E.A. Johnston warns that when a nation abandons God's moral law and the church compromises the gospel, it inevitably drowns in a flood of error and spiritual decay.
In this prophetic sermon, E.A. Johnston passionately addresses the spiritual crisis facing modern nations as they abandon biblical morality and the church succumbs to compromise. Drawing on historical examples of faithful martyrs like Archibald Campbell, Johnston warns of the consequences of a society drowning in error and calls believers to boldness and repentance. He challenges the church to reclaim its voice and stand firm on the gospel in the face of cultural apostasy and governmental rejection of God's law.
Full Transcript
In a letter to his daughter, Lady Sophia Lindsay, Archibald Campbell, 9th Earl of Argyle, Covenanter, written on the day of his execution in Edinburgh, wrote, What shall I say in this great day of the Lord, wherein, in the midst of a cloud, I have found a fair sunshine? I can wish no more for you, but that the Lord may comfort you, and shine upon you, as he does upon me, and give you that same sense of his love in staying in the world as I have in going out of it. Listen friends, when in a society the lines of right and wrong become blurred, when evil is called good and good evil, when sexual perversion spills over a land, contaminating all it touches, and when the streets of cities are splashed red with spilt blood of senseless murders, when an elected government fails to govern by God's laws and legislates the law of God out of the land, then it is a stark signal that the nation drowns in a flood of error, when the moral compass of society breaks asunder and immorality becomes standard behavior, then the people drown in a flood of error, when the rising generation chooses atheism over belief in the God of the Bible, then that generation drowns in a flood of error, when the churches of the land lose their voice of authority through compromise of the gospel and conformity to the world, then the nation drowns in a flood of error, I believe when Antichrist appears and is welcomed with open arms by an apostate church, he will not stand on dry ground, but he will get his feet soaking wet by the flood of error that washes over the land, but in Great Britain and America today, the bane of the church is self-preservation and compromise, the gospel of the cross has been dulled by ministers who fear man more than Almighty God and care more about their own necks than losing it, when the light goes out in a nation, it's because its pulpits have become darkened by error and restricted by fear, England's pulpits were emptied of 2,000 of her best ministers in the great ejection of 1662, as they cared more about the word of God than the dictates of man, in the years 1684 through 1685, known as the Killing Times, which was the period of hottest persecution, when Scotland turned red with the blood of the Covenanters, who would rather die for Christ than compromise their beliefs in the gospel, would it not be a greater blessing to a people today to have their ministers cast out from their churches, for not compromising the gospel of the Son of God, and for holding up a blood-stained savior from sin nailed on a bloody cross, and warning men and women and boys and girls to repent and flee from the wrath to come, to avoid being cast into a burning devil's hell? As Christ prayed on Calvary for his tormentors, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do, we cannot plead ignorance today, this side of the cross. Other generations knew the sacrifice and cost of following a crucified Christ in the days of Archibald Campbell, bleached skulls hung on posts in the grass market in Edinburgh as reminders of the cost of a red-hot Christianity.
The blood of the martyrs cries out against the deadness of dry bones that comprise the self-absorbed church of this generation.
Sermon Outline
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I
- The moral collapse of society as a sign of spiritual drowning
- The blurring of right and wrong in the culture
- The consequences of legislating God’s law out of the land
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II
- The church’s role and failure through compromise and fear
- Historical examples of faithful ministers and martyrs
- The cost and blessing of standing firm in the gospel
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III
- The rise of apostasy and the coming of Antichrist
- The flood of error welcoming spiritual deception
- The call to repentance and faithfulness
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IV
- The legacy of the martyrs as a rebuke to the modern church
- The importance of preaching the cross boldly
- The urgency of warning the nation before judgment
Key Quotes
“When in a society the lines of right and wrong become blurred, when evil is called good and good evil, then it is a stark signal that the nation drowns in a flood of error.” — E.A. Johnston
“The gospel of the cross has been dulled by ministers who fear man more than Almighty God and care more about their own necks than losing it.” — E.A. Johnston
“Would it not be a greater blessing to a people today to have their ministers cast out from their churches, for not compromising the gospel of the Son of God?” — E.A. Johnston
Application Points
- Examine personal and church commitment to biblical truth and reject compromise.
- Boldly proclaim the gospel of Christ regardless of societal opposition or fear.
- Pray for national repentance and the restoration of God’s moral law in society.
