The California Collection/TheCaliforniaCollection.cdr/his094/revival.arj/REVIVAL.TXT

Text File | 1991-01-27 | 14.6 KB | 286 lines

REVIVAL OR RUIN


      I stand before you a husband by choice, a father bydesire,
but an American by birth. Like most of us, I did absolutely
nothing to deserve the freedom that we enjoy.

     I want to say at the outset of this message that I am
anold-fashioned, flag waving American who believes that America
is the greatest nation on the face of the earth. I don't saythat
just because I am an American, or because I am prejudiced, but
because I believe that the facts bear it out.

      While other nations have, for decades, built walls andput up
barbed-wire fences to keep their people from gettingout, the
United States of America has always had along line of people
waiting to get in.

     But America did not become great because of her vast
resources, he superior intellect, or her sheer willpower.
America became great because God made her great. The Bible
says that righteousness exalts a nation, and that the nation
whose God is the Lord is a blessed nation. In 1 Samuel
2:30, God says, " they that honor me I will honor."

     God honored America because America honored Him and
upheld His standard of righteousness. This nation was forged
out by men who recognized their dependence upon Almighty God.
In fact, many of those founding father had more respect aslost
sinners for the living God and His Word, than many so-called
believers in the church today. They knew that neitherthey,
nor their nation could make it without the assistance of God.

     In this generation we're looking for better methods to
deal with the perplexing problems of our day, but Godis still
looking for better men, men like our foundingfathers who were
willing to risk everything for what they believed.

     Many of these men had much to lose in the struggle for
liberty. But one common thread boundtheir hearts together,
and it was for this that they riskedtheir wealth, their sacred
honor, and their very lives togive birth to the great experiment
of freedom that we call America.

     These were men of conviction who stood for what theybelieved,
no matter what they cost. They were men ofcharacter, who refused
to give up in the face of adversityand hardship. They were men of
creative wisdom. For example,they didn't form a democracy based
on the changing whims ofeach passing generation. Rather, they formed
a republic basedon the unchanging, eternal absolutes of God and
His Word.

     They were also men of commitment. They were commited toGod,
to His authority, and to the foundational principles ofHis Word.
They did not hesitate to legislate morality. Forthe past 160 years
of our history, most of our laws (e.g.,blue laws, divorce laws,
property laws, criminal laws) were based on the laws of God.

     The charter of every one of our original coloniesstresses
our spiritual roots. For example, the charter ofRhode Island (
1638) states, "We submit our persons, lives,and estates, unto
our Lord Jesus Christ, the King of Kingsand Lord of Lords and
to all those perfect absolute laws He has given to us in His
Holy Word."

     In fact, upon investigation, you will discover that allthe
documents that formed the United States, the Declarationof
Independence, the Bill of Rights, all the constitutions ofthe
various states, the inagural addresses of it'spresidents, and the
statements indelibly etched on many ofour national monuments in
Washinton D.C., all bearunmistakable testiment to the fact
that America is one nationunder God, founded for the furtherance
of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

     Unfortunately, the secularists and humanists of our dayhave
rewritten history, so that as to exclude the truth regarding our
spiritual heritage as a nation.

     These men of conviction, character, creative wisdom, andcommmitment,
purchased with their blood the freedom that youand I enjoy today.
Because they honored God, God honored them, and we are still reaping
those blessings today.

     In just 200 years, God elevated America from a place of infancy
to world leadership in almost every field of endeavorincluding technology,
industry, medicine, agriculture,aerospace, business, science, electronics,
andcommunications. When you stop to think of it, it is reallyincredible!
And it never could have happened apart from heaven's aid.

     But as we bask in the glory of past blessings, we havecause
for great alarm, for thr same God who was true to HisWord and blessed
America, must exercise judgement if we do not repent.

     America has a heritage that cries,"We cannot go withoutGod."
Yet for the past few decades we've tried. We have sownto the wind
and now we are reaping the whirlwind. In the60's we bgan to openly
tolerate that which was vile andsinful. In the 70's, we began to
legitimize, condone, andexcuse what we had already accepted. And
in the 80's, we haveactually begun to legislate that which is
immoral and contrary to the laws of God's Word.

