My Sin and His Grace

Alright, I'm going to do something
a little different this morning. I'm going to read the 64th chapter
of Isaiah again, but I'm going to read it from
another translation. I love the King James translation
of the Word. It's the one that I've used all
my life, the one that most of you have used. and it is excellent. But if you
have an amplified Bible, it's helpful in your study of the
Word. And if you want to follow along
in your Bible, do so, if you don't, just listen. But this
chapter has a special application to us, and you're going to see
it as I read it from the Amplified. This is a confession of sin.
This is a plea for mercy. This is a crying to God from
a wilderness, from a famine, from a dry and thirsty land,
for a revelation of himself, for a revival, a revelation of His mercy and
grace for God to act, to do something. And I want you to listen to it.
Oh, Isaiah said that you would rend the heavens just like the
clouds splitting apart, and you would come down, God, come down. That the mountains might quake
and flow down at your presence. Like this, like when fire kindles
the brushwood. God, you come down in power,
in a revelation of yourself. It's like fire to the brushwood,
it just consumes it. And that fire that causes water
to boil, oh, to make your name known among your enemies. Where
is the Lord, they say? Where is the promise of his coming?
You Christians talk about the Lord reigns, the Lord rules,
just where is the Lord? That the nations may tremble
again at your presence. When you did terrible things
which we did not expect. Moses was 80 years old, he never
expected to find a bush burning on top of that mountain. Never
expected. Old Simeon had been standing
in that temple for till his hair had grown white and his beard
long. And one morning, that young Jewish maiden came in with that
boy. He didn't expect it. Always looking for him, but it
had been a long time. Did you know God's been silent
as far as revealing his power a long time? That's right. To talk about revival, we have
to go back to Wales or somewhere. And that's what he's talking
about here. You did terrible things which we didn't expect.
You came down and the mountains quaked at your presence. We didn't
have to drum it up. We didn't have to whoop it up
with music like I was talking about this morning. Oh, I see
the big football stadiums packed, but I guarantee you this, they've
got a band and a drummer and a musician and a film star and
a cowboy and a rodeo star and they're going to get it And they
got all the churches primed and planned and positioned and the
hour workers already ready. They're going to whip it up.
But God came down when we didn't expect Him and did mighty things. And the mountains trembled at
His presence. Nobody drummed this up. Nobody
organized this. Nobody advertised this. You've
got to advertise it in the paper and on television. The great
stars coming to town. All the folks are going to come
here, and that's not God. Far verse 4, from of old, men
have not heard, not in our generation, they haven't heard, nor perceived
by the ear, nor has the eye seen a God like you. No, they haven't
seen that in this day. God like you, who works and shows
himself. active on behalf of Him who earnestly
waits for Him. Wait on the Lord. We can do one
or the other. We can go out and drum it up
or we can wait on Him. Or we can wait on Him. And what
you have is the consequence of what you do. You do it or wait
on Him. Verse 5, you meet, and we know
this, you meet and spare him who joyfully works righteousness. Now you know what that means.
That doesn't mean we're righteous in ourselves. But we're interested
in God's righteousness. And uprightness and justice.
And the man who earnestly remembers you in your ways. The man that
will wait on you. The man that will be true to
your word. The man that will preach your gospel to people. That will
not compromise. They earnestly, they remember
righteousness, justice, and truth. And they're not going to give
it up. They're not going to compromise with this world. God's going
to remember them. He may work in their day and He may not.
