Crimson Stain Washed White As Snow

When my daughter turned 16, I bought her a Nikon camera and she wanted to take some pictures out in the country. And as we were driving outside the city, we passed an old, creepy-looking, insane asylum that had been shut down and abandoned for years. She wanted to take some pictures of that, so we stopped the car, got out, and stood in front of that three-story Victorian building that was just loaded with a bunch of windows.

And she took a bunch of pictures. Later in the day, when we got back home, she uploaded the camera chip to her computer to look at the pictures. And when she did, she started hollering for me to come to her room.

I ran into her bedroom, and when I saw the developed pictures, a chill went down my spine. The front of that insane asylum was full of windows on each of the three stories of that building. And in each window stood a figure, a person looking at us.

One man had his mouth wide open as if he was screaming at us. Another man pointed his finger at us. In another window were three people huddled together as if in fear.

But every window had a figure in it, and it scared me. We destroyed that camera chip that day, and the photos of those spirits, it was too disturbing. I have a solemn message to bring you tonight, friends, and it's a hard one to deliver.

I have to unburden my heart to tell you, the day's too far gone. The time is too short. The days are too full of evil.

Society's unraveling at the seams. I've got to bring you this message, friend, while I've got the strength to deliver it. I'm already facing opposition as I'm ready to preach it.

Let me pray right now. Lord Jesus, will you help me now as I bring this message to your people? I'm weak, Lord. I'm dizzy.

I'm old and I'm frail. I need your support and strength. Empower me by your spirit and come be with us tonight in your manifest presence, I pray, and come verify your word.

Will you rise off your throne and stand among us here tonight? Will you open eyes to eternity and pierce hearts with conviction of sin? Reveal yourself to some poor sinner here tonight, Lord. Let them see a revealed Christ hanging on a cross for sin. Penetrate this meeting tonight with the disturbing presence of Christ.

Oh, holy Christ. Awaken men and women and boys and girls to their lost condition and great danger of dying in their sins beyond the blood of the Lamb of God. Let them see themselves tumbling down into a bottomless pit of outer darkness and chains of torment and misery to be forever damned in the devil's hell.

Let someone see hellfire licking at their heels. Let them feel it, that they're just one heartbeat away from eternity. Don't let them only hear the shaky voice of an old preacher, but by your sovereign grace and your power, I pray that you let someone here hear your voice as it comes to them with power, authority, and majesty.

I pray these things in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. In 2 Kings chapter 6 and verse 17, we read, And Elisha prayed and said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes that he may see.

And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw. And behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha. I will stop there, friends.

God had to open that young man's eyes to the spiritual world around him. And when he did, he saw the mountain full of heavens, chariots of fire. There is an unseen world all around us, just like that photo of the insane asylum and the spirits there years ago.

I knew a Satan worshiper, and I asked him if he wouldn't mind telling me how he became a Satan worshiper. And he took some time, and he sat down with me, and he was willing to share his story with me. He said he began to have a desire to pray to the devil.

And so he resolved to himself, he made a pact with himself that he would every day pray to the devil. And after a while, he was in his bedroom one night, and an unseen visitor approached him and spoke to him. He felt an evil presence in his room, but he heard a clear voice.

And the voice gave him an order, some instructions to carry out after midnight. He was instructed to drive out to the country to a certain farm where there were some goats, and he was instructed to climb the fence, catch one of those goats. And when he had caught it, he was to slit its throat with a large hunting knife.

He then was to carry the dead carcass of that goat on his shoulders, put it in the back of his pickup truck, drive to a forest where he would park his truck, unload the goat, carry it on his shoulders to a clearing in the woods. And there he would build a fire with branches and brush, and there he'd lay that goat upon that fire. And as he did, he was to sacrifice it to Satan as an offering to his satanic majesty.

And this he did. Later that week, the same unseen presence visited him at night in his bedroom, spoke to him again in a clear voice. Only this time, the presence revealed its name to him.

It was an ancient name, one he could not share with me, but it was a name he'd never heard before, almost like a biblical name. This devilish spirit guide then gave him another command to go kill another goat and offer it to the satanic majesty. And this he accomplished according to plan.

The very next time this unseen force visited him in his bedroom, it announced to him that he would now have the power to open his eyes. And he asked him if he had his permission to open his eyes. And he said yes.

