The Place of America in Bible Prophecy | Mark Hitchcock

well it's wonderful to be here with you it's great to be back here at kindred my wife and I we love we love Philip in June and we love spending time with them so it's always a joy to be here we a number of other members here become dear friends as well and your entire church is always warm and encouraging to us and we're so grateful for that the folks at our church always look forward to Philips visits there he's greatly beloved by our people in fact he calls our church kindred East so when he comes to visit there but Philips ministry and his friendship continue to be a great blessing and encouragement to me and I'm not just saying this this morning to flatter him but Philips my favorite preacher to listen to on the radio when I go to Dallas every week and teach I Drive down there every week and teach at Dallas seminary and at 1 o'clock on Tuesday going down and 1 o'clock on Wednesday coming back I listened to his his broadcast there so you're blessed to have him I know you all know that is your pastor and teacher now after saying all those good things about Philip I have to tell an Irish joke because this is st. Patrick's Day and you have an Irish pastor so I can't let this opportunity slip by it's a young man named O'Malley and he was engaged to a young woman and he gave her a beautiful engagement ring with a large very large diamond and I wish she wouldn't showed it to her parents they were excited but it was so large her her father was kind of suspicious and he asked her if he could have it for a day or two so he took it down to a friend a his a local jeweler and he checked it out and sure enough this diamond was fake so when O'Malley shows up at the house the next time the father says you know I appreciate your love for our daughter and all that but he said yeah I found out this big diamond that you gave my daughter is fake what do you have to say for yourself you know did you know it was a fake when you bought it he said well of course I did he says it's a shamrock sorry that's the best I could do this morning anyways best I could come up with but shamrock alright well Philip has already mentioned to here this morning he asked me to speak on a specific topic this morning related to endtime prophecy and the topic he's requested me to speak on is the place of America in Bible prophecy so I've I've titled this morning's message of the late great United States now since this is a topical message this morning will kind of be looking at several passages we don't really have a main text but let's turn to Psalm 9 just to kind of set the table for this message and I believe it's your custom here to stand when we read the Bible so if you'll stand with me as I read just a few verses here in Psalm 9 to kind of again set the table for our message this morning I'm reading from the new American Standard Version let me read verses 1 and 2 of Psalm 9 I will give thanks to the Lord with all my heart I will tell of all his wonders I will be glad and exult in thee I will sing praise to thy name almost high then drop down to verse 7 but the Lord abides forever he's established his throne for judgment he will judge the world in righteousness he will execute judgment for the people's with equity and then down to verse 17 the wicked will return to Sheol even all the nations who forget God for the needy will not always be forgotten nor the hope of the afflicted perish forever arise O Lord do not let man prevail let the nation's be judged before thee put them in fear o Lord let the nations know that they are but men so reads God's inspired Word you may be seated in his book what on earth what in the world is going on David Jeremiah begins one of his chapters with these words he says every day when the Sun rises over Washington DC its first rays fall on the eastern side of the city's tallest structure the 555 foot Washington Monument the first part of that Monument to reflect the Rising Sun is the eastern side of its aluminum capstone where these words are inscribed Laos deo Latin for praise be to God this compact prayer appraise visible to the eyes of heaven alone is tacit recognition of the nation's unique acknowledgment of the place of God in its founding and its continuance now I love that the very first rays of the Sun that hit our nation's capital fall on the words praise be to God and I love that about this country from the very beginning God has been recognized and feared and sought and honored in this nation probably to an unparalleled degree in any other nation now certainly this great nation is flawed as all nations are but it's been uniquely favored by God and I think of that there is no doubt God's good hand of Providence is rested on this nation from its inception bringing promotion and prosperity and progress to our nation we all love this country deeply and we we cherish the rich and and godly heritage in the past that God has given to us were the beneficiaries of a great legacy but what a contrast when we look from the past to the present I mean just listen to the news or read the paper or surf the internet listen to our politicians today it's ironic to me it's tragically ironic that the nation whose first light that falls on its Capitol fall in the words praise be to God is actively pushing God now out of the national