Admonition Podcast

Good afternoon.

As I mentioned this morning, for those who were able to be present as we looked at the
lesson this morning of things from which we must not declare independence.

This afternoon's lesson is really intended to be in essence a part two of what we
considered this morning as we consider the idea of what to do when your nation falls.

If you to were to observe history, if you were to study history, what you will find is
history is quite often a progression of nations that rise and collapse.

That throughout time, though much of the the background

People have remained the same.

There's been migrations from one place to another.

There have been changes in some of the uh makeup of the people who live in a particular
area throughout time.

But the reality is nations come and go.

Governments come and go.

They have throughout history, they do in Scripture as Scripture records history, but as a
result of that, when we turn into the old

Testament, we find a number of occasions where God is going to warn his people concerning
the fall of a nation.

He is going to warn them concerning the things that were coming in the natural course of
national history.

And as a result of those things, God is going to inform his people, those who are
faithful, those who are righteous, what they are to do.

Do when a nation falls.

Now as I began to study concerning this and delve into this, I quickly realized there were
far more things that could be said that we would actually have time to say, so we have

boiled it down to just a few.

But let's begin in the book of Isaiah.

As we consider the nation of Israel, and most of these things will be focused on the
nation of Israel due to the fact that uh God had such an intimate interaction with the

people of Israel in regards to the falls of their nation.

But in Isaiah chapter one, as Isaiah opens his prophecy and calls Israel back to God,
calls Israel to wash themselves as we read in verse sixteen, to make their lives right

with God, to learn to do good and seek justice, rebuke the oppressor, all those things God
says through Isaiah.

But in verse eighteen, we find this statement.

Come now and let us reason together, says the Lord.

Though your sins are like scarlet they shall be as white as snow, though they are red like
crimson they shall be as wool.

If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land.

But if you refuse and rebel you shall be devoured by the sword for the mouth of the Lord
has spoken.

Here we have a passage in the opening of the book of Isaiah, where God, as he speaks to
Israel, the both the northern and the southern kingdom around 800 BC will make it

incredibly clear that as a nation is going to fall, because Isaiah, if you read the 66
chapters of the book of Isaiah, Isaiah is going to prophesy the fall of numerous nations.

But the whole prophecy begins with obey God.

When a nation falls, what should the people of God do?

And the very first thing is they should obey God.

They should obey God and not governments.

They should obey God and not culture.

They should obey God and not carry forward traditions of men.

They should obey God and not do what they have always done.

They should obey God full stop.

Verse 21, we continue reading in Isaiah 1, and we read somewhat the reply, the answer, the
reality of Israel as a nation.

How the faithful city has become a harlot.

It was full of justice, righteousness lodged in it, but now murderers.

Your silver has become dross, your wine mixed with water, your princes are rebellious and
companions of thieves.

Everyone loves bribes and follows after rewards.

They do not defend the fatherless, nor does the cause of the widow come before them.

As the picture is here portrayed concerning the state of Israel, the state of Judah, the
state of God's people, and the city that was once able to be described as a faithful city,

we find now that it is a faithless city.

And as the nation declines into oblivion, God calls upon the nation, and they will refuse
to obey.

But God furthermore calls upon his people to obey.

So when a nation falls, we should, number one, obey God.

But number two,

As nations decline and nations fall, and specifically those who claim to have any
allegiance to God, we should not trust in religious objects.

In Jeremiah chapter 7, many of our thoughts this evening will come from Jeremiah.

And if you've not studied Jeremiah, I encourage you to do so.

We find chapter seven verse one the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord saying, Stand
in the gate of the Lord's house and proclaim there this word, and say.

Hear the word of the Lord all you of Judah who enter in at these gates to worship the
Lord.

Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, amend your ways and your doings, and I
will cause you to dwell in this place.

Do not trust in these lying words, saying, The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord,
the temple of the Lord are these and

If you do not sorry, for if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings, if you
thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbor, if you do not oppress the

stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place, or
walk after other gods to your hurt, then I will cause you to dwell in this place, in the

land that I gave to your fathers for ever and ever.

As Jeremiah points out the situation in Judah, the northern kingdom of Israel at this time
has already fallen.

They've already gone into captivity.

Ten of the tribes are already gone.

And now two tribes remain: Benjamin and Judah.

And as Jeremiah prophesies to them and he stands before them and he speaks to them in the
gate, as they come into worship, he makes it clear that their problem.

Partly stems from they have people going about throughout their land declaring, as long as
we have the temple, we cannot fall.

They would declare, as is repeated here in verse 4, the temple of the Lord, the temple of
the Lord, the temple of the Lord are these.

