What is Happening in America? Part 1

I will point out the next to the last psalm that we sing. It's titled Psalm 46 because it comes right out of Psalm 46. And you know with what we are studying it might do you some good to go study some of the Psalms. Psalm 46 will be a good one. Psalm 2 would be a good one as well. It really fits with where we are going. As always I encourage you to study along and be a good student of what you receive on a Sunday morning or a Sunday night or a Wednesday night. And I always want to give you enough to study on your own not just from the message. And so I'll point you to Psalm 46 not just as a psalm but as a psalm that you can study.

And I appreciate that one. I think some of us do know that psalm. Well if you would take your Bible and turn back to Romans 1. I ask you to mark Amos so we can go back to the little book of Amos later. You probably thought Lord where in the world is the book of Amos. Some of those books can be hard to find. You might not have studied the book of Amos. It's a good one to study especially if you know what's going on. I remember my seminary days the very first book that we studied was the book of Amos. And I'm telling you it lit my world. And it'll fit right with where we are going this morning.

Now I believe I'm accurate in saying that most all of us here this morning are really in the same place. I think we are. Most all of us have come this morning. We've come several mornings with a really a big question on our mind and our heart. And it's really occupied a lot of our conversation with family with friends and with one another. And that question is what in the world is going on in our country about the time we try to analyze it. It changes rather quickly. I think we all know that. But more specifically you may be asking what's going on maybe with these riots. Maybe with all of these protests. This increasing civil unrest.

You know I think in many places it's just downright violence. I think we would all agree with that. You may be asking what is happening with this very loud voice of talk and racism and what does Black Lives Matter mean. This social justice movement. Some of you are asking questions concerning police and law enforcement. Are these police killings justified or are they an abuse of power which would really be downright murder. What is happening in these cities where they seem to be dissolving an entire police department. It's really doing away with the rule of law.

Some of you may be asking what's going on with all of this homosexuality and lesbianism and transgenderism. Never thought I'd ever have to say the word gender fluidity. It's this massive anti heterosexual revolution. And you know that's really old news compared to what we're dealing with now. We can't leave out politics. Many of you have questions about politics and politicians. Some of you question what is going on with this never ending. I mean it's spiraling out of control political system that we have. If you think about it all of these questions and many others I didn't mention they come under one question. What is happening in America.

What is happening in our land. You know when we ponder that question I think we naturally ask a whole host of other questions. What does all of this mean. That's going on around us. Will things get better or will they get worse. Can things get better. Can things get worse. Can a political party fix all of this. You know we have a national election coming up. It can be very hard to answer those questions because men's opinions and many voices are so loud and so convincing.

I shared with a friend yesterday I just had a hard time looking at the news and even social media for a while because it was just so loud when it was speaking about all of these matters. Now this morning I will begin to answer what all of this means biblically. When I say I will begin I will make an effort to answer all of this these questions biblically. Now I encourage you do not discount me right away. Don't run for the hills if you hear some things that maybe it's difficult for you to understand. I strongly encourage you to just take a deep breath and listen not to my opinion but what God's word says about all of this.

Now in all honesty this subject can be very difficult for some. Some of you are really going to struggle. Now I'll go ahead and tell you that everything we're going to look at this morning and the next Sunday possibly the next Sunday are going to test you in three ways. We're going to have three really really big tests. Now I have taught you faithfully that tests are to show you who you are. It's not always about knowledge. A test a spiritual test is to show you who you are and a spiritual test is to work within us so as to form us into who Christ wants us to be.

First this will prove if you truly believe in and submit to the sufficiency and the authority of Scripture that God's word is sufficient and authoritative in all matters of life. And then second this will prove if you truly believe in the sovereignty of God that all things concerning kings and nations even all of human history are subject to God the one true God in his sovereignty. And then third this will prove if you truly believe in the utter sinfulness of man. There is no goodness which comes from within a man because he is utterly sinful by nature and you will be tested as to how you relate to those three subjects.

Now back to the question. I think the big question under which all of these other questions fall is what is happening in America. Now a lot of times when I preach I will give you the answer at the end of the message. I don't know if that's good or bad. A lot of times when I'm preaching I kind of give you the answers when we get to the end of the series. Maybe that frustrates you. But I'm going to change. I'm going to go ahead and give you the answer right up front. And again some of you might struggle to hear this from what I see in the scriptures. America is under the inescapable wrath of a holy God. God has abandoned America.

