A Crooked and Perverse Nation

You know, it has been said that we each live in our own little world of reality. And there's a certain amount of truth in that because each one of us has somewhat of a unique set of circumstances, at least enough that our own little world of reality do vary in degree and measure. We understand that. But that said, there are some overall realities that capture us all. We all live in certain realities that are common to all of us.

As first fruits, as part of the bride of Jesus Christ, as part of His church, as true Christians, there's a common reality that you and I share. We find it in Philippians 2, verse 15. Philippians 2, verse 15, to the people of God, to you and me, who are part of God's people, that you may be blameless and harmless in the sons of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, a crooked and perverse nation.

This is our national identity. This is our national reality, the reality that you and I are thrust into, that we find ourselves in and we can't escape it, a crooked and perverse nation, and we're caught right in the very midst of it with the responsibility we can't escape, lights, lights in a dark and darkening world.

A crooked and perverse nation. That's what I'm going to lay out and show. That's the subject. That's the title. A crooked and perverse nation. Never in the history of this nation has this Scripture spoken more to us than it does in 2023. Never in the history of this nation since its beginning has this Scripture held more relevance and meaning.

Never has it been more on target, both now and in the days ahead. Because when you look around, you see that crookedness and perverseness is taking over. Crookedness and perversions are gaining the upper hand. And who is so blind as not to see that? Crookedness and perversions are dominating our national scene more and more. Crookedness and perversions are coming to define us as a nation. It's not just what we see. It's what the world sees as that beacon sat on a hill. That city sat on a hill. It's what they see, just defining us any more as a nation.

We're already seeing the dominance of such in the blue states. And like a malignancy, it's spreading rapidly throughout all states. Like some great process of osmosis, just by the pressures, just by living alongside it. Like some great process of osmosis, it's being accepted and absorbed by an increasing majority.

It's like that frog in the water situation. The frog's in the water. The heat is turned on very slowly and gradually and increases. And because it increases gradually, the frog doesn't fill the heat necessarily, adjusts to it as it goes. And it is said that eventually the frog will be cooking, be boiling. Now, I've never tried that with a frog and don't intend to. But I've always been told that's the way it works.

It's passively accepted by more and more because you find there's less and less resistance. You see it around us. Oh, there are some that resist. Yes. But there's less and less resistance. This vast and increasing majority of less and less resistance of passive acceptance is sometimes referred to as the church of acceptance. What do we mean about the church of acceptance? Well, those who just go along to get along. I go along to get along because there are those who are actively doing, but then there are those who are passively, by default, just accepting. They just go along to get along.

And the crookedness and the perversions are becoming more and more undeniable. The fruits are increasing daily. I know it's obvious to you because of the commentaries I make, that I do glue myself to watching what's going on in the nation and the world. I do glue myself to the TV for an hour or two sometimes, a couple of hours, maybe even more, in some cases, trying to daily to really keep my finger through the news on what's going on.

You know, one of the recent ones, one of the recent proofs that problems are increasing daily, is President Biden's mandate that all government offices, federal offices, have to be equity staffed. But then, I think he gave a time frame of about 30 days. What's that mean? Well, it means equity in terms of their definition of equity versus qualifications.

It means quotas over qualifications. It totally ignores a pure qualifications basis, a pure qualifications criteria thrown out the window. It forces representation of transgenders and others regardless as to the qualifications for the job. It automatically lowers the quality of leadership. Look at the example of how the administration has been staffed. I mean, all the way from the press secretary to the admiral who is a man who claims to be a woman to sticky fingers who was put in charge of, I think it was hazardous waste disposal or something, the guy that liked to steal luggage from airports and wear women's clothing and all. I mean, just look at the administration to see how they've gone out of their way to staff themselves with such. And this approach is affecting everything from pilots to surgeons. Pilots to surgeons. Quality and safety are being compromised and sacrificed.

Here's one of the realities you can never get away from in life. This is a reality. Morals and judgment are always tied together. Morals and judgments are always tied together. They can't be separated. Good judgment is always based on good morals. You cannot get good judgment without good morals. Good judgment is always based on good morals. It'll June the 26th, 2015, the Supreme Court majority decision, they could not define or stick with what marriage truly is, could they? And what do they do? They put the force of law. They put the force of law behind perversion. And now, the most recent addition to the Supreme Court, Associate Justice Jackson, cannot even define what a woman is.

Such decisions and actions automatically raise the level of corruption and acceptance. The word woke. The dictionary meaning of woke is to be awake, to be alert. It's interesting, the word woke, which has become a national byword, presents a great irony because the very word that means to be awake and to be alert and aware speaks to a reality that is helping foster a very deep spiritual slumber on our nation.

