Guilty Before A Holy God: Revival Sermon

Lord, it is my prayer that by your Spirit you will help me preach this sermon and that you will use it in the life of some hell-bound sinner to save them by awakening them to their lost condition and to see their need of a bleeding Savior from sin in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. We read in the book of Revelation, friends, in chapter 1, beginning in verse 9, the following striking words of the Apostle John.

I, John, who am also your brother and companion in tribulation and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day and heard behind me a great voice as of a trumpet saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, and what thou seest, write in the book and send it into the seven churches which are in Asia, unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea. And I turned to see the voice that spoke with me, and being turned I saw seven golden candlesticks, and in the midst of the seven candlesticks was like one unto the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to his foot, and gird about the paps with a golden girdle.

His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were as a flame of fire, and his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace, and his voice as the sound of many waters, and he had in his right hand seven stars, and out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and his countenance was as the sun shining in his strength, and when I saw him I fell at his feet as dead. Oh, wow, that's some startling scene, isn't it, friends? Years ago, back when I was a younger man, I visited the Greek island of Patmos, maybe some of you have as well, where the Apostle John received the book of Revelation and the Bible, and a Greek monk walked me up a mountain to a cave known as the Cave of the Apocalypse, that had an open Bible and a white dove painted above its entrance, and this monk told me that the tradition of the island was that the Apostle John was a very elderly man when he was persecuted for his faith and banished here to the isle of Patmos by the Roman Emperor Domitian, because John refused to participate in emperor worship. The early Christians were given a choice to say Caesar is Lord and be left alone, or if they refused and said Jesus is Lord, then there was hell to pay.

That's why John was on this rugged Greek island in the Aegean Sea, and as I stood there in the sunlight in wonder as the monk related to me how John received the visions of Revelation, he said John was an old man, and he laid his head in the crevice ledge in the cave and recited what he saw to his scribes from the visions that he received from Jesus, and I could just imagine the Apostle John frail, whom the Lord loved, old as he trembled at the terrible visions he received from the risen Christ, the vision of a great white throne with all of mankind standing before it at the judgment, while a red boiling lake of fire popped and crackled behind them. The great white throne signifies the holiness of God, and the lake of fire speaks of the sinfulness of man. God is a God who must punish sin.

The stark contrast of that white throne and that red lake is awful and alarming. The holy God who declares the soul that sinneth, it shall die, and God states the wages of sin is death, and for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, and God's word declares and as it is appointed unto man wants to die, but after this the judgment. So in the book of Revelation we have a description of the final judgment day.

I want to take you there now, friends. I want to stop, and I want you to consider heaven and hell. Consider a great white throne of judgment and a burning hell of punishment for sin.

I want to draw back the curtains of eternity, if I may so speak, with the aid of the Holy Spirit and walk you to the very brink of that final courtroom scene where the judge of all the earth sits there at that throne and reviews cases one by one, turning your Bibles, if you have one, to the last book in your Bible, the book of Revelation. I wonder how many of you this year have given any thought to how you will stand at the final judgment, or have you been so consumed in the vain pursuit of selfish gain to not even think about eternity? It has been estimated that 85 people a minute die outside of Christ and go to hell. Well, while I've been speaking, several hundred souls have been cast into hell.

It's been estimated that about 5,000 souls enter the region of hell every hour. That means approximately one million people a week die without Christ's blood and are shut up in that terrible, dark, bottomless pit. Do the math, and that adds up to over 50 million souls dying each year and being shut up in that prison of hell's torments.

Let 10 years go by, and another 500 million lost souls are cast into the torments and miseries of hell. Now, think of all the lost souls who have died since Noah's flood, and I submit to you, friends, that hell is a very crowded place. And I submit to you that everyone you know is heading for the judgment.

Well, that's my little introduction, friends, to my message today. And I want to begin our message by reading a striking passage of Scripture from Revelation chapter 20, beginning in verse 11. Here now is the word of God, and may the Spirit of the Lord attend the reading of His holy word.

And I saw a great white throne in 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 were 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, friends. I want to share a story with you that will put this in perspective. My sermon today has only two points, and my two points are these, sin stains and Jesus saves.

If you don't remember anything else from this sermon today, friends, remember that sin stains and Jesus saves. Well, let's see how sin stains. Let me share a story with you.

Years ago, I was preaching in a church down south in Mississippi one Sunday morning, and it was customary down south after the service to have a big smorgasbord for the visiting preacher. Well, we all went to the fellowship hall. We're picking the tables.

We're ready. At a long table, buffet food was lined up there. Well, I like hot dogs, so I loaded up my plate with a few hot dogs, and I like mustard on my hot dogs.

Some of you kids might like mustard on your hot dogs as well. So I lathered them up from a jar of mustard on the table that was before me. I sat down with an old deacon and his wife, and I wondered why they were staring at me so, until I realized I had smeared yellow mustard all over the front of my brand new blue suit, my brand new blue pinstripe suit.

The old deacon shook his head and said, well, at least we know you're human. I took that suit to the cleaners, but that mustard stain never came out of that blue suit. It always had a green hue.

Every time after that, when I wore that suit and looked in the mirror, it always carried that stain because it wouldn't come out, and that's what sin does to your friend. It stains you, and it won't come out. It won't come off of you.

You can try to whitewash sin by calling other names, but that won't do. A fib is still a lie. Taking something that doesn't belong to you is still stealing.

