Where Will You Be Stricken Again?

Isa 1:4-9

Alas, sinful nation,
People weighed down with iniquity,
Offspring of evildoers,
Sons who act corruptly!
They have abandoned the Lord,
They have despised the Holy One of Israel,
They have turned away from Him.
Where will you be stricken again,
As you continue in your rebellion?
The whole head is sick
And the whole heart is faint.
From the sole of the foot even to the head
There is nothing sound in it,
Only bruises, welts and raw wounds,
Not pressed out or bandaged,
Nor softened with oil.
Your land is desolate,
Your cities are burned with fire,
Your fields — strangers are devouring them in your presence;
It is desolation, as overthrown by strangers.
The daughter of Zion is left like a shelter in a vineyard,
Like a watchman’s hut in a cucumber field, like a besieged city.

 

Compare with…

SEPTEMBER 25, 2018

Comfort for Contemporary Christians – LivingWaters.com

America is undoubtedly the most Christian nation on this earth. Australia has about six Christian radio stations. Britain I think has a handful. New Zealand has one. The United States of America has 1,485 Christian radio stations, 300 Christian television programs. I’m amazed to turn on secular television so often and see on secular television news people testifying to God’s deliverance from earthquakes, and tornadoes, and floods. I mean, it’s just accepted that they thank the Lord for delivering them, standing with them in their time of testing.

What other nation could have a talk show host ask, “Name some life-changing experience,” and hear an answer, “Accepting Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior”? What other nation has gospel music festivals sponsored by McDonald’s? The United States of America, where it isn’t extraordinary to have Time Magazine run a comprehensive interview with evangelist Billy Graham, where the president reads his Bible every day, where supermarkets and other secular stores sell Christian cards, plaques, and Bibles, where there are more fish on cars than there are in the supermarkets. In fact, the Barna Research Group found that 62% of Americans, quote, “Say they have made a commitment to Jesus Christ that is still important in their life today.” That means according to that statistic that there are 148 million professing born-again Christians in the Unites States.

The foundation of America is soaked in a godly heritage. The pilgrim fathers’ reason for establishing the United States was, quote, “For the glory of God and the founding of the Christian faith.” The Declaration of Independence declares all men are endowed by God with certain inalienable rights. 50 of the 55 men who established or instituted the Constitution were professing Christians. What other nation has “In God We Trust” on its currency? What other nation sings unashamedly that God’s grace was shed upon it? If ever a nation should shine with the blessing of God, it should be this nation, the United States.

Is America Truly Godly?

The Bible says righteousness exalts a nation. A nation’s house will bring forth, the Bible says, because of righteousness. God will honor any country that honors Him with long life, blessings, health, and prosperity. If America is as godly as it seems, it will be reflected both in the health of its people and its land, but instead, we’re seeing the very opposite. In 1989, 52,000 Americans died of a flu virus. In the same year, more died of AIDS than were killed in the entire Vietnam War. Every year, 160,000 die of cancer. Two and a half million have Alzheimer’s disease. Heart disease is killing millions. 10 million have asthma. 400,000 have Parkinson’s disease. The National Alliance on Mental Health diagnosed 10 million Americans with having, quote, “Serious long term mental illness”; 10 million. There are 500,000 attempted teenager suicides each year, over one million teenager runaways each year, 10,000 of them living on the streets of Los Angeles.

There are escalating marriage breakdowns, widespread alcoholism, epidemic drug problems, boiling racism, and massive financial pressures from home to commerce. Tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, and droughts rock the nation, making the whole thing somewhat difficult to equate with God’s blessing. Despite America’s belief in God, in 1989 she spent 240 billion dollars on gambling. In the same year, 120,000 women reported being raped. Two and half million abused, missing, and abducted children were reported. 5,000 women in one year were killed by domestic violence. 23,000 Americans are murdered every year. Drunk drivers kill 25,000 each year, and the number one killer in the United States of children is parents. The US has 100 times more burglaries per capita as so-called “godless” Japan.

Since the law was instigated in the U.S., 30,000 law officers have died in the line of duty, and it’s almost added to daily. Satanic murders, mass killings, are common place. Drive-by shootings and other gang-related murders or drug-related murders are beyond police control in many states. Florida, state representative Michael Freedman said these words. This was in Time Magazine, 1987: “The message we’re sending out is we can’t protect you anymore, so get yourself a gun and do the best you can.” Violence and drug use have just so infiltrated the public school system that over 500,000 children in the U.S. are now homeschooled. That’s not Christian schooling. That is homeschooling. They’re taking them out of the school system all together.

“Benjamin Franklin said, ‘Sin is not hurtful because it’s forbidden. Sin is forbidden because it is hurtful.’ The pleasures of sin aren’t worth the pains of sin. If we as Christians can’t hate sin for what it is, we just hate it for what it does.”

