A Skinny Inch from Hell — E.A. Johnston

Divided Hearts in Hosea

In the book of Hosea, we read in chapter 10, Israel is an empty vine. He bringeth forth fruit unto himself. According to the multitude of his fruit, he hath increased the altars. According to the goodness of his land, they have made goodly images.

Their heart is divided. Now shall they be found faulty. He shall break down their altars. He shall spoil their images. Here, we see a picture of the wayward Jews in the days of Hosea, who, although they maintained a form of religion, they served God with their idols because their heart was divided.

The people of God were enjoying a period of material prosperity. Under King Jeroboam II of Israel, the people attributed their prosperity to their idols, and they refused to acknowledge that God himself had provided them with the wealth they had.

And although they had material prosperity, they had become spiritually bankrupt because of their divided heart. Kind of like the church in America today, where most of the members have no reality of God in their lives, and their profession is as empty as a hole in the wall.

Revival Preaching and Apostasy

In former times, men like Sam Jones and Mordecai Ham would see revival because they were able to preach for a month at a time in a town, and they had all the cooperation and unity of every denomination there supporting them.

Plus, hundreds of people were on their knees to midnight each night during the week, praying for God to bless the meetings, and entire towns were transformed. But if those old prophets came back today, they'd find the church in a terrible mess, run by mostly the unconverted, and there'd be no cooperative unity of denominations because they've all fallen into deep apostasy.

Both Sam Jones and Mordecai Ham would spend their first week of preaching and devoted to stripping the bark off of dead church members. They'd hit them hard with the demands of the law, and man's duty of repentance, and the lordship of Christ.

The presence of God would be so thick, people would become insensible in their meetings, and have to be carried out. But God was working because His Spirit had time to plow up the ground under these men of God.

But if they came back today, they'd soon discover, like I have, you have only one opportunity to get the job done because there are few extended meetings today, and no citywide cooperation. So I have to condense three weeks of preaching into one sermon that will offend most of your sensibilities.

I've got to plow up the ground of your rotten hearts, and do some serious pruning, and strip off all the dead branches. I have to compress everything into one stick of dynamite, and hope it hits some of you.

I'm probably the only one left in America who still preaches like this. I'm a real brontosaurus, and soon I will be extinct as well. I don't like having to preach hard, hitting sermons that make you resent me.

But things have gotten so bad in this country lately, and many folks are so deceived. I must be true to your souls today, even if you hate me for it. This kind of preaching is hard preaching. It's hard on me.

I'm an old man with a pacemaker, and I'd rather preach a less hard sermon that's less hard on me. This kind of preaching's hard on me, and I know it's hard on you, but I fear, friends, it must be done, because only a bomb will awaken some of you.

Spiritual Apathy and the Danger of False Profession

Your own lives convict you. Few of you have any real zeal and burden for the souls of man. Rather, you are full of indifference to the hellbound in your community, and full of apathy for any personal witness to the lost, or your own furtherance and participation in the spread of the gospel in your generation.

So as long as you are getting yours, and your family is well-fed, well-protected, you don't give a hoot about the lost and perishing around you. You have no personal witness, even to your lost family members.

I was standing at the coffin of my father-in-law, and his sister passed by, crying and moaning, oh, I hope he was saved, I hope he was saved. Even though she never bothered to witness to him herself, now he was dead, and his soul in hell, and all this so-called Christian woman could do was to walk by that casket and lament, oh, I hope he was saved.

This present life of ours is only an introduction to a never-ending duration in another world, either the bliss of heaven with Christ, or the agonies of hell without him. We are either saved or lost, regenerate or unregenerate.

We are either on fire for God, or heading toward hellfire. Either we made a mere intellectual ascent to Jesus, and are just lost religious folk, or we've come savingly to Christ, and we're changed by him, and his Spirit is in us, sanctifying us as we grow day by day in holiness, in a deeper love relationship with Jesus.

Some of you foolishly think that the life God gave us is just suited to a state of ease and enjoyment, but that's not what life is designed for, friend, but for a state of trial. God places men in trying circumstances for a set purpose to prove them to know what is in their hearts.

