Beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ. Very recently, the president of the United States called for a national day of prayer. That was this last Lord's Day. It's an indication of how this worldwide pandemic. Has brought in stark relief. Our need of independence upon the Lord. It's sad to think that it takes a dire situation to awaken a people to these needs. You think back in history, the invasion of the Germans, the D-Day invasion, and many of our lifetimes, 9-11, and now this worldwide pandemic. Reminds us, doesn't it, as nations, but also as individuals of our dependence on the Lord, of our need of him. But equally sad, if we just think about history is how quickly we can lose track of that afterward. I will never forget after 9-11, how during those first days and weeks, the churches were full. A couple of months later, It was business as usual. It betrays, doesn't it, a greater need for what the Lord gives us. Compared to who the Lord is and what the Lord requires of us, what we should be giving him, namely obedience and honor. On 9-11. We live very nearby and we vividly remember how it really felt like a calling on one particular nation. Now, God is calling the whole world. And we are part of that world, beloved. And we recognize that he is using something we cannot even see. It is, so to speak, an invisible challenge, an invisible enemy. And yet, with something so small, he is able to tie the hands of economies across the world, bring daily life to a virtual halt, suspend education, and a host of other things that we consider normal life. Tonight on prayer day, God is calling. But the question is not, is he calling? The question really is, Are we listening? We can understand if the world goes on as the world always has. We can expect no different. But we, as God's church, should know what we're looking at. We should see what it is we're seeing. We are facing. A calling and a judgment of God. We are seeing something that answers the sins we have committed as a people. We have never thought that with so many little children being slain in the womb before they're even born, with the Lord's Day being desecrated as it so openly and frequently is by so many, When you think about how even a generation or two ago, our nation was very different than it is today. And now, the precious name of our God is by many reduced to a mere curse word. Invoking him in prayer has been restricted in more and more places. The elderly, the suffering in our day may be legally executed. Will we respond with repentance? Beloved, tonight we want to consider what God has to say. We want to hear a very simple proverb. that really speaks to our present condition. We find that proverb in the chapter we read, verse 34, these words, Righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people. Our theme is simple, a nation in the balance, and we're going to consider simply the two parts of this proverb. First of all, the effect of righteousness. And then secondly, the effect of sin. It can be brief about the context of this passage. Solomon, of course, was given great wisdom by God. Part of that wisdom was expressed in many short and yet very instructive sayings we call proverbs. He wrote them as a man of great wisdom, but with a wide experience in life. He knew about a lot of things. He was a king. He was not afraid to undertake deep studies and great projects in his day. He also was able to reflect after a number of years on the relative vanity of life apart from God. How temporal matters couldn't be compared with spiritual matters, spiritual treasures. And the proverb we're considering tonight is just such an evaluation. It's a weighing of two ways of living. It's a weighing of two ways, a nation. And a people live. And this particular proverb wasn't just a theoretical statement pulled out of the vast mind of Solomon. It's not an abstract idea. It was really a sober judgment. Undoubtedly, not only found in daily reality. But Solomon knew the history of his people very well. At some seasons of their existence, a righteous nation under God. at other times worse than their Canaanite neighbors. This is a precept, this proverb that is always true whenever and wherever it is applied, including today. Righteousness exalteth a nation. Now, of course, you know, I'm sure that righteousness in scripture has two distinct meanings. The basic meaning in the New Testament, most frequently used, is to be made right with God. And we know that that is done through God's gift of faith in our heart, where he brings us the realization of our sin. We repent and confess our sins. And by his grace, we turn to his son and are declared Righteous. But Solomon here in this proverb is primarily talking about the other meaning of righteousness in the wider sense. Righteousness means living according to God's word. It means living an upright life. Righteous deeds are those deeds that the Bible says we should do. Sinful deeds are called by scripture, by God, unrighteousness. And so is the case of a nation. So righteousness would include things like citizens by and large being honest, being upright in their dealings with one another. magistrates being just