Somebody Loves You

Raul Ries: The church is supposed to lead, to go into the darkness and pull people out of the darkness into the light. How? By preaching? No, by the way we live. At work, in the playground, in the gym, wherever it may be. In the mountains, in the ocean, or flying, or wherever I am, I'm supposed to be salt and light in a world that is perishing.

Guest (Male): Welcome to Somebody Loves You Radio, the Bible teaching ministry of Raul Ries in Diamond Bar, California. Thank you for being with us today for our continuing focus on the life-shaping freedom found in Jesus Christ. Today, Raul will challenge you to step out of your comfort zone and point people to Jesus as you pray for our nation's spiritual well-being. God may not have called you to preach sermons, but He does call you to be a consistent witness and intercede for others before His throne. Today's lesson is titled One Nation Under God. Here's Raul Ries.

Raul Ries: The Lord told me to turn to the book of Proverbs chapter 14, verse 34, and it says this: Solomon says, "Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people." Now, when I was reading the Proverbs and I came across this verse, immediately I began to think when we were attacked by radical Islam, and how they hijacked these airplanes and flew them into the Pentagon, the Twin Towers.

And yet at the same time, not to be angry, but as a Christian, to look at it in the biblical base. What does the Bible teach from this? Then I began to understand that God not only is in full control of what's taking place, but the Lord took me to the book of Deuteronomy. Turn to Deuteronomy chapter 28, a very important chapter for this morning.

Because according to Paul the Apostle in the book of Galatians chapter 6, 7, and 8, he says, "Do not be deceived, God is not mocked. For whatever a man sows, that will he also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life." I really believe that we as a nation are reaping today for not standing in righteousness.

And I'm talking to the church. I think it's really important that we understand that the church has become not only passive, but at the same time closed their eyes as Satan is deceiving the whole world and its leadership. The church. And yet, this is part of not only reaping and sowing, but I really believe that part of our reaping as the Muslim nations of the world are beginning to arise, that we need to teach our children and our grandchildren and the second and third into the fourth generation until Christ comes.

That we are in deep danger as Americans. Why? Because Americans are hated all over the world today. And surely we want to be not only open to the Holy Spirit, but I went back and I began to read the book of Deuteronomy. Now, the book of Deuteronomy is the fifth book of the Pentateuch: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy.

And there Moses, in concluding the book in 30 days before he dies, he wants to make sure in chapter 28, 29, and 30 that the people of God understand what the blessings of God are to the people of God that worship God in spirit and in truth. In obedience. The first 14 verses say that. But then in the next 50-some verses, 54 verses, he speaks of the cursings upon Israel because of their disobedience to God and His Word.

Now, where does the United States of America fit? Well, I'm going to give you the parallels this morning. Very important for us to understand the condition of America today in looking at Israel from the past to the present and looking to the future. And as I began to study the Old Testament, I remembered that the Pentateuch was given to Moses to write it in order to give it to the people of God so they would continue to follow in obedience to God's Word, so they would be a blessed nation, and they were supposed to be the light and salt to reach the world for God.

But they failed, just like we have failed. And what's incredible, what's incredible is you go through Deuteronomy and then you get to the book of Joshua. When Moses dies, he gives now the inheritance to Joshua. Joshua takes the people of God, they go across to the other side of the Promised Land. And by the time Joshua moves through the land and gets the victories in the name of Jehovah God and defeats his enemies, he comes to the end of his life like every one of us will one day.

And he opens up the scriptures and he gathers his wife and his children and all of the camp of Israel, and he says, "For me and my house, we have chosen to serve the Lord. Choose you this day who you're going to serve." And they answered and said, "We're going to serve God." Sounds great. Great expression of love and commitment to obedience.

But then all you have to do is turn the page and you come to the book of Judges chapter 2, verse 10, and it says, "And when that generation died, there arose another generation that did not know the Lord, but they worshipped Baal, Molech, Ashtoreth, and all the gods of the land." Their children and children's children.

As I look at America today, there are parallels, parallels to what's happening to our nation today. I don't think that the problem is in the world. The world has always been here. The problem is with the church. The church has become carnal and the church has lost its power and they need to return to their first love.

I really believe that with all my heart. I'm going to show you in a moment. And the reason I say that is because the church is supposed to be salt and light. The church is supposed to lead, to go into the darkness and pull people out of the darkness into the light. How? By preaching? No, by the way we live.

By the way we live. Our testimony, our witness, the power of the Holy Spirit over my life, at work, in the playground, in the gym, wherever it may be. In the mountains, in the ocean, or flying, or wherever I am, I'm supposed to be salt and light in a world that is perishing, fully perishing.

So when Moses began to write chapter 28, 29, and 30, he already was spoken by God, and God said, "This is what's going to happen. I want to warn my people before it happens." Why? Because God sees the heart. So what does He do? He takes chapter 28, 29, and 30, and He gives them the blessings and the cursings and judgment of God that will come if they don't obey God's Word. If they don't do what God says.

