Proverbs 3:19-25 (The Downfall of America and its Cure)

The Crisis of a Nation Under Judgment

Thank you for subscribing to the Shepherds Church podcast. This is our Lord's Day Sermon. We pray that as we declare the Word of God that you would be encouraged Strengthened in your faith and that you would catch a greater vision of who Christ is.

May you be blessed in the hearing of God's Word and may the Lord be with you. I don't think That any of us could have imagined the place that we find ourself in today. The world has always been chaotic.

This country has never been perfect, but things feel different to me. Things feel darker to me than they did when I was a child. During this election season every election I'm told this is the most important election.

This is the one that's gonna make or break democracy. They tell us that every time but this one really does feel different. We had a watch I was watching actually at home by myself Live when the Butler PA assassination attempt happened, and I was so confused and I was like what is going on?

It actually looked like maybe he was lying there dying for a moment before he stood up and he did his famous fight fight fight. I watched as the liberal media Continued after that to use inflammatory rhetoric rhetoric like Hitler Nazi fascist calling everyone who supports one party garbage and Then I watched how a man who had lost his mind used that information To hide at a golf course to try to assassinate the president now a second assassination attempt.

This hasn't happened in my lifetime at least I've watched this time the political machine Chew up and spit out Joe Biden. We told them for years that he was corrupt. We told them for years that he was not worthy to be president we told them for years that he was incompetent or that he was losing his faculties and Yet they lied to us and said he's as sharp as a whip.

He's running circles around the rest of us. Until he lost the debate until they realized that the poll numbers were tanking and then for the sake of democracy They overturned democracy. I watched Nancy Pelosi Chuck Schumer Barack Obama the establishment perform a coup d 'etat in The ways that happens in third world countries, but not in America.

You know, we were founded to be a light that shines to the nation. That was the first sermon that was preached here by William Bradford. That we would be a beacon of light to the nation's do you know when we invented the the telegram and then when we connected the telegram to Europe the first text message Telegram was that God's dominion his glory would shine from sea to shining sea all over the world.

We were a Christian nation and now we're a nation That's feasting on our own that is plunged into chaos and now we have an unimpressive woman in a city of unimpressive people who got a not a single vote and This is democracy.

Behind the closed doors when she's not reading a teleprompter. Sorry if this is getting a little political for you. But our country is in trouble When she's not reading from a teleprompter. She's saying things like let political prisoners free paying money to get them out of jail.

She's adopted San Franciscan modern-day Marxism and she adopted and she Appointed a man who puts tampons in boys bathrooms as their vice president. It's silly. That's stupid. We also have open borders where people are pouring in where other countries are dumping their worst criminals into our country.

We have a failing education system that's goal is to pervert our children from the moment that we send them there. Thank God that most if not all here are not engaged in the public education system. But they are their job is to pervert our children and then we have Hollywood who dares to lecture us on morality when they're the ones that have attended Puff Daddy's parties visited Epstein's Island and Have done all manner of evil in their movies.

I Asked myself all the time I sit on My front porch, which it's like I kind of imagined that there weren't houses all over the place. And then I'm like in the middle of a field I'm in Lowell. There's no fields.

But but I sit there and I think this is not the America that I grew up in. This is not the country that once stood as a symbol of freedom for the world. This is not the country that I signed up to defend and put a uniform on and went to Iraq in service of and Just as I've been thinking about that.

I've been thinking about how it's okay to actually grieve that it's not Unchristian to grieve the death of a country especially the country that has sent so many Missionaries a country that has published so many Bibles that has produced so many scholars that has founded so many seminaries.

That has done so much good for the kingdom of God it's not bad to grieve the death of that because the death of that is bad and Shame on this country for letting that legacy falter. I find that it's the dull roar in all of our hearts.

You can hear it when we talk to each other. You can hear the pain inside of our heart that we're losing something. That was good. Not perfect, but it was good and that got me thinking this week. What is it that actually holds a nation together as I'm looking at the sinking of our ship as I'm looking at the collapse of this thing.

What is it that actually prevents a nation from collapsing? What is it that keeps a country from sinking. Is it having the right economic plan. Is It having the right geography. Is it having the strongest military?

Is it making sure that we vote for the right candidate? Is that what holds a country together or is it something heavier and deeper. That we must be anchored to If we are never to falter. What is the thing that.

