Walking the Calvary Road — E.A. Johnston

When I was a teenager in church in the 1960s, the spiritual temperature of church was much higher than it is today, for there was still a God consciousness in the church back then, and the lives of the believers were more separated from the world than they are today.

Back then and in the 1950s, the men who stood in the pulpits of America preached more on man's duty of repentance and the necessity of being born again by the Spirit of God. They made a point to preach up holy living, and they took a stand against sin and the evils in society.

They preached that hell was hot and a future judgment awaited all mankind. They weren't afraid to warn you about dying in your sins, and they were earnest in their desperate pleas for you to come to Christ and surrender to his claims on your life in a life of discipleship.

Those old boys preached a bloody cross and a bloody Savior who died there. They preached that if you wanted to be saved, then your sins must be under the blood of the Lamb who was slain as a sacrifice for sin.

And a tear would get in their eye as they would sincerely plead with you to come to Christ as they recited the text from Jeremiah, the harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved. Preachers back then weren't interested in counting nickels and noses, but they sure were concerned over a lost soul going to hell's torments.

The Dilution of the Gospel and Worldly Christianity

But as the 1960s progressed, society began to degenerate into violence and chaos. A sexual revolution was the answer to the war in Vietnam. Pretty soon it seemed that America, which once feared the Almighty, now shunned him and wanted only to gratify their lusts and desires.

And soon the church attendance began to drop off in this country. And as the older preachers died off and younger ones appeared on the scene, the churches began to introduce a different gospel in the land, one quite different from the one found in my Bible.

Soon the churches had loosened up, so to speak, and became more worldly and less offensive to man. The gospel began its process of dilution, and some big-name theologians began to teach that repentance was not necessary to salvation.

So many pulpits began to soft-soak the gospel to make it more palatable to sinful man. Worldly entertainment was brought into the house of God, and soon the dress code that had been established for centuries was thrown out the window.

People came to church not wearing their Sunday best, but their sloppiest worst. Even pastors quit wearing neckties and suits. The whole atmosphere of church was loosened, and this spiritual downgrade has ended up where we are today, friends.

You'd be hard-pressed to walk into a church in this country and hear the real gospel at this hour. If one of the old-time preachers could come back today and sit in what is called Sunday morning church, he would fall to his knees in agony with weeping and a broken heart.

The Church's Unpreparedness for Persecution

Listen to me, dear friends. I don't believe this country is prepared to face the terrorism that will soon be in our streets. I don't believe the church of this hour is prepared to be the moral compass in a time of tragedy and social disorder.

I believe many Christians are totally unprepared for the great persecution that's about to fall upon the churches in this country, and that persecution is already like a sword of Damocles hanging over our unsuspecting heads.

The Christians in China live amidst persecution, and they bear it well because they are walking Bibles. They have memorized most of it. Many of us in this country cannot even quote more than five Bible verses in their entirety.

How many Bible verses can you recite right now, friend, if I asked you to take out a piece of paper and for the next hour just write from memory passages of Scripture? How many of you could fill up a notebook with what you've hidden in your heart of the Word of God?

The Christians in China thrive under persecution because they live out their Bibles as a living testimony, and when they came to Christ, they did not do it carelessly or casually like we do in this country, but they first counted the cost of becoming a follower of Jesus before they made that great sacrifice of their lives in following a crucified Savior.

Philippians 3:10 and the Calvary Road

But the church in America is quite unprepared for what is to befall her. Christians long ago in this country knew what it was like to walk the Calvary Road, and that's the title of my message today, friends, Walking the Calvary Road.

And my text can be found in Paul's letter to the Philippians. Turn in your Bibles, friends, to Philippians chapter 3. We will be in verse 10. Allow me to read this to us at this time, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering.

Being made conformable unto his death. That's our text today, friends, and I want to break down the lessons for us as we learn better how to walk along the Calvary Road. The first aspect from this verse I'd like to bring before us is this.

Knowing Christ Personally and Intimately

Number one, the road to Calvary leads to a cross. Our text says that I may know him. It does not state that I may know about him, but that I may know him. I fear there are many today in our churches throughout this land who know about Christ, and they've walked an aisle and made a decision and got baptized and joined the church, but yet they still do not know him.

They have merely had knowledge of Jesus. They know who he is and what he did, as John 3 .16 represents, but they don't know him. They do not have an experiential knowledge of him. They are yet unsaved.

Years ago, a big pastor of a big Baptist church at a big Baptist convention got up before the assembled crowd, and he made a startling comment about his famous Southern Baptist church. He said that in his honest opinion, he felt that only one out of ten of his members knew anything about an experiential knowledge of Jesus Christ.

In other words, he felt that 90 of his congregation was going to hell. It would not surprise me in the least to learn that today in our churches the same number exists, or it's even higher. Leonard Ravenhill made a solemn statement right before he died.

