Religious But Lost — E.A. Johnston

I heard Manly Beasley relate the following story about a missionary who said you could stand on a certain cliff in Mexico and gaze down at a village of Mexican workers. These people work down in the riverbed in their corn patch, and there they grow their corn, and when the corn is ready to harvest, they shuck it, and after it dries out, they'll take it and grind it into cornmeal and make tortillas, and then take these tortillas down to the open market, and there sell the tortillas for a few pesos and put them away, come back out to their house, and there they will live off of lizards.

They'll go out among the rocks and catch these huge long lizards, and they'll eat those lizards and save that money for a special day, a special day when they will start a pilgrimage to a wooden statue of Jesus up in the mountains.

The terrain to that statue is so bad that most of the people will have to crawl on their hands and knees a couple of miles, and by the time they get to that statue, they are bleeding all over. Standing beside the statue is a priest, and that priest is saying, now, you love God, give to him because you show your love to God by giving, and those people will reach into their little bags and purses and pull out those pesos stained in their own blood and drop that money in a slit in the top of the head of Jesus.

Then the priest prays, and when he is finished, the priest will yell, you have not given enough, look, Jesus is sad, he is crying, and all the time there will be another priest hidden in that hollow statue, and with a little hand pump, he will pump water to where it comes out of human-made tear ducts, and the statue is crying, and there those people will give all they have, crawl down that mountain and go back to eating lizards, growing their corn to make more tortillas to get more pesos to go and give to a dead God that cannot move or hear, and they are sincere, honest, and sacrificial in serving their religion.

Religious Activity Without Salvation

Listen to me, friends, this is a serious message which can affect your entire eternity. The title of my message today is Religious but Lost, and my text can be found in Matthew's Gospel in chapter 7. You can turn in your Bibles there now, friends.

We will be in verses 21 through 23. I believe you can be a very religious person and still go to hell when you die. Look at the Pharisees. They were the most devout example of religious people in their day.

The Pharisees and Self-Righteous Religion

Jesus even said this was so in Matthew 5 .20. For I say unto you, that except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.

Yes, sir, the Pharisees were a religious bunch all right, but they were lost people who crucified the Lord of glory. Believe, there may be a religious but lost person listening to this message right now who knows nothing of an experiential knowledge of Christ.

You were dutiful in your religion. You were sincere in your beliefs. You may even serve in some capacity in your church and have done so for a long time. But you are still in your sins, and if you drop dead right now, friend, you would be cast into a burning and smoking hell.

Your religion won't save you, friend, no more than the religion of those Mexican workers who gave to a dead God. You are like them in many ways, for you, too, have carved out for yourself a little God that you are comfortable with and one who will leave you alone to live as you please.

Listen to me. Being a Presbyterian won't save you. Being a Baptist won't save you. Being a seminary student won't save you. Based on my experience of having graduated from two different seminaries, I can honestly say I would not be surprised to learn that half the students in seminary are as lost as a goose, religious but lost, and some of their professors are in the same sinking ship.

You better look, friend, to the only one that can save you, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. If you have not found Christ, friend, then your so-called profession is nothing but a hole in the wall. Let's go to our text in Matthew 7 and verses 21 through 23 and see how Jesus responds to a religious but lost person.

The Judgment of False Professors

And, oh dear friend, if you fall into this dreadful category of the deceived, it is my prayer that the Spirit of the Lord will come alongside His spoken word and pierce you through with conviction of sin and awaken you to your great danger of standing on a false foundation and dying in your sins and being cast into a devil's hell for as long as eternity exists, which is forever and ever.

May God have mercy on your soul and arouse you and alarm you to your great peril. Let's see now how Jesus addresses a religious but lost person. 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? Then I will profess unto them, I never knew you, depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

From Religious Works to the New Birth

Listen to me, friend, I know of which I speak. I was a religious but lost person for years. I even knocked on doors and handed out tracts and witnessed the folks. I did many wonderful works in the name of the Lord, but the trouble was he wasn't my Lord.

I had not yet found Christ and experienced the new birth. I know nothing of the life of God and the soul of man. I had yet to throw down my shotgun of rebellion and submit to a sovereign Lord. I had yet to enter into a living union with a living Lord, but bless God, despite my self-righteousness, he broke up all my false foundations and showed me I was on my way to hell, and not only that, but I saw that I deserved to go there.

Christ Alone Gives Eternal Life

I was under the blood, friend, I got under the blood, and was born from above, hallelujah, and bless his holy name. Listen to Jesus, friend, your religion won't save you. Jesus declared, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

No man cometh unto the Father but by me. Listen, friend, and listen carefully to God's promise. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.

Let us pray.