A Sober Word Following the 9/11 Terrorist Attack, part 1 of 2

Whereas the Senate of the United States, devoutly recognizing the supreme authority and just government of Almighty God, in all the affairs of men and of nations, has by a resolution requested the

President to designate and set apart a day for national prayer and humiliation. And whereas it is the duty of nations, as well as of men, to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon, and to recognize the sublime truth announced in the

Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose

God is the Lord, and insomuch as we know that, by His divine law, nations, like individuals, are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world, may we not justly fear that the awful calamity which now desolates the land may be but a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people?

We have been recipients of choiceless bounties of heaven. We have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity.

We have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten

God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied, and enriched, and strengthened us.

And we have vainly imagined in the deceitfulness of our hearts that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own.

Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self -sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the

God that made us. It behooves us, then, to humble ourselves before the offended power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.

Now, therefore, I do, by this proclamation, designate and set apart

Thursday, the 30th day of March, 1863, as a day of national humiliation, fasting, and prayer.

And I do hereby request all the people to abstain on that day from their ordinary secular pursuits, and to unite at their several places of public worship and their respective homes in keeping the day holy to the

Lord, and devoted to the humble discharge of the religious duties proper to that solemn occasion.

Let us then rest humbly in the hope authorized by the divine teachings that the united cry of the nation will be heard on high, and answered with blessings no less than the pardon of our national sins, and the restoration of our now divided and suffering country to its former happy condition of unity and peace.

Maybe up until the point where I announced the date, you could have hoped, of course, if you watched proceedings yesterday at the

National Day of Prayer, you wouldn't have believed that what I just read had actually come from the

United States government. But maybe you were hoping, maybe you had missed something in all of the news that we have been subjected to over the past five days or so, that possibly, just maybe you had missed something.

But in reality, those were the words of Abraham Lincoln, one hundred and almost forty years ago.

And he was calling for not a National Day of Prayer as what took place yesterday, but a

National Day of Prayer and humiliation, and I can guarantee you we didn't hear humiliation anywhere in the discussions that took place yesterday.

How very different the government of the United States spoke a hundred and forty years ago.

How very different. The Senate of the United States then devoutly recognized the supreme authority and just government of Almighty God in all the affairs of men and nations.

Called for prayer and humiliation. And then we read, Everyone who is listening to me today has spent a great deal of time this past week.

Considering very deeply, I hope, I don't think we could possibly not consider very deeply, the ramifications, the meanings of the events that took place in the

United States of America Tuesday morning. On a personal level, every one of us has gone through a wide range of emotions.

We cannot help but be startled when, for example, just last evening as I was walking home from the office,

I heard the sound of a jet aircraft in the sky and I stopped and I looked up and it's been a long time since I stopped and looked up, especially since we happen to live right under one of the two flight paths for Sky Harbor International Airport.

And when the flights are landing from the west to the east, anything coming from the north and from the east comes in right over us.

And so I'm very accustomed to seeing aircraft flying above us.

But for a few days there were, but for a few days

I guess that means we need to dive now. Here I'm trying to be serious and I forgot to turn my sounds off.

For a few days there were no planes in the sky. It was very quiet, it was very eerie especially.

And when we consider the things that have happened over the past number of days, we as individuals have had a rush of emotions.

I know I personally have been to the World Trade Center twice. I have been on top of those towers twice.

The tower that collapsed first was the one they sent you up on. And it was only about two years ago

I was there last. I had a very humorous incident down in a place that is now nothing but a pile of rubble at the foot of those buildings that took place.

And fond memories of the people that went with us there and the whole time there in New York City.

And so obviously I can think of what that place looked like. I can think of the ride you could take, the interactive ride that you could take that was one of those virtual reality type rides that you actually flew around in lower

Manhattan and actually flew past the towers. A rather ironic thing to think of now of course.

And none of us could do anything but sit there with our mouths hanging open as we saw the videotapes starting to come in of those aircraft, aircraft that I've been on.

