                    [Times Square Church Pulpit Series]

                      The Self-Destruction of America

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By David Wilkerson
February 25, 1993
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          For over a century and a half, America has not had a
          foreign troop on its soil. We haven't been invaded,
          attacked or bombed We have sent our soldiers to fight
          in many wars, but always in other nations' land.
          Indeed, we have been spared - we have enjoyed peace and
          prosperity.

          Even now, America breathes a sigh of relief because
          there no longer seems to be a nuclear threat. We
          believe Communism is dead, that Russia will never again
          rise as a world power.

          As I write this message, Boris Yeltsin is in power in
          Russia - but I believe he is just a temporary leader.
          The Communist clique still exists - and soon Yeltsin
          will be cast aside and a new, aggressive government
          will arise. The fact remains that 20,000 nuclear
          warheads are still at the former Soviets' disposal -
          most of them aimed at America! Recent pacts to reduce
          these warheads may never he honored.

          Right now China is like a giant, waking from its sleep.
          In just a few years Hong Kong will be turned over to
          China completely. It will become China's pearl city --
          a major money center and the gate-way to wealth for
          Chinese markets . In time, China may bypass Japan as an
          economic power. Keep your eyes on China!

          But America's problem is not Russia, China or the newly
          formed European United Nations. No - like Israel in the
          days of Hosea the prophet America is self-destructing!
          America is being ruined from within!

          This is exactly what happened to the great British
          Empire. Just 350 years ago it was said, "The sun never
          sets on the British Empire." Great Britain had colonies
          all over the world. It was the most powerful, blessed
          and prosperous nation on the face of the earth. Spain,
          France, Italy and Turkey all had threatened Britain,
          waging war unsuccessfully.

          The British boasted that God was on their side,
          blessing their armies and navies, But in 1659, Puritan
          watchmen were warning of the self-destruction of the
          British Empire. They were being raised up by God - to
          warn of the self-destruction coming upon them because
          of rampant sin and godlessness! The British Empire was
          crumbling left and right - and what was ruining them
          was decay from within!

          Thomas Hall wrote: "The sins of En-gland I fear more
          than all the enemies of the world. It is not Spain, or
          Italy, France or Turkey, that I fear... it is the
          atheism, blasphemy, apostasy and the profaning of all
          that is holy, and contempt for the gospel.... If
          anything destroys us, it is these abominations that
          reign among us."

          When the empire crumbled, another Puritan writer
          commented: "God humbled us with sickness, plague,
          poverty and decay of our economy... we threw off the
          yoke of Christ and now we have on us the yoke of
          pestilence and disease."

          The Puritan Watchmen Were Crying Out the Same Message
          That Hosea Delivered to Ephraim: "Thou Hast Destroyed
          Thyself!" (Hosea 13:9).

          Today in America, we hear these cries:

          "Japan is destroying our economy by dumping cars and
          computers on us!"

          "Germany is crippling us by keeping their interest
          rates so high!"

          "We're destroying our economic base by letting
          manufacturers move to Mexico for cheaper labor!"

          But God is saying to America, "Your suffering is not
          because of your trade partners, You are destroying
          yourself! Your help has always been found in Me - but
          you have cast Me aside. You have refused Me as your
          nation's King - and now your own sin is destroying
          you!"

          God said to Israel: "O Israel, thou hast destroyed
          thyself; but in me is thine help. I will be thy king:
          where is any other that may save thee in all thy
          cities?" (Hosea 13:10).

          Beloved, God is asking the same question today - but
          America is not listening! Can our President save New
          York, Detroit, Los Angeles - all the decaying cities in
          our land? He boasts he will rebuild our manufacturing
          base, create thousands of jobs and restore the economy.
          Indeed, he may prove to be a hardworking man in the
          White House, very dedicated and sincere. But his job is
          hopeless!

          Nothing is going to work, Everything is
          self-destructing - because the real King has been
          dethroned in America! America seems obsessed by demonic
          impulses to remove God completely from our society.

