    Let's go to Isaiah in our Sunday school. The book has sixty-six chapters in
it. Sixty-six chapters. And the book is written like the entire Bible, in that
there are sixty-six books in the Bible. And there's a logical division in
Isaiah right where there's a division in the Bible. The division in Isaiah is
between chapter 39 and chapter 40.

     Which means, whoever wrote Isaiah knew how many books there were going to
be in the Bible--whoever wrote Isaiah. And Isaiah was written before any New
Testament was written. Which means, whoever wrote Isaiah knew there were going
to be 39 books in the Old Testament and 27 books in the New Testament.

     And, if there's any doubt in your mind about that knowledge, turn to
chapter 40, and look at verses 3 and 4, and notice that is the opening of the
New Testament. In Isaiah 40, verses 3 and 4, that's John the Baptist coming
in. Matthew chapter 2, Luke chapter 1 and 2, and Mark chapter 1. That's the
beginning of it.

     So, whoever wrote Isaiah, 800 years before the birth of Christ, knew when
Jesus Christ was going to come; He was going to come after 39 books were
written; and after He came, there were going to be 27 of them written.

     And most people who don't like that refer to the Book of Isaiah being
written by two Isaiahs. They say chapter 1 to 39 is Isaiah, and chapter 40 to
66 is "Deutero-Isaiah." "Deutero" means "second," like Deuteronomy--second
giving of the law. "Deutero-Isaiah"--and recently, they are saying that three
men wrote Isaiah. And, we'll see when we get in the study of that, that only
one man wrote it, and the New Testament says only one man wrote it--and only
one man wrote it.

     All right, it has 66 chapters in it, 1292 verses--1292 verses--37,044
words--37,044 words. It's written between 814 and 769 b.c.--814 to 769 b.c..
The word "Isaiah" means "Save, thou Jehovah." It's like "Jesus". "Iesus,"
"Yasas," "Yessiah," "YessaiAH"--"save thou Jehovah." And, we'll just have time
to get to put down these facts here today. We won't have time to get into the
Book.

     But, during the prophecies of Isaiah--you might write down this--the
following four countries or cities were founded: Macedonia. Macedonia was
founded while Isaiah was preaching. And from Macedonia came Alexander the
Great--Philip of Macedonia later--814, Macadonia. While Isaiah was preaching,
Carthage was founded. Carthage was founded somewhere during his life--around,
oh, around 850. And the Book, of course, was written after the prophecies.
Carthage was where Hannibal came from, and Augustine. Rome was founded. Rome
was founded about 753 b.c., just shortly after the prophecies were written
down. 753 b.c., Rome founded, supposedly by Romulus and Remus, who were
suckled by a wolf, you know--that old story, all that business. Probably
founded by a couple of Babylonians. And Syracuse. Syracuse was founded. Not
Syracuse, New York. Syracuse, 769.

     And, to show you the power in the Book of Isaiah, John Haltbach of Vienna
preached Isaiah 1 for 71 years, and never finished it. For 71 years. Hartbach
of Vienna. He did the first chapter in Isaiah, and he preached out of the same
chapter for 71 years, and never finished the chapter. Now, we'll try to cut
that down when we get into it, because for one thing the Lord's going to come
back before then anyway. But that shows you how loaded it is. It's a loaded
book, has a lot in it.

     All right, turn to Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 1.

     As I was saying, I'm going to have to knock off now at a quarter of 11,
right on the button, because we're going to go on radio now every day, and
he'll start picking that thing up at 11:00 for the morning service, so the
choir has to get ready and get down here and get going, and start at 11:00.

     Now, I'm not going to try to time the program, so it goes off the air at
the same time every day. I don't like to get back into that formalistic stuff;
we're not going to do that. But we are going to start on time.

     All right, Isaiah chapter 1, and we'll start. Isaiah chapter 1. And, I
recall, you could have been at the banquet last night; we had a real time of
warm fellowship and a good spirit, and a good film on the life of Billy
Sunday. And, I don't know what the Gadsden Street Methodist Church folks
thought of us; they were having a banquet next door. You know, it's a rough
thing when the Baptists start outshouting the Methodists. That's rough, you
know that? Back in the old days, the folks who used to raise all the noise
were the Methodists. But, that's the way it ought to be; if the Methodists
lose the shout, why, the Lord will just have to raise somebody else up to do
it for them.

     An old colored woman said one time, she got to shouting harder in the
service, you know, and whooping and hollering. And she got home, and her white
mistress scolded her. She said, "Don't you know, when they're building the
house of the Lord, there wasn't any sound of any hammer or carpenter heard
anywhere in the house?" you know.

     And she said, "Yes, ma'am, that's right, but we ain't ready to build yet;
we just in the blastin' stage!"

     All right, Isaiah 1. Isaiah 1. Father, bless us now. Bless the fruit of
our hands, and our work. We're thankful, Lord, for the people who have been
faithful this week, and have come out to prayer meeting, and contribute to
missionaries, knocked on the doors, showed up for visitation, done the hard,
grinding work of routine as well as the glamorous work and the forward work.
Bless them this morning, Lord, who have assembled in your name. And bless this
word, and may it be a blessing to hearts as we teach others, and as these
receive. And we ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

     Now, in Isaiah, chapter 1, verse 1. Now, "Isaiah" means "Save, thou
Jehovah." And the nearest thing to it in the Bible is "Hallelujah."
"Hallelujah" is "Praise Jehovah!" Is-ai-jah means "Save thou Jehovah." So this
name is like "Jesus." There are several names like Jesus in the Old Testament.
One of them is "Joshua." That's "Jehovah saves." One of them is "Jehoshua."
That's another one. Another one like it is "Jehoash." And "Joash." And
"Isaiah."

     Now, you wouldn't think "Isaiah" was kin, but that's because our "J" is
their "I". If you're gonna say "Jesus" in any language except English, you're
gonna "Iesus." That's Jesus in German, French, Latin, Spanish--about twenty
others. Because the "J" is like an "I."

     So, this word here means "Save thou Jehovah." "Save thou the Lord
Saviour."

1:1 The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and
Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, [and] Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
2 Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD hath spoken, I have
nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.   3 The
ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib: [but] Israel doth not
know, my people doth not consider.   4 Ah sinful nation, a people laden with
iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have
forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they
are gone away backward.

     All right, chapter 1, verse 1. "The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz."
And this is not Amos the prophet, but another Amoz. And this is the priestly
line. And notice it begins "The vision of Isaiah." Isaiah's a prophet, and the
Lord shows him these things.

     "The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and
Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, [and] Hezekiah, kings of
Judah." And those kings are all mentioned in the Book of Kings, and they're
mentioned in the Book of Chronicles. And I don't know exactly--haven't got the
references marked. Hezekiah's in 2 Chronicles 29--Hezekiah. And Uzziah is in 2
Chronicles 26. Jotham is in 2 Chronicles 27; Ahaz, in 2 Chronicles 28. So,
it's along in there; it's linked late in the history of Israel. And, oh, in
another hundred or several hundred years, why, Judah and Jerusalem are wiped
out.

     "In the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, [and] Hezekiah, kings of Judah."
Then the dates are fixed.

     Now, here comes the vision: "Hear, O heavens,..." plural "...and give
ear, O earth." Then what you are about to read is not merely addressed to
Israel; it's addressed to anybody on the ground. "Hear, O earth." And that's
quite common in the prophets. A man who gets so dispensational he erases the
prophets as revelation for the Christian is out of bounds and out of base.
Some of the prophets are given to the earth. And, if you're prophecies, and if
you're on the earth, it's to you.

     Come to Jeremiah 22, and I'll show you another one like it. Some people
say, "Well, Israel is the subject of prophecy, and the church is the subject
of Revelation." And that sounds good, but it kind of cuts up the word.
Jeremiah 22, verse 29. Notice to whom this is addressed; and this is a Jewish
prophet in the Old Testament. "O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the
LORD." That's pretty clear. That isn't land, like the land of Palestine.
That's earth. "O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the LORD." Why is that
addressed to the earth? Because the prophecy is of the virgin birth. "Thus
saith the LORD, Write ye this man childless, a man [that] shall not prosper in
his days: for no man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of
David, and ruling any more in Judah." You say, "What's that got to do with the
earth?" Well, that means that no man that comes from that man can have a king
over the throne of David. And that man is in the line of Judaean kings.
Therefore, if Jesus Christ had a human father, He couldn't get the throne of
David. God cursed the line right there. "No man of his seed shall prosper,
sitting upon the throne of David, and ruling any more in Judah." That thing
there is on the virgin birth. And the virgin is not a prophecy to Israel; it's
a prophecy to the world. It's for the world. It's not just for Israel. Christ
being born of a virgin--that's not a correction of anything in Israel. That's
a correction of Adam.

     Now, Isaiah chapter 1, verse 2: "Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth:
for the LORD hath spoken." Now, He's talking about what He's done. "For the
LORD hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have
rebelled against me." Now, this is aimed at Israel. Verse 3: "Israel doth not
know, my people doth not consider." But, boy, if you limit that to Israel, you
miss some of the greatest preaching against the sins of Christians anywhere in
the Bible. Because, when you come down through it, if you limit this thing
just to Israel, you put off a rebuke that the Holy Spirit may have for you
directly.

     For example, verse 2: "The LORD hath spoken, I have nourished..." He's
nourished you, hasn't He? "...and brought up children,..." You're His child,
aren't you? "...and they have rebelled against me." You have at times, haven't
you?

     Verse 3: "The ox knoweth his owner." Characteristic of an ox; he knows
where his stall is. "The ass his master's crib." Animals have more sense than
some people. The ox knows who his master is. The donkey knows where the food
is. He comes to the crib to get the corn--the corn crib. He knows where to go
to get it. "...[but] Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider." And,
applied to a Christian, that means that animals are smarter than some
Christians. Some Christians don't know who their owner is. And they don't know
who their Master is. And, if you're saved, your Owner--you're not your own,
you're bought with a price--right? See, it fits all the way through. "You're
not your own; you're bought with a price; therefore, glorify God in your body
and your spirit, which are God's."

     All right, the animal knows his owner; some Christians don't. And, "the
ass his master's crib." A donkey knows where to go to get a good feed. And,
you know, some of God's people don't even know where to go. In this town,
right now, in this town while I'm standing here right here right now, I'll bet
you've got 2,000 saved people who don't know where to go to get fed. And
they're going to places where they're getting fed nothing but garbage and
rotten eggs, and egg shells and watermelon rinds and banana peels and coffee
grounds. And an animal's got more sense than that!

     "The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib: [but] Israel
doth not know, my people doth not consider." "My people"--now it's Israel
doctrinally. But, don't forget, every verse has three applications. You have a
doctrinal application, an historical application, a spiritual application.