I've flown United, I've flown American, I've flown out of JFK, I've flown into Boston, I've flown in and out of Logan, I've flown in and out of LaGuardia, JFK.

Don't think I've been through Dulles or Reagan National, but I get back there enough.

And hearing about the people calling on cell phones, we've all sat around and we have had so many thoughts this week.

We last night heard about an interesting situation. On Thursday evenings recently there was a television program

Murder in Small Town X which was one of these, I don't know how you describe it, I don't even know how to describe it to people.

It was a contest, there were investigators, you voted an investigator off in each one and you win $250 ,000 when you solve the crime.

It was all set up of course, but it was different. It was somewhat unusual, it wasn't your standard run -of -the -mill stuff and I had actually started to watch it and certainly watched it to the end once I started seeing what it was about and you start wondering who's going to win.

Well, I only heard one report on it, but they noted that the person that won it, a man named

Angel, I remember he was a firefighter. And he was in the first wave that hit the first tower and he's missing.

And they are not pulling people out of that wreckage these days unfortunately. And so here's a man who probably didn't even have time to spend the money that he had won.

Who may well have lost his life in this attack upon the

World Trade Centers and upon the Pentagon. We've had many thoughts. We've thought, what would

I do? Would I have been one of those that rushed the hijackers on the fourth plane? As we know did take place from the cell phone calls that were received and the descriptions and what would

I do? I fly a lot. I sometimes sleep through takeoffs and landings.

It's just become second nature with all the traveling that I've done. And what's it going to be like?

I wasn't even supposed to be here today. I was supposed to be over there in the east.

And I was looking forward to being there, but we had to cancel it. The flight I was going to take was canceled anyways.

And move, actually postpone that to middle of December. And so much has changed.

I immediately went that morning to class. I'm teaching at a Christian high school in the mornings now.

Teaching Bible at the school where my children attend. And I talked about how they had just lost things.

We all had. We lost freedoms. I think we're all going to lose economically.

We're certainly going to lose in the sense of our feeling of security. The world changed on Tuesday of this week tremendously.

There's no question about all that. And I don't want to talk today really about some of the national issues.

The issues, the military issues. The fact that there are terrorist states that are working very, very hard on obtaining nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.

And this demonstrates that they would not hesitate for a second to launch a nuclear attack upon New York, or Atlanta, or Washington, or Baltimore, or any of the east coast or west coast cities.

As long as they could get to it, they would get to it. They'd try to get there.

There's no question about any of that. And I'm not really thinking so much about, well, what we must do as a nation and war.

Though, that's in the back of my mind. I mean, if we had a multi -year war, our military forces are considerably less powerful than they were only ten years ago at the end of the

Gulf War conflict. They have been, in essence, drained of their power and their might.

I'm concerned that many seem to think we are invincible, and we are not invincible. And I have a son who's almost 16.

If the draft came back into existence, as it might have to, to have enough people, he would be 18 right in the middle of such a protracted conflict.

And so, as a parent, I think about those things as well. But really,

I think more about the reactions that I have seen from Christian people concerning this issue.

And that's what I really want to talk about today. I'm afraid that if you've been standing out in your front lawn, waving your flag and thumping your chest, screaming,

Nuke Afghanistan, you're probably not going to like much of what I have to say today. It might make you feel better to go turn that backwards nation into a field of glass under the heat of nuclear explosions.

But I don't know that it would really accomplish a whole lot of anything. And really, my concern is about the attitudes and the thinking that goes into that kind of a response.

I'm especially concerned about the things that we saw yesterday in the quote -unquote religiosity of this nation.

And I'm concerned that this is demonstrating how deeply the thinking of the world, rather than biblical thinking, has infected much of evangelicalism.

So today, I'd like to look again at these statements from Abraham Lincoln, contrast them with what we heard yesterday, and then look at some passages of scripture, and hopefully challenge us to think in a biblical way.

You may not like what I have to say, but if you're a Christian, I hope you'll at least consider it. And see if there isn't something to what

I'm attempting to communicate in regards to how we should be thinking about what is going on in our world, because it is a world issue.

