Katrina/Rita: Mother Nature or Father God? #2

Introduction: Preaching to a Wider Audience and Prayer

0:02 The following sermon was delivered on Sunday morning, October 2, 2005, at Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now, in just a moment, I will again lead us to the throne of grace in prayer, but I want to give a word of explanation concerning the fact that I plan to do something in my preaching this morning that, to my knowledge, I have never done in all the 43 years I have been among you as a people. So, I will be bringing the second installment of the message dealing with a biblical perspective on Katrina and Rita,

0:45 and realizing that this immediately goes on the Internet, and we've had a number of downloads from last week, and that in God's providence there may be men and women, boys and girls, who have actually been directly affected by these hurricanes, or people who may have relatives who have. I'm going to make some applications. I'm going to make some applications to them that are not going to be made directly to you. Now, I've never done that because my commitment has been, whatever God may do with the tapes over the years, and now the CDs and the DVDs, etc.,

1:22 that you, God's people, would never be a prop for that ministry. And that's been a matter of strict conscience with me, but as I have prayerfully considered how God might use His Word, to the salvation of sinners, I judge that it could mean one more step in the direction of effectively getting to the conscience and to the hearts of some who may be unconverted, who may hear these messages, who have been directly affected. So, I want you to know what I'm doing and why I am doing it, and I trust that none of you will take offense, but that you will sit there and pray, Lord, if this is an arrow going particularly,

2:05 to some heart, then use it. And I would ask you to share with me in that concern. And then I'm neglected to pray for Pastor Jay, who is helping our brethren at North Bergen with Pastor Pinheiro away again. They've asked for pulpit help, and he is preaching there this morning.

2:23 So, as I pray for God's blessing upon the ministry here, we're going to remember Pastor Jay as well. Let's pray together. Holy Father, we have already sought Your face for a number of things, this morning, and yet we are so grateful that we read nothing in Your Word to discourage us from coming again and asking again, because our need is so extensive and so great. And as we come with our special need for the Spirit's presence and help upon the ministry of the Word, we pray that You will hear our cry,

3:05 and as a loving Father, delight to give the Holy Spirit to us, Your asking children. And what we ask for ourselves, we ask for Pastor Jay and Your dear people there in North Bergen. And we thank You, Lord, there is more than enough of Your grace and Your presence and power to come to all of Your people throughout the whole wide earth. And we bless You that You never exhaust Your grace.

3:33 And so we look to You that that grace will be upon them and upon us and upon those who may subsequently hear this message, that it may be instrumental in bringing them out of darkness and into Your marvelous light. Hear us then, we plead, in the expectation of faith and in our childlike dependence upon Your grace. Amen.

Recap of Previous Sermon: God's Sovereignty, Curse, and Purposes

4:00 Katrina and Rita, names that we heard almost day and night up until two weeks, a week and a half ago, the names that are already beginning to be ignored in the newscasts and in ordinary conversation. However, as the devastation and wreckage left in their wake remains, so we as God's people ought to be determined to learn at least some of the lessons that these attention-getting natural disasters should teach us. And my message this morning is the second of two sermons on the subject,

4:44 Katrina and Rita, children of Mother Nature or of Father God. Which were they and why were they born? In the first message, last Lord's Day, I said by way of introduction that this subject must not be addressed in a cold, detached, and theologically clinical way. Rather, it must be addressed with humility, with tenderness, but with bitterness.

5:17 It must not be addressed in a cold, detached way, for that would to be ungodly. And yet it must be addressed, for that were to be cowardly, and to give way to all of the humanistic terminology and perspectives attached to these two events that have captured our national mind and soul. And so I sought to lay a solid, solid foundation last Lord's Day by asserting and then demonstrating from numerous scriptures, first of all,

5:57 that ours is a world under the sovereign control of God at all times, in all places, and with reference to all events. Of Him, through Him, and unto Him are all things to whom be glory forever, and ever. Amen. Secondly, I sought to demonstrate from a number of scriptures that ours is a world under the righteous curse of God because of man's sin.