If we abandon it, we will implode. But if we cling to it, our foot will never slip. That's what I was asking myself this week and thankfully our passage this morning talks about that. And I'm not talking about politics.

I think we need to look beyond politics. I think this top-down Model that we have in America where we elect a person every four years and forget that the last four years We were excited for change. We can believe in or all these other slogans that they come up with.

That change isn't coming. I think we have to recognize the fact that something other than politics and a top-down system is what we need and I think that Biblically speaking it's a return to God. How can we make America great again if we don't turn back to God again.

How can we continue to reach and punch and move towards the left. The Republican Party. I just I despise both parties in this country. But I'm voting for one because at least sometimes a broken clock is right twice a day sort of thing.

I Despise the fact that that we're compromising on abortion. We're compromising on all of these different issues. These are the choices that we have. The choices that we have are indicative of the fact that we are a nation under judgment.

I Don't care if you like the candidate or not. The choices we have in this clown world situation We are living in is indication that we are under the judgment of God. So instead of all of that I Want to look at what the Bible says that will heal a nation and that will make a nation impervious to disaster.

There is something in the Bible that says that if a nation will do this they will never be destroyed. That's what I want to talk about this morning. So if you will turn with me to Proverbs 3 19 through 26 as we explore these things together.

Wisdom in Creation and the Call to Trust God

Proverbs 3 19 through 26. This is the Word of the Lord. The Lord by wisdom founded the earth. By understanding he established the heavens. By his knowledge the deeps were broken up and the skies drip with dew.

My son let them not vanish from your sight. Keep sound wisdom and discretion. So they will be life to your soul and adornment to your neck. Then you will walk in your way securely and your foot will not stumble.

When you lie down you will not be afraid. When you lie down your sleep will be sweet. Do not be afraid of sudden fear nor the onslaught of the wicked when it comes. For the Lord will be your confidence and he will keep your foot from being caught.

Today we're going to talk about three things. We're going to talk about God's creational wisdom and what its purpose is. We're going to talk about what wisdom God has infused in the very fabric of creation that if we will cling to it and Hold to it.

We will never stumble and Then third we're going to talk about the blessings that come from clinging to this creation wisdom. The wisdom God's embedded in creation. That's what we're going to talk about today.

So if you will, let us pray and let us jump in Lord. We thank you. We thank you for your word and we thank you for the fact that it should give us great courage and hope. Lord we are not blind. Walking through a minefield hoping that we can survive another generation.

Lord you've given us all truth every truth that we need in order to sleep. Well in order to have peace in order for the collection of us together in this thing called a nation can have peace and Can have blessing.

Lord I pray for this nation in the ugly season that we're in right now. Lord, I pray that you would be exceedingly merciful and exceedingly gracious and That you will do what has never been done in human history before.

When an empire reaches its zenith and then it begins its downward spiral into depravity and destruction. Would you revive it? And would you let Lord the glory days of Christian America still be in our future.

It's in Jesus name. We pray. Amen. Solomon begins the passage by saying that the Lord founded the earth with wisdom and that by his understanding he established the heavens. What God is saying here is that he has infused in their foundation and framework and fabric of reality wisdom both in the immaterial sphere of heaven and in the material sphere of earth such that If God has perfect wisdom Everything that he made bears the imprint of his intelligence and wisdom such that You and I cannot improve it.

We can't add intelligence to his design because he is omni intelligent. We can't make better what God has made best. He has made a reality before sin entered the world. Sure, but he has made a Cosmos that is unimprovable in regards to the wisdom that he has infused into it.

The world is not an accident like the Big Bang says. The world is not an explosion of random atoms that somehow danced into formation and Became a thing I've heard apologists say. That it would be like an airplane crashing and a fully functioning iPad Pro Forming out of the particles that exploded Ten times in a row or something like that and that's probably understating the case.

The Bible is not a Big Bang story. It is the story of a special intelligent deliberate designed creation. Where God infused wisdom into every quark, which is really small smaller than an electron. The world is not a result of evolutionary processes.

Where we're just animals bumbling into existence by random chance and survival of the fittest. The world is deliberately made with wisdom and it goes down to every electron and nucleus in the cosmos. Such that it cannot be improved.

