The Gospel is a Call to Repentance — E.A. Johnston

The False Gospel and the Necessity of Repentance

I was a victim of the modern gospel for years. I use the term victim because the false gospel is a crime against a person who is searching for real truth. The modern gospel will lie to you and tell you that you can go to heaven and heaven can be attained without repentance on your part.

It will sell you a false bill of goods, give you a false security, and if you're not rescued from it, it will send you to a burning hell. Everybody's talking about how Satan is going to come and bring persecution to the church in the West.

Satan's Strategy Inside the Church

Listen, friends, Satan does his best work inside the church as he appears as an angel of light. If he can promote a gospel that is different from the one that Jesus preached, then he is gaining ground for a season.

My Bible declares in the book of Acts, and the times of this ignorance God winked at, but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent. The gospel is a call to repentance, and that's the title of my message today, friends.

The gospel is a call to repentance. Listen to me, friend, if you've been taught that repentance is not a necessary condition to salvation, you've been lied to. I don't care how nice a man the preacher was who told you that lie, but nevertheless, it's a lie from the pit of hell.

The modern gospel of the last 60 years has damned its millions to hell. Like I said, Satan does his best work inside the church. Satan has seminaries all over this country that promote his false gospel.

If he can raise up a seminary that becomes popular within an influential denomination, and then train up thousands of pastors in that seminary, and send them out equipped with a false gospel, then he has accomplished his job.

Because those preacher boys are going to deceive thousands of their hearers with a gospel message that is contradictory to the one that Jesus Christ preached. What did Jesus preach? Let's take a look and see.

Jesus' Call to Sinners in Matthew

My text today is found in the Gospel of Matthew. You can turn in your Bibles there now. We will be in chapter 9 and verses 10 through 13. Let me read it to you now, friends. And may the Spirit of God attend the reading of his holy word.

And it came to pass, as Jesus said at meet in the house, Behold, many publicans and sinners came, and sat down with him and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto his disciples, Why eateth your master with publicans and sinners?

But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They that behold need not a physician, but they that are sick. But go ye and learn what that meaneth. I will have mercy, and not sacrifice. For I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

Now we must ask ourselves a question. Is Jesus telling a lie here when he declares what the heartbeat of his gospel is? That it is a gospel that calls sinners to repentance? Is he right, or is he wrong?

Is he lying, or is he telling the truth? Because if you believe another gospel other than the one Jesus preached, then you believe a false gospel. If you preach a gospel that is contradictory to the one that Jesus preached, then you are a deceiver and a false prophet.

If you teach a gospel that is different than the one that Jesus taught, then you are a heretic. And do you know what a heretic is, friend? It's a tick that feeds on the blood of its victims. And if you preach a false gospel, then the people listening to you are victims.

That's why when I began this message, I called myself a victim of the modern gospel of your day and mine. Because it's not the gospel of Jesus Christ in my Bible. Listen, friends. When I said that Satan does his best work within the church, I meant what I said.

He knows that if he persecutes the church, it will grow because the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. If you don't believe that, just take a look at the underground church in China and her millions.

Just go and read the book of Acts and see how the kingdom of God expanded through the persecution of the church. And that day, just go study what happened in England on bloody Black Bartholomew's Day when 2 ,000 ministers were cast out of their pulpits and out of their livings and how those Puritans dipped their pens in their ink of persecution and wrote volumes of great works for Christ, which when you read them today, they still have a holy fire attending them.

No, Satan has learned that persecution won't eliminate the church of Christ in this world. He's learned that the best way to bring havoc upon the kingdom of God is to work inside the church of God. Therefore, he raises up seminary professors and gives them a wide influence.

He builds seminaries and gives them great popularity. He raises up evangelists and gives them an ear of the world to send forth his false gospel of death and damnation. Jesus preached that repentance was a necessary condition for salvation.

I would rather believe my Savior and what he said than what the gospel is rather than believe some big seminary professor who's published volumes which contradict what Jesus said. Listen to me, dear seminary president.

If you do not teach what Jesus taught, then your seminary is a hell house, your seminary professors are devils, and unless you repent, you will surely be brought down to hell. Now I have a fight on my hands with that one.

The big dogs will come after me, try to silence me, and call me a heretic. But I'm no heretic, friend. I'm giving you the oil straight from the can, as we say in the South. My Jesus declared, except you repent, you shall all likewise perish.

And that means you, friend. He's talking to you. I don't care how many letters you've got after your name, brother pastor. I've got about six letters after my name because I have two earned doctorates from two different seminaries.

But they don't mean a hill of beans if I go out and tell folks they can get to heaven some other way than repenting of their sins. I repeat, the gospel is a call to repentance. I didn't say it. Jesus did.

He declared, I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. And when I read my Bible and see what Jesus had to say about what salvation was, I see the following declarations from the word of God.