in their judgments with respect, no respect of persons, people being generous and kind and caring about one another. The disadvantaged. It would mean a population would honor the Lord's day, it would honor the Lord's name. It would honor the Lord's people. It would honor his word. Righteous legislators would pass laws based on biblical principles. What breaks our heart tonight, beloved. We were something like that at one time. People tell me that it wasn't so many years ago that the city of Toronto was called Toronto the good. It was full of churches. The Lord's Day was kept for years, not only by individuals, but by businesses, too, and farmers. I'm sure there were laws where you could be fined for doing work on the Lord's Day. And it wasn't we don't want to to give the sense that Canada was explicitly and thoroughly Christian at one time, but The level of decency, the respect that was paid to Christianity, to basic Christian principles was widespread at one time throughout our country. As time went on, we began to drift. We began to drift from God, from these God honoring moorings of scripture, There still was in those fading away days something of a collective memory, a collective, we would say, consciousness of Christianity. There was still a sense, more or less based on Scripture, of right and wrong, a desire to see, for example, the golden rule preserved. And even those who didn't necessarily explicitly profess to be Christians, They still tried to live a life more or less like a Christian. They saw the benefit of it. Those of you who are older, how many years? Wasn't the Bible freely taught and read in school? Teachers and students openly acknowledge the Lord in prayer daily. Leaders were not discouraged from encouraging Christian morals. to the people. And in general, people thought that we're better off following the Ten Commandments than not. Who wouldn't be? It was almost common sense. God says that such a nation, a nation of righteousness, is exalted. The very righteousness which people practice in their daily lives, God honors it. Unless we forget, this isn't just Solomon's commentary. This is God speaking. God is saying this is so. It is my judgment of things, he says, regardless of where the culture is headed, no matter what the current moral trends may be. And so we may thank the Lord. That for many, many years, Our nation was truly blessed. I don't know how many people realized throughout those years that the word of God was more or less the glue that held us together. The foundation upon which this stability rested. It was indeed the Lord throughout our nation's history that honored what this proverb is teaching. He was blessing those who honored Him as God. God honors us, beloved, when we honor Him. The fact that we grew in prominence as a nation among the nations is proof of this proverb. For even though it could be argued that maybe there are other nations with superior resources, blessed with maybe some natural abilities we might not have, nevertheless, how many nations haven't squandered all the gifts God gave them through idolatry, impoverished, into relative squalor by idolatry. The question we have to ask is why? Why would God honor such a nation, even if that nation is not thoroughly and entirely godly? Well, first of all, because it honors and exalts his name and his word, not man's. You think of how the heathen magnified the people of Israel at various times in their history, recognizing their laws, recognizing the great things God had done for them. hearing about the miraculous deliverances God provided, the amazing provision he provided, a little nation fending off nations multiple times their size. He also honors such a nation because they encourage others to serve him, even if only by example, but also by the sending out of missionaries. Again, thinking of the Old Testament, you think about a Rahab. She and her people knew about the God of Israel. They trembled before the God of Israel. They had heard what he had done for his people. She wanted to be part of the people of God. Same thing for Ruth the Moabitess. Thy people, she said to Ruth, shall be my people. She said rather to Naomi. She acknowledged God to be God alone. A third reason, generally speaking, is even when a nation has a semblance of righteousness left in it. Why would that be? It's typically because God's people still live there. God's people are still praying. God's people are still being salt and light in their nation. Despite the nation's many, many sins, why does Canada exist today? Why does the United States still exist today? Why does Europe still exist today? The judge of all the earth has chosen. Not in many cases to slay the righteous with the wicked, just like he said to Abraham. Concerning lot. But beloved, we need to look much higher. What righteousness exalts a nation? Is it just a lot of good people who agree to good rules that God left in a book sometime long ago? No, that's not all. The chief reason, the most important reason, is the same reason why God will honor us as a church, God will honor us as families, God will honor us as individuals, and that is He loves His Son. He loves his son more than