When God Removes the Hedge — E.A. Johnston

America’s Spiritual Decline and the Removal of God’s Protection

My heart is heavy at the spiritual sickness that grips this nation. America today is a country spinning out of control with violence and senseless killings, and no one in our government can stop this nation from imploding.

The church herself stands idly by as a spectator watching in horror while the very social fabric of society unravels all around her. America is a sick nation, but her sickness cannot be treated by social programs and government spending.

America is a sick nation morally and spiritually, and the church, which in former days could offer leadership and direction and be a moral compass to the nation, now is powerless to stop this country from a free fall into history's graveyard of once great nations.

Very soon, America will join the runes of ancient Rome and ancient Greece as once powerful civilizations imploded because of social unrest and moral decay. The diagnosis to the sickness of this land can be found, friends, within the covers of my Bible, for God himself has removed the hedge from America, and as she unravels and falls apart at the seams, he wonders in astonishment why she won't repent and turn back to him.

God blessed America in former days with spiritual awakenings and countless revivals. God prospered this nation like a vineyard and placed a protective hedge around it and poured out his blessings upon this country by raising it up in the eyes and esteem of the world.

And how did this nation thank the God of the Bible for all he has done for her? It turned her back on him and legislated him out of the judicial system, threw him out of the educational system, banned him from every corner of this land, from the military over to the corporate sector.

We used to proudly sing, God bless America, now we sing, God get out of America, for we don't want you anymore. And when this nation rejected the God of the Bible, then God rejected this nation by removing her protective hedge that was around her.

Today, as a people, we're more vulnerable than ever before in our history. In the past, we had God on our side as we fought our wars and defended our shores, but now God has withdrawn himself from among us.

He's taken away the hedge and the land. That's why we have so many senseless murders in this country. That's why we have so many natural disasters and sudden death hovers over every one of us. We live in a society where you can be gunned down any minute by a madman.

The government is powerless to stop the killings. The local law enforcement can't protect their own citizens from being butchered. And where is the church in all of this? On a mad building campaign, building magnificent palaces of worship while the country disintegrates into moral chaos.

Isaiah’s Vineyard and the Judgment of the Removed Hedge

The title of my message today, friends, is When God Removes the Hedge, and our text can be found in the book of Isaiah in chapter five. You can turn in your Bibles there now. We will be in verses one through five.

And as we look at this passage of scripture, let us see the similarities between Israel of old and America of today. Actually, this passage can apply to any nation which has turned her back on the God of the Bible, and most nations of the world today have done exactly that.

Here now is the word of God, and may the spirit of the Lord be pleased to attend the reading of his holy word. Now I will sing to my well-beloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard, my well-beloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill.

And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choices fine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein. And he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes.

And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, a judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard, what could I have been done more to my vineyard than I have not done in it? Wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, I brought it forth wild grapes, and now go to, I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard.

I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up, and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down, and I will lay it waste. It shall not be pruned nor digged, but there shall come up briars and thorns.

I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. I will stop there. This passage from Isaiah is a sad depiction of a once-favored people of God who have sinned their way far out of favor with God, a God who once nurtured them, and planted them, and protected them, and made them increase, now removes himself from them, and removes the protective hedge he had placed about them.

They are now vulnerable to every kind of prowling beast and invading army, and their doom is read to them, and the sentence is passed upon them to such a degree that God declares he will even withhold rain from them.

The rest of the passage declares the woes which will come upon them for calling evil good and good evil. This, friends, is the sad history of the ancient Jews, and this, friends, is the sad picture of our nation today.

America as a Once-Favored Vineyard

We were a people favored by God like a well-kept vineyard. We grew by leaps and bounds far higher than any other nation in this world's history. We were blessed with incredible financial prosperity, and our borders were protected from invading foreign armies.

Look at how London and much of Europe was bombed in World War II. No bombs were dropped on any American city. We as a nation have been favored by God with incredible spiritual awakenings and revivals that have saved countless thousands from a burning hell, but this nation has not witnessed a national revival in over 150 years because as America prospered, she soon forgot her God, and as the pages of the last century turned over, the church began to change her view of God.

The Loss of the Fear of God in the Church

Suddenly God was no longer a supreme being to be feared, so this nation lost her fear of God. There's no fear of God in the land today, friends. There's little fear of God even in our churches today. I was sitting in a big church years ago listening to a big preacher, and he made the following comment to his big congregation.

He said, listen, folks, when the Bible says that we are to fear God, that means we are to only reverence him, not fear him like we would be afraid of him. That kind of fear of God was only for Old Testament times.

That's what the old boy said, and that big preacher told a big lie to his big congregation that day, friends, because Jesus said, fear him. They can send both body and soul into hell. The day the church in America changed her view of God was the saddest day in her national history.

