different. To the righteous, I am to say this morning, It will be well for you. God will take care of you. No storm—no difficulty is too negative for Him to handle. He will carry you through safe and sound no matter what happens.iv The three Hebrew children found themselves in a hot spot. But they came through it without even the smell of smoke (Dan. 3:27). If God is for you, who can be against you (Rom. 8:31).
It’s tempting for the preacher to stop there. I have spoken a comforting, positive word. But the preacher has not completed his assignment until he also addresses the wicked—those who live contrary to the commandments of God. “Woe to the wicked! It shall be ill with him.” Woe is a small three-letter word, but there is nothing small about the pronouncement when the verdict comes from God Almighty. “Woe to the wicked!”
There was a time when Haman thought he had everything going his way. He had gained a place of power and influence next to the king. He had built gallows for exterminating his enemy Mordechai. He had the king’s decree signed, sealed, and delivered. And legally it could not be reversed. At the same time, the situation did not look good for Mordechai. The future looked bleak for the Jews. Even Esther’s future was in question. I will not retell the whole story. I will just say God dramatically turned that situation around. As Esther followed the wisdom God gave her, there was a 180° turn around in the situation. In the end it did not go well for the wicked. In the end Haman was hung on the gallows he prepared for Mordechai. The situation required wisdom, and as Esther sought God for wisdom, He gave it.v This is a time for operating in the wisdom God gives. It is not a time for learning on our own understanding.vi It is not a time for operating impulsively out of frustration or emotion.
David said in Psalm 37:35-36, “I have seen the wicked in great power, And spreading himself like a native green tree. 36 Yet he passed away, and behold, he was no more; Indeed I sought him, but he could not be found.” Situations don’t always end the way they look like they will end. God can turn matters any time He wants to. Never discount the sovereignty of God.
The counsel given at the beginning of that chapter was this: Psalm 37:1-2, “Do not fret because of evildoers, Nor be envious of the workers of iniquity. 2 For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, And wither as the green herb.” Is everyone obeying that command? Are you fretting over evildoer who bring evil devices to pass? The counsel continues in verses 7-8 with these words: “Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him; Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, Because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass. 8 Cease from anger, and forsake wrath; Do not fret — it only causes harm.”
So, there are two things we are told to do when we see the wicked pulling off their evil schemes:
(1) Do not fret. The Hebrew word translated fret is Carah. It carries the idea of being hot with anger—of being furious.vii It is further clarified with the statement in verse 8 “Cease from anger, and forsake wrath; Do not fret — it only causes harm.”
(2) In contrast we are told to “Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him,” Rather than taking matters into your own hands, keep looking to Him for the intervention needed. Verse 5 says, “Commit your way to the Lord, Trust also in Him, And He shall bring it to pass.”
I don’t know exactly what happened January 6th on Capitol Hill. I was not there, and I have very little confidence in reports from the media. However, it looks like there were at least some frustrated, perhaps angry people who took matters in their own hands. The political, legal system failed them. Instead of looking to the Lord to deal with the situation, they took action that actually made matters worse. “For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God” (James 1:20). The NIV says, “For man's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.” When we operate out of frustration and anger emotions, we usually do dumb, ineffective things. Storming the congressional building was not the way to solve our problem. I’m sure many who were there only came to exercise their constitutional right of public protest. A few extremists in the crowd can change the dynamics really quick. And there are some reports that Antifa was there influencing the situation as well. I’m not in a position to evaluate all that because I wasn’t there. What I am saying is this principle: Follow Esther’s example. Don’t be a hothead. Seek God’s counsel and follow His counsel.
I hope our political leaders do not try to sweep all these issues under the rug and move on. I hope the media does not successfully scapegoat President Trump and blame him for the problem. The problem is much bigger than his comments alone. Trust is being eroded at every turn. Confidence in the media’s objectivity is gone! We have been fed so many lies for so long, we don’t believe anything they say. The big tech companies have their own ways of controlling the narrative. There is an overt effort to suppress free speech—something oppressive governments do. We have a serious problem that goes way beyond a few ill-advised comments on Twitter. We are in a TRUST CRISIS in America.
