Subdued by Divine Grace — E.A. Johnston

False Professions and the Man-Centered Gospel

We live in a day, friends, where the Scripture is fulfilled. The people honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. Churches are full of individuals who claim to know Christ as their Savior, yet many are still in their sins in an unconverted state.

The day the Church decided it was up to man to make himself a Christian was a sad day for the Church indeed. Many make themselves Christians today and join the Church, even though they've never been awakened to their lost condition, nor felt conviction of sin, nor experienced the work of grace in their heart through the supernatural act of God and regeneration.

But when I study the history of this country and look how God moved in former times in mighty spiritual awakenings and revivals, I see that what many call Christianity today is nothing more than a false profession of faith.

The modern gospel has damned its millions by telling folks they can make themselves a Christian anytime they want to, when they are good and ready. The modern gospel has taken salvation out of the hands of God and placed it in the hands of men, and that's a crying shame because it misleads many into believing they stand on a firm foundation.

When in reality, they're standing on sinking sand and soon will be sunk. I learned a lot about how the Church in America got in the shape it's in by studying the second great awakening and the theological downgrade that occurred in this country during that time of which we've never recovered from.

When I wrote my definitive biography on Azahel Nettleton, I was shocked at how quickly the churches in this country adopted the new measures of Charles Finney and moved away from Orthodox Christianity.

Asahel Nettleton on Divine Grace

I would like to read you a statement by Azahel Nettleton now, friends, regarding how he viewed salvation in his day and time, which was the early 19th century. This statement is taken from a letter he wrote to his good friend Lyman Beecher.

Nettleton said, No sinner ever suspended his selfishness until subdued by divine grace. The carnal mind, the enmity against God, the heart of stone remains until slain, subdued, or taken away by the act of the Spirit.

That's what Nettleton said, and I wholeheartedly agree with him. It is God who saves, not man. And that's the theme of my message today, friends. The title of my message is Subdued by Divine Grace, and my text can be found in Philippians 2 .13.

Let me read that to us now. Of Ford is God, which worketh in you, both to will and to do of his good pleasure. There used to be a time when pastors weren't as concerned about growing their church as they were about making a false convert.

Now we just want to get as many folks as we can to walk an aisle and repeat a prayer and pat them on the back and tell them they're now a Christian, and they join the church and behave the same way they did before they got saved.

There's no transformation, no evidence of regeneration. But in wiser days, you couldn't join a church unless you provided clear evidence of regeneration. This whole aspect of being subdued by divine grace is seldom spoken of today in our pulpits.

I want us to look, friends, at three aspects which Asahel Nettleton mentioned in describing a sinner. Number one, the carnal mind. Number two, the enmity against God. And number three, the heart of stone.

Let me address these one by one as we proceed. In 2 Corinthians chapter 4 and verses 3 and 4, the Apostle Paul describes a condition of a lost person. But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost, in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, unless the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

The Carnal Mind and Spiritual Blindness

I was having breakfast out the other day at a local restaurant, and seated next to me at the counter was a man who was very vocal about his opinions. He began talking to me, and it was obvious he had some very strong opinions on things, and he believed strongly in his opinions.

In a matter of minutes, I learned from him that he disliked the president, he disliked the government, he disliked Muslims, and he disliked Christians. In fact, he lumped Muslims and Christians and the government all in the same trash heap.

Here was a man who described in our verse from 2 Corinthians, whose mind is blinded by the God of this world, which is Satan. The gospel in Christ is completely hid to this man. He has no taste for them, but rather distaste toward them.

He is the sinner that Asahel Nettleton so aptly described when he said, no sinner ever suspended his selfishness until subdued by divine grace. The carnal mind, the enmity against God, the heart of stone, remains until slain, subdued, or taken away by the act of the spirit.

There was absolutely nothing I could say to this man at that breakfast counter which would change his opinions on things. His mind was made up, but his reason was blinded by the God of this world. The carnal mind, Paul says in Romans, is one that minds the things of the flesh.

In Romans chapter 8, verses 5 through 8, we read, for they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh, but they that are after the spirit, the things of the spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace, because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. This speaks of the state of death that a lost person is in, friends, dead to spiritual truths, dead to things of eternal worth, focused only on this world and the gratification of self, blinded by the God of this world to the truths of God and the gospel of the Son of God.

Enmity Against God and Human Rebellion

And I'd like to address a second aspect which Nettleton mentioned, and that is the enmity against God. We just read that in our passage from Romans, because the carnal mind is enmity against God. Listen, friends, a man is nothing more than a guilty rebel against a sovereign.

A lost sinner has broken the law of God and committed treason against a king. He's at enmity against God. He hates God and all things holy. If you don't believe me, just look at how this country hates the God of the Bible today.

Look how the people of this land hate all things holy. Rather, they drink iniquity like water and sin all they want to as they climb over each other's backs on their mad rush to hell. The man seated next to me at the breakfast counter hated Christians as much as he hated Muslims.

He had nothing but hate and enmity inside of him, enmity against God. That's what a lost sinner is. Now look at this third statement of Azael Nettleton, the heart of stone. A stone has no life. In Ephesians chapter 2, we see how the lost sinner is described as having no life.

The Heart of Stone and the Need for New Life

Listen to Ephesians 2 and verses 1 through 3 as it describes the condition of the lost sinner. And you, hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins, wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

That, friends, is a sad black picture of sin and a dangerous state that a sinner is in under the spell of the prince of the power of the air, Satan, in his dominion completely, living for self and its pleasures, interested only in self-gratification of the lust of the flesh and walking to the course of this world.

That's a good description of lost society today, friends. Don't you agree? But I want to address this last aspect of the heart of stone. In the book of Ezekiel, we read about this aspect of taking away the heart of stone.

Ezekiel 11, 19 declares,. And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you, and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh. Now, I wish to review that statement of Ezehiel Nettleton one more time as it applies to the operations of the spirit in the salvation of a soul, whereby he stated,.

No sinner ever suspended his selfishness until subdued by divine grace. The carnal mind, the enmity against God, the heart of stone remains until slain, subdued, or taken away by the act of the spirit.

Regeneration as the Work of God’s Spirit

This aspect of the sinner's carnal mind being slain, done away with, the enmity against God must be subdued. A rebel against God must throw down his shotgun of rebellion and surrender to a sovereign as he is subdued by a power stronger than he.

The heart of stone must be taken away by God. This, of course, friend, speaks of the supernatural act of regeneration performed by the spirit of God through the new birth. If you are saved, friend, it's because your sins have been washed in the blood and you were born from above.

That brings us back to a verse from Philippians,. For it is God which worketh in you, both to will and to do of his good pleasure. That is, God's spirit actively at work in a person through divine grace, slaying the carnal mind, subduing the rebel, and taking away the heart of stone.

In essence, a lost person remains that way until subdued by divine grace. If you have saving faith, friend, it's because God gave it to you. We must pray that the pulpits of our land will return to the orthodoxy of our fathers and preach the gospel of the Son of God in the full counsel of God and preach up the great doctrines of ruin, redemption, repentance, and regeneration.

Oh, how desperately we need a revival of sound preaching in our pulpits today where men aren't afraid to call sin black and hell hot and warn sinners of their danger and their duty of repentance and the utter necessity of an act of grace upon the heart through the supernatural act of regeneration by the Spirit of God.

Let us pray.