Now, in Amos chapter 3 and in verse 1, the Bible says, Hear this word that the Lord has spoken against you, O children of Israel, against the whole family which I brought up from the land of Egypt, saying, You only have I known of all the families of the earth. Therefore, I will punish you for all your iniquities. Can two walk together except they be agreed? Will a lion roar in the forest when he hath no prey? Will a young lion cry out of his den if he hath taken nothing? Can a bird fall in a snare upon the earth where no djinn is for him? Shall one take up a snare from the earth and have taken nothing at all? Shall a trumpet be blown in the city and the people not be afraid? And shall there be evil in the city and the Lord hath not done it? May the Lord add His blessing to the reading of His word. Please be seated. Now, I want us to just look at the background just just for a little bit here. The background is one of judgment, God's judgment upon his people. And I want you to look at those verses with me just a little bit more in verse in verse one and two verses one and two. God speaks about the unique relationship that he had with Israel above all other people on the earth. What I'm preaching about this afternoon, and I just want to bring out some things that are very unpleasant to bring out and could be downright distressing in a way when we think about. I've had my mind a lot on our nation lately, especially in view of this conference coming up, and to claim the promise that there is in the conference. And I have really got a burden about about America and the judgment that we're under. And it's so important to me as a pastor that we all understand, really understand the situation. Not to be sunk in a place of despair over it, but just to realize that our nation, God has so richly blessed our country and our nation has so terribly. I don't think there's... well, there hasn't been any nation next to Israel, including Great Britain, that has so defied God as our nation has. Hard for me to say these things because being as a lover of our country and patriot and so on and so forth, but I think that God's people need to understand something that maybe they don't understand, and that is that our nation is under the judgment of God. And I want to point some things out just briefly in this. It is something that needs to be understood, and that is sometimes we attribute to other sources, factors, and so on, the judgment that has come upon individuals and upon a nation when actually it's coming directly from God. And so when we look at the Scripture, These things are hard to understand. There are a lot of people who don't understand them. It's impossible for a natural man to understand these things, for an unsaved person. The Bible says, "...the natural man understandeth not the things of the Spirit, neither indeed can he, for they are spiritually discerned." In 2 Corinthians chapter 2. and a verse 14. So it's impossible for an unsaved person to understand this. The unsaved all across the country can't even compute with the idea of the nation being under God's judgment. It's also very, very hard for a carnally-minded believer to get these things because, here again, they're not spiritually as capable as they should be and could be. But I want us to look at three things about God's judgment. Not so much on an individual, that may be for another message, but God's judgment on a nation. The first of the three things I want us to look at is the responsibility for this judgment. The second thing is to look at the resources that God has for judgment. That's a frightening thing right there. And the third thing is the reason that God has for sending judgment upon a nation. First, the responsibility God has for the execution of his judgment. Today, we have people in our country and people in churches and lots of preachers that are looking to human beings instead of, in other words, pointing the finger at human beings for explanations for what is happening to America instead of looking to heaven for an explanation of what is happening to America. And you know what I see that as? I see that as just another way of human beings denying God. They don't want to give God any credit for any blessings. That'd be to recognize God. That's why it just upsets them so much to have prayer and a prayer of thanksgiving over a meal at a school cafeteria. where they won't even allow little children in a lot of places even to bow their heads just in case they might be giving thanks unto God. To give thanks unto God is to recognize God. To give thanks for His blessing. But also to recognize God as being behind any judgment is also to recognize that there is a God. So instead of doing that, What man will do and what man is doing is they're looking to human beings for an explanation for all the catastrophes, the disasters, and all of the things that have come upon the country. And so, again, this denial of God demonstrates what is typical of our society, and that is that it all has to be about man. Everything has to be about man. and nothing has to do with God. So here's a responsibility for the judgment. All of the different catastrophes and disasters and they're coming in staccato like on this country in rapid fire of manner more than ever before in our history. You see things like the economic disaster, the financial collapse, and so on and so forth. I made a joke of it a while ago. I picked up a little... at first I thought it was some kind of little nerve