anything and anyone else in all of the universe. And he loves those who love and honor him. Christianity is not just a religion. It's not just a sect. It's not just one of many ways to reach God. It is the only way. And that only way goes through an only son, an only mediator. So a nation doesn't become righteous even in the practical everyday sense on its own. It becomes righteous because someone long ago bought the power, the grace and the ability for a lost people to become God's people. And whole societies feel the benefit of God's blessing on his people. We are facing tonight a worldwide calling. We call it not an epidemic, but a pandemic worldwide. It reaches our consciousness. But the question you and I need to answer, and there's a number of them, First of all, has this calling reached our conscience? Or is it merely a lot of inconvenience? Cancelled classes? Potential unemployment? What do we do with the children for the next several weeks? Is that the only thing? Is it fear? Now, these things are things we need to deal with. But when this virus breaks out in our area, in earnest, will we see it as a calling to us personally? Or is it just a big hassle, something to fear? Does it conjure up fear or self-examination? Does it frustrate us or does it humble us? Have we ever been taught that we are, in fact, unrighteous apart from Jesus Christ? You see, righteousness in God's eyes isn't just decency and civility. Those things will be products of faith in Christ. Man looks on the outward appearance, sees a decent society, an orderly society. God looks on our heart. God looks to the Savior. How does he bring us to that place where we need to be tonight? He does so chiefly not by viruses. He awakens our consciousness to his holy law. He reminds us that behind all these circumstances, behind this contingent, behind the economic difficulties we are going to face, is a God who is speaking. And so, is God, will God, this season, this very season, make room in our hearts for himself? It's our stubborn self-righteousness. It's our native pride. It's our ungodly desires, our complacency, the I'm OK, you're OK attitude that seems to lull consciences asleep one after another. Can anyone doubt this is a calling of God? to bring our economy, the many day-to-day things we engage in for taking for granted, the near sudden and almost complete halt to almost everything we do. Is this all just a natural occurrence? Let me put it to you and to me this way. Has this brought us closer to the Lord Or are we just too busy coping with the results of it? Has it caused us to see our need of a righteousness that exceeds the righteousness of the Pharisees? Is that our main concern or is our main concern? Let's get back to normal as fast as we can. Has it brought us to our knees or is this going to prove just one more calling ignored? Is this going to bring us once and for all to Jesus Christ? God exalts a nation, he lifts it up as the word literally means, and as our nation is slowly but surely slipping into biblical illiteracy. Where God continues to be shunned or excluded from schools, legislatures, the government, courthouses, other areas of public life and discourse, as his religion, as his people, as his day, as his word, as his son become a byword instead of the main word, there comes an effect. There's a consequence of it all. And we're seeing it already. What is the greatest effect? What is God aiming at with his calling? It's a hardened heart. It's a hardened conscience. How many of us sit in church or have sat in church Sunday after Sunday and the word of God bounced off of us? We sat through when we were piped the gospel. We sat through when we were warned by the law. We sat through the most serious of messages, the most uplifting of messages. We were impervious, it seemed, to the call of God. Will this just be another extended resistance? Or will the fiery horse finally have to give in? We pray, God, it's the latter. We're seeing the effect of this righteousness fading, not only in the hardening of consciences, but in the slaughter of children. The militant attitude taken by those who now champion the cause of Sodom and Gomorrah those who want to confound the genders that God had created, who want to sideline or eliminate as many references to God and particularly to Jesus Christ as possible, as if that was the disease we need to be afraid of, who want to secularize our society, eliminate all references to deity, elevate false religions to be equal to or more favored than Christianity. And so, as we see marriages dissolve, as we see the genders confused, as we see a total disregard almost for the Lord's day, a dishonoring of authority both in the home and in the state and beyond. As we continue to enjoy the exaltation of our nation that came on the coattails of godly generations past, What happens next? We're going to consider what happens next in our second thought, namely the effect of sin and what God says about that. But we'll sing first, Psalter 343, and let's sing all the stanzas. 