He may work in another day. But that's His prerogative. Behold, you were angry. We deserve
your anger, for we've sinned. And we've long continued in our
sins. Shall we be saved? Shall we be
saved? What gives us the right to hope
for His mercy? What gives us the right to hope
for His grace? We've sinned too. Verse 6 says,
for we've all become as one who's unclean, ceremonially unclean
like the leper of old. And even our righteousnesses,
our best deeds of rightness and justice are nothing but filthy
rags, polluted garments. We all fade as a leaf. Our iniquities
like the wind, like the leaves on the tree and the wind blows
and just the leaves are without life and dry and dead, it blows
them off. And our iniquities like the wind
take us down, take us away, down to the far from God's favor. And verse 7, here's, and in this
condition no one calls you on your name, verse 7. Who's calling on the name of
the Lord? No one awakens and bestirs himself to take and keep
hold of God. And you've hid your face from
us and delivered us into the power of our iniquities. Now
then, verse 8. Yet, O Lord, you are our Father. And we're the clay, and you're
the potter, and we're the work of your hands. O Lord, do not
be exceedingly angry, or remember our iniquity forever. Behold,
consider we beseech you, we are your people. And is not this
true, your holy cities have become a wilderness, a wilderness of
superstition, a wilderness of pagan, heathen,
idolatry? Zion has become a wilderness,
the church, a wilderness. Somebody said yesterday the darkest
mission field on earth. It's not Africa, it's the church. That's the mission field. That's
where the folks are floundering around preaching another Jesus
and another gospel and another spirit. Zion has become a wilderness. Jerusalem is a desolation. Our holy and our beautiful house,
the temple where our fathers praised you. That's our traditions,
our ancestry. Back yonder we can talk about
Whitfield and Isaac Watts and John Newton, William Cowper,
our fathers. But that's all we got left is
the tradition. I just came from the country
where the tradition reigned, where the buildings are still
standing, where those men preached. Newton, Spurgeon, Whitfield,
Edwards, Knox. Those buildings are still there. Our pleasant and desirable places
are in ruins. Now verse 12, consider these
calamities. Will you restrain yourself, O
Lord? Or will you keep silence? Oh
my, my, my. Will you, oh Lord, keep silence
and not command our deliverance, but go on humbling and afflicting
us exceedingly? Now it's easy, it's easy to sin. It's easy to sin. It's hard to
own it. It's easy to get in the mess
that we're in. It's hard to own it. This is
what preachers won't do today. They won't own the mess we're
in. This is what individuals won't
do. We won't own the mess we're in. This man, this prophet here,
recognizes, Charlie, the mess they're in. He recognizes the
corruption and iniquity and sin in the name of God and in the
name of religion. But we keep on stirring up the
excitement and the emotion and the entertainment and we go to
great length to deny sin and to cover it and to excuse it.
The Bible is full of examples. We try to hide our sin like Achan. You remember when Achan stole
the wedge of gold? And he thought because others
didn't know he had it that God didn't know he had it. So he
hid it carefully in his tent. We hide our sins and cover our
sins and assume because no one else knows of our iniquities
and deadness and spiritual impotence that God doesn't know. But God
looks on the heart. Or another illustration, we make
excuses for our sins like Aaron of old. And you know, I call them foolish
excuses because that's what they are. Avery said, I just put the
gold in the fire and the calf came out. That's amazing that
a man so brilliant could come up with such a stupid excuse.
You know, it looks like if he'd have thought just that long,
he'd have come up. We're just as dumb. Our spiritual deadness and impotence
and corruption of heart, we make excuses for it. Or we blame someone
else like Adam and Eve. Adam blamed the woman, Eve blamed
the serpent, and finally wound up blaming God. Don't blame God
for our deadness. Don't blame God for our iniquities.
Let's don't blame God for our cold hearts and dry eyes. Let's
don't blame God. Let's don't blame God for our
indifference to this word and indifference to the things that
are before us. Let's don't blame God. Let's don't blame God for
our bad understandings and poor relationships and divided homes
and broken hearts. Let's don't blame God for that
mess. That's our mess. That's our mess. Or some people just flat out
deny their sins, like old Ananias. Peter said to him, said, you
sell it for so much. He said, you're right. He had
the money in his hand. And just flat out denied it.
