America is a reproach / Judgement starts in the house of God

Thank you for listening to this message from the ministry of Morse Corner Church in Leverett, Massachusetts.

Morse Corner is a non -denominational church that is committed to the preaching and teaching of the gospel of

Jesus Christ.

Our church was founded in 1896 by two students of the famous evangelist D .L.

Moody.

We seek to encourage and edify the body of Christ through the proclamation of God's word through the ministries of

the local church.

If you'd like more information, visit our website, morsecornerchurch .com.

We hope you enjoy the message.

Proverbs 14 .34 says, righteousness exalts a nation, but

sin is a reproach to any people.

What's another word for reproach?

Disgrace.

Has the United States of America become a reproach to God?

I think it's disgraceful what's happening to this country.

Now don't get me wrong, you know, I hope you know, I love this country.

I'm glad I live here.

And it used to bother me when I would hear people, what I perceived as them kind of trashing the United States.

They say, you live here, you have so many blessings, and then you just speak against it.

That used to really burn me up.

But as a Christian looking at what has happened to this country, I want God to bless this

country.

Don't you want God to bless this country?

Don't you want to be one of these nations the Bible talks about?

Whose God is the Lord?

But I fear we have become a reproach.

Again, the blessings we still experience, they're the remnants of what's left over.

This country is blessed partially because we have sent in the past, to

some degree we're still doing this, we have sent missionaries to the uttermost parts of the earth.

No country has sent more missionaries overseas than the United States of America.

So again, I'm glad I live here.

I thank God that I was born in this country.

But what has become of it?

My friends, we've become like Babylon.

What's the title of the message?

Blessed are the peacemakers.

And in case that's not quite the vibe you're getting from this message, keep in mind before

you can fix a problem, you have to first identify it.

Again, back in 2001 when they were saying God bless America, God bless America, our

problem, we didn't identify the problem.

We didn't identify it.

So world peace, forget about that.

You need Jesus in order for that to happen.

Peace in this country, it is possible.

It is possible in a nation if the nation repents and turns back to the Lord.

But that word repentance is a word that a lot of ministries intentionally don't use.

I heard one story of a man who went to seminary and his professor taught him, if you

want to build a church, there are certain words you don't use.

Wrath, repentance, some key words.

Don't talk about that.

Again, that's one of the problems.

So world peace, forget about that until Jesus comes.

Peace in this nation, it's possible if the nation repents.

But typically, people don't repent and a nation does not repent until number one, they first see

the problem, and number two, usually people or a nation has to hit rock bottom.

Or the Lord's hand becomes too heavy to bear.

This is what you might call a prophetic message, not because I'm a prophet or

foretelling a future event, but it's prophetic in that the prophets would speak against

the nation, didn't they?

In the Old Testament, what did the prophets do?

They were speaking the word of God against the kings of Judah and the kings of Israel.

That's what the prophets did, and that's why they were so despised.

But even in the prophets' message, there was always that element of hope, wasn't there?

There was always that woven message of hope going through

because they knew of the coming Messiah and they knew that God would still be

with and bless people who trusted in him.

Just because God abandons a nation does not mean that God will abandon every person in the

nation.

A few examples from the Old Testament, Jeremiah, what do people call Jeremiah?

He's known as the weeping prophet.

Jeremiah wept over Jerusalem.

Jesus, remember Jesus wept.

He lamented over the city of Jerusalem.

So, I don't want anyone to get the wrong idea.

I preach this message because I love this country.

If I didn't love this country, I wouldn't bother, I wouldn't care, or I would just

join in with all those people who seem to want to tear it down.

All right, turn to Revelation chapter 18.

By the way, that's not going to happen.

Revelation 18.

So, what's our duty?

Be peacemakers.

How?

Through the gospel of peace.

Pray for peace.

The election this fall is not going to solve the issue.

I think most of you know that, but again, certain things can help a little bit, but it's not a solution.

Romans 10, 15, here is the solution.

Romans 10, 15 says, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace,

who bring glad tidings of good things.

Do you have feet?

I'm pretty sure everyone in this room has feet.

You know what you can do?

You can take the gospel of peace with you and declare it wherever you go.

That's what we need to be doing.

You know what would help?

I was thinking about this.

It's great to talk about it, but what are some things that actually need to happen?

What are some specifics?

Here's one thing that would help, perhaps more than anything.

If by this fall, talking about the fall, if by this fall every backslidden

Christian got right with God, how many evangelical Christians are in this country?

What is it?

50 million?

I don't know the number.

It's tens and tens of millions, maybe more.

If every backslidden Christian got right with God by this fall, that would make a

difference.

Amen?

And for those who are not backslidden, if you got just more fired up in your efforts and did

more and prayed more, that would make a difference.

If Bible -believing churches across this country are strengthened, you know what that means?

The country would be strengthened.

But we live in a time, and I've looked at some of the statistics.

We live in a time where church attendance is at, I think, an all -time

low.

In history, in the history of the world, church attendance is at an all -time low.

You know what's at an all -time high?

Suicide, depression, anxiety, despair.

Violence.

Immorality.

I mean, go through the list.

