“A Nation Divided Cannot Stand”
The Exchange Club of Appling County hosted the One Nation Under God Program recently. The Reverend Jeremy Overstreet, pastor of Baxley Freewill Baptist Church, was the keynote speaker. The following is what he shared at the One Nation Under God Program.
“A Nation Divided Cannot Stand”
Mark 3:23-38
On June 17, 1858 President Abraham Lincoln gave his famous speech, “A House Divided,” upon accepting the Illinois Republican party’s nomination as the states United States senator. In this speech, Lincoln created an image of the danger of slavery-based disunion that would rally the Republicans across the north. Along with the Gettysburg address and his second inaugural address, this became known as one of the best-known speeches of his career. In this famous speech President Lincoln would state: that a house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure permanently, half slave, and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved and I do not expect the house to fall, but I do expect that it cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or the other. Either the opponent of slavery will arrest the further spread of it and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of the ultimate extinction or its advocates will push it forward till it becomes lawful in all the States, old as well as new—North as well as South. It was the desire of President Lincoln to see slavery end and the nation peacefully united and I would report to you this evening that we are suffering from the same division that was indeed witnessed by President Lincoln.
During the past election when it was over I was left realizing that we have become a divided nation and we no longer remain the United States of America and I am afraid that unless, or until we come together once again as a nation we will continue to remain a house and nation divided. We are living within a day where our nation has forgotten God and we are told in the scripture in the Psalms that the nation that forgets God shall be turned into hell and when I think about this nation I am reminded of what the great president, Ronald Reagan said when he stated: “If we forget that we are one nation under God then we will become a nation that has gone under,” and I am afraid that we are seeing that exercised right before our eyes and if it continues we will not stand as a nation, but great will be the fall of America; and I hate to report to you this evening, but I am afraid that we are no longer a nation under God and great will be the judgment thereof. Because we are living within a world that wants nothing to do with God and removes Him from everything this nation was founded upon, but I am even more concerned at the fact that our Commander-in-Chief stated while he was running for office that we are no longer a Christian nation. Hear me well this evening, if that be true then God is not for us, but instead He is against us! Because the Bible makes it clear that when we become a friend to the world then we become an enemy of the Lord and throughout the presidential campaign we have asked the question, “Is God through with America? I believe we should ask another question, “Is America through with God?”
It is evident through the scripture that I read tonight that a divided kingdom, a divided nation cannot stand, and I will take it a step further, a divided nation will become a defeated nation, and as we read our text we discover that the religious leaders believed that our Lord was a demon casting out other demons. There were even some that believed He was casting out demons in the spirit of Beelzebub who being interpreted is the Lord of the dung heap. They did not doubt that he had power nor did they doubt his ability to cast the demons out. They just believed that his power was from Satan and in the next several parables Jesus would use the imagery of a strong man and declare that even though Satan was strong, He was stronger, and you hear me well this evening I believe there is a roaring lion walking about seeking whom he may devour. I believe there is a roaring lion who cometh, but to steal, kill and destroy, and I believe this great nation that once stood for morals and principles founded on the Word of God has become a nation that we read in this text that has been possessed by the principalities and powers of this world. I believe this great nation is under the influence of the enemy and there are many reasons that I believe this and I want to share them with you.
First, the reason I believe this is because of the sins of moral degeneracy, and here I am speaking of the blood that has been shed of innocent lives, and it’s the sin that cries out to God from the grave that this nation will stand in judgment of. You hear me well tonight; we will not avoid the judgment of innocent blood that we have shed as a nation. The blood of over 40-million babies that have been slain in the womb; their voices summon God to curse the nation. We live in a world that calls it the woman’s choice, but God calls it murder. Can you imagine a murderer making his way into a PICU and killing the premature babies in the incubators; yet the surgeon with is sterile instruments of death and consent of the mother can go into the life support system of the mother’s womb and take that same precious life. We must renounce this awful sin, but you say, “it is not my sin.” No, but it is the sin of this nation and this nation will suffer judgment because of it.
