Repentance Pulling Out Sin Roots and All — E.A. Johnston

John Song’s Call to Pull Sin from the Heart

The great Chinese evangelist, John Song, shook China for God with his mighty preaching, and revival fires were lit in every town and village that Song visited. His main theme was the doctrine of repentance, and when he preached on repentance, his hearers were gripped with conviction of sin, and openly wept with broken hearts.

John Song had a sermon on repentance entitled, Open Your Coffin, and in that sermon, Song would use a prop, a miniature wooden coffin, which he brought up with him on the preaching platform, and he would open that little wooden coffin and pull out pieces of paper, and then read his audience what was written on each piece of paper.

He would tell them to open the coffin of their heart, and to pull out all sin that was found there, and then John Song would read the sins written on the pieces of paper. He would read out lying, adultery, fornication, stealing, covetousness, and so on, and as he would call out these sins, many in the crowd would come under great conviction of that particular sin which he had just mentioned.

John Song told his hearers that true gospel repentance was pulling out all sin, roots and all, from our hearts, and if you did not do that, if you were not willing to part with your sins, then you were not truly serious with the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave his all for you.

John Song placed a great emphasis on repentance, and that true repentance was parting with all known sin, the need to pull out sin, roots and all, from our hearts, and that's the title of my message today, friends, Repentance, Pulling Out Sin, Roots and All, and my text can be found in Matthew's Gospel in Chapter 3.

Sin Must Be Uprooted Completely

You can turn in your Bibles there now, friends. We will be in verses 1 through 10. I'm not a gardener, but I enjoy lovely gardens. I was sitting at the home of my friend Ian Murray in Edinburgh, and we were talking about gardening, and if you've ever been to his house, you know what a lovely garden he has for he loves to work in his garden, but I don't.

I hate pulling weeds, and if you've ever weeded a garden, then you know full well you must pull the weeds up, root and all. If you just break the weed off at the top, it will grow back. The root must be pulled out entirely, or it will spread and smother the beauty of the surrounding flowers, and this is very similar to the Christian life, friends.

We must deal with sin in our lives as we would deal with a weed in our garden. It must be rooted out entirely, or our walk with Christ will be marred. We will lose our spiritual vitality and usefulness for God.

Amos 3 .3 declares, how can two walk together except they be agreed? And that's true, friends. How can we walk with God if we are unwilling to part with our pet sins? We cannot. He will not. God is holy, and he hates sin.

Sin cost him his beloved son, and sin cost the beloved son his precious blood. How can we call ourselves believers and at the same time hug our sins if we do? We trample the blood of Christ in our lives, so this is a serious and solemn matter if we consider ourselves Christians.

We must be willing to do what John Song exhorted his hearers to do in regard to true repentance. We must open the coffin of our lives, so to speak, and pull out all sin and part with it. We must pull it out, roots and all.

Matthew Henry, the Bible commentator, made the following remark in regard to our text in Matthew on repentance. He said, Repentance is seated in the heart, but in vain do we pretend to have it there if we do not bring forth the fruits of it in a reformation, forsaking all sin, cleaving to that which is good.

These are fruits worthy of repentance. Those are not worthy of the name of penitents who say they are sorry for their sins and yet persist in them. I agree with that, friends. Do you? Today we will examine what our Bibles say about true repentance and hopefully and prayerfully deal with any sin in our lives as we proceed today.

Choosing God Without Compromise

Listen, friends. The day in which we live is too far gone to play silly games with God. We must agree with the prophet Elijah and not halt between two opinions, but choose who we will serve. First King 1821 declares,.

And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? If the Lord be God, follow him, but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word. Let me ask you today, If the Lord be God, friend, then follow him, and follow him by picking up your cross and forsaking all.

That means a complete forsaking of sin, pulling out all sin from your heart, roots and all. I'm afraid we live in a day of a compromised church and a diluted gospel, a day of gross immorality in society, and a sad spiritual declension in the church.

If a believer attempts to live a holy life in today's modern church, he's labeled a fanatic and oddball. Holiness is not a topic mentioned from the pulpit much anymore. And another topic not mentioned from the pulpit in our day is the doctrine of repentance and what it truly means.

Because if a pastor preached a series of messages Sunday after Sunday on the doctrine of repentance, he'd have to cry out against sin in his congregation. He'd have to cry out against the sin of adultery, the sin of fornication, the sin of lying, the sin of stealing, the sin of covetousness, and soon his congregation would look much like a garden which has been weeded, for his congregation will soon thin out under such searching preaching.

Listen, brother pastor, you start preaching against sin in your congregation, and the need of true gospel repentance, you might run off your chairman of the deacons, and then where would you be? I vividly remember a story that Dr. Stephen Offord shared with me one day.

Decreasing a Church Before It Can Grow

He said that when he was a young pastor in England, he was crossing the Atlantic on a ship, and to his surprise, on deck, he ran into Morton Lloyd-Jones. They knew each other, and Stephen Offord asked him a question.

