God's Controversy With the Backslidden Church — David Wilkerson

This message is one of the Times Square Church pulpit series. It was recorded in the sanctuary of Times Square Church in Manhattan, New York City. Other tapes are available by writing World Challenge, P .O. Box 260, Lindale, Texas, 75771 or calling 903 -963 -8626.

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God’s Controversy With the Nations and the Church

A few weeks ago, I preached a message in this church about God's controversy concerning Zion, his church. That God judges nations when the governments and the people oppress his body, his church. When a nation begins to take away the freedoms of God's people, God sends judgment.

You saw that happen to the Russian Empire. You saw the whole empire collapse because they persecuted the Church of Jesus Christ for so many years. Afghanistan, you saw the same thing happen. They were killing Christians and believers, murdering them and burning them and beheading them.

These were Muslim nations and Russia came down and the nation went into depression. You see it in Indonesia. Indonesia, Thailand and some of these others were persecuting Christians. And in the Indonesian riots, remember, many of those ethnic Chinese were Christians, born-again Christians.

And over 1 ,500 of them, I believe, were slain or near that amount. And so God judges nations. He has a controversy with nations when they persecute his body. And this is what I believe is going to be a part of the judgment on America because the attempts to be politically accurate and to get God out of our schools, out of all of our institutions, and really harassment against anything that has to do with Jesus Christ.

And I believe that that's the controversy God has with America, not just our drugs, our alcohol, our sexual promiscuity, but all of the legal attempts to take God out of our schools and now a legal move underway to remove, in God we trust, off all our coins, an outright attack on anything having to do with the name of our Lord.

And so judgment will come as a result of that. Tonight I want to speak to you about God's controversy with the backslidden church. God's controversy with the backslidden church. Tell you what, I'm going to be in the book of Hosea, so why don't you turn to Hosea and leave it open around the fourth chapter.

Prayer for Judgment and Spiritual Understanding

We're going to be referring a lot to this prophet tonight. God's controversy with the backslidden church. Heavenly Father, there are things happening outside the doors of this church, all over the United States and around the world now.

Lord, you have come to balance the books. You've come to take revenge on those who for years and centuries now have mocked your name. And Lord, you said judgment will begin in the house of God. And we pray, Lord, that you open our eyes and our understanding.

Holy Spirit, come upon me now and speak through me as an oracle of God. I pray, Lord, that as we humble ourselves before you, we would hear your mind. In the words that I speak tonight, Lord, enlarge our vision.

Help us to see the heart of God and why he is having to judge the nations. Why all the nations are in turmoil. One nation after another, Lord. Absolute despair, depression, economic depression, unemployment, mass suicides in Japan now, mass suicides in Korea, and in Thailand, and in Indonesia, and all the Asian nations.

Literally thousands are taking their lives. Fear, uncertainty. But, oh God, we want to look at your church tonight. There is a church in this nation and around the world that is going to come under your wrath and your vengeance.

We pray, Lord, you give us an understanding. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Now, when God suddenly pours his corrective judgments on any nation, the Bible said he begins in his own house. The judgment must, Peter said, begin in the house of the Lord.

And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and sinner appear? If the righteous scarcely be saved, it does not mean that Christians are going to be saved by the skin of their teeth.

That's not what it means. If you take it in context, that whole chapter, Peter is talking about suffering for Christ. It has to do with suffering. And he's actually saying, if the righteous, in a time of judgment, scarcely find immunity against suffering, in other words, even Christians are going to suffer in great measure.

And he said, if we're going to suffer and we're not immune to these things, where will the ungodly come in? What kind of suffering will be meted out to the ungodly? Now, please note that the Bible says that God's people, overcoming people, are not going to be scarcely saved.

In fact, the Bible makes it very clear. They're going to be presented by Jesus Christ of the Father with exceeding great joy. It's going to be with a triumphant sound. We're not going to just limp into heaven.

We're going shouting and jumping all the way. I can assure you that. The entire passage is about the suffering of Christians. Rejoice in as much as you are made partakers of Christ's suffering. But we're to commit the keeping of our souls to him and well-doing as a faithful creator.

In all these times that are coming, he said, you present your soul, your body to me because I'm going to be faithful to you. Now, Paul refers to the time we're living in now as the wrap-up of all times, the end of all times.

He says, upon whom the ends of the world have come. And he said, really, if you want to know God's heart when it comes to judging, when it comes to his people, you don't have to pray for a vision. You just don't get along with God and say, Lord, reveal to me your mind.

