Christ for Savior and the Devil for King — E.A. Johnston

The Modern Gospel and False Conversion

I want to address an issue tonight, which I believe is one of the most important issues facing the church in America today, and to which I refer as the modern gospel, with its false converts who populate our many churches in the land, the gospel of an easy-believism, which makes it easy to accept Jesus as a Savior from the penalty of sin, but allows you to remain in your sins and still call yourself a Christian, a modern gospel that is so watered down and diluted of all its saving power that it can only damage hearers and produce false conversions, a gospel that will allow a person to have Christ for a Savior and the devil for a king.

Christ’s Lordship and the Old Gospel

And that's the title of my message this evening, friends, Christ for Savior and the devil for king. When the church in America did away with the doctrine of the Lordship of Jesus Christ, it buried the old gospel and removed all the teeth from it.

The old gospel preached to Jesus, who had rights and claims on a person's life, who claimed Him, a gospel where self was dethroned and Christ enthroned, where Christ as Lord rules in all authority. He sits in authority right now.

Right now, Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father on a heavenly throne, and He earned that right by way of a bloody cross. And that cross had Christ's blood all over it because of sin, because of my sins, your sins.

But your average church member today has swallowed a diluted gospel, a message where they claim to be a follower of Christ, yet their raging lusts enslave them. They cannot break with sin and they refuse to make a clean break with sin.

They want the free offer of heaven through Jesus. But they also want to hug their sins and serve their father, the devil, on their way there. But Jesus never preached a sin in religion, friends. Rather, Jesus said, He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me, and he that loveth me shall be loved of my father.

And Jesus said also, He that loveth me not keepeth not my sins. This is serious business, friends, and I fear there are many in our churches today who have taken a Jesus they know nothing about, and they are still children of the devil because they do his bidding in a life of habitual sinning.

Regeneration, Holiness, and the Changed Life

When a person comes to Christ, that person experiences change. A disposition of holiness is planted within. He lives for the glory of God, and to be pleasing to God, he lives a life of self-denial, whereby he takes up his cross and follows a crucified Savior who is now Lord over his life.

Like I said, a saved individual has experienced change. When Jesus passed through the towns and villages in his earthly ministry, those individuals who encountered him experienced change. There was a time in this once great country of ours where preachers didn't preach to grow a church so they could count nickels and noses.

Rather, there was a time where preachers preached for change. They preached for change within the human heart through conviction of sin and regeneration. In much of today's preaching, the sinner's conscience is never convicted of sin and awakened to his lost condition.

This is because we hinder the work of the Holy Spirit because we preach a perverted gospel that's void of all its terrors and wooings and power. The Holy Spirit cannot bless perversion in the preaching of the Word of God.

When the modern gospel is preached and an invitation given to come accept Jesus, there follows false conversions one after another. And these lost individuals fill our churches, sit on our committees, and make all of our decisions and pretty much run the show.

The Church, Worldliness, and the New Birth

The church, for the most part in America today, is not much different than a company or a business. It's run along the same lines. It's run by money and manpower rather than God and holy ghost power. Businessmen run the church today, men who are full of the world, full of greed, and thirsty for power.

That's your deacon body today, friends, in many of our churches in the land. And if a preacher comes along with the old gospel of the Son of God, which proclaims that man is ruined by sin and that you must repent or go to hell, and when you come to Christ savingly, there is a change made upon the heart through the supernatural act of regeneration.

And this is the new birth, and it will so change a person that they now no longer desire to serve self and pursue sin, but they now have a new disposition planted within which gives them the desire to flee sin and live a life of holiness.

For holiness without no one will see the Lord is what the Bible declares, even in this degenerate age of a sin and church. And when a person joins a church today, they claim Christ as their savior, but they claim the devil as their king because that is still who they serve.

