Subjection to the Gospel of Christ — E.A. Johnston

The Counterfeit Gospel and Spiritual Declension

The Christianity that has the ear of the nation is not the Christianity of the Bible. The feel-good brand of Christianity that permeates our society is not the Christianity of the Bible. The gospel that is taught in the majority of the churches in America is not the gospel of the Bible, but a counterfeit gospel that produces counterfeit Christians.

The spiritual declension that has occurred in the church in America is so great that it is hard not to succumb to the spiritual temperature of the hour. Listen friends, we must shake off the grave clothes of the brand of Christianity that is being fed to this nation, which is a dead religion, and give back to the biblical gospel and the God of the Bible.

There is a very good chance, friend, the gospel you have heard is not the biblical gospel, but rather a watered-down version of it. Let me state a fact regarding evangelism of your day and mine. When the churches in America decided to omit the two doctrines of repentance and regeneration from the gospel, they departed from the living God of the Bible, and when the churches in America sent delegations to the seeker-sensitive capital of America and adopted their methodologies, they departed from the living God of the Bible, and when the churches in America brought the world and entertainment into the sanctuaries, they departed from the living God of the Bible, and because of all this, the living God of the Bible has departed from the churches in America.

Subjection to the Gospel of Christ

So, chances are, friend, you have never heard the true gospel of the Son of God. The title of my message this morning is Subjection to the Gospel of Christ, and my text is from 2 Corinthians 9 .13, which reads, For your professed subjection unto the gospel of Christ.

You see, friends, that is what being a Christian is. It is a subjection to the gospel, a subjection to Christ Jesus. There are several distinctions I'd like to point out today regarding the difference between the gospel of the Son of God and the counterfeit gospel of your day and mine.

Listen, friends, true Christianity is a subjection to the gospel of Christ. It is a yielding of ourselves to all the rights and claims that Christ has upon his followers, and a yielding of ourselves to the commanding influence of the gospel's truths and laws.

The counterfeit gospel of today allows you to take Christ partially and remain in your sins, remain on the throne of your heart, and to sit there and rule with Christ in subjection to your demands and your desires.

The gospel that is preached from the majority of the pulpits in the land today is a brand of Christianity that gives you a free ticket to heaven while you still indulge your lusts and gratify your flesh to your heart's content and continue to live for yourself and the pleasures of this present world.

The Christianity of America does not know what the subjection to the gospel of Christ means because most American Christians believe Christ is in subjection to them. But that's not the true gospel, friend.

Christ as King, Lord, and Master

The true gospel is a subjection to the gospel of Christ, and I want to lay out three important distinctions which separate the true gospel from the false and which separates true Christianity from false Christianity.

Are you ready? Number one, in the true gospel, a person comes in surrender to a sovereign king. Number two, in the true gospel, a person lives in obedience to a living Lord. And number three, in the true gospel, a person serves a complete master.

Did you hear those three nouns? King, Lord, Master? All three of these speak of one common and subjection to the gospel of Christ. Christ is King, Christ is Lord, Christ is Master. But the gospel of your day and mine shrinks Jesus down to our size so he can serve us in our demands.

The perverted gospel of today is a man-centered gospel that is in subjection to selfish man, in subjection to self-centered man. God is our servant, and the gospel is nothing more than an encouraging word to help us have a happier day.

And the main problem with the modern gospel in America today is that it breeds false converts who mistakenly view themselves as saved individuals on their way to heaven, but they are deceived lost people on their way to hell.

I fear that the majority of church members today have never been born again through the new birth. They have no clue what the doctrine of regeneration means because it's seldom preached from our pulpits today.

Pastors tell people, just walk an aisle and accept Jesus and recite this sinner's prayer and answer a few questions and you are on your way to heaven. So they walk down that aisle with a silly grin on their face, accept Jesus they know nothing about, and join the church and remain in their sins, and when they die, they drop into a burning hell.