He'll say, go into the Old Testament, dig it out. I have revealed my mind. That's why the apostle said, and all these things happened unto them in the Old Testament for our example. They are written for our teaching, upon whom the ends of the world are come.

We are living in that time, Paul said, the ends of the world have all come down upon us now. So everything is meant for our teaching. But the Lord is saying, if you want to know what is going to come to your nation and to the world, if you want to know my heart when it comes to my mercies and my judgments, get to know my character by studying every one of these Old Testament prophecies.

Folks, I love the New Testament and I'm in that constantly. But when I want to know the real heart of God, he's already judged. He's already shown his mercies. I go to the Old Testament and I just live in it.

And I get the mind of God so that we don't have to speculate. We don't have to dream up something because it's so clear. The heart of God is so revealed, especially in Hosea. Hosea is the prophet who clearly reveals the heart of God about what's going to happen to America and to the nations of the world in the short days ahead.

Hosea is the prophet who clearly defines God's controversy with a backslidden church. Go to Hosea, the fourth chapter, if you will, please, verses 1 and 2. Hosea, the fourth chapter, verses 1 and 2. Hear the word of the Lord, ye children of Israel, for the Lord hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there's no truth, no mercy, no knowledge of God in the land.

By swearing and lying and killing and stealing, committing adultery, they break out, and blood toucheth blood. Now, listen to that, if you will, please, very clearly. The warning is addressed to the children of Israel.

These are God's people. Now, folks, here is a church being described in the last days. This was in his time, but he's also speaking duly of another time, because God said, you look at this, you read it, and you're reading your own times into it also.

And I want you to look at this, please. A church totally bankrupt of truth, having no mercy, a called-out people, yes, but completely ignorant of God's ways, no longer in communion with him, a church full of cursing, lying, adulterous, hateful people, even murderers in their midst, killers.

And, folks, listen to me, please. Can you imagine such a church as that existing today? Is there a church in America and in the land and in the world today that is full of adultery, full of bitterness, full of rebellion, and even killing and murder?

Absolutely, yes. It's not the overcoming church of Jesus Christ, I assure you. But there are two churches in the land, just as there were two churches in the time of Hosea. Israel represents the backslidden church that had become adulterous, fornicating, full of rebellion.

There was murder, there was raping, there was incest. And then there was Judah. Of Judah, God said, Judah still rules with God and is still faithful with the saints. Though Israel will play the harlot, let not Judah offend.

He's saying, I have an overcoming church. I have a holy remnant represented by Judah. But there was another church in Hosea's time, Israel. Children of God, absolutely backslidden. Priests that were unholy and ungodly.

And God says, I have a controversy with this church because they call themselves by my name. They claim to be my church. And God says, I have a controversy. The Lord has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land because there's no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God.

Swearing, lying, killing, stealing, committing adultery, blood touching blood. He said, there's a river of blood flowing out of this church. I'm telling you, that's abortion. Blood touching blood until it becomes a river.

And folks, I want to show you that that is coming from what is called the evangelical churches, even. Would you listen closely? There's a church in the land and a people backslidden. The Bible said a spirit of wardom is in the midst of them.

It's a harlot church. Have you not seen in your newspapers yet the pictures of our national leaders coming out of church on Sunday morning with their Bibles in their hands? Do you not hear them say, we are born again?

We are Christians? In the United States Capitol every Sunday morning there are attorneys, judges, lawyers, politicians. And in every state capitol in the United States and the same thing around the world, in Europe especially, you see them Sunday morning toting their Bibles and putting on their front.

And they will say that I am a Christian. Many of them claim to be evangelicals. Many of them teach Sunday school, hold prayer meetings. And yet these are the same people, those people who are voting now for abortion, those who are taking up the homosexual agenda.

Many of them claim to be born-again Christians. They're not agnostics. They're not atheists. They claim to be Christians. That's where the blood is touching blood. The prophet is talking about lying and stealing.

Corruption. Judges, magistrates, doctors, lawyers, business leaders coming and going out of Protestant evangelical churches. Folks, I have listened to this double talk, this double speak from many of them.

I told you about President Clinton's pastor, Philip Walkerman, of Foundry Methodist Church, who excuses the President of the United States. I don't know what the President may be guilty of, but his pastor says we cannot judge him for this because he has so many good qualities that outweigh his sins, if there be sins.

