Grace to You :: Unleashing God's Truth, One Verse at a Time

Hope for a Doomed Nation Scripture: Selected Scriptures Code: 80-424

I have some things on my heart that I want to say to you as your pastor with regard to the nation inwhich we live. And as I think about Memorial Day and all thats been sacrificed through the years togive us our freedom, and as we watch those things that we love and those freedoms that have beenpurchased for us at the price of blood beginning to disappear, and things changing dramatically, itsimportant for us to have a perspective that is biblical and God-honoring. And it is this: the Biblepresents the truth that the human heart is deeply embedded with wickedness and corruption.

All are sinners. All fall short of the glory of God, we know that. Man is evil, not only in his behavior;hes evil in his thinking, hes evil in his intension. Every part of him is infected with evil. He is evil tothe core. He is desperately wicked to borrow the language of Jeremiah. He is characterized by sin,iniquity, and transgression; and nothing he does pleases God. This is the biblical definition of thehuman condition.

Now that evil is obviously rampant in every human heart; and collectively, it encircles the globe. Itinfects everything that man does, everything he touches. So what we have on the planet is massiveevil. It is compounded by the presence of Satan and demons who orchestrate a system of evil and asystem of spiritual wickedness that corrupts the environment, that corrupts the thinking of man. Andso you have the Satanic kingdom doing its work and you have sinners moving within the framework ofthat Satanic kingdom who are infested with evil down to the very core. That leads inevitably todisaster.

We read in Ezekiel, chapter 7, it was that that lead to the terrible, terrible devastation that came in586 when Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian forces came and destroyed the land of Israel and thecity of Jerusalem. And God hasnt changed, and man hasnt changed. God is still a holy God and Hewill not tolerate sin, and He will judge it.

In order to mitigate sin and God has to do a lot to mitigate sin. Just think about the fact that theworld is created in Genesis 1 and 2, and by chapter 6, God destroys the entire planet. Why? BecauseHe saw only evil continually. It doesnt take long. Once you have the fall in chapter 3 until youre inchapter 6 and God drowns the whole of humanity. There is such massive evil loose in the world inhuman life that God has to place restraints in the world. Man is so evil, he has to provide somerestraints or we would literally self-destruct.

Sin, by definition, is man going beyond the bounds, beyond the borders, beyond the established laws.The Bible says sin is lawlessness. It says sin is rebellion. And the heart of every man and woman isthe heart of a rebel, a heart of a sinner.

In fact, sin is Gods would-be murderer. Sin, if it had its way, would kill not only the law of God, butGod Himself. And if you wonder about that, then ask yourself why there is such an explodingpercentage of our population who are declaring themselves as atheists. The problem in our city, theproblem in our state, the problem in our nation is not circumstances, its not economic, its notpoverty, its not lack of education; the problem is inside man. The destructive reality is the rebelsinner. Thats the only kind of person there is in the world.

And Jeremiah said they work hard at it; they weary themselves committing iniquity. Psalm 7:14 says,Behold, he travails with iniquity, birth pains. He literally goes through pain to sin. You might say mengo to hell sweating; they work hard at their transgressions.

Sin causes evil to overpower all of us. Individually and collectively, it dominates the mind, the will, theemotions, and the affections; and consequently, it infects everything collectively. It is a massiveamount of evil; therefore, overpowers good. Sin causes people, of course, to fall under thedominance of Satan and to do his bidding and his will; and everything he does is against God. Sinsubjects people to all kinds of misery, all the miseries and pains of life.

In fact, in Romans 8:20 it says that it is sin that subjects the creature to emptiness, to emptiness,corrupting the body, degrading all well-being, destroying all relationships; eliminating rest, joy,comfort, peace; defiling conscience, beauty, love, darkening the mind; making man virtually anunteachable and uncontrollable beast who is sensual and never satisfied. Man is therefore robbed ofhis honor, having been made in the image of God. He has corrupted that. He is robbed of his peace.Sin sets man on a damning course for eternal hell. Sin is the problem; it is the problem everywhere. Itdestroys everything that is good, everything that is noble, everything that is right, everything that isjust; and all men are sinners. Fallen man is so bad, and so selfish, and so destructive, and so unkind,and it runs so deep, that God had to place in society some restraints, and He built them in. And I toldyou there were four basic restraints that God has built into human life.

