Ruined Guilty Condemned

Listen to me friends, this may be the most important message of your life because chances are many of you have never heard the real gospel before. What you have for religion is a band-aid that won't cure your problem. No sir, it won't get the job done.

Now stay with me friends and let me tell you a story about a man who was in the hospital dying and he only had a few days left to live. It seems this man was dying from a poison in his blood. He was too far gone as there was no medical cure for this poison in his blood.

This man eventually died. I'm here to tell you this evening friends that you too have a poison in your blood and it's a matter of life and death and if you stay with me through this message I will give you a remedy for your sickness. I'm going to state three things about your life that you will be able to relate to about these three things because they're part of your human condition and I'm going to explain it so a little child may understand it as well as a Ph.D. I have a earned Ph.D. so for you eggheads out there I can stand on your level but I'm going to bring it down so you kids can understand it too.

These three things are ruined, guilty, condemned. That's all you need to know for now. I will open up each one of these three terms for you this evening.

The title of my message is ruined, guilty, condemned. Listen to me young man. Listen to me young lady.

Listen to me as I need your undivided attention because you will have to face each one of these three things as they pertain to you personally. Before we proceed I want you to take a pen out. I want you to write your name down on a piece of paper.

You can write your first name down in the margin of your bible or you kids out there can write it on your cell phones in your notes but I want you to write your first name and after you've written your first name there's two words I want you to put after that. Those two words are is ruined. Joe is ruined.

Judy is ruined. My name is Ernest so I would write Ernest is ruined. You with me? The reason you were ruined is because man is born with the poison in his blood.

This poison which is the fall of nature leaves a stain upon him because of sin. My bible has this to say about sin. All we like sheep have gone astray.

Each one has turned to his own way. Listen friend. Sin is going your way when you know it isn't God's way.

Some of you younger people here know when you're disobeying your parents. God is your father and to go against his will for you is sin. Ernest is ruined because man comes into this world with a fallen nature and bent towards sin.

You enter this world friend with a poison in your blood because of the fall of Adam in the garden when he disobeyed by sin. Now stay with me for when Adam sinned and disobeyed God he died spiritually and he passes on to all men this spiritual poison in the blood. I say you have a poison in your blood.

My father passed it to me by giving me a fleshly natural condition and his father gave it to him on down all the way back to Adam. This is clearly seen in God's word in Romans 5 12 which says wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned. What this means friends in plain English is you're not a sinner because you sin or rather you sin because you are a big sinner.

Look at what you wrote with your name. Ernest is ruined. Read your name and say that about yourself.

Go on. You can go ahead and say it. It's true friend.

You are ruined because your natural condition as a man or a woman you have a poison in your blood and you were stained by sin. Hear me now. I pray that the Holy Spirit will take this message this evening and apply it to some heart.

You must be dealing with these three issues at some point in your life friend. You might as well deal with them now instead of staying in eternity and deal with them then. Listen to me.

Sin gives a moral and real defilement. It fixes on the very soul a person of stain that every time you sin that stain goes deeper and it's harder to come out. Years ago I was preaching in a church down south in Mississippi one Sunday morning and it was customary down south after the service was over to have a big smorgasbord for the visiting preacher.

Well we all went into the fellowship hall where picnic tables were ready and a long table of buffet food was sitting there. Well I like hot dogs so I loaded my plate up 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 before me.

I sat down with a 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 new blue suit. The old deacon shook his head and said well at least we know now you are human. Well I took that suit to the cleaners but that mustard stain never came out of that blue suit.

It always had a green hue and that's what sin does to you friend. It stains you and it won't come off you. You can try to whitewash sin by calling it other names but that won't work.

A fib is still a lie. A fooling around is still adultery. Taking something that doesn't belong to you is still stealing.

You can't whitewash sin by renaming it. Now listen to me. Sin is still sin and it leaves a stain on you morally that you can't wash out by even church membership.

My blue suit had that mustard stain and it's still there. This stain from sin cannot be dealt with on human terms like that dying man in the hospital who had blood poisoning. He had no remedy to save him from a human standpoint so he died.