     Sex has become humiliating, filthy, and violent. Brazen
magazines carry articles on sex with children and sex withanimals.
Male hustlers stand on street corners pouncing on passerby.
I'm talking about "Christian America!"

     One out of every 10 adults is a slave to alcohol. Dopepeddlers
are destroying the minds of America's youth. Thiscountries illicit
drug industry is estimated at more than 75billion dollars a year.
The suicide rate among 15-24 yearolds has risen over 300% in the
last 20 years. In "ChristianAmerica" we now have the highest divorce
rate in the history of civilization. Child abuse is epidemic.

     We have rejected the sanctity of human life. We aremurdering
over 1.4 million innocent, unborn babies eachyear. In one state alone
last year, these were more babieskilled by legal abortions than all
of the servicemen who losttheir lives in the Viet Nam, Korean, Mexican,
1812, and Revolutionary Wars combined.

     Our economy is on the brink of collapse. Our efforts tostop
this runaway deficit are nothing more than band-aids ona
hemorrhaging economy. Our families, which form the basicunit of
society, are crumbling. Television programming ispolluting the
souls and brainwashing the minds of our youngpeople, and destroying
the spirit of our homes. We haveparaded the reputation of sodomy
down mainstreet as anacceptable lifestyle. ╘üΘüφüσü magazine now
reports over 20million who claim to be homosexuals or lesbians. We
aredrinking, eating, perverting, and drugging ourselves into an early
grave.

     As a nation, we have provoked the fury of Almighty Godin
heaven. America simply is not big enough to shake her fist in the
face of a Holy God and gat away with it.

     Some who share this concern are saying. "We had betterclean up
our act or God is going to judge us." Dear friend,the question
is not, "Will God judge us?" It is  just a matter of how far God's
judgement will go if we don't repent.

     God destroys those nations that forsake Him and rejectHis
laws. Psalm 9:17 says, "The wicked shall be turned intohell and all
the nations that forget God." "Righteousnessexalts a nation, but
sin is a reproach to any people."Speaking through Hoses, Godsays, "
Seeing that thou hastforgotten the laws of thy God, I will also
forget thyhildren. I will go and return to my place until they
acknowledge their offense before me."

     Amereica is on a suicidal course with destruction andjudgment
because we have forgotten the God of the Bible andhave forsaken His
commandments. Did our founding fathers diein vain? Is this noble
experiment of freedom to end in thegraveyard, alongside of past
civilizations that likewiserejected God? Is there no hope for
our children and their children?

     Edmund Burke said, "The only thing necessary for evil totriumph
is that good men do nothing." That's exactly what toomany of us
have done. Absolutely nothing. We are to busymaking money, watching
television, fixing our yard, and going to the ball game to save a
nation.

     You and I live in a democratic republic, a government ofthe
people, by the people, and for the people. That makes usthe ultimate
decisionmaker, and, before God, ultimatelyresponsible for what takes
place in this nation. We must rebuild this nation before it is to late.

     When a nation becomes as morally depraved, asspiritually blinded,
and as steeped in humanism, hedoism,materialism, as America is,
there is only one power in theuniverse that can meet and overcome
such evil, and that isthe power of the living God. What we need
is an outpouring ofthe Holy Spirit, a visitation of the manifest
presence ofGod. And that, my freinds is revival.

     Desperate times demand God's personal intervention, andon the
stage of history that has always been called arevival. The only hope
that God will be exalted, the onlyhope that he will be lifted up again
as Lord over thisnation, the only hope as our survival as a free people.
Theonly hope for our children and grandchildren, is an old-fashioned,
Holy Spirit empowered revival that will sweep backthe tide of sin
and restore the basic principles of God and His Word that made her great.

     Back in the 1700's and 1800's America experiencedseveral such
revivals and awakenings. But we are now 89 yearsinto the 20th century
and with all of our greatness and allof our bigness, we have the
greates churches, the greatestpreachers, the greatest singers,
the greatest programs andschools ever in Christendom. Yet this
is the first century inthe history of the United States that God
has not beenbleesed to pour out His spirit and touch down in this
nation a national revival.

