What is My Standing Ruin — E.A. Johnston

Human Treason Against God’s Law

Here is a high-ranking government official who is caught selling government secrets to the Soviets. He is found out, he is arrested, and he is tried in a court of law for treason. The evidence is presented and the jury finds him guilty.

The judge presiding over the case brings his gavel down in a pronouncement of guilty and issues the sentence for his crime. For the sentencing of the law must be carried out upon all guilty lawbreakers.

We all accept that. This is the case in the natural world, and it's also the case in the spiritual world as well. Through sin, man has committed treason against the sovereign. I was born of my father in the flesh, and he was born of his father in the likeness of Adam.

Humanity’s Condemnation and Alienation from God

For man, in his natural state, is under a curse. That's what the Bible says. Cursed is the ground because of you, God told Adam. Man lies under the condemnation of a holy God. He is alienated from God.

And without God in the world, it makes no difference if he is a nice person. It makes no difference if he is an honest person. His positional standing with God is not altered by his good disposition or good deeds as he still stands guilty before God.

He is still guilty of breaking God's law. And the sentencing of the law must be carried out upon all guilty lawbreakers. God in Scripture is spoken of as a judge. In Genesis we read, Shall not the judge of all the earth do right?

And God's word declares, He will by no means clear the guilty. We read in Romans, Man's desperate state of guilt and sin for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Men must be told what their standing is before God.

The Church’s Neglected Message of Judgment

And they must be warned of their danger of dying in their sins and the dangers of damnation in a devil's hell. The modern church has hidden this message from this generation. We only speak of God as love.

He's kind of like a big Santa Claus who wouldn't send anybody to hell. We only present the second message of the cross to folks, which is Christ died for sin. But we fail to preach the first message of the cross, which is God must punish sin.

That's why we need a Savior for sin, because God is coming in judgment upon the world, where His anger shall burn as an oven. In Malachi we read, For behold, the day cometh that shall burn as an oven, and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly shall be stubble.

God’s Judgment on the Morally Respectable

And the day cometh shall burn them up. Sayeth the Lord of hosts that it shall leave them neither root nor branch, but the whole ball of wax of man will be melted. Now some of you say, Now preacher, that speaks at the end of the wicked, the evil out there.

But I'm not wicked. I'm not an evil person. I'm not a bad person at all. I'm a good person. Look, you don't have to be an evil person, friend, to be considered wicked in God's sight. God clearly states that all men, no matter how good their moral character is, is wicked in His eyes, because they know not God and obey not His gospel.

Everlasting Punishment for Those Who Reject God

We see this is so from 2 Thessalonians. When the Lord Jesus should be revealed from heaven, with His mighty angels in flame and fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power.

Salvation Through the Blood of Christ

So what is my standing before God? If I'm standing outside the blood of Christ when I die, then surely I'll bust hell wide open with a shriek and a shout of surprise. God's word in Isaiah declares the sinners in Zion are afraid.

Fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire, who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings. Listen to me, friend. It matters not how good a person you are.

Good people do not go to heaven. Only forgiven people get to go there. You must be born again through the regenerating work of the Spirit of God, and your sins must be washed in the blood of the Lamb.

If Jesus' blood is not on your soul, you surely go to hell. Even if you are the chairman of the deacons, what is my standing? Let me spell it out for you. It's R-U-I-N, rune, because all are born with a rune state, a rune nature, and a bent toward sin.

The Two Spiritual Conditions of Humanity

Listen, friend. There are only two kinds of people in this world, and I'm not speaking of mainly male or female, or rich or poor. I'm talking only about two kinds of people, topside of hell, that fall into one or two categories, the saved or the lost.

You are either under the dominion of sin, or you are delivered from the dominion of sin. You are either enemies to God and spiritually dead in sin, or you are saved and delivered from the dominion of sin and are spiritually alive and subject to God, saved or lost.

We must ask ourselves, what is my standing?