When God Sends a Famine — E.A. Johnston

The Church’s Departure from Biblical Truth

When the church turned her back on the God of the Bible and began to hew out her own cisterns of a seeker-friendly service and a compromised gospel message, then God withdrew His presence from among His people.

When a church becomes a laughing stock in the eyes of the nation, then the nation goes into a moral tailspin from which there is little recovery. The church forsook her authority when she walked God to the back of the church house and pushed Him outside the back door and then invited the world in.

She killed off the weekly prayer meeting and replaced it with yoga classes and divorce recovery groups, but the weekly prayer meeting was the only engine of power that the church had. Then the church went and diluted the gospel to make it more palatable to sinful man, and she killed off the twin doctrines of repentance and the absolute lordship of Jesus Christ, and in doing so, she lost her witness to the nation in which she exists.

The ramifications of this upon the nation has been devastating to say the least. Evil is now called good, and good is called evil. Right is wrong, and wrong is right, and that seems to be the law on the land.

Amos and the Famine of Hearing God’s Word

And God has sent a judgment upon the land, friends. It is a more devastating judgment than earthquakes, more horrendous than hurricanes and tornadoes, more spreading than a great plague. The divine judgment of which I speak can be found in the book of Amos.

The title of my message this evening, friends, is When God Sends a Famine. You can turn in your Bibles to the book of Amos. We will be in Amos chapter 8 and verses 11 through 12. Let me read this striking passage of scripture to us now, and it is my prayer that the spirit of the Lord will attend the reading of his holy word.

I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst of water, but of hearing the word of the Lord. And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, and they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it.

God’s Judgment as Spiritual Destitution

Let me ask you, friends, who is it in our text that sends the famine in the land? It is the Almighty. And why, may I ask, does he send a famine to his people? God sends a great judgment upon his people because they have departed from the living God, and this remedial judgment from the hand of God is a great spiritual destitution upon them, a spiritual drought.

And even if they wander outside their community in search of relief, they will wander from even sea to sea and not find what they are looking for, our text says, and shall not find it. And what is this famine, I may ask?

It is the hearing of the word of the Lord. In our churches today, you will hear just about everything except for the meat of God's holy word and his great doctrines. You will hear a pastor ramble and tell stories and dialogue about current events, and he will attempt to make you laugh, but how many pastors are there today who preach searching sermons which grip your conscience with conviction of sin?

I submit to you, friends, that God has sent a judgment, this judgment to us today, this exact judgment that he sent upon the Jews in the days of Amos the prophet. God's judgment came in several forms to the Israelites.

God’s Withdrawn Presence in Amos 7

He withdrew his presence from among them. In Amos 7 and verses 7 -8, we read about this withdrawn presence of God from among his people as a form of judgment upon them. Thus he showed me, and behold, the Lord stood upon a wall made by a plumb-line, with a plumb-line in his hand.

And the Lord said unto me, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A plumb-line. Then said the Lord, Behold, I will set a plumb-line in the midst of my people Israel, I will not again pass by them any more.

So in Amos, friends, we see that God's response to Israel's departure from him was that he departed from them. In addition to that, God sent another remedial judgment, which was a famine of hearing truth preached, of hearing the word of the Lord.

The Modern Famine of Sound Doctrine

I receive emails from believers from all over the world, and they all say the same thing. I can't find a good church that preaches the truth in my community. I keep looking, I keep searching, but I can't find a pastor who's preaching truth.

People are hungry for the word of God today, and they can't find it in the churches anymore. They want meat, but all they get is candy. And the candy-coated pulpits are giving people spiritual cavities.

Even when I go around and visit churches, and I sit and listen to pastors as they stand behind the pulpit, and I listen to what they're saying, I'm shocked and dismayed at the great vacuum of doctrine, the silliness and irreverence and entertainment that's in the service, and the lack of authority in the pulpit by men who do not know their God, nor do they know how to point the laws to Christ savingly.

They are blind guides with damnable heresies and inflict damage to their hearers rather than good. Sometimes it's safer to stay home and not go to an institutional church, because at least that way you won't be misled or damned by the error taught there.

That's why so many are leaving the institutional church in droves and starting house churches. They just can't take the nonsense anymore. That's called Sunday morning church. Listen, friends, I want to list several aspects this evening on how the institutional church has fallen into apostasy and is sound asleep, and she sleeps asleep to death, and only a heaven-sent revival will rouse her out of her deep spiritual lethargy, for she's fallen asleep on pillows of conformity and a compromised gospel, and there is a famine within her doors, a famine of hearing the word of the Lord.

Here now is a list of how the church by and by has failed this nation. Number one, the church fails to warn the wicked to turn from their wicked way and repent of their sins and turn to God for forgiveness of sin through the blood of Jesus Christ.

Warning Sinners About Sin and Hell

Your typical pastor today has gotten out his mop bucket and has cleaned up all the blood and gore around Calvary to make it more presentable to sinful man. We present a pristine Jesus that will fix your problems, give you happiness, and a hope of heaven along the way.

We don't call sinners sinners anymore. We refer to them as the unchurched. Look, friend, a person outside of Christ is a lost sinner on his way to a devil's hell. There's no way to candy-coat it and soft-soap your congregation into believing otherwise.

Ruin and Human Guilt

Number two, the church fails to preach the great doctrines of the gospel, which are rune. A man is born under a curse, and he enters this world with a poison in his blood, which is a rune nature and a bent toward sin.