So too all men will die and face an eternal death. My bible declares in Hebrews 9 27 and it is appointed unto man wants to die but after this the judgment. But that brings us to the next thing friends of importance to you personally.

Secondly I want you to write beside your name. Give your name a new new space there on your piece of paper and beside it friend write two words. Write is guilty.

Joe is guilty. Judy is guilty. Ernest is guilty.

Every mother son and daughter will one day be arraigned at a trial before a judge. Have you ever been to a courtroom friend? A judge will stand. You will stand before that judge whom the bible says he will by no means clear the guilty.

You'll stand there guilty as charged and a penalty must be paid. Let me share a story with you friends. When I was a young person like some of you I was 16 years old and I ran a stop sign and a police officer saw me and pulled me over and wrote me a ticket.

Well I went home and showed it to my mother and she said don't worry about it we'll fight it and the day came for my appearance in court when it was my turn my name was publicly called and I had to stand before a judge who sat in a black robe. A black robe that signified his power and authority. Well my mother had told me what to do that when I was caught up there I was to lie to that judge and tell him I didn't do it that way we wouldn't have to pay the fine.

That's why we went to court and sat there all day. Well as I stood before that stern looking judge he asked me a simple question. He said son did you run that stop sign? I knew I was guilty as charged and I hung my head and I answered yes your honor I did it I broke the law.

My mother was so mad at me for not lying to that judge she yelled at me all the way home for being so stupid because she had to pay a fine for my breaking the law. But listen friends earnest is guilty and I knew it before that judge you were guilty you were guilty too. Read your name to yourself and add the words is guilty because man has broken God's law by sin and a last judgment awaits all mankind and you can't escape it friend.

Listen to me let me describe this terrible courtroom scene to you that you may be standing at someday. It's found in the book of revelation in chapter 20 beginning in verse 11. Let me read it to you now and give you a preview of what your own day in court will be like in that coming day.

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 no and there was found no place for them. Let me pause here friends to say this judge of all the earth sits on that great white throne. It is white as a symbol of his holiness because the judge is God himself and that judge is Jesus Christ.

He is perfect, he is righteous, he is just. Every case presented to him will be reviewed personally by him as the evidence is presented to him and examined by his intense scrutiny. Oh well who was facing that judge? Let's read on friends.

And I saw the dead small and great that means you standing 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. What that means young man, young lady, is that there is a biography on your life that's being written on your life as you live your life every day. Your life is watched from heaven and recorded by attending angels.

All of your works your thoughts your words the deeds you do in your body are all being video recorded so to speak by heaven's camera if I may so say and kept written and recorded in a book on your life that will one day be opened. You only have one life to live friend. How you live it will be revealed on that day where all is laid open and naked before his pure holy eyes.

Heaven and earth fled from the fierce face of that judge and you will tremble at your knees before him as you stand there and your life is held up against his strict and severe law. God made a heaven and God made a hell and if you want to go to heaven when you die you must pass the test of perfection because God requires perfection to get to his holy heaven and no man is perfect friends. My bible says all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Let's read on in our story from revelation the last book in the bible about the last judgment 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 but this is the second death and whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. What this terrible scene describes friends is when the guilty sinner stands before a holy God as judge over his creation. God made you he formed you in your mother's womb he gave you the color hair you have the color skin you have he gave you your eyes your lips your body he gave you life to live in this world that he created for his glory.

How you live your life will determine how you die either as a saved person or as a lost person. Saved people go to heaven lost people go to hell which is that terrible lake of fire mentioned in the book of revelation. If you die friend in your natural condition you die in your sins and you stand condemned before that judge.