Churches like this, with pastors. Listen, do you know that the majority of pastors now, in many denominations now, do not believe? I think the last figure was less than 25 of the pastors in most denominations don't even believe in the virgin birth.

Thousands pouring into these churches. No wonder there's so many people who want nothing to do with God or church because they see this stench. They see the hypocrisy and the phoniness of it all. Those who make the laws about abortion.

Those who stand up against prayers in our schools, in our society. All across this land, especially in the South, and in the Midwest, and even in the North Midwest. Especially the whole Bible Belt. Governors coming out of prayer meetings and then they're making statements to protect the whole homosexual agenda.

God says, I'm angered with this church. The people call themselves by my name, yet they abandon my word. They've turned aside from the knowledge of that which is holy. They are profane. There's blood on their hands.

They act as if they have no knowledge of God whatsoever. There are thousands upon thousands of churches in America, in England, Australia, around the world, dead, immoral, ashamed to the name of God. A church system so wicked and corrupted, the ungodly are shocked by it.

The Corrupt Ministry and Loss of Biblical Knowledge

How did this backslidden, immoral church come into being? How was it birthed? How did we come to this country? Folks, this city is full of churches like that. I could name you three of the most best-known churches in New York City where the whole agenda is homosexuality, activity, adultery, fornication on all sides, drunkenness, alcoholism, drug addiction.

Not a word is said about it. Hosea blamed a backslidden, corrupted ministry for perpetuating this great wickedness in the land. He said, this thing that's happening in our land has come from our pulpits.

God said, look at verse 6, chapter 4. My people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge because thou hast rejected knowledge. I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me. He's talking about the ministry.

You will not be priest to me, seeing thou hast forgotten the law of God. I also will forget thy children. Those are his spiritual children. God says, how can I minister to your spiritual children? He said, you will not be a minister to me.

You may be a minister to the crowd. They may think of you as a pastor, as a priest, but you're not mine. I have nothing to do with you. You have no knowledge of God. You are not of mine, and your church is not of mine.

It was a time of great prosperity, if you know the context of this prophecy. A time of great prosperity in Israel at the time. There was great increase. In verse 7, look at it. It says, as they were increased, or as they prospered, so they sinned against me.

Therefore will I change their glory into shame. The ministry of Hosea's time were eating off the sins of the people. They were excusing sin, but not only were they excusing it, they were enriching themselves by the sins of the people.

Verse 8, they eat up the sin of my people. And in the Hebrew, it means they live off the sins of their people. This is the man in the pulpit who will never reprove. He'll never cry out against sin. He'll never give a prophetic warning because it would cost him all he wants.

He's a hireling, and the hirelings are in the pulpit all over America. They are hirelings. They're in the ministry to be known and loved and financially secure, period. Folks, I'm not inventing this. This is the prophet.

Hosea 411, harlotry and wine and new wine take away the heart. That's their discernment, their understanding. He said there's a drunkenness, alcoholism. Alcoholism, drinking, adultery, fornication is eating away the discernment of the ministry.

I heard of a German pastor who took an evangelist acquaintance of mine aside, and he said, please don't preach so hard about pornography because there's not a path. He said there's hardly a pastor or Christian in Germany that doesn't go to sleep every night without some nude or pornographic image on his mind from television.

He said, they won't hear it here. And he was actually told to soft-pedal it, as if the man who was sinning is confessing himself that that's what he goes to bed at night with these pornographic images and pictures in his mind from what he's seen.

Hosea warned the ministers of the Lord have lost their spiritual life, their understanding, their doll, their void of life, because they're given over to sexual lust and they're drinking, they're carousing.

According to Hosea, the backslidden sensuous church was the result of people becoming just like their pastors. Look at verse 9, and there shall be like people, like priests. Folks, look at me, please, and hear me well.

You can sit in any congregation in America. You can't be there more than a half an hour, and you'll know what the pastor's like before he speaks. There will not be a sense of awe and holiness in that church.

You will sense a looseness. You will sense the absolute sense of immorality or holiness or righteousness. And you can always go to a church where you know there's a man or there are men, there are leaders who are seeking the face of God, and they've been warning against sin because there is something of an incredible joy that breaks out in that congregation that doesn't have to be worked up.

There is a fellowship that you cannot invent. There's something about it that if you're walking in the Spirit, you know it, you sense it, you feel it when you sit in a pulpit. That's why I so am blessed when I hear people from all over the world that come here, even when the church is empty, and will write me a letter or call us on the phone, said, I was in Times Square Church, and there was nobody there, but I felt the presence of the Lord in the building.

