When A Nation Loses Itself...

 

“When nations lose themselves – when nations destroy their sacred groves – they open a hole in themselves. That hole is ever-growing, ever-gnawing. And it cannot be satiated.”
 
 
---Commentator Ben Shapiro [1]
 
 
 
That is because they have rejected the God who alone is able to satiate that hunger.  The people of those nations attempt to fill a void with anything except the God who made them and who alone is able to fill that void.  They try to satisfy this hunger with entertainment, money, possessions, drugs, alcohol, academics, careers, patriotism, and activism.  They move about from lover to lover and even from spouse to spouse to fill this hunger in their search for a lasting satisfaction and leave so much heartache in their wake and suffer heartache in turn.
 
They go from one religion to another, from one philosophical leaning to another, or even attempt to create a syncretic philosophy in hopes of filling this void in their hearts and souls that screams ever the more louder the longer its needs go unmet.
 
And yet they know not with what to fill this void that cries out or if they do, they reject the One who is able to fill it because of what they would be required to relinquish in order for that void to be satisfyingly filled because they enjoy the temporal pleasures of this world too much and place too much faith and hope in the things of this present life than in the life and world to come.
 
What are the things that people want most in life?
 
The first things that come to mind are peace, love, prosperity, joy, happiness, security, and purpose and meaning to their lives. They want to be free of hardship, misery, drudgery, grief and from the things they perceive to be evil and oppressive but at the same time, but at the same time, they are unwilling to turn to the God who is able to give them all of these things because of what they may be required to turn away from in turn.
 
They are unwilling to exchange those things that provide a temporal peace for a lasting peace.
They are unwilling to trade temporal pleasures for that which is able to provide lasting satisfaction and contentment.
They are unwilling to relinquish that which provides temporal significance for that which is able to provide a lasting purpose.
And they are unwilling to risk the displeasure of those to whom they look for security and provision to devote themselves to the God who is able to provide for their needs and who is able to shield them from unnecessary harm, trouble, and hardship and is able to sustain them through the hardships and trials of life that do come upon them and therefore still end up subjected to the hardships and evils that they work so very hard to avoid in the first place because they are placing their trust in temporal comforts that are fallible and subject to failure rather than the God who is able to provide lasting and unfailing comfort, they rally behind corruptible standard bearers who may disgrace themselves, who turn out to be treacherous in their dealings, or whose lives come to an abrupt end, rather than the God who is that perfect standard bearer who is without corruption, (Mt. 5:48)will never disgrace Himself, who is faithful in the keeping of all of His promises (Heb. 10:23), they seek an end to their troubles in things that are worthless rather than looking to the God who is able to both sustain and deliver them out of their troubles.
 
They place their trust in their wealth, or a job, a career, or even a spouse or immediate family member to be the provider of all their needs rather than crying out to the God who is able to meet every need, they look to their own strength and prowess, and even governing authorities for security and protection rather than the God who is able to provide protection without fail not realizing that their own strength can and will fail them, their prowess will not be enough to deliver them from every threat, and that even governing authorities may either not be able to deliver them from every crisis or worse may even refuse to do so and may be enablers of those very threats and dangers that they trust in their respective governments to protect them from.
 
They try to drown out their inward turmoils, sorrows, and griefs with drugs, alcohol, and medications that are useless or they seek a distraction from them in entertainment or in things they think that will provide them some degree of significance rather than the God who is able to heal their griefs, wipe away their tears, and put an end to their turmoils and provide them the significance that they are looking for which is that lasting significance that can only be found in God alone who is the source and Creator of all things.
 
And when tragedy and disaster strike, instead of crying out to the God who is able to deliver, heal, mend, and restore them, they curse and shake their fists at Him and do so even to their own final destruction.
 
And when a people or a nation rejects the God who made them, they then also reject His laws, precepts, and counsels and as a result they then eventually lose the blessings that come from God for when God is rejected, His blessings and protection are eventually removed as well.
 
Should it be any wonder if then as a result, in a God rejecting society, that lawlessness and instability should increase? that families and households fall apart? that the media becomes dishonest in their reporting? that academic institutions resort to deceptive indoctrination? that depravity should infest our entertainment? that corruption should abound in both the private and civic sectors?  that the freedoms, liberties, and prosperity that have been taken for granted should be diminished and replaced with oppression, tyranny, and misery? and that there be perils and threats from both without and within?
 
