Now, this morning, turn to Isaiah
1, and I've received many favorable comments concerning the early
delivery of the message on Sunday morning. Many people say, well,
I'd like for you to get up there and just start preaching, and
then we'll sing some later and have the special and receive
the offering. But while we're fresh and alert and attentive,
just go ahead and preach. But I'm not as alert and fresh
and attentive as you are this morning. I taught my Sunday school
class a while ago, and I emptied the well. I just said everything
I had to say. And I don't know whether I've
got anything left over or not, but we'll take a shot at it. Isaiah chapter 1, beginning with
verse 1, my message is on the goodness of God, the goodness
of God, the goodness of God. The vision of Isaiah, the son
of Amos, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days
of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, kings of Judah. Hear, O heavens,
and give ear, O earth, for the Lord hath spoken. The Lord hath
spoken. I have nourished and brought
up children. And they've rebelled against me. They're rebels. In verse 3, he
says they're ungrateful rebels. They've not only rebelled against
my word, against my law, and against me, but they're ungrateful. The ox knows his owner, an old
dumb ox out there in the field. He knows who his owner is, who
his master is. He'll come to his master's crib.
And the ash knows his master's crib. They all come home at night.
They wander in from the field and come and stay in the fold
and in the barn. But Israel does not know. My
people does not consider. I've fed them, housed them, cared
for them, but they have no gratitude to me, no thanksgiving, no appreciation,
no gratitude to God. Verse 4, they're laden with sin.
They're just covered over with sin. They're just permeated with
sin. Sinful nation. A people laden,
heavy with iniquity. Every imagination of man's heart
is evil continually. A seed of evildoers. Children
that are corruptors. They have forsaken the Lord.
They have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger. They've
gone away backward, everyone to his own way. And not only are they rebels
and ungrateful and just heavy with iniquity, but they're proud
people. They're proud in their sin. They're proud in their rebellion. They're proud, arrogant, haughty
people. They don't even respond to judgment.
Look at this first. Why should they be stricken?
Why should they be afflicted? They'll just rebel, increase
their rebellion more and more, because their whole head, That's
their mental powers. Their whole head is sick. And
their whole heart is faint. That's their affections are perverted.
Their mental, mentality is sick and their affections are faint. And from the sole of the foot,
here they're totally depraved. Somebody says, this man, what
do you mean totally depraved? Totally without any good or truth
or life or life or holiness. From the sole of the foot, get
down to the last layer of skin on the ground. Even under the
head, the top hair on the head, there's no soundness in that
person anywhere. No soundness, nothing sound. You're like a rotten board. You
take the hammer and tap for some soundness, some place on that
board that there's some strength. But from the sole of a man's
feet to the top of his head, there's no soundness anywhere.
Nothing but wounds. There's no part for his head,
his heart, his eyes, his hands, his wounds and bruises. Putrefying sores that have not
been treated. They haven't been clothed. They
haven't been sewed up. They haven't been bound up. They haven't been
treated with ointment. No kind of salve or oil. The
country's desolate. The cities are burned with fire,
your land, strangers devoured in your presence. It's desolate,
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 besieged city. And this is the state, so helpless
and hopeless that except the Lord of hosts, except the God
of heaven, had left us a very small handful, a remnant, We'd
be like Sodom and Gomorrah. We'd be like Sodom. We should
have been like unto Gomorrah. But not only are they rebels
and ungrateful and laden with iniquity and proud and depraved
and hopeless, but they're religious. Here's the amazing thing. Look
at beginning with verse 10. They're most religious. Hear the word of the Lord, ye
rulers of Sodom. Give ear unto the law of our
God, ye people of Gomorrah." Talking to Israel, he's talking
to the land of Israel and he's calling them Sodom and Gomorrah,
that's what he's calling them. To what purpose is the multitude
of your sacrifices? The multitude, you have services
and ceremonies and sacrifices, your church meetings, your multitudes
of them, but to what purpose are they, saith the Lord? I'm
full of them, sick of them, tired of them. Oh, you burnt offerings
of rams and the fat of fed beasts. I delight not in the blood of
bullocks or lambs or he-goats. That's not where my delight is.
God has no pleasure in all these sacrifices and ceremonies of
religion. Our Lord delights in his Son.
