Church Full of Sinners — E.A. Johnston

There was a country evangelist who had a successful youth ministry and what he would do was to bring his little pony up on the platform at church with him to help teach the Bible to the kids why they just loved it.

He'd stand next to his pony and say, little pony, how many disciples of Jesus were there? And that pony would tap his hoof twelve times on the wooden platform to the amazement of everybody. Then the country evangelist would ask, little pony, how many commandments are there?

And that little pony would tap his hoof ten times and then stop. Then a wise-anchored teenager called out from the crowd, little pony, how many hypocrites are in this church? Then the pony commenced to go into a little dance.

Sin’s Deadening Effect on Society and the Church

Well, we live in a society, friends, that's in moral chaos and we are so desensitized to sin why everywhere we go we have to see things we shouldn't have to see. Years ago, when I was in England, I asked a pastor friend of mine why there was so much public nudity on billboards and in advertising.

It wasn't that bad in America yet at the time. We see so much of that junk on TV and in the media. We become desensitized to sin. You don't see the danger of sin anymore. Pastors no longer preach sermons on the sinfulness of sin.

Sin is hardly mentioned in our churches today. In some places, why, it's even a taboo subject. So we tend to think our favorite sins aren't that bad after all. You don't think your pet sin is dangerous because it's like a little pet puppy you cuddle with.

But if you could see your sin, friend, as God sees it, you'd see it's more like a viper ready to bite you than a little puppy ready to kiss you. Listen, one leak will sink a ship. One bullet will kill just as much as a stick of dynamite.

You need to see that sin for what it is, and sin is sin, and there are no degrees of sin. But there are degrees to crime. First-degree murder is different than third-degree murder. Petty larceny is for goods stolen under $400.

Grand larceny is for auto theft like grand larceny in the first degree. It's a felony that can land you in prison. Though there are different categories for crime, there aren't different categories for sin like our Catholic friends believe.

Human Sinfulness and the Classification of Sins

My mother was an Italian, so I had to go to catechism in the Catholic church when I was a little boy in the first grade. And I learned there were these sins that the Catholics list, and they list them by importance.

There's the seven deadly sins, and these seven deadly sins are pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, and sloth. Some of you getting ready for church this morning probably broke more than one of those sins.

You sat too long at the kitchen table, or you stood too long in front of your mirror getting ready. The worst level of sins to a Catholic are the four mortal sins of adultery, murder, blasphemy, and idolatry.

Some of you get so mad at one another, you'd kill that person if you could get away with it. Some of you have already committed adultery in your heart this week by lusting over a co-worker or a neighbor.

A few of you may have even taken God's name in vain in a fit of anger. A husband drooling over his wife's Victoria's Secret catalog can have as much adultery in it as the real deal, and an idol is something you put before God in priority.

You sacrifice time to it, and some of you men, your golf game is an idol. You look like a nice bunch of people, but in this crowd today, some of you are guilty of enough grievous sins to bring this entire building down upon our heads in a sudden judgment from a thrice holy God.

The Necessity of Pointed Preaching and Prayer

Well, that's my little introduction, friends. I'm not a popular preacher because most folks don't like pointed preaching or search and sermons. They rather be entertained and have their conscience soothed by ministers that preach nice little messages that don't upset anybody.

I remember reading about the evangelist Sam Jones, who shook America for God and revival, and he took a lot of hot persecution in the process for his pointed sermons, which stuck like darts in the liver.

But he commented, when the doctor says, you can't live but an hour, you'll want just such a preacher as myself talking to you. And that's the truth, friends. I'm going to be honest with your souls today, friends.

Like we say in the South, I'm going to give you the oil straight from the can because I preach undiluted gospel of the cross, of the Son of God, and His name is Jesus. Excuse me, friends, while I go to God now in prayer, I need help from above.

I'm getting some opposition here. Please bear with me. Great God, I beseech you now to anoint me with thy spirit and help me, Lord, to unburden my heart before these dear people today, some of whom need Jesus.

Step out of the pages of your book, I pray, and walk among us here today and by your spirit disturb folks and draw them to the dear Son, Jesus. Lord, is there anything too hard for thee? You are God of greatness with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm that is not too short to save.

I believe you have the power to show someone here who woke up this morning thinking they were saved and show them they are one step away from a devil's hell, that they've never been born from above or washed in the blood.

Have mercy, I pray, and give grace, Lord, at this hour. I pray these things in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. Well, I'm going to tell you about Jesus today. I'm going to talk him up for sure, Jesus, who came down here so we can go up there.

Christ’s Suffering and the Bloody Cross

I'm talking about this Jesus as described in Matthew's Gospel. Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the common hall and gathered unto him the whole band of soldiers. They stripped him and put on him a scarlet robe.

