Transcript
In your Bibles, will you turn once again to the Gospel of Luke and to chapter 12 and verse 54.
Luke 12 and verse 54.
Then He also said to the multitudes, ‘Whenever you see a cloud rising out of the west, immediately you say, “A shower is coming,” and so it is. And when you see the south wind blow, you say, “There will be hot weather,” and there is. Hypocrites! You can discern the face of the sky and of the earth, but how is it you do not discern this time? Yes, and why, even of yourselves, do you not judge what is right? When you go with your adversary to the magistrate, make every effort along the way to settle with him, lest he drag you to the judge, and the judge deliver you to the officer, and the officer throw you into prison. I tell you, you shall not depart from there till you have paid the very last mite.’
There were present at that season some who told Him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And Jesus answered and said to them,
Do you suppose that these Galileans were worse sinners than all other Galileans because they suffered such things? I tell you, no. But unless you repent you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them, do you think that they were worse sinners than all other men who dwell in Jerusalem? I tell you, no. But unless you repent you will all likewise perish.
In December of 1991, twelve-year-old Kenny Perrone of Lake Tropicana, Florida, really surprised everybody. You see, Kenny Perrone has an attention disability. And he has a disability that is called weak impulse control. He also tends to have hyperactive reactions in certain situations. Kenny is regarded as disabled, and he attends classes with other disabled students at the Dunellen Middle School in Florida.
One day last December Kenny was riding the bus to school. And he was sitting directly behind sixty-five-year-old Donald Snyder, a retired Air Force captain who was driving the bus. As the bus turned off of Highway 41 and onto the school parking lot, Kenny saw the driver slump down in his seat. In fact Mr. Snyder had passed out.
This is the way Kenny tells the story. He said, “I crawled up behind him and he was gasping for air. Then everybody else went to the back of the bus. They were very, very afraid. I went up beside him and I saw that his foot was pushing the gas pedal. And then he leaned toward the door and the bus was swerving all over the place. And then he leaned on me. The bus was going faster and faster,” said Kenny. “So I stepped in and pushed hard on the brake pedal.”
That’s not exactly all that Kenny did. By working the brakes and the steering wheel he managed to keep the bus from hitting any obstacles. And he brought it to a complete stop in the school parking lot. When Mr. Snyder woke up, with other bus drivers and school personnel looking down on him, he didn’t remember a thing that had happened. But Kenny was credited with saving thirty-three of his classmates from possible injuries.
Kenny’s mother, Susan Perrone, is a medical emergency technician. And she said that she was not surprised at what Kenny did. But she was surprised at the calmness with which he did it. Yet Kenny admits that he was scared a lot. And he said to his mother, “I thought he had a cardiac. What else would you expect me to do?”
Not bad for a twelve-year-old kid with an attention disability and hyperactive reactions, don’t you agree? And I have to confess that if I had been in the same situation I doubt very much if I would have done as well as Kenny did.
But what concerns me this morning is that I am persuaded that there are literally millions of Americans who suffer from an attention disability. An attention disability. And they are not aware that this country in which we live is like a runaway bus that is racing wildly out of control and is heading toward a disastrous collision.
And because I happen to believe that this morning very firmly, I would like you to think with me for a few moments about this subject: America, a country about to crash. That’s the title of my message to you this morning: America, a country about to crash.
Do you realize that when the Lord Jesus Christ was living the last couple of years of His life on earth, the nation of Israel was facing, within less than forty years, one of the greatest disasters in the history of that country? After Jesus was crucified in 33 A.D., in 69 A.D. that restless and rebellious nation rose in revolt against the Roman government.
And the result was predictable. The Romans marched their armies into the land of Israel. They surrounded the capital city of Jerusalem with their troops. And in 70 A.D. the city of Jerusalem was almost completely destroyed. The Jewish temple that stood there, the object of pride of the Jewish nation, was burned to the ground. And one Jewish historian tells us that in that particular war as many as one million Jews lost their lives.
But do you suppose that anybody in Jesus’ time expected that to happen? Do you think they realized what was heading toward their nation? No, they did not.
And that is why, in the passage that we read just a few moments ago, the Lord Jesus was addressing the multitudes. And Jesus said, “When you see a cloud arising out of the west, you say, ‘A shower is coming,’ and so it is. And when you see the south wind blow, you say, ‘It’ll be hot weather,’ and so it is.” Hypocrites, said Jesus. “You know how to read the face of the sky and of the earth. But how is it that you do not discern these times? How is it that you cannot read the national weather report?”
