Doomed to Repeat It!

The title today is, Doom to Repeat It! Doom to Repeat It! Winston Churchill, 1948, at the end of World War II, made those comments. And he said, those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. He was not only talking about the problems with the Germans that took us into two World Wars, but he was also referencing communism. He was referencing all those things that had gone on as an observer of history was seen. And he saw that many people didn't learn. What about you? Bill was talking about our refining today. Most of us have gone through a refining process. Some of us have learned and some of us haven't. Some of us are still learning. I guess we are all still learning, right? But are we paying attention to what makes us more like Christ? I guess that's it. The reason I brought this sermon up is because I've been down in the Caribbean last week. And they had a lot of questions being they think we in the United States know all the answers. But one of their main questions, where are we headed? Where's this world headed? People are all uptight. They think something or thinking the world's coming to an end. Some are looking at $15 a gallon gas. Might happen in California, who knows? But I wanted to give this sermon because this nation can be at a crossroads in no time. Some may say it is now. But it may be in a crossroads in a matter of time. Where big decisions have to be made. Will we repeat some of those problems that have come up? Winston Churchill did not originally coin that phrase. It was George Santiana, who a decade or two before that, as you note, those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. Many of us, it's got a little gray hair, leaving you out, Matthew, Andre. I'll leave it at that.

Your wife left the room so I could do that, Andre. But you are having your first child, so I expect to see some soon. But some never learn.

I've been around long enough, 67 years, to remember when JFK was assassinated, was my first remembering of a president. And I remember how being an eight-year-old kid at the time, seven, eight, no, no, it was only about four or five, came and people said, oh no, we're going to come to an end way back in 1963.

So what should our attitudes be? God tells us to pray, not just for our own selves, but that the work might be done, that leaders may allow us to get the work done, and Paul was writing that at a time when there were some terrible, terrible psychopaths running the Roman Empire at the time. So I believe if he could have a little importance of prayer at that time, I think we can too. But where are we headed? We're called one nation under God.

We also have it printed on our coins in God we trust. So we profess to be a godly nation. That's a big mantle to carry. I know when I played for a basketball team in high school, and freshman team, and then the high school team, they gave you a jersey, and you had your number. We never had names on the back of ours, but you had the name of your team on it. And at the first year, the coach would always tell us that name means something. So how you act out there reflects on the entire school. It's what people are going to see. And it was a little more hard line back then, because he told us what he would do to us if we acted up. They wouldn't dare say that today and this day and time, but he made it crystal clear we did not want to experience his wrath. And I think God is the same way. As the nation is going to say they are Christian, you better live up to it. And if he decides that you will be, you've asked him to be, and he blesses you, you've just about signed the contract. Just like he told Israel back at the time, choose life or death, he gave you an alternative. He gives us an alternative today in this country. He gives us an alternative as Christians. We can walk away anytime we want to.

But you signed a contract that he would be yours and you would be his. Just like a marriage contract. But you know what happened to God's first marriage. Didn't turn out very well. So I'd like to look at that because before I'm going to give more history today than I typically do and biblical history. Some love it and others don't. So I'm not just going to give a glance over things. But I have a list, but I want to hear your list first before Dave puts up my list. Because I want to hear from you and I can turn that backward according to Dave. Learn to do that so they can actually hear. So I don't get an email and say, I can't hear what those people are saying.

So I want to do this with you because I want to hear what you have to say. All of you have a Bible in mind, correct? Well, everybody, if you don't, you got one of these things and you can look on it. You can make us all look like I'm high-tech.

The entire Bible, most of us have read it or read most of it or parts of it. We know it, right? So if I gave you an assignment, which I am right now, I gave you an assignment and said, I'd like to know, in your opinion, what does that mean? There's no wrong answer. Okay, so you shouldn't be embarrassed.

What are the five biggest or greatest events? Five, that's all, in the entire Bible. Who would like to start? Jeff in the back. He raises hand. Yes, sir. The creation of mankind. The creation of mankind. Okay, John and then Andre. John? Satan's Rebellion, whenever it was before Adam. Satan's Rebellion, going back to Isaiah 14, Ezekiel 28, right? Okay, Andre? The death and resurrection of Christ. The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, pretty important. Oh, Matthew and then Darren? The flood. Yeah, fine, say so. Did he steal yours? He did. Is this what he played father like son? Yes.