A Change of Kingdoms and Kings

When a person comes savely to Christ, there is a change of kingdoms, a leaving of the kingdom of darkness for the kingdom of light and life. And because there is a changing of kingdoms, there is a changing of kings, friends.

Before a lost person served Satan, and Satan was his king and ruler. All Satan had to do was to crook his finger, and you would follow him into the most foulest of sins. But now you serve God, and you desire holiness because Christ is your king.

Christ Jesus is a sovereign Lord, and he must have supremacy in your life. You must not make him second to sin or worldly desires. God as a sovereign king must rule, and he must have rule over you, friend.

If you claim to be a Christian and still sit on the throne of your life and rule there, you are greatly deceived, greatly deceived and lost. You may have taken Christ as your savior, but the devil is still your king.

The False Gospel and Its False Converts

I want to share with you what the modern gospel has accomplished in your day and mine. When we preach a gospel that just declares, God loves you, God loves you, come to Jesus, just accept Jesus into your heart, friend, and you will go to heaven.

When we present that kind of perverted gospel, we make false converts who mistakenly believe themselves to be saved, when in reality they are lost and on their way to hell. You can't take Christ as savior and still have the devil as your king.

But people do it all the time today because the modern gospel will allow you to do that and believe yourself to be saved. Let me share the following story with you, which illustrates what I'm talking about.

The Church Member Who Would Not Forsake Sin

I knew a man years ago in a Baptist church who regularly and faithfully attended that church each week. He had made a public decision for Christ and had walked an aisle in response to a gospel invitation and he had repeated a prayer and he had joined the church.

You would always see him in Sunday school class. He always had a smile on his face and he always sat in a prominent place in the sanctuary. He truly believed himself to be a real Christian, but the problem was this man frequented strip clubs on a weekly basis.

He would be at a strip club on Saturday night and at church on Sunday morning. He was a married man with children, but he was addicted to visiting strip clubs. The church where he was a member even knew about this and ministers on staff would counsel him to overcome his bad habit of visiting strip clubs.

The church would assure him that he was indeed a Christian, but he was just not living for the Lord as he should. And he needed to get more serious with God and recommit himself, give up this bad habit so he could live for the Lord more.

Years would go by and time and time again his wife would have a minister seek counsel for him from ministers of that church who would pray for him to give up that bad habit because it was unbecoming of a Christian to frequent such places.

They would reassure him that he was indeed saved, a saved individual, but he needed to start living for the Lord in a walk of victory instead of defeat. Yet he refused to give up his favorite sin of going to strip clubs on a regular basis and paying for dancers to dance for him.

Now that, friends, is a vivid example of a product of the modern gospel. But you can't have Jesus for Savior, friend, without having him as Lord. Now there are many in our seminaries and churches today who will fight me on that one.

They preach an only-believed gospel that has no rights or claims on a person's life. They don't preach the doctrine of repentance. But without repentance, friend, you will surely go to hell. Jesus must be Lord of your life if you want him for your Savior.

Jesus’ Warning in Matthew 7

Our passage this evening is found in the Gospel of Matthew in chapter 7. You may turn in your Bibles there now. I want to read us this striking passage of Scripture, for these are the words of Jesus Christ as he describes who is going to heaven and who is not.

He talks about the many and the few, the broad way and the narrow way, and the straight gate. It grieves my heart that the majority of the churches in this country quit preaching the gospel years ago.

The gospel that's preached today couldn't save a flea, much less a hell-bound sinner. But I'm going to give you the oil straight from the can this evening, so listen to the real gospel as it is found in the words of Jesus Christ.

Listen to how Jesus describes a true follower of his and how that person will do the will of the Father through obedience to him. How he describes a hypocrite who gives lip service to God by calling him Lord, but who really has the devil for king.

Listen carefully now, friends, to the words of Jesus Christ as I read them to you now. Enter ye in at the straight gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction and many there be which go in there at.

Because straight is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life and few there be that find it. Beware of false prophets which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.

You shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles? Even so, every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire.

Wherefore, by their fruits you shall know them. Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name, and in thy name have cast out devils, and in thy name have done many wonderful works?

And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you, depart from me, ye that work iniquity. Listen, friend, you cannot have Jesus for Savior and keep the devil for king. You will either bow to one or the other, friend.

Jesus must be your Lord and rule over you, or you will bow to the devil and do his bidding through sinning. Jesus declared, ye shall die in your sins, and those sins, friends, will follow you into eternity right up to the judgment where they will stand one by one as your accusers before a holy God who hates sin.

The Gospel According to Godliness

The real gospel is a doctrine according to godliness. Unholy persons do not adorn the gospel, but they are blemishes to the church wherein they belong. The modern gospel will tell you, you can take Jesus as your Savior and still hug your sins, still love the world, still serve your flesh.

It is as if Christ came into this world to secure you a liberty to sin without any danger from sinning. You can be saved and sin all you want to, but those who continue ungodly will surely perish into a burning hell.

Such men are not fit for the company of angels nor a holy God in heaven. A rebel will live in rebellion to authority, and a person who breaks the law of God through sin is a lawbreaker and a rebel who refuses to bow his neck to the lordship of Jesus Christ and walk in God's holy commands.

Listen, friends, the sin-pardoning God is a sin-hating God. Sin costs Jesus his precious blood. He hung on a bloody cross because of sin. We must part with sin if we want to part in him. We cannot be like that deceived church member who thinks himself a Christian and regularly attends church and who regularly remains in sin with no intention of ever forsaking it.

He goes to counseling at church because his wife makes him go, but it does not any good because the good church counselors view him as a Christian. They treat him as a Christian. They're treating the ailment with a band-aid, and they're praying for him in the wrong way.

True Repentance and Saving Faith

That poor man doesn't need to give up his bad habit and live more for the Lord. Rather, he needs to come to the place of being awakened to his lost condition, convicted of his sins by the Holy Spirit.

He needs to exercise true repentance unto God and saving faith in Christ Jesus. You see, friend, when a person is saved, something happens. A self is dethroned, and another is enthroned there, the Lord Jesus Christ, the all-sufficient God who asks you to lay your all at his feet, give your all to his disposal, and own him as King and Lord of your life, where he has the rule over you by his Spirit.

You must be willing to sell all you have, friend, for the pearl of great price. But the problem with many of our churches today is they do not preach a Jesus that is the pearl of great price. Rather, they offer him to you like he's just a free stick of chewing gum.

We say a salvation is free, friend. Just accept this Jesus. Here, take this Jesus, and you will go to heaven. And people do accept their Jesus, and they walk the aisle with a silly grin on their face, chewing their gum at the same time, and come to Christ as casually as they would take a walk through a grocery store to pick up some more candy.

Matthew Henry on Obedience and Discipleship

They take Christ for Savior, but the devil is still their king, because that's still who they serve with their lives, thoughts, actions, and words. I will end this message with the words of the Puritan Bible commentator Matthew Henry, who wrote wisely on Matthew chapter 7 in regard to Christ as Lord in the life of a believer.

Let me read you his words now, friends, for they go against the modern gospel of our day. Henry said to do Christ's sayings is to abstain from the sins he forbids and to perform the duties he requires.

Our thoughts and affections, our words and actions, the temper of our minds, and the tenor of our lives must be conformable to the gospel of Christ. The old gospel, friends, preached a crucified Christ who had crucified followers.

It preached a Christ who had demands and claims on the rights and lives of his followers. The old gospel preached up holiness and preached that a sin of religion will surely send you to a terrible place of misery called hell.

The old gospel preached man's duty of repentance and the necessity of regeneration upon the heart. And the old gospel preached up the lordship of Jesus Christ and his demands of discipleship in following him along the narrow way.

Let me read you his words now, friends, for they go against the modern gospel of our day.