E.A. Johnston warns that many pastors mislead their congregations by cheapening the gospel, emphasizing the necessity of true repentance, regeneration, and a narrow path to salvation through Jesus Christ alone.
In this prophetic sermon, E.A. Johnston confronts the dangerous trend of unconverted pastors leading believers astray with a diluted gospel. He emphasizes the biblical necessity of repentance, regeneration, and the narrow path to salvation through Jesus Christ alone. Johnston passionately warns of the reality of hell and the eternal consequences of false assurance, calling listeners to self-examination and true faith. This message challenges believers to seek genuine conversion and warns against complacency in the church.
Full Transcript
Jesus taught on the difficulty of conversion. He said, narrow is the way, and few there be that find it. He said, one must strive to enter into the kingdom of heaven.
Jesus said that it was a great deal of effort to it that heaven was taken by violence. He warned about man's duty of repentance and his utter necessity of regeneration by saying, except you repent, ye shall all likewise perish. And that means you, even if you are the chairman of the deacons.
He said, no man shall see the kingdom of God unless he was born again. That knocks out 80% of our church body today who are still yet unconverted church members because they sit under a pastor who pointed them away from heaven by cheapening the gospel and broadening the way of salvation in ways Jesus never did. How horrible it'll be, friend, when it comes time for you to die and you go down to your grave and you end up in a Christless eternity.
The word of God warns that in the latter days many false prophets shall appear deceiving many. We live in a day of an unconverted ministry where many men, though they've graduated seminary, they're yet still unconverted. And perhaps one of these false prophets told you that you were saved when you were yet a stranger to a work of grace upon the heart.
They merely pointed you in the wrong direction, telling you that here is the way to heaven when they didn't even know the way to get there themselves. I've heard seminary-trained Baptist pastors say, all you have to do to be saved, friend, is to believe John 3.16. Listen to me, friend, you don't get saved believing a verse of scripture. You get saved by believing upon a person, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Perhaps a blind guide misled you and told you that if you did the following you'd be saved if you walked a mile or repeated a prayer or raised your hand or some other physical act. Listen to me, friend, you don't get saved by performing a physical act. Maybe you've been in the church for years and yet you are a lost religious person.
You are a stranger to repentance and regeneration. You've never come under conviction of sin. You've never been born from above and washed in the blood.
It's my duty to preach the full counsel of God and warn folks of the danger of damnation in a devil's hell. How can you be saved, friend, if you've never been lost? Jesus said, The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which is lost. If a preacher is unschooled in the doctrines of the gospel or afraid to mention hell for fear of offending someone, how will you be pointed to the right path of repentance and faith? Men must see the rotten foundation they stand upon through a false faith.
They must see the badness of their hearts and the strictness of the law before they can feel their need of a remedy for sin in the person of Christ Jesus. Preachers must awaken sinners and make them sensible of their danger of dying in their sins. But if sinners don't ever hear a man warn them of judgment and damnation, how will they ever be sensible to their peril and danger? Men need to be told of the terrors of the Lord so they will flee from the wrath to come.
But modern preachers today fear men more than God and refuse to preach disturbing sermons because they want to be liked and they want to be accepted by the people they preach to. It's self-love of the preacher that keeps them from warning folks of the terrible agonies in a burning hell. Yet Jesus pulled no punches here.
He faithfully warned. It is better that one of the members should perish and not that the whole body should be cast into hell. Broad is the gate and wide is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be that go in thereat.
The angels shall cast them into a furnace of fire. There shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Wailing speaks of loss and great grief.
Gnashing of teeth signifies great anger and regret. I'll always remember going to my Italian grandfather's funeral where they held awake. All I heard from that funeral parlor was a room in anguish with people crying out loud, piercing screams that startled me, all from my Italian relatives.
I was eight years old, but the memory of those awful screams still stay with me these many years. How much more horrible were the cries of the damned in hell that never cease? Only Christ, friend, is the remedy for sin. You must get your sins washed in his blood.
Revelation 1 5 declares unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood. We tell people today that God loves them and all they have to do to get to heaven is just accept our Jesus. Just believe he died for you and you'll be saved.
It's an only-believed gospel that omits man's duty of repentance. But old-time preachers of former days warned men and women and boys and girls of a future judgment that awaited all mankind. When they sounded a gospel call, they backed it with your duty to submit to God, to throw down your weapons of rebellion in an utter surrender to a sovereign.
But we make ourselves Christians today. We've taken salvation out of the hands of God and placed it in the hands of men because of faulty evangelism. Multitudes are led astray and pointed straight to hell, straight from a pulpit.
But let me ask you a question, friend, and you be the judge. Are men saved as a result of a decision they make or as the result of the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit? Are you born again? Have you repented toward God and exercised faith in the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ? Don't stay on a rotten foundation that'll only burn up on Judgment Day. Your name must be written in the Book of Life.
Is Jesus your Savior? Or did someone just tell you that you were saved when you never were to begin with? Only the Holy Spirit can tell you if you are a son of God, friend. Get to Christ, friend. Jesus is the friend of sinners.
He is the pearl of great price. We're selling off for so we may be gained.
Sermon Outline
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I
- The difficulty and narrowness of the way to heaven
- The necessity of repentance and regeneration
- Jesus' warnings about false assurance
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II
- The danger of unconverted pastors and false prophets
- The failure of modern preaching to warn of hell
- The consequences of cheapening the gospel
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III
- The reality and horror of hell
- The need for conviction of sin and true faith
- Christ as the only remedy for sin
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IV
- The call to self-examination and true salvation
- The role of the Holy Spirit in regeneration
- The urgency of securing one’s name in the Book of Life
Key Quotes
“No man shall see the kingdom of God unless he was born again.” — E.A. Johnston
“Many there be that go in thereat to destruction, the angels shall cast them into a furnace of fire.” — E.A. Johnston
“Only Christ, friend, is the remedy for sin. You must get your sins washed in his blood.” — E.A. Johnston
Application Points
- Examine your heart to ensure you have truly repented and been born again.
- Be wary of teachings that simplify or cheapen the gospel message.
- Embrace the full counsel of God, including warnings about judgment and hell, to live with eternal perspective.