When Nehemiah heard that the wall of Jerusalem had been destroyed and the gates were on fire he prayed that God would forgive his sin and the sin of the nation and we must pray this same prayer for we are told in II Chronicles 7:14, that if my people who are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from Heaven and forgive their sins and heal their land. The only hope for this great nation is our repentance as a nation and until we repent we will suffer great reproach. The blood of the innocent will be required at the hand of this nation.
Second, the reason I believe this is because of the sin of sexual perversion and I am not just talking about some sexual sin I am talking about all sexual sin and these sins are running wild in this nation, and Leviticus 18:22-30 declares that these sins have defiled the land. We are living in a day where the institution of marriage is under attack and I am afraid that there is going to come a day where marriage will mean nothing to anyone anymore and when we read our text we discover that the Lord declared that even a home that’s divided cannot stand and I believe in this passage we are given exactly what is taking place in this country, our nation and our homes have been divided by the demons and the devils and we cannot stand for long because of it. The same message that the angels spoke of when they confronted Lot and said to him you must escape for your life for God is about to bring judgment is the same message that we must take heed of. We must escape for our lives and shun our sexual perversion of our day. The sin of sexual perversion cries out to God and we will face judgment because of it. I am afraid that this sin is in many of our schools. I have never seen in my lifetime young people who have given themselves to sexual pleasure and perversion, and hear me well, I read a statistic that now the average age of someone who experiences sexual perversion for the first time is ten years old, God help this nation and God help our families.
We are living within a country that is attempting to redefine the definition of marriage. Let me help them it is one man and one woman united in holy matrimony in the presence of God. It was not Adam and Steve. It was Adam and Eve. I do not care what you believe and I do not care what Capitol Hill believes. The Bible declares that the sin of homosexuality is an abomination to God, and yet our nation has accepted it as an alternative lifestyle. Hear me well this evening, righteousness exalts a nation but sin is a reproach to any people and just as the wrath of God was poured out on Sodom and Gomorrah the same will happen here if we do not repent as a nation; judgment is coming. Ruth Graham once said that if God does not punish the United States then he owes Sodom Gomorrah an apology. God is going to judge this nation, his wrath is going to wipe this nation off the map. We must repent before it is too late, but what bothers me the most about our nation and our homes is the fact that there appears to be no shame nor blushing. We just live it up in sin. We have tolerated it as a nation, and now we have accepted it as a nation.
The last reason I believe this is a nation divided is because of the religious apostasy that’s on display in this country. I should not have to remind you that our nation was founded on the Word of God, and it shaped our national life and institutions. We were at one time, one nation under God, and yet today we have departed from the Word of God and the God of the Word. And now America has become an apostate nation and the word apostate means to fall away or to depart from the truth. We have become a nation of Humanism, a belief where man is its own leader and is capable of meeting its own needs of satisfaction. Humanism takes God out of the equation and places on the pedestal and we see this every day, because we live in a world that?s post modern, which believes there can be no absolute truth, but that?s where we are so very wrong because the Bible makes it clear that He’s the truth and the truth will set you free and that truth can be found in the Word of God, but America has abandoned this reality.
Second, we have become a nation of Liberalism, which rejects fundamentally sound doctrine and replaces it with modernism. It is a belief where all religious beliefs are accepted except for the sound biblical ones, and we see it in the lives of so many who lack fundamentals and sound doctrine and their lives reveal it. If this nation is ever to be great again it is going to be when we return back to the basics and we discover the truth of the Word of God and live it with our entire being. This nation must not continue to water down the Gospel and lead people astray. We must get back to the basics of scripture and apply it to our lives or we will remain a divided nation and a divided nation cannot stand. Its righteousness that exalts a nation and righteousness can only be discovered through the pages of the Word of God and the reason this nation is no longer righteous or godly is due to the fact that we have no longer meditated on the scripture and delighted in the law of God. This country does not love this book and we see it in the lives of the millions that live here. We are no longer standing on the promise of this great book and our foundation has been destroyed. This book was suppose to be the lamp unto our feet and the light unto our path, but hear me well, the light and the lamp has went out in this country and we are walking in the darkness, and we have become the blind leading the blind. We must get back to the Word of God and the God of the Word.