God has given America over to the sins of sexual immorality all sorts of homosexuality and a depraved or moronic or warped mind. God has said to America OK if you reject me then you will get my holy just righteous wrath and abandonment. Now listen folks this one thing to point out all that's happening in our country and we should do that. I believe we should. But it is something completely different if we see what is happening and why. But from a biblical perspective but honestly we might not like what we see when we examine all of this and a lot of the scriptures.

Now I'll show you how we're going to progress in what I call the body of the message. I think I've given you the title of the message so far. It's a question. What is happening in America and we're going to look at what I'm calling the wrath of God. It's coming right out of verse 18. We're looking at the wrath of God and we're looking at the abandonment by God. And that comes out of three places. Remember in verse 24 I said there's a big transition in what Paul is saying. We're going to look at the wrath of God the abandonment by God. And in many ways this is an introduction to these subjects.

And next week we'll we'll finish this out with the why. Why would God abandon us. Why would God pour it out his wrath on our country. I'm not going to read the scriptures again. We're going to read them as we progress along. You follow along with me. And like I said a little later we'll turn over into the book of Amos. So first the wrath of God. Look at verse 18. Paul says for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth and unrighteousness. Now let's be honest. This subject we're not comfortable some of us discussing this or even acknowledging this.

We know that by the standard of our day the subjects of God's wrath. You know it really does not win us friends and influence. Think about that. But no matter if we are comfortable with this subject or not we must see what God's word says. Remember I said you'll be tested and this falls under test number one. Do we submit to the sufficiency in the authority of scripture. Now we understand that there are different types of wrath as seen all throughout the scriptures. Some of you may be familiar with these and some of you may. Maybe you've not thought of these. First we have the eternal wrath of God. That's wrath after death.

Those who die without Christ experience the wrath of God in all of eternity. We use the term hell. The scripture speaks of the lake of fire and this speaks of eternal judgment eternal wrath. And then we have what is called eschological wrath. The eschological wrath of God. Now that's just a fifty dollar word that speaks about the end times. We understand that in the end times there will be those who will experience the wrath of God. Obviously the book of Revelation and other books speak to the end times wrath of God. This one might surprise some of you. We have what's called catastrophic wrath. The catastrophic wrath of God.

We know that our world is fallen. It's fallen because of sin. A part of the fallenness of the world is natural disasters and accidents and catastrophes. We experience tornadoes and hurricanes and earthquakes. We experience house fires and car wrecks and all sorts of scholars. Accidents and scholars call this catastrophic wrath because of the fall which has affected everything. And then last we have the wrath of God's abandonment. Simply when God pours out his wrath and he pours out his judgment and he does that on peoples and nations. Now sadly we must see that God is a God of wrath and a God of judgment.

When I say sadly I say that because many times people reject that. But we see this plainly in the Old Testament scriptures. You see we have an advantage because we can look back on human history within the Old Testament. We can clearly see examples of God's wrath against peoples and against nations. We see this in the book of Amos. Amos was one of the minor prophets. Some of you know that. Simply Amos was an Old Testament prophet that was sent with a message from God primarily to the northern tribes of Israel. This was the time during the divided kingdom. You had what's called Israel or the northern kingdom.

The northern tribes Israel was split in half. Then you had Judah. They were in the south. And Judah they had the capital which was Jerusalem. But even though it was a divided kingdom at the time they were experiencing great peace. They were experiencing great prosperity. And they were even safe from their enemies. But what happens? Amos comes. And Amos had two missions. First and foremost he was to pronounce judgment on both Israel and Judah. And we see that start in Amos chapter 2. They had forsaken true worship. They had forsaken God's word. God's justice. Ultimately they had ventured into apostasy with their pagan neighbors.

But his secondary mission we see that in chapter 1. Amos was to pronounce judgment on all of the pagan nations all around Israel and Judah. Now I want to take the time to turn to that book. I want us to turn over to Amos. Hopefully you have that marked. And I will just show you briefly what we see here. It's interesting if we look at a map in that day. We will see that this judgment just starts going up and down all around Israel. All around Judah. And scholars believe that Amos was setting Israel and Judah up. Scholars believe that Israel those Jews were saying. Okay Amos you go get those pagans. But in the end he lands on them.