Say that again. The Exodus. The biggest Cecil B. DeMille thought it was. What didn't he? Anybody else? Yes. The split of the children of Israel. Ah, the split of the tribes. Rehoboam and Jeroboam. Very good. Bill, did you have that down? Yes, Acts 2 and verse 37. Ah, give me another spirit. When evil came and heard the sermon by Peter, and they said, what shall we do? They surrendered to God. Yep. Major moment. That's the biggest. One of the biggest. One of the biggest. To you. Tower of Babel. Tower of Babel. Yeah, yeah. Pretty big. According out of the Holy Spirit. The giving out of the Holy Spirit, which was similar to Bill's. Anybody else? The exiles. The exiles. Well, we're going to have Jeff and then John again, and then I'll get back to you. I'll give you my. Yes, sir. The return of Jesus Christ. The return of Jesus Christ. Pretty big. John? The conversion of Saul into Paul. Ah, yes. Major, especially since he was the major writer in the New Testament. God thought he was.

Okay. Do you mind giving mine?

I broke it down to these five. I won't disagree with anything anybody says, but I said in your your point of view, these were mine.

The fall of man, because that also involves Satan. He caused it, didn't he? And we were the world was forever changed by one pomegranate. As some say, others say apple. Some believe it's pomegranate. I see all the seeds in a pomegranate and they doubt it. But the fall of man, I have down. Then I put the flood. The flood took place 15 to 1600 years after the creation of man. According to experts, and I won't go into dating because it goes, it can go anywhere and everywhere there. But imagine they talk about today overpopulation. They're looking at, by the year 2050, there will be 10 billion people on earth. They don't know how to feed them. That is a problem people are looking at. They actually said that at least half those people would starve because there's not enough food. The planet was not made for that. Okay, I don't know. God knows what he's doing. But can you imagine if the world had gone on for 15 to 1600 years and man reproduced, is able to have more than one wife, as we find out in those first thousand years, and then they lived a long time. And so how many people do you think there was at the flood? People have estimated, Matthew, you probably know that, what the guesstimations were. It's funny because I was talking on my way down to Florida, I was talking with a guy who was doing this calculation. On a conservative estimate, he put it somewhere around one trillion. One trillion. I may think he's a little high because I don't see how that's possible, but I don't know. Because you're looking at every an average generation, even if we at 20-30 years. 20-30 years, and then you're maybe having one family could have four or five kids in a year taking in multiple wives to account for that. Yeah. But his calculation was just done based off of two by two. Two by two, okay. I have heard 50 million, I'd heard 100 million. I never heard a trillion, especially because it's taken us all this long to have eight million and 3500 years. 4500 years. But it is interesting, especially because men were so evil at that time they were just killing each other like it was nothing. It was slaughter. As I saw it, what did he say? So evil. Every thought of mankind at that time was so evil. So, think about how our world will be changed if that didn't happen. A major event. Because after 1500 years you went to however many people to what? Eight, but only six to reproduce. It didn't show Noah having at 650. I don't think he was him and his wife were deciding to ask for more kids. So, you can see how that might be a major event no matter how many people. And then I come to the fall of Israel that somebody talked about here, the splitting of the splitting of the tribes. Because God's family coming from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was now split.

And God did not really have a problem with the splitting. When you read the text, he was so disappointed with Solomon.

And he was disappointed with Rehoboam that he was willing to take 10 of the 12 tribes and give them to one man and start over. Which is pretty big. My estimation, because so much is written about it, and of course I bring down Jesus Christ and everybody talks about it.

Because it is, whether it's his resurrection or even his death or anything else that's brought up, he had to be in my list. But I want to go today to the fall of Israel and the fall of Judah. Because I'd like to tell you something interesting. Hopefully you'll find this interesting if you're not a big purveyor of the Bible. Because most of us understand that Israel fell 722 to 721 to Assyria. That's when they had broken away.

They had had 19 kings, every one of them evil, every one of them bad. And this thought that God had of creating such an incredible nation out of 10 nations. So they could all be under one king. And they had the best land. There was no doubt about it. Galilee and everything else. Oh, they had the best land. He was going to bless them more than Solomon. Or he was Jeroboam. And yet in 722 they were overthrown, captured, and sent into captivity by the Assyrian army.

Now they started out really, really good. And they kept those blessings that God blessed them with for decades, even though the kings were bad. He made a promise. Maybe he was thinking things would get better. Or he makes a promise and he keeps it. He made one through four generations and he was correct. It lasted one of the dynasties of the kings, four generations. And then we find in 586 that Judah also, some hundred and forty years later, God had to have them be overthrown, taken into captivity for 70 years, and then brought back.

Solely for, as I look at it at that time, we can argue that fact, but to me it's solely because he had the Messiah that had to be born. Other than that, he could have done anything else. But he had made this promise through the prophets that the Messiah would come from David's descendants.

But I'm going to ask you, this year we will celebrate at the Fourth of July, how many years as a country? 250 years. All of us know that pretty well, don't we? Remember 1776 and all the things it took during all that 250 years to bring us to the point we are right now. How long did Israel last as a country? Anybody have any idea? From the time of the split from Jeroboam to the time of captivity in 722. 208 years. 208 years. In 208 years, they had gone nothing but down. Was it downward spiral?

19 kings and not one of them good. Man, think about it. How about us? Where are we headed? How much more time does this nation have? I'm not a prophet, don't want to be one. God doesn't want one to be one, and neither does Mary. So I don't go into that. But unless we learn from our past, unless we learn those lessons from the past, we are doomed to repeat the very same things that others suffered, and we will suffer.

I'm not a gloom and doom person. I'm not one that goes into, we're going to hear prophecy. As a matter of fact, this church hasn't heard prophecy, but usually towards the feast time, because I don't like to spend my time there, because my focus has been and will continue to be until I'm preaching is Christian living.

That's the focus. I cover doctrine at different times, but most of us just need to know how to get by as Christians. It's six days of walking in the world and coming home, and hopefully you can put your feet up and go, let me know how to get by for the next six days.

That's been the thrust of my ministry for 14 and a half years now. So I want to today give this history. Look at my watch. I have just enough time to finish on time, but I'm going to ask rhetorical questions, but I want you to think about that, because I am going to give you two chapters in the Bible today, parts of two chapters, and hopefully it will give us some insight into the last 41 years and seven months of Israel's existence. The last 41 years laid out for us in the Bible. Now, we are not as blessed in finding this out as we are with Judah.

We had Jeremiah, who was there, an eyewitness who told us, had the chronicles and the kings, and we have all these stories that tell us. And so we get to know what they went through firsthand, but all we have for Israel is really two chapters in the Bible on the entire 41 years and seven months. I find that intriguing.

I will read those because all that 41 years and seven months is covered in 40 scriptures that I'll cover today. That's it. So I want you to look as we go through this. I'll be reading in the New Living Translation since it's an easier translation to get a story flow. But it's interesting because we do not really know.

We have no eyewitness accounts of the siege that went on with Israel in Samaria. We don't have it. There are actual eyewitness accounts of Babylon. being overthrown by Assyria, the same army.

Before later, they were actually overthrown, Assyria was. But it took 15 months for the Assyrian army to surround Babylon, and they would not surrender. So they did a siege for 15 months. And you can read in Durant's History of Civilization, the very first book, Orianna Huyertage. It actually gives accounts from that conquering of Babylon. And you know the beautiful walls and stuff? They were later put on by, were later enhanced, but they had a wonderful territory before that time. They were a powerful nation. But they were conquered and they wouldn't give up. So they built siege ramps and held them off for 15 months. But when they broke through those walls, it was mass slaughter. It was so wicked. I wouldn't even read it because I have the book. It is so vicious because they took their vengeance out on everyone there. But they did save some of the people, those they wanted to save. But no man, no army, anybody big enough to fight? No, they slaughtered them. Cut their heads off, dug poles, stuck poles in the ground, stuck all the heads on for two and a half miles on both sides to show the Assyrians had been here.