Number 1 is personal control in the life of every individual. What is that? Its the law of God written inthe heart, the law of God written in the heart. Romans 2: Every human being has the knowledge ofright and wrong written in the heart. And that restraint has a weapon, and the weapon is conscience,which accuses a person when they violate the law in the heart. Thats a restraint. Thats a personal,internal restraint.

The second restraint that God has put in the world is parental restraint, family restraint. God hasdesigned that fathers and mothers operate well-ordered families and pass on righteousness,goodness, kindness, and truth to the next generation. And the weapon they have, according to theBible, is the rod; and they use that rod to discipline children, to spank children, if you will, in order toinflict pain on them when they violate the law, to train them to go the right way. There are familyvalues, moral values that belong to the very essence of what it means to be a family, what it means tobe a husband and wife, and father and mother.

The third level of control is societal control, and that belongs to government. And government is givenby God the power and authority to control our lives collectively. We have government at all levels.There are forms of government in your business. There are forms of government in yourcommunities. There are forms of government in towns and cities, and states and nations, and even inthe world. And the weapon that the government uses is the sword. The weapon of the personal law ofGod in the heart is the conscience. The weapon of the family is the rod. The weapon of government isthe sword, and thats a lethal weapon, and it exercises that weapon under divine command.

There is a fourth restraint in the world and its the church, the people of God. We are the salt and lightof the world, and the weapon that we have is the gospel, and its the most powerful weapon becauseit is the only weapon that totally transforms the whole person, totally transforms the whole person.The church wields that weapon.

Now let me tell you something about man. God has placed the law in the heart, the family,government, and the people of God, the church, in the world. God has given the weapon ofconscience, the rod of discipline, the sword of civil law, and the gospel of Jesus Christ, and sinnersfight against all those restraints as hard as they possibly can. They fight all those restraints.

Sinners fight those restraints relentlessly, aggressively, and they are aided by Satan and demons.They are aided by every aspect of human life. They are aided by philosophers. And educators, andpoliticians, and teachers. They are aided by false religious teachers. And they are aided by just thecollective life of sinners.

That is an ongoing war. If they can, they will fight against the divine law of God in the heart. They willdo everything they can to rewrite the law that should govern mens lives. They will throw away the lawthat they know in their own heart.

Romans 1:32 says they know theyre doing wrong, and they know there are consequences; and theynot only do it, they applaud those who do it. They will fight against the law of God in the heart, andtheyll do everything they can to silence the conscience. They will do everything they can to destroythe family. They will take every angle, every possible approach to destroy the family, to destroyparental authority, to destroy the union between a man and a woman, to destroy the relationship

between parents and children, to make children as rebellious as possible. They will do everything todestroy the family. They fight against that restraint.

And they will fight against the divine institution of societal authority as well. Theyll fight against everylaw. They will violate every law they can possibly violate. That is why we have to have policeeverywhere, and they cant keep up with the violators, they cant keep up with the violations becausesinners collectively, relentlessly fight against these restraints. It is their nature to do so. And they willfight against biblical Christianity. They will fight against the truth. They will fight against the gospel, theonly truth that can transform them.

Now, listen: this fight goes on all the time. Man would go to destruction without the restraint. God putsthe restraint there, and what they do is fight against the restraint, to overthrow this restraint, to rebelagainst it. And it is true that in a democracy like ours, in a republic that essentially is a democracywhere the people have the ultimate power, they will eventually destroy all those restraints, they will.That wouldnt happen necessarily in a dictatorship. It might not happen in a dictatorship where youget your hands chopped off if you steal, and you are executed if you commit adultery. If somebodyrules that way, those things might not change.

That is not that Im advocating that; Im simply saying in a democracy with sinners fighting againsteverything and all the power in the hands of sinners, they will eventually overthrow all the restraint.Its the nature of it. And when they do that, and when they do that, Romans 1 comes into play: Thewrath of God is revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness of men who hold the truth inunrighteousness. When they throw the truth away and trample it with unrighteousness, when theyoverrun all those boundaries and all those restraints, then Romans 1 says, God gave them up. Godgave them over.

So now you have a form of divine judgement kicking in. So you watch a society like ours and you seethe fight against the law of God written in the heart: what is normal, what is natural, what is sensible,what is common knowledge about what is right and what is wrong; the fight against overthrowing that;the fight against the conscience, to silence the conscience. You watch them fight to destroy the familyevery possible way it could. You watch them rebel against all the social order and social disciplineand fight against biblical truth, biblical Christianity, the gospel, the true church. And when theysucceed in overrunning all those restraints, then Romans 1 begins to take place, and God gives themup.