Prophetic Warnings Against Hypocritical Leadership

God, help us. Listen to this terrible warning of Jeremiah. I've seen in the prophets of Jerusalem a horrible thing. They commit adultery and they walk in lies. They strengthen the hands of the evildoers, that none of these evildoers return from their wickedness.

They are all of them unto me as Sodom, and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah. If you think that I'm preaching strongly, listen to this language. This is from God's own heart. He said, these preachers are Sodom and Gomorrah to me.

From the prophets of Jerusalem is profaneness gone forth into all the land. He said, your land is corrupted because there's a stream coming out of the pulpits, ungodly streams of corruption. And the people love to have it so, according to the prophet.

I tell you something, if you're not willing to pay the price and lay down your sins, if you've not really got a heart to walk in holiness before the Lord in His righteousness, if you don't have a heart for that, you won't last long in a Holy Ghost church.

You'll go find somebody, you'll find a pastor that's going to be just like you. He'll mirror what's in your heart, and he'll speak to the idolatry in you, and you'll sit there, and you'll be given over to a lie, and you'll think it's the truth, and you'll say, what a wonderful sermon, when it's sending you to hell.

Now, why has America become so evil? Such rampant wickedness and profanity. Folks, there's not a high school kid in this city, except a few Christians. Have you ever walked around these kids and listened?

The profanity? There's profanity in the movies, there's profanity on television, there's profanity at Wall Street. It's the in thing now for Wall Street women, these up-and-coming, breaking through the glass ceiling, to have a profane mouth, making millions of dollars and spewing out profanity.

Where did they get it? The Bible said it's from a profane pulpits in America. Not that they're cursing, but there's a profanity coming out of godlessness that has given birth to this spirit. The Bible said, if they stood in my counsel, and if they would cause my people to hear my words, then they would have turned them away from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings.

God's saying, if I had men in the pulpit who would name sin, if I had men in the pulpit who were not afraid to prophesy, if there were men that would stand and defend my name, and stand up against this encroachment of evil on all sides, if I had them, if my people, if my servants had not backslidden, there would have been a bulwark.

This flood would have been stopped. God says, I will punish and reward them for their doing. Now, let me show you what God prophesies that he's going to do in this coming storm that's coming to America, and not just to America, Europe and around the world.

The evangelical churches in Europe are dying. I get calls from leaders of denominations all through Europe. In fact, I'm going next May to France and to Germany and to Bosnia and to Romania. But the cry of the pastors and the leaders that are really on fire for God are saying, Brother Dave, there is such a deadness in our churches.

There's no life. It's dead. It's dead. It's dead. It's dying. It's dying in England. It's dying in Australia. Churches are dying. Even evangelical churches are dying. And I go to ministers' conferences and I look at some very wonderful men, but there's a sense of despair and death.

Judgment, Dissatisfaction, and the Consequences of Backsliding

I'll punish them and reward them for their doings. Verse 9, in verse 10, it says, God is going to send upon them a spirit of dissatisfaction, for they shall eat and not have enough. They shall commit wardom and shall not increase, because they have stopped giving heed to the Lord.

He said, I am going to cause a disease in this ministry that's been profane, that is backslidden. I'm going to cause, I'm going to give them over to total dissatisfaction, a spirit of dissatisfaction, so that the more they indulge, the more they try to satisfy and find pleasure.

He said, there's going to be no pleasure. I'm going to take away all fulfillment. Folks, you show me a backslidden Christian, and I'll show you one of the most miserable persons in the face of the earth.

Backslidden, cold, indifferent to the Lord. But you show me a pastor that once had the touch of God. You show me a pastor once moved in the anointing of the Holy Spirit. You show me a pastor once used to be close to the heart of Jesus, and he was embraced by the Lord, and you could hear it in his language.

You saw it in his walk. And he turns away, aside. It may be pornography. It may be to adultery or fornication, whatever it may be. And you see the withering, and you see the drying. In fact, if they don't change, the Bible makes it very clear.

God says the judgment upon ministers especially is that anything they do in the way of the world will never ever bring them a moment of pleasure. It will be diminishing. In fact, it will be totally diminishing in its results in their life so that they go deeper and deeper into the pit.

And the more exotic their sins become, the less fulfilled they are. And oh, if you've ever run from God, you know that's true. You ran from God because you didn't want the restrictions, and you wanted the freedom, and you went out and got your freedom, and you found it was hell, and it was a prison.

