Jeremiah chapter 8. Today, the Lord willing, I want
to do a two-part message from this one text here. Beginning this morning and ending
this evening. Look at verse 22 with me. We'll
read this one verse. Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why, then, is not the health
of the daughter of my people recovered? Is there no balm in Gilead? is
there no position there. Now as of January the first nineteen
ninety two. There are ten million people. Known to be infected with the
AIDS virus. Everyone in here knows that H.I.V. or AIDS virus, ten million known
people. That means that there are probably
twice that many people who do not know it. Ninety-five to ninety-seven
percent of those people will die within two or three years. Many people know they have it.
and are seeking any remedy that they hear of, and are going to
great lengths to find a cure for that dreaded disease. And let me say this, first of
all, about this thing of AIDS. I have mixed emotions about it. I know that there are people
Even little children who contact this disease. People who are
infected through apparently no fault of their own, whether it
be blood transfusion or what. And children by birth. And I'm
sorry for these people. I'm sorry, in a sense, for everybody
that's infected with that terrible disease. I really am. I mean
that. But most of the cases, most of
the cases can be blamed on people leading a lascivious and licentious
lifestyle, namely deviant sexual and immoral conduct, most of
the cases. Now, it's only by the grace of
God that I am not numbered in that group, and you. I realize
that. I don't want to take that for
granted. I do not want to look down my
noses at these people and say, I'm holier than thou, therefore
I have not contacted thee. No, it's only by the grace of
God that I am not in that number. But if I was, I would have myself
to blame for it, wouldn't I? If you were. Now, my mixed emotions
about it are this. I have sorrow for those who have
this disease. But I can say, I can say amen
to God's judgments against sin and iniquity in our world. I
can say amen to that. True and righteous are God's
judgments. Men and women have themselves
to blame, yet the Lord has inflicted this judgment just like he did
the various plagues upon the children of Israel. They had
some dreaded diseases and so forth. And the Lord inflicted
these people because of their corrupt behavior. And AIDS is
a judgment of God Almighty. There is no denying that. I want
to apologize for it. And I can say amen to it. Can
you? God Almighty will punish sin. now and certainly in eternity. Now, AIDS is not my subject this
morning. It is in many pulpits. It's not
my subject. It is in many pulpits, and many
are taking a sympathetic approach to it. I don't. I sympathize
with the people, but I'm in favor of the disease. Yeah, I am. It's God's judgment, and I'm
in favor of God punishing sin. You can quote me on that. My
subject this morning, though, is about a far more deadly disease
than AIDS. The reason I brought that up
is because we're all aware of it. We're all aware of this AIDS
virus, but do you know that There is a far more deadly disease
that is rampant in our society, and not 95%, 100% of the people
have it. Six billion people are infected
with this deadly disease, and it's 100% fatal. All die from
it. And everybody in this room has
it. And like AIDS, it is hereditary.
It's passed down. Many are born with it. All are
born with it. And it's acquired. It is a disease that we acquire. Not only is it in our bloodstream,
but we acquire it by immoral behavior. And it eventually manifests itself,
though it starts In a small way, it eventually manifests itself
outwardly from head to toe until we're totally corrupt or taken
with it and die. Now you know what I'm talking
about. I'm talking about sin. Sin. Sin is the disease and all
of us have it, right? Now, it's far more deadly than
AIDS. Why? Because it not only kills
the body. Yeah, everything that takes place
in our planet today that's of any evil consequence is due to
sin, disease, whatever. But it's far more deadly than
AIDS in that after it kills the body, it kills the soul, too. AIDS won't necessarily kill the
soul. God may save a man with AIDS, not his body, but he may
save his soul. Sin kills the soul. I want you
to turn with me to Romans chapter 5. Romans chapter 5. Sin is the
disease and we all have it. Do you know that the reason I
brought this AIDS thing up is because it's a perfect correlation.
And this may be the reason God inflicted this planet with it.
