“Not For the Righteous” — Episode 13
Chapter 37
Is There Not A Cause?
While Ronald rested up in the hotel, his parents planned the biggest evangelistic pastors’ conference the northeast had ever witnessed to cap off their mission trip. Pastors from all over the nation as well as Christians from every denomination attended this evangelistic conference. President Scholls and his family were honored guests. Other members of his staff accompanied him to this momentous event. Rev. Mitchell delivered a message not to be forgotten, and one that challenged the attendees.
* * * * *
“Is there not a cause?” were Rev. Mitchell’s opening words in his challenge to the pastors and other attendees. “The Bible says Jesus told His disciples, ‘I came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.’ And God wants our mission on this earth to be the same. God wants us to use the sacred desk, our pulpits, not to call out to the righteous — those who are already saved — but to call sinners to repentance.
“Oh, we have a great mandate before us. Take just one step out the front door of your church building and look around, then ask yourself, Is there not a cause?
“Yes. There is a cause. There are lost people around, and as long as there are lost people around, there is a cause for the preaching of the Gospel. Now take a look from your pulpit down into the pews and ask yourself, Are they all saved? I would venture to answer that with, No, they are probably not all saved. And, if perhaps, all those sitting in the pews of your church are all saved, then we have a problem. That ought to be a matter of concern to you as the pastor. That simply means you are not doing your job as a pastor. Jesus came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. There ought to be at least one lost person sitting in your pew every Sunday. You need someone to witness to. You say, how do you know that there are lost people sitting in our pews, Rev. Mitchell? Here’s how I know.”
Rev. Mitchell shared with his listeners what he learned from the short mission trip God sent him on over the past nine months.
“And I ask you, Is there not a cause?
“Is there not a cause for the preaching of the unadulterated Gospel when people sitting in our pews believe that joining a church will save them?
“Is there not a cause for the preaching of the unadulterated Gospel when people sitting in our pews believe that being baptized will save them?
“Is there not a cause for the preaching of the unadulterated Gospel when people sitting in our pews believe positive thinking will save them?
“Is there not a cause for the preaching of the unadulterated Gospel when people sitting in our pews believe doing good works will save them?
“Is there not a cause for the preaching of the unadulterated Gospel when people sitting in our pews believe having their name on the church roll or being born into a religious family will save them?
“Is there not a cause for the preaching of the unadulterated Gospel when people sitting in our pews believe that speaking in tongues is the evidence of salvation?
“Is there not a cause for the preaching of the unadulterated Gospel when people sitting in our pews believe seeing a vision or feeling a change is the evidence of salvation?
“You bet there is a cause.
“If there is a cause for the preaching of the unadulterated Gospel inside the church walls, then you had best believe there is a cause for the preaching of the Gospel to those outside the church walls. Here’s why, just look around you. Listen to the news. Internationally speaking, this terrorism situation is getting out of hand. People are living in fear for their lives. Children and other innocent civilians are living in fear for their lives. Nationally speaking, racism is getting out-of-hand. Our police officers, whose number one job is to first protect the citizens of their jurisdictions, are now having to put themselves first and the citizens second. Can you blame them? As a country we are taking one step forward and two steps backward.
“Some of you may be asking, well, who is to be blamed for all this confusion and turmoil that is taking place in our country and around the world? I blame pastors. We cannot blame the government, nor can we blame the police. We have turned the sacred desk into a social, political, and money-making platform.
“Turn to Jeremiah chapter twenty-three for our text. Verses 1–2 say: ‘Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! saith the Lord. Therefore thus saith the Lord God of Israel against the pastors that feed my people: ye have scattered my flock, and driven them away, and have not visited them: behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your doings, saith the Lord.’
“Verse 11 says, ‘For both prophet and priest are profane; yea, in my house have I found their wickedness, saith the Lord.’
“Verse 14 says, ‘I have seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem an horrible thing: they commit adultery, and walk in lies: they strengthen also the hands of evildoers, that none doth return from his wickedness: they are all of them unto me as Sodom, and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah.’
“This verse is so appropriate for us pastors. It speaks the truth as to what is taking place in our pulpits. Some of our pastors are practicing homosexuals, and if they are not, they are endorsing and are putting their stamp of approval on that wickedness. It’s not a lifestyle, it is demonic wickedness from the pits of hell! Pastors are hiring them as choir directors because they know how to hit those high notes and cause the choir to rock the church. Pastors are hiring them on their church and school staff. They are officiating their weddings because they do not want to have any run-ins with the government; they want their bank account to fill up. Pastors, who are you serving? God or man?
