Hope of Heaven Dashed to Hell — E.A. Johnston

I can't read the last chapter of the Gospel of John without thinking of a certain pastor. In the last chapter of John is the seaside scene of Jesus and his disciples and the miraculous catch of fish and then the reinstatement of Peter.

This pastor loved to tell the story of how he led his Jewish doctor to Jesus. For years this well-known pastor had a Jewish physician and he often told him about Jesus, but the man was never interested.

Finally, it was this Jewish physician's time to die and he lay down in the hospital. And this pastor said he often visited this man's hospital room because he had a burden for this doctor to come to Christ.

He'd leave his bedside, sharing John 3 .16 with him, and then he would ask him to believe in Jesus, but the man never would. Until on the last visit to the dying doctor, this pastor read him the story in John 21 about the remarkable catch of fish.

And then the pastor asked the dying man if he would now believe in Jesus and trust him as his personal savior. And the man asked, how many fish did you say were in the net? The pastor replied, 153. And the man declared with a smile, 153.

If there is a God in heaven who can know the number of fish in that net, then I believe. And this pastor left this man's hospital room in such an excited state of mind because he got this man to finally believe in Christ that once he got outside, he threw his car keys high into the air with a shout.

But the pastor said he should not have done that because it was nighttime and he lost his keys in that hospital parking lot, and it took him 20 minutes to find them in the dark. And now I tell you that story, friends, because it represents the gospel message that has been predominantly given in the pulpits of this country for the last 80 years.

The Easy-Believe Gospel and False Assurance

And that message is this, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son and whosoever believes on him shall not perish but have everlasting life. God loves you, friend. He sent his only son to die on a cross for you so you can be saved and go to heaven to be with him.

And if you only believe in Jesus, friend, and accept him right now into your heart as your personal savior, then you can be saved and you can know for sure that when you die, you will go to heaven. Now, that's basically the gospel of the last 80 years and the gospel of this hour, friends, in a nutshell.

And that only-believed gospel message will be swallowed by many who want a hope of heaven when they die. And they'll take your little Jesus and that free ticket to heaven so long as they don't have to have a God who will get in the way of their daily living.

But the sad reality of that kind of watered-down gospel is that it gives unsaved individuals a church membership and a hope of heaven that will one day be dashed to hell. That pastor who threw his keys up in the air and lost them would have served his Jewish doctor friend better if he had treated him like those corkeys and first got him lost.

Jesus said, For the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. And that's the trouble of the easy-believed gospel, friends, because it offers a person a savior from sin without first showing him why he needs one in the first place.

Jesus told the self-righteous Pharisees, who had both feet already in hell, They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to believe on me.

Is that what he said? That's what we think he said. That's what we tell folks. But no, friends, Jesus really said, I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Sinners to repentance. A man or woman hardened in their sins who swallows an easy-believed gospel and makes a decision to accept Jesus will find out too late that their hope of heaven was dashed to hell when they die in their sins and open their eyes in hell.

Repentance in Jesus' Gospel and the Great Commission

And that's the tell of my message, friends. A hope of heaven dashed to hell. Because if we fail in our gospel witness to inform men of their duty of repentance, then we go against the very gospel of Jesus Christ, whose very first public sermon was on repentance, and his last word to the church in Revelation was to repent.

His marching orders to his followers in the Great Commission was to preach repentance. We see this in Luke's gospel in chapter 24, which states,. Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures, and said unto them,.

Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.

Jesus preached repentance, and he warned, Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. And the message of the early church was repentance, as it's summed up by the Apostle Paul in Acts chapter 20 and verses 20 and 21, which state,.

And how I kept back nothing that was propellant to you, but have showed you, and have taught you publicly, and from house to house, testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.

The early church, along with the Apostle Paul, preached the full counsel of God by warning men everywhere to repent. But we in this country, friends, for the last eighty years or so, have not been faithful to the Great Commission, but have been guilty of the great omission by failing to warn men and women and boys and girls of their gospel duty to repent and believe.

Rolf Barnard and Preaching the Law Before Grace

Rolf Barnard, the greatly used Baptist evangelist, who went up and down this country for nearly forty years, never failed to warn sinners that their only way of escape from burning hell was to exercise repentance toward God and faith in his Son, Jesus Christ.