There's nothing in man that makes him acceptable to a holy God. Rather, a man is a guilty rebel against a sovereign, a lawbreaker who deserves punishment for his treason against the crown. A man drinks iniquity like it's water, and because of sin, he is separated from a holy God who will one day be his judge at a future day of judgment for all mankind.

That's the great doctrine we're missing today, friends, rune. The next one is the doctrine of redemption. They're on a blood-stained cross at Calvary where Jesus died for our sins. That shows that God is very angry for sin, and he will execute his vengeance because God must punish sin.

Redemption, Divine Justice, and the Wrath of God

The sentencing of the law must be carried out by a just judge, and the cross speaks of the justice and severity of God. But when most ministers speak of Jesus at Calvary, they only harp on the love of God and neglect to point out the wrathful side of God because of sin, that he must have satisfaction for it.

The love-only gospel fails to awaken sinners to their lost condition and show them they need a remedy for sin in the person of Jesus Christ. So redemption and the full counsel of God, not only showing the love of God, but showing the wrath of God to warn sinners and to awaken them is a missing doctrine today.

Repentance as Necessary for Salvation

Third, repentance. Man's duty of repentance is a necessary condition to salvation. No matter what big seminary tells you otherwise, don't believe the only-believed gospel, friends. It will surely send you to hell.

Man must repent of his sins to have peace with God. God won't have any rebels in his heaven, Jesus said, except you repent. You shall all likewise perish. The only-believed gospel that's been preached from our churches in the last 60 years has damned its millions.

Regeneration and the New Birth

So the doctrine of repentance must be brought out again, dusted off, and preached with clarity and conviction. Fourth, regeneration. That God must perform a work of grace on the heart through the supernatural act of regeneration, which is the new birth.

Marvel not, I say unto you, you must be born again. Sinners must be shown the absolute necessity of God performing a work of grace, of regeneration upon the heart, or else they will remain in their sins, live in their sins, and die in their sins, and be sent to a burning hell for all eternity.

Preaching the Law to Awaken Sinners

So the great doctrines of ruin, redemption, repentance, and regeneration must be preached again. Number three, the law must be preached to awaken sinners to the great danger of dying in their sins. The lost need to be brought to Mount Sinai and hear the thunderings and see Sinai altogether on a smoke.

The terrors of the law must be thundered about their ears to awaken them from their spiritual authority. Listen, friends, if there had been no law, then there would have been no need of the gospel. But man has broken the strict and severe law of God, and sinners must be shown their great guilt in transgressing the law of God.

Galatians 3 .24 declares, the law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. Men must be made sensible of the terribleness and terror of damnation, and what a horror it will be to be damned in hell. But if by the preaching of the law men are brought off their false foundations and shown their danger of being cast into that place of torment because they've broken God's law and are guilty rebels against the sovereign, then they'll be thirsty for Christ.

They'll want a remedy for sin. Isaiah 33 .14 should be proclaimed in our pulpits once again. Sinners in Zion are afraid. Trembling has surprised the hypocrites who among us can dwell with devouring fire, who among us can dwell with everlasting burnings.

Future Judgment and the Reality of Hell

And this brings us to our fourth point this evening, friends, on how the church has failed this country in your day and mine. 4. We must preach the doctrine of a future judgment and hell, but you won't hear a sermon on hell these days in most churches in this country because the pastor does not want to upset anybody, and he values his reputation among his deacons, so he'll mainly preach smooth messages on the love of God and the joys of heaven.

He'll do teaching messages, giving you a little information that you can take home with you, but very seldom, if ever, will he preach a sermon on the fires of hell because of sin, on the judgment for sin.

So men do not see the reality of damnation, nor do they sense the danger they are in by dying in their sins and entering eternity outside of Christ. So they hug their sins and see no danger in parting with them because few pastors preach the truths that will warn them of this great danger.

Blind Guides and Unconverted Ministers

Listen, friends, it's hard to find a minister today who has the knowledge to point you savingly to Christ. Many will just heal the hurt slightly or speak, peace, peace, when there is no peace. Many men in ministry today will give you false advice on how to get to heaven.

They are blind guides, and Jesus said, when you have a blind guide, then you both fall into the ditch. There's an abundance of men in ministry today who are yet converted themselves. They are unconverted ministers.

If they've not been saved themselves, how in the world can they help you find the Christ who can save you and wash you from your sins by his blood? I believe it all boils down to a verse in Amos in chapter 3, and this verse describes our problem today in a nutshell.

Walking in Agreement with God

Listen to Amos 3, 3. Can two walk together except they be agreed? And that is why, friends, God has departed from our congregations in our day. The church no longer walks with God, but walks in her own self-reliance and in her human resources.

Repentance and the Hope of Revival

The greatest need in this country today is not a new president or a new congress or even a new judicial system. The greatest need in our land today is for the church to repent and turn back to the God of the Bible and begin once again to walk with him.

If the church would set aside her great pride and turn from her wicked ways, then I believe, friends, God would be pleased to send a revival to us. Another great awakening would grip the nation with a God consciousness and turn thousands of devil-enslaved sinners into true Christians by an outpouring of his grace.

Pray that the God of the Bible would be pleased to send revival to us again. This is our greatest need in your day and mine. I pray that the church will turn in repentance back to God. This is the one thing that is keeping revival from us in our day.

I really believe that God wants to send revival to us, friends, but we must repent and turn back to him. I pray that we will before it's too late.