Should it then be any wonder that even if a nation that rejects the one true God is not destroyed by invading armies from without, that it should eventually be destroyed from within? Or that it should succumb to destruction from both without and within?  Such are the consequences of rejecting the God who is the source of truth, life, order, provision, security, stability, purpose, meaning, wisdom, knowledge, happiness, joy, peace, and liberty itself and in whose hand is the life of every person and of every nation, kingdom, and empire.
 
The course of a life, nation, or empire, is determined by what manner of spirit is embraced, for better or for worse.  If you really want to know what is truly wrong in a nation, don’t look at its economy or even the nature of its government.  Instead, examine as to what manner of spirit that nation and people have embraced because what spirit that nation or people embrace affects what virtues and morals are applied and the manner of what traditions and customs are observed which in turn is going to eventually determine as to what manner of education is taught to the children of that people and nation, the nature of their economy, and lastly, what form of government they will be subjugated to.
 
If a nation self-destructs, as commentator Shapiro suggests is happening to America, it begins spiritually, then morally, then academically, economically, and lastly, politically.  If America is in a self-destruct mode, at what point did that begin?  Commentator Mike Huckabee summed it up very well:
 
 
…we've systematically have attempted to remove God
from our schools, our public activities...It's far more than just taking
prayer or Bible reading out of the schools; its the fact that people
sue a city so that we aren't confronted with a manger scene or Christmas carol,
and lawsuits are filed to remove a cross that's a memorial to fallen soldiers.
Churches and Christian owned businesses are told to surrender their values
under the edict of government orders to provide tax funded abortion pills.
We carefully and intentionally stop saying things are sinful and we call them disorders;
sometimes, we even say they're normal…
 
as I see it, we've escorted Him right out of our culture
and we've marched Him off the public square, and then we express
our surprise that a culture without Him actually reflects what it's become. [2]
 
 
 
And in rejecting the God to whom most our founders looked in the establishing of this great nation and upon whom that generation relied on and revered, we have also rejected His laws, morals, precepts, and have adopted to ourselves the ways of death and destruction.  Knowledge has gone out of our academics and wisdom and principle have departed from our government.  Greed, corruption, and self-serving ambition has taken over our private sector, truth has been exchanged for lies within our media, and depravity has supplanted that which is holy, pure, and sacred in our entertainment industry.
 
And in those institutions in which there was once honor and respectability, there is only shame, contempt, and no real sense of the purposes for which they were once established.  And as of 2020, it has become apparent that even our medical and pharmaceutical establishments can’t be any more or less trusted than the political system.
 
Our military is being disgraced, our law enforcement and judicial system cannot be depended upon to keep us safe, local and state governments are being found to impose the most ridiculous laws and regulations upon their residents and citizens, we face perils from without and within, and the liberties we hold dear and may even still defend to the death are coming under increasing assault and many of they who claim to be champions of freedom and liberty have little to no knowledge of their true source because they have no idea or understanding as to what inspired the founding documents of our nation to begin with despite the fact that our own Declaration of Independence spells out very clearly what the source of that inspiration is:
 
 
 
When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
 
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among them are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. [3]
 
 
 
 
But if we should reject the God who is the determiner of our rights and the source of all liberty, then how can we expect to retain the liberties that are but the product of the liberty He offers to all men which is a spiritual liberty because it is from this spiritual liberty from which all other liberties spring forth but instead of pursuing this spiritual liberty, we have rejected it for that which appears to be freedom but is not actually freedom at all but instead has only brought spiritual darkness, moral decay, disorder, vexation, confusion, obscurity, increased lawlessness, evil, corruption, oppression, despair, hopelessness, and no sense of direction.
 
For the loss of liberty does not begin from without, but begins from within and therefore if we are have any hope of retaining that which we still have and are in danger of losing and even regaining that which has already been taken from us but first we must know what it is from which we must be free for though we may recognize the tyranny that comes from men, we are yet blind to unseen tyrannies and oppressions that are felt and whose affects may be seen, but yet because we are blind to the unseen oppressions, we fail to attack the external tyrannies or the threats thereof at their very source.  If we only attack the manifested tyrannies but not the source thereof, those external tyrannies will only keep manifesting themselves time and time again but it is only when we assail them at their very source that the manifested tyrannies will crumble and in some cases without even so much as having to fire a single shot.
 
