The Voice of Authority

There was a time in our nation, years ago, when there was still a fear of God in the land. And that fear was a monitor over the morals of society. I grew up in the 1950s, and things were different back then.

Back then, a man was a man, and a woman was a woman, and marriage was between a man and a woman. And parents didn't have to worry about what their kids saw on TV, because Hollywood had moral censors back then, because the churches still had authority and influence in the land. In 1960, a TV commercial was actually kept off the air, because it had an outhouse in it.

And when the Methodist Church got wind of that, they pressured Hollywood producers not to air that commercial, for they said it was offensive. And that commercial was buried. The church had authority and influence back then.

Even the I Love Lucy show was afraid to mention pregnancy, because what that would suggest to viewers. And TV husbands and wives slept in separate beds, because of that morality that was in the land back then. And if a woman went out in public half-naked, she was immediately arrested for indecent exposure, not like we have today.

And every day, in public school, before class, we children said the Pledge of Allegiance to the American flag with our hands over our hearts, and then we bowed our heads in prayer, while the teacher led the class in prayer. That was what it was like in America back then. Some of you remember it, but most of you look shocked by it.

But back then, we were a society that looked to God for guidance, and to the church for direction. In Psalm 24, we read, The earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof, the world, and they that dwell therein. For he hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods.

We seem to have forgotten about the majesty of God. We as a nation have turned our backs on God. But I don't blame the White House, because there's always been crooked politicians.

I don't blame the courthouse, because there's always been corrupt public officials. But I do blame the church house, because the churches have dropped the ball. We wanted to reach the world, so we invited the world into our church.

Look where that has gotten us. A church full of compromise and conformity. We gave our kids pizza nights and movie nights, and did everything we could to please and appease them.

And we gave them what they wanted, instead of giving them what they needed. And look where that has gotten us. Our kids grew up and left the church.

It seems everyone in charge today has lost their way. As society falls into moral chaos and spins out of control. I believe, friends, it's critically important to go back to our Bibles, to believe what's written there, and to look for God for guidance, and have faith in a big God who's able to do great things.

We need to clean house in our churches of all the worldly idols we have set up in there. Pastor, why in the world is there a flashing orb on a screen behind you when you preach? Are you the Wizard of Oz? Why have you turned your church into a disco club? Why have you quit singing hymns about the blood? And why don't you preach against sin and warn men and women about the dangers of damnation in the devil's hell? Why do you not inform your people of their duty of repentance and their utter necessity of regeneration that they must be born from above and washed in the blood if they want any hope of heaven? You know, it shouldn't be as hard as it is, friends, to find a decent Bible-believing church today where the people are real because they have the reality of God in their lives. But trying to find that can be as rare as finding Bigfoot.

Very few churches like that exist. How can a church turn a nation back to God when that church herself is out of step with God? Can a self-reliant church help anybody? I spent two months visiting a local church. I was there every time the door was open.

They had a godly pastor who believed his Bible and he taught his Bible. But the people there were as cold as ice. I went to church on Sunday morning, Sunday evening.

I attended the pastor's Bible study during the week. I got to know the people's names in that congregation of only 80 members, but they never got to know my name. They never bothered.

They would shake my hand reluctantly during the greeting time because they had to, but they didn't shake my hand because they wanted to. They made me feel like I was an intruder into their private club rather than a guest. Well, finally I quit going to that loveless church.

Do we have a problem with the church in America today or is it just my imagination? Why has God withdrawn himself from among us? When was the last time, friend, you felt the power of God in a meeting? The church must repent and experience revival before the nation can have revival. The church needs to regain its lost voice of authority. We read in Psalm 24, who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord or who shall stand in his holy place.

He that hath clean hands and a pure heart, who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity nor sworn deceitfully, he shall receive the blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation. Two things stand out in our text today, this matter of clean hands and a pure heart. Clean hands speaks of my relationship to my fellow man.

This is on the horizontal plane. I must not lie to others or deceive others or cheat others or steal from them. I must be honest in my dealings with my fellow man.

And a pure heart speaks of my relationship with God. And this is on the vertical plane. I must be honest with God and live in obedience to Him in pursuit of a life of holiness unto Him.

When the horizontal plane, which represents clean hands in my dealings with men, and the vertical plane of a pure heart represents my relationship to God as the one thing that's important. And when these two planes intersect, they form a cross and I see Jesus. The psalmist here is calling the people back to the God of the Bible.

He is saying to get right with God and to seek Him in prayer, to seek His face. Verse 6 states, This is the generation of them that seek Him, that seek Thy face, O Jacob, Selah. And in this psalm, friends, we are instructed to lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be lifted up, ye everlasting doors.

And if we do that, what happens next, friends? And the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. I submit to you, friends, that for the church to regain her voice of authority in the land, she must first repent and seek her first love, the Lord Jesus Christ, to find that sweetheart love for Jesus once again and seek His face in prayer and experience revival.

And the King of glory shall come in with a powerful spiritual awakening in the land that will turn this nation back to God and shake this nation from coast to coast. Let us pray.