A Seething Pot Ready to Spill Out Upon the Land — E.A. Johnston

America's Moral and Spiritual Decline

Those of you here who are over the age of 50, let me ask you a question. Is America getting better? Is this nation improving morally and spiritually? Is it a God-fearing nation, or are we living in a day of such moral degradation in society that it looks as if an open sewer has spilled out across this land?

Those of you who have some gray hairs on you may have thought it unthinkable that America would ever be in such a sad shape as she is in today. A nation, once that other nations used to look up to and aspire to become, has become a laughingstock in the eyes of the world.

Violence, Drugs, and National Moral Corruption

We cannot control the violence on our streets. We cannot control the takeover of society by God-hating judges and God-hating politicians. We cannot stop the drug use and the drunkenness among our young people.

We cannot stop the senseless murders that occur every day in our cities. And we have become a perversion-promoting nation that is as rotten morally as both ancient Rome and ancient Greece. In the early 1960s, the Russian premier Khrushchev said that he did not fear America's military might, for America was a nation that would implode on herself.

That was a prophetic statement and it's true, friends. America is a nation rotten to the core morally and bankrupt spiritually. And I ask, where is the church in all of this? She is fast asleep on pillows of comfort and conformity.

The Church's Comfortable, Worldly Gospel

She sleeps silently amidst the moral implosion all around her. And she refuses to rouse herself to action, to do anything about it. She has become politically correct and worldly. Her gospel is centered around the happiness of man and his creature comforts.

Her stately buildings are as impressive as the best country club in town. She offers all the amenities of a country club as well. After all, Jesus came into this world to make our life more enjoyable, didn't he?

That's what we preach. That's what we tell folks. But my Bible is full of warnings to a wicked nation and a people who have forsaken the God of the Bible. Turn, if you will, friends, to the book of Jeremiah in chapter 1.

Jeremiah's Seething Pot Vision

I have a message for us today. It's not a comfortable message. I promise you, it will not make you feel better. It may even upset some of you. I don't even like to bring this kind of message because it's an unpopular message.

But I must be faithful to my Bible and to my God. I'm not here to please you or entertain you. I'm here to warn you. This nation is about to be destroyed and there isn't one thing the president can do about it or all the king's men.

It will be a sudden calamity so severe and so widespread that shockwaves will go throughout this land. There won't be a patch of this country untouched by this coming judgment from the hand of an offended God.

You can't spit in the face of God and get away with it until your reckoning is fast approaching. The title of my message is A Seething Pot of Judgment Ready to Spill Out Upon the Land. Look at Jeremiah chapter 1 and verses 11 through 14.

The Almond Tree and the Boiling Pot of Judgment

Here now is the word of God and may the spirit of the Lord be pleased to attend the reading of his holy word. Moreover, the word of the Lord came unto me saying, Jeremiah, what seest thou? And I said, I see a rod of an almond tree.

Then said the Lord unto me, Thou hast well seen, for I will hasten my word to perform it. And the word of the Lord came unto me the second time saying, What seest thou? And I said, I see a seething pot and the face thereof is toward the north.

Then the Lord said unto me, Out of the north an evil shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land. I will stop there, friends. This is a frightening passage of scripture for it shows us a side of God this nation is quite unfamiliar with.

God's Mercy, Justice, and Wrath Against Sin

All we hear today is a love God. God loves you. God loves you. Many preach that God is even a sin-tolerating God. But he isn't, friends. God has two sides. One of mercy and justice. God is a God of love.

But he's also a God of wrath. And America's getting ready to see the wrathful side of the Almighty. In our passage from Jeremiah chapter 1, we see vivid descriptions that God gives Jeremiah through this vision, foretelling the destruction of Judah and Jerusalem by the Chaldeans for their sins and for their idolatry.

The people had forsaken God and replaced him with idols made by hand. The people were religious but sunk in sin and depravity. Their hearts were so far away from God, from the God of their fathers, that they refused to repent at the preaching of the prophets and turned back to God.

All that was left for them was destruction. Their ruin was hastening fast upon them. And they were completely ignorant of the coming destruction, which was to be so intense that it would break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land.