          Only fifty years ago America was still "a nation under
          God." When I was in my teens, God was honored in our
          schools, courts, government, families. But today we are
          a nation that looks defiantly in the face of the God
          who told us, "Thou shalt know no god but me: for there
          is no saviour beside me" (Hosea 13:4).

          God begged Israel: "Return unto the Lord thy God; for
          thou hast fallen by thine iniquity" (14:1). And the
          Lord has called out to America time after time as well,
          But we refuse to turn to Him - even though are sins are
          destroying us!

          I have searched the Scriptures that speak of God's
          judgment upon men and nations. And I have discovered
          certain "flash points" of His judgment - moments when
          the blood cried out from the ground, and God had to
          move!

          I believe God is speaking to America right now through
          His word to Ephraim. You see, Ephraim is a type of any
          nation lifted high in its beginning. It represents any
          people who are blessed above all others - prospered,
          powerful, influential, feared, respected when in God's
          favor.

          Ephraim was the largest, most prosperous and powerful
          of Israel's twelve tribes. They had been brought to
          fruitfulness by the goodness and mercy of God. But God
          brought Ephraim down to the pits of poverty because of
          incorrigible evils!

          The Bible warns us: "Now all these things happened unto
          them for ensamples: and they are written for our
          admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come"
          (1 Corinthians 10:11). God is saying, "Search the
          Scriptures, go to the prophets. See what I did to Sodom
          and Gomorrah. Find out why I sent the Flood. Learn why
          and when I send My judgments!"

          I went to these passages, and I discovered a pattern.
          And that is, if we sin in the same way they did, we're
          going to pay the same price they all did! God rained
          fire on Sodom and Gomorrah as "an ensample unto those
          that after should live ungodly" (2 Peter 2:6). And if
          America continues in ungodliness, God will send fire
          from heaven on us as well - a nuclear rain!

          Hosea gave many reasons for God's impending judgment on
          Ephraim. But there are three that relate directly to
          America:

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                     1. There Was No More Truth, Mercy
                     or Knowledge of God In the Land!

                      -------------------------------

          "Hear the word of the Lord, ye children of Israel: for
          the Lord hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the
          land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor
          knowledge of God in the land" (Hosea 4:1).

          At one time Ephraim had been an evangelistic tribe, on
          fire for the Lord. But the wicked Jeroboam was now
          king, and he went wild after idols. He set up golden
          calves at each end of the nation, and he made it legal
          to worship these idols.

          Sin began to creep into the nation - and soon
          everything degenerated. Prophets were mocked. The
          houses of God were shut down. Ungodly priests and false
          teachers were given office, and they spent their time
          deceiving the people and removing all true worship of
          Jehovah God.

          Their removal of God from their midst birthed a
          merciless society of unruly children and sensuous
          adults. Now there was only "swearing, and lying, and
          killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they
          break out, and blood toucheth blood" (Hosea 4:2). The
          people had "broken out" from every godly restraint that
          held their society together. Under Jeroboam, Ephraim
          was wholly given over to idolatry - yet the law itself
          defended their apostasy!

          I ask you: Have you ever in your lifetime seen such
          immorality and sin as are "breaking out" in America
          right now? Yet what should we expect in a nation that
          pushes God aside - that mocks truth and ridicules
          righteousness - that hates God and despises Christ?

          One school was forced to remove a plaque bearing the
          Ten Commandments. Administrators said it might
          influence somebody to found a particular religion.

          A female prison guard in New York was fired because she
          refused to stop wearing a necklace with a cross that
          she kept hidden under her uniform. A court upheld the
          decision, saying, "If anybody saw the cross, they might
          be influenced toward Christianity."

          This past Christmas, manger scenes all across America
          were legally banned - some ripped down, burned and
          thrown into the streets!

          Yet less than fifty years ago, some high schools were
          teaching Bible classes. In 1949, Dallas schools used a
          book entitled, The Lordship and Divinity of Jesus
          Christ. It was taught by a pastor who was invited into
          the classroom! Yet today, if you are a teacher in
          Dallas, you dare not even lay a Bible on your desk
          without risking dismissal!

