Church Where God Can'T Work — E.A. Johnston

Three Kinds of Churches

I've been in three kinds of churches through the years. I've been in false churches where there is a false spirit there. The worship band will hit the strobe-lighted stage and begin to sway their hips and wave their hands over their heads.

False Worship and Spiritual Deception

And they'll say something like, the Holy Spirit is here. We want to honor the Holy Spirit. So lift up our voices today. And they will plug in their electric guitars and begin singing. You will feel a warm fuzzy from that false spirit and mistake it for the Holy Spirit.

And go home thinking you worshiped God when you were in the house of the devil. For the devil appears as an angel of light, so says the Apostle Paul. In these last days, friends, there are many false prophets in the land who appear like men of God, but who are Satan's ministers.

The Apostle John warns in his epistle, little children, it is the last time. And as ye have heard that Antichrist shall come, even now are there many Antichrists whereby I would know that it is the last time.

I've never seen a time in my life, friends, where there is so little truth being preached in our churches today, where there is so much error being taught and called salvation. The Apostle Peter issued warnings against false teachers as well, where he warns, but there are false prophets also among the people, even as there should be false teachers among you who privately shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that brought them and bring upon themselves swift destruction.

I've been in some churches where the pastor looked real slick and talked a good talk, but dished out nothing but error. The false church today has gained much ground around the world, and many men and women are led by a false spirit and don't realize it.

The prevalence of these false ministries should be an alarm to each of us that Christ shall soon return. Secondly, the next kind of church I've been in is the church where God is working and lives are being changed.

Churches Where God Is Working

There were more of these kinds of churches about 50 years ago, when men still preached about a bloody cross and held up a bloodstained Savior from sin. But as these older pastors died off, they were replaced by a younger generation that decided it was quicker and easier to grow a church by money and manpower, rather than to wait on God by prayer and Holy Ghost power.

But it's always a delight to be in such a church where God is at work in the lives of its members. The third church I've been in is my subject today, friends, and hence the title of my message today, The Church Where God Can't Work.

Mark 6 and the Unbelief of Nazareth

My text can be found in Mark's Gospel in chapter 6, beginning in verse 1. Hear now is the word of God, and may the Spirit of the Lord be pleased to attend the reading of his holy word. And he went out from thence, and came into his own country, and his disciples follow him.

And when the sabbath day was come, he began to teach in the synagogue, and many hearing him were astonished, saying, From whence hath this man these things? And what wisdom is this which is given unto him, that even such mighty works are wrought by his hands?

Is this not the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James and Joseph, and of Judah and Simon? Are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended at him. Let me pause here to say, friends, you go into a church today preaching that sin is black and hell is hot, and that men must repent or just go on to hell, and many the good deacons will be offended as well.

Well, let's continue with our text. But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honor, but in his own country and among his own kin and in his own house. And he could do there no mighty work, save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk and healed them.

And he marveled because of their unbelief, and he went round about the villages teaching. In other words, he visited other folks that had a hunger for him that desired him. If the American church doesn't want the Lord Jesus as who he is in scripture, then he will bypass us and just go visit the underground church in China where he can do mighty works that still astound.

The Church Where God Cannot Work

He will leave us to our mega churches and glass houses to go work in a barn in Afghanistan. He will pour forth his glory in a small village in Africa and transform men and women and boys and girls. The third church I'm talking about today, friends, is a church I call the church where God can't work.

These are the churches full of pride and empty of the presence of God. They are filled to the rafters each Sunday, but they are filled with unbelief. They are perilous people, cold and indifferent to the lost and perishing, why they wouldn't cross the street to witness to his soul.

They are self-reliant, self-sufficient, and self-absorbed, and the Lord of Glory marvels at them for their unbelief. These churches are jam-packed with the unconverted who say they know Jesus, but they are strangers to him.

I've been in a lot of these kinds of churches where there's always fleshly activity, but no spiritual activity. People come and go and serve and live and die, and there's no change within them. God leaves those churches to themselves while he just passes on to another village.

Hope for Churches in Spiritual Declension

Listen to me, friends. It's often discouraging to look around today at our churches in the land, many who sit in sad spiritual declension, but try to encourage yourself, friend, that God is still at work somewhere on this place we call planet Earth.

There's a teenage boy or a teenage girl getting saved in a village somewhere that we may not even be able to pronounce, but nonetheless, Jesus is a reigning Lord, and he's still on a mission for souls looking to seek and to save that which was lost.

Personal Revival and Becoming a Spiritual Spark

If your church is dead, friend, then double down, get on your knees, get on your face before God, and get more on fire for God yourself. Maybe you'll be the one. You'll be the light in a dark place, and a spark may start on some old dry wood.

Let us pray.