I M Good Enough for Heaven Because I M Not Bad Enough for Hell

Let me pray. Great God, there is none like Thee. You're a dynamite God who does super-duper things.

You haven't gone out of the miracle-working business. You're still doing miracles today by the fact that you can take a hell-bound sinner and give him grace and saving faith and then implant a disposition for holiness in him so he can live for you in a world gone to the devil. That's a miracle in itself of your resurrection power.

There's power in your gospel, Lord. There's power in the blood of Thy dear son, Jesus. I pray that you take your word tonight, right now, and use it like a hammer to bust up every false foundation here.

I pray, Lord, that your word will run by the power of your spirit and be like a fire to smoke out anyone who's in a false refuge, Lord. Come among us tonight, I pray, Lord, in open hearts and disturb some folks. I pray these things in the strong name of Jesus.

Amen. Well, I bring before you tonight, friends, a sermon on justification, and it's a solemn warning, for I fear there may be one or two or three or more of my hearers that have built for themselves a sailing ship to heaven that they've been traveling in on their earthward journey, believing all the time that it's a sound and safe vessel with a safe passage to heaven, because this is how you view yourself. This is how you think about yourself and eternity.

You say, I'm good enough for heaven because I'm not bad enough for hell. That's what you say. You look around and you see men that are really bad men.

You see mass murderers and serial killers and sociopaths, and you compare yourself to them, and you come away with good feelings about yourself and your eternal state because you're good enough for heaven because you're not bad enough for hell. Why? After all, you attend church, you give your time and money to the church, you pray, you read your Bible, and all these are like reinforcement nails in your sailing ship to heaven. The problem is all your plank boards are rotten and ready to break apart because you are righteous in your sight and you are justified in your sight, and it's by your own opinion of yourself because you measure yourself to other men and you tell yourself, I'm good enough for heaven because I'm not bad enough for hell.

But little do you realize a storm is fast approaching. They will test your little ship to see if it's sound or not, and it's absolutely impossible to be looked upon as righteous in God's sight because the plumb line you are using is deceitful. It's faulty.

It's your own heart, and your own heart is deceitful and terribly wicked. You see yourself as justified because of your long track record of religious service and a good opinion of yourself, but God sees you as naked and wretched and miserable and as a lost damn sinner exposed to his wrath on your way to hell. Almighty God in the last judgment will measure men only by the strictness and severity of his unbending law, and if you stand there, friend, before that great white throne, if you stand there in your own merits, the law will declare you guilty for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

Your only hope to be justified in God's sight is for you to stand there in the merits of another, the Lord Jesus Christ who shed his blood at Calvary for the sins of men and women and girls and boys, yet you still maintain, I'm good enough for heaven because I'm not bad enough for hell. But listen to me, friend. Good people don't go to heaven.

Only forgiven people get to go there. The ones whose sins are washed in the blood of the lamb. You're hardheaded in your resolutions, in your beliefs, and you've convinced yourself that you're justified in God's eyes because of who you are.

You're like that old Methodist woman I visited in the hospital when she was dying. I asked her if she was certain she was going to heaven when she died, and she said yes. I asked her why, and she said she thought she was going to heaven because she hadn't robbed a liquor store or killed anybody.

That's what the old gal said. What she was really saying was, I'm good enough for heaven because I'm not bad enough for hell. To believe you're justified in God's eyes because you were justified in your rise is a big mistake.

It's reckless. It's as reckless as dousing yourself with gasoline and jumping over a campfire. Where would you go to escape the wrath of God? The righteousness of Christ has never been applied to your soul.

His blood is not on your soul. You're like the wedding guest in Matthew's gospel narrative who's sitting there at that great wedding banquet, always having the time of his life. He's enjoying himself.

He's socializing. He's enjoying good food. He's in good company, and until the king comes in and discovers his natural state and says to him, Friend, how camest thou in hither, not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless.

His mouth was stopped. Then the king said to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness that there should be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Where would you go, friend, to escape the wrath of God when the world is dissolved into fire that the final dissolution we see in Revelation? Then earth and sky fled from his presence, and there was found no place for them, no place to hide when all creation is burning and raging flames.

Peter described the terrible scene of the final dissolution of all things when he wrote, But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat. The earth also, and the works that are therein, shall be burned up. Can this speak of a nuclear world war, where the entire earth is fried by a nuclear holocaust and melted with a fervent heat? How will you escape, friend? Where will you go to escape to a refuge of safety? Will you climb to the highest mountain? Well, that's a complete failure, as it was to the antediluvians in Noah's day.

They climbed to the top of the mountains, but the floods covered the highest mountains, and it became their watery grave. But at the end of the world, the mountains will all be all together on a smoke and melting like candle wax. Where will you go to find safety? Will you flee to the sea and find passage on a ship? No, the sea itself will be boiling like a bloody stew.

The only place you can go is to the devil. He will take you. Your righteousness will be accepted by the devil himself, because he knows you're still not justified in God's sight.

You're still in his kingdom. You're still his goods. You've only justified yourself in the eyes of yourself by comparing yourself to others who are as wicked as you are to the devil.

You go to be damned like the devil himself, the scribes, and the Pharisees in Jesus' day went about to establish their own righteousness. Look what it got them when God stood in their midst. These religious phonies put their filthy hands on him, on the Son of God, and crucified him.

