Adrian Rogers - Bring Back the Glory
Would you take God’s Word please and be finding the book of Judges, chapter 1, and when you’ve found it, let me tell you something. The book of Judges is not a happy book, it’s a sad book. And yet it’s a book that holds out hope. It’s a book that tells us how God had blessed the nation Israel and how Israel then lost her glory. Israel had a glorious heritage. God had done a miracle for Israel. By the power of God she had broken the gnawing and tormenting bonds of slavery. She had come out of Egypt and God had given to her a promised land, a land that flowed with milk and honey. And God had given to them liberty and freedom like God had given to the United States of America. But the people of Israel did not appreciate their miracle, their heritage, the blessings of God.
God had given to them Himself. They had a Lord. God had given to them Canaan, they had a land. God had given to them His commandments, they have a law. But they denied the Lord. They defied the law. They defiled the land. And God had to bring judgment to these people who had been blessed so very much. That reminds me so much of America because there is such a striking parallel. God has so blessed this nation. We told you recently, no nation ever had such a Christian beginning as America, and yet America must admit that the crown has fallen. America, I say it with a broken heart, has forgotten God. Yes, we still have religion. Yes, we still have culture, but all of that is the formaldehyde, the sickening perfume that disguises the deadliness and the decay that is in our land today. And unless something happens, some historian may someday write, The Rise and Fall of the American Empire.
Look in the book of Judges chapter 1 verse 1 and 2, «Now after the death of Joshua it came to pass, that the children of Israel asked the Lord, saying, 'Who shall go up for us against the Canaanites first, to fight against them? ' And the Lord said, 'Judah shall go up, '» and the word «Judah» means «praise». «'Judah shall go up: and behold, I have delivered the land into his hand.'» God blessed these people and under Joshua and with the leadership of Judah, they went out and took the land of Canaan. It was a gift of God and God delivered the land into their hands. Three things I want you to see today. First of all, their past. There were days of glorious conquest; God gave to Israel a land. May I make the parallel today; God has given to us a land.
Now I know that we have some revisionist historians today who want to rewrite the whole thing and take away our Christian heritage, but they cannot do it. I think many of us remember Patrick Henry, he was that golden tongued orator. Patrick Henry was the one who lit the flame that began the American Revolution when he gave an impassioned speech in March the 23rd, 1775 in the Virginia Assembly. He gave that never to be forgotten speech when he said, «Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased with the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God». And then that Virginian stood tall and said, «I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death»!
Now we remember that. But I want to remind you of something else that Patrick Henry said, one of the founders of this nation. He said this, «It cannot be emphasized too much or repeated too strongly that America was founded not by religionists, but by Christians. Not upon religions, but upon the Gospel of Jesus Christ».
Now there’re people who don’t want us to remember that today. George Washington, the first father of our country, or the first president of our country, the father of America, when he was inaugurated read from the Bible. He took his oath of office with his hand upon the Bible and then he leaned down and kissed the pages of God’s Word. Do you know what his first official act was? He took the entire Senate and the House of Representatives to church. I mean, all of them. And they stayed there for a two hour worship service.
Then George Washington said this, «It would be peculiarly improper to omit in this first official act my fervent supplication to that Almighty being who rules over the universe, who presides in the councils of nations and whose providential aids can supply every human defect that His benediction may consecrate to the liberties and happiness of the people of the United States». And then George Washington said, «No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the invisible hand which conducts the affairs of men more than the people of the United States. Every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency».
Plain English, God did it. God established America and so I want you to see first of all as we look at the nation of Israel and compare it to America. I’m not saying that America is like Israel, not at all, but I’m saying there are striking parallels. First of all, they were days of glorious conquest. As we look back and see how God has blessed this nation, we must say that God did it. But now let’s move on secondly and think not only of the glorious conquest, but I want you to see what happened to Israel. They were days of gradual compromise.
Look if you will now in Judges chapter 2 and verse 1 through 4, «And an angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal to Bochim, and said, 'I made you to go up out of Egypt, and have brought you unto the land which I sware unto your fathers; ' and I said, 'I will never break my covenant with you. And ye shall make no league with the inhabitants of this land; ye shall throw down their altars: '» now watch verse 2, «'but ye have not obeyed my voice: why have ye done this? ' Wherefore I also said, 'I will not drive them out from before you; but they shall be as thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare unto you.' And it came to pass, when the angel of the Lord spake these words unto all the children of Israel, that the people lifted up there voice, and wept».
