The Church Guy — E.A. Johnston

The Religious Person Who May Still Be Lost

I submit to you, friends, that there is one listening to this message tonight who fits the title of my sermon like a glove. This individual is at church every time the doors are open. He faithfully serves in whatever capacity he is able.

He tithes on a regular basis, and he has a good reputation for being a good guy, a dependable guy, zealous for the Bible, and jealous for God. He has his family in church every week, and church is a big part of their life.

His kids are homeschooled, or they attend private Christian school. He is a Jesus guy for one time in his life, whether as a child, or teenager, or even an adult. He came forward during a gospel invitation and gave his heart to Jesus, and ever since that time, he has done his level best to live for Jesus.

The fellow that this message is about tonight is the church guy. I submit to you as well, friends, that there are few people on this earth as deceived as the church guy, because this person is religious but lost, gospel hardened, and on his way to perdition when he dies unless God intervenes and saves him.

The church guy can be a pastor. The church guy can be a deacon. The church guy can be an elder, Sunday school teacher, or just a faithful church member. The subject I am dealing with tonight, friends, I know firsthand, for I was the church guy for many years of my adult life, and I would have fought you tooth and nail if you ever questioned me about my salvation.

A Personal Testimony of False Assurance

I could point to a time in my life where I responded to a gospel invitation. I could tell you all about the long track record of service I had in the church, and how I handed out tracts on a regular basis, and witnessed the folks, and that my opinion of myself was secure because I just knew I was a Christian.

The trouble was, I was a church guy, but a lost church guy, and I didn't know it. There came a day in my life when God and his mercy got me lost and showed me I was on my way to hell, and that I and all my religious works deserved to go there.

I was the church guy, but I wasn't saved. Once God got me lost, he then could save me. Jesus declared, I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Jesus also declared, I am come to seek and to save that which was lost.

Examining Whether We Have Truly Been Lost

Let me risk offending you tonight, friend, but I do so because I care about your soul. Can you go down the corridors of your religious life and come to the time and place where you took your place as a lost sinner before God?

Think about that now. Have you ever been lost? If you have never been lost, then you have never been saved. You are the church guy or the church girl. Now, I know that statement offends many of you because it goes against the stream of all major church activity and evangelism today, but I know from personal experience what it is like to be the church guy.

You can live your life in a spiritually deceived state, and Satan as an angel of light can reproduce just about every tingling feeling and conviction and assurance and peace that you are a saved individual.

But the one thing he cannot produce is salvation. Salvation is in Christ. Salvation is Christ. If you miss true Holy Spirit conviction, you miss repentance. If you miss repentance, you miss faith. If you miss faith, you miss Christ.

If you miss Christ, you miss heaven. And if you die in your sins as a religious church member, the church guy, you will close your eyes to this world and you will open your eyes in hell and its torments because good people don't go to heaven.

Only forgiven people get to go there. And if you've missed Christ, then you've never gotten under his blood and the peace that you have is a false peace from the evil one who acts as an angel of light.

A Religion Without Christ and the Danger of False Assurance

The last 50 years in this country has produced a religion without Christ, a gospel without blood redemption, and a church membership without Holy Spirit conviction and conversion. The church guy makes up the majority of our churches today.

He fills the majority of our pulpits today. That's what's so scary about this. How many funerals you have already attended where the pastor said the deceased was now in heaven with Jesus and in reality a good number of those good religious church folk are now suffering in hell.

Most folks don't like my preaching and most folks refuse to financially support it because my messages are too disturbing to most folks. But I'd rather go to bed hungry, which I've done on many a night, than lie to you and give you a false gospel and a false faith and a false assurance when you need to hear truth that will be attended by the Spirit of God to awaken you to your great danger of living a lie and thinking you were one thing when you were quite altogether another from God's perspective.

I'll ask you again, friend. Can you go down and trace the corridors of your life and come to the place where you took your place as a lost sinner before a holy God? Salvation is Christ. If you are the church guy or the church girl and you've never been lost, then you've never been saved.

Jesus Christ as the Way, the Truth, and the Life

Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. Here Jesus answers the three greatest questions of the human heart. How can I be saved? Jesus said, I am the way.

How can I be sure? Jesus said, I am the truth. How can I be satisfied? Jesus said, I am the life. And in John 6, 35, Jesus declared, 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 for the Hungry, Weary, and Thirsty

The gospel is for the hungry, the weary, and the thirsty. Only the person who has taken their place as a lost sinner before God in need of a savior from sin can relate to the experience of being hungry for God, weary of sin, and so thirsty for Christ that you cannot and will not be satisfied with anything less than Christ Jesus.

It is my prayer, friend, that you examine yourself before the revealing light of the Holy Spirit and the true word of God and that you will be savingly brought to Christ. I can't bring you there, friend.

It's not in my power. All I can do as a preacher of the cross is to point you to Christ so he can save you. But you must get to Christ when Jesus was here in his earthly ministry as he passed through towns and villages.

Repentance, New Birth, and Union with Christ

All who had a real encounter with him experienced permanent change. The life of God was in the soul of man. You must enter into a vital union with the living Lord. You must repent, and you must be born again.

You can't get to heaven by just being the church guy. Let us pray.