The Cross and the Blood

When I was a little boy in the 1950s in America, you could still hear godly men stand behind a pulpit and preach that sin was black and hell was hot. They warned men and women and boys and girls about a future judgment that awaited all mankind. The gospel they preached underscored man's duty of repentance and his utter necessity of regeneration that to get into god's holy heaven one must lay down their weapons of rebellion to the lord Jesus Christ and a work of grace had to be performed upon the heart by the supernatural work of the spirit of god that the only way to escape damnation in the devil's hell was to be born from above and washed in the blood.

In the hymns they sang were full of the blood. I want to share a story with your friends. I knew the late evangelist Jim Wilson whose uncle was Billy Graham and he shared the following story with me.

He was visiting Billy Graham for the last time at the Graham Homestead in North Carolina and Billy was now a very old man and as they sat together on the porch looking over the mountain valley Jim Wilson turned to his uncle and asked this question. He said uncle Billy if you had to do it all over again is there anything you would do differently? What would you do differently? And Billy Graham got a faraway look in his blue eyes as he pondered that question and after a while he replied I would have preached repentance more. That was Billy Graham's biggest regret that he didn't preach man's duty of repentance more.

The title of my message today friends is the cross and the blood. I bring to you the old gospel story of the cross. In society today a god rejecting world hates the message of a crucified Christ.

Satan hates the name of Jesus. Lost religious men hate the doctrine of repentance. Seldom will you hear a message on a bloody cross on which a blood-stained savior died.

And even many preachers today have watered down the old story of the gospel by getting out their mop buckets and cleaning up all the blood and gore around Calvary to make it so pristine you can sit and have your lunch there. But the message of the cross and the blood is seldom heard today. The modern minister merely quotes John 3 16 and presents Jesus to you as a free ticket to heaven.

All you have to do is accept this free gift like God is a big Santa Claus God and he's handing out Christmas presents of salvation to anybody that wants it and it's up to you to accept it and be saved. The modern gospel is full of omission. It omits man's duty of repentance.

It omits man's utter necessity of regeneration. It omits sin and it omits punishment for sin in a devil's hell and it omits that a future judgment awaits all mankind wherever mother son will be held up one day against the strictness and severity of God's unbinding law and all will fail that test for all of sin and come short of the glory of God and if you stand there at that judgment in your own merits you will fail that test. You must stand in the merits of another the Lord Jesus Christ.

Listen friends I bring you now that old story of that old rugged cross and the Christ who hung there for a sinner like me. Well that's my little introduction friends and here now is the gospel the old gospel of the cross that makes satan rage and it inflames hatred in men to the preacher who preaches it. The story the old gospel of the cross brings persecution for sure.

How many times have I stood in a sanctuary with a deacon glaring at me with hate in his eyes because I told him unless you repent you will die and bust hell wide open. Oh the gospel has power to save friends but it's the old biblical gospel the gospel of the cross but unsaved men think it's just pure nonsense to human reason. We read in 1st Corinthians 1 18 for the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.

Give me your undivided attention friends for what I have to say to you now may affect your entire destiny. This verse from God's word in 1st Corinthians 1 18 speaks of two persons in the world. There's only two kinds of persons in the world not rich or poor not healthy or sick not famous or unknown.

Yes people fall into two categories in life but really there's only two persons in the world today as far as God is concerned the lost and the saved. Those who go away from this meeting as a lost person then this verse is just pure utter nonsense to you. It's foolishness to you.

It has no meaning to you. It goes in one ear and out the other from an empty head so to speak. People that are lost to individuals spiritually have empty heads and hard hearts and the gospel does not move them but rather when they hear it it falls off of them like water on a duck.

It just runs right off. On the other hand those who receive this message of the gospel and are saved it is the power of God. It opens their blind eyes makes them move from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light and life and their stony heart is made a heart of flesh sensitive to the things of God.

Also this verse speaks of two components to the gospel of the son of God. One is a cross of a crucified Christ the other is the power of God. The apostle Paul wrote in Romans 1 16 concerning the gospel for I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

Oh why did the gospel that Paul preached have such power and the gospel you hear mostly in churches today has no power at all. Why is that friend? Has God gone out of the business of saving folks? No there's two gospels. We preach a different gospel today than the one Paul preached.

We preach a diluted gospel that's more palatable to sinful man. We preach an easy belief gospel to modern man that's non-offensive that's easy to swallow like sweet lemonade and like lemonade it's full of sugar and no nutrition. Notice in 1 Corinthians 1 18 Paul describes the gospel he preached the preaching of the cross.

This is the old time gospel of our fathers. The gospel of the cross is the gospel of revival and spiritual awakening. The gospel of the cross is a God-centered gospel that brings glory to God in the salvation of man.

The gospel of our day is a modern politically correct humanism gospel centered on the happiness of man. That's why it's got no power. If you want to be a Christian they say you decide.