343, all stanzas. In the second place, the effect of sin. But sin is a reproach to any people. I don't think we need to define sin, anything that is contrary to the character and will of God, His laws. Sin is that beloved which God personally hates, that which He has told us He will punish at times with temporal judgments, certainly with eternal judgments, except a ransom be found. Sin is man's natural element. That, the Bible says, is a reproach. The word means it is a shame to any people. no matter who we are, no matter where we live, no matter what our status, no matter what our standard of living, no matter what our position in society. Sin is a reproach. It is our shame. And this proverb isn't saying that people necessarily recognize That it's a reproach or feel and experience the shame associated with sin, but it is a shame nevertheless. It is a shame in the sight of God. This proverb. Spells out two very distinct directions. Now, there's no question that there may be other nations in the world today that look admiringly at our nation of Canada. There may be many things that they wished they could have that we do. But unless their envy of our country is its righteousness, righteousness that they can see, then they're just as blind as we are. then they are seeking after the same vanities we are. They simply want to catch up with the level of vanity we've achieved. They will become the same reproach that we are becoming. But now we need to go from the nation to ourselves. What about us, beloved? What do you admire? What do I admire? What person, what people, what nation do you admire most? Who would you love to change places with if you could? But then the more important question, why would you? What attracts you about that person you admire, the person you would like to be like? Is sin a reproach to you? Is it a shame in your eyes? Does your heart ache? Does it literally ache over the direction of our country? Or are you too busy to be bothered? Too busy making money? Too busy keeping house? Too busy taking care of business? enjoying the good life, you just can't slow down to notice the shame and reproach that like a pail is coming across us as a country. And if you do admire the godly. Whether as a people or as a particular godly person, has God actually put it in your heart to go beyond admiration? Is there a cry in your heart? Oh, God, deliver me from who I am to be like that. Are you doing anything? To change. Are you crying out to God for change? Have you ever come to see? Are you beginning to see by the grace of God the bankruptcy? Of sin. We could ask this question. What do we, as a church, need to repent of? Where are we failing to honor the Lord? What have we done with the heritage He's given us on a silver platter? Now, some might think, Pastor, I don't see this proverb happening. I don't see sin being of reproach. In fact, it seems in many ways that the more sinful people are, the more popular they become. My buddies at school. Maybe the most popular people at school are the most outrageous. In government, the more corrupt they seem to become, the most powerful. In business, if you follow the rules, you lose to the companies that cheat. They're way ahead of you. You get burned. The most worldly of people, many times, seem to be the most happy, at least from outward appearance. The godly, on the other hand, are often troubled. They mourn over their sins. But this reproach, beloved, is not measured by other people. This reproach is not measured by polling data. This reproach is in God's eyes and in the eyes of the godly. You might be indulging your way to hell, but God's people are weeping over the direction of your life. You might be numbed numbed to the false security of entertainment, of wealth, diversions, pleasures. But the people of God are afraid for you where this will end. A people who delight in sin, no matter how free it makes us feel, are slaves to their sins, and in God's eyes, you are a disgrace. You're an absolute disgrace. These are falling away. falling away further and further. The purpose from which we were created were far downstream as sinners. And by indulging freely in our sins, we are openly reproaching the living God in whose name practically all of us were baptized under whose word practically all of us have been taught from our youth whose ways you are disregarding, whose voice you are not heeding. You delight instead in the very sins you were taught to repent of. When society sees a drunk staggering along on the street, it's usually one of two responses. Either we pity the person for their sad condition, Or, if we're a bit more proud, we look down on them. What a disgrace, we might think to ourselves. The Spirit of God is saying to us tonight, when I look down on my people, when I look down on my church, when I look down on these who have borne the name of Christ on their forehead, I see so much That's a disgrace. And as we become hardened to sin, shame, any sense of shame, decreases proportionately. That what shocked people a few years, a few decades ago, is less shocking today. That's the effect of sin. It's a hardening effect. It's a deadening effect. It emboldens people to go further into sin, to go deeper into sin, to go longer into sin. You just have to open a newspaper. You just have to look at a newscast. You just