And it has perhaps weakened the habit of going to church. Will it return? I don't know. I can't reverse all those consequences of a church in shut down mode, but I wanted to remind you of what a traditional sermon sounds like. So, what you're going to hear now is a message from a few weeks ago delivered by Dr. Don Wilton. He's senior pastor at First Baptist Church in Spartanburg in South Carolina. That's a church he's led for more than 25 years. As I said at the top of the program, this is a powerful message that I hope will be an inspiration to you and your family.
Dr. Don Wilton: 2 Chronicles, chapter 7 and verse 11, "Thus Solomon finished the house of the Lord and the King's house. And Solomon successfully accomplished all that came into his heart to make the house of the Lord and in his own home. And the Lord appeared to Solomon by night and said to him, 'I've heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice. When I shut up the heavens and there is no rain, or I command the locusts to devour the land, or I send a virus to come down upon the people and pestilence, if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. Now, my eyes will be open. 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, and my eyes and my heart will be there perpetually.
As for you, if you walk before me as your father David walked, and do according to all I have commanded you, and if you keep my statutes and my judgments, then I will establish your throne and your kingdom as I covenanted with David, your father, and saying you shall not fail to have a man as ruler over Israel. But, if you turn away from me and if you forsake my statutes and my commandments, which I have set before you, and if you go and serve other gods and worship them, then I will uproot you from my land which I've given them. And this house, the church, the tabernacle, which I've sanctified for my name, I will cast out of my sight. And furthermore, I will make my name a proverb and a byword among all people.
And as for this house, which is exalted, everyone who passes by it will be astonished and say why has the Lord done thus to this land and to this house? They will answer because they forsook the Lord, the God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt and embraced other gods and worshiped them and served them. Therefore, he has brought all this calamity upon them.'" May the Lord write this Word that we battle to preach, that we don't want to deal with. May the Lord write by his Spirit this word upon our hearts. This is God's bottom line. Yes, the bottom line. The bottom line is if we humble ourselves and we pray and we seek God's face and we turn and repent from our wicked ways, the bottom line is that God will do three things for us.
He will hear us from heaven, He will forgive us for our sin, and He will heal our land. That's what He says. So, my question today is, "Why?" I'm just going to answer this in very simplistic terms today. Why from heaven? There is number one. Why from heaven? Let me give you three reasons why God, according to the Scriptures, teaches us that He will hear us from heaven. Number one, because that is where the throne is. This is where God's throne is. You can go with me, I know we don't need to spend a lot of time on this, but if you go in the Bible to Revelation chapter 4... Revelation Chapter 4 is a marvelous passage because it tells us what happens when Jesus comes in the clouds.
And when Jesus comes in the clouds, all of those of us who are alive on this earth are going to be caught up and we're going to meet those who are already in heaven. Isn't that fantastic? Do you know that every single believer like your mom, my mother, fathers, brothers, sons, daughters, who have already passed away who loved Jesus, they went instantly into the presence of the Lord Jesus. And there's going to come a time that God is going to give the word and Jesus is going to come out of heaven, out from heaven, and he's going to be in the clouds and those of us who are still alive, we're going to be caught up and we're going to meet them in the air. And when we meet Jesus and all our loved ones in the air, he's going to turn around and he's going to take us back into heaven, right there where the throne is.
Revelation 4 tells us about this. "After these things," John said, "I looked and behold a door standing open in heaven. The first voice I heard was like a trumpet speaking to me saying, 'Come up here and I will show you the things that now will take place.'" Watch this, "Immediately," John says, "I was in the spirit and behold there was a throne set in heaven, and there was one who sat upon it." This is the God of our fathers, the God of Abraham and the God of Jacob, and he who sat upon it shone with a brilliance such as which you and I cannot possibly imagine. Why will God hear us from heaven? Because this is where the throne is, all authority, power.
