The California Collection/TheCaliforniaCollection.cdr/his101/sinking.arj/SINKING.TXT

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"INVITATION TO A SINKING NATION" by Chris Huff

     Isaiah, chapter number 1. Isaiah, chapter number 1. (Read
chapter 1 in its entirety.) Dear Father, thank you for the
passage of Scripture we just read. Thank you for the content of
it. Thank you, Lord, for an opportunity to stand in this church
and preach to these people. And we pray, Father, that what is of
thy Spirit, that You want said, I pray, Lord, that it would come
out and that it would get into hearts, and that it would
transform lives. We pray, God, that you'd save those people who
need salvation. We pray that you'd rebuke those who need rebuke.
We pray that you'd comfort those who need comfort. And we pray,
Father, that the word of God would speak to every individual here
in this church this morning, and that I'd be out of the way so
that you could just get through what you want said, In Jesus'
name I pray. Amen.

     I have no title for this message. Ordinarily I like to have
one. I'm not sure what to call it. But in the chapter that we
just read, I see a couple of things about the condition of a
nation who have turned themselves away from God, and an
invitation that God makes to them, an offer to restore them into
the right relationship with Himself. Israel is in bad times.
Graham Scroggie said that the history of the nation of Israel,
from the time that the kingdom divides until the return from
Babylon, is primarily the consequences for them trusting in the
Assyrians rather than God. And I think that that can be borne out
in the study of the books of Kings and in the study of the Books
of Chronicles. You'll see there that, rather than trusting in the
Lord, the children of Israel trusted in the Assyrians and in the
Egyptians to deliver them, and the consequence was they went into
captivity.

     And God repeatedly warned them, repeatedly gave them a taste
of what they were in for, and they would have a little bit of a
reprieve, but it wasn't long where they'd get back right down to
their ungodly behavior. And finally God had no choice but to take
them away into absolute captivity.

     And I see this nation, first of all, in their calamity. And
their calamity is caused by their rebellion. In verse number two,
I see there that the Bible says, "Hear, O heavens, and give ear,
O earth: for the <H>Lord <H>hath spoken. I have nourished and
brought up children, and they have rebelled against me." That's
the whole problem right there. And then the prophet, through the
Holy Spirit, goes on and gives a description of what that
rebellion was all about.

     He had rebellious children. And folks, I just want to say
that the church of Jesus Christ in this day is full of rebellious
children. There's people in this church, I'm sure, who are not
obeying the Lord in things that they need to obey Him. Some
people right here listening to the sound of my voice, and some
who should be, who just simply don't want to obey God. They want
to do what they want to do instead. And this is the reason for
rebellion, and this is the consequence that we're going to
examine in just a moment.

     He said, "I've got children. I nourished them. I brought
them up." And listen, if you're born of the Spirit and you've
been fed by the word of God, you're one of God's children, then
you ought to have some sense of responsibility there. In verse
number 3 the Lord says that the first problem they had was
ingratitude. He said, "The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his
master's crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not
consider." You know, a cow's got more discernment than a Ph.D.! A
cow at least knows where its last meal came from. And a Ph.D.
sitting over at the University of California has no idea. He
doesn't know where his last meal came from; he thinks he went out
and earned the money to buy it. That's a joke. If he had food on
his table this morning, it was the mercy of God--that's why! He
could have been born mentally deficient, and he could be one of
the few homeless people that we've got in this country. He could
have been scouring around a trash can somewhere for his meal this
morning. "The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's
crib. But Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider."

     People think I'm a little hard nosed. I'm not nearly as hard
nosed as I used to be. Years ago, I used to be pretty hard to
take. I can remember we'd go in a restaurant to eat, and we'd sit
at the table, and the waitress would bring our food, and I'd
stand up, and I'd pray long and loud, and I'd pray something like
this, "O God"--and I'd pray about as loud as I'm talking to you
right now--"thank you that even a dog shows appreciation for his
master he sets a plate of food down in front of it. And we don't
want to be like pigs who have no sense of gratitude to the One
who provided our meal. And so, right now, we're thanking you for
the fact that we have breath in our bodies and food to eat and
money to buy it. And, Lord, help us to fully appreciate you and
your Son Jesus Christ who died for our wicked, ungodly sins, and
we ought to go to hell because of 'em. Thank you. Amen."

     Now I have since become a little bit more refined than that.
But I still have the same attitude quite often. You know, in
America today people have so much. And they don't have the least
bit of appreciation for the God who provided it for them. And, to
see somebody bow their head and pray a sincere prayer over a meal
any more is one of the strangest things that anybody ever saw.
It's almost lost. It's almost nonexistent.

     You go down South where you'e going, Brother, down to
Greenville, South Carolina, and you go out to dinner on Sunday
afternoon, and you'll be amazed. Nearly every person in that
restaurant will bow their head and pray over their meal. That's
what'll happen. You'll see that when you get down there. There's
Christians in churches all over that place. It's like a haven of
rest to go down there.

     But, I tell you, you get around Chicago or Detroit or
Baltimore or Washington, D.C., and I tell you, you can count on
one hand the number of people that you see pray over their meal,
unless you brought more than five with you. And that's the honest
to God truth.

     No gratitude! In Romans chapter 1 the Bible says that the
people over there, the problem was, "Because that when they knew
God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful; but
became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was
darkened." Listen, if a nation or a person loses their sense of
gratitude, they are smitten with supernatural darkness and
blindness, and they're not able to see their work clearly any
more.

     And when a Christian, when a child of God ceases to be
thankful of the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ bought their
salvation, and paid their sin debt, and redeemed them from hell,
and that He deserves our life, He deserves our service, He
deserves our obedience, if we're not thankful enough to give Him
the things He requires of us, we're submitting with blindness as
well. "The ox knoweth, and the ass knoweth--but my people,
they're stupider than an ox, they're dumber than an ass. They
don't even know where their last meal came from.