6:33 The world that God made, He beheld it, and it was all very good. No typhoons, no tornadoes, no tsunamis, no disruptive earthquakes, all very good. But the world that God made, but when sin entered, God says in Genesis 3 that He curses the ground for man's sake. And in Romans 8, 20 to 22, we have a clear declaration that this present world order is not what it originally was and not what it shall be when the Lord Jesus returns and glorifies His saints

7:15 and when sin is no longer attached to man, even in God's world, God's world will be delivered from all the effects of the curse and we will enter the new heavens and the new earth wherein dwells righteousness. And then thirdly, I sought to demonstrate that ours is a world in which God has multiple purposes folded in to His unusual visitations upon the physical world. In such disastrous events, as hurricanes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, typhoons, floods, and droughts,

7:57 God has folded into these events purposes both with respect to His own children and with respect to those who are not His children, the unconverted sinners who are yet in their sins. And last Lord's Day, I sought to identify five of those purposes that God has folded into Katrina and Rita with respect to His own people. Any one or more or all five may be true of any of His children, but I trust I carried your conscience from the scriptures

Purpose 1: Awaken Sinners to God's Irresistible Power and Future Judgment

8:40 that these are at least some of the gracious purposes of God in the severe mercy, of Katrina and Rita. And now this morning, I want us to consider together some of the purposes of God enfolded in Katrina and Rita with respect to the unconverted, that is, to those who are not the children of God by faith in Jesus Christ. We will hear of some of these here on earth. I believe we will meet many more in heaven, who will declare with unreserved gratitude to God

9:25 and to all of His assembled people that His two daughters, Katrina and Rita, were indeed severe mercies that were made the most significant factor in their conversion of all of the things that ever touched their lives and were instrumental in bringing them to the Lord Jesus. And with our Bibles, open before us, I want us to consider this morning five ways in which God purposes to use His two rather naughty daughters, Katrina and Rita, in the lives of the unconverted.

10:07 And if there are some of you listening to my voice who are offended at that very thought, I urge you, please, don't tune me out, but give me a hearing, as it may well be that listening to the things I have to say this morning will help you to understand why God's love has enfolded you in the form of Katrina and Rita. What, then, are some of the purposes that God has enfolded in Katrina and Rita with respect to the lives of the unconverted, those who are not yet the people of God? Number one, by means of Katrina, and Rita,

10:50 God purposes to awaken sinners to the terrifying reality of His irresistible power and future judgment. I repeat, by means of Katrina and Rita, God purposes to awaken sinners to the terrifying reality of His irresistible power and future judgment. Now, God speaks of His future judgment, His future judgment in His Word. He says it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God, Hebrews 10.31.

11:30 In Revelation 6, verses 17 and following, we have that horrific picture of people crying for rocks and mountains to hide them from the face of Him that sits upon the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. God speaks in His Word of His irresistible power, and His future judgment. Furthermore, God records in His Word those manifestations of His irresistible power, which are tokens of future judgment. When the fire fell upon Sodom and Gomorrah, it consumed those cities of the plains.

12:10 When God brought the flood in the days of Noah, all but eight were taken away. So God speaks of these things. God records them. But men are still careless.

12:22 Men go on indifferent. They may even hear sermons about the frightening nature of the fearsome wrath of God. They may hear sermons about Sodom and Gomorrah and the flood. But men go on in their carelessness until God brings into their own lives a Katrina and a Rita that become God's severe mercy to bring them up short and to bring them back to life.

12:50 God brings them back to life. God brings them back to life. And to confront them with the fact that these are not just preachers' talk. These are realities.

12:58 Realities with which they must have dealings. And I want us to turn to a pivotal passage which clearly teaches this lesson. And it's found in the prophet Isaiah. Isaiah chapter 26.

13:15 Isaiah 26, verses 8 through 10. The prophet speaks, yes, In the way of your judgments, O Lord, have we waited for you. To your name, even to your memorial name, is the desire of our soul. With my soul have I desired you in the night.

13:42 Yes, with my spirit within me will I seek you earnestly. For when your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn rightly. Let favor be shown to the wicked. Yet he will not learn righteousness.

14:03 In the land of uprightness will he deal wrongfully and will not behold the majesty of the Lord. Here the prophet indicates that there is a corporate waiting by the people of God, the true believing remnant in Israel, waiting for God's pronounced and promised judgments. Notice the plural. Yes, in the way of your judgments, O Lord, have we waited for you.

14:34 To your name, even to your memorial name, is the desire of our soul. You have said that you are Jehovah. I am that I am. I will be whom I have always been.

14:50 I am faithful to my word. I change not. I pronounce that judgment will come. Now, Lord, we wait upon you to vindicate that you are the God you've revealed yourself to be in the way of judgment.

15:05 Then the prophet gets personal, first person. With my soul have I desired you in the night. Yes, with my spirit within me will I seek you earnestly. Now, why would a godly prophet and why would the godly remnant be praying that God would bring his promise to Israel?

15:25 Why would God bring his promise to Israel? Why would God bring his promise to Israel? Why would God bring his promise to Israel? Why would God promise judgments?

