Sbc Chickens Home to Roost
E.A. Johnston warns that Southern Baptist churches have lost their spiritual authority by compromising biblical truth, resulting in a generation of young people lacking moral direction and living in open sin.
In this prophetic sermon, E.A. Johnston addresses the spiritual and moral decline within Southern Baptist churches, particularly among the youth. He critiques the theological compromises and hypocrisy that have led to a loss of biblical authority and calls for a powerful revival to restore Christ's central place in church and home life. Johnston challenges listeners to confront the consequences of neglecting true repentance and holiness.
Full Transcript
Why is it that so many of the kids who grew up in our Southern Baptist churches and who are now college age are either living with their girlfriend in open immorality or pregnant with their boyfriend's baby and not married and they see nothing wrong with it? Why do our young people today lack a moral compass? What went wrong? I know dozens and dozens of young people who grew up in a so-called Christian home. They grew up in a so-called fundamental Baptist church and who don't see anything wrong with fornication and they openly live with their sex partner. They can watch the most perverted movies out there and enjoy it and call it entertainment.
When Southern Baptists tried to reach the world by letting the world into their church, they lost what authority they once had and now the chickens have come home to roost. When a denomination changes its theology from a God-centered gospel to a man-centered gospel, it broadens the way of salvation in ways Jesus never did. And when you stop preaching against sin and when you stop warning folks about hell and when you omit man's duty of repentance, then you have congregations of worldly individuals who are baptized but not regenerate.
We invited our kids to walk an hour for Jesus and we told them they were saved and what they saw was a contradiction where their parents acted one way at church and another way at home. They grew up with a set of strict rules that were just plain old legalism and they lived in a home where their parents always talked about Jesus and the importance of being a Christian, but who held a parenting mindset of a do-as-I-say mentality instead of a do-as-I-do walk and who were religious individuals but who had no reality of God in their personal lives. And as the kids grew up seeing that double standard they saw right through our hypocrisy and the pastor at church was not a voice of authority to them to be looked up to because he resembled too much the Wizard of Oz behind the curtain hiding behind his gizmos of flashing lights and smoke screens.
So our kids who grew up in the nursery of our church and who attended either private Christian school or were homeschooled were completely unprepared to go out into a world full of the flesh and the devil. They didn't like your rules so they lived by some of their own. They can get drunk with each other and fornicate with each other and see absolutely nothing wrong with it.
Some of them could even still come to church on Sunday, sit there and smile and think they're Christians. I know some Southern Baptist pastors who are godly men and who have a God-honoring ministry but they are the minority in the denomination bordering on apostasy. Just because the denomination is South in the name of it doesn't mean it has to go South spiritually.
Only a heaven-sent revival will clean up the mess we made and re-establish Christ's preeminence in our sanctuaries and his prominence in our lives once again.
Sermon Outline
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I. The Moral Crisis Among Southern Baptist Youth
- Prevalence of fornication and immorality among young people
- Lack of moral compass despite Christian upbringing
- Cultural influences tolerated within the church
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II. Theological Compromise and Its Consequences
- Shift from God-centered to man-centered gospel
- Omission of sin, hell, and repentance in preaching
- Resulting in baptized but unregenerate congregations
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III. Hypocrisy and Legalism in Christian Homes
- Double standards between church and home life
- Religious formality without genuine faith
- Failure of parental example and pastoral authority
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IV. The Call for a Heaven-Sent Revival
- Need to restore Christ's preeminence in churches
- Revival as the solution to spiritual decline
- Urgency to re-establish biblical truth and holiness
Key Quotes
“When Southern Baptists tried to reach the world by letting the world into their church, they lost what authority they once had and now the chickens have come home to roost.” — E.A. Johnston
“Only a heaven-sent revival will clean up the mess we made and re-establish Christ's preeminence in our sanctuaries and his prominence in our lives once again.” — E.A. Johnston
“They grew up with a set of strict rules that were just plain old legalism and they lived in a home where their parents always talked about Jesus but had no reality of God in their personal lives.” — E.A. Johnston
Application Points
- Examine personal and church teachings to ensure they align with a God-centered gospel.
- Model genuine faith through consistent actions at home and church to avoid hypocrisy.
- Pray earnestly for a revival that restores holiness and Christ's preeminence in the community.