I was born in the 1950s, when there
was still a fear of God in the
land, and a sense of shame in society.
Back then, marriage was between a man and
a woman, and you were arrested for public
nakedness and indecency.
It was a time when a man's handshake
was as good as gold, and only sailors
had tattoos.
And if any atheist cried out against God
in public, there were more than enough Christians
to shout that person down, because God held
the majority in the nation back then.
Well, personally, my father was an agnostic, and
my grandfather was an Italian mob boss, and
the house I grew up in was haunted.
Well, that's not the very best of beginnings,
is it, friends?
But you know, God can take someone from
the worst situation and change their life.
And that's what happened to me.
I came to Christ in 1968 in a
revival meeting outside of Chicago.
It was there I heard an evangelist preach
the following truths of the gospel of the
cross, and I want to share those with
you today, friends.
The truths he taught me that night were,
first he quoted Romans 3.23, and he
said, this was the very word of God.
He had respect for the word of God.
And as he read it, he was very
reverent, and he said, for all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God.
Then the preacher was very careful to be
clear in the fact that all of us
there were sinners, that all mankind were sinners,
and every one of us was a sinner.
And he said I was a sinner.
Then he said God was a just God
who must punish sin.
He will by no means clear the guilty.
Then the preacher said that because I was
a sinner, I was on my way to
hell because I was under God's condemnation for
sin, and that there was a future judgment
that awaited all mankind where every mother's son
would stand before God and be judged.
And if their name was not found written
in the book of life, they'd be cast
into a terrible lake of fire burning with
brimstone, the brimstone of God's wrath for sin.
He said my only hope was to trust
in the remedy of sin, the remedy for
sin in the person of Jesus Christ who
left heaven and became man and went about
doing good, feeding the hungry and giving sight
to the blind.
A cruel man sought to get rid of
him, and they arrested him, and they nailed
him to a cross.
And the preacher said, and he was numbered
with the transgressors, and he bore the sin
of many.
And then the preacher commented that although Jesus
bore the sins of many, he did not
bear the sins of all.
And he said because I was a sinner,
I needed a substitute for sin in the
person of Christ Jesus, and that salvation wasn't
something you could earn through good works or
a good character, that it was a free
gift from God, and you could only receive
it by faith.
It was a grace given, and I had
to receive it like receiving a gift.
And my only hope of escaping hell's punishment
for sin was to look to Jesus Christ
because salvation is found in Jesus, and that
this man Jesus died on that cross and
was buried.
But on the third day, he rose again
and appeared unto many before he ascended back
into the very heaven from which he came,
where he now sits at the right hand
of the Father, and he earned that right
by way of a bloody cross.
And the preacher said for me to come
to Christ through repentance and faith.
And that night, friends, I heard the voice
of God speak to me through the preacher's
voice to come to Christ in my heart
and surrender my life to him.
And as a 13-year-old boy, I
came to Christ that night, friends.
And that's the gospel I heard back then,
the gospel of the cross.
You know, you don't hear much of it
today.
The gospel of the Bible has always been
a gospel of the cross.
For the apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians
1.18, For the preaching of the cross
is to them that perish foolishness, but unto
us which are saved it is the power
of God.
Well, that word power in the Greek is
the Greek word dunamis, where we get our
English word dynamite from.
Old-time preachers preach the gospel of the
cross with their Bible in one hand and
a stick of dynamite in the other.
And God was honored and souls were saved.
And that was 57 years ago when I
got saved that night when I was just
a boy.
But since that time, the gospel has changed
in our pulpits in America.
It's no longer the gospel of the cross,
but the gospel of just quoting John 3
.16. It's been diluted so much through the
years.
It's just a silly little message of God
loves you.
He wants you to go to heaven, believe
on Jesus, accept him as your savior, and
you will go to heaven.
And people take Jesus like a free stick
of chewing gum and chew on him for
a little while until the flavor goes out
of their religion.
But the gospel today has no mention of
man being a lost and helpless sinner, hellbound,
apart from Christ's blood.
There is no mention of a future judgment
that awaits all mankind and the justice of
an offended and provoked God.
No mention of man's duty of repentance needed
for salvation from sin.
Why, it's just believing.
You go to heaven.
It's like joining a gym or a social
club.
And the result is you have a congregation
full of unconverted church members who wear John
3.16 T-shirts as they send their
way to hell.
