A Generation Not Warned — E.A. Johnston

A Generation Left Unwarned

We have a generation today, friends, that is not being warned by the church about the dangers of the damned. That multitudes perish every hour into a burning hell of torments without ever being warned not to go there.

When the church quit preaching hard against sin, and when the church quit issuing warnings about the miseries of a burning hell, that's when a sleepy-headed church lulled an entire generation to the brink of destruction with hell below and no applied remedy for sin.

The Two Crimes of the Modern Church

The title of my message today, friends, is A Generation Not Warned. The modern church has committed two crimes. They have broadened the way of salvation in ways Jesus never did, and they've made merchandise out of the souls of men.

Whitewashing the Cross and Minimizing God

We have whitewashed the gospel and taken away all the blood and offense of the cross. That bloody cross on Calvary and the Christ who hung there was a scandal. But we preachers today have gotten out our mop buckets and have cleaned up all the blood and gore around Calvary.

Why, we've made it so pristine you can sit and have your lunch there. And besides that, we've shrunken God down to man's size, and then we declawed Him. He's no longer a threat who, in His hands, is justice of His righteous indignation, and then He'll send you to hell to be punished for your sins.

We preachers instead got out our razor blades and cut out all the Bible passages that have warnings to the wicked to flee from the wrath to come. We just teach from a happy gospel about a God who is tolerant towards sin.

We've let a whole generation down by giving them what they wanted instead of giving them what they need. People need to be warned of future judgment and the danger of sin and the peril of dying in sin and being thrust into a Christless eternity.

Peter’s Warning About False Teachers

My text today, friends, is from 2 Peter 2. You can turn in your Bibles there now, friends, and we'll take a look at Peter's warnings about false teachers in our day and the penalty of dying in our sins.

He tells us, beginning in verse 1,. But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring indamitable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.

And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you. I will pause there, friends. Well, that's where we are today, with pastors competing against one another for the biggest congregations.

They're making merchandise out of the souls of men. They want you to join the church so they can have bragging rights within their denomination. They don't care about your soul. If they did, they would warn you.

God’s Judgment on Sin and Ungodliness

Listen to Peter continue his discourse about how God hasn't changed His stripes. Look at verse 4. For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment, and spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly, and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them with an overthrow, making them an example unto those that after should live ungodly.

I will stop there. We have a generation today that doesn't believe in a God who will punish sin because we have a generation of pastors today who are afraid to preach against sin so they don't preach anything disturbing.

Why? Why upset the good deacons if you don't have to? So not only do we have a generation today that is not warned, the result of that is we have a generation that is not washed. In Proverbs 30 .12 it declares there is a generation that are pure in their own eyes and yet is not washed from their filthiness.

Being Washed and Born Again

They are not washed because they are unsaved. To stay out of hell you must be washed in Christ's blood and be born from above. The apostle Paul wasn't afraid to issue warnings all the time about the common wrath of God on sin.

Paul’s Warnings About the Wrath to Come

In 1 Thessalonians 1 .10 we read,. And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come. And over in 2 Thessalonians Paul issues even stronger language to warn folks of a future judgment and an avenging God.

When the Lord Jesus should be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flame and fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power.

Repentance Before Eternity

So friends, in summation I say that because we have a generation that is not warned and consequently a generation that is not washed, then this generation of self-satisfied individuals held back on sin is a generation that is unprepared to enter eternity.

Listen friends, repent before it's too late.