Ephesians 6:12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
For all of my life, I have viewed the United States of America as the greatest country on the face of the earth. Our country has been blessed by God with great resources and a great Christian heritage.
But last week we saw our government fail on an epic scale. American citizens have been abandoned, stranded in Afghanistan, citizens that were there in support of our troops.
These people were left with no way home after our military was ordered to pull out in the middle of the night.
Our troops were ordered to abandon the Bagram Airfield, a secure stronghold, which could have been used to evacuate our citizens, leaving our people with only Kabul Airport as a means of escape.
Last week, amidst the chaos of evacuation at Kabul Airport, a suicide bomber was able to kill over 170 Afghan citizens and 13 members of the U.S. military.
Meanwhile, the Whitehouse Spokeswoman states emphatically that no one is stranded and that “all who want to leave” will be afforded a means to escape.
Our nation is in deep trouble and it seems to be getting worse by the day. The verses in Isaiah chapter one not only describe the state our nation, but is a foretelling what is in store if it does not turn back to God, repent, and be willing and obedient to the will of God.
Isaiah 1: 4-7 4 Alas, sinful nation, A people laden with iniquity, A brood of evildoers, Children who are corrupters! They have forsaken the Lord, They have provoked to anger The Holy One of Israel, They have turned away backward. 5 Why should you be stricken again? You will revolt more and more. The whole head is sick, And the whole heart faints. 6 From the sole of the foot even to the head, There is no soundness in it, But wounds and bruises and putrefying sores; They have not been closed or bound up, Or soothed with ointment. 7 Your country is desolate, Your cities are burned with fire; Strangers devour your land in your presence; And it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.
Isaiah 1: 28-31 The destruction of transgressors and of sinners shall be together, And those who forsake the Lord shall be consumed. 29 For they shall be ashamed of the terebinth trees (pagan worship sites) Which you have desired; And you shall be embarrassed because of the gardens Which you have chosen. 30 For you shall be as a terebinth whose leaf fades, And as a garden that has no water. 31 The strong shall be as tinder, And the work of it as a spark; Both will burn together, And no one shall quench them.
I have pondered these scriptures many times over the last 10-15 years.
I have watched our once great nation descend into lawlessness and debauchery, never heading the warnings and of God's words or the pleas of His people.
Our nation has sown corruption and is now approaching a harvest of destruction. We think we are mighty because our armed forces are the strongest, best trained, and most advanced in the world, but our might is nothing in the eyes of God (I served 10 years in the U.S. Navy and know full well what we are capable of).
Our new president and his administration, by proclamation of their own party platform (pro socialist/Marxist, pro-abortion, pro-gay marriage, anti-capitalist, totalitarian in its style of governance) are people of low, or no, moral character.
As a result, we have lawlessness in our streets, chaos at the border, humiliation on a global scale, and famine and pestilence across the land.
God has not changed and we can be certain that our country will reap the grapes of wrath that we have sown.
I pray for His mercy, but I know He is just, thus His people must hunker down and prepare to receive His justice and judgment.
Yet, His hand is stretched out still, ready to redeem and forgive if only our nation would repeat. I am not sure how much worse it will get before the masses realize their betrayal of God has a price.
I believe it will ultimately come down to financial collapse, civil war, or invasion from without (or all three) to finally get our nation to wake up and cast off the evil ways that have become the hallmark of our everyday existence.
For those of you who are offended that I have attacked your political party, might I remind you that my political party is God alone: I hold no allegiance to any political party of this nation, only to the truth of God’s Word.
If you don’t like what I am saying, then I am in good company. The people of Israel didn’t like what Isaiah had to say either.
Each of you had better decide this day whom you will serve, God or some misguided political party.
Republican, Democrat, Independent, or Libertarian, it doesn’t matter. If you are a Christian, then God is and should be first and foremost in every decision of your life. If He is not, then you had better take inventory of what you believe.
If you want to know why our nation is in distress and disarray, we need only to look again to Isaiah to know the source of our failure.
