Tag: Repentance

A Word for the Church – Jan. 17, 2021

J. Thomas Johnson

Like Jonah was sent to Nineveh and preached a three-day sermon in the city, over the last three years I have been sent to preach a message of repentance and warning.  The message I’ve been sent to preach is for individual followers of Jesus, for the Church of the Nazarene, and for the Church of Jesus Christ around the world.

For individual followers of Jesus, you must lay down your idols.  You must return to loyalty to the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your self, and with all your strength.  And you must, out of loyalty to God, be loyal to those with whom you labor.  The Lord has been offended by your worship of your nation, your worship of your children, your worship of your right to leisure, your worship of your desire for respect, your worship of your rights and of your own values, your worship of your own feelings and inner turmoil.  “These are idols in my presence,” says the Lord God.  “My faithful ones will leave the worship of these things and return to me.”

For the Church of the Nazarene, the Lord says, “I raised up the holiness movement to call my church in America back to repentance and back to the teachings of my Son.  But, you have exalted yourself over the word entrusted to you.  Rather than submitting to my prophets and apostles, you have wielded authority over those I have chosen, adding what you thought was lacking and removing what you thought was superfluous.  Rather than bearing the message I had entrusted to every generation of my church, you wrote your own message.  You have added and taken away.  Unless you repent, I will remove your lampstand from its place.”

For the church throughout the world, the Lord says, “You have forsaken the gospel of Jesus for a gospel of demons.  You have neglected the way of righteousness for the way of indulgence and licentiousness.  Your forgiveness was for holiness, not for the covering of wickedness.  You have claimed promises I have not made, and you have hidden your deeds from your own eyes and called that concealment, grace.  No one who puts his hand to plow and then turns back is worthy of me.  Understand this parable.  No one who receives my forgiveness and turns back to the life he lived beforehand has placed faith in me.  I am not with him.  He remains in his sin.  Repent, or the judgment coming on the world will come on my people, as well.”

All these things have been embedded in the sermons I have preached over the last three years in central New York and the six years that preceded them in New Hampshire.  I have proclaimed a gospel of repentance in both places where God’s revivals were born in America.  And in six more weeks, the sermon He has sent me to speak will be completed.

The Lord will not forsake those who repent and follow Jesus.

The Fast That God Requires

If we wish to humble ourselves and pray and seek the face of the Lord in these days, the following is the fast that God would require of us.

To those with positions and power:

Return any money that you received to pervert justice or fairness.  Do not take more than is due.  Do your work with full diligence, earning your pay.  And treat those under your care with fairness, full of mercy.  Do not deprive a weak person of justice, and do not side with the powerful when they are in the wrong.

To those with positions and no power:

Advocate to your overseers for the fair treatment and justice of those under your care or responsibility.  Hold your overseers accountable to the laws and ethics of the land.  Exercise your own responsibilities with full diligence and with honesty and integrity.


To those with power but no position:

If you have gained your power by wicked practices, repent and find the path of righteousness.  If you have acquired wealth or influence by ways offensive to God, then return what you have seized, and seek God for a new heart and a new path in life.  If you influence others by fear, intimidation, or violence, repent and humble yourself.  For a contrite heart and humble spirit God will honor, but God stands opposed to the proud.

To those with no power and no position:

Honor your managers and overseers, and speak no evil of those for whom you work.  Serve diligently and do all your work as though you were working for God Himself and not for human beings.  Do your work with integrity, knowing that your God will see what is done in secret and will honor you when He comes in glory.

Do not defraud your neighbor or speak ill of your rival.  For God will not hear the prayer of one who oppresses another for selfish gain.

To All Regardless of Position or Power:

Love your neighbors, even your enemies, and do not hate those who hate you.

Do not intentionally lust after one to whom you are not married, and keep the marriage bed pure.  As God created Eve for Adam and Adam for Eve, so the marriage bed is for the reunification of male and female into one flesh.  Do not forsake your covenant of love by divorcing your spouse.

Speak truthfully to one another at all times.  Do not reserve the truth for special occasions, but speak with integrity in all your dealings.

Do not retaliate when you are disrespected, and go further in hospitality and generosity than any law requires.  Be generous with your excess and share with those who are in want.

Forgive those who sin against you and pray for those who persecute you.  Do not put yourself in the place of God by condemning another person.  Hold each other accountable to what God has taught us, but do not condemn.  For if you judge beyond the Law of God, God will increase the measure of your judgement.  When a person is judged, do not throw him or her to the dogs, but treat them with dignity and compassion.

Do only to others that which you desire to be done to you.  For God despises the hypocrite.

Extend no hand of fellowship to those who speak falsely in the Name of God, no matter the benefit they provide you.

If this fast is declared from the greatest to the least across the land, God will hear.  If not, judgment is coming.

A Final Appeal

~ J. Thomas Johnson ~

When the people of Israel fell into sin under the reign of Rehoboam, son of Solomon, God determined to destroy them through Shishak, Pharaoh of Egypt.

But, in those days God’s people repented of their sins and determined in their hearts to return to Him and to the covenant they had made with Him at Sinai.  So, God relented from their destruction.  God allowed Shishak to pillage the land, and God made Judah a subservient state to Egypt, but He did not destroy the nation.

As in the days of Rehoboam, my discernment is that God’s church has been unfaithful to Him.  And, as in the days of Rehoboam, God has determined to bring judgment.

But, God has sent us prophets, as He sent Shemaiah to Rehoboam, to warn God’s people in advance.  To those who have repented, God will show mercy in the midst of judgment.  To those who have remained steadfast in their unfaithfulness, God will show no mercy.

I and others like me have been bringing these warnings to the church for the last two decades.  I believe the days of warning have come to an end.  Those who have repented will be shown mercy in the days to come.  Those who have not repented, will reap the whirlwind they have sown.

I do not believe God will relent or change His mind.  God’s judgment is light, but God’s people have loved darkness.  The day of the Lord is drawing near.

Woe to the people of the earth who have hidden themselves in shadows, for the light of truth will expose every heart and every thought to the light of day.  All that has been done in secret will be proclaimed from the rooftops, and every hidden thing will be exposed.

Come into the light, people of God, for darkness will hide us no longer.  Light is coming, and light is judgment on darkness.  But, for those who walk in the light as God is in the light, your good deeds will be exposed and you will be known as children of the Almighty.

We must heed these words.  It is all I can hear God saying.