Faith Baptist Church
4258 Botetourt Road
Fincastle, Virginia 24090
(540) 473-2325
I would rather speak on the many wonderful stories and teachings of the Bible because they are so uplifting and inspiring and instructional, but as Old Testament and New Testament writers addressed the issues of their day so must your pastor. Getting caught up in the tides of public opinion as a believer is a sure way of getting caught up in the hopelessness of that public and forgetting about the presence and power of God.
The Old Testament prophet Jeremiah found out when he was taken into captivity with the Southern Kingdom of Judah in 586 B.C that the righteous suffer along with the unrighteous when God judges an entire nation. And yet Jeremiah knew the Lord would not forsake his own.
Heb.13:5 “Let your manner of life be without covetousness and be content with such things as you have; for he (God, not the government) hath said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.” God is not forsaking his church (universal) even though the nations, of which many of these folks live in, have forsaken God.
- In America today we act as if we are being oppressed if we can’t own twenty pairs of shoes, have a closet full of clothes; cabinets and refrigerators full of food; two cars, a fine home, the best of medical care and all the entertainment we can soak in.
Many in our nation let on like we are suffering due to an oppressive government, when in reality we are suffering because of our sinful acts and sinful thoughts and the undisciplined habits of many of our children’s parents and guardians and role models. Isa.55:7 “Let the wicked (which many Americans refuse to believe they are) forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God; for he will abundantly pardon.” This sounds a lot like our
I Sam.7:3 passage that we studied from last week doesn’t it?
- God promises those that are thirsty for him that He will come to them and offer them the Water of Life, Isa.55:1; Matt.5:6 “Blessed are they who do hunger and thirst after righteousness; for they shall be filled.” John 7:37 “In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.”; Rev.21:6; 22:17. This offer applies to any one in the world at any time in history.
But when a people do not want a relationship with God on His terms he can leave those people to their own devices.
Jesus Christ said twice in Luke’s gospel “except ye repent ye shall perish” Lk.13:3, 5. He said three times in John’s gospel “whosoever believeth in him shall not perish” Jn.3:15, 16, 10:28. We call Jesus Christ a liar if we believe there are other ways of salvation as so many of our global contemporaries say. People who fear their religion and culture above the word of God will perish.
When people do not look to God for solutions, because they do not believe in him or the Bible which says they are flawed sinners; then they see things only from a world viewpoint.
- The world’s viewpoint as to why some individuals or nations have an inability to succeed and be prosperous is blamed on the wealthier individuals and nations which have much of this world’s goods. The world viewpoint does not credit your prosperity and happiness because you or your nation still upholds the basic divine standards of God:
The world viewpoint does not see that respecting God’s word brings blessings to individuals and nations.
We live in a blessed nation, but we have a lot of American citizen, many of whom are born-again Christians, who hold to a world view, not a biblical view. They want nothing to do with submitting to the plan of God or to God’s Son, Jesus Christ.
Because the world’s goals are absent of biblical revelation and doctrinal understanding they advocate changes in foreign and national policies. They advocate and push toward domestic and global goals of uniting the entire world into one great society. This globalization is multifaceted. It is being done on an economic, political, and religious level. This is an obvious precursor to the reign of the Antichrist during the up coming tribulation period. The problem much of America and its Christian community has is that it doesn’t have the biblical perception that globalization is wrong and as a result we are buying into the world’s answers for solving its problems by agreeing with the policies of globalization.
Basic to globalization, the goal is survival as a human race and this basic goal trumps any ones claims to individuality and personal freedom. Possession of non-essential things is being viewed as evil and intolerance to others morals (whatever they may be) and religious beliefs (whatever they may be) will be seen as an attack on those global goals of international unity.
Now, to some folks this ranting may appear as nonsense, but it is not.
This world approach to dealing with today’s international problems is being taught in our public schools and most of the major universities in America today. These are the schools and universities our young people are attending. Our secular schools from grade school through high school are grooming our youth to fit in with the colleges and universities world viewpoint. This is where they will be attending one day. They need to be grounded now in the word of God.
What Must We Do?
1. We must train our youth to understand where they came from; who God is and what plans God has for them. They need to understand the world from a biblical view
2. They need to understand compassion from Christ’s vantage point on the cross. That is; we love the sinner, but we hate the sin. We all need to know how to love the world as God loves the world.
3. We also need to know what God must do when he sees the sins of men in the world. We all must understand the love of God in the light of divine justice. And then when we do come to this understanding it will be time for us to speak out with a sense of compassion and commitment to God’s solutions for the world’s problems.
God’s solutions will be looked at by the world as foolish because the existence of God has been so degraded in society, I Cor.1:18 “For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us who are saved it is the power of God.”
God has been blamed for the ills of the world for so long. He has not been heard.
This is your opportunity to be his voice.