• Scripture: Gal. 5:1
• Broadcast Date: 10/05/2015

I am a child of the depression.  We call that time in our history the “dirty thirties”.  They were so called because we not only had record setting high temperatures, but we also set a record for lack of rain, which resulted in dust storms that literally darkened the sky!  For farmers it was a nightmare and as a consequence we reaped no crops and had debts we could not pay.  And, because we could not pay, we lost our farm.  We lost our farm, but because of my Godly Mother, we never lost our faith!  And, I might add, our faith was far more important than all the farms in the world.  To this day, I have that faith that my Mother exhibited.  But, the point is, we had a debt we could not pay.  But that is not the end of the story, for there is another debt we cannot pay, no matter how much money and influence we might have.  It is a debt we owe to God.  Whenever we sin, and who hasn’t, we sin against God.  It is a tremendous debt, and every day it gets bigger.  Every time we sin, in word, deed or thought, the sin debt mounts up.  David cries out, “Against thee, thee only, have I sinned,” (Psalm 51:4).  So we have a problem, big time.  Not only do we have a debt of sin, but it is against God.  And, how are we going to bring a sacrifice to satisfy God?  Well it is impossible.  So we are all doomed, we are all going to lose our farm, and worse yet, our soul.  It is a pitiful predicament and there is no way out.  A terrible debt, and nothing with which to pay.  Micah, the prophet, shows the hopelessness of our situation when he asks the question:  “Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God?”  Micah is saying, how can I pay the debt to God.  Micah continues, “shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old?  Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil?  Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”  (Micah 6:7,8).  What the prophet is really saying is, “I have a sin against God, a terrible, terrible debt and I have no way to pay that debt.  Thousands of rams ten thousands of rivers of oil, or my own child, my first born—and all that doesn’t make a dent in the debt.   I am in a hopeless condition.  There is no way out.  God have mercy.  And you know what, that is exactly what happened, God showed mercy and grace, and love.  Listen to St. Paul tell the story:  “But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.  Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.”  (Romans 5:8, 9).  We had a debt we could not pay.  Jesus paid it all for us.  So we sing, “And when before the throne, I stand in him complete, Jesus died my soul to save, My lips shall still repeat.  Jesus paid it all; All to Him I owe.  Sin had left a crimson stain; He washed it white as snow.”  Friend, is your debt paid?  If not, come to Jesus now, right now!