          Is it any wonder that over 60 percent of high school
          and college students say it's okay to lie and cheat on
          tests in order to get ahead in life? Is it any wonder
          that teenagers curse like hardened criminals... that
          girls get pregnant and think it is a lark... that
          teenage gangs loot, rob and kill for sneakers and
          coats?

          Should we be surprised when a teenage boy kills his
          mother and father in cold blood because they wouldn't
          let him use the family car to take his girlfriend out?
          Should we be shocked when another teenager kills and
          mutilates his father with a butcher knife, then goes to
          a friend's house and falls asleep? (When the
          authorities woke him up, he showed no regrets
          whatsoever!)

          Should we be alarmed that in the past forty years crime
          has gone up 520 percent in our schools? We now live in
          a day when metal detectors are installed in school
          entrances. Our city kids go to class fearing gunfire in
          the halls!

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                        2. The More They Prospered,
                           the More They Sinned!

                      -------------------------------

          History has proven again and again that the more
          powerful and prosperous a nation becomes, the more the
          people tend to turn away from God. When prosperity came
          to Ephraim, they abused their abundance: "As they were
          increased, so they sinned against me: therefore will I
          change their glory into shame" (Hosea 4:7).

          Our fathers who framed the Constitution agreed that all
          of America's blessings came "from God and His Christ."
          They warned that America would fall into corruption and
          shame if God was ever rejected. Oh, how far we have
          come from that today! Now God is making His judgment
          clear: "I'm going to change your glory into shame!"

          Think about what has happened to America: All the
          things we once gloried in have been turned into shame!
          We gloried in having the greatest economic power, best
          educational system, top industrial complex, strongest
          infrastructure, best medical system, greatest tolerance
          of other races. Yet now we have fallen behind in every
          category!

          Our manufacturing base is collapsing and our economy is
          in shambles. In the past ten years America has gone
          from being the world's greatest lending nation to the
          number-one debtor nation.

          We gloried in our freedom and our religious heritage -
          and now those freedoms are being taken from us, one
          after another. Godless laws are being judicated by
          godless judges. Tax laws are being aimed at church
          properties. Special rights are being given to
          homosexuals. We have boasted for years about our
          leading educational system - but now we rank far behind
          many industrial nations!

          Our once great health-care system is in ruin because of
          AIDS and other problems. Libraries and museums are
          closing because there are no funds to keep them open.
          Racial tension has hit its absolute peak. Everywhere
          you look, God has turned all our glories into shame!

          American churches have increased in size and wealth. We
          have gloried in our mega-churches, with thousands in
          attendance. Almost every major city boasts of
          "America's fastest-growing church."

          But a horrible thing has happened: The more the
          increase, the more the shame of sin has crept into the
          house of God! Prophets and watchmen have been replaced
          by slick entertainers - ministers who ought to be in
          show business rather than in the sacred pulpit! Too
          many want only crowds and influence - and they're
          ego-tripping on the backs of humble people!

          Only a handful of preachers now preach against sin.
          Most are too afraid to offend the people, fearing they
          will leave or not pay tithes. Consequently, sin is
          flooding into many congregations. People want to be
          coddled in their sins, comforted in their adulteries
          and fornications. They cry, "Prophesy to us smooth
          things!"

          Do you think all this is just natural - that this decay
          eating away at America is mere happenstance? No! God
          said, "You have forgotten Me! And in the height of your
          prosperity, I will come upon you and cast the shadow of
          shame over every proud thing you gloried in!"

                      -------------------------------

            3. God Says, "I'm Going to judge You Because of Deep
               Corruption Caused By Rampant Homosexuality!"

                      -------------------------------

          The day is not far off when I will not be able to say
          what I am about to say without being sued or jailed. It
          is because homosexual power is so strong in America -
          and it is growing in power daily!

          Gay rights are nothing new. The book of Judges says
          this was the cause of the burning of Gibeah - and the
          consequent death of 40,000 Israelites. Hosea said it
          also caused God's judgment to fall on Ephraim. "They
          have deeply corrupted themselves, as in the days of
          Gibeah: therefore he will remember their iniquity, he
          will visit their sins" (Hosea 9:9-10).