Take the time now friend to write beside your name the following two words write your name your first name and write is condemned Joe is condemned Judy is condemned Ernest is condemned. Why? Because if I stand there before that judge in my real nature as a guilty sinner then that judge will have to carry out the sentencing of the law just like that judge issued me a fine for breaking the law by running that stop sign. But many you have been running from God he has wooed you by his spirit but you've spurned him turned away from him you've had folks praying for you throughout your life but you haven't come to Jesus you've been on the run from him and sin you know you have deep down you know you are a sinner and you stand guilty as charged just like I couldn't lie once I stood before that judge I knew I was guilty I had to tell him the truth that I had broke the law and by sin you too have broke the law of God and the penalty is death death in a place a punishment for sin in a prison of a devil's hell if you've been keeping up with me friend in this message about your life and about your certain destiny then you have written three things down beside your name I'll read mine to you earnest is ruined earnest is guilty earnest is condemned the verdict is in when I stand before God will I stand there saved or lost and that's what you gotta ask yourself right now friends when you die and stand before God will you stand there saved or lost saved is heaven and its rewards lost as hell and its torments well you ask preacher what do I have to do to get saved let me tell you friend I've got good news to folks who know they are lost I've got good news to those of you who know you were ruined guilty sinners as charged condemned by holy God because of the stain of sin in the broken law of God by transgression and sin the first message of the gospel is that God must punish sin you've just heard that now you have to have to be ready for the second message of the gospel which is a savior from sin Jesus Christ came into this world doing good I'm sure you've heard about him and the good things he's done friends you probably heard it when you were little kids Jesus came healing the sick giving sight to the blind raising the dead feeding the hungry giving hope to the weary yet what happened to Jesus do you know some of you do well wicked man cried away with him and nailed him to a cross first the Roman soldiers beat him and whipped him and spit in his face then they put a purple robe on him and humiliated him they put a reed in his hand and they bowed to him and mocked him they then blindfolded him and slapped him across the jaw with the palm of their hand saying prophesy who hit thee then they led him to a hill outside the city of Jerusalem to a place called Calvary and even made him carry his own cross there until he fell and a man had to help him then once he was there they stripped him naked and nailed him to that cross and every stroke of the Roman's hammer was an explanation point that God must punish sin God must punish sin God must punish sin Jesus died so I wouldn't have to die he died becoming a curse as my substitute for sin taking the wrath of God on him I stand guilty before God because earnest is ruined earnest is guilty earnest is condemned in Bible times friends listen to me in the old testament the priest would have to enter the holy holies in that temple and sprinkle the blood of bulls and goats on an altar as a sacrifice to God for sin it was a reprieve a pardon but it only lasted one year he had to go do it again but my Bible says in Hebrews chapter 9 and verse 12 he says this about Jesus neither by the blood of goats and calves but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place having obtained eternal redemption for us did you hear that friend remember the stain that sin leaves on her soul the hymn Jesus paid it all states Jesus paid it all all to him I owe sin had left a crimson stain he washed it white as snow earnest is ruined and so were you earnest is guilty and so are you earnest is condemned but wait I have a savior from sin in the person of Jesus Christ and he died for me he loved me and gave himself for me I am saved when I exercise repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and I pass from death to life when I come to that blood-stained Christ and believe on him listen to me friend when his life's laid down and applied to me God can look at me and say oh when I see the blood oh when I see the blood I can now write beside my name earnest is saved listen to me friends the cross is the place where men sought to get rid of Jesus but by his death it becomes a 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 this is your time friend this is your time to do business with God in regard to your soul you have a soul that one day you're going to die and that soul's going to go back to the God who gave it your body's going to be placed in the ground some of these kids go out here in the car and get in the car wreck and they're buried as teenagers you never know if you're going to make it till tomorrow I've stood at funerals where a 16 year old was laid in a grave in a car wreck listen to me friend men are debtors and prisoners who need to be freed because of a broken law and a stain of sin oh I'm gonna sing a refrain from one of my favorite hymns to you now friends if you're part of my voice will you come to Christ as the spirit leads you as I sing but there is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins and sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains lose all their guilty stains lose all their guilty stains and sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains the dying thief rejoiced to see that fountain in his day and dare may I though vile as he wash all my sins away and you can wash your sins away too friends do business with God friend get to Christ the remedy for sin