Losing Sight of Calvary — E.A. Johnston

The Church’s Spiritual Decline Comes From Losing Sight of Calvary

I believe we have a problem on our hands, friends, and I'm not talking about the many problems that exist in our governmental system. I'm not talking about the problems in our educational system, and I'm not even speaking of the many problems in our society, because until revival comes, we may as well get used to living in a pagan society that hates God and all things holy.

But I believe we have a real problem on our hands, and this problem is in our churches across the land, and I believe this problem's the source of our grisly spiritual diseases, our gross spiritual declensions, and our growing spiritual deadness in our churches and denominations today.

And I believe, friends, these troubles in the churches today are a direct result from one thing, our losing sight of Calvary. And that's the title of my message this evening, friends, Losing Sight of Calvary.

Listen, losing sight of Calvary has corrupted our worship services and made them both irreverent and irrevelant. Losing sight of Calvary has allowed us to dilute the precious gospel of the Son of God to make it more palatable to sinful man.

Losing sight of Calvary has made us forget our high view of God to such a sad degree that we've shrunken God down to our size or smaller. We put Him on our level in our prayers and in our preaching and in our worship.

Calvary’s Effect on Sin, Evangelism, and Missions

Losing sight of Calvary has made us lose sight of the evil of sin, the sinfulness of sin. We're no longer shocked by sin. And because of that, we easily indulge in it without any guilt or shame. Losing sight of Calvary has numbed us to the lost and perishing all around us.

We just don't witness to folks much anymore. How many of us are out knocking on doors and ringing doorbells and telling poor sinners about the Christ who came down here so we can go up there. Losing sight of Calvary has diminished our mission budgets and shrunk our missionary enterprise.

Most kids today, when they get out of school, want to go out and make a lot of money and get a high-paying career. But in years gone by in the 19th century, when the church still had influence in the land and revivals were still common across the land, when a young man or young woman got out of school, they couldn't wait to set sail on a ship to a foreign shore and take the gospel to the unsaved souls there.

But not anymore because we've lost sight of Calvary. Losing sight of Calvary has completely shut down our weekly prayer meetings. We have replaced them with cell groups. Yoga classes and Zumba dance. Losing sight of Calvary has drained the church of her power and influence in the world because we took her eyes off the only prize worth living for, Christ and his kingdom.

Worldliness, Entertainment, and Denominational Compromise

Losing sight of Calvary has made us compromised individuals who are easily conformed to this world because her eyes are smack dab on this world and its baubles. We are a worldly church because we've lost sight of Calvary, friends.

And in our personal lives, we should be ashamed at what we watch on TV and at the movies. But we can watch that trash and perversity and be okay with it because we've lost sight of Calvary. Listen, friends.

Losing sight of Calvary is the main reason why our Bibles are closed books. Losing sight of Calvary is the main reason why our eyes are dry when we pray. Losing sight of Calvary is the reason why our prayers are so enfeebled, why our preaching is so dry, why our worship is so routine.

Because when we lose sight of Calvary, we lose sight of why God saved us to begin with to reach this lost generation with the gospel of Jesus Christ and to not be conformed to this present world but to live only for eternity.

But when we lose sight of Calvary, we lose our way as denominations and then we begin ordaining homosexuals. When we lose sight of Calvary, we end up in such a sad spiritual declension that wrong is right and right is wrong.

Oh dear friends, what a sad and tragic shape the church is in in our day. We've grown accustomed to the absence of God. We've grown accustomed to dead formality. We've grown accustomed to the lack of spiritual life, yet alone in a fire.

I know the reason for all of this. We've taken our eyes off of Calvary and by doing so, we've taken our eyes off our Savior Jesus Christ. I think we have forgotten that the greatest sight in all the world is Calvary and the work that was accomplished there on that bloody cross by a suffering Savior was the greatest work in the world and I believe we have taken our eyes off of Calvary.

Recovering Wonder Through Meditation on Calvary

We don't look at Calvary like we should today. We don't stare into its glorious wonders. Years ago, I guess it was about 20 years ago, I remember a certain type of art that became suddenly popular. It was a picture that hung on the wall and if you just walked by that picture, it looked quite ordinary, quite commonplace.

But if you stood before that picture and really looked at it, really stared at it for a long time, suddenly it all changed. The front of that picture disappeared and you saw a 3D panorama of say wolves in the moonlight in a forest or you saw an ocean scene with boats and mermaids and porpoises in 3D.

