“9/11…What Have We Learned?”
Hebrews 12:25-29

INTRODUCTION

• 234 years ago 55 men committed their lives and fortunes to the idea that a country (The United States of America) could live by the principles of liberty and justice for all.
• Nearly all of those 55 men whose signatures are on the constitution lost their lives, their wealth or both in defense of those ideas.
• All 55 of those men were members of churches and professed to be followers of Jesus Christ.
• But the reality is… none of those 55 men would even recognize America today!
• Christians, God’s people have been sleeping.
• Our nation has become less sensitive to Satan’s evil plans. Let me explain…

1. We now tolerate killing our children (abortion) and we call it ”freedom of choice.” Let the woman decide to keep the baby or not, it should be her choice.
2. We tolerate the homosexual agenda and call it ”diversity.” Everybody is different, we must accept that fact and not look down of homosexuals.
3. We tolerate paganism (worship of other gods) and call it ”multiculturalism.” We must allow other people to worship their own god.
4. We tolerate the killing of the elderly and sick and call it ”compassion.” Our nation has no respect for the elderly anymore. We allow doctors to let older people to kill themselves for the sake of compassion. Our insurance companies are getting less helpful to the elderly (unless they are rich).
5. Virtue (goodness and righteous) is now ridiculed and made fun of.
6. Evil is praised. When someone does something bad, they get a slap on the wrist from our court system and then freed. Even our president elect have openly dodged crimes.
7. Our God-given morals are so decayed (rotten) that people call you “narrow minded” if you try to uphold a high moral standard.

• But like a loving parent who gently shakes a child to wake them up or get their attention, God is shaking the world today in an attempt to wake us up for our sins and the decay of our nation.
• The shaking will become more and more severe if American doesn’t wake up soon!
• 9/11 …What have we learned?

I. What We Already Know

   A) God expects His children to obey

• The author to the book of Hebrews is unknown.
• Whoever wrote it was inspired by God to address it to 2 groups of Jews…

1. Believers- In God and Christ Jesus
2. Unbelievers – Those who did not believe in the “gospel.”

• The primary group addressed here in Hebrews was to the Hebrew Christians that suffered persecution and rejection by fellow Jews (Heb. 10:32-34)
• These Hebrew Christians were often tempted to hang on to their old habits, rituals, traditions of the church and Jewish faith.
• This letter to the Hebrews was to encourage them.
• Regardless of all this History and to whom this letter is written, we must use this as a standard for all Christians to follow.
• Look at our text verse of Hebrews 12:25…See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not when they refused him that warned them on earth, much more shall not we escape who turn away from him that warneth from heaven:
• This letter to the Hebrews was reminding them of the law they were to obey in Exodus 19:12…And thou shalt set bounds unto the people round about, saying, Take heed to yourselves, that ye go not up into the mount, or touch the border of it: whosoever toucheth the mount shall be surely put to death:
• When God spoke to the children of Israel, Mt. Siani shook, an earthquake occurred. (Hebrews 12:26, 27)
• May I remind you that when God’s people (or nation) do not follow Him he speaks to them by earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, and even by invasions or attacks by other countries.
• On September 10^th, 2001, life was as usual. God was ignored, God was not mentioned in our government, our newspapers, our schools. In fact God was removed from our country.
• On September 11^th, 2001 God brought judgment through an attack on our country by some radical extremist terrorist group for Allah.

B) God Chastens (spanks, punishes) Those He Loves

• In the same chapter (12) of Hebrews, look up at verses 6-8…
• 6) For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, And scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If you are suffering the punishment or spanking of God…Be thankful, be grateful. Why? Because then you know that you are His child and that He (God) loves you.
• God continues to enlighten us with this letter to the Hebrews in verse 7)If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?
• The word “endure” in the Greek is hypomenō. It means…to stay under, to be patient and live by.
• So God is telling us to be patient through His testing, His chastening, His spanking of us. Have faith in Him that it is for our benefit.
• Here is the great part…8) But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.
• What is a “bastard?” It is a child that does not belong to you. God does not spank or punish children that do not belong to Him.
• So in summary, this is what we already know….

1. God has Laws for us to live by.
2. When we belong to Him, we will be punished
3. When we do not belong to him we will not be punished.

 II. God Shakes the Earth To Wake Us Up

   A) Just as He did In Exodus

• Hebrews 12:26… Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. 27) And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.
• These verses are going back to Exodus when God shook Mt. Siani as He spoke to them.
• This is a New Testament book (Hebrews) and I believe that we need to take heed whether it be N.T. or O.T.

   B) God sent a letter to Nineveh

• In the book of Nahum 1, look at verse 2) God is jealous, and the LORD revengeth; the LORD revengeth, and is furious; the LORD will take vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his enemies.
• Note verse 5)  The mountains quake at him, and the hills melt, and the earth is burned at his presence, yea, the world, and all that dwell therein. 6) Who can stand before his indignation? and who can abide in the fierceness of his anger? his fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by him.
• All these verses show us that God gets jealous when we serve other gods. He gets jealous when our attention is focused on things that He did not establis
• 7) The LORD is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in him.
• In other words… God is saying.. “I’m not stupid. I know who those people are who truly follow me, trust in me and do as I say.”
• Remember the words of Jesus when He said in John 10:27…My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:
• Now I ask you folks… “Do you think that America is on track to follow God?” NO! It is not. In fact we are like Israel in that we continue to struggle to make God our one and only source of strength in time of need.

   C) God sent a letter to Jerusalem

• In Matthew 27:50…Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. 51) And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent;
• God here is sending a message to His people in Jerusalem… “This is my Son whom you rejected.”
• God was trying to wake up His people.
• Did they wake up or go back to sleep? They are still asleep. They still do not accept Jesus Christ as their Saviour.

 III. What Have You Learned?

   A) America was attacked… “Did it change us?”

• In answer to the question “Did America change?” NO!
• In fact we became worse.
• Crime is up, immorality is up, paganism is up, spirituality is down, God’s Law is abandoned, man’s law is lifted above God’s Law.
• Did America change? Yes. It changed to become worse.
• Will it change? I doubt it. We are rolling downhill like a snowball headed for hell.
• In our text of Hebrews 12:29… For our God is a consuming fire.
• There are many who shout and say “God is Love.” But they forget the more important words of caution… “..our God is a consuming fire.”

   B) What have you learned since 2001?

• Are you changed?
• Don’t stand there all pious and holy and accuse other Americans of not changing when we ourselves have done nothing to help change America.