Is There Anything That Can Be <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
Done to Save the United States?
 
"If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways (repentance) then will I hear from heaven and forgive their sin and heal their land."  (II Chronicles 7:14)
 
Introduction
 
          Once again, we find ourselves in a political season in the United States with many people claiming that the fate of the nation hangs on the election of one particular person rather than another.  That is a mistake.  The Lord God rules in the kingdom of men and gives it to whomsoever He will.  (Daniel 4: 25)  The Lord God does His will in the armies of Heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay His hand, and none can say unto Him what doest Thou? (Daniel 4: 35)   This nation has lost the principles that rest on Biblical revelation.  This nation was founded in its so-called "birth certificate document," as many refer to it, the Mayflower Compact, for the purpose of the propagation of the Gospel of Christ.  It matters not what others may think or what others may say.  God established this nation to proclaim, teach, and live as becomes the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  The ungodly arguments that have resulted in ungodly decisions from ungodly jurists sitting on the U.S. Supreme Court (who are not committed to godliness,) that has resulted in the total abrogation of the constitutional principles established in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution and ratified by the states in 1787, have done more to damage our nation than outside terrorists have ever thought about doing. 
 
          As a result of the decisions that have come from the United States Supreme Court, we have now outlawed Bible reading and reciting the Lord's Prayer in public school, Abington v. Schempp, 374 U.S. 203 (1962).  According to Benjamin Rush, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence,
 
"The great enemy of the salvation of man, in my opinion, never invented a more effectual means of extirpating [extinguishing] Christianity from the world than by persuading mankind that it was improper to read the Bible at schools."[1][1]  "[T]he Bible, when not read in schools, is seldom read in any subsequent period of life. . . . [It] should be read in our schools in preference to all other books from its containing the great portion of that kind of knowledge which is calculated to produce private and public temporal happiness."[2][2] 
 
          Even Benjamin Franklin, who was considered to be the least religious of the Founding Fathers, told the French that:
 
"[B]ad examples to youth are more rare in America, which must be comfortable consideration to parents.  To this may be truly added, that serious religion, under its various denominations, is not only tolerated, but respected and practiced.  Atheism is unknown there; infidelity [a disbelief in the scriptures and in Christianity][3][3] rare and secret; so that persons may live to a great age in that country, without having their piety shocked by meeting with either an atheist or an infidel."[4][4]    
 
           We have also had a decision by the United States Supreme Court that prevents prayer in public schools led by the teachers and those in authority.  Engel v. Vitale, 370 U.S. 421 (1962).  Since Roe v. Wade, in 1973, as a matter of national policy, we have made lawful the killing of one's own child.  And through abortion, an estimated sixty million (60,000,000) babies have died.  Further, we are in the process of making lawful the abomination of "same-sex marriage" and the singular approval of "homosexuality."  We are sixteen trillion dollars ($16,000,000,000,000) in debt as far as our national debt is concerned.  The present administration has not produced a budget in over a thousand (1,000) days.  There are many who claim not to know where our public tax dollars are going.  We have learned that some went to what has commonly come to be known as "Fast and Furious," which resulted in the death of a patriotic border guard agent, and others of our funds have gone to outlandish debauchery by government agencies in Las Vegas or in Brazil. 
 
          We have accepted disobedience, disrespect, and down-right meanness from our children.  The national debt is causing us to spend almost fifty thousand dollars ($50,000) per second of borrowed money.  Medicare, Social Security, and Medicaid are all going broke.  Our present government is robbing Peter to pay Paul.  Pornography is everywhere and is being used to sell everything.  The display of nude or near nude female bodies is on virtually every kind of advertisement known to man.  Even news programs are using the crude, if not pornographic, display of nudity of the female body to try and sell their news programs.  Violent crime resulting in many deaths at a movie theatre, random shootings of a number of people on college campuses, all of the degree of violence in unthought of, and unheard of, levels is occurring almost daily in America.  Fornication, adultery, and immorality of all kinds is being promoted, and the divorce rate in America is threatening to exceed one out of every two marriages.  The near total decline of morality is so rampant that many have started to call good evil and evil good.  For example, those who would promote and stand for the protection of unborn children in America are lambasted for being on the "extreme right."  Those who would stand for and promote godly marriage and abstinence from fornication, adultery, homosexuality, and immorality of all kinds are also called "right-wing extremists." 
 