discourse praise be to God is the farthest thing from most people's minds in our nation today we're witnessing a seismic shift in our country really on every front downward spiral morally politically theologically with increasing division and despair in our nation as one man I read recently said it succinctly America is losing her soul and there seems to be a collective sense that the things are headed in the wrong direction that something ominous is on the horizon I read a story by Adrian Rogers years ago about a businessman a tired he was tired he'd been working all day and he gets to his room and he's taking his shoes off and he drops his first shoe on the floor and he says well that was you know rude of me I'll probably you know awaken somebody down below me is late at night and so he picks the shoe up and takes his other shoe off very quietly and sets it on the floor well about 30 minutes later there's a loud knock on the door a man standing there is pajamas with bags under his eyes he looks at him he says would you please go ahead and drop the other shoe that's where a lot of people seem to be today in our country walking around kind of wearily kind of waiting for the other shoe to drop as you if you will so you know when we look back and we see we look back and we see America's distinguished past we look around we see kind of a distressing present and when we look ahead many people see dark future so we can't help but wonder as Christians where is America headed now what is the future hold for this great country and this has caused many people to wonder if America is mentioned in the Bible does the Bible have anything to say about America's future is there any sure word in the Bible about the United States now wherever I go the most asked question I get about Bible prophecy is does the Bible mention America and prophesies America mentioned in the end times a macedon TV interviews question answers at prophecy conferences far and away that's the most asked question now I've never been asked where's Brazil and Bible prophecy or where's France and Bible prophecy where's New Zealand and Bible prophecy in fact a few years ago I was speaking in Canada and during a Q&A they asked where's America and Bible prophecy I mean even in Canada they don't ask where's Canada in prophecy they ask where is America so I want to answer this burning question this morning one I'm sure you've asked does America have a role in Bible prophecy now I've got three simple points to guide us through this topic I want to look at some proposed identifications some people believe that America has mentioned some different places in the Bible so I want to look at a few of those then I want to look at the possible reasons for Scripture silence about America and then I want to close with some practical application for our lives so let's begin with these proposed identifications that everybody agrees that America is not mentioned directly in the Bible the words America or the United States are nowhere found in the Bible so America is not directly specifically mentioned anywhere in Scripture so the question then is is America mentioned symbolically in some places or indirectly or are there some end time prophecies that maybe allude to or kind of include America so what I want to do is just look briefly at a few of them were common what I call USA sightings in Bible prophecy a one of them a lot of people believe America is the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel and that view is known as British Israel ism now I always just tell people right up front the ten tribes aren't lost now they went away into the Assyrian captivity in 722 BC but some members of the the ten supposed Lost Tribes came back with the people of Judah from Babylon I'm in Luke chapter two Anna there's of the tribe of Asher which is one of the the ten tribes also when you go to Revelation seven there's 12,000 of each of the 12 tribes of the nations of Israel including the ten tribes so the ten tribes are not lost so America is not the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel some people I've read years ago a lot of people believe that America is this unnamed nation and I in in Isaiah 18 verses 1 & 2 that's it's a land of tall smooth skinned people their land is divided by the rivers again if you read the passage in its context it's referring to the nation of cush which was down to the south of Egypt it's not America the eagle's wings in Daniel chapter 7 is sometimes seen as a reference to America since the the national symbol of America is the Eagle anytime people see an eagle in the Bible they think it's America when you go to Daniel chapter 7 verse 4 it's a reference there to Nebuchadnezzar and to Babylon has nothing to do with America I'm in Ezekiel 38 and verse 13 it mentions the the Young Lions of Tarshish that are mentioned there that are that are part of a group that kind of objects to an invasion of Israel in the end times again Tarsus was a Phoenician colony in Spain some people think you know since America was discovered from Spain some people think Tarshish is in Great Britain and the young lions thereof of Tarshish would be the colonies in the United States the these arguments get a little bit complicated many times certainly the the Young Lions of Tarshish it's possible it's a reference to