The Need Of National Repentance

Judges 17.6

No king
Israel set up as a theocracy.
God wanted to be their king.
No king is saying the people rejected the LORD as their ruler and leader.

Everyone did as they saw fit.
not listening to the Word already given.

As goes the family so goes the nation. As the family continues to disintegrate in the US, so the social order, emotional stability, rules of order fall apart.

Mother to child this week in a restaurant, "Why can't you just listen?"

We are our own worst guides.
And therein is an insight into the moral degeneracy. They had lost the fact that God was to be their king. They lost the consciousness of that fact. And every man, rather than being ruled by God, was doing that which was right in his own eyes. It was a period of anarchy. Everybody did what he wanted to do, what was right in his own eyes. This was the chaotic condition that was going on in Israel during the time of the Judges. Spiritual anarchy where everyone was doing what was right in their own eyes, not really following the government of God or the law of God.

Our nation, The United States of America was "Forged in Faith", so reads the title of a book Patrick gave me which I am reading. I just finished reading The Harbinger that the Rubios gave me which speaks of God's judgement upon America.

The fact that the Word of God was the basis in the founding of the United States, in all of its earliest documents, The Declaration of Independence, The Constitution, our coins and our flag's pledge all reveal that. Our history is entrenched with the Word of God.

A sidebar:
Have you ever wondered what happened to the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence?

Five signers were captured by the British as traitors, and tortured before they died. Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned. Two lost their sons serving in the Revolutionary Army; another had two sons captured.

Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or hardships of the Revolutionary War. They signed and they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor. What kind of men were they?

Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists. Eleven were merchants, nine were farmers and large plantation owners; men of means, well educated. But they signed the Declaration of Independence knowing full well that the penalty would be death if they were captured.

Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships swept from the seas by the British Navy. He sold his home and properties to pay his debts, and died in rags. Thomas McKeam was so hounded by the British that he was forced to move his family almost constantly. He served in the Congress without pay, and his family was kept in hiding. His possessions were taken from him, and poverty was his reward.

Vandals or soldiers looted the properties of Dillery, Hall, Clymer, Walton, Gwinnett, Heyward, Ruttledge, and Middleton. At the battle of Yorktown, Thomas Nelson, Jr. noted that the British General Cornwallis had taken over the Nelson home for his headquarters. He quietly urged General George Washington to open fire. The home was destroyed, and Nelson died bankrupt.

Francis Lewis had his home and properties destroyed. The enemy jailed his wife, and she died within a few months. John Hart was driven from his wife's bedside as she was dying. Their 13 children fled for their lives. His fields and his gristmill were laid to waste. For more than a year he lived in forests and caves, returning home to find his wife dead and his children vanished. A few weeks later, he died from exhaustion and a broken heart.

Norris and Livingston suffered similar fates. Such were the stories and sacrifices of the American Revolution. These were not wild-eyed, rabble-rousing ruffians. They were soft-spoken men of means and education. They had security, but they valued liberty more.

Many of the songs written about America reflect our faith in God.

Our national Day of Thanksgiving is steeped in acknowledgment of Almighty God and His relationship to the begInning of the United States.

John Winthrop:
For we must consider that we shall be a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us, so that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken, and so cause Him to withdraw His present help from us, we shall be made a story and a byword through the world.
Sermon aboard the Arbella, 1630 Puritans

Massachusetts Bay Covenant
We covenant with our Lord, and one with another; and we do bind our selves in the presence of God, to walk together in all his ways, according as He is pleased to reveal himself unto us in His blessed word of truth; and do explicitly, in the name and fear of God, profess and protest to walk as followeth, through the power and grace of our Lord, Jesus Christ.

We avouch the Lord to be our God, and our selves to be His people, in the truth and simplicity of our spirits.

We give our selves to the Lord Jesus Christ, and the word of his grace for the teaching, ruling and sanctifying of us in matters of worship and conversion, resolving to cleave unto him alone for life and glory, and to reject all contrary ways, canons, and constitutions of men in his worship.

We promise to walk with our brethren, with all watchfulness and tenderness, avoiding jealousies and suspicions, back-bitings, censurings, provokings, secret risings of spirit against them; but in all offences to follow the rule of our Lord Jesus, and to bear and forbear, give and forgive, as he hath taught us.

Prayer, the Word of God, faith paid a prominent role in our country. How apparent this was on my trip in the city with Patrick Kelly on Friday.

What has happened to us?
1630 We just read.
1963 prayer ruled by the Supreme Court out of the schools
1973 abortion legalized by the Supreme Court
In that decade grocery stores began opening on Sunday.
February 26, 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center killing 6, injuring 1,000.
April 19, 1995 Oklahoma City Bombing of e Federal Building killing 168 people, injuring more than 500
July 26, 1996 Olympic Park Bombing in Atlanta killing 2 injuring more than 100.
9-11 took place next.
Millennial bomber in LA and shoe bomber's, undergarments and Times Square plots uncovered and stopped.
Boston Marathon Bombing killing 3, injuring more than 175.

