America and the Last Days

Transcription

1 America and the Last Days Isa 14:26-27 This is the plan devised against the whole earth; and this is the hand that is stretched out against all the nations. For the Lord of hosts has planned, and who can frustrate it? And as for His stretched-out hand, who can turn it back? I. A. Torrey (from the Pulpit Commentary) THE RELATION OF PROVIDENCE TO NATIONS. Here we take one single point. Nations have a corporate life, so they are, as it were, individuals, with a distinct individual character and action. Just as God uses the individual man for his purposes, so he uses the individual nation. The natural expression of a nation s character or genius becomes the providential agency for carrying out God s purposes. Illustrate the conquering genius of Babylon under Nebuchadnezzar doing God s work in the destruction of the kingdom of Judah. The fact that a nation employed as an executor is still in God s control, is shown in God s judging that nation for evils that become manifest in its doing of that executive work. Efficient illustrations may be found in the movements and enterprises of the European nations during the last century.-r. T. II. The word nations is used 494 times in the (NASU) version of the Bible. 1. The nations belong to God; He appoints their boundaries. Nations belong to God Ps 22:27-28 All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations will worship before You. For the kingdom is the Lord's and He rules over the nations. Ps 66:7 He rules by His might forever; His eyes keep watch on the nations; let not the rebellious exalt themselves. Rev 15:3 Great and marvelous are Your works, O Lord God, the Almighty; righteous and true are Your ways, King of the nations! He appoints Rom 13:1 very person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. Established = to arrange in an orderly manner, i.e. assign or dispose (to a certain position or lot): Strong's Concordance) Used 8 times; Mat 28:16; Luke 7:8; Acts 13:48; 15:2; 22:10; 28:23; Rom 13:1; 1 Cor 16:15; Their boundaries Deut 32:8 When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when He separated the sons of man, He set the boundaries of the peoples. Acts 17:26 and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation,

2 Boundaries = to mark out or bound ("horizon"), i.e. (figuratively) to appoint, decree, specify: used 8 times; (Lk 22:22; Ac 2:23; 10:42; 11:29; 17:26, 31; Rom 1:4; Heb 4:7) 2. Abraham's Seed will bless the nations. Gen 18:18 since Abraham will surely become a great and mighty nation, and in him all the nations of the earth will be blessed? Gen 22:18 "In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice." Gal 3:16 Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say, "And to seeds," as referring to many, but rather to one, "And to your seed," that is, Christ. 3. The gospel is for the nations Matt 28:19-20 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Mark 11:17 And He began to teach and say to them, "Is it not written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations'? but you have made it a robbers' den." Mark 13:10 "The gospel must first be preached to all the nations. 4. We are to pray for our nation 1 Tim 2:1-2a First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority 5. Motivation for prayer: Peaceful and tranquil life. 1 Tim 2:1-4 First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. Success and prosperity Jer 29:4-7 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon, Build houses and live in them; and plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and become the fathers of sons and daughters, and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; and multiply there and do not decrease. Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf; for in its welfare you will have welfare.' 6. Eschatology is a study of God's claim to the nations. Isa 30:27-28 Behold, the name of the LORD comes from a remote place; burning is His anger and dense is His smoke; His lips are filled with indignation and His tongue is like a consuming fire; His breath is like an overflowing torrent, which reaches to the neck, to shake the nations back and forth in a sieve, and to put in the jaws of the peoples the bridle which leads to ruin.

3 Isa 14:26-27 This is the plan devised against the whole earth; and this is the hand that is stretched out against all the nations. For the Lord of hosts has planned, and who can frustrate it? And as for His stretched-out hand, who can turn it back? Isa 16:8 The Lord of the nations have trampled down its choice clusters III. The Battle Hymn of the Republic This hymn was born during the American civil war, when Julia W. Howe visited a Union Army camp on the Potomac River near Washington, D. C. She heard the soldiers singing the song John Brown s Body, and was taken with the strong marching beat. She wrote the words the next day: (John Brown was an American abolitionist who led a short lived insurrection to free the slaves.) I awoke in the grey of the morning, and as I lay waiting for dawn, the long lines of the desired poem began to entwine themselves in my mind, and I said to myself, I must get up and write these verses, lest I fall asleep and forget them! So I sprang out of bed and in the dimness found an old stump of a pen, which I remembered using the day before. I scrawled the verses almost without looking at the paper. The hymn appeared in the Atlantic Monthly in It was sung at the funerals of British statesman Winston Churchill, American senator Robert Kennedy, and American presidents Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord; He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored; He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword; His truth is marching on. Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! His truth is marching on. I have seen Him in the watch fires of a hundred circling camps They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps; I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps; His day is marching on. Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! His day is marching on. I have read a fiery Gospel writ in burnished rows of steel; As ye deal with My contemners, so with you My grace shall deal ; Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with His heel, Since God is marching on. Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Since God is marching on. He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat; He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment seat; Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! be jubilant, my feet; Our God is marching on. Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Our God is marching on.

4 In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea, With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me: As He died to make men holy, let us live to make men free; [originally let us die to make men free] While God is marching on. Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! While God is marching on. He is coming like the glory of the morning on the wave, He is wisdom to the mighty, He is honor to the brave; So the world shall be His footstool, and the soul of wrong His slave, Our God is marching on. Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Our God is marching on. Notes: Biblical references The song alludes to several Biblical passages: The first verse contains the images of treading out a winepress and a "terrible swift sword." These two images appear in both the Book of Isaiah and the Book of Revelation. Isaiah 27:1 (KJV) states, "In that day the LORD with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent," Isaiah 63:3 states, "I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with me: for I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury." Revelation 14:19 describes an angel casting grapes into "the great winepress of the wrath of God" Revelation 19:15 describes the Word of God who wields "a sharp sword" and "treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God." The third verse refers to God's promise in Genesis 3:15 that a descendant of Eve will someday crush the serpent, while the serpent can strike only at his heel. Gen 3:15 He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel." (NKJV) Indirectly, this also refers to Revelation 12:1-10, where a woman bears a child while engaged in struggle with a dragon/serpent. The dragon/serpent is defeated. The fourth verse alludes to 2 Cor 5:10, which states that "We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad." The fifth verse refers to the doctrine that Christians can be made holy through the death of Christ. Col 1:21-22 And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach (NASU) The sixth verse refers to the Earth as the footstool of God, a claim which appears in Isa 66:1 "Heaven is My throne, and earth is My footstool (Acts 7:49). Matt 5:34 the earth, for it is the footstool of His feet,

5 IV. Conclusion 1. God has a plan for nations as He does for individuals. 2. Throughout history (Bible and World) Nations cease to exist (have an influence) if they fail to carry out God's purposes. 3. God uses World Powers and natural calamity to bring judgment to nations. Babylon under Nebuchadnezzar (illustrates this) bringing God s judgment against Judah's sin and rebellion. 4. Nations are destroyed through their own sin. Prov 14:34 Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people. Ps 68:6 God makes a home for the lonely; He leads out the prisoners into prosperity, only the rebellious dwell in a parched land. Ps 107:33-34 He changes rivers into a wilderness and springs of water into a thirsty ground; a fruitful land into a salt waste, because of the wickedness of those who dwell in it.