I want to begin by reading Isaiah
1, 18, verse 18. Come now and let us reason together,
saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson,
they shall be as wool. I want us to think about every
word in that statement, in that command. The first word is come. Come, a commonplace, ordinary,
unremarkable word unless you realize who says it here. Who it is that's speaking and
to whom he speaks it. Who is saying come now? Well, we have the answer in our
text, saith the Lord. Capital L, capital O, capital
R, capital D. The Lord. In verse two of chapter
one there, it says, listen to this now. Hear, O heavens, and
give ear, O earth. Think about that. Everybody in
heaven and earth, every creature, Listen up Wow because God has
spoken God is speaking And to whom does he say come
who does the Lord say this word to verse 4 ah Sinful nation a
people loaded with iniquity Covered up with it seed of evil doers
a chill children that are Corruptors they have forsaken the Lord they
have provoked the Holy One of Israel under anger They are gone
away backward That word there that phrase gone away backers
backwards signifies that God reaches out and we We say in
effect in our hearts. Don't touch me. I don't want
anything to do with you and You see now why he says come? We're
gone. We're gone. That's why he says
come. And he says, come let us reason
together about what, Lord? Your sins. You see why he says
that? A people covered up with iniquity.
Evil doers. Not people that have done evil. Evil doers. You're not a sinner
because you sin. You sin because you're a sinner.
It's what you are. It's what I am before God. In verse 18, sins are mentioned
there. And the glorious proposition
is set forth of those sins being made as white as snow. If that's to mean anything though,
first, we need to know what sin is. You know, just about nobody
in this world has any idea what sin is. Well, we do bad things. That's sins, but sin is our nature. David said, I was born in iniquity. I was conceived in iniquity.
So God proclaims to these Israelites in verse three, look what he
says there, even in Acts. A dumb ox renders more honor
to its master than you've rendered to me. Preacher, did you just say that
I'm dumber than an ox? No, God did. That's what God
said. You may be a perfectly intelligent
person in the things of this world, but by nature, in spiritual
matters, we're dumber than an ox before
God. He's got to teach us. Come, let
us reason together. You're gonna have to think like
I think. That's what repentance is, a change of mind. You're
gonna have to change your mind about sin and what you are before
God. You have to change your mind
about who God is. You're gonna have to change your
mind about how God saves sinners. And he says, come. So there in verse three, dumber
than it, all of their solemn meetings and much regarded by
them worship, it says solemn meeting, even your solemn meetings.
In verse six there, are an abomination unto him. Their worship was evil
to God. They didn't worship Christ. They
didn't come to God by Christ Jesus. Man's religion is abominable
to God. Have you noticed that in the
scriptures? How that the Pharisees, the most religious people that
ever lived, were the ones that the Lord Jesus Christ said, you're
a bunch of snakes. You're a bunch of hypocrites.
And he said, you're gonna die in your sins. He told them, you're
gonna go to hell because you won't come to me. that you might
have life. The most religious people on
earth. There's still a lot of Pharisees
in this world. And the only time, look, in verse
10, those that were most notorious, even now, We talk about Sodom
and Gomorrah as the most notoriously evil people that ever lived.
God actually rained his judgment down upon them in time and burned
them up, they were so wretched. He didn't always do that right
away, but he did with them. And he calls his people Israel. Those who picture his elect,
you're Sodom and Gomorrah. After reminding them in verse
10 all through this here. He's reminding them that if he
had not chosen If he had not elected them if he had not chosen
a remnant from among them That they would have been just exactly
like Sodom and Gomorrah the only reason he didn't deal with Israel
the way he did Sodom and Gomorrah it didn't have anything to do
with them is Because he loved him He loved him He loved them
freely, without a cause in them. And after reminding them of that
and electing grace, a remnant of them was chosen in Christ. But they would have been just
like Sodom and Gomorrah. There's no difference, Paul said.