In other words, no one would escape this coming calamity. God gives Jeremiah two visions. And each are striking in their illustration. The first is that of an almond tree. God asks his prophet what he sees.

And Jeremiah answers, I see a rod of an almond tree. Well, an almond tree is one of the most forward trees in spring. And this vision speaks of a people who are ripening for a fast approach in judgment.

The second vision is more severe and more alarming. God once more asks his prophet what he sees. Jeremiah answers, I see a seething pot. And the face thereof is toward the north. This imagery is striking, friends.

A seething pot is a boiling pot, an angry pot of judgment. A pot of judgment that is already leaning toward them, ready to spill out upon them. God describes the coming judgment in these terms. And evil shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land.

Their impending doom was not only certain, but it was practically upon them. This attack from their enemy would put the entire land into sudden commotion and turmoil. The Chaldean army would invade from the north.

And soon destroy them and burn their cities to the ground. God had taken off all his restraints of protection from them. Because the people had cast off all their restraints morally. There was nothing left for them but sudden catastrophe and destruction.

The justice of God was about to play out upon a sin in society that had turned away from a holy God. And I want to ask you, my hearers, a very solemn question. Is America ripe for judgment? In your honest opinion, friend, do you agree that this country is just about filled up a cup of iniquity?

America's Ripeness for Judgment

Have you, who have gray hairs upon you, ever seen this nation so perverse and so corrupted, rotten from her head to her heel? I ask you again, in your honest opinion, is this nation deserving the judgment that is coming?

Now some of you don't believe in that kind of God. Your God would never do something like that. Your God would never punish sin. But your God, friend, is a little God who's not the God of the Bible. For God will and must punish sin.

The Cross, Hell, and the Certainty of Divine Punishment

When they nailed up his only begotten son on that ignoble tree, and those cruel men drove those nails into the holy hands of Jesus. When they drove those nails into his tender feet, every stroke of that hammer was a declaration and a sermon.

God must punish sin. God must punish sin. God must punish sin. And God will punish sin, friends. There's a burning hell full of the wicked dead at this moment. And they are screaming and crying and moaning in agony at this very hour.

They are in a crisis eternity. They're shut up in there and they can't get out. They're forsaken to God forever. Their punishments and torments are real and they're eternal. God must punish sin. And if you think a nation can sin all it wants to and promote evil in every level of society and mock God and legislate him out of the country and then shake its angry fist in the face of God and dare him to do anything about it, do you think he will remain silent forever?

God has a settling day and that day is fast approaching. A seething pot was leaning toward the land and the inhabitants of the land were completely unaware of it as unaware as the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah were when they went to bed that night under a clear sky in peace and safety and woke to a burning inferno coming down upon them.

So too is this nation ripe for judgment. And I ask again, where is the church in all of this? Why is she not on her face continually turning from her sins and repentance and seeking God's face in desperate and anguished prayer?

The Apostate Church and the Call to Repentance

Why is she so intent on adding more buildings to her already big campus? Why is she so self-absorbed? Because the apostate church is far away from God as well and she refuses to repent of her wicked ways and return to the God of the Bible.

God told Jeremiah that all the inhabitants of the land would feel this judgment. None would escape. But somehow the church at this hour believes that God will rapture her out before any trouble arises in the land.

But the church is part of the problem. Jesus told the churches in Revelation to do one thing and that was to repent. Jesus is telling his church today to do the same thing, friends. God spoke to his servant Solomon with the following words.

Humility, Prayer, and Healing the Land

If I shut up heaven that there be no rain or if I command the locusts to devour the land or if I send pestilence among my people if my people who were 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.

Let me ask you, friends, does our land need healing? Then why, oh why, aren't we all on our faces like the city of Nineveh and sitting in sackcloth and ashes and begging God to forgive us and heal our land?

Revival or Ruin for America

We need revival or it's ruin for this country. Revival or ruin, which will it be? Or are we too much like the almond tree in Jeremiah's vision too close to the approaching judgment to stop it from coming down upon our heads?

God have mercy on us all.