     Verse 4: "Ah sinful nation." That's aimed at Israel, but, boy, it's
written for your admonition! Come to 1 Corinthians, and notice in the Pauline
Epistles you're told the Old Testament and the things that happened to Israel
are for your learning. First Corinthians chapter 10. First Corinthians chapter
10, verse 6. First Corinthians chapter 10, verse 6. So, when He says, "Ah,
sinful nation," you can put it right down. First Corinthians 10:6: "Now these
things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things,
as they also lusted."

     (Is this my imagination, or is this thing going off and on? Is it
ringing? I have the most peculiar feeling while I'm talking in this thing,
that it's cuttin' out, then cuttin' in, then cuttin' out, then cuttin' in. Is
it doing that? I thought it was! I'm no technician, but I used to make a
living talking into one of these things. And this thing here is just going
BLIP! and then back in, then BLIP! and then back out. You're not gettin' a
third of it. And, I don't know what we can do. We can turn off the air
conditioner, I guess, and yell. Which I'd rather not do. Maybe we haven't got
a mike placement here right or something. This thing here is wretched when it
comes at you like that. Is it still ringing? All right, thank you.)

     First Corinthians 10:6: "Now these things were our examples, to the
intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted." Then,
coming on down. Now, look at verse 11 real carefully: "Now all these
things..." And the things he's talking about were the things that happened to
Israel. "Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples..." Examples
"...and they are written for our admonition,..." that's the Christian "...upon
whom the ends of the world are come. Wherefore..." So forth and so on.

     All right, Isaiah chapter 1. In plainer words, although all Scripture is
inspired and is profitable for doctrine, it's also profitable for reproof,
correction, instruction in righteousness. Isaiah 1, verse 3. That sounds
better. Isaiah 1:3: "The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib:
[but] Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.  Ah sinful nation, a
people laden with iniquity." Loaded with it. Just packed up on their backs. "A
seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters." Children--referring to His
own children that have corrupted things. They have corrupted the word of God.
His children have corrupted it. I have no doubt at all that the translators on
the New Scofield Bible, the board of editors, I have no doubt at all they were
all saved men. I really believe that. I'll tell you something else: I believe
that 85% of the translators in the ASV committee were saved men; and maybe one
or two of these translators like Moffatt, Weymouth, Goodspeed, Phillips, Three
Musketeers, Dartnan, and all that--maybe they're saved. But they've corrupted
the word. And He says, "Children that are corrupters." 

     "They have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel
unto anger, they are gone away backward." Hence we say, "Backslide." Now,
technically, that's an Old Testament term. But you can apply it to Christians.
Now, doctrinally, it may not be correct--but it sure will preach!

     Come to Jeremiah, and notice these statements on backsliding. Jeremiah
chapter 3. Jeremiah chapter 3. Backsliding is an Old Testament term. And,
technically, the Christian can't backslide. Technically, he gets out of
fellowship. But it's very descriptive. Jeremiah 3:6: "The LORD said also unto
me in the days of Josiah the king, Hast thou seen [that] which backsliding
Israel hath done? she is gone up upon every high mountain and under every
green tree, and there hath played the harlot." So forth and so on. Verse 11:
"And the LORD said unto me, The backsliding Israel hath justified herself more
than treacherous Judah." Verse 12: "Go and proclaim these words toward the
north, and say, Return, thou backsliding Israel, saith the LORD; [and] I will
not cause mine anger to fall upon you: for I [am] merciful, saith the LORD,
[and] I will not keep [anger] for ever." Verse 14: "Turn, O backsliding
children." Verse 22: "Return, ye backsliding children, [and] I will heal your
backslidings." See?

     Technically, it's an Old Testament term aimed at a nation. But, if you
ever doubt for a minute that these verses, because they're technically aimed
at the Old Testament nation, cannot be applied to the Christian, turn to
Proverbs chapter 14, and look at verse 14. Now, see, these problems are
dispensationalism. And it's one reason why, when I read the Bible through, I
never spend all my time in the New Testament--never. I read it clean through,
from cover to cover. Because, in the Book of Hebrews, He said, "My son,
despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked
of him." And the verse before that says, "You have forgotten the exhortation
which speaketh unto you as unto children, saying, My son." And the writer of
the Book of Hebrews says--somebody says, "Well, it's Tribulation"--it may be
technically and dispensationally, but I'll tell you one thing; there is
nothing in the Tribulation about the one eternal, effectual, blood sacrifice
of Jesus Christ. That's in Hebrews 10. So, you have to watch it. And the verse
says, "You've forgotten this thing about the son"--and that quotation is from
Proverbs.

     So, when I turn to Proverbs, I find this. Proverbs 14:14: "The backslider
in heart shall be filled with his own ways: and a good man [shall be
satisfied] from himself." You see, it begins in the heart. "The backslider in
heart shall be filled with his own ways." That's an individual; that isn't a
nation. That isn't aimed at Israel; that's aimed at a person. What person. The
"backslider in heart." That isn't even aimed at a Jewish person. The
"backslider in heart"--it's aimed at a backslider. So, it's a term you can
use.

     And, of course, Paul said it in another way. He said, "Ye did run well;
who did hinder you, that you should not obey the faith, or obey the word?"
When the Christian finds that he's happy in the Lord, and in the word, and
praying, and witnessing, and getting results occasionally, that's the time
there when the devil's going to bring up something, or insert something, or
insert somebody to try to cool that thing off and put the damp rag on it--and
that's the most dangerous place in your Christian life.

     Paul said, "Ye did run well; who did hinder you?" You had a good start;
maybe you witnessed and got some folks saved, and the thing was going fine.
Then, all of a sudden, there was this sudden opposition and distress and
discouragement. And, "What's the use?" And you want to retire from active
duty, before your time.

     And that's where it begins; it begins in the heart.

     Isaiah chapter 1, verse 4: "Ah sinful nation, a people laden with
iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have
forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they
are gone away backward." Very true of a lot of God's people. A lot of God's
people. I trust not many here. But, in knowing Christians through the years,
in scores of places and hundreds of congregations, I'm sure it's true a good
bit. I'm sure there are many Christians who have forsaken the Lord, and many a
Christian who has provoked the Holy One of Israel.

     You know, He's the Holy One of Israel, even after you're saved! Did you
know that? I know He's the head of the Body, and I'm in Him, and He's in me.
But He's still the Holy One of Israel.

1:5  Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the
whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.   6 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
mollified with ointment.   7 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.   8 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.   9 Except the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we
should have been as Sodom, [and] we should have been like unto Gomorrah.

     Verse 5: "Why should ye be stricken any more?" Now, here's a nation that
just had the tar knocked out of it, and they never did get right. "Why should
ye be stricken any more?" Here's somebody who just got beat and beat and tore
up, and never did get the thing right. "Ye will revolt more and more." In
plainer words, some people, when the lash is laid to them and the whip is laid
on 'em, and it gets tough, instead of it turning them to God, turns them away
from God. And He says, "I've stricken you, hit you and hit you, and it doesn't
do any good. You'll revolt more and more."

     And that's what is known as despising the chastening of the Lord. Now,
there are two ways the Christian can react to a whippin'. I better take that
back; there are three ways. There are two ways not to do. "Despise not thou
the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him." Two ways.

     Now, the first thing that happens, when you begin to get a whippin', is,
you turn up your nose at it, and say, "Oh, that, that can happen to anybody.
Happens all the time." You know, "Law of averages." That's turning your nose
up at it.

     All right, the second way is the other way. The second way is, "Oh, I
can't take it! Oh, God's against me! I'm put on the shelf, it's all hopeless.
I better check out while I can check out. I can't go on the way I'm goin'.
It's too hard. It's too much work. I've just got to quit." And then just quit.
That's fainting.

     "My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou
art rebuked of him. For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth and scourgeth
every son whom he receiveth." So, the Christian is not to do two things. He's
not to despise it; he's not to faint under it.

     And, of course, you say, "How should he take it?" Well, He says, "In
everything give thanks." And He says, "If you endure chastening, God deals
with you as with a son. And therefore, straighten the paths out and lift up
the feeble hands, and get the feeble knees going, and go on and thank God--
which is a lot easier to say than it is to do. And I preached to you about
that a couple of Sundays ago.

     But there are some people, when the Lord lays it on them, they just get
further from God. Now, I don't know those kind of people, particularly. I'm--
in spite of my rough manners and my crude way of speech and my mean looking
face and approach, I'm really very sensitive. And, I know you don't believe
that! But I really am; the thing is, I'm just not sensitive about the things
most people are sensitive about. That is, most people are sensitive about
public opinion, about how several people feel about them, and being good with
friends and family and relatives--and those things don't much affect me one
way or another. But, I'll tell you--when I crack my head on a door, going
through a door--you know the first thing I think? I think, "Oh, there must
be...I must have been thinking something wrong," see? Or slip down the steps
and say, "Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord," you know.

     Because...did you ever notice, when you do a thing like that, how many
times that, right before you do it, there had been something going through
your mind that shouldn't have been going through your mind? Have you ever
noticed that? You haven't noticed that, have you?

     Have you ever noticed that, especially thoughts of self-pity and
discouragement. Have you ever gotten to a place, and just go about doing
something, and say, "Oh, well, what's the use? You know,..." and UMPP! Just
about break your neck. And the Lord's trying to tell you, "Don't think like
that!" See?

     And, yet, there are some people--I've known Christian people, that God
just put it on them, they couldn't stand up, and it still didn't do any good.
I think--God bless them, and I haven't got nothing against them, I love them--
I think a lot of our Holiness brethren, honestly, I think many of them--I
don't say all of them--but maybe I hadn't even better say "many"; I'd say some
of them, some of them the Lord just keeps them sick all the time to try to get
them to straighten up and win souls and witness--and they never do! They just
go from one healing line to another. Did you ever see that thing?

     I've stopped in Holiness meetings. I've stopped around this tent down
here on Pace Boulevard, you know, and went over here, and I'd go and sit down,
you know, and smile. You ought to look like you're enjoying it, see? They have
bouncers there to get you if you don't. Real spiritual!

     And so, you're sitting there like you're enjoying it, you know, and look
around. And I've noticed four or five men, and several women there in those
meetings that I've seen, in every meeting that I've ever been to, just
continually sick, just all the time.

     And there are certain Christians like that, no matter what God does to
them, it doesn't straighten them out. You take Naomi; she lost her husband;
didn't go back. Both of her boys married unsaved people; she didn't go back.
Then both of the boys died; and she didn't go back.

     And there are some Christians like that. The Lord just hit 'em, and hit
'em, and hit 'em, and hit 'em, and hit 'em, and hit 'em, and hit 'em--and they
never do wake up!