If you look at verse 3. This is the judgment that was pronounced to those people's arm. They're in the north of east. As it say a lot of times you'll see scholars or scriptures say this is in Damascus. For three transgressions verse 3 of Damascus. I will not revoke its punishment. Verse 4. So I will send fire upon the house of Hazeal. And verse 5. And I will also break the gates. The gate bar of Damascus. And I will cut off the inhabitants. What is he doing? He is pronouncing judgment. Verse 5. So the people of arm will go in exile. That's judgment on those peoples. That's judgment on Damascus. Then there's a transition in verse 6.

He goes down to the southwest and he starts dealing with the Philistines. What does he say? I will not revoke punishment. I will not revoke its punishment. Verse 7. So I will send fire upon the wall of Giza. And it will consume her citadels or her fortresses. And I will cut off the inhabitants of Ashdod. Verse 8. I will even unleash my power. And the remnant of the Philistines will perish. God, what is that? That is judgment on the Philistine peoples. And then we see that starting in verse 9. With the Phoenicians back up in the north. And then Amos comes down back to the Edomites. Starting in verse 11. And then verse 13.

He deals with the Ammonites. The same thing. I will not withhold my punishment. What does he say to the Ammonites? Notice this. Verse 13. I will not revoke its punishment because they ripped open the pregnant women of Gilead in order to enlarge their borders. So I will kindle a fire on the wall of Rabah. What is he saying? I'm going to judge you. And we see that God goes all the way around his people. Even with the Ammonites. And then what happens? We see in verse 4. Thus says the Lord. I will not revoke its punishment to who? To Judah. And notice the language. You have not kept my statutes. Their lives have also led them astray. Verse 4.

Those after which their forefathers walk. You have forsaken my word. So I will send fire upon Judah. And then we see the same thing starting in verse 6. Who is he speaking to? This is all for Israel. Now notice what we see here. I know that's been rather brief and maybe a little rough and tumble. God, the just and holy God, judges peoples. He judges nations. He judges even his covenant people, Israel and Judah. They had forsaken the covenant that they made with their God. He judges the pagan peoples for their sins. Their sins against nations and peoples. Their sins against him. He judges them for their sins against humanity.

And what do we see? God judges peoples. God judges even nations. Well you might say, "Pastor, that's Old Testament." Well what about the New Testament? Well I'm kind of glad you asked. That lets me keep going. You know when I ask these questions that gives me permission to keep going. Well what about the New Testament? Well here in the book of Romans we see that same reality that we've seen in the Old Testament here in the New. That is God judges peoples and nations. Now if you know the book of Romans you know that this was written by Paul. It was written to the church there in Rome.

Rome was the capital city there in the great Roman Empire in that day. And near the end of Paul's missionary journey, his third missionary journey, Paul wrote this letter to the church there at Rome for many many reasons. Now I will list a few. One of the things that Paul covers is that wonderful doctrine of justification by grace through faith. Many of you know that. Paul writes about sanctification and reconciliation between Jew and Gentile. But also Paul writes about man's sinfulness. And if we look at the first portion of the book we see that Paul clearly lays out the universal sinfulness of all mankind.

That would be both Jew and Gentile alike. Now look back with me at Romans, Romans chapter 1. We see starting in verse 1 on down to verse 15 we see Paul's greeting, his introduction. Now let me share with you something about that. Paul was a loving apostle. And if you read that you'll hear his heart. He loved these people even though he had never been there. And he says I long to come with you to have a harvest among you to share the gospel among you. And then he says so that that would be a harvest of work of God in me because of you as well.

But then at the end of the chapter, almost the end of the chapter we have the theme of the entire letter. These verses are familiar. Verse 16. "For I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. To the Jew first and then also to the Greek. But then starting in verse 18 we have God's righteous judgment upon the Gentiles. And what we have here is from verse 18 all the way down to verse 32. God is pronouncing his judgment on the Gentile peoples. Oh but God doesn't leave out his people. We've already seen that. Starting in chapter 2 verse 1 all the way to chapter 3 verse 8 we have Paul.

Paul writing about God's judgment upon the Jews. And then starting in Romans 3 verse 9 to verse 20 we see God's righteous judgment upon all peoples. You'll see this. Turn with me over to chapter 3. Look at verse 9. You'll see how universal this is. "What then are we better than they? Not at all. For we are already charged that both Jews and Greeks." What is that? "All men." All are under sin. "For it is written." And now he quotes verse after verse from Psalms and Proverbs the Old Testament. Proving the universal problem with man and that is sin. And then we know this verse in verse 23.

