Live Like Devil Hide in Church — E.A. Johnston

Salvation Requires More Than a Decision

Most folks today think salvation is found in a decision or by believing a Bible verse. I heard a Baptist pastor tell his congregation that all you had to do to be saved was to believe John 3 .16. I've heard evangelists say all you have to do to be saved is to make a decision for Jesus.

But I submit to you, friends, that neither of those man-centered methods will keep you out of a devil's hell. But I know for a fact that your love of sin will damn you. For a sinner to come to Christ, he must be willing to part with his most beloved sin.

Jesus never preached a sin in religion, even if we do. Jesus must be Lord of your life and Lord of your affections. You can't serve two masters. The Apostle James tells us in James 4 .8,. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts, ye double-minded.

And then he tells us how to accomplish this in verse 9. Be afflicted and mourn and weep. Turn your laughter into mourning. I wonder how many join a church and are strangers to parting with their sins.

Have they ever mourned the death of their darling sin? I used to belong to a big Baptist church where the pastor made it awful easy to come to Jesus. People would walk down front in response to an emotional appeal to accept Jesus, and here they'd come in droves, chewing gum and laughing as they walked that aisle.

Repentance Requires Mourning Over Sin

But I don't believe they ever got saved, because a sinner will never part with his sin unless he is saved. In Joel 2 .12, the prophet calls for his hearers to turn from their sin unto the Lord. Rend your hearts and not your garments, but few are willing to do it.

Every man and every woman takes pleasure and delight in their sins. And as long as a man takes pleasure in sin and finds contentment in it, he cannot but be joined to it. His darling idols will be held closely to his bosom and fondled affectionately, and no devil out of hell will give him to part with his sin.

He is dead in sin. You cannot be a born-again believer and still be dead in sin, and attached to your pet sin. So long as one is dead in sin and in love with the pleasure of it, he will never part with sin, even if he makes an empty religious profession and joins the church.

He will only take more precautions to avoid having his sin found out. He will reform himself enough to pass as a good Christian, although there's nothing good about him. He lives like a devil while he hides in the church.

The False Gospel of Outward Profession

And that's the title of my message today, friends. Live like the devil, hide in the church. I believe the modern church, with its man-centered gospel, has filled hell with more people than any other institution.

Because by lying to folks and telling them they were saved, we butchered their soul and damned them to hell. We diluted the gospel of all its saving power and fed folks another gospel that had the smoke of hell on it.

That's why there's no distinction between church people and unchurched people. They both live and act the same. Our churches are nothing more than social clubs and hotbeds of infidelity, vice, and sin.

So long as there is pleasure in sin, it will be sweet to the sinner, and he will cleave to it. But to be saved, there must be godly sorrow for sin, to where it becomes bitter and loathsome. So the sinner will part with it, so he can come savingly to Christ in repentance and faith.

Wealth, Sin, and Opposition to God

Sin is opposite to God, and if you are a church member living in sin, then you are in opposition to God. He is your enemy because you were his enemy. Just because the devil is blessing your business by making you more prosperous doesn't mean God is in it.

God is against you. You were deceived. Why do the wicked have so much wealth? Why do the Hollywood celebrities that hate God have such successful and long careers? Don't be deceived, friend. Into thinking that just because your income is increasing and your investment portfolio is doubling, that God is in it.

I'm not saying God doesn't bless some of his saints with wealth, but don't mistake wealth and a church membership for salvation. If you love your sins, you don't love God. God is holy, and he hates sin.

Psalm 7, 11 declares, God is angry with the wicked every day, even if they are the chairman of the deacons. If you live like the devil and hide in the church, you may fool your family, you may fool your friends, but you can't fool an all-seeing God.

Sin Will Be Exposed and Must Be Forsaken

Numbers 32, 23 declares, You have sinned against the Lord, and be sure your sin will find you out. The heavenly detective will catch you sooner or later. Because of sin, men are enemies to God who are in treason against the sovereign.

And if they will never part with their weapons, then they remain in their rebellion, even if they teach a Sunday school class. You are yet in your sin while you hide in the church. My Bible says, He that confesses and forsakes his sin shall find mercy.

Biblical repentance is a clean break with our most beloved sin. If you are still petting your sin and taking pleasure in its sweetness, you are no friend of a holy God but in opposition to him. A man who will not see himself as a sinner will see no need for a savior from sin.

Jesus saves his people from their sins. But the person who lives like the devil and hides in the church will be a rebel rouser in that church. Strife and division is their butter and bread. Goats don't get along too well with sheep.

Christ Came to Save His People From Their Sins

The gospel doesn't say Christ has come to save. That's a misrepresentation. But the gospel does say that Christ has come to save sinners and to save his people from their sins. I believe we live in a day of great apostasy within our religious denominations.

And spiritual declension keeps many ministers from being honest with the souls of men. But why did the Son of God come to earth to suffer and die on a bloody cross but to reconcile sinners back to a holy God?

Sin was what broke the relationship in the first place. And Adam hid in a bush trying to cover his sin. Men today live like the devil and hide in the church. But that's not salvation. The love of sin is a damning love and a deception that will shut heaven for all eternity.

Final Judgment for Those Who Obey Not the Gospel

You can't walk with the devil and sin down here and stay out of his company down there. For the soul that sinneth, it shall die. And a day is fast approaching when they will catch all hypocrites off guard, where they'll be grabbed by their collars and snatched away and cast into a region of darkness against their will, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming 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.

You can't get along, friend, if you live like the devil and hide in the church.