God Leave Me Alone — E.A. Johnston

The Peril of Being Left Alone by God

Years ago, I was playing golf with a giant of a man. He must have stood nearly seven feet tall, and he was as big as a parking garage. And every time this man took a swing at his golf ball, he took a swing at God, for he had one of the filthiest mouths I ever heard.

Every time he hit his ball, he would spit and cuss and curse. He'd damn God and curse Jesus. Finally, I turned to him on a tee box, and I said, Friend, can I ask you a question? He said, Shoot. I inquired, How's your relationship with God?

And this big man threw his shoulders back and stuck his broad chest out, and he grinned a big grin from ear to ear, and replied, Fine. I have a great relationship with God. I leave Him alone, and He leaves me alone.

And as I drove home that day from the golf course, I reflected on what that big man said. I leave Him alone, and He leaves me alone. And I thought out loud, All one has to do to wind up in hell is for God to leave you alone.

Men lie in great darkness, friends, and they are blinded to their peril of dying in their sins and their terrible punishment of damnation in a devil's hell. If their eyes could be opened to see the reality of their eternal sufferance and misery of separation from God, they would cry out now for mercy and beg God for forgiveness of sin.

Statisticians tell us that there are presently around 8 billion people in the world today. And I'm afraid, friends, that most of those 8 billion people are crawling all over each other's backs as they are going to hell by droves as fast as they can because all you have to do to wind up in hell is for God to leave you alone.

The Gospel Invitation and the Spirit's Regenerating Work

The gospel call in the book of Revelation is a free offer of the gospel we read in Revelation 23, 17. And the Spirit and the bride say, Come, and let him that heareth say, Come, and let him that is the thirst come, and whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.

Let that word thirsty in the amplified Greek reads, who is painfully conscious of his need. I don't believe a man can be conscious of his need until God's Spirit regenerates the heart and gives him a disposition for spiritual things.

I don't think a man hardened to sin with a stony heart will go to God for a drink of that living water because he is not painfully conscious of his need. In the epistle to Romans in chapter 1, the Word of God describes the downward course of man who despises God's Word and His work and creation and falls into such God-provoking sins of depravity and debauchery that it says God gave them over to a reprobate mind.

A Society Abandoned to Sin

I believe the majority of the world is in that category right now because when I look at society, it's full of the ungodly, the spiritually ignorant, the people are reaping sin's harvest of atheism and perversion and corruption because God has left them alone, because they wanted God to leave them alone.

And the nations of the world today are full of the unconverted as they line up like dominoes in a stance against the God of the Bible. But all it will take is one strong wind from heaven to blow and that long line of dominoes will come crashing down.

And as they fall, they fall end over end until they bust hell wide open because God left them alone. I think I can read you that verse from Revelation about whosoever will. And it won't make a hill of beans to most folks because they are not interested.

They have no need for it. And I believe if you're saved, friend, it's because God gave you saving faith. That's right. And not one of you people are ever going to get saved if you can help it. You'll never get saved if you can help it.

Salvation Requires God's Sovereign Intervention

Listen, friends, if God Almighty doesn't break your stubborn will in your old black heart and invade your life and conquer you, then you'll just have to go on to hell. If He left it up to you, you'd never get saved.

In Genesis, we see that an angel wrestled with Jacob. Old Jacob said, I'm not going to surrender, not me. And finally, the messenger smote him and crippled him. And then old Jacob came to his senses and Almighty God hasn't saved a sinner yet that he didn't first cripple him.

First sinner doesn't want to be saved. He doesn't want to go to hell. But he doesn't want to be united to a holy Christ either. God can send a messenger and cripple Jacob. And when Jacob is crippled, he'll have some sense, some sense of his need.

He will be painfully conscious of his need for a remedy of sin in the person of Christ Jesus. And when the messenger started to leave him, Jacob grabbed hold of his coat tail and cried, You can't leave me till you bless me.

The Rejection of Easy-Believism

If it was up to you, friend, you'd just go on to hell. This nonsense of God's done His part and it's up to you to do your part is the bane of easy believism. Today, we've taken salvation out of the hands of God and placed it in the hands of men.

You decide. God is absent from your decision. It's up to you. But when I read my Bible, I see a man by the name of Saul of Tarsus and he's on his way going down the road to go kill some more Christians.

And Jesus Christ met him smack dab in the middle of the road and invaded his rotten life and knocked him off his horse, got his attention, revealed himself to him and saved him by His grace. And God is still doing business today, friend, intervening in sinners' lives because He still hears prayer.

I believe if you're going to get saved, God's going to have to knock you off your high horse and regenerate your heart by His Spirit. I believe, friend. And it makes me sick to my stomach, but I believe it's true.

A Generation That Tells God to Leave Them Alone

I believe things have gone so far today that it chokes me up to say it. I believe we have a generation today of folks who don't give a hoot about God or care about eternity and they are lined up like dominoes in the wind because we told God to leave us alone.