"For all of sin and fall short of the glory of God." So what I'm showing you is this. Really from chapter 1 all the way through to chapter 3. Paul is dealing with God's righteous judgment on mankind. Jew and Gentile alike. Now I'll take you through those scriptures. Old Testament and New Testament to do what? To show you the reality of the wrath of God. Both Old and New Testament. And look God is the same in the New as He is in the Old. It isn't that God is wrathful and judging there in the Old. And then He changes. He becomes kind and loving and merciful there in the New. No. God is immutable. That means God is unchangeable.

Look back at Romans 1.18. What does He say? "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness." And what do we see? We see the reality of the wrath, the judgment of God. Oh here are these two tests. Will you believe God's word? Will you believe in the sufficiency and the authority of God's word? What does that mean? Will you get to a place where you say, "You know I don't really like it but I'm going to accept it?" And then the second test. Will you see God is sovereign? A sovereign holy just God who does judge peoples. And when you submit to who that is.

Now I want to get a little more specific here with this wrath of God. Here from verse 18. There are two words that will help us here. I'm reading from the New American Standard. I think most of you know that. And these words can slip by. It's this word of and this word from. This is extremely important and this will help us this morning. And then also how we will progress. Go back to the verse. "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven." Notice that this is a personal wrath. What does it say? This is the wrath of God. See if it were not a personal wrath, we could deduce that God does not care about sin.

That can't be the case because of the message of the entire body. The entire Bible. From Old Testament to New, God condemns sin. So this is a personal wrath. This is the wrath of God. Also this is a heavenly wrath. This is the wrath of God from heaven. This is it from man. This is not a wrath that man can produce or he makes it up on his own, up on others. No. This is revealed from heaven. And this is a real wrath. The phrase here, "The wrath of God is revealed." It's in the present tense. Scholars tell us that. Which shows us that Paul is not talking about some far-fetched possibility. No. No, he's talking about a present reality.

The present reality of the wrath of God against sinful people which is revealed from heaven by God. So what do we see here? We see the reality of the wrath of God in some very important specifics. This wrath is of God. It is from heaven. And it is very, very real. Look at the verse, the rest of the verse. I've already read it. "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against who? All. All in godliness and unrighteousness of who? Of men who suppress the truth and unrighteousness. And this wrath is revealed against men. It is revealed against mankind. It is revealed against peoples and nations." Why? Because of their sin.

You see, man is the object. Man and mankind and peoples, they are the recipients of this wrath. So truth number one, it really can be this. The reality of the wrath of God. And look, the object of that wrath is man. It's men as peoples and its nations. And then second, I want us to move on. I want us to look at this abandonment by God. We see in verse 24, 26 and 28, this abandonment by God. Look back at Romans 1, verse 24, "Therefore, God gave them over." Verse 26, "For this reason, God gave them over." It's a digression.

Verse 28, "And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer," another digression, "God gave them over." Now here we see some more difficult reality. I know this is hard. The reality that God would abandon a people, would abandon a nation. Again, this subject does not sit well with some. Again, this does not make our God very attractive. But remember, test number one, will we submit to this sufficiency and the authority of Scripture? Now one of the best examples of God's abandonment is seen back in the Old Testament, in the Old Testament book of Judges, and a familiar character, Samson.

Now before the nation of Israel had a king, if you know your history, you'll know the timeline here. The nation was ruled by judges. Now some of the judges were good, but some of them were not so good. And Samson was kind of not so good, I think you know that. And he was one of the last of the judges to be used during this time when the nation of Israel, they were really at that time dominated by the Philistines, those pagan peoples. Now Samson was unique because he possessed supernatural spiritual strength, physical strength, but it was of God.

And the Scriptures say that at various times, the Spirit of the Lord would come upon Samson and he would fight the Philistines and he would accomplish great spiritual and physical victories in the land of Israel against the Philistines. But Solomon had a problem. He lived a very self-indulgent life, did he not? Soon Samson got involved with a Philistine woman named Delilah. The Philistines bribed Delilah so that he would betray, or she would betray Samson. Ultimately Delilah convinced Samson to reveal to her the secret with his great strength. And that was because of his hair. Remember, he was a Nazarite and his hair was to never be cut.

And that was the secret of his strength, Delilah tricked Samson. When he fell asleep on her lap, she cut his hair and betrayed Samson to the Philistines. And after Delilah betrayed Samson to the Philistines, they captured Samson, they gouged out his eyes, and they made him a grinder in a prison. You know what he was doing? He was working like an animal, like a beast of burden. Now listen to what took place, specifically two verses. Judges 16, 19, and 20. She made him sleep on her knee. I've covered that. And she called a man and had him shave off his seven locks of his head. Verse 20.