          We have a Mormon challenger running for president of the United States and a Muslim incumbent, neither of whom know the God of the Bible.  Does it really matter who is president?  What can save this nation?  The answer is nothing but the blood of Jesus.  Our Founding Fathers advocated Biblical morality.  The first president, George Washington, in his "farewell address," declared: 
 
"Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensible supports.  In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness."[5][5]
 
          President John Adams later proclaimed:
 
 "We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. . . .  Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people.  It is wholly inadequate to the governments of any other."[6][6] 
 
    By the term "religion," our Founding Fathers meant commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ.  They were not secularists, and they were not atheists, and they were not promoting "separation of Church and State."  This phrase, which does not appear in the United States Constitution, is a very bad metaphor and ought to be abandoned.  Can anything or anyone save this nation?  Yes, but it is not a better economic plan.  As important as that is, only the God of the Bible can save this nation.  We are saved, and can only be saved, by the blood of Jesus.  We must repent from our sins, individually and as a nation, and return to the Lord Jesus Christ.
 
Perilous Times
 
          It should be no surprise to Christians that we are in perilous times.  Jesus warned his disciples to be not deceived and to take care that no man deceive them, because, as He says in the twenty-fourth chapter of the gospel according to Matthew, "Many false prophets shall arise and shall deceive many."  Jesus also says that "iniquity shall abound and the love of many shall wax cold."  Jesus told His disciples to "take heed that no man deceive you."  The great Apostle Paul repeatedly warned the churches that perilous times would come.  In Paul's second letter to his young protégé, Timothy, Paul plainly and clearly stated the following:
 
"This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.  For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof:  from such turn away.  For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth." (II Timothy 3: 1-7)
 
    Paul affirms the Lord's ability to protect His people and urges Timothy to be strong in the Lord. 
 
"Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.  And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.  Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.  No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.  And if a man also strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned, except he strive lawfully. The husbandman that laboureth must be first partaker of the fruits.  Consider what I say; and the Lord give thee understanding in all things.  Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according to my gospel:  Wherein I suffer trouble, as an evil doer, even unto bonds; but the word of God is not bound.  Therefore I endure all things for the elect's sakes, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory."  (II Timothy 2: 1-10)
"I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine.  For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables." (II Timothy 4: 1-4)
God's Judgment
 
          It is clear that God has judged nations, people, and the entire world in times past for their continual sinning and ungodliness and unrighteousness.  For those who think that somehow or other God will not judge America and other nations who are giving license to commit ungodliness, they are deceiving themselves and are willingly ignorant.  As Jesus said in Matthew Chapter 24, "All of these things are but the 'beginning of sorrows.'" 
 
          Peter, the apostle who denied Christ 2 times but was redeemed by the precious blood of Jesus, recognized also that perilous times would come and echoed Jesus' admonition in II Peter 2:
 
"But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.  And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.  And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you:  whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.  For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; And turning the cities of Sodom and Go-moà-rah into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an example unto those that after should live ungodly; And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked:  (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;) The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished:" (II Peter 2: 1-9)       
           
            We see here that God knows what is going on in the hearts of men.  We see here that God will judge ungodliness on those who are false prophets and false teachers who bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord Jesus Christ who bought them.  Peter clearly says, "They bring upon themselves swift destruction."  One must be willingly ignorant or blind not to see God's solemn warnings and heed his admonitions.  Jesus says, "Come unto Me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.  Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you shall find rest unto your souls, for My yoke is easy and My burden is light."  What can save this nation?  Nothing but the blood of Jesus! 
Lukewarm Churches
           
            The Great Expository Preacher, D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, said in approximately 1958, that the greatest problem in the church today (then) was its superficiality.  The church was lukewarm.  It's even more lukewarm now if not downright cold in many areas.  Clearly, we are in the process of "majoring in minors" in many churches, especially those who do not want to preach doctrine, who think that the Word of God is not sufficient, who proclaim everything under the sun except the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, who believe that they can build up their congregations and increase their memberships by having coffee bars, contemporary music, and commission small groups to do God's work.  They are not doing God's work.  They are doing the Devil's work.  The Apostle John speaks in Revelation Chapter 3 of the lukewarm church:
"I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.  So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth.  Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:  I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.   As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent." (Revelation 3: 15-19)
            Clearly, those that the Lord God loves, He chastens.  He rebukes those about whom He cares.  Heed the chastisement.  Heed the rebuke, welcome the admonishment, and "be zealous and repent."  Repent from what one may ask?  Repent from all of those known sins in your life.  Surrender your will to the Lord's will.  Do you not know that your very next breath depends upon the Lord God?  Whether you even live to reach home today is solely in the hands of God.  Our lives hang on a thread, as it were, no thicker than a spider web.  Repent from all of those known sins of which you are aware.  Repent also for and on behalf of our nation of the many sins that our nation is permitting, many of which are set out above in the introduction.  Purpose in your heart, even as Daniel purposed in his heart, not to defile yourself, but to live as becomes the Gospel of Christ, and to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.
 