It's a perfect type of sin. You know that theories have it
that this disease was passed down ultimately from one man? Some say not, but many do say
that one man was the cause of the spread of this disease. Look at Romans 5 verse 12. Whereas
by one man, sin entered into the world, and death by sin. As a result of one man's immoral
and corrupt behavior, we've got it. It's passed down. And death passed upon all men,
but we just can't blame that man because it says we've all
sinned. We've all got it. We've come forth from the womb.
doing this thing. And this deadly disease, like
I said, is hereditary. It's in our blood, it's passed
down from our father, but it's acquired. We willingly and knowingly
participate in this immoral behavior which is Deadly to ourselves,
right? I said this once before. Do you
think if they found a cure for the AIDS virus today, do you
think that the homosexuals and so forth and the drug users would
quit their bad habits and go to a clean lifestyle? Do you
think so? No way. We haven't either. Have we? That which kills our soul, we
haven't for a second. I tell you, it's a lot more desperate
case than AIDS. I'm talking about soul death
here. The Scripture says the soul that sinneth must surely
die. The wages of sin is what? Death. Not only physical, but spiritual
death. Eternal separation from this
holy God. So we've got it. We've got it. And we deserve what's coming
to us. Everything, like I said, everything
that befalls mankind is just, is just dessert for what's coming
to him because of his sinful behavior. Now turn over with
me to Isaiah chapter one. I'm trying to paint the picture
just as bad as I can get it, just as black as I can get it.
I'm trying to show us just how, from the scriptures, our desperate
condition. And I think you'll see why in
a little bit. Nobody is going to apply for a cure, but those
who see they've got this disease. People who don't know they have
AIDS aren't looking for a cure, are they? Even though they may
have it, they think, I'm all right. They're dying. But they
think I'm all right. And there's a bunch of people
who at least acknowledge that they have it, and they're seeking
any and all sorts of cures. We've all got this. Some people
know it by God's grace. And they're seeking one cure,
only one to be had, not many. Everybody's got it. Some people
know it. But thank God, that's a gift of God. That's a gift
of God's Holy Spirit to show a man how sinful he is and to
keep him there. That's a gift because some people
don't know it. And so they're not looking for
the cure. Let's look at this description of our utter sinfulness
before God. Look at verse 5, Isaiah 1. Isaiah
1, let's read verse 2. Here, O heavens, give ear, O
earth, for the Lord, the Lord has spoken. And he says,
I've nourished and brought up children. You know, there's a
sense in which every human being born is God's He made this planet
and everybody and everything in it is under his sovereign
dominion. Call them children if you will,
they're not in a saving sense. But he says, I've nourished,
God gives food to every human being. And brought up, God gives
strength, God gives power, this and that and the other, to children
and they have rebelled against me. Every one of them. Every
last one of them. He says, a dumb ox, verse three,
a dumb ox. A cow knows his owner. He says
the ass, a donkey, a mule knows his master's crib. He knows where
he gets his food. But Israel, civilized society,
high and mighty, educated man, doth not know where his food
comes from, nor do my people consider it." Ah, he says, a sinful nation.
What a sinful people, a foolish people, laden with iniquity. A seed of evildoers, children
that are corrupters, they've forsaken the Lord, have provoked
the Holy One of Israel into anger. They're going way backward, as
far as they can get from God. And he says, why should you be
stricken anymore? Why should God, like I said,
if God cured AIDS, and it's going to take the hand of God to cure
it, if He does, will they quit? Will that judgment of God make
men stop? No. He says, you'll just revolt
the more. Men forgot what he did, the bubonic
plague, smallpox. Keep on going down through the
ages. And now, hey, they forgot God. And the Scripture says,
why should you be stricken anymore? You'll revolt the more. Here's
the problem, he says. Look at it. Verse 5. You've got
a sick head. Your head's sick. Like I said
Wednesday night, man needs to wear a sign around him that says,
out of order. Everything about him. His brain
is out of order, isn't it? God said, your thoughts aren't
in the right place. He said, your thoughts aren't
my thoughts. Your brain's out of order. His sick head, his
thought, his understanding. We read it in 1 John 1, light,
understanding. is to think like God thinks.
That's understanding. That's light. When a man agrees
with God about who God is, about who He is, he's got some light
on the subject, doesn't he? And sees Christ as his only hope.
