Why Do Empires & Nations Collapse?

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, �But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn�t for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we�re called by the Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.

Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.

Opening Remarks, Church Life, and Ministry Updates

Welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry. My name�s Mike Abendroth, and why would my phone make that sound? This is the iPad that I�m opening up for the show today. I guess what we do is we�re supposed to be turning that ringer down, are we not?

Anyway, you can write me, Mike, at NoCompromiseRadio .com. Twitter is off limits for me, unless I post something like, �Here�s a radio show or, �Here is a new YouTube video and also, Facebook is done for me.

I never really did much on Facebook, just posted things and maybe responded here or there, and we had the little special group, the NoCo group, and so that�s all done unless Spencer wants to post something there.

Do not forget that we have a couple books for sale on the website, Sexual Fidelity and Things That Go Bump in the Church. If you order Sexual Fidelity, I�ll just include Things That Go Bump in the Church for free.

It won�t say that in the cart, but I will send one to you for free. What�s going on? Do we go to conferences anymore? It�s fascinating this season here in 2021 now. Are there conferences to go to? I think Founders just had a conference, probably well-attended.

My guess is G3 on for this year. I think the Shepherds Conference is on. I know the Westminster Escondido Seminary Conference. I think that is online only. Maybe that was this last weekend. Interesting days, but I would encourage you, if you are able, to be involved in a local church and to sit underneath the preaching of the Word of God and the right administration of the sacraments.

If you�d like to call them ordinances, that is fine by me. I don�t want you to stumble over the terminology, while I want you to read your Bible at home and watch videos and even listen to no-compromise radio.

You want to make sure you sit underneath the preaching of the Word of God and, in a special way, the Spirit of God attending to the frail, sinful preacher changes the heart, mind, will of those who hear the message and hear the message about both law and gospel.

I just finished a five-part video series for American Gospel on law gospel. So it�s on their TV thing. I think you get the first one for free. I pulled up some things on there the other day, AGTV, and I believe Kosti Hin did a series.

My series is on law gospel. I did one on the introduction of the topic, an episode on law, another one on gospel, another one on the positive benefits of understanding law gospel, and then when you blend the two, the fifth episode was about negative things that happen, bad things that happen when you confuse law and gospel.

Why Nations Rise and Fall Under God's Judgment

Anyway, today�s show discusses nations. Everybody�s thinking about our nation. Is it okay to love our nation? Is it fine to be patriotic? If you�re patriotic, does that mean you�re pro-Donald Trump? If you�re and the list goes on and on and on.

I could talk probably about the sovereignty of God today and how he chooses leaders through interesting means, but instead I�d like to talk at a more general level, and that is what about nations and why do nations collapse?

Why do empires fade? If you look at the Assyrian Empire, the Babylonian Empire, the Roman Empire, even lately the British Empire, what causes these powerful nations, these powerful nations that have taken over good bits of the world, and what causes their downfall?

What causes their ruin? Why do nations, in other words, rise or fall? Now, when I study this online, here�s some of the reasons that they give for nations and empires declining. Jim Nelson Black, he said he sees decadence and decay in societies when there�s luxury, skepticism, weariness, superstition, a preoccupation with self, promotion of the wrong people, the urge to overspend, and a rise of liberal opinion.

Still quoting him, that is the popularization of attitudes and policies controlled by sentiment rather than sound moral judgment. They go on feelings more than facts. I think that�s pretty spot on, don�t you?

William Bennett, the old United States education secretary said, �If line manipulation, sloth, lack of discipline, and personal irresponsibility become commonplace, the national economy grinds down. A society that produces street predators and white-collar criminals has to pay for prison cells.

A society in which drug use is rampant must pay for drug treatment centers. He goes on to say, �Moral health, there are financial benefits for that. The question really is, what about our nation? What about America?

We�re powerful, we�re industrious, we have an economy here, we have farmland, we have industry, we have all kinds of things. We have fracking, we have pipelines. Why don�t dominant nations and empires remain dominant?

Why don�t they stay powerful? Is it because of climate disaster? Is it because of starvation or a drought or maybe a disaster like famine or a plague, some epidemic? All those things have contributed to the downfall of other empires and nations in the past.

But I think the overlooked reason why empires come and go, why nations, powerful nations come and go, is the judgment of God. That God is just, he�s a judge, he rules, and nations and empires come and go at his good pleasure.

And I think regularly are defeated and have a downfall because they persecute God�s people. They can�t get to God, but they can get to his people, and therefore they oppress and persecute God�s people.

To the degree that God loves his children is the degree to which he will vindicate them and judge his children�s oppressors. I mean, you could do this with many books, but if you just read some verses from Ephesians, you would understand the love of the triune God for his children.

If I read you these verses about how much God loves you and what God has done for you, you would not be surprised that if these people, us, that God has so loved, when we are oppressed by other people and persecuted by other people and hated by other people, you�re not going to be surprised when those people eventually have their day, right?

