On Thin Ice Over a Hot Hell — E.A. Johnston

Hearing God's Voice Through the Preached Word

I have a solemn message for you this evening, friends, and you probably won't be bettered by it if you only hear this poor preacher's voice. But I pray that you will, by the grace of God, hear his voice as the Spirit attends his word, as it comes to you in power and authority and majesty.

The Danger of Slipping Without Warning

In the year 2007, I was in Edinburgh, Scotland, preparing to have dinner with Ian Murray to discuss research on George Whitefield and his home, when I stepped into the shower at my hotel. I don't recall much after that, but I do remember that, as soon as I stepped into that freshly waxed tub, my feet began to slip out from under me.

It was a death trap, and as I tried in vain to keep my balance, I was thrown out of that shower upside down, and I landed on a concrete floor, on my head and my wrist as I broke my fall. When I came to, my broken wrist was swollen the size of a golf ball, and my head was bruised.

By God's grace, I still managed to enjoy a delightful dinner with my friend, but I was in very much pain. My accident cut my trip short, and I had to fly back to America the next day. I say this to prove my text this evening, from Deuteronomy 32 .35.

To me belongeth vengeance and recompense. Their foot shall slide in due time, for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste. There are three truths in this text this evening, friends, that I'd like to bring out.

They're very striking. Number one, God reserves a day to pour out his vengeance on sinners. Number two, the sinner's foot is on slippery places, and will slide in due time. And number three, the sinner's calamity is nearer than he realizes, as it will soon be upon him.

The Uncertainty of Life and the Certainty of Judgment

I had plans for dinner that evening in Scotland. I had plans to return to America, but my plans would never have been realized because I could have just as easily broke my neck in that fall, rather than just my wrist.

God could have removed me quite suddenly and unexpectedly out of this world, right in the midst of my plans. And a sovereign God can act quite against your will, and put an end to all your plans, and remove you out of this world, and send you into another world you were quite unprepared for.

You were unprepared, not in your mind, but in your state. You believe in a heaven and a hell. You believe in the God of creation. You don't deny the truths of the gospel. As a matter of fact, you are quite at home with them.

The Peril of Remaining in the Natural State

But if you should die in your present natural condition, your home would not be heaven, in wonderful bliss and perfect peace, but you would be cast into a raging furnace of constant torments and afflictions, from which you could never, ever extricate yourself.

You would have chains for bracelets, and unquenchable flames flashing all around you, as you sit in outer darkness in a pit of hell. Our text declares, to me belongeth vengeance and recompense. This is God speaking to you, that ahead of you is a day where the sentencing of the divine law will be carried out against you by divine justice, that will and must have its recompense upon all guilty lawbreakers.

You stand now, in your natural state, upon slippery places. Any moment your foot shall slide, it will slide in due time, is the verdict of the just judge of creation, for shall not the judge of all the earth do right?

God will have his recompense. To me belongeth vengeance and recompense, declares the Almighty, and the sinner stands upon slippery ground, and it is only a matter of time, in due time, in a certainty, he will fall, fall into burning perdition, to suffer the torments of the outpoured wrath of God upon all sinners in hell.

Religious Profession Without New Birth

You could be of their number, friend, in your natural condition. You are an enemy of God. It matters how little, how long you've been a member of a church. It matters little what kind of decision or public profession you once made back yonder for Jesus.

If you've never been changed and born from above, then you've never been washed in his blood. You are yet outside of Christ, outside of any guarantee of heaven. If you merely have an empty religious profession, and a name only, you will surely slide on that slippery place and fall in due time.

God himself will push you down. The weight of your sins will lay upon you as iron doors that crush you beneath them as you are pressed into hell. Lastly, the sinner's calamity is nearer than he realizes, for the word of God announces the day of their calamity is at hand, and it comes with haste, like a panther leaps on its prey, unawares, tearing it and rending it in pieces.

The Nearness of Doom and the Call to Be Born Again

So too, your doom hangs above you as the sword of Damocles, glistening with your very blood. If you die in your natural state, surely you will be pressed into hell by the heavy mountain of your sins. You stand now in a slippery place, and you walk upon thin ice over a hot hell that will surely melt to nothing.

Then the weight of your sins and the justice of God will come crashing down upon your head. You will enter hell in haste, like a lead ball shot out of a cannon. You must be born again to have any hope of heaven.

You must get to Christ and get your sins washed in his blood, or you perish. Revelation 1 .5 declares of the elect of God, Unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood. The old hymn is true, friends.

Christ's Blood as the Only Remedy for Sin

There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins, and sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains. Have you seen the blood-stained Lamb of God on that cross, with nail prints in his hands and feet, because of your sins Jesus declared to his disciples?

If I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. The Lord Christ was fastened to that cross on Calvary, because the sin and justice of God requires for sin. He bore the curse. He became sin for us.

God is a holy sovereign who must punish sin. Every stroke of the Roman's hammer was an explanation point that God must punish sin. God must punish sin. God must punish sin. Listen, friend. Election was God's purpose in redemption, and it's by blood redemption.

You were yet sick with sin, so sick with sin, you are covered with the sores of a leper that stink to the high heavens, and you need a remedy for sin in the person of Christ Jesus. And because of your natural condition and rude nature, the law of God has been trampled upon time and time on end in your life, and justice must have its day of recompense.

Salvation Through Christ Alone

But we have this hope of the good news of the gospel of the Son of God. Galatians 2 .20 exclaims, The Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. There's just one remedy for sin, friend, and that's to have the merits of the Lord's life laid down and applied to you, so that when a thrice holy God looks on this poor sinner, E. A. Johnston, he'll say, When I see the blood, when I see the blood, that's your only hope, friend.

Jesus declares, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me, and in Isaiah we see that salvation. Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is none else.