You know, we often kind of joke, don’t we, about the weather forecasters that we watch on television? And when they get it wrong we kind of joke about their ability to get it wrong. But let’s face it. The weathermen and women on our television stations get it right a lot of the time, don’t they? I mean, they’re right probably more often than they’re wrong. And for centuries man has been interested in the weather. And he has developed ways of predicting the weather. And in our modern society we’ve got sophisticated technology to help us to predict the weather better.
But there’s one thing in which the human race has developed no ability at all. The human race seems to be without the ability to read the spiritual climate in which it is living. And the human race fails to recognize the storms that are about to sweep down on nations and on peoples.
What about our society? Do we read the spiritual weather properly? Let me give you a case in point. Just this past week I had a fundraiser for Governor Bill Clinton, who happens to be running for the Democratic nomination for president. At this fundraiser in New York City there was a man by the name of Bob Rafsky, who is an AIDS activist related to the group called ACT UP.
Mr. Rafsky acted up. And he said to Governor Clinton something like this. He said, “I’m dying of AIDS and you’re dying of ambition.” And Governor Clinton, one of the few times in his campaign, lost his cool and blew up at this man. And he told him that he was tired of snotty questions like that. That all of this was bull. And he was tired of listening to it. He had heard attacks and attacks and attacks on him that were just plain bull.
And then he said to this man, “Don’t you realize that one of the problems in our country is that we all devalue each other? We need to get back to putting value on the integrity of people’s lives.”
Now before I comment on that, let me remind you that Governor Clinton is a Baptist. And that he sings in the choir of his church back in Little Rock in Arkansas. But can you imagine Baptist candidate Bill Clinton replying to Bob Rafsky like this? “Listen, sir. If I have sinful ambition, it’s bad for me. And it may eventually kill me. But it will not kill me nearly as fast as the sin of which you are guilty.”
Can you imagine a serious presidential candidate saying something like that? Of course not. The media would blow up at it. He would be criticized from coast to coast for being prejudiced and insensitive.
Now, unless you think that I’m picking on Bill Clinton because he’s a Democrat, let me play it fair, shall I? Do you realize that a year or two ago, in a bill-signing ceremony at the White House, among the guests that were invited to watch President Bush sign a bill into law, among the invited guests was a prominent, well-known gay activist? And I have read that just recently Robert Mosbacher, the chairman of President Bush’s reelection committee, met with gay and lesbian leaders.
I don’t think they talked about the sinfulness of their lifestyle. I think they talked about how President Bush could win the votes of gay and lesbian people.
I was watching television one night recently. And I heard a shocking statement. I hope it’s not true. The statement was made that one in ten Americans is gay or lesbian. I hope that’s an exaggeration. I hope that’s an inflated estimate.
Can anybody fail to read the weather report for a nation like this? Go out to the shores of the Dead Sea in the land of Palestine and look around for the ruins of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. You know what you’re going to find? Not a thing. Not one single thing.
You can find the ruins of ancient cities all over the Middle East today, including the ruins of Babylon. But you won’t find one single timber. You won’t find one single rock or brick from the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. You know why? Because those cities were filled with homosexuality. And God wiped them off the face of the map.
They could wish that was our only problem in America today. We have convicted murderers walking the streets of our cities, killing again and killing again. Why? Because America refuses to honor God’s law that says, “Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed.”
I think it is ridiculous, ridiculous, that a serial killer like Jeffrey Dahmer should be sentenced to life in prison. I’ve seen the sketch of the isolation unit in which he will be kept and guarded. It’s going to cost the taxpayers of Minnesota thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars to keep this man alive.
The jury found him sane. But even if they had found him insane, the Lord God remains: “Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed.” And God said to Israel in the Old Testament, “The land cannot be cleansed of the innocent blood that has been shed in it except by the blood of him who shed it.”
I wish that were the end of it. In America today we have millions of married Americans who commit adultery on a regular basis. They cheat regularly on their wives and on their husbands. And in America we have millions of unmarried people who are having sexual relationships outside of marriage. And that is the biblical sin of fornication.
And do I need to tell you that America stinks to high heaven from prostitution, pornography, child abuse, incest, drug addiction, and drug dealing? Is anybody in this audience who can’t read the weather report for the United States of America? Is there anyone here who can possibly doubt that the storm of God’s judgment lies ahead of this country?
