Guilty As Hell Before Holy God

Great and dreadful God, I come before you by the blood of thy dear son, Jesus. I ask you, Lord, for your spirit to attend the preaching of your word. I ask you to come and work in hearts tonight and that your spirit will calm and disturb folks, that you will bring holy ghost conviction of sin and lead some poor sinner here this evening to the very verge of eternity.

Lift the lid off that dark bottomless pit and open their eyes so they can see the red hot glow of those burnings there. If they're heading for hell, then warn them and let hellfire flash upon their soul. Open their ears and let them hear the terrible cries of the damned.

Let them get a whiff of the burning sulfur as it billows forth and ascends with fury out of that smoking pit of a raging furnace. Great God, in your mercy, I pray that you will open someone's heart to see a bleeding and dying Christ on Calvary hanging there with his arms outstretched squirming there under the awful weight of sin. Come and awaken an alarm.

Come and disturb some secure sinner here tonight. I pray these things in the strong name of Jesus. Amen.

When I was a little boy in the 1950s, things were different in America back then. I remember this country when Hollywood had censors, politicians had a conscience, and America had a moral compass. Hemlines were lower, and morals were higher, and sin was called sin and not social disorders.

Of course, we didn't have the technology that we have today. Back then, if you said Microsoft, they thought you were referring to your mattress. And we didn't have Wi-Fi, we had Hi-Fi.

It was a time when only women wore earrings, and only sailors had tattoos. I remember America when it still had a strong work ethic, and business abounded in honesty and integrity, and a man's word and handshake was as good as gold. And I remember in America when a parent did not have to worry about what their kid saw on TV, and marriage was between a man and a woman.

But there was such a thing as shame in society back then. I remember America when the church still had authority, and there was still a fear of God in the land. I remember a nation that stood on biblical principles, and looked to God for guidance, and to the church for direction.

It was okay to pray in public school back then, and the Ten Commandments were publicly displayed, and if any atheist cried out against it, there were more than enough Christians to shout that person down, because God had the majority in the nation back then. Back then, there was such a thing as a weekly prayer meeting in the church, and people actually came to pray. And they weren't embarrassed to cry when they prayed, and they prayed loud and long, and did so until they grabbed hold of God, and the fire fell, and consumed the sacrifice.

The church back then didn't operate on money and manpower, but by God and Holy Ghost power. Back then, the church influenced society, instead of society influencing the church. And I remember preachers who preached about the blood, and the cross, and they warned that hell was hot, and a future judgment awaited all mankind.

Those kind of preachers weren't afraid of men, but they sure feared the Almighty. I keep using the word remember, because all I have is my memory of those former things. Men deserve to hear the real gospel.

With God's help tonight, friends, I'm going to take the gloves off, and hit straight and hard. Like we say in the South, I'm going to give you the oil straight from the can, and preach to you the undiluted gospel of the Son of God, that talks about a holy God, and His broken law, about sinful man, and a future judgment, the penalty for sin, for the unsaved, and a burning hell, and salvation, in a bleeding and dying Christ, who hung on a bloody cross, so we could have forgiveness of sin. So pull up your chair, friends, and hang on to your seat, as we pull back the curtains of eternity, and travel into the great beyond.

In Luke 22, 41, we read, and He was withdrawn from them about a stone's cast, and kneeled down, and prayed, saying, Father, if Thou be willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but Thine be done. And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him.

Let me pause here, friends, to say, it must have been a great wonder and startlement to the angels in heaven, to look down from their portals from on high, and see the Son of God prostrate on the ground, in agony of soul, so much that God the Father turned to one of them, and said, Go help my son, Christ and Isaiah, his prophesied, to be the man of sorrows. And there in Gethsemane, lying prostrate on the ground, and sweating so profusely and furiously, that his very sweat looks like drops of blood, which would indeed soon be the case, when he is captured, and falsely tried, and crucified at Calvary, where there his blood will splatter the very earth that he created. Oh, wonders of wonders, Christ's agony for sinful man.

There was agony in that garden, because years ago, there was anarchy in another garden, when man rebelled against a holy God, and through that disobedience, tainted the entire human race with sin. Yet some ask, why is he there? Why is he suffering so? Because way back yonder, in the eons of eternity, God sat down in heaven one day, and took out his pen, if I may so speak, to write a love letter to fallen man. And he wrote the following words, For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Then he handed that love letter to his dear son, and Christ took that letter to Calvary, and signed it in his very own blood. But to see the nature of humankind, one must go back to a time when there was the sound of a hammer in the woods. We read in Genesis, And God looked upon the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted his way in the earth.

And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh has come before me, for the earth is filled with violence through them. And behold, I will destroy them with the earth. I will stop there.

So God tells Noah to build an ark for the safety of him and his family, and to preserve the animal kingdom. And it wasn't long that the inhabitants of the land began to hear a pounding coming out of that forest. It was the sound of a hammer pounding away on gopher wood.