“Some of our pastors are living in adultery. Some are idolaters. Some are practicing liars. Some are money swindlers who are fleecing the flock and causing confusion among the people of God. And if the people of God are confused, then we are in no position to be of help to the unsaved.
“We have become pastors who would rather have a pat on the back from men; we have become pastors appeasing the people’s itching ears; we have no backbone; we have perverted the Word of the living God; we are afraid of what they may say; we are afraid to preach the Gospel that Jesus Saves. Jesus says, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh to the Father but by me.’
“Pastors, church leaders, fellow Christians, if you are wondering why we have the chaos, confusion, and turmoil in our community, if you are wondering why things seem so hopeless, it is because we have turned our backs on the Word of God. God has given us space to repent and we have refused to repent, and now, His patience is running out. We cannot keep blaming the government. It is our responsibility to do what needs to be done to have and to maintain a nation that fears God.
“Because of our negligence, because of our refusal to do things God’s way, because of our refusal to preach the saving Gospel of Jesus Christ, God says to us in Jeremiah 23:39–40, ‘Therefore, behold, I, even I, will utterly forget you, and I will forsake you, and the city that I gave you and your fathers, and cast you out of my presence: And I will bring an everlasting reproach upon you, and a perpetual shame, which shall not be forgotten.’”
Chapter 38
A hush had fallen over the entire crowd as they listened to Rev. Mitchell.
“And finally,” he said, “go with me to Ezekiel 33. Dear friends, you might be saying, ‘Rev. Mitchell, I am a pastor, or I am a Christian, but I still don’t see clearly where I come in. Please continue to enlighten me.’
“Pastors, we are the watchmen chosen by God to look out for oncoming danger. We know that those who die without Christ will go to hell for all eternity. Our main aim is to keep the Gospel before the lost thus giving them a chance to get saved. You do not want to stand before the judgment seat of Christ and see and hear someone pointing a finger at you from across the abyss saying, ‘You never told me. I sat in your church Sunday after Sunday, but you never told me how to get saved.’ Or, ‘I changed your tires for you and gave your car an annual tune-up for five years. We talked each time you stopped by, but you never told me about Jesus; you never told me how to get saved!’
“God says to us pastors and church leaders in verses 7–9, ‘So thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore thou shalt hear the word of my mouth, and warn them from me. When I say unto the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die; if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand.
Nevertheless, if thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it; if he do not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered his soul.
“The wicked, here, is the person who is not saved; it is the person who has never asked Jesus Christ to save him from his sins; it is the person who has never admitted to himself or to God that he is a sinner in need of a Saviour. Pastors, never assume all people you run into are saved. Never assume everyone sitting in your pews on Sundays or on Wednesdays or at any function you may have at your church is saved. Guess what? The unsaved attend church also. So always assume people who come across your path are not saved and that God has sent them your way for you to witness to them.
“I hate to say this, but I believe there may be one or two or more of you standing before me, or listening to me via the internet who are not saved. I do not want your blood on my hands when I stand before God, so I am going to tell you how to be saved. Don’t you press that ‘off’ button!
“First, accept the fact that you are a sinner. Ecclesiastes 7:20 says: ‘For there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not.’ Romans 3:23 says: ‘For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.’
“Second, accept the fact that there is a penalty for sin. The Bible states in Romans 6:23: ‘For the wages of sin is death…’
“Third, accept the fact that you are on the road to hell. Jesus Christ said in Matthew 10:28: ‘And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
“Fourth, accept the fact that you cannot do anything to save yourself. The Bible states in Ephesians 2:8 and 9: ‘For by grace are ye saved through faith: and that not of yourselves: it is a gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should boast.’
“Fifth, accept the fact that God loves you more than you love yourself, and that He wants to save you from hell. John 3:16 says, ‘For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.’
“Sixth, God wants you to repent of your sins, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and pray and ask Him to forgive you of your sins and to come into your heart and save you this very moment. Romans 10: 9 and 13 says: ‘That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.’ ‘For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’
“If you want to trust Jesus Christ as your Saviour, please pray the following prayer: Heavenly Father, I realize that I am a sinner and that I have sinned against You. For Jesus Christ’s sake, please forgive me of my sins. I now believe with all my heart that Jesus Christ died for my sins, was buried, and rose again so that I could have the victory over death and thus inherit eternal life. Please come live within my heart and save my soul from sin and from the punishment of sin. Fill me with Your Holy Spirit and change my life. Amen.”
Rev. Mitchell’s eyes filled with tears as he heard men and women from all over the crowd pray and ask Jesus into their hearts.
“Those of you who just asked Jesus Christ to save you, please raise your hands.”
Hundreds of hands went up. Rev. Mitchell’s eyes met President Scholls’ eyes, who along with the men surrounding him, had raised his hand also. They nodded their heads at each other as Rev. Mitchell continued.