pill or something. It was real tiny, and I took it back there and I showed it to Brother Steve, and Steve said, that has an M on it. It's an M&M. I said, are we that far gone? Is inflation that bad that they've shrunk up the M&Ms to the size of a pinhead now? It's getting bad. You know, Mary Hart doing good like a medicine, so we might as well get a few laughs out of it. But we are over the financial economic cliff, and what do people do? I mean, this is a disaster. And what do people do? They blame it on the Fed. They blame it on the banking system and all of that. Of course, it's easy to understand why people would. Here's what I think. I believe it's the judgment of God on this country. Not to be attributed to man. Not by us. Not by us who are Christians to attribute these things. We know better. We should know better. The 9-11 situation. The explanation is that's because the Muslim world hates America so bad, so much. Now I know this is one of the most unpopular things that could be said today. I believe that 9-11 was part of God's judgment on America. People look at the unemployment. I heard him not too long ago blaming several different sources for the unemployment in the country. One of them was OPEC. You know, because of the oil problems there. And this problem, that problem, people will blame the political parties. Beloved, we should understand this by now. There is not one dime's worth of difference between the political parties. If there is any at all, it's just in theory. The only difference is in good people that you may find struggling to do the right thing. But as far as most of the parties are concerned, they're not to be counted on. In fact, I see the parties as being a part of the judgment of God, what our leadership system has come to today with what we have, for the most part, in government. And all of this crime in America, we might as well recognize it's not because of poverty. It's because of the judgment of God. on America. It's not because people haven't created enough programs. See, all of this is man-centered. I believe it's God's judgment, all of these things. And that includes all of the hurricanes. Now, here's where man really shows himself in his alienation to God. All the hurricanes, the tsunamis, the Katrinas, the Sandys, and all of this. And what do they attribute it to? Oh, not to God. To global warming. or something like that. And they're probably not thinking too much about global warming up in New York right now. I was watching these news clips of the snow. A man was standing out in his yard giving an interview to some news. And over his shoulder you can see the snow piled up on his house, collapsed his garage and one end of his house. Just smashed it in. You know what people attribute all of that to? Well, it all has to be meteorological. Meteorology is easy for me to say. It all has to have something to do with that. And what people will not admit is that it's not. It's the judgment of God. Then, of course, if worse comes to worse, people would just blame the devil. I've found out that people in this country are more quick to give credit to the devil than they are to give credit to God. I think the devil gets the credit for a whole lot of things that he doesn't deserve. And really, I believe all of this is the judgment of God upon sin. But this responsibility that is attributed to man is a responsibility that God accepts in the Bible for Himself. And I want you to look at that Amos 3 in verse 6 again. God says, shall there be evil in the city, and the Lord hath not done it. When the Bible is talking about evil there, it's not talking like evil, which is the essence of Satan, that kind of evil. It's talking about bad things happening. It's talking about these judgments. And I want to say this about it. God has a lot of resources for judgment. Has a lot of resources. They're very powerful. And God's bringing his judgments there upon America, and they're very plentiful. And that's why I said that, beloved, if we do not... 2 Chronicles 7, 14, I am so far away personally, I'm so far away from believing that America can have any hope of crying out to God. We just need a miracle from God. We need an absolute miracle because we don't deserve any mercy. And so God has very, very powerful resources at hand. I could just go on all afternoon on this, but I was thinking about these things earlier this week. His resources for judgment are plentiful. He can use the elements. In Job 38 and verse 22 and 23, Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow, or hast thou seen the treasures of the hail, which I have reserved against the time of trouble against the day of battle and war?" In Psalm 148 and in verse 8, The Bible says fire and hail, snow and vapors, snowy wind fulfilling his word. What are all of these things for? These winds and the snow and everything else is to fulfill his word and judgment. In Nahum 1 and 3, the Lord hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet. That situation in New York right now. and all of the snow up in New England, and all of the volcanoes, and the tempest, and the hurricanes, and the oil spills, and the droughts, and all of these kinds of things, and the pestilences. that are about to break out in New York City. They're holding back as much as they can possibly keep it a secret, holding back that they are on the on the verge of a tremendous outbreak of pestilence in New York because there are millions of rats. Millions of them. That they're infested with. God can use all of these things to bring judgment on a people. When you look in the psalm, Psalm 11 and verse 6, upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and a horrible tempest. This shall be the portion, a portion of their cup. Now God not only uses all of these things. I mean, think about how quickly God can shut down. Whole cities shut down whole transportation systems and everything. Do you know what else God uses? He uses people. Turn in your Bible, if you would, to 2 Chronicles chapter 36. 