Lawlessness in the Land Precedes Revival — E.A. Johnston

Moral Lawlessness and the Hope of Revival

There is much talk today, among many concerned believers, about the moral mudslide in society, where it seems that lawlessness rules, and perverseness permeates every fiber, over once great nation, that from the top down this country is sick with a moral cancer, and there seems to be no cure or end in sight to stop the spread of this plague upon a people.

Many say that all that is left for God to do is to destroy us. Others say there is still hope of a great spiritual awakening, which could descend from heaven, and grip the heart of a nation, and turn her back to the living God of the Bible.

I fall into the category of folks who hope for revival, friends. I pray for it every day, and it is a burden upon my heart almost every waking hour. I want to make a statement based on history, and I want to back it up with this message today, friends.

Lawlessness in the Land Precedes Revival

My statement, and the title of my message, is one and the same. It is this. Lawlessness in the land precedes revival. My text can be found in the book of Psalms. You can turn in your Bibles there now, friends.

We will be in Psalm 119 and verse 126. Let me read God's word to us at this time. It is time for thee, Lord, to work, for they have made void thy law. Now I believe, friends, that that verse can be applied to our situation in society at this very moment.

America’s Moral Decline and the Loss of Public Religion

Never in my life have I witnessed such a moral downgrade in society. I remember the hippie movement of the sixties, and how free love and drugs were flourishing, and it looked like the very face of America was changing because of the Vietnam War, and riots in the streets, and lawlessness in the land.

It was in the 1960s that this nation kicked God out of the schoolhouse by doing away with public prayer and the Ten Commandments issued in public. Since that hour, this nation has entered a period of moral degradation unlike I have ever witnessed since I was a boy in the 1950s.

If you want to see what America looked like when I was a boy, go rent an old Andy Griffith episode and see how the folks in Mayberry dressed, how the women are dressed with their white gloves on their hands and their skirts well below their knees.

The men wore suits and ties just to go out in public. There was a sense of honor in the land, a sense of shame in society back then. Still a fear of God in the land, and still a moral standard to live by.

But then the devil came along and undid all that with the sexual revolution of the 60s and the drug revolution of the 70s. Then came along the meat generation of the 80s, and it's gone downhill more and more ever since.

Till now, people go out in a public state of undress, and we become a nation of self-absorbed slobs, tattooed ones by the way, whose only goal is pleasure and sensuality. And when I go out to a restaurant, and I'm just about the only one in there drinking water, everybody else starts their meal with a martini or some kind of alcohol.

Then a bottle of wine is brought out and consumed, followed with glasses of beer. There's enough booze being drunk in your town tonight, friend, to drown half the inhabitants in it. Teenagers nowadays have no morals, no religious beliefs, and no direction.

Satan has gotten the youth of our day and destroyed them morally. The entire nation from the top down calls good evil an evil good. Lawlessness prevails in the land, and there is enough blood spilled on the streets of every city in this nation to put shame to the world in Noah's day that was drowned for their violence and wickedness.

The Dark Moral Backdrop Before the Great Awakening

But our text from Psalms makes a bold declaration concerning this tragic hour, friends, in which we live. It is time for thee, Lord, to work, for they have made void thy law. Listen to me, dear friends.

When lawlessness prevails in the land, it is often a prelude to revival. I want to take time to show you a page out of the history books concerning the great revival of religion during the 18th century under Wesleyan Whitfield, and what I want to show you today is the moral backdrop of society at that time.

Did you know that before Wesleyan Whitfield burst on the scene that in London every sixth house was a gin house? Did you know that the Church of England thought it not strange to ordain unconverted men?

Did you know that prostitution and drunkenness and vice and crime was rampant throughout England at the time, and it appeared to be a state of hopelessness to such degree that the members of Parliament were often drunk even in session?

Let me read you what a man wrote concerning this time before the revival broke out upon Great Britain and America. This historian's name is Dr. Janus, and he was lecturing on the 18th century revival over a hundred years ago.

Listen to what he had to say, and listen for the similarities between that age and ours today. Every student of history knows that the dawn of the 18th century was a time of material prosperity in England.

The colonies were pouring their wealth into the mother country. It was a day of luxury, dishonesty, speculation, and extravagance, and was followed by a severe panic when the South Sea bubble collapsed.