And how do you know that? Because it says, God gave them up to sexual immorality. And then itsays, And, secondly, he gave them up to homosexuality, and then he gave them up to a reprobatemind.

All you have to do is look at a culture and ask: Have we had a sexual revolution? Have we had ahomosexual revolution? Do we have a reprobate mind? Answer: of course we do. This is indicatingwe have not only kicked over all the restraints and we are loose in the field of God, if you will, and Hehas pulled back and said, Youre turned over to the consequences of your own sin. That is a form ofdivine judgement. Its not that God will judge this nation; were in it.

Oh, theres an eschatological judgement, yes, coming. Theres an end-time judgement and an eternaljudgement. But already were experiencing judgement. And where there are and there certainly are advocates for righteousness, and advocates for morality, and advocates for goodness andkindness, there are some people who are still clinging to the things that are noble and good becausethey followed the law and Im not talking about Christians, but people who followed the law in theirhearts and grew up in good, sound, healthy, sensible, reasonable families, and who have learnedrespect because theyd been taught to respect, and they have that respect to society. There are thosepeople.

But advocates for righteous and beneficial morality, and advocates for righteous and beneficial family,and advocates for righteous and biblical societal government, and advocates for the true church andthe gospel of Jesus Christ, are like little Hans Brinkers with their fingers in a dike thats going tooverwhelm everybody. So its a losing effort in the end because God has allowed all the nations to gotheir own way; this is the pattern.

So as we look at our nation and I dont know whats going to happen in the next few weeks whenIm not here. Im just kind of preempting that a little bit by helping you to be able to think throughwhatever happens. I have to say at this point that there are many churches who arent helping.

One of the pastors in one of the largest churches in America said, The church should be the safestplace for homosexuals. We welcome them in love, but we confront their sin for their own sake, for thesake of their salvation. Theres so much confusion.

So how do we understand all those? Well let me kind of pull apart some things that you I dont needto illustrate them, youll understand. Let me take a look at what is driving this nations terrible demise,what is causing us to run so fast at the edge of the cliff. Kind of a spiritual pathology. What is ondisplay? Let me give you a dozen things that youll already recognize.

Number 1: what were seeing that mark a doomed culture, that mark a doomed nation, one:fascination with living for pleasure, fascination with living for pleasure. Do I need to explain that or isthis not the most pleasure mad society in the history of the world? Thrills, cheap thrills, mindlesskicks, adventure, danger, entertainment, sports, you name it. People with too much time, withoutwork, without self-discipline, without control; media feeing them a frenzy of entertaining devices bywhich they can waste their entire lives. The pursuit of pleasure, personal lusts, just feeding the very

essence of fallenness.

Many years ago, Neil Postman said, Were amusing ourselves to death. He was right. This is thereprobate mind, that mind that isnt productive. Its not disciplined. It doesnt think deeply. It doesntthink broadly. It doesnt be to the culture that it exist a force for good, and greatness, and nobility, andelevation. Were becoming more drunk on alcohol and drugs all the time. Now were legalizing drugsto keep people in a permanent stupor thats legal.

Second Thessalonians 2:12 says this is a society that takes pleasure in wickedness. Titus 3:3 definesit as being enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, living our life in evil. Thats the culture, enslavedto various lusts and pleasures. In fact, 2 Peter 2:13, you may have overlooked, says this: They countit pleasure to riot. They count it pleasure to riot, says one translation. Well, whatever they think is afulfillment of their lusts and desires and passions, they rush to it.

First Timothy 5:6 says, But she who gives herself to wanton pleasure is dead even while she lives.You kill yourself chasing pleasure. Its the death of dignity, its the death of respect, its the death ofpotential, its the death of achievement, its the death of refinement, its the death of individuality, itsthe death of development, its the killing of your life, its the killing of your future. Youve got to getpast being endlessly entertained and fulfilling your lusts and your pleasure desires, and matter in theworld. Thats hard for this culture to do, very hard.

A second thing that I would mention and I dont need to go beyond what Im saying; you understandall this because you see it. Secondly, we have to understand the dominance of selfishness, thedominance of selfishness; the fascination with living for pleasure and the dominance of selfishness.