As if to say, well, the reason why the northern kingdom of Israel succumbed to Assyria,
the reason why God destroyed them is they didn't have the religious objects.

Their trust was not in obedience and faithfulness to God.

It was in religious curiosities.

It was in stone and wood and gold and silver.

Verse thirteen and now.

Because you have done all these works, says the Lord, and I spoke to you rising up early
and speaking, but you did not hear, and I called you, but you did not answer, therefore I

will do to the house which is called by my name in which you trust, and to this place
which I gave to you and your fathers as I have done to Shiloh.

God makes it clear.

That there's not a building or a structure in all Israel that God will not raise to the
ground.

Because ultimately it wasn't their uh their their access to the temple that gave them
strength, that gave them resilience, that gave them protection, as they thought it was.

It was their relationship to God.

When you step over to the book of Matthew and you find there in Matthew chapter twenty
three Jesus

Will give a series of woes against the Pharisees and against the Israelites, and
ultimately culminating in Jerusalem.

In verse thirty-seven, Jesus will say, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the
prophets and stones, those who were sent to her.

How often I wanted to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her
wings, but you were not willing.

See, your house is left to you desolate.

For I say to you, you shall

Shall be you shall see me no more till you say, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the
Lord.

Then Jesus went out and departed from the temple, and his disciples came up to show him
the buildings of the temple.

And Jesus said to them, Do you not see all these things?

Assuredly I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another that shall not be
thrown down.

In Jeremiah's day, the people were convinced they were untouchable because of the Temple
of Jerusalem.

Fast forward 600 years, and you find even the disciples and those again in Jerusalem,
brand new temple, of course, they're now in the same situation.

The disciples want to show Jesus how the majesty of the building of the temple and the
magnificence of it and the durability of it and the guarantee that it will never fall.

And Jesus will say, Do you not realize not one stone will be left upon another?

As Christians, when a nation falls, we must not trust in religious objects.

Instead, we must trust the word of the Lord.

But then consider number three, we must not listen to false prophets.

Jeremiah chapter twenty three says.

Jeremiah in his prophecy, beginning in verse sixteen, thus says the Lord of hosts, do not
listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you.

They make you worthless.

They speak a vision of their own heart, not from the mouth of the Lord, but from

They continually say to those who despise me, the Lord has said, You shall have peace.

And to everyone who walks according to the dictates of his own hearts, they say, No evil
shall come upon you.

As you consider what Jeremiah is describing.

He is describing what could not be described any better than the religious leaders of the
denominational world of quote unquote Christianity today.

They offer a pronouncement of peace on political leaders that agree with them.

They offer a pronouncement of peace upon business leaders that agree with them.

They offer a statement and a declaration of assurance that God is with someone simply
because the circumstance turned out the right way.

They assure

The individuals that they have seen a vision, they have a message from the Lord, they have
a declaration from God.

And yet Jeremiah will make it quite clear.

If you can't find the message that the person preaches in the Word of God,

If you can't find the declaration that they claim to declare, if you can't find the vision
they claim to have seen, if you can't find the message in the Word of God, then I can

guarantee you it may have not come from God, but it came from somewhere else.

Jeremiah, as the nation crumbles around him.

You gotta think about Jeremiah for just a moment.

Jeremiah began his time as a prophet at age 17.

He was a young man, a very young man, when he is called by the Lord to become a prophet.

And Jeremiah will live through the first carrying away, the second carrying away, and
finally in the third carrying away, 30 years into this process, Jeremiah will still be

around.

Now he is an old man.

And all through his time as a prophet, he has been warning his nation and warning his
nation and warning his nation, and they will not listen.

But all during that time, they were listening to messages.

They had religious interest.

They were listening to religious teachers, just not anyone who would speak the word of the
Lord.

Jeremiah twenty eight.

We read

For thus says the Lord, verse 14.

Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, I have put a yoke of iron on the neck of
all these nations, that they may serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and they shall

serve him.

I have given him the beasts of the field also.

Then the prophet Jeremiah said to Hananiah the prophet, Hear now, Hananiah, the Lord has
not sent you.

But you make this people trust in a lie.

Because Jeremiah had to stand before kings and princes and individuals and leaders of the
people.

Jeremiah had to speak clearly about the message of these false prophets, and he declared
in this instance Hananiah as a liar.

We need to be careful with false teachers.

We need to be careful with those who say it's all going to turn out great.

Just elect the person I'm behind and everything will go well.

Just support my cause and everything will go well.

If we just do this or just do that, then everything's going to turn out great.

Jeremiah's day, it was quite clear that what the nation was lacking was a willingness to
hear God at all.

they would hear a message that sounded like the message of God.