Millions of Americans no longer trust the electoral system. Questions about the way the election process was managed in key states remain unanswered. Had the Supreme Court examined the facts and made a ruling, at least people would feel their concerns got a hearing. But that did not happen. The concerns expressed in Congress on January 6th were quickly pushed aside by the politicians and the media. Now we have a President taking office with half the country wondering if he is legitimate. That’s not a good place for our country as a whole. Our democratic form of government depends on confidence in the electoral system. We must have that to function.
When we abandon the rule of law, we set ourselves up for anarchy. Lawlessness in America is on the rise. I would not be surprised to see it get worse. Rather than defunding the police, we had better increase their presence, weed out the rotten apples, and train the others well. Brace yourselves for more lawlessness! If you don’t think we’re in a crisis, you’re not paying attention.
We can sweep all this under the rug, but the distrust will still be there and will come back to haunt us at the most inopportune moment. I don’t know whether Joe Biden won the election or not. The facts of the dispute were never heard. But beyond that, something must be done to restore confidence in the election process. That would take a bi-partisan action that is virtually non-existent in Washington. But if that does not happen, we are going to experience terrible turbulence in the future. Maybe that’s exactly what our enemies want to see.
Notice the emphasis on consequences in Isaiah 3:10-11. God is not mocked, whatever a man sows, that is what he will reap (Gal. 6:7). So, God says, “Say to the righteous that it shall be well with them, For they shall eat the fruit of their doings. 11 Woe to the wicked! It shall be ill with him, For the reward of his hands shall be given him.” Nobody gets away with anything in the long run. Our first principle is a word of assurance that God is just, and justice will ultimately prevail. It is word of comfort to those who are serving God: He will take care of you!
I draw my second principle from Isaiah 30 as well.
II. Bad, INCOMPETENT LEADERSHIP is a JUDGMENT from God.
It’s not just the result of a flawed electoral process. It not just a result of fraud. It is a judgment from God no matter how it comes about. Look at what God says to His people in Isaiah 30:1-12:
“For behold, the Lord, the Lord of hosts, Takes away from Jerusalem and from Judah The stock and the store, The whole supply of bread and the whole supply of water; 2 The mighty man and the man of war, The judge and the prophet, And the diviner and the elder; 3 The captain of fifty and the honorable man, The counselor and the skillful artisan, And the expert enchanter.”
The judgment pronounced in those verses has to do with what God is Removing: “The stock and the store” is “an Arabic idiom for all kinds of support.”viii The prosperity they had relied on is being removed. That is followed by a list of leaders being removed: “The mighty man and the man of war, The judge and the prophet, And the diviner and the elder [zaqen: (This is same word used in 1 Kings 12:13 for the older men who gave Rehoboam wise counsel)].” The list includes both godly and ungodly leaders that they had relied on. A sweeping change in leadership is occurring as a judgment from God.
Verse 4: ‘I will give children to be their princes, And babes shall rule over them. 5 The people will be oppressed, Every one by another and every one by his neighbor; [The oppression will not just be vertical from the top down, but people will oppress each other horizontally as well.]ix The child will be insolent toward the elder, And the base toward the honorable.’” The pronouncement here is what God is Giving them as a judgment. “I will give children to be their princes, And babes shall rule over them.” Understanding that statement in the cultural setting, this would mean incompetent leadership—weak leadership. Children have not matured in their understanding enough to lead well. They need to be led. But everything is being turned upside down. Why? Because they refused to submit themselves to God’s authority and God’s word.
We get a glimpse into Israel’s thinking in Isa 30:9-11. There God told Isaiah to write, “That this is a rebellious people, Lying children, Children who will not hear the law of the Lord; 10 Who say to the seers, ‘Do not see,’ And to the prophets, ‘Do not prophesy to us right things; Speak to us smooth things, prophesy deceits. 11 Get out of the way, Turn aside from the path, Cause the Holy One of Israel To cease from before us.’” We do not want your holiness message. We want “smooth things” that make us feel good. Give us a good positive message. Don’t confront our sin. Don’t confront us with the holiness of God. And the judgment of God on that is to give people the kind of leadership they insist on having. It did not come to them because of election fraud. Things like that are secondary causes. It came as a judgment from God because they had rebelled against His authority and refused to hear His counsel.
