A Closed Heaven to the Unrepentant

My message today, friends, is on the Doctrine of Repentance and the damage done to countless thousands in the last century by preachers who have omitted the need of repentance to save in faith. My message is entitled, A Closed Heaven to the Unrepentant, and my text is found in Luke's Gospel chapter 13 and in verse 3, which relate the words of Jesus Christ on this very matter Jesus declared, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. There are three words in our Lord's statement which should be underlined in our Bibles, and those three words are repent, the word all, and the word perish.

What Jesus declared as necessary for a person to enter His heaven was the need for all men everywhere in each generation to repent, and if they do not, they will surely perish, perish in an everlasting burning place of misery and torment called hell. Jesus is declaring that if one does not repent, they'll perish in hell, they'll not be allowed into heaven, for God will have no rebels in His kingdom. But in our country, over the last century, a devilish doctrine appeared in our precious gospel message, and that doctrine was the omission of man's need of repentance in regard to saving faith.

This new gospel became known as easy-believism, and that's mainly the gospel you'll hear today, friends. I'm going to trace its ugly roots back for us today. Listen, we need to be aware why so many pastors today just say from their pulpits, God loves you, just walk this aisle and accept Jesus into your heart, and you will be saved.

I'm going to get to the bottom of this black pit of easy-believism today, I call it a black pit because it keeps men in their sins, helps them to die in their sins, and perish into the black pit of the outer darkness of a smoking hell. Easy-believism can be traced mainly back to its chief proponent and propagator, Louis Ferry Schaefer, who died back in 1952, but whose influence is still felt today through whose founding and presidency of Dallas Theological Seminary has trained multitudes of seminary students. This new gospel of easy-believism, no need for repentance, just believe on Jesus and you will be saved.

I have Schaefer's 8 volume, Systematic Theology, and I bought it 20 years ago, and I've read it several times, and this set of theology by Schaefer has influenced thousands of pastors through the last 60 years or so. This is when the gospel began to be watered down, diluted of its great doctrines, and devoid of its saving power. I'm holding a copy of Schaefer's Systematic Theology Volume 3 here in my hand right now friends, this blue book, and I'm going to read us what it says on page 376.

Schaefer boldly states the following, But there is no basis, either in reason or revelation, for the demand to be made that an unregenerate person in this age must add a covenant person's repentance to faith in order to be saved. And then he has devoted an entire chapter to this error, he calls it the absence of the demand for repentance from salvation scriptures. And after a long argument, this professor of Systematic Theology is through, and he concludes his argument with satisfaction with the final statement.

From this overwhelming mass of irrefutable evidence, it is clear that the New Testament does not impose repentance upon the unsaved as a condition of salvation. Now that, friends, is a doctrine straight from the pit of hell, I don't care how you dress it up. It's been swallowed by seminary boys for decades, preached in our pulpits for decades, and it's damned its millions over the last 60 years.

Now I have a fight on my hands, but I stand here with my Bible in one hand, and I stand here with the truth coming straight from the Word of God. I'll give you the oil straight from the can, as we say here in the South, this easy-believed gospel that omits the need of repentance will surely send you straight to hell. And to top this off, Lewis Perry Schaeffer propagated the doctrine of a carnal Christian by teaching scores of his Dallas Seminary students through the years that the story of the prodigal son found in Luke's gospel was the picture, not of a lost sinner, but rather a backslidden child of God, and thousands of pastors through the years have carried his banner, preached his gospel, and diluted the truth to such a degree that it's not even truth anymore, friends.

Listen, those who preach the gospel have a duty to warn men of their duty of repentance, to warn men of their danger of dying in their sins and dropping into hell, not help them on the way there, but that's what easy-believerism will do for you today. It will surely lead you astray. And there's been a segment in Christendom through the last century that has made a strong effort to redefine repentance by claiming it means only a changed attitude toward God and Jesus Christ.

I've heard this nonsense preached from many a pulpit through the years. These easy-believed preachers resist any attempt to define repentance as a turning away from sin. They say salvation is by faith alone, and repentance from sin must not be included in a gospel presentation.

These boys are afraid that repentance becomes work, and we all know that salvation is not of works. But let me tell you, friend, except you repent, you will die in your sins and be cast into hell. Like what my old friend Bill McDonald used to tell me regarding this very subject, he said, repentance is a work, but it is not a meritorious work.

Even faith is a work, for Jesus said, this is the work of God that you believe in him whom he sent. Repentance and faith are like two sides of a coin. One side is repentance toward God, and the other side is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

To exercise saving faith, a person must first acknowledge they are ungodly. I agree 100 percent with Bill McDonald's sentiments. Listen, friends, this whole watered-down gospel message that people have been fed through the years and are being fed right now is not the real gospel message at all.

I feel sorry for the seminary professor who trained men to preach a false gospel, and I feel sorry for those seminary-trained men who went out and preached that false gospel, and I feel even more sorry for the people who sat under such false teaching all those years and drank from it and died and perished in their sins. I was a victim of this false gospel for years. I just believed what I heard from the pulpit as truth, but it's a lie from the pit of hell, and if you're in a church right now where the pastor is preaching such nonsense, then move your membership to a Bible-believing church that preaches what Jesus preached, and that's what I'm going to look at today, the words of Jesus Christ in regard to the necessity of repentance in regard to saving faith.