There is no difference. We're by nature the children
of wrath, even as others. Are you better than Hitler was? If you are, you're in a bad place.
before God. If you consider yourself better
by nature before God than Hitler was, you got a problem. You're
gonna have to come and reason with God because he says you're
not. He says we're all together filthy. There's none good, no,
not one. The only time you'll hear God
speaking with such utter repugnance as he does in the first part
of this chapter to people in vilification of them and in just
disgust and anger is when he was talking to the religious. To those in man-made, organized,
free will, self-righteous works religion. When he was talking
to the Pharisees and the scribes and the Sadducees. But after
even this word of harsh rebuke from God, Laying bare their hearts
and making them understand at least in their head what they
are before God repulsive Even their best deeds coming together
to worship. They said worship God Was repulsive
in his sight We have this glorious gracious word to all that will
hear it come You're gone right now you're gone away Your sins have separated between
you and your God, but come, come. How can God say that to a sinner? He's of purer eyes than to even
behold evil, the scripture says. A sinner can't approach God,
not without a mediator, not without a representative, not without
a substitute. the Lord Jesus Christ. No man
cometh unto the Father but by me, he said. Don't try it. Don't try it. But how can and
why would the Holy God, even if he could, why would he, who
is of pure eyes than to behold evil, much less have communion
with those who are evil, why would he say come to a vile worm
like me? Well, Why would he? We have the answer
in Jeremiah 31.3. The Lord hath appeared of old
unto me, saying, yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting
love. Therefore, with loving kindness
have I drawn thee. In John chapter six, the Lord
Jesus Christ said, no man can come unto me except the Father
which hath sent me. Draw him. That's what's happening
in our text. Come now. It's not a suggestion. It's not good advice. It's a
command. Come now. The one that said,
let there be light, and there was light, says to you, come. Come now. Now the other part
of the question I ask is how can he do that? How can he say,
come to a sinner? Well, the short, simple answer
is Christ. Christ, come unto me. The Old
Testament Israelites didn't dare approach God without a mediator,
without God's ordained priest, high priest. Listen to 1 Peter
3.18, for Christ also hath once suffered for sins the just for
the unjust that he might bring us to God. That's what this whole
verse is about. Come, come to God. How does that happen? Christ
died the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God.
being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit.
Now let's look at more in the Word of God concerning coming
to God. What does it mean to come to Christ? What does that
mean? I pray that God would teach us
just simply and clearly how our sins can be made as white as
snow. What is it to come and how in
the world do we do that? Well, first of all, understand
that for God to say come to you is not merely an appeal to the
sinner to do something. and then waiting on him to do
it. When this same Lord Jesus Christ, whenever he spoke, when
he said, Lazarus, come forth, Lazarus can't do that, but he
did it. When he said to that man with the withered hand, all
of his life, he was born that way, with a withered hand. When
the Lord Jesus said, stretch forth thy hand, that was the
one thing that that man could never do, but he did it. Why? Come now. at the command, when
God gives the command in effectual, sovereign grace, he gives the
ability to obey it. We obey by faith, and this book
says that faith is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man
should boast. This book says that Christ is
the author, he by which something comes to be, and the finisher
of our faith. It says faith is the fruit of
God's Spirit in us, not something we come up with. We're talking
about free grace. He gives us faith and we obey.
Paul said in 2 Corinthians 4, 6, he says, God who commanded
the light to shine out of darkness. That's what I said a while ago.
He said, let there be light and there was light. Paul said, God
who did that, who said that, he commanded the light to shine
out of darkness and it did, hath shined in our hearts. The same
God who commands it and it's done, he hath shined in our hearts. He said, let there be light to
my soul to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of
God. Where's the glory of God? In
the face of Jesus Christ. When Christ says Lazarus come
forth, if this is nothing more than an invitation for the dead
to come forth, it's kind of a mockery, isn't it? You're gonna invite
the dead to come out of their grave? He commanded it and it was done. If the Son of God bids you come,
if the King of glory summons you, then come you shall. All
that the Father giveth me shall come to me. All of them. And I'll raise them up at the
last day. You notice he didn't say your sins might be whiteness.
No, they shall be. They shall be. You come now and
they shall be. But Chris, don't some refuse
the gospel call? Don't some reject the gospel
call? Of course they do, but right now we're not talking about
the preacher saying come. We're talking about God saying
come. And he may just do that this
morning. When he says it, your sins are already made white,
he's just fixing to tell you about it. He's fixing to bring
you around to his way of thinking about it. Let us reason together,
let's think about this. How is it that the sinner comes
to God? John 14, six, Jesus saith unto him, I am the way. That's
how you come to God, you come to His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Believing on Him, trusting Him as your only righteousness before
God, trusting Him as your sin offering. A sinner don't come
to God without a sin offering. It's gotta be the one sin offering
that God will accept. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. Hebrews 7.25, wherefore he is
able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God
by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.
