The Lying Prophets of America

Now I'd like to begin today by telling you a story. It's a true story, right out of the Bible. 1 Kings chapter 22 as a matter of fact. It's about a wicked king named Ahab who was the ruler of the northern kingdom of Israel after Israel split into two. And about a godly king named Jehoshaphat who was the ruler of the southern kingdom. And Jehoshaphat had to go with him to attack a town in the northern kingdom called Ramoth Gilead.

And that's where we pick up the story. Verse 5. But Jehoshaphat said to Ahab, please inquire first for the word of the Lord on this. Then Ahab gathered all of his prophets together, about 400 men, and said to them, Shall we go up against Ramoth Gilead to battle or shall we refrain? And all of his prophets said, Go, for the Lord will give the city into the hand of the king. Now Jehoshaphat wasn't stupid.

He understood these were just the yes men that the king employed. So Jehoshaphat said to Ahab, Isn't there a true prophet of the Lord around that we may inquire of him? And I love this. Ahab said, Well, there is one man by whom we may inquire of the Lord, but I hate him because he never prophesies good concerning me, always evil. His name is Micaiah. But at Jehoshaphat's insistence, they summon this prophet Micaiah. And when Micaiah arrived, Ahab said to him, Shall we go up against Ramoth Gilead to battle or shall we refrain? And Micaiah said, Go up and succeed, for the Lord will give you the city, mocking the yes men.

Obviously being sarcastic. And Ahab said to him, because he figured this out, How many times must I adjure you, Micaiah, to tell me nothing but the truth in the name of the Lord? Then Micaiah said, Okay, I saw all Israel scattered on the hills like sheep without a shepherd. And the Lord said, These people have no king now.

Let each of them go home in peace. You understand what Micaiah is saying? He's saying to Ahab, If you go do this, you're going to die. Verse 18, Then Ahab turned to Jehoshaphat and said, See, didn't I tell you he never prophesies anything good about me? You don't think that's funny? That's hysterical.

I mean, that's laugh out loud funny. Okay, so they're sitting there, these two kings, and Jehoshaphat says, I want to hear Micaiah. And Ahab says, No, he never tells me anything good. I don't want to hear him. And when he comes in and tells him he's going to go get killed.

And he turns to Jehoshaphat and says, You see there? You see what I told you? You don't think that's funny? Maybe you had to be there. I don't know. Okay, so you say Lon, funny or not, does this have anything to do with anything?

Well, it does. Listen, Then Micaiah said, I saw the Lord sitting on his throne with all the host of heaven around him. And the Lord said, Who will go and entice Ahab to attack Ramoth Gilead and meet his death there? And one spirit said this and another one said that.

Then a spirit came forward and said, I will entice him. And the Lord said, How will you do it? And he said, I will go and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all Ahab's prophets. Now, just so you know the end of the story, Ahab listened to his lying prophets.

He went to Ramoth Gilead and just the way Micaiah said, he died there. Now, the reason I bring all this up, though, is because all of this reminds me of what's going on in America today. America today is filled with lying prophets who are trying to entice us as a nation into societal suicide, into societal Armageddon. And this is what I want us to talk about this weekend as we look forward to Independence Day. I want us to talk about three lies that these lying prophets are trying to spin out on America and entice us to believe. And then after we've exposed these three lies for what they are, I want us to talk about what we as followers of Christ can do to combat and counteract these lies. So we're ready to go. Yes?

All right. Lie number one that these lying prophets are telling us is that it's okay to have a society where there's no absolute standard of right and wrong. No absolute standard of morality that stands above and apart and separate from the prevailing winds of human opinion. I love what Harry S. Truman said. He said, I wonder how far Moses would have gotten if he'd taken an opinion poll in Egypt.

What would Jesus Christ have preached if he'd taken a poll in Israel? It isn't polls or public opinion of the moment that counts. It's right and wrong. End of quote. And yet our courts have removed all absolute definitions of right and wrong when it comes to morality and decency and purity. For example, our courts tell us that no one can absolutely define pornography as wrong and therefore we can't outlaw it.