We preach nice little messages today that don't
disturb anyone.
And the diluted version of the gospel that
we preach today has no power to save
a flea, much less a lost sinner hardened
in sin.
But I want you to know, friends, that
sin stains.
I have a two-point message today, just
two little simple points of this gospel message.
But these two points are pretty big points
as far as your destiny is concerned.
And these two points are these.
Sin stains, and Jesus saves.
If you don't remember anything else from this
message today, friends, always remember sin stains, and
Jesus saves.
Well, let's see how sin stains.
Let me share a story with you, friends.
Years ago, I was preaching in a church
down south in Mississippi one Sunday morning.
And it was customary down south, after the
service, to have a big smorgasbord for the
visiting preacher.
Well, we all went to the fellowship hall.
We're at picnic tables.
We're ready.
At a long table, buffet food was lined
up there.
Well, I like hot dogs, so I loaded
up my plate with a few hot dogs.
And I like mustard on my hot dogs.
Some of you kids might like mustard on
your hot dogs as well.
So I lathered them up from a jar
of mustard on the table that was before
me.
I sat down with an old deacon and
his wife, and I wondered why they were
staring at me so, until I realized I
had smeared yellow mustard all over the front
of my brand new blue pinstripe suit.
The old deacon shook his head and said,
Well, at least we know you're human.
I took that suit to the cleaners, but
that mustard stain never came out of that
blue suit.
It always had a green hue.
Every time after that, when I wore that
suit and looked in the mirror, it always
carried that stain.
And that's what sin does to you, friend.
It stains you, and it won't come out.
It won't come off of you.
You can try to whitewash sin by calling
it other names, but that won't do.
A fib is still a lie.
Taking something that doesn't belong to you is
still stealing.
Fooling around is still adultery.
You can't whitewash sin by renaming it.
Now listen to me, friends.
Sin is still sin, and it leaves a
stain on you morally that you can't wash
out, even by church membership.
My new blue suit had that mustard stain,
and it's still there, even though the suit
is old.
But there's a future judgment that awaits all
mankind, and every mother's son will someday give
an account of themselves to God.
Well, how will you stand on that day?
Will you stand there with mustard on your
blue suit, with the stain of sin on
you?
It'll be too late then, friend, for change,
because we read in the Bible, As a
tree falls, so it shall lay.
And we read in Revelation 22, 11, these
terrible, frightening words.
He that is unjust, let him be unjust
still.
And he which is filthy, let him be
filthy still.
And he that is righteous, let him be
righteous still.
And he that is holy, let him be
holy still.
Like mustard on a blue suit, your sins
will find you out.
You'll be found guilty of the stain of
sin, and breaking God's unbending law, and the
sentencing of the law will be carried out
on all guilty lawbreakers.
But listen to God in this word from
Isaiah 118.
There's hope here, friends.
Come now, and let us reason together, saith
the Lord.
Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall
be as white as snow.
Though they be red like crimson, they shall
be as wool.
The old hymn says, what can wash away
my sins?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
The gospel is good news, because we have
a Savior from sin.
In the person of the Lord Jesus Christ,
Jesus saves.
But you have to feel your need of
a Savior for sin.
Listen to me, friend.
The gospel is for the hungry, the weary,
and the thirsty.
Are you hungry for God?
Are you sick and tired of your dirty,
rotten sins?
Are you thirsty for Christ?
Well, keep listening.
I've got good news for you.
For the gospel of the cross is found
in my Bible.
And that gospel of the cross speaks of
the scandal of the cross.
And it's disturbing.
Jesus hung there in the shame and pain
of Calvary.
It was a disturbing sight.
Christ is disturbing.
We read in the book of Job, Therefore
am I troubled at his presence, when I
consider I am afraid of him.
For God maketh my heart soft, and the
Almighty troubleth me.
Christ, in his earthly ministry, was disturbing.
As Jesus passed through towns and villages, he
disturbed things.
The spiritual world was disturbed by him.
Devils cried out and besought him to possess
a herd of swine that ran violently into
the sea.
And the citizens of that coast were so
disturbed by that that they begged Christ to
depart from them.
Everywhere Christ went, there was a disturbance.
The complacency of towns and villages were disturbed
by him.
To where the multitude thronged him, Jesus disturbed
hearts and consciences.
Jesus disturbed the woman at the well until
she felt her sinfulness.
Jesus disturbed religious traditions.
