Revival Or Ruin

REVIVAL OR RUIN

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Our economy is on the brink of collapse. Our efforts tostop this runaway deficit are nothing more than band-aids ona hemorrhaging economy. Our families, which form the basicunit of society, are crumbling. Television programming ispolluting the souls and brainwashing the minds of our youngpeople, and destroying the spirit of our homes. We haveparaded the reputation of sodomy down mainstreet as anacceptable lifestyle. Ô