In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of repentance and the need for a spiritual awakening in our land. He uses the analogy of two arms, repentance and pardon, stretching across the stream of life, symbolizing the need for us to turn from our wicked ways and seek God's forgiveness. The preacher references the story of John the Baptist, who preached repentance in the wilderness and baptized people in the Jordan River. He also highlights the need for repentance in our personal, church, family, and national lives. The preacher suggests that God has allowed political leaders to be in office to show us the need for repentance, and he expresses a belief that a great awakening will come to our land, possibly through a national tragedy.

In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord. Make his path straight. And the same John had his raiment of camel's hair, and a leatheren girdle about his loins, and his meat was locusts and wild honey. And then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judea, and all the region round about Jordan, and were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits, meat for repentance. And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father, for I say unto you that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. And now also the ax is laid into the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which bringeth forth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance. But he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear. He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire, whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor and gather his wheat into the garner. But he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. Heavenly Father, we bow our hearts before you this morning, and we ask that our ears would be opened to hear what the message is that the Spirit has to say to us. I pray for the folks that are listening, that the Spirit of God would work in their lives, that they would receive the blessing of Jesus Christ upon their lives. We pray for the anointing of the Holy Spirit, O Holy Spirit, that we would receive your working amongst us. Thank you, Father, for this time, in Jesus' name, Amen. I believe that today the Spirit of God has a message for the Church in America, and we have some needs. As a matter of fact, I've jotted down three great needs that we have in the Church. And the first need that I've wrote down on a little piece of paper here is the need of the Church today is we need to repent. And if we will repent, then we will receive our second need, and that is we need to receive the blessing and the working of the Holy Spirit. Many of us today have no concept of what it is to abide in the presence of the Lord, to know the leading of the Holy Spirit, to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit. And the third need, and these things will flow logically, if we will repent, then we will receive the blessing of the Holy Spirit, and then our third need is we need to be holy, to live godly lives, and the Holy Spirit produces that. And of course, we recognize that in our churches today, we don't have much of a godly standard because the Holy Spirit is not working and leading and guiding. We have much of flesh and much of Satan, sad to say, in our camp. The Spirit of God has been working on me this week in the area of repentance, our need to repent. Our first step to the blessing of the Holy Spirit and God's pouring out of His Holy Spirit upon us is if we will repent. Here's John the Baptist preaching there in the wilderness, a message of repentance. So filled with the Holy Spirit, he recognized when they came out from Jerusalem, he recognized those that were even thinking things in their minds and told them what they were thinking. We need to repent. And here's John the Baptist, he says, I am not worthy, not even worthy to bear the shoes of the Master. I was just thinking of a thought that I read a little earlier from Oswald Chambers about repentance. He said, Repentance does not bring a sense of sin, but a sense of unutterable unworthiness. When I repent, I realize that I am utterly helpless. I know all through me that I am not worthy even to bear His shoes. Have I repented like that? Or is there a lingering suggestion of standing up for myself? The reason God cannot come into my life is because I am not through or thorough unto repentance. Those are powerful words for our day. We are proud. We are very proud. A young man just yesterday who had been off on a week's or even over a week's mission tour, ministering in an area, had spent some time in a church, and he came back and he said they were very proud, very proud. You know, the sad thing about pride is many times we don't even recognize that it's there. I was just reading a little story about a bridge that was built across the river Zambezi, which is below the Victoria Falls, and it's a bridge which spans the widest chasm and overlooks the most terrific turmoil of waters that can be seen on any river in the world. You know how that bridge was made? It was made by building out an arm from either shore, and then they were united. Those two outstretched arms in the center above that roaring stream were united. Now neither arm could have reached the opposite bank by itself, and the two needed to meet each other, and that's the story about repentance. Repentance and pardon are two arms that stretch across the stream of life. God has His arm of pardon stretched out for us, and if we will stretch out our arm of repentance and if we will turn from our wicked ways and stretch out our arm of repentant spirit in our personal life, in our church life, and in our family life, and in our national life, God will pardon. We are being judged in this land. We have lots of things to say about political leaders, from those in our local municipalities and settings and cities all the way up to the White House, but the fact of the matter is God has let those men be in office, especially in the higher offices, to show us that we need to repent. And I was just thinking about this, how we are beginning to get a little panicky in America, and I don't know what it's going to take to bring us to repentance. I believe, along with many of my colleagues in Revival Ministry, that God is going to bring a great awakening in our land, but we know that it may take some great national tragedy, and we have all of the ingredients to have a great national tragedy today, and of course you recognize that. But are we willing to recognize our own pride? Are we willing to let God work in our own lives? I was thinking about this thing today, just dwelling on this and meditating upon these thoughts about true repentance, and how true repentance brings a sense of unworthiness, and we are very proud in our churches today. And I was thinking about several different things, and God has just been stirring my heart, and I might share some of these things with you as we go through these things. Now listen, we have all kinds of Bible preaching, we have all kinds of good Bible teaching, and good sermons and ministries, but we have very little teaching on the depths of the cross and our need to be right with God and to live in the power of the Holy Spirit, and to be godly and holy. Isaiah said in Isaiah 57, 15, For thus saith the High and Lofty One that inhabited the eternity, whose name is Holy, I dwell in the high and holy place, and with Him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. We need to be broken first before God, before we will experience revival. And we have so much pride today, we will not listen to what the Spirit has to say to the churches. And a little group of folks that I'm meeting with, as we're meeting before God, we started last month in the beginning of a new work, a new little church, where we're asking that God would work, that God would build a standard of holiness. And I've just been, before God, waiting for Him to lead week by week, we're starting very slow. I've already made a mistake or two because I did not follow the Holy Spirit. We need holiness in our churches. And