Amen. But one of the soldiers with
a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out
blood and water. For six Sundays now, we have been following through
the scriptures the trail of blood. We can only pick up the trail
in the beginning of time, Genesis 3.15. And yet, it has been there when time was
not. He was the lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. There's always been a cross in
the heart of God. The gospel is not a new thing,
it is the everlasting gospel. And hasn't it been most clear
today in the reading of scripture that this was not an afterthought
with God, nor with his son, Jesus Christ,
that he definitely was on a mission, that he set his face like a flint
determined to go to Jerusalem. He could not be deterred from
that. Even when loud mouth Simon Peter said, you know what we
ought to do? You ought to wipe them all out. That's what you
ought to do. And he said, I didn't come to
destroy folks. I came to save folks. Ought not Christ to suffer? He
would ask that question himself. He said this, search the scriptures
for they are they which testify of me. How often have I told
you here that this Bible is a hymn book. If you don't get that,
you missed the key to scripture. I like it where the scripture
said this morning that everyone disappeared and they saw Jesus
only. That's where we're to be. That's
where we are here as a church. We have a single-mindedness toward
Christ. I hope that you are completely
and sold out to this truth. that it is a singularity, a single-mindedness
toward Christ, is the reason for God blessing this place. We had 700 very wealthy people
here this week. They could have bought the city
of Pontiac, and yet here they sat in an inner city church,
hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ at 40 degrees. The lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. If you and I could only get into
this, we would be caught up in the wonder of it. That God Almighty
has invaded history, not to spy out your sins, but to deliver
you from your sins. That he takes the initiative. I got a call yesterday. from
a person who goes to church. And this church had some problems. A young woman had committed adultery. And in the old church that I used
to attend, you had to come forward and confess it. And then they
had to have a motion and second to forgive. And she was telling me how this
person came forward and confessed her sins in great humility, and
the church voted to put her on probation. I said, well, I've seen that
in court many times, but not in God's court. From the scripture reading this
morning, it's clear. that the God's sacrifice was
known and purposed from all eternity. This was the plan of God. Get
beneath the fluff of present-day gospel preaching. Get down to
the real core of it and you will cry out too with the songwriter,
alas, and did my savior bleed and did my sovereign die? Would he devote that sacred head
for such a worm as I? And you will find when you get
to that place that your hands go up in praise and adoration. Oh, what a wonder. Oh, what a wonder that Jesus
found me. I told you earlier that the point
of emotion with me during the funeral was not simply because
my friend was gone and the supporter of this work was gone, but because
of the people that God brought here to hear the gospel. It was
an amazing thing to see that. I had to laugh when all of those
million-dollar cars were lined up outside. Here we are at the
old saloon, used to be. Youngin was telling me that that
most expensive car, it probably cost that guy $30,000 to drive
it in the snow because he had to clean underneath it. I don't know about all of that.
But I do know this, that this God is honoring this gospel of
his grace and mercy in a powerful way. We know the scripture to be the
holy breathings of the Holy Spirit through men, pointing with an
index finger to the Christ of Calvary. The God Himself being
the sacrifice. Think about that. God Himself. Emmanuel, God with us. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the Word
became flesh and tabernacled among us. That's awesome. God come down to earth, the Christ
of God. Consider the great purpose of
God, and that you did not accidentally get saved, but got saved on purpose. We've already seen him as the
true scapegoat, the true brazen serpent, the true paschal lamb. He who was the shadow of good
things to come. the fulfillment of all the types
and shadows in the Old Testament. And we, like the disciples, we
lift up our eyes and we see no one but Jesus. That's all I want
to see. I want to see Him who loved me
and gave Himself for me. The cry of the congregation to
the pastor ought always to be, let me tell you, if you're visiting
with us and you go to a church and Jesus Christ is not preached
and uplifted and glorified, you ought to stand up and say, sir,
we would see Jesus today. Amen. Can we with the apostle
Paul say, I am determined. I am determined to know nothing.
Somebody's always telling me, don't you think you ought to
preach this? And don't you think you ought to preach that? Don't
you think you ought to, you know, have this and have that? I'm
sorry, that may be for somebody else, but that's not for me.