Isaiah 9:16-17a For the leaders of this people cause them to err, And those who are led by them are destroyed. 17 Therefore the Lord will have no joy in their young men, Nor have mercy on their fatherless and widows; For everyone is a hypocrite and an evildoer, And every mouth speaks foolishness.
In the past, it was God who gave people hope. In the past, it was the Church that offered physical help and hope to the needy.
In the past it was salvation through Jesus Christ that made a man or woman better than they were the day before.
But in today’s society, it is the government that people go to when they have a problem they cannot solve by themselves.
In today’s society it is the government that offers physical help and hope when people are in need.
In today’s society it is the government that offers salvation and hope to men and women who find themselves in dire straits. The events of the last two weeks have proven the fallacy of faith in our government to come to the rescue.
Indeed, the entire pandemic, on a global scale, has proven that no government on earth is capable of usurping God when it comes to hope, deliverance, and healing.
While our government has been systematically removing all things religious, or more specifically all things Christian, from our society, it has simultaneously been inserting itself into our culture as the great savior of those in need.
Starting with Woodrow Wilson, the first Fabian Socialist President, through FDR with his massive social programs, to LBJ and his war on poverty, leading up to our current administration which has worked to increase the welfare and disability roles (using Covid as a tool to enact more control and more dependence) to such an extent that today, there are more people on government assistance than there are people working.
We have a labor crisis caused by our government assistance programs. Why, because people can make more money staying home than they can working. This has resulted in business reducing hours of operation or unable to even resume because no one wants to work.
All of this is leading to the ultimate usurpation of the Church and the displacement of Jehovah God as the true source of hope and life.
Not only have they attempt to assume the role of God Almighty, they (and the tech Oligarchs of Facebook, YouTube, twitter, Google, etc.) have decided “they” will control what news you see, what you are allowed to think, what speech “they” deem is appropriate, and what access you have to social media platforms.
Doctors, Epidemiologists, Senators, Generals, and even our previous President have ben censored or outright banned from speaking on these platforms.
Why, because those in power have deemed that what they have to say is “wrong speak” or “wrong think”, thus, it does not match the narrative that the socialist or tech tyrants have deemed “appropriate” for consumption by the masses.
Good News
Well, is there any good news that can come of this? Yes, there is.
Isaiah 1: 16-20 “Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; Put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes. Cease to do evil, 17 Learn to do good; Seek justice, Rebuke the oppressor; Defend the fatherless, Plead for the widow. 18 “Come now, and let us reason together,” Says the Lord, “Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They shall be as wool. 19 If you are willing and obedient, You shall eat the good of the land; 20 But if you refuse and rebel, You shall be devoured by the sword”; For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
As a Church, God promised that He will forgive and heal a nation if only its people, “we the people” will repent and turn to Him.
Those of the world will resist a return to God. Indeed, God’s Word says that those who follow Him and spread the truth of His word will be hated by the world.
Jesus said in John 15:18-19, 18 “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
Our country desperately needs a great awakening. I don’t know how or if this will ever occur. I’m not even sure if it can happen in our society as it exists today.
But I know this for sure, God loves us all. His greatest desire is that we all come to repentance through His Son, Jesus the Christ.
As for our nation, there is still hope. He tells us in the second half of Isaiah 9:17 For all this His anger is not turned away, But His hand is stretched out still.
Though God’s anger is not turned away (we must necessarily reap what we have sown as a nation), yet He stands with an outstretched hand, desiring to redeem and forgive.
Won’t you come this morning and pray? Come to this alter and pray for our nation. I’m not giving an alter call, I’m asking you, as followers of Christ, to come and pray with me.
Pray for our nation, pray for our leaders, pray for our judges… That God would reign supreme in this land that He has blessed us with.
Come this morning. Pray for God’s mercy. Pray for God to stay his hand of judgment until we have given ourselves to the mission that He has set before us.
Pray that His will be done in Heaven and on Earth. Pray that America can once again be a light of Freedom and Righteousness to a world shrouded in darkness.
Won’t you come?
