Well, good morning. Good to see you after 3,000 miles
and 10 days. Good to be home. This was a God
trip. Truly was a God trip. Men of
grace were received so very, very well everywhere we went.
And I think God opened many doors for them and for Grace Centers
of Hope and Grace Gospel Fellowship to minister. You're going to
be at the National Rescue Mission Convention in Phoenix, Arizona
in June. But things like that, just amazing
how God met our need. Live by faith. Trust God. He'll
do wonderful and glorious things. But I think the greatest thing
was that people were blessed and people were comforted. You
know, everywhere we go, I've been telling Men of Grace this
for years. Somebody is going to hear you. that knows music. So we were in the Franklin, Tennessee
Cracker Barrel. And after a good, nice breakfast,
time for the guys to sing. And they sang. I always say,
and we sang. I'm trying to get included in
this. But anyway, We were sitting there and Brother Sasser was
with us and this young man walked past us. And Brother Sasser said,
that's Michael W. Smith. And I said something to
Duane. Duane said, I'm going to go get
him. So he was having breakfast with his father there in Cracker
Barrel. Duane came back and got me and
I went out and got to to meet him, talk to him about Grace
and His Hope. We gave him CDs. We think we're going to hook
up Men of Grace and Michael W. Smith. There are no accidents
with God. There are no accidents with God.
Men of Grace are going to get that Dove Award yet. You watch
and see. Let's turn in our Bibles this
morning to Hebrews chapter 9. Hebrews chapter 9. And I'll be
reading verse 22. You stick a pin in any verse
in this Bible and it'll bleed. This is a book about the blood.
And if you don't get that, you're not going to understand the Bible
at all. This is a bloody book. When we were in Atlanta, we were
at the airport at the Sheraton Hotel for the thrift store convention. But all around the airport, there
is just a rough part of Atlanta. And we'd go out to get gas when
we went out to get gas. Well, somebody was always we
were drawing a crowd of drug addicts around us who wanted
money, panhandlers and would play the religious game with
us. But this one night, I quit going with these guys finally
to get gas. But this one night, this guy
who was super religious came up, really got kind of in a confrontation
with Dwayne about about the Bible, he started saying, you know,
do you know the shortest verse in the Bible? And then he would
tell us all, you know. Do you know the longest verse
in the Bible? Do you know the middle verse of the Bible? And
then he would tell us. Let me just tell you this. You
can know the shortest and the longest and die and go to hell. Because it's not about what you
know. It's about what God has done in Jesus Christ. It's about
the blood. It's about substitution. There's power in the blood. Wonder-working
power. What can wash away my sins? Nothing
but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again?
Amen. In the cross, in the cross be
my glory ever. The blood of Jesus Christ. You read the Old Testament. It's
all about the blood. The ceremony of the two white
doves. One, the neck was wrung off and
the blood put in a basin. The other white dove was dipped
in the blood of the sacrificial dove. And that white dove that
is now stained with the blood of Christ, a type of the blood
of Christ, was thrown in the air and flew away. It's a type
of the blood. The blood making atonement. Two
goats, one the sacrificial goat, the sins of the people were confessed
on the head of that goat. That goat was killed and sacrificed,
the blood taken into the Holies of Holies, sprinkled along the
mercy seat. Then the other goat, sins were
confessed on the head, that goat was let out, showing us that
Jesus Christ through His sacrifice at Calvary takes our sins away. removes them as far as the east
is from the west. Never be remembered against us
anymore. Dumped in the sea of God's forgetfulness. The Passover lamb. When Israel
was to leave Egyptian bondage, they were to take a lamb, put
it up for 14 days. It was to be a male lamb, a young
lamb. It was to be without spot or
blemish. It was to be examined. And then it was killed. And God
said, take the blood, strike it to the two sides of the door,
and when the death angel passes over and sees the blood, the
death angel will pass over you. There's no condemnation to those
that are in Christ Jesus. You've got to be blood marked.