They were never given the right gospel, but a counterfeit one, and they swallowed it hook, line, and sinker, and they swallowed that phony gospel and lived phony Christian lives. Allow me to expand on these three distinctions of the true gospel which I have mentioned.

Sin, Wrath, and the Need for Reconciliation

First, the true gospel warns a sinner they are on the wrong side of God because of sin. They are under the wrath of God because justice must be satisfied. Man is a sinner, he's a lawbreaker who's broken the law of God.

God demands perfection, and all men will one day be held up against the strictness and severity of the holy law of God, and all will fail that test. I know I'm a sinner, and I need a sin substitute in the person of Jesus Christ, and so do you friend, so do you.

When a person comes safely to Christ, they place themselves under all the claims and rights of Christ, and that Christ has on his followers. A person has to be awakened to their lost condition, and once he has, he realizes his need of a savior, and the need to be reconciled back to an offended sovereign.

God is a king, and he will have no rebels in his kingdom of heaven. There's a picture of this seen in the Gospel of Matthew in chapter 22. You can turn in your Bibles there now. God is a sovereign, God is a king, but today we've shrunken God down to our size and placed him on man's level.

Listen to the true gospel friends. The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king which made a marriage supper for his son, and sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding, and they would not come.

Again, he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them which are bidden, behold, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat ones are killed, and all things are ready. Come unto the marriage. But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise, and the remnant took his servants, and entreated them spitefully, and slew them.

But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth, and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city. Then saith he to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy.

Go ye therefore to the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage. So those servants went out to the highways, and gathered together all, as many as they found, both bad and good, and the wedding was furnished with guests.

And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there was a man which had not on a wedding garment, and he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless.

Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, for many are called, but few are chosen. Did you see how God is compared to a king?

Jesus is his Son, and the wedding is the marriage supper of the Lamb. There are many church members who have not this wedding garment upon them, which speaks of a work of grace upon the heart through regeneration and justification through faith.

Many live within the church and die naked without the wedding garment of Christ upon them. They stand naked in their own merits, and they will one day stand before the king without excuse, and they will be speechless, for their mouth will be stopped, as all in the world are guilty before God.

Obedience to Christ as Lord

So this first aspect of being in subjection to the gospel of Christ is surrender to a sovereign king, where you throw down your shotgun of rebellion and submit to a sovereign. Secondly, in the true gospel, a person lives in obedience to a living Lord.

Listen, friend, Jesus is Lord. He sits on a heavenly throne at the right hand of the Father, and he earned that right by way of a bloody cross. He rules on a throne. If you want him, you'll have to come to him there.

You must submit to the gospel of Christ, which means submit to his Lordship, friend. But today, we've been told there's no need of repentance to become a Christian. All you have to do is believe. It's an only-believed gospel, and you can still live your life the way you want to and remain seated on the throne of your heart and hug your sins.

But listen, friend, to come to Christ savingly, you must submit to his Lordship. Jesus is Lord and Savior. You can't divide him into two persons and take the one and leave the other. You must come to him in submission to him as Lord, as a living Lord.

When a person is truly converted, a self is dethroned, and another is enthroned there, the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus declared, He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me. Obedience to Jesus is living under his Lordship.

You are either living under his Lordship, friend, or you are living out from under him savingly. You must be in subjection to a living Lord, in subjection to the gospel of Christ. And thirdly, in the true gospel, a person serves a complete master.

Serving Christ as a Complete Master

Before you were saved, you served Satan. You were dead in trespasses and sins, and you were in the kingdom of darkness, blinded to the truths of the gospel, because you still had an unregenerated heart.

But when a person comes to Christ savingly, through subjection to the gospel of Christ, he then serves a new master. He is in subjection to that master completely. Jesus must be a complete master. Your life is no longer your own.

Your body is no longer your own. Your money is not your own. Your body is not your own. Your time is not your own. You have been bought with a price, and that price was his blood. Christ must be a complete master.

