You know, there's a lot of things in this world that I'm ready to grow strangely dim. I want to focus on Christ and see His face, and the things of this earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.

I'm so thankful to be in the house of God tonight. I know that there are troubled times in our world, and I want to go ahead and preach tonight, so y'all be seated. I want you to take your Bibles and turn to two passages with me.

I was talking with Pastor Darren this afternoon, and I feel like, at least in some hearts and minds, there are some burdens over the events of today, in this past week or so. And unfortunately, sometimes when we come into the house of God, I want you to take your Bibles—the things of God grow strangely dim—and we're focused more on the things of this world, and our hearts are heavy over things that take place.

So, before we express our worship in song tonight, I think it's good for us to get the perspective of the Word of God on what takes place in our life and in our world.

If I had a title tonight—I originally, y'all can take Psalm 42 down, guys, I'm sorry—I had originally planned to preach on Psalm 42, and then this afternoon, God began to change my heart. I finished my sermon, and then I looked at some news and saw the most recent events, the most recent assassination, of course, that took place this afternoon. And so, this sermon was not intended with that in mind. It was more in line with what's been happening in recent days, where we are as a culture, where we are as a world, and how we respond as Christians.

I think it's important for us to respond not just in a way that we think is good, but in a way that is biblical. I want to view this world—view everything in this world—a Christian mind doesn't just think deeply about Christian things; it views everything through the lens of Scripture and through a Christian way of thinking. And so, that's what I want to look at.

As I was thinking over the past days, and of course, the most recent story leading up to today—a story of a young lady whose life was taken in a very public place, in a very public way because of cameras being everywhere. Now we see things that we used to only hear about, and now we have the visual in our mind. It does very little to help us because we feel the frustration of wanting to do something and wanting to respond, but it really just stirs up anger in our hearts, and we're not able to really, in our minds, put any action into it.

But I want you to see some things tonight that God calls us to.

The first passage I want you to turn to—and I want you to hold your finger—is Judges chapter 19. Judges chapter 19. The second passage, and we'll start with this verse, is 1 Peter chapter 4, verse 7. So find your place in Judges 19—we'll come there in just a moment—and then 1 Peter chapter 4.

How do we understand? If there was ever a time when God's people needed to pray, there has been much said in the last number of weeks about the idea of responding to situations with, well, I'm praying about it, or I'm praying for it. It is always a good time to pray about every situation. There's never a time when it's not appropriate to pray. Now, praying is not all that we do or should do, but we can never do less, and we really can never do more when we don't pray.

And so, as we look at this tonight, I want you to see 1 Peter chapter 4, verse 7: "The end of all things is at hand." The end of all things is at hand. I firmly believe it was not just true in Peter's day; it is certainly true in our day that the end of time, the end of things, is at hand. And the Bible says wicked men will wax—will grow worse and worse—and we're certainly seeing that in our day.

And whether it's on the left or on the right, violence is wrong. Can we just say amen to that? I don't care what side of the political spectrum you're on. Violence is not the answer. Violence is wrong. And for Christians, it's contrary to the Word of God.

And so, the end of all things is at hand. So, how are we to respond? "Be ye therefore sober." It's time for us to be serious—minded about being a Christian. It's time for us to be serious-minded. I fear that we often are so caught up in the things of this world and the events of this world and the things of our culture and society that we really can't be said to take the things of God seriously.

We want to, in some way we do, and in some measure we do, but to be sober—be serious—and watch unto prayer. Watch guard. We're standing guard, and we are to watch unto prayer. We'll come back to that concept of what we pray about in just a moment.

But I was reminded this week, as I heard this story and learned more about the story that took place in Charlotte and the young lady—I’m reminded of what that marks about a culture.

