As It Was in Ancient Israel

I want to begin the sermon this afternoon by reading a couple of quotes. The first one is from Henry Ford II. He said, We all see and act as though the other man's welfare determines our own welfare.

I think we all would agree with that. It shows that we need good will in order to operate our relationships. We need cooperation as well. Another quote, a little bit longer, has to do with faith and God and morals and values as far as the strength of a nation. It's actually by Georgia Ann Geyer. She says, She goes on to say, This ends by saying, Alexis de Tocqueville said it best when he realized even at the beginning of our national life, he visited the United States in 1831, and he wrote a book on democracy with the title Democracy in America.

The French statesman and philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville. He said, America is great because America is good. If America ceases to be good, she will cease to be great. I think we can see that already in our country developing.

There's no doubt that faith in God, integrity, and honor and trust, and high morality, based on law, have certainly played a very important and vital role in the greatness of the United States. But what about today? There's a lot of evidence for the loss of these values, the basic values, and morality that have made this country great.

Much greed and corruption have come to the surface, even in the present financial crisis. And how much has not come to the surface yet? We didn't even know about this $50 billion fraud on Wall Street until just the last week or two. So how much has not come to the surface yet?

Or may not? We see a lot of signs of social decay. There are over a million abortions annually in the United States. Worldwide, I didn't get the figure on that, but I want to get that and present that as well. But in the United States alone, there's over one million abortions every year. And since the abortions were legalized in 1973, there have been over 40 million abortions in our country alone.

Many people, many, many Americans are not in favor of abortion at all. It's really a very hot social issue yet in our country. As far as people just living together, we have at least 11 million Americans who are just living together arrangements. But you know, the latest way of doing things, according to a report that came out even this week, was hooking up. People hook up for a night. They can have even multiple sex partners if they want to in one night. Just hooking up, not even going as far as the commitment of living together.

Well, you say, well, let's live together for a while, which of course is wrong to do that. But more and more, that seems to be the way that people are going. Homosexuality, gay marriages, bloodshed, violence, crime. Can we continue to be a great nation if these trends continue and worsen?

History says that we cannot. And I think we can see even today a weakening of our country. There's a moral connection in the weakening of our country and the world, including our financial, our economic position. This afternoon, I would like for us to study briefly a nation, an ancient nation that became great and very wealthy.

There are a lot of parallels between this nation, this ancient nation, and us today. They became great, very powerful. They became very wealthy. But then they went the way of greed and corruption. Let's see what happened to them and ask if it will be any different for the United States or any nation that goes the way of greed or evil and corruption. Well, you may surmise already that that nation was ancient Israel.

That's true. Let's see the way they went. Let's see what happened to them and let it serve as a warning of the way things are happening today. As we know, ancient Israel was a slave people.

They had never known freedom. But God delivered them from slavery, brought them out of Egypt, and He gave them a choiced land. I mean, if you were to look at a globe, you would see that the land that God gave to Israel was at the crossroads between the three major continents on the earth that are connected to each other, Europe, Asia, and Africa.

Look at where the land that God gave promise to Abraham's seed that God gave Israel. It's right at the crossroads of the major land mass of the world. God gave Israel not only that nation, but He gave them great power and great wealth and great power, especially under David and Solomon. Under David, David fought against different nations in the Middle East. Israel became the number one military superpower in the Middle East. Nobody wanted to pick on Israel in the time of David and Solomon. They were the number one military superpower in the Middle East. They also became very wealthy and very rich. Under Solomon, it is said in 2 Corinthians 1 that Solomon made silver and gold as common in Jerusalem as stones. That's what it says in 2 Chronicles 1. He made silver and gold as common in Jerusalem as stones. Very wealthy, very rich indeed. When God blessed Israel with all this great wealth and power, He warned them that they would need to obey Him. They would need to do His will. They would not need to go the way of corruption and greed and disobedience to God's laws, or go the way of idolatry or the other nations. Two whole chapters, Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28, warned the Israelites they would be blessed if they would obey and they would be cursed if they disobeyed. And they would be destroyed if they disobeyed. You know, people are not usually very good at taking warnings, whether individually or nationally. And the Israelites were no different. God warned them about the results of false worship and disobedience. That it would be life or death, a life or death decision. He said, I put before you life and blessings. I put before you death and evil and curses. Well, did Israel warn the heating? Let's look at some verses in the Bible now that show us that they did not. They were not able to heed the warning. Let's go to Hosea 4. Ancient Israel went the way of disobedience. They went the way of greed and corruption, of evil. In Hosea 4, verse 1, we're going to read the first ten verses of this chapter. Hosea 4, verse 1, Hear the word of the LORD, you children of Israel. For the LORD brings a charge against the inhabitants of the land.