And she said, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson." You hear? What did she say? "Oh Samson, wake up. The Philistines are here. The Philistines are here." And he awoke from his sleep and he said, "I will go out as other times and I will shake myself free." What is he saying? "I'll jump up and I'll defeat the Philistines." But what does the verse say? "But he did not know that the Lord had left him." The New American Standard reads, "Departed." He didn't know God left him. He didn't know God departed. He didn't know God abandoned him. Simply for Samson, because of his sin, the Lord abandoned him and God departed him. Now go back to Romans.

You see the same thing communicated three times. What do we see? Verse 24, "For this reason God gave them over." Then we see verse 26, "For this reason God gave them over." Again, verse 28, "Just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer." Remember the digression? "God gave them over." Now I want to get a little specific here as well. Just like in understanding God's wrath, these specifics here will help us understand God's abandonment. We see this as a personal abandonment. This is a personal abandonment. In each of the verses we see that God did this work.

Although what God abandoned them to involves man's personal choices and responsibilities, it was God himself that was abandoning them over to those choices and responsibilities. This is an active abandonment. In each of the verses we see that God is active in this work. It is God who is shutting men up to their own consequences of sin. It is God who is abandoning men to their own sin, their own choices and their own consequences of those choices. And this is a sure abandonment because God is God. He is sovereign. That means he is in total control over all men, peoples and nations. No people or no nation can escape this abandonment.

This is a sure abandonment. So what do we see here? We see the reality of God's abandonment. God's wrath of abandonment. You see how they go together? And we see some very important specifics. This abandonment is by God. He is actively shutting up these men to the consequences of their own sin. And there is no escape for these sinful men. The sovereign God of the universe will see to this. And remember the tests. Because listen, this reality of the abandonment of God, the wrath of abandonment will test us. Will we submit ourselves to the authority of Scripture?

Will we believe that our God can abandon men like this and trust in his sovereignty? Now when we take a step back from all of this, really we've gone from Romans 1 back into the Old Testament. And oh, there are so many other Old Testament Scriptures I could use besides just Amos. Then we've come back into Romans chapter 1. And now after all of this, what do we see? The reality of the wrath of God revealed from heaven by God against sinful men. That's difficult for some of you to see. That's difficult for some of you to swallow. The reality of the wrath of God revealed from heaven by God upon sinful men.

And then on top of that, we see the reality of the abandonment by God. And that's difficult for some of you. God would abandon a people. God abandons men to their sin. God shuts them up in their sin and he abandons them there. Now notice something very important. All this teaching I've given you is fleshed out by example in the Old Testament. There's so many other examples. And all of this teaching is fleshed out by example in the Old Testament. But next, all of this teaching is fleshed out by what Paul is teaching in the New Testament, specifically Romans, you see? It's exemplified in the Old and explained in the New.

And listen, we can't deny the examples before us nor the teaching that is before us. Even if it makes us uncomfortable, even if it makes our God seem unloving and unkind and unmerciful, listen, we cannot divorce ourselves from what God's Word says. Now as I begin to move away from what I call the body of the message, I want to bring before you two mistakes many people make here. Now you need to correct these two mistakes before you accept, before you'll accept what's before us here, and before you'll take what's going to be shared next week. Two mistakes that many people make.

And then I'm going to remind you of the test and make some application. First mistake, there are many people who make the mistake about who America is. Us as a country. Many people make a mistake here. And here's the mistake. America is not a second Israel. That is a horrific mistake. We are not. I don't care what theologian or what preacher or what church tells you that. There's no scriptural evidence to back that up. America is not a second Israel. We are not. Now we have been a friend of the Jews? Sure. We've been a friend of the Jewish people, a friend of the Jewish nation.

In fact, the United States played a big part in the reformation of the nation of Israel right after the Second World War. But we are not some sort of a second Israel. Now what should that mean to us? Pastor, what does that mean to me and you? Listen, there was only one covenant nation. Israel. Now they weren't divided in the book of Amos, yes. But there was only one covenant people, and there was only one covenant nation, and that was Israel. America is just another Gentile nation throughout human history.

We might have been founded on Christian principles, and some of our forefathers and those who founded our country might have been Christian and Christian people, but we are not a Christian nation. America was founded by sinful men, and she has been governed by sinful men since day one. And look, here's another test. If you really believe in the sinfulness of man and that sinful men are ruling our nation, then what is happening should not surprise you. You know what should surprise you? You should be shocked that the wheels hadn't fallen off sooner. Second mistake. There are many who believe that God is not like that anymore.