2 Chronicles chapter 36. Somebody might be thinking, Brother Kirkman, why are you Why are you bringing out this sort of thing? Well, for the obvious reasons, what I've already stated, but also because we, as God's people, are the only hope for a miracle. We just can't continue to have this kind of Christianity that is popular in the Western world, and it's insipid, and it's an insult to God for the most part. We've got to be people who are striving after holiness and get on holy ground and to be people who can, in the swelling of Jordan, will be people who will be prepared to handle that. In 2 Chronicles chapter 36 verse 15, And the Lord God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers rising up the times and sending the Lord, sending all of his messengers because he had compassion on its people was because he had compassion on his in his messengers and on his dwelling place. Now, what was the response of God's people when we read these things? Beloved, let's try to bear in mind that America is such a parallel to Israel, but they mock the messengers of God and despise his words and misuse his prophets. until the wrath of the Lord rose against his people, till there was no remedy. Therefore he brought upon them the king of the Chaldees, who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young man or maiden, old man or him that stooped for age. He gave them all into his hand." And all the vessels of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king, and of his princes, all these he brought to Babylon. And they burnt the house of God, and break down the wall of Jerusalem, and burnt all the palaces thereof with fire, and destroyed all the goodly vessels thereof." Now, we're seeing right now the incursion of foreign people coming into America and beginning to sack, sack America. For example, there are negotiations going on right now with Red China and our turncoat type of a government that we have, that they are right now negotiating to take ownership of vast, vast portions of America in real estate, land, as payback for debt owed to them. So, America is under judgment right now. What's the reason for it all? This is going to be a brief message. Let's just think of a few things. This is an abbreviated message because there's so many reasons it could be given. The reason that God has, and we recognize this judgment comes from God. God has all different kinds of ways of pouring out judgment upon a people, but he has a good reason for his execution of his judgment on a nation. The first reason is for man to reflect upon some things. When judgment comes, the purpose of that is to make men reflect on their ways. In Ecclesiastes 7 and verse 14, the Bible says, in the day of adversity, consider. Consider. Why is this happening? One of the things that our founding fathers, and I appreciate this so much about them, along with more than we've got time to talk about, but I don't know if I've said this before. If I haven't, I'll say it now. I don't think they were all, not every one of them, were what we would consider to be born again believers, fundamental Christians in the sense that we think about that. I believe that many of them were very godly and very devout. But not all of them. They were believers in God, but they didn't believe in the same way that we do. But one thing that they all did believe in, they were framing a government. They had done their homework and found, through personal observation, the study of classic history and governments, since there's a history of governments, and they found that there was one thing that a government simply could not do without, and that is virtue. and so they that's why they based so the government our government up on the Bible. They understood and they stated that without virtue. This government can't stand. I mean even the most. The least religious of them all, people like Benjamin Franklin, said this Constitution, John Adams echoed this, is only made for a virtuous people. No matter how good the system of government in America, if virtue ever passes off the scene, all you have is a piece of parchment with some dried ink on it. That's all you have. That's all we have today. in this country. That's all we have. That's why we are spiraling into a state of chaos in this country. One reason, because virtue is gone. Now, their idea of virtue was morality and so on and so forth. They looked at every type of religion and recognized that the areas considered moral or virtue agreed upon by all religions And they said, this has got to be part of our society. It's not part of our society anymore. And so, beloved, one thing that that says is that if there's any hope whatsoever to have God's favor, then God's people have got to understand this. I've got to understand the importance of being a truly, truly virtuous people. Thomas Jefferson, again, Thomas Jefferson was no George Whitefield, but he understood these underlying principles that without virtue the whole