Christianity was not introduced into the world for self-pleasure, that's the perverted American view of Christianity. Rather, it came in a state of trial. Jesus did not appear on the scene in outward glory, but in the form of a servant, not to reign as an earthly prince, but to die upon a scandalous cross.

His followers were spoken against and persecuted, and every last one of those disciples died a martyr's death, save John. Paul laid his neck on the line for the sake of the gospel, and he got his block chopped off for sure, but somehow you believe Jesus died just to make you happy, wealthy, and healthy.

That's your brand of Christianity, but it won't hold water on judgment day. A man-centered Christianity that revolves around your own self-gratification is just not the real deal, and if you don't have first place in line, if you don't get your way, there's hell to pay.

You may be able to hide in a church and fool your church friends, but you can't hide from God and fool him. Your sins will find you out. I used to belong to a prayer group which met once a week, and the person who led the praying was a big congenial man, and one night before we got started, to lead in prayer, I was sitting next to him on the couch, and I thought I'd play a trick on him.

So I reached my hand behind his head, and I barely touched the back of his neck with my fingers, and I yelled, Spider! And this man who led the prayers began to damn God and curse Jesus. That's what came bubbling up from that man when he was threatened or provoked.

Several of us dropped out of that prayer group right after that. I share that story with you today, friends, because we're going to go toe-to-toe today and face some issues that need to be faced, and it's about time somebody was honest with your souls.

The Corruption of the Unregenerate Heart

Well, you look like such a nice bunch of cultured folks, but you wouldn't even rob a liquor store or kill anybody, I suppose, but some of you look so pure as the driven snow, but guess what? You drifted.

The truth is, there are some unregenerate individuals in this crowd today who, if it wasn't for the restraining hand of God on them, would jump up, jump up and run off with the man's wife next to him and commit adultery in the nearest motel.

Some of you can get so fighting mad if circumstances were hot enough and desperate enough and against you enough, you'd kill somebody just to save your skin. The unregenerate were full of corrupt principles and reigning power in them and in full possession of them.

These principles are active, powerful, and extremely violent in their nature, and if it were not for the restraining hand of God upon them, they'd break out into hot, lustful flames, and you'd curse God and everyone else around you.

If God withdrew his restraining power on the citizens of America today, there'd be anarchy in the streets and entire cities would be burned to the ground. But you've always maintained a good opinion of yourself and you have a long track record of church attendance, so you feel you're all right.

Somehow, you figure when God's not looking, you're going to smuggle your soul into heaven by hook or crook. After all, you believe you're good enough for heaven and you sure as shooting aren't bad enough for hell.

At least that's your opinion. But you can't keep your soul out of hell by an opinion, friend. Now, some of you have hatred in your eyes, but I didn't come here to get your approval. I came here to warn you about the great peril of dying in your sins in the dangers of damnation in a devil's hell.

If you are yet in your sins and you've never had a work of grace performed upon your heart by God's spirit through the supernatural act of regeneration, you'll bust hell wide open when you die, even if you are the chairman of the deacons.

I didn't come here to tell you funny stories. I didn't come here to entertain you and soothe you with a nice little message and comb your hair on your way to hell. I came here with the express purpose for God to extend mercy and give grace by His spirit and disturb folks.

Some of you, though long-time church members, need to be awakened to your lost religious condition, to where all your false religious props are kicked out from beneath you until you become desperate enough to see the badness of your heart and feel your need of a remedy for sin in the person of Christ Jesus.

Some of you live under spiritual anesthesia and you're so numb to your surroundings because you've been anesthetized to sin. You can sin with impunity and feel no remorse and you are walking very near the brink of eternity and the next step you take will be into another world altogether and you are quite unprepared for it.

Listen to me, friends. It chokes me up even to say it to you. Men have an innate fear of death but those feelings are not aroused unless that man's faced with a physical crisis in his life like the news he's got cancer or experiences heart failure.

Then his attention is activated to preserving his life by any means necessary so he can enjoy his children and his grandchildren but it's not in his power to avoid death. It's in the hands of God and his sovereignty.

God can remove you out of this world in a skinny minute. You wouldn't have time to repent. Men's natures are corrupt even in the best of men. I was preaching in the south at a church where a fellow evangelist was and when it was my time to preach he walked up and down the aisles passing the basket and pointing up to me encouraging the people to dig down deep in their pockets and give and I was watching them throw money in that basket and when my preaching time was done that evangelist just shook my hand slapped me on the back and thanked me for coming and he kept 100 of that love offering for himself.