And it is by the restoring of the inward spiritual liberty where the fight for freedom actually begins for it was first lost from within before it was lost from without all because they who had lost it from within lost it by way of exchanging it for that which gave the illusion of greater freedom but instead turned out to be a robber of the liberty that they once had as they were presented with a false promise and made to think that the Creator of them was withholding greater freedom from them for it was told to them by a lying spirit in the form of a serpent:
 
 
“Ye shall not surely die, for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.” (Gen. 3:5)
 
 
That which they were led into eating thereof was a fruit from a certain tree called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, (Gen. 2:9) having been warned of the Lord God who made the Heaven and the earth that in the day that they, being the first man Adam, and the first woman, Eve, Adam’s wife, ate of that fruit from that tree forbidden them that they would surely die. (Gen. 2:16-17, 3:3)
 
And when they did eat of that forbidden fruit, they, unlike what the serpent said to them, were made subject to death (Gen. 3:19) and were never made the closer to being deities but fell to a state inferior than the one in which they were first made for what they thought would lead them to greater freedom led them out of the freedom that they had known and into bondage; bondage to death and a corrupted condition called sin that had entered into them when they had eaten the fruit of that tree which they were told not to eat from and from them was that bondage of sin and death passed to all of humanity because it is from Adam and Eve into whom sin entered that all of mankind descend and because we are descended from Adam and Eve we have all inherited them that inward corruption of our nature called sin and because of this inherited corruption that resides within us, we all sin (Rom. 5:12) and as a consequence we all die (Rom. 6:23) and not only are we in bondage to sin and death, but all of creation itself has been subjugated to a curse which is why it is written that the entire creation groans and travails in pain to this day (Rom. 8:19-22) but it was never intended by God Almighty for either man or creation itself to be subjugated to death, decay, hardship, turmoil, adversity, evil, grief, sorrow, and all manner of pain and affliction that there ever has been and ever could be, but rather instead, it was His will that all of creation be at peace and at harmony within itself for mankind to be in perfect uninterrupted fellowship with His Maker and in perfect harmony and peace with nature itself, after that first act of disobedience, that perfect harmony between man and nature was disrupted and that intimate direct fellowship between God and man severed, and worst of all, the disobedience of man gave that serpent better known as Satan, that adversary of God and of our souls, to claim lordship over the universe that God created (Mt. 4:8-9, Lk. 6-7) which is why he is called the prince of this world (Jn. 12:31, 16:11) and just as he presented in the garden a counterfeit freedom to Adam and Eve, he continues still to present a counterfeit freedom to multitudes by which he leads them into spiritual darkness, blinds them to the truth that does set free, suppresses any and all knowledge that may lead any he has taken captive out of that captivity and into that true and glorious liberty that is born of God, deafens their ears to the voice of their Maker, poisons their minds with lies, and hardens their hearts against that soul-liberating truth that comes from God, making that freedom out to be the slavery that it is not while making the tyranny and oppression that he is behind to be the freedom that it is not.
 