Do you believe that, or are you going to buck that? Be careful how you treat Christ, friend, because the king will not sit idly by while his crown is thrown into the dust and his son mistreated. Are you your own master, or is Christ your master?

Be honest. Do not be deceived. The disciples called Jesus master. Do you? Jesus told his disciples, you call me master and Lord, and you say, well, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and master, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash another's feet.

Notice, friends, that a slave serves his master. He's his bondservant. Christ is the master. Jesus is teaching his disciples how to be servants in subjection to the gospel of Christ. He's Lord and master.

Listen, friend. When a person is born again, that person comes in surrender to a sovereign king, lives in obedience to a living Lord, and serves a complete master. Let me ask you, friend, is there an area in your life that you have not surrendered to King Jesus?

Examining Conversion and Holiness

Are you living in rebellion to a living Lord? Are you serving your own desires, or do you serve a complete master? Are you completely mastered by Jesus, or are you stiff-necked and self-willed? Be honest, because your eternal destiny hangs in the balance.

Perhaps you've swallowed the diluted gospel of your day and mine, and you've never had the opportunity to hear the true gospel before. Today's your opportunity, friend. Jesus came into this world to save his people from their sins.

Jesus never preached a sin in religion. Do you pursue a life of holiness? Are you truly saved? The Bible uses strong terminology in coming to Christ. God expects you should strive to enter in at the straight gate, that you press into the kingdom of God, and be violent that you may obtain it.

Unconverted men are ungodly men. Unconverted women are ungodly women. There are only two types of persons in this world, godly and ungodly. Which category do you fall into? All ungodly persons are utterly destitute of holiness.

Their natures are corrupted, and they are servants of Satan, and live in a way of rebellion against a sovereign God, and they are a continual provocation to God because of their sins and rebellion. Listen, friend, you may have been baptized, but not born again.

A swine that is washed is still a swine still. Have you been washed in the blood of the lamb? Has your heart been changed through the new birth? Are you one person at church when you are among your Christian friends, and quite another person when you are alone or with your family?

Jesus denounced the religious hypocrites of his day. He called the Pharisees a brood of vipers. Are you living in subjection to the gospel of Christ, or are you living out from under it? This is a grave matter.

Where you will spend eternity depends entirely upon if you are truly born again through a regenerated heart. Only God can perform this work of grace in you. Have you ever been awakened, friend, to your lost condition?

Have you ever been convicted of sin? Have you ever truly exercised repentance towards God and faith in Jesus Christ, or did you just decide to become a Christian and join the church? Are you born from above, by the Spirit of God?

The Spirit's Witness and Assurance

Romans tells us, for they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh, but they that are after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit, for to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

Do you have peace within, or is it war, war, war? Romans 8 .10 declares, and if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. It also states that for as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. Oh, friend, examine your heart under the searching spotlight of the Holy Spirit. Today you have heard the true gospel of the Son of God.

Jesus hung on a bloody cross to reconcile sinful man back to a holy God. Divine justice needs satisfaction. Are you a rebel, living outside of the protective blood of Christ? Do you hate all things holy?

Jesus said, if you love me, you will keep my commands. Who is your God? Do you serve the God of the Bible, or do you serve a God of your own imagination? Settle these important matters, friend, before it's too late.

Remember, friend, you come in subjection to the gospel of Christ, to a King, a Lord, and a Master. Let me leave you with these invitations of the gospel of the Son of God. May the Holy Spirit of God open your heart as you hear God speak to you.

Gospel Invitations to Repentance and Faith

Ho, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money, come ye buy and eat. Yea, come buy wine and milk without money and without price. Seek ye the Lord while he may be found.

Call ye upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts. And let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him. And to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. Unless ye repent, ye shall likewise perish.

Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it, and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.

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. For I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. And the Spirit and the Bride say, Come, and let him that heareth say, Come, and let him that is a thirst come, and whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.