Fooling around is still adultery. You can't whitewash sin by renaming it. Now, listen to me, friends.

Sin is still sin, and it leaves a stain on you morally that you can't wash out, even by church membership. My new blue suit had that mustard stain, and it's still there, even though the suit is old, and so am I. There is a future judgment that awaits all mankind, where every mother's son will someday give an account of themselves to God. Well, how will you stand on that day, friend? Will you stand there with mustard on your blue suit, with the stains of sin on you? It'll be too late to change then, friend.

If we read in Revelation, as a tree falls, so it shall lay. And in Revelation 20 to 11, we see these terrible words. He that is unjust, let him be unjust still.

And he which is filthy, let him be filthy still. And he that is righteous, let him be righteous still. And he that is holy, let him be holy still.

Like mustard on a blue suit, your sins will find you out. You'll be found guilty of the stain of sin and breaking God's unbending law. And the sanity of the law will be carried out on all guilty lawbreakers.

But listen to God in his word from Isaiah 118. Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet, they should be whiter than snow.

Though they be red like crimson, they should be as wool. The old hymn says, what can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Only the applied blood of Jesus Christ can get that stain of sin off your soul, Jesus says.

But you have to feel your need of a savior for sin. You must get to Christ and close with him. Notice it says in the book of Revelation that whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

They had to be thrown in there. Nobody willingly sends themselves to hell. They had to be bound hand and foot and cast into that bubbling burning lake of fire.

Listen to Jesus' words from Matthew. Then said the king to the servants, bind him hand and foot and take him away and cast him into outer darkness. This should be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Those are terrifying words, friends. Weeping speaks of great grief and loss and gnashing of teeth signifies great anger and regret. Now remember, friends, how many points are there to my sermon today? Only two.

And what are they? Do you remember? Sin stains and Jesus saves. I believe I've convinced you enough how sin stains the soul and damns it for all eternity. Now let's look at the only remedy for sin, and that is Jesus saves.

That's in the person of Jesus Christ. No matter how big of a sinner you are, there is safety in appearing at the judgment in Christ's righteousness. Listen, friends, I know I am a sinner and I need a substitute for sin.

And so do you, friend. So do you. At the judgment, when we are held up against the strictness and severity of God's unbending law, all will fail that test because Romans 3 23 declares, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

I'm not a sinner because I sin. I sin because I'm a big sinner and a holy God requires perfection on our behalf to get into his holy heaven. I'm not perfect.

Neither are you, friend. Even though you may think you are, man is not perfect. When my life in your life is held up alongside the strictness of the law of God, and if I stand there in my own merits, I will fail that test.

I must stand in the merits of another, the Lord Jesus Christ. The only way to God, the only way God will justify me and let me into his kingdom is through the imputed righteousness of Christ. There is safety in appearing in the righteousness of Christ.

Jesus saves. He alone saves. The law curses us only for lack of perfect obedience.

Now the righteousness of Christ is that righteousness which the law requires of us. In Romans 8 4 we read, sending his son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemning sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us. The meaning is we might be made righteous by the imputation of Christ's righteousness, not by any righteousness in ourselves, but only standing in Christ's righteousness, so that when God looks at us, we are justified in his sight and heaven's gates swing wide open.

The demands of the law are satisfied in Christ's death on the cross. It is safe, friend, to go to the judgment seat of God, having no other righteousness to plead for or justification but Christ's righteousness. God convinces us of the truth of the gospel that there is sufficient righteousness for us in Christ and so we come to him.

Men carry great misconceptions of God in heaven. They feel they have to attain something to draw the heart of God to them, either by their works or good character or their own righteousness. But this is a great deception of the devil.

Men are ignorant to the provoked justice of God. They do not think God is angry with them for their sins, so they live lives of carnal security. But God declares in his word in Psalm 7 11 and 12, God is angry with the wicked every day.

If he turn not, he will wet his sword. He hath bent his bow and made it ready. The only way to appear before God, friend, in safety, is in the righteousness of Christ.

Paul tells us in Philippians 3 9 that I may be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of God by faith. And Galatians 2 16 declares, So a man is not justified by the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ. The way of salvation is by Christ, friend.

Sin stains and damns the soul, but by Christ's death and his blood, Jesus saves. Therefore, we must by faith get an interest in Christ. We must believe that there is safety in appearing before God in the righteousness of Christ.

Once we are convinced of this truth, then we will seek Jesus as the only remedy and refuge for sin. Is this your case, friend? Do you wish to close with Christ? Oh, don't go to hell, friend. Hell is a terrible place of eternal misery.

Do you admit that sin stains? Do you admit that? Do you admit that you're a sinner, friend? Do you admit that Jesus saves? Then what are you waiting for, mister? Don't wait until you're better. Come to Jesus for forgiveness of sin. Oh, that God may grant you grace to see the truth of the gospel and open your heart to draw you to Christ Jesus for pardon of sin and to stand in his righteousness alone to be justified in God's sight to receive eternal life.

But you must repent and believe on Christ. Listen to this gospel call. And it is my prayer that you just don't hear this shaky voice of an old preacher.

But through the reading of God's word, you will hear his voice speaking to you as it comes to you with majesty and attending authority. Listen, friend, to this gospel call. And the spirit and the bride say, come and let him that hears say, come and let him that is a thirst come and whosoever will let him take the water of life freely.