America but certainly not conclusive we wouldn't want to build you on that a lot of people think America is Babylon in Revelation 17 and 18 it's a city a place it's full of immorality it's a world superpower it's a place of power and wealth and affluence they sell their goods and their gold of the world they help other nations become rich and the Bible says they're destroyed in one hour and the nations sit back and watch the smoke of her burning many people tried to attach that to 9/11 and the 9/11 attacks but Babylon there is called the city several times in revelation 17 and 18 so it's not a nation again some will say well it's New York City but again Babel and there's probably either Rome or its literal Babel and Babylon the words used three hundred times in the Bible and it's always literal Babylon except for one time another one I'll mention this one this is kind of an interesting one over in Revelation 12 Revelation chapter 12 and verse 14 it's talking about the woman there that represents the nation of Israel and it says the two wings of a great eagle were given to the woman that she might fly into the wilderness is talking about an end time a deliverance and protection of the nation of Israel now when it mentions the two wings of the great Eagle some have said that's the US Air Force those are airplanes that come in and airlift the Jewish people out of there and all that well the the wings of the Eagles and Old Testament reference to God's protection in God's care so you're on and on you can go I get people sending me stuff all the time about these various ideas but my conclusion is none of these views are convincing so I believe America is not mentioned directly or indirectly in the Bible now that's a very difficult thing for many people to accept and they have a hard time letting go of their views I like what Joel Rosenberg says though a Bible prophecy teacher he says the truth is the United States of America simply is nowhere to be found in the Bible this may be painful for many to hear this may be difficult for many to accept nevertheless the fact remains the u.s. is never mentioned directly or specifically referenced in the Bible in history or in Bible prophecy it just isn't and I agree with that so what do we conclude then from this what do we conclude about the scriptural silence concerning America now many people will say well America's just simply not mentioned just like a lot of other nations aren't mentioned right the Bible seems to kind of focus in the Middle East and the nations around that area that's certainly possible that the Bible just doesn't mention America and we're still the great superpower in the end but that seems very unlikely to me if we're the great superpower we are today in the end times it seems to me the Bible would mention us somewhere there's all kinds of countries mentioned in endtime prophecy Ezekiel 38 mentions Russia or rosh turkey is mentioned there Persia or Iran is mentioned the kings of the east which is probably a reference to maybe India and China nations far away from Israel so to me it would be odd for the wealthiest most powerful nation in history to go unnoticed and unmentioned if we're still the great superpower we are today so I draw two conclusions from the scriptural silence about America first something dramatic is going to happen to the United States to severely curtail her power and influence and secondly the US will be replaced as the global leader by some other nation or group of and we may be absorbed into some kind of coalition like that so in short my my understanding would be America will no longer be the great superpower or leader of nations in the end time but will be a follower so you say well what's gonna happen to America then how can we explain this scriptural silence well we can't know for sure but let me give a few possible reasons for the scriptural silence for what I would call plausible scenarios that could explain the demise of America and her absence from prophetic Scripture now these could happen alone or they could happen in some kind of fatal combination but let me to mention a couple of these and the several these are very obvious one is economic implosion I mean we're looking at a twenty-two million twenty to a trillion dollar debt and just continuing to rise I mean you can't even get your mind around how much that is there's a debt bomb out there waiting to explode someday runaway entitlement spending and when you read history crushing debt is one of the factors that causes nations to die some of you may have heard the quote by Alexander a tight ler he's a Scottish history professor a University of Edinburgh in 1787 in a book called the fall of the Athenian Republic he wrote this a democracy is always temporary in nature it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government a democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public Treasuries that sound familiar from that moment on the majority always votes for the candidates who promised the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy which is followed by a dictatorship then he says the average age of the world's greatest civilizations from the beginning of history has been about two hundred years during those two hundred years these nations always progress through the following sequence from bondage to