Believing in the Gospel is the issue not Moral Improvement

"If any reader is disturbed by the present author's insistence on logic, reason, intellect, and knowledge in comparison with his lack of emphasis on righteousness, it should be remembered that (1) there can be no righteousness without knowledge; (2) American evangelicalism puts most of its emphasis on conduct, morality, the fruits of the Spirit, and 'practical' Christianity; (3) there is a woeful lack of emphasis on truth, theology, the teachings of Scripture. Of course these... teachings have moral implications, but the righteousness enjoined in Romans 12-15 plus some in chapter 16 has as its foundation the eleven preceding chapters. Does it not follow, therefore, that a minister should preach eleven sermons on deep doctrine to every six or five-and-a-half on conduct? The latter should by no means be omitted: The crime and depravity of American society is without parallel in history aince the time of the Roman Empire. Nor has the church itself much to be proud of it. But a one-sided preaching of righteousness will have little effect on Las Vegas or New York. Not until this alcoholic, drug-ridden scum hears and believes -- faith comes by hearing, not by mystic encounters -- hears and believes the doctrines of the Trinity, the Incarnation, the atonement, justification by faith, and the Second Advent, will there be any moral improvement. It is justification alone that produces sanctification, and justification occurs by means of faith alone." - Gordon H. Clark, What is Saving Faith?