God is in Control Job 12:16-25 CLICK TITLE FOR AUDIO

You and I hear over and over again that “We” need to do something about the condition of our country.  It’s all our fault, we are led to believe.  And then we are given various political strategies and objectives that we are to pursue in order to fix the country.  The folks who propagate this theory see our country’s demise as a political problem with moral consequences.  And the media get a large part of the blame for deceiving us.  Of course, part of the strategy is that we must donate money to those who through legal pressure and political pressure think they can stop the demise.

I see our country’s demise as a moral problem with political consequences. And that means that our individual part of the solution requires us to get in a right relationship with God.  You see, to the extent that you and I are living in a sinful way that brings reproach to this country we are at fault.  And you can’t blame the media or the politicians for this.  We made those choices and so we need to repent of our ways and turn back to righteousness.

Now, look at Job 12:16-25 and realize that in order to affect the legislative decisions, judicial decisions and the political decisions in this country you have to persuade God, not man.  God is in control.  No matter whom you elect, if God has it in for this country, we are going down.  The only way in the world to stop this from happening is for God to change his mind about what he is fixing to do to this country.  And the only way for him to change his mind is for us to humble ourselves and repent.  God is in control, not the politicians and the judges, though they think they are.  They are supposed to be working for God according to Rom 13.  When they aren’t, changing legislators and judges will do nothing, at all.  God will just drive them to destruction because he is in control.  Look what God does.

God is in control of:

Deceivers – Job 12:16 – when God is ready to put down a nation or a ruler, he simply controls the deceivers and, thus, those who are deceived – 1 Ki 22 – when God wants to he can control the media, the professors, the preachers or anyone else with influence and the only way you can discern that they are not telling the truth is with the Bible.

Counsellors – Job 12:17 – 2 Ki 24:12 – when God deals harshly with a country, the wealthy men behind the politicians who thought they were in control suddenly find themselves led away spoiled – it doesn’t make any difference which candidate they support.

Judges – Job 12:17 – Jn 19:11, Acts 2:23, Acts 3:13 – judges are to judge in the fear of the Lord – when they don’t then the Lord can intervene and control their judgments so that his will is done – we are talking about his destructive will.

Kings, Princes and Mighty Men – Job 12:18-19 – 2 Ki 25:27-30, 2 Chr 36:5-6, Ex 14:27-28 – there are times when the Lord promotes kings like Pharaoh or Nebuchadnezzar to inflict mortal damage on a country – and then are times when he takes men like them and he runs them down and destroys them and their countries with them [Dan 5] – don’t think for a moment that the politicians and their cronies are going to escape – for all you know, some of the bad ones who are there may have been put there by the Lord.

All these things, as well – in Job 12:20-25 the Lord will shut mouths, blind minds, contemn princes, weaken the mighty, discover deep things, bring things to light, increase nations and then destroy or straiten them, dishearten the people, cause them to wander in the wilderness and grope in the dark, and make them stagger like a drunk.  And when he does these things there is not one thing on this earth or in heaven you are going to do to stop him.  He is God.

I am sure that God’s judgment is on this country, though he hasn’t destroyed it yet.  And I believe that many of the things going on now are being orchestrated by the Lord.  Therefore, I believe that addressing these problems through the politicians is not going to avail much if anything.

Many Baptist preachers have just returned from Washington to pray with their congressmen and senators.  These representatives confess two things. One, they say that the only thing that will fix this country is a revival; they can’t.  Two, there are 100 of them that gather for prayer before each meeting.

We must not let these representatives be the only ones praying to the only God who can fix us.

Conclusion: You have three options at this point and none of them have anything to do with your vote.  You can get saved and/or right with God by repenting of your sins and yielding to the work of the righteousness of Jesus Christ within you.  Then you can start praying for all men and for those in authority [1 Tim 2:1-3].  Then you can start witnessing to the lost and sowing the seed of the word of God so that more people will escape their tragic eternity in hell and understand that the only righteousness is in Jesus Christ, not in political agendas.  What are you going to do?