A Convenient Christianity — E.A. Johnston

The Deception of Convenient Christianity

How can a person call themself a Christian and cuss like the world, drink like the world, watch the same wicked Hollywood shows that the world drools over, and live like the world, and still be so sure of their salvation?

The Christianity they profess is a convenient one that is on their terms and their conditions. It's a Christianity that is acceptable so long as it's not invasive or restrictive. It's a brand of Christianity that serves you instead of you serving Christ.

You don't mind talking about Jesus when it's convenient so you can show off some Bible knowledge you may have. You don't mind talking to somebody about their need to know Jesus. But the trouble is you don't know Jesus yourself.

You don't know what it's like to talk to Jesus. You don't have experiential knowledge of Him because you don't have the Spirit of God in you. You have the Spirit of the devil in you, and you're full of the world.

False Assurance and the Reality of Judgment

And if you died today in a sudden tragic accident, you'd bust hell wide open because of your rebellion. But you think you're all right that God is not so cruel enough to send you to hell, and you're not bad enough to go there.

I remember witnessing to an old lady in a hospital one time. I asked her if she thought she was going to heaven when she died. And she told me she most certainly was. And I asked her why. And she said because she'd never killed anybody or ever robbed a liquor store.

Her yardstick of goodness was her fellow human being. She wasn't as bad as some folks. That's why she thought she was going to heaven. But only a holy God uses His own yardstick to measure sinners by.

Sin, the Law, and Human Guilt

And that's His strict and severe law. And everyone held against that will fail that test because all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. One sin done one time, even if it was a little sin, is enough to send you to hell, friend.

Jesus' Call to Repentance and Discipleship

Jesus described a follower of His along these terms. Jesus said, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Jesus said, but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. Jesus said, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

Jesus said, if ye love me, keep my commandments. Jesus said, if any man come to me and hate not his father and mother and wife and children and brethren and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.

And whosoever doth not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. A convenient Christianity will tolerate none of these things because to have them you have to give up control. And you don't want to give up control.

Surrendering the Throne of Self

You want to sit on the throne of your life and rule there and still call yourself a Christian because it gives you enough peace to sleep at night. But Jesus said, and everyone that heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them not should be likened unto a foolish man which built his house upon the sand.

And the rain descended and the floods came and the winds blew and beat upon that house and it fell and great was the fall of it. The trouble with a convenient Christianity is there's no sacrifice in it.

The Cross, Sacrifice, and Counterfeit Evangelism

But the Son of God sacrificed his own life on a bloody cross so we can live. Listen friend, you can drink the Kool-Aid of modern evangelism if you want to and accept their little Jesus and live your life the same way you lived it before.

But now just call yourself a Christian. You join their club, pay their monthly dues and enjoy the benefits of a hope of heaven and still live like the devil all you want to because it's your brand of a convenient Christianity.

But the trouble is I can't find that brand of Christianity in my Bible. You do read your Bible, don't you?