It cannot be ordered more perfectly than he ordered it with all of the systems and structures and organisms and life. Have you ever heard of the Bombardier beetle? Fascinating little beetle children. This will be a fun story for you.

The Bombardier beetle is proof that evolution is untrue. Because as a defense mechanism, there are powerful gases inside of its body that explode out almost like flatulence. That destroy the enemy. All those systems needed to be fully operational in and in place.

When the Bombardier beetle Was fully formed because if a malfunction happened and instead of the explosion happening outward it happened inward. There's no more Bombardier beetle and it can't reproduce.

So it it could not have evolved into this highly intricate system of exploding gas. It was fully formed from the beginning with wisdom and design and you see that Everywhere all over creation the more you study Individual life on its smallest level you realize that nothing Does not make that.

That only God Can make that. That's why there's a quiet revival actually among scientists. They lose their funding. They'll lose their grants. They'll lose their all of their different credentials. But there's a quiet revival happening among people who can't deny the obvious any longer.

Everything that God made has purpose. Creation bears every attribute of God. When you look at it, you see that God loves you. How could he not love us by creating oxygen? How could he not love us by creating water?

How could he not love us by humans discovering wine and IPA beer you imagine. Maybe you don't like IPA beer but you imagine the guy out in his field who left the wheat in the jar overnight and it rained and he came out the Next day and he was like Lord is so good.

So kind. Look what happened? I'm just kidding. All creation bears the fingerprint of God and it requires wisdom and intelligence to see it so what am I saying? I'm saying that the only way to understand the Excellence and the beauty and creation is for you to have some intelligence so that if you deny These things you have reduced your humanity down to an unreasoning beast.

Here's an example of this. I Love basketball. It's probably my favorite sport and I love college basketball and I also am beginning to really like the NBA. Not because of their politics and not because of their whatever else.

I just I love Watching excellence at play. Now I was a really good basketball player. I was the best basketball player on my team, which doesn't mean much because I was at a Christian school. I Looked like the elf dunking on a 5 foot 3 inch Catholic guy.

Like the guy who played center. I was 6 2 playing center. The guy who's playing center was like 5 3 and I was dominating. I Felt no repentance needed. I was murdering that game. And then in my hubris, I thought man, I'm really good at basketball.

I'm gonna try out for for like a you and go and play with the public school kids. And I was manhandled. It was amazing. But because I was really good on my team I learned to know what excellence looks like In that context and I learned to love it so that when I watch These players and and I don't like that.

They make millions of dollars and I don't like that. They get to make a living just by playing a game like those things are silly to me. Especially with how much money they make. But I love seeing people do what they do at the highest possible level where their body is doing things that I'll never be able to do.

I Love watching a symphony orchestra where the where the notes and the beauty of it is all coming together. I love tasting an excellent steak Cooked by Don Smith. I love seeing excellence and beauty and things because That feeling that we have of being small in the presence of something grand is worship.

When we stand before a great mountain and we and we and we recognize that we're so small when we walk outside and watch the intricacies of the flight of the bumblebee. Whenever we look at the thousands upon thousands upon thousands of unique animals and Reptiles and fish and birds.

When we see the insects dutifully pre-programmed to do what they're called to do when we see the Sun and the moon and the stars in the sky whenever we Whenever we bathe in water That is held together by a connection between hydrogen and oxygen and Whenever we breathe air into our lungs, it should invigorate praise.

Our problem and I think what hell will be filled with is not just those who lied and cheat and stole and Founded the IRS hell will primarily be a place of People who are ungrateful Where they don't recognize that everything they ever had was a gift of grace.

We live in a world that he designed with brains. He designed with emotions. He designed with faculties he designed with a mouth that he designed and yet we dare speak against the Almighty with borrowed junk.

What he has done is Unimprovable and It should lead us to be humble. The second thing that I see here in this passage is that God defines the very boundaries of reality and rationality. Not only is what he designed unimprovable with exacting specifications that we can't comprehend nor Improve upon he has designed and established the very bounds of what is rational.

Every design that you look at on earth from the Bombardier deed beetle to the fruit fly to whatever else is the most rational design that it ever could have been it's the most rational possible. And When you look at the Rationality infused in creation you understand a glimpse of what sin is.