     In verse number 4 He says, "Ah sinful nation, a people laden
with iniquity." That's the second problem. Not only were they
guilty of ingratitude, they were guilty of iniquity. That is,
they had every type of sin and licentious living in their
lifestyle, in their homes, and in their society, that you could
possibly imagine. And I'd say, "We're there." We live in a
generation where people glory in their shame, and who are proud
of the most vile and vulgar lifestyles, parading up and down the
streets flaunting their perversion and their sickness. And,
listen, when I was growing up, I knew what a homosexual was. I
knew what a queer was. But I only knew a couple of things that
queers did. And I'm not going to tell you what queers do. But I
found out queers do a whole lot more than the things I knew about
when I was a kid. I'll tell you, you've got to be perverted,
you've got to be so degenerate in your mind to even imagine some
of the things that those people come up with, let alone go
through with it! You've got to have something seriously twisted.
And to parade up and down the street and flaunt your perversion
and claim that that's a normal, sensitive, caring and healthy
lifestyle is twisted. I'll tell you what, we're laden with
iniquity.

     And the reason the queers can go out and parade up and down
the street and flaunt their perversion is because the church of
Jesus Christ has moved too far in their direction. And, if we had
been holding the line morally like we're supposed to hold it, and
if we'd been standing for decency and modesty and purity and
fidelity like we should have, they wouldn't dare go up and down
the street parading their perversions.

     "A seed of evildoers. Children that are corrupters." They're
just carrying on the whole family tradition.

     I used to work with the land surveyors when I was down
South, and they were a bunch of country fellows, and they liked
to listen to country-and-western music. And there was a song that
was popular during the period that I worked with them called
"Family Tradition." It was by Hank Williams Jr. And he was
singing about, you know, "You ask me, Hank, why do I drink, why
do you do dope, why do you live out the songs that you wrote."
And he said, "Well, I can't help it." Naturally, that's what
everybody's excuse is, you know. "I can't help myself, it's a
family tradition."

     Yes, you can help yourself! Listen, I don't care how wicked
your old man was, he wasn't any bit worse than mine was, I can
guarantee you that. And if you want to live for God and you want
to do right, I don't care what kind of background you come from,
what kind of ancestry you've got, what kind of situation you were
raised in. If you want to do right and live for God, you can help
yourself! The problem is, you don't want to.

     If he's a drunken, tobacco-headed dope addict, the reason is
because he wants to be--not because of his old man. He's just
trying to put the blame on somebody else.

     Iniquity. Ingratitude. And then also in verse number 4 I see
insolence. "Children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the
Lord, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they
are goine away backward." Insolence. The very idea of provoking
God! Dr. Sightler says it like this, he says, "You can't blow the
smoke of your rebellion up the nostrils of God for long and get
away with it." I think that was an eloquent way of expressing it.
And that's what people in this day and age are doing. They're
shaking their fist in God's face, and they're double-dog daring
God to do anything about what they're up to. And, I'll tell you,
God did do something about it.

     We've got 38 varieties of sexually transmitted diseases
right now. And you know what they're doing? They're going around
talking about "safe sex," and still doing everything they've been
doing all along, thinking they're going to get away with it. They
ain't gonna get away with it.

     Insolence! The very idea that you can defy God, defy His
word, defy His moral standards, defy His order, and to think that
you can get away with it! You can't! "And they have forsaken the
Lord, and have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger." I'll
tell you why we've got herpes and why we've got AIDS, and why
we've got all that other stuff. I'll tell you why! It's because
they provoked God to send it on them, that's why. And He tried to
give them a warning, He tried to steer them away, He tried to
say, "Be careful," He tried to say, "Knock it off!" And they
wouldn't listen! And so God said, "Well, I'll give them something
to make them stop." And they haven't stopped yet!

     Insolence! And it's only going to get worse. If there are 38
today, there will be 68 ten years from now--or more. You can mark
it down. "They have provoked the Holy One of Israel to anger;
they are gone away backward." You know what the Apostle Paul
said? He said, "Not as though I had already obtained. But I press
forward toward the mark of the prize of the high calling of God
in Christ Jesus." Paul said that my movement is a steady forward,
upward climb to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. You
know what God says about His people? He said they have slidden
backward.

     Hyperdispensationalists say that backsliding is not a New
Testament term. Well, maybe it's not, and maybe I can't find it
in the New Testament, but what is it that everybody I see is
doing? If Paul said, "I press on," and people aren't pressing on,
then they must be sliding back. And I don't care if Paul never
mentioned the word, Paul sure talked about the principle. There
are backsliders in this day and age. Just because you're secure
in Christ and just because you're a redeemed child of God, and
just because you've got eternal security doesn't mean you can't
backslide.

     I can tell you of a number of ones who have. Then verse
number 5, they had impenitence. He says, "Why should ye be
stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more. The whole head
is sick, and the whole heart faint." You know what he's saying
there? He's saying, "I wonder why I even bother to beat you!
Because the more I beat you, the more you rebel! You're just a
stubborn, stubborn, willful people." I've seen Christians like
that. God would deal with them in severity, and they would endure
the chastisement of some, and God would try to get them back in
order--and you know what they'd do? They'd just grit their teeth.

     I had a friend, John Garner was his name. And before he was
saved, his dad--and this is the honest-to-God truth--his dad
would come home from work, and he'd bring him into the bathroom,
because he had to get a whipping every day. And he'd make him
kneel on the bathroom floor, and, you know, he'd take his pants
down and make him lie over the bathtub with his hands in the
bathtub. And his dad would beat him until he couldn't beat him
any more, then he'd go in the bedroom and lay on the bed with the
air conditioner on, and get a rest for about 15 minutes, and come
back in and beat him some more. And you know what John would do?
He'd just grit his teeth and say, "I can take it. Go ahead and
give me everything you've got. It just makes me that much
tougher." And I mean that guy would beat him and beat him and
beat him and beat him. You know what John would do? He'd go out
and do the same thing tomorrow or something worse. I'll tell you,
he needed to have his will broken.