That was their brand of righteousness. Righteousness for all the wrong reasons. Where will you go, friend, to flee from the wrath to come? Malachi declares that the Lord's day is coming.

For behold, the day cometh that shall burn as an oven, and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly shall be stubble. And the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that is, shall leave them neither root nor branch. Where will you flee, friend, when you are naked without Christ's robe of righteousness? You'll be exposed to God's fiery wrath, and that's unquenchable.

There is nowhere to hide from that scorching heat, but the only refuge for sin that can be found is in Christ's blood. I know I'm safe because I'm not bad enough for hell. I know I'm safe.

No, that's not it. I know I'm safe only because his blood is on my soul. The gospel is good news to poor sinners in need of a substitute for sin, a savior and a person of Christ Jesus.

This offer of Christ Jesus and pardon for sin is such an offer of mercy to guilty sinners that were those in hell at this hour to have such an offer as you have, why, how their chains would rattle. How can you refuse this Christ for salvation who hung naked on a scandalous bloody cross for sin, my wretched sins, your filthy sins? Listen to me, friend. Christ is the only remedy and refuge for sin.

God says in Isaiah, come now and let us reason together, saith the Lord, though your sins be as scarlet, they should be as white as snow, though they be red like crimson, they should be as wool, the pearl of great price, why, he's worth selling all for so he may be gained. I've got news for you, friend. Apart from saving faith in Christ Jesus, you'll never, ever be good enough for heaven, but you are bad enough for hell.

Your only hope is to flee to Christ for pardon of sin. Look that man on the cross, friend. Look at that bloodstained savior for sin.

See his blood dripping down that cross to cover your filthy, wretched sins. Jesus is hanging there, nailed up there with his arms outstretched, beckoning you to come to him and believe on him, he declares. Look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God and there is none else.

Someone this week said something about my appearance lately. They said I look like a withering corpse. That's what they told me.

Well, I am an old man with a shaky voice and I may look like a withering corpse, but I use my last ounce of strength to warn you of your danger of a self-deceived heart and a false sense of security. I don't want you to go to hell, friend. Why? Why? Can you tell me why you aren't on your knees right now crying out to God for mercy? Why won't you weep over yourself? Must I weep for you? Must I weep over you like Jesus wept over Jerusalem? Don't rest upon a false foundation of an empty religious profession.

Don't you rest on your good character. Don't you rest on your church attendance. Don't you rest on your good works.

Hell is full of baptized devils. You must be dressed in the spotless robe of the righteousness of Christ to stand justified in the Father's sight. You must see yourself as lost and undone and exposed to wrath and destruction and damnation apart from the saving blood of Christ Jesus.

Yes, you're bad enough for hell because of your natural condition that's under the condemnation of a just God who must punish sin and shall not the judge of all the earth do right. You can't wash yourself with soap and water and stand before a holy God. You must wash yourself in Christ's blood.

His blood must be on your soul. You must throw down your shotgun of rebellion at the nail-pierced feet of a sovereign and repent before it's too late. I plead with your friend.

I plead with you. And the Holy Spirit pleads with you. And the gospel itself pleads with you with its offers of mercy.

But you must feel your need of a savior because you're a lost sinner who deserves hell. The gospel's not for the righteous but for sinners. Are you a lost sinner? The gospel's for the hungry, the weary, and the thirsty.

Are you hungry for God? Are you sick and tired of your wretched sins? Are you thirsty for Christ? Let me reason with you, friend. Let me reason with you. Don't go thinking you're good enough for heaven because you're not bad enough for hell.

You're full of hell and that's where you're going unless you cast yourself upon a bleeding savior and own him as your savior and Lord. What are you waiting for? What are you waiting for? Come you, you unconverted deacon, and put your pride aside. Come you, you lost Sunday school teacher, and come to Jesus Christ.

Come you, Mr. Businessman who boasts and brags what he has and what he's done. Come you to a bloodstained savior for sin and embrace him by faith. He's your only hope.

Jesus is a faithful friend. He'll never let you down. He'll never let you go.

What are you waiting for, Mr.? Come to Jesus, you there woman who's been hiding under a church membership for years. Come you and admit you're lost. You're as lost as a goose in a snowstorm.

Admit your guilt and come to Christ for pardoned sin. You, young girl, you who needs Jesus more than anything else in the world. Come you to a bleeding Christ for salvation for sin.

Listen to me, young man. Full of yourself, full of strength, full of pride. Come you and realize your weakness and need of Christ Jesus to save you, to save you from the misery of hell.

Don't you guarantee that there'll be a tomorrow? You don't know you even have a tomorrow. You may be in perfect health, but God may cut you down suddenly. Listen to me, brother pastor.

How long will you put on a good front when you know inside all within is war, war, war? Don't be a stranger to the one you preach. Admit your need for the life of God in the soul of man. I've worn myself out preaching at you tonight, friends.

My strength is gone. A couple of years ago, I preached a hard sermon late one afternoon and went upstairs and had a heart attack. But if I have to, I'll die right here if it means my please keep you out of a devil's hell.

Why are you waiting? Why not be honest with yourself? Why don't you just admit you're lost and on your way to hell? Your best works won't keep you out of won't keep you out of hell and your best works surely will not get you heaven. Christ is your only hope. Justification is Christ's blood on your soul.

Come to God as a beggar seeking mercy and ask him for the grace of saving faith and believe on Christ while he is near. Oh friend, listen to this final plea. 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.