Repentance is the Seed for Change
All the Old Testament prophets were used of God to call the children of Israel to repentance.
However, few of the Jews repented and fewer still were those that
actually separated themselves from the licentious practices of worldly
paganism and idolatry. In our present time, we are seeing an almost
exact repetition of this in modern Christianity and the worldly
practices of the Emergent Church and most of Evangelical Christianity.
There is really little that is held sacred in the Post-Modern
Christianity.
There is very little that
resembles the holy separation demanded in the epistles of the New
Testament. We are seeing the rapid replacement of the Judeo-Christian
heritage of our nation replaced with New Paganism. The world is rapidly
turning Secular Humanism and new cultural absolutes that are completely
contrary to the Word of God. In most cases, these new cultural
absolutes are anti-Christ in every way.
Repentance is a forgotten word and a forgotten doctrine in Post-Modern Christianity.
Anyone preaching against sin these days is labeled as a judgmental
legalist! What nonsense! There will be few who take the attitude of
Habakkuk in Habakkuk 3:2. Most will follow the way of Cain until they
taste the wrath of God’s judgment. Very few will do what is necessary
to bring about the much needed revival within the Church. Revival is
for local churches, not nations. Nations and communities will never
become serious about holiness until local churches become serious about
holiness.
“O LORD, I have heard thy
speech, and was afraid: O LORD, revive thy work in the midst of the
years, in the midst of the years make known; in wrath remember mercy”
(Habakkuk 3:2).
As
Christians, we watch almost helplessly as our nation moves farther and
farther away from the foundations upon which it was built. We think, if
only we could somehow stop abortion, or make homosexuality illegal, God
would return His blessing on our nation.
Revival
always begins in the heart of one individual wanting to be a blessing
to God more than he wants God’s blessings. Such a person understands
that the primary attribute of God is holiness. The revived person will
want holiness in his life more than any other passion. Revival is
returning believers to love the Lord with a zealousness for serving Him
and living to His glory.
Jesus
sent an epistle to the church at Ephesus through the Apostle John. This
epistle is recorded in Revelation 2:1-7. In that epistle, Jesus said,
“4 Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy
first love. 5 Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and
repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly,
and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.”
It
is critically important to see the difference between leaving our
“first love” and losing our “first love.” The Church at Ephesus had a
very serious problem. They were wrongly motivated. They had “left”
their “first love.” Serving in love had been reduced to a service of
duty. As a result, Christ viewed this Church as “fallen.” They were
not fallen in doctrine or in works, but in their love for Him. This
scenario creates a subtle form of hypocrisy. Jesus spoke of this as
recorded by Matthew:
“This people draweth
nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but
their heart is far from me” (Matthew 15:8).
It
is obvious that the first criterion for acceptable Christian service is
a heart right with God and one that is filled with love for Him.
To remedy this failure at Ephesus, Christ gave them two steps. They
are told to (1) “remember, therefore from whence thou art fallen” and
(2) “repent and do the first works.” They were to stop and remember
where they should be, change the way they were presently doing things,
and go back to the original. This was all done internally (in the
heart) in order to get the external (walk or actions) doing things the
way they should be done.
When
we speak of revival, we are speaking of a rekindling of a fire inside
of us that has waned and no longer burns the way it once burned.
Psalm fifty-one is the Psalm of David’s repentance after his adultery,
lies, and manslaughter. The historical context of the Psalm is given to
us by David, the author of the Psalm. In other words, David is not
hiding his sin. He publicly proclaims the historical context in his
Psalm of repentance. “To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, when
Nathan the prophet came unto him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba”
(Psalms 51:1).
“7 Purge me with hyssop, and
I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. 8 Make me
to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may
rejoice. 9 Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within
me. 11 Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit
from me. 12 Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with
thy free spirit. 13 Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and
sinners shall be converted unto thee” (Psalms 51:7-13).
The
first step to the restoration of a nation is when God’s faithful
remnant humble themselves before the Lord and begin to fulfill their
responsibilities to Him. Even though a nation may never turn to
God, the faithful remnant’s responsibility is to be right with God
under any and all circumstances of life, even under the administration
of immoral and amoral governments. Revival always begins with the
passion of the faithful for the will of God to be done no matter what.