It's up to you. You save yourself for salvation is in the hands of man. You can get religion anytime you want to friend when you're good and ready.

Jesus will still be there knocking at the door of your heart with his hat in his hand. Won't you let him in? He's just a pitiful figure waiting for you to do something about it. But that's not the gospel of my Bible friends.

The gospel of my Bible has power to save and it'll take your religion down with you to hell. Paul's gospel had a cross smack dab in the middle of it and on that cross was a blood-stained Christ for sin for we read in 1 Corinthians 1 23. But we preach Christ crucified unto the Jews a stumbling block and unto the Greeks foolishness.

There's that word foolishness again to those who perish. The gospel is just pure nonsense. It's irrelevant to them and completely unnecessary to them.

I get busted up when I talk about it friends. Hear me now. Pray for me.

Help me to get through this. I gotta preach this message to you friends. People will take some religion so they can sleep well at night but they don't want a God who will get in the way of their daily living.

They don't want to hear about a bloody cross and a bleeding Savior who saves you from your sins from your penalty of sins and from the power of sin. Repentance means you turn forsake and walk away from your very most beloved sins. You break off from them and you turn to God.

People just want to keep their sins. They get pleasure out of their sins so they see if they can find a religion to let them sleep at night and keep their sins. So they just go on with their lives in a in a way that's comfortable for them.

But the old time gospel had power to save. That's the very gospel I bring you right now friends. Are you a lost sinner who needs to be saved? This message will either be foolishness to you.

You're going one ear and out the other or it'll be a saving power to you. For there's two destinies available to men. One is heaven and the other is hell.

There's no purgatory. There's nobody in purgatory. It doesn't exist friends.

It's just heaven and it's just hell. Do you believe in heaven? Do you believe in hell? Do you? Do you believe good people go to heaven and bad people go to hell? Do you believe you're a good person that you're good enough for heaven because you're not bad enough for hell? I was witnessing to a dying old lady in a hospital and I asked her if she knew she was going to heaven when she died. And she said yes.

And I further questioned her and I asked why. She informed me she'd been a member of the Methodist church for 30 years. And I told her you know there's many people that mistake church membership for salvation.

What if she's in danger? And she shook her head and said very sincerely that she thought she was going to heaven. And this was the reason why she said because she'd never robbed a liquor store or killed anybody. That's what the old gal said.

And do you know what friend? Most folks think that way. Most folks think they're good enough for heaven because they're not bad enough for hell. They think hell's reserved only for really evil people like sociopaths and serial killers.

But the fact is friend, good people don't go to heaven. Only forgiven people get to go there. Are your sins washed in the blood? Are you born from above or did you just join a religion? Did you just drink some watered down gospel? Religion never saved anybody.

Religion has sent multitudes to hell. So there's two persons in the world and in this crowd right now. You're either saved or lost.

There are two gospels in the world today. A false one and the true one. Listen to me friend.

The God-centered gospel of the cross on which the Savior died for sin. He bore the sins of many. The Bible says Christ died for all but Christ did not bear the sins of all.

Hear me now. Jesus taught that few are saved. He said the way to heaven was a narrow way with a straight gate that you had to press through and few there be that find it.

He said many are on the road to hell and it's a Broadway like that Broadway up in New York with all the godless theater plays on there. All the religions are on that Broadway that's an accommodating way to all. People think that all roads lead to Rome and all religions lead to heaven.

The Catholic, the Jew, the Mormon, the Muslim, the Buddhist, the Baptist all feel comfort from their religion if religion is all they got. Two persons friends saved or lost. Two gospels friends.

The false one or the true biblical one. Two reactions. One damning because it's foolishness.

One saving because it has power to to destinies hell or heaven. Where are you going friend when you die? Do you know Jesus or better yet does Jesus know you at the final judgment when your life is reviewed? Will you hear the bone chilling words of a stranger to you away from me? You who work iniquity I never knew you. God declares to you dear sinner friend 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.

Listen friend I know I am a sinner and I need a substitute for sin in the person of Christ Jesus. Jesus saves and you need to get to him friend. You need to close with him.

I'm going to end this gospel message with a gospel invitation and then I'm going to sing an old gospel hymn friend and I'm going to ask you this. If you have heard God's voice speaking to you today through this message I want you to come to Christ in complete surrender to him and own him as your Savior and your Lord. Here now is that gospel call.

Seek ye the Lord while he may be found. Call ye upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way in the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon.

Do you need pardon for sin friend? Then you come to Jesus now. Come to Jesus friend. Look at that man on the cross friend.

See him there with his arms outstretched beckoning you to come to him and believe on him. Look at that man on the cross friend suffering there for the sins for my sins your sins. Oh friend come to Christ.

What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh precious is the flow that makes me white as snow.

Oh no other fount I know. Nothing but the blood of Jesus.