In Judges chapters 19 through 21, I’m not going to take the time tonight to read all the verses. I would encourage you to go through and read later. This is one of the darkest portions of Scripture that you will find. It is a dark story. It is not something that we teach in Sunday school to children. It’s something that, if you plan for your children to read and know about, you better be ready for some in-depth conversations because I’m not even going to read and refer to everything that takes place in these chapters tonight for that very reason.

But it’s there for a purpose. The book of Judges is a time—and the entire book is to describe what happens when God is not the final authority. The theme of the book of Judges is: "Every man did that which was right in his own eyes." If that doesn’t sum up our culture today and its philosophy, I don’t know what does.

Well, I’ve just got to be me. I’ve just got to do me. I’ve got to be what I’m going to be. We are the final authority. We determine what we are, who we are, and how we act. And every man did that which was right in his own eyes.

I had a lady come to me one time while I was preaching through the book of Judges. She said, "How do I tell these stories to my kids? Because even some of the heroes in the book of Judges aren’t really worthy of respect." And you have to understand the point of the book. The point of the book is: this is what a nation looks like when they progressively head in the direction of no authority, no law, and no God.

And it starts with people that are named, and it starts with some of the heroes—Othniel, the nephew of Caleb, and some great people. And over time, it gets down to the end of the book, and the last judge that God uses to preserve His people and to deliver His people is a man by the name of Samson.

And Samson, if you look at his life, has little in it that is worthy of emulation. Samson is a drinker. Samson is a womanizer. Samson flirts with sin. Samson hangs out with the enemy. And yet, God uses him. And the point of that is: God, as He looks at His people, this is the best He can find.

And boy, the leaders—when you look at the leadership of a nation—and you say, "Well, God can use those." Yes, He can. But that doesn’t mean that everything is good and everything is right.

And you get down to these last three chapters. These last three chapters are heavy, and they’re dark, and they’re depraved. There are no heroes in these chapters.

The Bible tells us—and I’ll just try to summarize as carefully as I can this evening—that there is a Levite. A Levite is one who is supposed to be knowledgeable in the Word of God and in the law of God. And their task is to serve in the temple and to instruct the people in the Word of God.

He’s living in an arranged marriage that is not a biblical, godly marriage. He has a concubine. A concubine was somewhere between, for lack of better terms, a prostitute and a wife—treated with no respect, treated with no value. She is unfaithful to her husband, and so he goes and follows her, and he finds her at her father’s house.

He stays there for some time, and the father shows some hospitality and tries to get him to stay, and he stays longer than he should. And they leave nearing dark. As they come into the city, they come into the city of Gibeah, in the land of the tribe of Benjamin.

This is the people of God. This is the nation of Israel. And as they come into this city, they meet this man who says, "Look, you better come into my house. Lot’s, it’s not safe for you in the streets." Does that remind you of any other stories? There’s a close comparison between Judges chapter 19 and Genesis chapter 19.

When two angels come to a city, and a man by the name of Lot says, "It’s not safe for you in the streets." As they’re in this man’s house, people of the city—men of the city—come and gather around the door, just as they did around Lot’s door. And they say, "Send this man out." And they had the same intent that the men of Sodom did.

The people of Israel have reached such a moral low, that when every man does that which is right in his own eyes, they have reached such a moral low that they’re not only lower than the Canaanites that God displaced—they’re down with Sodom.

And the man says, "Don’t take this man; that’s not right. I’ll send my daughter out." Now, this tells us a little bit about how people valued women, especially in that time. It’s still wrong, it’s immoral to do this to this Levite, but it’s okay—I’ll send my daughter out.

Now, even among many Christian people, the rationalization of what’s right and what’s wrong, the moral standards of what’s right and what’s wrong, reflect more of the world than they do of the Word of God.

And they said, "No, we’re not going to do that." And so, the Levite takes his concubine and sends her out to them, and they have their way with her all night. And on the morning, the Bible says that she is dying. She reaches and takes her hand on the threshold—lays her hand on the threshold. She’s laying there dying, and her husband comes out and says, "Get up, we’ve got to go."