This is the substance of Habakkuk’s prayer, “O LORD, revive thy work in
the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known” (Habakkuk
3:2).
As was often the
case with prophecies of pending judgment spoken by the prophet to the
people in rebellion, the prophets were ridiculed by the unbelieving of
the children of Israel. If these people had believed in God
and His commandments, they would not have been involved in the worldly
practices that brought God’s chastisement upon the nation. The phrase
“in the midst of years” refers to the days of the fulfillment of the
prophecies given to Habakkuk to communicate to the nation of Israel
coming near and the evidence of the captivity becoming an apparent
reality. Habakkuk’s prayer is that these people that once professed to
believe in God would repent and return to a living, obedient faith once
they felt the fire of God’s chastisement.
People of real faith hear God’s warnings and they immediately act upon those warnings by faith.
In other words, believers expect that what God says will happen will
happen and they begin to pray. Believers begin to prepare for what God
says will happen.
Unbelievers are empirical. Unbelievers must see some evidence before they act. Unbelievers
must feel the fire of God’s wrath before they are moved. However, by
the time they feel the fire, it is too late to do much about it but be
burned. By the time unbelievers feel the fire they have no defense
against it. A prayer for revival can be difficult when we know that the
touch of the hand of God upon the unrepentant will often leave those
people physically crippled and with scars that they will bear for their
lifetimes. When the fire of God’s chastisement is released upon the
unrepentant, that chastisement can be brutal.
Ezekiel
chapter eight reveals the heart of the hypocrisy of contradiction
between belief in God and the occupation with the forbidden wickedness
offered by the satanic forces of worldliness. The vision God
gives to Ezekiel is what God sees in the secrets that men harbor in
their hearts. Externally we worship God and speak of righteousness, but
internally, in our hearts, we lust for the things and practices of this
pagan idolatrous world. Though we may not have actual idols erected in
our homes, we have a secret room in our hearts and minds where we
fantasize about the pornographic and licentious practices of the
pagans. The contradiction of duplicity is that the vision given to
Ezekiel reveals that Israel’s priesthood was hypocritical because they
did have some form of belief in God or they would have been doing
publicly what God revealed was going on in their hearts.
“7 And he {God}
brought me to the door of the court {the inner court of the priests and
Levites, which were the private chambers of the ministering priests};
and when I looked, behold a hole {the crevice of a serpent} in the wall. 8 Then said he unto me, Son of man, dig now in the wall {secret places}: and when I had digged in the wall, behold a door {the discovery that men create a secret access providing admission and permission to what God has forbidden}. 9 And he said unto me, Go in, and behold the wicked abominations that they do here” (Ezekiel 8:7-9).
If
men would only recognize the wickedness of our own hearts and all the
images we have looked upon that are stored away there. At the weakest
moments of our flesh, Satan projects those stored images of the idols of
the lusts of our hearts and minds that become so vivid it is as if we
are reliving the moment. Just because, for a brief moment, we
caught the glimpse of some wicked thing that we allowed before our eyes,
Satan will haunt us with that image a thousand times a thousand. We
think it but a small thing before God. It is not! This is what the
whole text of Ezekiel chapter eight is about. Ezekiel chapter eight
gives us a glimpse into what God sees when He looks upon our hearts. As
Ezekiel 8:10 says, those corrupting images are carved into our minds
and hearts like the Egyptians carved their pagan hieroglyphic images
into stone. A life of faith and repentance refuses to allow any more
corrupting images to be carved into our psyche. A life of faith and
repentance hates those images already carved there. The unrepentant
person spends a great deal of time engraving forbidden images upon his
psyche.
“10 So I went in and saw; and
behold every form of creeping things, and abominable beasts, and all the
idols of the house of Israel, pourtrayed upon the wall round about {similar to the Egyptian hieroglyphics engraved in the temples and tombs of Egypt}” (Ezekiel 8:10).
The
“idols of the heart” will be spoken of again in Ezekiel chapter
fourteen. In this text, the “idols of the heart” are willfully “set
up.” The issue of idolatry has very little to do with the idol
itself. The issue of idolatry is about the vile practices involved in
the worship of an idol. Some of these practices are too vile and
morally filthy to even discuss among civilized and cultured people.
