Like Mustard on a Blue Suit

Let me pray. Great and terrible God in heaven, you are high and lifted up, whose name is holy. You dwell among the cherubim.

Help me, I pray, Lord, to deliver this message that you have burning in my soul. I pray, great God, though Satan roar and hellish hosts revile forever, let me preach this message in the demonstration of the Spirit and of the power of God. Bring a soul out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light and life.

Open hearts, I pray, and reveal your Son as the pearl of great price, who's worth selling all for and losing all for, so he may be gained. For what profits a man if he gains the world but loses his soul? There are some here tonight, Lord, who may be in danger of losing their soul. The devil's got four aces on them, their hearts as hard as a rock.

But you say, Lord, in your word that your word is a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces. And, Lord, I ask you tonight to come and bust things up here. Bust up every false foundation of an empty religious profession.

Bust up every false hope. Break apart every false refuge of carnal security. And, Lord, there are people here sound asleep in their sins.

You say that your word is like a fire. Come burn someone's conscience in this message and awaken them to their lost condition and alarm them to their perilous position of dying in their sins and experiencing the terrible consequences of damnation in the devil's hell. Great God, you also declare that your word is like a two-edged sword that divides asunder.

I pray, great God, that by your spirit you come here tonight and cut somebody up to pieces. Hew them down like Samuel hacked up old rotten King Agag. Open hearts tonight, I pray.

Pull the curtains down on eternity. Let sinners tremble as they totter over the bottomless pit and dangle there like a worm being fed to a raven. Wake up these lost religious people, Lord, I pray.

Save some of them before you remove them and send them to hell. You are a God who must punish sin. As those soldiers nailed up your son, Jesus, to that cross, every stroke of the hammer was an exclamation point crying out, God must punish sin.

God must punish sin. God must punish sin. Lord, I pray that your spirit come among us and disturb folks.

Let those here get a glimpse of heaven, hell, and eternity. I pray these things in the strong name of Jesus. Amen.

Well, let me gather myself a minute, friends. I plumb wore myself out here before I even got started. I've got a serious message for us this evening, friends, and it's a solemn warning.

Like the words of the prophet Jeremiah, a Buddhist word was in my heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones. This message is burning in my bones and I'm coming to you tonight, friends, like a smoking volcano erupting with warning. The hour is late and Christ's return is near.

Like the apostle says, it is high time to wake out of sleep. The night is far spent. The day is at hand.

Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Do you believe, friends, that we're living in the last days? Do you believe we are living in dark days? Does it appear to you that the devil has the highway and society is in moral chaos and spinning out of control? Then why do you halt between two opinions, friend? If the Lord be God, follow him. But if Baal, then follow him.

Baal was an idol that was just the face of the devil. The idol, your servant friend, is really the devil. You can't play footsie with God in partial obedience.

You're either 100% sold out to him or you're not. You can't have it both ways. You can't have one foot with God and one foot in the world.

It's either God or Baal. You better settle this tonight, friend, or it'll be hell to pay. I'm going to preach the unvarnished gospel to you tonight, friends.

And like we say in the South, I'm gonna give you the oil straight from the can. So sit up straight, get the wax out of your ears. God will do business tonight with those who want to do business with him.

I was playing golf with a giant of a man. He stood six foot five and was as wide as a brick wall. And every time this big man took a swing at the ball, he cursed God and cussed man.

He had the filthiest mouth of any man I ever heard. I couldn't take it anymore. So finally, I turned to him on a tee box and said, can I ask you a question? He said, shoot.

I said, how is your relationship with God? He smiled a big grin and said, fine. I have a great relationship with God. I leave him alone and he leaves me alone.

That's what the big man said. Do you know what, friend? It breaks my heart to say it. All you have to do to go to hell is for God to leave you alone.

If you're here tonight and you were saved, it's because God gave you saving faith. Salvation is in the hands of God. Well, that's my little introduction, friends.

Let's get down to business. We've got a lot of ground to cover tonight. Let me share a story with you first.

Years ago, I was preaching in a church down south in Mississippi one Sunday morning, and it was customary down south after the service was over to have a big smorgasbord for the visiting preacher. Well, we all went to the fellowship hall. We're at picnic tables.

We're ready. In a long table, a buffet food was sitting there. Well, I like hot dogs, so I loaded up my plate with a few hot dogs, and I like mustard on my hot dogs.

Some of you kids might like mustard on your hot dogs as well, so I lathered them up from a jar of mustard on the table that was before me. I sat down with an old deacon and his wife, and I wondered why they were staring at me so, until I realized I had smeared yellow mustard all over the front of my brand new blue suit. The old deacon shook his head and said, well, at least we know you're human.

I took that suit to the cleaners, but that mustard stain never came out of that blue suit. It always had a green hue. Every time after that, when I wore that suit and looked in the mirror, it always carried that stain, and that's what sin does to you, friend.

It stains you, and it won't come out. It won't come off of you. You can try to whitewash sin by calling it other names, but that won't do.

A fib is still a lie. Taking something that doesn't belong to you is still stealing. Fooling around is still adultery.

You can't whitewash sin by renaming it. Now listen to me, friends. Sin is still sin, and it leaves a stain on you morally that you can't wash out, even by church membership.