We're going to sleep spiritually. What's going on? What is truly going on? Well, for one thing, Satan's fingerprints are all over it. His fingerprints are all over it because he's got his hands all over it. I don't know how many people many times read that he's the God of this world and they just... Oh, he's the God of this world.

Oh, oh, God of this world. So what? He's the God of this world. What's new? They don't realize the impact. And who has rapidly become and has rapidly become and has become the God of this nation? The God of this world, who more and more is dominating America, more and more His agenda.

Not God's. His. His agenda is taking hold. His agenda can be found in Romans 1. I'm going to turn over to Romans 1, or actually turn back to Romans 1, because I'm over in Philippians and back here in Romans chapter 1. You can find His agenda here in Romans 1, and it can be stated in three words. Get God out. Get God out. Look at Romans 1, verses 21 and 28. Verses 21 and 28. Verse 21, Because that when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God. Neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened. Because that when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God.

Verse 28, And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge. It's an attitude. It's an animosity. It's a hostility. Get God out. Even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge. Did not like to retain God in their knowledge. Did not acknowledge Him. Did not glorify Him. What's part of the result that comes out of that?

Look at verse 25. Verse 25, Who changed the truth of God into a lie. Now, you know what many times we think of when we read that? When I say, what is the truth? You will say, and I will say, and the first thing that many times comes to our mind is we talk about the truth, and we just use the word truth, we'll think, well, the Sabbath, that's the truth, we should be keeping the Sabbath, which we should. The holy days, that's the truth. The coming Kingdom of God, you know, coming out of paganism and staying out of it.

Clean and unclean versus unclean meat as far as eating meat. I mean, we think of these basic things that we have known for years and years, and there's nothing wrong with thinking of that. But is that the fullness of what this is saying here? Does it take that into account? Absolutely. But what else does it take into account?

Let's get down to real basics, some very simple basics, because the truth of God is in two levels. It's the initial level of just basic truth that anybody can see and understand because they have a mind. And then there's the deep things of God, the deep things, the deep layer, that does require God's Holy Spirit to be present. Well, let's just take this statement, who changed the truth of God into what? A lie. What is truth when it comes to sex? Male and female. If somebody comes to me and says, I'm an it, I might say, well, you possibly may be an it.

Male and female. Only two sexes, period. Katangi, Brown, Jackson. The new Supreme Court Associate Justice, as of June 30th of last year, cannot define a woman. When she was being interviewed in Congress and they asked her to define what a woman is, she couldn't do it. And she said she couldn't do it. The truth is that marriage is between a man and a woman. Not two men, not two women.

The Supreme Court majority on June 26, 2015, made a lie. Legal. And binding. Homosexual marriage. The truth is, the truth is, no practice thing homosexual will be in the kingdom of God. I have gone on record from all three of the pulpits of this area that I pastor. Rome, Gatsman, Chattanooga. As very clearly stating, that if somebody comes to me and says, Mr.

Beam, I am gay, I hate it, I wish I weren't, I'm sick of it, I want to quit practicing it, I want to come out of it. I want help to change my life. Will you help me? Yes, sir. Yes, ma'am, I will. I'll do whatever is within my power to help you come out of that corrupt lifestyle. But if one comes to me and says, Mr. Beam, I am gay and proud of it, and I don't care what you or anybody else think, I'm going to practice it, I love it, and I'm not coming out of it, so there.

I just simply say, okay, so there. Go. I'm not wasting my time trying to change you from something you don't want to be changed from. And I know in my mind there's coming a day in God's plan called the Last Great Day when they will be worked with to bring them to their senses, to give them a true and fully supportive chance to come out of that.

But the truth is, no practicing, with the emphasis on practicing homosexual being the kingdom of God, such are included in the left-out list. Look with me at 1 Corinthians 6, verses 9 and 10. 1 Corinthians 6, verses 9 and 10. Paul in writing of them says, Do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Don't be deceived. In other words, don't let anybody tell you otherwise and convince you otherwise because there is no otherwise.

Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind. Which is very obvious to know what that's talking about. Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. Those practicing these things are included in the left-out list. Now, you might keep your fingers here. I'm coming back. But I'm going to Revelation 22, verse 15.

The last chapter of the Bible. The last statement in Scripture to see if any changes. Now in verse 14, and again, when you get to Revelation 22 in your reading here, you're actually talking about the ultimate list. What I'm saying is you're talking about when the plan of salvation has been totally processed through the steps and stages as pictured by the Holy Days of God. When we're all the way completed with mortality.

