Welcome to From the Pulpit and Classic Sermons.
Each week we bring you a different message
from some of history's greatest speakers in the
Christian faith, and powerful sermons from modern preachers,
too.
This week, we have E.
A.
Johnston with his message, The Cappuccino Church.
We are living in a critical time in
which spirituality in the churches is near an
all-time low, and immorality in society is
near an all-time high.
The pulpits of the land have lost their
influence upon society because they have let the
world into the church, and have cheapened the
gospel message in an attempt to grow their
church campus.
Many church members profess to know Christ, but
few display the evidence of true conversion.
When George Whitefield, the great British evangelist, came
to America in 1740, during the Great Awakening,
he was asked by a Boston minister, Mr.
Whitefield, how many converts have you had since
you've been among us?
To which the great Whitefield replied, I don't
know, sir, but I shall return to these
parts in a year or two and look
for the evidence of their salvation.
Few church members today demonstrate credible evidence of
their salvation.
Listen, friends, when the church fails to carry
out the mandate of the Great Commission and
proactively storm the gates of hell, then a
vacuum is created.
The vacuum begins within the church until the
church compromises the gospel message, places man and
his needs as the center and focus of
the church, and everything rotates around the happiness
of man.
My message tonight is on the apostate church
in America.
It is entitled the Cappuccino Church because it
is all froth and no substance.
I am not insinuating that the entire institutional
church in America is apostate.
Please don't misunderstand me.
There are many sound Christian churches throughout our
land with solid shepherds leading them, but I
have seen a drastic change in a majority
of churches that have cheapened the gospel message
with the express purpose of growing their church.
They've made it a lot easier to become
a Christian than what Jesus stated.
Jesus stated that the way is narrow and
the passage difficult.
He said, unless you repent, ye shall all
likewise perish.
I have been around for a long time
and have witnessed the tragic spiritual declension of
the church in America.
It breaks my heart to bring this message
tonight, but I must unburden my heart on
what the Lord has given me regarding the
church in America and the West today.
When I was a little boy in the
1950s and you went to church, you knew
you were safe there.
You knew that in all probability you would
hear the true gospel and be surrounded by
real Christians and receive spiritual good.
But today in America, the church looks the
same on the outside, but instead of being
a place of blessing, it is now a
church that harms you spiritually.
It harms the soul with its diluted gospel
and man-centered theology.
Sinners are fed a false gospel and given
a false security.
So many popes have preached death instead of
life and damned their hearers instead of blessing
them.
I'm even afraid to take my teenage daughter
to church these days because it seems to
be more hurtful to her rather than helpful.
You think you're doing good by putting your
child in a youth group at church these
days, but often it's a more corrupting influence
than spiritually helpful.
That's how bad things have gotten in the
church in America in our day.
When I go around and visit churches today,
I can barely make it through the service
without being offended or embarrassed by the minister
and the pulpit.
The pulpit today in America has not only
lost its authority, it has lost its dignity
to many of the immature men who occupy
it.
The church in America has become a cappuccino
church, all froth and no substance.
And instead of being a place of spiritual
good, it often has a damning influence.
Many churches in America today are indistinguishable from
the local country club.
They offer all the comforts of a country
club, including yoga classes and Zumba dancing and
coffee bars, whose focus is on making man
happy and gratifying his flesh.
The gospel of the apostate church speaks of
a comfortable Christianity, which has no restrictions, and
it speaks of a Jesus who has no
requirements.
But the Jesus of the Bible did not
speak of a comfortable Christianity.
Rather, he said, foxes have holes and birds
of the air have nests, but the Son
of Man has nowhere to lay his head.
The members of the apostate church are quite
happy there and content.
They are entertained weekly and feel like they
belong to a special social club, and they're
part of that club and they meet on
a regular basis.
They even pay their monthly dues to this
country club church by tithing, and this helps
ease their conscience.
But the sad fact is that this apostate
church is a church that damns.
The Cappuccino Church is a worldly church with
a worldly program for its worldly members.
It is of the world and of the
devil.
The Cappuccino Church has a pastor who is
more like Jay Leno than a true shepherd.
This comedian pastor tells jokes to make his
people laugh.
The jokes may even be off-color to
embarrass them to laugh.
He tells funny stories to arouse their emotions,
and his ministry is based on his professionalism
and personality rather than the power of God
through a surrendered life under the discipline of
the Holy Spirit.
Can you imagine Jonathan Edwards telling jokes to
the congregation in Enfield, Connecticut to warm up
his crowd with laughter before he preached sinners
in the hands of an angry God?
We have more jokesters in the pulpits today
who want to make you laugh rather than
prophets who cry with authority, thus saith the
Lord.
Sadly, few want to have an encounter with
God in the church today.