2001 Largest Terrorist Attacks on American Soil in New York and Washington, DC. Killing nearly 3,000 along with the downed plane in PA.
911 every time we had an emergency and dial it
2004 May 17th Same Sex Marriage legalized in Massachusetts
2010 March 9th Same Sex Marriage made legal in Washington, DC
2011 July 24th Same Sex Marriage made legal in New York
2012 September 11 Attack on our Embassy in Lybia, killing 4 Americans
2013 April 15th Boston Marathon Terrorist Attack
Boston, New York, Washington, DC...historical cities in this nation's founding... God is speaking...

We are rapidly moving towards the time like Israel was in when the Judges ruled. In those days they had rejected Jehovah God as king. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

In his inaugural address in New York on Wall Street, George Washington stated, "The propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself hath ordained." His hand was placed upon the Bible that day and every President since that has done the same thing.


1. People, like Micah, were deciding how they would worship God rather than following God's Word. c.17

Many have left the church today. Some have set up worship in their homes, on the beach.

Idolatry is prevalent. When some object or person gets the place the LORD ought to have in an individual' or nation's life.

God designed worship for His Glory and our good. It is a good thing give thanks to the LORD.
Psalm 92:1-2 It is good to praise the Lord and make music to your name, O Most High, proclaiming your love in the morning and your faithfulness at night,
Psalm 147:1 Praise the Lord.How good it is to sing praises to our God, how pleasant and fitting to praise him!
Congregational worship in spirit and in truth is wonderful. Worshiping the LORD in the beauty of His Holiness is like nothing else.

We must be careful not worship worship, not worship the worship leaders or bands or groups.


2. Decisions are being made without consulting God. c.18

How very different from the early days of conquest under the leadership of Joshua.

In Joshua's day they threw away the idols.
Joshua 24:14-16 “Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” Then the people answered, “Far be it from us to forsake the Lord to serve other gods!

Now the Danites are carrying the idols with them!

They were leaning on their own understanding not acknowledging Him.
They were worshiping idols and consulting God secondary, half heartedly and with their minds already made up, their hearts set on what hey wanted.

Angels are being idolized today.
When major decisions are made flippantly the results are disastrous.



3. Too many called by God have fallen into sin. c.19

Another megachurch pastor has stepped down after admitting to a long-term affair with a woman who’s not his wife. 3 in the Orlando area in the past six months.
If those were the only three pastors to rock their churches with sex scandals, it would be hurtful enough. But sexual immorality and idolatry are growing trends in the church—and I imagine they're more prevalent in the pews than they are in the pulpits. The spirit of Jezebel is often behind this immoral trend, tapping into the lust of the flesh with its seductive agenda.
There have been others outside of the Orlando area in recent months. Horror stories.


What is the prescription for a sin sick nation?

II Chronicles 7.14
Israel had the prescription as do we.
1 Chronicles 12:32 from Issachar, men who understood the times and knew what Israel should do...

Friday's trip to the city with Patrick...
St. Paul's: George Washington, along with members of the United States Congress, worshipped at St. Paul's Chapel on his Inauguration Day, on April 30, 1789. Washington also attended services at St. Paul's during the two years New York City was the country's capital. Above Washington's pew is an 18th-century oil painting of the Great Seal of the United States; adopted in 1782.

The rear of St. Paul's Chapel faces Church Street, opposite the east side of the World Trade Center site. After the attack on September 11, 2001, which led to the collapse of the twin towers of the World Trade Center, St. Paul's Chapel served as a place of rest and refuge for recovery workers at the WTC site.

The church survived without even a broken window. Church history declares it was spared by a miracle sycamore on the northwest corner of the property that was hit by debris. The tree's root has been preserved in a bronze memorial by sculptor Steve Tobin.
Isaiah 9:10 “The bricks have fallen down,but we will rebuild with dressed stone;the fig trees have been felled, but we will replace them with cedars.”

The statements made by our leaders about rebuilding. Instead of repenting, we have rebuilt, along with that since 9-11 morally our nation has moved further down the path to judgement.

Statue of Washington on Wall Street
The Bible He used to be sworn in with
A relief of him kneeling in prayer

We see the father of our nation with faith in God, humble, calling us to follow the LORD, praying, kneeling to pray.
Where are we this day?


Romans 15:4 For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope.

Last verse of Judges
Judges 21:25 In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit.
That is the last chapter in a nation unless it returns to the LORD.

On this Memorial Day Sunday we call to the LORD to have mercy upon us.