Sin is by very nature irrational. Sin is by very nature Chaos it is the tearing apart of things that were beautifully put together. That's what sin is. Sin is like that moment when someone walks into the room in the 10 ,000 piece puzzle that you just labored over for months.

They flippantly knock it off the table so that they could make room for their Froot Loops. That's the kind of feeling. It's really too small to even describe it, but that's sort of what sin is a destroying of what is beautiful.

And in our stupidity we make ignorant statements. Like I said before with our borrowed eyes mouths and cells we speak against the Almighty. Who defined what rationality even is it's like a clay a piece of clay?

Saying to its sculptor. I don't like the way you made me. Without his wisdom we couldn't even make the statement. Like children we wag our finger at God with a finger that we didn't make. It's only God who brings meaning and purpose and When we gather together as people as a nation.

It is only God who brings meaning and purpose to a nation. If a nation denies Meaning from God then they will devolve into meaninglessness. If a nation denies reason they will forfeit rationality. If a nation denies God superior and infinite and maximal intelligence, they will slip into stupidity and that is what we're seeing in America today a Nation that has rejected God and is devolving into animalistic chaos.

But we can't just talk in general About these things because my goal is not just to show the problem and not just to talk about and around the solution. I'm going to give specific things that God says that we can do to make us impervious to disaster and Should this nation collapse will help us be the ones who rebuild it to the glory of Christ.

Verse 19 through 20 says this. The Lord by wisdom found of the earth by understanding he established the heavens by his knowledge. The deeps were broken up and the skies drip with dew. Brothers and sisters as you hear me reading that you should be hearing Genesis 1.

The heavens and the earth. The deep waters and the skies these are concepts that come out of Genesis 1 where the heavens and the earth are separated. The deep waters and the skies are separated. This is almost certainly a reference to creation.

Where the water above and the water below was separated and called heaven and earth where the dry land the water were separated and called Earth and land or land and water land and sea. This is an intentional reference to the very beginning of the Bible.

Which that's really important. Because it's in the beginning of the Bible where we see God create things with such precision rationality and purpose. I've often said that it's Genesis 1 issues. That will be the downfall of America.

What are some things that it happened in Genesis 1 then? That we have abandoned well day one the heavens and earth were made day to the water in the dry land. Were made day three the Sun the moon and the stars day for the oceans were teeming with both whales and plankton, which is amazing.

We don't even know we're talking about going to Mars. We've not even explored the oceans yet. They're so vast. Day five the skies that hold them off both the condors and the hummingbirds. The reason that this country is dying is because we failed to recognize the intelligence of God in His design and his beauty and his infinite maximal perfection that he made creation.

And these days one through five issues are important and I think Christians have failed here and I think Christians have failed here in a specific way because We have become so spiritual and so heavenly that we're no earthly good in a sense in Christianity we ought to be the ones who are the very best for the environment and.

And I'm not saying that the earth is heating or cooling. They scientists changed their mind on that and use it as propaganda and weapons to Actually extract resources from you and become rich. The whole climate hysteria is fueled by an unbridled teenager.

Who's telling a bunch of adults all over the world what they're supposed to believe and that's supposed to be rational. So I don't I don't buy into that at all. But I do think that Christians should be the very best stewards of the earth and of creation.

We should be the ones I've said this before who have the best lawns. Who have the least weeds? We should be the ones who take care of the gifts that God has given us out of great Gratitude for his love and care for us.

Yet environmental care as important as it is. It's not the problem with America today. It's it's it's a problem, but it's not the problem if you want to narrow down where the Zenith where the Nexus where the where the ground zero is of where America is failing.

It's on day six. The day six issues is the epicenter of the rot. Yeah, we probably ought to stand against strip mining that's a day three issue. We probably ought to be more against pollution. That's a day four issue.

We probably ought to be against electric cars because that's really bad for the oceans in the land. That's day five. But day six issues is where it's falling apart. Like a hot air balloon without any hot air.

That's where we're at. Now, let me let me just for a second. Talk about something that we talked about earlier in our Old Testament. Reading where God's established the borders between heaven and earth this idea of borders is really important before we move forward.

God gave creation borders. He's not like one of the liberals who flings the gate open and says come what may God actually Divides things and when he divides things he establishes boundaries. That's what it means when he divides the heaven and the earth.