Has there ever been a society as self-centered as this? Has there ever been a society this egotistical,this consumed with its own agenda. Pride and self is elevated and exalted; has been for years, andyears, and years.

Psychologists have created this thing called self-esteem. That is a satanic idea. Youre not asimportant as you think you are. You are far less important than you think you are, and so am I, so areall of us. Youre not better than you think you are, youre worse than you think you are. You are farworse than you think you are, and so am I. In Gods eyes, you are inconceivably sinful. In your owneyes, youre something wonderful. Has there ever been such an egotistical culture.

You know, I look back at some markers. I remember watching a football game on television manyyears ago, and I saw the first time a football was spiked in the end zone: Look at me.

That was never done. I played football in high school and college. When I went into the end zone toscore a touchdown, I dropped the football and went back and thanked by teammates. Then it

became, Look at me. Draw attention to me.

I remember when Muhammad Ali said, I am the greatest. He didnt live a legacy of boxing in theworld, he left a legacy of ego in the world. Thats like a byword for the culture: Im the greatest. Imthe greatest what? Why? It took a whole generation and moved them into the psychology of self-esteem.

God hates pride; He hates haughty eyes. It destroys love. It destroys relationships, all of them. Whatis the killer of all relationships? Pride. Pride kills all relationships. It kills care, it kills sacrifice, it killskindness. It kills the supreme virtue of all virtues: humility.

Only humble people love. Thats why Proverbs 8:13 says, Pride and arrogance I hate, says theLord. Proverbs 11:2 says, When pride comes, then comes dishonor. It does the opposite. Do younotice that? When pride comes, then comes dishonor. Pride doesnt honor you, it dishonors you.

Proverbs 13:10 says, Through pride comes strife because it destroys relationships. Proverbs 16:18,Pride goes before destruction. Proverbs 29:23, A mans pride shall bring him low. And then it says,Honor belongs to the humble.

James and Peter both said in the New Testament God exalts the humble and abases the proud. Onlyhumble people love. Only humble people build meaningful relationships. We have a total societyconsumed with people chasing their own personal exaltation and elevation. So the sins of lovingpleasure and loving self cause disaster.

Number 3: the evil of materialism, the evil of materialism. In 1 Timothy 6, were all familiar with this,verses 9 and 10. Im just giving you some biblical context to kind of hang these thoughts on.

First Timothy 6:9, Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare, and many foolish andharmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is the root of allsorts of evil. The love of money is the root of all sorts of evil.

Let me tell you something: you can love it and have very little of it. Its not money thats the source ofevil. Money can be the source of good. Its the love of it. Things are more important than people. Youkill people over a parking space. You murder somebody for the DVR.

Materialism wants everything and wants to give nothing. Jesus said, Mans life does not consist inthe things he possesses, Luke 12:15. Jesus said in Mark 8:36, What will it profit a man if he gainsthe whole world and loses his own soul? Whats he going to give in exchange for his soul?

Sinful people are consumed with pleasure, self, and stuff. They will even kill for the stuff.

The fourth thing that I think is part of the pathology of a culture that is doomed is immorality,immorality; or in our case, amorality, the absence of any morality.

First Thessalonians 4:5 says that, The nations that know not God are driven by lust and passion. Thenations that know not God are driven by lust and passion. That is part of not knowing God; youbecome totally dominated by lust and passion.

The legacy of that in our culture, its obvious everywhere. This is a corrupt culture morally. Doesntshow up any more clearly than consuming preoccupation with pornography. Pornography at everylevel, in every possible format, in every possible way, delivered by every possible means, incessantlyand at all times to this culture. And they consume it faster than it can be propagated. The loss of allmoral sense, the shattering of all purity, the loss of all morality; fornication rampant on every level, inevery direction; infidelity, adultery, homosexuality. The smashing and crushing of family,pornography, violence, sexual, music, rap music, movies, books, popular movies that are deviant,television.

What does it lead to? Unwanted pregnancies. In major cities, 75 percent of the children born are notborn to a married mother and father. So they set loose, completely disconnected, disoriented kidswho come out criminals. Abortion by the millions, unwanted children.

I got a letter this week from a police officer in the Midwest named Paul who wrote me a really heart-moving letter. He said, Its tough here. He said, I go in every morning for my, basically roll call atthe station, and the first thing that happens in roll call is we hear from the federal side. We hear ifthere are any imminent threats from terrorism, and then we hear if there are any other sort of federalcrimes that we need to be aware of. And then we move to the state issues, and they tell us what deadbodies we should be looking for, and any other crimes that are sort of outside our immediatejurisdiction if we need to know about anybody that be passing through. And then we get to the localstuff, and the local stuff is all the crime we face in our faces every day in the major city that I work in.