And immediately he saw the presence in his room. It was a large foreboding figure, unearthly in every regard. And this young Satan worshiper told me that from that point forward, he could see demons everywhere.

He'd go to the mall and he'd see demons walking among the shoppers there. When he was out on the street, he could see demons walking beside people in broad daylight. And he told me the most terrifying thing that ever happened to him was when he finally visited the city of Rome, Italy.

And he was so afraid there because he said the whole city of Rome was literally crawling with hordes and myriads of demon entities. It was said of Charles Spurgeon as he lay dying in a hotel room in Minton, France, that his good friend and aide, Mr. Harold, looked out the window of the hotel lobby and it was a clear day. And up on the horizon, he saw in the blue sky, a bevy of angels hovering in the air as if they were waiting on someone.

A few hours later, the great preacher was dead. I believe, friends, when we die, as believers, angels carry our soul up to heaven to be with Jesus, but also believe there are demons beside the unsaved that hover around them like a pack of jackals waiting at a bedside of a dying person who is lost and ready to pounce on them to drag their soul down to hell. If you're outside of Christ right now, you're in great danger.

We live in a land of sudden death. Just this week, a bunch of people were gunned down out in California. We live in a land where you can just be out anywhere and a madman can gun you down, kill you without any warning.

You can be taken suddenly as a fatality in a car crash. You can be fine with strong health, catch a virus from a pandemic that invades your lungs and drains your very life away. Last evening, listen to me, last evening may have been the last time you'll ever sleep in the comfort of your own bed again.

You never know when you're going to be taken out of this world without warning. And quite suddenly, a sovereign God can remove you faster than you can clap your hands. Some of you are in greater peril than others.

Some of you believe your spiritual condition is all right, but you rest on the planks of a false foundation of coronal security of an empty religious profession. You lie in more grave danger than the wicked out on the street because you think this message does not concern you personally. So you degrade it, lessen it, deflect it, deny it to your own hurt, your own ruin and destruction.

Perhaps you've had the misfortune to be in a church where you're sitting under a minister where the real gospel is not preached. Unconverted ministers are all over the place today, or self-advancing ministers who just want a big church to feed you a diluted gospel that soothes your conscience and gives you a false hope. Perhaps you merely made a mental assent, acknowledging that Jesus did die on a cross.

But you've got no reality of God. You've got no reality of God in your life, friend. There's nothing more tragic than a lost religious person who's a good church member, but who's never been born from above and washed in the blood.

Maybe Satan has given you a false bastard piece from an illegitimate faith, and you walk around like proud Haman on his way to a feast in his honor, only to discover the very hanging he's contrived for poor Mordecai is the very noose that's placed around his own neck at last. Hear me now. Some of you are resting on a empty religious profession, and if God doesn't put a faithful minister in your path who will preach you the real gospel with a burden for your soul, you take his word like a hammer and bust up that entire rod profession of yours, you'll surely wind up in the devil's hell.

If it was left up to you, why, you'd never be saved. I believe in a big God who sent a messenger to Jacob. Yes, Jacob.

Jacob was so crooked he could hide behind a corkscrew, but God sent a messenger to Jacob, and that messenger wrestled with Jacob all night long, and old Jacob fought as hard as he could. Listen friend, I'm talking to you, maybe someone even here, not a one of you, not a one of you are ever going to get saved. If you can help it, you'll never get saved.

If you can help it, hear me now, if God almighty doesn't break your old stubborn will and your old black heart and invade your life and conquer you, if he left it up to you, you'd never get saved. Old Jacob said, I'm not gonna surrender, not me, and finally the messenger smote him, crippled him, and then old Jacob had some sense. He came to his senses, and almighty God hasn't saved a sinner yet that he didn't first cripple him, for a sinner doesn't want to be saved.

He doesn't want to go to hell, but he doesn't want to be united to a holy Christ. There isn't a sinner in this town tonight that wants to die and go to hell, but they sure don't want to live a holy life either. God can send a messenger and cripple Jacob, and when Jacob is crippled, he'll have some sense, and when he was crippled and the messenger started to leave him, Jacob grabbed hold of his coattail and said, you can't leave me till you bless me.

Yes sir, I believe in that kind of God, where salvation is in his hands. I believe in a God who interferes with Saul of Tarsus as he's going down the road to kill some more Christians, and Jesus Christ met him smack dab in the middle of the road, knocked him off his horse, revealed himself to him, and saved him by his grace. God's still doing business today friends.