He asked him for some pastoral advice. Dr. Offord said the following to D. Morton Lloyd-Jones. He said that as a pastor, he was greatly concerned that his recent preaching was running off too much of his membership.

The church seemed to be declining, and this greatly concerned him. Shouldn't it be otherwise? The doctor looked at the younger man, and with piercing eyes, he answered, My good fellow, one must first decrease a church before he can grow it.

In other words, pull out the weeds, pull out the weeds. Let the goats wander away and graze in some other pasture. Focus on nourishing the sheep. Let us now turn, friends, to our passage in Matthew's gospel in chapter 3.

John the Baptist’s Message of Repentance

And in this passage, we see the message that John the Baptist preached as he heralded the coming Christ. And what was his message? John preached an only-believed gospel. He went about saying, Only believe, and you will go to heaven.

Isn't that what he said? That's what we think he said. Let me read us the passage, and let's see exactly what he said. In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his path straight. And the same John had his raiment of camel's hair, and a leather girdle about his loins, and his meat was locusts and wild honey.

Then he went out to him, Jerusalem, and all Judea, and all the region round about Jordan, and were baptized to him in Jordan, confessing their sins. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

Bring forth therefore fruits, meat for repentance, and think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father. For I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.

And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. I will stop there. This passage of Matthew speaks of John the Baptist's message of repentance and man's duty of repentance.

Taking the axe to the root of the tree, severing sin completely, John the Baptist came to town preaching repentance, friends. In fact, when Jesus preached, he preached the same doctrine of repentance.

In Matthew 4 .17 we read,. From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. But the doctrine of repentance is a much neglected doctrine today in our churches.

Repentance Means Total Surrender

Few really understand what true repentance really means. Listen, friends. True repentance means this. Jesus has me lock, stock, and barrel. There's nothing between me and him. I have turned from all my sins, and by his grace pulled them out, roots and all.

Now some folks want to become Christians and still maintain a point of rebellion in their lives. Listen to me very closely, friend. There's no rebels in God's holy heaven, but there are plenty of rebels in the devil's hell.

A point of rebellion does not necessarily have to be a pet sin. It can be your stubborn will regarding a certain thing. Allow me to explain it this way. When I was writing the biography of evangelist Rolf Barnard, I came across this incident in his life.

Rolf Barnard was living in rebellion to God. He was a Sunday school teacher in a Baptist church, but he was still an unconverted person because he had a point of rebellion in his heart. Let me read you his words as he describes this period in his life where he found salvation.

Here are Rolf Barnard's words. I knew for five long years that salvation for me meant I had to be a public preacher, and I believe it is meant for you to do whatever the will of God is for you. For me it was this.

I knew that surrender to King Jesus meant I would have to be a preacher, and that was the one thing I was not going to do. So I did what it seems most professing Christians have been able to do, but I couldn't get the job done though.

I tried to get God to save me without throwing down my rebellion, but that just won't work. You can't do it and call yourself a Christian. If you do, you're certain to go to hell. Until your rebellion is crushed and you surrender to do His will, there is no salvation.

Then one Sunday, I went to my boarding house from Sunday school, and I never did know why, but I went to my room and locked it. I could have gotten out, but I didn't want anybody to come in and bother me.

I threw my Bible down on the floor and I buried my face in it and said, Lord, whether you save me or damn me, I will preach from now on. God had crossed Rolf Barnard at his point of rebellion, and Rolf submitted and was saved by grace.

The rebellion had ended. He had stacked arms and laid down his shotgun of rebellion at the feet of King Jesus. And listen, friends, that's what God requires from us as well, a total and absolute surrender of all we are and all we have.

There's no halfway salvation and no such thing as a halfway Christian. You cannot serve God with one foot in the world and one foot with Him. He must have all of you, every inch of you. Listen, brother preacher, you must place an emphasis on repentance and be honest with your folks so they won't go to hell.

You must warn them that repentance means pulling out all sin, roots and all from our hearts. That's true gospel repentance. The trouble with most of us church folks today is that we compare ourselves to other people and draw our opinion of ourselves based on how we shape up against other believers.

Repentance as the Key to Revival

But others are not our benchmark. The Bible is. We should be comparing ourselves to what our Bibles say and then see how we line up with the word of God and not man. Listen, friends, to the words of John's song as it talks about how he had to learn how to preach up the doctrine of repentance.

Here now are John's son's words. I had focused solely on methodologies during my earliest ministry work, which was why I failed to bring anyone to true repentance. Now I know that the removal of all the sins in a church and in a person is the key to spiritual revival.

The more willing one is to bear the cross, the greater the spiritual power. And someone once asked John Song, Why are your sermons so powerful? He replied, The answer is found in my constant repentance.

So true repentance, friends, is pulling out all sins, roots and all and laying the axe to the root of the tree and severing it completely. And repentance is a daily act as well, friends, where we're continually turning away from sin and turning to God in a life pleasing to him for his great glory.

I hope this lesson on true repentance has helped us better understand how to deal with sin in our own lives and how to live more effectively for God and our generation. Let us pray.