He said, The other day, just to tell you how it goes, this is about as tame a thing as I would be able totell you. The rest would make you throw up, he wrote. And then he told me this story.

He said, A little boy with a cell phone in his hand, a phone that comes out of the home that you put ina little dock you use at home. He came running into the police department in stocking feet, bleedingall over with this cell phone in his hand, with the phone from home in his hand. And as the storyunfolded, it turned out that his arms were just a mass of bleeding, his forearms, everywhere on hisarms, blood everywhere; and his feet were all bloody.

And the story began to unfold that he was a foster child in a foster home, and he had not cleaned hisice cream dish; and so as punishment, his parents had put him up against sand of stuccoed walled alldragged him back-and-forth hard against that wall until his forearms bled. And then said that hehadnt picked up his shoes, and so they took his socks off and dragged him up-and-down the hall inhis bare feet until his feet bled. Then they made him go out in the backyard and clean up and pick upsticks without any shoes or any socks, and that added to the damage to his feet. And, eventually, hewas in so much pain and so terrified, that he grabbed the phone off the dock at his house and hestarted to call 911.

Hes 11 years old. He started to 911 and his parents saw him, and so he ran out the front door andbolted, and he only knew one place to run. So he ran with his stockings on and ran into the policedepartment. This is a world we live in. He said, Thats the part that I could tell you about and notmake you sick. That makes me sick.

This culture is perverse. Single parents abused children, rape, neglected infants, unwanted families,juvenile sex, venereal disease, every possible deviation. Now the Supreme Court of the United Statesof America is going to either do one of two things: either legalize homosexual marriage, or theyregoing to kick it back to the states and let the states do it; and then eventually itll come.

Just to remind you that Genesis 19, God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah for homosexuality. Theywere so driven by the passion of homosexuality in Sodom that they tried to rape the angels who cameto Lots house. And in Leviticus 18:22 and Leviticus 20:13, it says if people engage in homosexuality,theyre to be executed. That was the Old Testament law.

First Corinthians 6 says, No homosexual will enter the kingdom of God, along with no adulterer, orany other sinner. That is a sin that keeps people out of the kingdom of God. But 1 Corinthians 6 alsosays, Such were some of you; but youre washed, youre sanctified, youre justified. We have to tellthose people that sin is a sin that will keep them out of heaven unless they repent, and they can bewashed and justified.

When you see that kind of thing happening in the culture, you know were in Romans 1, dont you,that God has given us over to homosexual revolution, men doing what is unseemly with men, andreceiving in their own bodies the due reward, AIDS. Women with women; Romans 1 says that. Spell itout. Thats the very evidence of it, a population driven by sexual deviation, perversion, and lust, TV,music, films. Every day exacerbates the problem. So these are the things that mark our society: loveof pleasure, love of self, love of things, and sexual perversion.

Number 5: the deadly danger of anger. Anger was once recognized as a sin. Everybody recognized itas a sin. Just a normal, healthy culture recognized that anger had no place, that anger ate up theperson who was angry and damaged the relationships of everybody around that person.

Self-control used to be something socially valuable. It used to be valuable if you thought somethingand kept your mouth shut and didnt say it. It didnt all of a sudden become a virtue for you to ventevery angry thought you have as if some kind of psychologically freeing experience. It is in itselfdamaging.

Psychologists say anger is healthy. Ive heard it all the time: People have a right to be angry. Theyhave a right to be angry. They have a right to do what they want. They have a right to react the waythey react. They have every right to do that. Really?

Ephesians 4:31, Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and evil speaking be put away from you,along with all the rest of the evil. James 1:20, The wrath of man works not the righteousness ofGod. Ecclesiastes 7:9, Anger lives in the heart of a fool.

Read Proverbs. All through Proverbs there are proverbs that warn us against the deadly danger ofanger. Anger is the venting of the flesh. The works of the flesh are anger, Galatians 5:19-21. Angerdestroys.

You say, Well, what about somebody who treats you unjustly? Well, Jesus is the model, 1 Peter 2,when He was reviled, He reviled not again. Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.