They shall eat and not have enough. They shall commit adultery, reward them, and shall not increase. In other words, their satisfaction will not increase, but it will decrease. The Bible said they become clouds without water, carried about by the wind, trees whose fruit is withered, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots, raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame, wandering stars.

That wandering stars there in the Greek is roving about like a tramp, roving about like a tramp. Folks, I have seen those that at one time were men of God that moved my heart, and I saw a backslidden condition come over them.

They sit now and just watch one filthy television program after another, and there's no life, there's a withering, and you see them just tramping about, they're just roaming about like tramps, the Bible says.

Raging waves of the sea, fruitless, twice dead, plucked up by the roots. The Bible said the wicked are like troubled sea when it can't rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There's no peace, saith the Lord God to the wicked.

If you're backslidden here tonight, and this is what the message is about, because God's promised me that He's going to bring home a lot of backsliders tonight. God sent you here to hear a word. I'm talking not about backslidden preachers, yes, but I'm talking about a backslidden congregation as well.

I'm not talking to you that are walking with the Lord. I'm not talking to the remnant church. I'm not talking to blood-bought who love Jesus with all their heart. This message is not your message. It's for those who slipped away, and you're a part of this.

You're a part of this whole backslidden scene. The Lord wants you to hear, first of all, His warning that the fear of God will hold you, so they can show you His mercy. Another judgment, verse 16, the Bible says, because, let me read it to you, for Israel slid it back as a backslidden heifer.

Now the Lord will feed them as a lamb in a large place. Folks, this is an awesome judgment. Listen to me, please. This is for every backslidden Christian, for every backslidden preacher in the United States and around the world.

Listen to it closely. The message I preach to you is going out to tape, and many, many hundreds of preachers receive it. In a conference last two days, I said, how many get my newsletters and tapes? And a third of the congregation stood up out of hundreds.

So I'm addressing them as I address you tonight also. And I do it with a broken heart. The Bible says, because of backsliding and forsaking the truth and righteousness, God will strip you of all your increase and your comfort, and He'll turn you into a wilderness to fend for yourself like a little lamb.

For Israel slid it back as a backsliding heifer. Now, the Lord will feed them as a lamb in a large place. That large place is a wilderness. In Hebrew, it's a wilderness place. And what He's saying, because you don't want restrictions, you've been as stubborn as an ox trying to throw off the yoke.

You don't want the restraints. My easy yoke, my easy burden. You don't want that. You want to hold to your sin. You want to hold to this woman, to this man. You want to hold to your sexual perverse. You want to hold to this thing that has your heart.

You are backslidden in your heart, God says. And I have done everything I know how to do to reach you. He says, now I'm going to have to take you as a lamb. You want your freedom? I'm going to take you into a wilderness, a dry, withering place.

And I'm going to release you. I'm going to strip you of your comforts and your increase, according to the prophet. Because you're as stubborn as an ox. He said, I'm going to lead you out and you're going to wander around.

And folks, I believe God does this out of love sometimes, many, many times. The only hope, the only hope is that in that lost condition, where you have to fend for yourself, and this has to do with the economic collapses coming.

Hear me. I feel the breath of the Holy Ghost when I speak it. Hear it well, folks. God is going to take this nation as a little lamb, out into a dry wilderness and strip it. Every ungodly religious television program is going to be stripped of its money, of its finances, and will go bankrupt.

Every backslidden denomination, every ungodly denomination headquarters is going to go bankrupt. God's going to strip it. God says, I'm going to take away your increase, I'm going to lead you as a lamb into this withering place, and you're going to fend for yourself.

And God hopes that when the economy goes down and so many people are running around trying to make it on their own, perhaps they'll say, God, I need you. Maybe there'll be repentance. Finally, God, the last curse is in verse 17 to 19.

Being Given Over to Idolatry and Shame

God says, I'm going to leave them alone. They're going to be given over to their alcohol, their sexual fixations, and they're going to end up embracing shame. I want you to... Verse 17, Ephraim is joined to idols.

Ephraim is another name for Israel. Ephraim, because that was the capital. The capital was there in Samaria. Ephraim is joined to idols, let them alone. Their drink is sour. They've committed wardom continually.

Her rulers with shame do love. And what it says, what it is in Hebrew, her rulers are not ashamed of their shame. Now, folks, what do you think is happening in our country right now? What better word describes it than shame?