The Gospel of Luke will be our focus today as we study passages where Jesus declared the need for a sinner to repent to go to heaven. You can turn in your Bibles to the Gospel of Luke now, and we will look at the irrefutable evidence from Scripture that dear old Dr. Schaeffer overlooked. In chapter 15, we read the words of the Lord Jesus Christ as he relates three parables of something lost and something found, a lost sheep that is found, a lost coin that is found, and a lost son that is found.

Notice how Jesus relates heaven's response to a lost person who is saved. In the first parable Jesus declared, I say unto you that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that believes in me more than over ninety-nine just persons who do not believe. Isn't that what he said? That's what Dr. Schaeffer thinks he said.

No, listen again to what Jesus really said, friends. I say unto you that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth more than over ninety-nine just persons which need no repentance. Hear Jesus again on this from the parable of the lost coin.

Likewise, I say unto you there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth. If Jesus preached that true salvation includes repentance, why should we omit it? Why preach a false gospel contrary to what he preached? There's hope in the Gospel of Jesus that declares it's possible for the biggest sinner out there to be brought to repentance if he turns and repents and he will find mercy. You see, friends, when we quit preaching the law and how all mankind is a guilty rebel who has broken God's strict and severe law and that God is a just judge who must punish sin, and because God must punish sin, the sentencing of the law must be carried out against all those guilty rebels who have broken his law time and time again through sin and who refuse to repent from sin.

They must die in their sins and be cast into a place of punishment for sin called hell. Do you hear that preached in this country today? No. You just hear, God loves you.

God loves you. Just believe in Jesus and you will go to heaven. That's the watered down gospel of easy believism in your day and mine, and it sends countless millions to hell.

Let me tell you, friend, there is a closed heaven to the unrepentant, a closed heaven, because God will have no rebels in his kingdom. We live in a day of such sad spiritual declension in the church, even in our major denominations, that we don't even know what the gospel is anymore, much less know how to preach it. And the third parable in our portion of Luke's gospel today speaks of the lost son, the prodigal son, which old Dr. Schaeffer said was a backslidden saved believer, but in reality is a perfect picture of a lost sinner turning from his sins and coming savingly to the Father.

In verse 17 of chapter 15, I love what the Puritan Bible commentator Matthew Henry had to say about this verse, where the lost son comes to himself. Matthew Henry does not treat him as a backslidden saved believer, but a lost sinner who needs Christ listened to his words. Sinners will not come to Christ till they are brought to see themselves ready to perish in the service of sin.

And in verse 21, where the lost son declares, I have sinned, Matthew Henry states regarding the father's response to the son, thus does the grace of God provide for true penitence. First, the righteousness of Christ is the robe with which they are clothed. They put on the Lord Jesus Christ, the robe of righteousness, the garment of salvation.

A new nature is this best robe. True penitence are clothed with this being sanctified throughout. What the gospel is, friends, is getting men lost, showing them their need of a savior, informing them of their duty of immediate repentance.

And if they do not repent from their sins, they will die in their sins and their sins will carry them, follow them into hell as an indictment against them. But we today try to shove Jesus down people's throats with our diluted gospel before they are even made thirsty for Jesus. But the gospel is for the hungry, the weary and the thirsty soul who has a need, who sees himself as a big sinner, who needs pardon from sin.

My Bible tells me that John the Baptist preached repentance. He preached that men should bring forth fruits worthy of repentance. And he said, repent ye for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Jesus Christ preached repentance in Matthew 4, 17. The word of God declares irrefutably from that time Jesus began to preach and to say, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And he declared, for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance and accept you repent that you shall all likewise perish.

Listen, friends. Jesus' first sermon was on repentance and his last sermon to the churches in Revelation was on repentance. He told them to repent and his disciples preached repentance as well.

And we see this where Jesus sent the twelve forth to preach and his disciples went out and told folks, God loves you. God loves you. Just believe Jesus as your personal Savior and you will go to heaven.

Only believe and you will go to heaven. Isn't that what they said? That's what old Dr. Schaeffer thought they said. That's what he taught his seminary boys for years.

No, this is what the Bible said about Christ's disciples and what message they preached. Listen carefully, friends. And if you want to argue about this, then take it up with God for the word of God says.

And they went out and preached that man should repent. That's how the early Christians preached. That's how the apostle Paul preached.

In Acts chapter 20, Paul is addressing his followers who have heard him preach the gospel of the Son of God and its full console with all its warnings and terrors and wooings. We read in verse 20 and 21, the following from the word of God, which is irrefutable and it declares and how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have showed you and have taught you publicly and from house to house, testifying both to the Jews and also to the griefs, repentance towards God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. The scandal of the cross, friends, is that men everywhere should repent.

But the cross in our gospel today is not a scandal but a disgrace for we've removed all the blood from Calvary. You don't need the blood of Christ to wash away your sins because you don't need to turn and repent from your sins. You can just believe in him and remain in your sins and still go to heaven because that's what we tell folks today.

But Jesus Christ shed his precious blood for sin and he demands repentance from every sinner who desires to be saved from sin and its penalty. There must be a pardon for sins, friend, and there is no pardon to the guilty rebel who refuses to repent toward God and turn from his sins. There is a closed heaven to the unrepentant.

I repeat, there is a closed heaven to the unrepentant. I urge you today, friend, to turn from your sins and repent before it's too late.