Good Enough for Heaven Not Bad Enough for Hell — E.A. Johnston

Well, it's good to be here tonight friends and I have a message that you're not gonna want to miss. Because it might explain something about yourself that you don't know. You might see yourself one way, but God sees you another way.

Well, listen to me you Younger kids who are used to having GPS on your smartphones. You don't know what I'm about to say. You can't relate to it. But some of you older folks here know what it's like to be out driving Somewhere and be lost.

And you had to find a gas station to go in and ask directions. Women drivers are more prone to stop and ask directions where a man is a Harder nut to crack because most men don't like to admit that they are lost.

And that's the problem with mankind today friends. Men won't admit. They're lost and in need of a Savior. Most folks believe they are good enough for heaven and not bad enough for hell. And that's the title of my message this evening friends good enough for heaven.

Not bad enough for hell. Now my message tonight is not about being lost. Geographically, but about being spiritually lost. Let me ask you three questions tonight friends please amuse me and bear with me.

As I ask you these questions. The first question is this how many of you here have been saved? If you think you've been saved go on and raise your hand. Raise your hand if you believe you're a saved person on your way to heaven.

And now let me ask you a second question. How many of you here have ever been lost? How many of you have ever been lost? Let me see your hands. My third question is this. How can you be sure you've ever been saved if you've never been lost.

Jesus said the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. Jesus saves lost sinners. The Gospels not for secure folk. The gospel is for the hungry the weary and the thirsty. Jesus said I came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.

But it's hard to find folks who were lost. They won't admit it. Do you know why? So few persons are saved. It's because you can induce so few to believe they are lost. What does it mean to be lost? It's to be out of God's way.

Many of you are out of God's way right now, and you know it but you won't admit you're lost. You're just fine in your own eyes. It's hard to find men who are lost. Why is it so hard? Why is it so hard to find men who are lost?

I believe it's because of the following reasons. First they have found comfort in something that already satisfies them. Maybe it's the world. Maybe it's their money. Usually it's their love of sin. Men love sin.

They don't like the light because their deeds are evil. Every strip club in this city tonight is elbow-to-elbow. With drooling men who found a chair in a darkened corner of the lounge. They can hide in their lusts in the darkness.

That's why bars and taverns and nightclubs are dark inside because people are accustomed to the darkness. They live in a kingdom of darkness and hate the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I once knew a Baptist pastor who turned his church into a nightclub.

He really did. He painted the walls black and hung colored bleep beads from the Ceilings to make them doorways to give it a feel of a nightclub. He watered down the gospel to where it was just a bunch of good feeling nonsense.

Just like his church, but his so-called church might have felt like a nightclub to the members there. But it became a nightmare to them when they died and went to hell. The devil likes the darkness and he rules the kingdom of darkness of this world.

Hell is called outer darkness because it's so dark in hell. You can't see your hand in front of your face. But an everlasting hell is no nightclub of pleasure, but a nightmare of unbelievable horror. Trust me friend when I say you don't want to go to hell.

It's a prison and a chamber of horrors. So you can't find a man who will admit he is lost because he's in the conference of his sin. Secondly, you can't find a man who is lost because they have found Coronal security in the following three things.

They have found Coronal security in their good works. They're good opinion of themselves and in their opinion of a good God who won't send anybody to hell. That's what they're resting in. They are secure as they rest upon a false foundation of carnal security but they are ignorant to the reality that the Foundation they rest upon is merely the rotten plank boards of an empty religious Profession that will soon give way and break apart and down they will fall down.

They will go when the die Strangers to Christ Jesus and their sins are outside the saving blood of Christ down. They will go Screaming to a devil's hell that lies in pitch-black darkness. Let's examine these three things friends.

They will keep you from knowing you were lost and they will send you to a burn and smoke and furnace of Perdition and ruin human now number one good works. Most folks believe they are good enough to go to heaven.

Because they're not bad enough to go to hell. They do good deeds for others and live by the golden rule. Do unto others as you'd have them do to you. They rest upon a long track record of service either in church or outside of it.

They can tell you all about the good things they have done since they've been in this world. They will break their wrists batting themselves on the back. Telling you what a good person they are. Number two a good opinion of themselves.

They have never seen the blackness and evil of their own wicked hearts. But in Jeremiah, we read the heart is deceitful Above all things and desperately wicked who can know it. These individuals have never seen themselves as lost because they see themselves as good.

They are completely unaware about how God really sees the Condition of all men in their natural state. In the book of Job it speaks of how God sees man. How much more abominable and filthy is man which drink at the neck with tea like water.

Listen friends a Man apart from Christ can't get enough of sin. He drinks it like water. That's why every massage parlor and brothel in this town tonight is full of patrons. Looking for a sex partner a man drinks his sins like water.

But in his own eyes, he is a good person and he is fine. There are some women out there who go faithfully to church. They are in church every Sunday. But during the week there is mean as snakes to their husbands.

Yet because they serve on some committee at church. They maintain a good opinion of themselves. They've never been lost. Never once did these individuals see themselves As a guilty lost sinner in need of a savior from sin.

