Message for April 28, 2002
by Pastor Glenn Layne
(Proverbs 14:34)

Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people.


Winston Churchill’s Secret Weapon

When the Second World War broke out in Europe in 1939, when Germany invaded Poland, Winston Churchill replaced Neville Chamberlain as Prime Minister of Great Britain. One of Churchill’s first requests was that the nation observe a time of prayer each evening at 9 PM, which began in January, 1940, and lasted to the end of the war. An imprisoned Nazi intelligence officer told his British captors at the war’s end, "With the striking of Big Ben each evening at 9:00, you used a secret weapon, which we did not understand. It was very powerful and we could find no countermeasure against it."

Prayer changes history. I could give you numerous examples both from Scripture and from history that confirms that fact. A people that seeks after God receive His blessing; a nation that spurns Him learns to its hurt that the testimony of the word of God is true: to deny Him His rightful role leads to disaster and tyranny.

What is the National Day of Prayer?

This Thursday, May 2, is the National Day of Prayer. As long ago 1775, the first Continental Congress asked the colonies to set aside days of prayer for wisdom from God is guiding the formation of the new nation. In 1863, in the depths of the Civil War, President Lincoln again called the nation to a day of "humiliation, fasting and prayer."

In 1952, President Truman signed a joint resolution of Congress establishing an annual national day of prayer. This was amended in 1988 and signed by President Reagan, permanently setting the National Day of Prayer as the first Thursday in May.

Obviously, in view of the events of September 11, and the long war we are now engaged in, the National Day of Prayer is more relevant than ever.

But I think we must build—and pray—on a firm foundation of Biblical teaching and sound theology. Consider the motivation for prayer that an American Christian should have when praying for America.

Prayer for America should NOT motivated by…

National pride

National pride can motivate us. But nationalism can be idolatry. The Fascism of World War II era Italy and Germany was clearly an idolatrous worship of the nation. It was "my country, right or wrong" to the extreme.

As Christians, we believe that, as Paul says, our citizenship is in heaven. Our ultimate allegiance is to the Lord God Almighty, not to the USA. If in our praying we seek God’s blessing on America no matter what, we dishonor the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Only the Lord is always right. As a matter of fact, very often in our praying for America, we have to confront the evils that we have practiced as a nation, and face them fully and with a heart of repentance.

America as God’s "New Israel"

Sometimes, some believers have come to feel that America is a kind of New Israel, and that we enjoy a covenantal link to God not unlike that of Old Testament Israel to God. A "new Israel" mentality was not uncommon among many of the Puritans of New England in the 17th and early 18th century. And extreme version of this is the British-Israelism heresy that arose in the 19th century, that went to far as to say that peoples of British descent, both in the United Kingdom and in the United States, are actual physical descendants of the so-called "lost tribes of Israel."

America is not Israel. We have a distinct Christian heritage, but I think it’s abundantly clear that any idea of America as a kind of new Israel, with special covenantal privileges, exceeds the teachings of Scripture.

Prayer for America should be motivated by…

A desire for justice

We pray because we seek justice. Justice is a higher standard that national interest or national pride. Justice is that which conforms to the desire of God for individuals and for nations. Justice is that which assures equal opportunity for all, which sees in all the image of God. Justice flows from the very character of God. Justice brings wrongdoers down; justice exalts the humble and the faithful. Justice topples tyrants and frees the oppressed. Justice cares for the weak and the dispossessed; justice cares for weak the widow and the orphan.

Justice has often been depicted as wearing a blindfold. Justice should never see and take into account the race or the wealth or the creed of any person. We enshrine justice in the words of the Pledge of Allegiance: "with liberty and justice for all." It should be our highest aspiration as a nation, and as a member of the family of nations.

A concern for our national Christian heritage

After justice, I think our praying for America should be motivated by a concern for our national Christian heritage. Historically, the great challenge of nations has been to balance freedom and responsibility. Most nations err on the side of responsibility, to the point that through human history, most nations have been tyrannies. Even today, much of the world lives under tyranny. China, the most populous nation is clearly an un-free society. Of the 50 or so Muslim nations, only a few could be considered free countries.

