It seems that our beloved nation (The United States of America) is accelerating in its decline into sin. I fear that we may very well have crossed the point of sinfulness and “casting God out of our national life” where God has “turned us over to our own chosen way.”
The Bible has many instances in God’s dealing with His Chosen People (Israel) in the Old Testament where He raised up a foreign King and Nation to come against His Own People and used them to punish Israel for their disobedience to God’s Commands. The pattern becomes clear and has definite steps to the process. The nation and the people
1. Drift away from God and gradually, systematically exclude God from their lives both personally and nationally.
2. Begin to depend on themselves in a prideful manner saying they don’t need God any longer.
3. Begin to worship false gods. (Mostly material things - money)
4. Become engaged in sin – seeking pleasure, wealth, and fame.
5. Become prideful, boastful, and rebellious against God.
As this process continues to grow worse and worse, God sends His Prophets
6. To warn the King, the nation, and the people to “TO CONFESS – TO REPENT – TO TURN BACK TO GOD.”
7. The King, the nation, and the people refuse to heed the Message.
8. They persecute and in some cases kill the Prophets of God.
9. False prophets arise to tell the people that everything is fine, in other words, they tell the people “what they want to hear.”
10. This process of God sending His Prophets to warn His people continues for some time, usually for many years.
11. God shows GREAT PATIENCE with His People, giving them many chances to hear His Plea to return to Him.
12. Finally, the time comes for God’s patience to come to an end.
13. God raises up a king and a nation to use to punish His people.
(This punishment is severe, In Jeremiah God states that one-third of the people will be killed, one-third taken into captivity, and one-third scattered.)
14. Finally, a beaten people, completely defeated, one-third
killed, one-third enslaved, and one-third scattered; begin to
return to God in humility, confession, and repentance,
FINALLY REALIZING THEY HAVE NO WHERE ELSE TO GO.
15. God accepts their repentance and confession and begins to
Restore them and Bless them once again.
16. Enjoying God’s Blessing, the people begin to become
complacent, taking God and His Blessings for granted.
17. The people begin to drift away from God returning to their
worldly (sinful) ways. They hold the attitude, “WE CAN DO
IT OURSELVES, WE DON’T NEED GOD ANYMORE."
18. They (we) then Fall into the clutches of the three enemies of our
Soul, “The World, The Flesh, and The Devil.”
Unfortunately, in two or three generations, this process repeats itself again – the “natural” cycle continues to repeat itself.
AND UNFORTUNATELY our beloved America is in this cycle now. We are at point #11 Above. (I pray we haven’t yet arrived at point #12). God is showing His Great Patience to our people (in America) and giving us the chance to HUMBLE OURSELVES, CONFESS OUR SINS, REPENT OF OUR SINS, AND RETURN TO HIM.
It remains to be seen if we will (as a people) do this. However, given human nature being what it is, the cycle described above will most likely be repeated. We are a sinful people, proud and rebellious. We are serving many gods and have largely thrown GOD out of our lives as a people and as a nation.
We are at the point where God’s people MUST HEED the Words of
2 Chronicles 7:14, “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” I say we “MUST HEED these Words and ACT UPON THEM” if our nation has any hope of averting the coming punishment of our JUST GOD!
I earnestly pray that we have not gone so far that God says, “ENOUGH.” The Israelites had gone so far that GOD said to Ezekiel
in Ezekiel 14:12-14, (12) “Then the word of the LORD came to me saying, (13) ‘Son of man, if a country sins against Me by committing unfaithfulness, and I stretch out My hand against it, destroy its supply of bread, send famine against it and cut off from it both man and beast, (14) even though these three men, Noah, Daniel and Job were in its midst, by their own righteousness they could only deliver themselves," declares the Lord GOD.’” (NASU)
I urgently and passionately call upon all my brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ to obey this admonition of God to HUMBLE ourselves before God, to earnestly PRAY, to passionately SEEK His Face, and to TURN from our wicked ways – to REPENT!! Please don’t say, “these are not my sins.” They are “OUR SINS – THEY ARE THE SINS OF OUR NATION, OF OUR PEOPLE.” We cannot escape the fact that we have “ownership” of these sins as Americans. Look at the prayer of Daniel in Daniel, chapter 9 and then look at the prayer of Ezra in Ezra, chapter 9. These great men of God “OWNED” the sin of their people. So must we!!!! Let’s Humble ourselves before OUR MERCIFUL HEAVENLY FATHER AND PRAY WITH SERIOUS PASSION – Before it to late!! AND REMEMBER, CONFESSION WITHOUT REPENTENCE WON’T “CUT IT.”
Amen! Amen! Amen!
Pastor J. Gilbert Hammond
HAS AMERICA’S SLIDE INTO SIN: