Gospel of Repentance — E.A. Johnston

The Doctrine of Repentance Among the Gospel's Central Doctrines

The great doctrines of the gospel are Rune, Redemption, Repentance, and Regeneration. Today, friends, we will take a look at the doctrine of repentance. Somewhere down the road, in our evangelism, we decided that repentance was no longer necessary for salvation.

Jesus' Warning That Repentance Is Required

But we were dead wrong. Jesus said, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. If we are to have a recovery of the gospel in our churches today, then we must warn men and women and boys and girls of their duty of repentance.

Scriptural Repentance and the Evidence of Conversion

If they want to stay out of hell, we will look at what scriptural repentance is today. Sam Jones said repentance was quitting your meanness. That means being one way at church and another way at home.

And that's a good indication of a false conversion. The only believed gospel of the last 60 years has damned its millions and still today broadens the way of salvation in ways Jesus never did. Because of man's corruption, he is a rebel against a sovereign.

Human Sin, Divine Holiness, and the Call to Repent

God demands perfection to get into his holy heaven. And no man is perfect. But all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Listen, friends. God will not allow any rebels into his holy kingdom.

And he calls all men everywhere to repent. A sinner must stack arms and throw down a shotgun of rebellion at the feet of a sovereign. Listen, friend. We have produced a generation of preachers who omit the doctrine of repentance from the pulpit.

The Church's Neglect of Repentance and True Spiritual Life

And many of them have never exercised repentance toward God themselves. Most church folks today have merely entered the church by merely accepting a historical Jesus who died on a cross and who know nothing of a vital union with a living Lord which produces a life of holiness unto God.

Biblical Preaching, Hell, and the Lordship of Christ

John the Baptist came preaching repentance. Jesus began his earthly ministry preaching repentance. His disciples began preaching repentance. If we preach on repentance, then we have to preach on sin and warn men of going to an awful place of misery called hell.

But we don't want to do that. And the main reason we quit preaching man's duty of repentance is we lack our reputations too much and don't want to preach anything that would disturb the 200-pound babies sitting in the sanctuary.

Because if you tell sinners to repent or go on to hell, you have a fight on your hands. And if you preach man's duty of repentance, then you must preach about the lordship of Christ and all the demands that the gospel has on a person.

Repentance, Forgiveness, and the Final Call

But we can't do that because we don't want a God who gets in the way of our daily living. But without repentance, you can't have forgiveness of sins. Jesus says, Except you repent, ye shall all likewise perish.

And that means to perish in a devil's hell full of unrepentant rebels who hate God and all things holy. If we are to recover the gospel, friends, in your day and mine, then we must warn men to repent immediately.