This is not only a very consequential election...but it may be the last one if we don't get believers to vote. 30 million Christians stayed home last time!

“If my people…”

Isaiah 5

I don’t know what’s going to happen in the USA. It’s out of our control. We are in God’s hands. I feel helpless. There’s only so much we can do. We must do what we can. And perhaps we can do more than we think. We can vote. We can pray. We can repent.

2 Chronicles 7:14 says, If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

I guess we CAN do something for our nation. And even if it doesn’t produce the desired outcome politically, we can remember that we live for something far bigger. This world is not our home. I’m in God’s hands, not my government’s. And if I do my duty and vote, if I pray, and repent, it will do plenty in my own life, my family, my church, and my world. And most importantly, it’s about God’s kingdom, which is well on its way.

I won’t pretend that either party is virtuous. Both sides are asking for the judgment of God. No party can save us. But I believe there’s one that is likely to destroy us.

Why MUST you pray, repent, and vote? Here’s the documented, promised agenda of the ungodly, radical left if they take control:

* They will move to impeach the President and dismantle his entire Cabinet. They will spend two years doing that rather than what we need.

* They will defund and abolish ICE, erasing the agency that has removed violent criminals and traffickers from our streets.

* They will demolish the border wall—Every mile of it—Opening the floodgates to millions of illegal aliens pouring into a country that will hand out tax-payer benefits like candy.

* They will kill the SAVE America Act and bury every measure designed to secure our elections — ensuring that the voter fraud they have spent years enabling becomes permanent and unchallengeable.

* They will continue their immoral agenda of abortion and sexual perversion of all kinds. In other words, if they win, gas prices would be least of your concerns. Oh, and one more thing they have promised…

* They will move to abolish the Senate filibuster, dismantle the Electoral College, add states, and pack the Supreme Court until the constitutional guardrails that have protected this republic for 250 years no longer exist in any meaningful form.

Yes, it’s highly possible that we would never again be in power, and that this is the beginning of the end of the road for this country. And we must realize, that could be part of God’s plan in bringing things to a close. If that’s the case, we should still wear a smile. You see, for the believer, though we don’t know all the details in the saga of our lives, we know this one thing: There is a happy ending on its way! And if some hard times are necessary in order for many to hit bottom and look up, to wake up, perhaps we could see one last revival…one final outpouring of mercy and salvation before wrath and judgment fall.

Yes, we need to pray. Yes, we need to repent…it needs to start with us. Why should God help our country if we won’t even help ourselves. We should pray, we should repent, and we should vote. You need to vote. If dead people can do it, so can you!

Isaiah 5 [turn, and let’s study one chapter made for this moment] It has some striking parallels to our day. It was written to Israel. That’s not us. We aren’t the covenant people. But we are God’s people, and I want to show you some principles that very much apply.

v. 1          They were given a beautiful land, and so were we. So blessed. So bountiful.

v. 2a         God did so much to make His people be fruitful, but instead…

v. 2b        “it brought forth wild grapes.” bu’ushim=sour berries – “worthless grapes.”

vv. 3-4     The rhetorical question comes from the vineyard owner, “What could I have done that I didn’t do? I found the best fertile hill. I dug around it” - and that would have been a hedge or a moat, a protection in order that small animals wouldn’t come in and destroy the crop or small reptiles or insects – “I did what I could do to protect it. I removed the stones which were plentiful.”

He planted the choicest vine. He went and found the best-bred stalk to put in the ground to guarantee the best result. He put a tower in the middle, so someone could sit on top of the tower and make sure there weren’t any larger animals that were encroaching, or there weren’t people coming in as an enemy to destroy the crop, or strangers passing by and eating the crop. They protected it; they also stored all their implements in that tower. They produced a wine vat, hewing it out of rock where they could stamp out the grapes and produce the wine. Everything that could help was done. He had every right to expect good grapes. And so, verse 4 says, “‘What more could I do for My vineyard?’” The answer is nothing. He did HIS part.

vv. 5-6     This is a curse on an unproductive vineyard. No more protection. No more pruning and cultivating. No more showers of blessings. Just briars and thorns.

