As we began to address last week, much of the responsibility for the increasing darkness in our times belongs to the church and our failing to be the light that we are called to be. While there are many great churches today, overall the church in America may be the weakest it has ever been in important ways. We cannot blame politicians for the failure of the American Republic without also blaming ourselves for failing to be the light we are called to be.

 

In examining the failures of both the church and our government, we are not trying to find someone to blame; rather, we are seeking to address the problems. We also need to look at how some of the basic failures of each are related to one another, which is why I am including this connection in this study.

 

We can see the American Republic’s failure to adhere to the Constitution as a reflection of how the church failed to adhere to the supreme authority of The Scriptures. We see the failure of the American Republic to be a nation where all men are treated equally as a reflection of the spiritual bigotry in the church. This is not just racism (though that is a major problem in the church), but religious bigotry. Religious bigotry is believing ourselves to be better than others because we are part of a certain denomination or movement. It is the same evil of judging by externals rather than by the Spirit.

 

The plague of abortion in the land is a reflection of how the church has aborted many of the seeds that God planted in it to bring forth new missions, ministries, and spiritual generations, but the church aborted these seeds. The church usually aborts them for the same reasons that millions of children have their lives snuffed out by their physical mothers—because they come at an inconvenient time, they are expensive, or we are too busy for them. We are just too selfish.

 

The increasing domination of the culture by the homosexual agenda is a reflection of the church’s spiritual homo-sect-uality, which is having relations with your own kind. We were made different to have interchange and to learn how much we need each other, not to separate from the rest of the body. The Creator loves diversity and His unity is a unity of diversity, not a unity of conformity. So where does this pressure to conform in the church come from?

 

The rising addiction to drugs in America is a reflection of how the church has exchanged the life of sacrifice and taking up our cross to a “feel good faith” that only teaches and practices what will make the people feel good. Pain is not a bad thing. It is a messenger to tell us that something is wrong. When we seek to avoid the pain without seeking to understand why it is there, we allow something wrong to continue and the problems get worse. When we embrace the cross and take it up daily, we learn to face the pain and remove it by dealing with the cause.

 

We could go on with this list, but we must not blame the heathen for being heathen—they are only doing what we would be doing if we had not been shown grace. Instead of being quick to condemn our government leaders for departing from the Constitution, let us search our own hearts and ask The Holy Spirit to convict us of our sin where we have departed from the ways He made so clear in His Word. We must humble ourselves and pray, seeking His face and turning from our wicked ways. If we will do this, He has promised to heal our land.

 

So we must rise up to resist the evil that is destroying us and our land, but we must keep a humble, repentant heart, not thinking of ourselves as superior to those who have fallen lest we have the grace by which we stand removed. We must be quick to show grace to others when they repent, just as we have been shown grace. Pointing out any who have failed to adhere to the Word of God or the Constitution it is not to condemn, but it is so the gate of hell through which the evil has come into the church and our country is shut.

 

That the church in America is at such a lowly state can ultimately work for our good if it keeps us humble, since God gives His grace to the humble. The Lord had seemingly endless grace for repentant sinners, but He had none for the self-righteous. We need to keep in mind that the church that fell to such a low state happened on our watch.

 

For this reason let us resolve that this will not be the end of our story. Let us be counted with those who in the darkest of times throughout history turned the hearts of the people back to The Lord and helped deliver them from their oppressors.