Let me just say that it was never God's intent for husbands to treat wives with such disrespect. Thank you for one amen. I ought to get a few more than that.

She dies. And so, he lays her across the back of his donkey and heads off. And he gets back to his home, and he does something very similar to what Saul will do one day—except Saul does it with an oxen. He takes her body, cuts it into pieces, and sends it to all the tribes of Israel, saying, "Look, this is what has been done to my concubine, to my wife."

The people of Israel are naturally disturbed and distraught over this, and they gather and say, "What happened?" You see, at this point, they’re following the commands of God. They are to investigate and find out the crime that has been committed. The Levite says, "Well, we came to spend the night in this town, and they took her, and they killed her and abused her and killed her." He very conveniently leaves out the fact that he gave her to them.

So they say, "Well, something’s got to be done." They go to the tribe of Benjamin, and they say, "You’ve got to turn these men over to us for judgment." At this point, they’re still following the law of God. The people of Benjamin say, "No, we’re not going to do this." And instead of yielding to justice—as they should—they create a conflict, a civil war within Israel.

Tens of thousands are killed in the battles that follow. Up to this point, the rest of the tribes have been obedient; they’ve followed God's instruction and law. But in their angry response—and I pause to say—we must be very cautious in our response to evil. It is always right to call wrong, wrong. But when you go too far—and they go too far—they not only go after the city that God said, "If this city does this, you judge them and cut them off," but they begin to go after every city in the tribe of Benjamin, almost to the point of eliminating one of the twelve tribes from Israel.

They take things too far. And that’s pretty much how the story ends, except that they say, "We’re not going to let our daughters marry you, so here’s what you should do: you need wives. Go over and steal these wives from this other group of people."

There’s nothing good in this story. There are little glimmers here and there of possible worship of God, of recognition of God. But it seems as if, at this point, the entire nation has turned from God. And in fact, it’s of interest that the city of Gibeah is at the very center of Israel.

And the message of this account is that wickedness lies in the heart of the nation. I think it’s safe to say that wickedness lies in the heart of our nation. You cannot have generation after generation—as we have had over the last several—saying there is no God, there are no morals, there are no boundaries, and not suffer the consequences.

This story is not given as some glory; it’s to show us where this ends up. And it’s a warning from the Word of God. We are not the nation of Israel, but righteousness exalts a nation, and sin is a reproach to any people, the Bible says. Sin is a reproach to our nation.

I could stand here tonight and tell you of the sins of our nation, but you know them. And it’s easy for us to sit back and say, "Well, that’s them." I remind you that in this account, there is really no one who stands out as doing what’s right.

Those you would expect to live a life of holiness—the Levites, the Israelites—rather than living in distinction from the nations of Canaan, are acting like Sodom. The entire nation is acting in response to this. The concubine commits adultery. The old man shows hospitality but is willing to offer his daughter. The Levite has a concubine, offers her up, spins his story so the other tribes won’t know his role, and they rise up in anger. The people of Gibeah are guilty of homosexuality, rape, and murder. They’re no better than Sodom or the Canaanites.

The tribe of Benjamin refuses justice and causes civil conflict and war in Israel. Israel goes beyond judging the offending city and nearly wipes out an entire tribe. There’s a remnant of worship, but only in name.

And it ends—when you get to the end of the story—I want you to turn over to chapter 21 and see the very last verse of Judges 21. The very last verse of the book: "In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did that which was right in his own eyes." That’s the summary of this entire book.

And if we look at our culture today, we would have to say there’s no king—not speaking of a ruling authority, but no submission to the King in our country and in our world. And there is everyone doing what is right in their own eyes.

I can’t help but be reminded of Abraham when he goes down into Egypt and says, "I feared for my life because I saw that there was no fear of God in the land."