He delights in the blood of his Son. He delights in the prayers
of his Son. He delights in the righteousness
of his Son. He delights in Christ. This is
my Son in whom I am well pleased. I don't delight in all your ceremonies
and sacrifices and prayers. In verse 12, when you come to
appear before me, you put in your appearance. Every Sunday
morning and Sunday night and occasionally on Wednesday and
here and there and all over the country and the state and the
nation, the community and the city, people come now to appear
before God. They put on their Sunday best
and put a flower in their lapel and a handkerchief in their pocket
and put on a tie and a shirt and their Sunday go to meet and
close and they got their Bible under their arm and they run
down to appear before God. When you come to appear before
me, who's required this at your hands? to tread my coats. Bring no more
vain oblation, vain glory. Incense is an abomination to
me. You burn your candles and your
incense unto me, your new moons, your special Easter's and Christmas,
Halloween, and all of your so-called New Moons and Sabbaths and the
seventh-day Sabbath and the first-day Sabbath and all the rest of them,
the calling of assembly. I cannot away with it, it's iniquity. Even your solemn, your most solemn
meetings, your all-night prayer meetings, it all is iniquity
to me, it's games that people are playing, trying to impress
a holy God. Your New Moons and your appointed
feasts, special services, sunrise services, all gathered at the
football stadium, all your pointed feasts and potluck dinners and
day of fastings and prayer. My soul despises, God said. They're troubling to me and I'm
weary to bear them. And when you spread forth your
hands, everybody's raising their hands and carrying on, I'll hide
my eyes from you. I'll hide my eyes from you. Yes,
when you make many prayers, you hold hands and pray, and go through
all the motions, and you put your hand on the television,
put your hand on letters and all these things, you make many
prayers, I'll not kill you because your hands are full of blood.
You need to be washed, that's what we need, verse 16, you need
to be washed. Wash, need to be made clean,
the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanseth us from all sin. Washing of regeneration, need
to put away the evil of your doings, your religious doings.
They said, Lord, we preached in your name and cast out devils
and we did many wonderful works, you workers of iniquity. the
evil, the iniquity of your doings, your doings and goings, and trying
to establish a righteousness, trying to find acceptance with
God. Put away the evil of your doings
from before mine eyes and cease to do evil and learn to do well.
Learn something about worship. Learn something about praise.
Learn something about faith. Learn something about Christ.
Learn something about righteousness. Learn to do it right. Seek judgment. relieve the oppressed, judge
the fatherless, plead for the widow, come now, here's the text,
come now, right now, come now. Peter said at Pentecost, save
yourself from this untoward generation, this perverted religious generation. When Peter stood to preach on
Pentecost, there were religious people there from all nations.
It was an international gathering of people with their sacrifices
and their tithes and their offerings and their special days and their
feast days. It was the Pentecost. It was
a special Sabbath. And Peter stood and said, Save
yourselves from this perverted generation. Get out of it. Come
apart and be yourself. Touch not that unclean thing.
And I'll tell you, like I told my class, the uncleanness of
lasciviousness and the uncleanness of the flesh and the uncleanness
from which we shy away is no more wicked in God's sight than
the uncleanness of a false religion and a false worship and a false
gospel. We start back in horror at the
thought of wallowing down there in the roadhouses with the flesh
pots of the world. We draw back in horror at having
anything to do with the orgies and homosexuality, and that's
filth, that's unnatural, that's vile, that's wicked in God's
sight. But I tell you honestly, people, it's no more wicked than
a false gospel. It's no more obnoxious in the
sight of God than a false gospel, I'm telling you. And I'm not
going to wallow in that, and I ain't wallowing in this either.
That's exactly right. And I don't feel, I wouldn't
feel any more filthy in a roadhouse than I would in a modern church. I feel just as nauseated and
upset listening to a man deny the gospel of God's grace. I
feel just as nauseated and upset as I would over here in a roadhouse
with a bunch of flesh-filthy perverts. I could preach the
gospel to them, and they may hear it, but this crowd won't
hear it. They've got a self-righteousness of their own. We flinch back and draw back
and we say, oh, these are worldly people. I tell you, these are
ungodly who confess not that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
And that's what God is saying here. He talks about, he's talking
to religious people over here, a religious crowd. He's comparing
them with Sodom and Gomorrah. He says they're rebels, ungrateful,
just covered with sin, proud. They don't have any righteousness.
