Fall of the Unsaved Pastor

George Whitefield, the great British evangelist, spoke often against the unconverted ministry of his day. Many of Whitefield's fiercest opponents were men in ministry that Satan used as human dupes to try and stop the revivals that broke out beneath Whitefield's mighty preaching. There was a large number of unconverted men who stood in pulpits in Whitefield's day.

And if the old boy could come back to earth right now and go around about our churches today, the blood would drain right out of his puffy face at the number of unconverted preachers today. I've been around a long time, and I must confess, I've never encountered so many lost men in ministry than I do today. They are legion.

I believe there's two reasons for this. Number one, I reckon it's because so many men grew up under a watered-down gospel that had no saving power. So they saved themselves, got baptized, joined the church, and believed church membership to be salvation.

The second reason is that in this age of church apostasy, that Antichrist will soon appear, and he is placing his deceived human dupes in all the right places, so they will welcome him with open arms when he appears. Society grows darker and darker with each new day, and the churches fall into deeper spiritual declension. But amidst all this, my Bible stands out like a diamond against a black velvet backdrop in regard to the fall of the unsaved pastor.

And that's the title of my message this evening, friends, The Fall of the Unsaved Pastor. My text can be found in the book of Jeremiah in chapter 23. You can turn in your Bibles there now, friends.

We will be in verses 11 and 12 as we see their dreadful fall. I look around today at a lot of high-paid men who have big successful churches, and although they are popular, they have no true gospel witness in their sham of a ministry, whereby they merely traffic in the souls of men so they can look good within their denomination. Our setting is in the 23rd chapter of the book of Jeremiah, and it unfolds the dilemma of the prophet Jeremiah in his day as the Jews had set up for themselves false priests and false prophets that tickled their fancy and left them alone in their sins in their backslidden condition.

The prophet Jeremiah speaks of the common judgments on these false prophets. I want to look at the fall of the unsaved pastor as seen in the word of God. Look at verses 11 through 12.

And may the Spirit of the Lord attend the reading of His holy word. For both prophet and priest are profane. Yea, in my house have I found their wickedness, saith the Lord.

Let me pause here, friends, to relate to you. That you'd have a hard time believing the following is true, but I'm telling you the truth. I've been in churches where the pastors have uttered such blasphemy that you wondered why God didn't strike them dead right there.

I was in a Baptist church one Sunday morning where the pastor of that church stood in the pulpit and began his time of prayer by relating a story of him in the toilet where he wiped himself. Then he began to pray to his shocked congregation. Now, I'm not making this up.

The other nonsense I've heard from so-called ministers of God would make your hair stand on end. One pastor of a big successful church told his congregation that if he won a million dollars in the lottery he wouldn't give it away to do good, but he would just spend it all on one big party at the church so the members could just party for God, that God would want them to party for Him. But the biggest thing that worries me today of the numerous unsaved men and women who stand in pulpits all over this land is the deceit and heresy they feed their congregations.

I sat and listened to a lesbian pastor in New England tell her congregation that there was no evil in the world, that God was in everything, and He makes everything good. I feel sorry for the poor soul who sits under an unconverted ministry. Well, let's look at the fall of the unconverted pastor in our next verse.

Wherefore their way shall be unto them as slippery ways in the darkness. They shall be driven on and fall therein, for I will bring evil upon them, even the year of their visitation, saith the Lord. In this verse, friends, we see that the unsaved pastor walks in spiritual darkness upon a slippery path that will one day throw him down into perdition.

God will do it. God will be the rune, he says, for I will bring evil upon them. I came real close to being that person.

I was in a hotel in Edinburgh, Scotland, and at the time I was an unconverted preacher. I stepped into the shower that had just been polished, and I was thrown upside down on my head on a concrete floor. I broke my wrist in the fall, but I could have just as easily broke my neck.

God had mercy on that unsaved preacher that day, and he spared my life and eventually saved me. But listen to me, friend. If you are a pastor or an evangelist, and you have doubts about your true salvation, get to Christ, friend.

He is your only hope. Christ is salvation. The path is dark.

It's slippery. You must get to Christ. Let us pray.