There is no truth or mercy or knowledge of God in the land. By swearing and lying, killing and stealing, and committing adultery, they break all restraint. It's going to make you think much about what's going on in our country. Like swearing and lying, killing and stealing, and committing adultery, they break all restraint. With blood shed after blood shed. Therefore the land will mourn, and everyone that dwells there will waste away with the beast of the field, the birds of the air.

And even the fish of the sea shall be taken away. Now let no man contend or reprove another. In other words, don't try to correct anybody. For your people are like those who contend with the priest. Therefore you shall stumble in the day. The prophet also shall stumble with you in the night. And I will destroy your mother. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Lack of true knowledge. Godly knowledge. Knowledge based on truth and morality. Because you've rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for me. Because you've forgotten the law of your God. We don't want God's Ten Commandments today, do we? In public places. I will also forget your children. Notice verse 7. The more they increased, the wealthier they became in ancient Israel. The more they sinned against me, I will change their glory into shame.

In verse 10, they shall eat, but they not have enough. They shall commit harlotry, but not increase because they have ceased obeying the Lord. You know, the article we read by this lady, Georgia N. Guyer, brought out that great nations are based on morals and principles. They got away from morals and principles. And it didn't work. Let's go to Isaiah chapter 1.

Ancient Israel became corrupt. They became evil and greedy, even though very wealthy and powerful. And that led to their downfall. In Isaiah chapter 1 and verse 2. Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth.

For the Lord has spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. The fox knows its owner, and the donkey its master's crib. But Israel does not know, my people do not consider. Verse 4. A last, sinful nation. A people laden with iniquity, a brood of evildoers. Children who are corruptors. They have forsaken the Lord. They have provoked to anger the Holy One of Israel.

They have turned away backward. Why should you be stricken again? You will revolt more and more. The whole head is sick. The whole heart faints. The soul of the foot even to the head. There is no soundness in it. But wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. So, ancient Israel then became a very sinful nation. Ladened with iniquity, a brood of evildoers. And they were sick from the head to the foot. They wanted to call evil good and good evil. Like, you know, kind of like we like to do today.

We like to say it's okay to do whatever people want to do. We have all kinds of freedoms and liberties granted to us. And people then should be allowed whatever way of life they want. And we seem to feel that way. In Isaiah chapter 5 and verse 20, Isaiah chapter 5 and verse 20, Woe to those who call evil good and good evil. Who put darkness for light and light for darkness?

Who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter? That's what happened back in ancient Israel. And actually, it's what is happening in our country today. We want to call evil good. I'll read an article in a few minutes, I think, to just demonstrate how some people want to twist God's law around to call evil good. In verse 24, Therefore, as the fire devours the stubble, and the flame consumes the chaff, so their root will be as rottenness, and their blossom will ascend like dust.

Because, and here's the root cause of our problems, because and their problems back then, because they have rejected the law of the Lord of hosts and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel. Today we see the same thing. We don't want the Bible to be read in school. We don't want God's Ten Commandments to be displayed in public places. So ancient Israel went the way of evil and corruption, and eventually God allowed the ten northern tribes to go into national captivity.

Let's read about that briefly in 2 Kings, chapter 17. Eventually God let ancient Israel go into captivity. He punished them by letting them go into captivity to the Assyrians in 2 Kings, chapter 17, and verse 7. And so it was that the children of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt.

Verse 13, skipping on down, yet the Lord testified against Israel and against Judah by all His prophets. And we just read some of them, Hosea and Isaiah. Namely, every seer saying, turn from your evil ways and keep my commandments and my statutes according to all the law which I commanded your fathers.

But verse 14, they would not here but stiffened their necks like the necks of their fathers who did not believe in the Lord their God. They rejected His statutes and His covenant that He had made with their fathers, and His testimonies which He had testified against them. They followed idols, became idolaters, and went after the nations who were around them. According to concerning whom the Lord had charged them, they should not do like them. And so verse 18, the Lord was very angry with Israel and removed them out of His sight and left Judah only.

