Tension had been
building up between Great Britain and the American
colonies for about ten years. The British government
passed a series of strict laws, and the colonists
resisted them. The disobedience of the American
colonies angered the British government. In 1775,
British Parliament declared Massachusetts, the site
of the protest, to be in rebellion. They ordered
their troops in Boston, and the Revolutionary War
broke out.
The American colonies
were unprepared for war. They lacked a government, an
army, and a navy. The Congress directed the war
effort, and appointed George Washington commander in
chief of the Continental Army.
During those dark
days, certain American patriots greeted each other
with the words, "Friend, God Save Our
Country." God heard their prayers, and this led
to the birth of our nation.
That prayerful
greeting is as good today as it was in 1775. It
should be in the hearts and on the lips of every
Christian citizen today, for our country needs saving
and only God can save it.
"Friend, God Save
Our Country From Complacency."
A woman and her
grandson were on board an ocean liner. While she was
gambling, her grandson shouted, "Grandma, the
ship's on fire." "Go away," she said,
"I'm having a good time." He returned a few
minutes later, and shaking her he cried,
"Grandma, this ship's on fire." "Don't
bother me," she yelled. "It's not our
ship."
The fires of
crookedness, capriciousness, crime and child-killings
have broken out in our country. They have leaped over
the boundaries of our counties and states, and they
have become major conflagrations. Our country is on
fire, and our complacency is adding fuel to the
flames.
Martin Niemoller said,
"In Germany they came for the Jews. I didn't
speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for
the Catholics. I didn't speak up because I was a
Protestant. Then they came for me. By that time no
one was left to speak up."
The blight in our land
today is an insipid church and an indifferent
country. We have a complacent pulpit and a careless
pew. There is belief without blaze, prayer without
passion, and worship without warmth. We give, but
there's no glow to our giving. We sing, but there's
no sparkle to our singing. We witness, but there's no
warmth to our witness. We're lukewarm.
And when there's
lukewarmness in our churches there's lawlessness in
our cities. When there's worldliness in our churches
there's wickedness in our cities. When there's no
holiness in our churches there's hellishness in our
cities.
During the 2nd World
War, it was imperative that a general get back to his
headquarters immediately. In the deep darkness and
the pouring rain, his driver made his way out of one
shell crater after another and got him there safely.
The general complimented him, but the driver said,
"General, sir, I just kept saying to myself,
'I'm in this jeep, too.' " Our country needs
saving. Everybody's demanding, "Why doesn't
someone do something?" But we're in this jeep
too. So let's help, not yelp. The Lord says in 2
Chronicles 7:14, "If My people, who are called
by My name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and
seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then
will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin,
and will heal their land."
"Friend, God
Save Our Country From Crookedness."
An efficiency expert
was asked to examine the program and personnel of a
large company. After a careful investigation of
several weeks, the expert said, "This company
needs conversion immediately." "But,"
said the president, "we are in the process of
converting our machinery." "I'm not talking
about the conversion of machinery," he said,
"but of the conversion of men. From the chairman
of the board of directors to the lowest man, you need
a conversion of selfishness to unselfishness, from
dishonesty to honesty."
Ever since Adam and
Eve sinned against the Lord, mankind has been plagued
with a bent toward dishonesty. It's seen in the
church and the community, in our government and the
globe, in our professions and our politics, in our
schools and our sports. Our nation is beginning to
accept a new code of ethics that allows for deceit
and dishonesty. A just released 1990 survey said 91
percent admitted they lied during the year.
We need to be
converted from our dishonesty with our family. It's
dishonest when a parent tells a ticket seller his
fourteen-year-old son is only twelve because he wants
to pay less for a child's ticket. That one is
teaching the children to lie and steal. It's no
wonder they cheat on their parents, their professors
and in their professions.
We need to be
converted from our dishonesty with our friends. When
you give in to gossip, or repeat a rumor, or spew out
slander, are you not dealing with dishonesty?
We need to be
converted from our dishonesty with ourselves. What
about forgetting to count a stroke, or moving the
ball, or fudging on the golf score? Employer, are you
honest with your employees? And employees, are you
doing your very best every hour that you are on the
job?
You may be playing a
losing game. You're caught up in alcohol or drug
addiction. You're cheating on your partner and you're
killing your parents with your wrongdoing. You're
making your children resentful with your nagging and
your friends disgusted with your ego. Get down on
your knees in honesty with yourself and get right
with God.
We need to be
converted from dishonesty with God. It's easy to fool
other people. Fooling yourself is harder. Fooling God
is impossible, yet you try. You sing, "Where He
leads me, I will follow." But you take your way,
not His. You sing, "Take my life and let it be
consecrated, Lord, to Thee." But what you mean
is, "Take my life and let it be…Don't expect
me to witness and work, to tithe and teach. Just take
my life and let it be."
