because to turn together to the
chapter that we read together, Isaiah chapter 1, and the text
you'll find in verse 18. Come now and let us reason together,
saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet,
they shall be white as snow. Though they be red like crimson,
they shall be as wool. Those of you who were here this
morning will remember or see that the text is very similar
really to the verse that we had this morning. I even I am he
that blotteth out thy transgression for mine own sake and I will
not remember thy sins. And as you as we read through
the verse, you will see that even the things that are being
said are very similar. The characteristic of the people
of Israel is laid bare, very grim, very sad, how they had
spiraled into a lifestyle of sin and rebellion against the
true and living God. And Isaiah, has a vision and he has to take
this message to the people. And you can think that as he's
seeing what the Lord wants him to say he's thinking well this
is going to be a difficult thing to take a message from God to
the people of God which is very difficult, which is very painful
for them to bear but sometimes pain is a good thing. Sometimes we need to have a painful
experience to enable us to get better. Sometimes we need to
hear the bad news before we are able to receive the good news. We need to understand the depths
to which we have plummeted to before we can experience the
true grace of God and to see the wonderful grace of God, the
extent of the grace of God in our lives. Remember as Jesus
said to the lady who was washing his feet, he who has had much
forgiven the same loves much. And so the work of the Spirit
of God lays bare the extent of our sin so we can really rejoice
in the magnificent Saviour of the Lord Jesus Christ. And like
I said this morning when the sky is so dark and the stars
shine more brightly and so when The extent of the sin is laid
bare so clearly, the darkness and the stench of sin is laid
bare so clearly, so the grace and the mercy of God stands out
more clearly. And so Isaiah has to come to
the people of God with a harsh message. This is how God sees
you. This is how you look in the eyes
of your creator. You may not think that you look
like this but this is what he sees when he looks at you. This is what he sees when you
go to his feasts. This is what he sees when you
go to him in prayer. This is what he sees when you
offer up your sacrifices. When you do your feasts, when
you spread forth your hands, this is what he sees. And he
has to expose the sin of the people to make them realise the
extent of their backslidden condition. He says, Hear, O heavens, and
give ear, O earth, for the Lord hath spoken. I have nourished
and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.
The people of God, the people of Israel, were known as God's
firstborn son. were his children. It is him
who brought Abraham out of the Ur of the Chaldeans. It's God
who led him forth through the wilderness and to the promised
land. It's him who gave him a son Isaac and Jacob. It is Jacob
who multiplied in the in the land of Egypt. It is God
who took care of them. They were his people, his children. He gave them everything that
they needed. He protected them, provided for them and preserved
them and multiplied them. He says, I've nourished them
up. He's taken care of their every
need. And then this is how they treat
me. Sometimes parents raise children. And from a young age, obviously,
as they're born, they're nourished. They are cared for. Every need
is taken care of. They're educated. They come to
teenage years and they begin to rebel. Get their own mind. They begin to fight against their
upbringing and resist the authority of their parents and they go
astray. And this is how it is here with
the children of Israel. They were nourished as a little
baby. They were cared for, everything
was given to them but as they grew up Then they got their own
mind. They got rebellious. They were
tempted by the world and they rebelled against their father,
their heavenly father. And he says, the ox knows his
owner and he asks his master's crib, but Israel does not know. My people does not consider a
sinful nation. A people laden with iniquity,
a seed of evildoers, children that are corruptors. They have
forsaken the Lord. They have provoked the Holy One
of Israel unto anger and they are gone away. And so God tells
Isaiah, this is what I see of my children. This is what has
taken place. My chosen ones. They have left me. There is more
hope for an ox, for a cow who knows his owner than for my people. They have no knowledge of me.
Although they go to the temple, although they go through all
of the ceremonies that I've given them to do, yet they do it without
the heart, just rituals that they pass through. And then he
says, I've disciplined them. I have disciplined them and I
have disciplined them and I have disciplined them so much so that
they are oozing with sores. Why should I strike them anymore? God says I've disciplined them
for these sins time and time again and they will not listen. They are corrupted from the head
to the foot. From the sole of the foot even
unto the head there is no soundness in it but wounds and bruises
and putrefying sores that have not been closed up neither bound
up neither modified with ointment. And so as God sees them he sees
the strokes that he has laid upon them already haven't worked
only that they've got worse. The marks that they left have
become infected and contaminated. Their behaviour has got worse
and worse and worse. And so he paints a image of a
completely sick country, a completely sick person that is oozing and
smelling with wounds and sickness. As I read this, I was reminded
of something that I saw in Kenya. Something probably not many doctors
have even seen in England. because nothing gets as bad as
this normally. I was asked to visit a lady who
had been hit by a motorbike and had a compound fracture on her
leg. She'd been to the doctors, she'd
been in hospital, and there was a virus that passed through the
hospital so they sent everybody home. She was in a mud hut that
was probably six foot by six foot with a door maybe four foot. You had to crouch down to go
under. Laying in the blackness was this lady who had a wound
that they would call gas gangrene. so infected that the wound itself
begins to produce a gas that bubbles from the wound. Not long after the lady died.
