Filthy Rags And Sin – The Saturday Morning Post
Today’s Passage – Deuteronomy 9 – 11 (Click on the references to listen to the audio – Click here to view the passage from Blue Letter Bible)
(Second Milers also read – 2 Corinthians 5 – 8; Proverbs 4; Psalm 16 – 20)
Read the “0304 Evening and Morning” devotion for today, by the late Charles Haddon Spurgeon.
“Speak not thou in thine heart, after that the LORD thy God hath cast them out from before thee, saying, For my righteousness the LORD hath brought me in to possess this land: but for the wickedness of these nations the LORD doth drive them out from before thee. Not for thy righteousness, or for the uprightness of thine heart, dost thou go to possess their land: but for the wickedness of these nations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee, and that he may perform the word which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Understand therefore, that the LORD thy God giveth thee not this good land to possess it for thy righteousness; for thou art a stiffnecked people.” (Deuteronomy 9:4-6)
Good morning. Isaiah wrote…
“But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.” (Isaiah 64:6)
The Lord told us…
“I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.” (John 15:5)
Our righteousness is as filthy rags, and without Jesus we can do nothing. But yet, like the Jews, we are a stiffnecked people doing what we want to do, even trying to serve the Lord in our own power.
Israel was getting ready to enter the promised land. God wanted to make it clear to them why. There were two reasons given…
1) Because of the wickedness of the nations they were going to displace.
These people worshipped false gods, and did many evil and wicked things, much like America today. The abomination known as Homosexuality is freely allowed to be practiced here. The murder of unborn babies and then butchering them for parts. Let me ask you a question here, just something to think about: If what is conceived in a mother’s womb is just a blob of goo and not a baby, how is Planned Parenthood selling the parts? All for the sake of the almighty dollar, and the convenience.
“This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.” (2Timothy 3:1-5)
The second reason is…
2) God promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
As the sand of the sea and the stars of the sky, God promised to make Israel a great nation…
“By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised. Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable.” (Hebrews 11:8-12)
America was also a great nation, until it turned away from God and became self-righteous. But America still has hope if we turn back to God.
“If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” (2Chronicles 7:14)
Peace.
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