I've already kind of covered that. Oh, they'll say something like this. Well, I know that God was a God of judgment and wrath in the Old Testament. Oh, but pastor, he's not like that in the New Testament. Those who say that may mean well. They may be trying to help God's reputation, but that is a terrible mistake. Listen, folks, God does not change. God does not change. God is immutable, which means he never changes. I'll never forget a few years back I was talking to a man. As I come and I go, I try to witness, and occasionally I bump into Christians. And you know, I just try to weave conversations to talk about spiritual things.

And sometimes that's easy. Sometimes that's rather hard. I know you go through the same thing. But you know, I was talking with a particular individual, and he happened to be a minister in the life of the church. And I don't know how this came up, but we began to discuss the difficult subject of election. You know, that can really make some people run for the tall grass, run for the hills. But you know, it's all through the scripture. You know, we understand that God chose Abraham. We understand, or we seek to understand, the doctrine of election.

But I was talking with this individual about election, and I don't know how we got there, but he made the comment. You know, God elected certain individuals in the old, but he didn't do that in the nude. That means God changes. God does not change. And see, the question that we must ask, what does this mean to us? We must understand who God is. He is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. God judged men and nations for their sin and for rejecting Him in the Old Testament. That's what He does.

If you read carefully those judgments there in Amos, He was rejecting those men and nations for their sins against humanity and for how they had rejected Him. But He judges nations for their sins and for rejecting Him all throughout history. And He's still doing it today. Now, remember the tests. We need to make sure we pass these tests. Remember, these tests are not always about knowledge. It's about who we are. These passages, this teaching reveals to us, if we truly submit to the sufficiency and the authority of God's Word, God's Word is sufficient in all matters of life, and God's Word is authoritative.

Will we trust God's Word concerning our times? Will we trust God's Word to tell us what's happening in our nation and in the nations? Will we trust God's Word over voices and the opinions of men? Will we trust God's Word over and above how we feel and what our opinions are? And then these passages, this teaching reveals to us, listen, if we're going to accept the total sovereignty of God. Listen, folks, either we serve a sovereign God who rose over the nations, or He is not God, and that's not the God I want. Go back and read Psalm 46. Oh, go back to Psalm 2. What does it say? The nation's rage, and it says that God scoffs. Why?

Because He is God, and He is a sovereign God. These passages and this teaching reveal to us, if we're really going to believe, that man is sinful. This is one that some of you need. Man is not a little sinful. He's not even a lot sinful. He is utterly sinful. You know, some theologians and pastors use the word "totally sinful." Things like "totally depraved." I like that term, but if you're not careful, you can communicate that man is as totally sinful as he can be. But that's not the case, because a lot of times, man is restrained by common grace.

And a lot of times, we don't see just how utterly a man can be sinful because of restraints around him. But we must see that when God abandons men into what they really are, that sinfulness gets really, really, really sinful. And then when we get into what these verses say, we're going to see just how sinful a sinful man can be. And will you accept that? Now, I gave you the answer really before I got started. Based on the examples and the clear teaching of New Testament, Romans, I believe we're living in a land, in a culture that's right here in Romans 1.

I believe we're experiencing the wrath of God, and I believe we're experiencing the wrath of abandonment. Now, before I begin to conclude, I want to share one thing I didn't put in my notes. Make sure you understand this. God judges sinful nations and peoples, but he does not judge his church this way. Now, he purifies his church. He disciplines his church. He chastises his church. I had a discussion with a friend of mine even into the night last night. There's a whole different set of teaching concerning the church. We're talking about pagan nations, folks. Now, as I close, I will share with you my direction.

We've looked at rather quickly the what. See, the what. What is happening in America? That's the title of the message. And next week, we will continue, and we'll look at the why. Why is all this happening? And then through it all, we're going to have to ask the how. How are we going to live? And you know whether you know it or not, some of you have been asking that question. You've been looking around, look at your children, look at your job, your investments, look at your family. You look around and you're starting to ask how. Now, listen, folks, I'll say this, and then we'll close. If we don't ask these questions properly, we won't make it.

We've got to ask the what. We've got to ask the why, so we can answer the how. So let's pray. We'll commit this to the Lord, and then we'll allow Him to do a work in us for His glory so that we can be used in these days, in these times.