Hey, I'm telling you what we preach here is working pretty
good. God forbid that I should glory
save in the cross. And we ought to cry out with
holy horror, God forbid it, don't let it happen, that I preach
anything but Jesus Christ and Him crucified. You ought to come to church every
Lord's day, not to get beat up, but to hear what a great Savior
He is and what a great sinner you are. And so it took a great
Savior to save great sinners. Do we have any great sinners
here who've been saved by the great, amen, amen. Those of you who didn't raise
your hand are in the wrong church. Are we not, we're not like the
religious people. In fact, we say this, we count
everything religious that we do or have done, but dung. that
we might win Christ. We throw it all overboard. My
baptismal certificate, my church membership, I'm a Catholic Methodist
Baptist, I'm Jewish. We throw it all overboard. We
have a single-mindedness toward Jesus Christ. Are we not a people
who have been chosen? Oh, you might not know quite
yet the depth of it, but let me tell you this. If you're converted
or going to be converted, it was because God elected you,
chose you. There are no miscarries with
God. Do you think God actually made
this big plan of coming to earth to invade history, to come down
here and had this book written for the chance of you being saved? God is not a God of chance. Some
of you had just played the lotto. I didn't get a call from anyone,
so. I've already figured out the tithe. We are a people chosen, redeemed. We've been redeemed, we've been
bought. We've been sought out by him.
He sought you out. You were not seeking Christ.
You were hiding in the bushes with your fig leaf aprons. When
he came to you, I love the song. Oh, he came to me, he came to
me. When I would not come to him,
he came to me. Redeemed of the Lord, we're called
sought out. And so he came to your Lodibar.
He came to your Mass. The songwriter said, oh, that
with that yonder sacred throng we at his feet may fall and bring
forth the royal diadem and crown him Lord of all. The songwriter
said, crown him with many crowns, the Lord upon his throne. Another songwriter wrote 1,000
stanzas. Oh, for 1,000 tongues to sing,
my great Redeemer's praise. So here we are, we've been following
this blood trail. We have now reached the fountainhead
of this trail of blood, starting in the book of Genesis. Now we
have reached the ultimate. The years of time have drugged
by, and God did forbear. Sin rolled over and piled up
year after year, after year, generation after generation,
Himalayas of sin. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were
all liars. You can read that in scripture.
They're all cowards and liars. Noah got drunk and Lot wrestled
with homosexuality. Mrs. Lot turned to a pillar of
salt and David committed adultery. Simon denied the Lord and the
rooster crowed, but God did not kill him. You know why? Because there was a savior coming
and sin rolled over and rolled over and piled up because there
was a... I'm okay, I'm just getting happy. Can you imagine when he hung
on the cross, David's looking over the banisters of heaven?
Can you imagine what David must have felt when he said, it's
finished, it's accomplished, it's done? The blood trail. The God-man shedding his blood.
Here's the scapegoat. Here's the fit man who takes
sin into a land of forgetfulness. That little lady that committed
adultery in the church, they were going to put her on probation,
but God had been her propitiation. Her sin had been paid for. This is he who crushes the serpent's
head, the innocent one who has to be slain to give a righteous
covering to the naked. Here's the ram caught in the
thicket. Here's the Passover lamb that
causes the death angel to pass over you. You remember this story
in the book of Exodus. The children of Israel were going
to leave Egyptian bondage, but it was going to take blood. And
God said to them, before you go, you got to put up a lamb. And it has to be a male lamb
and it has to be a perfect lamb. It can't be just any old lamb.
And it has to be watched for 14 days to make sure it's without
any scabs or flaws. And then you take that lamb and
take the blood. Now the flesh has to go, the
flesh of that lamb had to go through the fire. significant
of wrath. But take the blood and strike
it to the two sides of the door, Lentil, and when I see the blood,
I'll pass over you. When the death angel comes, I'll
pass over you." Index finger pointing to the coming of Christ,
the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the elect world. So I read to you where the soldier
takes the spear and plunges it into his side. And forth comes
water and blood. And I really never thought about
that much until this week. And that passage came to my mind
again when the blood came forth. All of this, the plan and purpose
of God. Many did not see the significance
of it then, but here's what it means real quick. Here's what
it means. Here's the significance of the
blood flow. It means the remission of sins. It means the remission of sins.
And I thought to myself again last night, to remit. I got so
happy reading the dictionary last night. To remit means to
release from the guilt to release from the guilt or penalty, to
refrain from exacting punishment, to cancel or refrain from inflicting
punishment. You know why I'm not going to
hell? Because my debt's been paid. God's not angry with me. I heard a preacher say, we're
going to go through, these could be the last times we're going
to go through the great day of God's wrath. Not me, he's not
angry with me. Why would he be angry with me?
I have no sin. I have no sin death. Some of you don't get
that, but. I'll just say this for some of
you who haven't quite entered into this. I know you're still
a sinner, but you're a safe sinner. And God refuses to charge you
with sin. How about this? Blessed is the
man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. We have any failures
in here? We have any relapsers in here?
We have any people in here that have been saved and messed up?