It isn't just the United States, but it truly is an issue that transcends national boundaries.

Abraham Lincoln called for humiliation, confession of sins and transgressions, humble sorrow, genuine repentance that only can possibly be what leads to mercy and pardon.

He spoke of the holy scriptures, which did not include the Koran or the Book of Mormon, and said that those nations only are blessed whose

God is the Lord, and that was not Allah. He said, and insomuch as we know that by his divine law, nations like individuals are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world, may we not justly fear the awful calamity of civil war, which now desolates the land, may be but a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins, the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people.

You suggest that now, and you will get the strangest looks from Brit Hume and Dan Rather and all the other commentators who might be excused on at least one level.

They've been up for numbers of days now. I'm not sure how they're managing to cover over the dark circles.

There couldn't possibly be enough makeup to cover how long those people have been awake.

But if you suggest what was suggested by Abraham Lincoln, many people will look at you, we didn't do anything to deserve this.

What are you talking about? This was, this was, this was, what do you mean we deserve punishment?

Lincoln went on to say, we have been recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven. We have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity.

We have grown in numbers, wealth and powers, nor the nation has ever grown. And if that was true in 1863, how much truer is it today?

But listen to what he says, but we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us.

And we have vainly imagined in the deceitfulness of our hearts that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom in virtue of our own.

Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self -sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the

God that made us. If that is not a description of the arrogant attitude of this nation,

I don't know what is. Remember, this is the nation where you cannot even list

God's commandments upon the wall of the school or the courthouse anymore.

I couldn't help but wonder and sort of chuckle but with sadness.

The discussions of all the spontaneous prayer services that were popping up in schools and places of government business.

Three weeks ago, the ACLU would have been working overtime to sue every single person that announced some sort of prayer service on government property.

Where did they go? Where are all the atheists and the liberals who have worked so hard to banish

God and the very mention of God's name from our society? They're laying low.

But they're still there. You know they're not happy about this. But they're just laying low right now.

They haven't gone away. They haven't been converted. They're still there. Have they repented?

Has anyone else repented of pandering to them and not fighting them? I haven't heard anybody saying anything about it.

We have been blessed in a way unlike any other nation before us.

And yet, what do we do with our blessings? We not only deny in essence within our laws now that God made us, you can't teach that to children within the science classroom.

We now worship a God of our own making, the God of science, the

God of natural selection. We don't pray to God, we pray to Darwin.

And so upon what basis do we then think that if we hit our knees and say, Oh, save us, without repentance of those sins, that God would even listen to what we have to say?

This is the nation whose military that we are trusting in so much now, that we expect is just like the military of World War II that went out and with grim determination defeated the enemy.

This is the military of the don't ask, don't tell. This is the military of political correctness, where the very backbone of military success, discipline, has been severely undermined by the political correctness movement that has plagued our nation.

This is the nation of San Francisco and gay pride marches.

And I can't help but ask us to think, what did

Sodom and Gomorrah ever do that we haven't done to the nth degree more?

Should someone who was maybe off on business out of Sodom and Gomorrah, they were off trading someplace, they come back and find the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, do we really think that if they were still very much in love with the kind of lifestyle they had there, that if they had dropped down their knees and started praying to God, Oh God, bless me as I rebuild here in Sodom and Gomorrah, I'm not going to change my ways.

I'm not saying I'm a sinner and I don't think this was punishment, oh no, no, no, but bless me anyways.

Do you think that really is a prayer that would be answered? Let me put it in as blunt a terms as I can.

Yesterday, while people gathered in prayer circles, and I'll talk a little bit about the people who gathered there later on, but as people gathered in prayer circles and asked

God to bless our nation, right there in the heart of New York City, did

Planned Parenthood shut down its abortion mills? Or were we just as focused upon murdering the innocent little children that are born of our lust and fornication and love for ourselves as we have ever been?

Why should we think that if we bow down on our knees with blood dripping from our hands that God will hear?

I don't understand it. There is no such thing as prayer in the history of Christianity for a nation that is not rooted in repentance, in a recognition of God's righteously bringing judgment upon sin.

