Why God's Not Using Us — E.A. Johnston

Now, I want to preface this message, friends, by saying that there are some God-honoring, Bible-believing churches across this land who have godly men standing in the pulpit who are faithful ministers of the gospel.

Outward Growth Does Not Prove God's Blessing

But there is a good many who are not. They look good on the surface, and that's the problem. Satan has tricked many a pastor today into thinking that if his church is on the grow, then heaven must be smiling upon his ministry.

That because he is climbing the ladder of his denomination with a reputation as a man who knows how to grow a church, that God must be with him. Nothing can be further from the truth. The old boy may just know how to get folks to walk an aisle and join the church by broadening the way of salvation in ways Jesus never did.

If you want to see how God views numbers, then go read the story about Gideon and his 300, or go take a walk through the Gospels and see how Jesus lost his crowd by preaching hard truths. Will you leave me too, he asked his disciples.

Like I said, friends, Satan has fooled a great number of pastors today into believing that God is blessing just because the church campus is growing. If that's the case, then why are so many megachurches preaching heresy?

The Need for Genuine Ministers and Converts

Why is it you can walk through a congregation of 3 ,000 and not bump into a true convert? I believe Satan is using a lot more pastors than God is. Most men in ministry were not called by God into ministry.

I remember one pastor in particular saying he became a pastor because he was a single. He wanted to meet girls, and girls were at church, so that's why he became a pastor. It's the denomination's fault, really, that promotes men in ministry based on their ability to grow a church and reward them by giving them bigger churches.

Reasons God Is Not Using Us

I believe I can list some reasons today, friends, why God's not using us today in the salvation of souls. 1. We care more about our reputations than we do about God's glory. 2. We refuse to preach against sin by naming it and coddle the sin-loving members in our congregation.

Repentance and Holiness Must Be Preached

3. We refuse to preach man's duty of repentance for fear of a backlash from our wealthy, backslidden members. 4. We refuse to preach on holiness because we ourselves live compromised lives and don't pursue a life of holiness ourselves.

Hell and the Scandal of the Cross

5. We will not preach on hell and its terrors for fear it will disturb some members or upset the good deacons. 6. We refuse to preach the scandal of the cross by refusing to preach up a blood-stained savior from sin who hung on a bloody cross for sin.

Regeneration Versus Mere Decisionism

7. We refuse to preach the utter necessity of regeneration and have replaced this doctrine with making a decision and consequently have a vast number of our people who are textual decisionists but who don't know the Christ of the text.

Salvation, Prayer, and the Lordship of Christ

8. We have taken salvation out of the hands of God and placed it in the hands of men. We make ourselves Christians today. 9. We don't have a sacrificial life of prayer either personally or corporately in our church.

If we're not praying for the lost then how would they be saved? 10. We refuse to preach the doctrine of the lordship of Christ in the life of a believer and this explains all the lawlessness in our churches today in the lives of our members.

Dying to Reputation and Preaching the Full Counsel of God

But all true believers know that Christ must be a complete master. Your time is not your own. Your body is not your own. Your money is not your own. For you were bought with a price and that price was his blood.

If you want to know why God's not using us today friends then perhaps it's because we refuse to die to our reputations and preach the full counsel of God under the anointing of the spirit of God.