     And the Lord finally broke his will. He hit a telephone pole
in a '68 Camaro going about 90 miles an hour--and was in a body
cast for about three years. God got his attention.

     You know what the Lord says to some people? He says,
"Listen! No matter what I do, you're not going to change!" I
don't understand it. So I guess that's what God is saying here.
"Why should ye be stricken any more? What's the use? Ye will
revolt more and more." That's why God takes some people's lives.
As Paul said in 1 Corinthians chapter 11, he said, "For this
cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many SLEEP!" Why?
Because God had chastised them, and they would not knuckle under.

     I believe that's what happened to my sister. She was 21
years old, and I believe she was as saved as any of you are. She
was driving around a corner in her Fiat Spider in Atlanta,
Georgia, on Labor Day Weekend. It was Friday morning. Somebody
was washing their car, and the water was running down the street.
If you have ever been to Atlanta, you know what it's like; it's
all hills and curves. And she was coming around the corner in a
Fiat Spider and hit that spot of water, and for some reason
something was just kind of a quirk thing, and she turned it
upside down and rolled it down the hill. And she was dead when
they got there.

     What happened? I think I know what happened. She wouldn't
live for God no matter what He did. She was going to go her own
way.

     You don't think God still deals with people like that?
Listen! Every preacher in America has got a list this long of
graveyard stories that he could tell you about people who would
not do the will of God, and wound up in the graveyard. And it's
the truth. God still deals with His people in severity if they
don't repent. Impenitence!

     And then in verse number 6. Not only did they have a
calamity, but they had a condition that God had brought upon
them. And the condition was that they were imfirmed. "From the
sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it;
but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been
closed, neither bound up, neither molified with ointment." That's
a diseased church. That's a diseased people. They are laden with
iniquity, and because of that they were carrying disease. And,
folks, like I told you a couple weeks ago, Josh McDowell says in
any given week he'll talk to fifty women from fundamentalist and
evangelical churches who have contracted anywhere from three to
six types of venereal disease--and one-third of them will be
pastor's wives. And that's in any given week. That's disturbing.

     "From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no
soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores."
That's what happens! In a nation, and in a society, and in a
church, where people will not put God first and obey Him and
listen to His commands. Where they're ungrateful, where they're
laden with iniquity, where they're insolent, where they're
impenitent--they'll become diseased.

     But then in verse 7 through 15 I see that they are rejected.
"Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire; your
land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate,
as overthrown by strangers. And the daughter of Zion is left as a
cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a
beseiged city. Except the <H>Lord<H> of hosts had left unto us a
very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should
have been like unto Gomorrah." You get the picture?

     Listen, there are a few people still crying out against that
stuff. There are a few people who are still saying, "Flee
youthful lusts. Flee fornication. Hold your ground morally. Be
faithful to your wife. Wait until you are married to have sexual
intercourse, and keep yourself pure, and it's good for a man not
to touch a woman." And all that kind of stuff! And there's still
some old-fashioned people who are trying to stand for the truth
in this day and age. And if it wasn't for the few, we'd be right
where Sodom and Gomorrah were.

     Compromise, slick paper, soft-peddling streamlined, kind of
go-along-with-the-world Christianity we've got today. And if you
stand for decency, and you stand for morality, and you stand for
modesty in dress and purity in your music and in your reading
material and in your entertainment, and all that kind of stuff,
and you refuse to subject yourself to the world's morals and
their ethics--you know what they say? They say you're a crackpot,
they say you're a legalist, they say you're a fanatic, they say
you're old-fashioned, they say that you're nuts. I'll tell you
who the "nuts" are--anybody who is willing to let their society
degenerate into Sodom and Gomorrah. That's who's "nuts"!

     They were desolate. And then in verse number 10 they were
denied. "Hear the word of the <H>Lord, <H>ye rulers of Sodom;
give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah. To what
purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me?" You know
what God's saying? "And for what in the world do you even bother
to go to church? Why do you even bother to give a sacrifice? I'm
full of burnt of burnt-offerings." He's saying, "I've had it up
to here. I'm full of the burnt-offerings of rams, and the fat of
fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of
lambs, or of he goats."

     "When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at
your hand, to tread my courts?" You know what God's saying? God
says, "I never asked a bunch of people like you to come to my
house." I didn't say that to you; God said it to them. But, you
know, I mean, only if the shoe fits. But God says, "What are you
doing? I've got no interest in a bunch of people--like the people
in Israel were--coming down to my house. That's not the kind I
want. Stay home!" That's what God says. "When ye come to appear
before me, who hath required this? I didn't tell you to come."

     "Bring no more vain oblations. Incense is an abomination
unto me." You know, they're in church all over the country right
now this morning. And God only knows what they were up to last
night. Some of them didn't even go this morning; they went last
night so they could go to the beach this morning. But God only
knows what they were looking at, and what they were up to, and
who they were with, and who they woke up with, and what they were
putting in their mouth--and all the rest of it--last night. And
they're sitting in church this morning, they are splashing
themselves down with holy water, and they're genuflecting, and
they're saying a bunch of vain repetitions that they think is
going to take care of it. It ain't!

     "Bring no more vain oblations. Incense is an abomination
unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I
cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting." You
know what a solemn meeting? It's an excuse for real religion!
When God's people get together, it's not a "solemn, stoic,
formalistic" kind of a thing. When God's people get together,
they're relaxed, they're comfortable, they enjoy one another--
it's like a family getting together. And, again, I believe that
things ought to be done decently, and I think things ought to be
done orderly, and there ought to be some kind of method--but the
atmosphere and the attitude ought to be one that's relaxed, and
one that's informal, and one that's comfortable, and one that's
not stuffy and religious. Because, if it's stuffy and religious,
something's bad wrong.

     The last thing I want is for when people to start coming to
this church to feel "real religious" about it. I don't want you
to feel religious when you walk in the door. I want you to feel
the same way when you go out as you came in; I want you to take
the religion you got inside here, with you when you leave.