Last, we have become a nation of Neo-Evangelicasm, which refers to weak evangelism. There seems to be no repentance and no weeping and no humility nor revival within the church. We live in a world where we rather entertain than disciple, and we are living in a world where we want the sinner to feel comfortable of their sin and not convicted of their sin and as a result we are not seeing people accepting Jesus as the Lord and Savior of their lives. We’re living in a world that rejects the reality of Hell and teaches people that God loves them way too much to ever send them to this place called Hell, and there are many of the world preaching the Gospel teaching people to live happy, instead of living holy, and we see the impact that it is making in this lost nation. We must get back to winning people to Jesus, and teaching them that they must live a holy life and present their bodies a living sacrifice, which is holy and acceptable unto the Lord. We must get back to teaching people that because the Lord was holy then we must be holy and because he was perfect we must strive for spiritual perfection. We must preach the judgment of the Lord with the Joy of the Lord because both are reality and sound. These are the sins that divide us. These are the sins that we must forsake and repent of before it’s too late, because we are reminded in scripture that the wicked shall be turned into hell and every nation that forgets God. This nation has forgotten the Lord and forsaken the Lord now it is time we return to the Lord and live in His righteousness because its righteousness that exalts a nation, but what does this word righteousness mean?
If there is indeed such a thing as righteousness then there must be someone who defines what righteousness is, and when we read the Word we discover that God is the authority when it comes to righteousness, and the very meaning thereof. Psalm 71:19 “Thy righteousness also, O’ God is very high, who hast done great things: O’ God, who is like unto thee!” Psalm 98:2. “The Lord hath made known His salvation: His righteousness hath he openly shown in the sight of the heathen,” and yet when this word is never spoken of from our media leaders nor political leaders, because we are living within a world where people have no desire to live the righteous life, and yet what our leaders do not understand is that we can never go in the right direction until we are on the path that leads to righteousness. The word righteousness implies a standard, but we are living within a world that could care less about standards, and this is one of the main reasons that society mocks and ridicules the Word of God it is because Christians are not living up to the standard. As a nation we no longer long and yearn for the Word of God, and yet when this nation was founded, the Word of God we held in high esteem. This nation loved this book and lived this book; my how far we have come as a nation. There is great reward for a nation that lives and loves the righteous path and we find it in Proverbs 14:34. When we are told that righteousness exalts a nation.
In fact the reason this nation has been exalted is because of righteousness. America has been exalted in the past because the church carried out the great commission, both at home and abroad. It is because of our past obedience and humility that we have enjoyed our preeminent place on the world’s scene.
But before we close I would like for us to examine the word exalted, because that should be the desire of everyone in this room that we become an exalted nation once again. What does it mean to be an exalted nation?
First, an exalted nation is a set apart nation. One of the meanings of this world exalted means to be lifted up or to be made high. The Bible teaches us that the scriptures ought to be exalted, God and the nation of Israel has been exalted but in this verse we have the promise that a righteous nation can be exalted and it no coincidence that the United States is called and considered the most powerful nation in the world. God has blessed this nation because we have separated our self from the sinfulness of this world.
Second, an exalted nation is a safe nation. Another meaning of this word means to raise high as an inaccessible fortress, out of the reach of danger. Psalm 32:7 states: Thou are my hiding place; thou shalt preserve me from trouble; thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance. God has protected us because we have been a righteous nation, but I am afraid that if times do not change this will change also. The Bible teaches us that everything even our enemies are under the feet of our Savior. God has kept our enemies away from us in the past until lately because we were a righteous nation, but if we continue to drift and commit spiritual and national apostasy – we can be for certain that September 11 will happen again, and over and over again. It is time this country wakes up if we want to continue to experience the divine protection from our enemies. Because I am here to tell you as we look on the world today nation after nation and kingdom after kingdoms wants to wipe America off the map and I believe it has been because of the divine protection of our Lord that we have enjoyed safety and security from our enemies.
