Hedge Is Down: Could This Be the End of America?

By Geri Ungurean

My husband and I watched an old Adrian Rogers’ sermon yesterday.  Adrian Rogers went home to be with our Lord in 2005.  He is greatly missed.  During his sermon, he spoke much of “hedges” placed by our Lord. His sermon title was “Will God Impeach America?”

From gotquestions.org

Question: “What is a hedge of protection?”

Answer: In the first chapter of Job, God points out to Satan that Job is “blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil” (Job 1:8). Satan replies, “Does Job fear God for nothing?…Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has?” It is common for Christians to adapt this verse and pray a “hedge of protection” around a friend or family member, but few people understand the original inspiration behind the phrase.

In the time of the Old Testament, wild animals were much more prevalent in the Middle East than they are today. The Bible mentions lions (Judges 14:5), wolves (Jeremiah 5:6), bears (1 Samuel 17:34), leopards (Hosea 13:7), and hyenas (Isaiah 13:22). Although stone walls could keep predators away from living areas and livestock, the walls would have to be very tall and would take a long time to make. Wood was not plentiful enough to waste on a fence. Instead, a hedge of thorn bushes could be induced to grow around a living compound. Thorn bushes would be too dense to crawl through, too sharp to chew through, and too deep for all but the most determined leopard to jump over. A hedge would also be a deterrent to sheep and goats seeking to escape their pen. As Satan is compared to a “lion looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8), a thorn hedge is an appropriate metaphor for the protection God gives His followers.

Is it wrong to ask God for a hedge of protection around yourself or someone else? Absolutely not. In addition to putting on the armor God gives us (Ephesians 6:13-17), there is nothing wrong with asking for God’s protection. As seen with Job, a hedge is an apt illustration for what God’s protection looks like. –source

Adrian Rogers referenced Psalm 80 in his sermon.  The Psalm was written about Israel. God had placed hedges of protection around Israel, but then He took down the hedge.

(Psalm 80: 12-13)

 “Why hast thou then broken down her hedges, so that all they which pass by the way do pluck her?  The boar out of the wood doth waste it, and the wild beast of the field doth devour it.”

Pastor Rogers asks this question:

“Will God Impeach America? I say with a broken heart that our God Blessed America is sick unto death;  we are in a moral free fall, and soon we will hit rock bottom and there will be no repair. And America will become a molded crust in  history’s garbage can if something is not done radical, dramatic and done quickly.”

(Psalm 80: 1-7)

“Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, thou that leadest Joseph like a flock; thou that dwellest between the cherubims, shine forth.  Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh stir up thy strength, and come and save us. Turn us again, O God, and cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved. O Lord God of hosts, how long wilt thou be angry against the prayer of thy people? Thou feedest them with the bread of tears; and givest them tears to drink in great measure. Thou makest us a strife unto our neighbours: and our enemies laugh among themselves. Turn us again, O God of hosts, and cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.”

Pastor Rogers says that verses 1-7 is a prayer for revival.  How many of us are praying this prayer for America?  But is it too late? Pastor Adrian Rogers was spared seeing the definition of marriage changed by the SCOTUS.  He knew well that America was in great moral decline, but he was taken by our Lord Jesus before that fateful day when gay marriage was made legal across our nation.

Adrian Rogers speaks of four things in Psalm 80 which are applicable today in America:

1.     Great national despair  (Psalm 80:4-6)  Spiritual sterility – prayers were given up to God out of unrepentant  hearts. These prayers actually made God angry. The prayer of an unrepentant people is an insult to Almighty God. Religion without Righteousness is repugnant to God.  America is praying but the sin of America is running over.

2.     Personal Sorrow  Sorrow follows sin as night follows the day.

3.     National Shame   Our enemies laugh at us. No longer is America respectfed for her ideals.

4.     Glorious National Design  God planted the nation of Israel. He planted them and they flourished.   There is a striking parallel between Israel of old and America today.  They are not the same , but America was a God- planted, God-blessed and God-ordained nation. It was like no other nation on earth.

In 1954, Chief Justice Earl Warren gave a speech which revisionists of history have tried to erase.  Earl Warren was not  known as a “Christian Right” Justice. As a matter of fact, you could see signs along the highway which read “Impeach Justice Warren.”  Nevertheless, he gave this speech to Time magazine:

“I believe no one can read the history of our country … without realizing that the Good Book and the spirit of the Saviour have from the beginning been our guiding geniuses. … Whether we look to the first Charter of Virginia … or to the Charter of New England … or to the Charter of Massachusetts Bay … or to the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut … the same objective is present: a Christian land governed by Christian principles. …

I believe the entire Bill of Rights came into being because of the knowledge our forefathers had of the Bible and their belief in it: freedom of belief, of expression, of assembly, of petition, the dignity of the individual, the sanctity of the home, equal justice under the law, and the reservation of powers to the people. …

I like to believe we are living today in the spirit of the Christian religion. I like also to believe that as long as we do so, no great harm can come to our country.” – source 

From our great national hymn “America”

“Our fathers’ God to Thee,
Author of Liberty,
To thee we sing,
Long may our land be bright
With Freedom’s holy light,
Protect us by thy might
Great God, our King.”

GREAT GOD, OUR KING!   (this would be considered so politically incorrect to sing today!)

Adrian Rogers goes on to say that our forefathers never believed in the separation of God and government.  That is TRUTH!

America prospered until:

1962 – Prayer taken out of school

1963 – Bible banned

1973 – Abortion on demand legalized

1980 – Ten Commandments banned

THE HEDGE IS DOWN! God had us hedged with His protection, but we as a nation turned away from Him.  We kicked God out of every area of our society.

Satan, the enemy of our souls, was kept out of America when we had God’s hedge of protection.  Satan was roaming about seeking someone to devour – but we were hedged.  But when America removed God from our nation, Satan was given free reign to enter every part of our society.

Is the hedge down forever?

Only God knows the answer to that question.  In my heart I do feel that it is too late for America. I believe that we are under God’s Righteous Judgment.  There is a great falling away within the church, which only exacerbates our doom.

Keep looking up

Never before have I been sensing just how imminent is the return of our King to take us away in the Rapture!  I believe that it could be any day.

Please take time and watch the entire sermon of this great brother in Christ, Pastor Adrian Rogers:

Adrian Rogers: Will God Impeach America?

MARANATHA

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