He didn't mind working that crowd so he could get a bigger payday. That's how corrupt our natures are. Some of you think you're going to heaven because you're not as bad as some other folks. Some of you think God keeps a balance scale in heaven and when you get there to the pearly gates he's going to weigh your bad deeds against your good and if the good outweighs the bad he'll kick open the gates and let you in.

You think you're good enough because you believe good people go to heaven but that's not so. Only forgiving people get to go there. The truth is you've never been born from above or washed in the blood of the Lamb, the Lord Jesus.

You are yet in your sins. I used to live out in the forest on an acre and a half of land and every year I had to go out there on my property and kill snakes. If I didn't they'd start crawling up by my deck where my dog stayed and where my little girl played on her swing set.

It's hard work killing snakes. They're sneaky. They're crafty. They're mean as all get out when they get mad. Kind of like some of you but I'd have to kill snakes to make that environment safe for my family.

I'd go out with a flathead spade in one hand and a can of gasoline in the other and I'd find a snake hole and I'd look for one near it and I'd pour gasoline in that one hole and I'd wait for the snake to come out of the dry hole.

I'd give him enough time to get out then I'd slam the shovel down on his head and quickly and firmly stick the blade of that shovel on his neck and I'd lean on it with my weight and cut his head off. If you want to kill a snake you have to cut off his head.

Sin is like that. But killing snakes in a yard is not as hard as killing them in a drainage ditch full of rocks. My little daughter liked to play in the front yard near the drainage ditch so each year I'd have to get down in that drainage ditch and stand on those rocks that I placed there for irrigation.

Snakes just love to live under rocks. I'd spread eagle my legs with my high boots on and I'd pour gasoline on the rocks and I'd hold my shovel high and as soon as they'd come slithering out all over the place one snake would slither right across my boot and his companion would slither across the top of the rocks and I'd bring that shovel down.

One time I hit one snake and it spit up poison in my eye but I was wearing glasses so my eye was protected from that poisonous phantom. Satan is crafty like a snake and those snakes I was killing were baby copperheads which are some of the most deadly snakes in the south.

They're just full of deadly poison kind of like some of you. You keep up good appearances when you're around your church friends but if they could follow you around like your shadow into your home they'd see that you're as mean as a snake when you're provoked and they'd be so shocked by your behavior they'd blush next time they ran into you in the church hallway.

You have a heart full of sin that's ready to bust out at the first strong temptation. All the devil has to do is crook his crooked finger at you you fall before him like ice melting at a picnic on the 4th of July.

Soon you're swimming in your cesspool of filthy sins you're wallowing once more in your hogwallow of sin. Your trouble is someone a while back fed you an easy belief gospel and you swallowed it hook line and sinker you drank it down like red Kool-Aid and you got baptized and you joined a church and when things don't go your way and you retreat to the comforts of your pet sin and hug your idols of infamy like hounds but they're just hell hounds.

Biblical Repentance and the Power of Holiness

A biblical repentance is seen in Proverbs 28 13. He that covereth his sins shall not prosper but who so confesses and forsaketh them shall have mercy. But you only confess the sin you refuse to let loose of you sin and confess and sin and confess and sin and confess the same recurring beloved sin because that's the one that gives you pleasure.

It's got power over you and you've never had an experience of God where the life of God comes into the soul of man and brings change and with that change is implanted a disposition for holiness by God's spirit and with that comes the power of God over sin so you can break from it turn from it forsake it and live for God and a life pleasing to Him.

I don't preach perfection because no one was perfect except Jesus Christ but you can have a close intimate walk with God to where. If you do fall into sin it won't be because of a habit and you won't stay there long.

You'll have real repentance toward God to get his power to break off from it. Of course the sin only damns you even if you sing like a canary in the choir. I want to be honest with you today friends because I care about the souls of men.

I've never once tried to climb the ladder of my denomination. In fact I'm not even on the ladder but most folks don't know me and those who do don't like me anyhow. But I will be true to your souls. I don't want you to go to hell.