There was a man who
wasn't honest with others, himself or God. He was so
crooked he had to screw his socks on and off. One day
he complained to God about his neighbor, praying,
"O Lord, take away this wicked person." And
the Lord asked, "Which?" That brought him
to repentance immediately.
"Friend, God
Save Our Country From Carousing."
When the siege of Troy
by the Greeks had reached a stalemate, Ulysses
thought of the idea of offering a magnificent wooden
horse to the Trojans as a gift. Cassandra, daughter
of the king of Troy, begged them to reject the gift,
but all to no avail. The wooden horse was brought
within the walls. That night Greek soldiers came out
of the wooden horse, opened the city gates, and
admitted the Greek army. The Trojans were defeated
and the city was destroyed. Satan is using a wooden
horse today. It's filled with enemies of our country,
who will open the gates to the servants of Satan who,
in turn, are set for the destruction of our country.
Think on Intoxication.
Hamilton Beasley,
president of the National Council on Alcoholism and
Drug Dependence reported, "10.5 million adults
show symptoms of alcoholism and 7.2 million more are
alcohol abusers. Nearly half of traffic deaths are
alcohol-related. Drunken drivers are eight times as
likely to have a fatal crash per miles driven, and 25
percent of those hospitalized have alcohol-related
problems. Alcohol abuse and dependence will cost the
country $136.3 billion this year. Fetal exposure to
alcohol is a leading cause of mental
retardation."
The Wall Street
Journal reported that more than three-fourths of
the eighth graders and almost 90 percent of the tenth
graders said they had used alcohol. More than a
fourth of the eighth graders and almost two-fifths of
the tenth graders said they had five or more drinks
at least once during the preceding two weeks.
College-age students
get drunk more than non-students. According to the
Associated Press, "College students spend $5.5
billion each year on alcohol - more than they spend
on books and other beverages combined. A survey of
18,000 undergraduates across the country found that
44% were binge drinkers. Men consumed five or more
drinks at a time. Women consumed four or more at a
time. Campus drinking is a factor of 40% of academic
problems and 28% of dropouts. Sixty percent of
college women who developed sexually transmitted
diseases, including AIDS, were drunk when
infected."
Why are so many
teenagers turning to drink? They were introduced to
it around the age of 12, often by their parents.
Parents who approve of drinking and are drinkers
themselves are more likely to have drinking children.
What of Addiction to
Drugs?
Christian Victory
reported that almost one-third of the students on
American college campuses have tried marijuana and
one-seventh use it regularly. These finds were made
public in Washington, D.C., before the Congress by
the National Institute of Mental Health.
One out of every four
youths ages 13-17 - 4.25 million - have been offered
illegal drugs in the past 30 days, says a Gallup
Poll. And one out of five say friends regularly take
drugs.
A National Institute
of Drugs survey found that young people are more than
twice as likely to use marijuana if their mother and
father did.
TIME magazine
reported that each day 6,000 American teens light
their first cigarette, and 3,000 more join the ranks
of "regular smokers" - those who smoke at
least one cigarette per day a month.
The National Parents'
Resource Institute for Drug Education reported that
"cigarettes - not alcohol - is more apt to lead
to cocaine or marijuana use. There is a chemical
trigger in the brain's pleasure center which is set
off by nicotine, making it more sensitive to
stimulation to coke and pot. Among the findings of
the survey of 380,000 students: 27 percent of
senior-high students who smoke cigarettes use
marijuana at least weekly, compared with 6 percent
who drink alcohol and use marijuana weekly. Fourteen
percent of junior-high students who smoke use
marijuana, compared with 2 percent who drink. Five
percent of the senior highers (and 3 percent of
junior highers) who smoke use cocaine at least
weekly, compared with 1 percent who drink."
Johnny Cash a former
drug addict testified, "When you take drugs, you
may be in ecstasy for a few minutes, but you're soon
on a ridge of terror. Take it from a guy who's been
there. It ain't worth it."
Think on Immorality.
The Children's Defense
Fund reported that every day "623 teenagers get
syphilis or gonorrhea; 2,795 teens get pregnant;
1,106 teens have abortions; 1,295 teens give birth;
2,556 children are born out of wedlock; 6 teenagers
commit suicide; 211 children are arrested for drug
abuse; 437 are arrested for drinking or drunken
driving; 1,512 teenagers drop out of school; and
3,288 children run away from home."
The CBS-TV news
magazine, 48 HOURS, explored adolescent sexual
practices. Among the statistics cited: "Half of
American adolescents are sexually active, producing
about a million pregnancies each year. The U.S.
government supports teenage mothers to the tune of
$20 billion a year - that's $200 per taxpayer."