     "Bring no more vain oblations. Incense is an abomination."
"Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth." That's
God's attitude to insincerity! Their condition was rejected,
their calamity was rebellion. They were desolate, they were
denied, they were diseased. And they were insincere.

     And God's attitude toward insincerity is He hates it. It
says in verse 15, "And when ye spread forth your hands I will
hide mine eyes from you." Listen! The problem with the nation of
Israel was not that they didn't have any religion. The problem
with the nation of Israel was not that they didn't go up to the
house of God. The problem with the nation of Israel was not that
they did not do a bunch of stuff that was supposed to be "godly"
and supposed to be "religious." The problem was, they had no
heart in it, and they were really serving false gods the rest of
the time. And they were trying to "buy God off" on Saturday
morning. Not Sunday back then.

     "When ye spread forth your hands I will hide mine eyes from
you; yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands
are full of blood." I'll tell you what, recently I read a
newspaper article that said that we are heading into the 90's and
the most violent decade that this nation has ever known. I can't
give you, I can't remember exactly all the statistics. But a few
years ago the majority of violent crimes were being performed by
people ages 40 and up. And just last year there were more violent
crimes performed by people between the ages of 15 and 21, than
ever before. I mean, the largest percentage of violent crimes
were performed by people from 15 to 21. Better than half! For the
first time ever!

     And listen, you don't think Freddy Krueger and Michael Myer
and all that stuff has anything to do with it? You don't think
Friday the 13th on TV and all the horror stuff--you don't think
that's got anything to do with it? You're nuts! Of course it's
got something to do with it.

     Young people are being arrested for violent crimes more than
any other age group. And you know where they're getting it;
they're getting it from MTV, and they're getting it from
Halloween I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, and all the
rest of it. That's where they're getting it. And if you let your
kid look at that, you're crazy!

     Abortion. "I will not hear; your hands are full of blood."
The count goes up a million and a half every year. Listen, I
don't think the church is here to fight abortion. I think the
church is here to redeem lost sinners. But the prevalence of
abortion, and the commonness of it in our society is indicative
of the fact that the church has failed in carrying out the Great
Commission. And God didn't call us to go march against abortion;
He told us to get people saved, and to stand for righteousness.
And, listen, I'm for doing everything we can to stop it. But the
best thing we can do to stop it is get those people saved.

     Verse number 16 begins their call. Here's God's call to an
unrepentant people. His call is to repentance. Comes in six basic
areas. Number one--clean up! These are the vitals, these are the
essentials of preaching. If nothing else, every sermon ought to
contain in it three elements. "Cease to do evil." "Learn to do
well." "Seek judgment." If a sermon doesn't contain, "Cease to do
evil," and "Learn to do well," and "Seek judgment," it's not a
sermon at all. It's a nice little lesson for people who don't
want to change anything. "Cease to do evil." "Learn to do well."
"Seek judgment." That's the crux of preaching.

     Verse number 16 begins by saying, "Clean up." "Wash you,
make you clean. Put away the evil of your doings from before mine
eyes." Then He also says, "Cease to do evil. Learn to do well." I
say the second thing in the message is, "Bear down!" You have to
learn to do well. You have to seek judgment. It takes a little
effort; it takes a little struggle. It takes a little fighting
against temptation. It takes a little resisting. It takes a
little self-denial in order to be victorious and be an overcomer.
But it needs to be done! Clean up your act, and stay clean!
"Cease to do evil. Learn to do well!"

     You say, "Well, I'd cease to do evil if I could." Well, the
reason you can't is because you haven't learned how to do well
yet. Like Robert Murray McCheyne said, "Sins of omission open the
door for sins of commission." And the reason a lot of people have
got problems with things that they're doing that they're
shouldn't be doing, is because they don't know the things that
they're supposed to do. As I've said before, if you go to church
like you're supposed to go to church, and you'd read your Bible
like you're supposed to read your Bible, and you'd pray like
you're supposed to pray, and if you spend time with your family
like you're supposed to spend time with your family, and you try
to be a witness to lost people, like you're supposed to try to be
a witness to lost people--by the time you got ready to do
anything wrong, it'd be bedtime, and you'd be so worn out you
wouldn't have a chance to do anything wrong. And that's the God's
honest truth. You'd be so worn out serving God, you wouldn't have
time or energy left for sin."

     I think the greatest defense that the child of God has
against iniquity is zealous service. "Well, I got this terrible
temptation; I've got this terrrible problem with looking at this,
or going here and doing that--" Well, I'll tell you what. Let me
give you a real good suggestion. COME TO CHURCH! And that'll take
up--oh, let's see--Sunday morning from 9:30 to 12:30, and then
Sunday night from 6 o'clock to 8'clock, and then Wednesday night
from 7 o'clock to 8:30. And then, if you're a man, you can come
to prayer meeting on Saturday night. That'll take you a couple
hours. And, uh, let's see, you go on visitation on Thursday
night, that would take you an hour and a half. You go street
preaching on Saturday morning, that would take an hour and a
half.

     I'll tell you what; take one night, and just spend it with
your wife and kids, just devote yourself to them, and, really,
just put your time and your whole life and attention into them.
Just leave it clear, take the phone off the hook and do something
with them. That will take care of one night.

     Before you know it, you don't have time left. You know what
people want to do? They want to live their live the way they want
to live it, and still have victory over sin. And they're not
going to have it.

     CLEAN UP! BEAR DOWN! REACH OUT! He says, "Learn to do well.
Seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead
for the widow." You know what He's saying there? GET BUSY FOR
GOD! "Relieve the oppressed!" Now, again, I don't believe that
social action is the main responsibility of the church. The best
thing you can do to relieve the oppressed is, you can tell them
how to get deliverance in the Lord Jesus Christ. Then, "Judge the
fatherless." I'm not sure what in the world that means, but you
can "plead for the widow." You know, there are people in this
church right here that have got needs. Big needs! Big time needs!
And if God doesn't help them through, I don't know how they'll
make it! You know what you could do? You could pray for some of
those folks. "Learn to do well." Find somebody around here who's
got a burden, and who's got a need, write their name down and
remember. I mean, there are people in here that God's the only
thing that gets them by month to month. It takes a miracle of God
for them to just stay alive. You know what they need? They need
your prayers.