When they had plaited a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head in a reed in his right hand. They bowed the knee before him and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews. They spit upon him and took the reed and smote him on the head.

After that, they mocked him. They took the robe off of him and put his own raiment on him and led him away to crucify him. That's the Jesus I preach, friends. The Jesus who sits at the right hand of the Father and he earned that right by way of a bloody cross.

Job’s Warning About False Hope

I want to take my text today, friends, from the book of Job. Job was a man who experienced several things like no other man. Job was a man who experienced a time of taking, testing, teaching, and turning.

He was a man who went from washing his steps with butter to sitting in sackcloth and ashes. He had it all. He lost it all. And he regained it all. I like strolling through the pages of Job because of the richness of the text, why it's a literary masterpiece.

I also gain much comfort from it when I'm feeling down. And in its pages, I get a good glimpse of the God of the Bible, the one true God, the living God, not this little shrunken version we hear so much about today in the pulpits of our land, but God Almighty, why he's a super-duper God.

Do you know this God I'm talking about, friend? Have you ever experienced God? Oh, friend, when Jesus was here in his earthly ministry, as he passed through towns and villages, all who encountered him experienced change.

Have you experienced change? Are you a subject of regeneration, a work of grace upon the heart? Has a new nature been implanted in you by God's Spirit whereby now you long for three things. You long, you live for the glory of God.

You long for holiness in your daily living, and you long, you live to tell others about the Christ, to the gospel. Is that how you're living your life, friend? Notice, I didn't say one thing about serving in a church that's just expected when you join a church.

I'm talking about the things of eternal worth. Does Jesus Christ have first place in your life, friend? Does he have his rightful place of being on the throne of your life by his lordship? Is he preeminent in all you do and say in your life, above all things?

Does it grieve you when you sin? I recall when I was a Sunday school teacher in a big Baptist church, and my class ran over a hundred each Sunday, and I became friends with a man in that class. Sometimes we would play racquetball together.

One night while we were playing racquetball, he asked me what college I had graduated from. I gave the name of the college, and he said he graduated there too. He asked what year I graduated. At the time, I was a college dropout, but I was too embarrassed to admit it, so I lied to him and gave him a year that I graduated.

That was a Monday, and all that week I was torn up inside about how I lied to that man. Finally, before Sunday school class next Sunday, I grabbed him in the hallway, and I apologized to him. I asked him to forgive me for lying to him.

I told him I hadn't graduated from college at all. He was shocked that a Sunday school teacher had lied to him, and he quit being a member of that class soon after. But I had to ask for his forgiveness for lying to him, because God's Spirit in me had me under such conviction.

Do you know of which I speak, friend, or can you lie? Tell little white lies, and it doesn't bother you. Do you tell your pastor you couldn't make it to the prayer meeting because you were tied up on an urgent matter?

Does it matter that the urgent matter was watching a ball game instead? A white lie is still a lie. That's black as hell itself. My text can be found in Job chapter 8, in verses 13 through 14. Here now is the word of God, and may the Spirit of the Lord attend the reading of His holy word.

So are the paths of all that forget God, and the hypocrite's hope shall perish, whose hope shall be cut off, and whose trust shall be a spider's web. What that text means, friend, is seen in an illustration in real life, in this case a spider web.

I like to watch a spider build his web. The time and effort of that spider and the complexity of that web is truly fascinating. When it's done, it's so sturdy it can catch a bug three times the size of that spider.

But though the web looks strong, it never holds out in a bad thunderstorm. After the howling wind and downpour of steady rain, that web is all torn to shreds and pieces and washed away. What God's word is saying here is a solemn warning to all hypocrites that your hope is a false hope, and nothing more than a hole in the wall, and that hope will be cut off just like that spider's web that dissolves into nothing.

Religious Hypocrisy and False Conversion

I've been in the church now, friend, since the 1960s, and I've seen a lot since that time. I've seen the gospel get so watered down to where all the vital soul-saving and bone-crushing truths are diluted out of it to make it more palatable to sinful man.

But the trouble is, though it may be easier to swallow and join the church, it leaves you still an unconverted church member who is lost but now religious, and there's nothing more dangerous in this world than a lost religious person.

Look at what the Pharisees did to Jesus. They had him arrested, falsely accused, and crucified. I've been in Christian homes where it breaks my heart where the life of the family is no different than their lost neighbors.

The only difference was their lost family. This lost family got religion. They got religious, and then they started going to church, but nothing else has changed. The husband still took advantage of his customers to increase his business.