He's got some light. He sees the light. And his understanding, though,
man's understanding is corrupt. It's dark. He calls good evil. He calls evil good. He got this
thing all backwards. In his memory, he said, your
head's sick. Your memory's gone. You've got Alzheimer's disease,
spiritual Alzheimer's. Your memory's gone. You've forgotten. We've forgotten. Man forgets past mercies. Man forgets providences. Man
forgets God's miracles from the day he's born until the day he
dies. He forgets it all. Romans 1 describes it a little
clearer. Said they don't like to think
about it. They don't like to retain God, they're not. Don't
want to remember that. Right? Forgetful. Do you know what hell is? You
know the scripture talks about the worm that dieth not? You
know what hell is? Our Lord gave an illustration
one time, a description of a man in hell, a rich man. And he had
all these things in the world, but he didn't seek God while
he was in this world. But he went to hell. And do you
know what the worm is that dieth not in hell? It's a memory. Abraham said to that man in hell,
son, remember. Remember, it's a memory, a perfect
memory of opportunities discarded to hear the gospel, of messages
preached, right? Of the Word of God. I believe
men are going to have perfect recall of scriptures in hell.
It's going to haunt them. God says, I would, but you would
not. And men are going to remember
that. remember. A memory that never
dies. It haunts a man. It'll haunt
a man. It'll make him want to die and can't. The memory is
gone. The memory is gone. That's the worm, one of the worms.
I believe that unfulfilled desires, too, is the worm that dies. But
man doesn't remember. Man is like a dumb cow. Man's
like a dumb cow that's out in the field eating grass. Now,
this farmer comes along and grabs one of his buddies and takes
him off to the barn or slaughterhouse or whatever. He may hear him
holler, and they cut his head off. And all these cows hear
this, and they pick up their head. Do they run for their lives?
Do they get out on their knees and beg the farmer to have mercy
on them? No. What do they do? Turn back. Keep eating. That's man. God's taken men left and right,
all around us, to the slaughter. Do men consider it? Are men wise
and consider their latter end? No, they forget it. Death can
happen to the nearest relative, but it won't be too long before
they've forgotten it. Everybody gets real convicted at a funeral,
don't they? Everybody's weeping. Everybody
dedicates. Somebody starts showing up in church after somebody dies,
a close friend, a relative. They start showing up in church,
right? How long is that going to last? As long as they remember
old Joe, which is usually not longer than
a few weeks. The memory. He said the head's
sick. The memory's gone. The will is disease. The will,
or that which controls a man, is disease. Far from being free. Rick, the will's not free, is
it? It's in bondage. Do you do what you want to do?
Paul said you can't, didn't he? That which I would do, I can't
do. And what I don't want to do,
he said, that's what I do. Why? There's a law within me. It's called W-I-L-L, warring
against the law of my mind. It's the will, and it's bound
by this flesh, this sinful, lusting flesh. Horses eat grain. You can't force him to eat meat.
Henry, you could put the most luscious prime rib in front of
a horse, he'd turn his nose up at it. He'll devour it. Well, you can't
get the lion to eat grass. The Scripture says man drinks
iniquity like the water. Can't get enough of it. You can't
get him to partake of holiness. He turns his nose up at it. And
that's what controls us. Christ said, you will not come
unto me. Didn't he? The will is controlled
by the nature. Whosoever will. The scripture
says, Whosoever will. Who will? Christ said, You will
not. Well, who will? The psalmist
said it, Thy people shall be made willing. Their wills are changed. Made
willy in the day of his power, not until then. The head is sick,
the will is sick. Look at this, the heart is faint,
verse 5. The heart, the whole heart is
faint. The heart, the heart represents
the seat of our affection. The heart represents what we
love, what we seek after. Man's affection, man loves, man
desires only evil, continually. The whole heart is corrupt. The
affections are in the wrong place. Paul said it in 2 Timothy 3,
that in these perilous times, men love themselves. Scripture says, Terry, we're
unlovely, doesn't it? It says we're despicable to look.