They just want to be entertained.
The church was never intended to be a
place of laughter and entertainment, a house of
prayer and worship.
The church in America today has become a
party church with fun and laughter rather than
a weeping church broken over the sins of
the land and burdened for the lost and
perishing around them.
The church has become self-focused, self-sufficient,
and self-absorbed.
God is a million miles away from the
Cappuccino Church in America today.
The Cappuccino Church is a feel-good church.
Like the coffee drink, it makes you feel
good.
I remember being in church as a boy,
and there was a sense of God's presence
there and a certain solemnity that attended it.
And you worship God because of his presence.
But today, in churches, they have a party
and they laugh and sing because of his
absence.
The church in America back then was the
place where true believers gathered to pray and
lay hold of God and weep over the
lost.
And you heard a message about the blood
and the cross and the need for repentance
because you were a sinner who needed to
be reconciled back to an offended God.
You heard about a terrible place called hell,
and you were warned not to go there.
But today, in the churches in the land,
you will hear funny stories and feel-good
messages to make you feel better about yourself
before it's time for you to go leave
and enjoy your lunch.
Listen, friends, the apostate church fails to warn
the sinner to flee from the wrath to
come, and it's run on manpower and methodologies
rather than God and holy ghost power.
The Capuchino church presents a God that has
no claims or rights upon a person's life.
It omits the need of repentance, the plan
of redemption, the blood of Christ, and the
bloody cross on which he died.
Rather, it preaches a feel-good message which
doesn't upset anybody or confront them with their
sins.
The underground church in China suffers persecution as
they follow a crucified Savior.
The above-ground church in China is the
three-self church, and it is a tool
for the communist government.
The apostate church in America will be the
vehicle used by Antichrist when he appears.
You will be able to distinguish a true
Christian then.
They will be the ones being persecuted for
their faith and testimony in Christ Jesus.
Martin Luther cried out against a corrupt church
in his day, and he was persecuted for
it.
The apostate church will persecute true believers as
the Antichrist appears.
Well, that's my introduction for my message tonight
on the Capuchino church.
My text is found in the book of
Ezekiel in chapter 11 and verse 12.
Allow me to read it to you, for
it accurately describes the church in the West
today.
Listen to how God describes his rebellious people.
And ye shall know that I am the
Lord, for ye have not walked in my
statutes, neither executed my judgments, but have done
after the manners of the heathen that are
round about you.
Notice several outstanding remarks from this passage from
the word of God.
Number one, God says something to his people
which is quite extraordinary.
He declares, and ye shall know that I
am the Lord.
Many that claim to know him did not
know him.
They had a perverted view of God, and
their God was not the God of the
Bible.
Today in the land, after your many church
members have a perverted view of God, they
have fashioned a God of their own making,
and they worship that idol rather than know
the true and living God of the Bible.
God is telling his rebellious people that through
coming judgments, they will know the true God
and know that I am the Lord.
This will be true when judgment falls upon
America from the hand of God.
Times will become so desperate, people so despondent,
they will turn to the government for help,
and the government will be bankrupt and entirely
helpless themselves.
The situation will be so drastic and so
bad that people will realize that God is
the author of their calamity, and God will
be able to say, and ye shall know
that I am the Lord.
Number two, notice the next indictment God has
against his straying people.
He says, For ye have not walked in
my statutes.
Today's apostate church has members who live in
sin and have no remorse for it.
They feel that because they are once saved,
always saved, they can sin all they want
to without any repercussions, since they have won
their ticket to heaven through a false, easy
believism.
God reprimands his people for their disobedience to
his commands.
Today's church that damns preaches an easy-to
-believe gospel that allows you to take Christ
as Savior and remain in your sins, whereas
the Bible declares that Jesus came to save
his people from their sins.
Jesus never preached a sin in religion, but
a self-crucified one.
He said, If any man will come after
me, let him deny himself, and take up
his cross, and follow me.
For whosoever will save his life shall lose
it, and whosoever will lose his life for
my sake shall find it.
But the church that damns declares that you
can have Jesus in the world, too.
You can have Jesus and hold on to
your rotten sins, and it's okay with him.
But God says no.
God says, Be ye holy, for I am
holy.
And in Hebrews it declares, Without holiness no
one will see the Lord.
Number three.
Now notice the next urgent matter that God
brings before his rebellious people.
He says to them, Neither executed my judgments.
The people of God were careless stewards of
the things of God.
Rather than declare to the heathen the purposes
of God, they kept all their knowledge to
themselves selfishly.
Today's church that damns has no real gospel
witness to the world.
There is no message of God's true gospel,
which speaks of ruin, redemption, repentance, and regeneration.
