INTRODUCTION

"Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand," said Jesus in Matthew 4:17.It   is widely reported that there are only two nations on earth in the history of the world that were founded and dedicated to the glory of God,  Israel and America.  The founding of America was modeled after Israel.  The "Mayflower Compact" declared in 1620:

"Having undertaken for the glory of God and advancement of the Christian faith ...[we] combine ourselves together into a civil body politic for ... furtherance of the ends aforesaid."  (Hazard's Historical Collections, Vol.I p.119)

Indeed, William Bradford, one of the leaders declared that the Pilgrims had come   to the New World "... For the propagating and advancing the Gospel of the Kingdom of Christ in those remote parts of the world."  (Boston: Little, Brown, and Company,1856, p24). When Solomon died, Jeroboam became king over the Northern tribes of Israel and went after other gods and caused all Israel to sin against God. All of the rest of the kings in Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord.  When Josiah became king in Judah, Hilkiah, the high priest, found the Book of the Law of God and read it to Josiah and Josiah tore his clothes and began to restore Judah to true worship and removed the idolatrous priests who had burned incense to Baal and all the hosts of heaven.  Many other things did Josiah do to restore true worship in Judah, but when he died, Jehoahaz became king and did evil and Jehoiakim also did evil when he became king and eventually Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem in 586 BC. 

In America, the "Northwest Ordinance" was passed by Congress, (the same Congress that passed the First Amendment) and it was signed into law by President George Washington on August  7, 1789.   Article III declared:

"Religion and morality and knowledge, being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall be forever encouraged." (Constitution (1813), p 364)

Thus, the public schools were established to promote "religion, morality, and knowledge".  Now, we have essentially removed prayer from the public schools, (Engle v Vitale, 368 U.S. 924, (1962)) and in Abington  v Schempp, (374 U.S. 203 (1963)) this nation has removed God's Word. Is it any wonder that we have followed these decisions with Roe v Wade, (410 U.S. 113 (1973)) permitting the killing of babies in their mother's womb.  Our Supreme Court has, since 1962, fairly consistently removed God approved of ungodly laws and actions such as from the public square and Obergefell v Hodges (576 U.S. 644 (2015) approving the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah and requiring states to license and recognize these so called "marriages".

  It is not known for certain, but since 1973, it is estimated that approximately 60,000,000 little babies have been aborted!  Killed in their mother's womb!  It is reported that only 52, 000,000 people died in all of World War II. In all countries!

Is America going into captivity as did Israel?  The leaders of the democrat party are seemingly promoting ungodliness, unrighteousness, and suppressing the truth in unrighteousness.  They are promoting Marxism and Communist doctrine.  They do not seem to know God.  There are many others all across the political spectrum who seemingly do not know the truth of God's Word. Is it too late for America?  "Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand," said Jesus.

I. ISAIAH 55:6&7 

Isaiah, in about 740 BC to 701 BC, prophesied in Israel, in Judah.  He states in the very first chapter, the following:

"I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me; the ox knows its owner and the donkey its master's crib; but Israel does not know, my people do not consider." (Isaiah 1:2b & 3)

Is this not an apt description of many in America today, particularly leaders, so called, in Congress and in the U.S. Supreme Court and many state leaders?

The Lord God told Israel through the prophet Isaiah to :

"Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; put away the evil of your doings from before my eyes. Cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rebuke the oppressor; defend the fatherless, plead for the widow”. (Isaiah 1:16 -17)

“Come now, and let us reason together, says the Lord, though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool." (Isaiah 1:16-18)

America is full of sinful people.  "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23) [For a fuller description of America today read Romans 1:18-32] "There is no fear of God before their eyes". (Romans 3: 18) However, "...God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life". (John 3: 16) Jesus came to save sinners! In Isaiah 55, despite the great sin of Israel, God calls Israel to return to Him. The Lord God is rich in mercy and He alone gives forgiveness and salvation. Isaiah 55:6-7 states:

 "Seek the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near.  Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; Let him return to the Lord, and He will have mercy on him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon."

Therefore, it is not too late.  Return unto the Lord. Surrender your will in true repentance and place your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ was actually preached to Abraham, the Father of the Faithful, and we are told in Romans, Chapter 4 that Abraham believed God and it was accounted unto him for righteousness.  Abraham believed God!  He believed God was able to do exactly what He said.  Do you? This is what God says to you:

Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel, which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you-unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve.  After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep.  After that He was seen by James, then by all the Apostles. Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time. For I am the least of the Apostles, who am not worthy to be called an Apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain:  but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. Therefore, whether it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed." (1Corinthians 15:1-11)

Abraham believed God solely because God, who cannot lie, and whose Word is truth itself, told him the Glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ.  He is saying the same thing to you.  Read it again above.   Repent!  Turn from your sin.  Surrender your will to the Lord Jesus Christ and believe His Holy Word to you. Pass this devotional on to others. Be their friend.

II. COME UNTO ME!

The Lord Jesus Christ calls one and all to come to Him!  Read what He has said from  Matthew Chapter  11:27-30:  

"All things are delivered unto me of my Father; and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him. Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls, For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Come unto the Lord Jesus Christ. No man can come unto the Father except by the Lord Jesus Christ. (John 14:6)  Seek the Lord with your whole heart.  Tell others to do so.  This is for you and all you know.  Commit your way to the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible says that Christ has borne our sins in His own body on the cross.  He not only bears our sins, our guilt and our penalties, but He gives us His righteousness.  He will abundantly pardon. Come.  Believe.  Receive.  Tell others.  We are called to be an Ambassador for Christ.  Pray for this nation to repent and return to Christ.