     The only hope for turning this nation back to God is for
those of us who claim the name of Christ to turn back to God.
God's cure for a nation proves wha the real cause was allalong.
God said if he could find ten rightous souls in Sodomand Gomorrah,
He would spare the cities. But He couldn't. Hesaid if he could find
one man in Israel's day, He would spareit. But He couldn't. God said
in II Chronicles 7:14. "If mypeople which are called by My name shall
humble themselvesand pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked
ways,then I will hear from heaven, I will forgive their sin, and
will heal their land."

     The reason our nation is facing judgment is because ofthe
spiritual condition of the church. It is not because ofthe corruption
in th halls of Congress or the reprobation inSan Fransisco and Hollywood.
It is because of those of us in who call ourselves Christians.

    "Oh, you say, "but look at the grouth of our churches and
mission programs, and the renewed interest of people inreligion.
"Behind the glimmer of much grouth today, thepiercing all-knowing
eye of a Holy God has been witness towhat has been taking place behind
the walls of our homes, our places of business, and in the privacy
of motel rooms.

      A recent Gallup poll pointed out that though there hasbeen in
the last decade or so a surge of those professing to be Christians,
there has been during that same period of timea corresponding
escalation of crime, rape, incest, child abuse, divorce, and moral
perversions of all kinds.

     There is something critically wrong with the kind ofreligion
that has no effect whatsoever in its society.Furthermore, there
is something wrong when people can confessChristianity and continue
to live in their godlesslifestyles. There is something wrong when
church men canwatch HBO and Showtime pornography and then teach
Sunday School the next morning.

     There is something wrong when people can abort babiesduring
the week, and then sing in the choir on Sundays. Thereis something
wrong when men can be unfaithful to their wives, abusetheir children,
and live with unresolved conflicts in theirhome, and have
absolutely no conscience or conviction over the matter.

     There is something wrong when men can live their livesand
order their priorities for the almighty dollar andtemporal things
and then be recognized as a commited,dedicated believer, just
because of all of the money they give to the church.

     There is something wrong when people can life selfish,immoral
lives, be proud and bitter, self-centered and self-sufficient, and
still occupy possitions of leadership in the church.

     America will be judged, not because of the wickedness ofthe
lost, but because of the backslidden condition of the church.

     Infact, our nation's sins are nothing more than amagnified
reflection of the sins of the church. We complainthat our children
can't pray or read the Bible at school. ButI wonder how many of
us consistantly read the Bible and praywith our own children at
home, where we are still free to do so.

     We are overwhelmed by our nation's staggering deficit.But
I wonder how many us us are financially free. We areoutraged by
the moral perversion, adultery, and sodomy beingflaunted on television,
movies, and books. But I wonder howmany of us men are morally pure
in our thoughts, our words, our habits, and our lifestyles.

     We're alarmed at the spread of AIDS. But I believe thateven
this dread scourge may be a reflection of the conditionof the church.
Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome destroysthe immune system, and
leaves a person susceptable to disease and death. What an apt description
of the church!

       The church in our day has turned a deaf ear to the voiceof God
and to His prophets who cry against sin. We haveadopted a philosophy
of life that allows people to becomfortable at church, while living
in adultery, materialism,and selfishness at home. Though we should
certainly lovesinners, we need a Holy Ghost revival that will cause us
tolive such holy lives and to preach so powerfully thatunrepentant
believers will be miserable every time they leave the church.

     The church is the cause of God's judgement on thisnation, and,
according to God's Word, revival in the church is the only cure.

     Revival is a devine military strategy to conteractspiritual
decline and to create spiritual momentum. Nothingelse will do. Our
combined best efforts have been to noavail. God is simply looking for
men who are available, menwho are wholly His, through whom He can
reveal Himself mighty and strong.

     The days of King Ahab were dark ones in Israel'shistory. Elijah
was the man God chose to use as Hisinstrument in turning the heart
of the nation.  God which can purify mens heart. But it cannot happen
unless first, the Christian comes clean before God.