The Gospel of Christ — E.A. Johnston

The Gospel Is a Call to Repentant Surrender

I fear we have confused what the gospel is in your day and mine, friends. The gospel is not an impotent little Jesus, standing at the door of your heart, knocking and completely helpless to come in until you were good and ready to let him in.

No, that is a pathetic, worn-out illustration that does a great injustice to the passage in Revelation which represents Christ shut out of his own church in the last days because the church has fallen into apostasy.

No friends, the gospel is a call, it's an invitation to come to Christ and accept his terms of salvation. It is not so much our acceptance of him which saves us, but his acceptance of us. He demands that all men, everywhere, should repent, and now if you try to come to Christ without exercise and repentance toward God and faith in Jesus Christ, he will have none of you.

And if you try to accept Christ on your terms, he will have none of you. If you try to accept Christ and still hang on to your sins, he will have none of you because without holiness no one will see the Lord, and that goes for big-name preachers who love their sins.

The Biblical Gospel Versus Watered-Down Extremes

We will look today at what the gospel is, and what is found in God's word about it. I'm afraid we live in a day of two extremes in regard to theology. On one side, the gospel is misunderstood and watered down, and the way to salvation has been broadened in ways that Jesus never intended it, and in the other extreme is a failure to call lost sinners to Christ because of a fear of making false converts.

I think we can find balance in the life of George Whitefield, who, although he was a Calvinist, called all men to come to a bleeding Christ, for Whitefield's gospel is the biblical gospel of a gospel call, given to the lame, the poor, the haught, and the blind, to come to the waters and drink, without money and without price, because the things offered are already bought and paid for, because Christ purchased them with his own blood.

Yes, sir, Whitefield would plead with poor sinners to fly to the one who could save them, Christ the Redeemer. I want us to look today, friends, at what the gospel is, because the modern gospel is but a perverted gospel that has no power to save a flea, much less a hardened sinner in love with his sins.

The title of my message today is The Gospel of Christ, and my text can be found in the book of Isaiah, in chapter 55. You can turn in your Bibles there now, friends. We will begin in verses 6 and 7, and let me read us these verses at this time, and listen up all you young preacher boys who need to know what the gospel is.

Repentance as the First Mark of the Gospel

Number one, the gospel is a call to repentance. Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near, let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

Everywhere you look in scripture, the gospel is a proclamation for men to repent. The first sermon of Jesus was full of the doctrine of repentance, as was the gospel of the disciples and the early church.

John the Baptist didn't water down his message to please his hearers like we do today, friends, but faithfully warned his hearers of their duty to repent. He told them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

Bring forth therefore fruits made for repentance. And Jesus preached, Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish, and that means perish into a burning hell, even if you are a famous preacher who believes repentance isn't necessary for salvation.

What is biblical repentance? It's not an outward reformation, but it is a turning from the world and the love of it. It's a forsaking of your most beloved sins and a breaking off from them, a call to the unconverted.

It's a call to repent, to throw down your shotgun of rebellion at the foot of a sovereign. It's a dethroning of self and an enthroning of King Jesus to rule and reign. It's an utter and complete surrender to the Lordship of Christ.

Listen friends, when you come to Christ, your life is no longer your own. Your body is not your own. Your money is not your own. Your time is not your own. Christ must be a complete master. You must take up your cross and live a life of self-denial.

For a crucified Christ must have crucified followers. It is a forsaking of the love of the world and selling all to gain the pearl of great price who is worth losing all for because he gave his all for us.

Anything less than this is not biblical Christianity. I don't care how much some preachers try to candy coat the gospel to make it more appealing to men. My gospel has a bloody cross right in the middle of it.

Coming to Christ Empty-Handed

You must get under the blood if you want Christ savingly. So the gospel is a call to repentance. For God will have no rebels in his kingdom. Secondly, the gospel is a call to come to Christ. Jesus invites poor sinners to come to him and believe on him.

Jesus declared, I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never hunger. And he that believeth on me shall never thirst. The gospel is a call. It's for a call to the hungry, the weary, and the thirsty.

How about you, friend? Are you hungry for God? Are you weary of your sins? Are you thirsty for Christ? Then come to him and have life. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me.

The duty required is to come to Christ. And he has a pure gospel promise to all who come. And him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. So friends, the gospel is a call to come to Christ, bringing neither our self-righteousness nor our track record of service.

We are to come empty handed because we are to come to Christ as Lord and surrender to his reign and rule over our life and to throw down our shotgun of rebellion at the feet of a sovereign and submit to his yoke of all his rights and claims that his gospel has on our life.

It's an invitation for those who feel their need, those who hunger and thirst. We see in Isaiah 55 and verse 1, ho, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters. And he that hath no money, come ye, buy and eat.

Yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. So the gospel is an invitation to come to Christ and partake of him, to seek refuge in him, to take his yoke upon us, to drink of the living waters.

The Gospel Invitation and the Exclusivity of Salvation

And the spirit and the bride say, come. And him that heareth say, come. And let him that is the thirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. So you see, friends, the gospel is an invitation to come to the Christ who saves us from our sins.

It's an invitation to all who feel their need. The gospel call excludes no one but those who exclude themselves. Listen to me, friends. We are to preach the full counsel of God, warning all men everywhere to repent.

We are to shut men up to God and show them the severity and strictness of God's holy law and that all men are sinners and every man whose life is held up against the strictness of God's law. And if he stands there in his own merits, he will fail that test and be sent to a devil's hell because the sentence and other law must be carried out and that there is a judgment that awaits all mankind where God will judge the quick and the dead and whosoever's name is not found written in the book of life will be cast into a burning inferno of a lake of perpetual fire.

The gospel is a call to flee the wrath to come, to turn from your sins and throw down your shotgun of rebellion at the foot of a sovereign and submit and to exercise repentance toward God and faith in Jesus Christ.

That's the gospel, friends. Let us pray.