And because of this, what could once be gotten only in the back room of dusty barber shops can now be gotten in bookstores and on magazine racks. And even our little children can get them on television and get this stuff on their computers. And this is all under the guise of protected speech. Everybody look here. Listen to me. Our founding fathers never intended this kind of filth to be considered protected speech.

Never. And it ought to be outlawed in every city in America. It ought to be outlawed in every on every Web site in America.

It ought to be outlawed on every cable channel in America. But we can't do it because the lying prophets of America have robbed us of an absolute standard of right and wrong in our courts. And how about our public school system? Our public school system teaches our children from the time that they're barely older than toddlers that right and wrong are relative concepts.

That nothing can be called right for everybody or wrong for everybody. Is it any wonder that we need metal detectors and armed police officers in our schools these days? And how about our politicians who make moral decisions based on public opinion polls and reelection strategies? They march in gay pride parades because they need the gay vote. They support abortion because they need the women's vote.

They avoid the tough issues involving racial justice and immigration reform and fiscal responsibility and restraint because they're afraid that their position will lose them votes in November. But whatever happened to politicians standing for a position because it is simply inherently right and opposing a position because it is simply inherently wrong? Well, they can't do it anymore because the lying prophets of America have robbed us of definitions that say things are absolutely right and wrong. You say so long. Where are our judges and our legislators and our politicians and our educators going to go to get this standard of absolute right and wrong you're talking about that has stood the test of the ages? Well, you know what I'm going to tell you. They need to go to the B-I-B-L-E, friends.

That's where they need to go. The Bible, Psalm 19, verse 7 says the law of the Lord is what? Perfect. Verse 8, the precepts of the Lord are what? Verse 9, the ordinances of the Lord are what?

True. Jesus said, Thy word, the Bible is truth. And here's the really insidious thing. These lying prophets of America keep telling us that a society based on the absolutes of the Bible is a prehistoric society, an unsophisticated society, a restrictive society, a repressive society, a backwards society. An unliberated society and an intolerant society. When the truth is, my friends, that any society that is not based on the absolutes of the Bible is a society that is destined without exception to decline, to decay, and to self-destruct, just give it enough time and it will happen. This is a lie that a society does not need absolute standards of right and wrong. Now, lie number two. Lie number two that our lying prophets are telling us is that it's okay to have a society where God is absent from every area of that society.

An utterly secular society. And you know, the lying prophets of America are already pushing for this in the public arenas of American society. Friends, you mark my words. If they succeed in the public arena, the private arena, your private life and my private life is coming next. And I think all of us know what the European Union is. And I think we all know that they're in trouble. Not just financial trouble.

All kinds of trouble. What you may not know is that back in 2004 when the constitution of the European Union was being drawn up, there was a huge controversy that erupted. Some of the delegates wanted to write into the constitution some information about the Christian heritage of Europe, and there were other delegates who were adamantly opposed. The leader of the opposition was then French president, Valerie Guistard de Stang, and he said this, and I quote, he said, Europeans live in a purely secular political system where religion does not play any important role. Well, look now and you see what happens when you build a society like that.

The European Union is suffering with it, but they're not the first ones to try it. The USSR tried to drive God out of every part of society. Nazi Germany tried to drive God out of every part of society. The French Revolution tried to drive God out of every part of society. And in every case, the results were absolute disaster. Now, I'm not saying that the EU is going to become Nazi Germany or the USSR, but I am saying that they are in the process of finding out that just like Hitler and just like Stalin and just like Robespierre and many others have also found out that removing God from society is like pulling the pin on a hand grenade.

It never ends well. Now you say, what does all this have to do with America? Well, in his 2001 book, The Death of the West, Patrick Buchanan said, and I quote, he said, a European style de-Christianization of America is the goal of many liberals and they are succeeding. And here's the fascinating thing. Fascinating thing is that America just doesn't have a Christian heritage like Europe says they have. No, no.

Much more than that. Folks, America was conceived in a Christian womb. The very soul of America was shaped by Christian architects. There were the pilgrims and the Puritans and George Whitfield and the Great Awakening and Ben Franklin's famous call for prayer when the Constitutional Convention was hopelessly deadlocked. There was the Second Great Awakening and the circuit riding preachers of the 1800s.

