As early as 1937, Dr. H. A. Ironside noted that the biblical doctrine of repentance was being diluted by those who wished to exclude it from the gospel message. He wrote, “The doctrine of repentance is the missing note in many otherwise orthodox and fundamentally sound circles today.”1 He spoke of “professed preachers of grace who, like the antinomians of old, decry the necessity of repentance lest it seem to invalidate the freedom of grace.”2
Shallow preaching that does not grapple with the terrible fact of man’s sinfulness and guilt, calling on “all men everywhere to repent,” results in shallow conversions; and so we have myriads of glib-tongued professors [of faith in Christ] today who give no evidence of regeneration whatever. Prating of salvation by grace, they manifest no grace in their lives. Loudly declaring they are justified by faith alone, they fail to remember that “faith without works is dead”; and that justification by works before men is not to be ignored as though it were in contradiction to justification by faith before God.3
1, 2, 3H.A. Ironside, Except Ye Repent (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1937), 7, 9, 11.
Excerpts from MacArthur, John F.. The Gospel According to Jesus (p. 268). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.