His Dying Love — E.A. Johnston

A Prayer for Conviction and the Gospel

Great and dreadful God, I come before you by the blood of thy dear son Jesus. I ask you in the name of Jesus for you to work in some poor sinner's heart here during this message of the gospel of the Son of God.

I pray for your pungent presence to be in our midst to where we will be confronted with the awful solemnity of a holy God and his broken law. I pray for your spirit to come and disturb folks and lead someone here to the very verge of eternity.

Lift the lid off that dark, bottomless pit of abyss and smoke and open their eyes so they can see the red flashes of those burnings there. Open their ears so they can hear the cries of the damned for there is no rest for the wicked.

I pray that you reveal your Son to a sinner here tonight and open their ears, open their eyes to behold a bleeding and dying Christ on that bloody cross on Calvary. Come and give divine grace to distressed, needy sinners.

I pray these things in the strong name of Jesus, Amen. I'm taking the gloves off tonight, friends, and I'm gonna hit straight like we say in the South. I'm gonna give you the oil straight from the can.

Human Ruin, Redemption, Regeneration, and Repentance

By the time this message is over, you will have heard the unvarnished gospel of ruin, redemption, regeneration, and repentance. Man comes into this world with a poison in his blood, a ruined nature, and a bent toward sin.

The Sinfulness of Man and God's Mercy

Job had this to say about the awful condition of man. How much more abominable and filthy is man, which drinketh iniquity like water? That means man can't get enough of sin. I'm talking to you, friend.

You can't get enough of sin. You're not satisfied looking at one picture of a naked woman on the internet. You want to drool over thousands. God is holy, and he hates sin, but God is compassionate. He is a God of mercy, and he has made a way to escape the penalty of sin through the blood of his son, Jesus.

Christ's Agony in Gethsemane

I want you to be still in your hearts and minds now as I take you. Come with me, friend, to a terrible scene over 2 ,000 years ago. Pull up your chair and hang onto your seat because the ride may get a little rough as I proceed.

In Luke's gospel, in Luke 22, 41, we read,. And he was withdrawn from them about a stone's cast, and kneeled down and prayed, saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but thine, be done.

And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him. Let me pause here, friends, to say it must have been a great wonder and startlement to the angels in heaven to look down from their portals from on high and see the Son of God prostrate on the ground in agony of soul, so much that God the Father turned to one of them and said, Go help my son.

Christ in Isaiah is prophesied to be the man of sorrows. And there in Gethsemane, lying prostrate on that ground, sweating so profusely and furiously that his very sweat is like drops of blood, which indeed would soon be the case when he is soon arrested and falsely tried and crucified at Calvary, where there his blood will splatter the very earth that he created.

Oh, wonder of wonders, Christ's agony for sinful man. There was agony in that garden because years ago there was anarchy in another garden when man rebelled and sinned against God. And through that disobedience tainted, the entire human race would sin.

God's Love and Christ's Sacrificial Death

Yet some ask, why is he there? Why is he suffering so? Because way back yonder in the eons of eternity, God sat down in heaven one day, and if I may so speak, he took out his pen to write a love letter to fallen man, and he wrote the following words, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Then he handed that love letter to his dear son, and Christ took that letter to Calvary and signed it in his very own blood. Jesus was led away from this scene in Gethsemane by a band of soldiers who took him by force, dragged him to a kangaroo court of religious frauds who falsely accused him, who then turned him over to the Roman governor Pilate, who cross-examined him and found nothing criminal about him, but he caved under the political pressure placed upon him, and he sentenced Jesus to die by crucifixion.

The Cross, Divine Justice, and Forgiveness

But first he was taken to be mocked, slapped, and spit upon by base Roman soldiers who then dragged him to Calvary where he was crucified. The Roman soldiers fastened Christ to the cross by pounding nails through his hands and feet, and as the Roman soldiers lifted their hammers and brought them down with brute force, every stroke of the hammer was an explanation point that God must punish sin, God must punish sin, God must punish sin.

But there, on that bloody cross, the Prince of Glory suffered and died. There, the compassions of a dying, blood-stained Savior from sin was heard from his trembling lips, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.

On that cross, Christ bore the weight of sin and experienced the turned face of the Father, who is so holy he cannot look on sin. Jesus cried, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? The provisions of the gospel are plentiful, friend.

Christ's Invitation to the Thirsty and Weary

Hear the compassion and love of a bleeding and dying Christ as he cries. If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.

The gospel is for the hungry, the weary, and the thirsty. Let me ask you, friend, are you hungry for God? Are you weary of your sins? Are you thirsty for Christ? Christ's reception of sinners is guaranteed, Jesus declares.

All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. Christ saves sinners. Are you a sinner? Then come to him and believe on him. The duty required is to come.

The Immediate Call to Repentance and Faith

Come, friend, if God has been speaking to your heart today to show you your need of a saver from sin, then don't delay. You come to that cross and kneel at the nail-pierced feet of Jesus and say in your heart, I can't resist him no longer.

Look at that man on the cross, friend. Look at that bloodstained saver from sin. With his arms outstretched, beckoning you to come to him and believe on him. Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.

Oh, look at that bloodstained saver from sin as he wrestles there under the weight of sin. Come to this blessed saver now, friend, and surrender your all to him. Listen to this gospel plea of a compassionate saver who died for me.

Hear him. And the spirit and the bride say, come. And let him that heareth say, come. And let him that is a thirst, come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.