America Land of Sudden Death — E.A. Johnston

I have never seen a time in my life where there is so much violence occurring on a daily basis in this country. Just this week a woman goes to work in Oklahoma and she is butchered to death by a crazed co-worker who then cuts off her head.

Another woman in Arkansas goes to work as a realtor and the man she shows the house to kills her and buries her in a shallow grave. All you have to do nowadays in this country to be killed is just show up for work in the morning.

The increase in violence in America is startling, shocking, and numbing all at the same time. It's numbing because we are all getting used to it, used to reading about it in the daily paper about who got killed the night before, somebody is getting killed in this country every day through violence, and it's as if a sewer has opened up on America and it's spilling all across this once great land.

Moral Corruption and the Loss of Reverence for God

It's a sewer of filth, a sewer of violence. We as a nation are corrupt from the head down to the feet. I can look back when I was a kid in school in the early 1960s, I remember standing each day and placing my hand over my heart and saying the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and I remember you could stand and pray in school back then and it wasn't a crime to do so.

But all that changed in the early 1960s when this country kicked God out of the classroom and ever since we've had an increase in school shootings, murders, rapes, and violent crime that has escalated to such high levels that it's like a war is going on in our country because people are being killed every day, it's on a battlefield, but it is everyday folks just going to work and being killed at their jobs.

America as a Land of Sudden Death

America has become a land of sudden death, and that's the title of my message today friends, America a land of sudden death, for sudden death is all around us. You can be gunned down just standing in line today or going to a movie.

Violence in the Days of Noah

My text is found in the book of Genesis in chapter 6, you can turn in your Bibles there now. I want to bring us this message before we go to a time of prayer, I want us to look at the times in which we live for these indeed are the last days of civilization as we know it friends, I can almost hear the midnight cry as our Lord returns for his bride.

Our passage today is in Genesis chapter 6 and verses 11 through 13, let me read them to us now, and may the Spirit of God be pleased to attend the reading of his holy word. The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence, and God looked upon the earth, and behold it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth, and God said unto Noah, the end of all flesh has come before me, for the earth is filled with violence through them, and behold I will destroy them with the earth.

God's Wrath Against a Corrupt Society

Now that sense where it talks about God looking at the earth and seeing it was corrupt, that all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth, what that means is this, it's when a society calls evil good and good evil, when wrong is right and right is wrong, that's where we are today in America friends, if you are a true Christian today you stand in a small minority, many today call themselves Christians but they love the world and live like the devil, and they still say they love Jesus, but Jesus doesn't love them, my bible declares that, God is angry with the wicked every day, if he turn not he will wet his sword, he hath bent his bow and made it ready, listen friend, if you are a member of a church and live in sin, you will die in your sins and be cast into a place of eternal misery called hell, and I don't care if you are the chairman of the deacons, your good track record won't save you, but your sins will damn you, corrupt was the land in Noah's day, corrupt is the land in our day, corrupt is the church in our day as well friends, I am sorry to say, I was trying to illustrate this to a teenager recently, and I said take out a coin and hold it up, the teenager held up a quarter, I said now imagine that the bible verse of John 3 .16 is written on one half of that coin, John 3 .16 states the love of God, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life,.

I asked the teenager if she had ever heard that verse before, she said lots of times in church, I said now look at the other side of that coin you are holding and imagine it has this bible verse on the other side, and that verse is John 3 .36 which declares he that believeth on the son hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not the son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him, the teenager looked at me strangely and said I have never ever heard that verse quoted in church before, all they quote is John 3 .16,.

