E.A. Johnston warns that resisting God's Spirit can lead to a drowned conscience and eternal rejection, urging urgent repentance and faith in Jesus Christ.
In 'Voice of Conscience Drowned,' E.A. Johnston delivers a sobering evangelistic message about the danger of resisting God's Spirit until the voice of conscience is silenced. Using the example of Noah's generation, Johnston warns that many today are drowning their conscience through worldly pleasures and sin, risking eternal rejection by God. He calls listeners to urgent repentance and faith in Jesus Christ, emphasizing that salvation is only found through Him. This sermon challenges believers and seekers alike to heed the Spirit's call before it is too late.
Full Transcript
I believe, friends, that a person can cross a line somewhere in their life where they have resisted the strivings of God and God's Spirit no longer strives with them. God saw the wickedness of Noah's generation. In Genesis 6-3 we read, And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man.
And as God drowned the old world, save Noah and his family, I believe the voice of conscience in a sinner can be drowned. It is slowly drowned like the ungodly antediluvians were drowned one at a time. Some drowned asleep in their beds.
Some drowned atop the roofs of their houses. Others drowned climbing a tree. Some drowned on their way to higher ground on the tops of hills.
But nevertheless they each drowned in their own way. The voice of conscience can be drowned several ways as well. It can be drowned through the love of sensual pleasure.
I have known several men whose adulterous and womanizing ways drowned their conscience by the pleasures of the flesh. Some sit in church as unconverted individuals under the sound of the gospel. Yet their voice of conscience is drowned by their love of money and worldly business.
The conscience of some is drowned by the love of the world. They would rather part with Jesus than give up the world. The voice of their conscience is drowned.
Others have their voice of conscience drowned through ignorance of what true conversion is. They have tried to climb up to heaven some other way than by the blood of Jesus. But by and large, slowly and surely, the voice of conscience is eventually drowned.
When they cross that point, they can't be reached anymore, for they become, like the person in Jeremiah 630 describes, reprobate silver. So men call them because the Lord hath rejected them. I have seen it, friends.
I have watched individuals who have continually fought against the wooings of the Spirit, God's bloodhound from heaven, and at a certain point that bloodhound gives up on the trail. He returns to his master, and the sinning fugitive from grace goes on in a hoarding of the heart to where even God himself can't reach them. They become reprobate silver.
Now, this is a serious matter, friends, and it is a subject often overlooked in our churches today, especially in churches that make merchandise into souls of man so they can look good in their denomination. The voice of conscience is being drowned today by the wickedness of a society that is spinning out of control. The voice of conscience is being drowned in men by cybersex and sensuality, by booze and drugs, by the love of money and power.
Slowly and surely, men go to their graves as reprobate silver, rejected by God, and their mortal body is laid in a dark, lonely grave, and their eternal soul is cast down into the outer darkness of a devil's hell. The most tragic thing in the hour in which we live is that we have an entire generation of young people today who are slowly drowning their voice of conscience as they drug themselves and ruin themselves in sexual sins and drown their only voice of conscience by atheism and perversion. A reprobate silver is poured into many a casket today, and some even go by the name of Christian.
If you are a preacher and you are not preaching the full counsel of God to this godless generation, and if you are failing to call men everywhere to repentance, and neglecting to warn men of the danger of dying in their sins and of the miseries of the damned in hell, I feel more sorry for you than your victims, because you will have a greater accountability on the day of judgment. If you have heard this message, friend, and God's Spirit is still striving with you, then don't delay. Jesus Christ is the only remedy and refuge from sin, and if you want pardon from sin, then you must get to Christ in repentance and faith.
You better pay attention to that voice of conscience before it goes silent, and you go down to your grave as reprobate silver, and you are thrust into an eternity you were quite unprepared for. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no man cometh unto the Father but by me. Listen, friend, there are only two roads that lead to Calvary, and they are the roads of repentance and faith.
They lead to a cross of a bloodstained Savior from sin. His name is Jesus Christ. You must get to Him.
Let us pray.
Sermon Outline
-
I
- The Spirit of God strives with man but can be resisted
- The example of Noah's generation and the flood
- The gradual drowning of the voice of conscience
-
II
- Ways the conscience can be drowned: sensual pleasure, love of money, worldly attachments
- Ignorance of true conversion and false attempts to reach heaven
- The result: becoming reprobate silver rejected by God
-
III
- The current societal dangers drowning conscience: cybersex, drugs, atheism
- The tragic reality of many dying unprepared and rejected by God
- The responsibility of preachers to warn and call to repentance
-
IV
- The urgent call to respond while God's Spirit strives
- Jesus Christ as the only way to salvation
- The roads of repentance and faith leading to the cross
Key Quotes
“God saw the wickedness of Noah's generation. In Genesis 6-3 we read, And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man.” — E.A. Johnston
“The voice of conscience can be drowned several ways as well. It can be drowned through the love of sensual pleasure.” — E.A. Johnston
“If you have heard this message, friend, and God's Spirit is still striving with you, then don't delay. Jesus Christ is the only remedy and refuge from sin.” — E.A. Johnston
Application Points
- Listen carefully to the voice of conscience and respond promptly to God's Spirit before it is too late.
- Avoid worldly pleasures and attachments that can drown your spiritual sensitivity and lead to rejection by God.
- Place your faith in Jesus Christ as the only way to receive forgiveness and eternal life.