And as that sound of the hammer echoed through the forest, it was magnified in the ears of the people, because every hammer blow on that ark of safety was a sermon and a warning to them to flee from the wrath, to come. And as old Noah worked away, he would cry out, Come to the ark of safety, friends. Come to the ark, for judgment is coming.

And old Noah just kept on pounding and kept on preaching, as he obeyed God and built that ark, which was the only thing that would save them from the coming flood of destruction. But did the antediluvians turn to God and hear Noah and repent? No, they mocked. They just laughed at such a spectacle of an old man building such a monstrosity as an ark, when it was obvious to anyone with any sense that there was no need for it.

They just held their bellies and laughed and laughed at such an old fool. Christ spoke of this time in the Gospels when he said that they were eating and drinking and being given in marriage up until the very day that the flood came and destroyed them. Surely had the people of Noah's day known in advance the overwhelming size of the tragedy which would soon befall them, what rains and floods would surround and engulf them, what the extent of the raging waters would drown them and their cattle and all the beasts of the field, that their homes would float and then sink, and that they would be helpless in the swirling waters to alleviate their entire circumstance.

Imagine the sorrow and regret that filled their hearts as they were drowning and watching their children drown beside them. How they must have hated themselves for not heeding the warnings of Noah and booking safe passage on that ark of safety. Rather, they laughed, they mocked, and they drowned.

Surely had they known all this, they would not have become so foolish and reckless. Rather, they would have become grave and serious and reformed themselves and repented before God to avoid such a horrible end as drowning. Listen, friends, Christ is the ark of safety.

The earth today is filled with violence. There's blood in the streets and the people have corrupted themselves with more perverse devices and opportunities that far out sins the people of Noah's day. This sermon that lands in your ears, friends, is a solemn warning to you.

It's a warning that unless you repent, you will surely go to hell as sure as the sun comes up tomorrow. But the sun may be setting on your opportunity to come to Christ and be saved. For God's spirit will not always strive with man, and God will in no wise clear the guilty.

If you have not trusted the blessed Savior, receive him now before it's too late. Soon, he will come in judgment on this world when his anger shall burn as an oven, and then you shall meet him as your judge. Let me tell you about Jesus.

Jesus, the ark of safety to a perishing world. Jesus came into this world doing good. He healed the sick.

He gave sight to the blind, fed the hungry, and gave rest to the weary. He even raised the dead to life. Yet what happened? Men cried, away with him, and nailed him to a cross.

He was crucified between two common criminals on a hill called Calvary. His innocent hands and feet were fastened, hammered there with nails. Remember Noah's hammer and how it was a warning of a coming judgment for sin? Calvary's hammer sounded forth as well as the son of God was fastened to that cross.

Every stroke of the Roman's hammer was an explanation point that said, God must punish sin. God must punish sin. God must punish sin.

Look at that blessed man on the cross, friend. Look at that bloodstained Savior from sin as he hangs there with his arms outstretched, beckoning you to come to him and believe on him. Look at that man on the cross.

When all is against him, his love flows out to a world of guilty sinners. Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me.

The cross is the place where wicked men sought to get rid of him, but by his death it becomes the place where his saving power flows out to all who come in repentance, confessing they are sinners and own them as their Savior and Lord. I want to end this message, friends, with a dynamite story. I know you'll want to hear it.

Hang on for a little while longer, friend, for what I have to tell you may just keep you out of hell. My Bible says, and it is appointed unto man once to die, but after this the judgment. John Wesley called the last judgment the grand of size because it's a great courtroom scene.

We find a vivid picture of this heavenly courtroom scene in the book of Revelation in chapter 20, where it speaks of the final judgment day. Come with me, friend, as I take you there, as I throw the curtain back on eternity. In Revelation 20, and in verses 11 through 15, we read God's Word.

And I saw a great white throne and him that sat on it from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God, and the books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the book of life.

And the dead were judged out of those things which are written in the books according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them. And they were judged, every man, according to their works.

And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

I will stop there. I want us, friends, to picture in our minds that great heavenly courtroom scene where the dead, small and great, the rich and the famous, the known and the nobodies, stand there before that judge who has eyes of fire. As books are opened and lives exposed beneath his intense scrutiny, the whole world is represented that day.

Here come the Roman emperors. There is Julius Caesar and Tiberius, Caligula and Nero who fed Christians to the lions in the Roman Colosseum. Here comes the world rulers.

There is Cleopatra, Napoleon and Alexander the Great. Here comes the pimps and pornographers who trafficked in the flesh of women. There stands Hugh Hefner who ruined generations of young men with his perverted magazine empire.

There stands mass murderers like Hitler and Stalin and Saddam Hussein. There are the great discoverers like Columbus and Marco Polo. Here comes the famous Hollywood actresses and actors who clutched their Oscars in life and now they tremble before a holy God.