The Full Gospel: Love, Wrath, and the Call to Repentance

I answered her by saying that John 3 .16 speaks of the love of God, and that John 3 .36 speaks of the wrath of God, and they make up both sides of the coin which represent the true gospel of the son of God, the full counsel of God, and I told her the main reason this country is in the sad shape that it is in is because the church years ago quit preaching about the wrath of God and only began preaching the love of God, and when the church fails to warn sinners about their great danger of dying in their sins and dropping into hell, then people will merely join the church through an intellectual assent to a bible verse or a bible fact and remain unchanged individuals who lived the same way before they did before they became a Christian, and when that happens there is no distinguishable difference between the church and society for they look and act the same, they like the same TV shows, they like the same movies, the same entertainment, the same music, that's why church kids today listen to Miley Cyrus and grind on one another when they dance because they don't know the difference between right and wrong, because their parents don't know the difference between right and wrong, their church member parents live no differently than their unchurched friends parents, there is no noticeable difference in their behavior and speech, all is corrupt, listen friends, when the church quit calling sin black and hell hot and quit preaching man's duty of repentance and man's necessity of regeneration, then you have a people merely joining the church like they do a social club, they might clean up a little on the outside to fit in with the rest of the members in the social club, but there is no inward change, and when the church waters down the gospel message to make it more palatable to sinful man, then the church wanders away from the heart of God who demands repentance from a sinner if they wish to get in his heaven, Jesus declared unless you repent you shall all likewise perish, why?

Repentance, Regeneration, and the Lordship of Christ

Because of the wrath of God and his hatred of sin, but we don't mention that in our churches today because we believe nobody would be drawn to a wrathful vengeful God, so we dress him up in prettier robes and make him only a God of love, and we omit the demands of the gospel on a person's life to really be saved, we tell folks today all they need to do to get to heaven is only believe, that's all, only believe and they will go to heaven, just accept this Jesus into your heart friend and you will be saved, and we ask them to walk an aisle and repeat a prayer and we pat them on the back and shake their hand and tell them they are now saved, but a holy God doesn't see it that way, a holy God demands holiness from his followers, a crucified Christ demands crucified followers, a holy God must punish sin, a holy God will send divine judgment in the land upon his disobedient people, and that's just where we are today, we have an unrepentant church who refuses to preach the lordship of Jesus Christ and the doctrines of repentance and regeneration and holiness, some people join the church and live on a false bottom all their lives and when they die, they die in their sins and are cast into hell and its fires, and because we are a strange people who have walked away from the heart of God, we are experiencing his hot displeasure upon us in the form of a corrupt nation that is filled with violence, a sudden death is all around us today, oh why your lucky friend, if you go out today and grab some lunch, if you make it home safe in your bed tonight, that's how crazy things have gotten in this country because the church refuses to repent, she's watered down the gospel, and the nation calls evil good and good evil, and the nation shakes her angry fist in the face of God and dares him to do anything about it, but he is doing something about it, he has allowed the land to be filled with corruption and violence and this should more than alarm us friends because Jesus foretold what kind of shape the world will be in before his return, he said, as in the days of Noah, and when you look in our passage today from Genesis chapter 6, you'll see that the world in Noah's day was corrupt and filled with violence right before God destroyed it, listen to what the bible commentator Matthew Henry had to say about this passage, listen to his wise words, wickedness is the rune of human society, take away conscience and the fear of God and men become beasts and devils to one another, sin fills the earth with violence and so turns the world into a wilderness, God looked upon the earth and all flesh had corrupted his way, when wickedness has become general then universal rune is not far off, while there is a remnant of praying people in a nation to empty the measure it fills, judgments may be kept off a great while, listen friends, there is indeed a praying remnant still in the land today and I believe that's why God has not yet destroyed this nation, but what can we do about it, is there anything we as a people of God can do about the sad shape this nation is in, our politicians can't help us, our elected officials and court justices can't help us, our only hope friends is in a heaven sent revival, but are we willing to comply with the biblical standard to prepare our hearts for revival, are we willing to sit in sackcloth and ashes in our sanctuaries night after night crying out to God for mercy, are we willing to have nights of desperate prayer begging God to forgive the sins of this nation, is the church ready to repent and turn back to the God of the Bible, let me ask you a question, does our land need healing, do our teenagers need saving,.

Humility and Prayer as the Path to Revival

Let us look and see what is necessary for God to heal our land,. Look at what the word of God declares what we should do, 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,.

Did you hear that friends, then what are we waiting for,. Let us go to our faces for a time of prolonged prayer.