spiritual faith spiritual faith the great courage from courage the Liberty from Liberty to abundance from abundance to complacency from complacency to apathy from apathy to dependence from dependence back into bondage now I think any honest appraisal of our nation strongly indicates we're moving toward the end of Professor tight lers list here so economic implosion is one possibility the second one and I won't spend a lot of time on this because it's self-evident some type of cataclysmic crippling terror attack or possibly a nuclear exchange with Russia or North Korea I mean those certainly are growing possibilities in our country today a nuclear 911 aren't you glad you came here this morning this some really encouraging stuff in a few minutes I'll hang here with me but I mean we all see this too I mean these are real things people are afraid of these today a third plausible scenario and this one is is probably the most troubling and most difficult for us is a moral collapse that brings the judgment of God a moral collapse that brings God's judgment the old up Baptist preacher Vance Hafner I read a quote by him not long ago he said at the rate America is decaying morally we should change our national symbol from an eagle to a vulture it's pretty powerful isn't it we see the moral rot in our country on every front take your Bible and turn to Romans chapter 1 Romans chapter 1 I want to look at a few verses here that are really sadly applicable to our country today after the introduction in the book of Romans in the first 17 verses the Apostle Paul here as he's laying out kind of his a summary of salvation he first begins to talk about the wrath of God against sin before he talks about salvation and justification he lays out the need that we have to be justified and to be saved and verse 18 he says for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness so he starts unfolding here the wrath of God against sin now when we think about God's wrath in the Bible which we don't like to think about and certainly it's not a very popular topic today I mean never has been but it's probably less popular today there are different kinds of divine wrath in the Bible one form of God's wrath we might call direct wrath where God directly pours out his wrath in events like sodom and gomorrah would be a classic example of the direct wrath of God or the fall of the nation of Judah when God brought his wrath against them so that's one form just direct wrath another form is what's called endtime wrath or the day of the Lord wrath the wrath that God will pour out on this world in the coming tribulation period in the future see that in revelation 6 through 18 a third kind of wrath is the most sobering is eternal wrath that those who reject God's gracious offer of salvation through His Son Jesus Christ will spend eternity separated from God under his wrath but a fourth kind of wrath it's not often talked about is what's often referred to as abandonment wrath the wrath of God where God simply lets people go and have the results of their sin God takes the restraint off if you will and simply lets people go and have the tragic consequences of their own falling away from him you'll notice down in verse 24 it says therefore God gave them over to the lusts of their hearts down in verse 26 for this reason God gave them over to degrading passions and down in verse 28 and just as they did not see fit to acknowledge god any longer god gave them over to a depraved mind now a lot of commentators will say that this simply means the goddess withdraws on his hands and takes his hands off and just lets culture and everything go where it will go but I think this word that's used here to hand over means more than just passive withdrawal it's actually it's an active word a 1/1 scholar one commentator kind of using the image of a boy with a boat kind of pushing a boat out into a lake says God doesn't just let the boat go he pushes it downstream now this doesn't mean that God causes people to sin but once they fallen into these depths God simply pushes them further in the direction they already want to go and pushes them downstream I remember when I was a little boy my dad would take me over to Will Rogers Park in Oklahoma City and we'd go down the slide over there and get on the swings and you know I thought that slide was like 60 feet tall or something you know you're a little kid you went back and saw it years later it's just a tiny little slide but it was all rusted up you know and back in those days they didn't have all the real nice playground equipment they have today and this so my dad would take wax paper with us anybody ever do that get that wax paper he'd rub that slide with it and then give us a sheet of wax paper to to sit on you go down the slide again I was a little bitty kid on that slide I mean it was a great thrill it's kind of the picture here of God turning people over to their sin it's like God comes and says that's where you want to go and he greases the skids if you will took four people to go and plunge deeper and deeper into their sin and here in Romans 1 it's a three-step process of God handing a nation over to the consequences of the of its sin you'll notice it begins in verse 24 with what we might call a sexual revolution therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity that