Pastor Lutzer | 9 Lessons for America from the Prophet Jeremiah

you know what the bible says you are you are believing deceptive words god says you're believing the false prophets uh-uh you're not believing jeremiah and every prediction that jeremiah made came to pass wow now for the great united states of america but before i read about the nine lessons for america you say well why nine lessons why not just three i can't help it i look at the text of scripture and these things just pop out to me one after another so i have to give them to you and since i'm preaching i have that opportunity and i hope you're listening listen to this you maybe heard about this during a u.s army training event an army instructor cited evangelical christianity and catholicism as examples of religious extremism along with al-qaeda and hamas so here's the list number one evangelical christianity under that the muslim brotherhood and then it goes on from there there is an assault being made on christianity here in america that none of us could have ever predicted because when a man does this he's getting his instructions higher up i can assure you now with that nine lessons some of them are going to be encouraging some of them not encouraging but here we go number one lesson number one will you remember that our present situation our present situation is not new it's not new you look for example throughout history and you discover that all kinds of people have suffered i mean our present situation here in america we still have it so good we have freedom i've just said some things that are politically incorrect and that's okay for me to say it as long as it's within the walls of the church if i say it outside the church that could be something else we could be called names etc but we still have a lot of freedom our situation is not unique look at the christians who are suffering in egypt always remember that here in america we still have wonderful privileges and the history of freedom of religion i once gave a lecture on the history of freedom of religion in europe did you know that europe didn't have freedom of religion until the peace of westphalia in 1648 did you know that more re-baptizers because they believe that one should be baptized upon profession of faith baptized as infants but then re-baptized did you know that more of them were massacred after the time of the reformation 15 1600s then christians died in the persecutions of early rome the history of the church is littered with martyrs who believed that there was something more in life than being politically correct so number one will you remember that our presence challenges are not unique number two standing for truth and righteousness can be lonely standing for truth and righteousness can be very lonely there were hundreds of prophets but there was only one jeremiah and my how they railed against him folks standing for truth and righteousness in america is going to get more difficult as time goes by rebecca and i are in touch with a woman and her husband who have an organization proclaiming justice and she was telling me the other day when i was talking to her on the phone that there's a state in these united states southern state where she is involved in a textbook controversy and this publishing house and she gave me the name of the textbook and the publishing house and the whole bit published a textbook that gives 35 pages to islam islam gave us liberty islam helped the dignity of women islam gave us culture 13 pages devoted to christianity and the chapter is entitled the crusaders now she has been objecting to this and even some changes have been made but this is what i found interesting the pastors in her community said oh yeah we have to do something we have to be involved we want you to lead this crusade so to speak lead this charge and she did bravely no pastor showed up to support her but there she was and then a muslim on the committee said i'm going to make make sure that all of these textbooks are pro-islamic and if anyone opposes me i'm going to call them three things racist homophobic and intolerant is there anything in america that is worse than being called racist homophobic and intolerant i simply tell you today that we are paralyzed as a nation because of political correctness and standing for truth is going to become more difficult as the days go on but blessed are those who like jeremiah god says jeremiah i've made you a bronze wall i have made you a strong pillar and i'm going to be with you and even if everyone is against you you speak my word may god grant us many many jeremiahs lesson number three faithfulness is not a guarantee faithfulness is not a guarantee that a nation will turn back to god excuse me the faithfulness of a few let me get that right the faithfulness of the few is no guarantee that a nation is going to turn to god under jeremiah previously under josiah a few generations back there were reforms they found the book of the law they began to read the book of the law and people began to go to church so to speak they began to go to temple and they repented of their sins and all but the reforms were too late too little by the next generation everybody had forgotten them and everybody was into their idolatry into their immorality and into their own way of life so there is no guarantee the reason i mention that is i was speaking at a conference this summer of homeschoolers several thousand home schoolers in denver and they assigned me the topic of how can we turn this country around my my opening line was i have no guarantee that we can when it comes to the culture wars clearly we seem to be losing those one at a time they're dominoes coming all the way from the white house across the nation regarding certain things and therefore we have no guarantee what we have to do is to ask a different question what does faithfulness look like in a nation that is under judgment that's the question that i wrestle with all the time and how can i prepare myself my family my grandchildren and the wider christian community here at the moody church how can we be strong and courageous at a time when even our freedoms are being closed in upon so i hate to be the bearer of such bad news i wish i could say that i see revival breaking out everywhere we're praying for that i pray for that i was on my face before god this week praying for this nation because i love it and i'm grieved at the direction that we are going but we have no guarantees number four a nation can reach a point of no return a nation can reach a point of no return that's what god said about judah he said even though