Third, an exalted nation is a strong nation. Another meaning of this word means to triumph over our enemies. God in the past has protected us and will continue to protect us as long as we remain a nation that’s righteous and when we read this text we notice that the Lord informs the multitude that the enemy, our enemy is a strong man, but he’s stronger and listen to me, the reason we are suffering as a nation is because we are under the stronghold of Satan, but let me report to you tonight that there is a strong power, a high power, who at the sound of His name every knee shall bow in Heaven, on the Earth and under the earth, and declare that He is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, a higher power that with one spoken word the storm and winds will cease, a higher power where the demons plea and beg to be cast into the swine rather than Hell, a higher power who was able to hold the sin of the world on his shoulders as he hung on a cruel cross that we might have life and have it more abundant. This nation has been strong because this nation served and followed a strong savior, and yet we are living in a day where we have seen our nation weakened morally and spiritually, and its because we are no longer under the mighty hand of God but instead we are under the stronghold of Satan, and as a result we have become a divided nation that can no longer stand on its own two feet. If we are going to go to war with the enemies of this world we are reminded in Ephesians 6:10, that we must be strong in the Lord and the power of His might.
Our strength must be in the Lord, we are a weak nation and if we are going to become that nation we once were then we must repent and turn back to the Lord. That’s our only hope! This nation is no longer above reproach instead we are abounding in reproach. We have become a nation that has dishonored and disowned and disgraced the God that this nation was founded on. God help this country. For we remain divided more in my lifetime than we have ever been. How divided? Why? This past week news broke out about 20 states that have sent petitions to the White House, because they want to separate themselves from the union and even though this petition will probably never be granted it re-enforces the sad reality that we have become a nation divided, and Jesus said a nation divided will never stand. We must pray for our country, we must pray for this nation. I believe the only hope for America is the repentance and remorse of the people of God. We cannot waste any more time. We must redeem the time because the days are evil. Let’s pray.
Mark 3:23-38
On June 17, 1858 President Abraham Lincoln gave his famous speech, “A House Divided,” upon accepting the Illinois Republican party’s nomination as the states United States senator. In this speech, Lincoln created an image of the danger of slavery-based disunion that would rally the Republicans across the north. Along with the Gettysburg address and his second inaugural address, this became known as one of the best-known speeches of his career. In this famous speech President Lincoln would state: that a house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure permanently, half slave, and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved and I do not expect the house to fall, but I do expect that it cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or the other. Either the opponent of slavery will arrest the further spread of it and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of the ultimate extinction or its advocates will push it forward till it becomes lawful in all the States, old as well as new—North as well as South. It was the desire of President Lincoln to see slavery end and the nation peacefully united and I would report to you this evening that we are suffering from the same division that was indeed witnessed by President Lincoln.
During the past election when it was over I was left realizing that we have become a divided nation and we no longer remain the United States of America and I am afraid that unless, or until we come together once again as a nation we will continue to remain a house and nation divided. We are living within a day where our nation has forgotten God and we are told in the scripture in the Psalms that the nation that forgets God shall be turned into hell and when I think about this nation I am reminded of what the great president, Ronald Reagan said when he stated: “If we forget that we are one nation under God then we will become a nation that has gone under,” and I am afraid that we are seeing that exercised right before our eyes and if it continues we will not stand as a nation, but great will be the fall of America; and I hate to report to you this evening, but I am afraid that we are no longer a nation under God and great will be the judgment thereof. Because we are living within a world that wants nothing to do with God and removes Him from everything this nation was founded upon, but I am even more concerned at the fact that our Commander-in-Chief stated while he was running for office that we are no longer a Christian nation. Hear me well this evening, if that be true then God is not for us, but instead He is against us! Because the Bible makes it clear that when we become a friend to the world then we become an enemy of the Lord and throughout the presidential campaign we have asked the question, “Is God through with America? I believe we should ask another question, “Is America through with God?”
