Samuel Porter Jones (1847 – 1906) was a prominent lawyer in Cartersville, Georgia, in the late 1800’s who turned to alcohol and became a drunkard and pretty much destroyed his career. God worked in his life though and he turned to Jesus Christ, gave up his old lifestyle and became a Methodist preacher. When he died in 1906 it is estimated that over 30,000 people came to view his body as it lay in state in the rotunda of the Georgia State Capital building in Atlanta.
When Sam Jones accepted Christ as his Lord, his life was drastically changed. Later Sam told the story about his new life in Christ like this: “I know there is a reality in religion. It has made a new man out of me. I can prove it by my wife and every citizen of Cartersville, Ga. Some time ago I met an old Cartersville fellow, who said: “Hello, Sam Jones. Are you the Sam Jones I used to meet in the saloons of Cartersville years ago?” I said: ” No, I am not the fellow. He’s dead. I was on the spot when he died, and the moment he died another fellow was born and I am that other fellow. I am the new Sam Jones.”
He was one of the most prominent evangelists of his day, and was known for preaching hard against sin and hypocrisy, which is something we SERIOUSLY need in today’s churches.
During one of his sermons, Sam told the following story:
“There is no attitude towards God that is acceptable to Him except the attitude that turns with loathing away from sin. Here is a mother sitting quietly within her room. Her only child, Johnny, just four years old, the pride of her heart and the joy of her life, sees mamma’s little pearl handled knife lying on the table. That little knife was a present from a dear friend, and mother values it highly. Little Johnny, unknown to mother, picks up the little knife and runs out of the room; and in an hour mother wonders where he is, and directly the nurse comes in hurriedly and says: “Little Johnny is lying all bloody in the front yard;” and mother rushes out, and there is little Johnny just gasping, and breathing his last. He had tripped and fallen, and the knife blade pierced his jugular vein. The mother grasps the little almost lifeless child in her arms, and runs into the house, and just as she lays him on the little bed he breathes his last; and the mother kisses her child and says: “Sweet Johnny, just speak one more time.”
The next day mother carries little Johnny to the grave and buries him, and comes back to her home with a broken heart; and as she sits down and turns back the dark veil, the nurse comes out of the front yard and says: “Madam, here’s the little knife. Here’s your little pearl handled knife.” The mother looks at the knife and the blade all covered with the blood of her sweet child, and she shrinks back in horror and says: “Take that knife out of my presence. I never want to see it again. It has the blood of my precious child upon it.”
And when a Christian man or woman, under the light of God’s Holy Spirit, can see that every sin in the moral universe of God has been covered with the blood of the Son of God, then he shrinks back in horror and says: “Oh I take it out of my presence. It is covered with the precious blood of my Savior.” Oh, brother, you will never know what purity is until you see all impurity bathed in the blood of the Son of God. Oh, let us hate sin and abhor it, and turn away from it, and despise it utterly.”
If only we in today’s world had that attitude toward sin. What a difference that would make in our own spiritual lives and in the lives of those around us. Just think of the LIGHT we would be in this world, when they see the changes in our lives as we leave behind us the pleasures and sins of this world to serve the King of Kings. When ALL sin and wrong to us is seen as it should be truly seen – we will HATE sin and DESPISE the very thought of participating in it!
The Bible tells us in I John 2:6, “He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.” Has your personal relationship with Jesus Christ changed your life so drastically that you now walk as He walked? It’s time to change our lives and follow our Master.
In the 1600’s, Thomas Brooks wrote, “Sin is a plague, yea, the Greatest and Most Infectious plague in the world! And yet, ah! How few are there that tremble at it, that keep at a distance from it!” In Psalm 97:10, we read, “O you who love the LORD, hate evil!” – Hate sin! Run from it! Despise it! Remember Jesus Christ DIED to pay the penalty of OUR sin – it cost His BLOOD, and that alone should make us want NOTHING to do with sin any longer!