In court, as it were, in God�s court. That shouldn�t be surprising to us. Listen to the lengths and the depths to which God has loved us and done things for us. Just a quick, like a survey of Ephesians.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.

In love he predestined us to adoption for himself as sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace.

Chapter 2. But God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ, by grace you have been saved, and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

Ephesians chapter 3. This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him. Chapter 5. Walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.

So I ask again, since God loves his children so much, he loves you Christians so much as his bride, any person, group, nation, empire that opposes, that oppresses, that persecutes those people will be dealt with.

Those people will be judged. And that's what we see in the book of Nahum. Tomorrow, I will, Lord willing, finish the book of Nahum. I think it will only have taken six sermons on Nahum, three chapters.

And Nahum is one of those books that gives you comfort knowing that God will do the right thing. Maybe not in, I just looked at a text, maybe not in our timeframe, but certainly in the Lord's timeframe.

Remember, Nineveh heard from Jonah, the prophet, repentance, and there would be forgiveness. It didn't last long, 100, 150 years later, you have Nineveh back to their old ways. And Nahum is going to pronounce judgment because the Ninevites not only are awful people and oppressive people, they judge and they persecute and they oppress and they deal harshly with God's people there in Judea, there where Jerusalem is.

We have read in the book of Nahum about God is jealous and avenging. He's wrathful. He keeps wrath for his enemies. He's slow to anger. He's great in power. He'll by no means clear the guilty. He's good.

He's a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in him. He has pronounced judgment on Nineveh, no descendants for them, chapter one, verse 14. He's been giving good news to those Ninevites.

I'm saying the wrong thing. Let's hope this doesn't happen at the sermon. He's given good news to those in Judea that the Ninevites will be judged. And there's good news of hope in chapter one. Can you imagine?

God sends a prophet, his prophet, Nahum, and he, Nahum, with words only. No swords, no sickles, no arrows, no bows, no spears, no chariots. Here's the powerful word of God, which from a prophet, this is going to be the downfall of Nineveh.

Chapter one is the precursor, the rumblings of the war. And then chapter two and three, the war happens and the Ninevites, the Assyrians are obliterated. And of course, chapter two and three is in the future, right?

When Nahum's writing in the future, this will happen and that will give the people comfort knowing that Nineveh, the capital, and Assyria, the country, God will deal with. And so we see Jonah and Nahum, two books that really go together.

And sadly, the repentance that was found underneath the ministry of Jonah has turned into a plot. Plots against God and idolatry and bloodshed. They lie, they plunder, they steal, they seduce, they enslave, they are cruel, wicked people.

And they carry away their prey like a lioness carries back her prey to the den for ferocious consumption. Consumption. Wasn't that a disease back in the day, tuberculosis? The greatest sin, I don't think, was enslaving nations.

The greatest sin was, I don't really think, lying, although those are awful. But it seems to me that those things are bad when they're done especially to God's people. So God's going to pay special attention to that.

I mean, we are all, unbeliever and believer, like image bearers, but there's something to be said for children of God when they are oppressed. He says in chapter 3, verse 1, we saw this, at least from the pulpit, I don't know if I did a NoCo show on it, Woe to the bloody city, all full of lies and plunder, no end to the prey.

I mean, we have records of people, leaders, generals in Assyria who cut off heads, who impale people on stakes, who burn young men and maidens in the fire, who dismember bodies and feed them to the dogs and to the pigs.

And maybe some of these descriptions are exaggerations so that other nations would be especially afraid. Yet, the persecution of God's people was real. And therefore, we have this chilling scene where you, in verse 2 and following, you're there at the final battle and the Assyrians will be crushed.

There's whips and wheels and chariots and horses and swords and spears and so many corpses that they just stumble over them. And when you persecute God's people and lure them in with pleasures, temporal pleasures and sweet nothings whispered in their ears, as it were, through the whore, idol, ishtar, and then come in and then instead of having some pleasures, you're going to be enslaved.

These lewd dealings, these, I looked up another word for lewd this week, lecherous, how often do we talk about that just is so indulgent in sensuality and sexuality, they're lecherous. This is jarring.

This is awful language. If you're on the receiving end of God's judgment, I am against you declares the Lord of hosts. I'll lift up your skirts over your face. Everybody's going to look at your nakedness and your shame and I'm going to throw filth at you and treat you with contempt and make you a spectacle.

I mean, it doesn't really matter how beautiful you are as a city. And by the way, Nineveh, they bragged about how beautiful their city was, parks, gardens, zoos, gates protected by these huge bowls, these, you know, they were made out of stone, but oh, we have fresh water with all our canals and aqueducts.

It was a beautiful city, but really on the inside, you're just ugly. You are immoral. And when you see a prostitute, you ought not to say to yourself, oh, that's alluring. You ought to see that's shameful.

That's awful. And the same thing happens here. All who look at you, Nineveh, will shrink from you and say, wasted is Nineveh. Who will grieve for her? Where shall I seek comforters for you? Crazy. So the rest of Nahum, for this show and next week, talks about this nation, Assyria, but I think it'd be fair to give you an outline to say two questions for every nation.

