You Can'T Thumb Your Nose at God and Stay Out of Hell — E.A. Johnston

A Generation That Mocks God

There is a generation today in our land that lives as if there is no God in the world. We have a generation of young people today who thumb their nose at God and dare Him to do anything about it. There is a craze sweeping this land among our teenagers called the Blasphemy Challenge where it tempts teens to curse God and thousands are doing it and laughing about it.

We have a generation of young people who are experimenting with drugs and alcohol and sex like it's no big deal. Teenagers today don't even date anymore, they just sleep around with multiple partners of both the opposite sex and the same sex.

Their primary pastime is posting nude photos of themselves on Instagram and Snapchat and when they dance, they grind on one another like animals. Like I said, this generation takes delight in thumbing their nose at God, mocking God with their lips and mocking God with their lives.

Galatians 6:7 and the Certainty of Reaping

But listen friends, don't thumb your nose at God and believe you will stay out of hell. You just can't do it, but many today believe they can thumb their nose at God and get away with it. My text is found in Galatians chapter 6 and verse 7.

You can turn in your Bibles there now. I want to read you this verse of scripture because it is God's word and God's word has authority. This is the word of God. Be not deceived, God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.

And when I look that up in the Greek, it's translated, don't thumb your nose at God. And the title of my message today friends is this, you can't thumb your nose at God and stay out of hell. And that's what the nations of the world are doing right now, they are thumbing their nose at God.

Britain’s Spiritual Decline

Great Britain wants a spiritual blessing to the world, is now a despot nation with a pretty much atheist population for the most part. Great Britain used to canvass the world with the gospel, with its great missionary enterprise and sent forth fiery evangelists like George Whitefield and John Wesley.

But now more church buildings in Great Britain are closed than open. Most of the old churches in England and Scotland are now coffee houses, post offices, tourist centers and taverns. England now thumbs its nose at God.

America’s Rejection of God

America, a nation founded on biblical principles and settled by vital Christianity, has experienced national spiritual awakenings that shook this nation from coast to coast. We have been the recipient of God's favor for time and time and time.

America used to be a nation that feared God and had a love of the word of God. Now it's a nation that thumbs her nose at God and mocks God, a nation that has no time for God. America shakes her angry fist in the face of God and dares him to do anything about it.

Our politicians are God haters. Our Supreme Court justices are God haters. Our military hates God. Our universities hate God. Our public schools hate God. Our entertainment media hates God. Our news media hates God.

And our print media hates God. But my Bible declares, be not deceived. God is not mocked. For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. If you are a fornicator, friend, you will reap hell's fires.

If you are a liar, friend, you will reap hell's fires. If you are a blasphemer, friend, you will reap hell's fires. God is not mocked. What you're doing right now will come back to haunt you someday. You can count on that.

Sin, Judgment, and the Harvest of Hell

The sins you are sowing now will stack up against you at a future judgment and they will indict you. They will condemn you to a burning place of misery called hell. I was out to dinner the other evening and sitting next to me was a table with two women.

And the whole time I sat there, they talked about the married men they were sleeping with. They were mad that the married men weren't leaving their wives for them. And the table on the other side of me had two women sitting at that table.

And the whole time I sat there, they talked about the men they were sleeping with. And on the TV screen on the wall in front of me was a clip from a TV show called Entertainment Tonight and it showed a completely naked woman and people were laughing about it.

If that's entertainment for you tonight, friend, I can assure you this, that what you watch now and enjoy now and laugh about now is sowing you a harvest that will be reaped one future day. God is not mocked whatsoever you sow now, you shall one day reap.

The Uncertainty of Tomorrow

But your problem is that you think you have all the time in the world. You can sin all you want to and God does nothing about it. But you could be dead tomorrow, friend. Just a few days ago, I was talking to a man in a hallway.

He was a young man in good health. He went to bed that night and in the morning he awoke with chest pain. He got out of bed, took two steps and dropped dead to the floor. They buried him this morning.

He thought he had many years left ahead of him. And so do you, friend. But you don't know what tomorrow will bring forth. A sudden death is all around you. You may have a cancer forming in your body right now that hasn't manifested itself yet.

You may have a blockage in your main artery and your next steak dinner will be the one that does you in. In a major city, I read the local news and a young lady was just riding her bike down a city street and she was gunned down and killed while she was out getting some fresh air and exercise.

You could be gunned down in your town tonight, friend. You have no guarantee of tomorrow. But many today believe that God is a God who won't punish sin. They believe that God is only a God of love and he wouldn't send anybody to hell.

Delayed Judgment Is Not Absent Judgment

Many preachers believe such nonsense and preach it, but they are dead wrong, friends, dead wrong. And many today believe that because they are sinning now with abandon and God is leaving them alone, that he will never bring judgment upon them.

But my Bible declares, because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set on them to do evil. And that sums up the people of our nations today, friends.

That sums up the people of Great Britain, the people of America, the people of Canada, and all the rest of the nations on this globe. They can mock God now and believe they can get away with it. But God is not mocked, friends.

God is not mocked. What you sow is what you will reap. You sow the wind, you will reap the whirlwind. I can promise you that. You hold a fire to your bosom, you will be burned eventually. But this generation of God-hating people can thumb their nose at God and believe they can get away with it.