The FBI reports that
there's one forcible rape every six minutes. And the
National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges
say "sixty to 80 percent of adult sexual
offenders reported they committed their first six
offenses as teenagers. Adolescent sex offenders
average seven victims; adult sex offenders average
380 victims. The average age of adolescent sex
offenders is 13 or 14; the average age of victims is
seven. More than 50 percent of young boys who are
sexually abused and as many as 20 percent of the girl
victims, are molested by teenagers."
Christianity Today
reported that "a new case of sexually
transmitted disease is caught by teens at the rate of
one every 13 seconds. It's no wonder that the Centers
for Disease Control researchers reported "the
death toll from AIDS in the United States has topped
100,000, with nearly a third dying last year, and is
escalating."
These things frighten
me. They make me feel like the man who bought a clock
and hung it on the wall of his spacious living room.
He'd go to bed at night delighting in the striking of
his clock, and he'd count as the clock would strike.
One night something went wrong with the mechanism in
the clock. It began to strike, and he began to count.
He got up to ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen - and he
shook his wife shouting, "Wake up, Ma. It's
later that I ever knowed it to be." I honestly
believe it's later than we realize.
"Friend, God
Save Our Country From Child-Killings."
USA TODAY
reported, "One of two females have sex between
15 and 19. One out of 23 have an abortion
yearly."
Dick Bohrer wrote in
the Moody Monthly, "Every twenty-four
hours, 3,600 American babies are aborted. That's 1.32
million a year. And it's perfectly legal. The Supreme
Court has declared abortion an American
freedom."
But if something is
morally and scripturally wrong, it can't be made
right simply by passing a law making it legal. The
criteria for right or wrong comes from God, not the
government, and it's wrong to take a life.
It's written in
Genesis 1:27, "God created man in His own
image." This refers to the trinity of our
nature. A tree has a body, but no soul or spirit. An
animal has a body and a soul, but no spirit. But man
has a body, a soul and a spirit.
Because man was
mentally, morally, and socially like God, he could
make choices. He had the power to choose the right
and the privilege to choose the wrong. He chose to do
the wrong, and man still chooses to do wrong in
taking the lives of unborn infants.
"But," you
may protest, "as a woman, and since it's my
body, I'll do as I please." You're wrong. That
embryo has a distinct life from the very moment of
conception. Though it's nourished by a mother's blood
supply, it manufactures its own red and white blood
cells, has its own heartbeat, and sends out its own
brainwaves. Does not that unborn child have a right
to life? Taking a life is murder.
Testified Bernard
Nathanson, M.D., who turned against the abortion
movement that he helped organize, "There are
75,000 abortions in my past medical career, those
performed under my administration or that I
supervised in a teaching capacity, and the 1,500 I
have performed myself…I now regret the loss of life…The
errors of history are not recoverable, the lives
cannot be retrieved."
Cried one who had an
abortion, "I didn't want my baby. I wanted to be
free. Then, too, I was a drug addict. I was convinced
that my child would be diseased or destined to become
a drug addict. So I insisted on an abortion. I can't
sleep at night. I can't rest during the day. I'm a
baby-killer. Where can I wash from my hands the blood
of an unborn baby?"
She came to the Lord
Jesus, confessed her sins and was cleansed. Our Lord
took that little one home to heaven. She couldn't
bring her child back, but because she received the
Lord Jesus she'll be with her child in heaven.
In thinking about
abortion you must remember that life is a gift from
God, a sacred trust. Anything that violates that
trust is a sin. It must not be condoned. In God's
sight every individual is of unspeakable worth. He
made us. He placed us in this world. And, because of
our sin, He sent His Son to die for us on the cross.
A homeless man was
picked up in the ghetto and taken for dead. But he
heard one say, "Throw this worthless creature
into the dumpster." "Boys," he sobbed,
"call not a person worthless for whom Christ
died."
"Friend, God
Save Our Country From Crime."
Here's how the clock
ticks on crime and other violations at our campuses:
there's one larceny every 4.3 minutes; one vandalism
incident every 12.5 minutes; a burglary every 27
minutes; an auto theft every one hour and 43 minutes;
a violent crime every two hours and 12 minutes; an
aggravated assault every three hours and 20 minutes;
a robbery every nine hours and 30 minutes; and a rape
every 21 hours.
According to the FBI
Crime Clock for our nation, there's one burglary
every 13 seconds, one motor vehicle theft every 23
seconds, one robbery every 59 seconds, one forcible
rape every six minutes, and one murder every 27
minutes.
In
"Christian" America, there are 100 times
more burglaries than in "pagan" Japan.