     And it's a pitiful thing, but it's true.

     "Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the
whole head is sick." So the psychiatrist said, "You're mentally sick." Why?
Because the head's sick! See that? Sick in the head. I mean, all psychiatrists
have to abide by a King James 1611 Bible, even if they can't find Isaiah.

     "Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the
whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint." Now, this is the condition of
a nation. And this nation is shot.

     "From the sole of the foot"--liking it unto a body--"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 mollified with
ointment. 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." That's the condition of this nation in God's sight.

     Now, never be deceived into thinking that's just the condition of a
nation. The Lord said about a certain in the Revelation, that "thou art poor,
and wretched, and miserable, and naked, and blind." Same kind of condition.
The Lord said about an unsaved man, his ears are dull of hearing, itching
ears, heart waxed gross, feet be swift to run to mischief, hands shed innocent
blood, mouth full of cursing and bitterness, tongue full of poison of asps,
throat's an open sepulchre, eyes full of adultery that cannot cease from sin--
that's a description of an unsaved man.

     So, the description I'm reading you here is not merely the description of
a nation in this condition--it's the description of a lost man in any
condition. It's the description of some churches in some conditions. And it's
the description of some Christians.

     Verse 5: "Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and
more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint." Many of the people
who have to go see a psychiatrist, or take treatment for mental problems are
Christian people. They're saved people. They get sick. I'm not saying it's a
shame and a disgrace. Sometimes it's pathological; sometimes it something that
can't be helped. But it can be true of a Christian.

     "The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint." And there are
fainthearted Christians; that's perfectly apparent. Paul says, "Stand, having
done all, stand. Put on the whole armour. Let's quit like men," all that kind
of business. There are Christians who aren't that way. They're faint in the
heart.

     "And the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot..." bottom of your
feet--top of the head, "...[there is] no soundness in it." There's somebody, a
body that's just all shot. I sometimes think that's a description of the body
of Christ, about in the last ten years before Tribulation. I teach hypocrisy
of the body. I don't know anybody who teaches that, but I teach it. I teach
the body of Christ is going to be shot clean through before the Lord comes.
The saved people who are in the body.

     "From the sole of the foot even unto the head [there is] no soundness in
it; [but] wounds." All right, there's a person there, somebody who's been
wounded. Their body bears the marks of it. "Bruises." Some more marks. "And
putrifying sores." Isn't that something? Isn't that something? What a
description! Isn't the Bible rough? "Putrifying sores." Putrification. Putrid.
Putrifying. Did you ever see a putrifying sore? Well, that's the description
of a man in this condition. That's the perfect description of an unsaved man
in God's sight. And when God looks down and sees an unsaved man, you know what
He sees? He sees "...wounds...bruises...and putrifying sores." "All our
righteousnesses are as filthy rags." No soundness from head to foot. And it's
by chance--I'm talking to some here who are unsaved in this building this
morning, and I might be--I don't know--not usually in Sunday school; maybe you
came in here. If I'm talking to you, I want to have you know something. You
might as well get the photograph. But God's photograph of you is the
photograph of a naked sinner covered with rags out of a garbage can, and that
body is rotten with cancer and leprosy from head to foot. And that applies to
every bank president in this town. And that applies to every medical doctor in
this town, and every lawyer in this town--I don't care if he's driving an
$18,000 Cadillac, and lives out there in the bay, and has a $55,000 yacht--if
he's unsaved, he's immoral, putrifying, stinking leper.

     Now, that's why folks want to get rid of the Bible. Who wants to read a
Book like that?

     Verse 6: "From the sole of the foot even unto the head [there is] no
soundness in it." Like cancer clear through the body. "[But] wounds,..." open
places, cuts "...and bruises,..." just black-and-blue places "...and
putrifying sores." A place like cancer, leprosy--pus running out of them. The
nearest thing I've ever grasped in the imagination of a thing like is a first-
aid dressing station in Stalingrad. I've got four accounts over there, one by
a colonel, one by a corporal, one by a lieutenant, and one by a newspaperman
who was there. And they described German doctors working forty-eight hours
without sleep, standing at a table, just putting through men as fast as they
could put them through, for 48 hours--and pales carrying everything, and
carrying everything out, and taking out the same ol' dirty dressings and
putting them back on the wound, because there was no clean dressing. And no
anesthesia, and no morphine, and no nuthin'! Just stand there 48 hours, just
taking care of those men--16,000 men! Sixteen thousand of them. Arm wounds,
leg wounds, chest wounds, intestinal wounds. Wounds in the abdomen, throat
wounds, head wounds. About half of them died; couldn't do anything for them.
Take a fellow in there, and someone would kind of clean it up, put the
dressing back on, put 'em over in a pile--frozen in about three hours--that
kind of thing.

     And that's a horrible description. I remember one there so horrible, I
wouldn't even describe it, I don't believe, even to a male audience.

     But you take a thing like that. You know what God says? God says that's
the picture of somebody who's not spiritually right in His sight. That's the
picture of him.

     Verse 6: "They have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified
with ointment." There's a wounded man, wounded from head to foot. And the
wounds are opened; they haven't been fit shut. They haven't been bound up; he
has no dressing, no bandage on him. "Neither mollified with ointment." He's
had no medication. No medication, no dressing, no bandages, no stitches. He
just comes in, all tore up from head to foot, and just running pus and blood
from head to foot. That's the picture of an unregenerate man. The Bible says
an unregenerate man is dead in trespasses and sin. And, if you took the most
beautiful corpse that was ever buried and dug that corpse up a couple of
months after it was buried, and just plain dirt--you'd see the picture. That's
the picture.

     And so, if you're called to preach, and you're called to get people
saved, you've got a very unhappy message to deliver. And, if you're true to
the word of God, and faithful to your calling, you've got a calling that's
going to hurt you all your life, and you're going to be a target all your
life. Because your calling is to tell men that they're like that. And who in
the world wants to be told that? Now, who in the world wants to have a
preacher stand up and say, "You stink! You're putrifying! You're running pus
and blood!" My goodness, man! What a thing! It's sick!

     And so they just don't say it any more. I've heard Dr. DeHaan and Charlie
Fuller and Theodore Epp for years. They never dared say it. Never dared say
it. Don't dare; get pulled off the air, just like that. And so, it's come a
long ways. Come a long ways.

     All right, keeping on. Verse 7: "Your country [is] desolate." Now, it's
aimed at a nation. I guess you could make application to a Christian not
bearing fruit. "Your cities [are] burned with fire." God's taken that land,
and just put it through it, and put it through it, and put it through it--no
result. Did you know that can be true of a country? You take the Japanese
people. I get letters all the time from Timothy Peach over there. And Timothy
Peach says they're going back to Shintoism. And, he said, they had a big ol'
revival of Shintoism there, and going back at it just like a mile a minute.
And, you think of a country. Listen! You think of a country that was whipped
in World War II, and lost fellows all over the Pacific, had the navy sunk
right out from underneath them, had the airplanes shot down, just about the
last one, and then had two bombs dropped on that burned their cities, from end
to another, left the land desolate. And a land that God has sent more
earthquakes, I guess, to, and more fires to than any other country on the face
of this earth. And they're not going back to the Bible. They're going back to
Shintoism.

     And that's a picture of Israel, right before God destroyed it. "Your
land, strangers devour it in your presence." Army of occupation. If this ever
happens to America, it means this. And it hasn't happened yet, and thank God
it hasn't happened yet. But it'll probably happen shortly. If this ever
happens to America, it'll mean this. The first taste of it will be, I guess by
the way things are going, a good depression. I mean a good one! And the crops
are just burned out, and the price of food has just about doubled.

     I was going to the grocery store the other day to get some apple juice,
and it's running thirty-seven cents a quart. A year ago it was twenty-six. It
was twenty-six. The thing went up ten cents in a year.

     All right, do you know that, when something goes up ten cents in a year
and it only cost twenty-six cents to start with, man, you know that's movin'?
That's movin'!

     A fellow says, "Price index shows that food is up 3.7 percent." No, it
ain't! It's up sixty and sixty-five percent, some of it! They're kiddin' you.
They're kiddin' you.

     I judge a nation's economy by chocolate bars. Because I've observed, in
the infantry, when you run out of food, they give you chocolate. I mean, when
there's nothing else to give you, they give you chocolate, and that's it. That
keeps you going when you can't get anything else. And when you get to a
foreign country, they want two things. They want cigarettes and chocolate. You
can't judge a nation's economy by cigarettes. See? Because they'll keep them
cheap. You won't pay much more for cigarettes right now than you paid for them
fifteen years ago. But they'll make sure that you can ruin yourself easily.
Beer--I saw a case of beer down the other day on sale someplace. You know what
the price of a case of beer was? It was what we paid for it in 1945. Beer
didn't go up. So, you can't judge it by the cigarettes.

     But that chocolate! That chocolate. I was coming through shopping there
in Kmart or someplace, and looked down the aisle, and it said, you know, so
many for twenty-five cents, something like that. And looked at that thing, and
it had a bunch of bars in it. And, you know, all the bars in that twenty-five-
cent package would have made a nickel bar when I was ten years old--all of
them--would have made a nickel bar.

     Now, when you go from five cents to twenty-five cents, what is the
percentage on that? Is that 500 percent? Five hundred percent. There's 500
percent on a basic thing. When you get down to nothing to that, you're going
500 percent.

     So, I'd say, that's the first thing that'll happen. Then the next thing
that'll happen is, we'll have war right here. Now, I don't know whether it
will be civil war or not. I'm not that good a prophet. Might be civil war.
But, if it isn't civil war, I'll tell you folks--and there's just no use
getting around it--this country cannot go the way it's going, and treating
God's word the way it's treating God's word, and do what it's doing in its
educational system without getting bombed. You can't do it! A fellow said, "We
can do it." You can't do it! Nobody ever did it. No country ever lived like
this country's living, that didn't eventually get blood, fire, and sword.
Never happened! And I don't know who's gonna dump the first one, or where
they're gonna dump 'em. I'm not that good a prophet either. I don't know
whether you get atomic subs coming up in the Gulf of Mexico, and put 'em in
here, or whether you're gonna get 'em off the western seaboard, or exactly how
it's gonna come. But I know one thing. I know if this country goes on the way
it's gonna go, the Lord's gonna take it, and make it desolate, and gonna bomb
it, and gonna burn it. And you can't miss. You cannot miss. The Lord looks
down and sees all this mess, going on in this educational system, train 'em in
the next generation.

     Did you ever them say--and it's just about time up--but did you ever hear
them say, "Our future is in our young people"? Did you ever hear them say
that? Did you ever hear them say, "This next generation coming up is going to
run things"? Well, God have mercy on us, brother! My generation was bad
enough. My generation was bad enough. But this next one coming up--my
goodness! When I was a boy, if a fellow smoked by the time he was sixteen, he
was considered a bad boy. Trouble is, they start now around thirteen, and
nobody says "Boo"! I mean, a lot of people don't say "boo"! That kind of
business.

