The Guilty Sinner's Verdict — E.A. Johnston

The Guilty Sinner’s Verdict and Decision-Based Salvation

Today, in godless apostate America, we have filled our churches with folks who have made a decision. Whether it was a decision to join the church, or they made a decision for Jesus, or a decision to become a Christian, they got into church on the church roll by way of a decision.

For many of them, they go to hell by the same means, through a decision. The song, I have decided to follow Jesus, sums up our man-centered evangelism of our hour that puts salvation in the hands of man.

Man does it. He decides. But you can't sing that song, friend, until you come to a verdict about yourself first. I believe, friends, it's more biblical when we give men to make a verdict, rather than getting them to make a mere decision.

We must get men to make a verdict upon themselves before we can point them to Jesus. And I believe, in the day of our weak evangelism, that makes a mockery of God, the verdict that man must be brought to is, I'm guilty, there's hell to pay.

The Necessity of Conviction Before Salvation

The title of my message this evening, friends, is The Guilty Sinner's Verdict. And it is my aim to prove to you, every one of you, that in order for a man to be saved, he must first come to a verdict about himself.

Before anyone will see their need of a savior from sin, to stay out of a place of punishment for sin called hell, they must first see themselves as a sinner on their way to hell. I believe that's biblical.

That's the Bible way of salvation. Let me tell you the story about Charlie the Streetcar Conductor. He had to look down into hell itself and see his danger before he received his savior. Charlie Waterman was a drinker and a gambler whose wife had prayed for him for 17 years.

And he was such a big sinner, he would curse her and spit on her while she was trying to pray with their children. She often told him about Jesus, but he just cussed her anyhow. He saw no need of him.

Charlie Waterman’s Conviction and Conversion

Finally, when he was gone away for several days on one of his drunken sprees, she had decided it was time to leave him. She was packing her bags to take her kids to her mother's when she felt God told her, pray once more for Charlie.

She knelt down and said, Oh God, show Charlie where he is going. While she prayed that prayer in Pasadena, he was in a dive on the east side of Los Angeles and something said to him, Charlie, if you don't repent, you will go to hell.

Those words disturbed him and he thought about all the times he had mistreated his wife and what a big sinner he really was. He went to the next room and drank down a big swig of whiskey and as he did, he looked right down into hell.

He said he saw the fires of hell and the lost souls being tortured by the demons and one of the demons came right up for him. Suddenly, he came to the verdict that he was a lost sinner on his way to hell.

He was guilty, guilty as sin, and he realized he deserved hell for being such a big sinner. Charlie cried out in a broken voice, Oh God, save me. Later that night, Charlie Waterman, the streetcar conductor, was saved and he started taking his Bible with him on the streetcar until he memorized most of it.

They say when Charlie Waterman gave his testimony in churches, their revivals often accompanied his message, for he was a man on fire for God whose life had been miraculously transformed by God, but first he had come to a verdict about himself before he saw any need of a savior from sin, and that's how the gospel should be preached in its proper order to first show folks that they are sick and need a remedy.

Sin, Rebellion, and the Need for Christ’s Remedy

They are sick with sin, with a poison in their blood, and the cure is Jesus Christ and his shed blood. It only takes one sin to damn you, friend, and it doesn't have to be a big one. A little leak can sink a ship just as much as a cannonball.

You are a rebel. You are a haughty sinner. Why doesn't God just cut you off and send you to hell right now? You make a mockery of his word. It's not a reality in your life. You've never repented and let God conquer you.

You have remained in your rebellion, in your self-rule, and you see no need to change. But it's different now, because you are being confronted by this preacher, and I'm here to inform you that God demands repentance from you.

Submission to the Sovereign Lord

If he's going to allow you to get into his holy heaven, he will have no rebels in there. He had a clean house eons ago when the devil commenced his rebellion, and Lucifer, along with his angel cohorts, were kicked out of heaven and put in chains for their lawlessness in challenging God's authority.