Following on the heels of that is the deadliness of vengeance, vengeance. You have a culture thatloves to feed on vengeance. Videogames are filled with this, dominating the lives of junior high kids,creating a culture of people, a whole society of people, entire generations of people who are intovengeance.

This is another dominant sin in our day. Its hailed as a virtue: retaliation, getting back. Chainreactions of evil: you get them back; they get you back. You get them back; they get you back; andthats how life is lived. Its like life in a biker gang, or like in an inner city gang: you do them; they do toyou. So you do to them and they do to you, and you have an amoral, antisocial, destructive,murderous culture, all because of vengeance.

Vengeance is in the human heart, its in the human heart. We want to get it. We want to get ourpound of flesh. We want vengeance when somebody does something wrong.

Vengeance is such a natural thing that in the Old Testament, Deuteronomy 19, Joshua 20, God inIsrael created cities called cities of refuge so that if somebody accidentally took a life it couldhappen when youre out working, doing something like using an ax, as it talks about; and somehowthe ax slips or goes in the wrong direction and someone dies. There needed to be cities of refuge,because immediately what was natural to the human heart was vengeance on somebody who really

did something without premeditation, and just by accident. So God ordained cities where peoplecould go and they would be safe there until the thing could be handled correctly cities of refuge.And that was simply so thered be a place for people to hide from avengers.

You know, if you read 1 Samuel 24, a beautiful picture of David who is unwilling to take vengeance onSaul. He has him where he could kill him and he doesnt do it. And then in the next chapter of 1Samuel 25, he restrains his vengeance against Nabal; you remember that story. Theres anintervention and he backs off.

Its in the human heart to take vengeance, we remember this, 1 Thessalonians 4:6, The Lord isavenger. The Lord is the avenger. Its what it says. Vengeance is destructive of the avenger,destructive of the avenger, destructive of the culture; glorified in movies, glorified in videogames. Wehave furious, angry, vengeful, retaliating people filling up this culture, shootings every day. The Bibleabsolutely forbids this, absolutely forbids it.

In Leviticus 19, Ill just read this to you, verse 16: You shall not go about as a slanderer among yourpeople, and youre not to act against the life of your neighbor; I am the Lord. You shall not hate yourfellow countrymen in your heart; you may surely reprove your neighbor, but shall not incur sinbecause of him. You shall not take vengeance, you shall not bear any grudge against the sons ofyour people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Thats the context for love your neighboras yourself, not taking vengeance.

How would that change our culture? Massive problem. And that leads me to another, Romans 12:Vengeance is Mine, I will repay, says the Lord. Vengeance is Mine, I will listen, God keeps allthose accounts; you dont have to do that. And Number 7 on my list: The absence of forgiveness.There is an utter absence of forgiveness, and that kind of goes along with it. Whatever happened to,I forgive you.

My brother-in-law, sister-in-law (Patricias sister), had a wonderful son in our church and he wasworking up at a market near here a number of years ago. And a guy came in to rob the market, andTim tried to intervene, and shot him dead. I remember when his dad Dwayne went to the hospital totell the killer he forgave him and give him the gospel.

Number 8: The divisiveness of prejudice. The divisiveness of prejudice. I could say more about that; Iwont. The divisiveness of prejudice Jonah was prejudiced. Obviously, the whole story of Jonah ishe didnt want Gentiles horning in on the blessings from his God.

Proverbs 24:23, To show partiality and judgment is not good. John 7:24, Do not judge according toappearance. First Timothy 5, Do nothing with partiality. God is not a respecter of persons, Acts10. Love your neighbor as yourself.

Whos my neighbor? the lawyer said in Luke 10. Whos my neighbor? And what was the answerJesus gave? The Samaritan, who is your enemy, your mortal enemy Jews and Samaritans hadno dealings hes your neighbor, hes your neighbor. Youve got to get over the prejudiced towardsSamaritans. Theres a Jew line there: Youre a Samaritan; you need to reach out to him. The GoodSamaritan. Youve got to get over the prejudice.

Prejudice is shredding this country. Its a dishonor to God. Its a dishonor to the body of Christ. Its ahorrible dishonor to the culture. As Christians, we love everyone; all in Christ are one, neither Jew,nor Greek; nor male, nor female; nor bond, nor free; nor rich, nor poor; black or white or brown, oranything like that. We love the way God loves. The divisiveness of prejudice which runs deep in theheart is destructive.

