GOD HAS ALWAYS HAD A PEOPLE

 GOD HAS ALWAYS HAD A PEOPLE

November 1, 2020

 

This will be my 12^th Presidential election as a pastor. I have usually talked some about each one, mostly encouraging the folks to make sure they voted, saying things like, “If you don’t vote, you can’t gripe!”

 

We have tried to take a non-partisan position because we have members from both political parties and many political viewpoints. The times I have strayed from that position did not have good outcomes.

 

I have addressed political issues a couple of times here at Restoration. In July of 2015, I did a month long series on the “State of the Union” after the Supreme Court decision legalizing same sex marriage. On the Sunday before the 2016 Presidential election I spoke on voting for righteous men and righteous principles.  

 

Today, I am not going to talk about the election or who to vote for or how to vote. I am sure many of you have already voted, as have I, or have made your mind up who to vote for. If not, please go vote. It is very important for us to do our duty as citizen believers. Our government is “of the people, by the people, and for the people”. Lincoln used this phrase in “The Gettysburg Address”, but in 1384, John Wycliffe wrote in the prologue to his translation of the Bible, “The Bible is for the Government of the People, by the People, and for the People” (Familiar Quotations by John Bartlett, 1951 edition).

 

I want to speak today on what the key is to our future as a country. I believe that our country is headed for destruction regardless of the results of Tuesday’s elections. This is because our country has, by and large, moved away from the Bible and the God of the Bible. Not only that, but the church in America now reflects the same views as the population in general on many issues of morality and truth. 

 

This doesn’t mean that we are helpless and hopeless. God has given us a prescription for the sickness that besets us. Let’s read it together. 

 

2 Chronicles 7:14-15 (NKJV) If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. ¹⁵ Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to prayer made in this place.

 

This promise is an answer to the prayers of Solomon, 7 times in 2 Chronicles 6, at the Dedication of the Temple in Jerusalem. It is a conditional promise. If you do this, God will do this. 

 

CONDITIONS

 

If My people… God has always had a remnant, and that remnant would determine the future of the country. Elijah thought he was alone in his convictions, yet God had reserved 7,000 who had not bowed their knee to Baal. God always has a remnant. 

 

Isaiah 1:9 (NKJV) Unless the LORD of hosts had left to us a very small remnant, we would have become like Sodom, we would have been made like Gomorrah.

 

Israel had a remnant that preserved them in Babylon. Sodom had no such remnant and perished. God has a remnant in this country. 

 

Romans 11:5 (NKJV) Even so then, at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace.

 

It is the righteous acts of the remnant that God is looking for. He is calling His people to rise up and save the nation. We shall see how later in this message. 

 

Called by My Name

 

 Isaiah 43:1–2 (NKJV) But now, thus says the Lord, who created you, O Jacob, And He who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; You are Mine. ²When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, Nor shall the flame scorch you.

 

Christians, “little Christs”, are the key to both revival and recovery. God is not judging nations based on the actions of the ungodly. They cannot be who they are not. God is looking for His people, called by His Name, who bear His image and His DNA, to rise up and save the nation. 

 

How? Samuel gives us four steps. 

 

Humble themselves

 

James 4:6–10 (NKJV) But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” ⁷ Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. ⁸ Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. ⁹ Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. ¹⁰ Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.

 

Pray

 

Isaiah 55:6 (NKJV) Seek the LORD while He may be found, Call upon Him while He is near.

 

Seek My face

 

Psalms 27:8 (NKJV) When You said, “Seek My face,” My heart said to You, “Your face, LORD, I will seek.”

 

Turn from his wicked ways, repentance

 

Isaiah 55:7 (NKJV) Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, and He will have mercy on him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.

 

These are the conditions. Not on the worldly, they can’t. On us, because we can; we must. If not, we will be like Sodom, consumed by the fire of judgment where the air itself begins to burn and the elements melt with fervent heat!

 

If we meet the conditions, then these promises await us and our country. 

 

PROMISES

 

I will hear from heaven

 

Psalms 34:4 (NKJV) I sought the LORD, and He heard me, And delivered me from all my fears.

 

Proverbs 15:29 (NKJV) The LORD is far from the wicked, But He hears the prayer of the righteous.

 

Forgive their sin

 

I John 1:9 (NKJV) If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

 

Heal their land

 

Psalms 103:3 (NKJV) Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases,

 

My eyes and ears will be open

 

Psalms 34:15 (NKJV) The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their cry.

 

So the question is before us today: Will we rise up and be the remnant for the sake of our country, our children, and our future? We can do it. We can change the direction of our country from, as Robert Bork said, “Slouching Toward Gomorrah”, to returning to God! Remember, “Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people He has chosen as His own inheritance.” Psalms 33:12 (NKJV)

 

Gloria Gaither wrote about the power of the remnant: God has always had a people. Many a foolish conqueror has made the mistake of thinking that because he had driven the church of Jesus Christ out of sight, that he had stilled its voice and snuffed out its life, but God has always had a people. The powerful current of a rushing river is not diminished because it is forced to flow underground. The purest water is the stream that bursts crystal clear into the sunlight after it has forced its way through solid rock. There have been charlatans, who like Simon The Magician, sought to barter on the open market that power which cannot be bought or sold, but God has always had a people. Men who could not be bought and women who were beyond purchase. God has always had a people. There have been times of affluence and prosperity when the church's message has been nearly deluded into oblivion by those who sought to make it socially attractive, neatly organized, and financially profitable. It has been gold platted, draped in purple and encrusted with jewels. It has been misrepresented, ridiculed, lauded and scorned. These followers of Jesus Christ have been, according to the whim of the times, elevated as sacred leaders and martyred as heretics. Yet through it all, there marches on that powerful army of the meek. God's chosen people who cannot be bought, murdered, flattered or stilled. On through the ages they march, the church, God's church triumphant, alive and well!