The Scripture says if we could see ourselves like God sees us,
we wouldn't love ourselves, right? But men love themselves. You
see, their affections are all turned upside down. Lovers of
pleasure more than lovers of God. It's for this reason, for
this reason, this wrong affection, that 50,000 people, Steve, 50,000
people will stand in a pouring down rain to watch a bunch of
overgrown kids toss a ball around. Well, stand in the rain for twenty-four
hours, waiting on tickets, and then finally, in the course of—freeze
their legs and arms off to watch a bunch of kids play ball, and
you have a hard time getting forty-five people to worship
God. The whole heart is faint, he
said. The affection is all turned around. Right? The heart is set on sin and weak
toward God. Look at verse six with me. He
says, from the sole of the feet even. He says, the heart, the
head, from the feet and all points in between. Corrupt, sinful,
the sole of the feet. Man's walk, Vicki, the scripture
talks about him, he's swift to run the mischief. The man's feet
don't carry him in paths of righteousness, they carry him in the dark and
seedy places, right? Wherever wickedness and evil's
going on, that's where we go. Don't walk a straight path. God
said, search and find out the good way, wherein is the right
path, wherein is the good way, and walk in it. People said,
we won't walk there, we don't like that path. We'll walk this
way, not this way. from the feet and to the knees. The scripture talks about the
knees. The knees are weak. He calls for strength in the
weak hands and the feeble knees. Where are these knees weak? We're
not on them. Nobody's on them before God. Nobody's exercising. They exercise
your spiritual knees and you get on them in prayer. The bowels, we work our way up
here, from the feet, the swift to run to mischief and all wickedness
of the knees, the weak, the bowels, the bowels. Don't yearn. The scriptures talk about the
bowels, my bowels yearn. Paul talks about if there are
any bowels of compassion, that's the innermost being, the feelings,
the seat of all your troubles, pains and The bowels don't yearn
for God, don't yearn for God, but only for sinful appetites
and pleasures. The bowels, Joe, the bowels are
all full. Men's spiritual bowels are full
of sin. Man is spiritually constipated,
you know that? Let's put it like it is. He's got diarrhea of the mouth,
but he's spiritually constipated. His brains quit functioning. His bowels have quit working.
His heart is dead. It's hard as a rock. He needs
a transplant. From the sole of his feet, the
scripture said, to the top of the head, there's no soundness. There's not one good thing. There's no soundness in a human
being. But nothing but, look at it,
wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. If you look at an AIDS,
a person with AIDS in the latter stages, go to one of these hospitals,
look at some of these pictures, and they are emaciated, they're
drawn up, they're shriveled up, their bodies are nothing but
open and running sores, although they have been afflicted with,
their immune system's gone, and anything that comes along, they
get it. They're lepers, they're modern
day lepers. And the scripture says that about
us. There's nothing good in it. Well,
he's a good man. No, he's not. There's none that
doeth good, the scripture says. Not one. Not one. Mere man. It was a man. But he wasn't just
a man. No soundness in it, there's no
place, there's nothing about man that's not affected with
this disease. Nothing. Scripture talks about
the works of the flesh, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness
and all that. Those are outward signs. Christ
got more specific. The Scripture says Christ magnified
the law. Christ opened up a man's heart.
The great physician, the great heart surgeon came, and he said,
I've got to first show you the real problem. You've got sores,
don't you, on you? You've got outward open signs,
adultery, fornication, outward open sins of the flesh, don't
you? That's not your problem. That's
a symptom. Christ said, because out of the
heart is where it's coming from. You've got to have something.
The heart needs work on it. And this generation's got this
thing all backwards, don't they? They're treating the symptoms
and not doing anything about disease. Sin is man's problem. Why is
your life all messed up, screwed up? Why do we have problems? Sin, S-I-N, a big banner is written
over top of this universe. Sin, and it hangs over us. And it's in us. And eventually
it will, unless God does something valid, unless God does something,
and mighty quick, it will manifest itself in every way imaginable
on it. You think that Jeffrey Dahmer,
is that his name, the fellow, you think he's worse than you,
than me? Oh, God just left him alone.
