God and Natural Disasters

When I look at the news, all I see lately is devastation. All across this once great country of ours, there seems to be a sudden continuance of natural disasters, one right after another. Deadly tornadoes, ice storms, wildfires, and epic flooding of biblical proportions.

Never in my lifetime, friends, has there been so many frequent natural disasters in this country, one right on the heels of another. I believe God is trying to get America's attention, but I fear He is being completely ignored. The title of my message this evening, friends, is God and Natural Disasters.

And my text can be found in the Book of Psalms. You can turn in your Bibles there now. We will be in chapter 18 and verse 7. Let me read us this striking verse of Scripture at this time.

Then the earth shook and trembled. The foundations also of the hills moved and were shaken, because He was wrath. Did you hear that, friends? God was wrath.

That means He was angry. This verse speaks of God's remedial judgments upon a society. He was displaying His just displeasure with sinful man.

Amos chapter 3 and verse 6 is something like this. It reads, Shall there be evil in a city, and the Lord hath not done it? Another translation reads the same verse. Shall there be calamity in a city, and the Lord hath not done it? Listen, friends.

An angry God will display His manifest displeasure upon a sinning people. And this nation of ours has become a God-hating nation. From the top to the bottom, this country is full of putrefying sores.

Atheists and perverts have taken over this country. And where is the church in all of this? She is silent and self-absorbed. But there was a time in this country years ago when the church stood up and paid attention to natural disasters, and they realigned themselves to a holy God.

Pastors of former generations were wiser and preached revival sermons to turn the hearts of the people back to God. Listen to a sermon preached by a leading pastor in Boston in 1755 when an earthquake shook that city, making some buildings crumble. Listen to the title of his sermon.

Earthquakes, the work of God, and tokens of His just displeasure being a discourse on that subject wherein is given a particular description of this awful event of providence made public at this time on occasion of the late dreadful earthquake which happened on the 18th of November, 1755. What do you think this pastor's text was? It was our text from Psalm 18 and verse 7, because he was wroth. The leading pastors of New England all preached similar sermons at that time.

They called their congregations to fast and pray and repent of their sins and to fall on their faces before the God of terrible majesty. There are three aspects I'd like to draw out from our theme this evening, friends, and I want to address these in relation to what our response as a church, as a nation, should be to these frequent natural disasters or these awful events of providence. I believe the church should awaken from her slumber.

She should rouse herself from her comfortable Christianity, and she should seek God's face in these desperate days when He is still wooing us back to Him through remedial judgments. Listen, friends, I'd like to call a moratorium on Sunday morning church as usual. Let's stop playing church and let's get serious with God.

Our response to God's displeasure on a sin in society is critically important at this sad juncture in human history. We should do the following. Number one, pastors should weep between the porch and the altar and lead their people in a time of solemn assembly.

Ministers should lead the people of God back to God in a serious time of seeking God's face. Turn in your Bibles, friends, to the book of Joel. I want to show you a passage where the religious leaders responded to God's just displeasure in their day.

Look at Joel in chapter 2, beginning in verse 15. Blow the trumpet in Zion. Sanctify fast.

Call a solemn assembly. Gather the people. Sanctify the congregation.

Assemble the elders. Gather the children and those that suck the breasts. Let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber and the bride out of her closet.

Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar and let them say, Spare thy people, O Lord, and give not thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them. Wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God? Listen, friends, this is exactly where we are today in this country. All the atheists and God-haters mock God and dare Him to do anything about it.

They cry out, Where is their God? As if He doesn't exist. And it's because the church has lost her influence upon society. She is a silent church in a sinful land.

She is an unrepentant church as well. And that brings us to my next point, number two. Our second response to God's just displeasure on society should be to do what the church refuses to do, and that is to repent.

Listen, friends, what this country needs more than anything else is not a new president. What this country needs is not a thriving economic system. What this country truly needs is to turn back to the God of the Bible.

This is our second response to God's just displeasure. Turn in your Bibles to 2 Chronicles. We're going to be in chapter 7. I want to read us verse 14.

It's a familiar verse of Scripture, but it's also the pattern for revival. If we would only comply with this text and do it. Listen, friends, as I read us now the word of God and how to turn back to him.

Does our land need healing? Does it? Then why won't we comply with this verse in all seriousness before our God? The last words Jesus had for the church's revelation was to repent, and God is calling this nation to repentance right now by voicing himself through his providence in natural disaster. Remember, friends, God does not always speak in words. God is speaking to America today.

Will she hear and respond as she should? Will this nation turn back to God? That leads me to my last point on what our response should be at this time. Our first response is to see God's face. Our second response is to repent.

And the third response is reformation. In America back in 1798, things were different back then. Things were different in the offices of the land.

Things were different because it was still a God-fearing society. It was still a godly country back in those days. In 1798, the president of this country led the way in turning the nation back to God in a time of reformation.

Listen to a newspaper article dated 1798. A discourse delivered in the First Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia on Wednesday, May 9, 1798, recommended by the president of the United States to be observed as a day of fasting, humiliation, and prayer throughout the United States of America. Oh, friends, how much more urgent is the great need for America today? In the Old Testament, we see illustrations of this very thing.

There were reformations under the leaderships of kings, under King Asa and King Hezekiah. They led the people back to a holy God, and there was a great reformation within the nation. Places of idolatry were destroyed.

The temple was cleansed of all things offensive to a holy God. Hezekiah cleaned out the temple, and he had the Levites take the offensive things down to the brook Kidron, and he burned them there. That's what we should do today in our churches and our land.

We should take out all the offensive things in our sanctuaries that displease a holy God and burn them. We need to realign ourselves back to the God of the Bible. As God speaks to us today, through natural calamities and remedial judgments, our response should be a seeking of him, a repentance toward him, and a reformation for him.

God will not tolerate a sin in society, if you don't believe me, friends. Just go read a history book on ancient Rome. Go read up on ancient Greece.

Take a look in the book of Genesis and see what happened to ancient Sodom and Gomorrah. It's all there in plain black and white. God's just displeasure on a sin of people can be final, if the people do not respond favorably to God.

When will America turn back to God? Will she ever turn back to God? When will the church cease all this foolishness and entertainment and get serious with God in a true seeking of his face in repentance, humility, and reformation? Heaven help us all. Let us pray.