15:27 Isn't that cruel? Wouldn't the sanctified, gracious heart be praying, Oh, God, avert your judgments? Oh, God, turn aside your judgments? Why would the godly remnant be saying, We have waited for your judgments?

15:43 Why would the man of God say, Yes, with my soul, my heart, my spirit, I have desired your judgments? Well, then he gives the explanation. For when your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness. And why do people need the judgments of God to learn righteousness?

16:12 That God means it when he says, The soul that sins, it shall die. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living God. Why do men need God's judgments to teach them? Because, Verse 10, Let favor be shown to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness.

16:31 In the land of uprightness he will deal wrongfully and will not behold the majesty of the Lord. Men misinterpret the long-suffering of God towards them in their sin as God's indifference to their sin. That's what the prophet says. And because he doesn't want people to be indifferent to their sin, for as long as you and I are indifferent to our sin, there's no hope for us, that we'll seek the mercy of God in Christ.

16:59 And so the kindest thing the prophet can do for those who are hardened under the canopy of God's goodness and forbearance is to pray that God will break into their never-never land of spiritual blindness by his judgments that they might learn righteousness, that they will learn that God will judge the world in righteousness, as Paul says, by that man whom he has ordained. And so there is this yearning that God would break in in judgment in order that men might learn righteousness, for it's only as they learn righteousness and their need for the righteousness of God to be imputed to them

17:43 based upon the work of Jesus Christ that they will be saved. So judgment is a severe mercy in order to bring them to God's saving grace. Listen. To the words of E.J. Young on this passage,

17:58 there is a reason for this longing, for when God's judgments are in the earth, then the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness. Isaiah is saying that when the judgments of God are exercised upon earth at that time, those who dwell upon earth learn what justice and righteousness are. When his judgments are withheld and men seem to prosper, they tend to forget God. On the other hand, when times of adversity come and the judgments of God are felt, at that time men do learn God's righteousness.

18:33 Thus the punishing hand of God may serve a beneficent purpose in that it leads a sinner to repentance. It is of import to note that men must learn righteousness, for they are not righteous by nature. Their heart and its inclination turn away from God. When, however, the chastening hand of God is felt at such a time, men may learn what they hitherto have not known.

19:05 God is the teacher, and the instrument which he often employs to teach righteousness is his judgment. Who knows how many who have felt some of the worst pressure of the devastation of Katrina and her family, and Rita for the first time has stood back and said, the God I heard about from my mama and my daddy, for that's what it would be down there in that part of the country. It'd be their mama and their daddy. How many who've heard of this God from the time mama and daddy began to speak to them in Sunday school, in church, perhaps have even read it in their Bibles, but have gone on their careless,

19:50 self-centered, flesh-absorbed life, suddenly, standing, amidst this devastation, have thought for the first time, it must be a little preview of the day when Jesus returns in power and overturns all that is and by the consuming fire of his presence destroys this old world.

20:18 And if that were his coming, I'm not ready. I must seek the God that my mama and my daddy spoke to me about. I must, take seriously the things I've heard from the pulpit, the things I heard in my Sunday school class, and they will bless God that Katrina and Rita had folded into them in God's wisdom the purpose to awaken them to the terrifying reality of his irresistible power and of his future judgment.

20:57 And we can pray to that end as God's people, that amidst the devastation, amidst the deprivation, amidst all of the things concerning which our hearts are not indifferent, I pray God they're not indifferent, but that we will find it in our hearts to pray with the prophet in the way of your grace. We wait for you, Lord. Why? Not because we're sadistic, but because we want mercy to be shown.

Purpose 2: Soften Sinners by Discriminating Mercy Amidst Devastation

21:27 Mercy that will not be shown unless men and women take seriously their true state in unrighteousness, their true state as being objects of the just wrath and anger of the living God, unless they turn and lay hold of Christ and of his salvation. Secondly, by means of Katrina and Rita, God purposes to soften sinners by his discriminating mercy manifested in the midst of the world. Amidst the death and devastation. By means of Katrina and Rita,

22:09 God purposes to soften sinners by his discriminating mercy manifested amidst death and devastation. Now let me explain what I mean. I have no doubt that there are not a few who when they reflect upon what Katrina and Rita have done, by the sovereign hand of God, have to ask themselves, why as I look down my street and realize that that family didn't get out in time and were swept away and are numbered among the dead. And the family to the left of me

22:53 swept away and left among the number of the dead. Why am I on this street within this segment of a few houses? Why have I been spared? Others, as they reflect upon relatives, some taken, others spared.

23:14 And as they consider the fact that humanly speaking there is no rationale. They should have been swept away. Their loved ones should have been swept away. They should not have been spared.