     I've talked to kids who are in the ministry, who said, "I've been saved,"
who knew things when they were thirteen and fourteen years old they had no
business knowing until they got to be about 21 or 22. And I've got a hold of
some of those things, but you ought to see the crowd I ran out with! My
goodness, man! And, I mean, these kids are just nice kids from nice homes. As
a matter of fact, most of the ones I've talked to in these Christian camps are
from Christian homes. Somebody said, "The next generation's gonna run it." The
next generation is coming up, and they're coming up in washrooms the grade
schools with stuff marked on those washroom walls that you wouldn't find
anyplace except in a bus lavatory or a train station. You go out here in some
of these grade schools, you find that stuff all over these walls in the
lavatories, and the kids are going to the third, fourth, and fifth grade!

     And all that mess going on. Why, the Lord looks down and sees that. And
He's not going to let that stuff go on forever. He's not going to do it! Now,
you mark my words. He's not going to do it. And, I don't know where it's going
to come, or when it's going to come--but it's going to come.

     Verse 7: "Your country [is] desolate, your cities [are] burned with fire:
your land, strangers devour it in your presence." Next step. Next step. Army
of occupation. "Strangers devour it in your presence, and [it is] desolate, as
overthrown by strangers." Next thing that happens is army occupation.

     Now, I don't know what that'll be. I'll guess. I'll guess. I'll say this.
I'll say it'll be a United Nations police force. "Strangers." I'm just
guessing. It'll be a United Nations police force occupying this country,
occupying America, under the auspices of the United Nations, with headquarters
in Rome overseeing it.

     I'll make another guess. It'll be made up of volunteer troops from all
nations. I'll make another guess. When it comes to volunteering, there'll be
one country that'll volunteer more soldiers than any other one. I'll make
another guess. And out of that police force that'll take over that thing, the
majority of those people in that police force--armed men, military men--will
be, in the main, German Catholic. And, if you've ever dealt with them, why,
you know what you got to deal with. It might be a good idea to learn a little
bit of German, you know!

     "Sheedne ze me nicht!" "Don't shoot me!" "Bica!" "Please!"

     And if it's not that--if it's not that--it'll be an Asiatic police force.
It'll be one or the other. If it isn't that, it'll be an Asiatic police force,
and strangers will devour the land.

     And, goodbye, land of the brave and home of the free!

     You say, "What's the solution?" I don't know if there is any solution.
All I know, I'm real ineffectual, really. What I do is, I raise all the Cain I
can, I just roar and rant and blow and roar all I can, and get down the street
corner, and roar down there, and get in front of these tapes, and roar here,
and get in my books and roar there--and just roar, and try to slow the thing
down, roaring. I don't guess it'll do any good. But, near as I can figure,
that's our duty as God's people.

     And, if you're a Christian, why, and you're limited in the sphere of
activity where you work, why, do it there. Do it there. Keep 'em upset. Keep
'em shook up. Make you lay the bomb. Make you lay the bomb; maybe give you
about four or five more years, you know, where you could fish and eat a loaf
of bread. Amen.

     All right, we'll stop there.

     And, you know what I've never been able to understand about that thing?
I've never been able to understand how that thing can be, because if a man
loves the Lord and loves His word, he loves two other things: He loves a good
bawling out, and he loves a good rebuke. "Reproofs of instruction are the way
of life." And a man who doesn't enjoy a good bawling out and a good rebuke, he
may know the word, but he doesn't love the Author. Yeah, that's right.

     Isaiah 1. I get a blessing from it! I get down in one of these tent
meetings and sit down there, you know. A guy has got his dispensations wrong,
got the Holy Spirit wrong, got Acts 2 wrong--got the whole thing wrong, you
know. And the music sounds like something out of Sneaky Pete's or Sloppy
Joe's. And the guy will get up there, you know, and begin to scream and rant
and rave, and say, "You aren't concerned about folks like you ought to be!"

     I say, "Amen, Lord! Gimme some of that!"

     Do you know, there's a difference between the heart and the head. 

10 Hear the word of the LORD, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law
of our God, ye people of Gomorrah.   11 To what purpose [is] the multitude of
your sacrifices unto me? saith the LORD: I am 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.   12 When ye come to appear before me, who hath
required this at your hand, to tread my courts?   13 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. 14 Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are
a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear [them]. 15 And 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.


     Verse 10: "Hear the word of the LORD, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto
the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah. To what purpose..." what's the
purpose in it? "To what purpose [is] the multitude of your sacrifices unto
me?" The Lord didn't need them anyway. He owns all the cattle on a thousand
hills; He did that for their benefit. He did that to remind them that some day
they'd have a sacrifice. He did that so they could trust in blood temporarily,
and look for some real blood.

     "To what purpose [is] the multitude of your sacrifices unto me?" When a
fellow offered a sacrifice to the Lord, and burned the thing in the altar, did
the Lord eat it? He didn't come down and take off the sirloin and eat it. The
thing just burned up, and the priest ate it.

     "To what purpose [is] the multitude of your sacrifices unto me, saith the
LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts." He
said, "I'm stuffed." Didn't the Lord talk crude? Now, you think about
Revelation: "You're neither hot nor cold; you're lukewarm; I'm gonna spew you
out of my mouth." You know what He said? He said, "You make me sick." And
then, here: "I'm stuffed full. I've had enough barbecue." He said, "I'm full
of steak and beef and ham hocks and all this stuff, and I'm sick and tired of
it. (Well, not ham hocks--here's a little more for ham!) I'm full of those
beef ham hocks!"

     "I am 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." Didn't He delight in the
blood of the lamb? Didn't he tell them to offer it in Exodus 12? And yet,
here: "I delight not in the blood of...lambs." Didn't He tell Abraham to offer
up a ram instead of his son? But, "I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or
of lambs." What's the point? The point is, the Lord doesn't delight in the
offering of what's offered, if the heart isn't in it.

     "Not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats. When ye come
to appear before me." That's the Jew coming to the tabernacle, the Temple, and
standing up there in the court. "When ye come to appear before me." They came
three times a year. They came at the Feast of the Firstfruits, the Feast of
Unleavened Bread, and the Feast of Tabernacles. "When ye come to appear before
me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts?" Well, the law
did. The law required it. Yet, here, the Lord said--well, the Lord's acting
like, "Why, nobody asked you to bring that junk!" But the law told them to
bring it. Now, what is He trying to say? The Lord's trying to say, He's
saying, "You're no longer fulfilling the intention of the law." As a matter of
fact, in the New Testament, He says the law was our schoolmaster to lead us to
Christ. And, after we're led to Christ, we're no longer under a schoolmaster.
The Bible said the old things are past away to bring in a better hope. The
Bible says the glory of those things were done away with. And the reason why
is, no flesh could be justified by the law, because by the law is the
knowledge of sin.

     So, by the time you get to Isaiah, the law has been running for hundreds
and hundreds of years, and now they've lost the whole point of it, see? And,
did you know, that's the history of nations? Nations start out with a fine
thing, and after a while they forget what the thing was for.

     Christians are that way about things. Did you ever get that way about
witnessing? Did you ever notice, when you first started out--I know it's true
in my own life--did you ever notice, when you first started out, how you had
this urgency that people were going to go to hell and burn? And you felt it
all the time--it was on you.

     Well, right after I got saved, for about a year, I wouldn't walk down the
street with any spare time and not stop every man on the street. I mean, stop
the first one--finish talking to him--grab the next one coming by and talk to
him--and grab the next one coming by. And there was an urgency to it.

     And then time goes on. And other things come in. And other things take
the place. You learn some more Scripture. You learn about "election." And
"predestination." And then you begin to wonder, "Well, maybe they'll get saved
anyway," you know. And then you learn about this, and you learn about that.
Then you see some of your converts don't pan out. You about come to the
conclusion they were, you know, your converts instead of the Lord's. And that
thing goes on, you know, and then you see inconsistencies in yourself. And
then you see things in your own life, and you look at those, and you say,
"Well, I can't go on and do this," you know, "I feel like a hypocrite doing
it," you know. So you kind of cool off, and then this and that. And you try
again.

     And pretty soon you forget the purpose. Boy, I'll tell you, brethren,
till we're home in Heaven, we're never safe, quite. And I'm not talking about
going to hell. You understand? I'm not talking about going to hell. I mean,
we're never safe as far as staying on the beam for the Lord goes. Because it
just slips and slips and slips.

     Did you ever get to reading the Bible? Old nature, you know--just dogging
you day and night. Did you ever read the Bible? Boy, after I got saved, I'd
get in that Bible, and go through there, man, 40 pages a day--80 pages a day.
I read it through two times a month for four months--80 pages a day. Just
slammed through there, eight times in just a few months. And just devouring
that thing--just gobbling it. And going through there, and marking this verse,
then marking that verse, then marking this verse, then marking that verse.
Then, pretty soon, I began to slow down--have to study this verse, and study
this verse. Then slow down, and study this word, and study this word. Pretty
soon, once every two months. Then once every three months. Then once every
four months. And I'd still spend time in it. I'd get through it about once
every four months.

     But I find, with all the things that come in, and all the duties and
stuff to do, sometimes I find myself studying it for a message. And studying
it to straighten out a difficulty. And then, occasionally, I get in and gobble
it, but now I wish that first sprint would just stay, and just stick.

     But, we cool off, don't we? And you take this country--America. It's the
same way. You take at Sunday morning, getting on toward 11 o'clock, now what
do you suppose America's doing right now, I mean besides lying around the
beach and fishing and swimming and reading funny papers and watching
television? I mean, the ones that are going to church--you know why they're
going to church? They just always have gone to church. "Sunday morning--time
to go to church!" God bless their hearts, all over this country by the
thousands. And they come to these big old dead sanctuaries, where God the Holy
Spirit hasn't done anything for fifty years, some of them--or a hundred years--
or four hundred years! That National Cathedral in Washington--I'll bet the
Lord hasn't gone by and looked at that place since they put it up. And then
folks come in there, you know, and they're sitting around there. And the
preacher is standing up and saying, "The Lord is in His holy Temple, let all
the earth keep silence before Him. Ah-men, ah-men, ah-me-o-my," and all kind
of stuff, and turn around. And, you know something? He doesn't know what he's
doing any more. He doesn't know what in the world he's doing.