So, how do we respond to this? This book ends with—really, this is the way it is. Do we have to just sit back and, "Wow, hang on till Jesus comes"? Or are we to be salt and light as long as we are here? Are we to occupy until He comes? Are we to be found faithful so that when He appears, we can have confidence before Him at His coming?

Our task is not to put our heads in the sand. Our task is not to watch the news and social media and sit around wringing our hands, allowing anger and bitterness to reign in our hearts. Our task is to be faithful in what God has called us to do until He comes again.

What did Peter say? "The end of all things is near." Be sober and watch unto prayer. We look at the Scriptures—your perilous times are to be remembered. Jesus said, "Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven, when they persecute you." For so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.

It’s good for us to remember—this is not the first time wickedness has abounded. We somehow have this idea of the "good old days." The good old days are a combination of a bad memory and a good imagination. Things have always been wicked and always been evil. It’s true.

Hebrews 11:38 speaks of those of faith whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts, mountains, dens, and caves of the earth. Matthew 24:37 says, "As the days of Noah were, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be." Perilous times are remembered. Perilous times are predicted. Jesus was very clear about this.

2 Timothy 3:1-5 describes it well: "This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away."

Perilous times should be expected. John 15:20 reminds us: "Remember the word that I said unto you, the servant is not greater than his Lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you." So, why act shocked when there is persecution? Why act surprised when those who speak the truth are hated? We should just be prepared for it. If they hated Jesus, they will also hate us.

So, Peter says, "Pray." What do we pray for? Let me give you several things tonight—encouragement to pray, and then I’ll invite you to come, and we’ll have a time of prayer for these things and whatever else God burns on your heart.

First, we should pray that we have—in times like these—a Christ-honoring response. A Christ-honoring response. The people of Israel responded to the sin in their midst, but they allowed anger and vengeance to take over.

A Christ-honoring response, because Christ is the answer. You say, "Wait a minute, you’re saying the gospel?" I’m saying that the only thing that will change a nation in which people are doing that which is right in their own eyes is true righteousness. And the only righteousness that will change it—there’s a self-righteousness and a religious outward righteousness that may hold it back for a little while, but we’re where we are today because, for a long time, when America still called itself Christian, many people called themselves Christian only, and there wasn’t true, genuine Christ, Savior righteousness coming from inside.

So, we need to have a proper Christ-honoring response. There needs to be a Christ-exalting repentance in our hearts. We need to pray for true repentance. The Bible says that the time has come that judgment must begin at the house of God. We can point our fingers at this world, and there is plenty to point fingers at, but until we are ready to get on our knees and call out to God in repentance for our sins—not just the big sins, but the everyday, common sins that fill our lives, that we’ve excused, that we’ve swept under the rug—until we’re ready to call out to God in repentance, we will never experience, we will never change this world and this culture.

It will hinder our testimony. It will hinder the power of God. The Holy Spirit will not fill unclean vessels. And so, we need to pray: "Lord, help me to respond in a Christ-like way. Help me to have repentance."

We need to pray for a Christ-magnifying revival. There needs to be revival within the hearts of the people of God. I believe that there were people in Israel at this time—there had to have been some. We know that there was at least a remnant. But there needs to be a stirring of revival in our hearts. We’ve got to not just coast along in our satisfaction and apathy. We need the power of the Holy Spirit of God to come upon us as His people—to make a difference in this world. And it will not happen without true revival. And so, we pray for revival.

And then, I think it’s perfectly acceptable for us to pray for Christ’s return. "Even so, come, Lord Jesus." To pray for His return to this earth. When He comes, He will set all things to right. He will establish justice and righteousness and equity. He will judge the world with justice.

We live in a world where, at its best, man can never achieve true justice. We do the best we can. We attempt—and I’m thankful to live in a country where there are laws and boundaries and things that work toward justice. But as long as we have sinful flesh and fallen people, we are never going to have true justice.

And one of these days, when Christ returns, He will establish His justice and His righteousness, and He will rule the world with righteousness and justice. And I’m thankful for that.