There's clearly a connection.

The Bible says judgment starts in the house of God.

We want the country turned around.

Hey, let's turn ourselves around.

Let's turn this church around.

Let's turn our community around.

That would help.

That will help.

And you know what?

That is possible.

Is that possible?

You tell me.

Amen.

It is possible.

You know, the golden days of Israel occurred.

One of the greatest things, perhaps the greatest thing King David ever did, is when he brought the ark

to Jerusalem.

The country was out doing their thing, and the ark was off.

Nobody even thought about the ark.

Nobody cared about the ark.

David brought it to the center of the nation.

He put God in the center, and it was the greatest time Israel had

ever seen.

Even Jews today look back and think, oh, if we could only go back to the times of King

David.

Well, you can.

Why don't you?

And then his son Solomon took over, and that was the – those were the glory days.

Israel was at the center of the world, and people came from far and wide to hear the

king's wisdom.

What happened?

The king, after a while, his heart started to drift.

That's what happens with all of us.

Our heart starts to drift a little bit and a little more.

Before you know it, you're right back in the same situation.

God has to be at the center.

He has to be at the center of my life.

He has to be at the center of your life.

He has to be at the center of this church.

And I pray to God that one day he will once again be at the center of this

country.

If not, if we try to do it by other methods, Psalm 127, verse 1 says, Unless the

Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain.

There's no other way.

Nothing else is going to work.

All right, you're in Revelation 18, correct?

Yes.

Okay, we'll read that in a second.

But this Revelation 18 speaks of Babylon.

I said the United States has become Babylon, or we've become like Babylon.

Just to be clear, I'm not saying that we are literally Babylon, or we are the end times Babylon that John is speaking of.

I'm speaking spiritually.

But that same spirit of Babylon moved, if you will.

If you know the book of Daniel, there's talk about the successive world

empires.

There's the corrupt world system.

So this spirit of Babylon, exalting man and ignoring God, it moved

from Babylon to Medo -Persia to Greece, and then it finally stopped with Rome.

And now I fear we have adopted this spirit of Babylon, where instead of

giving God the glory, we boast about our own accomplishments.

This started all in Genesis chapter 11 with the Tower of Babel, when man chose

to ignore God's word.

God said, spread out over the face of the earth.

And they said, no, thanks.

We're going to stay right here, and we are going to make a name for ourselves.

Matter of fact, we're going to build a tower that reaches to heaven.

We don't need God.

We can build our own kingdom.

What did God do?

They didn't finish the project, did they?

God confused their language.

That's what God has done to us.

We can't understand each other anymore.

You have family members that are so divided, and a lot of it's political, and we don't need to get into

that, but we don't even understand each other anymore.

We look at our fellow Americans, some of our friends, coworkers, family, and it's like you're from another

planet.

He has completely confused our nation.

God later, speaking of Babylon, he confused the mind of the king, Nebuchadnezzar.

He turned him into basically he had the mind of an animal.

God has given our leaders, many of our leaders, over to a debased mind, a mind

that no longer functions.

Our leaders are working against our own interests.

If I didn't know any better, maybe I don't, but I would think that what they're doing is intentional.

We're not being conquered from without.

We're crumbling from within.

We're being conquered from within.

That's what happened to ancient societies like Rome.

That's how the Roman Empire fell.

They collapsed from within because of moral decay.

Look at Revelation 18, verse 4.

John says, and I heard another voice from heaven saying, oh, this is that bad, what's the

Christian's response?

Here it is.

Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins

and lest you receive of her plagues, for her sins have reached to heaven and

God has remembered her iniquities.

What's the responsibility of God's elect?

If this nation is like Babylon, what's the solution?

Come out, get out.

That doesn't mean get out of the cities, although that'd be a good idea too, I think.

Come out of that world system.

I was at the gym on the treadmill and they have the TVs right in front of me

and sometimes I wish they would shut them off.

It was Good Morning America.

I remember my mom watching Good Morning America when I was a kid and it was pretty standard, pretty standard stuff.

I can't even describe to you the things that were on the screen.

It would be completely inappropriate for me to even, that's how bad, and that's Good Morning America.

Never mind some of the other garbage that's on television.

If I sat down and viewed that as entertainment, God help my soul,

what's the message of the spirit?

Come out, get out.

Don't be conformed to this world.

Any nation, any system that opposes the Lord eventually is going to come under the

Lord's judgment.

Usually I have a message prepared by Wednesday.

I prepare this message, work on it a little bit.

I didn't want to preach this message.

I didn't want to do it.

Yesterday I said I'll come up with something new.

I don't want to preach this message.

I don't want to talk about this.

God's judgment though is coming.

It's my job, I believe, to tell the truth.

God, the Holy Spirit has laid this on my heart.

God, he's not only going to judge the United States, he is judging

the United States.

Thanks for listening.

I'm Pastor Michael Grant from Morris Cornick Church.

If you'd like to listen to the complete message or if you'd like more information about the ministry, visit our website,

MorrisCornickChurch .com.

And we'd love to have you join us some Sunday morning here in Leverett.

Until next time, may the grace of God be with you.