But you see, we got rid of sin a long time ago. Americans don't sin.

We may not be perfect, but we don't sin. Why should we expect

God to protect a nation that allows widows and orphans to get by with little while we pay sports stars $252 million to bat a ball around?

Are our priorities anywhere near correct? I don't think so.

Why should God hear? Lincoln said it behooves us then to humble ourselves before the offended power.

Oh, offended? God? What kind of a God was Abraham Lincoln talking about anyways?

God's never offended. He's just the great grandpa in the sky. He's never offended.

To confess our national sins. Oh, we don't have national sins. We have some weaknesses, but we don't have national sins.

And to pray for clemency and forgiveness. Oh, no, we don't need clemency and forgiveness. No, no, no, no, no.

That's too old -style God of wrath stuff. Now, I listened to one very well -known

Southern Baptist preacher on a radio program yesterday morning, and when he was talking about the essence of the message that he delivered the day after the attacks, basically what he said was, well, these are times when people want to know how to connect to God.

Connect to God. That was the substance. Lincoln asked that people not only on the 30th day of March, 1863, not work, abstain from their ordinary secular pursuits, but to go to church, to their several places of public worship, as if most people in our land even have a place of public worship.

And in keeping the day holy to the Lord, and no one was confused as to what Lord he was talking about there, devoted to the humble discharge of the religious duties.

Oh, my goodness, what old style is this? Proper to that solemn occasion. My, how things have changed.

My, how things have changed. You've probably read the reports.

Maybe you watched some things. We had the wonderful Bishop Jane Holmes Dixon.

Jane Holmes Dixon? I thought the scriptures said that an elder bishop was to be the husband of one wife.

Oh, well, the Bishop Jane Holmes Dixon said, There of us who are gathered here,

Muslim, Jew, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist, Hindu, all people of faith.

Faith in what? There were Episcopalians and a

Roman Catholic cardinal and Methodists and a Muslim, and the

Methodist minister, I guess, from Houston, and making his prayer.

Pray to the God of Abraham and Mohammed and the Father of Jesus Christ.

The sound you heard in the background was John Wesley spinning in his grave.

What blasphemy. What utter blasphemy to pray to the

God of Abraham and Mohammed and the Father of Jesus Christ. What utter ignorant blasphemy.

But did you hear a word said? Of course not. Of course not, because one of the things is going to come out of this.

We saw this yesterday. Saw just a little picture of it yesterday. An atheist came into our chat channel, and he's an atheist that I've had the joy of kicking out before.

And the first thing the atheist said was, So, have you all learned anything about fundamentalist religions this week?

You see, to the unbeliever, even the religious unbeliever, and yeah, I'd call that Methodist minister the religious unbeliever.

If he's so confused as to know who the Father of Jesus Christ is, then he has no idea what the gospel message is in the first place.

You see, to the religious unbeliever, or the non -religious unbeliever, to the standard person in the street in America today, sadly, they don't see much of a difference between the radical, dedicated

Muslim who, in service to Allah, hijacked aircraft, sat in the pilot's seat, and flew directly into the

World Trade Centers and directly into the Pentagon, knowing that this was going to result in their certain death.

They don't differentiate much between that radical person and the person who is radically dedicated to Jesus Christ.

Oh, of course, there's massive differences. This person, this same atheist, didn't seem to know that there was a massive difference between the

Quran and the Bible. He hadn't even read either one of them, actually.

But our society doesn't see a difference. And so our society wants this ecumenical feel -good, but don't say anything is absolute truth -ism.

And the pressure is not only going to be on the believing Muslim who follows the

Quran, not the watered -down versions that we see in much of Islam, but the kind of Islamic militancy that led

Islam across North Africa and into Europe, in the Jihad.

But there is going to be pressure upon every Christian who dares to say that the

Bible is truly the Word of God and that it's true for everyone.

The subjectivist doesn't make any distinction between the two. The pressure is going to be on us all.

What does that mean? Well, we'll continue talking about that after we take this break. We'll be right back.

