Not an American God — E.A. Johnston

America’s Assumption of Divine Favor

My message today, friends, is a solemn subject and one that may surprise some of you. I know we who live in America tend to think a certain way that the entire universe revolves around America and that we are a special people who deserve special favor from God, and when it comes to running the world, pretty much it begins and ends here in the good old U .S. of A.

And because of our self-centered paradigm, we tend to view God as an American God, that if God is going to send revival, then he surely will begin with America first, for we are a favored people, and if God is going to favor anyone, then he should begin with us when it comes to handing out blessings and favors.

After all, we are the center of the world. That's how we think. That's how ancient China viewed themselves for centuries when they were a closed country. They viewed themselves as the center of the world who had need of nothing and viewed all outsiders as foreign dogs and devils.

But America is much more self-centered than China ever was, and when it comes to religion, the people of America think they are at the top of God's priority list just because we are Americans. But God is a global God, friends.

This may shock you, but God is not an American God. He is the God of Africa, China, and other nations of the world. In fact, God's moving more in other parts of the world, more in remarkable ways, than he's moving in America today.

But when we pray for revival, we tend to think God is just going to send revival to us because we are a favored people. The Jews saw themselves as especially favored people of God, even though they had walked away from God in their hearts and in their behavior.

Yet they sought his blessings and favor because they believed themselves to be God's special people, and indeed they were his beloved people, but they sinned grievously against him and fell under his curses more than his blessings.

America’s Imitation of Israel’s Rebellion

Today, in the nation of America, the church by and large views herself as especially favored people of God, and if God is going to do anything for us, if he's going to send revival, then of course he would begin first with the church in America.

That's how we think. That's how we view ourselves. But it isn't the way God views us. We, like Israel of old, are under the displeasure of God through remedial judgments from God. He has withdrawn his presence from among us because we sicken him.

We have sinned and sinned grievously against him. Our spiritual pride is a noxious odor in his holy nostrils, and we as a people refuse to heed his remedial judgments and turn back to him through repentance and prayer.

We are as stiff-necked as Jews, and we are falling under curses from God in your day and mine, friend, because of our rebellion to the Almighty. Now, some of you won't like this message. You won't believe it.

Your God wouldn't act that way. Your God is an American God who's a God of love, and he just fights for you and lives just to serve you and favor you when you decide to call to him. Yes, he is a heavenly Father who hears the cries of the righteous and answers prayer.

But when a people stray from the God of the Bible through disobedience and aggravated sins, sinning against light and favor, then God will place those people and nation under curses. We sing God bless America today, but in reality, because this nation has turned its back on God, the song should be singing in America today is God is cursing America, because he is, friends.

Our nation is an open sewer of filth and gross immorality. Our society is spinning out of control morally, socially, and financially. Good is called evil and evil good these days from the White House to the courthouse to the schoolhouse and even in the church house today.

It seems each new day reveals how another religious denomination has fallen into complete apostasy and turned their back on the God of the Bible. But we still believe that if God is going to send revival to people, well, surely he will start with us because we are his favored people.

That's how many of us think. Let me ask you a question. If God divorced Israel because of her sinful ways and placed the once favored people under curses, then why would he not be the same God to us as he was to them?

Why do we think we can sin recklessly against him, turn our backs upon him, refuse to repent towards him and turn from our wicked ways, yet still believe he will favor us with blessings and with revival or even protect us as a nation?

God is cursing America because we have cursed him for decades. We will be a nation that will self-implode, self-destruct, because we as a nation have told God that we don't want him or his rules anymore.

We told God to leave us alone. We want a godless society run by a godless religious people who is in control of their own destiny. And that's where we are today, friends, in this country, whether you agree with me or not.

My message today is entitled, Not an American God, and I want us to turn in our Bibles to the book of Deuteronomy, to chapter 28, because in that chapter is an unfolding of what happened to Israel as a people who fell under the curses of God because of their rebellion against the Almighty.

America’s Moral Rebellion and the Need to Hear Scripture

America has out-sinned Sodom, out-sinned Gomorrah, out-sinned ancient Egypt, out-sinned ancient Greece, out-sinned ancient Rome, and every other nation in history you can think of. America has become a nation of ungodly people who sin with abandon in the face of a holy God.

And when a people foolishly believe they can sin and live in rebellion to the commands of God and still expect favors from God because they hold to the view they are specially favored by God, then that people will fall into gross immorality, great stupidity, and great evil through their deluded lives.

The passage of Scripture I'm about to read us is a longer passage. It will take up a good part of my message today, but we need to hear the Word of God preached to us more in this country today. Bear in mind how favored Israel was as a people before they turned their backs on God.

Think of all their great deliverances beginning at the Red Sea, their preservation in the wilderness where their shoes did not even wear out from all that wandering. God took care of them. God blessed them with His presence.

God fought their battles. God fed them. He clothed them. He blessed them mightily with His outstretched arm. But they turned against Him, turned away from Him, served their idols through sin and disobedience against Him.