Today we place God on our level. We've shrunk him down to a human level, and that's how we view him. That's how we treat him, and we've taken salvation out of the hands of God and placed it in the hands of man.

We as a church changed the core of the gospel message to a only believe message. We did away with the doctrine of hell, and we killed off the doctrine of repentance, and then we threw open our doors and invited the world into our sanctuaries and polluted the house of God with perverted entertainment.

Then we killed off the weekly prayer meeting and set up a man-centered methodology to reach the lost, and we decided that big was better, so we all got on a mad rush to see who could build the biggest church compound in our cities because the success of a pastor is based solely on the amount of brick and mortar and the number of individuals who are on our church roll.

Never mind if they come to church or not, as long as their names get on there so we can have more bragging rights within our respective denomination. That's where we are today, friends, today in the church, and that's where we are today in the land.

The Hedge Removed from Nations, Churches, and Individuals

God has not only removed his presence from us, he has removed his protective hedge from around us. This can happen to a nation. It can happen to a religious denomination, and it can happen to an individual.

Don't you think, friend, for one skinny minute, you can call yourself a Christian and fool around with sin and not have your family impacted by that. You just go and look at the life of King David and see how his family fell apart after he committed adultery and murder.

Look at the awful suffering of his domestic life after those grievous, presumptuous sins. God can remove the hedge from a nation. Just pick up the newspaper, look at the evening news, and see the ramifications of sin and the judgment of God in the removal of his hedge on a society that's turned its back on God.

God can remove the hedge from a religious denomination. Look at all the big denominations that have gone to hell in a handbasket in just the last ten years. They promote evil as much as society does. And I tell you, friends, I say this to you with all sincerity, with all gravity, and with all solemnity, God can remove the hedge off of you.

Job and the Hedge Around the Righteous

If you're not walking in the fear of God and living for God in utter subjection to his lordship and rule in your life, then I believe the devil will get you if he can. Listen to Job chapter 1 and the final one verses, which speak of this very thing, where God can take away the hedge from a person any time he chooses.

And the Lord said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the Lord and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it. And the Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and upright man, one that feareth God and escheweth evil?

Then Satan answered the Lord and said, Doth Job fear God for naught? Hast thou not made a hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? Thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land.

But put forth thy hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face. And the Lord said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power, only upon himself put not forth thine hand.

So Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord. We all know what happened next, friends. Job lost it all. The hedge was removed. That is the very reason why Satan is wreaking havoc in our society today.

That's why we are sick as a nation from head to foot. The hedge has been taken away. God told the wayward Jews, I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up. This nation today, friends, is being eaten up by evil.

Evil is on the rampage throughout this nation today, and there's no way the government can stop it. There's no way the police force can stop it. There are killings every day in every major city in this country today.

The hedge has been removed because we have removed God from our society. And if you are a church, and if you have removed God from your worship service and your prayer time and your preaching time, then you will be eaten up as well.

And listen, friends, if you are a person who loves his sins and call yourself a Christian and you cannot wait to get back into that pig pen and wallow in it and relish in it again, then the protective hedge around your family will be broken into by the devil, and he will tear up your family.

Adultery, Family Ruin, and the Loss of Christian Testimony

Like I said, I believe the devil will get you if he can. I once had a friend. He was a leader in the church I served in. I looked up to that man as a Christian. He had a wonderful home with a loving wife and lovely children.

Then one day he began to have an adulterous affair with his younger secretary, and he, who was once my biggest inspiration, soon became my biggest warning. For God removed the hedge around this man's home.

His marriage ended in divorce. His children were tore up by the devil when they turned teenagers. He's a man who's unrepentant and lives in sin with different women, and he has no remorse about it. He lost his Christian testimony, and he lost his family because of his rebellion to God and his departure from God.

The hedge was removed. Picture in your minds a fenced yard. There are wolves and wild animals beyond the fence, but they can't get in because of the high fence. But if one or two of the wooden boards were knocked down or kicked in, then the wolves could come in and have free reign of that property.

Repentance as America’s Only Hope

A Christian home is like that. God puts up a hedge, but that hedge can be taken away because of sin. I said at the beginning of this message I had a diagnosis for the sickness of this nation. It is because we as a people have rejected God, and God has removed the hedge, and Satan has free reign to run all over this country to and fro, tearing it all to pieces.

The only hope for America, friends, is a turning back to God through repentance of sin. If this nation fails to turn back to God, there won't be a nation left to turn. We'll only be a page in world history books of future generations.

We'll be like my friend who turned away from God, and we'll stand as a stark warning to those who pass by not to follow in our footsteps and abandon the God of the Bible and foolishly believe you can get away with it.

Heaven help us all.