Sleeping Church in a Sinful Land

I am fascinated by the prophet Jonah. Here is a man, of God, whom God gives a specific call, as seen in Jonah 1, 2. Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it, for the wickedness is come up before me. And what does Jonah do, friends? Well you know the story.

Instead of obeying God, he flees to Tarshish, from the presence of the Lord, and books passage on the first boat out of town. He thinks he can outrun God, but he can't. God not only had his eye on Jonah, he's got his eye on the wickedness of the Ninevites, as their filthy deeds come up before him in heaven.

Let me ask you, friends, do you believe the wickedness of America comes up before God? And does the utter sinfulness of your country come up to disturb a holy God? I believe it does. Jonah had a task to warn men and women and boys and girls to flee from the common destruction of an offended sovereign. How does the Bible portray this disobedient servant of God? Look at Jonah chapter 1 and verses 4 and 5. But the Lord sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken.

Let me pause here, friends, to say this was no ordinary storm, because it scares the daylights out of seasoned sailors. Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man unto his God, and cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it of them. Here are these pagan religious men, who see their danger, and call on their gods.

They are praying, they are working, they are striving in the storm. But throwing cargo overboard, they're employing everyone and everything in their labor and power to save themselves. But where is the man of God in all of this? Our text reads, But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship, and he lay, and was fast asleep.

It's remarkable that amid such danger, such peril, and under such clear instructions from God to arise and go warn an entire city of impending doom, he sleeps. He was fast asleep, our text says. Now allow me to make a statement, friends, and please give me some time to say this, because this is a very solemn message I have for us today.

I've been a student of revival for several decades, and have given much of my life to the study of revival. Listen friends, 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 nation is in a crisis point, and the church is sleeping right through it. The title of my message today, friends, is Sleeping Church in a Sinful Land.

The wickedness of our land is great. Society spins out of control as immorality spills over the land, polluting everything and everyone it touches. Our young people today are ruined by sin, drugs, and drink.

The very moral fabric of our society has been torn apart by the devil and his agenda to destroy the family. Perversion has become normalcy. Wrong is right.

Evil is called good. The wickedness of our wretched sins goes up to the holy nostrils of God as a filthy stanch. God sends remedial judgments on the land, one right after the other.

Floods and fires and natural calamities encircle this country more than our enemies. And where is the man of God in all of this? Where is the church? Can't you hear her? Listen more closely. Listen closely to her.

Listen to her, friends. Listen to the snores of a sleeping church in a sinful land. A church who has compromised herself with society and lost her voice and authority.

The church is nothing more than a laughingstock to many today. Maybe it's because we turned our sanctuaries into laugh auditoriums where people were entertained. Maybe it's due to our lack of warning sinners to flee from the wrath to come from our pulpits.

But if we did, we'd be as flawed as one that is mocked. Why? We've lost our testimony, our authority, and our influence upon society through compromise. It's a crisis in the land, and we sleep.

We are fast asleep like Jonah and that ship in his disobedience before God. God had to have Jonah thrown overboard in a storm to get his attention. What will God have to do in our life, in the life of our church and nation, to get our attention? I'm afraid to even think about it, friends.

This country is like the ripe basket of fruit as pictured in the book of Jeremiah, sitting out in the sun, rotten. All I know is that a new sunrise is not always a guarantee of a happy tomorrow. The sun was risen upon the earth when Lot entered into Zoar.

Then the Lord reigned upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah, brimstone and fire, from the Lord out of heaven. Let us pray.