Southern California is on fire. Television tries but fails to give us a picture of the magnitude of the spreading inferno. It's one of those things you have to see in person to grasp its magnitude.

A man and wife get in their car and frantically speed ahead of the blaze, racing for their lives. They're not fast enough. They don't make it. The beast catches, surrounds, and engulfs the car with them in it.

Firefighters battle flames and exhaustion and nothing stops either. An exhausted California pleads for help and other states send it. The only thing the authorities can do is issue edicts for the people in the path of the wildfire to grab what they can and vacate all they own and love and do it now.

But there's this one man and he's making a statement on television. The fire is on the way and he's in its path. Yet he says he won't leave; he'll stand his ground. He says he has this fire suit and a water pump. He says he'll wet down his home and the homes of his neighbors. He'll stand up to it in his fire suit, he says. He won't leave. He lives near the water he says, and if the worst comes, he'll jump in his canoe and paddle to safety. He projects an air of confidence. An air of logic. Let the fire rage; he won't cut and run.

A fire suit? A water pump? A doused house? When we see the pictures of the fire on the rampage and gone mad, his logic appears puny. Yet, to the man brimming with confidence in his fire suit and his pump, the plan sounds logical, just as logical as the couple who thought their car was fast enough.

But it's California dreaming. It may appear to be logical dreaming, but it's dreaming. Man has his dreams and those dreams seem to make sense. Man dresses in his fire suit of good works, thinking that food to the poor, those visits to the jail, and those donations to charity will provide just the protection he needs from the judgment of a righteous and holy God. God's fire demands perfection, consuming those that don't have it.

It seems logical to think that heaven goes to those in the fire suits, to those who race along in life, only stopping the car long enough to get out and help those less fortunate in orphanages and hospitals. When the sick need visiting, when the poor need a helping hand, there they are in their fire suits and they feel warm, safe, and secure.

Jesus met men in the most resplendent of fire suits, men who had woven the finest works and deeds into a strong tapestry of fire proofing. But Jesus said that their fire suits were useless, that judgment was on the way and no suit woven in self-righteousness could withstand it.

God provides another fire suit and it's free. It's the suit of Christ's perfect righteousness that God gives free to the one who believes in Jesus for forgiveness of sin and eternal life. Nobody ever earned this fire suit and no one ever will. It's a suit that doesn't isn't gotten by doing; it's given upon believing. When God dresses the believer in that fire suit, He sees not sinners; He sees those dressed in the perfect righteousness of Christ.
A man in his own fire suit, priming his water pump, all the while hedging his bet with canoe and paddle is an object of pity. He who lives by his own logic will die by his logic. He who lives by California dreamin' will die by California dreamin.'

Dr. Mike Halsey, Pastor

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