The prophet Isaiah had much to say to a very religious people. He didn't exactly start his book off with something to attempt to get people to like him.

Isaiah chapter 1, Listen, O heavens, and hear, O earth. The Lord speaks. Sons I have reared and brought up, but they have revolted against me.

An ox knows its owner, and a donkey its master's manger. But Israel does not know, my people do not understand.

Alas, sinful nation, people weighed down with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, sons who act corruptly, they have abandoned the

Lord, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they have turned away from Him. Where will you be stricken again as you continue in your rebellion?

The whole head is sick, and the whole heart is faint. From the sole of the foot, even to the head, there is nothing sound in it, only bruises, welts, and raw wounds, not pressed out or bandaged, nor softened with oil.

Your land is desolate, your cities are burned with fire, your fields strangers are devouring them, and your presence is desolation, is overthrown by strangers.

The daughter of Zion is left like a shelter in a vineyard, like a watchman's hut in a cucumber field, like a besieged city.

Unless the Lord of hosts left us a few survivors, we would be like Sodom, we would be like Gomorrah. Hear the word of the

Lord, you rulers of Sodom, give ear to the instruction of our God, you people of Gomorrah. What are your multiplied sacrifices to me, says the

Lord? I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed cattle, and I take no pleasure in the blood of bulls, lambs, or goats.

When you come to appear before me, who requires of you this trampling of my courts? Bring your worthless offerings no longer.

Incense is an abomination to me. Noon, moon, and Sabbath, the calling of assemblies, I cannot endure iniquity and the solemn assembly.

Think about what that says. I cannot endure iniquity and the solemn assembly.

And yet, people come together, and if there is no focus upon confession and repentance of sin, that's all you can have, is iniquity in the solemn assembly.

But you see, most evangelicals are afraid of words like repentance, judgment, confession.

They're afraid of it anymore. The seeker -friendly church doesn't use words like that.

And so the pressure is going to be put on us to not even raise an eyebrow when someone prays to the

God of Abraham and Mohammed and the Father of Jesus Christ. Is that heresy?

You better believe it's heresy. It's absurdity. Absolutely ridiculous.

But you see, if you say anything about it, then you're demonstrating not only an unloving attitude, and no one wants to be unloving, but you see, now you're demonstrating an attitude that, well, that sounds very fundamentalistic.

That sounds like you believe that what you believe is true for everybody, and so maybe you're sort of like them.

What's going to come in the future? I don't know. I don't know. There's going to be massive and huge changes in our society.

But for Christians, Tuesday should have been a wake -up call.

Tuesday should have caused us to think about our society, to think about the sinfulness of the people amongst whom we live, and really to think about whether by our lives we have been calling people to repentance or just simply covering over the fact that we are so much like those around us.

I'd like to read a passage of Scripture and, in fact, invite you to read along, if you would like.

Psalm 33. The 33rd Psalm says,

Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous, for praise from the upright is beautiful.

Praise the Lord with the heart. Make melody to him with an instrument of ten strings. Sing to him a new song.

Play skillfully with a shout of joy. For the word of the Lord is right, and all his work is done in truth.

He loves righteousness and justice. The earth is full of the goodness of the

Lord. By the word of the Lord, the heavens were made, and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.

He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap. He lays up the deeps and storehouses. Let all the earth fear the

Lord. Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him. For he spoke, and it was done.

He commanded, and it stood fast. The Lord nullifies the counsel of the nations.

He frustrates the plans of the peoples. The counsel of the

Lord stands forever. The plans of his heart from generation to generation. Blessed is the nation whose

God is the Lord, Yahweh, the people whom he has chosen for his own inheritance.

The Lord looks from heaven. He sees all the sons of men. From his dwelling place he looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth.

He who fashions the hearts of them all, he who understands all their works, the king is not saved by a mighty army.

A warrior is not delivered by great strength. A horse is a false hope for victory, nor does it deliver anyone by its great strength.

Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him, on those who hope for his loving kindness to deliver their soul from death and to keep them alive in famine.

