When a Nation Turns It's Back on God — E.A. Johnston

I grew up in America in the 1950s and it was a time when men wore hats and women wore gloves. Society dressed up back in those days rather than undressing in our day. Back then there was a sense of modesty in the land and a sense of shame, whereas today there is no modesty and it is a shame.

Television stars didn't take their clothes off in public back then, but now it seems they can't keep them on. No one blushes at sin anymore because we are all desensitized to sin. Sixty years ago there was still a fear of God in the land, but now there is a hatred of God in the land.

America's Moral Decline and Loss of the Fear of God

Atheism is on the rise. Perversion is considered normal. Evil is called good and good evil. The nation is in the very grip of sensuality and gross immorality grows at an alarming rate. When did it all go wrong?

When did this nation cease being great? I believe I can point to a certain time period and pinpoint the cause of it all. Are you listening? I believe America started to go downhill when the church stopped preaching man's duty of repentance.

It was when the church in America did away with the need for repentance that the nation saw no need for it either. When the church began to water down the gospel and pervert it by diluting it, then the nation fell into gross perversion and lost its moral compass, which was the church.

The Church's Abandonment of Repentance and Reliance on God

So goes the church, so goes the nation. That is the oil straight from the can. And when the church forsook the God of the Bible and kicked out the weekly prayer meeting and became a self-reliant church that operated on money and manpower, the nation followed suit and became a self-reliant nation that no longer needed to rely on God or look to God for guidance or to be thankful to Him for mercies given, and an unthankful nation and an ungrateful people turned their backs on the God of the Bible and did wickedly.

I have a passage of scripture that I would like to share with you this morning, and this passage of scripture relates to what happens when a nation turns its back on God, and that is the title of my message today, When a Nation Turns Its Back on God.

Our passage of scripture is found in the book of Deuteronomy in chapter 8, beginning in verse 10. Let me read it to you while you turn there in your Bibles. When thou hast eaten and art full, then thou shalt bless the Lord thy God for the good land which he hath given thee.

Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God, and not keep in his commandments and his judgments and his statutes which I command thee this day. Lest, when thou hast eaten and art full, and hast built goodly houses, and dwelt therein, and when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied, and all that thou hast is multiplied, then thy heart be lifted up, and thou forget the Lord thy God, and thou say in thine heart, My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth.

But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God, for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day. And it shall be, if thou do at all forget the Lord thy God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I testify against you this day, that ye shall surely perish, as the nations which the Lord destroyeth before your face, so shall ye perish, because ye would not be obedient unto the voice of the Lord your God.

Departing from God and Replacing Him With Idols

Notice from this passage several warnings from the God of the Bible. The first is a warning not to depart from God and become self-reliant. The second warning is not to replace God with other gods. So there is a departure and a replacement.

When the people turn their backs on God and depart from Him, they will soon replace Him with substitutes. In the time of the Jews, it was wooden idols. In our day, it is sports and entertainment. We have replaced God with amusements in your day and mine, whether we will admit it or not.

Many church members would rather spend several hours at a football game than spend an hour in a prayer meeting or reading their Bible. When there is a departure from the living God, a vacuum is created, and that vacuum is soon filled with substitutes, and we as a church have substituted the God of the Bible for our sports and entertainments.

Is that too hard for you? You don't like that. Do you think if John Wesley was alive today, he would waste half his week by watching television and going to sporting events? Do you? Do you think if D .O. Moody was alive today, he would plop himself in front of his big screen TV and sit there long enough for his eyes to grow the size of saucers and his brain the size of a pea?

Do you? I believe many of us believe that, but we're dead wrong. Those men like Wesley and Moody lived for eternity, not to gratify their lusts. Wesley and Moody had eternity stamped on their eyelids, but we today have our eyes glued to our TV sets, and we wonder why we don't see revival.

National Apostasy and the Prospect of Revival or Ruin

America has on her currency one nation under God. I'm afraid the day has come in America when it needs to change that to one nation out from under God. We as a nation have escorted God to our borders and sent him on his way.

We don't need him anymore, and the church by and large in America has opened up the front door and let the world in and has opened up their back door and pushed God right out, and that's where we are today, a powerless church preaching a deed-based gospel to a debauched society, and the word of God declares, shall ye perish because ye would not be obedient unto the voice of the Lord your God.

And if our nation doesn't turn back to the God of the Bible, it is certain destruction for this country, it is revival or ruin for America today. We as a nation cannot go on sinning with impudence against a holy God and expect a better outcome than old Sodom and Gomorrah.

God is no respecter of persons. So what can we do to avert sudden catastrophe from an offended creator? We can follow the mandate found in 2 Chronicles 7 and verse 14, which states if my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

Humbling Ourselves Through Prayer and a Solemn Assembly

Let me ask you, does our land need healing? Are we willing to comply with the word of God in our lives and do what this verse declares? Are we willing to go to our pastor and ask him to call a solemn assembly in the church and gather the people of God there for a night of desperate prayer, for a time of humbling ourselves and seeking the face of the Almighty and begging him for the grace of repentance to turn from our wicked ways?

If we do comply with the mandate found in this verse, is God going to not do what he has said he will do? I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. Do you believe him?

I believe our lack of seeing revival today is that we do not believe God will really send it and because of our unbelief we are unwilling to get serious with God so he can get serious with us, but the God of the Bible declares, return to me and I will return to you.

Are we ready as a nation to return to God? Are we ready to humble our proud necks and go to him with humility and supplication? Are we willing to do what old Nineveh did and turn from our wicked ways?

The Call to Follow Nineveh's Example of Repentance

Are we? Are you, brother pastor, going to keep playing church? Will you be the one to call a solemn assembly and lead your people to do as the spiritual leaders did in the book of Joel as found in chapter 2 and verses 16 -18?

Listen to the solemn passage of scripture. Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children and those that suck the breasts, let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber and the bride out of her closet.

Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar and let them say, spare thy people, O Lord, and give not thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them.

Desperation for Revival Before National Judgment

Wherefore should they say among the people, where is their God? Then the Lord will be jealous for his land and pity his people. Listen friends, the reason we're not seeing revival is us. Our level of perspiration has not reached our level of desperation.

We'd rather be sitting in front of our televisions and worshiping that idol rather than being in our sanctuaries on our faces before an offended God. How we spend our free time is an indictment against us.

You cannot argue with that. We just don't want God bad enough because we are not desperate enough for him. But if we fail to have revival in our land, we will soon not have a land to live in, at least in liberty and freedom any longer, for a day is coming swift and sure that will change the face of this nation forever.

A Prayer for Forgiveness, Healing, and National Repentance

Allow me to pray, Heavenly King, how we have sinned against thee, how we as a nation have turned our backs on thee, how we as a church have forsaken the God of the Bible and replaced you with other things of this world.

Forgive us, great God, forgive us for our great sins, forgive us for our aggravated sins, which we do against your favors. Forgive us for diluting your gospel and cheapening it for man's convenience. Forgive us for our great departure from thee, O ancient of days.

Turn your face once again to America, look down and see the remnant in the land who are crying out to you. Hear our prayers, your word declares you. Bottle up the tears of your saints. Let those heavenly cisterns with our tears fill up so you can turn them upside down and pour out your spirit upon the dry ground.

Come, Lord Jesus, come, come be preeminent in your sanctuaries once again. We need you, O Lord. Oh, how we need you. Forgive us, Lord God, and heal our land, send repentance to the nation of America before it's too late.

Have mercy, I pray in the strong name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.