It is evident through the scripture that I read tonight that a divided kingdom, a divided nation cannot stand, and I will take it a step further, a divided nation will become a defeated nation, and as we read our text we discover that the religious leaders believed that our Lord was a demon casting out other demons. There were even some that believed He was casting out demons in the spirit of Beelzebub who being interpreted is the Lord of the dung heap. They did not doubt that he had power nor did they doubt his ability to cast the demons out. They just believed that his power was from Satan and in the next several parables Jesus would use the imagery of a strong man and declare that even though Satan was strong, He was stronger, and you hear me well this evening I believe there is a roaring lion walking about seeking whom he may devour. I believe there is a roaring lion who cometh, but to steal, kill and destroy, and I believe this great nation that once stood for morals and principles founded on the Word of God has become a nation that we read in this text that has been possessed by the principalities and powers of this world. I believe this great nation is under the influence of the enemy and there are many reasons that I believe this and I want to share them with you.
First, the reason I believe this is because of the sins of moral degeneracy, and here I am speaking of the blood that has been shed of innocent lives, and it’s the sin that cries out to God from the grave that this nation will stand in judgment of. You hear me well tonight; we will not avoid the judgment of innocent blood that we have shed as a nation. The blood of over 40-million babies that have been slain in the womb; their voices summon God to curse the nation. We live in a world that calls it the woman’s choice, but God calls it murder. Can you imagine a murderer making his way into a PICU and killing the premature babies in the incubators; yet the surgeon with is sterile instruments of death and consent of the mother can go into the life support system of the mother’s womb and take that same precious life. We must renounce this awful sin, but you say, “it is not my sin.” No, but it is the sin of this nation and this nation will suffer judgment because of it.
When Nehemiah heard that the wall of Jerusalem had been destroyed and the gates were on fire he prayed that God would forgive his sin and the sin of the nation and we must pray this same prayer for we are told in II Chronicles 7:14, that if my people who are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from Heaven and forgive their sins and heal their land. The only hope for this great nation is our repentance as a nation and until we repent we will suffer great reproach. The blood of the innocent will be required at the hand of this nation.
Second, the reason I believe this is because of the sin of sexual perversion and I am not just talking about some sexual sin I am talking about all sexual sin and these sins are running wild in this nation, and Leviticus 18:22-30 declares that these sins have defiled the land. We are living in a day where the institution of marriage is under attack and I am afraid that there is going to come a day where marriage will mean nothing to anyone anymore and when we read our text we discover that the Lord declared that even a home that’s divided cannot stand and I believe in this passage we are given exactly what is taking place in this country, our nation and our homes have been divided by the demons and the devils and we cannot stand for long because of it. The same message that the angels spoke of when they confronted Lot and said to him you must escape for your life for God is about to bring judgment is the same message that we must take heed of. We must escape for our lives and shun our sexual perversion of our day. The sin of sexual perversion cries out to God and we will face judgment because of it. I am afraid that this sin is in many of our schools. I have never seen in my lifetime young people who have given themselves to sexual pleasure and perversion, and hear me well, I read a statistic that now the average age of someone who experiences sexual perversion for the first time is ten years old, God help this nation and God help our families.
We are living within a country that is attempting to redefine the definition of marriage. Let me help them it is one man and one woman united in holy matrimony in the presence of God. It was not Adam and Steve. It was Adam and Eve. I do not care what you believe and I do not care what Capitol Hill believes. The Bible declares that the sin of homosexuality is an abomination to God, and yet our nation has accepted it as an alternative lifestyle. Hear me well this evening, righteousness exalts a nation but sin is a reproach to any people and just as the wrath of God was poured out on Sodom and Gomorrah the same will happen here if we do not repent as a nation; judgment is coming. Ruth Graham once said that if God does not punish the United States then he owes Sodom Gomorrah an apology. God is going to judge this nation, his wrath is going to wipe this nation off the map. We must repent before it is too late, but what bothers me the most about our nation and our homes is the fact that there appears to be no shame nor blushing. We just live it up in sin. We have tolerated it as a nation, and now we have accepted it as a nation.
