June 30, 2013
July 4th Message
Proverbs 14:34
History tells many stories:
-
Greatness of a nation
Conquest of entire continents
Failure of Dictators
The rising of new Democracies
The fall of Empires
History is our teacher and if we pay close attention, we will learn what and what
not to do.
The definition of insanity is: “Doing the same thing over and over and expecting to
get a different result.”
READ: Prov. 14:34
Making sure that we keep God’s word in its proper text setting, I do believe that
this passage can apply to any and every nation.
The principles of God’s word, his degrees, his laws and his directives can be
applied to any nation that is willing to set their sights on honoring him. By doing
so, his blessings will flow and the results will be that his hand of kindness, love,
provisions and grace will be upon it.
As I took the time to look up the various words in this verse, I was fascinated by
their meaning and how they apply to us today.
This passage can be divided up into four parts:
1)
2)
3)
4)
Righteousness of a nation
Exalting or reward of a nation
Sin and its result upon a nation or people
Disgrace in a nation or people group
1) Righteousness of a nation
The word, “Righteousness” applies to:
-
Government
God’s attribute
Truthfulness
Ethically right
To have righteousness you must have sovereignty.
- Someone must determine what is ethically right, what is the proper thing
to do in government, what is truthful in our world.
Note: Psa. 119:137-142
The righteousness of God and his word is the “Sovereign” that we must fall under
and allow to direct our lives.
To have a “Sovereign” you must have standard.
Note: Psa. 119:33-40
- A life lived by God’s standards is one that will be blessed
- A nation that lives by God’s standards will be a blessed nation
The sovereign standards must be applied to each one of us personally.
Note: Deut. 4:5-8
Moses did his best to teach Israel the truth. Would they live by it? Would the
personally believe it?
Q. The real question today is, will we?
2) Exalting or rewarding a nation
Exalt meant:
- To uplift
- To be made high
- To erect or raise up
This righteousness, God’s righteousness will exalt and lift up a nation.
Note: Psa. 12:8; “The wicked freely strut about when what is vile is honored
among men.”
Psa. 46:10; “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth.”
I believe that one of the many reasons that America has enjoyed prosperity and
blessings is because we did at one time exalt the name of God.
Exalting also meant:
- To be in a place of protection
- Out of reach of danger
Psa. 46:6-10
There is safety in a nation who exalts the Lord.
I believe that safety also applies to us as individuals.
Note: Psa. 32:1-11
The place of protection is strong and lasting.
Exalt also meant:
- To triumph over an enemy
There have been many times that God has protected those who exalt him.
- Nations
- People groups
- Individuals
The strength of any nation is in the exercise of exalting God.
- Protection is given
- Safety is provided
- Prosperity abounds
Q. Can you see where we have gone wrong as a nation and as individuals?
Note: Psa. 119:113-120
3) Sin and its result on a nation or people
To miss the mark is to sin.
To miss the target is to sin.
The mark is God’s righteousness.
- We miss it every time
- Sin will not allow you to ever hit the bulls eye
We are born to miss!
I look at our world today and it is becoming more obvious that we have missed the
mark.
- Good guy is looked down upon
- Bad guy is exalted
- The right is slowly slipping away from our society
Wrong has declared the victory and to stand against it is to be labeled antiAmerican, a hypocrite, and intolerant.
Not too many years ago a story came out about the former Atlanta Braves pitcher,
John Rocker. He made international headlines when he spoke out against
homosexuals and other perverted lifestyles in a magazine. He was assailed as
intolerant and a bigot.
His teammate, Chipper Jones, was engaged to be married, but impregnated a
Hooter’s waitress and reportedly tried to talk her into an abortion. She refused,
had the baby, and Jones’ finance’ called off the marriage.
Yet Chipper Jones was sought out by the media to comment on Rocker’s verbal
transgressions. The “bad guy” had been turned into the “good guy.” Such is
society’s undisciplined aim at righteousness.
4) Disgrace in a nation or people group
Disgrace comes from the root word meaning “Goodness.”
- But in this context it meant “Shameful wickedness.”
Because of the shameful wickedness of a people, God will “bring low” that nation
or people.
Disgrace can also be defined as:
- Reproach
- To pluck or strip away all that is good
We are losing what once made us a great people.
We are losing in the church what once made us have an impact upon our society.
We have become “Shamefully wicked.” Because of this we are seeing God
remove his blessings from America and the church.
Our society is getting rotten, right down to the very core.
We are being eaten up like a cancer with evil, pride and arrogance.
Conclusion
On Thursday we will celebrate our independence.
We will get up like any other day, except that most of us will have the day off, and
we will go about our daily lives not stopping to remember how we got this
wonderful freedom.
Men and women gave up everything so that we might be free.
Freedom in America is not free…it always costs!
Freedom in Christ costs. It cost Jesus his very life so that you might be free from
your guilt of sin.
We need to remember our freedom in America and our freedom in Christ.
May we be a righteous people so that our nation will once again find God’s
blessings.