I hope you are today. So let's read Hebrews 9.22. And almost all things are by
the law purged with blood and without shedding of blood. There's
no remission. It's a must. There's no other
way. Blood has to be shed. You're
sitting here and a sinner. Maybe not really conscious of
it, but I would bring this to your attention. In order for
you to go to heaven, blood has to be shed. The only way for
your sins to be remitted is by the shedding of blood. So whatever
questions you have, whatever silly questions you may have
about where sin came from or whatever, you need to put those
aside and just get a hold of this. Without the shedding of
blood, there's no remission. If a soldier on the battlefield
was cut down by a grenade, wounded and near death, the doctor is
by his side and he knows that death is near. And he anxiously
raises his head and asks, was the grenade made in the United
States? You'd say, what a fool. I know. I know. Some of you have some
silly questions about this whole thing. You're trying to figure
out who was Cain's wife. Where did Cain get his wife?
Well, the same way Adam got his from God. But that's not the
big question. The big question is, what can
wash away my sins? Don't be trying to find fault
with the Bible. If a ship were in a storm, the
skies were black overhead, the engines had stalled and the waves
were coming over the deck, where would you find a captain? Down
in a captain's quarters, trying to figure out where the storm
came from? I don't think so. Man would be
a fool who does that. Is there a man or woman here
sick and wounded with sin in the storm, in the hurricane of
almighty vengeance? Would you think to ask the preacher,
what is the origin of sin? People often do that to me, ask
the silliest questions. That's not the question. The
question is, what can wash away my sins? And the answer is nothing
but the blood of Jesus. When fire and brimstone was falling
on Sodom, Lot was not asking silly questions. He was asking,
how can I escape from Zor and get out from under this fire
and brimstone? My friend, the great question
is when you're sick, is not how did I get this sickness? But
is there a doctor to be found that can restore my health? Some
of you have had the flu. Some of us have had the flu.
At the height of the flu, were you saying, I wonder who gave
me this? I don't think so. I don't think
so. You weren't thinking about that
when you were puking your guts out and doing other things. My friend, the great question
when you're sick is not, how did I get sick? But is there
a doctor in the house that can cure the sickness? So stop twisting
your brain about crazy things, puzzling things. The broad fact
is this. Evil is real. And that fact presents
a problem. Evil is real. And God who is
holy is real. So we got issues. And the great
question is this. How can I be saved? One or two things are going to
happen to everybody in here. You're either going to be punished.
Or pardoned. That's it. Punished or pardoned.
And your question ought to be, how can I be pardoned? Isn't
it a great thing to be pardoned? To be justified? And here's the
only answer, and it stares you square in the face. Without the
shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin. It can't be
denied. There are no exceptions. It stands
the same in every place throughout all ages, all over the world,
without the shedding of blood. There's no remission. Blood,
blood and blood alone must be applied for the remission of
sins. I was thinking this last night.
This truth lies hidden deep in the heart of degenerate man. This truth that blood has to
be shed. Wherever you find religion, whether it's hellish or Christian,
you will find this. Sacrifice. Sacrifice. You take the most abominable
religions that offer sacrifices. Where did that come from? This
idea, even depravity in man, that there has to be a sacrifice.
There has to be a victim. There has to be a substitute.
It's hidden deep even in our depravity. The shedding of blood. You think about the thousands
of human sacrifices. It lies deep within us, this
truth. Why does a depraved, demonic,
devil worshiper still go out and find a sacrifice? Because
this truth is deep down inside. Just like the creation, there
are no real atheists. There really are no atheists,
only verbal liars. Really, what man is saying when
he denies God, no God for me. He knows there's a God, but he
says no God for me. You can't look at each other,
look at the maple tree out here, except saying there has to be
a creator. There has to be a creator. This
all didn't just happen. So in man, there is a knowledge
that there is a creator and there's also a depraved knowledge. No remission of sins without
shedding blood. Did you get my drip? There must be a special blood
shedding. That's what's meant here, a special
blood shedding. This is not talking about any
blood shedding. There has to be a special blood shedding. Rivers of the blood of goats
and bulls and bullocks have been shed. Humans have been sacrificed
on altars. Babies have been thrown into
the fire. But none of these could take away sin. There had to be
a special blood shedding without which there is no remission.
This is the grand truth of Christianity. Blood had to be shed for you
to go to heaven, for you to be pardoned. Blood had to be shed,
special blood, not goat blood, not sheep blood, not human blood,
but God-man blood. God must come to earth and shed
blood in Jesus Christ. Get a hold of that. We're not
redeemed with corruptible things such as silver and gold from
our vain conversation, but with the precious blood, special blood,
the blood of God in His Son, Jesus Christ. Go to the Garden
of Gethsemane. You know the story. Dark and
gloomy. The ground is crisp. It's cold
outside. A frost has fallen from the skies. It's midnight. And between those
gloomy olive trees, I see a man. I hear him groaning out his life
in prayer. It's the Savior. He's pouring
out his soul. And the Bible says, drops of
blood stream down from his face. Oh, he's laboring. Sin has been
imputed to him. He's laboring to save you and
me. And from every open pore of his
body, bloody sweat comes out. Bloody sweat! It's the sweat of the one who
toils for our heaven. He sweats great drops of blood. And without this shedding of
blood, there is no remission. Let that sink in a little bit
while I take a swig of the sweet water. God found a way. Ooh, I wish my throat wasn't
this way. God found a way. Precious blood. The blood of
the God-man for the remission of sin. But then they drag him,
those religious hypocrites, drag him from Gethsemane as he sweats
great drops of blood. As sin was imputed to him, they
take him to Pilate's hall. They set him in a chair. They
mock him. They put a robe of purple on his shoulders in mockery. But look at his brow. They have
planted a crown of thorns And now from his brow, blood, crimson
drops of gore are gushing down his cheeks. Without this special
shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins. You ever thought
about this? What was going on in heaven when
Christ was shedding His blood? Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were
looking over the banisters. There is our redemption. He must
bleed. He must die in order for our
sins to be remitted. The Lamb of God has come. They
take Him to Calvary. They've nailed His feet and His
hands to the cross. And from His feet and His hands
and His brow, blood, blood flows. You know what's missing in most
churches? This, the blood of Jesus Christ. We in our nice
little sophisticated church growing programs get a bunch of people
in there that know nothing about the blood of Jesus Christ. Oh,
I know it's offensive, but without the shedding of blood, there's
no remission of sins. Christ, when He hung on the cross,
cried, Eli, Eli, lama, sebastena. Which is to say, my God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me? And they pierced his side. And
again, blood was shed. Without the shedding of blood,
there is no remission of sins. Here is deicide. The killing
of a God who became incarnate for our sins. Oh, you ought to
love Him more. You ought to appreciate Him more.
You ought to say hallelujah more. Your hands ought to be up more
as you understand this was the only way for your sins to be
remitted. Two things, and I hope I can
hold out here. First, thank you. First, I ask
you to look with me here at the negative expressed. The negative expressed in this
text is this, no remission of sin without shedding blood. No. Who says so? God. So there you have it. If you've
got a problem with it, talk to God. He's the one who said there
is no remission of sin. You say, well, I've been baptized. Talk to God about your baptism.
Talk to God about your holy water. Talk to God about the sprinkling
of holy water on your baby's head. Let me tell you this. Every baby that dies in infancy
goes to heaven because of the blood of Christ. It's the blood. If you go to
heaven, it's going to be the blood. Every halfwit. Every brain impaired person. Who doesn't know his right hand
from his left hand that goes to heaven will go there by the
blood. There's only one way, and it's by the way of the cross
that leads home. It's in big letters. All over
the Bible it's there. You say, well, I can't find it.