Not ashamed of their shame. He's talking about the leaders and the priests and the people. Ephraim is joined to idols, let him alone. God says, I'm going to let you alone now. This is not a time to pray anymore.

This is not a time now to intercede anymore. God says, I'm going to let you alone. And that's what is coming. Their drink is sour. They've committed adultery continually. Her rulers dearly love their shame.

They're not ashamed of their shame. And in the original it says, let them rest in their sins now. They're beyond reproof. Let them rest in their sins, they're beyond reproof. Hopefully they will be moved by judgment, I believe is what God is saying here.

And folks, this is the last indignity in the book of Hosea before God sent judgment. This was the last indignity against the Holy God. That they confront their sin and not blush. They laughed, they mocked their shame.

We have a whole nation that says morality doesn't count anymore. Give us prosperity. Give us leaders who can make us prosperous. We don't care if they're devils. Is what is being said. They can be scoundrels.

They can flaunt their shame. As long as we have all that we want. What greed. This is the last indignity that a nation or society inflicts on a Holy God before the fist comes down. Before the fist of God comes down on the nation.

And this is what happened in Israel. This was the last. The Bible says in verse 19, the wind has bound her up in her wings. That means a storm. A storm has come and picked her up in the wings of the storm and carried her off into the wilderness to be judged.

Hope Through Repentance in the Midst of Judgment

Now, I've had, listen very closely to me. I'm going to wrap this up in the next five or ten minutes. Now, listen closely, please, to what God's put in my heart. I've had people write to me from all the United States and I said, Brother Dave, have you given up on America?

Is there no hope? Can we still pray for America? Is there going to be a revival come to this nation? You're talking so much about judgment that's coming. Folks, yesterday, yesterday, front page of the New York Times.

The party's over. The party's over. They said, Brother Dave, is there no hope? Hosea offers incredible hope. And I'm going to take that hope in just a minute. But let me tell you what I believe. The only hope that we have for America or any other nation on the face of the earth that's under judgment is that in judgment, in the storm, there'll be repentance.

Because in Hosea's time, God's message of hope didn't come until that nation was plagued and fallen and smitten. And in a smitten condition, Hosea comes along in the fifth chapter. Let's go to the 14th chapter.

Fourteenth chapter of Hosea. Now, folks, I'm going to give you what I believe Hosea the prophet has revealed to us about the heart of God. Can you look this way for a moment? Don't read ahead of me. You're so anxious for hope, you're going to grab a hold of it.

What I'm about to read you is God saying, perhaps in the hardest of times, when all the things that people have trusted in have come, have been stripped away from them. When I start shaking everything that can be shaken.

When all the trusted institutions and prosperity crumbles. When everybody is struggling, fighting to survive. Perhaps then there will be repentance. They will turn to me again. And then, and only then, I will, verse four, I will heal their backsliding.

I will love them freely for my anger is turned away from him. But that promise did not come. And look at verse one, if you will, of chapter 14. Oh, Israel, return unto the Lord thy God, for thou has fallen by thine iniquity.

He said, you see, they're already in a falling condition. And here comes the prophet. Folks, look at me. God gets no pleasure in judging America or any other nation. This is a hard work for our loving heavenly father.

What a hard work it is for him. But he says, there is no other way. You have so hardened your heart. There's no other way I can reach you. So backslidden. Your churches are so backslidden, so far from me, that I have to strip and shake everything.

So that the only hope left is that you have to turn to me to even survive. For I give you nothing but a life and death option. You turn to me with all your heart and I will heal you. And I've got a word for you, backsliders.

Here's the heart of God. Oh, Israel, oh, backslider, return to the Lord thy God, for you've fallen by your sins. Take with you words, first of all, and turn to the Lord and say, take away all iniquity and receive us graciously, so we'll run to the cast of our lips.

He said, if you'll just turn to me and repent. Turn to me and say, I don't want my sin. I don't want to live in this darkness. I don't want this cloud hanging over my head. He said, if you'll turn to me, I know you're hurting.

There's not a person listening to me here tonight that's in a backslidden condition. And don't tell me that the word backsliding isn't biblical. I just read it to you like a backslidden heifer. Now, if I'd have called you that, you'd have been offended.

But the prophet Hosea has called it. God's not asking you to make him a bunch of promises. He's not asking you to wait till you clean up your own life. He's not waiting for something out of you. All he wants out of you is a humble confession.