     "Plead for the widows." Verse number 18, step forward: "Come
now, and let us reason together, saith the <H>Lord<H>." The Bible
is saturated with invitations that God Almighty makes to sinners
who are wanting to be cleansed sinners, who are wanting to be
purified sinners, who are wanting to be washed and redeemed, and
Christians who are wanting to be restored into fellowship. And
that invitation is just simply, "Come." Step forward! What are
you waiting for? God has done everything He can do, and He has
held out His arms. But you have to take the next step.

     I see seven marvels of mercy in Isaiah chapter 1 and verse
number 18. "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord.
Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow.
Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." The
first marvel of mercy that I see is that God will forgive man
when man sins without provocation. As I said, you do what you do
because you want to do it--and that's all there is to it. And you
can't blame it on anybody else! And if you had been there in the
garden of Eden, then you would have done exactly what Adam and
Eve did; you would have rebelled against God, and you would have
eaten the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil
just like they did! Because that's just the way you are. And you
know it! If you're honest with yourself, that's the way you are.
You're going to go your own way. And the marvel of mercy is to me
that God will forgive man, when man sins without provocation. God
does not do anything to make it easy for you to sin; God does not
do anything to entice you to sin. The Bible says, "God cannot be
tempted; neither tempteth he any man. But every man is tempted
when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when
lust is conceived it bringeth forth sin, and sin, when it is
finished, bringeth forth death. Do not err, my beloved brethren.
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh
down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness,
neither shadow of turning." God is the Author and the agent of
good things. And temptation has nothing to do with God. God
forgives man when man sins without provocation.

     Then not only that, but the second marvel of mercy is that
God is willing to forgive even those who do not receive it. He's
not going to say, "Come and let us reason together, saith the
Lord," to only the "elect"! But He makes that invitation to every
individual. The Bible says in 2 Peter chapter 2, that the Lord
bought even the false teachers who go out and teach heretical
doctrine that's contrary to the gospel. "The Lord is not slack
concerning his promises, as some men count slackness; but is
long-suffering to usward, not willing that any should perish, but
that all should come to repentance." It's a marvel of mercy to me
that God is ready and will forgive and would forgive even those
whom He knows beforehand don't want it.

     Then the third marvel of mercy is that God would stoop to
reason with sinners. "Come now, and let us reason together, saith
the Lord." God has a conference table that He sits at. And he
says, "I've got some good, sensible things I'd like to discuss
with you, if you're willing to listen. If you just sit at my
table, I'll go over some important information, and we'll come to
a solution to your problem. You got a sin problem? O.K., I think
we can do something about that. You on your way to hell? Are you
really? Well, I think we can do something about that. You can't
save yourself? You've got no way to pay for your sins? Well, why
don't you come and sit down for a few minutes and we'll talk
about it. Maybe we can do something." "Come now and let us reason
together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet, they
shall be white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they
shall be as wool." And God invites sinners to come down, and He
says, "Listen! Let's talk! And I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll
do everything I can. I'll even give my Son for you. I'll even let
the most precious thing that I have go to a cross and be
crucified and smitten of men and afflicted, and suffer the pains
and endurance of an eternal hell for your sins--if you'd just
receive the payment. Does that sound good to you?"

     The fourth marvel of mercy is that it is God and not
ourselves that should take the initiative. When you think about
that, we ought to be running to God's throne and kneeling in
contrition and begging God to provide salvation. Instead, God
provides it beforehand and then comes to us and says, "Listen!
I've got something for you. You want it?" Sinners continue in
their sin, continue in their rebellion and denial of God. They
follow the course that they've set for their lives with no
acknowledgment of God whatsoever. And God beforehand paid for
their sins, and had made the opportunity for them to trust Jesus
Christ somewhere along the line. The Bible says, "The grace of
God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men." "Teaching
us that denying ungodliness and worldiness lust, we should live
soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world." The
marvel is that God would take initiative. But it is important
because man never will. If God didn't interrupt man on his
downward spiral, then man would never be stopped. But God had to
take the initiative.

     And then, number five. The fifth marvel of mercy is that God
would not only pardon sin but actually overhaul and renew the
sinner. "Though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as
snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool."
The Bible says, "If any man be in Christ, he's a new creature.
Old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."
He said, "As far as the east is from the west, so far have I
removed your transgressions from you." When God takes a sinner,
He not only pardons his sin and forgives him of it and removes
the penalty, but He gives that person a new personality. He gives
him a new life. He completely transforms him from the inside and
sets him on an entirely different course. The things they used to
like, they don't like any more. The things they used to hate,
they find a new love for. The interests that used to captivate
all their time and money now are left behind, and an entirely new
set of things come into their life to interest them and to
involve them. And they have to do with the church and with the
Bible and winning people to Christ. God not only redeems a
person, He not only pardons, but He overhauls us. He completely
remakes us.

     The sixth marvel of mercy is that the terms should be so
easy. Everybody figures that, "Listen, there's got to be
something I've got to do. You mean I don't have to go to church
to be saved?" No. "You mean I don't have to get the right feeling
to be saved?" No. "You mean I don't have to be baptized to be
saved?" No. "You mean I don't have to take communion?" No. "What
do I have to do?" I'll tell you what you have to do. You're in
the driver's seat. And you're going down the road. And the whole
time the Lord's over here and He's saying, "You want me to
drive?" And you say, "No thanks. I'm doing fine." And you
sideswipe a tree and you run into a ditch and you spin out and
you blow the tires, and the radiator explodes and the water pump
goes, and the whole thing is just barely limping along, and you
finally get out, and you say, "You know, Lord, maybe I think
you'd better take over." That's what you've got to do. "Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." And believing
is more than just acknowledging certain facts in your head; it's
believing them to the degree that you put your confidence in Him,
and He knows better what to do with you and your life than you
do. That's genuine belief. That's genuine trust. That's receiving
the Lord Jesus Christ as your Saviour. The Bible says He came
into His own, and His own received Him not, "but as many as
received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God,
even to them that believe on His name." Do you believe on the
name of the Lord Jesus Christ? Have you trusted Him? Have you put
your entire life in His hands and said, "All right, if I die, I'm
on my way to hell, and I can't do anything about it, but I
believe Jesus paid my sin debt, and I want that payment, I want
that eternal life. I'm going to get to heaven on His
righteousness, or nothing. And I'm trusting in Him." That's what
you need to do. The terms are so easy.