When judgment was pronounced on Nebuchadnezzar, the purpose of that judgment was stated in Daniel 4:17: “In order that the living may know That the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, Gives it to whomever He will, And sets over it the lowest of men.” Not only does God ultimately decide who is placed in leadership and power—but sometimes he gives it to “the lowest of men.”x The KJV says the basest of men.
We are way too focused on secondary causes. I’m not saying those should be entirely ignored. They should be addressed. But beyond that, we must consider God’s judgments in all this. He ultimately decides who the leaders will be. It happens in the context of choices people make. But God is in no way absent from the process.
The problem with focusing on secondary causes is that it does not lead to lasting solutions. Take the plague we are experiencing for example. It is politically incorrect to say God would send a plague. Yet God Himself mentions the possibility in 2 Chronicles 7:13. Where do you think the plagues that struck Egypt came from? Here is my point. When we only see secondary causes, we spend our energy looking outside ourselves at China and how the plague went world-wide. We develop solutions like quarantines and vaccines. Those matters might need to be addressed. But what if God is using the problem to get our attention? What if God is calling for repentance? We never get to that kind of solution because we’re not even thinking in those terms. If God sends incompetent, twisted leadership as a judgment, is the answer more political maneuvering?xi If it is ultimately coming from God as a judgment, the answer lies in repentance—the lasting answer is found in turning from the behavior that brought on the judgment. But when we only see secondary causes, we don’t even consider that possibility. Why did God have Isaiah prophesy our text in Isaiah 3? Surely it was to help these people look at God in their situation.xii
In my counseling of troubled people, I have come to this general conclusion. As long as we see the solution to be changes in others, we probably won’t resolve our problem. It is when we take personal responsibility and make changes in ourselves that progress is made. My message today is this: church take responsibility for what God wants to change in you. Do you really think shrewd people or even the Devil himself could pull one over on God?
In Deuteronomy 32:30 Moses asked the question: “How could one chase a thousand, And two put ten thousand to flight, Unless their Rock had sold them, And the Lord had surrendered them?” He is not talking about one of God’s people chasing a 1,000 of the enemy. He is talking about one of the enemy chasing 1,000 of God’s people. How could that happen unless their Rock (God) had turned them over to defeat? When we as God’s people are not in right relationship with the Lord, we cannot stand before our enemies. When we are fully submitted to Him, our enemies cannot stand before us. The situation Israel found themselves in in Isaiah 3 revolved around their relationship with God rather than just secondary causes.xiii
Verse 6: “When a man takes hold of his brother In the house of his father, saying, ‘You have clothing; You be our ruler, And let these ruins be under your power,’ 7 In that day he will protest, saying, ‘I cannot cure your ills, For in my house is neither food nor clothing; Do not make me a ruler of the people.’” Now they get the chaos that eventually comes from incompetent leadership. It’s such a mess, nobody wants to lead it. “I’ve got troubles of my own. Get someone else to help you. I can’t fix this mess” is the response we’re see in those verses.
In verse 8 we’re given the reason for this judgment. “For Jerusalem stumbled, And Judah is fallen, Because their tongue and their doings Are against the Lord, To provoke the eyes of His glory. [NIV says, “defying his glorious presence.] 9 The look on their countenance witnesses against them, And they declare their sin as Sodom; They do not hide it. Woe to their soul! For they have brought evil upon themselves.”
In Malachi 3:13 God said to Israel, “Your words have been harsh against Me.” Do you remember their response? The rest of the verse says, “Yet you say, 'What have we spoken against You?'” They had silenced the prophets who would point out their offenses. They had gotten to a place where they could not even see their offenses against God. In Revelation 3 the Laodicean Church could not see its true condition. They thought they were doing quite well. God thought otherwise.
Verse 9 says, “And they declare their sin as Sodom; They do not hide it.” Like those in Sodom, they are not ashamed of their homosexuality. They don’t try to hide it. They brazenly declare their sin. They had so justified their sin that they were no longer ashamed of it. Do we have churches in America where people openly and proudly declare themselves gay? Do we have people in the American church who openly live together without a marriage covenant? It is one thing for the church to be in sin. That’s a problem that must be addressed. But when people are unashamed of the sin, then those people are ripe for judgment.
