Church in a Ditch — E.A. Johnston

The False Security of Moral Respectability

Our churches are full of good people, they're there every Sunday. They sing along to the worship music, they enjoy the pastor's message. They gladly give a tenth of their money to support the church. They even serve on a committee or teach a Sunday school class or sing in the choir.

They stand against the moral upheaval in society and they side with good over evil. This segment of American society is solid in their convictions on what they feel is wrong and right. Politically, they will vote conservative and side with conservative social issues.

If asked, they would not be offended if you said they were in the moral majority. They want their kids to grow up knowing the difference between right and wrong, to choose good over evil, and good company over bad company.

They even shed a tear at football games when the national anthem is sung and they consider themselves to be red-blooded Americans and they believe God is on their side. The saddest part of this scenario, friends, is you may be numbered among them.

Church Membership Is Not Salvation

It's easy to hide in a crowd. Most of these good folks thought church membership was salvation. They did what the pastor or evangelist told them to do and they were told they were now saved and were Christians.

They were baptized and they joined the church and when it came time for them to die, the pastor stood over their coffin and said, Oh Joe is suffering no more for he's with Jesus. Or Mary is gone from us but she now is in the company of angels and with Jesus.

I wish it was all true. I wish it was easier to be saved. I wish that most church folk didn't go on to hell but my wishes are just wishes. Few are saved and the few who are saved are saved with great difficulty.

The Narrow Gate and the Few Who Enter

Jesus said, Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name, and in thy name have cast out devils, and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you, depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

Jesus said that the gate was straight and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life and few there be that find it. Yes friends, few are saved and those that are are saved with great difficulty. You must strive to get in through that straight gate.

The damned in hell are in such miseries and some of the most miserable souls in hell are church members who never dreamed they would end up in that place of torments. Hell is their worst nightmare come true.

Repentance, Regeneration, and the New Birth

They were good people who swallowed a easy-believed gospel that had no saving power. They were baptized and added to the church roll but they were never awakened to their lost condition, never came under Holy Spirit conviction, never exercised true repentance toward God, and never were renewed by a work of grace upon the heart by the supernatural act of regeneration which only God performs by His Spirit.

They are good people, but good people don't go to heaven. Only forgiven ones get to go there. You have to be born from above and washed in the blood. I blame the churches for exchanging authority for popularity.

I blame the churches for their failure to preach the true gospel and their failure to explain to folks what salvation really is. I blame the churches for their failure to warn men to repent and inform the unconverted about the terribleness of damnation, to explain to men and women and boys and girls what regeneration is and how you must be born again to see the kingdom of God.

That walking an aisle and repeating a prayer and making a decision for Jesus were just physical acts of allegiance performed, but the heart of a sinner was not transformed by Almighty God through a work of grace upon the heart.

Entertainment Replacing the Fear of God

And I blame the churches for letting our young people go to hell by giving them pizza nights and movie nights and mud fights and Christian rock concerts instead of teaching them to fear God and hate sin.

I blame the churches for trafficking in the souls of men in a mad rush to get as many new members as possible to look successful and expand their campus for bragging rights within their denomination. The church used to be the last bastion in a sin-loving society where you could go and find safety and refuge for your soul, a safe place for your kids to be dropped off where you didn't have to worry about them.

The Old-Time Gospel and the Pursuit of Holiness

It used to be that way a long, long time ago, back when pastors lived in their Bibles and stayed on their knees in prayer, when men of God who were called by God sought lives of surrender to the Lordship of Christ and pursued holiness over worldliness.

These men of God were anointed with a mantle of authority by the Spirit of God, and they preached the full counsel of God in the old-time gospel proclamation of ruin, redemption, repentance, and regeneration.

They held up a high and holy God and preached a bloody cross and a crucified Christ. They called sin black and hell hot and warned men not to go there. But today, we just want a dialogue from the pulpit as we strut around the platform in our casual clothes with our casual Christianity that will merely help you be the best you can be for yourself and your family.

The Church as a House of Entertainment

I blame the church today for not being houses of prayer, but being houses of entertainment. We wanted to reach the world, so we let the world into the church and see where that has gotten us. And I blame myself for being misled for many years by unconverted pastors who told me I was saved when I wasn't because I did what they told me to do and joined their church.

I'm glad God in his mercy finally saved me by his grace. The reason why our churches and denominations are in such spiritual declension is because very few, from pulpit to pew, are really saved. When the blind lead the blind, Jesus said, both fall into a ditch.

A Church in a Ditch Needs Holy Ghost Revival

And that's where the church in America lays today, way, way down, in a ditch, kicking her heels, making a lot of noise as she clamors for attention. Only a Holy Ghost revival can pull us up out of that ditch and save us, but we don't feel we need revival today as long as our church is on a grow.

The ditch is filling up, and the whole pile is beginning to stink from all the putrefying self-righteousness and good works which without life are dead bones in decay. And that's where we are today, friends, church in a ditch.

Let us pray.