And as surely as Israel was headed into the calamities of 69 and 70 A.D., so surely, I think, America is headed for an encounter with the Judge of all the earth.
And what’s the problem? The things I’ve been talking about are just symptoms. What’s the basic underlying problem? Did you notice the words that Jesus spoke immediately following the ones we just quoted? As He continues to speak to the multitudes, Jesus says, “Yes, and why, even of yourselves, do you not judge what is right?”
The trouble with you people, says Jesus, is that you do not decide on your own accord to do the right thing. And then He uses an illustration that goes something like this. When you owe money to somebody and your adversary, your creditor, is about to take you to court, what you ought to do is make every effort to settle with him before you get to court. That would be the right thing to do.
If you don’t, he’ll drag you to the judge. And the judge will turn you over to the bailiff. And the bailiff will put you in jail. And you won’t come out of there, says Jesus, until you have paid the last mite. You’re going to pay, says our Lord, unless you do the right thing.
Do I need to tell you this morning that the United States of America has become the land of a million lawsuits? I mean, everybody’s taking everybody to court. Men are taking women to court and women are taking men to court. Husbands and wives are going to court. Children are taking parents to court and parents are taking children to court. And customers are taking businesses to court and corporations are taking corporations to court.
And everybody agrees that our court system is clogged and filled to overflowing with lawsuit after lawsuit after lawsuit. Why is that? Well, the reason is because there are millions of people in America who refuse to do the right thing unless they are forced to do it in a court of law.
I was reading just this past week about David Cone, a very gifted pitcher with the New York Mets. And a thirty-one-year-old woman named Deborah Hampton had slapped him with sexual harassment charges over an incident that occurred three years ago. The charges were attached to a lawsuit filed by Hampton and two other women last September in which they charged that David Cone had sworn at them and threatened them in a section of Shea Stadium, which is the ballpark.
And David Cone told the New York Post that Deborah Hampton was just a groupie. And Deborah Hampton replied, “He thinks he’s above everybody else.” Who’s wrong? I haven’t the slightest idea. Not the slightest idea. Maybe they’re all wrong. But one thing is sure. That thing goes to court. It will be because someone has not done or said the right thing.
And it isn’t just celebrities who won’t do the right thing, is it? I guess we could yawn at a story like that after listening to the story of Willie Smith in Florida, Mike Tyson in Indiana. More recently three Mets players were accused of rape. But it isn’t just the celebrities, not just the ballplayers, not just the boxers. It’s everyday, down-to-earth, ordinary people who won’t do what is right.
I was reading a survey of college students in which seventy percent of them admitted on the survey that they had cheated on an exam at one time or another. How many people are left in America who would never cheat on an exam even if they were positive they could get away with it? How many people are left in America, my friends, who wouldn’t lie even in a sticky situation even if they were positive no one would ever find them out?
I’m telling you, a nation is in big trouble, a nation is in big trouble, when its people refuse to do and say what is right in the sight of God. And that is why America is like a runaway bus racing wildly on a collision course with the justice and the judgment of God.
Now it just so happened that at that particular time there were some men from Galilee who came to Jesus. And they told Him about some Galileans who had been slaughtered by the Roman governor Pontius Pilate, apparently as they were trying to offer their sacrifices in the Jewish temple.
And maybe these people expected Jesus to respond to this information with a very patriotic and a very pro-Jewish answer. Maybe they expected Jesus to say, “How dare that wicked Gentile governor lay his hands on pious Israelites who are trying to worship God in His temple? What an outrage! What a terrible sin by the government that rules us!”
But if that’s what they expected Him to say, they got a big surprise. Because the Bible says that Jesus answered and said to them, “Do you suppose that these Galileans were worse sinners than all other Galileans because they suffered these things? I tell you, no. But unless you repent you shall all likewise perish.”
Listen, says Jesus. Those men who were killed by Pontius Pilate were sinners. But don’t think for a minute they were worse sinners than the rest of the Galileans who live in Galilee. No indeed. I’m telling you that unless you repent you will die and lose your life just as those men lost their life.
And just to make sure that they got His point, Jesus gave another illustration. He talked about eighteen men who had been killed by a collapsing tower. And He said to them, “And those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them, do you suppose that they were worse sinners than all the other men who lived in Jerusalem? I tell you, no. And unless you repent you also will lose your lives.”