have to observe what's going on around us to see this is so. And it seems with every passing year now, new iniquities, are introduced not only tolerated but celebrated and that openly. We could say from a human perspective shame is disappearing. But now the other effect of sin that is much more subtle and much more deadly is alienation. Alienation increases, as it were, the distance between the sinner and God. What happens when this happens? What happens when God, for all intents and purposes, is no longer sort of generally acknowledged in society, even though that society may not be thoroughly godly? What happens when God is completely or nearly out of the picture? When we are so alienated from God, well, here's what happens. We lose all sense of perspective. What do I mean? Well, when we don't anymore see the beauty of God, when we don't ever see anymore the loveliness of his ways, when that fades, as it were, into the distance, then all that's left is what's left and everything else becomes attractive to us. Sin becomes attractive to us. Deviance becomes attractive. The newest thing becomes attractive. Distractions become attractive. Losing God was the first thing that we did in paradise. We're continuing to lose him. It's a downhill slope from the Garden of Eden till now, except God intervenes. Except God intervenes. That's true of nations like Israel. If God had not brought them back repeatedly, they would have become worse than their neighbors. That's our future. That's your future. That's my future, except by the keeping of God. by the powerful working of the Spirit of God. If Jesus Christ does not become personally lovely to you, to me, we're doomed. Something else will take his place. We ever come to experience this alienation? Have we ever come to that point where we realize we've lost our God? Have we ever become Canada? Have we stopped pointing to the abortionists and the euthanizers and said, Oh God, it's me. I'm guilty of these things. Have you ever fell down on your knees? Because God is no longer speaking in your life. Because you're no longer hearing his voice, because you're so afraid of being left in your lostness. Has that ever dawned on you? Did you ever feel like your life is like a speeding train heading for a wreck, a complete wreck? Have you ever thanked God from your heart? That his work of grace is a sovereign one, that he is far more powerful than any man's resistance. That he is our only hope because we cannot and we will not turn apart from him. A little more personally. Has there ever been the cry of the Apostle Peter, help me, when he was sinking. Ever the cry of the blonde Bartimaeus, that I may see my sight, Lord, or have my sight restored. Or the prayer of the psalmist, search me, O God, know my heart. Try me and know my ways. See if there be any wicked way in me. Don't leave me in it. Leave me in the way everlasting. If not, What does God say to you tonight? Your life is a reproach on Him. Your life is a shame in His eyes. It's a reproach on His blessed name. It's a reproach on His dear Son. It's a reproach on you. Yours is a shameful life. You may not feel ashamed, but you're ashamed to Him. And He's ashamed of you. If ever we needed the reviving of God's Holy Spirit, it's now. With judgments heading our way thick and fast, it is high time to get out of Sodom and not to look back. There's a Zoar in which we can flee, and its name is Jesus. There's a place of refuge. A place where the storms of life may reach us, but where the judgments of God will not. If you think those who are stricken with this disease in a serious way are in trouble, nobody's more in trouble than we are. Who know the will of God, and if we do it, not. Many stripes, the Lord says. You remember what Jesus said to his disciples, to those around him. Think you that those upon whom the tower of Siloam fell were greater sinners than others? No, he said, except you repent, we will all likewise perish. Or those who whose blood Pilate mingled with their sacrifices, were they greater sinners than others? No. Except we repent. will all die eternally. So what happens when a nation gets to this? What happens when we get to this point? God's blessings are increasingly withheld. The outward benefits might fool us. They may continue maybe for a generation. Again, on the coattails of godly people who live before us. But the heart, the heart of those blessings is removed. However, imperceptibly, God no longer favors that land. God no longer favors that people like he once did. Instead of honoring him and bringing him and his ways glory, they are a disgrace to him. They bring dishonor to his holy name, especially is God incensed. Against the people who still somewhat. Confess him. Who tried to hold on. To a little bit of Christian way. while holding on with the other hand their sinful ways and practices. That's our country today. A fading semblance of what we once were. Furthering the reproach of Christ in the world. But the same could be said of us, couldn't it? Those of us who wear the name of Christian, who profess to be Christians, and yet who live as worldly in our practices, in our pastimes, in our appearance, in our