Video has taken pornography and sexual violence to a new realm. Television programs spew out murderous acts of violence every hour, 32 acts of violence every hour. Pornography is now a 32 billion dollar industry. USA Today reported recently that the new NC-17 censorship for movies means that, quote, “Movies can now start where most sex scenes end.” The irony, on the same page I read that in USA Today, there was a report of a 500% increase in a certain type of cancer saying researchers do not know why. The answer is just across the page. If a nation sews sin, it will reap suffering and death. Benjamin Franklin said, “Sin is not hurtful because it’s forbidden. Sin is forbidden because it is hurtful.” The pleasures of sin aren’t worth the pains of sin. If we as Christians can’t hate sin for what it is, we just hate it for what it does.

“One Nation Under God”?

Each year in California alone, 50,000 drug-addicted children are born. San Francisco has 60,000 intravenous drug users. Corruption and drug use has so infiltrated the police system in the U.S. that California police decided they would instigate a lie detector to test the 34,000 people who wanted to join the police force and found to their horror that 64% were former drug users. Jails in L.A. are often so full, judges don’t know what to do with criminals because they don’t know where to put them, so they just send them out back into the streets. The blood of unborn through abortion spilled at a million, over a million each year. 146,000 of these are in the last semester. That is the seven to nine month period. That’s 4,300 abortions per day, 97% just for the sake of convenience. There’s an estimated 17 million professing homosexuals in the U.S. 800,000 babies are born to unwed teenagers each year.

This one nation under God has 10,000 full-time astrologers and 175,000 part-time astrologers working busily to chart the heavens for future-minded citizens. Halloween, you wouldn’t believe how big Halloween is. It is a multi-billion dollar industry. You can see Bibles on one side of the store and Halloween junk on the other side of the store. It’s as common as apple pie is in the United States. One out of seven teenagers in the U.S. has a sexually transmitted disease. A 1990 survey showed that in schools, 40% of kids had had at least three sexual partners. Adults lead the example. USA Today reported that between 50 and 60% of married men had committed adultery. The women weren’t too far behind.

Now, the sad thing is this isn’t confined to the unchurched. You ask my son Daniel, he’s with me here, how many kids in his class in the secular school he used to go to went to church. 85, 90% of kids actually go to church, and the language they use is absolutely disgusting. A university campus found that nearly 50% of those who call themselves evangelicals think premarital sex is okay. Christianity Today did a confidential survey among 300 pastors and found that one in four had been involved in some sort of sexual sin.

More of a “Cultural Thing”

Sammy Davis seemed to sum it up. Sammy Davis Jr. testified as to how Jesus had stood with him, this was a public testimony, during a bout with throat cancer. Someone came up to him and said, “Hey, you’re a born-again Christian.” He said, “No, no. It’s more of a cultural thing than a religious thing.” I find when I’m preaching to the homeless, drug addicts, and thieves, as I quote John 3:16, they all join in the chorus and quote it with me. I mean, America is baptized in a baptism of the grace of God, and they use God’s grace for liberty and occasion of the flesh. Contemporary America has adopted a cosmetic Christianity, which was epitomized when I was standing in line recently. I turned around, there was a guy with a chain around his neck and on the chain he had a cross and a Playboy bunny hand in hand.

“America is baptized in a baptism of the grace of God, and they use God’s grace for liberty and occasion of the flesh. Contemporary America has adopted a cosmetic Christianity.”

Satan understood the principle of inoculation far longer or far before man discovered it. His great victory has been to convince the church of the United States and this country throughout the western world to open up its doors and say, “Hey, world, come in. All you have to do is ask Jesus into your heart. It’s easy to become a Christian.” Jesus said the exact opposite. He said, “Strive to enter the straight gate. For many, I say, shall seek to enter and shall not be able.” He said, “Straight is the gate and narrow is the way that leads to life, and few there be that find it. Broad is the path that leads to destruction and many go in that way.” When Jesus said, “Strive to enter the straight gate,” he used a Greek work which means “to agonize.” Agonize to get into the straight gate. It is not easy to become a Christian.

James said, “Cleanse your hands, you sinners. Purify your hearts, you double minded.” He said, “Weep and mourn. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to heaviness.” If someone doesn’t repent in humble contrition, they can’t become a Christian. They can’t be born into God’s kingdom unless they repent. Jesus said that. “Unless you repent, you shall perish.” You see, the tragedy in the United States is that a minister can get up, an evangelist can get up and preach for 40 minutes on faith and give a good faith teaching and make no mention of sin, Law, righteousness, holiness, judgment, repentance, or even mention the cross, and then say, “Let’s just bow in prayer. You need to give your life to Jesus Christ. You’ve got a God shaped vacuum in your heart,” and multitudes come forward and they accept Jesus as Savior and Lord, and they have a false conversion. Because how could a man repent if he doesn’t know what sin is?

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