Blessed are they, verse 14, that do His commandments that they may have rights to the tree of life. They have eternal life. They may enter into the gates, into the city, heavenly Jerusalem, which would be on this earth at that time because we're reaching way out to the end of the whole process. But who's gotten left out? Who's not there? Who won't be there? Who's left out?

For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers. This is heavy duty company, isn't it? And murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loves and makes a lie. That's pretty heavy duty. Sometimes people read in Scripture. You can find it in the Old Testament, but you also find it right here. They'll read, for without are dogs. Well, wait a minute. Dogs are left out? What's that referring to? In the lingo of the Bible, when dogs is used with people, it means sodomites.

It means male prostitutes. That's what the word dogs means when it's using the term with people. It's sodomites, male prostitutes. Back in 1 Corinthians 6, heavy duty list, verse 11, 1 Corinthians 6, verse 11. And such were some of you.

Some of you were fornicators. Some of you were idolaters, adulterers, thieves, covetous, drunkards, revilers, extortioners. Such were some of you. It's interesting. He puts it in past tense. War was no longer practicing. Abusing yourselves with mankind, abusers of mankind, men with men, women with women. There's something about homosexuality there. Such were some of you. You were practicing. In other words, you've repented and you're no longer doing it. Don't go back into it. This list includes homosexuals. See, Corinth was Sin City. It was one of the Sin Cities of the ancient world. The Greek culture was full of homosexuality.

Full of it. It was viewed and accepted as completely normal. What do we see happening today in America regarding homosexuality, transgenderism, all of that? In the Greek culture, it was viewed and accepted as completely normal. The Greeks were the third world-ruling empire. Babylonia, Babylonian, Medo-Persian, Grecian, and then Rome, of course. The Greek military unit was called the Phalanx. It was a block of heavily armed infantry, shoulder to shoulder, several ranks steep, fully developed by the ancient Greeks, and such a good arrangement that many others copied them for years and years, even into the European theater back in the 1600s, the 1700s, the 1800s.

It was a very tough unit to crack in battle. And when the Romans first started fighting with the Greeks, they had a tough time. Their legions had a very tough time. And then they discovered something. The Romans discovered that with a lot of those military units, that there was a pretty heavy element of homosexual couples in those units. And they learned to lasso someone in the front rank, yank them out of the arrangement, and the man, the warrior's lover, would come out to try to save him and defend him, and they could start breaking the units up and make inroads. And many times it was a bit of an older man with a younger man.

But it was coming. It was coming to the military. So there's a lot of things that are just kind of, eh, in the shadows of history. You'll find it if you know where to go and research it. No, you'll find these things, but it's just not common knowledge out there. Anyhow, that was used against them to break up the unit from a get-in road. Now, part of the lie on this and other things is that love covers it all. You hear that anymore? Love covers all. If it's done in love.

If they love each other. If they love each other. If they're monogamous. Love makes it okay. The truth is, it doesn't. Love starts where? With love of God, right? Romans again. Romans 1 again. Love, true, bona fide love starts with love of God. Verse 25, who changed the truth of God into a lie, that's not love of God. That's taking something of His and trashing it. And notice, worship and serve the creature or the creation more than or rather than, as it can be rendered, the Creator. So God is not being loved in this. He is being put second at best or, frankly, let's just get Him out of here.

When a society becomes obsessed with sex, sex becomes its guide. Look around. Look at the movies. Look at the music. Look at the internet. When a society becomes obsessed with sex, sex becomes its guide and it spirals downward. And to every kind of sexual perversion and degeneracy, more and more and more of that God is served. Verse 26, for this cause God gave them up. Okay. That's what you want to do. I'm not going to stop you. You're going to have to learn the hard way.

For this cause God gave them up into vile affections. For even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature. It doesn't make any logical natural sense. And likewise also, the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust, one toward another. Men with men, working that which is unseemly. Pete refers to his, quote, mate as his husband. Does that make Pete the wife?

Which is unseemly and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was made. What is the result? What comes out of it? The total breakdown of society. And the building block of society. The total breakdown of the building block of society, the family. What is Satan's prime target in all this? The family. Why? Well, number one, because it's the building block of society. It's the building block of society. Break it down and you break down society. It's not hard to figure out. Not hard at all. But you run into all kinds of biases and prejudices because we don't want God telling us what works and what doesn't.

If you want to bring a society down, you have to bring down the family. You have to bring down the family unit because, again, it's a reality that as goes the family, so goes the society. Number two, you might say, because the family is reflective of God. That's what it's reflective of. It's reflective of God and His plans and purposes. The human family is parallel.