Did this judgment in our text come on them unjustly? No, verse 9 says, “For they have brought evil upon themselves.” This condition of brazen wickedness exists in our nation. That is bad enough. But the situation is worse than that: this condition exists in the church of America. People are taking the Lord’s name in vain, calling themselves Christians, while living that kind of lifestyle—justifying flagrant sin.xiv That was the situation in Isaiah’s day, and it is the situation in the visible church today.
In Israel was a mixture of the godly and the ungodly—the wheat and the chaff. Would God destroy the godly with the ungodly? When interceding for Sodom, Abraham asked the Lord, “Would You also destroy the righteous with the wicked?” (Gen. 18:23). The story teaches us that God would not do that. Lot was not destroyed with the rest of Sodom. God always distinguishes between the godly and the ungodly in His judgments. Verse 10: “Say to the righteous that it shall be well with them, For they shall eat the fruit of their doings. 11 Woe to the wicked! It shall be ill with him, For the reward of his hands shall be given him.” Your personal relationship with God makes all the difference.
As a whole, Israel had rejected godly leadership who would confront them with the true word of the Lord. Having itching ears and a hard heart they sought out leadership that would tell them what they wanted to hear. The judgment was that God gave them the leadership they chose.
Verse 12: “As for My people, children are their oppressors, And women rule over them. O My people! Those who lead you cause you to err, And destroy the way of your paths.’” This has happened in much of the American church. It’s not just something out there in the political arena. But it is happening in our nation. People vote for leaders who promise them more government benefits regardless of the ungodly platform being boldly declared. The leadership of this nation has now been turned over to people who actively promote the killing of unborn babies—people who oppose God’s design for marriage—people who oppose the public proclamation of the gospel. Look at the effort already happening to suppress free speech. Ultimately the Devil wants to stop the proclamation of the gospel—something we will be contending with in the days ahead.
I was surprised in 2016 when Donald Trump was elected president. God had not told me what would happen’ All the natural signs pointed to a Democratic victory. Hillary Clinton had the media behind her. She had money and connections. She was predicted to win by a landslide. But God heard the cry of His people. I don’t believe it was the majority of those who claimed to be Christians. I believe it was a remnant of people who got the ear of God. God intervene and Donald Trump was elected.
When I asked God what He was doing this is roughly what He told me: “I am giving the church a reprieve. As in Revelation 2-3, I am walking in the midst of the American church and giving opportunity for repentance. The future depends on what the church does. It does not hinge on what secular sinners do—they sin. That’s all they know how to do. But the people who are called by My name know better. I hold them responsible for the future of this nation.”
Then God showed me what the church must do for a good future. Only four things were required: humble yourselves, pray, seek God’s face, and turn from your wicked ways. I repeated that call over and over during the last four years. During that time I expressed concern that the church as a whole did not seem to be doing that. Some individuals were doing it. I don’t think I got an A+ in my own efforts. But the church of America as a whole continued on pursuing the American dream, entertaining itself, and neglecting those four commands.
Then in 2020 the intensity of that call went up a notch. A plague hit that disrupted everything. Whether it should have disrupted everything is beside the point. Our churches were disrupted. Our sports events were disrupted. Our restaurant experiences was disrupted. Our education system was disrupted. Our economic prosperity took a hit. We kicked that can down the road with trillions of dollars of stimulus money. But payday will come on the ever-increasing debt.
Then we looked again at what God had said in 2 Chronicles 7:13-14: “When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, If my people, which are called by my name, [This is not about what the Democrats do or the secular sinners do. This is about what the people who claim to be Christians do. And here is what they must do.] shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” When God demands repentance, nothing else can substitute for it. You can name it, claim it, prophesy until you’re read in the face. Obedience to the command is all that matters.
In Isaiah 58:3 God’s people asked Him, “Why have we fasted . . .and you have not seen it’ (NIV). They gave God something, but it was not what God was requiring. They gave God a religious response, but they did not give Him the repentance required.
I was hoping to get another four-year reprieve. If you will recall the government was starting to come down hard on Christian organization before the election in 2016. Their oppression threatened to put organizations like Focus on the Family out of business. They were imposing harsh financial pressure on business run by Christians, like Hobby Lobby. The reprieve in 2016 held that oppression back.