Our soul waits for the Lord. He is our help and our shield.

For our heart rejoices in him because we trust in his holy name. Let your loving kindness,

O Lord, be upon us according as we have hoped in you. I think there are some things to be learned from this passage.

The passage starts with praise to God. Praise to God because the fact that he is the creator of all things, he loves righteousness, he loves justice.

The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord. His word is true.

All his work is done in truth. There is nothing false in him. By the word of the

Lord, the heavens were made, all the hosts of them by the breath of his mouth. I feel so much for those who, because of the silliness of evolutionary theory, especially theistic evolutionary theory, are robbed of being able to worship

God as their true creator because it is so much a part of what true worship is in Scripture.

But then we have verse 8. Let all the earth fear the Lord. Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.

Is God truly feared in our land? Where there is fear for God, there is justice and righteousness.

A land that steadfastly closes its eyes to the moral debauchery of homosexuality, to the moral debauchery and murder of abortion is not a land where the fear of the

Lord is thriving. You do not fear someone who has spoken and then constantly profaned their name, constantly rebelled against them and spit in their face.

God is to be feared because he spoke and it was done.

He commanded, it stood fast. Verse 9. He is the creator of all things. He created all things by the mere speaking of his mouth.

And because he created all things, then we have the truth that what takes place in time does so at his divine decree.

Because we're told that the Lord nullifies the counsel of nations, he frustrates the plans of the peoples. But notice the parallel passage in verse 11.

The counsel of the Lord stands forever in the plans of his heart from generation to generation. So nations and peoples, their counsel and their plans are nullified and frustrated, but God's counsel stands forever in the plans of his heart from generation to generation.

100 % contrast, and yet, is that the God of most of evangelicalism today, my friends?

When we place upon the pedestal the alleged free will of man and turn

God into the great servant in the sky, when the word -faithers, when the Kenneth Copelands and the

TBNs every day, 24 hours a day, spew out their heresy and teach people that they can in essence control

God, that he's the great servant in the sky, can we really expect that people will fear

God as he is to be feared? Verse 12 is the verse that was referred to by Abraham Lincoln's proclamation.

Blessed is a nation whose God is the Lord. A nation has a God. We have a

God in this nation. We have a

God in this nation. It's the God of humanistic secularism.

It's the God of fulfilling our own lusts and desires. This is an idolatrous nation.

A nation will either give its worship to God or it will engage in idolatry, one of the two.

And the God that we have seen in this passage and we see in every passage of scriptures is not a popular

God amongst people today, so it must be a false God that we're worshiping. Blessed is a nation whose

God is Yahweh. God knows the thoughts and intents of our heart.

He looks from heaven. He sees all the sons of men. He's the one who made our hearts. He understands all of our works.

He knows exactly why we do what we do. He searches our hearts.

He knows. That just because a great tragedy has taken place, all of a sudden the very legislators and politicians who three weeks ago were using every bit of their intelligence and their power to make sure that it would continue to be legal to murder children who have just been born, but their head is still in their mother's body in the most barbaric way in partial birth abortion.

Now they stand in the National Cathedral and pray? It's amazing the whole place didn't fall down.

I think the main thing that drew my attention, however, to Psalm 33 is that I know

I was raised to be patriotic. I've read a lot about World War II and the sacrifices and the steely resolve of this nation in that day.

That nation doesn't exist anymore. That nation would not have ever put up with what spews forth from our television screens every single day.

We laugh and mock at that nation. Do we not?

Do we not laugh? Boy, they had network censors back then. They wouldn't let you say that on the air.

Boy, that was a long time ago, huh? I was raised to be patriotic, but folks,

I am very concerned at how many Christians I'm hearing who seemingly think that our military is invincible.

Our military is invincible. Let's just send them out, and as was said, there were some folks in the chat room.