It was a time of increased intellectual activity and expression. The freedom of worship secured through the Reformation had degenerated into license to defy all authority, human and divine. Hobbs and Locke made infidelity popular.

Gibbon and Hume devoted their talents to discrediting the church. Bolingbroke and Shaftesbury, among statesmen, helped to create an atmosphere of spiritual chill. The church seemed helpless. The Reformation was a spent force.

The ministry was largely corrupt. Blackstone, author of commentaries on law, writes as a young man that he sought in vain for a sound gospel preacher in London. The Sabbath was a day of general carousal.

Public blasphemy was common. Current literature and common conversation was lascivious and corrupt. God was openly defied. The outlook was dark indeed. Here and there, a few godly men and women were crying unto God for reformation and revival.

Then the Lord made bare His holy arm in the eyes of all the nations, that the ends of the earth might see His salvation. Three men were born in one year, in 1703, John Wesley in England, Gilbert Tennant in Ireland, and Jonathan Edwards in Massachusetts.

Eleven years later, George Whitefield was born. These four men were the human agents of the great spiritual awakening that broke like a storm over England and America just two hundred years ago. Listen to me, friends.

That account is so true. When the night is the darkest, you may be certain that dawn is on the way. Now, friends, there are some aspects to our text in this psalm I'd like to draw out today at this time, and they are that before great revival comes, there is number one, a lawlessness in the land, number two, a hopelessness of the situation, and number three, a praying remnant seeking God's face.

Lawlessness as Defiance of God’s Holy Law

I'd like to address these one by one. Number one, a lawlessness in the land. This was true in the days of the psalmist who laments, for they have made void thy law. In other words, the general tone of society and the general tenor of God's people were in opposition to God's holy law.

Is that not the case today, friends? Can you recall a time in your own life where you've seen such a moral mudslide in society like we have today, where perversion runs rampant all over the land like a spilled sewer that taints every aspect of society it comes in contact with?

Have you ever seen such a time in our churches where there's such spiritual deadness and carelessness among believers? It seems to be a hopeless situation where the government won't intervene to turn the tide and the church seems impotent to do anything about it.

Hopelessness as the Moment God Begins to Work

That's my second point, the utter hopelessness of the situation. But listen to me, dear friends, this is the exact moment when God begins to work. Our text declares, it is time for the Lord to work, and so shall he do it, friends, so shall he do it.

God is being challenged here by the psalmist to show himself strong on the behalf of his people and to defend his holy honor. Listen to me, friends, if the church will not defend his holy name, then the Almighty must.

God will either pour out his blessings in revival to defend his holy name, or he will pour out his wrath upon mankind to avenge his holy name. It will either be a defending or avenging to show forth his glory and remind mankind he alone is the sovereign ruler of all.

We can say with the psalmist, it is time for the Lord to work, your honor's at stake, the hour's so hopeless from a human standpoint that it's your time to intervene and show forth your power and turn a heart of stone into a heart of flesh and turn the tide of a nation's heart back to you.

We live in a day, friends, of a nation that has rejected the living God of the Bible. We live in a day, friends, where the government has legislated God out of the courthouse and out of the schoolhouse, and look where it's gotten us.

Decay all around, and a situation so hopeless man cannot do anything to stop the moral decay of society. It's time for God to work. Lawlessness prevails, but like the story of the days before Whitefield and Wesley and Jonathan Edwards, God had a plan in motion to turn things back to himself, with his glorious outpouring of grace and revival.

The Praying Remnant Seeking God’s Face

And lastly, there is a praying remnant seeking God's face. Oh, how the psalmist's heart is broken here over the state of lawlessness, how he laments to his God, how he confronts God with his own heavenly attributes, and challenges the Almighty to act and to act now.

I can say this, friends, there is a praying remnant in the land. I know many of them. They are on their knees from coast to coast, begging God to send forth his plentiful effusions of divine grace and revival.

And I know that my God hears prayers. I know for a fact that my God answers prayers. He answers desperate prayers most of all, and the prayers are getting more desperate every single day. 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.

Awakening the Slumbering Church Through Persistent Prayer

Oh, friends, how desperately we need a move of God in our land, how drastically we need God to awaken his slumbering bride to lives of holiness and power once again. Go to your knees and stay there, and challenge God to act, for the time is ripe, and his integrity is at stake.

And let your prayer be, it is time for thee, Lord, to work. Let us pray.