But the moment the actual message of God was proclaimed, they weren't interested.

If we're going to be what God would have us to be when nations fall, we're going to not
listen to false prophets.

But then consider Jeremiah in the passage we read earlier, Jeremiah will tell the people,
he will tell Judah, he will tell the nation that had the opportunity to survive and endure

through this coming time that yes, they were going to go into captivity.

They were going to suffer the results of years and decades and generations of sin and
iniquity and turning against God.

But

He will tell those in that nation, you need to amend your ways.

He's going to tell the nation, you must repent.

Verse 3 of chapter 7, thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and
your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place.

There was a period of time during Jeremiah's day where there was still a chance for them
to remain in the land.

There was still an opportunity for them to continue in that land, even if but for a few
generations, but they would not.

It is here that we were reminded and we are encouraged that the future in our nation is
not set in stone.

The future of our nation and the future of nations around the world isn't guaranteed.

It hasn't been prophesied by God.

There's not coming a day except for the very return of Christ in which we know that this
nation must fall.

But we do understand this: unless the nation amends its ways, the outcome is guaranteed.

The outcome is assured.

As it has always been.

But then number five, though I've put number six on there.

Number five.

We must reject false worship.

In Amos chapter five

Amos will write and will prophesy, and though his time as a prophet, the duration of his
prophecy as it is recorded in Scripture is not as long or as uh thorough as that of Isaiah

or that of Jeremiah, yet Isa uh Amos will write.

Beginning in Amos chapter five and in verse twenty-one, God will speak through Amos and
declare, I hate, I despise your feast days, and I do not savor your sacred assemblies.

Though you offer me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them, nor
will I regard your fattened peace offerings.

Take away from me the noise of your songs, for I will not hear the melody of your stringed
instruments, but let justice run down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream.

As you look at what Amos is saying, as you understand that the feast days were appointed
by God.

The sacred assemblies were appointed by God.

The sacrifices were appointed by God.

The burnt offerings were appointed by God.

The grain offerings were appointed by God.

And yet, what had happened was the people had desired to continue in the offerings without
obedience.

They continued in the offerings because they wanted to participate in the offerings.

They continued in the offerings because they thought they could curry favor with the Lord.

They desired to participate in these things because they worshiped themselves and not God.

I caution us when we see spectacles in our day and time, when we observe events in our day
that appear to be religious.

And yet the word of the Lord, the truth of the gospel, the message that is clearly
declared by God concerning that which is right, concerning the kingdom which he built, the

church which he established, the gospel which he preached, the message that he declared,
the order and method of worship which he announced, the rightful position and assembly of

those and the roles within it are completely ignored.

When we observe spectacles like that, we should be cautious before we start thinking,
well, at least people are being more God centered.

think back to the four hour event that was the memorial of Charlie Kirk.

And I didn't say a whole lot to folks around that time, because many people had listened
to this young individual for quite some time and much of what he said was commendable and

right in a political sphere and in a time, but when you observe that event

Was there religious adoration?

Was there a continual message that declared that we ought to be obedient to God instead of
uh obedient to governments, that we ought to be attuned to what God has to say, that we

ought to be focused on what God has to say, that we ought to be those who uh give our
lives to God?

Yeah, all throughout the event.

You wanna know what was missing?

The actual word of God.

The actual gospel, the actual appropriate and right worship as d described and authorized
by God, the actual submission to God instead of cultural religious practice.

And we have to be careful.

Because so many times we will take hope in what appears to be a turning back toward God,
in which is only in actuality a turning back towards self-willed religion.

If we are going to be what God would have us to be and what God called his people to be,
we are going to realize that unless righteousness dwells in our nation, unless

righteousness is lived out in our nation, all the worship assemblies in the world won't
make a difference for the fate of the nation.

Because at the end of the day, God will just say.

Yeah, I'm not interested in your worship.

If there is not first a willingness to obey.

Jesus will make it clear as he speaks to his disciples, as he preaches to them there on
the mount, in the Sermon on the Mount, and as he looks at those individuals who came from

simple backgrounds like fishermen, tax collectors, zealots.

And he will declare to them, Except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the
scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter the kingdom of God.

And he will conclude that lesson with a reminder many will say unto me on that day, Lord,
Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name and done many wonderful works in there in thy

name?

And he said, I will declare unto them, depart from me.

I never knew you.

As we consider what happens when nations fall, we should know, as we have discussed many
times in the book of Revelation, that the things that we find it's not advancing.

The things that we find in this life, the things that we understand about our nation are
not all positives.

But may I remind you they never were.

You can go read a lot of history.