We have a whole church full. I don't want you to carry around
guilt. Jesus paid it all, all the debt you owe. Say, well,
pastor, it sounds like you're giving people just a license
to relapse. You don't need a license. Everybody
relapsed without a license. I've said this for years. When
you're about to relapse, you don't go out and say, I would
like to pay right now for a permit to relapse. I'll tell you what the love of
God that floods your heart. I'll tell you what love to Jesus
Christ will do. It'll keep you from relapsing. That's right. What does it mean
when this blood gushed from the side of Christ? It means redemption. The word redeem means to buy
back. It means to liberate by payment. You know what Jesus Christ did
on the tree of the cross? He walked into the slave market
of sin. You and I were slaves to sin. How much is this slave on the
slave block? Well, it's going to cost you
your life, Jesus. I lay down my life for the sheep. No man
takes my life from me. Do you know he bought you? Not
just off of the slave market, but out of the market. You'll
never be a slave again. You're free. My chains fell off. That's what it means. You say,
well, I still have this compulsion. Yes, that's called your old flesh.
And the apostle Paul said, in my flesh dwells no good thing.
Oh, wretched man that I am, that is this flesh. But isn't there
a new you? Some of you been addicted to
heroin or crack or there are other addictions. Some of you
here addicted to church and religion. You need to be delivered from
that too. But anyway, some of you, have that addiction thing
and it just keeps haunting you. Tell you how to be free from
that? Just know this, you're not a slave. You've been bought. Don't let heroin talk to you.
Tell heroin to go to hell where it belongs. The devil uses those things. You're not what you're supposed
to be. You're not a good mother. You're not a good father. You're
not this. You're not that. And just keeps
piling it on. How about this? I can do all
things through Christ that strengthens me. I'm an overcomer by the blood
of the Lamb. To be redeemed. It means there's
no condemnation. There is therefore now, now,
no condemnation to those that are in Christ. Are you in Christ?
Then there's no judgment for you. There's no condemnation
for you. God is delivering you and setting
you free. It means propitiation. Now we
get a little weighty here because propitiation has a connotation
of meaning to appease. The great question that's answered
through the gospel is how can God go down into the coal mine
of sin and get hold of you and not get dirty? Because I guarantee
you everyone he gets hold of is dirty. How can God not get
dirty? How can God take you to heaven?
How can this God who is holy, holy, holy, who is righteous,
righteous, righteous take hold of you and not dirty himself? He can't sweep your sin under
the rug. He can't deny the fact that you
are depraved, wretched, wormy sleazebag. He can't deny that
because that's true of all of us. We are a mess. I mean, just between us girls,
we're a mess. So how can God take me to heaven?
Well, God found a way. God found a way. to take you to heaven and not
get himself dirty. He's just and justifier. He is just and justifier. Let me say it again. He is just
and justifier of the ungodly. There you are standing before
Him and He's a just God. because he came into the world
and died in your room, stead in place. And so now he is able
to bring down the hammer of his justice and say, not guilty today,
not guilty tomorrow, not guilty next year, and not guilty forever. Not guilty. He rendered satisfaction. He made atonement. I've often talked about that
holy box that was in the holies of holies. That box that was
a gold box and it had a mercy seat on top of it with angelic
beings looking down on that mercy seat. And the high priest came
in once a year into the holies of holies and they had to put
a rope around his leg in case God killed him while he was in
there. And that high priest came in with blood. And inside that
box was the broken law of God that all of you broken. All of
you 10 commandment keepers are liars. You don't even have them
memorized, much less keeping the 10 commandments. And in the
box is a broken law. Between the broken law, the covering
of the box was called the mercy seat. And the high priest would
go in once a year and sprinkle blood on the mercy seat. And
appeasement, well I'm trying to, I am trying to preach. And of course the people's sins
were rolled over and then Jesus came. He is the atonement. He is the mercy seat. He is the
propitiation. He is the redeemer. He is the
just and the justifier of the ungodly. Not only that, not only did he
take all your sins away, but he gets gooder, gooder and gooder. Not only that, but when he took
all your filthy rags of unrighteousness off of you, now you're naked. He clothed you with a perfect
righteousness. He imputed to you his own righteousness. Blessed is that man that God
imputes righteousness to. On your side of the ledger is
all good things. Because you have the very righteousness
of Christ. And so when you stand before
God, you stand before Him without spot. I know it just blows your
mind, doesn't it? Without spot, because you're
thinking about all your spots. Without spot or wrinkle or any
such thing. That's your standing because
of the blood. And God had all this planned
for you and purpose for you. Don't fight it. Just lay back
and enjoy it and say, I am a blessed person. It means it's all finished. It's
all accomplished. It's all done. I was telling
the person that called me yesterday, And this person was talking about,
I am so miserable. I am so miserable in church.
