Are You Known in Hell — E.A. Johnston

The Church's Complacency and False Security

I'm sure you're a nice bunch of folks, and you believe yourselves to be alright. And that's your biggest problem. You see, friends, the church, in your day and mine, believes herself to be alright. But when I read my Bible, and I peer into the book of Acts, I see a different kind of Christianity than what is around today.

The Apostolic Faith That Turned the World Upside Down

In the New Testament, I find Christians who were turning the world upside down with their brand of Christianity. But I fear there aren't many of us today turning anything upside down but our hamburger as we have our lunch after church on Sunday.

And when I compare the apostolic brand of Christianity as found in my Bible with this weak, meager, wishy-washy, self-absorbed generation of in-for-hell church folks, I find little similarity between the two.

Isaiah's Vision of God's Holiness

Our problem is, we are not alright at all. We are sick. We are anemic in our spiritual walk with the Almighty. And until we get a glimpse of God like old Isaiah did when he stumbled into heaven and saw God in all his glory, and fell down and cried out, Woe is me, for I am a man of unclean lips, the old boy was undone.

But we think we're alright. In our eyes, we're just fine. But listen to me, dear friends. If a true revival of religion was to appear in our midst, then each of us would clearly see how far off we are from the mark of genuine, vital Christianity.

Why if God showed up in revival tonight, most of you would throw your TV right out the window and take it down to the trash heap where it belongs. If God showed up in his manifest presence in a Holy Ghost revival, some of you would realize you're sitting upon a false foundation of carnal security and you were lost and on your way to hell.

And the only one who can save you is a blood-stained Jesus who hung on a gory cross for your rotten sins. And if a true Holy Ghost revival were to fall upon us, we would clearly see that we are not alright at all, but we are all wrong in our walk with God and our duty as Christian believers.

What It Means to Be Known in Hell

Let me ask you, friend. Are you a threat to Satan? Or has your life lived for Christ under the radar of the devil? It was said of George Whitefield, the great British evangelist, that the Church of England lost its usefulness because they didn't understand why he wouldn't leave the devil alone.

Do you leave the devil alone? Are you known in hell? I believe there are some big-time preaching ministries that don't upset the devil. Many preachers and our pulpits across this land don't even get Satan's attention.

He is fine with their ministries because their ministries aren't a threat to his kingdom. But listen to me, young preacher boys. If you feel called to preach the cross of Christ in all its bloody colors, and if you preach up the great doctrines of the Bible under the anointing of the Holy Ghost, you will get Satan's attention alright.

He will be plum mad at you. You will risk his ire. And listen to me, young preacher boy. If you're ever called to a revival ministry, I will make you a promise. You will have the ire of Satan against you because the last thing the dirty devil wants is a revived church, a revived people of God living like the New Testament believers actually live in lives of holiness and power and on fire for God and His glory and reaching the lost with the gospel of the Son of God and actually living to bring the lost in so they won't perish in a devil's hell.

The Sermon's Central Question and Acts 19

But our trouble is, we think we're alright. But our problem is, we are sick, we are spiritually anemic, and if we ever caught a glimpse of eternity and saw holy God lifted up, if we ever walked on over to the brink of hell and lifted the lid off that bottomless pit and stood there a while as we listened to the cries of the damned, then we would not be able to sleep at night believing that we were alright when the world is all wrong and going to hell in droves.

The title of my message this evening, friends, is Are You Known in Hell? And my text can be found in the book of Acts in chapter 19. You can turn in your Bibles there now. We will be in verses 13 through 16.

Let me read this striking passage of scripture to us at this time. Then certain of the vagabond Jews, exorcists took upon them to call over them which had evil spirits, the name of the Lord Jesus saying, We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth.

And there were seven sons of one Sceva, a Jew, and chief of the priests which did so. And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus, I know, and Paul, I know, but who are you? And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them and overcame them and prevailed against them so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.

I will stop there. Listen to me, dear friends. This passage is a sad, tragic picture of some folks who thought they were all right. They thought they had enough of Paul's Christianity to do some good, but the powers of darkness prevailed against them and they were utterly impotent before them so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.

The Church's Loss of Spiritual Ground

The church in your day and mine, friends, is taking it on the chin by the fists of the devil and his minions, and I believe we are losing ground in many cities across this nation. Darkness is prevailing over the light that once was there.

And I believe that the answer to this great dilemma is the very sad fact that we believe ourselves to be all right when we are anything but all right. We are content to have a comfortable Christianity that we can live with and be happy, so long as it doesn't cost us anything.

We preachers can be quite content with Sunday morning church as usual, so long as the good deacons are happy, but the trouble is we leave the devil alone and thousands are being sent to hell because of our watered-down brand of Christianity.

Repentance, Regeneration, and the Lordship of Christ

We took the blood out of the gospel. We took the need for repentance out of salvation. We took salvation out of the hands of God and placed it in the hands of men. Heaven help us. Heaven help us. Years ago, God called me to a revival ministry, and when that happened, all hell began to come against me.

Satan hates revival. I'm not a popular preacher because the message I preach. I don't get invited to conferences anymore because I upset too many folks with my bloody gospel of the Son of God that demands repentance and the utter necessity of regeneration.

I preach up the Lordship of Jesus Christ, and the good deacons get mad at me. I preach up holy living, and the people in the congregations get mad at me. I preach messages to stir a sleeping church from her pillows of conformity, and the churches get mad at me.

And do you know who else is mad at me, friends? The devil. He doesn't like me too much. I have felt his ire. I have felt his malice. He is no gentleman, and he knows no boundaries of decency. He is merely an evil entity whose main objective is to keep people lost in his kingdom and to keep the church asleep to such a degree she thinks she's all right.

A Testimony of Conversion from Religious Works

And I fear he's done a pretty good job of this in our generation of a watered-down gospel and an in-for-hell generation of good church people who think they're all right. Jesus, I know, and Paul, I know, but who are you?

Who are you? Listen to me, dear friends. I spent years as a lost church member, and I thought I was all right. I was a Sunday school teacher. I went out and witnessed and handed out tracts. I even planted a church, but I was lost, lost, lost.

I believed myself to be all right, but God had revealed his son Jesus to me. God had to show me I was a guilty rebel, sitting on a false foundation of good works and a good opinion of myself, and that I was on my way to hell and that I deserved to go there.

I became a seeker that day. I became a beggar for mercy that day, friend, and bless God, he saved me. He then called me to be a preacher, not a popular preacher, mind you, but one that would be faithful to the gospel of the Son of God and concerned for the souls of men.

I don't have a big church. I don't have a large platform ministry. I'm a nobody to most men in my denomination. But I can say this. I'm not a nobody to the devil. I have felt his heat and anger and destroying hand, but he is a defeated foe who knows his time is short.

Persevering in Pastoral Ministry

Now listen to me, dear friends, and I'm through. If you are a pastor who is beat up and worn out and you feel like throwing in the towel, don't do it, friend. Don't let your deacons run you off. Go to your knees and go to your God and fast and pray and shut yourself up with the Almighty until you get a breakthrough from glory.

Shut yourself up at your own river, K-Bar, until God meets you in a new way and you become a hot coal for him once again through a personal revival. Will you admit, friend, that you were not all right?

That is the first step to seeing God move in a Holy Ghost revival. And if you are a believer who is fed up with your sins and tired of living a life of mediocrity and you want to be like Peter and step out on faith and walk on the water, I can promise you this, friend.

Once you get a taste of the supernatural, you won't want to get back in the boat. You will want to live on the out and out for God and his glory come hell or high water. But the first step is to admit you are not all right.

At least not from God's perspective as to what you can truly be. Let us pray.