They got a self-righteousness, but no righteousness. And they
go through all these holy days, and all these special days, and
all these new moons, and Sabbaths, and assemblies, and prayers,
and raise their hands in prayer. He said, I'm sick of it. I'll
not heal you. Your hands are full of blood.
Put away your evil. Come now! Look at verse 18. Come now! And let's reason together. Let's do some reasoning. Saith
the Lord, though your sins be as scarlet, either your flesh
sins or your religious sins, either your unrighteousness or
your righteousness, though your sins be as scarlet, and that's
what they are, double-dyed, the old Hebrew says double-dyed,
scarlet and red like crimson, are sins, are sins. our sins. And I'll tell you this thing
of sins. If any man say he hath no sin, he's a liar and the truth's
not in him. If any man say he hath not sin,
he makes God a liar and the truth of God's not in him. And when
we talk about sins, your sins, O your sins be a scarlet, we're
not just talking about drunkenness and murder and lying and adultery
and We're talking about these secret sins, this imagination,
this jealousy, envy, hatred, pride, lust, all these things
within us that war against the soul. That's what we're talking
about. And our sins are like scarlet. God's love is a perfect
love. Our love is so imperfect and
so selfish, isn't it? Though they be red like crimson,
there be as wool. One of the old writers, John
Bunyan, had this to say. I read something about him the
other day. He was lamenting, and everywhere I go, men are
lamenting this. John Bunyan was lamenting the
formality of religion in his when he ministered in Bedford
and other places, formality, formality. He was lamenting the
coldness of the churches. He was lamenting the indifference
of the people, just indifference. To be heard, he had to go out
in the fields to preach, try to get somebody to come and hear
him. They didn't want him in the churches. They didn't want
his message. And self-righteousness would
prevail among the people. And this is what he said. You
listen to it. Oh, if the Lord, if the Lord
would only save some of the jailbirds. Oh, if only the Lord would be
pleased to call by his grace some whoremongers. Oh, if the Lord would only be
pleased to regenerate some real adulterers. open thieves and
some drunkards, what life, love, and fire they
would put in our churches. What life, love, and fire they
would put in our churches. I love this. What new zeal, commitment,
and life would be poured into our assemblies. if God had saved
some real sinners. Or he says, men and women who
are great sinners make great Christians. Men and women who know what they
were and what they are, and also know what great grace and mercy
they have received, and they never forget it. They never lose
sight of it. For to whom much is forgiven,
he loves much, rejoices much, prays much, and forgives much. Is that right? That was Paul's experience, Paul
the Apostle. He was solitarsis. He was a religious
devil is what he was. Saul of Tarsus was a religious
devil. We've got lots of them today.
He called himself, other people called him a good man. He called
himself a blasphemer. Other people called him a credit
to his country and his race. He called himself injurious. But he said, I obtained mercy.
Almighty God brought that proud, arrogant, self-righteous blasphemer,
that religious devil, down to the dust and saved his soul,
and Saul of Tarsus became Paul the bond slave, totally committed. He said, I've committed it to
him. I belong to him. He became one who praised the
Lord. And he served and labored and preached and gave of himself
and gave himself for all those years, never forgetting that
Jesus Christ came to save sinners of whom I'm the chief. I have
the solution. You say, what can you do about
the formalism? What can you do about the indifference?
What can you do about the coldness among people who profess to know
Christ if they ever find out who they are? and what they are
by birth and nature, and God ever reveals his goodness and
grace in Christ, there will be a difference. There will be a
commitment, they will, Ron, there will be a commitment, sold out,
locked, stock and barrel to Jesus Christ. They will become bond
slaves. That's the key. Oh, John Newton, know his story,
don't you? It would be worthwhile to buy
it and read it, wouldn't it, Bob? Through many waters or dangers
or something like that. He was raised in religion like
we are. He grew up in a so-called Christian
home. He learned early the things concerning
the Church and God and the Bible. He was no stranger to those things.
He learned it at least in his head. And John Bunyan became,
he became one of the most restless, thoughtless, wicked. Somebody said of John Newton
one time, they said, I did say Newton then, they said of Newton
one time that he could curse for many minutes and never repeat
the same word, blasphemous. He became a slave trader. He
worked on a ship for a man who went to Africa and captured black
people. and brought them to the islands
as slaves. That's right, he was in the slave
business. Now, he wasn't a Christian then. He wasn't a believer. I
know they tried on that film or something, television or something,
to make it sound like he was an ungodly wretch then. An ungodly wretch. He became a slave himself to
a slave down in Africa, you remember? And the person who enslaved him
made him eat his food like a dog, kept him in a pen down in Africa,
and he ate his food out of a plate on the ground like a dog, lapped
it up. They wouldn't let him touch it
with his hands, made him eat it like a dog. He was a slave
to a black woman slave in Africa, and he escaped. He escaped. And I wish I could remember the
incident when they threw him over the side of a ship one time
because he was such a wicked, vile person. And they threw the
boat hook down and hooked him and he carried that scar on his
side the rest of his life. But I tell you, God met that
old devil. God in grace and mercy in Christ
met John Newton. John Newton. You just can't describe. Sin is sin, and men are men,
and women are women, and flesh is flesh, no matter whether you
find it on Nob Hill or in the prison. It's the same everywhere. There's no degrees of sinfulness. People are wicked, wicked, wicked,
wicked, and there's enough evil in you to create another devil
if God just lets you go to yourself. That's right. You're a John Newton
yourself. God just hasn't allowed you to
give expression to what you really would give expression to if he
let you go. That's right. But God saved that man. God made
him. He didn't join the Church. He
was already a member of the Jerrific. He didn't learn the Catechism.
He already knew it, Tom. He learned it when he was a boy.
He didn't get baptized. They did that when he was a baby. He didn't say he believed in
Jesus, he believed in Jesus from his youth up. But God, in his
goodness and in his grace, met that old sinner and washed him
and regenerated him and brought him to life and gave him Christ. And he became, to me, the greatest
preacher of the last 300 years, the greatest writer. He better write it in Spurgeon.
John Newton. My, my. Amazing grace he wrote. Amazing grace. I tell you, you
want commitment, you let a man discover amazing grace. We all
preaching grace. He preached amazing grace. Swaggerton and those boys are
preaching grace. John Newton preached amazing
grace. Amazing grace! He saw himself
down there in that pigpen in Africa, and he said, Amazing
grace! He saw old John Newton breast-steaming
God from his mouth like we do from our hearts, and he said,
Amazing grace! Amazing grace! Amazing grace. He saw himself cast off that
ship and about to drown, but God wouldn't let him drown until
he brought him to Christ. And some old devil hooked him
with a boat hook and brought him on board the ship. Amazing
grace, how sweet the sound. And it gets sweeter every day.
Sweeter every day. Amazing grace, how sweet the
sound. It saved a wretch, this is John
Newton, a wretch like me. I once was lost. Have you ever
been lost? Most of us haven't. We've always
been nice. But that man was lost, lost. I once was lost, ungodly and
ungrateful, laden with iniquity, proud, arrogant, religious, moral,
ignoring God, ungodly, ignoring God. I was lost, but now I'm
found. I was blind. There's none so
blind as those who think they see. None so blind. Now I see it. It was grace that
taught my heart to fear. Fear whom? Fear men? He never
feared men. He feared God. It's grace that
taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved. Perfect
love casteth out fear. How precious did that grace appear. How precious. and he gets more
precious. To you that believe, he's precious.
The Word's precious, the blood's precious, faith's precious, his
promises are precious, and he's precious. Precious. Precious. I've been traveling a lot the
last two or three months, too much really. I've been traveling
preaching a lot and I've just I've missed fellowship with you
and I miss fellowship with my children my grandchildren and
this week I've been home two days and Becky might have noticed
I drove over a couple of days to see her just had to go see
her you know and I drove over to Paul's one morning and And
I hadn't spent any time with my grandchildren, so I got Luke
yesterday and spent the whole afternoon with him. Just needed
his company. You know what I'm talking about.
When someone's precious to you, you just need their company and
you miss it. Do you feel that way about Christ?
