PART V – THE CHALLENGE: REPENTANCE TO HEALING
While our nation and the West have wandered far from the Biblical ideal; we in the Church are not innocent in the fall of our culture. We’ve contributed through our silence and inactivity and lack of zeal and unwillingness to stand the ground laid out for us by the Scriptures. We are commanded in Ephesians 6:13: “Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.” (KJV)
This is where we ended last time. The culture has made up its own morality – based on nothing; An External Morality – Internally Given. The God of the Universe offers something better; a Common Internal Morality – (the law written on our hearts) – Externally Given – (by a caring Heavenly Father). Then the culture demands the acceptance of this warped moral system with its hyper-tolerance of every lifestyle choice; of homosexual marriage and unlimited choice to end the lives of innocent children. In fact, it demands even more than acceptance. It demands our approval…even our celebration of its perversities. And to a large degree we’ve acquiesced. That’s how Good has become Evil and Evil has become Good. Isaiah 5:20: “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness.” The world has truly turned upside down. Light has become Darkness and Darkness…Light.
But we in the Church are called to something different; something better. Romans 12:2 tells us: “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” And Paul explained to the Corinthian Church: “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God.” (2Corinthians 6:14-16) (KJV)
We are NOT to be unequally yoked or joined with unbelievers. But the Righteous, the People called by God’s name, take on that yoke willingly – all the time. We embrace the culture, we take on unbelieving business partners, we join in life partnerships…in marriage. And then we wonder at the fruit of those unions; at the fall of our children. And we wonder at a culture that begets pornography and homosexuality and abortion and drug use. This is the product of our lusts. This is the fruit of our silent apostasy. A people called by His name, indeed! A righteous remnant….indeed!
It is we, the Church, who have compromised and cheated. We’ve allowed ourselves our ‘little indiscretions’. ‘A little of this or that can’t hurt.’ We’ve seared our consciences. And over time, even many of the Righteous have lost the moral compass that holds all together. Professing to be wise we’ve become fools, stumbling into moral darkness. It is noteworthy that even one of the most moral men of the Bible – humbled himself and repented before God; not only for his own sins – but also for his contribution to the sins of his nation. Daniel 9:3: “ Then I set my face toward the Lord God to make request by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes. And I prayed to the Lord my God, and made confession.”
That is where the Church in the West is right now. We too are called; to Repent….to Turn…To Seek His Face! To Intercede! We are to be the priests that approach the Lord on behalf of ourselves; on behalf of our nation. 2Chronicles 7 tells us that it is when we repent that God will “hear from heaven” and heal our land. Yes, the New Covenant under which we operate calls us to be priest – but we must have clean hands. “Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, Who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, Nor sworn deceitfully. He shall receive blessing from the Lord, And righteousness from the God of his salvation.” (Psalm 24:3-5) That is what generates the Righteousness from which flows Worship. There is the pattern: Redemption….Righteousness….Worship! God did not save us to walk in our lusts…but to Worship! He has called us to set aside our sins…to cry out to God….to worship….and receive our healing.
For the time is coming and soon, when we will face judgment. Judgment on our souls, yes! But more than that. There is coming Judgment on Our Land. God’s Righteousness demands it. Judgment on the individual….and judgment on the Peoples. Judgment on the Nations….and on Our Nation…America. Recall that Abel’s blood cried out to God. How much more the blood shed by a nation that has tasted His blessings and yet willfully abandoned God? How much more the nation that has walked in the lust of convenience to the tune of 55 million abortions; that has squandered our youth in wars of greed? How much more?
It is time to turn to the standard. To stop proclaiming One God…and serving another. Speaking of the coming Man of Sin, Jesus told the Pharisees: “I have come in My Father’s name, and you do not receive Me; if another comes in his own name, him you will receive.” (John 5:43) It is time to walk the Word we say we embrace. We see what lies before us: Israel in crisis, Iranian nukes, Russia ascendant, Universalist Popes, the birth of Chrislam, the violent lie of Islam, Pornography and Sodomy celebrated, Homosexuality embraced. Let’s not kid ourselves: To which God are we really pledging our allegiance? Which path do we walk? Is the path we’re on…the only one that leads to God?
Joel 2 addressed Israel at a time of impending judgment…with End Time’s implications. Through that Prophet, the Lord put out a call to His people. “Blow the trumpet in Zion, And sound an alarm in My holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble; For the day of the Lord is coming, For it is at hand.” (Joel 2:1) We see by the events of the day we live in – tested against the sure prophecies of Scripture that we too can say: The Day of the Lord is at hand. God is summoning his People.
Then He gives the formula for repentance. “‘Now, therefore,’ says the Lord, ‘Turn to Me with all your heart, With fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.’ So rend your heart, and not your garments; Return to the Lord your God, For He is gracious and merciful, Slow to anger, and of great kindness; And He relents from doing harm. Who knows if He will turn and relent, And leave a blessing behind Him— A grain offering and a drink offering For the Lord your God? Blow the trumpet in Zion, Consecrate a fast, Call a sacred assembly; Gather the people, Sanctify the congregation, Assemble the elders, Gather the children and nursing babes; Let the bridegroom go out from his chamber, And the bride from her dressing room. Let the priests, who minister to the Lord, Weep between the porch and the altar; Let them say, ‘Spare Your people, O Lord, And do not give Your heritage to reproach, That the nations should rule over them. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’” (Joel 2:12-17)
God through His Prophet, is calling for complete repentance. It is a tall order. But the results are sure. If we as a Church can do that God promises a good result. Verse 18 reads: “Then the Lord will be zealous for His land, And pity His people.” That’s God’s promise. It’s confirmed in that famous passage of national repentance found in 2Chronicles 7:14. That says that when we enter into full and true repentance; when the Church “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.”
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