The last reason I believe this is a nation divided is because of the religious apostasy that’s on display in this country. I should not have to remind you that our nation was founded on the Word of God, and it shaped our national life and institutions. We were at one time, one nation under God, and yet today we have departed from the Word of God and the God of the Word. And now America has become an apostate nation and the word apostate means to fall away or to depart from the truth. We have become a nation of Humanism, a belief where man is its own leader and is capable of meeting its own needs of satisfaction. Humanism takes God out of the equation and places on the pedestal and we see this every day, because we live in a world that?s post modern, which believes there can be no absolute truth, but that?s where we are so very wrong because the Bible makes it clear that He’s the truth and the truth will set you free and that truth can be found in the Word of God, but America has abandoned this reality.
Second, we have become a nation of Liberalism, which rejects fundamentally sound doctrine and replaces it with modernism. It is a belief where all religious beliefs are accepted except for the sound biblical ones, and we see it in the lives of so many who lack fundamentals and sound doctrine and their lives reveal it. If this nation is ever to be great again it is going to be when we return back to the basics and we discover the truth of the Word of God and live it with our entire being. This nation must not continue to water down the Gospel and lead people astray. We must get back to the basics of scripture and apply it to our lives or we will remain a divided nation and a divided nation cannot stand. Its righteousness that exalts a nation and righteousness can only be discovered through the pages of the Word of God and the reason this nation is no longer righteous or godly is due to the fact that we have no longer meditated on the scripture and delighted in the law of God. This country does not love this book and we see it in the lives of the millions that live here. We are no longer standing on the promise of this great book and our foundation has been destroyed. This book was suppose to be the lamp unto our feet and the light unto our path, but hear me well, the light and the lamp has went out in this country and we are walking in the darkness, and we have become the blind leading the blind. We must get back to the Word of God and the God of the Word.
Last, we have become a nation of Neo-Evangelicasm, which refers to weak evangelism. There seems to be no repentance and no weeping and no humility nor revival within the church. We live in a world where we rather entertain than disciple, and we are living in a world where we want the sinner to feel comfortable of their sin and not convicted of their sin and as a result we are not seeing people accepting Jesus as the Lord and Savior of their lives. We’re living in a world that rejects the reality of Hell and teaches people that God loves them way too much to ever send them to this place called Hell, and there are many of the world preaching the Gospel teaching people to live happy, instead of living holy, and we see the impact that it is making in this lost nation. We must get back to winning people to Jesus, and teaching them that they must live a holy life and present their bodies a living sacrifice, which is holy and acceptable unto the Lord. We must get back to teaching people that because the Lord was holy then we must be holy and because he was perfect we must strive for spiritual perfection. We must preach the judgment of the Lord with the Joy of the Lord because both are reality and sound. These are the sins that divide us. These are the sins that we must forsake and repent of before it’s too late, because we are reminded in scripture that the wicked shall be turned into hell and every nation that forgets God. This nation has forgotten the Lord and forsaken the Lord now it is time we return to the Lord and live in His righteousness because its righteousness that exalts a nation, but what does this word righteousness mean?
If there is indeed such a thing as righteousness then there must be someone who defines what righteousness is, and when we read the Word we discover that God is the authority when it comes to righteousness, and the very meaning thereof. Psalm 71:19 “Thy righteousness also, O’ God is very high, who hast done great things: O’ God, who is like unto thee!” Psalm 98:2. “The Lord hath made known His salvation: His righteousness hath he openly shown in the sight of the heathen,” and yet when this word is never spoken of from our media leaders nor political leaders, because we are living within a world where people have no desire to live the righteous life, and yet what our leaders do not understand is that we can never go in the right direction until we are on the path that leads to righteousness. The word righteousness implies a standard, but we are living within a world that could care less about standards, and this is one of the main reasons that society mocks and ridicules the Word of God it is because Christians are not living up to the standard. As a nation we no longer long and yearn for the Word of God, and yet when this nation was founded, the Word of God we held in high esteem. This nation loved this book and lived this book; my how far we have come as a nation. There is great reward for a nation that lives and loves the righteous path and we find it in Proverbs 14:34. When we are told that righteousness exalts a nation.
