Chain Me Up in Hell There's No God for Me — E.A. Johnston

Spiritual Decline in Society and the Church

I've lived a long time, and I've never seen days as dangerous as this. Sudden death is all around us. Statistically, when someone dies in this country, one out of two of them dies suddenly. All you have to do is step outside today, and you can be gunned down by a madman or catch a deadly pestilence.

I've never seen a time where the nation rots away with moral decay, in a sin-soaked society spinning out of control into moral chaos. And I've never seen a time when the church was in such poor spiritual desolation, in the very vice grip of spiritual declension, and oblivious to her condition and to her imminent danger.

The Fool’s Rejection of God’s Authority

And a once God-fearing nation has turned into a godless society, and the motto of just about everybody seems to be found in Psalm 53, verse 1. The fool has said in his heart, there is no God. But we must be truer to our text, dear friends, for that's not how it reads in the original language.

Because there are two italicized words, which are interlopers, they were added on. The words are, there is, and they don't belong there. So the text should really read, the fool has said in his heart, no God, meaning, no God for me, no God to rule over me, no God to tell me what to do, because God is a killjoy and I want to live my life on my terms.

I live my life the way I please, and then let the chips fall where they may. You can go ahead and chain me up in hell if you want to, but there's no God for me. And that's the title of my message today, friends, chain me up in hell, there's no God for me.

Hell, Judgment, and the Consequences of Sin

But, you know, it's no laughing matter, because over in 2 Peter 2, 4, we read, For God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment.

And we see another reference to hell, where Jesus spoke a parable about a soul being cast into hell, over in Matthew 22, 13. Then said the king to the servants, bind him, hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness, there should be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

The Golf-Course Illustration of Defiance Against God

But this doesn't scare a hardened sinner who has no God. In his attitude, he just says, chain me up in hell, there's no God for me. This is better illustrated, friends, by a story of a man I knew. He was a giant of a man, well over 6 feet 4, and weighing over 300 pounds.

He was intimidating to be around. Well, he was a member of my golf club at the time, and the two of us were out on the driving range early one morning, before our round of golf. And as he towered over me, as he stood next to me, hitting practice balls, he would curse God with every swing he would make.

He had a foul, vulgar mouth, but he seemed to take special delight in taking God's name in vain. Finally, I turned to him and said, friend, can I ask you a question? He replied, sure, go ahead. I looked up at him as I gathered my nerve, and I said to him, I was wondering, how's your relationship with God?

Well he smiled a big grin and answered, fine, I have a great relationship with God, I leave him alone, and he leaves me alone. That's what this big man was saying, and what he was saying was that he acknowledged there was a God out there, as the fool in Psalm 53, but he was saying, no God for me.

I'll curse God if I feel like it, and I'll live my life my way, and you can chain me up in hell when I die, for there's no God for me. I don't want nothing to do with him, I leave him alone, and he leaves me alone.

Nominal Christianity and the Desire for a Convenient God

And I believe, friends, that it is the attitude of the great mass of people out there today who thumb their nose at God and dare him to do anything about it. They say collectively, no God for me, if there's a hell, so what, it won't be that bad when I get there, so chain me up in hell if you want to, but I'm telling you now, there's no God for me.

But a fool's view of God is a wrong view of God that will affect him for all eternity. Now I'm going to say something that might rub a few good church members the wrong way, but I say it in love, I believe there's some church members who hold the sentiment as well.

They certainly would not want to go to hell, but they still want a God who won't get in the way of their daily living. By their wicked lifestyle, they're saying, no God for me, God won't deal severely with me because my God wouldn't send anyone to hell.

Reprobation and God’s Final Abandonment of the Hardened

That's how some church folk think, but it's wrong-headed, they're in a sinking boat as that giant of a man who said he left God alone, and God leaves him alone, and I believe that's the worst state of a man, when God leaves him alone.

In Genesis, God declares, my spirit will not always strive with man, I believe there comes a time in a person's life where his rejection of God reprobates him, like the verse found in Jeremiah 6 .30, which declares, reprobate silver, shall men call them, because the Lord hath rejected them.

A man without God, who has rejected God, can be so hardened that hell won't frighten him, he can care less, go ahead, chain me up in hell, there's no God for me.