Hell is Full of Deceived Church Members — E.A. Johnston

The Danger of False Security in Salvation

I want to bring before you this evening, friends, a somber message on a serious matter that should concern and alarm every one of my hearers. Some of you have been church members for many years now, and you were settled in your confidence of gain in heaven, so confident that you would stake your entire fortune, your good reputation on it.

The Horrors of Hell and Eternal Judgment

But sadly, some of my hearers stand on shaky ground of an unstable faith that has no bearings in heaven, but rather, if you continue traveling down the deceived path you were on, you will indeed die in your sins, drop into a crisis eternity, and suffer endlessly in a burning smoking pit of hell, of whose dark caverns are crammed full of the damned, as they scream and shriek in the horrors of perdition, and under the flaming wrath of almighty God.

Why will you die, eternity, eternity, before it's too late, and you close your eyelids to this bright colorful world, and you open them in the smoking sulfur-laced flames of hell, as they turn and twist about you, and demons tear you, screaming with hideous laughter?

There's a cemetery in New England that I often visit, because in that particular graveyard are the graves of Solomon Stoddard and David Brainerd. On several occasions in the daytime, while I was in that cemetery, I heard hideous laughter from a demon that lives in that cemetery.

Now, you may think I'm crazy, but I've heard that demon laughing on different occasions in different years that I visited that graveyard, and he is always in the same spot, just beyond the brown table stones of Solomon Stoddard.

I had a fellow evangelist with me there one year, and he heard the demon laughing as well. It was a bodiless, shrill, mocking laughter, coming from the exact location each time, and if you're brave enough to walk over there, you will find no one, at least no one human.

And in hell, the mocking laughter of tormented demons will give you no rest. Some of you, within the sound of my voice, may wake up in hell tonight. Why? Because, my friends, hell is full of deceived church members, and as the title of my message this evening, hell is full of deceived church members.

Christ's Warning in Matthew 7:21–23

My text can be found in the Gospel of Matthew. Turn your Bibles there now, friends, to Matthew chapter 7. We will be in verses 21 through 23. Come with me now, as we hear our Lord Jesus proclaim the error of many church members who rest upon a false bottom of a carnal security and a false hope of heaven.

Here now are the words of Christ, and may the Spirit of the Lord attend the reading of His holy word. Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.

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.

Lip Service Versus Obedient Faith

Notice, my friends, there are several matters in our text that are of eternal worth, and to ignore them or to misunderstand them will be your eternal doom. This sermon of Christ to His audience of the day of His earthly ministry speaks loudly to us tonight at this very hour because some of you sit upon a false foundation and risk dropping into a crisis eternity where grace is withdrawn and God's wrath is poured out upon the damned.

Notice first from our text that Jesus addresses those in His audience who pay lip service to God, they say with their lips, Lord, Lord, but with their life actions they deny the very Christ who can save them from the terrors of hell.

Here in our passage from Matthew's Gospel we see the dividing line, the demarcation line if you will, of those who stand with Christ and those who only mock Him because their lips pay homage to Him, even by calling Him Lord, but their very lives are cesspools of sin and selfishness and lusts and lies and fornications and murders.

Why, why, preacher, you ask, do you say such alarming things? I speak the truth, friend, in Christ my Bible proclaims life everlasting to those saved followers of Christ and doom and damnation to the unconverted and deceived, deceived church members who rest on their own self-righteousness and a long track record of service.

Notice in our text, friends, that Jesus declares that heaven's portals are open only to those souls who do at the will of my Father which is in heaven. Listen to me, friends, and listen to me closely.

If you are not pursuing a holy life unto God and living for His glory, you are deceived and yet in your sins may God have mercy upon your soul before you die and drop into a devil's hell. Notice also, friends, that our Lord Jesus proclaims in this text that many are deceived, many have a false hope of heaven, many boast of their presumed salvation, but their hope of heaven is nothing more than a hole in the wall, and that hole is full of writhing vipers and slithering snakes as they wrap and coil themselves around the damned in hell.

Religious Works Cannot Save

Listen to the deceived deacon who boasts, Lord, Lord, I've served on this committee and that committee, and I have given tithes and offerings. Don't you see that, Lord? Don't you see that? What I've done at church all these years.

Look at me, Lord, and listen to me. Listen to what I've done for you. But Jesus turns to him and replies, I never knew you. Depart from me, ye that work iniquity. Listen to me, friends. Hell is full of deceived church members.

Some swallowed a watered-down gospel. Some had a vision or a feeling, and they mistakenly thought they were saved and secure heaven when Christ has never known them. They are utter strangers to the Lord Jesus Christ, and it won't matter a hill of beans in eternity.

How much money they gave to their church, and how many committees they served on, it won't matter how many Sunday school classes they taught. Hell opens wide for the unconverted church member. Millions and millions of them scream in hell at this hour.

Their shrieks are louder than the atheist and god-mocker, because they were deceived into thinking they had gained heaven. But when they died, they dropped down into the very bowels of a smoking hell of horrors.

I repeat, hell is full of deceived church members. You can't be saved apart from Christ. Jesus declared, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man can come unto the Father but by me. Let me ask you, friend, are you washed in the blood and born from above?

Christ Crucified and the Call to Repentance

Have you ever been lost? How can you be saved if you have never been lost? I'm going to preach the gospel to you now, and it is my prayer that the Spirit of the Lord will attend the proclamation of the gospel of the Son of God, and that God in his mercy will awaken you to your lost condition and grave danger of dying in your sins and being cast into a crowded hell full of demons and the tortured souls of the damned.

Look yonder at that hill. See that cross? See the suffering Christ who hangs there? He is a man of sorrows acquainted with grief. Look at him. Look at him as he hangs there bleeding for sinful man. Look at his nail-pierced hands, how they quiver in pain for your sins.

He hangs there in your stead. You only deserve hell. But wonder of wonders, he loves you with an everlasting love. Jesus Christ crucified on the cross as your sin substitute. He paid it all so you may live.

That red crimson cross is marked by his precious blood, poured out as an offering unto God on your behalf. Look and live. Listen to me, friends. He must be born again, and except you repent, you shall likewise perish into that smoking pit of flames.

Christ as the Bread of Life and the Way of Salvation

When I was in high school I worked in a grocery store, and one of my duties was to break down the boxes that the produce came in, and take those flat boxes to a cast-iron furnace and burn them. And every time I opened that heavy furnace door my face would be singed from the intense heat of those white-hot flames.

Hell is a burning, smoking furnace. And I warn you, friend, don't go there. Flee to your only refuge which is Christ Jesus. You must get under the blood. Listen to me, friends. The gospel is for the hungry, the weary, and the thirsty.

Let me ask you, friend, are you hungry for God? Are you weary of your sins? Are you thirsty for Christ? Jesus said, I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.

The Gospel Invitation to Repent and Believe

Here now is the gospel of the Son of God, and may the Spirit of God be pleased to awaken you, and bring conviction of sin, and grant you the grace of repentance, and give you saving faith. Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth.

For I am God, and there is none else. Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money, come ye, buy and eat. Yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.

Seek ye the Lord while he may be found. Call ye upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him, and to our God for he will abundantly pardon.

All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. And the Spirit and the Bride say, Come, and let him that heareth say, Come, and let him that is a thirst come, and whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.

Let us pray.