Verse 22, the children of Israel walked into the sins of Jeroboam. Verse 23, until the Lord removed them out of His sight. And so the last part of that verse, Israel was carried away from their own land to Assyria, as it is to this day. And this was written a little bit later that it happened to ancient Israel.

You know, they became the lost ten tribes. The ten northern tribes are the ones that went into captivity to Assyria. Meanwhile, Judah, the kingdom of Judah, after Solomon, the kingdom of Israel, the overall kingdom, the twelve tribes, had divided into two kingdoms. The northern kingdom was the ten tribes, the northern ten tribes called Israel. And the southern tribes of Judah and Benjamin were known as the kingdom of Judah. Judah remained, but the ten northern tribes were carried away.

You know, the Assyrians were notorious for deporting people. Lock, stock, and barrel, they took the ten northern tribes, and they took them over to northern Mesopotamia, where they stayed for quite a number of even centuries before they would migrate on toward northwestern Europe. All this is very carefully traced in our booklet, The United States and Britain in Bible Prophecy. Many people don't know what happened to the ten tribes. They became known as the ten lost tribes of Israel.

This booklet traces them to northwestern Europe, and the English-speaking peoples and the democracies of northwestern Europe are the descendants of the ancient ten tribes of Israel, and the United States and Britain in particular from the tribe of Joseph. That all happened around 720 B.C. The Israelites went into captivity, taken over to northern Mesopotamia by the Assyrians.

What about ancient Judah? They still remained. Ancient Judah, 720, the Jews and the Benjamites were still down around Jerusalem. What about them? Maybe they would learn a lesson, not go the way of evil and wickedness. Let's turn to Jeremiah, read a few verses in the book of Jeremiah. We'll find out that they went the same way. The same way as the Israelites. Eventually, they had to be taken also into captivity. Let's just read a few verses, though, about the corruption and the greed and the evil that developed in also Judah. In Jeremiah 2, and I think we'll skip on down to verse 7, I brought you to a bountiful country to eat its fruit and its goodness, but when you entered, you defiled my land and made my heritage, and abomination.

The priests did not say, Where is the Lord? and those who handled the law did not know me. The rulers also transgressed against me. The prophets prophesied by Baal, false religion, and walked after things that do not profit. Verse 11, Has a nation changed its gods? Which are not really gods, after all, but my people have changed their glory for what does not profit. In verse 13, My people have committed two evils. They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewn themselves sisters, broken sisters, that cannot hold water.

You know, our way of life that we have developed, the good old American way of life, doesn't hold water either. It isn't really working. It's not working at all. And as we get further away from God's laws, then it's working worse all the time. Let's go to Jeremiah chapter 5. We see more about what happened in ancient Judah. Jeremiah was prophesying at the time that Judah would go into captivity to Babylon, around 600 B.C., a little bit before the captivity and afterward. Jeremiah chapter 5 and verse 1, Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem.

Seek now and know, and seek in her open places, if you can find a man, if there's anyone who executes judgment. Try to find somebody that will execute judgment, who seeks the truth, and I'll pardon her. Though they claim, and today we claim as well, to be a Christian nation.

As the Lord lives, but surely they swear falsely. Verse 3, O Lord, are not Your eyes on the truth. You have stricken them, but they have not grieved. You have consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction. They have made their faces harder than rock. They've refused to return.

So the ancient Jews, they were warned. God let some things go wrong in the country. God has let things go wrong in our country too, like 9-11. But have we really changed? The Jews did not change. We see the same pattern today in our country as well. In Jeremiah 6 and verse 13, Jeremiah 6 and verse 13, From the least of them, even to the greatest of them.

Everyone is given to covetousness, greed and corruption. Everybody seems to be out for money, profit. It was true back then. I think we see the parallel for today. Everyone is given to covetousness, from the profit even to the priest.

Everyone deals falsely. They've also healed the hurt of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace, when there is no peace. Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? No, they were not at all ashamed. Nor did they know how to blush. We don't blush today when people talk about all the abominable things going on in the way of gay marriages, homosexuality and lesbianism. We don't blush.

There's not a feeling of shame. God warns, though. Chapter 7, God always warns. I believe maybe before the end of this age, God will use His church more powerfully to issue that warning as we go along in the future as well. In Jeremiah 7 and verse 3, God, the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel said, Amends your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place. In verse 5, if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings, if you thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbor, if you do not oppress the stranger, the fatherless, the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place or walk after other gods, then I'll cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever.

Behold, you trust in lying words that cannot profit. Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear, falsely burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods whom you do not know, and then come and stand before Me in this house, which is called by My name. And some of the Jews back at that time were doing these very things.

Then they come to the temple and say, we are delivered to do all these abominations. Somehow they felt justified in what they were doing. And verse 24 says, They did not obey or incline their ear, but walked in the councils, and in the imaginations of their evil heart, and went backward and not forward. Since the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt till this day, I have even sent to you all My servants the prophets daily, rising up early and sending them.

Yet they did not obey Me or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck. They did worse than their fathers. They would not change. They just simply would not change their ways. And so ancient Judah, like the northern kingdom, Israel, went into captivity as well. Are there lessons for us today? I hope we all see that there are definite lessons for us today. The sermon title today is, As it was in ancient Israel. We have more and more come to that point. As it was in ancient Israel in our own country. Alexis de Tocqueville said it well back in the 1800s, that America is great because she is good.

If America ceases to be good, she will cease to be great. And it seems like we are ceasing to be good. And so like ancient Israel, we're turning from God's laws to a way of greed and corruption and evil. We don't want Bible prayers and Bible readings in the school. We want to justify things like abortion, living together, unmarried, immorality, gay marriage.

We want to call evil good. I want to read now from what I mentioned earlier, just to show one example of how we try to call evil good. Here's Newsweek magazine. Cover article, the issue before the current one. Religious case for gay marriage. Has a Bible here. Has a cross on it. Holy Bible. There's a religious case for gay marriage, in case you didn't know.

Let me read from this article. Even the title is kind of disgusting. The title of the article, by Lisa Miller, is, Our Mutual Joy. It should be, Our Mutual Abomination, or something of that type. The subtitle, Opponents of Gay Marriage Often Sight Scripture. But what the Bible teaches about love, argues for the other side. You just didn't know the Bible said these things, but this is a twisting of the Scriptures. It's almost unbelievable how the Scriptures are twisted here. The Bible, it says, is a living document.

Powerful for more than 2,000 years, because its truths speak to us even as we change through history. In that light, Scriptures give us no good reason why gays and lesbians should not be civilly and religiously married. And a number of excellent reasons why they should.

So, you see, the Bible gives no good reason why there should not be gay marriage. And a number of reasons why it should be accepted. The article goes on to say, the Bible does condemn gay male sex in a handful of passages. Twice Leviticus refers to sex between men as an abomination.

But these are throwaway lines, throwaway lines, in a peculiar text given over to codes for living in the ancient Jewish world. Oh, that's how you understand that. Religious objections to gay marriage, it goes on to say, are rooted not in the Bible at all, then, but in custom and tradition. These are things, you know, we didn't know, did we? The Bible was written for a world so unlike our own, it's impossible to apply its rules that face value to ours. So here, people that read this article will read this, many of them, and they'll say, oh, and they'll go right along with this.

Not everyone, I want to come to that in just a moment. On toward the end of the article, it gets over to what Christ would think about gay marriage. In the Christian story, the message of acceptance for all is codified. Jesus reaches out to everyone, especially those on the margins, and brings the whole Christian community into His embrace. Brings it all in, gays and everybody. The practice of inclusion, even in defiance of social convention, reaching out to outcasts, the emphasis on togetherness and community over and against chaos, depravity, indifference, all these biblical values argue for gay marriage.

The whole article is kind of disgusting, the way it's twisted around. I was interested in what kind of comments would come into Newsweek. First of all, I think it's very brazen that a magazine would kind of push this issue, really. You know, a liberal press often is pushing the agenda the way they want it to go. The next issue of Newsweek magazine that just came out this week has, well, it says, the Bible in gay marriage, a controversial cover story, provokes a massive response from readers.

It's interesting to see that we do have a good number that would see right through the way this article misquotes the Bible.

One says, I was saddened but not surprised that Newsweek would run a blatantly distorted interpretation of Scripture regarding homosexual marriage. As Christians, we are taught to love the sinner and not the sin. Well, you have taken it two steps further, condoned the sin, and then put it into law to validate it. The Christian, Muslim, and Jewish faiths agree that homosexuality is a sin. All that's left are the non-believers and agnostics who are trying to rewrite the Bible like Lisa Miller.