That's the natural by-product. That's what Joe Parks would be
if God took his hand off of him, wouldn't he, Joe? Oh, yes. I'm not that bad. Yeah. Isaiah
1, 5 and 6. That's the way we would describe
this fellow that killed all these people. But God says they're
all together become filthy. Isn't it? God looked down from
heaven, the scripture said, to see if there were any that did
understand, any that did seek after God. And he said, there's
none. He said, they're all together like one lump mass of writhing,
wriggling humanity. Filthy! And you know what God's
going to do with this mass? Burn it up, as well He should. Shouldn't it? And why am I spending so much
time on sin? You say, we understand that. No, we don't. The reason I've spent so much
time this morning, I've spent nearly 30 minutes on this, is
because so very few people know anything about it. Dear, I can't begin to presume
that take for granted everybody in here knows Christ. I'd be foolish on my part, wouldn't
I? The pastor said I preach as one who may never preach again
as a dying man to dying man. Dying of what? Sin. If I can convince, if the scriptures
will convince a man what he is, if the scriptures, Henry, convince
us we've got an incurable disease, it even says that many times,
their wound is incurable. If it convinces us that, that
we're dying, there's only one place to find a cure. Then we
might go find it, right? Not until then. And Barry, this
generation has missed that, hasn't it? Has nobody sinned. There are no sinners anymore. Barney decides he'd love to find
a sinner. I have some good news for him.
It's not good news unless you're a sinner. The cure doesn't mean a thing
unless you're sick, does it? You see, we've got a bunch of
people who claim to be saved and never been lost. Right? We got a bunch of people accepting
Jesus as their personal Savior who've never been loved, because
they found themselves. We got a bunch of people who
are blind, but say they see. We got a bunch of people who
think they're on their way to heaven when they're on their
road to hell just as fast as they can travel it. We got a
bunch of people who think they're living the Christian life who
are dead in trespasses and sin. We got a bunch of people who
think they have a righteousness, and God says, it stinks in my
nostrils. And if you come up here with
that on, you die. We got a bunch of people who
have accepted some Jesus into their life when they're right
now under the wrath and condemnation of God Almighty. You see, this
is a desperate condition, isn't it? And here's the problem. And this is what every human
being has to first be faced with. Sin. What are we going to do
about it? I got it. I can't get rid of
it. God kills it. What am I going
to do? If I want to be with God, God's holy. I'm sinful. How am
I going to be holy? Huh? That's the question, Henry. Job said it, of a truth. I know
it. How can God be just and justify
an ungodly sin? How can he which is born a woman
be clean? went from the sole of his feet
to the top of his head. And folks, I know it. I know
it's in my head right now, spewing out at me. It's in my heart. I feel it in my heart, don't
you? I believe that's what the public
in the temple was doing. Get this out of here. Do something
about this, wasn't it? It's in my walk. I can't go a
day without this filth rising up. I live in it. I want to be done with it. Do
you? I have. Is there a way to get rid
of sin? Is there a cure? Is there a balm? Turn to John, verse 1 again. We read it a while ago. First
epistle of John, chapter 1. Turn back there. Is there a balm
in Gilead? Let me change a few letters of
that. Yes, there's a balm, but it's
in Galilee, not Gilead. This word balm here, is there
a balm? The word balm here is taken from,
Rick, it's taken from balsam, balsam fir, the wood, you know.
It's pine tree, common pine tree. It's an everyday, ordinary pine
tree. We've got so many of them. I'm sick of them. These pine
trees in Rocky Mountain, or in Franklin County, they're everywhere.
They mess up your gutters, your cars, fall on your trucks. I
had two fall on my truck last winter. Pine trees everywhere,
pine tree. It's what this balm is, is it
comes from these pine trees. You know what it is? It's sap. And you know how it gets there?
You know how you get the sap out of a pine tree? Either lightning
strikes it, or you cut it down, or you cut it with a knife, and
it bleeds. And over here they had this balsam
fir tree that they claim there's miraculous healing powers in
it, this gummy, thick substance that comes from a bleeding tree. And if you just put that on the
wound, it covers it. Is there a balm for sin? Let's look at it. 1 John 1, verse
7. If we walk in the understanding,
as he is understanding, what is this understanding? That God
is holy, that you're a sinner. And we'll have fellowship one
with another. God says, can two walk together except they be
agreed? Is God going to agree with us? Is God on my side? Is that what
the question is? No, who's on the Lord's side?