You've not heard of the blood, nor the
cross, nor sin, nor hell, nor a future
judgment for all mankind.
It's a selfish gospel which creates selfish followers
who think only of themselves and their own
amusements.
Their number one aim in life is to
gratify their flesh.
They know nothing of the cross in the
life of the believer, nor have they ever
surrendered to the Lordship of Christ with all
his claims and demands upon their lives.
The church that damns speaks nothing about the
strict and severe law of God which every
man will be judged against, and all will
fail that test.
I am a sinner, and I need a
sin substitute in the person of Jesus Christ.
The rebellious Jews did not execute God's judgments
and defend a holy God and fear him.
Rather, they put their own needs and desires
first in their lives to the neglect of
the things of God.
The Jews put themselves first, and God second
in their lives, and God said no.
Finally, notice the last thing in this verse
from Ezekiel.
Notice the last indictment from God to his
straying people.
He tells them, But have done after the
manners of the heathen that are round about
you.
In other words, they worshiped God like the
heathen.
They brought false fire into the house of
God.
They let the world in and pushed God
out.
I fear many churches in America today have
walked God to the back of the church
and pushed him out the back door, and
then they opened up their front door and
let the world in.
The Capuchino church looks just like the world.
There is no telling them apart.
I have a hard time finding anybody today
preaching up the blood and the cross and
calling sin black and hell hot and warning
sinners to flee from the wrath to come.
No, they just make you laugh and want
to entertain you.
They don't want to upset anybody by mentioning
sin or the need for repentance.
They are afraid to offend man, so they
offend God.
God help us.
When Jesus preached, he always upset his hearers.
They wanted to take him to the top
of a hill after he preached and throw
him off of it.
After one preaching session, the people picked up
stones to stone Jesus, but he escaped them
by walking through their midst.
And one other time after he preached a
hard message, the crowd left him, and many
said, Who can understand it?
And Jesus turned to his men and asked,
Will you leave me too?
When Christ preached, he divided the crowd into
sheep and goats, and many of the pygmies
that stand in our pulpits today want to
be accepted by their hearers because of their
pride, so they speak peace, peace, when there
is no peace.
The true gospel declares we are enemies of
God because of sin, and we need to
be reconciled to him through the blood of
Jesus Christ.
We need to repent of our rotten sins
and fall upon our faces and turn back
to God in true contrition and brokenness over
our sins.
We need to humble ourselves before an offended
creator and beg him for mercy.
Listen, friends.
Judgment is not coming to America because of
the White House.
Judgment is not coming to America because of
the courthouse.
Judgment is coming to America because of the
church house.
God has sent judgments upon America because the
professed church of God does not walk in
his statutes nor execute his judgments, but have
done after the manners of the heathen that
are round about them.
The only hope for America and Canada is
revival.
But there is good news.
God is calling out his remnant to stand
strong for him.
God called out a remnant in the days
of Ezekiel.
Listen to verses 19 and 20 from chapter
11.
Listen to his mercy.
And I will give them one heart and
I will put a new spirit within you
and I will take the stony heart out
of their flesh and will give them a
heart of flesh that they may walk in
my statutes and keep my ordinances and do
them and they shall be my people and
I will be their God.
I believe that God is calling his remnant
today in the land to go to their
knees and humble themselves before his face.
I believe that will be God's remnant who
emerged in the coming days of the appearing
of Antichrist.
The remnant will be the sufferers for Christ.
The remnant will be the ones in prison
for him.
The remnant will be the ones martyred for
him in his glory.
This is a call to the people of
God to go to our knees and ask
the Holy Spirit to show us anything in
our lives that is grievous to him.
Listen friends, I got rid of television in
my home.
I was hooked on too many news programs
and cooking programs and golf programs.
I got rid of the damning influence of
television in my home.
People might call me odd, but I don't
care.
I spend the time I used to spend
watching TV now in my Bible and in
prayer.
Christ is calling his own to separate themselves
from the world.
Are we willing to do it?
The Campuchino Church is a feel-good church
with a feel-good message and it allows
you to profess Christ and remain in your
sins.
Jesus said, if you die in your sins,
you will go to hell.
The Campuchino Church is damning its members to
hell rather than warning them not to go
there.
In the coming days of these end times,
the apostate church will grow in influence and
popularity and it will spread over the land
like the great plague that it is.
For it is an indictment against the people
of God who have not walked in his
statutes nor executed his judgments but have done
after the manners of the heathen that were
round about them.
God have mercy on us.
You've been listening to the From the Pulpit
in Classic Sermon series.
This week you heard E.A. Johnston with
his message, The Campuchino Church.
Tune in next week to hear Leonard Ravenhill
with a Q&A session revival forum on
the From the Pulpit and Classic Sermons.