He said he truly believed that in America only 5 of church members were truly born again. The rest were yet in their sins. I tend to agree with him. I believe we have today the largest congregations of unconverted church members in the history of this country.

I believe many pastors behind pulpits are unconverted men themselves. Some head up some mega churches, and if you listen to them, they don't have a clue as to what the true gospel is or what true conversion is.

They'll baptize anybody who walks in now in response to their man-centered gospel invitation. So this first aspect of our text from Philippians 3 .10 is that I may know him, know him personally and intimately in a safe knowledge of him.

Experiencing the Power of Christ's Resurrection

The next aspect from this verse is and the power of his resurrection. Let me ask you a question, friend. When was the last time you were in a meeting where the power of God was there, where you could sense the manifest presence of the Almighty and you were bowed down under the solemnity of a holy God, the power of his resurrection?

Where is the power in our pulpits today? Why has the church in this country lost her influence in society? Why is she so impotent and helpless against the powers and forces of darkness all around her?

I believe I can answer that question with a quote from a former pastor of Moody Church in Chicago, Alan Redpath. Redpath was the pastor of Moody Church from 1953 to 1962. This was a time, friends, when the church still had a moral compass to society before this country went to hell in a handbasket.

Listen to his comments about the church and her lack of power. Today the Christian church is helpless behind the scenes and away from the public arena. We are facing powers of darkness too strong for us because somewhere in our personal lives we have forfeited all right to the Spirit's anointing, his authority, and his power.

In his absence, all we can do is to substitute planning and organization, schemes and techniques. Well, I agree with that comment of Alan Redpath, friends. I believe we have compromised ourselves with the world and we tolerate sin in our lives.

And by doing so, we have forfeited that power from on high. That's why the church today is silent in a sinful society. She has no power, no resurrection power because of sin and pride. The Methodist Bible teacher Samuel Chadwick summed up our situation today with the following prophetic statement.

When a church is run on the same lines as a circus, there may be crowds, but there is no shekinah. And that's what the church pretty much is today, friends, a circus, your typical pastors, the master of ceremonies who just introduces the acts to entertain us.

We have crowds today, but no power, no presence of the Almighty. And when the spiritual vacuum exists, there is little transformation taking place in our churches. You leave the same way you come in, unchanged.

Jesus resurrected Lazarus with almighty power. He made a dead man come to life. And that's what true salvation is, friends. We're by a lost person who is dead in sin, is given life and a power to be dead to sin.

Fellowship with Christ in Suffering

Let us pass on to our next aspect from our text from Philippians chapter three and verse 10, the fellowship of his sufferance. Notice sufferance is plural. The Chinese church, the African church, and other churches in third world countries know what it means to suffer further testimony in Christ Jesus.

But in America, this is a foreign concept to us. But soon this will all change. The political climate towards Christians in this country has changed. Soon we will all be viewed as enemies of the state and arrested.

I was preaching in a conference in Atlanta, Georgia, back in 2012. And my message was on the common persecution to the church in America. Back then, my hearers listened intently, but did not really believe what I said was coming soon would actually come true.

But it has. The dynamic of this nation has changed dramatically in just the last three years. Evil is called good and good evil. This aspect of our text on the fellowship of his sufferance is one we must be intimately familiar with as we walk the Calvary road.

The Crucified Life and Unswerving Obedience

For the Calvary road is one of unswerving obedience that leads to a cross. Listen, friends, religion gathers around the foot of Calvary and is comfortable there. But true Christianity gets up on the cross and stays there.

A crucified Savior must have crucified followers who walk with him along the Calvary road. Let me ask you a question, friend. When was the last time you heard a message on the cross in the life of a believer who preaches on the crucified life today?

Conformity to Christ's Death and the Need for Revival

Look at this last aspect from our text, being made conformable unto his death, that is, the Christian life. The Christian life is lived via the cross, not being conformed to this world, but being made conformable unto his death.

Listen to the words of Charles Finney on this topic. When there is a worldly spirit in the church, there is need of revival. The church is clearly backslidden when Christians conform to the world in dress and attitudes seeking worldly entertainment.

It shows they are far from God and need awakening. I agree with Charles Finney on that point. Listen, friends, we are in a crucial time in our country and at a vital crossroad in the church. In 1740, when God moved through New England, it was called the Great Awakening.

Revival has often been referred to as an awakening. At Gethsemane, Jesus faced the crisis point of his earthly ministry and his disciples slept right through it. Today, the church is in a crisis point and we are sleeping right through it.

What will it take to awaken us, friends? What happened in Paris this week will happen here in America. It is only a matter of time. This nation is unprepared for the coming terrorism and the church is unprepared for the coming persecution.

A few today know how to walk the Calvary Road as they follow a crucified Savior. It is my prayer, friends, that each of us will go to our God and seek his face and beg him for the grace to better walk the Calvary Road in these coming desperate and dangerous days.

Let us pray.