The Scandal of the Cross — E.A. Johnston

The Church’s Loss of Authority and the Compromised Gospel

We live in a day of an impotent church in a sex-crazed nation. The church lost her voice of authority years ago through compromise to the world and conformity to a godless society. In our pulpits stand teachers and entertainers when we need preachers and prophets.

And modern evangelism has broadened the way of salvation in ways Jesus never did. He said it was a narrow way and a straight gate. When Jesus was here in his earthly ministry, he butted heads with the ruling religious crowd of scribes and Pharisees.

He said they had a devil. He told them they were going to the devil. He said, ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can you escape the damnation of hell? About a hundred years ago, in this country, you couldn't join a church unless you presented clear evidence of regeneration.

Now, most church members don't even know what regeneration means, let alone are familiar with it, because they joined the church by a physical act, like walking an aisle or repeating a prayer, and they mistook church membership for salvation.

Whereas in former times, you entered into a true conversion by the regenerating work of the Spirit of God. And the main reason for all of this stark reality is that about 80 years ago, we preachers got out our mop buckets and cleaned up all the blood and gore around Calvary.

We made it so appealing, so pristine, that you could sit and have your lunch there. We don't sing hymns today about the blood much anymore, and we present a bloodless gospel with a shrunken Jesus, who's so small and helpless.

All he can do is stand outside the door of your heart with his head in his hand like an insurance salesman. Won't you let him in? But old-time preachers knew better than we today. They preached hard against vices in society like alcohol and immorality, and they called sin black and held hot and warned folks that a future judgment awaited all mankind.

They preached the bloody cross, where hung a bloodstained savior for sin. The gospel of the cross that they preached wasn't politically correct, but it was a scandal. The title of my message today, friends, is The Scandal of the Cross.

Preaching the Full Gospel of Christ Crucified

And my message today is in two parts. The first part is a pretty broad one. Are you ready to hear some truth today, friends? Then sit up straight and get the wax out of your ears, because I'm going to preach to you today the full gospel of the Son of God.

I'm not going to dilute it like some others do to make it more palatable to sinful man. No, friends, I'm going to give you the unvarnished gospel, like we say in the South. I'm going to give you the oil straight from the can, because when I preach, I hold up the great doctrines of the gospel like ruin, redemption, repentance, and regeneration.

I hold up a bloody cross, and I preach Christ and Him crucified. I'm not afraid of getting the good deacons upset, and I don't fear man, but I sure fear the Almighty, and I believe that God's word is true, and I believe God is true to His word.

Let me pray. Oh, Lord, I can't preach this message by myself and hope to have it do some good. I need you, Jesus. I need your power. I need a fresh anointing of thy spirit. Lord, only your spirit can bring conviction to sin.

I pray, great God, that you attend this message today with the disturbing presence of your spirit. Wake up some false professors who are resting on a rotten foundation, and break up those foundations with your almighty sledgehammer of your word.

I pray you pound on some secure sinner here and show them their need of a savior for sin, and I pray these things in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. Well, friends, in part one of my message today, I want to list the categories of people who are on the Broadway.

The Broad Way and Its Reprobate Crowd

Jesus said, For wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat. Let's talk about that crowd, that crowd on the Broadway. There's a big crowd there jostling one another on the Broadway, climbing over each other's backs on a mad rush to hell.

First, there is the crowd of out-and-out atheists who shake their angry fists in the face of God and dare Him to do anything about it. In that crowd are the reprobates who have passed their day of opportunity for grace.

They've hardened themselves so against God in religion, they've pushed themselves beyond the very reach of God. Romans 128 speaks of these reprobates and even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient.

This word, reprobate, in the Greek, friends, is the word adakimos, which means unapproved, spurious, worthless, rejected. These are the Christ rejecters who have no more hope of salvation because John 318 describes their damned state.

But he that believeth not is condemned already. The Broadway is crawling with reprobates. The Broadway is crawling with a big crowd. And that next big crowd fighting on that religious, on that big road is the crowd of the religious lost in a day where there's such a sad spiritual declension in the church, friends.

Religious Lostness and Salvation by Grace

We thank God is the same God to all. But I hate to break it to you, friend, that the God of Muhammad is not the God of the Bible. The God of Buddha is not the God of the Bible. The God of the Mormons is not the God of the Bible.

The God of the Catholics, who places themselves on the same level of Mary and a so-called infallible human pope is not the God of the Bible. No, friends, which way you slice it, you don't get into God's holy heaven by being a good person through good works.

You only get there by being a forgiven person, washed in Christ's blood. And you can roll up your sleeves and spit in the face of God and say that every religious denomination out there that teaches that all you gotta do is just believe in a God is gonna go to heaven.

Well, you better believe, friend, that there's no regeneration and baptism. And you can lump that together with everybody else because there's nothing in the water but H2O. Oh, one gets regenerated only by the spirit of God.

And there's no such thing as purgatory. When you die, you either go to hell or you go to heaven. And there's no such thing about reincarnation. When you die, they're gonna stick your corpse in a casket in the ground, and your soul is either going to heaven or hell.

You're not gonna come back. It's some farm animal. If you died on the Broadway, you're gonna bust hell wide open. The next big crowd on the Broadway are all those deceived individuals who have a false sense of security.

False Security and Easy-Believism

And there's a lot of church folk on that road, friend, who mistook church membership for salvation. Did you know that one can have a false peace? I watched a TV interview years ago where an old man was being interviewed.

And this old man seemed so relaxed, so secure, like he didn't have a care in the world or for eternity. And this man was an old devilish rock star who'd lived a reprobate life, just a life of out-and-out sin.