Number 9: The seriousness of loss of respect for authority. The seriousness of loss of respect forauthority. Undermining respect for authority is a deadly thing, Romans 13. We talked about that inFebruary and I told you that God instituted government as an authority and gave government thesword; and the duty of government is to protect those who do good and punish evildoers. And we aretold in Romans 13 to submit to the powers that be because they are ordained of God. And were toldin Peters epistle that we are to honor the king and those who are in authority over us, and we are tolive peaceable lives.

We have an entire culture that hates all authority: parental authority, teachers authority, policeauthority, any authority. Undermining respect for authority is a deadly, deadly sin. There are eventhings that our government does to undermine its own authority, and to undermine othergovernments authority. You dont accomplish anything good when you create distrust of authority.

Number 10: The disaster of civil rebellion. Civil rebellion is just collective anger against authority,collective anger against authority; and were seeing that more often now than I can ever remember.And just two more.

Number 11: The decline in swift and severe punishment. The decline in swift and severe punishment.Theres a very interesting verse in Ecclesiastes 8:11. Listen to this: Because the sentence against anevil deed is not executed quickly, because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed quickly,therefore the hearts of the sons of men among them are given fully to do evil.

You want to turn criminals loose; just delay their sentence, just delay the process, just delay theconsequences. And if you push the consequences out far enough, you literally encourage them tocrime. Were pretty good at that in this society.

Finally, we have said that trouble with society is civil rebellion, lack of respect, prejudice,unforgiveness, vengeance, anger, hate sexual perversion, love of things, love of self, love ofpleasure; and finally, a desire for weak, impotent, and immoral leaders; a desire for weak, impotent,and immoral leaders.

I dont think this country cares about the character of its leaders. Some do; we do. Proverbs 16:12,Its an abomination for rulers to commit wicked acts, for a throne is established on righteousness, orjustice. Proverbs 29:2, When the wicked rule, people groan. Proverbs 29:12, If a ruler paysattention to lies, all his ministers become wicked. If a ruler pays attention to lies, all his ministersbecome wicked. What is the principle there? You allow lies and youll attract liars. Youre corrupt andyoull be surrounded by more corrupt people.

Now on the other hand, 2 Samuel 23, God gives His picture of a leader. These are the last words ofDavid: David the son of Jesse declares but these are the words of God in verse 3: The God ofIsrael said: The Rock of Israel spoke. He who rules over men righteously, who rules in the fear ofGod, is as the light of the morning when the sun rises, a morning without clouds, when the tendergrass springs out of the earth, through sunshine after rain. A ruler who rules righteously in the fear ofthe Lord is like a beautiful dawn and a fresh rain. Those who rule in utter submission to God andrighteousness make life beautiful.

All right, symptoms. So where are we now? You have to give me another few minutes. Our times aredominated by these kinds of things. These are the motives, incentives, attitudes of our culture. And itisnt the whole list; just read Romans 1. The false church wont help. Nothing superficial will help. Thesickness is incurable.

So where are we? What are we facing? What do we do? Turn to Exodus 20. Just be patient for a fewminutes because I want to bring this to its necessary conclusion, Exodus 20. This is the TenCommandments.

The most important commandment of all has to do with God. I am the Lord your God, verse 2,Exodus 20. By the say, this is repeated in Deuteronomy 5, the same thing. God repeated this whenthey got back into the land later. This is when they left Egypt. He repeats it when they are ready to goback into Canaan.

I am the Lord your God. You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself anidol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above, or on the earth beneath, or in the water or under theearth. No other gods, no idols. You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, ama jealous God. Okay, you worship Me and Me alone, Me and Me alone, or I will be visiting the iniquityof the fathers plural the leaders, those in responsible positions. The fathers represent those wholead the society. I will be visiting the iniquity of those leaders on the children plural on the third

and fourth generations plural of those who notice this, what hate Me.

Listen: any other god but the God of Scripture, any god that anybody devises, the god of Islam, thegod of Mormonism, the god of Judaism any other god but the God who is the Trinity; the God andFather of our Lord Jesus Christ; the God of Scripture, Old Testament and New; the God of thegospel. Any other god is an idol. Any other god is an idol, whether youre an atheist or you worship afalse god, thats idolatry.

If youre an atheist, you worship yourself. But any other god means you hate the true God, thats whatit says. Those are those who hate Me, and thats what were seeing in this country, folks. You haveto see, they hate God. They hate the true God. And Jesus said in John 15, They hate My Father andthey hate Me, and they will hate you.

