The great need in
America is not for a new organization. Our
great need is not for more economic
prosperity. Our great need is for a real
spiritual awakening, a revival in which
men and women will humble themselves and
pray and turn from their wicked ways to
the God of our fathers.
In my opinion we’ve had
four major crisis periods in American
history. The first was the Revolutionary
War. We did not even know whether we could
be born as a nation or not. It was my
privilege to be at Valley Forge when
President Eisenhower made this statement
there: “This is where they got [our
independence] for us.”
In the midst of that
winter, General Washington was seen time
and again on his knees out in the snow
calling upon God for victory. Out of that
winter of prayer, George Washington led
that little, beaten, discouraged, tattered
army to a great victory that brought about
the independence of the United States from
Great Britain. I believe God helped that
little army as it marched all the way to
Yorktown.
The next great crisis in
American history came when a
Constitutional Convention was called in
Philadelphia to ratify a Constitution for
the new country that was being born. The
delegates got angry with each other; they
couldn’t agree on a thing. Benjamin
Franklin eloquently called on the
Convention to pray for God’s assistance:
[“We have been assured, Sir, in the sacred
writings, that ‘except the Lord build the
House they labour in vain that build it.’
I firmly believe this; and I also believe
that without His concurring aid, we shall
succeed in this political building no
better than the Builders of Babel.”]
Out of that Convention
came the Constitution of the United
States.
The next great crisis
came during the Civil War. Men on both
sides were killing each other, brothers
against brothers, and it seemed that our
little country would be torn apart. It
seemed that we would become two separate
nations or that some European power would
come and take us over because we had
weakened each other. But, thank God, on
both sides we had some men and women who
believed in God.
A man came to Abraham
Lincoln one day and said, “Mr. Lincoln,
don’t you believe that God is with us?”
Mr. Lincoln said, “I’m not interested as
to whether God is with us; I’m interested
as to whether we are on God’s side.”
President Lincoln called the nation to a
day of prayer, and in his call of prayer
he recommended individual repentance. He
called for a renewed faith in God. He
said, “We are a nation of sinful people,
and God has brought us to this point; let
us pray to God.”
The day that General Lee
surrendered, President Lincoln called the
Cabinet to prayer, and at the suggestion
of the president the whole Cabinet dropped
to its knees and offered thanks to
Almighty God for the victory that
preserved the Union.
Down in the South many
people had also been praying. Robert E.
Lee had been asked one day, “Aren’t you
praying for victory?” General Lee said,
“No, I’m praying that the will of God be
done.” We believe that God’s will was
done. The shackles of slavery were thrown
off. The Union was preserved and the
nation reunited.
The fourth great crisis
in American history was not World War I.
We were never threatened in World War I.
Nor was it World War II. We were really
never threatened as a nation in World War
II. The fourth great crisis in American
history is the crisis of the present
moment. Our nation at this moment is being
threatened as it has not been threatened
since the Civil War. We are being
threatened by moral deterioration.
We have seen this
country plunging deeper and deeper, at a
rapidly gaining momentum, into moral
deterioration. Honesty and truthfulness
have been thrown out the window. The
nation is on a mad pursuit of amusements,
pleasure and immorality.
The same symptoms that
were in Rome during its last days are now
seen and felt in America. Walk down the
streets of our cities and see the current
names of today’s films. Many are either
psychopathic or centered on sex.
What is this country
coming to?
We need a moral revival.
We need a spiritual revival that will put
a new moral fiber into our society, or we
will have collapsed internally before any
enemies even get here. We are being
softened up right now by the devil for the
kill.
We are also being
threatened today by racial tension, strife
that has at times brought us to the brink
of cultural war between the great races in
this country.
It is high time that we
come to the foot of the cross. When you
come to the foot of the cross and receive
Christ as Savior, He gives you the
capacity to love your neighbor.
There is no superior
race in God’s sight. God does not look
upon the outward appearance. God looks
upon the heart. God sees our pride. We are
going to have to come to where we love
each other as neighbors and to where we
look through the eyes of Jesus at sin.
God is looking for real
and genuine repentance. To whom much is
given, much is required. Much is given to
America, and much shall be required of
America.
There are several
reasons why God has spared us this long.
First is the very nature of God. Psalm
130:3 says, “If You, Lord, should mark
iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?” The
Bible teaches that God is a God of mercy,
long-suffering and love. And God loves you
as an individual. He is a God of mercy. He
gave His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to
die on the cross, to shed His blood for
your sins, to rise again for your
justification. He loves us, and every time
I look at the cross I see written over it
in letters of fire, “God is love, God is
love, God is love. He loves you, He loves
you.”
Second, He is not
willing that any should perish. God does
not want you to go to hell. He does not
want you to be lost. He loves you so much
that He sent His Son to die for you. But
God gave you a will of your own. You can
say “no” to God or you can say “yes” to
God.
Third, God has spared
America because of the great number of
born-again Christians in America.
Isaiah 1:9 says, “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.” If it were not for God’s people
in this country, it would have been in
hell long ago. Don’t despise that godly
Christian who lives next door to you.
Don’t laugh at that Christian student you
go to school with. I tell you he, or she,
is one of the reasons that this nation has
the blessings and prosperity that it has.
But unless the Lord’s
people discipline themselves to prayer,
unless the Lord’s people discipline
themselves to Bible study, unless the
Lord’s people discipline themselves to
living a Spirit-filled, Christ-honoring
life, that blessing will not last very
long.
There was a time when
Christians would not dare to look at some
of the things we are now seeing every day.
We are gradually taking in the amusements
and the pleasures until our spiritual life
is being dulled and the Bible no longer
has the glow to it. The time of prayer no
longer has the desire that it used to
have. You know that is true. We need to
repent of our sins.
I am convinced that our
nation is in peril. The handwriting is on
the wall. The signs of the times are
everywhere. American people cannot long
continue in their moral degeneracy. A
cancer is eating at the heart and core of
the American way of life.
The Bible says that we
are to humble ourselves. No man or woman
can come to the kingdom of God proudly.
You must come in humility.
The only prayer that you
can pray if you have never come to Christ
is, “God, be merciful to me a sinner”
(Luke 18:13). Have you prayed that prayer?
I’m not asking if you
have partaken of the sacraments. I’m not
asking if you belong to a church. I’m
asking you, have you said, “God, be
merciful to me a sinner”? Have you come to
the foot of the cross in humility and
received Him as your Savior and Lord, and
asked Him to cover your sins with His
blood? If you haven’t, you can right now.
Your life can be changed and transformed.
The only way that we can
have our lives changed and find peace, joy
and the fulfillment of life; the only way
to have sin forgiven; the only way to know
that you are going to Heaven, is to
receive Christ as your Lord, Savior and
Master. “But as many as received Him, to
them He gave the right to become children
of God, to those who believe in His name”
(John 1:12). “If you confess with your
mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your
heart that God has raised Him from the
dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9).
The place where we
belong is at the foot of the cross. The
great need in America is not for more guns
or more smart bombs—it is for more men and
women who have been transformed by the
power of Christ and are living dedicated
lives for Christ in the office, on the
production line and in the school. The
great need is for men and women who will
take their stand for the Lord Jesus
Christ, no matter what the cost may be.
Receive Christ! Give
your life to Him! ©1988 BGEA
Scripture
quotations are taken from The Holy
Bible, New King James Version.