Everybody was scared to death of the Assyrians because they were warlike people. They enjoyed it. I think they were the first ones to use iron instead of bronze in their weapons. And they became very vicious. So you can imagine these people, because the soldiers never got paid, except booty. They never got paid a cent until the walls came down and they were able to go in and steal and take everything they wanted. And then they got paid per head as they decapitated so many. So you can imagine if you're sitting out there waiting for your paycheck to come after 15 months, what you would be. Wicked, isn't it? Now imagine Israel held them off for three years. Can you imagine when those walls were broken down? What happened? We don't know. We do not have any account. So I will give you then those last 41 years and seven months if you will join me. But it answers the question, why did God let this happen? Weren't they at one time God's people?

Answers the question, what happens when a nation has become so corrupt, so evil, and has inept leaders, yet they still profess God's name?

Answers the question, what happens when you cannot buy your way out of trouble anymore? We're gonna go there. So if you will join me in my time I have left in 2 Kings. Get back to 2 Kings. 2 Kings 15. So we're going to start in verse 8. Said Zachariah son of Jeroboam II. You remember Jeroboam I? He started this thing. He was the first king. So Zachariah son of Jeroboam that began to rule over Israel in the 39th year of King Uzziah's reign in Judah. So all they're doing is giving you some perspective. This is what's going on in Judah, but the main story is Israel. He reigned in Samaria for the grand total of six months. Now that is a reign, isn't it? Zachariah did what was evil in the Lord's sight as his ancestors had done every king before him. He refused to turn from the sins that Jeroboam son of Nebat had led Israel to commit. You're going to see that phrase used time and time and time again following in the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat because Jeroboam started it. Remember this story? God promised him everything and what did he do? He said, wait a minute, I've got 90% of the people and a whole lot of the money. So wait a minute, God, I know we're going to keep your holy days, but we don't really need the people going back to Judah. We don't even go to Jerusalem to keep it because then why? Well, we don't want them to go back. It says because the people may like them, the people may get together and it was all out of fear because he mentions at the end, he says, because they may go down there and get with those people and they may come back and kill me. Those aren't your words. So he said, I'll tell you what, I'm going to save you mileage. I'm going to set up and you can go worship up in the north and you can worship in the south and I'm going to set a calf at each side so you know where to go worship. And then, I'll tell you what, I'll just have my own priest. You know, he don't have to be a Levite. I'll do that. And then, just to be sure, because you know, harvest time, Jerusalem and the area, they harvest in, you know, that September, early September last of August, early September, and then they have this big feast of taberna. I'm going to have a feast of taberna, but I'm going to make it so that you can get that late harvest in October in there, too. And so, you can keep everything just like you did before, but we're going to make it easier so you don't have to travel all the distance and you can actually have a bigger harvest because now you're going to have most of it. You're going to have all of September and a big part of October. And the people bought it, didn't they? They were happy. Yes, that sounds good to us. Okay, now let's go back to verse 9. Zachariah did what was evil in the Lord's sight as his ancestors had done. He refused to turn from the sins of Jeroboam's son, and they had led Israel to commit, then shalom, son of Jabesh, conspired against Zachariah, and assassinated men public, and became the next king. Wow, isn't that something?

I'm just assassinating everybody and I'll proclaim myself king. Does that sound right? Well, yeah, it is because the kings didn't follow God, so they didn't have his protection, did they?

Even Uzziah, as bad as he was, he was king over in Judah at the time. And even after he got out of leprosy, he was king for 50 years, over 50 years. Manasseh over 50 years. So these kings, so, you know, God was working with them. They'd already proved.

I don't have to. We don't have to live by any real rules. The rest of the events in Zachariah's reign was recorded in the book of History of the Kings of Israel. You ever heard of that book? That's not the book of kings. That's a book they've never found. They hoped some day to find it. I don't know whether it was lost, hidden, or just stolen. So the Lord's message to Jehu came true. Your descendants will be kings of Israel down to the fourth generation because this was part of Jehu's descendants. So it lasted, he said, four generations. Boom! Four generations, you're gone.

