When Pastors Lead You to Hell — E.A. Johnston

The Narrow Way and the Difficulty of Conversion

Jesus taught on the difficulty of conversion. He said, narrow is the way, and few there be that find it. He said, one must strive to enter into the kingdom of heaven. Jesus said that it was a great deal of effort to it that heaven was taken by violence.

Repentance as a Necessity for Salvation

He warned about man's duty of repentance and his utter necessity of regeneration by saying, except you repent, ye shall all likewise perish. And that means you, even if you are the chairman of the deacons.

The New Birth and False Assurance

He said no man shall see the kingdom of God unless he was born again. That knocks out 80 of our church body today who are still yet unconverted church members. Because they sit under a pastor who pointed them away from heaven by cheapening the gospel and broadening the way of salvation in ways Jesus never did.

False Prophets and Unconverted Pastors

How horrible it'll be, friend, when it comes time for you to die and you go down to your grave and you end up in a Christless eternity. The word of God warns that in the latter days many false prophets shall appear deceiving many.

We live in a day of an unconverted ministry where many men, though they've graduated seminary, they're yet still unconverted. And perhaps one of these false prophets told you that you were saved when you were yet a stranger to a work of grace upon the heart.

They merely pointed you in the wrong direction telling you that here is the way to heaven when they didn't even know the way to get there themselves. I've heard seminary-trained Baptist pastors say, all you have to do to be saved, friend, is to believe John 3 .16.

Repentance Beyond Religious Decisions

Listen to me, friend, you don't get saved believing a verse of scripture. You get saved by believing upon a person, the Lord Jesus Christ. Perhaps a blind guide misled you and told you that if you did the following, you'd be saved if you walked an aisle or repeated a prayer or raised your hand or some other physical act.

Listen to me, friend, you don't get saved by performing a physical act. Maybe you've been in the church for years and yet you are a lost religious person. You are a stranger to repentance and regeneration.

You've never come under conviction of sin. You've never been born from above and washed in the blood. It's my duty to preach the full counsel of God and warn folks of the danger of damnation in a devil's hell.

The Lost Must Be Warned of Their Need

How can you be saved, friend, if you've never been lost? Jesus said, the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which is lost. If a preacher is unschooled in the doctrines of the gospel or afraid to mention hell for fear of offending someone, how will you be pointed to the right path of repentance and faith?

A man must see the rotten foundation they stand upon through a false faith. They must see the badness of their hearts and the strictness of the law before they can feel their need of a remedy for sin in the person of Christ Jesus.

Preachers must awaken sinners and make them sensible of their danger of dying in their sins. But if sinners don't ever hear a man warn them of judgment and damnation, how will they ever be sensible to their peril and danger?

The Terrors of the Lord and the Coming Wrath

Men need to be told of the terrors of the Lord so they will flee from the wrath to come. But modern preachers today fear men more than God and refuse to preach disturbing sermons because they want to be liked and they want to be accepted by the people they preach to.

It's self-love of the preacher that keeps them from warning folks of the terrible agonies in a burning hell. Yet Jesus pulled no punches here. He faithfully warned. It is better that one of the members should perish and not that the whole body should be cast into hell.

The Reality of Hell and Final Judgment

Broad is the gate and wide is the way that leadeth to destruction and many there be that go in thereat. The angels should cast them into a furnace of fire. There should be wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Wailing speaks of loss and great grief. Gnashing of teeth signifies great anger and regret. I'll always remember going to my Italian grandfather's funeral where they held awake. All I heard from that funeral parlor was a room in anguish with people crying out loud, piercing screams that startled me all from my Italian relatives.

I was eight years old but the memory of those awful screams still stay with me these many years. How much more horrible are the cries of the damned in hell that never cease. Only Christ, friend, is the remedy for sin.

Christ’s Blood and the Call to Repentance

You must get your sins washed in his blood. Revelation 1 5 declares, Unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood. We tell people today that God loves them and all they have to do to get to heaven is just accept our Jesus.

Just believe he died for you and you'll be saved. It's an only-believed gospel that omits man's duty of repentance. But old-time preachers of former days warned men and women and boys and girls of a future judgment that awaited all mankind.

When they sounded a gospel call they backed it with your duty to submit to God to throw down your weapons of rebellion in an utter surrender to a sovereign. But we make ourselves Christians today. We've taken salvation out of the hands of God and placed it in the hands of men because of faulty evangelism.

Regeneration Versus Human Decision

Multitudes are led astray and pointed straight to hell, straight from a pulpit. But let me ask you a question, friend, and you be the judge. Are men saved as a result of a decision they make or as the result of the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit?

Are you born again? Have you repented toward God and exercised faith in the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ? Don't stay on a rotten foundation that'll only burn up on Judgment Day. Your name must be written in the Book of Life.

Self-Examination and the Pearl of Great Price

Is Jesus your Savior? Or did someone just tell you that you were saved when you never were to begin with? Only the Holy Spirit can tell you if you are a son of God, friend. Get to Christ, friend. Jesus is the friend of sinners.

He is the pearl of great price worth selling off for so we may be gained.