I will hear you from heaven, God says, not only because this is where the throne is, I will hear you from heaven because this is where our High Priest sits. You've got it right, you heard it right. This is where our High Priest sits. Mark chapter 16, verse 19, the Bible tells us that after Jesus ascended, he ascended to be seated at the right hand of the Father. Isn't that beautiful? Hebrews Chapter 8 and verse 1, God's word tells us we have such a High Priest who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in heaven. Isn't that fantastic? Romans Chapter 8 and verse 34, "Jesus who died and then was raised by the power of God is now at the right hand of God, making intercession for you and me." It's God's bottom line.
You and I humble ourselves and pray and seek his face and turn from our wicked ways, He will hear us from heaven. Why heaven? Because this is where the throne of God is, that's why. Because this is where our High Priest is seated. You see, when Jesus came, the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom when He died upon the cross, when He paid the price for our sin. Up unto that point, according to the law, the mosaic law, the only person who could go into the Holy of Holies into the presence of God was the High Priest. No more. Jesus is our intercessor. He's our mediator. He is the one who mediates. He's the one who enables us to become fully and completely reconciled to a holy and a righteous God. And guess what? Get this, get this, we've got problems. We got problems and He says he'll hear us from heaven because our High Priest is seated at the right hand of the father, right there at the throne of God. One with God.
And He is interceding on our behalf. Wow. Lord hear us from heaven. Why? Well, number three, because this is where God tells us to go, that's why. It's what God says. It's the bottom line. We don't need a meeting. We don't need to call anybody together. We don't need to wait for a theological pronouncement. It's settled. God's bottom line, I will hear you from heaven. This is where the throne of God is. This is where our High Priest is seated. And this is where God tells us we got to go. He told us I will hear you from heaven and I will forgive your sin. Why forgive? Why forgive our sin? Well, you and I know don't we, that unless we're forgiven of our sin we can never have fellowship with the Lord because he's holy, we can never be reconciled to God. And get this folks, if you're not forgiven of your sin you cannot and will not go to heaven. It doesn't matter how nice the things are that are said at your funeral service.
God's Word is abundantly clear. You're either for God or you're against God. There's no hovering between the two. But I've got to ask the question, according to what God's Word is teaching us, why do we need to be forgiven? Well, He tells us in 2 Chronicles. This is going to be tough. Here's why we need to be forgiven, America. Here's why we need to be forgiven, church believers. Because the Bible tells us in verse 20 that what happened to Israel will happen to us. First of all, because God will uproot us. God will uproot us. That's what he says in verse 20, I will uproot them. The thing about world powers is that world powers believe that they are perpetually world powers. You know how many world powers have begun right, and have turned their backs on God and they become uprooted.
The word uproot carries with it a systematic disintegration. We're talking spiritually here. An imploding takes place. To uproot something means to tear it out by its roots because the things that matter don't matter anymore. Why do we need to be forgiven? Because if we're not forgiven, God will uproot us. I'm telling you, my friends, God has had his hand of blessing on America, of that there is no doubt. And we sing about it. One of my favorite songs to sing is God Bless America. Is that a perpetual blessing that God's going to do for America regardless of how we behave toward God? Does God bless America because we're big, because we're strong? What is the reason, what is He telling us, what is God's bottom line? We need to be forgiven, personally, individually. It begins with me.
It's about us. Forgive us. Lord, we want to turn completely 100 degrees away from ourselves and 100 degree toward you, forsaking ourselves and taking hold of you, oh God. And God is telling us the bottom line. If you don't turn from your wicked way, I will uproot you. But furthermore, why forgive, because if we're not forgiven God will turn away from us. He will not only uproot us, but He will turn away from us. Look what He says here. He says, "I will cast them out of my sight." On a human level, have you ever really cared for someone, loved someone, and they won't look at you when you talk to them? I remember one time a year or so ago where a young lady just happened to get into conversation with me in our church and her heart was broken. And I just remember her saying to me in the corridor one day, she said, "Dr. Wilton, I know that something's wrong because he won't look at me anymore." She loved this young man, and all of a sudden, whatever happened, happened, and she picked it up just because he wouldn't look at her.