And God killed him. Well, he ought to have been killed. I mean, a man just stand flat-footed
before a holy God and deny his sins ought to be killed. Well,
that's us too. Or another illustration is we
cover our sins with religion. We just really dress it up, like
the Pharisee of old who stood in the temple. He made his way
to the temple, went down to the altar, and stood there and talked
with himself. Called it prayer, but he spake
with himself. the Bible says, and he says,
God, I sure thank you, and I'm not like other people. I tithe
and I fast and I give alms, and I'm not like that publican. But let me boldly say in regard
to individuals, in regard to this church, in regard to churches
today, in regard to religion as a whole, in regard to that
mess that calls itself Christianity, I boldly declare that we cannot
have what this man is praying for. We cannot have it, we cannot
enjoy it, we cannot partake of the mercies of God unless we
come before God owning our sins. That's where it starts. He said,
John wrote, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves,
and the truth not If we say we have not sinned, we make God
a liar, and his word's not in us. But if we confess our sins,
if we own our need, if we own our state, if we own our emptiness,
if we own our guilt, then he's faithful and just to forgive
us, and to cleanse us. Our Lord said the well do not
need the physician, and the physician's not coming to them. He said,
I didn't come to call the righteous. I didn't come to call those who
are satisfied and content. I came to call sinners. Go learn
what this means. An old hymn writer, some of you
who are familiar with this statement, will be glad to get the full
statement. I've been for years quoting,
a sinner is a sacred thing the Holy Ghost hath made himself.
You heard that before? You say, yeah, 10,000 times.
All right. But the first part of it I discovered. Listen. What comfort can a Savior bring
to those who never felt their woe? A sinner is a sacred thing. and a participator in sacred
blessings because the Holy Ghost has made him so. The Holy Ghost
showed him he was a sinner. And he can rejoice in the mercies
that God has for sinners. You see, now listen carefully
to this. I wish I could shout this to
the world. Our Lord Jesus Christ came down here and honored the
law. He honored God's law. How did
he honor it? By obeying it. He honored the
law by obeying it. If we come to Christ, we must
first honor the law. That's right, we must first recognize
and honor the law by confessing that we haven't obeyed it. See
what I'm saying? We dishonor the law when we claim
to keep it. You see what I'm saying? We dishonored. Here's two men who went to the
temple to pray, a Pharisee and a Publican. The Pharisee stood
there and dishonored God's law, discredited God's law. He said,
I am not unjust, I am not an adulterer, I am not an extortioner,
I have not broken the law. He discredited God's law and
dishonored God's law. The Publican stood over here
and smote upon his breast and said, oh God, I'm the sinner,
I'm the chief sinner. I'm the chief offender. Show
mercy to me. Let your blood be propitiation
on the mercy seat. This was Saul of Tarsus' whole
trouble. He said in Romans 7, I was blameless. I was alive without the law. Discrediting, dishonoring the
law. But when the law came in its true spiritual meaning and
content, I died. It slew me. It stripped me. It
absolutely took everything away from me. and put me in the dust.
Now that's honor in God's law. Christ honored it by obeying
it, and you and I are going to honor it by confessing that we
haven't obeyed. And to fend in one point is to
be guilty of all of it. And then let me show you, this
is awfully important too. The Savior died under the wrath
of God for sins. It was our sins that sent him
to the tree. It was our sins that nailed him
to the tree. It was our sins that he borne
Calvary's cross. Our sins. You look at Calvary
and see the seriousness of sin. The exceeding sinfulness of sin. And to deny our sins and to disown our sins is to
declare that Christ died in vain. Is it not? Is that not true?
Paul said, I'm not going to confuse and frustrate the grace of God
if righteousness come by the law of Christ died in vain. For
me to assume or presume or claim to be without seeing is to say
Christ did that in vain. It is said that a man is indeed
a theologian who has learned two things. Two things, and that's
the title of my message today. Two things. My sin and His grace. I mean, if a man or woman has
learned, has learned the depth of sin, the depth of sin, the
depth of our sins, and the very height and breadth and length
of His grace, that man or woman is a theologian. A man will grow
in grace and the knowledge of Christ as he grows in two things,
the knowledge of his own sin and inability and the knowledge
of God's grace and power. Isn't that right? And Calvary,
listen to this, Calvary's cross will remain a mystery until we
are overwhelmed with a sense of our guilt and of our sins
and get a good view of the glory of his grace. That's when Calvary,
that's when Charlie can sing At Calvary and mean it. At Calvary. That's when the mystery of Calvary
will be unfolded and revealed, when a man really sees, when
he's overwhelmed, literally overwhelmed with a sense of sin and gets a view of God's grace.