The Bureau of Justice
Statistics report shows: in one of 13 households (7.1
million), a member becomes a victim of a "high
concern" crime, such as rape, robbery or assault
by a stranger or burglar. Members of 141,000
households were raped, 872,000 robbed, and 3.7
million assaulted.
Yet 96 percent of our
citizens say they believe in God, and more than 80
million claim to be born again. More than 500 million
Bibles were printed in our country last year, but 100
million Americans say that while they own a Bible
they never read it. Apparently we have a religious
boom but a moral bust, for cases of violent crime and
murder shot up 10 percent in 1990.
We can walk safely on
the moon but not safely in our markets. We have
conquered outer space but we are conquered by inner
sins. We have produced the best military but the
worst men. One minister has stated, "No clever
arrangement of bad eggs will ever give you a good
omelet." No clever environmental or educational
collective arrangement of bad persons is going to
give you a good society. The soul of improvement is
the improvement of the soul. You can't have a new
community without becoming new creatures in Christ.
How does one become a
new creature in Christ? First, by repentance. That
means to change your attitude and actions, your mind
and manners toward self, sin and the Savior. It
involves a turn to the Savior from sin. It implies a
change in direction and deportment.
Repentance isn't
conviction, but there's no repentance without
conviction. It isn't contrition, but there's no
repentance without contrition. It's a turning about.
Think of Saul who became Paul. He was a persecutor of
Christ, but he repented and he became a preacher of
Christ. Think of the Samaritan adulteress. She was a
dirty tool for dirtier men, but she repented and
became a saintly soul winner.
Repentance is also a
thinking alike. It's agreeing with God. It means
having God's point of view. Jack Eckerd, owner of the
drug stores that bear his name, is an example of
this. Shortly after he committed his life to the Lord
he was walking through one of his stores and he
noticed racks of pornographic magazines on sale. He
went home, had a talk with the Lord, and decided to
agree with him about this. He called his company
executives and told them to remove all copies of Playboy
and Penthouse from the racks. But they
protested they'd lose millions of dollars of profits.
But he persisted, and his 1,700 stores are free of
pornography.
Second, by receiving
Christ. The word "Christian" is spelled
C-h-r-i-s-t-i-a-n. If you remove Christ from
Christian, you have I-a-n. Without Christ I-a-n means
"I am not a Christian."
"Well," you
may ask, "how do I receive Christ?" To look
is to receive Him with your eyes. To hear is to
receive Him with your ears. To take is to receive Him
with your heart. To choose is to receive Him with
your will.
During a wedding
ceremony I asked the bride, "Will you have this
man to be your wedded husband?" "I don't
know," she answered. Turning to the audience I
announced, "There'll be no wedding today."
Now let me ask you,
"Are you willing to receive the Lord
Jesus?" You have a choice to make. While you're
choosing, you're in one of the choices. Suppose your
car is stalled on the railroad tracks. You have a
choice to make. To stay in your car or to get out. If
you get out - life. If you stay in - death. However,
while you're making your choice, you're in one of the
choices. While you're wondering, "Shall I sit in
the car or shall I get out?" you're still in the
car. That mens death.
Won't you right now
make the decision to open the door of your heart and
ask the Lord Jesus to come in? "Who me?"
you reply. "I'm not going to make a
decision." Yes, you are. You're receiving Christ
or you're rejecting Him. If you do nothing, that's a
decision to reject the Lord Jesus Christ. But you
will receive Him, won't you?
Third, by
reestablishing the family altar. Only the family
altar can alter the family. It's a country-saver, a
dispute-adjuster, a happiness-promoter, an
obstacle-remover, a problem-solver, a victory-giver.
Many children have gone straight because their
parents bend their knees as they gathered as a family
to read the Bible and pray together every day.
A father called his
neighbors and said, "Mother and I went for a
walk with our little boy this evening, and he's lost.
Help us find him." A search party was gathered
and they tramped the fields in vain. Then someone
suggested, "Let's join hands and do it
again." They did, and they found the boy. Cried
the father, "Why didn't we join hands
sooner!"
A family that's
together with Christ here will be together with
Christ hereafter. Mother and father, let's join hands
with the children and confess Christ together, read
the Bible together, pray together, and go to church
together.
A country needed
saving. Just when they were about to go down in
disastrous defeat, Joshua said to the people,
"Choose you this day whom you will serve, but as
for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."
The people said, "We will serve the Lord."
And the Lord saved their country.
What will you do? Dare
you turn to the Lord Jesus from all your sins and say
with Joshua, "As for me and my house, we will
serve the Lord!"
copyright 1999 Guido
Evangelistic Association
Each month, Dr. Guido writes a
new sermon for his 25 minute radio broadcast, "The
Sower 25." This is published and
included in the mailing sent out each month, which
includes the daily devotional booklet, "Seeds
From the Sower," and "Sowing
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