God is No Respecter of Persons, For Sin is Sin
 
          Paul admonishes the Church at Corinth in his first letter to them, to heed the warnings of God.  In a tone that can perhaps best be described as serious admonition, Paul writes the following:
 
"Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.  And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God."  (I Corinthians 6: 9-11)
Repentance, Redemption, and Reconciliation
 
          Our nation is more fragmented and divided than at any time since 1860.  The ancient adversary of the salvation of man, the devil, with his fallen angels, called in scripture "principalities and powers, rulers of the darkness of this age, and spiritual wickedness in high places" uses his wiles to keep men divided.  The evil one and all of the evil underlings are the real adversaries.  We cannot lose sight of who the real enemy is.  It is not "flesh and blood," but the wicked one and all of his underlings.  Those who set their minds on the things of this world, according to God's Word, live according to the flesh and are said to be carnally minded.  God's Word in Paul's letter to the Church at Rome says that "the carnal mind is enmity against God" and is not subject to the law of God.  Indeed, according to God's Word, the natural (carnal) man cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are "foolishness to Him, nor can he know them because they are spiritually discerned" (I Corinthians 2:14).  Therefore, pagans, non-Christians, and Atheists cannot even know what needs to be done, and a new governmental program of any kind cannot and will not help!
 
a.      Repentance
 
          In the epistle to the Hebrews, we read about those who, through neglect, ought to have known better:
 
"For . . . by this time you ought to have been teachers, [but] you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God:  and you have come to need milk and not solid food."
 
          In other words, the Lord is saying to these professing Christians, in essence, "you are babies."  "Shape up.  We are running an army, not a nursery"!
 
          They need to repent.  Recognize that they are off track and surrender their will to God's will.  We are off track as a nation.  We cannot allow ungodliness to rule and think that God will help us.  After Solomon had finished building the first temple, God appeared to Him and told Him:
 
"If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways (repentance) then will I hear from heaven and forgive their sin and heal their land."  (II Chronicles 7:14)
 
The Lord God says the same thing to the church that is lukewarm: 
"I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.  So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.  Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:  I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.  As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent." (Revelation 3: 15-19)
          Note again the Word of God in verse 19, "As many as I love I rebuke and chasten." Therefore, "be zealous and repent."  For thousands of years, the message has been the same – repent and return to me.  It is God alone who can save this nation!  He says that "the foundation of God stands sure, having this seal, the Lord knows them that are His.  [Therefore] let everyone that names the name of Christ depart from iniquity," i.e., let everyone repent and "depart from iniquity."  Wherefore, repent and pray for national repentance and prayer.  We need a great awakening!
 
          b.      Redemption and Reconciliation
 
          God has already provided for our redemption and reconciliation (to Him and to others) in Jesus.  "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners."  "He came to seek and to save that which was lost and to give His life a ransom for many."  Paul tells the church in his epistle to the Church at Ephesus that "In Him (Jesus, the beloved), we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins."  Now, we know that this redemption is more than just the forgiveness of our sins, as great as that is.  Redemption includes our justification, sanctification, adoption into the family of God, being made joint heirs with Christ, and ultimately glorification.  Wherefore, having been redeemed by the blood of Jesus, we who were sometime far off are also made nigh (near to God) by the blood of Christ (Ephesians 2:11), and He (Jesus) is our peace!  We were at war with God – enmity against God, but now we are reconciled unto God by the blood of Jesus.  Jesus is our peace.  Not only are we reconciled unto God, but we are reconciled unto each other!
 