“For those of you who are already saved, why don’t you make a commitment to the Lord to share the Gospel with at least one person every day starting out. How will you know that person is lost? You have to ask them. As my pastor friend, Pastor Ridley of Binghamton would say, ‘You can get one if you want one.’ Pastors and fellow Christians, let’s keep the main thing the main thing. And the main thing is sharing the Gospel with a lost and dying world. God bless.”
Chapter 39
Rev. Mitchell, his wife, his son, his future daughter-in-law, and some of the members of his church who had driven up to show support for the conference, along with Pastor Ridley and his wife and others from his church, rejoiced in the great meeting God blessed them to have.
“Oh, God is good. God is so good!” was all Rev. Mitchell could say as those pastors whose churches he had visited within the nine months came by to greet him and to thank him. Even Deacon Larsen from New Covenant Bible Church where Halsen Coperly was the pastor came and shook his hand. “Keep preaching the Blood and don’t let old fogies like me stand in your way,” Deacon Larsen said with a laugh.
“Rev. Mitchell, I have been preaching up a Gospel storm in my church since you stopped by,” Pastor Remington of the New Believer’s Community Church said, “and we have been on serious prayer ground since that Wednesday night when you honored us with your sermon A Praying Time. Even though a few have left the church since I switched my message, there has been a much sweeter spirit since then. On top of that, we have seen at least one soul saved every Sunday since I started sharing the Gospel. And guess what? Some of those who have gotten saved have been coming to the church for months; they thought they were saved. One of my most faithful members who got saved told me that the Gospel made more sense to her as far as how to get to Heaven than depending on other things to get her to Heaven.”
“Oh, Rev. Mitchell, I have been leading my people astray,” the Rev. Hezekiah Williams of the Casteel United Apostolic Church said as he shook Rev. Mitchell’s hand. “I studied the Word more on this speaking in tongues phenomenon after you left, and God showed me I was guilty of leading my flock astray. Speaking in tongues has never saved anyone and will never save anyone. My heart has been in turmoil since then from thinking about those who have died under my false preaching. Oh, Reverend, their blood is on my hands. But I will never allow that blood to be thicker than what it already is: I will share the Gospel of the death, burial, and resurrection of my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and salvation through none other than through Him until the day I die. Thank you so much, Rev. Mitchell. Thank you so much. And please remember our church in your prayers. Quite a number left the church after I shared with them the new direction I will be taking the church in. I will be visiting them and sharing the Gospel with them personally.”
“I will continue to pray for you and your church, Apostle Williams,” Rev. Mitchell assured him.
“My crowd is not shouting as much as they used to,” Pastor Kissimmee of the Rising Star Chapel shared with Rev. Mitchell, “but that is alright with me. I’d rather have them quietly listen to the true Gospel for salvation that will give them eternal life than have them shouting ‘Black Lives Matter’ which will not take them even a half a step closer to Heaven.”
“Emotionalism!” Rev. Shillings of the Mt. Nebo Missionary Baptist Church said to Rev. Mitchell as they shook hands. “I had the people in an emotional frenzy every Sunday. I called myself preaching them happy. However, some of them got mad when I apologized to them for leading them astray, but the majority of them said they respected me for caring enough about their eternal soul so much so to admit that I was wrong. When I thought about it, Jesus spoke clearly the Good News whenever He spoke to His disciples or to the people in the various villages because He wanted them to understand how to be saved. No where is it recorded that He worked them up into an emotional frenzy as a means of making it into Heaven. God even spoke to Elijah in a ‘still small voice.’ And do you know what? Our services are shorter and are more orderly and even sweeter, and we get just as much done as before if not more so. I know now what Paul meant when he said things ought to be done ‘decently and in order.’”
Prophetess Crighton and her husband were overjoyed as they shared the good news with Rev. Mitchell. “Thank you so much, Rev. Mitchell. Newton’s decided that he’s going to take over as pastor,” Prophetess Crighton said. “Please come by and hear him preach tomorrow if you can or some time before you return home.”
President Scholls, who had discreetly left the meeting with his security detail, gave Rev. Mitchell a call later that night. “I won’t keep you, I just wanted to say, Thank you and God bless you.”
Rev. Mitchell and his crew sat in the lobby of their hotel reflecting in the afterglow of the past nine months and in particular tonight’s exciting meeting thinking about what great work God had done in the lives of these pastors and churches and what great work he had in store for the churches impacted by this blessed roadtrip.
Rev. Mitchell looked around at everyone there and said, “It is my prayer that we all remember from this point on what Jesus said, ‘I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.’”
The End.