The hymn writer put it this way, plenteous grace with thee is
found grace to cover all my sins. O Lord, let the healing stream
abound, make and keep me pure within. Just and holy is thy
name. I am all unrighteousness, vile
and full of sin I am." Can you say that? Do you know that in some of the
hymn books now, they've changed the words of this song at the
cross, where he died for a worm like me, you remember that verse?
Would he devote that sacred head for such a worm as I? You know
they changed that? And they say, would he devote
that sacred head for sinners such as I? A little more delicate,
isn't it? Not quite as, not quite as But
you know our Savior, when He took our place, He called Himself
a worm. That's what He thinks of our
sins. When He took our place, He said, I am a stinking worm
and no man. But we are refined in this day.
This is 1988, and we are refined, and we are no longer worms, we
are sinners. And it won't be long before we won't even be
sinners anymore. Those who've made a mistake. Misunderstood. That's us. We're misunderstood. Not our fault anyway. It's our
mother's and daddy's fault. They didn't take us to the circus. I want you to look at the text
again. Isaiah 64, 6. Here it is. Whitfield used to say, here's
when I'll receive mercy, when God shows me myself and shows
me himself. Or just turn it around, show
me thyself and show me myself. I don't know which comes first.
Show me thyself and show me myself. Or show me myself and show me
thyself. But that's what I've got to do
business with and I've got to face and own, confess my sin
in his grace. And here's my sin. Now look at
verse 6. This is shocking. Listen. But
we're all as an unclean thing. Here's the root of our sin. Here's
the root of our problem. It's not our outward acts. And
this is what all the preachers are hammering and hitting. It's
our outward acts. Our outward acts. If you could
just quit drinking and smoking and watching television and playing
cards and gambling and all these things, wearing shorts and so
forth. It's our outward act, but that's not our chief problem. Our chief problem is at the root.
It's not the fruit, it's the root. The fruit is determined
by the root. And he says we're unclean, we're
defiled, we're unclean as the fruit is bad because the root
is bad and the water is polluted because the fountain is polluted.
In this we're all unclean. You know where it comes from?
The metaphor here, unclean, comes from the leper. of Israel. Now leprosy back then, totally,
totally incurable. Totally incurable. And evidently
a type of sin. And the leper who was unclean,
the leper was unclean. Anybody who was found with leprosy
was unclean. He couldn't go to the temple.
He was an outcast. If he sat on a couch, they had
to burn it. If he drank from a vessel, they had to break it.
If he came in contact with any living human being that didn't
have leprosy, he was to put his hand up over his face and mouth
and cry, unclean, run from me. He was literally an outcast,
unclean. And this is our condition according
to the Word of God. We're unclean. We can't approach
God. We can bring nothing that God
will accept. If we touch anything, we pollute
it. If we touch anything, it has
to be burned or broken. God cannot receive it. Actually,
the only reason that the high priest could go into the Holy
of Holies, into the presence, the Shekinah glory of God, is
because of the blood he had in one hand and the incense he had
in the other. That's the only way. Once a year, the high priest
went into the Holy of Holies, but not without blood and not
without incense. of the animal is the blood of
Christ and the incense are the prayers of Christ. And this is
what he says here, we're unclean, we're as an unclean thing, an
unclean thing. And then the extent of, that's
the root of our sin, it's inside, the disease is in the bone, in
the blood, in the nature, and that makes everything we touch
Like I said, the leper sat on the couch, had to burn it. He
defiled it. If he drank from a vessel, they
had to break it. It is defiled. And that's, as
far as God's concerned and the kingdom and the holiness of God,
anything that's identified with us and associated with us, it's
defiled because of us. God cannot have it. He cannot
receive our persons nor our gifts. And the extent of the sin, and
what's this, and all our righteousnesses are filthy rags. Now look at
this. It doesn't say our unrighteousness, we'd like to read it that way,
it says our righteousnesses are polluted garments in God's sight. And what's the prophet saying?