You challenge God's authority by your obstinate rebellion, yet you somehow manage to get inside a church door, and you call it salvation. But the gospel of the Son of God presents a sovereign Lord of absolute authority, and you must stack arms and throw down your shotgun of rebellion if you want him.

You must come to Christ on his terms with all his demands and a life of discipleship. He has rights and claims on followers of his. You're a rebel who must be conquered by him. You will be sentenced by him as your judge if you don't.

The popular and accepted religion of our day will let you join the church by way of a decision. But if you want salvation, friend, then pardon for sins, and if you want to stay out of hell, then first you must be brought to a verdict about yourself, just like old Charlie Waterman.

Repentance and the Preacher’s Personal Testimony

Charlie knew. He said, I'm guilty, and it's hell for me, and you must be brought to the same verdict of guilt for sin if you ever want to have any hope of getting to a savior for sin. Jesus said, I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

Are you a sinner? Will you admit your guilt? Will you stand guilty now in a day of mercy and grace and confess your sins and turn from them in repentance to God? Will you bow your knees to a sovereign Lord and submit to him?

Will you bow your heart to him, the Lord Jesus? I'll never forget the day, friends, as long as I live, when I came to a verdict about myself. I was a lost church member who thought he was good enough to get to heaven because I wasn't bad enough to go to hell.

But I had to exchange my opinion for a verdict if I was ever going to get saved. I remember I was in my study, reading a sermon that was full of the old gospel that talked about ruin and the sinner's condition.

It warned about hell and the damnation of it, the sinner's long home. It showed me the demands of repentance, and it wasn't long before I reached the end of myself reading that sermon by Solomon Stoddard.

I threw it down on my desk in alarm and threw myself on the floor as I wrestled with God over my soul that day. I thought I was good enough for heaven in my opinions of myself, but God in his mercy and by his Spirit had to show me just how bad I really was.

I was lost. My cry became, I'm guilty, and it's hell for me. And when I got to that place of utter desperation, God gave me a glimpse of his dear son, Jesus. And just one look was enough for me. I came to a verdict about myself and saw that not only was I on my way to hell in my self-righteousness, but that I deserved to go there.

I'm guilty. It's hell to pay, I cried. But my next cry was, I'm saved, I'm saved, bless God, I'm saved. I'm not gonna let you, friend, get away from me this evening by allowing you to fool yourself into a false sense of security.

Christ’s Atoning Death and the Promise of Acceptance

Have you come to a verdict? If you've come there, I've got good news for you. His name is Jesus Christ. He suffered and died on a cross for guilty sinners, and he was buried, and he rose again, and he ascended back into heaven, and he sits at the right hand of the Father, and he earned that right by way of a bloody cross, he says, and him that cometh to me, I wanna know why is cast out.

The Penitent Thief’s Guilty Verdict

That thief on the cross had to come to a verdict about himself if he wanted to get saved. His malefactor companion just mocked Jesus in his impenetrable impenitence, just railed on him, and he went on to hell.

But the penitent thief took sides. He took sides with God about his sins, he said. But the other answering rebuked him, saying, does not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds, but this man hath done nothing amiss.

You see, friends, that there came to be a verdict about himself, and once he did, he was unable to say, and he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me, when thou comest into thy kingdom. O friends, when that penitent thief got to that place where he realized he was a guilty sinner who needed a savior from sin, he wasn't far away, he wasn't far away from paradise then.

For Jesus said to him, Verily I say unto thee, today shalt thou be with me in paradise. O dear sinner friend, have you ever come here to that place of the cross that demands a guilty verdict? Once you admit your lost condition, you're close to being saved.

The Gospel Invitation to the Guilty Sinner

Paradise isn't far away then. Just come to him, friend, as an empty-handed beggar, seeking mercy. Come to that blood-stained Christ and cast your sin burden down. Won't you come to Jesus, friend? He is the friend of sinners.

O come to him, friend. He held nothing back on Calvary's cross, giving us all so we could live. Won't you come and give your all to him? Listen to this pleading gospel call. Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters.

And he that hath no money, come ye, buy and eat. Yea, come, buy wine and milk, and without money and without price, let us pray.