Check this out in the book of Deuteronomy now. The first thing that we have is the blessings of God. So I'm going to give you the blessings and I'm going to make a parallel here. Number one, in chapter 28, verse 3, we have the cities and the farms that are very successful because the people of God are worshipping God. The blessing is there. He says, "Blessed shall you be in the city and blessed shall you be in the country." So God is speaking of blessing through obedience.

Secondly, Israel will produce many children. God will bless the womb of the women to repopulate their nation, because God has a purpose for a nation. What have we done? We've killed our babies. We've killed our babies. Israel later on killed their babies in the arms of Molech, the god of abortion.

Here in Deuteronomy chapter 28, 4, he says, "Blessed shall be the fruit of your body, the produce of your ground, and the increase of your herds, and the increase of your cattle, and the offspring of your flocks." So I'm going to bless you with children, I'm going to bless you with harvests and lots of crops, and I'm going to bless your livestock that have young. I'm going to multiply you.

Then he said, "I'm also going to bless you in having plenty to eat. No famine." He says in chapter 28, verse 5, "Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl." Notice that. You're going to be blessed in all of the food supply. And then Israel would be blessed in every daily work, will succeed. Verse 6 of chapter 28, "Blessed shall you be when you come in, blessed shall you be when you go out." Coming in, going out, the blessing of God is upon you.

And then in Deuteronomy 28, 10, Israel will be able to defeat their enemies. Remember that. Defeat their enemies. Deuteronomy 28, 10, "Then all the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by my name, the Lord God, and they shall be afraid of you." And then notice, and then when they are afraid of you, and you shall defeat your enemies. You shall defeat your enemies.

And then think about this. Israel will receive rain at a proper time. There won't be a drought. God will bless. Deuteronomy 28, 12, "The Lord will open to you His good treasure, the heavens, to give you rain on your actual land in its season, and to bless all the work of your hand. You shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow." Wow. Does that sound familiar today? You shall not borrow.

You'll hear the cursing in a moment. Israel also will have plenty of money and lend to other people. He says in verse 12 again, "The Lord will open His good treasure, the heavens, to give rain to your land in its season, and to bless all the work of your hand. You shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow."

Now check this out. Israel would be the leader of the nations, not the nations leading Israel. Verse 13, "And the Lord will make you the head and not the tail. You shall be above only, not be beneath, if you listen to my commandments and you obey the Lord your God, which I command you today, and are careful to observe them, then you'll lead and people will follow. You'll be on top and you won't be on the bottom." That's the blessings of God.

He comes down in chapter 28, in verse 16, he says the first thing that will happen is your cities and your farms will fall. First thing will fall. Deuteronomy 28:16, "Cursed shall you be in the city and cursed shall you be in the country." Secondly, there would be not enough to eat. Deuteronomy 28:17, "Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl." Think of how much food has increased in price, where in the book of Revelation it says that a loaf of bread will be forty dollars a loaf in the tribulation period.

How about this one? He says there would be not enough to eat, but there will be a reduction in producing children. In producing children. Deuteronomy 28:18, "Cursed shall be the fruit of your body and the produce of your land, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks." So their livestock, their children, everything would be cut back in the cursings of God.

And then their efforts will be confused. "Cursed shall you be when you come in, cursed shall you be when you go out. The Lord will send on you a cursing, confusion, rebuke in all that you set your hand to do until you are destroyed, and until you perish quickly because of the wickedness of your doings in which you have forsaken me." Remember, when you read the book of 1st and 2nd Kings, what happened? The northern kingdom of Israel that lived up in Tel Dan in the north, the first thing that happened after a hundred years of serving God and worshipping the golden calves by Jeroboam the king, God allowed Assyria to come down and defeat the northern kingdom of Israel and take them into captivity and they were done.

And then 120 years later, you think that Judah and Jerusalem would have learned, but they didn't. What happened? King Nebuchadnezzar God used to bring three sieges against the city of Jerusalem and eventually taking the people of God a thousand miles away for 70 years in captivity. You say, "Could that happen to us?" Oh, yes, it can. To your children's children. Look what's happened to America. Look what's going on in the world today. Don't be blind.

Listen to what the Word of God says. He also said, not only captivity, he says there'll be curses of disease. Notice what he says, and there'll be a lot of suffering. Deuteronomy 28:21, "The Lord will make the plague cling to you until He has consumed you from the land which you are going to possess. The Lord will strike you with consumption, with fever, inflammation, with severe burning fever, with the sword, with scorching, with mildew. They shall pursue you until you perish. Then the Lord will strike you with boils of Egypt, with tumors, with the scab, with the itch, from which you cannot be healed. You won't be able to be healed."

And then in verse 35 he says of chapter 28, "The Lord will strike you in your knees and on your legs with severe boils which cannot be healed, and from the sole of your foot to the top of your head." From the bottom all the way to the top. God is going to strike you.

And then how about the droughts and the windstorms and sandstorms? Deuteronomy 28:24, "The Lord will change the rain in your land to powder and dust. From the heavens it shall come down on you until you are destroyed." And then how about this one? They will be defeated by their enemies and scattered across the land. Check this out. Deuteronomy 28:25, "The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You shall go out one way against them and you'll flee seven ways before them, and you shall become troublesome to all the kingdoms of the earth." Wow, does that sound familiar today? People hate us.