Then open your Bible. You may believe many things that
this preacher says. Or you may not believe many things
that I say. But if you don't believe this,
hell is certain for you. You have no options. I'm God's
preacher telling you that there is no remission of sins outside
of the blood of Christ. And I urge you today, right now,
right here, at this present moment, to bow to this truth. It's the
blood. And trust Jesus Christ who shed
His blood. I'm not going to argue with you
about this. So if you want to argue about it after church,
argue with one of our other elders or find somebody. Go to Greg
Gygas and talk to him. He's chairman of the board. Greg,
you can talk to them. There's nothing to argue about
here. It's the blood of Christ. I'm not going to spend my time
messing with you about arguing theological points. It's just
the blood. God said so. This is a decisive truth. You
say, well, Pastor, you know, I've had such religious weeping
and praying, and I've shed so many tears, and I've been baptized,
I've been sprinkled, poured, and ducked, you know, just in
case. There's no remission of sins
without the shedding of this precious blood. You don't have to be a theologian
to go to him. In fact, most theologians don't. You just have to know this. It's
not difficult. Salvation is so hard. No, it's
not. No. Can you believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ? Can you trust the blood? The Bible says in the Revelation,
they overcame the devil by the blood of the Lamb. and the word of their testimony.
And what is my testimony? My testimony is the blood of
the Lamb. When people rightly condemn me
and I'm overtaken in a fault, in a sin, and people say, you
deserve hell, I say, yes. But I didn't get hell. My sins
have been remitted by the blood of Christ. And I don't care who
you are. There's no remission without
bloodshedding. You may be a king. You may be President of the United
States. You may be a philanthropist. You may be a minister. You may
be a whore or a farmer, a beggar in rags. You may be the filthy
off-starrings of this world, but without the shedding of blood,
there's no remission of sin. Don't care who you are. And it's perpetual truth. Paul
said there's no remission. I was thinking last night, let's
suppose I die tomorrow. 20,000 years, let's say, from
now, Jesus decides to return. This is still the truth. It's
the blood. I don't care how long this world
goes on. I don't care how sophisticated
churches and religion gets. Without the shedding of blood,
there is no remission of sins. Now, lastly and secondly, let's
look at the positive part of this. There's remission of sins.
Aren't you glad? I'm glad there's remissions of
sins. Think about how powerful the blood is. I was thinking last night, I
ought to get some grease or something and bring a white shirt in here
and put a big dab of that grease on and rub it in real good. And
say to you, the blood of Christ had to go deeper than the stain.
And thank God it does. Because some of us in here were
pretty stained. I mean, tide wouldn't take it out, right? Letting it soak a while wouldn't
take it out. But the blood of Jesus Christ goes deeper than
the stain is gone. I've reminded you of Gethsemane.
I've reminded you of Calvary. I want to take you to the Garden
of the Supplicant. That's where Jesus lay after
His crucifixion. He stood surety for His people.
He stood in our place. And what we couldn't do, as surety
He did for us. The law demanded His blood. The
law demanded death. And death had held him with a
strong grasp there for three days, three nights. But now when
we go to the supplicant, if we could, we would see the stone
rolled away. He got up on the third day. He
is not here. Why seek ye the living among
the dead? You know why he got up? Because
the debt was paid. If the debt hadn't have been
paid, he'd never got up. If our sins had not been paid
for, they would have still been on him and he would still have
been in the supplicar. But up from the grave he arose.
With a mighty triumph over his foe, he arose a victor. From
the dark domains, hallelujah, Christ arose. It's a receipt. When the devil goes accusing
me, of my sin, which are true." I pull out the receipt. The receipt
is this. Up from the grave he arose. He
paid the debt in full. And had he not paid the debt,
God would have never raised him from the grave. The debts were
paid 2,000 years ago. Sin is canceled 2,000 years ago.
