Am I Saved — E.A. Johnston

The Gospel’s Purpose: Turning Sinners from Darkness to God

The good news in the proclamation of the gospel is to convert man to God. We see this in Acts 26 .18, to open their blind eyes, to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God.

Awakening a Spiritually Complacent Church

But in a day where the church lies in a spiritual stupor and the gospel is not preached, creates an atmosphere of death and decay as many members of congregations are in a perishing condition. The preacher's duty is to preach to men's consciences with the purpose to awaken them to alarm.

The apostle Paul so declared, knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. If a man is sound asleep and his house is on fire, he first must be roused and shown his danger. He must be awakened before he can become alarmed.

So too, with a sinner alienated from God, they are fast asleep and soft words will not awaken them. In a day of spiritual declension in the church, the majority rest upon an empty religious profession as they live a lie of a false assurance, as they walk on slippery ground, unaware of their peril of dying in their sins and being cast into the torments of hell.

The Peril of False Assurance and the Need for Hard Preaching

As the psalmist declares, surely thou dissent them in slippery places, thou cast them down to destruction, how they are brought into desolation as in a moment they are utterly consumed with terrors. Multitudes in our churches today will pray, they will serve, they will give, they love to talk about Jesus, yet they are strangers to a bloodstained Christ, like the scribes and Pharisees, they are very religious, but void of God.

They have never sat under the sound of the gospel with the threatenings of God ringing in their ears. Their pastor has merely spoken soft words to them about heaven, about the love of God, but soft words will not awaken men hardened in their sins.

Men need to be warned of their peril of hell and its torments by dying outside the blood of Christ. The preacher must face his hearers with a sword in one hand and a hammer in the other to hew men down by the sword of the Spirit, and like a hammer pound away on all false foundations with the express purpose to break up the stony heart so God can make it a heart of flesh.

The Preacher’s Duty to Warn of Judgment

A God called preacher will not fear man, but only God, and press upon his hearers their duty of repentance and warn them of the miseries of a burning hell. He will be like the prophet Ezekiel who fearlessly pulls men from the fire with a clear cry of danger.

Thus saith the Lord God, smite with thy hand, and stamp with thy foot, and say, Alas for all the abominations of the house of Israel, for they shall fall by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence.

But sadly, many pastors fail to warn their people and speak to them only smooth and encouraging words while their congregation sits on rotten plank boards of an empty religious profession ready to give way beneath their weight and send them down into a devil's hell.

Examining Whether One Is Truly Saved

One must ask himself before God an honest question, Am I saved? Have I ever been lost? Have I ever been awakened to my lost condition to feel my danger and see my need of a remedy for sin? Have I exercised heartfelt repentance toward God and faith in a bloodstained Christ to wash my sins away?

Or have I merely done what the minister told me to do and did a physical act by walking an aisle or repeating a prayer and merely making a decision for Jesus? Am I living a lie as an unconverted church member or do I know the reality of being united to a living Lord through saving faith?

The Holy Spirit’s Searchlight and the Grace of Faith

May the Holy Spirit shine His searching spotlight upon my heart to show me any falsehood in my profession and grant me the grace of saving faith in Christ Jesus. Amen.