I have to say, cheers for that one. But how about this one? It is probably the most well-reasoned and calmly written essay about gay marriage. This person likes it. Another one says, thank you Newsweek and Lisa Miller for your timely and insightful article about equal marriage. Please know that many people of faith wish and hope for a more capacious and gracious world, one in which divergent faith and beliefs are respected and are given freedom to grow.

Your article provides a much needed rebuke for fundamentalists that be us, a much needed rebuke for fundamentalists who would seek to keep others from the love of God and from civil marriage and all the joys and trials that might result. Thank you again for your courage and your voice. So we know this is a very hot social issue in our country. We're very divided on this as well as the abortion issue. But again, it shows how so many in our country are trying to call what is evil good.

It's a good example. Our nation has been going this way for a number of decades now. I think we'd have to say the roots of it is sometime after World War II. I'd like for us to go back and compare what our country today to what it was like in World War II. An article came out that I came across sometime back that President Bush did make a bad mistake on the war on terrorism.

This article begins. But it says the mistake was not to go to war on terrorism in Iraq. But Bush's mistake came in his belief that this country is the same one his father fought for in World War II. It is not. Back then, they had just come out of a vicious depression. The country was steeled by the hardship of that depression. But they still fervently believed in this country. When the war broke out, the people came together, rallied behind, and stuck with the leaders of the country. The war was just as distasteful and the anguish just as great as it is today.

Often, there were more casualties in one day than World War II than we have had in the entire Iraq War. But that did not matter. The people stuck with the president because it was their patriotic duty. Americans put aside their differences in World War II and worked together to win that war. Everyone from every strata of society, from young to old, pitched in. Small children pulled little wagons around to gather scrap metal for the war effort.

Great school students saved their tenants to buy stamps for war bonds to help the effort. Men who were too old or medically for F lied about their age or condition, trying their best to join the military. Women doubled their work to keep things going at home. A harsh rationing of everything from gasoline to soap to butter was imposed.

We just talked to Hallie and Angus and Hallie Benson yesterday. They lived at that time. Angus was involved in the Pacific arena of that war. He mentioned about gas rationing. Maybe some of us here might remember that, where you could only buy so many gallons of gas. You had to get your stamps you could use to buy so many gallons. So harsh rationing of gasoline, soap, butter was imposed. Yet there was very little complaining. You never heard prominent people on the radio belittling the president. Teachers in school actually started the day off with a pledge of allegiance and prayers for our country and our troops.

There were a lot of things different back then. They were not subjected to a constant bombardment of pornography and perversion and promiscuity in movies and on radio. They did not have legions of crackheads, dope pushers and armed gangs roaming our streets. No President Bush did not make a mistake in his handling of terrorism. And there hasn't been another 9-11. Hopefully, you know, there won't ever be another. But, you know, many people warn our new president that there very likely, most likely will be another 9-11.

Maybe on a grander scale in your administration. Are you ready for it? Are you getting ready for it? Anyway, he didn't make a mistake and President Bush didn't make a mistake in the handling of terrorism. And he made the mistake of believing that we still had the courage and fortitude of our fathers. He believed that this was still the country that our fathers fought so dearly to preserve. It is not the same country. It is now a cross between Sodom and Gomorrah in the land of Oz.

We did unite for a short while after 9-11, but our attitude changed when we found out that defending our country would require some sacrifices. America is not at war like we were in World War II. The military is at war. America is at the mall and watching the movie stars and a lot of other things. So, I have to say there's a lot that makes you think in an article like that. And there's a moral connection the way that our country has gone, gone for several decades, probably beginning somewhere in the 50s, shortly after World War II.

It brought us to the condition that we're in today. The Scriptures actually prophesied that modern-day Israel would go the same way as ancient Israel went, as it was in the days of ancient Israel. Let's go over to the book of James. The New Testament has a prophecy that certainly applies to our people today. It certainly has that setting and seems to have the application to us.

In James 5 and verse 1, Come now, you rich, and we certainly are very rich and wealthy people, come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches are corrupted and your garments are moth-eaten.

Your gold and silver are corroded. Are we beginning to see that in this financial crisis? Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You've heaped up treasure in the last days. God seems to indicate the time, the age we're living in.

Heaped up treasure in the last days. In the wages, indeed the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept abit by fraud, cry out. And the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of Sabahoth. You've lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury.