He disturbed the religious leaders of his day
to where they wanted to destroy him.
Christ disturbed lives.
He disturbed physical nature in healing the lame,
the sick, and the blind.
He disturbed death in raising the dead to
life.
Jesus disturbed one's entire course of life.
He disturbed Saul of Tarsus by confronting him
smack dab in the middle of the road,
knocking him off his ride, his horse, and
altering his life's direction and purpose.
Christ disturbed Herod's rotten heart.
He disturbed the physical laws of nature by
walking on the water.
Jesus disturbed reality by multiplying the loaves and
the fishes to feed a multitude.
In truth, when Jesus passed through towns and
villages, he disturbed things.
He disturbs consciences.
Jesus disturbed religious pandering, the overturn of the
tables of the money changers in the temple.
He disturbed the Philippian jailer who cried out,
What must I do to be saved?
He disturbed the Roman centurion who cried, Truly,
this was the Son of God.
Jesus disturbed his first hearers by stirring their
animosity in their hearts to want to hurl
him headlong off a cliff.
Christ disturbed the devil wherever he went because
demons would cry out, Son of God, don't
torment us before the time.
He disturbed the religious crowd who said he
was possessed of a devil.
Jesus taught by parables because bare, naked truth
would have been too disturbing.
Christ disturbed all things from the touch of
a woman's hand to his garment, which disturbed
the flow of her plague and healed it
when physicians could not.
By the touch of his hand on Jairus'
daughter, he disturbed death itself by raising her
from death to life.
Christ disturbed the very atmosphere on the Mount
of Transfiguration where he spoke with Moses and
Elijah.
Jesus disturbed reliance upon material possessions by disturbing
the rich young ruler's priorities.
Jesus disturbed blind Bartimaeus who cried out, Jesus,
thou Son of David, have mercy on me.
And Jesus disturbed the darkness of sight and
made him see.
Listen, friends, give me your full attention.
Listen to me now.
On the cross, Christ was disturbing.
It was disturbing to look at him hanging
there, soaked in sweat and bloody gore and
nailed naked in the shame and pain of
Calvary to see the Son of God writhing
beneath the burden of sin was too disturbing
a sight to behold.
Even the angels had to look away.
It was disturbing to his friends to see
him bleeding and suffering so.
On Calvary, Christ disturbed the very elements of
nature.
The sky darkened.
The earth trembled.
Rocks were torn asunder in the veil in
the temple, which was 60 feet high and
four inches thick, was torn right in two
like it was made out of paper mache.
Christ disturbed things that day.
He disturbed hell itself, reconciling sinners back to
God.
Jesus even disturbed the dead in their graves
for we're reading Matthew's gospel.
And the graves were opened, and many bodies
of the saints which slept arose and came
out of their graves after his resurrection and
appeared unto many.
There is nothing like the disturbing presence of
Christ in a day as fast approaching, friends,
where Christ will come again with his mighty
angels with a shout.
Will his spirit come among us and disturb
someone now?
Let me go along with my message, friends.
I was playing golf with a giant of
a man.
He stood six foot five, and he was
wide as a brick wall.
And every time this big man took a
swing at the ball, he cursed God and
cussed man.
He had the filthiest mouth of any man
I ever heard.
Why, I couldn't take it anymore, so I
turned to him on a tee box and
said, Friend, can I ask you a question?
And he said, Shoot.
I asked, How is your relationship with God?
Why, he smiled a big grin and said,
Fine.
I have a great relationship with God.
I leave him alone, and he leaves me
alone.
That's what the big man said.
And do you know what, friends?
It breaks my heart to say it, but
all you have to do to go to
hell is for God to leave you alone,
for Christ to never disturb you.
Are you content to have God leave you
alone and let you go your own way
to hell?
Or would you rather be disturbed by God's
merciful spirit now and face the consequences of
turning to God with all your heart and
turning from all your sins and forsaking them
for a bloodstained Christ who died for sin?
Only God can open your heart, friend, and
disturb you and make a heart of stone,
take a heart of stone and make it
a heart of flesh sensitive to the things
of God in eternity.
You're not in hell yet, friend.
You better seek God in earnest while you
still can, friend.
Do you want your sins washed away?
Do you acknowledge my two points that sin
stains, and do you really believe that Jesus
saves?
Well, if you're stained with sin, why won't
you come to a bloodstained Savior for sin?
Listen to the word of the Lord.