He's saying just what you think he's saying. That our righteousnesses
are filthy rags. In other words, even our best
deeds. are polluted with sin. There's
unbelief in our faith. There's selfishness in our generosity.
That's right. There's envy in our charity. There's self-love in our prayers. Even our prayers are contaminated. There's self-righteousness in
our worship. Even our good deeds in God's
sight are filthy rags. George Whitefield once said this,
he said, a man has not repented before God. Now he may repent
before men, he may put on a religious show, he may get religion, he
may walk an aisle, he may claim to turn over a new leaf, he may
try to impress people, but he hasn't repented before God until
he repents of three things. Number one, he repents of what
he is, his sin. Oh God, what I am. Secondly, he repents for what
he's done, and what he's doing, and what he will do. His S-I-N-S,
sins. And then constantly, before God,
he repents of his righteousness. That's right. Of his good deeds. Knowing, knowing, that in himself,
well, it's no good thing. In his flesh, he can't please
God. Knowing that the shortcoming and failure and selfishness and
sin and a bad motive, it contaminates everything we do. I'd love to preach the gospel
of Christ with clear, unmistakable power. I'd like to preach it
My Lord preached it, but I can't. I can't do it. There's no way
that I, a human being, can clearly, unpolluted, without error, declare
God's glory. I wish I could. I wish I could
give, sacrificially give of myself, like the widow's mite, everything
I have. I wish I had faith. I wish I
believed God. I'd like to believe God. Like my Lord Jesus bleed, wouldn't
you? Not a glimmer of a taint of a
doubt. I don't have it. And therefore
my faith's polluted. For God to accept it, it has
to be perfect. That's the reason Christ makes
us whole. He absolutely was perfect. My
representative was perfect. He was perfect in his love, perfect
in his faith, perfect in what he gave himself. Perfect in his
submission, perfect in his obedience. And that's the reason the Father
raised him from the grave and exalted him to his right hand
because he's the only human being, God-man, who walked this earth
in perfection. But now if I'm in him and of
him, and by faith in him, what little faith I have, then I'm
accepted in the Beloved. See that? But now you just face
it. And I'm weary of people talking
about what they did and what they're going to do and how they
served. I've been faithful to the Lord, all hogwash. I'm tired
of that. I just wish nobody would say
that to me again. Well, I've spent my time on my knees. I
bet you have. Shooting craps or something like
that. Let's quit bragging. There's
nothing to us. I just write it out. Nothing
to us. Not for God. Not for God. And the sooner we realize it,
the better off we're going to be. We're as an unclean thing
by nature, and our righteousnesses are filthy rags. Just plain filthy
rags. All right, watch this. Here's
the permanence of this mess. We're saddled with it till death.
Did you know that? You say, well, don't it get any
better? You'll have to ask somebody older than me. I don't know. It hadn't so far. Here's the permanence. He said,
and we all do fade as a leaf, and our iniquities like the wind
have taken us away. We promise to do better. We resolve
to improve. Well, we're continually doing
that. We fully intend to do so, but
you know what we're like? He compares us here and our intentions
in this flesh. are like a leaf on a tree in
the winter without light. It continues to hang around,
but it's going to fall. That's right. It may be the last
leaf. It may be the last one to hold
on, but dried by sin and blown by the wind of iniquity, it'll
soon join the others rotting on the ground. Isn't that so?
There's none good, no, not one. That's right, that's an awful
picture. Oh, somebody wrote this about it, about this person right
here. We're all, Brother May is talking
about the more wicked people in the world. Yeah, that's who
I'm talking about. I happen to have them all with me this morning.
We're all as an unclean thing. The old leper, that's us, unclean,
unclean. Stay away from me. Don't follow
me, I'm unclean. And even my good deeds, even
my righteousness, even my prayers are filthy rags in God's sight.
