The Lost Reality of God — E.A. Johnston

The Church's Moral Decline and Apostasy

I have been around a long time, and I have witnessed the moral upheaval of a society and the sad spiritual declension in the church, which has resulted in apostasy within our religious denominations. One by one, like dominoes, they fall.

Youth Disillusionment with Religious Hypocrisy

Our young people today have, for the most part, left the church for the world. Why wouldn't they? They grew up in church, but as they grew older and saw through the hypocrisy of their religious parents who said, do as I say and not do as I do, and they realized that their pastor was only interested in occupying them and entertaining them at church, they became a delusioned, a disillusioned, and disfranchised generation that doesn't want to have anything to do with church.

We have to be honest with ourselves and confess that when we started having pizza night and movie night to attract the teens, we were really just fooling ourselves. We really didn't know how to hang on to our kids anymore in church because we ourselves had lost that one majestic and impervious presence that had a hold on us, but we drove that presence away from our sanctuaries by replacing him with worldly things that grieved his heart and caused him to withdraw himself from among us because of all our foolishness and sin.

We have many things in church today. We have a good social time with friends. We have an entertaining time from the music. We have a comfortable and commodious sanctuary to relax in, and we have a teaching time from the pastor to help us along our journey here on earth, but for all these things we do have, the one thing we don't have diminishes all the rest to the merely mundane.

The Lost Reality of God as the Root of Church Problems

All of our problems in our churches today, from division in our congregations to dilution of doctrine and absence of power in the pulpit is due to one thing, and that one thing is, friends, the lost reality of God.

And that's the title of my message today, friends, the lost reality of God, for we have lost his reality in our personal lives as well as our corporate lives, and this has spilled over to our national lives where in former times the country used to look to the church for guidance and direction.

The Church's Loss of Authority and Love for God

Now the church stumbles along in a blind fog of confusion. There's no voice of authority in the pulpit, no example of godliness in the pew. Our young people today look at the church as a spectacle of derision.

The church is out of touch with them, out of touch with themselves, because she is out of touch with God. We love the world today. We love our entertainments. We love ourselves, but we don't love a holy God.

Jesus rebuked the religious leaders of his day in John 5 .42 by telling them,. But I know you, that ye have not the love of God in you. We are all Stoics today, and nothing moves us anymore, not even souls perishing into a crisis eternity.

Self-Indulgence and Indifference Toward the Lost

We are too satiated in our self-indulgences, too occupied with our earthly possessions, too indifferent and apathetic to make one effort to pull a lost sinner out of the fire. They should hand out signs at the front door of every church to hang around all the members next while they sit there in church and then go out into society, and that sign should read, Do Not Disturb.

We have bragging rights in our growing congregations, and we can boast about our expanding church campuses. We can boast and brag about all we have and all we've done, but we are missing the most important thing, and all else hinges on that lost reality of God.

Revival, Persecution, and National Judgment

If God in his mercy doesn't send revival to awaken and arouse us, I fear he will send the fires of persecution to arouse us, and if that fails, then he will have no choice but to destroy us as a nation, which is what we deserve.

A Plea for God's Mercy

Heaven help us all. Let us pray.