The front part of that picture seemed to magically disappear and the one dimensional thing you were looking at transformed itself into three dimensional into a panorama. It was eerie. I forget what kind of art it was called, but it was real popular about 20 years ago.

Remember, if you just walked by the picture hanging on the wall, it was just an ordinary common picture. But if you took the time to stand there and gaze into it for a while, then it opened up before you and you were thrilled.

And that's what's happened to us and our churches today, friends. We've gotten so used to Calvary that we just walk on by like it's no big deal. We just pass it by with a glance and get on with our church business and church services.

But if we would stop all the activity, just stop everything in the name of the Lord and just get out our Bibles and get on our knees long enough and get quiet enough and meditate enough just on what transpired on that hill far away called Calvary, I believe, friends, we may just get back some of the wonder.

We may just get back some of the glory and it would transform our very lives and ministry. When I was a teenager, I worked for a Christian publisher and one of the little booklets was written by a Frenchman and it was entitled, Look Unto Me.

It was about 28 or 30 pages. It was a meditation on Calvary. It would break your heart just reading it. I would read that little booklet over and over again and my gaze would be on my Savior until my eyes were red with tears.

I would see him there on that cross nailed up there for me because of my sins. My dirty, rotten sins. What a blessed sacrifice he was. And I want to turn our gaze there now, friends. I want you to open your Bibles to the book of Isaiah in chapter 53.

Isaiah 53 and the Suffering Servant

We're going to travel back this evening and take a good look at Calvary, friends. We will read the entire chapter. It's only 12 verses. Oh, but what verses they are. We're about to see and behold the greatest sight in the world as we read this passage.

Turn your gaze, friend, upon that sacrifice hanging there on that ignoble cross. Look at the shame and scandal of that cross. Look at the pain involved in being experienced by a suffering Savior nailed to that cross.

Look at the tremendous sight of Calvary, friends. It is both horrible to gaze at and wonderful to behold. In fact, Calvary is the greatest sight in the world. I'll never forget the story about the godly widowed father who had family devotions each day at his table for his three young sons.

One son, when he grew up, remarked looking back at that time that the father would begin their daily devotions by reading Isaiah chapter 53, and he said by the time this dear man got to verse six, the kitchen table would be soaking wet from his tears as he trembled reading the word of God and the sacred scene before him.

Here now is the word of God and may the Holy Spirit attend the reading of his holy word. Who hath believed our report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of a dry ground.

He hath no form nor comeliness, and when we shall see him there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and we hid, as it were, our faces from him.

He was despised and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities.

The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. All we, like sheep, have gone astray. We have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment, and who shall declare his generation?

For he was cut off out of the land of the living, for the transgression of my people was he stricken. And he made his grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death, because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit found in his mouth.

Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him, he hath put him to grief. When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.

He shall see the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he hath poured out his soul unto death, and he was numbered with the transgressors, and he bared the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

Calvary’s Power for Revival, Prayer, and Holy Living

O friends, if we could just meditate on this passage and chew on it like a cow chews her cud, let it roll over our tongues and digest in our stomachs for a while, and live off its richness, it would give our preaching a holy fire again, it would put power in our prayer life again, it would give each of us a fresh burden for the lost again, we would fall in love with our Savior again, our Bibles would be our first choice with our free time, our knees would be sore from all the hours spent praying on them, oh what a burden we would carry for revival, our sanctuaries would no longer be houses of entertainment, but be what they should be, houses of prayer, full of the people of God on their knees before their God, the carpets in our sanctuaries would be wet from the tears of broken-hearted saints interceding for the lost in our community, if we could only turn our gaze back to Calvary and see the Christ hanging there, see that sacrifice for sin, behold that bloody Christ on Calvary, that cross had his blood all over it because of my sins, my sins, your sins, our dirty wretched sins, he paid it all, oh friends, let each of us recapture our sight of Calvary, let us be captivated by our Christ, and what does God have to say about all this dear friend, well he beckons, he calls, he calls us to look to that Savior on that cross for the forgiveness of sins, he offers pardon for sin and heaven for all eternity, listen to him now, perhaps he's speaking directly to you friend, look unto me and be ye saved all the ends of the earth, for I am God and there is none else.