You've fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter. You've condemned. You have murdered the just. He does not resist you. Be patient, brethren, till the coming of the Lord. It does seem to have a setting at the end of this age.

Who's it written to? Well, look at James 1 and verse 1. It's directed toward Israel, isn't it? James 1 and verse 1. James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad. What nations are more wealthy and could have more greed and corruption than the United States and the British Commonwealth?

So certainly James chapter 1 does seem to have an application for what we see happening today. This prophecy does seem to be talking about our time. You know, God has a controversy with all nations. We'll get more into that sometime in the near future. And He certainly will punish all nations at the end of this age. He has a controversy with Russia. He has a controversy with Iraq, with North Korea, and many other nations on the earth.

So why direct a sermon today more toward the United States? And maybe let's include Great Britain. Because of all nations, the United States and Great Britain are the ones who have carried the Bible, this book.

They've carried the Bible and its message to the world as no other. To promote human rights, to spread Christian values and principles as best we have understood them. To bring personal freedoms instead of tyranny and oppression. I think we have to say it's rather odd, isn't it?

Rather odd that the United States and Britain would be the ones to do this. Why is it us? This is a Hebrew, a Middle East book. This book was written in and around Israel, ancient Israel and Judah in that area. And then in Greece, in the Middle East. So, and South Eastern Europe. Why should it be the United States that would be in Great Britain that would champion Hebrew and Christian, a Hebrew and Christian book to the world? There seems to be, there is even there a proof, isn't there, of our roots? That our roots do go back to ancient Israel, though we don't realize it.

America and Britain are the descendants of Joseph, and they have been given the birthright blessings. Those riches mentioned in James 5 would be the riches of the birthright promises granted to the descendants of Joseph. It's easy to see the goodliness of Joseph the last 400 years and the greatness of the United States and Great Britain. The goodliness of Joseph has come through. Nations have improved their standards of living and their freedoms and liberties because of Britain and the United States.

Of course, all of that is, again, pointed out in our booklet on the United States and Great Britain in Bible prophecy. America and Britain have championed liberty and freedom, human rights and equality and values and principles from the Bible as no other nations have done. But now we are departing from the very values that come from the book that we have championed.

We are turning from this and not to our good, but to our detriment. And many social and moral problems have beset us. What about the future? Well, the future, according to the Scriptures, indicate a time of trouble like we have never had before. It's a time of Jacob's trouble. Let's turn and read that in Jeremiah 30, a time of trouble.

That's where this is leading. And just how near are we? It's good to realize it could be fairly close. It's also good to realize that we may swing on out of this and have some more time. Not that we're going to change our ways.

We don't believe that we're going to change utterly and get back to God's laws and get back to Bible reading in school and get back to prayers and get back to the principles and the values, as best we understood them, that have made this country great.

We don't believe that we're going to get back to that. There's no indication that we will. But notice in Jeremiah 30 and in verse 7, "'Alas, for that day is great, so that none is like it. It is the time of Jacob's trouble, but he shall be saved out of it.'" So there's a time like this world has never had. The same time Jesus talked about the great tribulation like has never been. And it is the time of Jacob's trouble, but he will be saved out of it. And verse 8 says, "'It shall come to pass, and that day says the Lord, I will break his yoke from your neck, and will burst your bonds. Foreigners shall no more enslave them, but they shall serve the Lord their God and David their king, whom I will raise up for them.'" So, you know, the good news, the bad news is that there is a time of trouble coming, a time of Jacob's trouble. The good news is that it's going to be short, that time of trouble. Just two or three years, and God will begin to work to deliver Israel and bring them back to the land of Palestine. And when they are back in the land that God gave to Abraham, God will restore the twelve tribes back to that land. Then many prophecies reveal that Israel is going to then be a holy nation. They're going to do something that they never did before. Of course, the last book, the last chapter in our book that gets into that time of restoration, and Israel will become the model nation for the world.

They'll do something that it seems like our Britain and America aspire to make the world better, but they're doing it on their own, apart from God. Then they will do it as a converted people with God showing them the way. They've never really looked to God to show them how to make the world a better place. But once they are converted, they will look to God, and God will use the Israelite tribes in a very powerful way. Let's go to Isaiah 43 and read just a few of those encouraging verses. America and Britain and the other tribes are going to do something that God chose them to do a long time ago, and they've never done it. But they're going to, beginning at the return of Christ. In Isaiah 43 and verse 1, You know, these chapters from chapter 40 to 66 in Isaiah focus to a large extent on the millennium. They picture on that time, they talk about that time when Christ is on the earth reigning. Here we have mention of Jacob and Israel.