23:31 What is God doing? Turn to Romans 2 and verse 4. Romans 2 and verse 4. Or do you despise, despise the riches of His goodness and forbearance and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?

24:00 Now obviously Paul goes on to say that God's goodness is abused and the heart becomes harder. But you see the principle that God's intention in His goodness, His forbearance, and His longsuffering is to break, to break the heart of the sinner. To cause the sinner to reflect and say, wait a minute. Why was God's goodness and His forbearance and His longsuffering shown to me?

24:31 I was spared. My children were spared. My neighbors were swept away to the right of me, to the left of me. My relatives.

24:39 Why was I spared? Why was goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering shown to me? Why was God's goodness to me? And the scriptures tell us that not a sparrow falls to the ground without your Father?

24:55 Superintending all of the ways in which Katrina and Rita wrecked havoc and took lives and brought devastation, God sovereignly ordering every single eddy and stream and every way in which the hurricane took its course.

25:15 Surely God has folded into His purpose His will, for the unconverted to soften some sinners by his discriminating mercy manifested amidst death and devastation. And surely as the people of God, we have grounds to pray, O God, may your goodness in the midst of devastation and death lead some to repentance. If I'm speaking to someone who hears this sermon because you're yet in the land of the living,

25:54 do you not see God's goodness, God's forbearance, and God's long-suffering to you? O my sinner friend, it's not because he approves of who and what you are in your sin. It's because he would lead you to repentance, and he's kept you in the land of the living, the only place where repentance can be exercised. And this is God's gracious mercy to soften your hardened heart, to cause you to reflect on his goodness, and let that goodness eventually

26:33 lead you to its greatest manifestation in the giving of his only begotten Son for sinners like you, who for years have despised his goodness, trampled underfoot his mercy, been to his forbearance, lived for yourself, and now God's brought Katrina and Rita to do what? To show his discriminating mercy, that it might soften your hard heart and bring you broken and believing to the feet of his beloved Son.

Purpose 3: Sudden Death as a Clarion Call to Repentance for Others

27:09 But then thirdly, by means of Katrina and Rita, God purposes that his sudden and dramatic cutting off of some would constitute a clarion call to repentance for others. By means of Katrina and Rita, God purposes that his sudden and dramatic cutting off of some would constitute a clarion call to repentance for others. All of us are loath to face the fact that we're marked for death.

27:54 We're loath to face it. I don't care how old you are. Death is something out there, somewhere, sometime out there, whether you're seven or seventy. If I were to ask every one of you, look you straight in the eyeball, starting right here, and go down every pew, do you believe you will eventually die? There's not a person here foolish enough to say, no, I'm not going to die,

28:19 I'm immortal. But we're loath to really come to grips with the fact that death is both certain and fictional, and it's time unknown to us. We live as though we are going to live forever. When the only sure thing that about us, from the moment our mamas expelled us from their womb, and we breathed our first, is that we're going to breathe our last. The only certain thing, only certain thing, it is appointed

28:53 unto men once to die. When death, again an information another and nearly un criar one, it is an one person. However the sudden and dramatic intrusion of the Kita.vil death of God or something else is to destruction. And he wants us, of his

29:01 research, to die that way. No, my father had never чтобы to believe that this was intellectual शाखत Kardazh phthis is putting his soul into the Kalachak кон!! knowledge upon knowledge, gets our attention for a little while.

29:06 Quickly, it's back to business as usual, but for a little while, for a little while, the sudden and often multiple intrusion of death gets our attention. And I want us to turn to a passage in which this happened, and Jesus seized it to articulate this very principle that the sudden and dramatic cutting off of some constitutes a clarion call to repentance to others. Luke chapter 13, Luke chapter 13, verse 1.

29:51 Now there were some present at that very season who told him, that is Jesus, of the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And he answered and said unto them, Do you think these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans because they suffered these things? I tell you, no. But except you repent, you shall all in like manner perish.

30:17 For those eighteen upon whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them, do you think they were offenders above all the men that dwell in Jerusalem? I tell you, no. But except you repent, you shall all likewise perish.

30:35 Here were two current events which had apparently occupied the headlines in the first. In the first, there was a group of Galilean worshipers for what reason we do not know, apparently slain in the very act of offering their sacrifices in the temple. This wicked, cruel, unprincipled man, Herod, killed them for some reason we do not know. And there's all kinds of speculation, but people knew about it.

31:04 It was the buzzword throughout Jerusalem and the virans at that time about these who were killed in the very act of worshipping. And then there was another current event. A segment of the Jerusalem wall where there was a tower without any apparently previous indication toppled over and people were killed. Two events in which people were suddenly and tragically snuffed out.