Yeah, Richard, we're God's yes-men. A believer is God's yes-man.
See those old gangster movies? There'd be a little fella about
my size and a great big one about Steve's size, and the little
fella'd be boss. Wish we were back then, you see.
But everything, you know, he's a bouncer. Everything little
guys say, we gotta rub them out. Big guys say, yeah, boss. Let's go get them. Okay, boss.
Because I'm the boss. You are a boss. That's right.
Ain't nobody going to take my territory. That's right. Yes,
ma'am. That's what we are before God
Almighty. You know, whatever God says, we say, right boss,
true Lord. You're an ungodly sinner. True
Lord. Can two walk together? God's
not going to walk with a man unless he agrees with him. I'm
holy. I'm the Lord thy God which reigneth.
True Lord. Yes, ma'am. Right? You're nothing but dust. I'm
from above, you're from beneath. True Lord. And the Lord says
he draws an eye to that fellow. An eye we can walk together.
Right? We can have fellowship together.
And the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses us from all
sin. God says, I got something for
you. It'll cure what ails you. I got
a balm. I got cleansing for you. But
not until you see a disease. Not until you see who you are.
It's blood that cleanses. And this generation is taking
it out of religion. The only cure Steve, what if
they found a cure for AIDS and everybody rejected it? Would
you call that man a fool? What if a man dying of AIDS,
they said, well, here's the cure. Strip naked, run before the world,
say, I've got AIDS, I've lived an immoral life, I'm getting
what I deserve, and you can have this cure. I don't know, I can't
do that. the leopard right if God give
you some hard thing to do travel to Australia and go out in the
bush and try to find a tree and suck the juice out of it you've
done that wouldn't it but all God say is admit what you are
come naked before God cry out unclean unclean and God says
now here here be clean the blood what can wash away
my sin nothing but the blood of Jesus Christ. What can make
me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus
Christ. Nothing. There is a fountain
and it's filled with what? Blood. And it's drawn from Emmanuel's
veins. And sinners, not the righteous,
sinners plunge beneath that stream and lose all. All? Yes, all. Their guilt is thanked. All. Their past present and future. Not only do I have a problem
with what I used to do, I got a problem right now with what
I do now, what I am now. And do you know what, Barbara?
I'm going to do it again tomorrow. I can say all I want to, like
Job, I'll never look on another woman. And I'll do it again first
thing in the morning. What's my hope? all their guilty
stains. All. The blood covers. The blood
covers. My hope is not in that I clean
my life up and live a better life. My hope is I've got the
bomb. I've got the blood covering me,
he said. Very quickly. I've got five minutes to give
you fifty-five minutes' worth of information. Very quickly. Why does this blood cleanse? How does the blood of Jesus Christ
get rid of sin? Number one, it satisfies God's
justice against sin. The scripture says, the soul
that sinneth must die. Blood, if you slit a man's throat,
he's going to die. There's no doubt about it. If
he pours out all of his blood, he's dead. That's typical. Blood is typical of death, right?
And all of those types in the Old Testament, rivers of blood,
animals, bulls, goats, turtledoves, bullocks, and so forth, that
were slain from the beginning. All that blood typified death. And when the people came to make
those sacrifices, what they were saying was, this is us. This is what we deserve. Coming
before a holy God and saying, We're sinners. We deserve to
die. Our blood deserves to be shed. But would you kill this
animal instead of us? Would you kill this lamb in my
stead? I lay him in confession of my
sin. I'm making this animal to be
as if it were me. There I am. Kill him!" He said,
the soul that sins must die. Kill him instead. I don't want
to die. I want to live. And God, in mercy,
says, well, slit that animal's throat, pour it out, pour the
blood out, and the blood will make an atonement for that man's
soul, whoever confesses. John, the Baptist, one day said,
look over there, look yonder coming. See that plain, ordinary
brown man walking, little Jewish fellow? He's got some blood in
his veins that you need desperately. It's king's crimson in his veins.