Paul's not talking about you actually going anywhere or anything
physical now. Christ making intercession for
you is you coming to God by him. When he went to God, he went
to God for us as our representative, as our mediator. And we in him
come to the very throne of grace in our Lord Jesus Christ. Hebrews
9.11, Christ being come and high priest of good things to come,
by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands,
that is to say, not of this building, not the Old Testament tabernacle,
neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood,
he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal
redemption for us. So your experience of coming
to him, it involves faith and repentance, but understand that
we come to God in Christ. We come to God by Christ. He
goes to God for us and intercedes for us eternally. To come anywhere,
you have to leave somewhere. And that's what we read in the
first part of the chapter. That's where we are by nature.
Dumb as an ox, religiously evil, denying God and repugnant to
Him in our sins. In a spiritual sense, we've got
to leave somewhere. When Adam sinned in the beginning
in the garden, God had every reason and every right to throw
him in hell. But he didn't do that. He would
not do that. He couldn't do that. God can't
throw somebody he loves in hell. People talk about the sovereign
God that we preach, the God of electing grace, being a monster.
I'll tell you who's a monster. A God that loves you but won't
save you. put you in hell anyway. He loves
you, but he'll put you in hell. That's a monster. It's also not
God, because God does as he pleases. That's what it means to be God.
The heathen said to King David, they said, where's your God?
We have gods of stone and wood, and we know where they are, and
we know what they can do. Where's your God, David? He said,
my God's in the heavens. And do you know how he characterized
his God? My God is in the heavens. He
hath done whatsoever he hath pleased. He does what he wants
to do. He wants to save you. He's gonna
save you. He said, my hand is not shortened that it cannot
save. And so we sinned in the garden. God didn't throw Adam in hell.
What he did is ask a profound question. Adam, where are you?
Where are you? Same place these Israelites were
in the first part of the chapter. God-hating, religious, vile sinners. If you know the answer to where
Adam was after he sinned against God and rebelled in proud, haughty
self-righteousness, if you know the answer to that question,
then you know where you've got to come from. Because that's
where we all are in order to come to Christ. We've got to
come from ourself. from trusting ourselves, from
our own works. Paul said, I wouldn't have my
work. I reject him, I count him all but dung that I may win Christ.
Got to come from someplace, don't we? Our Lord put it this way
in Matthew 16, 24, then said, Jesus unto his disciples, if
any man will come after me, let him deny himself. You may deny the false doctrine
that you believed before, but that's not what he said. You're
going to because you're gonna believe the truth, but it's you
that you have to deny, you. And take up his cross and follow
me. This morning, you're either trusting
yourself or you're trusting Christ. You're either worshiping yourself
or you're worshiping Christ. Serving yourself or serving Christ. Luke 18, nine, the Lord spake
this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they
were righteous and despised others. To come to Christ is to leave
yourself in the sense of imagining that there's anything that you
can do ever that's pleasing to God. It doesn't measure up. All
have sinned and come short of the glory of God. That doesn't
mean every once in a while. That's talking about your whole
life, what you are. Who do you trust and who do you
serve? Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5, the love of Christ constraineth
us. If you know the Lord Jesus Christ,
the love of Christ constrains you, for we thus judge that if
Christ died for us, then we ought not henceforth live unto ourselves,
but unto him which died for us and rose again. From self to
Christ. Not complicated. To come to God
is a covenant privilege. I need to mention this. In Genesis
6, 17, listen. Behold, I, even I, do bring a
flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh, wherein
is the breath of light. From under heaven, everything
that is in the earth shall die, but with you will I establish
my covenant. This is typical or a picture
of the covenant of grace in Christ Jesus that was made for us before
the foundation of the world. He said, I will establish my
covenant with you and you shall come into the ark. The ark is Christ. Many preachers are saying, come,
come, come, come to everyone and everything but Christ. Come
to the church, come down an aisle, come to the front. And some say,
I've come to the doctrines of grace. If you come to a Jesus that's
done all he can do and left the whole matter up to you, then
you've come to an idol that cannot save you. If you come to the one who shed
his blood to save people who were already in hell when he
shed it, and who shed his precious blood for millions who have perished
in spite of it, your sins can never be washed white by that
one. If you come down an aisle, you're
not going to find anything there but self-righteous, false assurance
in your flesh. There's no salvation down here.