     I went down to the Catholic church the other day, and looked in the
confessional box. And I saw something in there I always suspected was there,
but I never could prove it. And I just pulled back the curtain and looked in
there, and that old priest had everything he was going to say written out in a
plaque right there, where he could repeat it to the fellow when he came
through the place. And that priest was sitting there, chewing gum or smoking
his cigarettes, you know, thinking about a movie he saw last night, and
saying, "The Lord bless thee and keep thee," you know, trying to read the
letters on there. And some of them have done it so long they've got it
memorized. The fellow's just sitting there going, "Blah blah blah blah." He
doesn't know what he's doing!

     The Catholic priest gets up there Sunday morning, "Fay dom dolis fee fy
fo fum ah sooo," that kind of business. Why, they've got that thing down to
where it's memorized. And you read about a pontifical mass--you know what that
is? That's some bird just standing up there with his mind wandering all over
the country, and going through something he memorized. I've heard a converted
priest say that! I heard a converted bishop from New Orleans say that for ten
years he went through that thing, and never once even thought about what he
was saying, because his mind was on something else all the time. And, you know
how he got converted? He held up the host--the "host," that's what they call
it, the "host"--what a word!--and he held up the "host"--he held up a piece of
bread--and he held up this piece of bread and repeated the words, "My Lord, my
God!" That's what they say to the bread--don't you ever doubt it! And he held
up that piece of bread and said, "My Lord and my God," and he looked up over
the top of the altar there, where he busted the bread, and there was a stained
glass window right up in the front there; they always have them in a circle
right above the altar, like the sun. And that thing was in a circle right up
there. And he busted that bread and looked up there like that, and said, "My
Lord and my God."

     And the Holy Spirit said, "That isn't your Lord and your God. Why, you
fool, what you doing? You're going through this mumbo jumbo, you don't mean a
word you're saying--your mind isn't on what you're saying. I am the Lord God!"

     That was his testimony. And he dropped that bread on the altar, and
turned around to the people, and told that he had got converted. And stepped
over the altar and went out the church. And, brother, they thought he just
blasphemed the Holy Ghost, man! I mean, he took that "body of Christ," you
know, and just dropped that thing all over the altar.

     And he went out here. He was preaching on the streets of New Orleans, and
I heard him. He was a foreign priest, I think of French or Spanish extraction.
I heard him preach one time, and couldn't understand him too well, but he had
a real testimony. And he got to preaching on the streets of New Orleans, and
they hired a fellow to shoot him with a .25-caliber pistol, and shot him in
the jaw. And they took him to the Catholic hospital and rewired that jaw so it
would hurt him after it healed up, when he spoke. And that fellow is still
preaching today, and his mouth hurts when he speaks. But he speaks! He speaks.

     What those fellows are doing, see, is going through all that form, and it
didn't mean anything. And America's gotten that way. They go into churches all
over the country this morning, and you folks know it. If you ever slip out of
here some Sunday morning and step in the average church, you'll know exactly
what I'm talking about. You won't be there fifteen minutes. And you'll feel a
peculiar kind of a--it's kind of a passive state. Just something that kind of
comes--wooooo!--over that congregation like that. Like somebody just put a
great big wet idredown and just--bloooo!--just laid it on the congregation.
And they sit there and endure it until it's over. And everybody breaks out and
smiles and chattering, and all this and that, but there's no, no--there's
nothing there! Nothing there. Nothing there.

     Some of our folks went to a fundamental Baptist church here in town. Came
back and told me the thing was just like being in an Episcopalian church.
Except when the preacher asked them to sit down and stand up, he'd do this.
Imagine, an independent Baptist church, and the preacher coming out and
saying... You'd say...

     But, you see, that's what they did in the Episcopal church. I was raised,
and the guy would go--you know, like this, and then--like that--all that
business. And, they've forgotten the purpose.

     Now, that's what happened to Jerusalem and Judah in the days before God
destroyed it, and it's a pretty good sign that America will get it in about
five or ten years--or less.

     Isaiah 1, verse 11: "To what purpose [is] the multitude of your
sacrifices unto me? saith the LORD: I am 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." Sacrifice is not acceptable, even from the Christian,
unless they give Him a cheerful heart. That's why, you'll notice that in this
church we very rarely say anything about money. Now, I've got a couple of
sermons on tithing. I preach on tithing about twice year. The rest of the
time, I leave it alone. You know why I leave it alone? Because the Bible says,
"Let every man give as he purposes in his heart, because God loves a cheerful
giver." If you don't give to Him because you love Him, the Lord will go and
take it anyway, so just keep it in your pocket. And some of my preacher
brethren get very upset at me for talking that way. They consider that the
most outrageous heresy you ever saw. They figure, boy, you just gotta give,
you know, the Lord's going to curse you. Me? I don't think He'll curse you. He
probably won't bless you too much, either! But He won't curse you; that's the
Old Testament.

     And some of you folks are stingy and tight-fisted and believe in letting
the rest of the folks pay the bill. You know what you ought to do? I'll tell
you exactly what you ought to do. You go home today and just, this morning,
don't give anything. Just keep it in your pocket. And go home today at noon,
and get you a good, big dinner, and bow your head over that dinner, look at
all that good food on the table. Then, think what a dirty, sorry, lowdown,
mean, good-for-nothing rascal you are--for God dumping all that food on you,
and you being unable to trust Him with a couple of dimes and a couple of
quarters. And, thank Him for the food. Then, after that, go in your bedroom
and shut the door, and get down on your knees, and say, "Lord, I'm saved, and
I love you, and I never have given very much to you. And I never felt like
giving it; I don't think I can afford it. But, because I love you, I'm going
to give something to you. Come hell or high water, next Sunday, I'm going to
give you something." Then see how it goes. Try that.

     You know something? The Lord will take that! When you hit the Judgment
Seat of Christ, you won't miss a dime of it.

     Verse 12: "When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at
your hand, to tread my courts?" I didn't require it of you! I mean, Isaiah
didn't. A faithful preacher isn't going to require it, if the heart isn't in
it. "Who hath required" it? The Lord didn't. The man that gave the word
didn't. Isaiah didn't. Who did it? "When ye come to appear before me, who hath
required this at your hand, to tread my courts?" Nobody. "Bring no more vain
oblations." Useless little things offered. An "oblation" is like a sacrifice,
but it isn't always, you know, like a bloody sacrifice. An oblation is
anything offered to the Lord, like money or fruit, vegetables--those kind of
things. 

     "Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me." Well,
He told them to offer incense; He told them how to make it. But now He says
it's an abomination. Incense in the Bible applied for prayer, and the Bible
says, "The prayer of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, how much more
when he brings it with a wicked mind"? Or words to that effect. Where is that,
somebody? I don't have that marked. Somebody give me that reference in
Proverbs about the sacrifice of the wicked, and the prayer of the wicked. It's
late in the Book of Proverbs somewhere; I don't have it marked. What? 15:8?
There. There. That's one of them: "The sacrifice of the wicked [is] an
abomination to the LORD: but the prayer of the upright [is] his delight. The
way of the wicked [is] an abomination unto the LORD: but he loveth him that
followeth after righteousness." I want the one now that says, how much more
when he brings it with a wicked mind. 17:1? No, that isn't it. Give me another
one. Look up "mind" if you've got a concordance. Try the one on "mind." "When
he bringeth it with a wicked mind." Should have had it marked, but I don't.
Well, like that old drunk told me when I dealt with him up in Charleston,
South Carolina, "I can't find it, but you know it's in there!" Proverbs what?
21:27. That's it. Proverbs 21:27: "The sacrifice of the wicked [is]
abomination: how much more, [when] he bringeth it with a wicked mind?" That's
it.

     All right, verse 13: "Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an
abomination unto me." Why? Because the man's mind isn't right when he offers
the prayer. He isn't paying attention to it at all. And, you know there are
churches in this town that have an organ, they've got a piano, they've got a
pulpit, they've got a choir, they've got benches, they've got a congregation,
they've got Sunday school literature, they've got Sunday school rooms--and the
Lord isn't any more interested in than if it was a used car junk heap. That's
right! Now, these folks tend to forget what the Lord's like. And the Lord is
holy, and the Lord is righteous, and He knows the heart.

     All right, Isaiah chapter 1, verse 14. You didn't know there was that
much in Isaiah, did you? "Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul..."
H-A-T-E-T-H. "...hateth." Hateth. Nothing positive about that message. "They
are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear [them]." What a thing to say about
folks. He says, "I'm sick of you. I'm tired of you. I'm just tired of trying
to get along with the thing. It's a gripe to me; it's a burden to me."

     I guess, if you made a new bible and put it up there in American
language, you'd have to put down, "You bug me!" They haven't got that in the
new translations yet, but they'll get it in one of these days.

     Now, look at 14. Look at this: "Your new moons." Not mine. "Your
appointed feasts." Not mine. See? In plainer words, even though God set them
up, they had rapidly become theirs, and the Lord said, "They're not mine; I've
got nothing to do with them."

     And that's why all that's all important, if you're a child of God--and
especially in this assembly, here--is to give Jesus Christ the first place,
give Him the preeminent place, and give Him the glory. Like He said in the Old
Testament, He said, "Touch not my glory." Don't touch it. So, it's very
important; go by what the Book says, just the way it says it; give Him first
place; don't alter a word of it.

     It should be His Book, His church, His service, His assembly, His
invitation, see? Never ours.

     You can make mistakes like that. I met an Airedale last night; I was
preaching in Panama City. Somehow, I crossed something, and I was talking some
message I preached back here, and I said, "Back in my church last couple of
months I preached on Such-and-Such." But that's an error, see? It isn't my
church. It's the Lord's church. It's the Lord's church. We often make that
error. We'll say, "Well, come to my church this week. We'll see you at my
church." And I know what you mean by it, and I know you mean well by it. But,
technically, it should never be ours. It's His. And, when it ceases to be His,
it isn't anything.

     Verse 15: "And when ye spread forth your hands,..." There's the prayer
"...I will hide mine eyes from you." What a thing to say! "yea, when ye make
many prayers, I will not hear." Like that passage in Proverbs. "When ye make
many prayers, I will not hear." Why? "Your hands are full of blood." Like
Pilate.

     Then, in the context, it means two things. First of all, it means that
where murder has been committed--and in this case it's murder; look at verse
18: "Though your sins be as scarlet..."--where murder has been committed, and
the hands are red with the guilt of innocent blood--the Lord will not hear the
prayer of that kind of a man, begging for something.

     And this thing is addressed to Jerusalem. And the Lord is saying in so
many words, He's saying this. He's saying, "You elders, and you scribes, and
you Pharisees, and you folks that run this town, you're responsible for the
death of people in this town. And so, when you pray, I'm not going to pay
attention to what you say."