Jesus' First Sermon and Heaven's Joy Over Repentant Sinners

In Matthew's gospel, chapter four and verse 17, describes what Jesus preached in his first sermon. From that time, Jesus began to preach and to say, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. In Luke's gospel, chapter 15 and verse seven, friends, we see how heaven views true salvation from the lips of Jesus Christ.

I say unto you that likewise, joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth more than over ninety and nine just persons which need no repentance. And in the same passage in verse 10, we see how angels rejoice over sinners who repent.

Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth. Now, let me ask you a question, brother evangelist. How can you rejoice over your converts when you didn't warn them to repent of their sins?

How can we rejoice over someone whom the angels in heaven do not rejoice over? I tell you the real reason why the church in America has murdered the doctrine of repentance. It's because of pride in the church in America.

Church Growth and the Suppression of Repentance

Men would rather grow a big church and soft-soak the gospel so not to offend their hearers. So they can grow the reputations within their respective denominations. When a big church is on a search for a pastor, they will send out a pastor search committee and visit churches across the country, and they will pick for themselves a pastor who has a track record for growing a large church.

That's how it works, friends. Believe me, I know of which I speak. And if your main objective is to grow a large church, then you will preach a gospel that won't offend anybody because you need their money to expand your campus.

But Jesus said his gospel was a gospel of repentance. And he said if you didn't repent, you would surely go to hell. And now I believe what he said over what some big evangelist says. And you better believe Jesus too, friend, for except you repent, you will surely be bound hand and foot and turn into hell before you have time to pack your suitcase.

Sin, Adam's Curse, and the Need for Conversion

But we must ask ourselves why. Why does a person need to repent to be saved? I'll tell you why. I'll tell you why, friend. It's because man is born beneath a curse. There is a poison in his blood that has separated him from God.

I'll never forget a sermon I heard about 20 years ago. An old Baptist preacher gave it. And even though I forget the old boy's name, I will always remember a sermon entitled Poison in the Blood. This old preacher told about a friend of his who lay dying in the hospital.

And there was no hope for him, for the doctor said he had a poison in his blood. And it was only a matter of time before he died. And then this old preacher said that all a man was born into this world with a poison in his blood because of Adam's sin.

And because of that poison, he stood under the wrath and condemnation of a holy God who must punish sin. That all men were guilty rebels who were born with a ruined nature that was bent toward sin. So a man has a poison in his blood.

And the only thing he could do to be saved was to turn from his sins and repent toward a holy God. That if man did not repent, he would drop down to hell because he deserved hell. Because he was a sinner and a rebel against the sovereign God.

And this old preacher said that if you wanted Jesus to be your savior, you had to get your sins under his blood. And leave all for him and a life of surrender for Jesus declared. So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.

Repentance as Grace and Costly Discipleship

And then this old preacher made the following comment. He said, sinner, you must part with your darling sin. Turn from it and repent of it and turn to God for mercy and forgiveness of sin. Now this old boy was of the old school.

He believed in calling sin black and hell hot. He wasn't afraid to tell his hearers that they were sinners and they needed to repent to get into God's holy heaven. That old preacher knew that the gospel was a call to repentance.

Listen to me, friends. There was a time in this country when preachers were not afraid of men. They only feared the almighty. And those kind of preachers knew that if they were not honest with sinful man and warned him to flee from the wrath to come and repent of their sins and believe on Jesus Christ that they would surely be sent to hell because God is a God who must punish sin.

And that's why we must preach repentance. That is why repentance is necessary as a condition of salvation. But do you know what, friend? Repentance is a grace given by God. You must see your sins for what they are.

You must see those snakes for what they are. That your sins cost the holy Christ his very blood poured out on a cruel cross on Calvary's Hill. Listen, friend. If Jesus said that the gospel means accept you repent.

You shall all likewise perish. And that he came into this world not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. And that God commands all men everywhere to repent. Then you must repent. Don't be fooled by today's only believed gospel which will send you straight to hell.

Don't be a victim like I was for so many years of a diluted gospel message that was so watered down it did not have any saving power in it anymore. The apostle Paul wasn't ashamed of the gospel. In Romans 1 16 he declares, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

The Gospel's Power and the Final Call to Repentance

Notice he said the gospel of Christ. Christ's gospel had repentance at the center of it friend because Christ hung at the center of a bloody cross because of sin. And if you want him savingly you must turn from your sins and exercise repentance toward God and faith in Jesus Christ because the gospel is a call to repentance.

Now let me ask you a question. For whom do the angels in heaven rejoice over one sinner that repents. Now let me ask you one last question. Have the angels ever rejoiced over you or did some evangelist just tell you that you were now a Christian.

Oh friend don't be deceived. Hear this call of the gospel and beg God for mercy to give you the grace of repentance. 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.