Is it silly for me to say that I just love looking at my wife Karen? How many times do we not use the phrase with those that we love, "It's just so lovely to see you." God says, "I will turn my face from you." We cannot survive if God turns his face from us, God takes his eyes off us. As soon as God takes his eyes, his face away from us, something serious is wrong. We lose his intimacy and his touch. Why forgive? Because God will uproot us, because God will turn away from us. But the third one is just staggering. Why do we need to be forgiven? What's the bottom line? Because without forgiveness, God will perpetually remind us.
God will perpetually remind us. Do you know what He tells us here? He will turn his name into a proverb and a byword. It's right there in the Scriptures. He says, "I will take my name and I will make my name a proverb and a byword." If you're not forgiven of your sin, this is what I'm going to do. I'm going to make my name a proverb. What's a proverb? It's a general word, is it not, expressing a perceived truth. The name Jesus in your community, in your world, will become nothing more than a general proverb that perceives a truth. Why do we need forgiveness? Why America? God will perpetually remind us if we're not forgiven.
You know how he'll do that? He'll turn his name into a proverb and a byword. He will be on every second person's lips, even to describe the line they have to stand in at the shopping mall. God's name will be bandied around like a ping pong ball played from one table to the next. This is God, this is our Lord Jesus Christ who gave his life for us that we might have life. So, why do we need healing and heal our land? Why do we need healing? We need healing because we've turned away from God. That's what verse 19 says, if you turn away. We've turned away. We're turning so rapidly away from God we can hardly stand ourselves. That's why we need healing. These are undeniable truths. These are the facts, America. The fact is we are turning away from God.
That's why we need his healing. Number two, because we have forsaken his commandments. That's what He tells us in verse 7. If you turn away, number two, if you forsake my statutes and my commandments. I'm just telling you what God says. You can go through all the commands. You can start in the Old Testament, write them down. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. How are we doing America? Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. How are you doing? How are you doing? How are we doing America? Remember the Sabbath day, the Lord's day, to keep it holy. The Lord's day in America is just another day during which time there are so many of us believers who, if it's convenient, we fit in God. But if it's more than an hour, boy, do we get upset about it. How about no adultery? Thou shalt not commit adultery. How you doing?
Thou shalt not steal. Do you know, lay aside the Old Testament, go into the New Testament, the New Testament is replete with the statutes and commands of the Lord. What does it mean to forgive others? What does it mean to be meek in your spirit? Go to the Beatitudes, go into the Pastoral Epistles. You and I, all of us, what does it mean? God's word, the bottom line, He says, "Listen, you need healing." Why do we need healing? Because we've turned away from God, because we've forsaken his commands. But thirdly, because we are worshiping other gods. We are a nation of god worshipers. The little gods are running rampant with all of us. We're worshiping our clothes. We worship our shops. We worship our football teams. We worship our barbecues and our holidays. We worship our wellbeing. We worship so many things, we just worship them. They've become the new gods of our lives: our materialism, our possessions, our ability, our intellect. God says, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." That's what God said.
Dr. Dobson: Well, this is Dr. James Dobson again. And that was, as you heard, a very spirited end to this edition of Family Talk. Our speaker today was Dr. Don Wilton, senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Spartanburg, South Carolina. You can get more information about him and about his church and ministry by visiting drjamesdobson.org. Before we go, I want to encourage you to request a copy of my July newsletter. As you know, I write a letter once a month and I pour my heart and soul into those letters, sometimes spending a whole week on them because they're researched and documented and they have what I care about most. But this letter really relates to the topic that we heard talked about today and the rampant immorality that threatens our way of life. You can get a copy of it. In fact, you can be on our mailing list by simply calling (877) 732-6825 or by going to drjamesdobson.org.
That number again is (877) 732-6825 or by visiting drjamesdobson.org. Well, that's all the time we have for today. Thank you for joining us and for supporting this ministry. God's blessings to you all.
Announcer: This has been a presentation of the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute.
Roger Marsh: Hey everyone, Roger Marsh here. When you think about your family and where they will be when you're no longer living, are you worried? Are you confident? Are you hopeful? What kind of legacy are you leaving for your children and their children? Here at Family Talk we're committed to helping you understand the legacy that you're leaving for your family. Join us today at drjamesdobson.org for helpful insights, tips, and advice from Dr. James Dobson himself. And remember, your legacy matters.