But here in America, our Christian heritage created the world’s best environment for the balance of freedom and responsibility. We Americans read in our Bibles that we are special creatures, created in the image of God. And we also read that we are sinners. This Biblical realism shaped our society and political institutions. We rejected monarchy for a system of government with separation of powers, checks and balances and protection of minority rights. We have been imperfect practitioners of what we have received—slavery being the worst example—but yet on this continent, we have been blessed with freedoms that remain the envy of the world. When 14 years ago Chinese students sought to remake their country, it was American ideals that inspired them, to the point of fashioning a makeshift Statue of Liberty in Tiananmen Square.

The blessings we have received make our neglect of God all the worse. This is how Abraham Lincoln put it in his proclamation for a National Day of Fasting, Humiliation and Prayer, April 30, 1863:

We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven. We have preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, to proud to pray to the God who made us! It behooves us, then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins and pray for clemency and forgiveness.

We pray for America because we pray for justice; we pray for America because we of the great Christian heritage that has given us our freedoms. And as Christians, we also pray for this nation because of the way God has used it…

A desire that America continue as the single greatest fount of world mission support

The single largest missionary-sending nation in world history is the United States. American missionaries, and American mission money, has done more to reach the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ than any other nation on earth. Looking the big picture, I think you can say that God has raised up America first and foremost to be the #1 engine of world evangelization. We need to pray for a strong free America so that the gospel can continue to go around the world in power.

And obviously, there is one other reason to pray, and to pray earnestly…

National crisis

Last fall, a bold and vicious enemy attacked us. They killed 3,000 of our fellow citizens in New York and Washington. The passage of seven months, combined with a swift military victory against the terrorist regime in Afghanistan has caused many of us to believe that the crisis is over. It is not.

We are at war with people would kill us all if they could. Terrorist governments and organizations are working even now to plot against the existence of this nation. This week, when Zacharias Mousaoui, the so-called 20th hijacker appeared in court, he showed disdain for the court and, prayed instead for the destruction of the US and Israel.

While al Queada has been deeply hurt, it still exists, and co-exists with other radical organization and rogue nations who wish to simply destroy the US and Israel, who would if they could simply kill every Christian and Jew on the planet. We do not choose our times, even as we did not choose this challenge; but we must choose to pray, and yes, fight, or the world will slide into a new Dark Age.

The teaching of Proverbs 14:34

To pray well, we must be informed by God’s word. Proverbs 14:34 is one of many passages we can look to for guidance:

Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people.

The positive call: to "righteousness"

Righteousness, in this context, is the whole-hearted desire and effort on the part of the greater portion of a people, to honor God and to live by His ways. It is both the love of God and the love of His rules for how we are to treat one another.

This kind of righteousness arises from the heart, not from a rulebook. It is not Pharisee righteousness, Taliban righteousness. It is first and foremost a matter of love.

This kind of love, the proverb says, "exalts a nation." The nation is first and foremost exalted in the eyes of God. God honors those who honor Him. But additionally, this kind of honor brings the blessing of God. A nation committed to love of God and respect of people will always receive in turn the blessings of heaven.

What is true for the individual is often true for the nation. Consider George Washington Carver’s testimony: "The secret of my success? It is found in the Bible: ‘In all ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your paths.’"

But "sin is a disgrace"

Here "sin" is simply the opposite of "righteousness." It’s the neglect of God. The rejection of God. The exiling of God from public life.

The Soviet Union engaged in a 70 experiment in the communism that had at its core the denial of God. During that that, it killed over 30 million of its own citizens. It exported its special brand of tyranny around the world. It denied basic human rights and plundered the wealth of the nation for the benefit of an elite ruling class. Alexander Solzhenitsyn said his mother told him that there was but one reason why Russia suffered so: "We have forgotten God."

A disgrace to "any people"

This tells us that this principle applies to any nation—at any place—at any point in time—including us today.

The truth we must face is: God does evaluate national righteousness!

For example—consider the Roman Empire…history tells us of its fall, and a careful examination of why it fell is that it rotted from within. It was a moral cesspool that forgot the basics of right and wrong and which, for most of its history engaged in persecution of the church. In the final analysis, God brought it down.

Some have asked, "Is it, Judgment Day, USA?" Can a nation so blessed by God go long without judgment based on our national neglect of God—our national unrighteousness?

Was that God’s judgment on September 11, 2001?

Some who suggested that in the days following the attack were pilloried. Both the manner and the timing of their remarks were, to say the least, ill advised. But I cannot escape the idea that that when God judges nations, He most often simply withdraws His hand of protection. And while they failed—there is evidence that they had wanted to hijack 6 planes and destroy the White House and Capital Building as well—these doers of evil did grievously hurt this nation.