choices, as the world, what are we teaching the world? What are we teaching the world? That sin is no disgrace. That sin is no shame, that sin is no reproach. So any keen observer in the world. Could look at many of us and say, well, that's strange. They're becoming more like me. And I thought it was their calling to make me more like Christ. And to make me more like them. May I put it this way? What is our nation's reputation in the world? Godliness. What is our church's reputation in this county? Godliness. What is our family's reputation in our neighborhoods? Are we known for our godliness? What is your reputation? What is my reputation in our family? How about your spouse? Is it godliness? If not, what is it? We're a shame. We're a reproach. We're a disgrace to God, to his ways. He will judge us. Sin is a reproach. Other nations see the hypocrisy. They see the ungodliness. They see her as exporters of sinful influences. People that we might disdain to think have any morality of their own look down on the decadence we produce and export daily. Not to mention consume. Did we ever see ourselves personally as having the same effect on other people around us. That we're actually, as baptized Christians, an influence for ill to those in our classroom, to those in our university, to those in our neighborhood, to those in our workplace. That we're actually, as Christians, leading the world to hell. The root of righteousness is the righteous one. The way out of this downward spiral is repentance and confession, having our eyes open and seeing the only way out. Jesus Christ, the righteous. If it's not Christ's righteousness, we are embracing by faith. Then the righteousness we think we have is a fraud. It is a fake. The root bears the branches and the branches produce the fruit. But if the root is in Christ, the branches, he says, will wither and they're fit for the fire. And that's where they'll go. He tells us we are at a crossroads. I am not exaggerating when I say that there are still the people of God among us in our church, in our land. Undoubtedly, that's the one reason, perhaps among maybe a few others that we still exist for their sake. But let's not forget God's warning to his people in Isaiah 2620. Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers and shut thy doors about thee. Hide thyself, as it were, for a little moment until the indignation be overpassed. For behold, the Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity. The earth also shall disclose her blood and shall no more cover her slain." What's God doing? God says, my people, shelter in the Lord, shelter in my word, just a moment, while I unearth and expose what's been going on throughout this world and I judge it. And you see, beloved, there is no Noah's Ark today. There's no city of Zoar to flee into. There is, however, something that may not necessarily prevent us from the contagion that's enveloping the earth, but will certainly keep us from eternal judgment. We must shelter in Jesus Christ by faith and through repentance. It's sad for me to say, but our nation, is going the way of all flesh. Will God ever send revival again? I don't know. I don't know. But for us, we have to face this crossroads ourselves, each in his own life. Where do we stand? Which side of this proverb are you on? Are you preparing yourself for judgment by sheltering in the only arc of safety? Or are you sinning on? Is his righteousness being reflected in a lifestyle of righteousness? Because remember, that's what the proverb primarily is talking about. Or are you so covered With the reproach and shame of sin that when you look in the mirror, you no longer see it as that. Our temporal standing with God and our eternal standing before him depends on whether the righteousness we have. Is the right kind. Our righteousness in Christ will, if it's true, inevitably lead to a righteous way of living. Through the grace that he gives, through the Son who we cling to, lives of holiness, these are very important to the Lord. Very important to the Lord. Jesus himself says, herein, in this very thing, is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit. And so, in so doing, you shall be my disciples. Otherwise, what Jesus describes a couple of verses before will be our picture. If a man abide not in me, He is cast forth as a branch and is withered and men gather them and cast them into the fire and they are burned. It's one or the other. And we cannot do this ourselves. We must come to an end of ourselves. are sinful ways. We are to look to him. And if we can't look to him, we are to cry to him. And if we can't cry to him, we have to side to him. And if we can't walk to him, we have to crawl to him. Righteousness exalted the nation. But sin is a reproach to any people. That was true in the day it was written. That is true today. That will be true in the day of judgment. In this, writes John, the children of God are manifest, made known, and the children of the devil. Whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother. And I end with this question. What will be God's verdict if we were to stand before him this very night? Will he say righteous or unrighteous? Amen.