     Turn to Habakkuk chapter 2, and let me show you a perfect illustration of
blood on the hands by somebody who's trying to get a prayer answered, where
they haven't actually killed a man in cold blood. When the Bible says you've
got blood on your hands, it doesn't mean you just run up and stab the fellow,
see? The Bible says "he that hates his brother in his heart is a murderer."
Habakkuk chapter 2. Habakkuk chapter 2, verse 2. And I'll begin at verse 9.
And it also means this. It means, when an unsaved man is begging God for
something, the Lord is under no obligation to hear him, because he has the
blood of Christ on his hands. Pilate tried to wash it off his hands, you know,
and couldn't get rid of it. And I told you, Jesus could wash Pilate off His
hands, but Pilate couldn't wash Jesus off his. And, if you're hear this
morning and you're an unsaved man, the verse is for you. It's blood guilt.

     Habakkuk chapter 2, verse 9: "Woe to him that coveteth an evil
covetousness to his house, that he may set his nest on high, that he may be
delivered from the power of evil! Thou hast consulted shame to thy house by
cutting off many people, and hast sinned [against] thy soul." A house that's
built on these principles can't last. "For the stone shall cry out of the
wall, and the beam out of the timber shall answer it.   Woe to him that
buildeth a town with blood, and stablisheth a city by iniquity!" How do you
build a town by blood? Verse 15, you do it this way: You grant a liquor
license. Verse 15: "Woe unto him that giveth his neighbour drink, that puttest
thy bottle to [him], and makest [him] drunken also, that thou mayest look on
their nakedness!" That's how you build a city with blood and iniquity. You
give them liquor licenses.

     Here's a town down in Florida saying, "Lord, send revival! Send revival!
Send revival!" Here's a deacon board of the First Baptist Church saying, "Send
revival!" Here's the deacon board of East Hill and Central saying, "Lord, send
revival! Send the old-time revival! Send the old-time power! Save the souls!
Bless the Christians!"

     The Lord looks down on that place; this old boy here here a lease on the
Bulls-Eye store down on the corner; this boy here is packing the stuff and
hauling it in trucks to the fellow that sells it over here; this old boy here
has got a franchise on so much that comes through in here; this old boy here
is making money on what's being sold at a bar over here; this old boy here
voted to sell it on Sunday; this fellow over here voted to sell it to minors;
and they're down saying, "Lord, send revival! Lord, send revival!"

     And the Lord is saying, "I don't give a flip whether you drop dead or
come and go!"

     That's right. That's it.

     Isaiah chapter 1. Isaiah chapter 1, verse 15: "And 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." That's a hard saying.

16  Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before
mine eyes; cease to do evil; 17 Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the
oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. 18 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. 19
If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: 20 But if ye
refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the
LORD hath spoken [it].


     Now, let's get on a better note--16, 17, and 18. Now, we're gonna come
across, and the Lord's gonna give you a little relief. I mean, enough is
enough--for 15 verses, it's just been "Hail, Columbia!" Now, we'll get on the
top side here.

     Verse 16, paragraph mark: "Wash you." Get washed. Get washed. You need a
bath. "Wash you." We sing, "Have you been to Jesus for the cleansing power?
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?" "Wash you."

     [It's what time? I've got 16 till. OK, well we'll run about two more
minutes. It's getting time to get up there, I believe. I can't stop here. I
can't stop here. I just got to get on here.]

     "Wash you, make you clean." And the first step in the washing and getting
clean is accept shed blood.

     "Put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes." Notice the
"washing" comes before the "doing." Did you notice that? "Wash you." Then put
away the evil. You can't put away evil till you wash. Many Southerners try to
put away the evil without getting washed. It doesn't work. They take "put away
the evil" from the outside, change their clothes, and dress up here--but you
need to get dressed up in here.

     "Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before
mine eyes; cease to do evil;  Learn to do well. Before you can learn to do
well, you've got to quit learning how to do wrong. Before you can learn how to
quit doing wrong, you've got to get washed. You've got to get clean.

     "Seek judgment." That is, learn how to judge right. "Relieve the
oppressed." Aimed at the judges of Israel. "Judge the fatherless." Take care
of them. "Plead for the widow." Stand up for the poor people.

     "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD--[we've got to
close here?]--"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 last invitation
is, "Come now, saith the Lord, and let us reason together." You're the sinner,
and He's the Lord. He says, "Come on over here."

     You say, "What for?"

     He says, "I want to talk to you."

     You say, "What do you want to talk about?"

     He says, "I want to reason with you."

     You say, "Lord, I don't have any feelings."

     The Lord says, "I didn't say 'feel,' I said 'reason.' Be reasonable."

     You say, "Well, I'm waiting for a feeling."

     The Lord says, "Don't wait. Come on, and let us reason."

     So you sit down, and say, "Well, what's the reason to it?"

     And the Lord says, "Now, the reason why you're going through what you're
going through is because you're lost, and you're going to face the judgment
undone. You need to be washed, you need to be clean. I love you. I have the
bath ready for you, and the hot water, and the soap, and the towel. And isn't
it reasonable, that if I prepare a bath like that, you ought to take it?"

     You say, "Well, that's reasonable, but I don't feel like anything."

     The Lord says, "I don't tell you to feel, I tell you to reason. Now,
you're going to die. You're going to face judgment. You can't face it in the
condition you're in. That's reasonable, isn't it?"

     "Yeah."

     "Make sense?"

     "Yep."

     "Sounds right, don't it?"

     "Yes. Sounds right."

     "You're going to face the judgment. You're not clean. I can wash you.
Come now, saith the Lord, 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. I don't care if those sins are abortion, perversion,
seduction, adultery, fornication, embezzlement, murder, lying, stealing,
swearing, killing, cheating, laziness, loving yourself." The Lord says, "I
don't care what they are. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as
white as snow." Isn't that a blessing?

     All right, let's take our Bible this morning and turn to Isaiah chapter
1. Isaiah chapter 1, verse 18. Isaiah 1, verse 18. I trust you'll be with us
next Sunday now when we have Brother David Ben Lew in, with his films of Nazi
Germany, and his wife, too, who evidently escaped the the concentration camp,
will be giving a testimony. And then, Lord willing, we're going to have dinner
on the grounds the same day, too. And that'll be next Sunday noon.

     All right, Isaiah chapter 1, beginning at verse 18. Now, Father, we're
thankful for the week, and the opportunity to witness for thee, put out your
word. And we pray you might bless it wherever it was put out. Bless the street
meeting yesterday where the word was preached. May it prosper. And bless,
heavenly Father, the work of these people who are faithful in visitation from
week to week. And may what they do prosper and bear fruit, and may they get a
blessing from it. And bless our study now, as we come to your word. May the
Holy Spirit that wrote it guide and lead us into all truth. For Jesus' sake.
Amen.

     All right, Isaiah chapter 1, verse 18. The Lord's making a plea, and
making a plea to Israel. And, yet, you can apply it to almost anybody. "Come
now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD." So the Lord is reasonable.
Bob Jones used to say good men are always reasonable. And you can sit down and
reason and talk the thing out with a good man, and it'll talk out.

     "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD." The Lord is
reasonable in His demands, and doesn't demand anything that's impossible.
Sometimes, it sounds like it is. The Lord says, "If any man wants to follow
me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." That doesn't
sound reasonable. The Bible says, "Present your body as a living sacrifice,
holy and acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service." That doesn't
sound reasonable, but it is.

     "Come now, and let us reason together." The Bible says Christ was born of
a virgin. That doesn't sound reasonable, but it is.

     "Come now, and let us reason together." A fellow said, "I don't believe
in hell." It's reasonable. A fellow said, "Well, it's the most unreasonable
thing I ever heard of." A man I talked to one time, he said, "Well, I just
don't believe in hell; I can't see it; I can't see it."

     I said, "What if you can't see it?"

     He said, "Well, I just can't see it, I just can't see it."

     And I said, "Well, you can't see your hand in front of your face on a
dark night in a coal cellar, but it's there. What's the point?"

     Folks say, "It isn't reasonable for there to be a hell." Well, it
wouldn't be reasonable for there not to be a hell. For example, if there
wasn't a hell, let me ask you this. If there wasn't a hell, what would happen
to people who sinned against God? God lives forever. Folks say, "Well, He'd
just wipe 'em out. Annihilate 'em." That isn't reasonable. God lives forever.
If you sinned against a Being who lives forever, you'd have to pay forever,
wouldn't you? Isn't that reasonable?

     See, no hell is unreasonable. Hell is real reasonable.

     So, he says, "Come now, saith the Lord, let's reason together." And if a
man will come to the Lord and reason with the Lord, the Lord will convince him
pretty quick. And the reason why most people don't like to reason with the
Lord is they've a sneaking idea before they start how the conversation's going
to end.

     Did you ever hear a fellow go to his bed at night, and get down by his
bed at night, and get down on his knees, and say, "Now, Lord, there's
something really bothering me. And I'm really upset about it. And I want to
know whether it's right to smoke or not. And my conscience doesn't convict me,
and I always have done it, and it doesn't hurt me, and I like to do it, and
there's nothing wrong with it, and I'm not judging anybody else. So I'm coming
to you, but I want to know the truth. Is there anything wrong with it?"

     And you won't find one fellow out of a hundred ever ask God about it.
He'll ask a preacher, or some other Christian.

     Isaiah 1. He knows what the Lord's going to say before he ever asks.

     Isaiah 1:18: "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD:
though your sins be as scarlet." That's a red color, and that's an orange red
color. "Though your sins be as scarlet." And I believe Hawthorne wrote a book
called--what was it called?--The Scarlet Letter, where a woman committed
adultery back in the old days, and had to wear an "A" attached to her to show
what she was. And so we speak of scarlet sins and black sins--and then folks
begin to speak of white sins and gray sins. But sin is sin. "Though your sins
be as scarlet." Though they get as bad as they can get, "they shall be as
white as snow." The Lord can fix it. The Bible said, "If we confess our sins,
He is faithful and just for forgive our sin, and cleanse us from all
unrighteousness." So, whatever it is, the Lord can fix it.

     "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though
they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." Like white wool from a
sheep. "Though they be red like crimson." Crimson is a purple red. Scarlet's
an orange red; crimson is a purple red; it's like blood. And the idea is, even
a murderer can get cleansed.

     You remember Leroy Wright used to preach here? Came over a couple of
times or so, a fellow up in Mississippi? He said, when he was out there living
like the devil, a colored woman witnessed to him one time. And she said,
"Mister Wright," she said, "if you don't repent, you're going to hell, just
like them Martin's a flying to them goards!"

     And he said to her, he said, "I suppose your saved?"

     And she said, "Yessuh, I sho' is."

     And he said, "Well, how could God save you, since you're so black and
ugly?"

     And when he said that, you know, she began to cry, and she said, "Well, I
may be black and ugly, but my heart is just as white as snow."

     And that's the truth!