What’s this? Who is he talking about?

v. 7          It’s His people. It’s the land of milk and honey. And they are begging for judgment.

He said, “I removed the stones.” I believe that’s a reference to the Canaanites. God told them, “When you go into the land, destroy the Canaanites. If you don’t get the stones out of there, the nation can’t grow and become fertile and productive.”

And it’s the same sad song in America. As I said, we’re not the covenant people. But if God’s own covenant people could not avoid His judgment, why would we think we will escape? God did everything for them, and, frankly, He did everything for us. He couldn’t have done any more than He has done. Now judgment is going to come. We are asking for it. If He doesn’t punish us, He will need to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah!

There was great prosperity in Israel. God had literally kept their enemies from attacking them because they had such military strength. And that illusion of being untouchable brought a false sense of security. Underneath they were rotten, fruitless, and on the brink of judgment.

Psalms says blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. But the Bible pronounces woe if we turn from Him. Next follows 6 woes…

v. 8          “Woe” means cursed, damned, sentenced to judgment. This is a final word of execution. It’s never God’s way to denounce evil in general and not be specific. That’s what He does here. Six specific sins are indicated here.

Verse 8 is about grasping materialism. Avarice. Greed. The sin that corrupted Judas is true of the nation that forgets God. Insatiable greed of landowners, accumulating more and more land, and fields and houses. Wealthy men ruthlessly acquiring all the property, squeezing out the poor and the helpless and making them buy things at an inflated price. That’s what drives inflation. Materialism drives inflation.

And you remember – that every seventh year they were supposed to let the land rest? And every fiftieth year, everything that they had acquired went back to its original owner. That was called the Year of Jubilee. And that started the economy all over again and prevented continual amassing and passing on and squeezing out everybody. And so, every fiftieth year, everything went back to the original owner. If you knew that, you wouldn’t pay too much for something if you had to give it back in a few years. God had designed that. But sad to say, they violated those Sabbath years. They continued that grasping materialism for 490 years. They didn’t let the land rest. They didn’t free the servants. They didn’t give back the property, and God sent them into captivity for 70 years, and they were a year in captivity for every one of those years they violated.

v. 9          Your enemies are coming in here, and they’re going to destroy, and they’re going to kill, and then they’re going to take captive everybody who remains, and these houses are going to be empty. And not only that, but those wonderful fields that you’ve been adding are going to be nonproductive.

v. 10        That’s a pitiful crop. He says, God is going to take you out because you stockpiled wealth. And it’s all going to be deserted. “I will build more barns.” “Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required!”

Certainly in our own country, we can see a parallel with grasping materialism. That’s what’s driving this economy. And people today seem to be more concerned about how much money they have than truth and morality, don’t they?

We’re not called to stockpile; we are called to share and to give. We can enjoy the riches of what God gives us as long as we have an open hand and an open heart to those in need and we also give to God.

The second sin is drunken pleasure-seeking. Keep your eyes down on the text for some rapid-fire verses…

v. 11         Characteristic of an alcoholic. They start drinking in the morning.

v. 12        It’s all a party, and living for the moment, rather than for the Lord who gave them life.

v. 13        They indulge in more and more, and yet they don’t have enough. Nothing satisfies.

v. 14        The party leads right into hell.

v. 15        It doesn’t matter whether you’re a nobody or a somebody, they all go down together.

v. 16        You can’t live against the Law of God, against the truth of God, against the Word of God, and expect God to prosper your nation. He didn’t do it in Israel, and He won’t do it in America.

v. 17b      This actually took place. Arabs moved in after Israel was taken into Babylon and occupied the land and the houses.

There’s a third sin here that’s shocking: defiant sinfulness.

v. 18        Let me give you the imagery. They have so much sin, and so much iniquity that they can’t carry it. So, they must get a wagon to put it in and pull it around like an ox. And the cords that they pull with are the cords of deception and falsehood. They are liars dragging around a wagonload of iniquity like a brute beast, filled with sin. But it’s not just sin; it’s defiant.

v. 19        This is mockery. This is sarcasm. This is saying, “Well, let’s see God do something about it if He doesn’t like it. Let’s see God act. Let’s see God hurry up. Let’s see it come to pass that we may know it.” And they are mocking God. This is a defiant sinfulness: open, flagrant, mocking, cursing God, blatant.