He still cussed like a sailor and loved to go on and on and boast about what he had and what he'd done. The wife was full of gossip and judgment towards others. The teenagers of the home were darling little devils, yet they called themselves Christians because a minister now told them they were saved because they did what he told them to do.

And when it came time to raise their hand, they raised their hand. When it came time to walk that aisle, they walked that aisle. And when it came time to repeat a prayer, they repeated that prayer. But I don't see any of those things in my Bible.

They're not real gospel truths. Listen to me, friend. Our modern evangelism has broadened the way of salvation in ways Jesus never did. Jesus said, enter ye in at the straight gate for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction and many there be which go in thereat because straight is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life and few there be that find it.

Jesus says, few find it. That means the majority just go on to hell, including all the lost church members. They're on that broad way and they go to hell even if they are the chairman of the deacons. Jesus said, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.

That means perish in a burning hell and ye must be washed in the blood, friend. Jesus said, verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. That means you must be born from above by supernatural work of God upon the heart to be a believer.

Means you have an experience of God to where the life of God is in the soul of man. Listen to me, friends. Hear me now. I saw a real revival take place at a church where first the men of the church got saved at a retreat.

Revival Through Genuine Conversion

God got a hold of them and saved a good number of them and they turned their lives over to the Lord Jesus. When they returned home, they started treating their wives differently. They were patient and loving and tender toward them.

They held their wives' hands when they had daily devotions with them at the kitchen table. They held their wives' hands while they prayed for them. The wives heard their husbands pray out loud for them and their children.

Soon this was too much for the women of the church. They knew what it was like to now have a man of God living in the home. He's the spiritual leader in the home, living by example, not just saying, do as I say, but actually saying, do as I do and backing it up with his life.

So the women of the church experienced revival themselves. They were saved. Several of them got saved as well. Well, it wasn't long until the teenagers in the church saw what was going on. The teenagers in the home saw what it was like having two parents with the reality of God in their lives where they were no longer just one way at church and another way at home.

But now there was a godly consistency in their lives. They became too much for the teenagers. So one night after church, the entire teenage membership of that church came to the altar in brokenness and tears, begging God to save them.

There wasn't enough Kleenex in the church that night to wipe all the tears that soaked the carpet of that sanctuary that night, friends. God can change you, friend. He can bring change. Jesus can transform your life, but you must come to him and lay it all upon the altar.

The Call to Repentance and Personal Salvation

Come clean with God. Put away your sins. Lay down your idols. Get serious with God, friend. He will get serious with you. He has a promise in his word about this very thing in Malachi. He declares, return to me and I will return to you.

I want us to use this time now, friends, to get right with God. I want you to drop down where you are right now and get on your face quietly before God and earnestly seek him. Listen to his plea out of the prophet Jeremiah.

For I know the thoughts that I think towards you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you an expected end. Then shall you call upon me and you shall go and pray unto me and I will hearken unto you and you shall seek me and find me when you shall search for me with all your heart and I will be found of you, saith the Lord, and I will turn away your captivity.

I want you, friend, to take this time now to get alone with God, get serious with God. If there's no reality of Christ in your life, it's high time you turn to Jesus and throw down your shotgun of rebellion and his nail pierced feet and believe on him and on him as your Savior and Lord.

Life is short, friend. You could be suddenly removed from this world unexpectedly and quite suddenly like so many of my friends went to bed one night in their bed and the next night they were making their bed in another world altogether.

This is business between you and God, friend. Go to him now. Think of how he hung naked on a scandalous cross at a place called Calvary for your sins. Look at that man on the cross, friend. Look at that blessed man on the cross.

See him there with his arms outstretched, beckoning you to come to him and believe on him. Look at that bloodstained Savior for sin, writhing and wiggling under the terrible weight of sin. My filthy sins, your wretched sins laid upon him that sacrifice for sin.

I know I am a sinner. I need a substitute for sin and so do you, friend. So do you. Get it settled right now, friend, with the friend of sinners, the Lord Jesus Christ. Are you a lost sinner? You must feel your need of him.

The gospel is for the hungry, the weary, and the thirsty. Let me ask you, friend, are you hungry for God? Are you sick and tired of your filthy sins? Are you thirsty for Christ and his living water? Then come.

What are you waiting for? You don't have to change before you come. Just come as you are. Come as you is. Only he can satisfy you, but he can't help the self-satisfied hear the words of Jesus. 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. Oh, one good look at Jesus is all you need, friend. One good look at Christ can change your life forever, friend.

Take a good look at Jesus. Surrender all you are to all he is, and he is Lord. Listen, listen to this last gospel plea. Seek ye the Lord while he may be found. Call ye upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous forsake their way.

Forgive this man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him. And to our God, a free will, abundantly. Pardon.