     You know, I like what the nigger lady said to Sam Jones. She said,
"Preacher," she said, "my skin may be black, and your skin may be white, but
you's a real preacher for us folks. Your heart is just as black as ours is!"

     Verse 18: "They shall be as white as snow; though they be red like
crimson, they shall be as wool.  If ye be willing and obedient,..." addressed
to Israel "...ye shall eat the good of the land." It's a conditional promise.
It says, if you want to stay in the land and enjoy the good, then two things:
willing and obedient. "If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of
the land."

     BUT...and there's two sides of the promise. "But if ye refuse"--not
willing--"and rebel"--not obedient--"ye shall be devoured with the sword: for
the mouth of the LORD hath spoken [it]." And there it is. It's just that
simple.

     That promise was given to a nation; it can also be given to a Christian.

21  How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment;
righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers. 22 Thy silver is become dross,
thy wine mixed with water:   23 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.  24
Therefore saith the Lord, the LORD of hosts, the mighty One of Israel, Ah, I
will ease me of mine adversaries, and avenge me of mine enemies: 25  And I
will turn my hand upon thee, and purely purge away thy dross, and take away
all thy tin:   26 And I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy
counsellors as at the beginning: afterward thou shalt be called, The city of
righteousness, the faithful city.   27 Zion shall be redeemed with judgment,
and her converts with righteousness.


     Verse 21: "How is the faithful city." Referring to Jerusalem. "How is the
faithful city become an harlot!" Sold itself out. "It was full of judgment."
That is, in the sense of, judge right and judge wrong. "Righteousness lodged
in it." Before. Back then, before this time, Jerusalem had Solomon in it, and
judged righteously, and it was a righteous city, and it was a good city. And
then he says this: "But now murderers." Murderers dwell in it.

     So this is quite a change. This is a city that had judgment and
righteousness, and now it's a city that's a murderer and a harlot. So it has
changed its spiritual structure.

     "Thy silver is become dross." And dross is what they purge out of silver
when they purify it. "Thy silver is become dross." The thing that's real has
become no good. "Thy wine mixed with water." Diluted; thinned down.

     "Thy princes [are] rebellious, and companions of thieves." The leaders in
the city are rebels 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." He's saying,
the people who run this town, the commissioners, mayor, councilmen, those
fellows that run the town are all tied up with a bunch of people who buy each
other and bribe each other and send gifts to each other to get what they want.
That is, "You get this piece of land for me over here, and I'll close this
deal with you over here." And, "This place out here, Timco Bearing Company,
I'll get you that contract there, if you'll put the pier out here." "If you
get the contract to build this road through here, I'll see you get a cut-off
over to here." And, "If you take out these three houses here, I'll give you
money for them, so we can put this house over here." It's one of those kind of
things.

     So, what you have a description of is Pensacola.

     Verse 24: "Therefore saith the Lord, the LORD of hosts, the mighty One of
Israel, Ah, I will ease me of mine adversaries." And that's God speaking. Now,
do you get the character of the Lord there? And that's the Lord speaking. That
isn't the prophet speaking what the Lord wants him to speak. That's your Lord
talking. That's your God. You know how He talks? He says, "Ahhhhhh, I'll ease
me of mine adversaries." That's the Lord.

     Did you ever read those statements by the Lord in the Bible? There are
about 50 of them. Turn to Isaiah, and I'll show you a bunch of them. Boy, when
you get through reading these, you'll have an entirely different concept of
the Lord than what you had before. Isaiah 40. Isaiah 40, beginning at verse
25. Now, these are statements that God makes Himself about Himself. And, so,
if you want to really know the Lord--not just in the sense of getting saved,
and knowing Him as a Saviour--that's one thing, and that's a good thing--and
as a Friend--that's a good thing. But, if you want to get to know His
character, and His nature, and His attitude, and His motives, and His
thoughts, and His ways, and His pleasures, and His sense of humor, and His
displeasure, and His approach, and His thinking, you go here. You won't find
it in the Revelation or the Pauline epistles--it isn't in there.

     Isaiah chapter 40, verse 25: "To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I
be equal? saith the Holy One." That's how the Lord talks. "Lift up your eyes
on high, and behold who hath created these [things], that bringeth out their
host by number." This person: "He calleth them all by names by the greatness
of his might, for that [he is] strong in power; not one faileth."

     Let's get some in the first person. Isaiah 41:10. Isaiah 41:10: "Fear
thou not; for I [am] with thee." That's God Himself speaking. "Be not
dismayed; for I [am] thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee;
yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness." There's no
promise like that in the New Testament, that good. That's God Himself talking.
That isn't Paul or Peter or James or John speaking the words that God gives
them; that's the Lord talking.

     Verse 13: "For I the LORD thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto
thee, Fear not; I will help thee." God continues to talk. Verse 21: "Produce
your cause, saith the LORD; bring forth your strong [reasons]." See? "Let us
reason together. Bring forth your reasons." "Saith the King of Jacob. Let them
bring [them] forth." He'll talk; He'll reason with you. "Let them bring [them]
forth, and shew us what shall happen." He says, "If you really know what you
profess to know, you ought to be able to tell the future. "...shew us what
shall happen: let them shew the former things, what they [be], that we may
consider them, and know the latter end of them; or declare us things for to
come." That's the Trinity speaking: "show us." "Shew the things that are to
come hereafter, that we may know..." the Trinity speaking "...that ye [are]
gods: yea, do good, or do evil." It doesn't make any difference; do one or the
other. "...that we may be dismayed, and behold [it] together."

     Boy, isn't that sarcastic? My goodness! You know He just said there? He
just said, "Do good; do bad; see if you can upset us." The Trinity talking.
That's the Lord talking. That's the God that you trusted, that came down and
died on the cross. He says, "Do good, do evil; see if it upsets me." See that
attitude? Boy, that's rough! Rough!

     Verse 24: "Behold, ye [are] of nothing." My goodness, what a way to talk
to people! Verse 24: "You're nothing." See, that's your God. The marvel is, He
loved you enough to die for you, that's the marvel. "Behold, ye [are] of
nothing, and your work of nought: an abomination [is he that] chooseth you."
Don't care anything about it.

     All right, chapter 42, verse 5. 42:5: "Thus saith God the LORD, he that
created the heavens, and stretched them out; he that spread forth the earth,
and that which cometh out of it; he that giveth breath unto the people upon
it." Now, there's a thought, isn't it? "He that giveth breath unto the people
upon it." Breathe deeply. You know why you can breathe? Because God gives you
breath. And just as soon as the Lord says--CLICK!--you quit breathing! "He
that giveth breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk
therein:"--first person--"I the LORD have called thee in righteousness, and
will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the
people, for a light of the Gentiles." Verse 8: "I [am] the LORD: that [is] my
name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven
images." "I" in the first person.

     Isaiah chapter 43. Isaiah chapter 43. Isaiah chapter 43, verse 10; God
speaking: "Ye [are] my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have
chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I [am] he: before
me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me.  I, [even] I,
[am] the LORD; and beside me [there is] no saviour." Is that clear? That's the
Lord talking. That's the one you trusted. He says, "There wasn't any God
before me; there isn't going be any after me. And, besides me, there isn't any
Saviour." If you're counting on something else to save you, you're just
wasting your time; it isn't there.

     "I have declared, and have saved, and I have shewed, when [there was] no
strange [god] among you: therefore ye [are] my witnesses, saith the LORD, that
I [am] God. Yea, before the day [was] I [am] he." Before Genesis 1. "And
[there is] none that can deliver out of my hand: I will work, and who shall
let it?" The Lord says, "I'm going to do something, and who's going to stop
it?" That's how that Old Testament word "let" is used; see that? "I'll work,
and who will let it?" Like you find it in Romans 1 and 2 Thessalonians 2.

     Verse 21: "This people have I formed for myself; they shall shew forth my
praise.  But thou hast not called upon me, O Jacob; but thou hast been weary
of me, O Israel." For the Christian, He says to the Christian, "You haven't
called upon me; you've been tired of me. You're sick and tired of me; you
don't call on me any more."

     "Thou hast not brought me the small cattle of thy burnt offerings." Gave
nothing to God; took it all yourself. "Neither hast thou honoured me with thy
sacrifices. I have not caused thee to serve with an offering, nor wearied thee
with incense. Thou hast bought me no sweet cane with money, neither hast thou
filled me with the fat of thy sacrifices." He says to this nation, He says,
"When you got something good, you didn't give it to me. You didn't ask me
about it, you didn't call upon me, you didn't bring it to me, you didn't offer
it to me. You've made me to serve with your sins; you've worn me out; you've
wearied me with your iniquities."

     Verse 25: "I, [even] I." It's God talking. "I, [even] I." It isn't
Isaiah. "I, [even] I [am] he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own
sake, and will not remember thy sins." Ain't that a blessing? Isn't that a
blessing?

     "Put me in remembrance: let us plead together." See, "Come now. Let's
reason. Let's plead. Let's talk it over." "Declare thou." Speak up! "Declare
thou, that thou mayest be justified." He said, "You want to justify yourself,
justify what you believe? All right, speak up! Declare!

     Verse 27: "Thy first father hath sinned, and thy teachers have
transgressed against me." And on He goes.

     Chapter 44, verse 7. 44:7: "And who, as I, shall call, and shall declare
it, and set it in order for me, since I appointed the ancient people? and the
things that are coming, and shall come, let them shew unto them." He says, "If
you want to prove you've got the right God, tell the future. The testimony of
Jesus Christ is the spirit of prophecy. "Fear ye not, neither be afraid: have
not I told thee from that time, and have declared [it]? ye [are] even my
witnesses. Is there a God beside me?" The Lord talking to Himself. The Lord
said, "Is there a God beside me? "[There is] no God; I know not [any]." You
see how the Lord looks at things? That's God back in eternity, looking out
across there and saying, "Is there any God around here? I don't see any God
around here." I mean, that's what you're reading now. That's what you're
reading. That's it.

     You don't want to forget, when you're dealing with your Saviour and your
friend, your Lord--that's your Lord, right there. That's how He looks at
things. And it's an entirely different God most Christians know. I mean, it's
full knowledge of everything. And tongue-in-cheek about it.

     Isaiah chapter 44, verse 24: "Thus saith the LORD, thy redeemer, and he
that formed thee from the womb, I [am] the LORD that maketh all [things]; that
stretcheth forth the heavens alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by
myself." "By myself." No help from Darwin. No help from Mother Nature. No help
from evolution. The Lord said, "I did it myself."

     "That frustrateth the tokens of the liars, and maketh diviners mad; that
turneth wise [men] backward, and maketh their knowledge foolish;  That
confirmeth the word of his servant, and performeth the counsel of his
messengers." This!