Let's go back right down to verse 13. Shalom son of Jabesh began to rule over Israel in the 39th year of King Uzziah's reign in Judah. Shalom reigned in what? In Samaria, which was a capital for how long? One month. He didn't have that time to even have a coronation. They didn't have to have the, you know, your presidential party. You know, how sad is this? This is that nation that said they were put there trusting God at one time and when they didn't, this is what happens.

Shalom reigned in Samaria only one month. Then Minam, son of Gedi, went to Samaria from Tizrath and assassinated him and he became the next king. Are you keeping up with all this? This would make a series, a TV show, because every week you could have a different king. The rest of the events in Shalom's reign include the conspiracies, his conspiracy and recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Israel. At the time, Minam, at that time, Minam destroyed the town of Tapuah and all the surrounding countrysides as far as what? Tizrath, where he was from? Because its citizens refused to surrender the town. He killed the entire population and ripped open the pregnant women. I'm going to kill all the babies. Oh, what a ruler they had.

Had no conscience, did he? Had no conscience. What we had was king killers, killer kings. Who just get everything. We see that in other countries even today. We see that in Haiti. They just came in and killed the last president that was there. Now they don't have one. Now it's what is it now? Anarchy. It's anarchy. They're trying to. I was over there just before the last king was killed. Our president was really trying to make a difference. He really was. Mehweis.

Minam, son of Gedi, began to rule over Israel in the 39th year of King Uzziah's reign. He reigned in Samaria 10 years ago. Wow! We've got a long guy here. He reigned in Samaria 10 years when Minam did what was evil in the Lord's side during his reign. He refused to turn from the sins of who? Jeroboam, son of Nebuch, and led Israel to commit. Then king! He's known, in other words, as pull. King pull. Tigath Pelizer, who was the king over Syria, invaded the land. So he just came in and said, you guys killing each other, you can't get along. Besides, I hear you got some wealth. And they did. They did. So did God turn him over to this army? Yes. You want to act that way? Guess what you're going to pay the price. The Minahaim paid him 37 tons of silver to gain his support. How much? 1.28 million dollars in today's. Just the price of silver now. Tightening his grip on royal power, Minahaim then extorted the money from the rich of Israel, demanding that they each pay 50 pieces of silver. So he didn't come out of his treasure. He just said, oh you rich people, guess what? If this falls, you're going to be the first to be slaughtered. They're going to take all your money, so pay up. So they did.

So the king of Assyria, turned from attacking Israel, and did not stay in the land. Rest of the events of Minahaim's reign. Rain and everything he did was recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Israel. When Minahaim died, wow, he actually died. Nobody killed him. His son Pekahiah became the next king. Pekahiah, son of Minahaim, began to rule over Israel in the 50th year of King Uzziah. Now if you go back and you study these things, you're going to run into, wait, that doesn't sound right. You put this king and this king and this king and so forth. You have to remember that Uzziah was struck with leprosy, and he wasn't really ruling. He was a king, but his son was ruling. So if you run into dates and times, because people want to go, oh see, you can't trust the Bible. Well, you've got to know the rest of the history in there too. Okay, so this Pekahiah, he reigned in Samaria two years, but Pekahiah did what was evil in the Lord's sight. He refused to turn from the sins of Jeroboam, son of Nebat, had led Israel to commit. Then Pekah, not Pekahiah, Pekah, son of Remaliah, the commander of Pekahiah's army, conspired with him with 50 men from Gilead. Pekah assassinated the king along with his assistants, and he did it in the synodel, the main building in the palace of Samaria. And Pekah reigned in his place. Do you see what is happening here? This is the last 41 years and seven months. Imagine living in that time where you didn't know the next morning you got up, well, who's king today?