moses and samuel pray don't bother he's a jeremiah don't bother praying because i'm going to judge this nation it's gone too far there's no way now that your prayers are going to hold back the reigns of judgment wow when rebecca and i were in niagara falls about 40 years ago my word i don't even feel 40. how could i say that we were in niagara falls 40 years ago i remember we were standing there with a guide and he said you know do you see those rocks over there some he pointed something out on the other side of the falls he said that's known as the point of no return he said if you ever get this far the speed of the water the power of the water will take you over the fall so boats should never get close to the point of no return are we there as a nation i hope not i'm not a prophet it would take a profit for us to understand exactly how and when god is going to judge america in the future but it does not take a profit to know that judgment not only is coming but judgment has arrived judgment has arrived and you know the way in which we must understand that sometimes people say pastor lutzer do you think that god will ever judge america i usually try to smile you always want to try to smile when you give an answer like this you say my dear friend god is judging america you see every sin has some immediate judgment and then in the future as god wills there's accumulated judgment for a whole nation but we're already reaping the seeds through the destruction of the family god says in deuteronomy 28 if you don't follow me i'm going to destroy you and then he goes on to say that the families will be destroyed and 20 million children going to bed tonight with only a single parent in the home that's part of the destruction and then the increase in the breakup of the family where the governor of colorado can sign a document now that children can have more than two parents of course why not i mean and and all that because the family's been destroyed now it's just a collection of individuals that come together for sexual reasons and other reasons and so it's all gone the point is this that is part of god's judgment but only a part there may be a time when there's even future judgments more severe that are national in their scope but i don't know that and i don't know whether we've reached the point of no return many of my friends think we haven't they believe that there is a great massive revival now i have to tell you very honestly i cannot foresee a day when the same-sex marriage as it sweeps this country would be reversed unless there would be a massive great revival in the united states of america for which i pray but i don't believe we have guarantees so a nation can reach the point of no return i trust that that's not true of the nation i love so much the great united states of america number five and this blows me away number five god values the human heart not buildings and institutions you know when i was thinking about this it real i realized wouldn't have been great if solomon's temple had not been destroyed wouldn't that be wonderful i see mary welchel here who leads tours to israel wouldn't it be great if we could lead a tour to israel and say come with us and see solomon's temple you can imagine what that would do to the tourist industry in israel beautiful temple it's up for a couple of hundred years i think god destroys it and then something else even worse to take in that temple is destroyed centuries later of course you know you have the small temple under zerubbabel herod comes along and builds this massive temple massive you've seen pictures of it and jesus is sitting there on the mount of olives looking at and says to the disciples do you realize that every stone here is going to be thrown down why because you didn't know the day of your visitation oh my the temple isn't even finished during the time of christ it's finished in about 64 a.d begun 19 bc it's finished in about 64 a.d talking about what 70 or more years 80 and then six years later 70 a.d the romans believe that there's gold in the stones they dismantle it stoned by stone and there it's destroyed and i say god think of all of the work that went into building this beautiful temple and it would still be standing today built with great herodian stones of tons some of which still exist god says means nothing to me you didn't know the day of your visitation this beautiful structure is destroyed do you see my heart today rebecca and i were in washington dc this fall with the national religious broadcasters you drive down pennsylvania avenue you see these beautiful buildings in washington many of them have snatches and verses of scripture engraved on them and to know that we are consciously as a nation turning away from that heritage turning away from the judeo-christian ethic which gave us unity and in its place replacing it with a kind of relativism and the acceptance of immorality and god may keep those buildings and they may be inhabited eventually by other people by other nations by other religions but to see that you say god this nation whatever i know that there's argument about how christian the founding fathers were and i can't get into that but there was a historical christian judeo-ethic base certainly can't be denied to know that all that is that and god says i don't care about your buildings i could destroy them in a moment of time if i don't have your heart the buildings don't matter number six when a nation is judged when a nation is judged the righteous suffer with the wicked the righteous suffer with the wicked you see uh when this nation was judged and yet all these people going to babylon there were righteous people among them that's why we're going to be looking at the book of daniel eventually and so forth because daniel is one of the ones who was carried off into babylon and there he is living for god in a pagan culture shadrach meshach and abednego those guys living for god in a pagan culture they don't bow before the idols of their culture and that's why what we need to do is to learn that so they themselves experience temporal judgment not eternal judgment i mean that's the thing the city of god and the city of man are concurrent only in this life eventually they will be separated after the final judgment the righteous in one place the unbelievers in the other but the point to be made is that we also suffer if a nation goes downhill economically because of an overspending government we all suffer as a result of that so that's just an observation to be made true historically true today number seven god uses evil nations to judge his own people