It's in Christ Jesus. And many will bid you come this
way and to these who cannot say the false. Others don't dare
say come at all. I know some people that wouldn't
even say that. Tell sinners that at all. They're
afraid a goat might be persuaded to come into the sheepfold or
something. I'm not worried about that. I'm not worried about that. I'll
tell you this, the Spirit and the bride say, come. And let
him that's thirsty, listen, here's what they say. Let him that is
thirsty come and take of the water of life freely. Come now, how gracious of God. to say that to a sinner. Come
now and let us reason together. And he says, come right now.
We can't miss that word now. It's not a suggestion. God's
not giving you a decision to make. If the King of glory says
to you, come now, what you don't say is, Lord, I better think
about this for a little while. I've got a decision to make.
I wouldn't say that to him. 2nd Corinthians 6 2 for he saith
I have heard thee in a time accepted What is that there's a certain
time? When God will hear you There's a certain time frame
in which God will even hear from you at all I've heard thee in a time accepted
and in the day of salvation. I have secured thee Well, when
is the day is today? Is this the day of salvation?
No, it's not a day, it's now. Behold, now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation,
now. Neither is there any creature
that is not manifest in God's sight, Hebrews 4.13, but all
things are naked and open under the eyes of him with whom we
Have to do. You're gonna have to come before
him now. You're gonna stand before him. I'll tell you this, you're coming
to Christ. You're coming to him. You're gonna stand before him
and you're gonna bow before him. Everybody in this room, you're
coming to him one way or the other. It's not a question of
whether or not you're coming to Christ, it's just a question
of when. Now is the day of salvation. Come now and let us reason together,
saith the Lord. Let us reason together. What
about your sins? everything he said to them in
the first part of this chapter. Let's reason about that because
clearly you have no idea what you are. You don't know you're
dumb as an ox. Nobody knows that. Everybody believes the doctrine
of us being sinner. If I asked you, are you a sinner,
you'd say yes. I guarantee everybody in this room would say yes to
that. But you don't believe it for a minute. You don't believe
it no more than the man in the moon. We don't even know what
it is. Just about nobody has any idea. God's got to reveal
that to us. That's why he says, come now
and let us reason together. You don't think like God thinks.
Your ways are not my ways, he said. Your thoughts are not my
thoughts. But they're gonna be if he's
gonna save you. You're gonna have to think his way. You wouldn't
describe yourself this way, dumb as an ox, and the best thing
you ever did was wretched in the sight of God. But he does. Jesus answered and said unto
that woman at the well whosoever drinketh of this water shall
thirst again But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give
him shall never thirst But the water that I shall give him shall
be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life How
what a beautiful beautiful and Promise that the Lord makes there
and the woman said unto him sir Give me this water that I thirst
not I don't want to be thirsty anymore. Give me some of this
water But you know what the Lord said
to her Go call your husband and come
here The woman answered and said I
have no husband I And Jesus said unto her, thou hast well said,
I have no husband for thou has had five husbands. And he whom
thou now hast is not your husband. He put his finger on her sin. He said, your sins have got to
be dealt with. What are we going to reason about
Lord your sins and how they can be put away? He didn't say this conference
here with God and our text is not to talk about how bad your
sins are. He's already done that. He's
already told you that. It's not to talk about how big
a sinner you are. It's to talk about what's gonna
be done about it. What's gonna be done about it.
God will show a sinner his sin before he puts it away now, before
he washes them. He must strip us. of our tattered
rags of self-righteousness before he puts his perfect robe of righteousness
on us. He's gonna do that now. The whole
have no need of a physician. You're not gonna come to Christ
till you're a sinner. But them that are sick, he said,
I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. The way God describes all of
Israel in the beginning of our chapter, that's got to come home
to you. You may believe the doctrine
of universal sin, that's all fine and well, but you're gonna
have to come to God as a sinner yourself. But listen to the next part.