     And last of all, the seventh marvel of mercy is that God is
long-suffering of man's continued refusals. How many times has
God said, "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord.
Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.
Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." I
realize the Bible says, "My Spirit shall not always strive with
man," but you know there's people in this world whom God has pled
with again and again and again and again--and they grit their
teeth and they grit the pew and they stiffen themselves and they
harden themselves against the conviction. And they get through
the invitation one more time, and think they got out safe. But
what they did is they got out damned. And they'll come back, and
God will deal with them again. And they'll squeeze the pews until
their knuckles are white, and their heart will palpitate, and
they'll sweat blood practically--and they'll go out one more
time. Listen, there are men in churches all over the Southern
part of this United States who are in their 60's and 70's who
aren't saved yet, and they've been going to church and listening
to gospel messages their whole life. How in the world somebody
could sit through that and think that they've won some kind of a
battle is beyond me--but they're doing it. And the marvel to me
is that God is long-suffering, continues in spite of man's
refusals.

     And God is still saying to sinners, "Come now, and let us
reason together. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be
white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as
wool." He said it in the first century, and only a few came. He
said it in the second century, and only a few came. And here we
are twenty centuries after the death of Jesus Christ, and He was
saying it hundreds of years before Jesus came, and He's been
saying it for two thousand years since He came, "Come now, and
let us reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be as
scarlet, they shall be white as snow. Though they be red like
crimson, they shall be as wool." And most men walk by Him and
say, "Don't bother me, I've got something else to do."

     Seven marvels of mercy. God says, "Clean up!" He says, "Bear
down!" He says, "Reach out!" He says, "Step forward!" He says,
"Think it through!" "Come now, and let us reason together." You
got any better ideas? You got a better idea how to get to Heaven
than have God take care of it for you? You got any better idea
how to have your sins forgiven than to have them washed in the
blood of Jesus Christ? You got any better idea how to live your
life than through the power of the Holy Spirit? You got any
better ideas? "Come now, and let us reason together." If you
think you've got a better idea, maybe, if you listen to God, He
could talk you out of it. Most people don't want to listen to
God.

     And then in verse number 19, He says, "Wake up!" "If ye be
willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land."
Christians need to wake up to that. "Be willing and obedient."
You know why Christians aren't eating the good of the land?
That's why! "But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured
with the sword; for the mouth of the <H>Lord <H>hath spoken it."
Incidentally, there's inspiration right there. Isaiah is doing
the talking, but God's the speaker. The "mouth of the Lord hath
spoken it." It's not a big mouth floatin' around, you know, and
opening it, and words are coming out. Isaiah is talking. But
God's talking through him.

     "How is the faithful city become an harlot! It was full of
judgment: righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers." Will
Durant, who was an agnostic, socialist, historian, says that
civilizations begin stoic and end Epicurean. That's not some
Christian historian trying to buffalo you with his own point of
view. That's the perception of an unsaved secular historian. He
says, "Civilizations begin stoic, and end epicurean." Every great
civilization that ever existed began with a group of people who
were disciplined, and began with a group of people who were
interested in obtaining some goals and worked hard toward those
goals. And when they got the thing that they worked hard for,
they laid back and relaxed and enjoyed them, and sunk into moral
depravity, and their civilization was overrun. And that's what's
taking place right now. The United States of America began stoic.
When you say the word "puritan" right now, it's like saying
something nasty, horrible, and dirty.

     Listen! The best thing you could be would be a puritan in
your thinking. I don't mean a "neo-puritan," you know, and all
that stopping at John Owen with your eschatology, and your
theology. But I do mean puritanical morals are pretty good.

     And the devil has done a horrible disservice to the body of
Christ and to Americans by giving the word "puritan" an awful
connotation. When they think "puritan," you know, they think
Hestery Primm in Scarlet Letter, and all that stuff. What they
don't think is a bunch of people who prayed and loved God and
wanted to serve Him more than anything else, and were clean.

     Civilizations begin stoic, and they end epicurean. And we've
moved away from the Puritans who came over here in 1620 to Robert
Maplethorpe and Andre Shirano and Andy Sprinkle, and all that
kind of stuff. Wake up!

     "The faithful city is become an harlot!" "It was full of
judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers."

     "Thy silver has become dross." You know what that is? That's
inflation. That's economic inflation, that's the consequences of
it. You know why we're having economic inflation? It's not the
policies of the Reagan Administration. It's not the policies of
the Carter Administration. It's not even the policies of the
Roosevelt Administration--not the economic policies. The economic
policies are the result of the moral policies. Like Dr. Ruckman
says, in the 1930's they took away your gold and gave you back
beer. And America has been on a downward spiral ever since, when
they repealed Prohibition. That's when inflation started. There
was no "inflation" until they repealed Prohibition.

     "Thy silver is become dross, thy wine mixed with wate. Thy
princes are rebellious, and companions of theieves." That's
government married to organized crime; they're digging stuff up
all the time. You know what that is? Barney Frank. Him and Steve
Goby have a homosexual prostitution ring operating out of a
Senatorial office. He says he didn't know anything about it. You
wanna bet? You think somebody can operate a homosexual
prostitution ring out of your house, and you wouldn't know about
it--it's just you and them living there?

     "Thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves:
every one loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards: they judge
not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come unto
them." Bribes, hush money.