It's a parallel to what God is doing by having a human race. It goes to the heart of an eternal purpose, an eternal family. And that could give us in one sense a third point, an eternal family. An eternal family, the family of God. Satan hates God. There's no other word for it. He hates God. He hates everything about God. He hates His plans.

He hates His purposes. Anything to do with God is totally distasteful to him. He wants nothing to do with God except get in the way. Get in the way and disrupt, corrupt, defeat whatever you can. And as the spirit of the power of the air.

These scriptures aren't in there just to take up space. Like Ephesians 2,2, that Satan is the prince of the power of the air. The spirit that works in the children of disobedience. It's there. And he instills animosity. He instills hostility. I said here a while back, and I'll repeat it. Some of my messages aren't easy to listen to. They're easy to listen to by the converted. They're easy to listen to by those who love truth. They're easy to listen to by those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.

But they're hard to listen to by the liberal mindset. They're hard to listen to by the lad to see who kids himself or herself. Well, everything's okay. I'm doing just fine. I have need of nothing. Yeah, that's hard for them to listen to. But not for those who love truth, because I'm going to speak the truth. No, he instills animosity, hostility, to every degree and measure that he can.

He wants to take people in society as far away from God and the things of God as he possibly can. Now, Satan knows God's family design. He knows God's design of family. And guess what? Satan knows. See, the problem is not always why Satan knows or doesn't know. It's more what he wants and doesn't want. But he knows. He knows how important family is. He knows its role. He knows what it's reflective of. He knows its purpose.

And he knows the role it plays in the supreme purpose of God. He knows God's supreme purpose of having an eternal family. That's not a secret to him. If a healthy family unit serves a greater family purpose overall, then the opposite is true. Then an unhealthy or broken family unit does just the opposite.

Satan knows the value. He knows the importance of God's eternal family to God. He knows how important it is to God. See, Satan knows. He analyzes the proofs sometimes better than we do, maybe. He knows how deeply God's heart is set upon it. That is, upon having it. Having a family. He knows the value God places on this purpose. See, he knows why Christ came and died. He knows.

He knows that every bit as well as you and I do. He knows why Christ came and died to make having that family possible. Think about it. We, as I commented in recent times, we may sometimes think that when Christ was here, God in the flesh, flesh and blood, is Jesus Christ, the word, the Logos. This Satan's challenge that Satan put on himself was to say, Just how much sin can I get Christ to do while He's here? That wasn't the challenge. I'm not saying He didn't want to have that or see that.

But His challenge was, All I need is one sinful thought. Just one. I don't need two. Just one. All I need is just one sin with His mouth. I don't need two sins with His mouth. I just need one. Or, I don't need two sinful actions. I just need one.

Because He knew if He could just get Him to just sin one time in thought or word or deed, He's out of here. He would incur the death penalty on Himself. I'm talking about the second death. That was part of the risk that was taken by coming here. But without Him coming here, there couldn't be a family. God could never have a family. Not only would He not be able to return to the Father, but there would be no way for anybody else to go and be part of God's eternal family either.

He's well aware. What does this say about God's view of having an eternal family that He would come and die for it? Now, you think about it. If you love something enough that you're willing to die for it, that's an awfully deep love, isn't it? What if He got more precious to you in one sense than your life? And you're willing to give up your life for a time in order to have a certain something, whatever it is?

No, what it says about God's view of having a family that He would come and die for it to make a sacrifice for sin. One sacrifice for sin forever, as Hebrews 10-12 tells us. See, Satan sees, and he knows the value of it to God. And he's doing everything he can to prevent God from having one. Now, let's be clear about something. If not, one of us in this room attains to the family of God.

Nobody in Gadsden does, nobody in Chattanooga. Nobody living today of the church attains. Abraham's in the grave awaiting resurrection. So is Joseph, David, Moses, the apostles, and all the people that have been faithful down through the years. And the point I'm making is, if not one of us makes it. God has a bride. Christ has a bride. There will be a bride resurrected at His return. So He's going to have a family. That's already been secured. But He wants you in Me to be part of it, too. And ultimately, He wants all mankind, and He's God. And He can speak to it that all mankind has the opportunity someday to be a part of that family.

No, He will have a family, see. That hasn't been defeated. That is secured. But Satan knows that, too. But, see, He's doing everything He can to interfere with such that He can. Because at this point, He has to realize that it's going to happen. That God will have a family, but He can't stop hating. I don't care if you understand that or not. It's the truth. He can't stop hating. And He can't stop acting out of that hate.