So, you know, God chose Israel a long time ago to be His nation. They just never have done what they were supposed to do.

Let's get on down to verse 21. Isaiah 43 verse 21.

So our nations are going to be converted, and they are, after the time of the tribulation, they will be converted, and they will then declare God's praise to other nations.

And it shows the problem then, verse 22. In the last part of verse 24, In chapter 44 in verse 1, In chapter 24 in verse 24, And the name Himself by the name of Israel. So we see a converted nation here, that God will use in a very powerful way. So for 1,000 years, Israel is going to be a model nation to the world. They're going to show the way that it should be. You know, we read earlier in that quote that it's only the moral nations that really function harmoniously.

It's only those who are based upon principles of God's Word and God's law that really work. Let's read a proverb or two about that. Proverbs 14, 34. It's the only way that works, and finally, it will be the way that our people will go. So that's encouraging to know.

In Proverbs 14 and verse 34, Righteousness exalts a nation. It does. Keeping God's law and those solid-sound principles of God's law exalts a nation. It works. But sin is a reproach to any people. So, you know, we can apply this on the personal level too. Living God's way does exalt us individually, but breaking God's law is a reproach. Also, let's read in Proverbs 29 and verse 2 that when God's laws come from the very top level, then things work out. When the leadership of our country teaches God's laws and sets that example, then it does go well.

Proverbs 29 and verse 2, Well, in the millennium Israel will be a converted people and the righteous will be an authority at that time. And all during the thousand years Israel at last will be that model nation that God intended in the very beginning. Israel will be the great spiritual and moral nation that she aspires to be. And at last will be that shining beacon and city on a hill. No longer will Israel be as it was back in ancient Israel or like it is in modern Israel today. Let's read a couple of verses in conclusion in Jeremiah 50. Jeremiah 50.

Beginning in verse 4. Jeremiah 50 and verse 4.

In those days, and this is after we've gone through the time of Jacob's trouble, after Israel has become a converted nation, has God's spirit, when Christ is reigning, David is king over Israel, the twelve apostles, each of them one of the tribes. In those days and at that time says the Lord, the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together, with continual weeping they shall come. That shows a repentant heart, continual weeping, and seek the Lord their God. They shall ask the way to Zion with their faces toward it, saying, Come and let us join ourselves to the Lord in a perpetual covenant that will not be forgotten. My people have been lost sheep, their shepherds have led them astray. Certainly it's true, the false religion has played a big role in leading our people astray. Skipping on down to verse 19, But I will bring back Israel to his habitation, and he shall feed on Carmel and Beishan, his soul shall be satisfied on Mount Ephraim and Gilead. And look at verse 20, In those days and in that time, says the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought, and there shall be none. And the sins of Judah, but they shall not be found. We won't have the greed and the corruption, the wickedness and evil and bloodshed and all the other things going on today. Today bloodshed touches bloodshed. A little girl down in Florida missing six months and her body mutilated. Things like this making the news. We won't have things of that type anymore. Look for the sins of iniquity of Israel, none. Sins of Judah, they'll not be found. I will pardon those whom I preserve. I think the last part of verse 20 doesn't say that Israel and Judah will be perfect. They will have sin. They will make mistakes. But they won't be going the way of gross evil like we see today. They'll be going the same way we are going. We have sin, don't we, ourselves. But we strive to have those sins forgiven and covered. We ask God's mercy and forgiveness all the time. And so will they. They will be in a New Covenant relationship. They will seek forgiveness and their sins will be forgiven. Because they will be walking a righteous and holy way of life. And seeking to obey God's laws, we do. And to be forgiven as they fall short. So, brethren, I know that this sermon today, then, certainly shows that our nation has been is going a wrong way. It explains. I hope it helps to explain a lot about why we are where we are. And also it indicates what lies ahead. And it also gives hope for what is beyond what is just ahead. Finally, Israel and the whole world will be serving under God. And they will be keeping God's laws. And there won't be the greed, the corruption, and the evil that we have today. And Israel will be one nation under God. Today we say one nation under God, but not really. Not united and not really under God either. And with true liberty and justice, there will be God's brand of true liberty and justice for everyone. May God speed that day.