Carnal Peace of the Hypocrite

I like what Vance Havner used to say about the unconverted church member. He said, I could have led a few more people to the Lord had they not already joined the church. And it's true, friends.

I agree that the hardest people to win to Christ are those already inside the church. They came in through the door of an empty religious profession and were baptized and joined the church, believing church membership was salvation. And there they sit, Sunday upon Sunday, growing grayer and older as time passes on and they draw closer to the grave.

They have a piece, and this is their downfall and ruin, because the piece they have is merely the carnal piece of the self-deceived hypocrite. This class of individuals are some who sit on deacon committees, some who sing in the choir or teach Sunday school, some even stand in pulpits across the land, but their hope of heaven is nothing more than a hole in the wall. You'd have a better chance at leading some drunkard or prostitute to Christ than you would one of these smiling, self-smug church members who think they know it all and have a hope of heaven.

But they try to climb up heaven over the back of Jesus and go up another way as they cling to a opinion of themselves while hanging on to a rope of sand. My message this evening, friends, is a very somber one, for a fear that the majority of our church membership today can be described by the verse from Proverbs which states, There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes and yet is not washed from their filthiness. Trying to lead a gospel-hardened hypocrite to Jesus is harder than flying to the moon on the back of an umbrella.

These categories of deceived church members are harder to reach with the gospel than a Chinese communist general. How many hundreds of church people have I known through the years who claimed to be Christians but showed no evidence of regeneration through a changed life? They were like an old-time movie façade that looked good on the outside but there was nothing in the building but empty air. The carnal peace of the hypocrite has a peace given to them by Satan, and it is Satan as an angel of light who directs their every move.

Why, I've known preachers who are led by a false spirit, mistaking it for the Holy Spirit, but they are self-deceived individuals who are busily preaching their way to hell and taking a multitude along with them. The carnal peace of the hypocrite originates with the devil, is fueled by the devil, and ends with the devil in a devil's hell. The hardest work in the world for a God-called preacher is trying to awaken deceived unregenerate church members to see their danger of dying in their sins by remaining in their natural condition and getting them to acknowledge that they are yet unsaved individuals.

If you try to preach certain sermons to these deceived church members, why, you have a fight on your hands, because they already have a God they serve, even if it isn't the one found in my Bible. The first thing a true evangelist has to do with this category of hypocrites is to get out a broad sword and start killing their gods, but you start killing somebody's God-friend and you have a fight on your hands. The treachery of the human heart is so dark and deceptive that many sit in church deceived on rotten plank boards of carnal security, believing themselves to be saved and on their way to heaven, when in reality they rest merely upon a nest of rotten eggs and their heart is full of poison like a pit full of vipers.

Just shake them and see what comes out. They are a living contradiction, for they are pure in their own eyes, yet they are not washed from their filthiness. They have never closed with Christ, and Christ does not know them.

They're like the foolish virgins, sleeping soundly upon their beds when they should have been busy out at the gospel market buying oil to trim their lamps, but the bridegroom comes and shuts the door in their face. They had a peace, which was but the carnal peace of the self-deceived hypocrite. I've had very little success with these gospel-hardened, unconverted church members through the years, who only get angry under my preaching, especially when I preach up their need of repentance.

I agree with Vance Hafner. I could have led a few more people to the Lord, had they not already joined the church. Listen, friend, if you're not washed in the blood and born from above, it makes no difference, even if you are the chairman of the deacons.

Repent now and come to Christ and own him as your Lord and Savior, or remain in your natural condition as you sing and serve your way to hell.