"BUT WHAT IS MAN THAT HE SHOULD BE CLEAN?"
Part II--Adam the Sinner
"What is man that he should be clean? and he which is born of a woman that he should be righteous?...yea, the heavens are not clean in His sight. How much more abominable and filthy is man which drinketh iniquity like water?"--(Job 15:14-16).
"Now the works of the flesh are manifest which are these; adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God."--(Galatians 5:19-21).
"Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption."--(I Corinthians 15:50).
"How then can man be justified with God? or how can he be clean that is born of a woman? Behold, even to the moon, and it shineth not; yea, the stars are not pure in His sight. How much less man, that is a worm, and the son of man which is a worm?"--(Job 25:4-6).
"He hath looked down from the height of His sanctuary; from Heaven did the Lord behold the earth: to hear the groaning of the prisoner; to loose those that are appointed to death."--(Psalm 102:19, 20)
"God commendeth His love to us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."
"When we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son."--(Romans 5:8,10)
"If any say, ’I have sinned, and perverted that which was right and it profited me not;’ He will deliver his soul from going into the pit, and his life shall see the light."--(Job 33:27, 28).
Oh, sir, if you have never feared the Lord enough to depart from sin, do it now by humbly receiving Christ as your Lord and Saviour.
July 4, 1876--In Brandon, Vermont, people gather to celebrate the centennial of American independence.
Daniel Roberts is the Rector of St. Thomas Protestant Episcopal Church and has been asked to write a hymn for the occasion.
"God of Our Fathers Whose Almighty Hand" will be sung for the first time at this celebration.
July 6, 1373--John Huss is born in Hussinezt, Bohemia.
July 6, 1415--0n his birthday, John Huss has been humiliated and scornfully entreated. He is now led to the suburbs of Constance, Bohemia where he will be chained to a wooden stake and burned to death. Before the fire is kindled at his feet, he will prophecy "You may cook the goose today, but God will raise up a gander and him you will never roast." "Huss" in Bohemian means "Goose" and "Luther" in German comes from the root word meaning " Gander."
The earth itself where Huss will be executed will be dug up and along with his ashes will be carried to the Rhine River. Here they will be dumped. But the Rhine flows into the sea, and as it carries his ashes along, so God will disseminate throughout Europe the faithful preaching of his servant.
July 8, 1741--Jonathan Edwards preaches his famous sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, and sinners present hold on to the pews in front of them for fear of falling into Hell.
July 11, 1742--George Whitefield preaches in Cambuslang, Scotland, a town of 900 people, but 20,000 have come to hear the Word of God. Of these, 1700 will celebrate the Lord’s Supper. Whitefield will preach at 2:00, 6:OO and 9:O0 and the people will be struck to the heart. When Whitefield tires, Pastor Mc Culloch will preach and the services will last past midnight. Through the night, prayer and praise will be able to be heard in the surrounding fields and barns.
There is much said today about personal and civil rights, which actually makes a mockery of truth and righteousness, justice and reason. One will do well to differentiate between liberty and libertinism: the former is true freedom while the latter destroys it.
Boundless freedom is the freedom of injustice and opens the door to anarchy. This is freedom from conscience and is the freedom of the Devil. It is Satan himself who pleads for infinite and boundless tolerance.
We need to discern the difference between freedom of conscience and freedom from conscience. Conscience when enlightened by Holy Scripture of God is grand for the soul. Freedom of conscience is freedom from all restraints in respect to man to follow the dictates of conscience. But freedom from conscience is falsely called liberty being in actuality libertinism.
No sin is worse than freedom to sin. Now if we are willing to tolerate any wrong in order right may be tolerated, then we pocket right in the trousers of wrong and thus destroy the very principles of right.
The same principles that destroy right destroy any justice in the punishment of those principles of iniquity.
