The Prodigal Daughter

America- A Nation in Rebellion Against God.

When the Church turns its back on the Word of God,

God will allow the Church to wallow in its own sin.
 

For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. But it happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire. 2Peter 2:21-22

Thy Word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against thee. Psalm 119:11

 
 

The vast majorities that will read the message on this web site are familiar with the story told by Christ in the 15th chapter of Gospel of Luke; cf. verses 11-32, of a man that had two sons. The younger of the sons requested that his father give to him the portion of goods that falleth to him. In other words, he was ready, at least in his own mind, to receive the blessings that his father had laid up in store for him and ready to set out on his own, to live independent of his father’s wisdom and guidance.

The father agreed to his request and divided his living between his two sons and we are told the younger gathered together and took his journey into a far country and there wasted his substance with riotous (prodigal/wasteful) living. A spiritual view of this passage gives us a picture of the believer (son), when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed (sin), and finds himself separated from the intimate fellowship that the Heavenly Father (father) desires with His children; cf. 1 John 1: 5-10

The story is commonly referred to in Christian circles as the story of The Prodigal Son. Today I would like for you to consider the Father’s Prodigal Daughter.

 

The Nations Apostasy (Jeremiah 2:1-13)

The Intimate Fellowship

In this portion of God’s Word we see a nation, a people separated from their God. In verses 2-3 the Lord told Jeremiah to cry in the ears of Jerusalem saying “I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou went after me in the wilderness…. they were a holiness unto the Lord.” God remembered a close intimate fellowship that He once enjoyed with the Nation Israel, but things had changed. The close fellowship that they once enjoyed had been supplanted with division and schism. One thing we must understand at this juncture of this writing is that GOD NEVER CHANGES…”He is the same yesterday, and today, and forever”.

Their Separation

Thus saith the Lord, “What iniquity have your fathers found in me, that they are gone far from me, and have walked after vanity and are become vain?” What reason could a nation possibly find for forsaking and turning their back on their God? Forgetfulness- they forgot His, love, mercy, provisions and blessings. No one remembered “the Lord had brought them up out of Egypt, and led them through the wilderness, a land of deserts and of pits, a land of drought and a shadow of death. Through a land that no man passed through and where no man dwelt. That He brought them into a plentiful country, to eat the fruit thereof and the goodness thereof”.

Not even the priest (church) “said where is the Lord? And they that handled the law (Word of God) knew me not: The pastors also transgressed against me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal (another god), and walked in things that do not profit”.

Their Sin

What could have possibly caused God’s people to take for granted the bountiful blessings He had bestowed upon them a completely turn their back on their Heavenly Father?  “They had changed their gods, which are yet no gods. They changed their glory for that which doeth not profit”. The Lord said “they committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.”  In essence they had forsaken the Lord, the True and Living God and tried to replace Him with the false gods. Their trust in the false gods of the day was like pouring water into a broken pitcher useless- the water just runs right out.

It is important to understand that the nation (the people) was responsible for the separation, not God. My friend, we can’t deny it…. America has followed in these same footsteps.

Our Founding Fathers

As we consider the inception of America, one would not have to do much research to find that men who were considered to be the pillars of our nation (the founding fathers) not only feared the Lord but also revered His Word and esteemed it the very foundation in the birth of this new nation. Historical writings not only validate their public acknowledgement of a Sovereign God but the absolute necessity of His providential care in its existence and prosperity.

John Quincy Adams- Concerning the Independence of this Nation

“Why is it that, next to the birthday of the Savior of the World, your most joyous and most venerated festival returns on this day. Is it not that, in the chain of human events, the birthday of the nation is indissolubly linked with the birthday of the Savior? That it forms a leading event in the Progress of the Gospel dispensation? Is it not that the Declaration of Independence first organized the social compact on the foundations of the Redeemer’s mission upon earth? That it laid the cornerstone of human government upon the first precepts of Christianity and gave to the world the first irrevocable pledge of the fulfillment of the prophecies announced directly from Heaven at the birth of the Saviour and predicted by the greatest of the Hebrew prophets 600 years before.”

Now there are many folk today who are successfully thwarting this truth- the fact that the men who were used of God to establish this nation were men who understood the importance of God’s personal involvement in its day-to-day activities. Psalm 127:1 Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it: Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman walketh but in vain.” America was to be a LIGHT unto the world to send forth the Gospel of The Lord Jesus Christ. It was imperative The Word of God have free course and must be esteemed the necessity of life, both in and out of government. It was “a lamp unto our feet and the light unto our paths.”. Yet today, in America, the enemies of the cross do not only meet the Word of God with blatant opposition but it is subjugated to every whim and fleshly desire of the church. “We have given heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils; we have followed after our own lust and heaped to ourselves teachers, having itching ear”.

Daniel Webster-

“If religious books are not widely circulated among the masses in this country, I do not know what is going to become of us as a nation. If truth is not diffused, error will be; If God and His Word are not known and received, the devil and his works will gain the ascendancy. If the evangelical volume does not reach every hamlet, the pages of a corrupt and licentious literature will; If the power of the Gospel is not felt throughout the length and breadth if the land, anarchy and misrule, degradation and misery, corruption and darkness will reign without mitigation or end.”

As a nation, WE HAVE allowed those of the baser sort to reign supreme in oppressing God’s Word. WE HAVE allowed them to take Him and His Word out of our schools. WE HAVE silenced any mention of His name in the public arena for fear we might offend. WE HAVE succumbed to the fear (LIE) that if we acknowledge the True and Living God (The Fountain of Living Waters) we have somehow violated our constitutional rights. WE HAVE allowed the devil and his works to gain the ascendancy. In America, the light of the church is darkened and her salt has lost its savor.

Patrick Henry-

“ It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionist, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For this very reason peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity and freedom of worship here.”

 What we are now experiencing in America is NOT what our Founding Father’s intended when they spoke of freedom of worship. It seems that one’s right to promote ones belief is contingent upon ones believes. In America, anything that is associated with the Gospel of Jesus Christ is subverted, suppressed, and met with fervent opposition while the gods, which are yet no gods, have found, in America, their asylum of worship.

 

May God Have Mercy On America!

 

The Word of God says “If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with the other, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin” cf. 1 John 1:6-7

 I think it is safe to say, without too much argument, we are a people; a nation, immersed in the blackness of sin, hence NO FELLOWSHIP. As a nation, we do not enjoy the intimate fellowship that our nation once enjoyed with Jehovah God. It’s not God’s fault. The father did not force the prodigal son to leave. It was his choice. God did not turn his back on the Nation Israel above- they found fault with Him. It is America that has forsaken the Fountain of Living Waters. America is a broken cistern, but not recognized the consequences of her sin. America is a Prodigal Daughter.

 Patrick Henry once said, “It is when people forget God that tyrants forge their chains.” The chains are rattling with a deafening sound in America. Can you hear them? “He that hath an ear to hear let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches”.

 

America’s Only Hope

 Repentance!

“If my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face, and turn from there wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land”. 2 Chronicles 7:14

 The father of the Prodigal Son stood with open arms, ready to forgive his repentant son. So is our Heavenly Father, if America will find a place of repentance.

 May God have Mercy on America?

Brother Dennis