31:38 It became public knowledge. These two incidents were buzzwords throughout Palestine at the time, and the Lord Jesus seizes the opportunity of the dramatic cutting off of some in order to give a clarion call to others who are yet in the land of the living.

31:59 And what was the problem? Well, common people had the disposition, well, they must have been cut off so tragically, so suddenly, so unrighteously from our perspective, because God knows they were sinners greater than the rest of us. Notice how the Lord addresses that. Do you think, verse 2, these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans because they suffered these things?

32:26 Is that where your mind is going? Forget it! Forget it! If their sins were such as to cry to the God of heaven for judgment, yours likewise call to the God of heaven for judgment and accept.

32:41 You repent, you shall all in like manner perish. Of those 18 upon whom the tower and the tower of the Lord and Siloam fell, that segment of the wall that fell upon them killed them. Do you think they were offenders above all the men that dwell in Jerusalem? Do you think they came into this sudden judgment and being cut off by this unnatural, untimely death in this very strange way because the God of heaven saw they were great sinners above all other sinners and therefore zapped them?

33:12 No, the Lord Jesus said, except you repent, you shall in all likewise perish. He corrects a mistaken notion and he uses their sudden death as a call to repentance. Let me give it a modern paraphrase. Do you think that these New Orleans, Lake Charles, Gulfport sinners were greater than all other sinners in New Jersey, in New York, in Chicago, in Los Angeles?

33:44 Do you? Some do. Some do. Some do.

33:46 Some do. Some do. Woolly-headed preachers, I should say empty-headed, not woolly-headed, that has racial connotations for some. I didn't mean that.

33:54 Not a racial connotation with me. I mean they got wool where they're supposed to have brains between their ears. New Orleans, that sin city, God has judged it.

34:06 Talk to Steve Hoffmeyer about New Orleans being sin city. He was reared in New Orleans. Came up here to New Jersey in this area and was shocked at the blatant, open, sinfulness that he had never encountered living in the New Orleans area. He mentioned that to us last week.

34:29 Do you think they were sinners above all others? When you look at the wreckage and you look at the horrible devastation that Rita and Katrina brought in the sovereign providence of God, no, the Lord Jesus echoes over the centuries and says to you and to me, don't think that way. That's wrong thinking. Your sins deserve the judgment of Almighty God.

34:56 And unless you repent, you too will all likewise.

35:03 No. Douglas Milne in his commentary on Luke has captured this very well. Jesus would have none of this. He makes several observations.

35:14 We are all wrongdoers in relation to God. Suffering has somehow to do with wrongdoing. But individuals do not suffer. They suffer on a scale determined by their wrongdoing.

35:25 Jesus chooses to turn tragedy into wisdom by warning the living as a result of these deaths. The suffering of others is an opportunity for self-examination. In particular, bad times call for individual repentance toward God in a change of heart. Otherwise, our fate will be worse than that of those who suffer tragedy.

35:50 Jesus implies by this remark that the eternal suffering of the post-judgment existence is a hopeless state. Jesus teaches two precious lessons. First, public tragedies are God's call to consider ultimate issues, such as the meaning of life and its proper goals. Eternal issues well up unsolicited at such times and summon people to seek the living God.

36:20 Secondly, personal repentance a leading theme in Luke's Gospel is the response most appropriate at such times. Repentance means changing the center of life from self to God in Christ. Only Jesus can save people from the greater tragedy of perishing eternally. And I would say to those of you sitting in this place, if you've had any of that notion, New Orleans sinners are greater than New Jersey sinners.

36:54 Make it personal. They must be greater sinners than I. You're deluded, for your sin in its cumulative measure is known to Almighty God. And except you repent and flee to that only fountain open for sin and uncleanness that is found in Christ, you too will likewise perish.

37:18 Swept away, not just to death, but to judgment, for it is appointed unto men once to die. And after this comes judgment. And for some of you who've lived through the devastation, who may hear the message I plead with you, reckon with this issue. Why have you been spared? Is it because you

37:42 think you are more righteous than those who were taken? No. It could well be that many of those whom God has taken, whom you knew, were ready to meet Him and the Lord took them into His presence that you might be awakened by their sudden and tragic death to face the fact that you are not ready to meet the one true and living God. Fourthly, by means of Katrina, God purposes to bring the Gospel to many.

Purpose 4: Bring the Gospel Validated by Selfless Sacrificial Love

38:15 God purposes to bring the Gospel to many, a Gospel validated by the tangible manifestations of selfless sacrificial love. I give it to you again. By means of Katrina and Rita, God purposes to bring the Gospel to many, a Gospel validated by tangible manifestations of selfless sacrificial love. Turn with me please to Acts chapter 10.