Man at his best state is vanity. And my trouble is I'm not getting
any better in the flesh. I fade as a leaf. I may hang
on to the last one, be the last one, but I'll join the rest out
because there's none righteous, none that understandeth, none
that seeketh after God, none that doeth good. No, not even
that last leaf. Oh, what a dismal state is this. What horrors shape my feeble
frame. I discovered with all my religion
the charge was still the same, unclean. Did you hear? Oh, what a dismal state is this. What horrors shape my feeble
frame. I discovered with all my religion,
the charge is still the same, unclean. Well, is there no hope? Oh yeah, verse 8. Let's look
at it. That's my sin. I can't stay there,
can I? Here's grace. Here's grace. But now, O Lord, Thou art our
Father. And our Father said this, I will
be merciful. Moses said, Lord, show me your
glory. He said, I'll make my goodness pass before you. I'm
going to be gracious. I'm going to be merciful. I'm
going to be merciful to whom I will be merciful, but I'm going
to be merciful. And I'm going to be gracious.
You know, David said this. This is one of my favorite Psalms.
Oh Lord, if thou shouldest mark iniquity, who shall stand? Who shall stand? We got some
strange ideas. Well, the Pope would, of course.
No, he's the chief of senators. Well, surely a man like Billy
Graham, surely a man like, you know, Saint Francis of Assisi
or something like that. Surely, Lord, if thou shouldest
mark iniquity, this is David now talking, who shall stand?
But, but, And here's our plea, there
is forgiveness with thee. There is forgiveness with thee.
And here's what he's saying in verse 8, thou art our father. Isn't this what the Canaanite
woman said when she came and our Lord said to her, first he
was silent, and then he said I'm only sent to the lost sheep
of the house of Israel, and then he said it's not neat to give
children's bread to dogs, and she said that's right, but you're
my master and I'm your dog. And this is what the prophet
is saying. In the mess we're in, we turn to Him who is our
Father. Him who is our Master. Is this
not what the thief on the cross said out of his calamity and
distress? He said, you're the Lord. You're
the Lord. And you're not going to stay
dead. You're coming to the kingdom. Would you remember me? You're
my hope. Is this not what the particle
son said when he came back? He came back and he said, you
know what he said when he started out? Father. My father. I've seen it's true. Under heaven
and in your sight. I'm not worthy to be called your
son, that's right. But you're my father. You're
my father. And that's how I'm coming. I'm
coming as an unclean thing. I'm coming like the leper when
Christ came down from the mountain and he fell at his feet and said,
Lord, you're my Lord. If you will, you can make me
whole. Why can't we do that? I just
don't understand. What can a sinner plead? He can't
plead merit. He can't plead ignorance. He
can't plead probation. He can't plead another chance
because he'll be the same. Well, what can he plead? He can
plead the sovereignty of God. the right of God to do what he
will with whom he will. Can he plead that? He can plead,
secondly, the love of God. Not his love for God, but God's
love. You're my father. You're my father. It's like a little child. He's broken a window and he comes
in and he doesn't pack his bag and leave home. He comes up,
says to his dad, I've broken the window, but you're my father.
You can fix things up for me. Huh? You're my father. This is
a special relationship. You're my father. Sure, I'm undeserving. Sure, I've made a mess. Sure,
I'm in trouble. But you're my father. Is that not what fathers
are for? Is that not what fathers do?
Plead the love of God. Plead the mercy of God. You don't
have anything else to plead. Plead the word of God. Abraham,
plead God. Look to the righteousness of
Christ. We don't have any. Let's look where some is. Well,
go work it out. Join a church and get in a soul
winning club and read your daily Bible readings and give your
tithes, you know, and come to prayer meeting, be a five star
Christian, make it every day. That's not going to help the
mess we're in. We're just to be out there spinning our wheels
in the dunghill, that's all. And I tell you what you can do.
You're my father. You're my Father. You're my God. You're my strong arm in time
of trouble. All right? If you can't, that's
too hard. Try this one. Look at verse 8. But now, O Lord,
after all this confession, thou art our Father. Now try this.