The night it happened, let's go nuke Afghanistan. And I got upset. I said,

I'm not going to argue with a bunch of hotheads. Nuking Afghanistan is stupid. Bloodlust, revenge, let's go kick some

Muslim butt is basically what I put in the channel. Let's just go kick some

Muslim butt. That's what we want to do. Boy, we're Christians, aren't we? The king is not saved by a mighty army,

Psalm 33, 16 says. A warrior is not delivered by great strength. A horse is a false hope for victory, nor does it deliver anyone by its great strength.

Now, people today go, big deal, you know, horse. Those were the most mighty weapons of war they had.

Maybe we could come up with the 21st century Maude translation. The president is not saved by a mighty army, air force, and navy.

A soldier is not delivered by his weapons of warfare and his gas mask and his automatic rifle and his technological gear.

An M1 Abrams tank, as mighty and powerful as it is, is a false hope for victory.

Nor does it deliver anyone by its great strength. What does verse 18 say?

Behold, the eyes of the Lord is on those who fear him, on those who hope for his loving kindness.

What kind of an attitude does that demonstrate concerning the people being described here?

These are people who fear the Lord. They know him, they fear him, they respect him, they know his laws, and they are not involved in daily seeking to usurp his authority and spit in his face.

On those who hope for his loving kindness, not those who demand it, not those who think they deserve it, but on those who hope for his loving kindness, recognizing that God would be just to punish.

And there's the difference. That's what was in the 1863 pronouncement that is nowhere today.

They hope for his loving kindness, but they can't demand it because they know that loving kindness can't be demanded and that they are justly condemned.

There is no mercy and grace for the person who doesn't think he needs it.

The gospel of grace is not for the person who's still making his excuses, who's still flapping his jaw and saying,

I'm not as bad as that one. And our nation sits around. We're not as bad as that one over there.

And we've done some good things over here. We murder our children.

We don't even think twice about the businesses that are around us that pander to every kind of human depravity and filth, and yet we compare ourselves with others.

If the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him, on those who hope for his loving kindness to deliver their soul from death and to keep them alive in famine, then why do we think his eye is on this nation?

But that's all I heard. I heard presumption. Absolute presumption.

We think that because we're Americans that we can just simply go to God and he's going to miraculously deliver us like he always has in the past.

The person who fears him, the person who hopes for his loving kindness, the person who desires deliverance of their soul from death is the one who says, my soul waits for the

Lord. He is my help and my shield.

We may sing those songs that were written last century that say many of these words, but if we don't mean them, if we don't even have the background anymore in the moral fiber of our society, even understand them, what do they mean?

Verse 21 says, for our heart rejoices in him because we trust in his holy name. What does that mean to trust in his holy name?

It doesn't mean trusting in our military. It doesn't mean behaving the way this nation behaves every single day.

Let your loving kindness, O Lord, be upon us according as we have hoped in you.

Do I hope that God will use this attack upon this nation to wake people up?

Yes. Do I see any evidence of it? Sadly, no. I wish

I did. I know there are still good, excellent men of God who are going to go into the pulpit on this coming

Sunday and they're going to speak these truths far more eloquently than I can.

That's going to happen. But do I see it on a large scale? I don't see it anymore on a large scale than I see the gospel being preached on a large scale.

Have we gone too far? Well, there's never a time that's too far. But there does come a time in the history of any nation when

God says enough. When that crowd gathered around Lot's house and Sodom and Gomorrah, Sodom and Gomorrah had gone past that point.

Have we? I don't know. I don't know. I can't answer that question.

Psalm 33. A very important passage. We're going to be taking another break and then

I'd like to invite you to turn to Isaiah chapter 10 and hopefully these words from the

Holy Spirit by the prophet Isaiah will help us possibly to have a basis upon which to answer some of the questions that arise at times like this.

Where was God? Where was God as that first 767 flew directly into the

World Trade Centers? Where was God as those hijackers were taking over with their box openers and their plastic knives?

Sadly, there are many who can't answer that question. God only seems to come around after the great tragedies and tries to pick up the pieces.

He's sort of like us in that way for many theologies today. But we know that God was not caught by surprise.

In fact, God decreed everything that takes place in time. That means it has a purpose.

That means it has a meaning. Well then, how are we supposed to think about those people that were involved?