Sermon: A Bird of Prey from the East, Isaiah 46.11

Don Ruhl

8 years ago

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A Bird of Prey from the East

What has happened in America to Christianity and what is taking its place?

Isaiah 46.11

Don Ruhl • Savage Street, Grants Pass, Oregon • In the year of our Lord, 2016

Song Leader and Song Suggestions: Kevin Michael – Songs on evangelism

Prelude:

Everyone acknowledges that Christianity does not have the influence
1. it used to have in America,
2. both nationally and locally,
3. both in the church and in the lives of Christians.
  1. What happened?
    1. What took its place or
    2. what could take its place?
  2. What can we do about it?
Each of us could offer our own ideas.
1. I would be among that number offering opinions.
2. Please consider what I offer to you today
  1. as I speak about the growing presence of Islam in America and
  2. that we need to be prepared for it
    1. whether we like it or not, and
    2. whether we think it is coming or not, because
      1. it is already here and
      2. we have to deal with it.

Persuasion:

Weakened Christianity
1. Christianity has lost its influence in America, Europe, and the Western World.
  1. We can blame society,
    1. saying that it has changed,
    2. which is true.
  2. We can blame the government,
    1. saying that they are making laws to silence God,
    2. which is true.
  3. However, the church in the first century
    1. exploded in growth and influence
    2. in a culture and with a government,
      1. much more hostile to Christianity
      2. than we believe the Western World is becoming toward us.
        
        How did they do it?
  4. Our brethren in the first century did not let their circumstances
    1. discourage them or
    2. frighten them, because they believed
      1. that they were the salt of the earth and the light of the world and
      2. that persecution meant
        
        heaven favored them and
        
        they would gain the attention of the world.
  5. Although small, they knew faith overcomes the world.
    
    4 For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And
    this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.
    5 Who is he who overcomes the world, but
    he who believes
    that Jesus is the Son of God?
    (1Jo 5.4–5).
2. What has happened to Christianity in America?
  1. We offer excuses.
  2. We bite and devour one another.
  3. We rival the Pharisees in nit-picking abilities.
  4. We believe everything has to be fun.
  5. We put other things first.
  6. We want preachers and teachers to tell us that the hard sayings of Scripture really do not mean what they appear to mean.
  7. We obsess over wanting to feel good about ourselves rather than having God feel good about us.
  8. We look for churches that will serve us rather than churches we can serve.
3. Therefore, we cannot attract the world and
  1. we cannot influence them.
  2. That does not surprise me.
    1. The world, therefore, attracts many people, even many Christians,
    2. pulling them away from the church.
The Void of Secularism
1. We capitulate to secular forces,
  1. even though we outnumber them.
  2. Just listen to us talk and we are defeated before we begin.
2. People in the world
  1. look at weakened Christianity, and
  2. look at the meaninglessness of secularism, but
    1. they hear secularism preach acceptance of Islam, amazingly, so then
    2. the world considers Islam, because
      1. Muslims are serious about their religion and their life.
      2. Are there mediocre Muslims?
        
        Sure, but it appears to me that the majority of them
        
        believe their religion and live it
        
        with all that is within them, and
        
        they do so
        
        fearlessly,
        
        evangelistically,
        
        zealously and passionately, although
        
        not according to knowledge.
3. What does the secularistic, materialistic world have to offer people
  1. who know that there is more to life
  2. than molecules and man?
4. What does a weak church have to offer people
  1. who want strong beliefs and actions in their lives,
  2. knowing that there is a God?
5. In the eyes of many in Western Society
  1. Christianity does not offer an alternative to secularism.
  2. Truly, many churches offer a Christianized secularism.
    1. They tried to Christianize psychology, but psychologized Christianity.
    2. They tried to Christianize fun, but made Christianity a joke.
    3. They tried to Christianize secularism, but secularized Christianity.
6. The secular world perverts freedom to mean law does not exist, but
  1. many in the world see the danger of that and
  2. turn to the church to find something powerful.
The Attraction of Islam
1. Islam takes a stand.
2. Muslims, for the most part, work together.
3. Islam frightens people.
  1. Does the world see us as a threat?
  2. What does the world have to fear from us?
    1. Then again perhaps the world does fear us, and
    2. that is why Western Culture has turned against Christianity,
      
      6 But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some brethren to the rulers of the city, crying out, “These who have turned the world upside down have come here too” (Acts 17.6).
4. Islam is fearless.
5. Islam means what it says and says what it means.
6. Therefore, Islam is growing at an alarming rate.
What Shall We Do About Islam?
1. Second Corinthians 10 teaches that we do not use worldly weapons.
  1. We leave that to the Muslims.
  2. We have weapons far greater than what they use.
    
    3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, 5 casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, 6 and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled (2Co 10.3–6).
    1. Are the weapons to which Paul referred truly mightier than the sword?
    2. The Roman sword fell silent and the Spirit’s Sword survives and thrives.
      1. The Spirit’s Sword will do the same today,
      2. if we get to know it,
        
        become comfortable using it, and
        
        live by it with our whole body, soul, mind, spirit, and heart.
A Bird of Prey from the East
1. How did Islam suddenly expand in America?
  1. When brother Dave Miller was here for our, “Silencing of God” seminar,
  2. he and I talked about an explanation and agreed
    1. that this explanation is a strong possibility and
    2. that the huge infusion of illegals from Mexico may also explain it.
2. Isaiah 46 records God speaking to Israel
  1. of the futility of the idols the nation had trusted.
  2. In verse 5, He asked them to what god they could compare to Him.
    1. Starting at verse 8, He wanted them to know what He could do,
    2. He could declare what would happen in the future, including this,
      
      11 “Calling a bird of prey from the east,
      The man who executes My counsel, from a far country.
      Indeed I have spoken it;
      I will also bring it to pass.
      I have purposed it;
      I will also do it.”
      (Isa 46.11)
      1. He revealed ahead of time that He would call Nebuchadnezzar,
      2. who would execute God’s will on Israel.
  3. Has God again called for a bird of prey from the East?
  4. What is He telling us with the invasion of Islam into America?
3. Another possibility: The church in America has resources
  1. that the church has never had available in the past in any nation.
  2. If we cannot go to them, (although countless Muslims want Christ),
    1. God can bring them to us.
    2. We may then convert them both Muslims and Mexicans, but
      1. if the church does not see the opportunity and only sees it politically,
      2. we will decrease and they will increase.

Exhortation:

Pray for Muslim lands.
1. Pray that they see the falsehood of Islam.
2. Pray that they open their hearts and doors for the word of God.
3. Pray that we be ready to go through those open hearts and doors!
Starting this Friday, October 14th,
1. we will have a seminar about Islam and
2. what you need to know and to do.
  1. Make plans to be here,
  2. not only for your sake, but
    1. for that of your children, and
    2. especially your grandchildren and great-grandchildren,
      1. they will have to deal with it more than we will and
      2. some of them might even convert to Islam!
        
        Are you ready for that?
Wise men from the East visited the infant Jesus, and
1. there shall be, and
  1. there already are,
  2. wise people in the East who want Jesus.
2. In Luke 13 Jesus prophesied,
  
  29 “They will come from the east and the west, from the north and the south, and sit down in the kingdom of God” (Luke 13.29).
  1. I want to be part of converting those who come from all those places,
  2. including those who come from the religion of the East.
    1. I do not want to hurt them in any way, but
    2. I want to see them use their zeal for Jesus Christ.
Will you join me?
1. Be here for our seminar.
2. Rededicate yourself to our Master and Teacher, the Lord Jesus Christ.
3. Become a Christian right now.

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