And he was happy as a clam in the water because he had the peace that Satan gave him. The devil tucks his brats in bed at night and he kisses them goodnight as he covers them with a false sense of security.

And they sleep peacefully, unaware of all the evil spirits harboring above them like hungry hyenas cackling and drooling over their souls, just waiting to be devoured. That's the very moment they die.

They'll lose that false sense of peace as demons drag their screaming soul to hell. We tried to do our best today by broadening the way of salvation and letting everybody get on board. But we need to quit preaching easy-believism that just creates false conversions.

He was birthed in the bowels of a smoking pit and taught by certain big seminary in Texas that says repentance is not needed for salvation. Only believe. Listen, friends, if you don't repent, you're surely gonna go to hell, even if you are the chairman of the deacons.

We've gone all over these crowds on that Broadway who comprise the hellbound of this generation. Well, let's talk about the second half of my message today, friends, and that's the narrow way. There's few on that narrow way.

The Narrow Way and the Lordship of Christ

Let's see how few there are. Jesus said, few there be that find it. I know one thing, friend, and I know one thing for sure. You can't divide Christ into two and take the half you want. He must be a prince as well as a savior.

You can't have Jesus as savior without having Him as Lord. Christ the Redeemer must be Christ the Lord. We need to start preaching the lordship of Christ again in our pulpits through the land. If you wanna walk on the narrow way where He is, then you must follow Him.

You must follow a crucified Christ, and He must have crucified followers. The life of discipleship follows a life of surrender. Listen, friends. Jesus never preached a sin in religion, even though we do.

He is a sovereign Lord. Jesus sits right now on a heavenly throne at the right hand of the Father, and He earned that right by way of a bloody cross. But there are rights and claims to the gospel of the Son of God.

He will have no equals. Jesus said, he that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Listen, friends. There's a cross smack dab in the life of a believer.

Jesus said, and whosoever doth not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. Jesus said, his way is the narrow way, and those few individuals who are on the narrow way are there by way of two things.

They're washed in the blood. They're born from above. Listen, friends. Repentance is necessary to salvation, or you're gonna make a liar out of Christ and a liar of his disciples. Jesus said, unless you repent, ye shall all likewise perish.

Repentance as a Necessity for Salvation

God will not allow any rebels into his holy heaven. And in Peter's first sermon, he preached man's duty of repentance by saying, repent ye therefore and be ye converted that your sins may be blotted out.

Jesus instructed his followers to preach the necessity of repentance and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. The disciples preached God's demand for repentance on the very first preaching out and we read, and they went out and preached that man should repent.

And the apostle Paul preached up man's duty of repentance as well. In Acts 20, 21, we read, testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.

Listen, friend, you must repent or surely you're just gonna drop on down to hell when you die. In the gospel of Matthew, we read, then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the common hall and gathered unto him the whole band of soldiers and they stripped him and put on him a scarlet robe.

And when they had plated a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head and a reed in his right hand and they bowed the knee before him and mocked him saying, hail, king of the Jews. Then they spit upon him and took the reed and smite him on the head.

The Scandal of the Crucified Christ

And after that, they had mocked him. They took the robe off from him and put on his own raiment on him and led him away to crucify him. Listen, friends, a public crucifixion in Roman times was a scandal.

Only the very dregs of humanity were crucified. Criminals, rebels, and slaves were crucified. No Roman citizen was crucified because to die by crucifixion was shameful. It was scandalous. The apostle Paul referenced this in 1 Corinthians 1 .23, but we preach Christ crucified unto the Jews, a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks, foolishness.

To suffer crucifixion on a cross was a bloody scandal. Listen to me, brother pastor, you better preach the blood and the cross and a bloodstained savior for sin. But it was a sad day when our churches quit preaching man's duty of repentance and it was a sadder day still when we quit preaching man's utter necessity of regeneration.

Regeneration and the New Birth

Salvation is in the hands of God and not man. Listen, friend, if you have saving faith, it's because God's given it to you. And to be on the narrow way, you must be born again. In John 3 .3, we have Christ's own statement which precludes any person from heaven who is not a born again believer.

Jesus answered and said unto him, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. It doesn't matter, friend, about your good works or your good character or your good reputation. If you're not regenerated by the spirit of God, you will be barred from heaven.

That's not me saying it. That's Jesus saying it and you better believe it. You must be born again. Only born again believers can walk the narrow way with Jesus. We must ask ourselves a question. Are men saved by a decision they make or by the regenerating work of the spirit of God?

Are men saved by their good works or by a bloody cross? You must be born from above and washed in the blood. Listen, you start preaching a scandalous cross and the world will hate you because it's not politically correct in a perverted society that hates Jesus in anything holy.

But you start preaching a scandalous cross, friend, and you might have somebody tugging on your sleeve, crying, what must I do to be saved? The bottom line is this, friend, what road are you on? Is it the broad way or the narrow way?

Are you on a broad, lost religious road full of baptized but unconverted individuals jostling for a position with atheists and reprobates? Or are you truly born again and washed in the blood and on the narrow way in a life of surrender to a risen Lord?

The Final Call to Saving Faith

Well, I'm done, friends. I've preached my heart out to you with a pure gospel of a crucified Christ. It's the only gospel that's got power to save. If you're not saved, if you're not born again, go to God, ask him for the grace of saving faith.

And if you go to him with a sincere heart and seek pardon for sin earnestly through faith in Christ, Jesus has a pure gospel promise for you, friend, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.