Listen to Him, friend.
He's speaking to you.
Come now and let us reason together, saith
the Lord.
Though your sins be as scarlet, they should
be as white as snow.
Though they be red like crimson, they should
be as wool.
The gospel is a gospel of grace, friends.
It's where God offers mercy to guilty sinners.
Are you a guilty sinner in need of
a Savior for sin?
Jesus is the only remedy and refuge for
sin, but you must come to Him in
repentance and faith and surrender your all to
Him.
Listen, friend.
You must lay down your shotgun of rebellion
at the nail-pierced feet of the Lamb
of God who taketh away the sins of
the world.
God will not run His white flag of
peace over a soul who still has their
weapons of rebellion pointed at Him.
What are you going to do, friend?
It's life or death.
It's heaven or hell.
Look yonder.
I think I see the suffering Son of
God upon that bloody cross.
Look at that man on the cross, friend.
Look at that blessed man on the cross.
See His bleeding hands and feet.
Look at that bloodstained Savior for sin.
See Him twisting and turning on that terrible
tree as He struggles beneath the weight of
sin in the turned face of the Father.
Oh, friend, look at that man on the
cross with his arms outstretched beckoning you to
come to Him and believe on Him and
own Him as your Savior and Lord.
Look unto Me, all ye ends of the
earth, and be ye saved, for I am
God and there is none else.
Look, look, look upon Jesus, the only remedy
for sin.
Hear Him in John 14, 6, for Jesus
says, I am the way, the truth, and
the life.
No man cometh unto 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.
Jesus gives everlasting life to those sinners who
repent and believe.
I plead with you, friends.
I plead with you.
Don't go to hell.
It's a terrible region of darkness and demons.
Jesus said, it's a place of weeping and
gnashing of teeth.
Weeping speaks of great loss and grief.
And gnashing of teeth signifies great anger and
regret.
Hell is a place of awful regret.
And once you shut up in there, there's
no getting out.
But you can't get to heaven on your
good reputation or your good track record, friends.
That's of the flesh and it's empty.
And it's like trying to get to heaven
on an empty religious profession.
It's like trying to climb up there on
a rope of sand that will soon dissolve
into empty air.
Wake up, friends.
Wake up, you poor, deluded sinner.
Stop.
Stop and sense your need.
Listen to this gospel plea.
Oh, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the
waters.
And he that hath no money, come ye,
buy and eat.
Yea, come.
Buy wine and milk without money and without
price.
Venture yourself on Christ, friend, and close with
Him.
Listen.
Seek ye the Lord while He may be
found.
Call ye upon Him while He is near.
Let the wicked forsake his way and the
unrighteous man his thoughts.
And let him return unto the Lord.
And He will have mercy upon him and
to our God.
Frily well, abundantly pardon.
Oh, that's good news, friends.
Go to God now and surrender to Him.
Look, I can't save you, friend, and you
can't save yourself.
Only God can save you by a work
of grace upon the heart.
I have to stop preaching now, friends.
I'm just an old man with a pacemaker
and I'm plum worn out.
I don't think I can go on here
much longer.
I'm going to have to close this down.
I've done my best to point you to
Christ, to get you to Jesus, for only
Jesus saves.
And it's my hope and prayer that you
just didn't hear my old shaky voice.
But by God's grace, some of you heard
His voice.
And you will hear His voice as it
comes to you in a demonstration of His
spirit and power.
The gospel in the hands of a God
-called preacher is pure dynamite, friends.
It will blow up every false hope and
every false foundation to smithereens, to where you're
naked before God and Him alone.
Well, that's the end of my two-point
sermon now, friends, how sin stains and Jesus
saves.
Oh, friends, let me take a minute here
to pray for us before we go.
Great God, O Ancient of Days, have mercy
now and come and open hearts, I pray.
And Lord, by Your Spirit, come and disturb
somebody here.
Awaken them and alarm them and show them
their danger of dying in their sins and
grant them grace to flee from Your wrath
to come to the only place of safety,
to Your only begotten Son, the Lord Savior,
Jesus Christ.
The biggest sinner in this town tonight can't
come to You and be saved.
If only they repent, believe.
We're all big sinners, Lord, and we're in
need of a Savior for pardon of sin.
Oh, come, Lord, and work grace on some
hearts, I pray.
And I pray these things in the strong
name of Christ Jesus for Your glory and
for Your kingdom.
Amen.