Abraham Lincoln, during the Civil War in 1863, said the following: 

"We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has ever grown.  But we have forgotten God..." Abraham Lincoln, 1863

"Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us. It behooves, us, then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness." Abraham Lincoln, 1863

That was true then and infinitely more true now.  Pray for this nation and this people. Pray for all you know. The hour is late. We need to repent! The hour is now. We need to repent.  We need to press home this Holy Truth: the mouth of the Lord has spoken it.

III. THE MOUTH OF THE LORD HAS SPOKEN IT (ISAIAH 1:20)

Why should we consider the call of the Lord Jesus Christ which we find written in the Gospel according to Matthew found in Chapter 11, verses 28-30? Because, “the mouth of the Lord has spoken it!” The prophet Isaiah gives the reason to consider the Word contained in the Bible. The Word of God is what is found in both the Old and New Testaments. The great Prince of Preachers, Charles Hadden Spurgeon, preached a sermon on this very passage of Scripture in June of 1888. I cannot improve on what he said then, so I have borrowed some excerpts from Spurgeon’s sermon for all our benefit. Spurgeon said then, and it remains true today, that because “the mouth of the Lord has spoken it”, therefore, it becomes the reason - the warrant - for teaching scriptural Truth. 

The Lord Jesus Christ said He was Truth itself in John’s Gospel in Chapter 14. It remains so today. Spurgeon said:

“I do not take it to be my office to bring you new and original thoughts of my own; but rather to say, ‘The word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me.’ Believing that ‘The mouth of the Lord hath spoken it,’ it is my duty to repeat it to you as correctly as I can after having heard it and felt it in my soul. It is not mine to amend or adapt the gospel. What! Shall we attempt to improve upon what God has revealed? The Infinitely Wise - is he to be corrected by creatures of a day?”

We cannot use “ifs and buts”, for we are dealing with God’s “shalls and wills”. If God says it is so, controversy ceases when Jehovah says it is so. It is the end of the matter!

“When we speak for the Lord against error, we do not soften our tones; but we speak thunderbolts. When we come across false science, we do not lower our flag: we give place by subjection -  no not for an hour. One word of God is worth more than libraries of human lore. ‘It is written’ is the great gun which silences all the batteries of man’s thought. They should speak courageously who speak in the name of Jehovah, the God of Israel.

I cannot speak out my whole heart upon this theme which is so dear to me, but I would stir you all up to be instant in season and out of season in telling out the gospel message. Specially repeat such a word as this - ‘God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life’. And this: ‘Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.’ Tell it out boldly, tell it out in every place, tell it out to every creature. ‘For the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.’ How can you keep back the heavenly news? ‘The mouth of the Lord hath spoken it’ - shall not your mouth rejoice to repeat it? 

When the Lord speaks, his speech is God-like, and its themes are worthy of one whose dwelling is infinity and eternity. God does not play with thee, man: wilt thou trifle with him? Wilt thou threat him as if he were altogether such a one as thyself? God is in earnest when he speaks to thee: wilt thou not in earnest listen? He speaks to thee of great things, which have to do with thy soul and its destiny.

Depend on it, then, that when Jesus says, ‘These shall go away into everlasting punishment,’ it will be so. When he says, ‘If ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins,’ it will be so. The Lord never plays at frightening men. His Word is not an exaggeration to scare men with imagine bugbears. There is emphatic truth in what the Lord says. He has always carried out his threatenings to the letter, and to the moment; and, depend upon it, he will continue to do so, ‘For the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.’ 

How can you believe that which condemns you? Ah! my friends, if you would believe it to be true and act accordingly, you would also find in that which the mouth of the Lord hath spoken a way of escape from the wrath to come; for the Book is far more full of hope than of dread. This inspired volume flows with the milk of mercy, and the honey of grace. It is not a Doomsday Book of wrath, but a Testament of grace. Yet, if you do not believe its loving warnings, nor regard its just sentences, they are true all the same. If you dare its thunders, if you trample on its promises, and even if you burn it in your rage, the holy Book still stands unaltered and unalterable; for ‘ The mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.’ Therefore, I pray you, treat the sacred Scriptures with respect, and remember that ‘These are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.’

The last commendation of his love lies in the positive - IN THE POSSESSION. I shall have to go in a measure over the same ground again. Let me therefore be the shorter. God gives to every man that believes in Christ everlasting life. The moment thou believest there trembles into thy bosom a vital spark of heavenly flame which never shall be quenched. In that same moment when thou dost cast thyself on Christ, Christ comes to thee in the living and incorruptible word which liveth and abideth for ever. Though there should drop into thy heart but one drop of the heavenly water of life, remember this, - he hath said it who cannot lie, - ‘The water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.’ When I first received everlasting life I had no idea what a treasure had come to me. I knew that I had obtained something very extraordinary, but of its superlative value I was not aware. I did but look to Christ in the little chapel, and I received eternal life. I looked to Jesus, and he looked on me; and we were one for ever. That moment my joy surpassed all bounds, just as my sorrow had aforetime driven me to an extreme of grief. I was perfectly at rest in Christ, satisfied with him, and my heart was glad; but I did not know that this grace was everlasting life till I began to read in the Scriptures, and to know more fully the value of the jewel which God had given me.”

That was true then and infinitely more true now. Pray for this nation and this people. Pray for all you know. The hour is late. The day is far spent! The time is short. We need to repent!

CONCLUSION

"Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, Make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever”.  Amen (Hebrews 13:20-21)