Johnston in Prison

It was over 30 years ago that me and another man drove two hours out in the country where I was to preach my first public sermon at a federal penitentiary and all the while getting there I was as nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs. I was nervous because number one it was my first public sermon and secondly I was scared because I was going to be in a prison speaking to hardened criminals and I was afraid and on the drive there the more I thought about it the more uneasy and nervous I became. When we pulled up to that imposing building we had to pass through several levels of security before we could get to the room where I would be doing the preaching.

We passed through several security checkpoints and finally we were cleared to proceed and a uniformed guard led us to a concrete room with about 40 wooden chairs in it all in several neat rows and a wooden podium at the front and then a heavy door opened and in walked the prisoners and they looked me up and down with stern faces as they seated themselves in those 40 chairs. Then the guard left and closed the door behind them and left us in there with those convicts. I couldn't believe he did that and as I walked up to that podium my knees were trembling and I looked around the room at all those murderers and thieves and rapists and I became so uneasy because all I could think of was how easy it could be for a couple of them to jump me and stick a shiv in me and I trembled as I began my message that night as a young inexperienced preacher to a tough audience of hardened men.

I thanked them for allowing me to come and speak to them and I tried to smile as I announced my text from Psalm 40 and I told them that this was the word of God and then I began to read it to them. I waited patiently for the Lord and he inclined unto me and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of a horrible pit out of the miry clay and set my feet upon a rock and established my goings and he hath put a new song in my mouth even praise unto our God of many shall see it in fear and shall trust in the Lord.

Blessed is that man that maketh the Lord his trust and I shut my Bible there and I held my Bible up and I told those men that the writer of this Psalm was a man in a jam. He was a man who didn't know what to do but he knew why he was in that pit. He had gotten himself into some kind of trouble and now he was stuck stuck in the mud the mire so to speak.

He was trapped in a bad situation and men couldn't help him and no one could he look to and his situation seemed hopeless and every time he looked down at that miry clay he finally would look up and he looked up and he looked up and he looked as high as he could and as he did he began to pray. He began to call upon God as his only hope. He prayed for God to help him instead of looking down he began to look up to look up to heaven to where the only help could come from the God of that heaven and I told those men the best I knew how that you don't have to be locked up in a prison to be a prisoner in this world.

You can be a free man on the outside with a good high-paying job and still be a prisoner to sin. Sin you see was the problem. Sin was the problem of man in this world.

Sin caused heartache. Sin broke up homes. Sin caused misery and crimes and chaos in the world and I told those men about a God in heaven who hated sin but he loved man enough to send his only son here into this world to take away sin and to set man free and his name was Jesus and that no matter how bad you've been God longs to reconcile sinful men back to him for men were trapped in a horrible pit that they could not get out of no matter how hard they squirmed no matter how hard they tried to climb they just kept slipping and sinking.

I'm getting broken up just thinking about it friends they just kept slipping and sinking lower and lower like this man in the pit in our story uh but God heard his prayer and bent his ear and leaned over and heard that cry and God reached down and pulled him up pulled him out of his troubled heart and set him free and put a new song in his mouth even praise to God and I told those men about the love of Jesus who came down here so we can go up there and it is he who sets us free if you'll only trust in him and I stopped speaking and said that was the end of my message and I hoped it had helped him somehow but then my worst fears were realized when several men jumped out of their seats and rushed me I closed my eyes and stood there with my arms stiff at my side stiff as a board expecting the worst to happen to me and I felt their arms around me and I almost shrieked but when I opened my eyes I saw smiles on their faces tears in their eyes and they hugged me and thanked me and loved on me and told me that they appreciated me taking the time to come all the way out that night and speak to them but they were genuinely moved by that message and I learned something that night friends in that prison that it sure is true that sin gets you into trouble but no matter how bad you've been and no matter what evil deeds you have done but there is a savior who can change your heart and set you free from sin with all its ramifications his blood is enough his blood is enough friend his blood is sufficient to cover our sins and even though they be red like crimson they can be washed as white as snow if we only turn to Jesus