Intro- We closed our last study speaking of the willingness of God to forgive sins no matter how bad they are, no matter what anyone else says are thinks. This my friends is a demonstration of the grace and the mercy of the Lord toward sinners...

The forgiveness of God toward a people is not one sided, God demands repentance on the part of the one who is receiving forgiveness...Look at VS 19-20...

I... " THE GREAT QUESTION POISED BY THE LORD...VS 21

In a city that once house true judgment and righteousness what led them away from the Lord? This question was not ask by God because he did not know, it ask in order to reveal the truth about this city...

Proverbs 14:34 Righteousness exalted a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people. The Harlotry of this city is not necessarily speaking of woman who have prostituted themselves, but of his people who have left the true God and went after false gods...Proverbs 10:16 The labour of the righteous tendeth to life: the fruit of the wicked to sin.

I preached a sermon one time that was not original with me but it was the truth and I want to share the 3 things from that...message.

1^st. Sin will take you further than you want to go...

2^nd. Sin will keep you longer than you intend to stay..

3^rd. Sin will pay you off with wages you didn’t expect..

A. The Bible speaks of grievous sins Genesis 18:20 And the LORD said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous;

B. Fools mock at Sin...Proverbs 14:9 Fools make a mock at sin: but among the righteous there is favour.

C. Sin is deceitful...Hebrews 3:13 But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.

There is a lot more that I could say about sin, but we will move own to next thoughts...in this message.

II... " IN THIS PARTICULAR CASE THE LORD POINTS OUT THE CAUSE OF THEIR SINS.. VS 22-23

1^ST. We have the reproach of the princes..

a. They were rebellious...

b. They became companions with the ungodly...

The Lords people are warned over and over again in the Bible of the seriousness of leaguing up with those who know not the Lord. They will eventually lead you away from that which is right and good.

c. They did this for personal gain... "loveth gifts" followeth after rewards..

There is nothing wrong with taking and giving gifts as long as the motive for giving is right, which should be love.

So you can see what influence gifts can have on people and upon leaders..and we would do well to take heed to this lesson.

Grace is always available in the midst of sin... We have seen this through out the Bible..

Genesis 6:5 And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Note next....Genesis 6:8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.

Three things..

1^st. That he would purge them...vs 25

In the promise of this text the Lord uses terms that they were familiar with that a goldsmith would use in the refining of gold or silver...

Purely was a lye, potash, alkali used in smelting metal...in order to free it from any impurities that was in it and once this was accomplished then it was of great value. This is what the Lord is promising that he will do to Judah...

2^nd. That he would restore them.. vs 26 

To bring back, to give back, to put back where it was.. David King of Israel used this same term so you can get the idea...2 Samuel 9:7 And David said unto him, Fear not: for I will surely shew thee kindness for Jonathan thy father's sake, and will restore thee all the land of Saul thy father; and thou shalt eat bread at my table continually.

We often need restoring ourselves.. when David sinned against the Lord it took his joy of being a servant of the Lord away from him and in his prayer for forgiveness he prayed that God would restore the joy of hi salvation..

It is said later on in this book that when Jesus Christ would come he would be the one to restore the Lords people.. Isaiah 49:6 And he said, It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth.

Both Jew and Gentile are in this prophecy, these are the elect of God from all tribes of the earth and Christ did that very thing when he came nearly 2000 yrs ago.

3^rd. That he would redeem them.. vs 27

Redemption without exception cost something, in this case it would cost these people a desire to part with sin, and in our case it cost the Lord Jesus Christ his life on calvary. And he did that freely for all of us.

4^th. The judgment of those who refuse God’s offer..vs 28-31