There's a Pekah somewhere. Okay, so Pekah son of Remaliah began to rule over Israel in the 51st year of King Uzziah. He reigned in Samaria 20 years. Wow! But Pekah did what was evil in the Lord's side. He refused to from the sins of Jeroboam, Nebat, who had led Israel to commit. During Pekah's reign, King Tiglath, Eliza of Assyria, attacked Israel again. And he captured all the towns. He captured like five or six towns outside. There were more country towns. He wasn't in Samaria yet, but they decided, let's just take them. So he went into these towns with his army and he took them. And usually the Assyrians came in and said, choice, give up or get your head cut off. What would you do? So everybody basically gave them the towns. And so then they controlled the outside area. Very, very smart because they controlled a lot of the food. Because they knew there was going to be a siege. And they knew all those people would get behind those walls in Samaria. And they would hold out, hoping somebody would come and help them. Okay, where was I? What verse was I at? 29. During Pekka's reign, yeah, he attacked those cities and he also conquered the regions of Gilead, Galilee, and all of the tribe of Naphtali. And he took the people to Assyria as captives. That's what they did. They replaced them. So he took all these so you can see. They weren't in any hurry. Assyria. They already had some. They could have all the food they wanted because they got all the crops and they got all the field with those surrounding cities.

They knew their time was coming. Then Hosea, son of Elah, conspired against Pekka. Whoa, isn't that a shock? And assassinated him. Double shock. He began to rule over Israel in the 20th year of Jotham, son of Isaiah. So there we have quite a bit of the time.

It isn't pleasant because all this intrigue is going on. Now, you may say, yeah, but we live in a country of laws. Oh, really? When times get hard, you think people are going to say, let me call my lawyer. Oh, sorry. They killed all the lawyers.

When times get hard, it's every man for himself, isn't it? You better have a relationship with God.

That ark? You better have a spiritual ark built. These people didn't. Their kings were so evil. The people were so evil.

So let's go and finish this. Hosea 17, verse 1. Sorry, 2 Kings 17, verse 1. Hosea, son of Elah, as we picked this up, began to rule over Israel in the 12th year of King Ahaz reign in Judah. He reigned in Samaria at nine years. He did what was evil in the Lord's sight, but not to the same extent as the king of Israel who ruled before him. Why not? Anybody figure that out? Why wasn't he as bad as the others? Because he saw that this is going to happen to him unless he kind of straightens up a little bit. So he's not as bad. Besides, half of the territory has already been taken. He's going to need some help. Amazing how people call out for help, isn't it? Verse 5, Then the king of Assyria invaded the entire land, and for three years he besieged the city of Samaria. Okay, I'm not going to go in. You can read the rest of it if you want, but I'd like you to follow me to chapter 17 in verse 7. As we get the instruction to us, the final instruction to us, and we get to know what happened to them, why it happened, and how it will happen again, and those who are doomed to repeat it. Verse 17, This disaster, because they were conquered after three years, and they were all taken off. You know when Babylon was captured Jerusalem, and they marched everybody 500 miles over to Babylon, they didn't take everybody. They took a big part. You can see how many people there, but they left quite a few there to take care of the land. They left the poor people. They left the farmers, you know, which I think some of those soldiers would have liked to grab a hay fork and looked like a farmer instead of a soldier because they were slaughtered. But here, they didn't leave anyone. They didn't leave us so in Samaria or anywhere around. They took them all. This disaster came on the people of Israel because they worshiped other gods. They sinned against the Lord their God, who had brought them safely out of Egypt and rescued them from the power of the Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. They had what? Followed the practices of the pagan nations, exactly what he told them not to do. The Lord had driven from the land ahead of them, as well as the practices of the kings that Israel had introduced. They did not only what the other pagans had done before them, but they invented their own new type sins.

The people of Israel had also secretly done many things that were not pleasing to the Lord their God. They built pagan shrines for themselves in all the towns, from the smallest outpost to the largest walled city. They set up sacred pillars and asheroth poles, fertility poles, that they would go and dance around and have naked parties and orgies and everything else under these poles as they were worshipping in the high parts of the city. These weren't done in the back streets. These were done on high hills so everybody could see. At the top of every hill and under every green tree, they offered sacrifices on all the hilltops, just like the nations the Lord had driven out the land ahead of them. So the people of Israel had done many evil things, arousing the Lord's anger. Yes, they worshipped idols despite the Lord's specific and repeated warnings. Now let's go down with me to verse 16, but I'll just mention something from 15 where it says, they worship worthless idols so they became worthless themselves.