     Isaiah 45, verse 5. We've got to stop here somewhere; it goes on
considerably. Isaiah 45:5: "I [am] the LORD, and [there is] none else, [there
is] no God beside me: I girded thee--" put your clothes on you. "I girded
thee." "I put clothes around you." But what? "Thou hast not known me." He
said, "I dressed you, and you don't even know me."

     "That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that
[there is] none beside me. I [am] the LORD, and [there is] none else.  I form
the light, and create darkness:..." watch it: "I make peace, and create evil:
I the LORD do all these [things]."

     Now, He didn't say He created sin. But He said He created evil. In
plainer words, the Lord allows--the Lord is the Author of the consequences
that come from sin. And the evil that goes on in this world, the Lord is able
to control, and He's able to stop--and He doesn't do it. You know what Job
said? He said, "Out of the mouth of the Most High proceedeth not good and
evil?" He said, "Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not
also receive evil? In all this Job did not accuse God false, or sin with his
lips."

     Isaiah chapter 45, verse 18. Isaiah 45:18: "For thus saith the LORD that
created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath
established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited."
Quote: "I [am] the LORD; and [there is] none else. I have not spoken in
secret, in a dark place of the earth." You can get it any time you're ready to
pick it up. "I said not unto the seed of Jacob, Seek ye me in vain." God
doesn't tell a man to get saved when he can't. He didn't say, "I didn't say to
the seed of Jacob, 'Seek ye me in vain.'" The Lord doesn't say, "Whosoever
will, let him come"--and then half of them aren't "elected." "I declare things
that are right." The Lord says, "Whosoever will, let him come." You know what
that means? It means, "Whosoever will, let him come."

     "Assemble yourselves and come; draw near together, ye [that are] escaped
of the nations: they have no knowledge that set up the wood of their graven
image, and pray unto a god [that] cannot save. Tell ye, and bring [them] near;
yea, let them take counsel together: who hath declared this from ancient time?
[who] hath told it from that time? [have] not I the LORD? and [there is] no
God else beside me; a just God and a Saviour; [there is] none beside me." Who
is it? 22: "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I
[am] God, and [there is] none else."

     It's Jesus Christ! It's Jesus Christ.

     That's the One you trusted, who died on the cross for your sins--talkin'
right there. Talkin' about Himself. You don't find Him talking much about
Himself in the New Testament. You go there in the Gospels, He'll say, "I and
my Father are one"; "I came to do my Father's will"; "I am the Bread of life";
"He that believeth on me..." this and that. But you don't have Him standing up
there and saying, "I am it, and there is nobody else, and you're wasting your
time, and you look to me and get saved, or if you don't, you're going to go to
pot, because I made the whole thing, and you're nothing--the one that choose
you is nothing--and there's nobody else around here but me, so quit looking!"
See, you don't hear Him talking like that. But He'll talk that way. He'll talk
that way. He did talk that way, and He'll talk that way at the judgment.

     Boy, won't that be something at the judgment? Have a fellow get up there,
and the Lord tell that sinner, "You see any other god around here?"

     A fellow looks around there, out through the universe. And they'll all be
gone.

     Isaiah 1, verse 24: "Therefore saith the Lord, the LORD of hosts, the
mighty One of Israel, Ah, I will ease me of mine adversaries." "I'll get rid
of them; dump 'em." "And avenge me of mine enemies." "Vengeance is mine, saith
the Lord; I will repay."

     "And I will turn my hand upon thee." Aimed at Israel. "And purely purge
away." Thoroughly, till it's pure. "And pureply purge away thy dross, and take
away all thy tin." Get rid of the cheap stuff, and get silver out of it.

     So, as for the Christian, it's true. The Lord will sometimes take His
hand and turn on the Christian and purge him. Now, you know that's New
Testament. John 15 says, "Every branch that beareth fruit in me, He purgeth it
that it may bring forth more fruit." To there's a melding process and a
smelting process that takes place in the life of the Christian. It's the
furnace.

     Verse 26: "And I will restore thy judges as at the first..." which He
will at the Second Coming "...and thy counsellors as at the beginning." Second
Coming. "Afterward." Second Coming. "Thou shalt be called, The city of
righteousness, the faithful city." As a matter of fact, when the Lord comes
back, it's not only called "The Faithful City," it's called "The Lord Is
There," Ezekiel chapter 48, verse 35: "The name of the city from [that] day
[shall be], The LORD [is] there."

     Verse 27: "Zion"--referring to Jerusalem--"shall be redeemed with
judgment"--Second Coming--"and her converts with righteousness"--Second
Coming.

28 And the destruction of the transgressors and of the sinners [shall
be] together, and they that forsake the LORD shall be consumed. 29 For they
shall be ashamed of the oaks which ye have desired, and ye shall be confounded
for the gardens that ye have chosen. 30 For ye shall be as an oak whose leaf
fadeth, and as a garden that hath no water. 31 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].


     "And the destruction of the transgressors and of the sinners [shall be]
together." Second Coming. "And they that forsake the LORD shall be consumed."
Second Coming.

     Now, I realize that it has a historical application--the attack of
Nebuchadnezzar--but the greater application is the Second Advent.

     "For they shall be ashamed." That is, the ones that get there and get
right later, they'll be ashamed "of the oaks which ye have desired." The oak
tree seems to have a bad connotation in the Scripture. The earrings and idols
are buried under the oak back in Genesis, when Jacob goes back to Bethel.
Absalom is hanged on an oak; "cursed is he that hangeth on a tree." Deborah is
buried under an oak, called "Allon-Bachuth," "the oak of weeping." I believe
that's about all the references.

     But you take references where somebody's buried, where idols are buried,
where a type of the Antichrist is hung, and then it's connected with idolatry--
"the oaks which ye have desired"--that's a pretty rough association.

     Some folks think Christ was crucified in the dogwood tree, you know--and
I know you've got better sense than that.

     But the question comes up, what kind of a tree? Well, if it's any kind of
a tree, it'll be an oak tree.

     Question: "How about Judas?"

     Answer: "How about Judas? Nothing in regards to an oak. It just said he
went out and hung himself."

     Isaiah 1:29: "For they shall be ashamed of the oaks which ye have
desired, and ye shall be confounded for the gardens that ye have chosen." Now,
there's quite a statement. He says there's something wrong with the oaks and
the gardens. Well, let's see what's wrong with the oaks and the gardens;
everybody likes a good barbecue!

     Isaiah chapter 66. Isaiah 66. No, Isaiah 65. Isaiah 65. Isaiah 65, verse
1. Now, what's going on here is idolatrous worship outdoors under the trees,
with the Mother Nature. The Jews evidently got tired of the house of God and
decided to worship God "in spirit and truth," so they went outdoors on the
Sabbath and had their own worship service--and it wasn't any better than the
other one.

     Isaiah 65:1: "I am sought of [them that] asked not [for me]; I am found
of [them that] sought me not: I said, Behold me, behold me, unto a nation
[that] was not called by my name." But: "I have spread out my hands all the
day unto a rebellious people." Quoted by Paul in Romans chapter 10. "...which
walketh in a way [that was] not good, after their own thoughts; A people that
provoketh me to anger continually to my face; that sacrificeth--" underline
it: "in gardens." See it? "...gardens, and burneth incense upon altars of
brick." Like a barbecue pit. "Which remain among the graves, and lodge in the
monuments, which eat swine's flesh." Barbecue pork. "And broth of abominable
[things is in] their vessels;  Which say, Stand by thyself, come not near to
me; for I am holier than thou. These [are] a smoke in my nose, a fire that
burneth all the day."

     So, He's talking about the fact that they're not just having a family
picnic in the backyard; they're having a worship service and sacrificing back
in the gardens in the droves.

     Isaiah 1:30. Isaiah 1:30. So, because the oak tree is connected with it,
he says this. Isaiah 1:30: "For ye shall be as an oak whose leaf fadeth." Not
a--what do ye call 'em? Oh, what we have down here--a live oak. Live oak--
isn't that what they call 'em? Live oak--stays green all year round. But like
a blackjack--is that right?--blackjack oak, which sheds its leaves like the
rest of the trees do.

     "For ye shall be as an oak whose leaf fadeth, and as a garden that hath
no water." Well, a garden that has no water is burned up.

     And so the nation--or the individual--that will not listen to the word,
and not be willing, and not pay any attention to it, and not obey it--is like
a burned out garden. And a burned out garden cannot bear any fruit.

     Jeremiah chapter 17. Jeremiah chapter 17. Jeremiah 17, beginning at verse
5. "A garden that hath no water." You remember the studies in the Song of
Solomon, how the church, the bride, was likened to a garden that had all
manner of pleasant fruits. Jeremiah 17, verse 5: "Thus saith the LORD; Cursed
[be] the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart
departeth from the LORD.  For he shall be like the heath in the desert..."
that's a dry place "...and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit
the parched places" ...no water "...in the wilderness, [in] a salt land" ...no
water B"...not inhabited."

     All right, there is the Christian who ceases to bear fruit. What's his
problem? Verse 5: "Cursed [be] the man that trusteth in man," who "maketh
flesh his arm, and whose heart"--heart!--"departs from the LORD."

     In here!

     17:7: "Blessed [is] the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the
LORD is." What will he be like? Verse 8: "For he shall be as a tree planted by
the waters, and [that] spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see
when heat cometh." When the heat comes, and the blast comes, and all the crops
fail, and the drought comes, that tree just doesn't pay any attention to it at
all--just keeps right on going.

     "...shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green" ...it's
a live oak... "and shall not be careful in the year of drought--" underline
it: "neither shall cease from yielding fruit."

     All right, Isaiah 1:31. Isaiah 1:31: "And the strong shall be as tow." T-
O-W. That's a rope on a candle, isn't it? Candle tow--stick on a candle? What
is that? "Tow." Brother Gilley? What's "tow"--T-O-W? A bunch of fiber gathered
together? Uh-huh. Well, near as I can remember, it's like a wick on a candle,
where the wick is made out of four or five threads, twisted together and come
up to make a wick on top of the candle that way. "The strong shall be as tow"--
as fiber that's burned. You light it, and it just burns down.

     "And the maker of it as a spark." Yeah. "And they shall both burn
together, and none shall quench [them]." A reference to hell. "And none shall
quench." "The fire that shall not be quenched."

     "And the maker of it as a spark, and they shall both burn together, and
none shall quench [them]."

     All right. That's a pretty deathly chapter, isn't it? The Bible says to
the Christian to consider the example of the prophets. And Christ used to say,
"Woe be when all men speak well of you, for so spake they of the false
prophets. And blessed are you when men shall revile you and persecute you and
say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake; for so persecuted they
the prophets."

(c) 1997 Peter S. Ruckman