What grave national sins must we deal with?

Why would God judge America? Could I suggest four reasons—and at the same time, suggest that in prayer, as a people, we must repent of these evils?

Moral perversions (Psalm 37:27)

Over 25 years ago, Billy Graham said, "If God doesn’t judge San Francisco, he’ll have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah." Shortly thereafter, the mayor and a councilman were assassinated; a few months later, many San Franciscans lost their life at the Jonestown mass suicide.

But we are greatly mistaken if we think that homosexuality is the only moral perversion that merits the wrath of God. Pre-marital and extra-marital sex is rampant in our society and in the church as well. We Americans produce and consume billions of dollars of pornography each year, with the largest center of the production of porn in the world being the San Fernando Valley. In terms of sheer attention, measured in time and money, sex is the god of 21st century America.

Psalm 37:27 says, "Turn from evil and do good; then you will dwell in the land forever." God is calling us to pray and repent about rampant sexual immorality in our midst. This must start with us—the people of God. DL Moody said, "The ship belongs in the water of the world, but if water gets in the ship, it sinks." Folks, the church is in danger of sinking!

Prejudice and oppression (Isaiah 58:10-12)

We have made great progress, but the sins of prejudice and the oppression of people other than ourselves remain. We must prayer about and repent of all prejudices, which is a sin again God Himself, who created humanity with all our differences. Isaiah 58:10-12 says,

"If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
with the pointing finger and malicious talk,
10and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
and your night will become like the noonday.
11The LORD will guide you always;
he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
like a spring whose waters never fail.
12Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins
and will raise up the age-old foundations;
you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls,
Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.

Throw-away children

In ancient Rome, it was not uncommon to "expose" an unwanted newborn. Today we outdo the Romans; we have found ways to "expose" children before they are born. The Soviets killed 30 million of their citizens; that is about the number of unborn we have killed.

"Pastor, you shouldn’t talk this way! It’s political—and you make people feel guilty." It’s not political, it’s moral. And if it makes you personally feel guilty, may I say from the bottom of my heart, the solution for your guilt is not denial—it’s repentance.

Materialism

We’re a rich people—especially if you think of it on a world scale. We love stuff. We love things. We love our big boy and big girl toys. This too is idolatry. "Things" have to be put in their place. "It’s the economy, stupid!" is the mantra of a materialistic, sensual society.

Is there a way back? Is there a road to renewal? The prophet Joel tells us in Joel 2:12-13:

12"Even now," declares the LORD,
"return to me with all your heart,
with fasting and weeping and mourning."

13Rend your heart
and not your garments.
Return to the LORD your God,
for he is gracious and compassionate,
slow to anger and abounding in love,
and he relents from sending calamity.

Yes, there is a way back. And the beginning of that journey is in true heart-felt, transforming pray.

What should be our prayer priorities?

Our leaders—especially President Bush and his advisors

There is a "leadership principle" in Scripture—namely that a nation’s course is often directed by the willingness of its leaders to seek God.

That’s why I am heartened to read these words of our president, from the National Prayer Breakfast in February of this year:

I believe in the power of prayer. It’s been said, ‘I would rather stand against the cannons of the wicked than against the prayers of the righteous.’ The prayers of a friend are one of life’s most gracious gifts. My family and I are blessed by the prayers of countless Americans. Over the last several months, Laura and I have been touched by the number of people who come up and say, ‘We pray for you.’ Such comforting words. I hope Americans will continue to pray that everyone in my administration finds wisdom, and always remembers the common good."

Victory in the War on Terrorism

Notice I said victory, not just peace. This is an enemy that must be defeated, not accommodated. Peace will only come by victory, and that victory will be hard fought—on the battlefield, and also on our knees.

National awakening

We must pray for a national turning to God. This must start with us. Do not dare pray for America unless you are willing to have the Lord deal with your own heart.

Continued freedom of religion and religious expression

And finally, we must pray for continued religious freedom in America. There are many secular enemies of faith in this nation, some institutionalized in the educational establishment and in some levels of government who have a settled hostility to all forms of religion.

In all these things, what can I say except—pray! And this Thursday, May 2, is the National Day of Prayer. May I urge you to—?

Remember:

Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people.

© Copyright 2002, Pastor Glenn Layne, www.templecitybaptist.org