And that's why we're seeing His fingerprints more and more on society and this nation. And here's something else. Nationally, He knows who we are. I'm not talking about the church now. It's not about the nation. He knows who we are. He knows our biblical identity as a nation.

He has been there going to and fro upon the earth ever since He has been confined here. All through the six thousand years, almost, of human history, He has been there and seen everything that's going on. He knows our biblical identity as a nation. He knows our special place that we as a nation have in the plans and purposes of God. He hated Jacob. He hated Joseph. He hates Joseph's descendants. He especially hates the birthright tribes of Israel. And He is promoting it all He can. The level of corruption in our nation is growing by leaps and bounds. We, sadly, are becoming one big cesspool. Filthy mouths. Filthy communication. Filthy words. You've got people that can't even talk anymore and communicate without dropping the F-bomb constantly. If you shut that out of their conversations, you go mute. They can't even talk. And I'm so sick and tired of hearing it. In everybody, men, women, girls, boys, it's everywhere. They sprinkle movies with it because they've got to make it true to life and appealing. Well, I'm trying to learn how to live in the world that's coming, not in the carnal world that's going to die and pass away. Filthy mouths. Filthy communication. Filthy words. Filthy thoughts. Filthy imaginations. Filthy doings. Filthy operations. We are nationally practicing the moral depravity that's condemned in Romans 1. And again, here is a reality that is inescapable. Morals and judgment are tied together. Good judgment requires good morals. This is why we see our judgment failing in this nation. Only a good moral base gives a foundation for good judgment. Bad morals destroy sound judgment. Again, Romans 1 and verse 28. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, they didn't keep good morals. God gave them over to a... and here's that bad word... reprobate. Well, that sounds almost as bad as infidel. How many times have you heard somebody say, you reprobate you? But what does it actually mean? If you have a margin in your Bible, it will probably show what the word reprobate actually means. It just means a mind that is void of judgment. It doesn't have good judgment. It's a mind that can't make good judgment, can't make good decisions, can't judge good, can't judge properly, can't judge rightly. A reprobate mind, because of a bad moral base. No good judgment.

Faulty judgment. And you know, again, only the blind fail to see and acknowledge how truth is falling in the streets. Isaiah 59, verse 14. And, judgment is turned away backward. And justice stands afar off, for truth is fallen in the street. And equity cannot enter. Truth is fallen in the street. Truth. The true things of God. Again, especially the basic moral truth. Basic truths of creation. Basic truths of creation. I remember years ago how a very, very handsome and very gifted young black man started the process of totally weirding himself out. Of turning himself into an it. When he was finished, it was like he was neither male nor female. Neither black or white. Neither adult or kid. Such a tragedy went by the name Michael Jackson. He was a total aberration from what God designed a human being to be in basic design and operation. He made himself a freak. Yet today, he would fit right in. Don't anybody try to tell me that things haven't changed. My life reaches back to the midpoint of the last century. 1950. Right smack at the midpoint of the last century. 1950. I knew the greatest generation. They were my mentors. I knew them when they were young. Before they got old and died off.

I knew America's grassroots as we were rising to our pinnacle of power and prosperity post-World War II. I have major reference points to compare to. I don't have to take somebody else's word for it. I was there. I lived it.

I've seen the changes. I've seen the dissent in our morals. I've seen the breakup of the family unit. I've seen the basic truths of God trash and the acceptance of that trashing. By a bigger and bigger majority, I have watched and I have charted the falling of truth in the streets. And it's in a free fall. And I'm bothered by it.

How can I not be? With the values I hold, with what I know is important, how can I not be if I love my country? If I love this land that has been the greatest recipient of God's national blessings?

Now, truth is fallen in the street. And there's no judgment. Isaiah 59, verse 15. Yes, truth fails. Truth fails. We're seeing it fail more and more all the time. It fails. And he that departs from evil makes himself a prey. And the Lord saw it. He sees the truth failing. And again, we're not talking here specifically about the deep things of God. It takes God's specific calling to give us opportunity for that level of death. We're talking about that which is easily understood that people are just reading the Bible. People know that it's wrong to lie. They don't have to be told it's wrong to lie. They know it's wrong to cheat. They're things that they know they know it's wrong to steal. There are things that people know are wrong. And the Lord saw it. The truth fails. And that even those who get out of evil are then targeted by those who don't want to get out of evil. He saw it. And it displeased Him. He saw it. And it displeased Him. You know, no judgment. A Supreme Court justice highest in the land. Those nine are our supreme judges as far as humans, you know, the law of the land. A Supreme Court justice highest in the land who can't define a woman. A 6'4 guy. 6'4 guy. Leah Thompson who claims to be a woman, was a good swimmer, but couldn't win in the men's NCAA national championships. So all of a sudden, He's a woman. And He competes in the winning's NCAA national championships and wins. And standing there at 6'4, and the woman who would have won got second place because he was in it.