their bodies might be dishonored among them they exchanged the truth of God literally for the lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator who is blessed forever ah man it's talking about sexual impurity here that the first signpost that God has turned a nation over to its own sin is rampant sexual immorality or what we might call a sexual revolution the mental and spiritual vacuum that's left when the true God is dismissed and rejected is to fill it with all kinds of sin primarily you'll sin verse 26 the second step is what we might call a homosexual revolution for this reason God gave them over to degrading passions for their women exchanged a natural function and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another men with men committing indecent acts receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error now let me say this about same-sex attraction today same-sex marriage those things for it to me and again others may disagree with me about this but my belief on this would be the issue is not the sexual orientation it's the behavior or acting out on that orientation it's not having that orientation itself I don't believe that's sinful but it's acting out on that orientation well we see in our culture today that the floodgates have been opened in this area of sin and immorality back in June of 2015 the Supreme Court handed down the obergefell decision which legalized same-sex marriage in America and it was like many of us see it this way it's like we crossed a bright red line in our nation at that point many of you remember that that President Obama joined the celebration lighting up the White House facade in rainbow colors so it depicted a giant gay pride flag so what the Bible calls abomination was now the law of the land and we've blown past every biblical barrier and record record time I mean it's all happened in one generation remember race Stedman said years ago when people lose themselves they lose God when people lose God they lose themselves and when we've lost God and we've lost ourselves we've gone from acceptance of same-sex relations to same-sex marriage to now just all of the the gender confusion we see in our country one man I was reading recently calls what we have in our country gender rebellion and it's a rebellion because he says what people are saying as God doesn't determine who I am I determine who I am it's a defiance against God's created order so how I think and feel determines my very gender I was reading on the internet the other day one place I saw there's sixty three genders 58 options on Facebook you can select four genders one place I read there's 82 I mean I don't really know what the total number is but it's it's national a chaos and our culture today in these areas and then notice that the third step here verse 28 and just as they did not see fit to acknowledge god any longer god gave them over to a depraved mind verse 29 here mentions all kinds of evil and murder and then it goes on and says at the end of verse 32 they not only do the same but they give hearty approval to those who practice them now I can't help but mention this quickly here as he mentions murder and all these other things here I mean the the abortion industry and our and our culture has gone mad the law in New York recently that was passed it says here that they not only do these things but they give hearty approval to those who do them that the legislature there in New York is they passed this grisly bill and they're in and they're a legislature everybody into place and the gallery stood up but everyone was clapping I'm just giving this hearty approval as Romans says here to what's happening we all know about the state of Virginia and their governor there and basically what's being promoted is infanticide it's the sanctioning and sanitizing of the killing of children it's chilling it's the bottom rung of the ladder of abandonment here when people begin to give hearty approval to these things the tragedy in our culture is we've gone from acceptance of these things to approval of these things to now applause of these things that's where our culture is and this third step a period of abandonment wrath seems to be upon us not only are we a wash in moral filth but there's an active encouragement of other people to get involved in the grossest forms of sin one several well-known commentator's I've read recently say that they believe that the author of roman seer paul is saying that those who give approval to these things are worse than the people who do them that you can read that into the way this passage is written it's actually worse to sit on the sidelines and give approval and applause than it is actually for the people who are involved in these things now I've seen all this in my lifetime I was born in 1959 I've seen the sexual revolution in the 60s that began I've witnessed the homosexual revolution it began in the 80s and now has just picked up speed I've witnessed it the approval of these things the open encouragement of evil that we see here it's all happened in my lifetime and really much of it has happened within the last decade or so it goes back to Book of Isaiah they call evil good and good evil I mean it's all upside down and inside out we've we've run the table on these Roman 1 sins if you will and we remember this doesn't