Perpetual Backsliders and a Harvest Past

Of all the books of the Bible, I believe the book of Jeremiah mirrors this nation and the church today better than any other book in the Bible as far as giving warnings to us at this hour, for within its pages are striking comparisons of how God deals with the wayward people bent on sin, the moral upheaval of a nation where God is removed from every facet of society, and where the people grow more wicked with each new day. We live in a country where no one blushes at sin anymore, for we all have become desensitized to it, for evil is so common among us today, and the land grows more violent with murders every day, and the blood of the victims cries out for justice, but how can there be justice when the magistrates corrupt the law of the land by calling good evil and evil good? It's as if this whole nation has become sensual with her only aim being the gratification of her lust. This nation seems to thrive on perversion and nudity, and America has become a violent and wicked country, hell-bent on her own destruction.

Our enemies want to destroy us, and any number of factors could this nation face utter ruin and final destruction, and the straying people of God who are perpetual backsliders, deceived by their own pride, are unwilling to turn from their wicked ways as they rest comfortably on pillows of conformity and compromise. Dullness and deadness is everywhere in our churches today. The withdrawn presence of God is a great judgment upon all of us, yet instead of seeking the God of the Bible in brokenness and humility with nights of desperate prayer where we acknowledge our spiritual bankruptcy and plead with the Almighty to send showers of revival upon us, which we so desperately need, rather in our churches the absence of God is replaced by technology, entertainment, and the churches today take pride of their great success in expanding their already bulging campuses because a man can do much with money and manpower, but the church and former times friends operated by prayer and holy ghost power.

Turning your Bibles to the book of Jeremiah, we will be in chapter 8 and verses 5 through 22. Please friends, do not allow the length of this reading to dull your senses, rather pay strict attention to this striking passage as I read it to us for it speaks of our horrible condition today. The title of my message is Perpetual Backsliders and a Harvest Past.

Here now is the word of God. May the Spirit of the Lord attend his preached word. Why then is this people of Jerusalem slidden back by perpetual backsliding? They hold fast to seat.

They refuse to return. I hearkened and heard, but they spake not aright. No man repented him of his wickedness, saying, what have I done? Everyone turned to his course as the horse rusheth into the battle.

Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times, and the turtle, and the crane, and the swallow observe the time of their coming. But my people know not the judgment of the Lord. How do you say? We are wise, and the law of the Lord is with us.

Lo, certainly in vain made he it. The pen of the scribes is in vain. The wise men are ashamed.

They are dismayed and taken. Lo, they have rejected the word of the Lord, and what wisdom is in them. Therefore will I give their wives unto others, and their fields to them that shall inherit them.

For every one from the least, even unto the greatest, is given to covetousness. From the prophet, even unto the priest, every one dealeth falsely. For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people, slightly saying, Peace, peace, when there is no peace.

Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? Nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush. Therefore shall they fall among them that fall in the time of their visitation, and shall they be cast down, saith the Lord. I will surely consume them, saith the Lord.

There shall be no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree, and the leaf shall fade, and the things that I have given them shall pass away from them. Why do we sit still? Assemble yourselves, and let us enter into the defense cities, and let us be silent there. For the Lord our God hath put us to silence, and given us water of gall to drink, because we have sinned against the Lord.

We looked for peace, but no good came. And for a time of health, and behold, trouble. The snorting of his horses was heard from Dan, the whole land trembled at the sound of the name of his strong ones.

For they are come, and have devoured the land, and all that is in it, the city, and who, and those that dwell therein. For behold, I will send serpents, cockatrices among you, which will not be charmed, and they shall bite you, saith the Lord. When I would comfort myself against sorrow, my heart is faint in me.

Behold, the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people, because of them that dwell in a far country, is not the Lord in Zion, is not her king in her. Why have they provoked me to anger with their graven images, and with strange vanities? The harvest is past, the summer has ended, and we are not saved. For the hurt of my daughter of my people am I hurt.

I am black. Astonishment hath taken hold on me. Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then, is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered? Now friends, there are several startling observations I wish to draw out from our passage today.