     "Therefore saith the Lord, the <H>Lord <H>of hosts, the
mighty One of Israel, Ah, I will ease me of mine adversaries."
You know what it is? It's a relief to God to beat the snot out of
His adversaries. I mean, He's just sick and tired and fed up with
it. He's had it up to here; His patience is worn away, and
nothing is going to make Him feel any better than just reeking
havoc on His adversaries. "I will ease me of mine adversaries."
It's like a burden. God's wound up like a coil spring, ready to
pour out His judgment.

     In verse number 25 to the end of the chapter you see finally
the consequences. Their calamity was rebellion, their condition
was rejected, their call was to repentance--and there are two
consequences. They made the choice. Verse 25 says, "I will turn
my hand upon thee, and purely purge away thy dross, and take away
all thy tin. And I will restore thy judges as at the first." I
could talk about the American legal system for a while if I chose
to, but I think I'll pass on. You know it's corrupt. "And thy
counsellors." You know what you call an attorney? A counsellor.
"Here an attorney, there an attorney, everywhere an attorney
attorney." In one year, we're going to have ten million lawyers,
I think is the figure. You know what lawyers make their money off
of? People extracting money from other people that they don't
deserve. That's what lawyers are there for.

     "Thy counsellors as at the beginning." In the early days of
this country lawyers were men of dignity. They were men of
integrity. Now all they are is just predators who go out and do
everything they can to extort money from other people. And now
they're after the church.

     At the last annual conference of the American Bar
Association, they sat down, and the topics of discussion were
using tort law against religious institutions, because it was an
untapped supply that they hadn't got in their bank account yet.
And they are trying to figure out any way they can to get the
money out of the churches, because so far the church has been an
untapped resource. The guy needs another BMW in his garage; he
needs another summer home someplace. So where can we get the
money? We've just about got everybody in America divorced now.
What's left? Oh, let's see; we can go after the church! Amen,
amen!

     "I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy
consellors as at the beginning: afterward thou shalt be called,
The city of righteousness, the faithful city." Not until then!

     "Zion shall be redeemed with judgment, and her converts with
righteousness." The consequences of repentance are restoration
and redemption. "I will restore thy judges and thy counsellors.
Zion shall be redeemed." But the consequences for resistance are
in verse number 28, "And the destruction of the transgressors and
of the sinners shall be together, and they that forsake the
<H>Lord <H>shall be consumed."

     Somebody said, "Well, I'm not really a sinner. I'm not that
bad. I mean, I've never killed anybody, I've never got involved
in serious crime. I mean, sure, you know, I may tell a lie every
now and then, you know, and maybe I'm not as obedient to my
parents as I should have been. You know, maybe I'm a little bit
covetous, but surely that doesn't bother God."

     Listen, you think you're doing O.K.? Let me read you this.
When we think of sin, we just think of the gross, external,
heinous things, you know, that society scorns. But listen to
this: "Sin is to feel a secret pride in success, training, or
appearance, to feel an important or independent spirit, to feel
bitter over what someone has told you about the success of
somebody else." That gets nearly every preacher I know! "Sin is a
hard, sarcastic or unyielding spirit, a touchy, bitter, sensitive
spirit, a desire to attract the attention of the opposite sex."
Hello! "Sin is saying or doing things that attract attention to
yourself, a constant complaining and a desire to quit trying to
do right. Sin is an unnatural or abusive act against self or
others, a deceitful or evasive spirit that seeks to create false
impressions. Sin is to pick out flaws and criticize when set
aside or unnoticed; lustful or wandering eyes, shrinking from
duty and reproach, a tendency to retaliate when crossed,
permitting things in yourself you wouldn't allow in your idea of
a consecrated Christian. Sin is a shallow, stingy uncleanness in
thought or desire, a joker or a gesture vain and light in manner
of conversation or life. Sin is unwillingness to put out for
others unless personal gain or advantage might result. Sin is
partiality to certain persons, classes or denominations in
dealings. Sin is always thinking about what might have been, if
things hadn't happened the way they did. Sin is an unthankful or
unappreciative lot of life in constant fear of failure, and
taking an unmerciful attitude toward those who do fail. Or taking
an inferior attitude to those of wealth or position. Sin is
putting over a false or exaggerated humility, imagining how
others are praising or speaking well of you, straining at the
truth, manifesting an "I don't care" attitude about being caught
in sin, or shirking responsibilities. Sin is the feeling of
nervousness you have when watching somebody do something you
think you could do better."

     Are you a sinner? "The destruction of the transgressors and
of the sinners shall be together, and they that forsake the
<H>Lord <H>shall be consumed. For they shall be ashamed of the
oaks which ye have desired." You know what that is? That's "Earth
Day." "And ye shall be confounded for the gardens that ye have
chosen." They're all worried about "saving the whales" and
"saving the owls." Listen, you know what they'd do if they save
the owls? You know how many people are going to be put out of
work if they save the owls? Crazy nuts! Listen, you know what
happens when they cut a tree? If there's an owl living in the
tree, you know what the owl does? He moves to another tree. And
they've got a guy up there now in the Pacific Northwest. It's
real simple, you know. I'm not a naturalist. I mean, that's what
I would do, right? I mean, if they bulldozed my house, I'd just
move to another house. They got a guy whom they pay--I don't know
how much they're paying him--but he's an oceanographer. He's not
even a naturalist, and they're paying that guy a salary--probably
a fat one--to walk through the Pacific Northwest and count owls.
You know, let me think for just a minute. He's going to walk
around the woods, and every time he sees an owl he's going to
mark it down that he saw one, right? Yeah. But what if it's the
same owl? What about the owls he didn't see? What do you think
the margin of error in that kind of survey is?

     My wife has got some stickers; they're seals. And a seal is
holding up a sign which says, "Save the baby humans!"

