At Peace on a Dark Pew — E.A. Johnston

The Danger of False Assurance in the Church

If you will give me your attention, friends, I have a solemn message for us this evening. There may be someone within the sound of my voice that has one foot in a church aisle and the other in hell. I believe what we call the gospel today leaves the devil alone and doesn't disturb his kingdom nor the subjects of his kingdom.

Getting a man to respond to an emotional appeal and accept Jesus doesn't bother the devil one bit because it doesn't disrupt his goods nor awaken them. He doesn't mind if his goods are in church on Sunday sitting on a dark pew so long as they still belong to him all week.

My Bible declares in Luke 11, 21, when a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace. The title of my message this evening, friends, is At Peace on a Dark Pew. We quit preaching the gospel 60 years ago in America and in the last six decades we have populated hell with more baptized church members than in the history of the world.

Deacons and elders and Sunday school teachers sit right now every Sunday on a dark pew completely unaware they sit atop a trap door to hell. They swallowed a diluted gospel of modern evangelism which makes devils laugh and startles angels.

Satan's Kingdom and the Battle for the Soul

The most serious issue of our friends is a subject I'm going to tackle tonight as I intend to throw some light on a dark pew from the word of God and by the spirit of God. I watched a TV interview years ago with a rock and roll legend who lived like the devil all his life and in this interview this man was at perfect peace.

The devil gives his own a peace that all is right with their soul. Satan is the god of this world. He is a prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience and he has his kingdom in this world and within his kingdom of darkness are his subjects.

His kingdom is established in the hearts of all sinners and he jealously guards the goods of his kingdom. And if you get saved, friend, it's because one more powerful than he has bound him and spoiled his goods by invading his kingdom of darkness.

But Satan will exert every inch of his power to retain every soul in his kingdom and if it means he has to do the work of an evangelist and spread a false gospel by his ministers, then he will employ all means to get a man, a woman, to make some kind of profession of faith, join the church by water baptism and then find them a spot where they can sit every Sunday and be at peace on a dark pew.

A Christian is one who has been delivered from the power of darkness and translated into the kingdom of God's dear son. The battle for the soul is fought tooth and nail by the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of this world, against spiritual wickedness and high places.

The Sinner's Heart as Satan's Stronghold

Satan has the stronghold of the sinner fortified and prepared for any attacks. The heart of the sinner is the devil's stronghold. As long as he can give you some religion, friend, and make you believe you are serving God and give you a false peace, he will keep you ensnared on a dark pew and you will think all is well with you.

I know what I'm talking about, friend, because I'm an expert on the subject of being a lost church member for I was one for years and years. We have forgotten the object of the gospel is to reduce sinners into subjection to Christ.

You must repent to be saved and repentance is God's gift. It is not in man's power. The devil has been eminently successful in undergirding popular mass evangelism, birthed out of football stadiums and big personalities, and promoting a perverted gospel that is certain to delude and damn its adherents by calling it salvation.

The devil knows the Bible, and he knows that unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. So he popularized and only believed gospel and made it the dominant teaching of the last 60 years. The malice and power of Satan is great, and he knows he can do his best work inside a church and inside a denomination.

The devil will do all in his power to keep possession of his goods, and if necessary, he will even make you the chairman of the deacons. He blinds minds to hide the sight of their danger, in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not.

Awakening Sinners Through the True Gospel

You see, friends, the biggest device of Satan is to guard his goods, is to make the sinner believe he is not lost, so he will not feel his need of salvation. He knows full well that Christ came to save the lost, and that if a man will be saved, the first thing must be he must get lost.

By the preaching of the true gospel of repentance, he is awakened to his lost condition, and the demand of God's on him. The adversary of our souls will labor hard to shut out the light of conviction of sin, so he aims his sights at seminaries and pulpits, to teach a perverted, damning gospel of his own making, and keeps his goods in peace on a dark pew, and his great success in making it the mainstay popular religion of our day, where the lost religious masses are all teaching and propagating this false gospel.

For when a strong man, armed, keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace. You can bet your bottom dollar, friend, that the devil will never, ever awaken a sinner to a sense of his sins, guilt, or danger, but he will always soothe him and quiet him in his sins, and call it Christian liberty.

If he can keep a man quiet, he knows he is safe in his possession. That's why, when I have preached in churches on God's demand for repentance, I am met by the strongest opposition by the good deacons, who say I'm preaching heresy.

But if you preach the truth fearlessly long enough, the Holy Spirit will come around and take the truth of the gospel, and apply it to some poor sinner's heart, and awaken him to his lost condition, her lost condition, and the danger of dying in their sins, and being cast into a hell of rage and fire.

That's when hell goes to popping, because the devil knows you have got a fish. When you can get one of his goods woke up to the fact of their destiny without Christ, you get a man to cry, I'm lost, I'm lost.

It's not far away where he'll be saying, I'm saved, bless God, God save me. But the adversary attempts to fortify the hearts of sinners through soothing and flattering false prophets that are his ministers.

Oh friends, you better believe he's got his ministers all over this land, and they will soothe you, and flatter you, and give you a false assurance to keep you in that strong man's possession, in that kingdom of darkness where you will be enabled to make a profession, be baptized, join the church, and take your seat every Sunday, and be at peace on a dark pew.

Christ's Power to Deliver Captives

You better hear me, this stronghold of Satan can never be pulled down by flattering words. As strong as Satan is, there is one who is infinitely stronger than he. The Lord Jesus Christ is the mighty conqueror.

He routed the devil at Calvary, he mocked him at his resurrection, and he rules at the right hand of the Father right now, right now, in all authority. And if you begin to preach the gospel of the Son of God, which speaks of ruin, redemption, repentance, and regeneration, then the Spirit of God can go to work on a sinner's heart, and bind that strong man, spoil his goods, and set the captives free.

When the disciples returned from their first preaching mission, they exclaimed, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name, through thy name. What mighty effects the gospel produces in the name of Christ, it is the power of God to salvation unto everyone that believeth.

Preaching Sin, Judgment, and the Substitute

A preaching which does not aim at the heart, and take hold of the conscience, never attacks the strongholds of Satan. That's why Satan loves to fill pulpits with teachers, and not preachers. Teachers who will teach on how to have a better Christian family, how to be prosperous materially, how to be the best you can be.

But he will never preach against sin, and the dangers of sin, and the consequences of sin. At a future judgment where a holy God will hold up every person to his strict law, and he will by no means clear the guilty.

If you stand there in your own merits, you are doomed and damned. You must stand in the merits of another, the Lord Jesus Christ, the sinner's substitute, to where when God looks at me, he says, oh, when I see the blood, when Christ's life is laid down and implied to me, that's salvation.

Repentance and Surrender to Christ

If you want to get to heaven, friend, you better get serious with God, and repent of your sins, and throw down your shotgun of rebellion, and surrender to a sovereign Lord. Sinners must be shown their opposition to God as they sit on a dark pew, which is really a trap door over smoking hell.

Get to Christ, friend, for forgiveness of sins, before it's too late.