When the Skies Go Dark

16 years ago, when America became the target of terrorists on 9-11, I remember the very next Sunday, the churches were full. People wanted answers, and they were looking to the church for guidance. And for a little while, this country was gripped with eternity.

But I fear since then, we've all gone back to sleep, and the nation's fallen into gross sensuality and a false sense of security. I heard this week the Federal Reserve Chairman say that America would not experience any severe economic downturns for at least 25 years. And the sad thing is, most folks believe it, even though the stock market is at an all-time high and ready to crash any moment.

But never in my life have I seen such a time as this, when a nation was so arrogant, society so violent and wicked, and the church so fast asleep. This country is a house of cards, ready to be blown away. America, once a God-fearing nation, has become a God-hating nation.

But on the horizon, there is an ominous black cloud gathering, and it will soon break upon our heads, as a sin-avenging God brings this arrogant nation to her knees in desperation. Why, friends? Because you can't thumb your nose at God and get by. God is a God who must punish sin, and he will not be mocked for long without invading our shores with judgment and destruction.

Why, North Korea has its missiles pointed at our coastlines at this hour, but Russia has its warships drawn nearer to our shores. And many of our enemies are already among us, ready to unleash death and destruction in the name of their religion. And where is the church in all of this? She's on a mad-building program to expand her already-bulging campuses so she can put on more theatrical productions, and host more rock concerts, and feed an ignorant populace a watered-down, perverted gospel that will only damn them.

Our young people today are mainly atheists, and their chief aim in life is to get drunk or high before sundown. The church is in a drunken stupor of conformity and compromise. Repentance is an unknown doctrine, and holiness is a taboo subject never mentioned from our pulpits.

The God we talk about is just a fun-loving God who wants to make us happy. But the trouble is, friends, that's not the God of the Bible. We've gotten out our pocketknives and have whittled out for us a God we can live with, and one who won't get in the way of our daily living.

I believe, friends, the passage of scripture I can find that best describes America at this hour is found in the book of Jeremiah in chapter 5. You can turn in your Bibles there now, friends. We will be in verses 3 through 9. Here now is the word of God, and may the Spirit of the Lord attend the reading of His holy word. Correction.

They have made their faces harder than a rock. They have refused to return. Let me pause here, friends.

This text speaks of the remedial judgments of God, unheeded. The remedial judgments of God become more severe if unheeded. People who refuse correction are ripe for destruction.

Therefore I said, surely these are poor. They are foolish, for they know not the way of the Lord and the judgment of their God. Let me pause here again, friends.

I believe this generation is the most biblically ignorant generation in centuries. Even church folk don't study their Bibles. The church today doesn't know the way of the Lord because we quit walking with Him a long time ago.

I will get me unto the great men and will speak unto them, for they have known the way of the Lord and the judgment of their God. But these have altogether broken the yoke and burst the bonds. That means, friends, that even the so-called spiritual leaders of the church have gotten out from under the Lordship of Jesus Christ and have gone their own way.

Wherefore, a lion out of the forest shall slay them, and a wolf of the evenings shall spool them. A leopard shall watch over their cities. Everyone that go without thanse shall be torn in pieces, because their transgressions are many and their backslidings are increased.

This means that it won't be safe to go outside. Listen, friends. Right now in this country, it's a land of sudden death.

You could be gunned down by a madman while you're at work or at play. And not see it coming. This sin-loving nation is the most violent nation on earth.

Why, you're lucky if you make it home alive tonight. That's how bad it is. How shall I pardon thee for this, that children have forsaken me and sworn by them that are no gods.

When I had fed them to the full, they then committed adultery and assembled themselves by troops in the harlot's houses. But they were as fed horses in the morning. Everyone neighed after his neighbor's wife.

What this terrible text means, friends, is that a people have become so sex-obsessed that they are drunk with sensuality and behave like beasts with no boundaries of common decency. This is a generation of young people today who snapchat one another, naked pictures of each other, without any shame or conscience. Well, what does a sin-avenging God have to say about all this? Look at verse 9. Shall I not visit for these things, saith the Lord, and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this? The hour we live in, friends, is one right before the storm.

Sodom woke up to sunny skies that soon turned black as they rained down death and destruction till all was a smoking heap of ashes. For when the skies go dark, a storm will soon break. America today is ten times worse than Sodom ever was, for we have more light and have refused correction.

All that is left is for a sin-avenging God to be avenged on a nation such as this. Heaven help us all. Let us pray.