He's still intervening in sinners lives, because he still hears prayer. I believe if you're going to get saved, God's going to have to wrestle you down and cripple you, or knock you off your high horse and invade your life. Salvation is of the Lord.

There is a coming day friend, when God will judge the world in righteousness. God's word declares, and it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment. I want to take this time now friend, to walk you over to the very verge of eternity, and let you face that blank void.

Take a look at that terrible God of that eternity. Listen to the description of the righteous judge from Revelation 19. And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse, and he that sat upon him was called faithful and true, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.

His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns, and he had a name written that no man knew but he himself. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood, and his name is called the word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, and out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of almighty God.

And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, a king of kings and lord of lords. Fast approaching is a coming day, a judgment, where every mother's son will be held up against the strictness and severity of God's unbending law. That day of judgment is not to find out what is just, but to make it known God's justice in the judgment which he will execute the sentencing of the law in every guilty lawbreaker.

And God's word declares that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. If you stand there in your own merits, you will fail that test. You must stand in the merits of another, the Lord Christ.

That day is called the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God when God manifests his unbending law alongside your wicked, sinful life and threatens punishment for your sins. And what your weakness is brought to the light of day under his intense scrutiny and by his eyes of fire and he calls you to an account, you will be speechless. And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there was a man which had not on a wedding garment and he saith unto him, Friend, how comest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless.

His mouth was stopped. You may have excuses now, friend, but on that day, all your excuses would just be indictments against you. You'll be stripped naked and skewered by God's unbending law.

God is just in executing the threatening punishment against you for all your aggravations and iniquities. He will find you out and all these things will be brought to light. His unregenerate men stand side by side with devils on the left hand of a thrice holy God as they're doomed and cursed and damned and thrown into the everlasting lake of fire.

Let me read this striking passage of scripture to you now, friends. Get the wax out of your ears. Sit up straight.

Pay attention to this terrible scene. And I saw a great white throne and him that sat on it and from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God and the books were opened and another book was opened, which is the book of life.

And the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them and they were judged. Every man according to their works and death and hell were cast into the lake of fire.

This is the second death and whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. Listen, friend, I know I'm a sinner. I need a sacrifice for sin and so do you, friend.

So do you. Don't die in your sins, friend. Don't go to that devil's hell.

I beg you, I beg you to surrender all you are to all he is and he is Lord. Throw down your shotgun of rebellion and repentance at his nail-pierced feet. Lay your sin burden down there and cast yourself on Christ the Lord.

Jesus is the pearl of great price. Jesus is worth selling all for so he may be gained. Hear these terrible warnings.

He that is unjust, let him be unjust still. And he which is filthy, let him be filthy still. Jesus is the friend of sinners.

Are you a lost sinner? Then come to him and own him as your savior and Lord. Look, friend, look at that man on the cross, friend. Look at that bloodstained savior for sin hanging there with the crown of thorns upon his head.

Red streaks of blood drip from his forehead. His back is flayed open by cruel Romans whip and scourge and his wounds and his wounds are festering. His hands and his feet are pierced with rusty nails that fasten him to that instrument of death.

Oh, look at that man on the cross, friend. Look at that man. He is despised and rejected a man, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

And we hid as it were our faces from him. He was despised and we esteemed him not. Surely he is born our griefs and carried our sorrows.

Yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten to God and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.

The chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes we are healed. Oh, we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Oh, look at that bloodstained savior for sin, friend, as he squirms and wiggles beneath the weight of sin. My filthy sins, your wretched sins. He loved and gave himself for me.

Look at him hanging there with his arms outstretched, beckoning you to come to him and believe on him. Oh, look upon me and be ye saved. All the ends of the earth for I am God and there is none else.

Jesus is the only remedy and refuge for sin. Jesus is the only savior for sin. But listen, friend, as the prophet Jeremiah warned, the harvest is past.

The summer is ended and we are not saved. Don't let that be you, friend. Don't be deceived.

You may not even be in this world this time next year. Listen, this may be your final call and the spirit and the bride say, come and let him that hearsay come and let him that is a thirst come and whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. Lord, now, indeed, I find thy power and thine alone can change the leper's spots and melt the heart of stone.

Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe. Sin hath left a crimson stain. He, he, he washed it white as snow.