My new blue suit had that mustard stain, and it's still there, even though the suit is old. The title of my message this evening, friends, is Like Mustard on a Blue Suit, and my text can be found in the Book of Revelation. You can turn in your Bibles there now, friends.

We will be in chapter 20. I drink coffee when I have my quiet time with the Lord, and I keep my Bible in my lap, and I'm careful as to not spill any coffee, but one time I spilled coffee accidentally on a page of my Bible where that brown stain never came out. Sin is like that in a book.

God keeps a book on every one of us, and one day future, he will open the books and review our life, both the good and the bad. We see this to be the case in our text this evening from Revelation in chapter 20, beginning in verse 11. And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them.

Let me pause here, friends, to say this speaks of the final judgment of all mankind, and the final dissolution of the whole frame of nature. That great white throne speaks of a tribulation of judgment. It's a heavenly courtroom scene.

The white of that throne symbolizes purity and holiness of a thrice holy God. The judge of that throne is the judge of all the earth, and shall not the judge of all the earth do right? Well, let's take a look at who is appearing before that throne. Let's continue with our striking passage of Scripture.

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. Let me pause here again, friends, to say, well, what books are these being referenced to? There's a book of remembrance that contains both good and bad. It's the detailed biography of our life.

God will open the books on us. The next book is the book of God's law, and each man will be held up against the strictness and severity of God's unbending law, and all will fail that test for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Those guilty lawbreakers will face the intense scrutiny of that judge.

Then there is a book that decides one's eternal destiny, the book of life. Well, this heavenly courtroom scene where cases will be reviewed and evidence presented and examined, every word, every thought, every deed will be reviewed by the one who has eyes of fire. Well, let's continue with our text, friends.

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.

I will stop there. Oh, what a solemn scene. It's a courtroom scene, and if I may so speak, where the Son of God is the judge, the angels are the bailiffs, and Satan is the prosecuting attorney, the accuser, the brethren.

All of mankind stands there from every generation since Adam who will be justified and acquitted by the judge. Those whose names are found written in the book of life, there stands before that judge a vast crowd of people. There stands the antediluvians of Noah's day who rejected the preaching of Noah and who drowned in the flood.

There stands the man of Sodom who mocked righteous lot and of whom God rained fire and hell out of heaven and consumed them. There stands the Jewish religious leaders who shouted crucify him. There stands Pontius Pilate who now himself is being judged by the one he judged.

There stands the Caesars. There stands the kings and queens. There stands the potentates of every nation.

There stands the presidents and leaders of every nation from every continent in every generation. There stands the rich and the poor, the famous and the unknown, the movers and the shakers, the small and the great. There stands your co-workers.

There stands your neighbors. There stands your friends and family members. They face that righteous judge with the heat of that lake of fire burning behind them as it spits and spews and sizzles and torments those who are bound hand and foot and cast in there for all eternity.

How about you friend? How about you? How will you stand? Will you stand there with mustard on your blue suit with the stain of sin upon you? Will it be too late for change then friend? I believe it'll be too late then for as a tree falls so it shall lay. He that is unjust let him be unjust still and he which is filthy let him be filthy still and he that is righteous let him be righteous still and he that is holy let him be holy still like mustard on a blue suit. Your sins will find you out.

It'll be too late then friend and like mustard on a blue suit you'll be found guilty of the stain of sin and breaking God's law and the sentencing of the law will be carried out by that judge who sits behind that pure great white throne as he announces the sentence against you. Then said the king to the servants, bind him hand and foot and take him away and cast him into outer darkness. There should be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

The sovereign of the damned in hell is spoken of here. Weeping speaks of great loss and grief. Gnashing of teeth signifies great anger and regret.

I speak to you tonight friend about the dangers of damnation in the devil's hell. Let me read you the verse that precedes the striking passage of scripture about this great white throne judgment. In Revelation 20 10 we read, and the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever.

Do you want to be that destiny friend? Do you want that to be you? Will you admit that you're in danger? Will you admit that you're a guilty sinner? Will you admit that you've been hiding in the church for years under a profession of faith? Will you admit that your hope of heaven is as empty as a hole in the wall? Will you turn to Christ now and repent of your sins? You're not in hell yet friend. There's still time. There's still time to repent and surrender to God.

Listen to God now as he declares, Come now and let us reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet, they should be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they should be as wool.

Like mustard on a blue suit, sin stains the soul. Only the blood of Christ can wash away the stain of sin. You must be born from above and washed in the blood, friend.

If you've not trusted this blessed savior, receive him now before it's too late. Soon he will come in judgment on this world when his anger shall burn as an oven and then you shall meet him as your judge. Turn to God, friend, before it's too late.

Surrender your all to him. Jesus gave his all on Calvary, holding nothing back. How can you hold anything back from him? Come to Jesus.

Come. What are you waiting for, mister? Don't wait until you're better. Come.

Bring to him your heartache. Bring to him your tears. Come.

Come to Jesus. The gospel is for the weary, the hungry, and the thirsty. You must feel your need of a savior for sin.

Listen to this final gospel call. And the spirit and the bride say, come. And let him that hears say, come.

And let him that is the thirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. Listen, friends, the very last words of these, surely I come quickly.