Look at the similarities between them and us today and see the sad result of their rebellion and see the sad result of our rebellion, friends, in your day and mine. America has been blessed far more than Israel has, and we have outsinned them by provoking the Almighty through our willful disobedience and arrogance.

Deuteronomy 28 and the Curses of Disobedience

Here now is our text as found in Deuteronomy chapter 28, beginning in verse 15, which speaks of the fact that disobedience will be cursed by a holy and righteous God. But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe, to do all His commandments and His statutes which I command thee this day, that all these curses shall come upon thee and overtake thee.

A curse shalt thou be in the city, and a curse shalt thou be in the field. A curse shalt thy basket and thy store be. A curse shall be the fruit of thy body and the fruit of thy land. The increase of thy kind and the flocks of thy sheep.

A curse shalt thou be when thou comest in, and a curse shalt thou be when thou goest out. The Lord shall send upon thee cursing, vexation, and rebuke, and all that thou settest thy hand unto for to do, until thou be destroyed and until thou perish quickly because of the wickedness of thy doings whereby thou hast forsaken me.

The Lord shall make the pestilence cleave unto thee until He hath consumed thee from off the land whither thou goest to possess it. The Lord shall smite thee with a consumption and with a fever and with an inflammation and with an extreme burning and with the sword and with blasting and with mildew and they shall pursue thee until thou perish.

And the heaven that is over thy head shall be brass, and the earth that is under thee shall be iron. I will pause there, friends. God in His hot displeasure will pour out His judgments upon a people who have turned their backs on Him and forsaken Him.

America Under Judgment and the Church’s Presumption

God will only be provoked by sinning people for so long. Soon their cup of iniquity becomes full and the end draws near. America, once greatly favored by God through prosperity and religious awakenings, has turned her back on God and forsaken Him for other gods.

We as a nation are under His curses now more than His blessings. The church in America is experiencing the withdrawn presence of God because the church has sinned against God and refuses to repent in humility and turn back to God.

So what will God do with us is the question. We are a nation of churches who walks falsely with God and we presume upon His blessings because we mistakenly believe we are still a favored people of God.

But that's not the case, friends. That's not the case. That is far from reality. He is not an American God. He stands against America right now. Right now. Let me finish reading our text, picking up in verse 45.

Moreover, all these curses shall come upon thee, and shall pursue thee, and overtake thee, till thou be destroyed, because thou hearkened not unto the voice of the Lord thy God to keep His commandments and His statutes, which He commanded thee.

And they shall be upon thee for a sign and for a wonder, and upon thy seed forever, because thou servest not the Lord thy God with joyfulness and with gladness of heart for the abundance of all things.

Therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies, of which the Lord shall send against thee in hunger and in thirst and in nakedness and in want of all things, and He shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck until He hath destroyed thee.

I will stop there. These are solemn warnings from the Almighty God who will punish sin and defend His holy name. God will not tolerate a sin in people who have forsaken Him, much less will He be provoked by a sin in nation that ultimately defies Him by shaking their fist in His face and daring Him to do anything about it.

That's where America is right now, friends. We are sitting on the very rim of ruin and annihilation. And where is the church in all of this? She's busy expanding her campuses, building her little empires, all in the name of God and religion, and whose haughty pride is provoking a thrice holy God.

A Prayer for Repentance, Mercy, and National Healing

Remember this. He is not an American God. He is an offended sovereign who will punish sin. Let me pray. Lord Almighty, Ancient of Days, You say that to whom much is given, much is required. You have given us much.

You have blessed us abundantly. You have blessed this nation and Your church greatly through the history of this once great nation. But we have forsaken Thee. We have sinned grievously against Thee. We call good evil and evil good in our land today.

And we've escorted You to our borders and told You we don't want You anymore. This country, this people has turned its back on Thee. O great God, forgive the great sins of the land. Forgive us for sinning with abandon, sinning against light and favor.

Forgive us for not turning back to Thee as we should right now. Forgive us for our great spiritual pride in our churches. Forgive the worldliness of our churches. Forgive us for tampering with the gospel of Your Son by cheating it to make it more appealing to sinful man.

Forgive us for trampling the blood of Your dear Son. Forgive us for grieving Your Spirit away from among our houses of worship which we have turned into houses of entertainment. Have mercy upon us, Lord Jesus.

Send us the grace of repentance, I pray. Turn us, O Lord, for we will not be turned. O God, in Thy wrath remember mercy. In Thy wrath remember mercy. Shine Your blessings upon us once again. Come, Lord Jesus, and save our teenagers.

Come, save our teens who are sitting in pigsties of sin and filthiness. Come, heal our land. Come, heal our land. Heal the great murders and its great violence, its great iniquities and great perversions.

Send showers of blessing, I pray, and not showers of judgment upon us which we justly deserve. Have mercy, I pray. Turn us, I pray. Turn Your ear to us, I pray, before it's too late. Amen.