Hell is a region of deep outer darkness where there is a continual misery and wailing hell is full of regret. Once you shut up in hell you've passed out beyond the reach and help of God. A soul in hell has no hope no help of any kind.

Hell is a bottomless pit of desperation and separation from a thrice holy God. The damned in hell have no rest or peace. They cry continuously for they are described in the words of Isaiah. But the wicked are like the troubled sea when it cannot rest whose waters cast up mire and dirt there is no peace.

Saith my God to the wicked. The greater part of mankind from previous generations have died and gone to hell. Jesus declared that few are saved. Hell is a crowded place with all the antediluvians the sodomites and the unsaved.

And every generation since Adam because it's a bottomless pit. There's still room in hell for you. And if you could interview the damned in hell right now they would tell you I never intended to come here.

Death came to me like a thief. One minute I was safe on earth and the next minute I was chased by force. Stronger than me. Down to this terrible region of suffering. Some of you have settled on a false bottom and you've resisted and ignored God's pleadings with you for so long.

When your time to die comes you'll be like the people in Noah's day who pounded on that ark with fury as the rain descended and the floods rose only to be finally shut out of safety. No matter how hard they pounded on that ark with their fists then no door was open to save them.

They waited too long. They ignored the warnings. I'm warning you right now friend while it is called today lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. Some of you are so far gone. God is holding you in his fingers by your suspenders and he's dangling you over hell just waiting for the right moment to let loose of you once and for all.

We've had a lot of flooding through our nation this year and the floodwaters of God's wrath have been rising on some of you. And that flood will soon break out on you and you'll be swept away into a swirling devil's hell.

The Urgency of Conversion Before Death

You better get serious with God while you're still in this world. Friend your problem is though you've been a religious person and convinced yourself you go into heaven. You've never once passed under a great change of heart by the mighty power of the spirit of God upon your soul.

You've never been born again and made a new creature and raised from being dead in sin by the redeeming blood of Christ. You are yet in your sins and outside Christ's blood. And if you drop dead right now you'd go out beyond the reach of God forever.

There's no hope in hell. Hell is hot hopeless and hellish. If you go to bed tonight in an unregenerate state after hearing this sermon I fear for you. You better be off spending the night out of bed on your knees seeking God for mercy.

And if you continue in an unconverted state I pray God's mercy on you friend. Let me ask you a question friend. How many people do you know who died quite unexpectedly and suddenly think about them now.

Little did they realize it was their last day on earth. I can think of several close friends of mine who were removed suddenly. God's word in Ecclesiastes declares for man also knoweth not his time. As the fishes that are taken in an evil net and as the birds that are caught in the snare so are the sons of man snared in an evil time when it falleth suddenly upon them on 9 -11 when the terrorists flew their planes into the twin towers.

Those who perished didn't have a clue that when they kissed the family goodbye that morning they'd be taken from them suddenly and without warning. I can't save you friend. I wish I could but I can point you to Christ and he can save you.

God’s Mercy and the Open Door of Salvation

Listen to me friend. This may be your last day on earth. But I've got good news for you. There's still room at the cross. Listen to the heart of God from his holy word in Ezekiel. Say unto them as I live.

Saith the Lord God. I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked. But that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn ye turn ye from your evil ways. For why will you die. O house of Israel. I've spent all my energies warning you today friends.

I'm plum worn out but I'd be remiss if I did. Now fill you full of gospel invitations. Now it's time for me to turn you over to Jesus. You live in a day of mercy and Christ is thrown open the door of mercy and it's wide open.

And there he stands calling and crying with a loud voice. 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.

O friend the pleas of the gospel come to you now. God says in Isaiah come now and let us reason together. Saith the Lord with all your sins be as scarlet. They should be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson they should be as wool.

But this is a gospel message friend. And I'm going to preach the full counsel of God to you because I'm a God called preacher who loves the souls of men. I don't want you to go to hell. Please don't ignore these warnings today.

In these pleadings of the gospel. It's my job to warn you of your danger of dying in your sins and point you to a bleeding savior for sin. But listen you must own up to your guilt and feel your need of a remedy for sin.

I can't save you friend any more than you can save yourself. I can't pry open your heart with a crowbar. Only God can open the heart and conquer you. If you're saved it's because God gave you saving faith for salvation is of the Lord.