Now what happened is this. That God gave them a victory and God gave them a wonderful, glorious heritage, but they forgot that heritage. How did they do it? Well, look if you will in Judges chapter 2 and verse 7. The Bible says, «And the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua». Now underscore this is your Bible, «Who had seen all the great works of the Lord, that He did for Israel». That is, when God was moving in glorious ways there was a generation under Joshua that saw God move in might and power and glory. They had seen miracle after miracle and the people served God during those times.
But now look in Judges 2 verse 10, «And also all that generation were gathered unto their fathers, » that is, those old timers died, «and there arose another generation after them which knew not the Lord, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel». There arose another generation. Friend, we’re living in that generation today. We have a generation of Baby boomers today who do not understand the history of this nation. They don’t understand the miracles that God has worked for America. «There arose another generation that knew not Joshua, nor the works that he had done for Israel». We have gone through a cultural revolution. It started in the sixties and now we’re reaping the bitter fruit of that revolution.
Let me tell you what the key verse in the book of Judges is. You might find it in Judges chapter 17 and verse 6, «In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes». That’s Judges 17:6, «In those days, there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes». Now what does that mean? It means there was no fixed standard of right and wrong. Those days have come to us in America. Being aided and abetted by our educators.
In 1960, the Gallup organization took a poll, and in 1960 they found out that 65% of the American public believed that the Bible was the authentic, inerrant Word of God. That is, you could look at the Bible and literally believe the Truth that was taught in the Bible. In 1992, they took a poll again. Only 32% of the American public believed that. That the Bible was objectively, literal truth. Again I want to say, in 1960 it was 65%, roughly two-thirds. Now in this day, less than a third. «There has arisen a generation that knows not Joshua». «Every man does that which is right in his own eyes».
The Gallup organization took a poll in 1992 and they asked this question: Do you believe that there are moral absolutes? That is, do you believe that there are things that are right and wrong intrinsically. Some things that are absolutely right. Some things that are absolutely wrong. Did you know that 70% of the American people that responded to that survey said, there are no moral absolutes? 70%. That’s in 1992. Americans today will say, «Well what is right for you may not be right for me».
Children have been taught in schools a thing called values clarification. And, they’re being put in social situations and they will say, «Now Johnny, Susie, Mary, Billy, what would you do in this situation? Think it out. Remember Johnny, there are no right or wrong answers». That is values clarification. We have come to a place where 70% of the American people say, according to the Gallup survey, there are no fixed standards of right and wrong. Well you say, «But at least we have the church».
Now let me tell you something that will chill you and frighten you. The Gallup people surveyed Evangelical Christians. These are the Bible believing people. These are the ones that go to church and Sunday School. And they found out when they asked them this question, the same question: Do you believe there are fixed standards of right and wrong? Do you believe there are moral absolutes? Only 57% of them said yes. I’m talking about the church people. I’m talking about the Evangelical crowd. More than half of them said, there is not an absolute standard of right and wrong. «There arose a generation that knew not Joshua». «And every man did that, » the Bibles says, «which was right in his own eyes».
Now that’s where we are today and that’s the reason that I have decided to preach from this book of Joshua. We are in a situation that is a very serious situation because there’s no fixed standard of right and wrong. Isaiah described a day, very much like our day, in Isaiah chapter 5 and verse 20 where he says, «Woe unto them that call evil good and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter»! That is, we live in a day of moral ambivalencey. And so first of all, there was a glorious conquest. But then there came to Israel a gradual compromise.
Now God had told the Israelites to drive out the Canaanites. The Canaanites were unspeakably immoral. I don’t have time to deal with that, but let me tell you what they did rather than driving out the Canaanites. Go back to Judges chapter 1 and look if you will in verse 19, Judges 1 verse 19, «And the Lord was with Judah; and he drave out the inhabitants of the mountain; but could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley, for they had chariots of iron». I wrote down, the Canaanites that they feared. There were certain Canaanites in the land. They said, «They’re too strong for us. They have chariots of iron. We can’t drive them out».
What’s that like in America today? Well, there’re certain Canaanites that we don’t seem to be able to deal with. Drugs, crime, immorality, sexual perversion. So what do you do when you come up against a Canaanite that you’re not able to deal with? Well, somehow you just adjust yourself to it. There are the Canaanites that they feared. Then they just say well, «We can’t do anything about them, they have chariots of iron. Everybody knows what the kids are going to do, so let’s just help them to do it safely».