Rolf Barnard would preach the law before grace, and get men lost so that they could be saved. And he saw revivals that would shake an entire town. It was estimated he brought over 100 ,000 souls to Christ under his searching sermons that shut men up to God so God could save them.

He would often tell a sinner that, if he wanted a hope of heaven, then he must be willing to throw down his shotgun of rebellion at the nail-pierced feet of a sovereign Christ and repent or go to hell.

One day, after preaching a hard message on repentance, Rolf Barnard was approached by an old pink-faced deacon who admonished him by saying, Son, if you want some advice, it's easier to catch flies with honey than with vinegar.

And Rolf Barnard replied, I reckon that's so, if I was catching flies. But I'm not out to catch flies but to kill men and show them they are lost and in need of a substitute for sin. It grieves my heart, friends, when I come across sincere church folk who have spent their life energies serving in their church and serving God the best way they know how and who are victims of an easy-to-believe gospel message that can't save a fly, much less a sinner hardened in their sins.

Church Membership Versus Regeneration

They know nothing about an experiential knowledge of Christ and they get a glassy look in their eyes when you try to talk to them about deep spiritual things. Their entire testimony hangs on the fact that one time in their past they walked an aisle in response to the preacher's invitation and they made a decision to believe in Jesus and take him as their personal savior and they were told they were now a Christian.

They joined the church and were baptized and were put to work in some capacity there these many years and they've been faithful in their church attendance and even dutifully shared their faith through the years by telling others about the love of Jesus while they hang on to their hope of heaven with their one hand and the world with the other.

If you try to witness to them, they will inform you that they have already done that. But they've never been told that church membership is not salvation. They've never been showed their need of a savior from sin.

They've never been saved because they've never been lost because they've never been awakened to their lost condition and they've never come under Holy Spirit conviction for sin and they've never exercised true gospel repentance and they've missed Christ because they never have been changed by a supernatural act of the Holy Spirit in regeneration through the new birth.

Although they have their name on a church roll and have for years believed themselves to be saved they have never been washed in the blood and born from above and their hope of heaven will one day be dashed to hell when they close their eyes in death to this world and open them in another region which they are totally unprepared for and one from which they will never escape for all eternity.

The Preacher's Accountability for Failing to Warn

And the men who fed them that easily believed message will come to a settling day themselves for all evangelists and pastors who fail to preach up a crucified Christ on a blood-stained cross and warn sinners to flee from the wrath to come and to repent of their sins and come to Christ like an empty-handed beggar would come seeking mercy will one day stand at the judgment with blood on their hands because in Ezekiel 33 .8 God declares.

When I say unto the wicked O wicked man, thou shalt surely die if thou does not speak to warn the wicked from his way that wicked man shall die in his iniquity but his blood will I require at thine hand.

I wonder, friends, how many preachers will stand there on that day with bloody hands. Brother preacher, do you fail to warn men? Do you sugarcoat the gospel to get decisions? Then take a look at your hands.

Look at your bloody hands. A verse in my Bible which I feel best represents all those church members who now lie in graveyards scattered all across this land who died under the only-believed gospel and whose pastor stood over their casket and said to the bereaved family.

Proverbs' Warning Against Self-Deception

Old Joe is now gone from us but he's now in a better place up with Jesus. And this verse also applies to all church members today who are yet still on earth and whose heart still beats within but who have never been truly born again but holding their hand a free ticket to heaven because someone told them they were saved.

That descriptive verse, friends, is found in the book of Proverbs. It's Proverbs 30, 12, which declares. There is a generation that is pure in their own eyes and yet is not washed from their filthiness.

The Call to Repentance and Saving Faith

Listen, friends, your sins must get under the blood. I know I'm a sinner and I need a substitute for sin in the person of Jesus Christ and so do you, friend, so do you. Let our pulpits ring with a message of authority warning sinners of their great duty of repentance and that we must get men lost before they can be saved.

They have to feel the need of a Savior from sin before the remedy can be applied. Again, Jesus said. They that are whole have no need of the physician but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.

Let us, who are all gospel witnesses wash our hands and do the same. Let us pray.