And she's still much shorter and smaller than Him. Allowing biological males to claim womanhood with all the problems and corruptions that go with such allowance. And again, a Supreme Court majority in 2015 that couldn't recognize what marriage is, that it was Adam and it was Eve. Not Adam and Steve and the Garden of Eden.

You never missed that point, did you? You got it. It was Adam and Eve. Steve wasn't in there anywhere.

A Supreme Court majority that chose not to remember Sodom and Gomorrah, you think if there's any ancient situation that would be at least recognized pretty much, certainly by the overwhelming majority of the nation, you bring up the word Sodom and Gomorrah, almost everybody knows what you're referencing.

And as the Supreme Court majority that chose not to remember Sodom and Gomorrah, along with so many others today, corrupted morals produced in corrupted judgment, this is why when truth is allowed to fall, judgment goes with it. God is bothered by it. And He's bothered extremely deeply by it.

The Lord saw it and it displeased Him. Or as the margin can render it was evil in His eyes that there was no judgment. He's bothered.

And guess what? He looks around to see who else is bothered. We're familiar with Ezekiel 9 and verse 4.

Go through the city. Take note. Look and see who sighs and cries, who is bothered by all these abominations they see.

And notate them. Those who sigh and cry, those who are vexed by it, who are frustrated by it, who are bothered by it, like I am, God could have added, because He's bothered.

Put a mark on them. Notate them. Single them out.

See, I have lived long enough to see corruptions. I've lived long enough to see the powers of corruption, the corruptors, get the upper hand in the land.

Get the upper hand in the land. And at this point, they may never lose it until it's too late. We'll see.

Again, we'll have to see if God gives us a reprieve or not.

But they have a totally corrupt agenda, and they're passing laws to protect it. They're passing laws to promote it. They're passing laws to enforce it.

They're putting the force of law behind the corruptions.

And you know, then when you resist that which is lawful, you're unlawful, then you can be charged or fined or locked up.

I. 15, Isaiah 59, verse 14, and equity cannot enter. And, of course, what God is talking about when He says equity is justice, is fairness.

Biden's 30-day mandate for corruptions to be represented, qualification secondary, pilots and surgeons and others in critical positions, caught in this.

When I get on a plane, I want to know that that pilot flying it and his co-pilot are not there because of some quota, not because of some sex identification or some race.

I don't care what the color of their skin is. That doesn't matter to me. What I want to know is they're sitting there because they are qualified.

To lift that plane off safely, fly it safely, and set it back down safely, because they've got all the lives of those people in their hands.

When you go into an operating room and you're going to be laid out on that table in there, you want to know that that doctor, be it male or female, black or white or brown, red, yellow, whatever. You want to know that that surgeon in there that's going to operate on you is there because they are qualified to do it, not because a quota had to be met.

See, all of this is generating a breaking down and a failure of society with no power to stop it. You know, to call for national repentance, to implement national repentance would be to call for a reversal of this agenda, this agenda of corruptions. The devil knows this. He sees it. And he's seeing to it that the list, the agenda is again being protected by law and tolerance and acceptance. See, it's not just law that's protecting it. Look at how many people are becoming tolerant of it. Look at how many people are just accepting it. And they say, well, no skin off my nose. It's their life, you know, whatever they want to do. You know, and they love each other, blah, blah, blah. You know, do we ever stop and think that no matter how much we love our kids, our friends, our relatives, our co-workers, that they will go through the same criteria we have to go through, that if we want them in eternity with us someday, in the final analysis, they have to love God more than all the things that we make idols out of.

God has to come first in their lives. You know, the corruptions are constantly gaining momentum. Again, they're gaining momentum by law enforcement and both active and passive acceptance of them. And corruption is gaining power by the numbers, isn't it? Conservatives are dying off. The greatest generation is gone.

Even as corruptors increase, we've already passed the tipping point. Time is on the side of Satan and his corruptors. And again, like a malignancy, corruption is growing, it's spreading, it's expanding, and it's engulfing. It's taking over.

These are not things easy to see, to acknowledge.

Through God's mercies and blessings, I have been involved with this truth, reaching all the way back into my childhood.