     Green Peace and Sierra Club--I'll tell you, you know what
they are? They are the worst enemy the human race has got. I
recently read a column by Walter Williams, who's a conservative
columnist. He's a black man. And I don't remember the exact
figures, but there are two nations in Africa right now where
they're harvesting ivory from elephant tusks. And in one country
the elephants are supposedly a protected species, and it's
illegal to hunt elephants for ivory in that country. And the
elephant population has decreased from like 19,000--I'm pretty
sure of these figures--to about 15,000 over the last five years.
And in the next country, the neighboring country--I believe it's
Kenya--in the next country, elephants are regarded as a source of
income, and the tribal people herd them, and work with them, like
we do cattle over here. And the elephant population has increased
from 19,000 to about 60,000 in the same time period. That's where
it's legal! And where it's illegal, what's happened?

     You know what the best thing you can do to produce a species
is? Market some of it! You want to see to it that the marmaset,
you know, is not an endangered species? I tell you what you do;
you make marmaset skins worth a lot of money. And somebody will
go out and catch a bunch of those things and start breeding them.
And you'll have marmasets coming out of your ears. You know why?
Because there's money in them. And there's money in elephant
tusks, and if those tribesmen over there can get some of that
money, you can believe they're going to protect their herds. And
you can believe they're going to see to it that they increase in
number--not decrease. And in another country where they're
supposedly illegal to take the ivory, the herds are going down.
The poachers are getting them. And all they're doing is just
going in, and they're just shooting the elephants, taking the
tusks, and leaving the dead carcass there. Whereas, in the next
country, they're trying to raise that thing.

     And I'm 'way off the subject, I know. I probably shouldn't
even have got on it. But it's just the stupidity, it's the
stupidity of the environmentalists and the animal rights crowd.
The worst thing that you can do for a species is to try and
protect it. It seems strange, doesn't it? But statistics seem to
bear it out otherwise.

     All this "Earth Day" stuff. God says, "You know what you're
going to be? You're going to be ashamed of the oaks which ye have
desired, and ye shall be confounded for the gardens that ye have
chosen." You know what? They'd rather serve Mother Nature than
God, that's the problem. They're going into a pantheistic type of
an ethic. God's everywhere and in everything, and nature is God,
and God is nature, and Mother Nature, and the things of the
"Great Whatness" and all that stuff. They'd rather have an oak
and a tulip than have a true God.

     "For ye shall be as an oak whose leaf fadeth, and as a
garden that hath no water. And the strong shall be as tow, and
the maker of it as a spark, and they shall both burn together,
and none shall quench them." That's what happens to the
unrepentant.

     Now, God's solution is, again, "Come now and let us reason
together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet, they
shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they
shall be as wool." That's God's call to America, but that's also
God's call to the individual. You yourself this morning, you
wouldn't put yourself in the category of these Israelites. You'd
say, "Oh, I'm not that bad. I'm a decent fellow. I'm all right.
Everything's okay." Everything's not okay. You're a sinner. The
Bible says all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
The Bible says, "There is none righteous, no, not one." "We are
all as an unclean thing. All our righteousnesses are as filthy
rags." The best you can do would get you in hell tomorrow.

     And Christians, I believe there's been enough said this
morning to indicate to you that there may be sin in your life.
And that ought to be repented of. God says, "Come, and let us
reason together. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as
white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as
wool." God wash you clean this morning and give you a fresh
start. You just come to Him.

     Let's stand with our heads bowed and our eyes closed. Every
head bowed, every eye closed. No one looking around. While
Christians pray, I just want to ask a few questions. How many of
you will say this morning, "I'm absolutely certain that the Lord
Jesus Christ is my personal Saviour. I've trusted Him, and He's
saved me, and when I die I'll go to heaven because of what He
did." How many of you will indicate that by uplifted hand? You're
saved, you know you're saved, there's no doubt in your mind at
all?

     All right, how many will say this morning, "You know, I'm
not sure." Listen, a Christian is not somebody who's perfect. If
you've got sin in your life, and again, folks, I go over this
list periodically, and God slaps me every time. I got sin in my
life. When you start defining sin like this, "The feeling of
nervousness you have when you watch somebody do something you
think you could do better." I wish they had lived that one on me.
You know what you do? You repent of it. You say, "God, it's
wicked. I'm doing it, but I don't want to do it any more. Forgive
me. Help me not to do it again." Next time you do it, you know,
say the same thing. Don't use the blood of Jesus Christ as an
excuse to keep doing it; I mean, you ought to want to stop. But
you're probably going to have to plead the blood of Jesus Christ
every day for the rest of your life. That doesn't mean you're not
saved. It just means you're typical.

     What about, just something, you know, that God says you
ought to quit it, and you don't want to quit it? That's another
matter. And if you think, "Well, I'll just go ahead and do it one
more time, and then I'll plead the blood, you know, and confess
it according to 1 John 1:9, so I can, you know, get away with it
and do it again," you're all messed up. You can be saved, but
you're all messed up.

     I wonder who this morning will say, "You know, I don't know
if I'm saved or not? If I was to die tonight, I couldn't say for
certain that I'd be in heaven? I might be in hell! Well, maybe
you'd even say I know I'd be in hell! I'm sure I'm not saved!"
The Bible says, "Behold, now is the accepted time; now is the day
of salvation." There's no reason to wait. "What is your life? It
is a vapor, that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth
away." You have no guarantee of tomorrow. The time to get saved
is now, not to wait till later. If you're not saved, indicate by
raising your hand, say, "I'm not saved; I need to be saved, and I
want to come to the Lord Jesus Christ this morning, and trust Him
as my Lord and Saviour, and put Him behind the wheel of my life."
Anybody say that this morning? "I need to be saved."

     All right, while heads are bowed and eyes are closed, we're
going to pray, and then we'll sing. Father, we ask that you have
your way during this invitation, that the response would be
according to your perfect will. For it's in thy name we ask it
all. Amen.

     All right, you can look this way. We're going to sing Number
266. We'll sing two verses. If no one comes before the second
verse, we'll close. As long as people come, we'll keep the
invitation open. Number 266.