god uses evil nations to judge his own people now you have to think about the book of habakkuk you remember habakkuk he's writing during this period of time habakkuk is saying oh there's so much wickedness in the earth god says habakkuk you haven't seen anything yet i'm raising up the babylonians to come against your nation habakkuk says you've got to be kidding now this of course is the paraphrased version he's saying you can't be real god they're worse than we are god says i know they're worse than we than you are and i'll judge them for their evil but i'm using them against you to destroy your city because you don't turn to me wow europe is understanding this i know that most muslims and i hope that many are listening right now we don't paint islam with a big brush because we know that there are many muslims who don't want sharia law the ones that live near you i'm sure want to live peaceful lives and they make good neighbors but europe some of the countries there the game is over i've talked to historians because of the birth rate and all the time will come you know what god said in the 28th chapter of of deuteronomy he says as a judgment just catch this for a moment he said as a judgment your children will worship other gods wow what does that say about generations and what you're going to find is sharia law begins to gain steam in some of the european countries that are totally paralyzed completely paralyzed by political correctness we'll see there what happens oh we're not as bad as the people who fly planes into buildings and kill innocent ones god says yeah but those are the kinds of people i use when a nation turns from god number eight uh the lord and isn't it time for hope after all this i think so how many of you say pastor it's time for some hope here all right we have a i i don't know if that's a quorum but i'm going with hope right now god gives us promises to live in a pagan culture god gives us promises we haven't looked in detail in the book of jeremiah benny means but you remember it is jeremiah 33 3 that says call unto me and i will answer thee and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not you know there's a man in the book of jeremiah and i wish i could tell you his story he pulled jeremiah out of the pit and even had pads under the ropes so that the prophet wouldn't be hurt and you know this man who was a an african he's from ethiopia he was scared with the coming judgment he said boy am i ever scared you know what god said to him god says i am going to deliver you this is in chapter 39 because you trust me there's not anything that's going to happen to you you're going to survive this not because he was good not because he was courageous god says because you trust me and god gives promises to his people you know when you pass through the fire i'll be with you when you go to the floods you'll not be overcome god always stands with his people in a time of trial tony evans great african-american preacher friend of mine i was actually with him last week if you can believe it and he tells this story that i love he and lois his wife were on a cruise and over the intercom came the thing that uh you know we're headed into a storm so buckle up it's going to be rough lois didn't like it so she calls the captain and talks to his assistant and said if we're going into a storm why don't we just stay here let the storm blow over and put down anchor here and then we can go into the storm the assistant said i'll get back to you in a moment i'll talk to the captain he calls back and says two things number one and i'm sure number one was said very diplomatically he wanted me to remind you that um he's in charge and you're not that would be a good thing to be reminded of and then number two you said this and i want to give you a sentence that i never want you to forget on your deathbed you should be able to quote this are you ready for it all in the balcony wherever you're listening are you ready for the sentence he said tell her that this ship was built with this storm in mind [Applause] and when you trust jesus who died on the cross for your sins and took god's judgment and was raised from the dead and ascended into heaven i'll tell you that ship was built with our storm in mind do you agree with that hey yeah [Applause] god's going gonna walk with us through this lesson number nine uh we must not be passive because we have work to do you see you were born into this generation because god says i want you right now and i want you to be able to spend your life telling about the excellencies of god and the redemption of god the nation might not believe but your neighbors might and what you need to do is to be able to witness to the glory and the forgiveness of god because during times like this god is calling out a people for his name's sake and he's calling out those people and he's using me and you to do it this past summer the teenager committed suicide left a note and said i've messed up too many times i was actually at a bible camp talking with one of the professors there and i said tomorrow i'm preaching a message on why he didn't have to commit suicide never preach that message at moody church see i don't get to preach here as often as i could that's actually somewhat of a joke since i preach here all the time but i pointed out that if he understood the gospel nobody ever has to commit suicide mess up we've all messed up jesus died for people who've messed up aren't you glad for that that he died for people who have messed up [Applause] do you realize something of the judgment of god in this message i mean just judgment god says i'm going to become the enemy of israel i'm going to destroy you god says i'm going to do it i'm going to use nations to do it but i'm doing it that ought to scare you typhoons ought to scare you tsunamis ought to scare you about the terrifying nature of god and that's why this world needs the message of god's grace and the message of jesus

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Keywords: coronavirus, god is in control, sovereignity, billy graham, billy sunday, evangelical, preaching, baptist, moody church, christianity, where is god, what is god doing, religion, bible, new testament, jesus christ, holy spirit, evangelism, running to win, songs in the night, ecclesiastes, evil, good, erwin lutzer, christian devotion, morning bible reading, god the father, holy, despair, suicide, loneliness, grief, biblical study, old testament, moody bible institute, dl moody, ra torrey

Id: CkgzIIH1zi0

Length: 23min 40sec (1420 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 04 2020