          You remember Gibeah - the little Benjamite town where a
          Levite came to bring home his runaway concubine. As the
          Levite slept in his host's home, a group of angry
          homosexuals took his concubine and sodomized her all
          night long. They were angry because they could not have
          the Levite himself!

          The woman was dumped on the door stoop and died before
          morning. When the Levite awoke and saw what had
          happened, he cut the woman's ravaged body into twelve
          pieces and sent the body parts to the twelve tribes. He
          gave them this message: "Nothing like this has ever
          happened in all Israel!"

          I can see the messenger carrying that concubine's
          bloody limb to the leaders of the Benjamite tribe:
          "Homosexuals in Gibeah took this concubine and
          sodomized her all night. They murdered her! We've got
          to do something about it unless it spreads through the
          land!"

          What was the Benjamites' response? They decided to
          defend the Gibeanites! "The children of Benjamin
          gathered themselves together out of the cities unto
          Gibeah, to go out to battle against the children of
          Israel" (Judges 20:14).

          These men from throughout the tribe of Benjamin - every
          warrior and strong man, husbands and businessmen,
          26,000 in all - gathered together to defend the
          perverse "rights" of less than 700 homosexuals in
          Gibeah. Think of how jaded, abnormal and wicked these
          men must have been - forsaking wives, children, homes
          and land - to give their lives for a group of men who
          had gang-raped and killed a helpless woman!

          Thank God for the tribes that rose up and said, "We
          can't allow this to happen!" Scripture says 15,000
          Israelites died taking a stand against Benjamin. But
          25,100 Benjaminites died defending the gay rights of
          the Gibeanites!

          Beloved, God is not concerned about the small
          percentage of radical ACT-UP homosexuals in America.
          Their number is infinitesimal. What God is more
          concerned about - and what is bringing God's judgment
          on America - is the growing number of homosexual
          defenders! They number in the millions! When Colorado
          voted against special rights for gays, the entire
          Hollywood establishment went into action, boycotting
          that state in defense of homosexual rights.

          God's wrath is upon us because the majority of
          Americans have lost their values! There are masses of
          people who would not move an inch to defend America
          against an enemy aggressor - yet they would gladly lay
          down their lives to defend abortion rights. The last
          election showed that 40 million Americans defended the
          right to kill babies!

          America was once renowned as a defender of truth and
          justice. Now, we have become defenders of baby killers,
          pornographers and perversions. Beloved it is at this
          point that God moves! "Therefore He will remember their
          iniquity, He will visit their sins" (Hosea 9:9). When
          God says, "I'm going to visit you!", He means a
          visitation of sudden judgment!

          How does God judge a people or nation that has such
          blood and wickedness on its hands? The Lord judges in
          many powerful ways - but I will list only the two worst
          judgments. These two judgments have been God's main
          rods, and we see them in operation already:

                      -------------------------------

                   1. "The Sorrows of a Travailing Woman
                    Shall Come Upon Him"(Hosea 13:13).

                      -------------------------------

          God warns: "Your judgment is going to come suddenly -
          and it will be long and painful, like a woman
          travailing with child!" Picture this in your mind:

          The time has come for a woman to give birth, and she is
          in labor, The pangs hit her - but the matrix is closed!
          The pain becomes excruciating. But there is no doctor
          or midwife to deliver the baby! Standing nearby is a
          merciful physician, anxious to help and deliver her,
          But she cries out, "Away with him - don't let him near
          me! I despise him!"

          Beloved, America is like that woman travailing in pain,
          yet unable to deliver! She is in deep agony over AIDS,
          soaring taxes and health care, alcoholism, drugs,
          unemployment, a new tuberculosis outbreak, racial
          tension. We need deliverance - we need Dr. Jesus, who
          stands by so willing to come and save us. But we have
          told Him, "We don't need You!"

          God looks on this scene incredulously:

          "(Ephraim) is an unwise son; for he should not stay
          long in the places of the breaking forth of children"
          (Hosea 13:13). He is saying to America, "How sad - how
          unwise! You need not remain in the place of misery and
          pain. I could end all this in a moment's time!"