He's establishing what heaven space is and when earth space is which means that he's making borders and boundaries, right? When he divided the water in the dry land, he's establishing boundaries. This is the water space.

This is the land space when he divided the heaven from the material world. He established that space when he divided animals from other animals he's saying that a cow is a cow and a cow is not a pangolin.

First animal popped in my head. He even divided the boundaries of Eden. Remember the whole world in Genesis 1. In Genesis 2 is not Eden. Eden is a region. It's a garden. There's wilderness space outside of it to differentiate what Eden is.

Every day he's infusing Boundaries and borders and I think this is where we have lost our minds is the borders that exist in Day6 the human boundaries that are more sacred than even the oceans. What I mean by that I mean that the ocean sometimes flood and tidal waves happen and come in on land.

Sometimes the borders are lost. But there is a border that is more sacred than oceans. There is a border that is more sacred than the sky sometimes forest fires. It's hard to tell the difference between earth and sky when forest fires happen because what is on the earth is now floating up to The sky so the borders are being erased.

But there is a border that is more Sacred than all the rest of them and is the border that God establishes on day six. And the reason I say that is because God says out of all the days. This one is very good.

Day, one, two, three, four and five are good. Day six is very good male female children family very good when God called humans. Very good. He was not speaking to our potential. He was speaking to the Unerasable nature of the borders by which he created us.

What are the borders he divided male from female or female from male? He divided children from adults. These are equal but distinct categories. Male and female are equal in their personhood, but they are distinct in their role and These are firm boundaries if God says that he will not allow the earth to be flooded with water again.

He's saying that's a firm boundary that all the land will never be covered with water again. How much more so is the boundary between man and woman firm? Which means it's the very height of insanity. To try to erase the border between man and woman.

That's where we're failing. That's why we're dying. Because we've lost what it means to be man woman and family. Every nation that has ever existed that understood man woman family and faith in God Has brought wealth and prosperity of the world and every society that has lost its view of God.

Has lost its view of manhood has lost its view of womanhood has lost its view of family and has lost its nation. There's no exception. So for us if we're going to be the ones who Revive this country one little town in Massachusetts at a time and guess what we started in the worst place.

Congratulations, welcome to Massachusetts and New Hampshire. But if we're gonna be the ones that help Revive this we need to know what a man and a woman is. We need to know what marriage is. We need to know what family is.

We need to know what these things are because they're unerasable unimpeachable boundaries that God has said that he loves. And I'm not gonna go exhaustive here. But I'm just gonna give a few points from the scriptures to make the case.

Biblical Manhood, Womanhood, and Family

What is a man? We need to know that. Well man is one who has headship in the Bible. There's no such thing as a man who doesn't have headship. There are men who Lead well, and there are men who lead poorly, but there is no Reality of what a man is who is not a leader.

In fact to be a man who doesn't lead well is to be a man in sin. To be a man who is passive like your father Adam is to be a man in sin. The Bible says that man is head over the wife, which means that he has authority and leadership.

That is supposed to be imitated. By be imitating Christ so that he is telling the story of Christ to the church to his wife. And if he is not doing that he is in grave sin. Ephesians 5 23 for the husband is the head of the wife as Christ also is the head of the church.

He himself being the Savior of the body this is where we get so lost. Because if we understood what Christlike leadership actually is then everyone on earth would want this. If we if men understood what it meant to be like Christ.

Then the best way to love your life is to lead her like Christ. The way to hate her is to refuse this and this is where our society has gone completely mad. Where we've been taught that men need to abdicate their leadership and become passive.

Brothers and sisters passive masculinity is a country killer. That's what it is. The second thing we're told in Scripture is that men are to be spiritual leaders. Men, you're to be the theologian of your home.

You might have married a woman smarter than you but don't let her outwork you in the Scriptures. You go to work and you hunt and you gather resources to bring home to feed your family. Do you go and hunt and gather in the Word of God?

Ephesians 6 forces fathers do not provoke your children to anger. But bring them up in the discipline and in the instruction of the Lord. You can't bring your children up in the discipline of the Lord if you don't know the discipline of the Lord.

You can't bring your children up in instructions that you haven't read the manual and brothers. Your wife is probably a better leader than you. Your wife is probably better at a lot of things than you.

But Paul does not allow for us to think that we can delegate our leadership To someone who is better equipped and qualified than us. He gave you your leadership and your weakness to magnify his strength.