Our court system is based on biblical jurisprudence and every college and university that was started in the United States before 1776 was started by Christians and for the training of Christian leaders. Harvard. Excuse me. 1676. Rules and student precepts. 1646.

Forgive me. Here's what the student handbook said and I quote, everyone shall consider the main end of his life and studies at Harvard to know God and Jesus Christ. Everyone shall so exercise himself in reading the scriptures two times a day that he shall be ready to give an account of his proficiency therein upon graduation. End of quote. Sounds just like Harvard today.

Yeah. You know, public education in America started with a Christian base, the McGuffey reader, which formed the backbone of American education, public education for 100 years is nothing but the stories of the Bible that are planned for different age levels. And it's just the Bible being read by children in elementary school. But we don't have to go back 100 years to see the influence of the Christian faith on our public education. All we have to do is go back to the time when I was in high school. You say, Lon, that was 100 years. No, it wasn't 100 years.

It was 40. I went to Woodrow Wilson High School, Portsmouth, Virginia. We sat there every morning in homeroom. Somebody came over the loudspeaker and read a portion out of the Bible. And then somebody came over the loudspeaker and we all bowed our heads and they led us in prayer and they closed it in Jesus name. Amen. You say, well, Lon, as a young Jewish kid, what did you think of all this?

Friends, let me tell you, the way my high school career was going, I was happy for anybody's help. I was like, Jesus, whoever. I don't care. Just help me, Lord. Help me.

Somebody help me. I didn't have a problem with that. But in the last 40 years, folks, led by the lying prophets in the film industry and in our courts and in our public schools and in our universities and in our legislatures and at every level of the media, there has been an unapologetic attempt, as Patrick Buchanan said, to de-Christianize America. If a Martian landed in America today and spent a month watching our most popular television shows, listening to our most popular radio stations, sitting in our public school classrooms and attending our sporting events, that Martian would never even realize that the concept of God existed in America unless he happened to hear not a sermon, just a thought.

That would be the only way he would know. Now, it is a lie for us to believe that any society can take God out and, as Abraham Lincoln said, can long endure. That is a lie. Third lie that our lying prophets are telling us is that it's okay to have a society where we seek to maintain morality by outward legislation, rules, regulations, instead of by inward religious conviction. Arthur Levitt, former chairman of the Security and Exchange Commission, said, and I quote, the article was, what's wrong with corporate America, he said, what we have is an erosion in corporate ethics.

No matter how many rules the SEC passes, he says, people without ethics will still find a way to get around them. In other words, no government, no government can write laws so tight that a dishonest person can't find a way to abuse them. And this, my friends, is the critical mistake that the lying prophets of America want us to buy into. They want us to believe that inner religious conviction is unnecessary in society. They want us to believe that if the government and the regulatory agencies of America can just pass enough rules, pass enough regulations, make enough laws, put enough punishments on them, and then hire enough enforcement agents, the moral behavior of America can be maintained.

Folks, that is such a lie. The fact is, right now, already, there's so many rules and regulations in this country, you can hardly even sneeze without breaking a federal statute of some kind. Stupid, the whole thing is stupid.

And yet, the jails are filled to overflowing in this country, Ponzi schemes abound, corporate fraud is everywhere, banks fail to give full disclosure for IPOs and millions of people lose millions of dollars, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. It ain't working. And you know why it ain't working?

I'll tell you. The Bible says, here's why it ain't working. Jeremiah 17, 9, the heart of man is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.

The reason it ain't working is because man's moral problem is internal and no amount of external rules, no amount of external regulations are going to fix man's problem or even control man's problem. Now, the founders of our nation understood this. They were smart people. John Adams, the second president of America said, and I quote, no government.

You see that? No government can contend with human passions that are unbridled by morality and what's the next word? Religion. He went on to say our constitution was made only for a moral and a what?

Religious people. It is wholly inadequate for the governing of any other kind of people. This is why, contrary to the propaganda of today's lying prophets, our founding fathers built America on a religious foundation, not on a secular foundation. They could have built it on a secular foundation.

The French Revolution was in full swing when they were shaping America, equality, fraternity and liberty, totally secular. But they rejected that. And instead they said, no, we are going to build a society on a religious foundation, a foundation of the Bible and a foundation of in God we trust.

