The Forces Against Salvation — E.A. Johnston

The Difference Between Church Membership and Genuine Salvation

We live in a day, friends, where the megachurches are overflowing. Churches are growing, but few are being saved. There's a vast difference between someone who's merely a member of a church and one who's truly a member of the body of Christ.

Lots of folks are on the church roll, but few are born from above. And we live in a day where false prophets are plentiful, and the watered-down gospel you hear is so diluted of its power, it can't save a flea, much less a man hardened in his sins.

And add to this the fact that America's not seen a spiritual awakening in over a hundred and sixty years. There used to be times in this country where God poured out revival after revival in the salvation of souls through spiritual awakening.

But today, instead, we live under the remedial judgments of God with the withdrawn presence of God. Rather, we live in a time that's dry like a dry tree. And on top of this are the forces that actively work against the salvation of a soul.

And you see the reason why so few are saved and why our young people today are lost to either atheism or indifference to religion. Well, that's the introduction to my message today, friends, which is entitled Forces that Work Against Salvation.

The Parable of the Sower and the Forces Against Salvation

My text can be found in Mark's Gospel. You can turn in your Bibles there now, friends. We'll be in chapter 4 and in verses 14 through 20. In this striking passage of Scripture, we see our Lord's parable of the sower and the seed, the rejection or receptivity of the Word of God.

In this passage, we see there are certain forces which work against the salvation of a soul. Here in our text, we find Jesus preaching a seaside sermon as he sits in a borrowed boat in the sea and his congregation gathers around him on the sandy seashore.

Listening intently, he speaks a parable on seed sown on different kinds of soil, which represent the receptivity of his hearers and subsequently their eternal state, whether unto the kingdom of God and heaven to enjoy Christ forever or to their eternal ruin in hell and damnation, to suffer endlessly in outer darkness and fire.

Listen, friends. Jesus was never afraid to preach on hell. He preached the doctrine and reality of hell often. So should we. Well, when Jesus finishes his parable and the crowd soon leave and he is alone, the twelve ask him to explain the parable and it is here in verses 14 through 20 we have Christ's description of the meaning of his message and it is in these verses we find the various forces which are at work against the salvation of a soul.

Well, let's examine these at this time. Here now is the word of God and may the spirit of the Lord be pleased to attend the reading of his holy word. The sower soweth the word. Let me pause here, friends.

False Gospels and the Failure of Modern Preaching

This is the preacher proclaiming the gospel message and this is the first hindrance to salvation because so few preachers preach the great doctrines of the gospel anymore which have power to save the doctrines of ruin, redemption, repentance, and regeneration.

Instead, we have four versions today of the modern gospel. The first is that in many pulpits a false gospel is given that damns its hearers. Secondly, you'll hear a watered-down version of the gospel that has no mention of sin, repentance, judgment, or hell and this version of the gospel just speaks about the love of God and it misleads its hearers into a false profession.

Thirdly, you'll hear a man-centered gospel which makes its hearers prideful, self-righteous, and self-reliant. Fourth, you'll hear merely man's opinion on the word of God. You'll hear a dialogue and some entertaining stories and it is each of these four that are forces at work against the salvation of soul from the preaching side.

Well, let's return to our Lord's words in verse 2 and following where the assumption is made by Jesus that the word of God is actually being preached and the hindrance is not with the preacher but with the hearers.

Satan's Immediate Opposition to the Gospel

And these are they by the wayside where the word is sown. But when they have heard, Satan cometh immediately and taketh away the word that was sown in their hearts. Let me pause here, friends, to explain this unseen force which works against the salvation of a soul.

Jesus here in our text draws back the veil of the unseen spirit world, one full of demonic activity, spearheaded by the prince of darkness, Satan himself. Now Satan's not omnipresent, he's not God's equal, but a created being of God.

Satan can only be in one place at a time, but he has these legions, these underlings, these minions who are demons that do his bidding and they are referenced in verse 4. And the fowls of the year came and devoured it up.

Satan's demon are likened to birds who invade church sanctuaries, revival meetings, evangelistic crusades, a one-on-one witnessing with the express purpose to thwart any person being saved from Satan's clutches as they are his merchandise and they live in his kingdom.

You don't have to be a Satan worshiper, friend, to be a follower of Satan. All you have to do is be lost. Satan crooks his finger at you and you gladly go into sin to do his bidding. So here we have the forces of darkness which work against the salvation of a soul.