I'm just so, I am just so miserable. That's what I said. Why do you
stay? I'm not gonna go somewhere I'm
miserable. I'm gonna go somewhere I can shout. I'm gonna go somewhere
where I can raise my hands. I'm gonna go somewhere where
I can smile. I already know about me. You see, I'm regenerated
by the spirit of God. So every evil way, every evil
thought, every mess of myself, I was telling Ms. Pam, maybe
it was this morning. I am amazed that in spite of
my mess every day, God blesses me. This week I was just thinking,
why on earth would he do for me what he does? Why would he? Oh, I'll tell you why. It's amazing
grace. How sweet the sound. It's unmerited
favor. Now I want to say to you, I mean,
I'm not through with this fount here today, but it is eight minutes
after 12. And I want to say this to you.
When that blood flowed, what it meant was ultimate glorification. I'm going to be glorified. I
saw a body of a man who was my friend this week, and I did not
recognize that body. David Mardigan weighed about
250 pounds, was a big, strapping, strong guy. That body that was
in that casket was about 90 pounds and very, very dark. And we know
that all things work together for good to them that love the
Lord, to them who are the called according to his purpose, for
whom he did foreknow. He also called, he justified,
and the scripture says, and them he also glorified. You know what's
going to happen one day, and we went out here to the cemetery,
things didn't go exactly right, they couldn't get the casket
down in the ground. But I thought to myself, it doesn't
make any difference. One of these days, things are going to blow
up here in this cemetery. Jesus Christ is coming back again.
There's a resurrection. There's a resurrection. And I just want to say to you,
the chosen of God, say, well, how do you know I'm chosen? Well,
one reason you probably wouldn't be here if you were not The other
reason you wouldn't even ask the question if you were not.
The other thing is you wouldn't have any spiritual desire if
you didn't belong to God because he's the one that gives it, right?
You never want to come to Christ until he's already found you.
Somebody said, I found Jesus. He wasn't lost. Jesus is not lost. He is a seeking
Savior. He'll lead the ninety and nine
and go after that one that's wandered way out there in the
mountains of sin and in the valleys of iniquity. And He will track
them down. You are here today and have a
hunger and thirst for Christ because you're on His shoulders.
He's bringing you home. Oh, if I could only believe that,
Pastor, if I could only. You can believe it. I'm telling
you the truth. If there's a thirst for the water
of life, if there's a hunger for the bread of life, God gave
that to you. He quickened you. He's born you
again. You know that by the time you
find out you got saved, you've been saved a while. Yeah, he just reconciled you
to that wonderful truth. I don't know what happened. I
see some of you that are over at the center. You know, it used
to be that the crack addict would come in the center and their
lips would all be blistered, puffed up like that because they'd
break off my radio antenna and smoke crack in it and try to
put tape around it. It'd still blister their lips. And you know, the world is so
religious. I can remember people sitting in my office group. I
mean, they only been in there for a little while going like
that. I just want you to know I'm filled with the Holy Spirit.
And I would say you're full of something, but I don't think
it's the Holy Spirit. Oh, pastor, you shouldn't say that. You look
what Christ will never give you blistered lips. He'll give you
holy lips and a holy tongue to praise him. But I have watched
as those folks who came in with blistered lips and tongues and
were caught up in addiction, come over here and not like it
maybe the first few times. And then something started happening.
I'd meet them. I'd go into big dorm. There was
guys reading their Bible in the bunk. Ah. Amen. You got found. You don't read the Bible, you
know, unless you're just pretending to be religious. Unless you just
want me to see you reading the Bible, kind of sucking up a little
bit. But you know, even when you read
the Bible to suck up, it's not too long until it rings true. You never were. It's when you
persevere and continue. How many of you the Lord has
saved since you came to grace and as a hope right here? Amen. That's what I'm talking about.
That's what I'm talking about. Some of you have been saved out
of religion. Somehow or another, I've thought this all week. You know, I've been in this 50
years now. The gospel is getting more exciting
to me. I am caught up more in the wonder
of it. than years ago. It hasn't grown
weary or old or dull. I'm still diving into it and
as I was preparing this message I thought, Okay, now you've got
to the fount, now you've followed the trail of blood to the cross,
and you're gonna speak today on that. Now you can just think
about next Sunday, where are you going to go? I mean, keep
going. We'll go to the empty tomb eventually.
We'll ascend up into heaven there and see him sitting on a throne
and see him interceding. I mean, we're going there, but...
But it's not over with the fountain yet. I mean, we're going to come
back next Sunday. And what happened at Calvary? You ought to keep digging in
there. Pit your tent on Mount Calvary and just keep digging
there and digging. You're going to find tremendous
nuggets that are going to break your heart and cause you to praise
God for loving a wretch like you. All right, let's stand together.
Let's sing.