In fact the reason this nation has been exalted is because of righteousness. America has been exalted in the past because the church carried out the great commission, both at home and abroad. It is because of our past obedience and humility that we have enjoyed our preeminent place on the world’s scene.
But before we close I would like for us to examine the word exalted, because that should be the desire of everyone in this room that we become an exalted nation once again. What does it mean to be an exalted nation?
First, an exalted nation is a set apart nation. One of the meanings of this world exalted means to be lifted up or to be made high. The Bible teaches us that the scriptures ought to be exalted, God and the nation of Israel has been exalted but in this verse we have the promise that a righteous nation can be exalted and it no coincidence that the United States is called and considered the most powerful nation in the world. God has blessed this nation because we have separated our self from the sinfulness of this world.
Second, an exalted nation is a safe nation. Another meaning of this word means to raise high as an inaccessible fortress, out of the reach of danger. Psalm 32:7 states: Thou are my hiding place; thou shalt preserve me from trouble; thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance. God has protected us because we have been a righteous nation, but I am afraid that if times do not change this will change also. The Bible teaches us that everything even our enemies are under the feet of our Savior. God has kept our enemies away from us in the past until lately because we were a righteous nation, but if we continue to drift and commit spiritual and national apostasy – we can be for certain that September 11 will happen again, and over and over again. It is time this country wakes up if we want to continue to experience the divine protection from our enemies. Because I am here to tell you as we look on the world today nation after nation and kingdom after kingdoms wants to wipe America off the map and I believe it has been because of the divine protection of our Lord that we have enjoyed safety and security from our enemies.
Third, an exalted nation is a strong nation. Another meaning of this word means to triumph over our enemies. God in the past has protected us and will continue to protect us as long as we remain a nation that’s righteous and when we read this text we notice that the Lord informs the multitude that the enemy, our enemy is a strong man, but he’s stronger and listen to me, the reason we are suffering as a nation is because we are under the stronghold of Satan, but let me report to you tonight that there is a strong power, a high power, who at the sound of His name every knee shall bow in Heaven, on the Earth and under the earth, and declare that He is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, a higher power that with one spoken word the storm and winds will cease, a higher power where the demons plea and beg to be cast into the swine rather than Hell, a higher power who was able to hold the sin of the world on his shoulders as he hung on a cruel cross that we might have life and have it more abundant. This nation has been strong because this nation served and followed a strong savior, and yet we are living in a day where we have seen our nation weakened morally and spiritually, and its because we are no longer under the mighty hand of God but instead we are under the stronghold of Satan, and as a result we have become a divided nation that can no longer stand on its own two feet. If we are going to go to war with the enemies of this world we are reminded in Ephesians 6:10, that we must be strong in the Lord and the power of His might.
Our strength must be in the Lord, we are a weak nation and if we are going to become that nation we once were then we must repent and turn back to the Lord. That’s our only hope! This nation is no longer above reproach instead we are abounding in reproach. We have become a nation that has dishonored and disowned and disgraced the God that this nation was founded on. God help this country. For we remain divided more in my lifetime than we have ever been. How divided? Why? This past week news broke out about 20 states that have sent petitions to the White House, because they want to separate themselves from the union and even though this petition will probably never be granted it re-enforces the sad reality that we have become a nation divided, and Jesus said a nation divided will never stand. We must pray for our country, we must pray for this nation. I believe the only hope for America is the repentance and remorse of the people of God. We cannot waste any more time. We must redeem the time because the days are evil. Let’s pray.
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Keith and Pam Thomas
on
12/27/12 at 09:11 PM
[Reply]
Preach on Brother Jeremy!! Your statements may be taken as prejudiced by some but they are not by us. These statements are so very true and in the end all will see because as His Word says every knee will bow and every tongue shall confess. Then and only then (unfortunately) all will be believers. It is our duty as Christians to do as you have done and speak the truth.