You wouldn’t believe the hate shared online when we posted a few pictures with conservatives this week. I thought the bashing was bad with our creation series.

v. 20        We’re living in that society. Fornication is good; restraint is bad. Homosexuality is good; lesbianism is good. Divorce is good. Marriage is bad. It’s a reversal of everything. It doesn’t even matter if you tell the truth anymore. Lying is now fine if it achieves your goal. Loving God is bad because it’s politically incorrect. Believing that Jesus Christ is the only way of salvation is bad because it’s unloving and narrow. Mocking faithfulness, mocking purity, mocking marriage; moral disintegration; dirty movies, dirty books, dirty television, and enough porn to make Hugh Hefner blush; trying to establish a whole new morality.

Woe to the nation that calls good evil. You’re a Christian, and now you’re the problem. The world would be better without you. One day they’ll get their wish!

Woe to the nation that calls evil good. Let’s kill conservatives. Let’s stand with Muslims and terrorists. Let’s annihilate the Jews. Let’s embrace socialism and communism. Let’s marry our sibling. Let’s celebrate abortion. Let’s mutilate our children’s bodies. Let’s change our genders. These things aren’t bad, they’re good!

The fifth sin is arrogant conceit.

v. 21        prudent = clever

Well, we rejected the Bible, and what have we got left? Polls. Talking heads on TV. Everybody is clever in their own sight, wise in their own eyes, giving their own opinion. So it was in Israel. Can you imagine, after all that Israel had, this is where they ended up? Well, this is where we have ended up after all we had. And arrogant conceit marks us. We sit around with a smirk of self-congratulation as proud fools who don’t know how out of touch we’ve become.

Finally, number six, a corrupt leadership.

v. 22        Mighty=heroes. Strength=leaders. Our examples…our role models are immoral and out of control.

v. 23        They could be bought – They abused people. There was no true justice. People were buying offices, taking bribes. They were perverting justice. And these were the leaders. Now comes their punishment.

v. 24        This nation is finished. Isaiah says, speaking for God, “It’s the end.” If you reject God then God’s judgment will fall. And you may be shocked at how fast it comes. Because on the surface, everything looks like it’s okay, as it did in Israel.

v. 25                Therefore = “On this account” – that is on the account of having rejected the Lord. Look; judgment is greater for the nation which has had the Lord than it is for the nation which hasn’t. Much given=much required. There are some nations in the world that never did have the Law of the Lord. We did. If God’s judgment burned against His covenant people, with whom He had made eternal promises, just imagine how it burns against a nation that has no such covenant, like us.

v. 26        In their case, God called wicked nations to invade and destroy their land. Hiss=whistle. And the language has the image of speed and unimpeded motion.

v. 27        The enemy’s not going to need rest; they’re not going to get tired. They’re going to come rapidly. When a soldier is finished with his day, he usually takes his shoes and belt off, because attached to his belt are his weapons; and he’s at rest. But in our text they never take the belt or the shoes off.

vv. 28-30         The smoke that goes up from the holocaust is going to blacken the clouds with judgment. And that falls on a people who were once a fruitful vineyard, but instead now they produce sour berries.

And, folks, back to where I started, that is what is so painful about what we’re seeing in America today. We are holding on in the hopes that there is still a majority of people who believe in a biblical morality and a place for the Christian faith, but it’s hanging by a thread. And it’s in decline. I don’t know how it’s all going to turn out this election, but I know precisely where it’s going, because the judgment of God has already begun.

I’m glad that our story has a happy ending, regardless of what wrath may fall. We cannot give up. Make sure and vote. Do it tomorrow. Something may come up Tuesday. If there are 10 people on a bus and 3 vote to drive off the cliff, 2 vote against, and 5 don’t vote, you’re ALL going off the cliff! Vote, repent, and now, let’s pray. “If my people…”