mean in Romans 1 when you see these things that God will abandon you it's saying when you see these things it's a sign that abandonment wrath has already set in Thomas Macaulay back in 1857 a British parliamentarian said this your republic will be as fearfully plundered and laid waste by barbarians in the 20th century as the Roman Empire was in the 5th century with this difference the Hung's and vandals who ravaged the Roman Empire came from the outside your Huns and vandals will be engendered within your own country it seems clear to me that the Hung's and the Vandals are upon us our country this country we love so much is hemorrhaging from the inside and it's it's a self-inflicted wound so abandonment wrath here is a gradual release that occurs in stages we appear to be deep into stage 3 here at some point abandonment wrath can give way to to direct wrath now any of those first three scenarios are possible to explain the scriptural silence about America in fact any of those three scenarios could bring about a demerit America's demise and may play some role in America's downfall but there's a fourth scenario or event one that's actually mentioned in the Bible that I believe best explains the scriptural silence about America and the end times and that event is the rapture of the church one of these days in a moment in the twinkling of an eye the Lord Jesus is going to return to the heavens all those believers who are on the earth who are alive are gonna be caught up to meet the Lord in the air the dead in Christ will rise that is their bodies and we be rejoined with their perfected spirits that are with the Lord those of us who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air we're gonna receive an immortal imperishable incorruptible body and a perfected spirit in a moment of time when that happens if the numbers that are out there have you know about 8% of the people in America are evangelical Christians believe that salvation is by God's grace alone through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone that's about 30 million people that will disappear in a moment in the twinkling of an eye you say well a lot of other nations will lose people as well but if you go to the Middle East and to Europe I mean in most of those places it's less than 1% of the people would would say that they believe that salvation is through faith alone and Jesus Christ alone it's gonna wreck this nation the the salt and light will be gone in a moment and the twinkling of an eye they'll be gaping voids left in every strata of society Jeff Kenley who's written a book called at the end of America describes it really vividly he says not a single believer will be left on American soil imagine that for a moment with our country's soul now removed she'll become a zombie-like nation wandering aimlessly toward our ultimate and an inevitable demise in this miraculous moment that the complete departure of Christians is not the only thing that will change everything will be altered following that split-second departure government States communities militaries schools churches colleges hospitals universities families marriages natural infrastructures everything there won't be a single pocket society that remains unaffected as for all practical purposes God will have left the building he says with anarchy and chaos reigning America will be paralyzed and officially no longer a major player in world affairs like a heavy blanket darkness falls on the entire nation and then he says for decades Americans feared world dictators the Cold War the nuclear threat deadly pathogens and now Islamic terrorism though all these threats have been real and viable as it turns out it's Jesus rescue of his bride from a rebellious planet that will pull the pen ignite public pandemonium and usher in an unprecedented moment in human history now let me just say then this about it you don't want to be left behind that's the kind of description that's what's gonna happen the rapture may well be the end of America as we know it and those who miss out on the rapture will be left behind to pick up the pieces you say well what will America do after the rapture well we don't know the Bible doesn't tell us but it seems to me most likely will become part of the Antichrist Western Confederacy that's described in passages like Daniel 2 and Daniel 7 now that raises an interesting question a lot of people wonder could the Antichrist come from America that could he be a particular American JFK was the Antichrist remember Ronald Wilson Reagan each of his name's had six letters you know 666 Bill Clinton was the Antichrist Hillary was the false prophet the Obama was the Antichrist sure people think Trump's the Antichrist it's whoever you don't like right but but the one passage in the Bible that really describes the nationality of the Antichrist is Daniel Ayers Daniel 9:26 it says the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city of Jerusalem well the people who destroyed Jerusalem were the Romans and so it says this coming future prince will be of those people so I don't think it necessarily means she'll be an Italian but I think it means two for us that the Antichrist will come from a revived or a reunited Empire so I don't think he'll come from America so let me just underscore a few simple conclusions here America's