Some involved human sacrifices and the sacrifice of little children and
babies. We would think ourselves too cultured to sacrifice babies to
some idol these days. However, this is exactly what modern Feminism
does in the abortion industry so that women can have sexual freedom to
live sexually promiscuous lifestyles, pursue their careers in the
worship of Mammonism, and be free from the shackles of social bondage to
men. This is an idol of the heart that is as real and corrupting as
any Old Testament idol (Ezekiel 14:1-8).
“1 Then came certain of the elders {patriarchal leaders} of Israel unto me, and sat before me {the prophet Ezekiel}.
2 And the word of the LORD came unto me {right at that very moment},
saying, 3 Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their heart,
and put the stumblingblock of their iniquity before their face: should I
be inquired of at all by them? 4 Therefore speak unto them, and say
unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Every man of the house of Israel
that setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumblingblock
of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to the prophet; I the LORD
will answer him that cometh according to the multitude of his idols; 5
That I may take the house of Israel in their own heart, because they are
all estranged from me through their idols. 6 Therefore say unto the
house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Repent, and turn yourselves
from your idols; and turn away your faces from all your abominations. 7
For every one of the house of Israel, or of the stranger that sojourneth
in Israel, which separateth himself from me, and setteth up his idols
in his heart, and putteth the stumblingblock of his iniquity before his
face, and cometh to a prophet to inquire of him concerning me; I the
LORD will answer him by myself: 8 And I will set my face against that
man, and will make him a sign and a proverb, and I will cut him off from
the midst of my people; and ye shall know that I am the LORD” (Ezekiel
14:1-8).
“11 And there stood before them
seventy men of the ancients of the house of Israel, and in the midst of
them stood Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan, with every man his censer in
his hand; and a thick cloud of incense went up. 12 Then said he unto me,
Son of man, hast thou seen what the ancients of the house of Israel do
in the dark, every man in the chambers of his imagery {in their fantasy
thought life}? for they say, The LORD seeth us not; the LORD hath
forsaken the earth. 13 He said also unto me, Turn thee yet again, and
thou shalt see greater abominations that they do. 14 Then he brought me
to the door of the gate of the LORD’S house which was toward the north;
and, behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz. 15 Then said he unto
me, Hast thou seen this, O son of man? turn thee yet again, and thou
shalt see greater abominations than these. 16 And he brought me into the
inner court of the LORD’S house, and, behold, at the door of the temple
of the LORD, between the porch and the altar, were about five and
twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of the LORD, and their
faces toward the east; and they worshipped the sun toward the east. 17
Then he said unto me, Hast thou seen this, O son of man? Is it a light
thing to the house of Judah that they commit the abominations which they
commit here? for they have filled the land with violence, and have
returned to provoke me to anger: and, lo, they put the branch to their
nose. 18 Therefore will I also deal in fury: mine eye shall not spare,
neither will I have pity: and though they cry in mine ears with a loud
voice, yet will I not hear them” (Ezekiel 8:11-18).
Much
of the corrupted priesthood of Israel had taught the children that as
long as they offered the appropriate sacrifices, they could practice the
pornographic and licentious wickedness of idolatry as well. In
other words, they taught that God understood that we are all just
sinners and that the various sacrifices were just the means for us to
communicate our recognition of our failures to Him. This is the
corrupted message of the corruption of the doctrine of grace that
abounds in Evangelicalism and New Evangelicalism. This falsity of grace
enabling is nothing more than ancient Antinomianism reborn.
The first essential element for revival is humility before the Lord. C.S
Lewis wisely said, “Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it is
thinking of yourself less.” Pride is the opposite of humility and
demands preeminence in every situation of life. Preeminence wants the
first consideration in every decision of life. Only God deserves such
consideration. Humility understands this and therefore does not expect,
nor does it want, first consideration in the decisions of life.