Number one, God withholds his protection over a nation that has forsaken him. Number two, God withdraws his presence from among his people when they backslide away from him, and do not turn back to him in true repentance. Number three, God withholds his spirit in the salvation of souls when we are not properly aligned to him.

There are few being saved today in the country because of the absence of God in our churches. Let us look at the first observation, God withholds his protection over a nation that has forsaken him. There was a time in America years ago when this country still loved the Bible and feared the Almighty.

There was such a thing as shame and decency in the land back then because God held the majority in the land back then. But now perversion is everywhere in every facet of our society, from our entertainment to our judicial system. A corrupt people corrupt the land and bring divine judgment upon themselves.

If you do not believe me, look at the earth in Noah's day, how corrupt it was in violence, and where every man's thoughts were only evil continually, it got so bad that God destroyed everything living save Noah and his family. Look at the pride and sensuality in Sodom and Gomorrah and how God destroyed the cities of the plain with sudden and utter destruction. That always reminds me the time years ago when I was in New York City and I took the elevator up to the top of the Twin Towers.

I stood on the roof and gazed out across the Catskills and the countryside below. And then a few years later, those two towers in one day were reduced to smoke and rubble. God allowed the enemies of America to attack her.

There is a hedge that God puts up over a nation that serves him and he protects that nation from her enemies. But when that nation turns her back on God and outlaws him from their borders and says to him, we don't want you anymore, then God removes the protective hedge around that nation. Listen, friends, there are enough enemies of America today who'd love to attack and destroy us if God allows them to come in and do the very thing they want to.

It could wreak havoc on this entire nation. A dirty bomb released in a major city could wipe out 100000 people in an instant. As we see in our passage from Jeremiah, a nation cannot mock God and not be visited by his divine judgment upon them.

Listen, friends, America is a sitting duck waiting to be destroyed. Number two, God withdraws his presence from among his people when they backslide away from him and do not turn back to him in true repentance. Look at the church in America today and you see an institution for the most part, which is self-centered, self-reliant and self-supported.

God is a million miles away from the average church in America today, and yet she believes she's a great success because of her building programs and she has plenty of money. Churches spend millions of dollars remodeling their sanctuaries to make them more appealing and comfortable to man. No expense is spared from buying the best sound equipment so we can be better entertained.

But the problem is the church is bankrupt spiritually, for there is no God consciousness among us. As soon as our teenagers grow up, they stop going to church altogether. Who would blame them? The church is only a house of entertainment, and they can be entertained elsewhere.

When a people of God backslide away from him, they become self-deceived as to their own spiritual condition. Their senses are dulled as to spiritual things in eternity, and they know not that they are naked and bankrupt without him. And self is foremost in the life of the church.

The number one priority is the happiness of man rather than the glory of God. This is where we are in this country today, friends. The church is nothing more than a country club comprised of self-satisfied members whose focus is on their own comforts and enjoyments.

Meanwhile, the lost perish all around us, and hell fills up every minute. Only a heaven-sent revival can save us at this desperate hour, because the church refuses to repent toward God and seek him with a humble heart of brokenness so God has withdrawn himself from among us. And this leads me to our third and last point, which is God withholds a spirit in the salvation of souls when we are not properly aligned to him.

A few are being saved today. There's a great spiritual dearth in our churches. It's either all entertainment and laughs in the churches or dead formality everywhere.

We have to have pep rallies for Jesus because there is little spiritual life among us by the Holy Spirit. But friends, until the people of God turn from their wicked ways and seek his face and repentance, we will continue to see few conversions among us. And when there are few being saved in the land, then that land grows more and more wicked.

Christians are said to be salt. Salt is a against decay. But when Christians are no longer salt, then the entire nation decays spiritually and falls into gross corruption.

And that's where we are today, friends. That's where we are today in a nutshell. But a healthy church is on fire for souls and living for eternity through lives of holiness unto the Lord.

That's what revival does. It realigns the people of God to God in lines of spiritual vitality. But because of our perpetual backslidings, all we can do is lament the sad fact that the harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.