not mentioned directly or indirectly in the Bible um America think about this is Israel's main defender we are the main defender of Israel today and Israel is going to remain a nation until the end times we know that from prophecy so I believe America must remain strong until the end times to continue our defense of Israel again unless God chooses to defend him in some other way but that seems the way that he's chosen to defend Israel as to our country the scriptural silence concerning America indicates to me that America will fall after the rapture from our place of prominence a world power in the end times is going to be centered in a reunited or revived Roman Empire and this rise of the reunited Roman Empire can only be explained in light of the decline of America and I believe the US will suffer that decline or her fall at the rapture of the church so that's that that's my understanding of America's role or lack thereof I guess you would say in Bible prophecy now how does this apply to our lives and we just spend a few minutes you're talking about what we can do there's several things we can do in this culture we live in today we can run and retreat now we can just say look man we're just go you we can collapse in despair and wring our hands about what's happening and give up we can just condemn the culture and just become critics and people who curse the culture we can be absorbed into the culture that's what a lot of Christians are doing that they compromised and just fail you know getting tired of swimming upstream so just go with the flow or we can actively shine our light into the darkness you know there's no saying you know don't just curse the darkness light a candle and God has left us here to be change agents God has worked for us to do Alec what Erwin Lutzer says he says the day of the casual Christian is over no longer is it possible to drift along hoping that no tough choices will have to be made at this point in American history any moral and spiritual progress will have to be won at great cost the darker the night the more important every candle becomes one quote I read a while back I love a man said this the world at its worst needs the church at its best that's a great quote isn't it the world when it's at its worst needs the church God's people needs us to be at our best I love this country and I counted a great privilege to be an American so what are some keys to national blessing let me just mention four things we can do one is support Israel continue to support Israel the only foreign policy statement in the Bible is in Genesis 12:3 whoever blesses Israel I'll bless the one who curses you I must curse I believe one of the reasons in spite of the flaws and failures in our country that God has continued to bless america as we have been a friend to the jewish people and i believe we need to continue to do that it doesn't mean that we you know rubber stamp every decision they make it doesn't mean we agree with everything israel does but we want to be those who are supporters of the jewish people we need to support Israel secondly we need to pray for our nation first Timothy two to pray for our leaders and those in authority and I hope you do that often now there's one passage of Scripture people often use about America and that second Chronicles 7:14 people the passage says if my people are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked way then I will hear from heaven and I'll heal their land now I don't want to burst your bubble here this morning but that's a passage that I don't believe we should use in America as a promise God has given to us in fact if you read the verse right before it God says to the Jewish people there when they're in disobedience against him I hold dr. reign I'll send the locusts I'll send pestilence and this is a promise given to Solomon when the temples being dedicated in Jerusalem and then he says if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves pray seek my face turn from their wicked way I'll hear from heaven forgive their sin and heal their land and the context here my people is the Jewish people it's Israel and the land is the land of Israel and the healing of the land is the physical healing of the land by bringing rain and getting rid of the locusts and the pestilence and those things so we want to be careful not to misinterpret and miss apply the Bible this is a promise to the nation of Israel in a specific time and a specific context now let me say this it's always good to humble ourselves and to seek God's face and to pray that's the application we make from that but it's not a direct promise to America a third thing we need to do is promote missions we need to promote missions the Bible says in Romans 10 how beautiful are the feet of those who share good news and America has been the greatest sender of missionaries in in in history and I believe one of the reasons God has blessed and continues to bless our nation is because of our missionary enterprise and we need to continue to do that as churches as the body of Christ a fourth thing we need to do is practice godliness the psalm says psalmist says righteousness exalts a nation but sin is a disgrace not to any people you and I can look around at this culture and decry all the sin that's in it but we don't want to be out there contributing to the