The Lost Gospel — E.A. Johnston

The Gospel's Answer to Antinomianism

The Apostle Paul in Romans 6 .2 states, God forbid, how shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer in sin? This, first friends, shuts down antinomianism. Antinomian is derived from the Greek words anti, meaning against, and nomos, meaning law.

Many Christians today abuse the term, once saved, always saved, as a license to sin, that no person can be held to any moral law. It is only required of them that they believe, then they can live as they please, and sin all they want to, and still go to heaven.

The man-centered gospel of our day promotes the happiness of man, and it's nothing more than humanism dressed up in religion. Evangelists today say that mere intellectual knowledge and assent to the Christian faith, by a decision, is enough to make one acceptable to God, even though that person lives an impure life.

Well, what the Word of God is saying here in Romans 6 .2 is, as believers, if we are dead to sin, how can we still live in sin? An unconverted individual is dead in sin. When you experience conversion through faith in Christ, you are dead to sin.

False Conversions and the God-Centered Gospel

A new principle is implanted in you. I believe the root of all our trouble is false conversions precipitated by a false gospel. We may blame Charles Finney for introducing new measures to evangelism that morphed into the easy-believism we have today.

But when you go back and really study Finney, you will find that he preached a God-centered gospel in the beginning of his ministry. He said that salvation was a surrender to God. All the men God used in revival throughout history preached a God-centered gospel that shut men up to God for salvation.

Sam Jones preached a gospel where man comes to Christ by a surrender to God, and then he lives for God. Sam Jones was known for his famous remark that being a Christian means quitting your meanness. I think a lot of mean Christians today need to re-examine their faith to see if it's real.

We need to recover the lost gospel, and that's the title of my message today, friends, the lost gospel. We need to go back and be like the prophet Jeremiah. Thus saith the Lord, stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls.

But the modern evangelist answers that with, we will not walk therein. The old gospel was a God-centered gospel that saved men for the glory of God. The new easy-believe gospel is not centered on God, but centered on the happiness of man.

Regeneration, Repentance, and the Lost Gospel

That's why salvation is no longer a surrender to God, but an acceptance of him. We save ourselves today and continue to live a self-ruled life, but the trouble with that is Jesus never preached a sin and religion, and neither did the apostles.

They preached like Peter, who maintained Jesus' doctrine of being born again. In 1 Peter 1, 23, we read, Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever.

In our day of modern evangelism, we have taken salvation out of the hands of God, and placed it in the hands of men. Let me ask you a burning question, friend, and how you answer will reveal a lot about your own condition.

Is God the agent of salvation, or is man? Are men saved as a result of a decision they make, or as the result of the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit? Come with me today, friends, as we discuss the lost gospel and the great need for its recovery in these last days, where the spirit of Antichrist is already in the land, where there is a great falling away into apostasy by Christians and religious denominations, and let us recover the old God-centered gospel that promotes the glory of God and holy living.

The Surrendered Life and Spirit-Filled Life

We are going to pick up the lost doctrines of the Christ life for the self-life, because salvation occurs when self is dethroned, and another is enthroned there, the Lord Jesus Christ. We are going to recover the surrendered life, where a sinner repents before a thrice holy God, and comes to Christ by throwing down their shotgun of rebellion at the feet of a bloodstained savior for sin.

We're going to recover the doctrine of the spirit-filled life, which enables a born-again believer to live a life of victory, in Christ Jesus. Too many today live lives of inconsistency. I term it elevator Christianity, where you walk with God is kind of like an elevator ride.

One day, you are on the top floor, enjoying the view of a penthouse suite, and oddly, the next day, or even in the same day, you end up in the basement of defeat, and the devil is laughing at you. Some of you, within the sound of my voice, have never truly been born again.

You're strangers to repentance. You've never been born from above and washed in the blood. You will die on your sins as a good church member, and stand at the last judgment in your own righteousness. You have sinned and broken God's law, and one day, you will be held accountable to God's severe, strict, and unbending law.

And if you stand there in your own merits, you will fail that test and be cast into the lake of fire, which burns with the fierceness, the fierce wrath of God, forever and eternity. Your only hope, friend, is to face that judge and his holy law, standing there in the merits of another, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Commitment Versus Total Surrender

To live for God, you must live a life of surrender. Adrian Rogers was my pastor, colleague, and friend, and he told me a story that has always stuck with me. Dr. Rogers told me how he had preached in Romania shortly after that nation had been liberated from a communist government.

A Romanian pastor became good friends with Adrian Rogers, and Dr. Rogers one day asked this Romanian pastor to give his definition of American Christianity. He answered by saying, the key word in American Christianity is commitment.

Adrian said, that's good, isn't it? The Romanian said, no, it is not. There is a big difference between commitment and surrender. When you make a commitment, you are still in control, but surrender is different.

If someone holds a gun and asks you to lift your hands in the air as a token of surrender, you don't tell that person what you are committed to. You simply surrender and do as you're told. The Romanian pastor went on to say, Americans love commitment because they are still in control, but the key word is surrender.

We are to be slaves of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, I like that story, friends, because it is so true. We have cheapened salvation today by diluting the gospel to make it more palatable to sinful man.

The Narrow Way and the Necessity of the Spirit-Filled Life

Jesus preached a narrow way and a straight gate, and you entered with difficulty and few there be that find it. But we evangelists today have committed a crime by broadening the way of salvation. And therefore, many in our churches today are just baptized pagans who mistake church membership for salvation.

But to recapture the surrendered life, we must recapture the spirit-filled life, for you cannot experience the surrendered life apart from the spirit-filled life. My homiletical mentor was Dr. Stephen F. Olford, and he taught me expository preaching.

I was in the first graduating class of his school of preachers. I am a fellow of the Stephen Olford Institute for Preaching. But more importantly, Stephen Olford taught me the Christian life, how to be spirit-filled.

He personally taught a young Billy Graham the same principle when they were holed up in a hotel in Wales in the 1950s. When self is dethroned and sin is exposed, then the spirit has room to fill to overflowing.

Crucified With Christ and Faith in the Son of God

Stephen Olford's life verse was Galatians 2 .20, and I have my own version of that verse, friends. And it typifies my Christianity in the old gospel that I preach. For I preach the gospel of the cross.

I hold up a bloodstained savior for sin, and I point men and women and boys and girls to Christ to repent and for salvation. Jesus saves. I want to finish this message, friends, by reciting Galatians 2 .20.

I always preach and quote out of the King James Version because I believe it's the best. But for me personally, I had to come up with my own doctrinally correct version of Galatians 2 .20, which I feel says it more succinctly, at least for me.

Here is the EA Version. Look, I've been crucified with Christ, but it is no longer I who live, but Christ himself lives in me. In the Christ life, I now live in the flesh. I live only by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.