          That is so true! America's problems could be turned
          around overnight, if only we would repent as a nation
          and cry out to God, "Forgive us! Come back to us,
          deliver us - we put our lives in Your hands!"

          I believe God would put an end to the AIDS plague. TB
          would stop dead. The economy would become robust. Crime
          would go down, and children would again play in our
          streets. America would regain all its lost ground!

          Yet the attitude of America's courts and government
          toward God is, "Don't touch us! We don't want you
          here!" How foolish! How unwise can a people be?

                      -------------------------------

                 2. All That Was Once Fruitful Will Become
                 Barren, Withered and Dead! (Hosea 13:15)

                      -------------------------------

          God once promised to "command (His) blessing" upon
          those who "would hearken diligently unto the voice of
          the Lord thy God, to observe and to do all his
          commandments" (Deuteronomy 28:1, 8). He told Ephraim,
          "If you'll just walk in My commandments - if you'll
          honor me and obey My Word - I will command My blessings
          upon you!"

          Like Ephraim, America has been above all else fruitful.
          We sing of "America, the Beautiful" of "spacious skies"
          and "fruited plains." But rampant sin has brought on a
          curse of barrenness! God says:

          "Though he be fruitful among his brethren, an east wind
          shall come, the wind of the Lord shall come up from the
          wilderness, and his spring shall become dry, and his
          fountain shall be dried up: he shall spoil the treasure
          of all pleasant vessels" (Hosea 13:15). God is saying
          He will spoil all our precious resources!

          For Ephraim, the east wind that blew in from the
          wilderness was the great Assyrian army. The Assyrians
          swept over the nation and plundered it, carrying away
          its wealth and leaving it desolate, a beggar nation.

          America will also experience "a withering wind from the
          Lord!" His wind is blowing right now - and it's
          withering IBM, General Motors, the economy, marriages,
          schools. All are being withered and made dry! We are no
          longer the most productive - but instead have been
          helpless to stop the withering and decay of our
          once-great institutions and corporations. We have lost
          our influence. America is now the tail and not the
          head!

          When God's wind blew on Jerusalem, the city was left
          empty and dry! "He turneth rivers into a wilderness,
          and the water-springs into dry ground; a fruitful land
          into barrenness, for the wickedness of them that dwell
          therein" (Psalm 107:33-34).

          What lies ahead for America? A withering of all things!
          God's wind is now blowing, and He is doing what He said
          He would do - spoiling our treasures.

                      -------------------------------

                Take Hope - Because There Are Bright Clouds
                    On the Horizon for a Holy Remnant!

                      -------------------------------

          In the midst of all the withering judgments, God is
          going to cause a holy remnant to grow and flourish.
          Listen to God's message to Hosea: "I will heal their
          backsliding, I will love them freely: for mine anger is
          turned away from Him. I will be as the dew unto Israel:
          he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as
          Lebanon.

          "His branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as
          the olive tree... Ephraim shall say, What have I to do
          any more with idols? I have heard him, and observed
          him: I am like a green fir tree. From me is thy fruit
          found" (Hosea 14:4-8).

          We're going to be a people bearing fruit, spreading our
          branches - full of Christ! This prophecy has to do with
          both natural Israel and a holy church remnant. The
          Spirit will fall as dew upon God's holy ones, and they
          will grow on the vine - a people dependent on the Lord,
          bearing fruit, while the ungodly wither and die.

          You may wonder, "But what's going to happen to my
          family during judgment? What of my house, my job? We're
          going to need it all!" Dear saint, those are material
          things - and your heavenly Father has promised to feed
          you and keep you Himself. He has said to you, "You'll
          never beg bread. What more promise do you need?"

          You and I are going to have to live on that Word of
          God: "Who is wise, and he shall understand these
          things? for the ways of the Lord are right, and the
          just shall walk in them: but the transgressors shall
          fall therein" (verse 9).

          If you know God is in control, you can lie back in His
          arms and say, "Thank You, Jesus." You can rest in the
          knowledge that God has everything under control.

          Hallelujah!

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