Compromised Church in Corrupt Land

In Isaiah chapter 1, we find the sad description of a nation who had turned their back on God. Ah, a sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corruptors. They have forsaken the Lord.

They have provoked the Holy One of Israel onto anger. They are gone away backward. Why should ye be stricken any more? Ye will revolt more and more.

The whole head is sick and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot, even unto the head, there is no soundness in it. I will stop there, friends.

What a striking picture of a backslidden people of God. What a tragedy. What a startling comparison it is to the church in America today.

A church full of compromise and conformity. A compromised church has no power with God. And a church given to conformity with the world has no influence upon society.

A compromised church is a powerless church. A compromised church is an impotent church. A compromised church is a laughingstock to the world.

The church in America is like the nation she resides in, rotten from her head to her feet. It's become an institution of self-preservation that bears little resemblance to the New Testament pattern found in the book of Acts. The early church was counter-cultural.

The church went in one direction and a pagan society went in the other. And when they met, there was a riot or a clash. Now the church is unrecognizable from the corrupt society she hides in.

The one thing that would separate the chaff from the wheat is persecution. Scotland was reborn under the martyrdom of the covenanters who refused to place a earthly king above King Jesus. And they died for their stance.

They were arrested. They were put in prison. Their goods were confiscated.

Their families broken up and put in want. They were hanged and executed, beheaded, and their skulls were placed on stakes to be bleached white in the hot sun. The skull of Covenanter James Guthrie hung on a pier at Netherboat Port for 27 years as a stark reminder of the price for standing for Christ and the gospel under the reins of tyranny.

But two of Scotland's covenanters' martyrs were women, Margaret MacLachlan, who was 70 years old, and Margaret Wilson, who was a mere 18. They were the Wigtown Martyrs, who in 1685 refused prelacy and the oath of adjuration. They were tried for treason, for attending of religious field meetings, and meeting for worship indoors.

They were both sentenced to die by drowning. First, they took the gray-haired Margaret and tied her to a stake in the Solway Sea. And as the swift running tide came in, and as wave after wave splashed over her head, she struggled in the cold water until at last becoming limp in the swirling flood.

And her cruel persecutors cried out to the young Margaret, who was tied on a stake nearer to them. What do you think of her now? She answered, I think I see Christ wrestling there. Think we are the sufferers? No, it is Christ in us.

Let me ask us a question, friends. Is Christ wrestling in the Church of America today, in a struggle between the forces of evil? No, the Church is silent on sin and useless to society, as she hides in the shadows of a politically correct society, cowering and afraid to make her voice known and cry out against the sins of the land. I believe there are only two things that can save the American Church, and thus save the nation of America.

One is a Holy Ghost revival, and the other is hot persecution. One will awaken us out of our spiritual slumber and revitalize the Church, and the other will awaken a nation and return her to the God of the Bible. Either way, that is our only hope.

Heaven help us all.