And then he said this. They will experience insanity, blindness, and confusion. Deuteronomy 28:28 and 34, "The Lord will strike you with madness and blindness and confusion of heart, so you shall be driven mad because of the sight which your eyes see."

And then he said their plans for their normal activities of life will be shattered. Deuteronomy 28:30, "You shall betroth a wife, but another man shall lie with her wife. You shall build a house, but you shall not dwell in it. You shall plant a vineyard, but you shall gather not the grapes." Why? Because other people will take over your houses and your land and everything else and your children will be in bondage to them.

And then they will have to, check this out lastly, they will have to borrow money. Listen, Deuteronomy 28:44, "He shall lend to you, but you shall not lend to him. He shall be the head and you shall be the tail." We're going to have to go out and borrow money because we're not self-sufficient anymore. And they're not going to be the tail, they're going to be the head and we're going to be the tail.

I think God has spoken so clearly through His Word. And then at the same time, think thirdly of God's answer to the church. What is the answer for the church today? Revelation 2:4, check this out, "Nevertheless," John said, Jesus is speaking, "I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Remember therefore from where you've fallen, repent and do your first works, or else I, Jesus, will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place unless you repent." So the only way that God can bless the church is if the church returns to its first love. That's the only way.

And then remember Solomon, 2nd Chronicles 7:14, check this out, "If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves, pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I, God, will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. And now by the way," he says, "my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayer made in this place. For now I have chosen and sanctified this house that my name may be there forever. My eyes, my heart will be there perpetually. As for you, if you walk before me as your father David walked and do according to all that I have commanded you, and if you keep my statutes and judgments, then I, God, will establish the throne of your kingdom and I have covenanted with David your father saying, 'You shall not fail to have a man as ruler in Israel.'

But if you turn away and forsake my statutes and my commandments which I have set before you today, and go and serve other gods and worship them, then I will uproot them from my land which I have given them, and this house which I have sanctified for my name I will cast out of my sight and I will make it a proverb and a byword among the people of God."

Listen, Nebuchadnezzar came, destroyed the house of God. 70 AD, Titus the Roman general came and destroyed the house of God. And ever since, the promises of God and cursings of God have been given, Israel has been what? Under the judgment of God into the future. Man, God is speaking loud and clear to the church today. The church has become the Corinthian church. The Corinthian church, the church that doesn't walk by the Holy Spirit of God.

I wrote this down. I went to the book of Daniel chapter 5. When King Belshazzar, remember, took all the utensils of the temple, his grandpa took them, he sat at this big orgy going on and all of a sudden a hand came out and started writing on the wall. This is what was written: Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin. Mene means God has numbered your kingdom and finished it. Tekel, you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting. Peres, your kingdom has been divided and given to the Medes and the Persians.

The judgment of God came. Why? The handwriting was on the wall. That very night the King Belshazzar was killed and they came in, the Medes and the Persians invaded the land and took over the kingdom. And they ruled for the next 200 years. Babylon ruled for 70 years, Medes and Persians for 200 years, Alexander the Great for 200 years his kingdom, and the Roman Empire for 1500 years. And at the end the Bible says what? A revived Roman Empire is coming, called the Federal Community of Europe, the Common Market. In the last days. Here we are.

Guest (Male): We hope you've been inspired today to stand before the Lord on behalf of our nation, asking Him to change hearts and draw people to Himself so that they can know Him as Savior and Lord. You're listening to Somebody Loves You Radio with Raul Ries. Our study today was titled One Nation Under God. To get an unedited version, just call us at 800-634-9165 and for a donation of five dollars or more, we'll send one to you.

As you think about the power of faith-filled prayer, we'd also like to tell you about Raul's four-part Liberty series, available on either CD or USB. Each lesson underscores our responsibility as believers to share our hope and freedom in Christ. Grounding you in the assurance of God's rescue from sin, you'll see that this life-changing confidence should never be kept to yourself. To purchase Raul's four-lesson series, Celebrating Our Spiritual Liberty, visit somebodylovesyou.com or call 800-634-9165. We'll send you the CD set for eighteen dollars or the flash drive for just ten dollars. The number again is 800-634-9165. Our mailing address is Somebody Loves You Radio, PO Box 4440, Diamond Bar, California 91765. Thank you for your partnership. This ministry is completely listener-supported. Your gifts help us keep sharing the wisdom of God's eternal Word. Next time on Somebody Loves You Radio, we'll continue this series with clarification that spiritual liberty does not translate into freedom to sin. The truth is, God calls us to a life of righteous obedience. Here's Raul with a closing comment.

Raul Ries: I like what Luke chapter 12, 48 says. Jesus said, "To whom much is given, from him much more will be required." What does that mean? Israel had been given privilege above all other nations. And therefore her accountability was greater, notice, greater, and her punishment was even greater. To much is given, much more will be required. Church, we need to repent. We need to return to the Lord and be obedient in every area of our lives so that God can pour out His blessings and not His cursings.

Guest (Male): This program is sponsored by Somebody Loves You Radio in Diamond Bar, California.