Then I want you to look if you will in Judges verses 28 through 30, chapter 1, «And it came to pass, when Israel was strong, that they put the Canaanites to tribute, and did not utterly drive them out. Neither did Ephraim drive out the Canaanites that dwelt in Gezer; but the Canaanites dwelt in Gezer among them. Neither did Zebulun drive out the inhabitants of Kitron, nor the inhabitants of Nahalol; but the Canaanites dwelt among them and became tributaries». That means, forced laborers. There were Canaanites that they feared and then there were Canaanites that they favored. They said, «These people with chariots of iron, we can’t do anything about them so we’re just going to accommodate ourselves to them». Then there were other Canaanites they said, «Hey, we can put these Canaanites to work. No need to drive these Canaanites out. These are the Canaanites that we favor».
What kind of Canaanites do Americans favor? One of them is gambling, legalized gambling. They say, «Why dry that vice out. Well, that’s a good way to make money». Let me say, gambling is a bad bet. Now let me tell you why. It is antithetical to true business. In real business you have a win-win situation. I make a gizmo, it’s worth a dollar. I sell it to you, you give me a dollar; you get the gizmo. I get the dollar, you get the gizmo. It’s a win-win situation. The way to have your needs met is to meet somebody else’s needs.
What is wrong with gambling? It is rotten at the core because gambling is based not on win-win, but win-lose. Nobody can win in gambling unless somebody else loses. And that’s the difference in the thing, it’s just as plain. People say you’re taking a risk. The risk is not the factor, the factor is that it is profited gain at somebody else’s sorrow and loss. And we don’t need to be telling our kids that the way to make a living is to gamble. We need to be talking about the virtues of work, not the vice of wagering. We need to be teaching boys and girls, men and women, how to invest.
Do you know what happens when a government gets into the lottery to make money? They have to encourage the citizens to take a chance. I mean, they talk about some person who wins millions of dollars. Why don’t they talk about the millions of losers that helped that person to win those millions of dollars? I mean, it’s quite ridiculous. Now a pimp will stand on the street corner and he knows the weaknesses of certain men and the vices of certain women and the vices of those men and so what he does is he encourages something that panders to the lower instincts. And what does he do? He just takes the money, by pandering to vice. That’s what we’re trying to get our government to do today. To do the counterpart of a pimp standing on the street corner, to make money, to profit from the vices of people. It’s an incredible thing.
You say «Well, Pastor Rogers, it’ll bring in restaurants. It’ll bring in recreation, all of that. It’ll help build us». Yes, it will. Yes it will. It’s an ill wind that blows no one any good, but when you let all of the air out of it, get to the bottom line, friend, it is trafficking in human misery. It’s the same thing as the liquor business. They told us, «Oh, America needs to sell liquor. And look at all of the tax money we can get if we’ll just put that Canaanite out to forced labor. Why, there’s certain Canaanites that we don’t need to drive out, we need to favor those Canaanites».
Billy Sunday told of a man over here in the Blue Ridge Mountains who caught rattlesnakes for a living. One day he caught a huge rattler, a rattlesnake that had fourteen rattlers. He put it in a box and put a glass top on the box, was out in the fields plowing when his little boy slid the top off of that box where that rattler was coiled and that rattlesnake sprung out of that box and planted his fangs in the cheek of that little boy. The little boy ran out of the house into the yard to tell his father what had happened. The father came in, saw that snake and hewed it to pieces. Then he took his pocket knife and cut a big chunk out of that little boys cheek, that’s all he knew to do and put his mouth up there to try to suck the poison out of the face of that little boy. He watched that little boys face begin to swell and swell. It looked like several times its normal size and the little boy stiffened and died. That man lifted up his voice in anguish and said, «Oh, I would not trade my son for all the rattlesnakes in the Blue Ridge Mountains».
You see, we have people today who are playing with vices that are destroying our children. I read this. Somebody sent me this from over here in Arkansas, Sulfur Springs. A 16 year old boy died in a head on collision with a truck driven by his father early Thursday on a rural road southwest of Pine Bluff. The boy was driving a dirt bike without a headlight and did not wear a helmet. He said the truck carried the motorcycle 45 to 50 feet. The boy landed on his back on the truck’s hood and the force sent his body through the windshield.
Now I want you to listen to this next paragraph. Officers arrested the elder, and I’m not going to give his name, on suspicion of driving while intoxicated, driving on the left of the center line and having no proof of insurance. There’s something about us where we have certain Canaanites that we feel in service. So there are Canaanites that we fear; we just accommodate ourselves to them. There are Canaanites that we favor. We think in America today if we can just turn these vices into servants that somehow they will help us and serve us. And then thirdly, there were Canaanites that they fellowshipped.
Look if you will in Judges 1 verse 32. And look at it, «But the Asherites dwelt among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land: for they did not drive them out». That is, before long they became accustomed to the sinful ways of the Canaanites. They didn’t seem so sinful any more. They became interested in the way that the Canaanites worshipped, and rather than seeing them as enemies they saw them as friends and they became a friend to the world. And I suppose in this congregation that we have more of those who are fellowshipping Canaanites than fearing Canaanites or favoring Canaanites. You’re just, just becoming like them. The Bible says in James 4:4 that, «Friendship with the world is enmity with God».
Do you know what the average Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian thinks about sin, in my estimation? «It’s really not that bad and really we don’t need to do what we sang, surrender all to the Lord Jesus». You may have read this some years ago, about a man named Mr. Waters. He lived out in Los Angeles about six miles from the airport. His name was Larry Waters. Now he was a very nominal guy, lived in a little section of row houses there. All the houses looked alike. They all had little fenced back yards. And every day Larry Waters, who was 33 years of old, at least every weekend he would get a six-pack. He’d get his lawn chair and he’d go out in his backyard and drink that six-pack. That’s every Saturday.
After a while Larry Waters got tired of that and he thought he’d do something exciting so he had an idea of tying some balloons to his lawn chair, this is a true story that would lift him up so he could just kind of float over the neighborhood. So, he went down and bought him some weather balloons. He bought him forty-five of these weather balloons. I mean huge things. Had them filled with helium. The idea was that he was going to float about a hundred feet over his neighbor’s back yards with his six-pack and look down on them. And so he brought all these things home and he fashioned them to his lawn chair, he got his friends to hold it down. And there he is, he goes in the house now, gets him a six-pack. And he gets him a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and he sits down in this chair and he tells his friends, «Alright, let go».
Got forty-five helium balloons. This happened out there. And it went up. Not a hundred feet, it went up 11,000 feet! Voooom! Larry had taken along a B-B gun. His idea was, if it started going too high he’d just shoot out a few balloons, but the problem was he could never let go. He was going up so fast, and he’s up there 11,000 feet. Now he’s afraid to shoot anything. He doesn’t know what to do. Now this is history. A Continental DC-10 airliner went past. The pilot saw this guy up there in this balloon and he radios to the tower, tells about a guy in a lawn chair floating along. I don’t know whether he said, «Now ladies and gentlemen, if you’ll look out the right hand side of your window you’ll see a man in a lawn chair». They didn’t know what to do. They sent a helicopter up. They rerouted the traffic around Los Angeles airport.
This guy, Larry Waters, stayed up there for four hours, 11,000 feet. He was just going to drift along 100 feet over the back yards you know. Look down on his people drinking a six-pack. Finally, the helium in those balloons oozed out and it settled down. And finally he came back down to the Earth and the people were there, the reporters were there, ambulances and everything else. And a reporter shoved a boom mic in, in this man’s face and said, «Were you scared»? He said, «Yep»! He said, «Are you going to do it again»? He said, «Nope»! He said, «Well, why did you do it»? He said, «Well you just can’t sit there, you got to do something».
You know, when I heard that story. I thought you know that’s so much like Americans today. They think you know, a little sin’s not so bad. I’m just going to float a hundred feet over my neighbor’s back yard. And after all, if it gets too bad I’ve got my trusty B-B gun. You know I can handle this thing. We have the idea that we can just keep company with Canaanites and it’s quite alright. I mean, that we can control the situation. A long time ago an old preacher told me this. He said, «Adrian, sin will take you further than you want to go, it’ll take you longer than you want to stay, and it will cost you more than you want to pay».
Now, what had happened to these people in this time, in Joshua’s time, so much like our time there were the Canaanites they feared. There were the Canaanites they favored and the Canaanites they fellowshipped rather than driving them out. Now here’s the third thing that I want you to see. First of all there was glorious conquest. Secondly, there was gradual compromise. And thirdly there were grim consequences. Look again in chapter 2 and look if you will in verses 3 and 4. God now, who had been going before them, who had been protecting them, said, «Wherefore I also said, 'I will not drive them out from before you; but they shall be as thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare unto you.' And it came to pass, when the angel of the Lord spake these words unto all the children of Israel, that the people lifted up their voice, and wept». Now God said, «I’m not going to protect you anymore».