No, sir, they have good works to rest upon in a good opinion of themselves to find comfort in but Jesus declares I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. Thirdly they believe in a God of their own imagination a good God who's all goodness all love who would never send anyone to hell for Punishment of sin.

Their God wouldn't act that way. But the God of the Bible is also God of mercy. God must punish sin. If you don't believe that you don't think much about Jesus dying on a cross for sinners. When God looked at his only begotten Son crucified on that bloody cross God had a look away as the son bore the curse and became sin for us.

God had no choice but to carry out his justice upon that son Jesus as the sky darkened at Calvary and all creation groaned. As Jesus bore the wrath of God for sin, it's my sin substitute the whole creation seemed to groan under that.

Sin has a price and it has to be paid and Jesus paid it all. Jesus paid it all. Listen friends sin leaves a stain on you. That won't come out. And let me tell you a story what happened to me years ago.

I was preaching in a church one Sunday morning down south in Mississippi and it's customary down south to have a big smorgasbord after church in the Fellowship Hall for the visiting preacher. There we met after the church service and I saw long tables full of delicious looking food and Casseroles just waiting to be eaten by this hungry preacher.

Well, I like hot dogs so I loaded my plate with hot dogs and I like mustard on my hot dogs, so I Lathered them up with mustard and then I took my seat at a picnic table. With an old deacon and his wife.

I couldn't understand why they looked at me so strangely. Until I realized I had gotten yellow mustard all over the front of my new blue suit. The deacon shook his head in disbelief and said well at least we know now that you were human.

But that yellow mustard stain on that blue suit never came off. Even after I took it to a dry cleaner. It always had a green hue on the front of that ruined blue suit. And that's what sin will do to you friend.

It will ruin you hear me now. Sin leaves a stain on your soul that won't wash out your sins will follow you into Eternity after you die and like thirsty bloodhounds your sins will chase you and find you out.

And curse you in eternity. There's only one thing that can wash away The stain of sin. Only one thing friends, and that's the blood of Christ Jesus. In Isaiah we read. Come now and let us reason together.

Sayeth the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet. They should be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson they shall be wool. Let me tell you about Jesus who is the friend of sinners. Jesus came down here so we can go up there.

Jesus came into the world doing good. I know you've heard of Jesus how he healed the sick and gave sight to the blind. Yet what happened. A wicked man cried away with him and nailed him to a cross. But when all was against him his love flows out to a world of guilty sinners.

He prays father Forgive them for they know not what they do. Look at that blessed man on the cross friends as he says I am the way the truth and the life. No, man cometh on to the father, but by me. Look that blood-stained Savior for sin his arms outstretched.

Beckoning you to come to him and believe on him. You need to trust in this blessed Savior before it's too late. Soon, he will come in judgment on this world when his anger shall burn as an oven. Hear me now an oven and then you shall meet him as your judge.

My Bible declares. When the Lord Jesus Christ shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels. Inflaming fire. Taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ who shall be punished with everlasting destruction.

From the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power. Listen to me friend. You must get an interest in Christ get your sins washed in his blood for forgiveness of sin. Look at that blood-stained Savior from sin.

The cross is the place where wicked men sought to get rid of him. But by his death it becomes the place where a saving power flows out to all who come in repentance. Confessing they are sinners and own them as their Savior and Lord.

But you must be lost before you can be saved. Maybe you've been thinking you're good enough for heaven and not bad enough for hell. But listen friend All it takes is one sin to send you to hell. A little leak in a boat.

Can sink it just as much as a cannonball. Sin leaves a stain you can't get out. You have to get lost before you can be saved. You have to feel your need of a Savior from sin before the remedy for sin can be applied.

In the person of Christ Jesus. You must see yourself as a hell-deserving Guilty rebel who's committed treason against the sovereign. You must come humbly as a lost sinner to Christ the Redeemer. You must take your place at the foot of the cross and throw down your sin burden.

Throw down your shotgun of rebellion. At his nail-pierced feet you must get under his blood friend what can wash away my sins. Nothing, but the blood of Jesus. Jesus can clean that stain of sin on you friend and wash it as white as snow.

But you must come to him and believe on him. I'm gonna sing a hymn friend and if God has been dealing with your soul through this message. I want you to come to Christ for forgiveness of sin. Jesus says I am the bread of life.

He that cometh to me shall never hunger and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. The gospel is for lost sinners who are the hungry the weary and the thirsty. Let me ask you a question friend. Are you hungry for God?

Are you weary of your sins? Are you thirsty for Christ then come to him? Don't delay you come as I sing. I hear the Savior say thy strength. Indeed is small child of weakness watch and pray. Find in me thine all in all.

Jesus paid it all all to him. I owe Sin hath left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. Lord now Indeed I find thy power and thine alone. Can change the leper spots and melt the heart of stone.

Jesus paid it all all to him. I owe Sin hath left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. Jesus paid it all all to him. I owe Sin hath left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow.