A Big Sinner Saved — E.A. Johnston

Prayer for the Lost and God's Mercy

As we get ready to pray for the lost, I want to read you a story about how God saved a big sinner. I'm going to relate it from a story that Rolf Barner told about how when he was preaching in Detroit, Michigan, he found out about a wicked sinner across town that was about ready to die.

And he was asked to go over by a deacon in the church to pray with this man and witness to him. And we see God's mercy and grace flood into the soul of this poor old sinner who was dying on his bed. And I want to read it to you because it's important for us to know how important prayer is when it comes to evangelizing our city and our town and praying over folks.

And I want us to listen carefully as I read you this sermon extract from Rolf Barner's sermon about this wicked man coming to his saving knowledge of God. It was how a big sinner got saved. Listen to it as I read it to us now.

A Dying Sinner and a Persistent Witness

I was holding a meeting in Detroit, Michigan, one Thursday after the benediction of the morning service. Old, freckled face, red-headed Mr. Childress came up to me. He worked in a Chevy factory in Detroit.

He said, Preacher, if I come get you tomorrow, I have planted, if you can. If you will, I will lay off work. He said, I'll come and get you. I couldn't tell you how to get there, but I'll come the 20 miles across town and get you and take you.

There's a man over in my neighborhood that's dying of cancer of the stomach. He's drunk so much booze that it rusted out his stomach and cancer set in. He's been down in the state of Georgia in a sanitarium, and the doctors told him he's going to die pretty soon.

And they couldn't do anything for him and asked him if he'd like to be sent somewhere to die. And he said, Well, I've got no kinfolk except my sister in Detroit, and I'd be much obliged if you'd ship me there and let her take care of me, and I'd like to die in my sister's home.

And so they sent that man there, and this red-headed man Childress found out about him somehow. And he's been going to see him, trying to witness to him, and the man was awful wicked. And he said he would just cuss him as he witnessed to him, and I never heard such wicked cuss words in all my life.

I just sit there and cry as he cusses me, and I can't get a word of the gospel over to him. And when he's not full of dope, he's just screaming in pain because that cancer is just gnawing his insides out.

And he said, It looks to me a fellow in that shape would be afraid to die and go to hell, but I can't get a word in edgewise to him. Preacher, I've got a lot of confidence in you. I'll lay off tomorrow.

I'll come and get you and take you over there if you'll go and talk to that fellow before he dies. I don't know if he'll do any good or not, but I sure love for you to have a shot at him before he dies.

I said, You come and get me. Well, that night came a blizzard. The next morning it was eleven below zero, snow and ice everywhere. Old Childress didn't give up. He chugged through the twenty miles of Detroit City traffic in the snow and the sleet and the ice.

And he got to me and we got in his car and chugged back. We'd get stuck in the snow. It was awful. They hadn't gotten the streets cleaned. Just a terrible blizzard. And finally we got over to where this fellow was and we got out of the car and went up to the house on the porch and rang the doorbell.

And his sister came and admitted us. And Mr. Childress said, I brought the preacher to talk to your brother. She said, I'm awful sorry, Mr. Childress. The doctors just left. And my brother's in such terrible pain that they gave him a double shot of dope.

And he's so sound asleep. He can't be woke up for several hours. Old Redheaded Childress, he was a good conservative Baptist. But he slipped down on his knees and began to pray. And I tell you, it was a sight to listen to him pray.

Prayer for the Unconscious and God's Power to Awaken

He said, Lord, that man's in there dying. And I've driven twenty miles and back in the snow. I laid off from work. And this preacher's over here. And I want this preacher to get to preach to this man one time before he dies.

And he said, Lord, please wake him up. Amen. And the sister went to the room. And in a minute she came back and said, praise the Lord, he's awake. I don't know. You can go on wondering about that tonight.

But the God I worship ain't dead, folks. He ain't dead. I got no time for these quacks, these folks that claim they have power to heal. I've got no power. But God has. God has. He don't heal a lot of folks.

But I've seen him heal some. Not many. Not many. Most of the folks don't get healed. But God ain't dead, brother. God ain't dead. And I saw him. You can't tell me that God didn't go in there and wake that guy up.

Confronting Sin, Hell, and Judgment

God's merciful. We went in. I was a little younger than I am now. And I went at the old boy all wrong. I tried to tell him about the love of God and the gospel. And I got started pretty good. And he started cussing me.

Oh, he just cussed up a storm. And when he kind of wound down, I did what I should have done to start with. Where we should start when we go to witness unto men. Tell them Jesus loves them. No. No. Talk about sin.

You talk about sin. That's where to start. That's where Jesus always started with sin. And, brother, I began to quote every scripture I could think of about sin. I quoted them all. And then I got on hell.

And I quoted every verse I ever memorized. And I just poured hell into that boy for about 20 minutes. And he started to cuss. And I talked louder. And I drowned him out. And then I got on the judgment.

I was absolutely without mercy. I went after him. And when I kind of wound down, he was sobbing like his heart would break. And he finally quit sobbing. And he said, Preacher, you were right. The reason I cussed this other fellow out, and I cussed you so much, is that it makes me feel a little better.

He said, Preacher, I'm dying. This old cancer is eating me up. And it's my fault. The doctor sent me back here to die. And I know I'll be in hell in a few days, or maybe in a few hours. And I'm scared to death.

And it just makes me feel a little better when I cuss. I said, Brother, if I was in your shape, I wouldn't be cussing. It won't be long until you're in the hand of God. He said, Preacher, there's no hope for me.

I've been as low down and mean as I've been. And God won't save an old sinner like me. An old devil like me, there's nothing for him to do but send me to hell. Boy, I had my fish. I had my fish. Anytime I find somebody that's got that attitude, I've got good news for them.

The Gospel of Grace and the Conversion of a Hardened Sinner

And I turned around, and I began to preach the gospel to him. And pretty soon, the Spirit of God was working in that old devil's heart. And the gospel message sunk in. And God can bring a man to eternal life anytime if it is apprehended and accepted and believed.

And then, bless God, just like a fool woman, when she's happy, he commenced to crying. And after he cried a little, old redheaded Childers, I looked at him. And if he hadn't fallen on the floor by the bed, just like a stuck pig, thanking God, thanking God.

And then he got up and said, Preacher, I told this fellow that you sing sometimes. I wonder if you'd sing something for him. I said, well. I turned to the fellow, and he couldn't talk then but in a hoarse whisper.

And I said, Would you like me to pick the song? He said, Preacher, I hadn't been to church in about 40 years, but I was raised in a home where they went to church. And my mother used to sing a song. I have kind of forgotten some of it, but I remember a little bit of it.

It was something about grace. I said, I wonder if it went something like this. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I'm found. Was blind, but now I see.

He said, That's it. That's it. And I sang through the first three verses. And he held up his hand and said, Preacher, I remember the last verse. I'm going to sing it with you. Then in an old broken voice, we sang together.

When we've been there 10 ,000 years, bright shining is the sun. We've no less days to sing God's praise than when we first begun. And after a while, we left. We bundled up and got in the car. And we were chugging down the road.

Thanksgiving for Salvation and the Mercy of God

And that car was just going that way and the other way. And I looked over and old Childer's eyes were filled with tears. His face was bathed in tears. I said, Pull over, you fool. You're going to get us killed.

What's the matter with you? He said, I'm just thanking and praising God. Ain't God merciful? I was the meanest, lowest damn devil that ever crawled on his belly. And I satisfied the lust of the flesh.

And God conquered me and saved me. And now he just saved that old devil. He drank enough booze to right out his stomach. And now he conquered him and saved him and put a song in his heart. Ain't God merciful?

And then we sat there together in that car and we sang to him. He died at Calvary. We had a good time. The next day, my phone rang. And the sister said, Preacher, my brother's dying. And he wonders if you can make it.

Will you come? He wants you by his side when he dies. And I got in a taxi and we got through the city traffic. But when I got there, he had gone to the other side. The sister said, Well, my brother said, the preacher's not going to get here.

Mercy for Guilty Sinners and the Urgency of Salvation

Tell him that God has shown mercy to another sinner. Oh, my friend, judgment waits a little while. Mercy, mercy is yours if you want it. But it's mercy for guilty sinners. If you'll take your place as a guilty sinner, God will show mercy to you.