Sin is not merely confined to our actions or even the words that we speak.  It also soils our thoughts, corrupts our motives, and darkens the attitudes of our hearts which is why even though we seek to be the most morally upright persons that we can be, we still sin in ways to which we are blind because sin is ever present within us and cannot be purged from our souls by our own efforts which is why it is written that we have all fallen short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23) who requires nothing less than moral perfection from us and not just in our outward performance but in our thoughts, motives, and in our hearts; an impossibly high standard but because sin corrupts, taints, distorts, and defiles more than we can comprehend, they who are under sin cannot be admitted into the Kingdom of Heaven which is without sin lest Heaven itself be defiled by our sin just as the earth was defiled and because of the destructive nature of sin, a day is coming when all sin, when it has reached its measure, must face punishment and be eliminated and that includes everyone who has not been cleansed of their sins and what an immensely unimaginably terrifying judgment that is going to be for those who die in their sins and so not only are we born subjugated to sin and death but we are also made to face the dangers of eternal damnation because of sin but yet God, though He will eventually bring punishment and judgment upon all sin and all evil, is not willing that any should perish or be sentenced to eternal damnation in the fiery torments of Hell and in the agony of its darkness, but that all would come to repentance (2 Pet. 3:9) for He is a God of love and mercy, not desiring to bring punishment and judgment, but to lavish His love and mercy upon mankind which is why it is in love that He has provided redemption for us in Christ Jesus, His only begotten Son whom He sent into the world to take upon Himself that demanded penalty for sin through the shedding of His blood upon the cross upon which He was crucified so that we would no longer have to face the danger of suffering that penalty for all eternity and it was His incorruptible and sinless nature that made Him to be that perfect and spotless sacrifice (2 Cor. 5:21, Heb. 4:15, 7:26-27) needed to be offered up for our redemption and after He was crucified for our sins, He then, so that we would be justified in Him, was raised from the dead (Rom. 4:25) so that anyone placing their trust in Him need not perish in their sins, but be cleansed of their sins for as it is written, that if they confess with their mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in their heart that God raised Him from the dead, they will be saved (Rom. 10:9) for it is in Christ in whom we receive the liberty of the spirit for it is in Christ that the soul is cleansed of sin which then delivers us from condemnation and with the cleansing of our sins comes that inward transformation that makes us anew in the Lord (2 Cor. 5:17) beginning a change within our hearts, minds, and souls that causes us to no longer desire to walk in those things that are evil, sinful, and displeasing in the sight of the Lord, but only in those things that are good, right, and pleasing to Him, to no longer walk in disobedience and rebellion against our Creator but only in obedience to Him, to longer take pleasure in the things of darkness but only in those things that are of the light, to no longer walk in the lies that abound in this present world but only in the truth of God who is the source of all truth, (Jn. 14:6)  to no longer set our sites on the things of this world, but only after those things that pertain unto Heaven, (Mt. 6:33) to no longer place our trust in the things of this world to see to our needs, but only in God alone, recognizing that the things that we have relied upon for our provision are but means provided by God above, to no longer live in the fear of anything else but the fear of God before whom we all must stand and give an account for all that we have done in this life and from whose hand the final reward and sentence shall be given to each, (Mt. 10:28) to no longer strive for temporal earthly honors but only that which comes from Heaven, to no longer seek after the wealth of earth which is temporal and can be lost, but only after the treasures of Heaven which last forever and can never be lost or stolen, (Mt. 6:20) to no longer rally behind fallible standard bearers be they prolific writers, dynamic politicians, teachers or professors in the classroom, or preachers at the pulpit who are just as corruptible as the rest of us, but only around the incorruptible Christ who is our perfect example recognizing that those persons of inspiration and influence are but instruments and fellow servants whom He has raised up for our edification and deliverance, and to no longer rely on men of limited power and corruptible entities for our security and protection but only upon the everlasting God who is able to shield us from all evil, to no longer look to the faulty wisdom of this world for direction, but only to the God who is the source of all wisdom which is perfect and without fault, and to no longer place our hope and trust in this present life which is filled with a darkness that ever increases as the end of the age draws near, but only in the good and better world that is to come.
 
For it is only when we turn away from our sins and call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ that we receive in Him that inward spiritual liberty from which all other liberties are eventually made manifest for the more receive that inward spiritual liberty, the more manifested and more secure the external and outward liberties that we long for and enjoy become.
 
As French statesman, Alexis De Tocqueville, best known for his two-volume work, Democracy In America, had reportedly told his respective government regarding what he discovered as being the source of America’s greatness in his day:
 
 
 
“ I went at your bidding, and passed along their thoroughfares of trade. I ascended their mountains and went down their valleys. I visited their manufactories, their commercial markets, and emporiums of trade. I entered their judicial courts and legislative halls. But I sought everywhere in vain for the secret of their success, until I entered the church. It was there, as I listened to the soul-equalizing and soul-elevating principles of the Gospel of Christ, as they fell from Sabbath to Sabbath upon the masses of the people, that I learned why America was great and free, and why France was a slave.” [4]
 
 
 
The liberty that we have cherished and yet taken for granted here in America although imperfect, is but a shadowy reflection of that even more perfect liberty that is yet to come but it is a liberty that will make us free from sin, death, decay, evil, grief, misery, hardship, adversity, and pain for just as our souls have been made free in Christ from eternal damnation, so eventually our very bodies will also be made free death itself when they are changed from forms in which sin dwells into forms in which there is no sin thereby exempting us from bodily death (1 Cor. 15:51-55, 1 Thess. 4:13-18) and finally creation itself will be made free of the curse by which it is afflicted when it is made anew and in which none of the evils of this present world will exist in that new and better world for in that day, they will all be done away with (Rev. 21-22) and in that new world will only be peace, joy, harmony, and happiness before the Lord God Almighty.
 