38:49 Acts chapter 10. Here we have the record of Peter's sermon in the household of Cornelius. We pick up the sermon begins in verse 34. In verse 36, the word which he sent unto the children of Israel, now notice, preaching good tidings of peace by Jesus Christ.

39:16 Preaching by Jesus Christ. Preaching by Jesus Christ, verse 38, even Jesus of Nazareth, who God anointed with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good. Preaching by Jesus Christ who went about doing good. Preaching and doing.

39:46 That was our Lord Jesus. Mark tells us that he came preaching the Gospel and saying, repent ye for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. But he not only preached. Peter says doing good.

40:03 He validated the message of good news by the manifestation of the good will and good heart of God by his deeds, preaching and doing. And so through Katrina and Rita God purposes to bring the Gospel to many a Gospel that is being validated by tangible manifestations of selfless sacrificial love and there is an abundance of preaching to people in that whole area a preaching that is being validated by undeniable expressions of the selfless

40:47 caring heart of God as men and women in Christ's name are doing good to others. And as you think through your Bible, you see how God delights to do this. Paul is on his way to Rome. God has told him, you are going to testify of me at Rome. And what does God do?

41:10 God sends a horrible storm that breaks up a ship and they end up shipwrecked on the little island of Malta. They never would have stopped there. Why? God wants the Gospel brought and he wants his servant to validate the Gospel by doing good. He ends up being the

41:28 island physician. He ends up healing one after another no indication there was a spiritual revival. But Paul there is God's servant brings the Gospel and validates the Gospel by his good deeds. That's the God who is revealed in Scripture. And right now

41:49 there are many Christians, many churches, many Christian agencies that are responding to God's two devastating daughters, Katrina and Rita, in ways that they never would have reached out apart from that act of God. If you have been reading your World Magazine it's thrilling. Let me just read a couple of little instances. Calvary Baptist Church in Columbia, Missouri opened the doors of its gymnasium last week for up to 20 Katrina refugees.

42:23 The church registered to become a Red Cross shelter site only three months ago and most of the volunteers are church members with no Red Cross training. Refugees are welcome to stay at the church for as long as needed, although volunteers plan to find homes for the refugees to stay in for an extended period of time. Bellevue Baptist Church in Cordova, Tennessee hosted a job fair September 7th so local businesses could connect with Katrina refugees. The church provided refugees with help creating a resume, preparing for interviews, and although the event was planned to feature no more than 20 companies, the church is ready to offer more job fairs down the road.

43:05 And on and on and on it goes. What is the Lord doing? He sees many of His elect who for one reason or another are skeptical that Christians are us a bunch of talkers. Christians are indifferent. They have all kinds of

43:22 prejudices and God says, I've got my elect down there and I want to get them. Katrina, come here. I've got some work for you to do. Rita, come here. I've got some work for you to do.

43:32 And that work has to do with getting some of my elect in whom I must break down their prejudices against the gospel, their prejudices against the church, their prejudices against the people of God. And when Katrina and Rita have done their work in their wake, come Christians with open hands, with open hearts, and with open mouths proclaiming a gospel being validated by deeds of selfless love and mercy. And one after another God's going to gather in His elect and they're going to be people who say, oh Lord, humanly speaking, without Katrina and Rita

44:17 I'd have gone on to hell with all my prejudices in my heart against your people and against your gospel. Blessed be your name, oh God, for Katrina and Rita. Did you read the incident about that black fella that was picked up by two white folks and he was almost reluctant to get in the car whether they were Christians. World Magazine didn't say. He said by the

44:41 end of the trip it was a religious experience for him. All his prejudice against whites was swallowed up and I thought, if they weren't Christians maybe God had a Christian down the road a little bit in this next part of his trip. He had to first of all get all the prejudice against whites away because God had a white man ready to bring him the gospel of the infinite mind of God. Saying, I've got this elect and that elect and I've got to get all those prejudices out of the way. Then I'm going to gather a man.

