Devil in the Pulpit Pagan in the Pew — E.A. Johnston

America’s Moral Collapse and the Church’s Lost Testimony

Listen, friends, we live in a dangerous world today where society is spinning out of control and no one is at the wheel. Our land has become a land of sudden death as God has turned his back on America because we have turned our back on God.

You can be gunned down by a madman just going about your daily business as Satan has free reign in a nation that has rejected God. Like Lot and Sodom, we are surrounded on every side by moral depravity and like Lot and Sodom, the church has lost her influence and testimony by compromise and conformity.

If we were to tell someone, up, get you out of this place, for the Lord will destroy the city, we would be mocked and laughed at as well. The church has lost her testimony to a sinking world that is almost sunk.

Peter’s Warning About False Teachers and Damnable Heresies

The apostle Peter warned against false teachers in his day and the day to come. But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord.

That's where we are today, friends, in our churches across this land. Yes, there are some God-called pastors out there, I know some of them, but I fear that in a majority of our churches stands a devil in the pulpit addressing pagans in the pew.

And that's the title of my message today, friends, devil in the pulpit, pagan in the pew. The apostle Peter warns of damnable heresies. The Greek word used for damnable is Apollia, and it means ruin or loss, spiritual ruin and eternal loss, to be damned in perdition.

Do you understand, friends, what's going on in this land today? We're living in the last days, and already there is a spirit of Antichrist abroad in the land. The apostle Paul warns in 2 Corinthians how Satan can transform himself into an angel of light.

And no marvel, for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Satan does his best work inside of a church, and he has flooded this country with his ministers who stand in pulpits all over this land and teach damnable heresies in many cities from coast to coast.

False Ministers Hidden Behind Religious Respectability

There is a devil in the pulpit addressing pagans in the pew. I was up in New England in a historic church where God had moved in revival during the second great awakening, and in the pulpit stood a lesbian pastor who addressed her well-dressed pagan congregation as she spoke about Mother Earth and New Age philosophy.

These well-heeled, well-educated churchgoers smiled and thoroughly enjoyed her discourse as they sat above a trap door to hell. I visited a church in Florida where the lesbian minister had a service to bless animals.

You brought your dog or cat, and she said a few words over it and blessed your animal while she damned your soul to hell. But these devils in the pulpit are easy to spot. It is the other devils in the pulpit who look like sheep but are ravening wolves.

They are seminary-trained men with a winsome personality. They have a big church behind them and the influence of their denomination. I've personally known some devils in the pulpit, and for a time they even fooled me.

But if you hang around them long enough, you can see right through them as they are merely butchers of souls. They will say just enough truth to deceive you into thinking they are true to the Bible. But it is what they don't say that damns you.

How False Gospels Broaden the Way of Salvation

They omit the hard truths of the gospel, and they broaden the way of salvation. They're popular with their congregations, and they are fair-haired boys within their denominations. And they talk a good talk as they deceive you, make merchandise of your soul as they traffic in the souls of men.

They spoon-feed their congregations with just enough of the Bible to fool them as they teach heresy to them. For they have weakened the terms of the gospel by watering down its truths, and they refer to Jesus as a Savior.

But they fail to present him as Lord. They will lead you into some kind of profession of faith, and call that salvation, and tell you that you are now a Christian. And they grin all the time because they have done the devil's work of flooding you with deception, keeping you captive in the kingdom of darkness, and damning your soul.

There are multitudes in our churches today who believe church membership is salvation. They believe making a decision is salvation. They believe walking an aisle and repeating a prayer is salvation. But they don't know Christ, and Christ doesn't know them.

Unless these baptized pagans get under the sound of the true gospel, they will die in their sins, to be arraigned before the judge of all the earth, who will declare unto them, I never knew you. Depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

Repentance and Absolute Surrender to Christ as Lord

Sinners need to be told that coming to Christ means an absolute surrender to him as Lord, that to be saved, God demands repentance, and you must throw up the white flag of surrender to a dread sovereign who sits at the right hand of the Father on a heavenly throne, and he earned that right by way of a bloody cross.

The gospel has rights and claims on a follower of Christ Jesus. Jesus is the living Lord, and if you want him, you must throw down your shotgun of rebellion and own him as your Lord, to let him have all rights to your life, to do with you as he wants to.

That's salvation, friend. You better forget about Jesus' meek and mild and impotent, standing at the door of your heart, helplessly knocking, hoping you'll let him in. He is Lord. He is Lord. In Thessalonians, Paul describes him, the Lord Jesus should 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.

Holiness, Judgment, Regeneration, and Costly Discipleship

Listen, friends, this once saved, always saved sin and religion we have today is the product of hell, and the devil in the pulpit who sits there will sin like the devil himself. If you are saved and eventual, you will not have a sin and religion.

You will pursue a life of holiness for the glory of God. If a minister fails to warn you of a future judgment for all mankind, where God will judge every man according to his works. If a minister fails to warn you about the torments of a burning hell for all who die outside of Christ's blood.

If a minister fails to warn you of your duty of repentance and your utter necessity of regeneration, which is a work of grace upon the heart through the new birth. And if a minister fails to teach the hard sayings of discipleship of the Lord Jesus, where you are to take up your cross and deny yourself.

And if he omits preaching Jesus as Lord, then get up out of your chair and run for the door while you still can and go find you a man of God who will be true to your soul. Get under a God called preacher who can point you savingly to the Lord Christ so you can get an interest in Christ for the glory of God and for your eternal bliss.

The Final Call to Repentance

I've given you today, friends, like we say in the South, the oil straight from the can. I have not diluted the claims of Christ, of the gospel in any way in my hands or clean of your blood. You must repent or just go on to hell.