No sooner is the word preached, it's snatched up. Like a raven would swoop down and snatch up a field mouse and devour it immediately or text declares. Now look at verses 16 and 17 for the next force that works against salvation.

Shallow Emotional Faith and the Stony Ground Hearer

And these are likewise which are sown on stony ground who, when they have heard the word, immediately receive it with gladness and have no root in themselves and so endure but for a time. Afterward, when affliction or persecution ariseth for the word's sake, immediately they are offended.

Here is our Lord Jesus' description of the forces that work against salvation. And the first is the emotional hearer whose testimony in Christ is merely outward and shallow. He hides beneath the robe of a false profession.

They've never been born again. Their salvation goes no deeper than their emotions. Oh, they'll sure tear up during a prayer meeting. They'll even raise their hand and wave it over their head during worship time.

But they reflect many in churches who are a mile wide and an inch deep. Shallowness best describes them, for they have no root, no anchor in Christ, because they've never gotten to Christ for salvation.

So their emotions are the great stumbling block to them. They often pray the loudest, carry the biggest Bibles, and plaster their automobiles with bumper stickers telling the world how much they love Jesus.

I've seen it time and time again, friends. One day you look around a church for them and they are gone. They got offended. Somebody hurt their feelings. They heard something in the preaching that rubbed them the wrong way, and they're often gone to join another church.

Worldly Cares, Riches, and Carnal Desires

Next, in verse 18, we see the other force at work against salvation. Listen to what Jesus says. Choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful. Here is the worldly hearer, and here is the picture of three different forces actively at work against the salvation of a soul.

The first is the cares of this world. Oh, the trials and tribulations of this life, friend, are many. The rain falls on the saved as well as the unsaved. Trials and trouble test the faith of a person.

And either stretch and strengthen it, or it will destroy it. You'll hear someone like this say, God has let me down. God has disappointed me. God has turned his back on me. Then they'll turn tail on God and go either back into the world or into eternity.

I had a church friend years ago whose young brother died suddenly. And my friend soon left the church for the loss of the world as he felt God had deserted him and let him down. The next force named against salvation is the deceitfulness of riches.

How many times I've seen a member of a church who was on fire for Christ and active in soul winning to grow in prosperity and to grow in self-reliance and end up going away from God. Riches are perilous, and they should be given freely to ministries and be used for the advancement of the gospel, not to be squandered and sat on for self-indulgence and self-enrichment.

Wealth is a force that works against salvation. Why is it most billionaires like Bill Gates and Warren Buffet and George Soros are atheists? They don't need God because money is their God. And you don't have to be rich, friend, for money to be your God.

The third force that works against salvation, mentioned here in our text, is the lust of other things. Carnality and evil desires and other things can snatch away a soul's salvation. The lust of other things.

What is your idol that you worship more than others? Is it your business, your sports, your hobbies, your entertainments and self-indulgences? These other things draw souls away from Christ and work against the salvation of a soul.

Genuine Conversion and Fruitful Faith

All of the aforementioned are examples of individuals who on the outside look good, they look like believers, but on the inside they were never born again. They had no life, no change. When Jesus was here in his earthly ministry as he passed through towns and villages, those who encountered him experienced change.

A change that lasted. Old blind Bartimaeus didn't lose his sight again. Once Christ left town, he'd experienced transformation. The hindrances and the forces that are at work against the salvation of a soul are numerous as we have seen today.

These forces are at work constantly against all evangelism. Christ himself faced much opposition. When he preached, one time they tried to throw him off a cliff. His hearers often grew in their hatred of him the longer they heard him.

He not only had to contend with the devil, he had to deal with the Pharisees and scribes and all the other religious hypocrites. The rich didn't flock to Jesus, but the poor heard him gladly. He had no millionaires or noblemen or seminary professors among his twelve disciples, but plain men, men of the earth, who were receptive to his message and moldable by his hands.

Verse 20 declares the receptivity of hearing the word of God and the results demanded from it. And these are they which are sown on good ground, such as hear the word and receive it. And bring forth fruit, some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred.

We see here, friends, the degrees of fruitfulness from receptive hearers who have depth in Christ, who hear the gospel and who are changed by it, because they are born from above and washed in the blood.

Let each of us have hearing ears and fruitful lives lived unto God for his glory. Let us pray.