Again, reference points. My grandfather in the early 40s, 41, 40, 41, was the first one God connected to the truth. And then, of course, my mother, her siblings, and my father later.

I'm going over to Alabama tomorrow to celebrate my twin brothers turning 70.

We reach way back. We reach back through the time that really does matter.

And one of the things that's part of our legacy that we got from our parents is we don't stick our heads in the sand.

We keep our heads up, and no matter what the realities are, we deal with them.

You never make a reality better by hiding from it. You make it better if there's a chance to make it better, or at least keep it from getting worse by responsibly dealing with what is there in front of you.

No, like a malignancy, corruption is slowly but surely taking over.

Already, the East Coast, the West Coast, the Northwest, the Upper North around the Great Lakes, and a few other states have been taken over by such corruption, and they are dominating the nation.

The Blue States are full-blown into the agenda, and slowly but surely one way or the other, the Red States, the Heartland, the Flyover States, as they're derisively called, will be pulled along and fall asleep. Yeah, I can tell anyone, there's a world of difference between the world of 1950, the year my life started, and the world of 2023.

There has been, and there is a prophetic progression into the generosity and depravity, and it's picking up more and more speed.

You know, in 1950, we were not, not a crooked and perverse nation. We were not.

There was some crookedness. There was some perverseness. There always is.

With human beings, there always is. But we were a nation over all of honest, hardworking people, a sacrificing people, trying to do the right thing as we understood it. We were a church-going people, warning and trying to keep God in the picture. There was prayer in the schools. How well I remember that. And other places. And it was God, family, country.

There are clear markers of our descending in corruption and collapse.

I know sometimes those who don't have the reference points of time, because their lives only reach back maybe 20 years, or 15, or 25, they say, well, I don't think things have changed that much. They're still basically the same.

Don't hear that too often, but I do hear it. And I realize, young man or young woman, you just, you don't have the reference points.

I can appreciate you not really understanding how much changes have happened, because you don't have those reference points.

But we who are older, we do, don't we? And we know there are clear markers of our descending into corruption and collapse.

And again, that descent is prophetically marked. It's checked. It's notated. How far down the hill are we? A long way.

How far until we hit bottom? I'll just say too close for comfort.

And nothing prophetically marks it more than, again, number one, the efforts to get God out of everything, and number two, to bust His family design.

To get God out of everything, because they did not like to retain God and their knowledge.

And Jeremiah 2 in verse 19 says this, Jeremiah 2 in verse 19 says, Your own wickedness shall correct you. And we're already seeing that happening.

But it's going to happen a whole lot more in the years ahead.

Your own wickedness shall correct you, and your backsliding shall reprove you. Know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter that you have forsaken the Lord your God.

Go with me, please, to Isaiah 1. As we wrap this stuff, I want to point something out.

Isaiah 1 verses 3 and 4.

Now again, Satan knows what our national identity is.

I know what our national identity is.

I know what the mainstay in this nation has been, the principal players in this nation.

Isaiah 1 verses 3 and 4, the ox knows his honor, and the donkey his master's crib.

But Israel does not know. My people do not consider. All sinful nations, a people loaded with iniquity, a speed of evildoers, children that are corruptors. Corruptors. They have forsaken the Lord. They have provoked the Holy One of Israel to anger. They are gone away backward to bust His family design. This is chapter 1. Skip chapter 2 and look at chapter 3. All here at the beginning of Isaiah, these three chapters. But just for the moment, skip chapter 2 and look at chapter 3 verse 9.

Chapter 3 verse 9. The show of their countenance, the look on their faces, does witness against them, and they declare their sin as Sodom. They hide at night. Again, June 26, 2015, our highest judgment in the land. Totally faulty and immoral, wasn't it? And yet, it is a type of fulfilling what this verse is speaking to. They declare their sin as Sodom. Go with me back to chapter 1 now. Again, skip over 2 and just back up to chapter 1. And, oh sinful nation, verse 4, of people loaded with iniquity. Yes. Verse 5, why should you be stricken anymore?

You revoked more and more. The whole head, the leadership is thick, and the whole heart faint. The strength of the body of the nation, it's faint because it's corrupt. From the sole of the foot, the grass roots, even to the head, the top leadership, there's no soundness in it. This is the road we're on. We haven't fulfilled everything on this, but this is the road we're now traveling. Wounds and bruises and putrefying stores.

They've not been closed. They've neither been bound up, neither mollified with ointment. Your country is desolate. Your cities are burned with fire. Your land, strangers devour it. We had 500 and something riots in 2021. 2020 and 2021. 2020, primarily. Strangers devour it in your presence.