And you can go see that we were in this country a nation born in compromise.

We were a nation born in a failure to declare with clarity that all men are created equal.

We were born as a nation in a time where not only was there injustice from outside
countries, there was injustice inside the country.

And because of history being what it is, and because, you know, we are the way we are, as
humans, we often think back to the good old days.

It was so much different when we were younger.

It was so much different in our parents' generation.

It was so much different when society

gave a little more credence to the word of God.

And yes, some of those things are true.

But we need to be reminded that many of the things that we saw were small sections of
society and not really society at large.

For many times the things that were true about that day in time is that the sins were just
a little more uncomfortable for society than they were they are today.

Where today they have embraced them.

Back then it was still taboo.

It was still not normal.

But that didn't mean that there were that many people who actually opened up the Word of
God and actually knew why it was right or wrong.

We need to be careful that we do not confuse religious mindedness with obedience to God.

But for that reason, we also ought to be reminded that there is exactly one thing that
will amend this nation.

There is exactly one thing that we can do to set this nation on a right path, and it is
the exact same thing that caused individuals to ask Paul concerning the thing which he

declared, the gospel that he preached that turned the world upside down in the first
century.

It is not America first.

It is God first.

It is righteousness first.

It is holiness first.

It is obedience to God above family, above background, above tradition, above culture.

Above society, above political leaders, above party, it is that and that alone.

It is allegiance, not to the flag, not to the country, not to the nation, but to Jesus
Christ, to his church, to the kingdom of which the saved are citizens that will restore a

right nation.

And we are called to be examples, examples of what God would have us to be, of what God
would have a nation to be.

If our neighbors, if our friends, if our society cannot look to us as the example of what
a righteous nation would look like, then we are letting our nation down.

If our friends and our business companions and those who we meet throughout this day and
throughout this week and throughout this year cannot see us and say, you know what, if we

had more of that in this city, in this county, in this state, in this country, we would be
a nation that follows God.

If they can't identify that in our lives, then how are we going to have a nation?

That follows God.

For they will not get that from those who do not preach the truth.

If you're here this afternoon and you're outside the body of Christ, we don't invite you
to become an American.

We invite you to become a Christian.

We invite you to become a child of God and a citizen of the only kingdom that will never
fall.

You know, I began as we were talking in this lesson with the fact that nations always
fall.

But there's one nation that I left out of that.

In Daniel chapter two

Daniel will interpret a dream as a prophet.

As a young Israelite, as one who determined not to give up his righteousness, not to
defile himself, even though he had been carted off to Babylon, even though he had been

taken away from his home country, even though his own companions and his own other
citizens, who were part of those who were carried off into captivity, also defiled

themselves.

There weren't just four young men of Judah that were taken away to Babylon, but there were
only four that were still righteous.

And that Daniel will declare to the king.

Nebuchadnezzar, he says, verse thirty-seven this is the dream.

Now we will tell the interpretation of it before the king, you, O king, are a king of
kings, for the God of heaven has given you a kingdom, power, strength, and glory, and

wherever the children of men dwell, or the beasts of the field or the birds of heaven, he
has given them into your hand, and has made you ruler over them all, you are this head of

gold.

But after you shall arise another kingdom inferior to yours, then another a third kingdom
of bronze which shall rule over all the earth, and the fourth kingdom shall be as strong

as iron in as much as iron breaks.

Breaks in pieces and shatters everything, and like iron that that crushes, that kingdom
will break in pieces and crush all the others.

Whereas you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter's clay and partly of iron, the kingdom
shall be divided, yet the strength of the iron shall be in it, just as you saw the iron

mixed with the ceramic clay.

And as the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of clay, so the kingdom shall
be partly strong and partly fragile, and as you saw the iron mixed with ceramic clay.

Say they will mingle with the seed of men, but they will not adhere to one another, just
as iron does not mix with clay.

And in the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never
be destroyed.

Babylon fell.

The Medo Persian Empire fell.

The Grecian Empire fell.

The Roman Empire fell fell.

God said, In the days of those kings, the kings of Rome, I will set up a kingdom which
shall never be destroyed.

He says, And in the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which
shall never be destroyed, and the kingdom shall not be left to other people.

It shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.

Inasmuch as you saw the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it broke
in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold, the great God has made

known to the king what will come to pass after this, the dream is certain, and its
interpretation is sure.

What can Christians do when nations fall?

The answer is they can remember and they can be reminded they're part of a nation that
will never fall, and a kingdom that will never be destroyed.

For Jesus said, the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.

If you have need of the invitation,

To put Christ on in baptism or to be restored to a right relationship in his kingdom.

Why not come now as we stand and as we sing?