Purpose 5: Show the Folly of Idolatrous Trust in Man

45:14 That's what God has folded in to Katrina and Rita. His purpose to bring the gospel to many. A gospel validated by tangible manifestations of selfless sacrificial love. And then fifth and finally by means of Katrina and Rita God purposes to show to men the utter folly and futility of an idolatrous trust in man. By means

45:48 of Katrina and Rita God purposes to show to men the utter folly and futility of an idolatrous trust in man. Now turn back to Isaiah with me if you will please. The second chapter. Isaiah chapter 2. With an Englishman here

46:16 I almost said Isaiah. Isaiah chapter 2. The theme of this chapter, of this section verse 12 and following is God's prophecy of the great day of the Lord. The final climactic judgment towards which all lesser judgments point. There are many days

46:46 of the Lord throughout history but all pointing to the great day of the Lord. Verse 12 For there shall be a day of the Lord of hosts upon all that is proud and haughty and upon all that is lifted up and it shall be brought low. Here's the first announcement. In that day of the Lord everything that is proud and haughty and lifted up shall be brought low. And then God gets specific

47:16 about the things that are the symbol of man's trust. The symbol of the stable and the permanent. And upon all the cedars of Lebanon that are high and lifted up and all the oaks of Bashan and upon all the high mountains and upon all the hills that are lifted up. These things in the natural world that are the symbols of permanence of strength and surely things in which we can trust because of their strength and their permanence.

47:48 The high, the lifted up, the mountains, the hills then the things men make verse 15 and upon every lofty tower and upon every fortified wall and upon the ships of Tarshish and upon all pleasant imagery or watchtowers. See what God is saying? A day is coming in which I'm going to level everything that is the symbol of man's pride. The things in which they trust in terms of the natural world, the cedars, in terms of the things men can make their levies, their dikes, their walls, their towers. And then God

48:30 goes on to say, the result is this, verse 17, in the loftiness of man shall be bowed down and the haughtiness of men shall be brought low and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. And the idols shall utterly pass away and men shall go into the caves of the rocks and into the holes of the earth and before the terror of the Lord and from the glory of his majesty when he arises to shake mightily the earth in that day men shall cast away their idols of silver their idols of gold which have made for them to worship to the moles and to the bats, to go into the caverns of the rocks and the clefts of the ragged rocks from before the terror of the Lord and the glory of his majesty

49:14 when he arises to shake mightily the earth. And what's the conclusion of all of this? In that great day God's going to level everything in which man trusts. All of his false idols and even the things he makes that are called idols because they cannot help them. They throw away the

49:32 work of their hands which they've worshipped. And God says, here's the lesson, cease from man whose breath is in his nostrils for wherein is he to be accounted of. God hates everything that is raised up as a rival object of trust and confidence. He alone is to be the confidence of men. And when God's

50:01 angry daughters Katrina and Rita were born they exposed the rampant American idolatry. And you know what it is? Worship of the federal government. That's it.

50:19 Why didn't the federal government see this coming? And the federal government do this and do that? And because the federal government focuses in its primary visible head, Mr. George Bush, why didn't Bush do this and Bush do that and Bush do the other? And all

50:38 of the anger is directed at what the God that failed them in their time of trouble. And they're ready to throw our God failed. If our God were what it's supposed to be it could have somehow known and anticipated and raised up the levees to withstand a 50 foot surge if necessary. And then to hear the talk substance into it.

51:08 That we're going to make our country absolutely proof from any future natural disaster of any kind. We're going to do it. He that sits in the heavens shall laugh. He laughs.

51:25 Go ahead. Make your levees a hundred feet high and I'll take a couple of two bit terrorists and let them strap a bunch of bombs around them and scuba dive down underneath and blow a hole in it and inundate all of New Orleans again. The arrogance. The idolatry. And that's why there's

51:46 such anger at the federal government because it has become the idol of many. Our trust is in the federal government. Our trust is in programs. Our trust is in this.

51:59 Our trust is in that. And God says cease the man whose breath is in his nostrils. One of the most perceptive articles I've read in this whole matter is the article by Joe Bells the founder and chairman of World Magazine who wrote in his editorial these words. Let's grant for the moment that President George Bush, FEMA, Homeland Security and the rest of the federal apparatus should have taken a few hours off three weeks ago to rehearse several times over just what they might do in the specific event that any one of the dozens of possible permutations began to unfold as Katrina approached from the Gulf of Mexico. And let's assume

52:43 as well that all these plans have been carried out perfectly. What on earth prompts us to suppose Americans would have been happier with the results? Happiness with the results of any big government effort of course is almost an oxymoron. The reason is simply when people start putting their trust in big government, they've attached themselves to a false god. And false gods

53:05 can't produce the goods. What we saw in New Orleans last week was the pathetic picture of people whose expectations in a false god had been so enhanced that when the false god stumbled for a day or two some of his worshippers flew into a rage. They've been betrayed, they said. Not only had their god failed to tend to their obvious physical needs in prompt style, their god had made them look weak and foolish in the process. Note this well.