Did you have to come this morning or was you kind of anxious to
see him? Huh? Come on now. You see, when someone's precious
to you, and they're really precious, When they're on your heart and
in your mind, how precious did that grace appear. And you just
can't stay away. Can't stay away. I've got to
have that fellowship. I've got to have that, that way
Jim it is, got to have that gospel. It's so precious. Christ is so
precious. I tell you, I tell you this,
those who by indifference and formality and carelessness and
once in a while religion and treat lightly of the gospel of
God. I'll just tell you the way I know it is. I don't think this,
I know the grace of Christ will not let a man be formal
and indifferent. It just won't do it. And those
who are indifferent and formal and careless and treat lightly
this glorious grace, this glorious gospel, there is a lack of understanding
of sin, its consequences and grace and its goodness. Now,
there is something missing. When you have to urge people
and coerce people like the religion today, all around us, they've
got to entertain people, they've got to have some special Sunday,
or special offer, or special gift, or special... God's people
just preach Christ, and they come to the table. Just, I'll
come here if you'll just read the book to me, Cecil. Love to
hear you read it. Just read the book. Just lead
me to the throne in prayer, and I'll drive all the way over there.
See what I'm saying? He's precious. Spurgeon said
Christ is a great Savior, who saves great sinners from great
sin, and is a great purpose in so great a plan, carried out
at so great an expense, and guaranteed with such great promises, and
intended to bring great glory to a great God. How can I be
indifferent? How can I treat lightly that
which occupies the very mind of God? How can I treat lightly
that which is the greatest revelation of his character? How can I treat
lightly that which is dearest to his heart, the death of his
beloved son? How can I treat that lightly? If it's worth anything at all,
it's worth all I have. For salvation's plan, listen
to this, someone wrote this, salvation's plan is the wisdom
of God in action. Salvation's purchase is the grace
of God revealed. Salvation's application is the
power of God manifested. And all three, the wisdom, grace,
and power of God, unite to accomplish the purpose of God and reveal
to the whole world the goodness of God. Oh, to grace, how great a debtor! Daily I'm constrained to be,
let by goodness, by goodness, like a fetter, bind this wandering
heart to thee. Oh, to be committed to Christ.
And I don't mean just church affiliation, I don't mean just
doctrinal affiliation, I mean a union with Christ, that wherever
I am, I'm his. See what I'm saying? His goodness. I went through
the Word and I found some scriptures concerning his goodness. Listen.
He said to Moses, I'll make all my goodness pass before you.
I'll be gracious to whom I will be gracious. In Exodus 34, he
said again to Moses, the Lord God is merciful and gracious,
long-suffering and abundant in goodness. David said, surely,
goodness. mercy shall follow me all the
days of my life, and I'll dwell in the house of the Lord forever."
And he said again, I would have fainted unless I had believed
to see the goodness of the Lord. And in Psalm 107, he wrote, I
praise the Lord for his goodness. In Zechariah 9, he said, how
great is his goodness. Romans 2, verse 2, the goodness
of the Lord leadeth me to repentance. Romans 11, verse 22, Behold the
goodness and severity of the Lord, on them that fail severity
toward thee. What? Goodness. His goodness. Oh, I wish I had
the power and the eloquence to speak to this subject. I don't.
But let's look at Isaiah 118 for just a moment. Let me say
three things here. To whom the Lord speaks. to whom
the Lord speaks. You know, he said, I come not
to call the righteous, but sinners. Is there a sinner here? There's
one up here. Is there any out there? Well,
that's the people to whom he's speaking, sinners. You know,
I get the idea from some people that salvation in heaven and
eternal life is for good people. I get that idea that good moral
folks who live by the rules and serve God all their lives, that
they just automatically kind of leave here and go home to
heaven. I get that idea, and I hear people tell me, he's a
good man. She's a good woman. And I get the idea from others
that in order to inherit the kingdom of God, what you do sometime
in your life, you accept Jesus. You accept Jesus as a sacrifice,
and then you're sanctified by your goodness and by your obedience
and by going to church and You know, stand close, sending in
your tithes or something, and you go to heaven. But that's
not what I read here. He says here in verse 18, Come
now, let's reason together. I'm speaking to somebody, God
said. Talking to some folks. Though your sins be as scarlet. That's who I'm talking to. I'm
talking to sinners. Christ died for the ungodly.
The Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost. Christ
Jesus came to the world to save sinners. He said, though your
sins be a scarlet, come now, though they be a scarlet. Here's
something else that troubles me. Here's the second thing.
There are three classes of people that really trouble me. They
really trouble me. And they may all be represented
here. I don't know. They are at least everywhere.