But I can point you to Jesus. Jesus has power to save. Oh dear friend listen to the word of God out of Matthew's gospel concerning his son. Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the common hall and gathered unto him the whole band of soldiers.

Christ’s Suffering and Substitution at the Cross

And they stripped him and put on him a scarlet robe. And when they had plaited a crown of thorns they put it upon his head in a reed in his right hand and they bowed the knee before him and mocked him saying Hail King of the Jews.

And they spit upon him and they took the reed and smote him on the head. And after that they had mocked him they took the robe off from him and put his own raiment on him and led him away to crucify him.

And as those cruel Roman soldiers fastened the son of God to that cross with those rusting nails every stroke of the hammer was an explanation. Point crying out. God must punish sin. God must punish sin.

God must punish sin. Oh listen to me friends. Oh look at that man on the cross. Friend. Look at that man on the cross. See him there. Look at him with his arms outstretched a beckoning you to come to him and believe on him.

Look at that blessed man on the cross as he squirms under the terrible way to sin. My wretched sins your filthy sins. Look at that bloodstained savior for sin. I'm pointing to him. Look at him hearing his love.

Not that we love God but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. I know I need a substitute for sin because I'm a sinner. And so do you friend so do you. Jesus on that cross like a lamb to the slaughter a sacrifice for sin.

When all is against him his love flows out to a world of guilty sinners. The cross is the place where men sought to get rid of him. But by his death it becomes the place where his saving power flows out to all who come in repentance confessing they are sinners and own them as their savior and lord.

If you've not trusted this blessed savior friend receive him now before it's too late. Soon he will come in judgment on this world when his anger shall burn as an oven. And then you'll meet him as your judge.

Christ Alone Is the Way, Truth, and Life

Listen. Jesus says I am the way the truth and the life. No man cometh to the father but by me here Jesus answers the three greatest questions of the human heart. How can I be saved? Jesus says I am the way.

How can I be sure? Jesus says I am the truth. How can I be satisfied? Jesus says I am the life. Give your life to him friend. Jesus is the pearl of great price worth selling all for so he may be gained.

You can't serve God in your idols. God will not accept a divided heart. He must have all of you. It's time to shell the corn down. Smash your idols. Turn from your sins. God declares in his written word in Hosea.

Sow to yourselves in righteousness. Reap in mercy. Break up your fallow ground. For it is time to seek the lord till he come and rain righteousness upon you. Don't go to bed tonight friend in an unconverted state.

God extends his mercy. Therefore also now saith the lord turn ye even to me with all your heart and with fasting and with weeping and with mourning. And rend your heart and not your garments. And turn unto the lord your God for he is gracious and merciful slow to anger and of great kindness and repenteth him of the evil.

A Final Call to Surrender and Prayer

I'm going to open this time now friends for you to get serious with God to break up the fallow ground of your own heart and come to him in brokenness. Come to a bloodstained Christ friend. Surrender all you are to all he is and he is lord.

Oh let me pray for us now friends. Great God almighty. Your arm's not too short to save. You can save the biggest sinner in this crowd today. But that person must own up to their guilt and surrender to you.

Salvation is of you lord. You give it or withhold it and you still receive the glory. I pray great God that you extend mercy here and grab some sinner by the neck. Get their attention. Disturb them by your spirit.

The disturbing presence of Christ is a terrible thing. It's a stripping thing. Your word is a sledgehammer that smashes up all false foundations. Your word is a fire that smokes a sinner at all false refuges of self-righteousness and self-reliance.

Your holy word held in your strong hand is a double-edged claymore that can hew men down. Cut them to pieces. Cut somebody up. I pray lord that you cut somebody to pieces right now great king slice them up.

Slice them up. Lord God you're a mighty sovereign who allowed no rebels in his kingdom. You kill and you make alive open hearts right now. I pray let some person here know beyond all measure that they are one inch from hell.

You've got your heavenly tape measure out. Lord. You got that tape measure out. Let them know without a shadow of a doubt. They are a skinny inch from hell. I'm worn out lord. I've done the best I can.

I've warned them the best way. I know how it's up to you now lord. I turn this crowd over to you. Do with them as you please in the strong name of Jesus.