You see, God had protected America. In the past, America has been protected. And we have sung, «Long may our land be bright with freedom’s holy light, protect us by Thy might great God our King». But America has lost her protection. And these Canaanites have become a snare to us. And the scream of the great American eagle has become the twitter of a frightened sparrow. And culturally, I mean, we’re in a battle today. Not of bullets and bombs, but ideas and morals. We don’t know what’s going to happen next. In the past 30 years, our divorce rate has quadrupled. Teen suicides have doubled and violent crime has increased more than 500%. That’s in 30 years. Did you hear that?
Violent crime, more than 500%. More than one-third of all births in this nation are to women without husbands. In the inner city, the rate of illegitimacy is as high as 80%. And we have diseases that are running rampant. Fifty-six million Americans are suffering from some sort of venereal disease. The truth is that sex outside marriage is dangerous and often deadly. Promiscuity leads to divorce, disease, abortion, broken families and lives of misery and despair. We’ve taken the Bible out of the schools. In 1980 we said you can’t even post the Ten Commandments on classroom walls. And yet James Madison said, «We’ve staked the entire future of the American civilization on the right, the ability of each of us to govern ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God».
Do you know why they’ve taken the Ten Commandments out? They say that that might be dangerous to some child who would read it. Let’s talk about danger. Let’s suppose that you’re driving through the inner city at 2:00 in the morning and your car stops running, you’re by yourself. And you get out to walk for help and you see a gang of young men coming down the street and they’re headed right to you. You’re all alone. It’s 2:00 in the morning. I want to ask you a question. Would it be any comfort to you if you knew those boys had just come from a Bible study where they were studying the Ten Commandments? I guarantee you it would. Don’t tell me that the study of the Word of God is dangerous.
What has happened is this friend, that there are dire consequences that have happened in America today. We are in trouble. Well then, what about all these things Pastor? Why are we seeing all of this? One simple reason. The God who has protected us has just withdrawn His protection, just withdrawn His protection. «You say you want to do it without Me, just go ahead. It’s yours». You see, the reason that we have been so blessed is that God has protected this nation. Don’t you understand that? I mean, God doesn’t have to judge us. God just has to let us have our own way. We judge ourselves. God says, «You want to do it without Me? You say there’s no fixed standard of right and wrong? You’re smarter than I am? 'Every man does that which is right in his own eyes.' You don’t want Me? Alright, you’ve got it».
You see, when God judges, He’s going to do it with precision. That’s coming at the Great White Throne judgment. He’ll do it with precision. But what has happened in America today is that we have forgotten God. You see, we need to bring back the glory. Well, my time is gone, but look if you will in Judges chapter 2 verse 16. Let me give you the good news. Chapter 2 and verse 16. I love the first word and it is nevertheless. «Nevertheless, the Lord raised up judges, which delivered them out of the hand of those that spoiled them». Nevertheless, God had rather forgive than judge. God had rather save than condemn. Jesus did not come to condemn the world but to save the world. The word judge literally comes from a root word which means to save or to rescue. And there’s hope for America.
We as Bible believers must disabuse ourselves of the idea that there’s no hope for America; there is hope for America. And the book of Judges as we’re going to see as we begin to study this book. The book of Judges is going to show how in the history of God’s ancient people, God sent deliverers, men of God, to rally the people to the Word of God, to repentance and faith and God brought restoration and forgiveness. And the God that did that for Israel so long ago can do that for America today. And God has sent revival in times past in dark days. You know, that’s what Americans need to say to Jesus. «Lord, You’re the one who gave us liberty and Lord, we’re going with You».
Father, I pray that You’ll bring back the glory to America. Lord, forgive us for keeping company with Canaanites. Canaanites Lord that we fear and favor and fellowship. And Lord help us as the people of God to love You and to hold up the standard.
Now, while heads are bowed and eyes are closed, if you’re not certain that you’re saved, would you like to be saved, would you? Would you like to know that you really do have life? Jesus said, «I’ve come that you might have life». Could I lead you in a prayer? We’ll call this prayer the sinner’s prayer. And you can pray and accept Christ as your personal Lord and Savior. You can do it right now. Would you pray this prayer?
Dear God, I know that You love me. Thank You for loving me. And I know that You want to save me. Jesus, You died to save me and You promised to save me if I would trust You. Jesus, I do trust You. I believe You’re the Son of God. I believe you paid for my sin with Your blood on the cross. I believe that God raised You from the dead. And now I receive You as my Lord and Savior. Forgive my sin. Cleanse me. Come into my life. Take control of my life and begin today to make me the person You want me to be. And Jesus, give me the courage to make it public. Help me never to be ashamed of You. In Your name I pray, Amen.