The remission is obtained. Some of you in here still don't
know anything about that yet. You haven't been converted yet.
But when God the Holy Spirit gives you life and converts you,
you'll find out, hey, He saved me 2,000 years ago. Debt has
been paid. I knew nothing about it. Isn't
it a good thing when you find out your debt's been paid? And
you didn't pay it. Somebody else paid it. And this
somebody gives you the receipt. So when somebody says, hey, you
owe up. I got a receipt. I'll give you
another receipt. Go to the Mount of Olives. Jesus
raises His hands and blesses His disciples. The Bible says
He's taken up into the air. Where's He going? Back to the
Father. You know why? Because you still
need a lawyer, you pathetic little mess. That's what we are. We need an attorney. I don't
know how some people, I meet people all the time, even on
this tour, all the time, that got saved and just feel like
they're so sanctified. You're still a mess. Everybody
in here is a mess. Everybody raises their hands
and says hallelujah. You're still a mess. You're just
saying, thank God He took care of my mess. But the Mass was
paid for 2,000 years ago. And by the way, the blood of
Christ is not offered to you to trample under feet. And some of you sit in here and
go like, I don't want the blood. It wasn't offered to you. It
was offered to God. You see, our sins offended the
Holy God. So the blood sacrifice is not
offered to you. It was offered to God. And God
accepted it. Isn't that great news? So now
you're right with God because God has accepted the debt payment. The blood of Jesus Christ. When
I was growing up as a kid, the way the church used to try to
sanctify us is scare the hell out of us. I mean that literally. Now you know God is watching
you. And you better be good boys and girls
because God will get you. I know you're saved, If you do
bad, God... You know, in spite of all that
fear they put in me, I still messed up. Didn't you know that? I still messed up. That fear
wouldn't cut it. I'm glad God has us covered through
the blood of Jesus Christ. And, you know, I never approach
God this way. Don't kill me. I approach Him,
Lord, I'm sorry. I've messed up again. And He
always receives me because I have no debt. There is no hell for
me. There's no condemnation to those
that are in Christ Jesus. And therefore, we have boldness.
I go to God with boldness, with confidence. I look at life that
way. If I'm looking for peace, it's
through the blood of Christ. You know, the truth is, our best
friend is Jesus Christ. Yeah. So, if you're looking for
peace, if you're looking for acceptance, this past week at
the thrift store conference, a lady came up to me and she
said, you know what I've realized during these morning services?
I'm accepted. I'm accepted. That's right. Because of the blood of Christ.
To be a healthy church, we have to know that. It's the blood. Just remember this. It's the
blood. Without the shedding of blood, there's no remission.
Real quick now. I wonder if there's somebody lost here. Where are
you, man or woman, who's lost? I mean, you're sitting here thinking,
I am lost. You feel yourself to be lost
in this crazy world. You know what? I am so glad of
it. I love it when people find out
they're lost. Because you're the only kind
of people Christ came to save. Do you know if you're lost, somebody's
seeking you? I came to seek and to save that
which was lost. It's a good thing to be lost.
I wish we could find some lost people. Everybody's so stinking
good. Not as bad as somebody else.
If we could just find a real bona fide, pedigreed sinner. You could show me the papers.
I'm a real one, Pastor. You have tears in your eyes?
I want you to look through them. Look through the tears. See Christ
in the garden. See Him at Calvary. See the empty
supplicant. Go to the mountain, see Him ascending
up on high, and believe on Him. And you'll know your sins are
remitted. I know my sins are remitted. I'm still a mess. Every day I'm a mess. But this
I know for sure. I'm not going to hell. This I
know for sure. I belong to Him. You say, well,
Pastor, don't you have some doubts? Not about Him. I say to myself,
you're a fool. I say to myself, look what you
did. Look what you thought. Look how you're behaving. I say
that to myself all the time. In my flesh dwells no good thing.