53:33 A people who cannot even while in dire distress minister to the weakest and the dying among them, a people who do not even while waiting hungrily for help they desperately need, respectfully and reverently take care of the bodies of those who die, such a people will be known to history as frighteningly further down the road to decadence than most of us want to admit. And then remember this, that such a people will in the days to come develop a bigger and bigger appetite for gods who promise them everything. And then they'll show a lower and lower tolerance for gods who do not deliver. I believe with all of my heart this Dagon of worship of the federal government has been exposed

54:18 for what it is, an impotent god. An impotent god. And why does God do that? Here in Isaiah 2 he tells us.

54:28 He brings low everything in which we trust. To what end? That we will at last cease from man whose breath is in his nostrils and find our only true confidence in the one true and living God. This is what the Psalmist meant when he said God is our refuge and strength. A very

54:51 present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear the mountains start playing hopping over one another and jumping in the sea. Say we're not going to be afraid. The seas roar! We're not going

55:10 to be afraid. Mountains shake! Why? God is our refuge!

55:19 Is our strength. Now am I saying we should not take all prudent means? I'm not stupid enough to think there are not responsible things that perhaps should have been done and could be done but blow that all away at the end of the day. The Dagon of the federal government has failed and been toppled by Katrina and Rita. And God is

55:44 saying to any who hear my voice if that is your God, cease from man whose breath is in his nostrils. For wherein is he to be accounted of? When leaders boast nothing like this will ever happen again, what they're saying is we can insulate ourselves from any unusual and divine intervention of a catastrophic nature that is arrogance to the high heaven. I marvel that God didn't send earthquakes from Maine to California to say you will not be able to do it.

56:17 I'm God, you're not God. And we need to plead with God that God will humble the hearts of many and if I'm speaking to some whose God failed you and you have nowhere to turn, turn to the one true and living God who is the God of the psalmist who can say in the midst of every form of devastation with the world around me my God is an unchangeable refuge and strength of very present help in trouble. There's a moving article about a man who's buried his life in ministering to black

57:00 young men there in New Orleans and all of his ministry his school, his church everything was buried and yet listen to what he said meanwhile hurricane victims were too busy to notice as devastating as the storm has been we believe God has a redemptive purpose for it and we desire to be with him in that purpose the words of Mo Leverett from a cabin north of Atlanta where he escaped the storm's total devastation of his ninth ward home in ministry in New Orleans accounting for neighborhood families and 195 students from Desire Street Academy coping with the losses of his own left little time for second guessing

57:44 and then he goes on to say in the article how this dear brother has embraced the strange providence of God with equanimity and with confidence why his confidence was not in the federal government but in the living God and in his son Jesus Christ God says in Jeremiah 17 5 cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his arm there's a curse upon anyone whose trust is in mere man cursed is the man who trusts in man God said to his people in Isaiah 31 woe to them that go down to Egypt for help and rely on

58:27 horses and trust in chariots because they are many and God says the Egyptians are but men and not God and their horses are flesh and God says I'll bring them all down together I wonder dear people what God may have to do to our nation to shatter its arrogance and its confidence in itself fashioned at God in its own image and bring us to the place where we fall upon our faces and cry to the living God for mercy well I submit to you without claiming to be a prophet or the son of a prophet that surely these

Conclusion: Call to Prayer and Humility

59:12 five purposes in God sending Katrina and Rita with respect to the unconverted are matters that should shape our prayers in the coming days that God would use all of the tragedy and all of the devastation to the end that sinners will be awakened to the terrible reality of his irresistible power and his future judgment that sinners would come to be softened by his discriminating mercy that his purposes in sudden and dramatic cutting off of some would indeed be a call to repentance heard by many and that his purpose to bring the gospel to many

59:56 a gospel validated by the manifestation of selfless and sacrificial love would be effectual and that his purposes to show men the utter folly and futility of an idolatrous trust in man would be replaced by a confidence and trust in the living God and in his son Jesus Christ let's pray our father we marvel we marvel at your patience with us poor little worms of the dust whose breath is in our nostrils and only there because you give it for your words

60:40 as you give to all life and breath and all things and that we who cannot draw our next breath without your kind giving of it that we should act as though we are little independent swaggering gods oh father forgive our national sins of pride hardness of heart and we pray that these severe mercies in Katrina and Rita would be realized in the lives of multitudes in the days to come we pray that you will help us as your people to think biblically deliver us from being conformed to the spirit of this age enable us

61:24 by your grace to bear a clear unashamed witness to the truth of your word that this is your world you govern it you control it and everything in it this is a world under your curse but a world to which the overtures of grace and mercy yet come through Jesus Christ in the gospel seal then these truths to our hearts we pray in Jesus worthy name Amen