Look over there. There stands Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe. There stands the rock stars who ruined generations of young people, influencing them to drugs and demon worship.

There's Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin. There stand the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. Why, here comes the superstar singers.

Why, there's Elvis and Michael Jackson, Sinatra and Crosby. There stands the billionaires like Warren Buffett and Bill Gates who didn't believe in God but who made money their God in life. There stands the philosophers.

There is Plato and Aristotle, Buddha and Confucius. And there stands Voltaire, the French atheist who ridiculed God and tried to do away with him and the Bible. There stands Charles Darwin and Karl Marx.

There stands all the drug dealers and the beer barons who ruined the lives of families. There stands the captains of industry and heads of state, American presidents and English kings, popes and emperors. There stands Pharaoh who stood against Moses.

There's Bloody Mary who butchered Christians. There stands the great minds of all of history, Einstein and Edison, Nietzsche and Freud. Here comes the art world.

There's Matisse and Monet, Renoir and Picasso. Well, here come the literary lions, Hemingway and Fitzgerald and Faulkner, Flaubert and DeMoss upon. There are the famous poets, Shakespeare and Poe, Keats and Shelley.

There's the great composers, Mozart and Beethoven, Bach and Chopin. The sports world is represented. Why, there stands Muhammad Ali and Babe Ruth.

Arnold Palmer and Michael Jordan. There they are, the small and the great, as they stand before God and their lives are exposed, revealed and reviewed. Books are opened.

Evidence is presented. Cases are reviewed and verdicts are delivered. For the sentencing, the law must be carried out.

There sits a holy God and a broken law. One by one, they stand before that great white throne and the judge of all the earth. And should not the judge of all the earth do right? One by one, the verdict is read and they are bound hand and foot and cast into that lake of fire.

It spits and sputters as they scream and wail and spit and curse and they are led away and thrown to their doom and damnation. But there is a great roll call from every generation of every civilization. There stands the adulterer and the fornicator and liar and murderer.

Here I come as my name is called and I stand there before that pure white throne. It's a heavenly courtroom scene complete with all the participants. The great white throne symbolizes purity and the holiness of God.

Christ Jesus is the judge seated on that throne. And if I may so speak, the angels are the bailiffs in charge of the books. Satan is the prosecutor, the accuser of the brethren.

I hear a voice of authority as it declares, EA Johnston, come front and center. It is roll call. There I stand trembling before that throne and before that judge.

My sins are stacked up against me. They rise against me like a mountain before me. There I stand in that dark shadow of my collective sins I did in life.

Sins of commission, sins of omission, willful sins, presumptuous sins. My mouth is stopped as my sins accuse me. The strictness and severity of God's unbending law is held up against me as a holy and righteous God drops his plumb line on me.

He measures me and I fail that test. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. A guilty sentence hangs over my head like the sword of Damocles, ready to descend at any moment.

My knees tremble and all the blood drains out of my face and a story comes to my mind as I stand in that heavenly courtroom. It's a story about a man traveling through the city of St. Louis. It's all coming back to me now and it's a Sunday and he's a Christian.

So he parks his car at a downtown church and goes inside to worship. Once he's in there he realizes he's the only white person in an all-black church so he takes his seat on the back row. Up on the platform is a well-dressed elderly pastor who's speaking on his subject for that Sunday morning.

His subject is heaven. He begins his sermon by saying, some folks call heaven paradise. Other folks call it Abraham's bosom.

I like to think of heaven this way. Here is Jesus just returned from his earthly ministry. He stands there at the pearly gates and old Gabriel greets him.

Hello, Jesus. Sure is good to see you, Jesus. We sure missed you up here, Jesus.

Good to have you home, Jesus. But wait, who's that with you? Is that that thief from the cross? Oh no, sir. We can't have no thieves up here.

He's not welcome here. Jesus replied, never you mind, Gabriel. Never you mind.

And just then Jesus put his arm around the thief and declared, he's with me. That's the story I'm thinking about as I stand guilty before that great audience and before that great white throne. My sins condemn me.

I'm guilty as charged as I wait the sentencing of the law to be carried out upon me as the guilty verdict is read. I can see the red glow behind me of that burning lake as it flashes hellfire upon my soul. But just then there's a disturbance in the courtroom.

It's my defense attorney. My advocate rises to his feet. And he comes beside me and puts his arm around me.

And in a loud voice he declares, let him in. He's with me. But then a shout of hallelujah rings out in that courtroom as I enter into God's presence forever and ever.

There stand my loved ones and friends to greet me. It's a reunion unlike any on earth. Bless God for his mercy and grace.

And thank you Lord Jesus for dying for me on that bloody cross so I could live. And the spirit and the bride say, come. And let him that hear us say, come.

And let him that is a thirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.