I believe God wants to build a work in this area that will be a standard of godliness and holiness. And can you imagine what it will take to get a work like that started, to have one established? It just blows my mind away, because we have become so used to carnality in fleshly ways. We have our schedules and our agendas sometimes months in advance of what we're going to do. We're so accustomed to doing things without checking with God. And you know, the standard that Peter set out, I've started going through the book of Peter a couple weeks ago, the standard is holiness. But as He which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy. The reason we that call ourselves Christians have to be holy is because God is holy. That's the reason. Because it is written, Be ye holy, for I am holy. And we forgot about some of these things. We, so many times, are the blind leading the blind. And again, we come back to this area of our pride. We're just so proud that we can't hear. You know, the scripture says in Romans 3.24, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God has sent forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God, to declare, I say at this time, His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Do you know that this is the most offensive message in our professing churches today? As Chambers said, the gospel of the grace of God awakens an intense longing in human souls and an equally intense resentment. Why is that? He said, because the revelation which it brings is not palatable. There is a certain pride in man that will give and give, but to come and accept is another thing. I will give my life to martyrdom, I will give my life in consecration, I will do anything, but do not humiliate me to the level of the most hell-deserving sinner and tell me that all I have to do is to accept the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ. When we will not repent of our own sin, then we also will never receive the gift of salvation, which is through Jesus Christ, for by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God and not of works. Why? So that we will not boast. The Scripture says that no flesh will glory in His presence. All those in heaven will have one song to sing, and that will be that we have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. But let me tell you, this message is not preached in a lot of our churches. We have the philosophy of Satan, of good works, that so permeated Christianity that many are deceived, even in fundamental works, thinking that because they are so busy, they are so busy doing good things, that God surely is their Savior. Not so. The reason is, busyness can come out of the flesh. Can you say without a doubt that you are doing what you are doing because the Holy Spirit is leading you to do that? If you can't say that, then how do you know that God is leading you? How do you know that you are really saved? Do you have peace in your heart? Do you have a peace that nothing can shake, no circumstance, no tragedy, no one threatening you or arguing with you can take that peace away from you? If you do, and you've got the real peace, you said, Jesus, He said, My peace I give unto you. He said, Let not your heart be troubled, don't let it be afraid. He said, You're going to have tribulation. But this peace that He gives to us is a peace that passes understanding. And the world has nothing to offer, nothing close to the peace that Jesus offers. Because He said, Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you, not as the world giveth give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. Isn't that sweet? We can have peace if we have Jesus. Do you have peace? You know, we have a lot of turmoil in our churches. Along with our pride, we have the lords of the church, church bosses. We have those that are in all kinds of positions of ministry, but yet they have their lives in shambles. And God tells us that we better not be deceived, that He won't be mocked. He said, If a man think himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself. He said, Be not deceived. God is not mocked. For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption. But he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. You know, we are either operating under the Spirit's direction or we're operating under the flesh, or maybe even Satan's directing in our lives. And because we are unwilling even to examine our hearts, even to consider the thought that we might be wrong, that we might be off the track. Oh yeah, we could be doctrinally correct, but yet we could be spiritually destitute and barren in the operating of our life. You know, I was thinking about this thing of the seven churches. It's been a long time since I was over there, 1967 and 68, I lived over there among the seven churches. And I was going through the book of Revelation today, just going over some of these things on the seven churches. Boy, they, I just jotted down this first one about Ephesus. And I'd lived about 60 miles from Ephesus when I was stationed in the Air Force over there at Izmir, Smyrna. And I just wrote down this little note about Ephesus, pride of activity. You know, we don't mind bragging on ourselves. We don't mind bragging on our church. We don't mind bragging on our programs and our buildings and how busy we are and everything. But sometimes we get strangely silent when we get around an unsaved person. And then we don't brag about Jesus. And then there was another church over there. They had their pride of doctrine, Revelation 2, 14. And interesting things, how the Lord came to each of these churches and He had a message for each of them, an exhortation or a word of comfort to two of them that were okay. But the pride of doctrine, boy, they were so proud. And the Lord came to them and He said, You have the doctrine of Balaam there. Doctrine of Balaam! The way of Balaam, the era of Balaam, the doctrine of Balaam, they had it all. The love of wages, the coveting of gifts, the accepting of wages for betraying God. This is what Balaam was. He was a backslidden prophet. God was trying to use him. And he ultimately gave some information to the enemy that the enemy was able to use to infiltrate Israel and corrupt them and bring God's wrath upon them. There is the committing of idolatry and adultery and all of this wickedness. And they had this in the church. Can you imagine it? And they also had the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, the toleration of evil and the heresy. And the Lord says, Repent or else I will come unto thee quickly and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth. Our problem isn't in the White House in America. Our problem is in the church because we are not holy. And God has a message for us today. We that are tolerating false doctrines and tolerating sin and tolerating standards of ungodliness in our leadership, God is judging us. Now God judges us very graciously and very slowly, but He does judge us very definitely. You know the Scripture says that the goodness of God leads us to repentance. Romans chapter 2 and verse 4. Romans 2 and verse 4, Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? I want you to notice that not only is there the goodness of God, but there is the forbearance of God. The self-restraint of God, whereby He tolerates sinners and permits them to live, He forbears. And then there's the longsuffering of God, the leniency and the patience of God with us, whereby God's mercy and goodness are extended to us. But there is a limit. There is a limit. And we know that unless we repent in America, we will extend ourselves beyond the limit. But I don't want to close on a note of doom and gloom. Next week I'm going to come back and I'm going to share with you some stories about revival and why I believe God is going to bring an awakening in our land. Until next time, I trust that God will keep blessing you, and if you don't know Jesus as your Savior, oh, please don't delay in repenting of your sin and asking Jesus to come in and to save your life. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Well, may God bless you.