But they can't. God is not mocked. You can't thumb your nose at God and believe you will stay out of hell. I know a man who used to be my good friend. He was a Christian man who once claimed he loved Jesus, and he served in several capacities at his local church.

A False Profession and Unrepentant Sin

He had a good Christian family, a faithful wife, and some good-looking kids. And one day he began to lust after his secretary. Soon he was in adultery. His marriage crumbled, and this man's never returned to God these many years.

Rather, he's had a series of girlfriends. He's never repented from his sins. God has not punished him. His business flourishes. He's got plenty of money, and he gets a new girlfriend on a regular basis.

He believes he can thumb his nose at God and get away with it because he's getting away with it for now. But God is not mocked of what he is sowing. He shall also reap, and unless he repents, he will surely drop into a burning hell and be tormented in that endless place of misery.

He can thumb his nose at God now, but one day the judge of all the earth will place his foot on his neck, for he will make his enemies his footstool. And the sad thing is, there's others just like him.

Hypocrisy Within the Church

There are thousands of church people today who are deceived by false teachers. They have swallowed a watered-down gospel, and they believe they are on their way to heaven. But their lifestyle hasn't changed one bit since they've joined the church.

Oh, they might have cleaned themselves up a little to be more presentable when they are with their church friends on Sunday. But during the week, they thumb their nose at God just like everybody else.

They thumb their nose at God by the television programs they watch. They thumb their nose at God by the movies they watch. They thumb their nose at God by the music they listen to. They thumb their nose at God by their bad disposition.

They thumb their nose at God by their unforgiving hearts. They thumbed their nose at God with their lying lips, and they thumbed their nose at God by their unholy conversation. I'll never forget the church elder I knew.

This man would stand and pray in the sanctuary on Sunday morning, and you thought that an angel from heaven was speaking, and words that fell from his lips would just bring you right up to heaven itself.

But when this man came to my office during the week, he had the filthiest mouth of any church member I ever heard. This old boy could cuss like a sailor during the week, but on Sunday morning he was an angel.

But you can't thumb your nose at God, friend, and believe you will stay out of hell. My Bible declares, God is not mocked. If you are a hypocrite, you will die a hypocrite and end up in hell. I was having lunch with a church deacon, and he was disappointed we weren't eating at his favorite restaurant.

I asked him what his favorite restaurant was, and he said Hooters. You see, friend, you can be a deacon today and still thumb your nose at God, and I believe the main problem within our churches today is the fact that we have shrunken God down to our size.

The Gospel and the Lordship of Christ

We have placed him on human terms, and we are deceived into believing we can sin as much as we want to and still go to heaven without a repentant heart, because you can be saved today without turning from your sins.

At least that's what most pulpits preach on Sunday mornings. Only believe, just believe, and you will be saved. But listen, friend, the gospel is not less holy than the law of God, and God did not send his blessed son down here to die on an ignoble cross so man could do as he pleases and sin all he wants to.

Listen, friends, we are living in a day of the most lawless bunch of church members in history. They cry away with all restraint. Nobody's going to tell me what to do and how to live my life. We will sow to the wind and sin all we want to and still go to heaven, and they can do that, friends, because we live in a day where the church has rejected the lordship of Jesus Christ.

The cry in our churches today is, we will not have this man reign over us, and the same crowd that nailed Jesus Christ to that bloody cross makes up a good number of our church membership today. But you can't thumb your nose at God and stay out of hell.

There is a reckoning day, a settling day coming. Be not deceived. God is not mocked. For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. But some of you don't believe that. You believe you can live your life as you please.

The New Birth and Christ as Savior

You believe you can sit on the throne of your life and rule there and still go to heaven. That's what you believe. At least that's how you act. You don't let your profession of faith get in the way of your daily living.

You believe you can thumb your nose at God and he won't see it, but he's watching you, friend. He's putting all your actions and all your words and all your thoughts and all your motives into a book that will one day be opened when your life is reviewed.

God requires perfection to get into his heaven, and you have not been perfect. You have broken the strict law of God time and time again. And your trouble is you don't have a sin substitute. You don't have a sin substitute because you don't possess Christ.

You've never been changed. You'll stand in your own merits on that day and you'll be held up against the strict and severe law of God. And you will fail that test and be cast into hell because the sentence of the law must be carried out by a just judge, friend.

You see, when a person comes to Christ savingly, God performs a supernatural work upon the heart. Through the new birth, a self is dethroned and another is enthroned there, the Lord Jesus Christ. If he's not your Lord, I can promise you, friend, he is not your savior.

The Final Warning to Repent

You can't thumb your nose at God and stay out of hell. I don't care if you're the chairman of the deacons. Now, I have a fight on my hands. Folks don't like hearing that. But I would rather face your fierce looks as you look at me and be honest with you and warn you of your great danger of down in your sins, then flatter you and entertain you and have your blood on my hands.

Listen, friend, listen to me. You can't thumb your nose at God and stay out of hell. I will leave you with this warning. Be not deceived. God is not mocked for whatsoever. A man soweth that shall he also reap.