What about us? Verse 16, I'll finish this up. 16. They rejected all the commands of the Lord and made two calves from metal. They set up asherah, poles, and worshiped by all and all the forces of heaven. They even sacrificed their sons and daughters in fire. They burnt their babies to death and celebrated it. And that's how we got good crops, they said. They consulted fortune tellers and practiced sartry. We would never do that, would we, in this country? John? That's why he's given his, I don't know, what, 15 part or whatever it is. Fourth one. Okay. But he can't cover it all. He can't cover this. It's been going on all this time. He couldn't cover it in four or five. And sold themselves to evil, arousing the Lord's anger. Because the Lord was very pleased, was he pleased? Oh, angry. Now we know. Do you want God to be angry at us? Because the Lord was very angry with Israel, he swept away from his presence. Only the tribe of Judah remained in the land. Even the people of Judah refused to obey the commands of the Lord their God, for they followed evil practices that Israel had introduced. Wow. The Lord rejected all the descendants of Israel. He punished them by handing them over to their attackers until he had banished Israel from his presence. All were gone. And when the Lord tore Israel away from the kingdom of David, they chose Jeroboam. Son of Nebad is their king, but Jeroboam drew Israel away from the following of the Lord and made them commit a great sin. And the people of Israel persisted in all the evil ways of Jeroboam. They did not turn from their sins until the Lord had swept them all away from his presence, just as all the prophets had warned. So Israel was exiled from their land to Assyria, where they remained to this day. So, wasn't that pleasant? And yet, Judah had a chance to see this. And what did they do? They just waited another 140 years and did the same thing until God put them in. So we, as a country, continue to turn from God. As we do that, we are doomed. We are doomed. What do we do? What do we do? Can we save this country? Yes! If I get on the internet, I want everybody in the country, in the world, to see this video and then everybody will change. Right.

No. Are we to take care of the household of faith? Yes. We know. But the only thing we can take solace in, because this is the U.S. This is the U.S. And I'm so amazed, but I'm also blessed, of being part of the Caribbean, because there's only two countries in the Caribbean that allow abortion. It's a crime in all the others. And those two countries are both tied to the Netherlands, the Dutch. All the others, you go to jail for abortion. They think we... What's wrong with you people? We love babies. Nobody kills a baby. The whole village will take them and they'll just distribute them. And we call them third world. Spiritually, what are we? Third world, because of what we do. So the only hope I can have is the hope, because I love this country. God is blessed. We all enjoy a style of living and a type of living that not many countries in this world have, especially in this hemisphere. I'd like to see it for my family, for my nephews and nieces and my great nephews and great nieces. Everything will come. I like to, but God has His plan and I have to leave it to Him. But I just remember that incredible story. Incredible story from Genesis 18 about Sodom and Gomorrah. You remember? And you remember the debate? Just 50 people and I won't destroy it. That's our only hope. Now, people have guesstimated the same thing of how many people were inside them. And they guess range from 5,000 people to 50,000 people. But He just didn't destroy that. He destroyed Gomorrah and three other cities. He destroyed five cities there. So how many people? We have over 300 million people. 50 out of 50,000. 50 out of 5,000. One percent?

Do we have one percent of the people in America that truly follow God? Or strive to? How many 1% of 300 million is what? 30 million?

Think about it. 10%? No, 10% would be what? 30 million would be 30 million? One percent is 3 million. 3 million. 3 million people. Are we part of that 3 million people? We need to be. We need to be. Our only hope is that the nation can turn. Will it turn? Nineveh turned at the repentance of one man.

I pray our nation turns. And I hope you will join me, too, in praying because we need more time. The church needs more time. We've got a large work to do. And if it's not in America, it's in third world countries. The third world needs us. They need God. So, are we doomed to repeat it?

You can answer that question.