Mr. John was holding gospel meetings in the city of Palermo, Italy. One night as he was entering the meeting hall a man came up to him. “Are you Mr. John?” he asked.
“Yes, I am.”
“I wonder if you will do me a favor? When you get through with this meeting tonight will you come with me?”
“Gladly. Wait for me afterward.” John walked inside where some of the men stopped him.
“What did that man want, Brother John?”
“He asked me to go somewhere with him.”
“Don’t do it! He’s a dangerous man!”
“I’m sorry, but I promised him, and I must keep my promise.”
When the service was over, Mr. John and the man walked three blocks into a side street, down an alley, and stopped. He unlocked a door and said, “Come in.”
Mr. John walked into the room. The stranger locked the door, reached into his pocket and pulled out a handgun. “I don’t intend to do you any harm,” he said. “I just want to ask you a few questions. Did you mean what you said in your sermon last night?”
“What did I say?”
“You said, ‘The blood of Jesus Christ . . . cleanseth us from all sin.’ ”
“Yes, God says so.”
“Mr. John, you see this gun? It is mine. It has killed four people. Two of them were killed by me and two by my bartender in a brawl in my tavern. Is there hope for a man like me?”
“ ‘The blood of Jesus Christ . . . cleanseth us from all sin,’ ” answered Mr. John.
The man said, “Mr. John, another question. I have a tavern. We sell every kind of liquor to anybody who comes along. Many times I have taken the last penny out of a man’s pocket, letting his family go hungry. Many times women have brought their babies here and pled with me not to sell any more booze to their husbands, but I chased them out and kept right on with the whiskey selling. Is there hope for a man like me?”
Mr. John replied, “God says, ‘The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.’ ”
Another question: “In back of the partition is a gambling joint and it is as crooked as sin and Satan. There isn’t a decent wheel in the whole place. It is all loaded and crooked. A man leaves the bar with some money left in his pocket, and we take his money away from him there. Men have gone out of that back room to commit suicide when their money and, perhaps, trust funds were all gone. Is there any hope for a man like me?”
“God says, ‘The blood of Jesus Christ . . . cleanseth us from all sin.’ ”
“One more question, and I will let you go. I have a wife and a little girl. I have made life a hell on earth for them. I came home one night drunk, mean and miserable. My wife got in my way somehow, and I started beating her. My little girl ran between us. I slapped that child across the face and knocked her against a red-hot stove. Her arm was burned from shoulder to wrist. She is scarred for life. Mr. John, is there hope for a man like me?”
John took hold of that man’s shoulders, shook him, and said, “Oh, what a black story you have to tell! But God says, ‘The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.’ ” The man said, “Thank you; thank you very much. Pray for me! I am coming to your meeting tomorrow night.”
The next morning the man closed the door of his bar behind him and started home. He was dirty and tearstained, shaking and stumbling as he had so often done, but this time totally sober. He left a business in a shambles; every bottle and keg had been smashed and the floor was swimming ankle deep in a mixture of beer, gin, whiskey and wine. The gambling tables were smashed and the cards and dice and chips were floating on the flooded floor. He had accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as his Saviour from sin and wanted no part of his old sinful life.
Once at home, he staggered up the stairs and sank heavily into the chair in his room. His wife called the little girl: “Margarita, run upstairs and tell daddy breakfast is ready.”
The girl walked slowly up the stairs. Half afraid, she stood in the door and said, “Daddy, Mommy said breakfast is ready.”
“Margarita, darling, Daddy doesn’t want any breakfast.”
Margarita ran back down the stairs. “Mommy, Daddy said, ‘Margarita, darling,’ and he didn’t . . . ”
“Margarita, you didn’t understand; go back upstairs and tell Daddy to come down.”
Margarita went back upstairs, and her mother followed her.
The man looked up as he heard the child’s footsteps. “Margarita, come here.”
Shy and frightened, the little girl walked up to him. He lifted her in his arms and held her tightly but oh, so gently. His wife, standing in the doorway, wondered at him. Catching sight of her he said, “Mary, come here.”
He threw his arms around them both, those two whom he loved, whom he had so fearfully abused, lowered his head between them, and wept. After a few minutes he was able to say, “You needn’t be afraid of me anymore! God has brought you a new husband and a new daddy home today.”
That same night his wife and daughter went with him to the gospel meeting, and they also accepted the Lord Jesus as their Saviour.
There is hope!