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In Isaiah chapter 1, we find the sad

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description of a nation who had turned their

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back on God.

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Ah, a sinful nation, a people laden with

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iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are

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corruptors.

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They have forsaken the Lord.

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They have provoked the Holy One of Israel

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onto anger.

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They are gone away backward.

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Why should ye be stricken any more?

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Ye will revolt more and more.

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The whole head is sick and the whole

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heart faint.

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From the sole of the foot, even unto

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the head, there is no soundness in it.

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I will stop there, friends.

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What a striking picture of a backslidden people

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of God.

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What a tragedy.

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What a startling comparison it is to the

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church in America today.

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A church full of compromise and conformity.

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A compromised church has no power with God.

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And a church given to conformity with the

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world has no influence upon society.

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A compromised church is a powerless church.

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A compromised church is an impotent church.

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A compromised church is a laughingstock to the

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world.

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The church in America is like the nation

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she resides in, rotten from her head to

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her feet.

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It's become an institution of self-preservation that

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bears little resemblance to the New Testament pattern

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found in the book of Acts.

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The early church was counter-cultural.

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The church went in one direction and a

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pagan society went in the other.

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And when they met, there was a riot

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or a clash.

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Now the church is unrecognizable from the corrupt

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society she hides in.

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The one thing that would separate the chaff

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from the wheat is persecution.

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Scotland was reborn under the martyrdom of the

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covenanters who refused to place a earthly king

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above King Jesus.

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And they died for their stance.

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They were arrested.

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They were put in prison.

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Their goods were confiscated.

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Their families broken up and put in want.

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They were hanged and executed, beheaded, and their

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skulls were placed on stakes to be bleached

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white in the hot sun.

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The skull of Covenanter James Guthrie hung on

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a pier at Netherboat Port for 27 years

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as a stark reminder of the price for

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standing for Christ and the gospel under the

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reins of tyranny.

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But two of Scotland's covenanters' martyrs were women,

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Margaret MacLachlan, who was 70 years old, and

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Margaret Wilson, who was a mere 18.

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They were the Wigtown Martyrs, who in 1685

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refused prelacy and the oath of adjuration.

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They were tried for treason, for attending of

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religious field meetings, and meeting for worship indoors.

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They were both sentenced to die by drowning.

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First, they took the gray-haired Margaret and

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tied her to a stake in the Solway

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Sea.

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And as the swift running tide came in,

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and as wave after wave splashed over her

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head, she struggled in the cold water until

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at last becoming limp in the swirling flood.

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And her cruel persecutors cried out to the

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young Margaret, who was tied on a stake

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nearer to them.

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What do you think of her now?

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She answered, I think I see Christ wrestling

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there.

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Think we are the sufferers?

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No, it is Christ in us.

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Let me ask us a question, friends.

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Is Christ wrestling in the Church of America

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today, in a struggle between the forces of

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evil?

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No, the Church is silent on sin and

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useless to society, as she hides in the

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shadows of a politically correct society, cowering and

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afraid to make her voice known and cry

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out against the sins of the land.

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I believe there are only two things that

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can save the American Church, and thus save

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the nation of America.

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One is a Holy Ghost revival, and the

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other is hot persecution.

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One will awaken us out of our spiritual

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slumber and revitalize the Church, and the other

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will awaken a nation and return her to

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the God of the Bible.

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Either way, that is our only hope.

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Heaven help us all.