They shall be as white as snow. How can sins ever be white? We've sinned and God must punish
sin. According to the strict and uncompromising
law of God, sinners can't go unpunished. Sinners will not
go unpunished, but the chastisement of our peace, if we know the
Savior, was upon Him. My sins were punished, but they
were laid upon my Savior. He hath laid on Him the iniquity
of us all, and by His stripes we're healed. The absolute, undeniable,
irreversible result of my sins being laid on Him and God pouring
out His wrath on His Son is that I'm healed. I'm healed. That's not a contingency plan.
That's not an offer. That's not God's best effort.
That's salvation. Christ crucified is salvation. Now in Christ Jesus, we who were
at one time afar off, that's what we talked about a while
ago. You're going away backward. We who at one time were far off
are now made nigh by the blood of Christ. Come, be made nigh. It only happens by his precious
blood. by his sin-atoning offering of his very soul on Calvary for
the sins of his people. Christ redeemed us from the curse
of the law, being made a curse for us in our place. White as snow, perfectly holy,
righteous. He redeemed his church that they
might be a peculiar people unto him, holy and without blame before
him in love. Righteousness, it shall be well
with the righteous. Who's righteous? Who is righteous?
Those that are relatively better people than others. Him that
doeth good, there is none that doeth good. A sinner doing good
is an oxymoron. The sinner that chooses God,
is he the righteous one? God looked down, the scripture
says, to see if there were any that did understand and seek
after him, and there weren't any, Psalm 14, two. None, none. It is not of him
that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth
mercy, Romans chapter nine. Hmm. No man can come unto me
except my father draw him that word draw means take you from
where you are First part of the chapter to where you need to
be Christ Hmm who then is righteous whose
sins are as white as snow and Christ has made peace by the
blood of his cross, and if he has done that for you, hath reconciled
you to God in the body of his flesh through death, he did that
that you might be holy, unblameable, and unreprovable in his sight,
I'd say you're righteous. If God can't see any sin in you, I might see some, but that's
because I'm an idiot. It's what God sees that counts. How do I know if I'm one for
whom he died? You ever ask yourself that? Well,
you believe in election, Chris. You believe this is already,
it's already settled. Of course it is. We're talking
about God here, not us. Of course it's settled. Of course
he knows his own and who's not. It says he knew Judas was a devil
from the beginning. He knew who he had chosen and
who he hadn't. He always has. Come on now, of
course he's God. He's God. Of course that's true. Well, what difference does anything
make then? The God who ordained the end of all of this ordained
the means too. Don't you neglect them? Don't you neglect the means.
Come now and let us reason together, saith the Lord. That's what happens
when the gospel's preached. You need to hear from God. You
need to worship him. But how do I know if I'm one
for whom he died? Listen to John 6, 37. If you
want to turn there, turn around. I haven't had you turn to anything
yet. I'm trying to be brief, but turn to that one with me. John 637, how in the world can I know today
if God chose me for maternity? John 637, all that the Father
giveth me shall come to me. God gave his son a people, a
bride, they're called, his sheep, they're called. He said, I lay
down my life for my sheep, and then he turned around and told
the Pharisees, you don't believe me because you're not my sheep. That's not unclear, it's just
unpopular. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. And him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. For I came down from heaven not
to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me, and
this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which
he hath given me I should lose nothing. Everybody for whom he
died is saved. by that precious blood, not by
their decision, not by their good works, not by their anything, by His offering for their sin,
the precious blood of God's Son. But should raise it up again
at the last day, look at verse 40 now. And this is the will
of Him that sent me, that everyone which seeth the Son Everyone
which seeth the Son and believeth on him may have everlasting life. What we talked about before there,
what he said there about all the Father, that happened in
eternity. Seeing the Son and believing
on him, that might just happen today. may have everlasting life and
I will raise him up at the last day. But how can I see him? I want to see God's son. I want to believe on him. How
can I see him by what's happening right now? When the gospel is preached,
if God is pleased to give you faith in his son, you will see
him by faith. You don't need to look at a statue
to see him. In fact, you're not gonna see
him looking at a statue. You need God to give you eyes
of faith to behold his son in righteousness. If he does, you'll see him by
faith and you'll lay hold of him and you will never be the
same again. I pray that for everybody in
this room today. Amen. Let's pray together.