We've had several millions of people illegally come across the southern border. I mean, those are just some examples. And it is desolate. It's overthrown by strangers. And the daughter of Zion is left first, saved as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city. In other words, it's over-run. You have an abandoned house out there in a field where the kudzu takes over, let's say.

And it will eventually just completely take over and hide the house even. Just swamps it. Now, notice verse 9 and 10. It has meaning for us. Except the Lord of Host had left us a very small remnant. We should have been as Sodom. This is the future we have coming down the way. And we should have been like Antigamora. There are some tough times down the way.

Notice verse 10. Hear the Word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom. Give ear to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah. Right there, God is making it plain that we come to a point to where He sees us like He saw Sodom and Gomorrah. That we can actually be called. God calls things what they are. That we actually will come to a point where God calls us Sodom. He calls us Gomorrah. And nothing represents and reflects our national corruptions like our Sodom and Gomorrah conditions do. Our Sodom and Gomorrah laws. Robert Bork, years ago, wrote the book, Slouching Toward Gomorrah. Well, we're not slouching anymore. We're already there.

See, here's my question. Once we reach the point in our downhill slide to where God can call us, Sodom and Gomorrah, we are near the bottom and the end. Once we are called Sodom and Gomorrah, we're not far from the Great Tribulation and the return of Jesus Christ. You notice you have chapter 1. And we skipped over chapter 2. What's chapter 2 about? Verses 2-4. And it shall come to pass in the last days that the mountain and the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow into it.

And many people shall go and say, Come, let's go up to the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us of His ways. We will walk in His paths. For out of Zion shall go forth to law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

And He shall judge among many nations. We've read this so many times. And they shall beat their swords into plowshares, their spears into pruning hooks. Nations shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. It is interesting how that Isaiah 2 and the prophecy of the reality and relief of the Kingdom of God follows shortly after we're called Sodom and Gomorrah.

That's the point I want to make. Very much tied together. Once we are called by God Sodom and Gomorrah, it's like a prophetic time marker. We can know we're very close. Are we now at that point? Are we now modern-day Sodom and Gomorrah in God's eyes? Does that label now fit us?

I guess only God obviously knows fully and truly what exact point we're at, but He does know. Sodom and Gomorrah didn't want God in the picture, did they? And they wanted to practice every perversion under the sun. Anything went. It was a sexual free-for-all. More and more, more and more, that's America. More and more, that's our national reality. More and more, there are fewer and fewer to turn it around. There simply aren't enough to turn it around in this nation anymore.

There's a Holocaust coming. I just say this. Don't bet your life on it being far, far away. Let me tell you something. And again, I say this because somebody can accuse me in dealing with fear, religion, or whatever they want. I will be a watchman as long as God so blessed as me as a pastor, and to be a watchman, I'm going to call the shots like they are. People can do with what they want. I don't live by fear, I live by faith. And there's a major difference. Where is the spiritual gain for people to stick their heads in the sand? And I've often thought when God looks down upon this nation, how many butts does He see because heads are stuck in the sand with the butts digging up in the air? You have to wonder sometimes. And it's bad. It's sad. Only God knows the distance to that time of Holocaust. Only He knows how close to hand it is or is not. But He does know what the distance is. And He's given us to know what to do in the meantime because we do have something we have to keep doing in the meantime, don't we? So, let's go back for closing back to where we started. Philippians 2.

And this time I'll pick it up in verse 12. Paul said here in verse 12, "'Wherefore, my beloved, as you've always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence.' And notice the admonition, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling." In other words, tend to your salvation. Be responsible with it. You can't expect somebody else to tend to your salvation. You can't expect somebody else to be responsible for it. Others can help you. They can assist. But no, you and I, each and every one of us individually, are responsible for tending to and not neglecting our salvation.

Be responsible with it. Tend to your salvation. Adhere to the truth. Deal with fear and trembling. For it is God which works in you. He's pleased in seeing that, and He'll support that, and He'll bless those efforts, both to will and to do of His good pleasure. Do all things without murmurings and disputings." Verse 15, where we started from, "...that you may be blameless and harmless, without complaint and dispute, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom you shine, and as the darkness grows darker, the light that you are will shine brighter and brighter." And we keep in mind, not everybody likes the light.

But still, the responsibility to shine brightly as God's light, among whom you shine as light in the world, shining brightly as God's light. Put and retain God at the center of your being and at the center of your family.

Represent and reflect His design in all your perspectives and doings. We must be God's godly people of light, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation that's only going to be more so and even more so earn that name.