Same Rebel You'Ve Always Been — E.A. Johnston

The Gospel's Claim on the Rebel

Some of you lack having your own way, and you're used to getting your way, and heaven help the one who gets in your way. You feel you have certain rights and claims, and you are completely ignorant of the rights and claims that the gospel has on a follower of Christ Jesus.

I have a message today, friends, that I bring before you with a broken heart over the condition of our congregations all over this country. My message today will probably upset some folks. I hope it upsets you enough to get you lost so you can be saved.

The title of my message is, The Same Rebel You Have Always Been. And I have a verse of scripture today, friends, I feel many do not understand, and it is in their ignorance of it, that they will miss heaven when they die.

The Parable of the Sower in Luke 8

Jesus spoke in parables, and on particular occasions, his disciples would press him to explain the meaning of the parable to them. This was the case of the parable of the sower and the seed, and the degrees of soil that the seed fell on, the seed being the gospel of the Son of God, and the soil being the souls of men.

Our passage today, friends, is found in Luke's gospel. You can turn in your Bibles there. We will be in chapter 8 and in verses 11 through 13. Let me read us this striking passage of scripture at this time, and may the Spirit of the Lord attend the reading of His holy word.

Now the parable is this. The seed is the word of God. Those by the wayside are they that hear, then cometh the devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved.

They on the rock are they, which when they hear, receive the word with joy, and these have no root, which for a while believe and, in time of temptation, fall away. I will stop there, friends, to clear up something, and that is the question.

Can a person lose their salvation? Well, the answer is no. It says here in our text that some of these folks believed and then fell away. How can that be? Well, I want to spend a great deal of time today on the subject of what an intellectual assent to the gospel is, because our text here, in verse 13, is speaking about people who heard the gospel and accepted the good news with joy.

Intellectual Assent Versus Saving Faith

They made a profession of faith, joined the church, and were baptized. But the faith they had was not saving faith. They just made an intellectual assent with their mind to become a Christian, like they would join a political party or join a health club or a spa.

They liked what they saw and wanted to join up and be a part of it. They are enthusiastic about their professed Christianity. And these individuals often get in your face and tell you all about Jesus, that you need him, too.

But what these nice church folk have is a ticket to heaven that has no stamp on it, for there is no seal on it dipped in blood. They have no deep roots in their profession of faith in God, because they do not possess Christ.

I'm telling you right now, friends, our churches are loaded with such deceived individuals who sit and soak and serve every week, believing themselves to be saved, when they haven't a clue what it means to be saved, nor do they know the Savior from sin.

And although they may have responded to an emotional appeal by a preacher and walked an aisle and repeated the sinner's prayer and even invited Jesus into their heart as their personal Savior, they just went through the motions of what the minister told them to do.

They are not saved individuals, because they are yet unconverted. They merely made an intellectual assent to believe in Christ, and they are the same rebel they have always been. The ticket to heaven they hold in their hand won't do them any good.

False Assurance and Religious Profession

It's just an empty religious profession. But the catchphrase they love to say is, once saved, always saved, so I can sin all I want to and still go to heaven. That's what folks think. The greatest deception in the church today is an intellectual assent, because you think you are saved, and you get baptized, believing church membership is salvation.

I'm trying to get through this message, friend. It's a hard one to bring before you, but you better listen to me, because you may be smugly sitting beneath the robe of religion without having the robe of righteousness in Christ Jesus.

You may be believing your way to hell, because you're sitting on the rotten plankboard of coronal security that creaks and moans with your weight upon it, ready to break at any moment and send you crashing down, where you will bust hell wide open.

Heaven only, in intellectual assent, will surely damn you for certain, for God will not allow any sin-loving rebels into his holy heaven. You may be believing your way to hell, because you've never been awakened to your lost condition, never knew Holy Spirit conviction, and never have been a subject of the work of grace that God performs in the heart through regeneration.

You don't know what repentance is, much less exercised it toward God. You are yet in your sins, because you've never been washed in the blood of the slain lamb who suffered and died on a bloody cross for sin.

What you have is intellectual assent, and that's all you have, and your hope of heaven is nothing more than a hole in the wall. The faith you have is the faith of a devil, because James 2 .19 declares, Thou believest that there is one God, thou doest well.

The devils also believe and tremble. Demons have more religion than you, friend. At least they have enough sense to tremble before God. But you don't. True faith in Christ Jesus transforms a person's life.

Regeneration and Transforming Faith

Saving faith comes from God, and only he can give it. If you were saved, friend, it's because God gave you saving faith. Saving faith isn't the faith that the preacher told you about when he used the illustration of trusting in a chair to support you.

I believe the chair illustration in evangelism has damned more people to hell in the last 40 years than any other evangelistic technique to get converts. Listen, friend. Having the faith to trust in a chair or trust an airplane to get you off the ground is not the same as saving faith.

Every atheist on the planet has faith in a chair. Every atheist trusts a plane to get them up in the air. No, friends. Saving faith is an operation upon the heart, which only the Spirit of God performs in the supernatural act of regeneration.

Ye must be born again. That should be the cry of the church to this generation. We must pick up the same cry as George Whitefield. Ye must be born again. And intellectual assent will only make reference to a repentant heart.

True faith is exercise and repentance toward God in an obedient heart toward God that causes man to do righteousness and hate sin. Faith in Christ Jesus is a transforming faith. When Jesus was here in his earthly ministry, as he passed through towns and villages, all who encountered him experienced change.

Have you ever been changed by the grace of God? Or are you the same rebel you have always been? God is not impressed that you serve on a deacon committee if you're the same rebel you've always been. God won't listen to your singing in church if you are the same rebel you have always been.

God won't accept your profession of faith if you are the same rebel you have always been. It makes no difference, friend, if you're standing in the pulpit or sitting dutifully in the pew. If you are the same rebel you have always been, you are just believing your way to hell.

Repentance and Surrender to Christ

You better come and lay down your shotgun of rebellion at the pierced feet of a sovereign. You don't need to bring anything with you to that cross but your point of rebellion towards a holy God. Come and lay that rebellion down in surrender to King Jesus.

Look on him and believe on him. Jesus says, I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never hunger and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. If you want heaven, friend, and if you want to stay out of hell, then you better get to a bloodstained savior and close with him.

Let us pray.