If that other's too heavy for you, we're the clay and you're
the potter. Now you can do that one, can't
you? What is clay? Well, clay is dirty. Clay is from the dust, is it
not? Out of the ground. I am clay. Secondly, clay is
helpless. Clay never jumped, clay never
made itself a pitcher yet. Clay never made itself a base
yet. Clay is just clay and is going to stay clay unless some
strong hand gets a hold of clay. Can you say that? I am clay.
I am dirty. I am of the earth. I'm helpless. I can't change. Clay's not going
to change. Clay's got possibilities, but
not in itself. Huh? That's right. And clay has
no beauty. Clay has no form. It's just old
dirty clay. But now wait a minute. You're
the potter. And oh, what that potter can
do with a mess like you. Oh, what the hand, the touch
of the master's hand. What his hand. I've always been
fascinated. I haven't seen many of them,
but some. When these guys dig that old
messy clay and mix water with it and ball it up in a ball and
put it on a spinning thing, you know, and they start that thing
moving and work their hands and so forth and so on. They work
a long time and then they get that paintbrush and paint it
and bake it set it out there and I'd pay $100 for it. Wasn't
worth two cents. Now it's worth $100, $1,000.
If it exists for 10 or 15 years or 100 years or 200 years, it's
worth more than that. It's worth increases. And you think if a man can do
that with earthly clay, think what he can do with you and me. Now you can do, can you handle
that? Well, I tell you, that's where it is. Now, go on walking
the aisles and go on getting dipped and sprinkle your babies.
You ain't gonna help them. Not gonna throw sand in their
face. That's a joke. Dress them up in all the silt
and satin. You still got a little rattlesnake
in your head. And sprinkle water in its face and say all that
gooby-gooby over it, you know, and dress the preacher up in
all that silly-looking stuff he wears. Let's burn it. With
all your stained-glass windows and the organists over there
playing softly. All that atmosphere and you try
to make that kid holy. He's a rotten leper. He's clay. And only God can do
anything for him or with him. Go on having these big services
and the preacher gives the invitation, raise your hand, I'll raise the
other one now if you want to go to heaven, come down now,
pray this prayer after me. They can cry, they can do anything
they want to. But that old rotten, dirty clay is still rotten, dirty
clay unless the potter gets a hold of it. That's just so. And it's mean, but it's so. But
our generation, Zion's a wilderness, church is a wilderness, Jerusalem
is a desolation, and the so-called holy meetings and solemn assemblies
are a wilderness before God. God's not there. He's not in
it, He's not of it, He's not with it, and He's not identified
by it. Here He is, Lord, You're my Father. I'm the prodigal, and I don't
deserve nothing, but here I am. Oh, I'm the clay, the worthless,
dirty, helpless clay with no form or beauty, but you're the
potter, and oh, what you can do. For by grace are you saved
through faith, and that not of yourselves. It's the gift of
God. It's not of works, lest any man should boast. For we
are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works. I've got a jewel here. Listen
to it. This is my song. I didn't write it, but I claim
it. A beggar poor at mercy's door, lies such a wretch as I. You know my need is great indeed,
Lord, hear me when I cry. With guilt beset and deep in
debt, for pardon, Lord, I pray. O Lord, let thy blood sufficient
prove and take my sins away. My darkened mind I daily find
is prone to go astray. Lord, on it shine with your light
divine and guide it in your way. My stubborn will opposes still
your wise and holy hand. Thy spirit send to make it bend
to your supreme command. My affections wild by sin defiled,
often turn me away. Lord, bring me home, no more
let me roam from Christ the living way. My memory's bad, but what
is sad, folly I can retain. Fill it, Lord, with your sweet
word, and let your word there remain. Before thy face, my Father,
I rest my case. Lord, help and mercy sin. pity
my soul and make it whole and love me to the end." Can you
handle that? Well, that's where it is. That's
where it is. This chapter I find to be a confession
not only for the soul personally, but for our whole religious nation,
our whole situation before God. We're going
to have to come down. We've got to come down, down,
down, down, down, down.

My Sin and His Grace

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My Sin and His Grace

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