corruption we want to live godly lives and purer lives that draw other people to Jesus Christ we need to live ready and we need to live looking there's a story about from July of 1959 a Queen Elizabeth was scheduled to visit Chicago and everything was being made ready in the city all the litter baskets were painted red carpet was ready to be rolled out for her many hotels were alerted to be ready when they contacted the manager of the famous Drake Hotel they asked him what plans are you making for the Queen's arrival he says we're making no plans for the Queen our rooms are always ready for royalty I like that is your life ready for royalty the Kings coming someday and our lives need to be ready for royalty let me let me say this as we get ready to close here you're not gonna be ready you're never ready if you don't know Jesus Christ as your Savior that's the ultimate way that we're ready for the Lord's coming we have to know him we have to have a relationship with him we have to be one of his children I talked earlier about God's wrath being poured out one of my favorite doctrines in the Bible it's a big word but it's a beautiful word the doctrine of propitiation so what does that mean propitiation means to be satisfied what propitiation means is when you trust in Jesus Christ God is satisfied his wrath is satisfied against Jesus Christ and will never be poured out against you now that's one of the greatest things in the world to know is that when God looks at me a sinful creature that God is satisfied not because of what I've done but he's satisfied because of what his son has done for me when I was at Dallas seminary years ago Stanley to st. my favorite professor there he had been there when Lewis Sperry chafer was there who founded the seminary he said when dr. Schaefer was in his early 80s he came into class one day and they'd been talking about the doctrine of propitiation the class period before and he walked in and opened his Bible up and he looked out and it was all male students back at that time he looked down he says men God is satisfied men God is satisfied men God is satisfied and then he opened the class in the prayer and dr. to Saint said he'd never forgotten that when dr. to Saint told that story I've never forgotten that either God is satisfied with what his son did for us his wrath has been poured out on Jesus and God is satisfied and he can accept us in his son if we'll come to him and believe in him and trust in him so if you've never done that come to Jesus Christ and receive him as your savior and for those of us who know the Lord let's keep the light shining in our lives back during the 1960 presidential campaign in several speeches John Kennedy Senator John Kennedy would tell this story from the life of colonel Abraham Davenport who served in the Connecticut Connecticut legislature evidently back on may the 19th of 1780 it was a dark day darkness came over all of New England and candles were lit in houses the birds were silent and disappeared it was a unique day and the legislature in Connecticut was in Hartford Connecticut was in session and many concluded the day of judgment was at hand and so the House of Representatives was unable to conduct business because of the darkness so they adjourned and a proposal to adjourn the council or what we would call the Senate was under consideration and Colonel Abraham Davenport was asked his opinion and he said this I am against an adjournment the day of judgment is either approaching or it's not if it is not there's no cause for adjournment if it is I choose to be found doing my duty I wish therefore that candles be brought in and they brought in candles and continued to work and I would say that's God's call for you and me and our culture today as the darkness increases let's bring in the candles and let's keep working so that you and I can be found faithful when Jesus comes some day that our lives can be ready for royalty when he appears let's pray together father we thank you this morning that your wrath against us has been satisfied through your son that you satisfied yourself by substituting yourself in our place and father I pray if there's anyone here this morning who's never trusted in Jesus Christ and fled to him for refuge that they might come to him now and believe in him the one who died and rose again take him to be their savior from sin father we love this country we thank you for your hand of Providence upon it for these centuries and father we don't know what the future holds but you do but we know what we can do in the meantime so father as it gets darker every candle becomes more important may we light our candle may we keep working may we be found faithful when our Lord Jesus comes we thank you for this church father we pray that you'll continue to pour out your hand a blessing upon this church as it lights the light in this community Oh father help us to be faithful we ask these things in Jesus name you

Channel: Kindred Church

Views: 215,533

Rating: 4.5043273 out of 5

Keywords: kindredchurch, kindred church, bible, Christian, Christianity, Philip De Courcy, Know The Truth, kindred community church, Anaheim hills, California, March 2019, Mark Hitchcock, bible prophecy, america

Id: mM8U8YWfABM

Length: 46min 35sec (2795 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 18 2019