system would collapse. And I'm telling you, all you have to do is just look at the billboards, look at the magazine racks, look at the television commercials and everything. Absolutely beyond comprehension. How vile. Jefferson said, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just and His justice cannot sleep forever. George Washington said the propitious smiles of heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right, which heaven itself has ordained. Now the question isn't, as some people would have it, the question shouldn't be why God would send judgment. The question should be how can a just God not send judgment on America? See, we're entering into something as a people. As Christian people, as churches, we're entering into something that people in this country have never been in before, have never experienced before. We're sitting over in the lunchroom and talking to this young Laotian couple. That's what they said they were originally from Laos, right? Laos or whatever it is. They started talking about how in 19, I think he said 1974, and like a good wife, his wife corrected him and said, no, it was 1975. But whichever one of them was right, when the communists took over, and he proceeded to talk a little bit about how dreadful that was. And then finally, you know, they were able to get out from under it, at least to a degree. You know, with all these people that have lived under that sea, they see that we're there. They see that we're headed right into the throes of a communistic system. And people don't understand what it is. But God is being a just God. He has to send judgment on America. When you think about things like abortion, and you think about homosexuality, and you think about all of the defrauding and the stealing and the injustice in the courts, and the political corruption and all of that, God just has to send judgment on America. It's not that it's coming, it's already here. In the book of Haggai, in the very first chapter, in two different verses, in verse 5 and verse 7, it says exactly the same thing. God says to His people, consider your ways. So the reason God sends judgment is for people to consider their ways, not like they did back in this passage in Chronicles, where they curse the messengers, rather than reflect upon their ways like God wanted them to. And the reason for that reflection, and I'll close with this, is because God wants to bring people to repentance. In Psalm 107, In verse, I believe it's verse 22, for he commanded and raises the stormy wind, make sure that I'm reading the right passage. Psalm 107. Verse 25, for he commanded and raises the stormy wind, which lifted up the waves thereof, they mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths. Their soul is melted because of trouble. They reel to and fro and stagger like a drunken man and are at their wits end. Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble. See, that's God's intention in all of these judgments to cause people to cry unto him in their trouble. And he bringeth them out of their distresses. See, there's not a lot of people crying to God today. They're crying out against God today. They're wanting to regulate more and legislate more against God. In Haggai 2 and in verse 17, God said to His people that He wanted to repent when He sent judgment upon them. He said, I smote you with blasting and with mildew and with hail in all the labors of your hands, yet you turn not to Me, saith the Lord. And then back to Amos in Amos 4-9, God said, I have smitten you with blasting and mildew when your gardens and your vineyards and your fig trees and your olive trees increase. The palmer worm devoured them. Yet have you not returned unto me, saith the Lord. I wonder if all of us understand that America is not going to turn to God. It's not. But God's people and God's churches can turn to Him and say, well, why should we turn? Because I believe there's plenty among God's people in America that needs to be reflected upon and it needs to be repented of before it is absolutely too late. I do believe God could perform a miracle. It won't be for the sake of this country. It will be an answer to the prayers and turning and repentance of his people and a byproduct of that will be a blessing for this country. Do you know what all of us need to do and God's people need to do? I can't speak to all of God's people, of course, but I can hear us is we need to go home. And we need to just make a good assessment and evaluation of how things are spiritually in our own homes. in our own marriages. And I don't care how bad it is. You can say, well, it's easy for you to say. It is easy for me to say because all I'm doing is just quoting the Word of God. But to go home, whatever that situation is, I'll tell you what, if you're all in a boat together and the boat was going down and you all needed to start cooperating, getting along, straightening a lot of things up in order to survive, you would do that. Amen? We all need to make a little investigation of all of our own lives, our own homes, our relationship with God. What are our priorities spiritually? And beloved, I'm telling you what, we have got some mighty, mighty, mighty good people in this church. I mean that across the board. But all of us need to get ourselves in a position. God is a mighty God. He works through a remnant. He will just use a few. And we need to be the kind of people that God can bless and use in times like these. Amen? Let's all stand together.