And it happened in 69 and 70 A.D. A million Jews perished in the war with Rome.
I came home last Sunday night from the Lord’s Supper. And I turned on the television set. And the big news last Sunday night on television was about US Air commuter flight number 405, which had tried to take off from LaGuardia Airport in New York City and had crashed in Flushing Bay. Twenty-seven people, including the pilot, perished. Twenty-four people, including the co-pilot, survived.
Do you suppose that the twenty-seven people who died on US Air 405 were worse sinners than the rest of the people who live in New York City? No way. If you know anything about that New York City, no way. No way.
I was struck by the words of Tracy Mitchell, whose parents died in that crash. And Tracy Mitchell was quoted as saying this, quote, “This doesn’t happen to us. We’re normal people,” end of quote.
But that’s a problem, isn’t it? You see, in America normal people disobey the laws of God. In America normal people disregard some of God’s holiest commandments. And if you are living a Christian life you’re not a normal American. You’re not a typical, average, everyday citizen of this country. You are above normal. And you are a special person.
And yes, things like that do happen to normal people. And unless normal people repent they could all likewise perish.
Now listen closely. Listen very carefully. Repentance is not a condition for eternal salvation. Repentance is not a condition for going to heaven and having eternal life. Eternal life is an absolutely free gift which God gives to us when we believe in His Son for that gift.
The Bible says, “The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” The Bible says, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” But hear me. Repentance is a condition for escaping God’s judgment on earth. May I repeat that? That’s important.
Repentance is a condition for escaping God’s judgment here on this earth. And you may be a Christian this morning, my friends. You may know that you are saved by faith alone and that you’re on your way to heaven. But if you’re not living the Christian life, if you’re spending your time with the wrong people in the wrong places doing the wrong thing, please don’t be surprised. Please don’t be surprised if your life is snuffed out along with the lives of your unsaved friends.
Yeah, I know these words were spoken to Israel many centuries ago. And they had a fulfillment in 70 A.D. But these words also express, in the light of the whole Bible, the basic principles by which God deals with men and nations. And the words of Jesus Christ which we are looking at should ring in our ears as a warning to all sinners, including Christian sinners. And they should resound in our minds as a warning to the sinful and wicked nation in which we live. “Unless you repent you shall all likewise perish.”
On March the 25th, 1990, there appeared in the Dallas Times Herald a photograph of a young man wearing eyeglasses, friendly face. And he was holding in his hand a big trophy. At the top of the trophy there was a model car. The name of this young man was Michael Duquette of Concord, New Hampshire.
In 1989 he had won a driving contest sponsored by Dodge and by a veterans group. In July of 1989 he had been honored with this trophy as America’s safest teenage driver. You say, well, why, if he got his award in 1989, why was this paper publishing his picture in March 25th, 1990? The reason is sad.
Because on February the 23rd, 1990, Michael Duquette apparently fell asleep behind the wheel of his car. His car crashed head-on into another car. Michael Duquette was dead at seventeen years of age. And the heading below the picture said it all: “Driving champ killed.” Yes, America’s safest teenage driver died behind the wheel of his own car.
And say, folks, the United States of America is a champion too, aren’t we? I mean, didn’t we just win the Cold War as our longtime enemy the Soviet Union collapsed and broke to pieces? And wasn’t it just last year that our powerful military machine routed the Iraqis in Desert Storm? Doesn’t everybody realize now that America is the most powerful country in the world? Don’t you think this must be the safest place on earth to live?
Don’t you? I don’t. I don’t think so at all. And by the end of this decade America could have suffered economic and social collapse. It could have suffered a series of devastating natural calamities. It could even have suffered military defeat by a surprise nuclear attack from some unexpected source.
Our country could experience any or all of these things in your lifetime and in mine.
Wake up, Christian brother. Wake up, Christian sister. I’m talking especially to those of you who are not living for God. You know who you are. I urge you to go home this morning, to confess your sins to God, and to start getting your act together while you still have a chance to get your act together.
Do you suppose that Michael Duquette, America’s safest teenage driver, do you suppose he was a worse sinner than you are? I leave you to answer that question for yourself. But remember this. Remember this. Unless the sinners of America repent they could all likewise perish, even you.
Shall we pray?
Father, how wonderful is Thy saving grace to each of us, full, free, based on faith alone. And yet You are the judge of men and of nations. Help us to take this truth to heart in just exactly the way we need to do it. In Christ’s name we pray. Amen.