Humility is an attitude. The
first evidence of humility is the desire to obey from the heart
everything that God commands. Humility is always manifested by a
submissive spirit. Humility knows and lives in a reality where we
understand we can always do better than what we are doing or we can do
what we are doing better. The humble person knows that he can always
learn something from everyone and any one. The humble person
understands that regardless of how menial our position in life, we have
more than what we deserve. Humility is not about being
self-deprecating. Humility is an honest and healthy perspective of
ourselves.
In II Chronicles 7:14, God
states a prerequisite to His forgiveness and removal of chastisement
upon the disobedient children of Israel. The statement is made during a
highlight in the history of the nation of Israel right after the
completion and dedication of Solomon’s Temple built for the dwelling
place of God. There is a sobering reality revealed in the statement in
that God knows the future and God knows that the children of Israel will
be led into the pornographic practices of idolatry and paganism by the
very king Solomon who had just provided the grandiose ceremony of
dedication of the Temple in II Chronicles chapter six.
Humility
is always preceded by the honest evaluation of ourselves and our
character compared to God and His expectations of us as His children.
The reason humility is preceded by such a comparison is because only
such a comparison will create the right opinion of ourselves from God’s
perspective.
“12 And the LORD
appeared to Solomon by night, and said unto him, I have heard thy
prayer, and have chosen this place to myself for an house of sacrifice.
13 If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I command the
locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people; 14
If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and
pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I
hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
15 Now mine eyes shall be open, and mine ears attent unto the prayer
that is made in this place” (II Chronicles 7:12-15).
Solomon
spent seven years building the Temple of God. Then, Solomon spent the
next thirteen years building an even more extravagant palace for himself
and the many wives he began to acquire. This extravagance led
Solomon into a life of decadence and perversion of everything that is
holy. In fact, we should see the book of Ecclesiastes as a thorough
confessional of Solomon’s decadent lifestyle that led the nation of
Israel to forget God.
“3 God came from
Teman, and the Holy One from mount Paran. Selah. His glory covered the
heavens, and the earth was full of his praise. 4 And his brightness was
as the light; he had horns coming out of his hand: and there was the
hiding of his power. 5 Before him went the pestilence, and burning coals
went forth at his feet” (Habakkuk 3:3-5).
Fear
of the future and the pending judgment of God can be a crippling thing
to live with. Yet they are effective tools of God to prompt believers
to pray and turn to Him in faith. For many people, prayer
means bargaining with God. They are in some dilemma of life out of which
they cannot escape (if they could, they wouldn’t need God). They come
into God’s presence saying, “God, I am not perfect, but I try harder
than so and so. You should listen to me. I work hard for you. I have
attended church faithfully for most of my life. I have given much.”
This type of person is bargaining with God. Even worse than that, he is
praying in his own name.
Habakkuk
had learned what every effective prayer warrior needs to learn. He
learned what it means to pray in Jesus’ Name. To pray in Jesus’ Name is
an attitude.
“Lord. I am a
sinner. I do not deserve anything from you. I don’t even know how to
pray or for what to pray. I wouldn’t even pray if your Spirit had not
prompted me to do so. I come because you have invited me to come. I
come solely on the merit of what I am in Christ and with no merit of my
own. Father, on the basis of what Christ has done for me and the
position that is mine before you because of salvation, I bring my
petition to you requesting that you answer according to your will and
not mine.”
This type of prayer exemplifies praying in Jesus’ Name. Excellent prayer comes from excelling faith. Excelling
faith looks to an omnipotent and victorious God. That is what we see
Habakkuk doing in Habakkuk 3:3-19. In these few verses, we see
excelling faith confronting crippling fear (Habakkuk 3:16 and 3:18-19).
“When
I heard, my belly trembled; my lips quivered at the voice: rottenness
entered into my bones, and I trembled in myself, that I might rest in
the day of trouble: when he cometh up unto the people, he will invade
them with his troops” (Habakkuk 3:16)
“18
Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation.
19 The LORD God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds’
feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places. To the chief
singer on my stringed instruments” (Habakkuk 3:18-19).
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Numerous studies and series are available free of charge for local churches at: http://www.disciplemakerministries.org/
Dr. Lance Ketchum serves the Lord as a Church Planter, Evangelist/Revivalist.
He has served the Lord for over 40 years.
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