          How can one who is adamantly pro-abortion be reconciled unto one who believes that life, all life is sacred and created by God?  One believes in the "right" to kill one's unborn child, the one who is pro-life believes God has created all things and all people, and there can be no right to do that which is wrong.  How can one who believes that homosexuality is right and one who believes homosexuality is sin be reconciled?  How can one who believes fornication is okay, adultery is okay, idolatry is okay, lying is okay, drunkenness is okay, etc., be reconciled with those who do not?  They cannot – except by the blood of Christ!  Paul says, "Such were some of you, but you are washed, but you are sanctified, but you are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God."  (1 Corinthians 6:11)
 
          Thus, we see that what we have a real need for in this nation is to repent and turn from our sin and seek God's face and pray.  New programs, new economics, new plans, reducing our national debt and other "political solutions" will not work.  As important as they may seem, they will not work.  We need repentance in God's people and diligent prayer by God's people, asking God to apply the precious shed blood of Christ to our nation.  Let us, as Daniel, purpose in our hearts not to defile ourselves, but to repent from our known sin.
 
          c.      Earnestly Contend for the Faith
 
          And let us earnestly contend for the one true faith, delivered once to the saints.  (Jude 1)    Be bold and do not be ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  It is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes.  The Gospel of Jesus Christ crucified, the shed blood of Christ, is our only salvation.  Nothing but the blood of Jesus can make the foulest clean.  Jesus calls us to pray and to use the weapons of our warfare.  These weapons are not carnal, but they are mighty.  They can pull down strongholds.  The can bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.  We are to ask!  We are to seek!  We are to knock!  Jesus will answer.  He says He will.
 
Does Praying Make a Difference?
 
"A medical missionary home on furlough shared the following testimony with his home church.
 
"While serving at a small field hospital in Africa, I traveled by bicycle through the jungle to a nearby city every two weeks for supplies, a journey of two days requiring camping overnight at the halfway point.
 
On one of these journeys I arrived in the city to collect money from a bank, purchase medicine and supplies, and begin my two-day journey back to the field hospital.  Upon arrival in the city, I observed two men fighting.  One man had been seriously injured so I treated him for his injuries, while at the same time witnessing to him of the Lord Jesus.  I then traveled back the two days, camping overnight, and arrived at home without incident.
 
Two weeks later I repeated my journey.  Upon arriving in the city, I was approached by the young man I had treated two weeks earlier.  He told me that he had known that I carried money and drugs (medicine).  He said, 'Some friends of mine and I followed you into the jungle, knowing that you would camp overnight.  We were waiting just outside of your campsite for you to go to sleep.  We were then going to kill you and take your money and drugs.  But just as we were about to move into your campsite, we observed and counted 26 armed guards standing around you.'  At this I laughed and said that I was certainly all alone out in that jungle campsite.  The young man pressed the point and said, "No sir.  I was not the only person to see the guards.  My five friends also saw them, and we all counted them.  It was because of those 26 guards that we were afraid and left you alone.'
 
At this point in the church service, one of the men jumped to his feet and interrupted my story.  He asked me, "Sir, can you tell me the exact day that this incident happened?'  It took me a moment to recall, but I could.  When I gave the date it happened, the man who had interrupted me told this story. . . . 'When it is night in Africa, it is day here.  On the night of your incident in Africa, it was morning here and I was preparing to go play a game of golf.  As I was putting my golf bag in the car, I felt the Lord leading me to pray specifically for you.  In fact, the urging was so strong that I called several of the men in this church together to meet with me here in the sanctuary and pray for you.  Would all of those men who met with me on that morning please stand up?'
 
The men who met together to pray that day stood.  The number was exactly – 26."
 
Conclusion
 
          It is only as we who know the truth make known that truth, that others will come to the knowledge of the truth that breaks down barriers, redeems the lost, and brings reconciliation between those who are bitterly opposed to each other.  As men and women learn the holy truth of Jesus who is mighty and able to save, that they will be delivered from enmity.  Resolve by God's grace to learn and proclaim the truth of Jesus.  Be zealous and repent and pray without ceasing. 
            Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
 
Your Brother in Christ,
 

[1][1]   Benjamin Rush, letters, Vol. I, pg. 521, to Jeremy Belknape on July 13, 1789. 

[2][2]   Benjamin Rush, essays, pgs. 94, 100, "A Defense of the Use of the Bible as a School Book."

[3][3]   Noah Webster, An American Dictionary of the English Language (New York:  S. Converse, 1828), SV. "Infidelity".

[4][4]   Benjamin Franklin, Two Tracts: Information to Those Who Would Remove to America and Remarks Concerning
             the Savages of North America (London:  John Stockdale, 1784), pg. 24.

[5][5]   George Washington, Address of George Washington, President of the United States . . . Preparatory to His
              Declination (Baltimore:  George and Henry S. Keatinge, 1796).  Pgs. 22, 23.

[6][6]   John Adams, The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States, Charles Francis Adams, Editor   
            (Boston:  Little, Brown and Company, 1854), Vol. IX, pg. 229, to the Officers of the 1st Brigade of the 3rd
            Division of the Militia of Massachusetts on October 11, 1798.