Why? Because they were smart people and they understood the problem of man. Now, friends, if we ever hope to preserve and revitalize our nation, we must ignore the lying prophets of America telling us that man can be made to build a moral society from the outside in.

It's a lie. And we must listen to the words of the Bible and to John Adams when he said, no government can contend with human passions that are unbridled by morality and religion. Our Constitution was made only for moral and religious people.

It just won't work for any other kind of people. So can we summarize? America's lying prophets want to believe want us to believe three things. Number one, it's OK to have a society where there's no absolute standard of right and wrong. It's OK to have a society, number two, where God is absent from every area of society. And it's OK, number three, to have a society where we try to maintain morality by outward legislation instead of inward religious conviction. And you know, the really scary thing is that these prophets are succeeding in America with lemming like results.

They're leading millions of Americans right behind them, right over the cliff, like lemmings. Now, all of that brings us to our most important question of the day. And you all know what our most important question is. So are you ready?

OK. Are you ready at Loudoun and Prince William and Bethesda and around the world on the Internet and in the edge? This is a July 4th. So what?

Which means it's got to have some fireworks in it. Yeah? OK. All right. Here we go now. Come on.

One, two, three. Oh, that was good. You say, Lon, so what? Say, I see what you're saying.

And even if I agree with all of it, what can we do about it? Well, I got four suggestions for us, friends. Here we go. Number one, we can lead as many Americans as possible to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. Second Timothy four, verse five.

Paul said to Timothy, but you, Timothy, do the work of an evangelist. Everywhere you go, everyone you meet, you tell them about Jesus Christ. You say, well, how in the world does that help America? Friends, it helps America because born-again people have discernment. Born-again people study the Word of God. Born-again people know truth. Born-again people don't want to build the kind of society that these lying prophets want to build.

And they're not going to be taken in by them. They know the Word of God. Number two, the second thing we can do to help America is we can, second of all, keep declaring biblical truth to American society. Second Timothy, chapter four, verse one.

I solemnly charge you, Paul said to Timothy, I charge you in the presence of God and Jesus Christ, preach the Word. Folks, what's the greatest enemy of a lie? The truth, exactly. Which means as the Church of Christ, the greatest service that we can perform for America is to preach truth. To teach truth. To stand firm for truth. The best way we can help protect America from the lies of its lying prophets is to give out truth. And here in Washington, D.C., from the pulpit, on the radio, on the Internet, every time McLean Bible Church opens its mouth, what needs to come out of our mouth is God's truth, God's whole truth, and nothing but God's truth. So help us, God. No waffling, no watering it down, no compromising it. We can be kind and we can be respectful, but we have got to tell it the way it is.

Amen. George Whitfield, the leader of the Great Awakening, said, and I quote, The reason we have so many dead congregations is because they have dead men preaching to them. And dead men cannot beget living children. You wonder why they didn't let him preach in church, why he had to preach outside in the open air. You say stuff like this in church, they're not going to have you back.

I mean, I guess. Look, friends, everything starts with the pulpits of America. You cannot build a strong church on an anemic pulpit. And you cannot build a strong nation on a collection of anemic pulpits. We are the bastion of God's truth. And sadly, we are the last bastion of God's truth in America now. And I can't control what other churches do, but I can tell you this, as long as I'm the pastor here at McLean Bible Church, every time we open our mouth, I promise you, what's coming out is the Word of God, God's truth, God's whole truth, and nothing but God's truth, so help me God. Number three, I've got a third suggestion.

How can we do to help America? Well, third, we can help train up young people in the knowledge of the Word of God. 2 Timothy 3.14.

But you, Timothy, Paul says, continue in what you've learned. For from a child, you have known the Holy Scriptures. How did he know the Holy Scriptures from a child? You think at age one and a half he crawled and unrolled a Bible and started reading it?

No. His parents taught it to him. His grandparents taught it to him. Friends, a person who has been taught and immersed in the Word of God as a child is far less likely to be led astray by the lying prophets of America than a child who wasn't immersed in the Word of God. Now, this is the job of parents to do this and grandparents. But we as a church want to partner with you. We want to encourage you.