Three classes that trouble me greatly. Number one, those who
do not see the greatness of their sin. That troubles me. Men and women and young people
who do not see the sinfulness of sin. You know, we've catalogued
sin. If we don't drink, if we don't
gamble, if we don't commit adultery, if we don't steal, If we don't
do these outward things, we have the general idea that we're pretty
good folks now. My boy's a good boy. He's never
given me a minute's trouble. Does he love God? Does he worship
God? Does he glorify God? Does he
know God? No. Then he hates God. How? How can you call someone good
who hates God? And sin, you see, is a principle.
Sin is a nature. Sin is not only to hate someone,
it's not to love them with all your heart. Sin is not only to
do evil, it's to fail to do good. See what I'm saying? So sin is
an inward condition in nature, and some people do not see the
greatness of that sin. Oh, they see the greatness of
adultery, but they don't see the greatness of covetousness. Take this Baker fellow, let's
just take him for an example. He's been a covetous crook for
years, but until he got tied up with this woman, nobody cared.
Which sin is greater? You see, a conniving, covetous
person went on for years this way, lying on God, lying on the
gospel, Not preaching the truth, but the whole world accepted
him. But this one thing, you can't do that. We've catalogued
sin. So people don't see the greatness
of sin. I'm troubled by the fact that
they don't see the greatness of sin. Secondly, there's another
group, those who say they see it, I know some what we call
Calvinists here now, they say, oh, I'm so sinful, I'm so sinful,
I'm just the greatest sinner in the world. There's no commitment
to Christ. There's no commitment. They believe
grace, they believe the five points, but there's no commitment.
I go all over the country to these sovereign grace works,
and one of the chief complaints these young pastors have is this,
no commitment. Is that right, Paul? That's their
chief complaint. There's nobody in this thing.
There's nobody vivacious and zealous and committed and so
on and on for Christ and the gospel. They just saunter in
when they want to. But they believe. They say. The third group that bothers
me is this. Those who think their sins are
too great. Oh, I'm just, I'm just, you know,
I'm not worthy. God would never. What? A sinner
Christ can't save? You know it's a sinner Christ
can't save? You mean guilt too great for his blood to cleanse?
A heart too hard for him to break? A sheep too lost for him to find? Oh, no. Though your sins be as
scarlet." Anybody hear like that? Though they be as scarlet? I'll
make them as white as snow. As white as snow. He said, you
go into all the world and preach that gospel to every creature.
Now I'm going to close. Listen to this. Mike's going
to sing for us. God invites you to a conference,
not to determine whether or not you're a sinner, that's determined,
but to determine what's to be done with them. Though your sins
be a scarlet, I'll make them, here's his promise, I'll make
them, in Christ, through Christ, and by Christ, as white as the
snow, as white as the snow, as white as the snow. When a man believes God as Abraham
of old, when a man receives Christ as Saul of Tarshish bowed before
him, crying, Lord, what will you have me do? He is in that
very moment, when he believes God and receives Christ, he is
in that very moment, no matter what he is or has been or ever
shall do, he is at that moment as though he had never sinned
at all. I'll go further than that. He
is in that moment in a better position than if he had never
sinned at all. That's right. I'm saying this,
that a man who has been a woman who has been a great, double-dyed,
scarlet sinner, the moment that person believes Christ, he is
in a better position than if he had never sinned in his life.
in Christ by the blood of Christ. Why? Because if he had never
sinned, he would have the righteousness of man subject to fall. But when
he believes on Christ, he has the righteousness of God that
can never fail. That's why God permitted the
fall, to bring in a perfect righteousness. I'll tell you, that's pretty
good news. I want in on that. That's where
I want in. Here I am. I have nothing to
plead. I have nothing to claim as chief of centers. I know what
Paul meant. But if you can, look at the next
verse. Now, verse 19, if you'd be willing
to come now and believe, then you'll eat the good of the land.
You're willing. But if you refuse, and you can
do that, and some will. and rebelled, you'll be divided
with the sword." You can write that down with the mouth of the
Lord at the clarinetist. There it is, Charlie. But if
you can come to Christ as a sinner, as a sinner, and nobody knows
your sin like you do, thank God. But if you can come like a sinner
and you can receive him that moment, no matter how gross,
vile, and filthy you feel, and it's good that you feel that
way, Thank God, I'm glad you don't feel any other way. But
you can come. At that moment, you will be better
off than if you had never sinned, because you'll have a righteousness
that can never fail.