So, we pray. We pray that our response is right and focused on Christ. We pray for our repentance to be true and genuine. We pray for revival in our hearts. And we pray, "Lord Jesus, come quickly."

And then, we don’t just pray—everything for which we pray, we must labor. Never use prayer as an excuse for inaction. When we pray for faithfulness to the truth, for a restoration of moral certitude, for the gospel work in this world, for repentance and revival—we say, "Lord, let it begin with me." We don’t sit back and say, "Well, this person would get right, this church would get right, this group of people would get right." No, it starts with us.

The end of all things is near. I don’t know how near, but I know there’s a call for us to pray. And if there’s ever been a time that we need to pray, it is now.

So, I’m going to ask you tonight—if you will—I’m going to pray, but I’m going to invite you to come down here to the altar in a time of prayer. If you can’t kneel at the altar, you can sit on the front pew, or you can stand—however you can get down here. And I want you to join me in praying, not just for our nation, not just for our world, but for us—these things in our lives.

Thank you. Thank you. Will you join together in prayer? I’ll lead us.

Father, we come before You tonight as Your people, seeking to be obedient to the command of Scripture that we are to pray. Lord, we’re not just here to say words. We’re not just here to mumble a few thoughts about how terrible things are in our world—and they are terrible. Lord, we’ve seen evidence of wickedness in the heart of our nation in just these past days, and Lord, it’s just the tip of the iceberg.

But Lord, we are here tonight as Your people to call out to You. Father, I pray for Your grace and Your comfort for those who are grieving tonight because family members have been taken from them. I pray, Lord, for the ones who have committed these acts. And Lord, while our heart is for justice to be served, we’re also a people of grace.

Father, in the midst of it, we pray for their salvation. We pray that the root of wickedness in their hearts and evil will be rooted out. But Lord, we also pray that the root of wickedness and evil in our hearts will be rooted out.

Lord, we pray that You will give us a spirit of repentance. I pray that You will help us, Lord, to acknowledge the exceeding sinfulness of sin so that we don’t just see the sins of others. Lord, the Holy Spirit shines His light and makes us keenly aware of what we need to confess.

Father, we pray that You will give us a Holy Spirit revival. Pour out Your Spirit, Lord, on Your people. Lord, as we pray for the revival services coming up in just a few weeks—our brothers and sisters in our area seeking revival—I pray, Lord, that You will hear our cry, that You will send seasons, the times of refreshing to Your people.

And Lord, not just to refresh our spirits, but to renew us and stir us to greater holiness. Father, I pray that—not just in our church, but in every church around us and across our nation—that revival, Lord, we still believe that You can and will send revival.

Lord, except the Spirit of the Holy One comes down, all is vain. And so, we pray tonight for that. Lord, we pray that You will help us to be so full of Your Spirit that we will respond with truth and with grace. Lord, may we stand firm for the truth of Your Word and the truth that is absent—Lord, not just being countered in our world, but being denied. May we speak the truth. May we speak the truth. May we be a people of the truth.

And Father, I pray—we pray—for Your return. With the early church, we say, "Maranatha, even so, Lord Jesus, come quickly." We long for that day, not just so we will be freed from what we have to live in, but so we will truly see You in Your full glory.

Lord, we pray for Your will to be done. Help us, Lord, to know how to respond in the evil day. And as Ephesians reminds us, "Having done all, to stand," stand, putting on the armor of God. Lord, we are in spiritual warfare. May we be ever mindful of that. May we be vigilant and watch unto prayer.

We ask all these things in the name of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen.

You can return to your seats. Let’s not just make this moment a time of prayer—may our days be times of prayer as we seek God's will and His glory in our lives, in our church, and in our nation.

Our team is going to come and lead us in some songs of worship. I’m glad that we worship a risen Savior who sits on the throne. God is still on the throne. Amen. Let’s worship together.