We just have to set the record straight, this is how it is, okay. This society is not your friend. Theyhate God; they hate Christ; they hate you. This is going to create generational impact to the third andfourth generation.

What does that mean? Please, it doesnt mean when a father sins, his kids pay. No, its not a father,its fathers. Its not a child, its children. Its not a generation, its generations. What this says is whenyou have a corrupt generation, it will take three or four generations with the best conditions to changethat.

So here it is: youre not going to fix it; dont try. Neither will your children, neither will yourgrandchildren, and probably neither will your great-grandchildren. This is your world, and their world,and the next world, and the next world. And it may be the last one; Jesus may come. But youre notgoing to change it, so stop trying. You cant change it politically, cant change it financially, its how itis.

Ezekiel 18:20 says the sins of an individual are never punished in his children. You only are punishedfor your own sins; thats a different issue. This is generational impact. A corrupt generation gets soembedded that it takes generations, if ever, to root it out. Thats where we are: lust for pleasure,selfishness, materialism, sexual perversion, anger, hate, vengeance, unforgiveness, prejudice, lack ofsubmission to authority, civil rebellion, corrupt leadership. Thats going to be around for your children,your grandchildren, your great-grandchildren. Its not going to change.

So what do we do? Well, first of all, remember this: this culture is not going to help you in anythingthat is God-honoring. Dont look to the culture for any help in your personal holiness. In order for youto be personally holy, you need to separate. This culture offers you nothing. The less exposure, thebetter.

There was a time when I was a boy growing up that it was cultural morality, cultural dignity, culturalhonor, cultural honesty. There was a kind of Christian mentality. No more; theyre your enemy. Theyhate everything that you love. Theyre youre enemy. Theyre Gods enemy, Christs enemy, yourenemy. Theyre not going to help you in your personal life: separate.

Parents, theyre not going to help you in your parenting. Theyre not going to help you; youve got toknow that. Theyre not going to help you. Theyre not going to help you in any way. Theyre not goingto help you through the toys they make for your kids. Theyre not going to help you through theentertainment they provide for your kids. Theyre not going to help you through the schools. Theyrenot going to help you. Theyre against you.

This raises the stakes in personal holiness and raises the stakes in parenting. And theyre not goingto help the church, theyre going to come against us really strong. Theyre going to come against usmaybe with taxation and who knows what, against Christian colleges and those who hold to thethings of the Word of God. Theyre not going to help. The culture is destructive; it is the enemy ofGod.

Now heres my message, because that was the introduction. Okay, this is it. Now listen; wake up.Turn to Matthew 5:43. Okay, lets be like the Jews in Jesus day. Mathew 5:43, Youve heard that itwas said, You shall love your neighbor, your fellow Christian, and what hate your enemy. Isthat what we do? Is that what we do? No.

What did Jesus say? You dont hate your enemy. I say to you, love your enemies, pray for those whopersecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. Listen to me: youre nevermore like God than when you love your enemies, because you were one of the enemies God loved.Romans 5:10, While we were enemies, we were reconciled to God. Right?

Listen, heres the message: Your enemy is your mission field. Your enemy is your mission field. Theworld of enemies was Gods mission field. God so loved the world that He gave His only begottenSon. Dont hate the enemy; love the enemy as God loves the enemy and sent His Son for theirsalvation.

And remember this: to convert a sinner from his eternal doom is an event of far greater significancethan the deliverance of an entire nation from temporal evil. Did you get that? To convert one sinnerfrom his eternal doom is an event of far greater significance than the deliverance of an entire nationfrom temporal evil. Were not here to deliver a nation from temporal evil. Were here to say with theapostle Paul, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation toanyone who believes, Jew or Gentile.

So whats our job? Go into the mission field, love them the way God loves them, and preach theglorious gospel of Jesus Christ, and let the kingdom advance one soul at a time. Amen? Okay, itstime for amen. Amen. Lets pray.

Father, were so grateful that weve been able to be together this morning and worship and considerthese precious truths. And give us clarity and understanding in the time in which we live. Help us,Lord, to be a force for the gospel in this very, very doomed world. Lord, open up doors for us topreach Christ to perishing souls. Use us, Lord, to call Your own to Yourself. Help us to be faithful inproclaiming the truth and living it out. Well thank You, in Christs name. Amen.

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