Whether Nations Are Better Than Other Nations Under God's Judgment

In the rest of this book, I'm going to ask two questions for every nation. And that means when you think about the U .S., you could think about these issues. My name is Mike Gabendroth. This is No Compromise Radio Ministry.

I think we're up to maybe 3 ,000 shows or something like that. Is this going into our 11th year? Have we finished our 11th year? I'm not certain. It's a no. Just sitting here in my study in West Boylston with some pretty inexpensive equipment that we've been able to reach so many people.

And I've met so many of you at conferences, via email. I've visited the church. It's always a fun thing when I have somebody visit the church and I'll say, oh, how'd you find out about the church? And they'll say, oh, we listened to you on the radio show and we're in town or we're on vacation or something like that.

And this show has been a blessing to me. Beyond my wildest dreams, really, I never thought it would take me around the world, but in fact it has. And I want to say it was good while it lasted. Although I don't enjoy travel like I used to, probably can't travel.

Do you get the vaccine or do you not? And this isn't a anti-vax show, but I think you should probably look into the vaccines and see which ones do not contain abortion parts, parts of babies that were killed.

But if I have to fly, maybe after the first couple of generations of the vaccine, I might be forced to take it because I don't feel like driving to California. International travel. I mean, next week I was supposed to be in Germany to teach some European students a homiletics class.

That has to be over Zoom. How do you do that, by the way? How do you teach a Zoom class on preaching? I mean, that's not a good way to go, but we have no other options and there will be students from the Czech Republic, Poland, maybe Ukraine, Germany, Switzerland, and who knows who else.

I'm thankful that it's an English speaking class. It's a master's level class. It's all in English. Otherwise, the translator, can you imagine translator in Zoom for several days, ouch. Two questions for every nation because every nation is going to have to give an account, right?

The people in there make up a nation and so there's going to be a day of reckoning. The first several verses in our new section, verses 8, 9, 10, and 11, I ask this question. Are you better than other nations who are judged by God for sin and for the persecution of God's people?

Nations think they're great and so we see here with Nineveh, the capital city of Assyria, and so if I say Nineveh, we may also mean the country. Here Nineveh is going to be judged and what were they judged for?

We want to compare each other's countries and see. Let's take a look of destruction in verses 8, 9, 10, and 11 and it's with a comparison. It means we just need to take a good look at what happened to these other cities and nations and say to ourselves, are we better than they are?

They got judged. Are we better? And then it says in verse 8, are you better than, and then the word is T-H-E-B-E-S. How do you pronounce that? Well, if you've been there, you know how to pronounce it.

Maybe you'll see in your Bible, I think NAS says that it's Noamun, which No in Egyptian is city and Amun relates to an Egyptian God, Amun, A-M-U-N. And you might say to yourself, well, what about this T-H-E-B-E-S, Thebes?

Not Thebes, not Tebbes, but it is Thebes. Okay. Thebes. Are you better than Thebes that sat by the Nile with water around her, her rampart a sea or river and water her wall? Hey, Assyria, are you better?

Are you better than Thebes? Are you superior? Remember Thebes? You're not better than Thebes. Actually, they, around Thebes with the Nile and the surrounding ramparts and walls. Thebes, they were, they were right up there in terms of a city for a great defense.

They were not vulnerable. And remember what happened 25 years ago, Assyria? Yeah. It was you, Assyria, who destroyed Thebes. You think you're better than Thebes? You think, you think that since Thebes God, Amun, could not protect their city, Thebes, that your city with Ishtar is going to be protected when you aren't as strong?

You aren't as protected. You aren't as fortified. Your city is going to fall too. You think you're undefeatable? Well, Thebes thought the same thing. You think you are powerful because you've got water and river and walls and ramparts?

Well, Thebes thought the same thing. Yes, but we, we have nations that will help us if we really need them. Thebes thought the same thing. Nope, doesn't happen at all. Nineveh, you're actually weaker in terms of where you are and how different people could come from different directions to get you.

And you don't have the allies. I mean, you think you have allies, but they're just doing it because they don't want to get obliterated. Thebes had allies. Kush, verse 9, was her strength. Egypt, Egypt too, with that without limit.

Put and the Libyans were her helpers. Yet she became an exile. Thebes, she went into captivity. Her infants were dashed in pieces at the head of every street for her honored men. Lots were cast and all her great men were bound in chains.

Thebes, they had allies. They had friends. But what happens to Thebes? Nothing good happens to Thebes. Anyway, I can tell I'm already out of time. So what am I going to do? I'm going to have to stop. You can write me info at nocompromiseradio .com.

Tell your friends you can listen at 1 .5 speed. That would be great. And if you have a pastor who really nobody knows about, you're in the middle of nowhere, and he's faithfully teaching Jesus Christ verse by verse, you email me and I'd like to get that pastor on the show.

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life-transforming power of God's Word through verse-by-verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at 6. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.