Live in a Way of Sin Die in a Devil's Hell

I'll never forget the Southern Baptist pastor who told me that he firmly believed Elvis went to heaven. I guess his theology was that you could live like the devil and still get to heaven. But that's not what my Bible teaches and Jesus never preached a sin in religion.

I'm afraid in our churches today we've thrown holiness right out the window along with the weekly prayer meeting. In Titus 1.16 we have the anthem of the modern church. They profess that they know God but in works they deny him.

Let me ask you a question, friend. Are you saved? I didn't ask you if you sang in the choir or served on a deacon committee. Are you saved? If you're not, wouldn't you want to know about it? I would.

Wouldn't you want to know before it was too late? Can you look back on your life, friend, and point to the time when you knew that your sins were forgiven? Old John Wesley could. Let me read you a page from his diary dated May 14, 1738. In the evening I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street where one was reading Luther's preface to the Epistle to the Romans.

About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for my salvation, and an assurance was given me that he had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death. Well, what Wesley didn't say in his diary, friends, was at this time he was an ordained priest in the Church of England and was still an unconverted minister.

John Wesley could look back on his life and put his finger on the time when he knew his sins were forgiven because he had experienced change. I'm afraid most folks in church today have never been changed by a work of grace upon the heart, and they are strangers to Jesus. They profess that they know God, but in works they deny him.

The title of my message this evening, friends, is Living Away a Sin, Die in a Devil's Hell and my text can be found in Matthew's Gospel in Chapter 7. You can turn in your Bibles there now, friends. The contents of my sermon this evening will alarm some of you, anger some of you, but that's okay so long as my sermon awakens some of you to the danger of a false foundation and an empty religious profession. I'm going to give you a roadmap this evening, and in this roadmap are the directions on how to go to hell as a baptized church member because I'm going to unveil the robe of the hypocrite this evening and give you sure evidence of hypocrisy.

Church people that dress themselves up in robes of religion to look good on Sunday morning and talk the talk but don't walk the walk. Or a final one, a roadmap that leads straight to hell. And this roadmap, friends, has two roads that come to a fork in it, and if you keep on walking you'll drop right off the cliff and tumble into the bottomless pit Road number one, live in a way of sin, die in a devil's hell.

Of course a sin is good enough proof that you are a hypocrite if a person makes a profession of Jesus and lives in a way of sin that goes against the light of his conscience, that person is unsaved. If a man says he's a Christian but lives in disobedience to God, he is a liar and a hypocrite. Men who live in ways of sin will be rejected in the day of judgment.

To those false professors Jesus will declare, Depart from me, ye that work iniquity. I used to teach Sunday school in a big Baptist church, and in my class was a family, a pretty young wife, a tall handsome husband, and two beautiful children. And this family was in church every Sunday morning, but sadly the husband could be found in a strip club every Saturday night before church the next morning.

It was common knowledge that this man frequented strip clubs and some staff ministers even counseled him every now and then to assure him that although he was a Christian, he wasn't living for the Lord, and he needed to make Jesus his Lord so he could live for the Lord more. The problem with these Christian counselors was the sad fact they weren't honest with this man. You can't live for God if you're not saved.

You have no power within to live for him. All you can do is keep going to your hog wallah and wallow in there and then take a bath so you'll be able to go to church on Sunday. I repeat, a course of sin is proof of an unsound heart.

Those who live in ways of sin will be rejected by Christ and cast into hell. Roadmap number two. If you live in a way of sin, then you don't love God.

1 John 5.3 is very plain about this, friend. Herein is love, that we keep his commands, and his commands are not grievous. If you call yourself a Christian but live in a way of disobedience, then you do not love God, for love to God will make men keep God's commands.

Listen to me, friend. Men and women who live in a way of disobedience are not Christ's sheep. For Jesus declared, My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.

Christ said three important things in this verse. He said, His sheep hear his voice, he knows them, and they follow me. In Amos 3.3 we read, Can two walk together, except they be agreed? The answer is no, friend.

They cannot, and you cannot live for God and holiness unto him as an unsaved individual because you have no power from above to do so. You have never been born again. A born-again believer has gone through a change, which God works in the heart by implanting a disposition for holiness like John Wesley.

John Wesley was a godly man who lived his life in holiness unto God because he knew without holiness no one will see the Lord. Well, now you're going to say that this preacher is a holy roller and he preaches up holiness. Well, listen to me, we need more preachers today, friends, who will preach on holiness and be honest with folks and fear God and not man.

Listen, friends, it's about time a preacher was honest with you to tell you that church members, deacons, pastors who live in a way of disobedience are the servants of sin. John 8.34 plainly states, He that cometh to sin is the servant of sin. I get this all the time.

Oh, pastor, pray for my husband Johnny. He's a good man, but he's not living for the Lord. He was saved many years ago, but he's not living for God.

Pray for him to start living for God. Well, that's the wrong prayer. She needs to be praying for her husband's conversion.

That man's not saved if he's not living for God. It's time for honesty, friends. Of course, a sin, whether it's external or internal, is proof that a person has an unsound heart and is in need of salvation.

And that brings us back to the question, can you look back on your life down all its winding corridors and say with John Wesley that you can point to the time when you knew your sins were forgiven? Well, I hope this little lesson has gotten some of you mad enough to go examine yourselves in light of God's Word. Let us pray.