If you feel as though you have lost yourself and are seeking restoration and have not yet called upon the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins and a sense of direction to set you in the way that you ought to go, then I urge you to repent of your errant ways and call upon the name of Jesus Christ for salvation and restoration.  It is but a simple sincere prayer of repentance away:
 
 
"Lord Jesus I need you.
 
 
I realize that I am a sinner
who has fallen short of the glory of God
and that my goodness falls short
of your standard of Moral perfection.
 
Please forgive me of all of my sins.
Come into my heart and into my life
to be the Savior and Lord of my life.
Make me into the servant and follower
that you want me to be.
In your name Lord Jesus, I pray.
 
 
Amen."
 
 
Know that God is not concerned with the words that you use to call upon Him forgiveness, but with the attitude of your heart and if you have, with all sincerity, have asked Christ to forgive you of your sins, placing your trust in Him only for your salvation and in nothing else, then your sins are forgiven and your place in Heaven is certain.
 
 
 
End notes:
 
 
 
1.  Ben Shapiro, “America’s Slow Suicide,” World Net Daily, August 31, 2021
https://www.wnd.com/2021/08/americas-slow-suicide/?utm_medium=wnd&utm_source=jeeng
 
2.  Mike Huckabee in response to Neil Cavuto’s question, “Where was God?” during the terrible Sandy Hook elementary school shooting that took place in December of 2012; air date: December 15, 2012
http://video.foxnews.com/v/2038135300001/huckabee-where-was-god/?#sp=show-clips
 
3. Declaration of Independence, 1776
 
4. 12.  Madison Clinton Peters, “Empty Pews & Selections from Other Sermons on Timely Topics,” pg. 35, Philadelphia A. T. Zeising & Co. , Printers And Publishers, December, 1886
https://books.googleusercontent.com/books/content?req=AKW5QadafhgWas9ejbEcZqVPreL01R44-PxQTylm-Nj8qYDwnoS-C-quE0ZIPTNcLMryv9C22FWtk9_oae_7fbv0AoZjSbhh4O1ozq7qv9v4r43HvBo8N9FYwm0rlDcqdN37akOvQzP9_bpJ728rbbnOObn_7eJeswMlY4g6KvvZgSrQdGJ5xAPOlMMBaOAXej9GNQDVhKEnIrBD0ap-lCMI8qxfbrXlw2zXFVyFlcCfpVA3rZMGYVqL9Ym4OGVY-obfK0UAHI0bwX_XJAs7MaR8GRVyGp4XHtbUjSAr2WuDkaL8mDhYQBw
 
[To those who dispute the cited claim, I will grant this concession that it does not appear in the work, Democracy In America itself but nevertheless, the cited claim allegedly made by Tocqueville is still consistent with the credit that he undeniably gives to the Christian faith for its role in the formation of our nation and to the greatness it possessed in his day.  Special attention is given to the role of religious faith in Tocqueville’s work, Democracy In America Vol. 1 on pages 26-46 and again in Vol. 2 on pages 222-247; see the original editions published in 1835. It is theoretically possible, however, that Madison Clinton Peters may have obtained correspondences between Tocqueville and his respective government that are lost to us today.]

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https://www.google.com/books/edition/Empty_Pews_Selections_from_Other_Sermons/f54PAAAAIAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0

 
Scripture references:
 
 
 
1.  Matthew 5:48
 
2.  Hebrews 10:23
 
3.  Genesis 3:5
 
4.  Genesis 2:9
 
5.  Genesis 2:16-17
 
6.  Genesis 3:3
 
7.  Genesis 3:19
 
8.  Romans 5:12
 
9.  Romans 6:23
 
10.  Romans 8:19-22
 
11.  Matthew 4:8-9
 
12.  Luke 4:6-7
 
13.  John 12:31
 
14.  John 16:11
 
15.  Romans 3:23
 
16.  2 Peter 3:9
 
17.  2 Corinthians 5:21
 
18.  Hebrews 4:15, 7:26-27
 
19.  Romans 4:25
 
20.  Romans 10:9
 
21.  2 Corinthians 5:17
 
22.  John 14:6
 
23.  Matthew 6:33
 
24.  Matthew 10:28
 
25.  Matthew 6:20
 
26.  1 Corinthians 15:51-55
 
27.  1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
 
28.  Revelation 21-22