But here is the key question: What did we the church do with the opportunity God gave us from 2016 to 2020? Some people did exactly what they were supposed to do. And on the authority of Isaiah 3:10, I say to you today, “It shall be well with you.” You will be aware of the storm around you, but God will preserve you through it just like He preserved Noah through the great flood. I don’t think Christendom as a whole changed much during that four-year period. I didn’t see those four commands being fulfilled in the American church as a whole.
God gave Israel several reprieves. They did not capitalize on those opportunities. At some point God ended the reprieves and sent Israel into captivity. The popular voice of the day was that all those judgments would be reversed, and all would be well. Jeremiah said, “No, the best thing you can do is simply serve God in the current circumstances. In His own time, (after 70 years ) God will restore Israel. But first some changes will have to happen in people’s hearts In Jeremiah 29:12-13 God said, “Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. 13 And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.”
God is always looking out for the best interest of His people. But if that is so, why would God shake the church in the days ahead?xv Because He loves the church too much to leave it in a lukewarm, Laodicean condition. Those He loves He chastens—not because He lost His temper, but because it is the only way to get us where we need to be. Sometimes God says, “We can do this the easy way, or we can do this the hard way.” We may have forfeited the opportunity to do it the easy way.
Nevertheless, I am optimistic about the future. My optimism is not based on more and more of the American dream. It is not based on smooth waters for sailing ahead. It is based on God’s good intentions toward His people (Jer. 29:11). I personally believe we will see some shaking in the days ahead. The church today does not look like it did ten months ago. What will it look like a year from now? I don’t know. But I believe God will have a people who are drawing close to Him—a people who are becoming strong in the Lord and the power of His might—a people who look more like the early church than we do now.
The victory ahead will not be found so much in political attainments as in personal advancements in God.xvi This is a time to press into God because He has something in mind that would blow your mind if you could see it. He has commissioned us to preach the gospel with power and conviction. The opportunity to do that lies ahead for those who will embrace God’s definition of prosperity—who will follow the Lamb wherever He leads.
I have only dealt with two of the four principles that should inform our decisions in the days ahead. Next week we will address the other two. Today we have seen two principles from God’s word:
(1) God will takes care of His people no matter what happens.
(2) Bad, incompetent leadership is a judgment from God. It does not happen by chance. There may be secondary causes for it. But ultimately the sovereign God sends it as a judgement. God has redemptive purposes behind such judgments. But Isaiah 3 reminds us to look beyond the immediate reasons and see the sovereignty of God behind it.
Yet in all that there is a word of comfort and assurance for those who remain true to the Lord. His justice will ultimately prevail. “Say to the righteous that it shall be well with them, For they shall eat the fruit of their doings. 11 Woe to the wicked! It shall be ill with him, For the reward of his hands shall be given him.” That division will become even more pronounced in the future. God’s plans for His people are good and not evil. Do not fear tomorrow, step into it with a holy confidence in God.
“Be of good courage, [1 Chron. 19:13] and let us be strong for our people and for the cities of our God. And may the Lord do what is good in His sight.”
ENDNOTES:
i Cf. James 1:5.
ii All Scripture quotes, unless indicated otherwise, are from the New King James Version.
iii Cf. 1 Thess. 5:19-21.
iv Cf. Ps. 23; Isa. 54:10; Hab. 3:17-19.
v Cf. Esther 1-10.
vi Cf. Josh. 9:14; Prov. 3:5-6.
vii See Strong’s Concordance.
viii Robert Jamieson, Robert, A. R. Fausset, and David Brown, Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown's Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1871, s. v. “Isaiah 30.” Accessed in electronic data base: Biblesoft 2000.
ix When leadership is ceased through corruption and lawlessness, it releases that into the whole system.
x See also Dan. 4:32; 5:21.
xi One definition of insanity is to keep doing the same thing expecting a different result.
xii The prophesy began in Isaiah 2:1.
xiii In 1 Sam. 3:11-4:22 we see Israel defeated and trying to solve the problem with superficial solutions (carry ark into battle) without the repentance God was requiring. Cf. Lev. 26:37; Deut. 11:25.
xiv It is terribly wrong when people use God’s name as a curse word. But a greater violation of the third commandment is to call yourself a Christian, then not represent Him for who He is.
xv Cf. Heb. 12:26-28.
xvi I am not saying we should abandon all political effort to assert righteousness in the land. But I am saying the focus must be on personally pressing into God and evangelizing the lost. I will explain this more fully in the next message.