It's royal blood in his veins. That's God's Lamb. That blood
will cleanse you from all your sins. Anybody guilty? Any sinners
anywhere that need cleansing? There he is. You better lay hold
of him. Confess your sins to him. Lay
your hands on the sacrifice. God will kill him in your stead.
Pour that blood out. And that's what Christ came calling,
didn't it? Come unto me, all ye that labor and heavy laden."
With what? Problems in this life? No, sin. Christ said, I'll take your place.
What have you done? Doesn't matter. I'll take it
on me, and I'll go to God, this holy God, and He'll kill me in
your stead. Plunge in, He said. And when
God sees the blood, Not lambs and bulls and goats, that's impossible.
Man can sin, man has to satisfy, but the blood of a man. And how
could one man's blood represent so many? Because he wasn't just
a man. He said, feed the church of God, which he's purchased
with his own blood, the blood of God. You know, it never ceases
to amaze me that the spiritual spiritual or religious undertones
of Hollywood movies. Many of you have seen these,
you kids have seen these movies, Andrew E.T., you see that movie
E.T.? And Starman, you remember that
man who came? The religious undertones. It's
always, Vicki, it's always some creature from outer space who
comes down to the world and he's innocent. Totally innocent. No guile either. Right? And what does man do with it?
Cherish every one of them. What do we do with it? We kill it. Even the Hollywood
movies of man display the truth of the gospel. You know that?
God sent his son down here. Holy. Unblameable. What do we
do? Kill it. But there was one show I used
to watch on TV years ago called The Immortal. Anybody remember
that show? The Immortal? You remember, Bob? This man supposedly had in... he had blood that would make
you live forever. You know? The Immortal. And one
man was out to get him. He thought, if I can get his
blood, and he chased him everywhere, trying to get that man's blood
and infuse it in his veins, and he'd live forever. There is an immortal. Alive! Christ said, I live! I died,
but I rose again, and now I live! And I've got blood. Anybody want
it, you'll live forever." Think of that. That seems to me like
a wise man who was dying would seek that blood, wouldn't you? It satisfies God's justice. Secondly, it'll cleanse your
guilty conscience. It'll cleanse your guilty conscience.
Old Brother Scott, one of his classic statements, one of those
profound statements about that old coal miner. He said, the only thing that
will cleanse a guilty conscience is a perfect sacrifice. Now, you think about that. You see, my conscience, you know
what bothers me about sin the most? conscience. There's some things, Joe, there's
some things I've done in the past that bother me. I don't
think, I don't see how I could ever get rid of. There's some
things I did yesterday or thought that bother me. They bother you,
your conscience smites you. But today. And tomorrow, I'm
going to fall into something. My conscience will prick me.
My conscience felt and owned the grief and plunged me in despair. What's going to get rid of this
sinful conscience, this conscience that plagued me? What? Who is
he that condemns me? Christ died. Only thing. Only when I see that God Almighty
says, if you come to Christ and believe in him, I'll not hold
you guilty for what you've done. Not yesterday, not today, not
tomorrow. No guilt. Now that's the only way the gospel
is going to mean good news to anybody. I'm talking about bona
fide sinners. Sinners. Guilty as charged. Whatever things the law sayeth,
it says to me. And I stop my mouth and I say,
I'm guilty. What's going to take care of
that guilt? What's going to get rid of my
past? Well, God says, listen to this, did you hear what Jesus
said to me? He might say it to you. They're
all taken away. Your sins are pardoned. You're
free. Yeah, their sins and their iniquities,
I'll remember no more. Then why am I worrying about
it, Henry? Why do I bring it back up? My conscience bothers
me, my guilty conscience. Christ paid for those sins. Huh? But you don't know what I did,
preacher. God does, and he says, who's he that condemneth? Christ
died. He paid for those. But I was
but God who's rich in mercy. Forget the past, he says. There are sins and iniquities
I'll remember no more. Why? Can't see through the blood.
That black book's got all those sins in it, and that record against
me is crimson. Even God's all-seeing eye can't
see through it. It's blood covered. Now, that's good news, but it's
only good news to a sinner, to a dying of AIDS, spiritual AIDS. Is there a bomb in Gilead? Yeah, it's blood. Okay, stand
with me and I'll dismiss this in front of you.