We want to train you. We want to double team your kid for Christ. But this is serious because if we can raise children who know the Word of God and are immersed in the Word of God when they become adults, they're not following the lying prophets of America.

It's just not going to happen. And finally, number four, what can we do to help America? My fourth suggestion is we can support political candidates that stand for the absolute truths of the Bible. Folks, nothing is more helpful in our struggle to preserve America than to have allies in the political arena and yet it is scandalous how poorly we as Christians mobilize ourselves to get these people into office. Every lying prophet in America and every follower they have, they do not have enough votes put together to control the politics of America if we as Christians mobilized and concentrated our votes. But it is scandalous that we allow these other people to exercise a political power way beyond their actual numbers because we are just too lazy and laissez-faire and cavalier to get out there and vote for the right people.

It is scandalous. I had a lady come up to me after the last service who's an election officer in Fairfax County. She's got 3,000 registered voters in her precinct.

She said, I want to tell you something. She said, let me just tell you, for a local election recently, we had 12 people come and vote out of 3,000. She said, for the U.S. House and Senate, we had 71 people come and vote out of 3,000.

She said, the most we've ever had vote on anything out of 3,000 was 545. And when that happened, we were the second highest precinct in all of Fairfax County with the number of voters that came out. What is wrong with us? What is wrong with us?

We could have won an election with 18 votes or won a precinct with 72 votes. What's wrong with us? Now, friends, as a church, we can't be involved in this directly.

It's illegal. But you and I as followers of Christ, we can and we must. We must go out and vote. And we must vote for candidates, and some of you are not going to like what I'm about to say. But we preach truth here. Friends, we need to go out and vote for candidates based not on their party, based not on their gender, based not on their race or anything else. We need to vote for people based on where they stand on the absolute right and wrongs of the Bible. Everything else is secondary. Everything. You say, Lon, does that apply to you?

It does. I'll vote for a Democrat if he or she stands for the word of God. I'll vote for a Republican. I'll vote for an independent. I'll vote for a woman. I'll vote for a man.

I'll vote for a person of any race. I don't care. What I care about is that they stand for the truth of the word of God. That's what you ought to care about. Everything else is secondary, my friends.

Secondary. I notice I'm not getting much applause on that. All right. Well, listen, I'm done. You say, whoo.

All right. But, friends, I told you what needs to be told. And you know the problem in this town is everything's political in this town. Even if you don't want it to be political, it is. We got in trouble once for saying no comment in this town.

The Washington Post quoted us and criticized us for saying no comment. You can't even say nothing in this town and not get in trouble. And I know some of you are going to sit out there and say, oh, yeah, I know what that was. That was a partisan political speech today. No, it isn't. If you believe that, you don't know me.

And if you believe that, I'm telling you it's not true. I don't do partisan politics. I'm talking about the Bible today. I want to do biblical politics.

I want to vote for biblical truth. That's what I care about, and that's what you ought to care about. So don't you walk out of here and write me a note and say something about my partisan politics. Don't waste your time. Don't send it to me. I'm not answering it, and I don't want to read it. That's not what this is about.

It's not what this is about, folks. It's about us getting out here and being the men and women of God we're supposed to be in this nation. And I hope we will.

Let's summarize. What can we do? We can lead as many Americans to saving faith in Christ as possible. Number two, we can faithfully proclaim the truth of God to America. Number three, we can help parents train up people in the knowledge of the word of God. And number four, we can support political candidates that stand for biblical truth. May God help us help America.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we are treading on very sensitive ground when we talk about subjects like this, particularly in Washington. But Lord Jesus, I pray that you would give people in their spirits a confirmation that I don't care about partisan politics.

Never have, never will. I care about America. And I care about this land staying strong and free.

And I care about this land living in a way that your blessing is not endangered. And so, Lord Jesus, help us to take to heart what we've talked about today. And I pray that you would, by your own divine spirit, squelch the lying prophets of America, frustrate their attempts, Lord.

Nullify their activities to turn this nation into self-destruction. And bring a revival to this land by your spirit that will turn our people lemming-like back to the living Christ. Lord, help us to be as much help here in Washington as we can possibly be as a church family. And we thank you for the opportunity to talk about the land we love today. In Jesus' name we pray. And what do God's people say? Amen. Amen.