Paul says in 1st Timothy 2 12 through 14. But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man. But to remain quiet for it was Adam who was created and then Eve and it was not Adam who was deceived.

But the woman who was deceived and fell into transgression. It is telling us men That it is our responsibility to stand up as the spiritual leaders of our homes and in our jobs and in our world to bring the truth of Christ to a people who don't know him.

A lack of male leadership and a lack of male spiritual leadership is why we are failing and you can look no further to the Effeminization and the esternization. Jason make that word of estrogen is Asian and the secularization of our men.

When you look on the news, you're gonna see a microcosm of what our society is and what I see is white dudes for Camelot Metrosexual lily pads who advocate for tampons and boys rooms and who probably squat when they go to the bathroom.

You might think that that's a little ridiculous. But the Bible actually in the King James version is the only one who has the courage to translate. It says that a man is one who pees against the wall.

That's biblical. God forbid you squat down and pee. That's the point. I'm saying what the Bible says the third thing that we learn about masculinity other than it's not effeminate and that it's a leader who leads in the ways of God is that You're a provider and you're a worker.

Men are supposed to provide for the family. One of the strongest passages in the Bible about masculinity is first Timothy 5 8 which says if anyone he's talking to the men here if anyone does not provide for his own and Especially for those of his own household.

He has denied the faith and he's worse than an unbeliever. One of the strongest passages in the Bible men is that you're worse than an unbeliever if you don't provide for your home. This is not a license to loaf around the house and play video games and look at porn and eat your cupcakes.

This is a call for you to work your fingers to the bone. Work two jobs if you have to to make sure your family's provided for. Because you were worse than a pagan if you don't. Fourth thing that we see.

Is that men are to be warriors and defenders? Men it's okay to be aggressive in certain situations. That's a good thing. If someone is threatening your wife, I don't want you to try to win them over with your winsome and sweet words.

If someone is trying to hurt your wife Eliminate the threat men are supposed to be ambitious. Paul even says that those who have a godly ambition for eldership are supposed to Lean into that ambitions not the problem.

It's on it's it's a non Christlike and a non submitted ambition. That's the problem. Men, you're supposed to be ambitious. You're supposed to work hard and try to succeed and try to subdue and try to conquer.

That's what you're made for. Stop allowing people to put you in a cage and Bridal you and make you feel like that your masculinity is the problem. Men are supposed to be restrained in certain situations.

Proverbs 29 11 says a fool always loses his temper, but a wise man holds back. Men were supposed to be wise. We're supposed to know When to play certain notes on the piano like aggression and ambition and when in other times to play gentleness and wisdom.

We're supposed to be tough with our sons and we're supposed to be tender with our daughters. When masculinity is lost society unravels peace and order are Forfeited. Nations are consumed and it's kind of like a black widow.

Have you ever seen what a black widow does? I Used to. I used to play with black widows not smart. But I thought they were fascinating creatures, you know when a female and a male black widow mate that often the female will eat the male and She eats him for nourishment.

She eats him for all kinds of other things. Bad way to go out I guess. But I think it's a really good metaphor for where our culture is. Where we have men who are existing for a moment. To get their fix.

But they're being consumed. And they're being evaporated and withered. Your masculinity is more than just your sex drive. Your masculinity is more than just your preferences. Your masculinity is robust and deep and it must be revived if this world is going to be Rescued from the From the ditch.

But it's not just men. We have a femininity problem in this country as well. We need to remember that femininity is under attack. Do you know who the very first person that Satan came to and attacked was.

It wasn't Adam. It was Eve. She was created to be this beautiful compliment to man the self same person hood and value but yet with unique giftings. I talk about women. With a much more with much more regard than I talk with and talk to and talk about men.

There's a reason for that men are made of the dirt. Women are made of flesh. Do you see the value difference there? Equal in personhood, but she's precious. Women are like Teacups that you use to build culture.

Men are like hammers that you use to build houses. They're different tools for different jobs and Men, it is our job to help protect our women and women. It is our job to model. I say our collectively.

I'm not a part of this. To model what scripture says about womanhood. Genesis 2 18 tells us the first thing we need to know that a woman is made to be a helper that is fit for a man. Genesis 2 18 says then the Lord said it is not good for a man to be alone.