The Church: "If My People!" - A Call To Repentance, Part III

   So the people asked him, saying, "What shall we do then?" He answered and said to them, "He who has two tunics, let him give to him who has none; and he who has food, let him do likewise." Then the tax collectors also came to be baptized, and he said to them, "Collect no more than what is appointed for you." Likewise the soldiers asked him what they should do and he said to them, "Do not intimidate anyone or accuse falsely, and be content with what you have." Luke 3:10-14

    John was baptizing those who came to repent of their sins and follow Jesus who was to come, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Repentance involves change in ones life and as John was explaining to those who asked him what they should do, he told them to stop what they had been doing and from that point on, repent!

    The Western church has replaced repentance with confession and so they confess but still continue in their sin. In II Chronicles 7:14 God is telling Solomon what He expects His people to do in order to receive healing and deliverance from that which has come upon them. As you have seen in my previous Messages as well as on the nightly news, all the things God sent on His people in Solomon's day are coming on America now! In fact I would say we are experiencing even greater judgment than God's people saw in Old Testament times. Super storms, drug addiction, murder, violence, school shootings, corruption, abortion, perversion, illegal aliens and from 911 on, terror and now Ebola.

    America's financial situation is grim to say the least, she is stretched out in the middle east at war with an enemy who has now crossed her borders. The infrastructure from coast to coast is deteriorating at a pace where it is impossible to repair before more people are killed, including bridges, roads and pipelines eroding at a rapid rate, some more than a hundred years old. The locust is upon us as well as pestilence and there is a drought which may be the worst we have ever experienced where the ground water has been depleted because we have not had enough rain and now the ground is beginning to collapse because of the void caused by using up the water.

    "When I shut up Heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people." II Chronicles 7:13

REPENT OR BE DESTROYED

    "If My people who are called by My name 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 sins and heal their land." II Chronicles 7:14

    True humility involves being honest about our spiritual condition and the sins we have willfully committed against God and man. Without the conviction of the Holy Spirit that brings about godly sorrow, anything we would attempt to do to appease God would just be another dead religious ritual. We have sinned against the Most High and have allowed the lost generations of this country to further grieve Him because we have not rebuked the wicked for the murder of fifty million unborn innocent children. We have done violence to His gospel by polluting the truth that is able to set men free for the sake of dishonest gain.

    We have allowed the homosexual agenda to flourish and change our laws so that they can further defile the land with same sex marriage as well as allowing Islam and other false religions to take over the land with their vile poison they are now spreading to our youth. We have expelled God from our government, our schools and I am afraid from many of our churches where you would do well to even hear the name of Jesus mentioned, much less His gospel that has the power to save men's souls! We have abandoned our children and not preached the gospel to them nor have we trained men to become disciples of Christ, instead making spectators who in most cases are lost and lulled to sleep by false shepherds and prophets for the sake of picking their pockets!

    So, can we admit as the American church that we have failed miserably and stumbled before the lost and not obeyed the voice of our heavenly Father to love Him with all of our heart and to love everyone else as much as we love ourselves? Can we humble ourselves and repent of this foolishness that we have allowed this mis-guided bunch of false preachers, prophets, pastors, apostles, Bishops, First Ladies, TV evangelists and every other thief that wants to get rich by deceiving God's chosen people? What would Jesus do? I hate to think what He would do today in our comfortable little sheep pens of prosperity, but I know what He did to His own "Money changers" He scourged them with a whip and ran them out of the temple as we should do with the current bunch of crowd pleasing wolves.

    The anger of the Lord will not turn back until He has executed and performed the thoughts of His heart. In the latter days (Now) you will understand it perfectly. "I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran, I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied. If they had stood in My counsel, and had caused My people to hear My words, then they would have turned them from their evil way and from the evil of their doings." Jeremiah 23:20-22

PRAY AND SEEK HIS FACE

    Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double minded. Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up. James 4:7-10

    In July of 1741 Jonathan Edwards preached a sermon called "Sinners in the hands of an angry God" in which the fear of the Lord came upon people in such a powerful manner that many were crying out for mercy, grasping the supports of the building lest they slipped into Hell! The word of God pierced their conscience allowing them to see the danger that they were in caused by their rebellious actions toward God as they saw that He was the only One keeping them from the slippery path they were on!

    There is no fear of God in this land, only a mixture of patriotism mixed with a spirit of religion that has poisoned the church of Jesus Christ! America is a god-less nation of selfish children, devoid of the truth that is able to set them free, slipping into the fires of Hell by the thousands because there was no gospel preached to warn them of their sin and the danger their soul was in. God's mercy is the only thing holding this country back from complete annihilation, but as Sodom and Gomorrah were, so our time is at hand and the patience of the Lord is beginning to wane.

    Years ago I watched a news program showing a Jewish wedding reception on the second floor of a building. Everyone was singing and dancing having a wonderful time, but all of a sudden without notice as they showed the bride and groom dancing, the floor collapsed sending the wedding party crashing to the ground below, leaving many injured and several lay dead, never aware of the danger they were in. So it is with God's people, celebrating their life and prosperity, singing and dancing, totally unaware and ignorant of the eternal danger their souls are in, which at any minute could send them slipping into Hell forever!

    Therefore My people have gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge; their honorable men (leaders) are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst. Therefore Hell has enlarged itself, and opened its mouth without measure; their glory and their multitude and their pomp, (brilliant display of splendor) and he who is jubilant shall descend into it. People shall be brought down, each man shall be humbled, and the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled. But the Lord of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and God who is holy shall be hallowed in righteousness. Isaiah 5:13-16

Your servant in Christ, Tim Laughlin
   Minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