But I don't doubt this. My sins have been remitted by
the blood of Jesus Christ. I know that. And I can say this. Listen to me really close now.
I can say to every lost sinner, Christ died for you. Notice I
specified that. Somebody said, well, you know,
I'm no sinner. Well, then I can say to you,
Christ did not die for you. Amen. Now, don't back up on me.
If you say I'm not a sinner, then I'm going to tell you Christ
didn't die for you then. On the authority of the Word
of God, Christ died only for lost sinners. That's why I don't
say to a general crowd, God loves you and Christ is trying to save
you. That's baloney. You don't want to hear it anyway.
You don't even care. But if I can find a lost sinner
with tears in their eyes who know they're a sinner, I can
say, Christ died for you. That's why I'm very careful about
that. Do you say I'm a sinner? Jesus
says, that's why I died for you, because you're a sinner. Do you
say, I've hated him? Well, he says to you, I've loved
you with an everlasting love before the foundation of the
world. You mean, preacher, are you actually
saying, are you actually preaching to the most wicked people in
this building? Yes. I wish I could find the
most wicked, wormy, dirty sleazebag in this building. Or, let me
go a little further. I got a letter this week from
somebody that's getting our tapes. Actually, it was addressed to
the tape ministry. So, Duane, you sent it out. And
this person says, Pastor Clark sure makes it plain. I want to make it plain. What
good would it do you for me to fuzzy it all up? Well, we've
got some warm fuzzies today. So, I look over here where most
of our ladies in the program sit on Sunday, and I say something
like this. You wretched? Let me say this. Is there a real bonafide whore
sitting on this side? Listen to me now. I know this
makes you nervous, but that's okay. Just listen to me a little
bit. Have you led many into sin? Have you led many to hell? Have your own friends turned
thumbs down on you? Has your father called you a
good-for-nothing whore and said he will never have you in his
house again? Do you feel guilty? Oh, pastor,
you don't know. Maybe you think the smile on
my face, you don't see my heart is bleeding. I know what I've
done. I know what I've been. I want
to tell you today, Jesus Christ died for you. And He'll wipe all of that away. You can leave here a saved whore. Am I right about that? Say, I
was that, but I'm saved now. There's many a saved drunk in
here. I think I've made it a little
too plain now. You a drunk? You're drunk. I heard you singing. You kept
me awake all night. Drunk and a skunk. Beat your wife. Swearing all
the time. You feel yourself to be a sinner
today? Do you know yourself to be a sinner today? God bless
you. Christ died for you. Maybe you're here and you're
saying, you know, Pastor, you just you kind of shocked me with
the way you talk to people. I've been in church all my life
and, you know, I've never used drugs and I've never been a whore. And I've never even been drunk. All right. But you know, you're a sinner. Amen. Any goody-two-shoes in
here? I mean, you've been to church all your life. I've never
been high either on drugs. But I know something about me.
I'm wicked. I need the blood of Christ. You
may have never been drunk in your life. You may not have waddled
in the stables of sin. But the truth is, it takes the
blood of Christ to save you. That's right. So it doesn't make
any difference. Sometimes people say to me, you
know, Pastor, we're not all drug addicts that attend your church.
Yes, but you're all sinners. Well, that whole message was
about drug addiction. The blood of Jesus Christ must
be shed for you self-righteous Pharisees as well. Is that right? So I don't want anybody to leave
this service who hasn't been hit right between the eyes. Me
included. I'm a PK kid. And, you know, I was telling
them down at the thrift store convention, you know why PK kids
get off track? Because they've been playing
with the defense kids. I'm going to tell you this very simple.
Doesn't make any difference whether you've used drugs or haven't.
All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Do you hear
the Scripture, Darren Redd? There is no difference. All have
sinned and come short of the glory of
God. I want to say to you, lost sinner, today, if you want to
find joy unspeakable this morning, trust the Christ who died on
the cross. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be
saved.