This is the image that God paints of his people. They're so sick
and they've become so vile, so backslidden. that they are just
like a sick person that has gas gangrene. And there is no hope
for them. Not even ointment would do them
any good. Their country is desolate. Their
cities are burnt with fire. Strangers are devouring it in
their presence. There is no hope for these people. If you read it, you think it's
the end. people of Israel they are finished
but God he says I preserved them a remnant a very small remnant And we know as we read the scripture
that there was only two tribes that remained, Judah and Benjamin. Out of the 12 tribes of Israel,
the extent of their sin and the punishment which God laid upon
them caused them to be dispersed and to disappear. And so they
are left with this, as God puts it himself, a very small remnant. But again, as in the chapter
that we had this morning, God magnifies his mercy to this remnant
and he calls them to turn from their sin, to wash themselves
and to put away the evil of their doings before his eyes and to
cease to do evil. He causes them, he tells them
through the prophet that they're to wash and to make themselves
clean. They're to come to repentance
over their sin, although such is the extent of the sin. As we looked at this morning,
so they were burning their own children. Such is the extent
of their sin, yet God stretches out his hand in mercy. And although
you're like a sick person with no hope, Wash yourself and make
yourself clean and so repentance is like washing. If we wash we have a desire to
be clean. We have a knowledge of the filth
or a feeling of the filth that is upon us and we have a desire
to be clean. And someone has that desire of
repentance. They have that knowledge of the
filth of sin. They feel uncomfortable, they
feel guilty and they want to turn from that. And so repentance is like washing,
turning away, cleansing from the filth. But repentance itself
is not saving and repentance itself is not cleansing. But where repentance takes you
that is where the cleansing comes from. You see there are some
people who may feel sorry for their sin and they may say that
they're sorry and they may say that they've repented But if
they don't turn to the right place, that repentance will have
no effect. It won't cleanse them. It won't
get them forgiven because they're not turning in the right direction.
That repentance doesn't turn them to Christ. It doesn't turn
them back to God. It turns them to self-pity and
sorrow and maybe even self-righteousness. Another thought of Naaman. in second Kings. Naaman, he was
a leper and he wanted to be made clean and he goes to the king
of Israel and he asks him to be a made king and the king thinks
that he wants to make war. How am I a king going to heal
you of your leprosy? And so he searches for Elijah
the prophet. and he comes to him in 2nd Kings
chapter 5. And it says in verse 8, And when
it was so, when Elisha the man of God had heard that the king
of Israel had rent his clothes, that he sent to the king, saying,
Wherefore hast thou rent thy clothes? Let him come now to
me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel. So Naaman
came with his horses and with his chariot, and stood at the
door of the house of Elisha. And Elisha sent a messenger unto
him, saying, Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and thy flesh
shall come again unto thee, and thou shalt be clean. But Naaman
was wroth and went away and said, Behold, I thought that he would
surely come out and stand and call in the name of the Lord
his God and strike his hand over the place and recover. And he
goes on complaining about the River Jordan and the greatness
of the rivers in his own land. And he thought that they would
be better. And so he had come to this realisation
that he's a leper. And his only hope is to come
to the God of Israel, to find Elisha, that Elisha may do something
to him. But Elisha sends him to the River
Jordan. And to the River Jordan was the
only place where which he could be made clean. He could not go
to any other place. Any other river would have been
disobedient. He had to go to the river that
Elisha sent him to and he had to wash in that river seven times. And he does. And he is made clean. And so where he went was where
the cleansing came from. And so it is with true repentance. Repentance itself does not save
anybody. It is a gift given by God. And repentance, true repentance,
turns somebody to the Lord Jesus Christ and it is there that they
find forgiveness. Naaman had to go to the River
Jordan. He had to wash there seven times. Only there was the
cleansing. But it wasn't just that. Wash
you, make you clean, put away the evil of your doings from
before mine eyes and cease to do evil. You see, repentance
isn't just going once to the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not just
feeling sorry for one's sin. It is a continued act through
the life of a Christian. It's not just a one-time event. That one-time event brings you
to the Lord Jesus Christ, but you continue going there. and true repentance gives somebody
a hatred of sin. It's like somebody who's on a
diet and they've loved eating cakes their whole lives and they've
suddenly decided, no I'm not going to eat cakes anymore. And
they turn away from it. There may be those cravings,
but they resist those cravings. And if they do take the cake,
then they feel guilty. And so it is with someone who
has truly come to a knowledge of their sin and turned to Christ. They're on a, as it were, a diet
from sin. They hate it. They know it's
bad for them. And when they do sin, it gives
them grief and sorrow. They feel that they've failed.
And they turn again to the Lord Jesus Christ. And so true repentance
brings about a hatred of sin. And so God says, wash yourself. Make yourself clean. Put away
the evil of your doings from before mine eyes and cease to
do evil. It has a real effect. Remember Judas. Judas was sorry
but then he went and hung himself. He didn't continue. His true
sorrow did not bring him to the Lord Jesus Christ. He was self-absorbed. But true repentance causes someone
to put away the evil. As a dieter puts away the cake,
puts away the things that are bad. So God calls his people,
put away those things from before my eyes and cease to do evil. He doesn't leave it there. He
says, learn to do well. we read of the behavior of the
children of Israel part of the law of God was that they were
to look after certain people within their nation. There were
certain portions that they were to leave for the poor There were
certain things they were to leave for widows and orphans. And God required in the nation
of Israel that there would be an order, that people would be
looked after. But as they turned away from
God, they begin to despise those ordinances that God made. The
cutting of the fields, the allowing for pathways even between the
fields, the looking after of widows and orphans, they began
to despise it and to see it as unnecessary. And so he says when I see true
repentance I also want to see a true lifestyle of godliness. A lifestyle which I have ordered
for my people to seek judgment. Remember they were corrupt. We read that they took bribes.
They perverted the course of justice. You know in a country
that is corrupt you can't even go to the judge and believe that
you're being dealt with fairly because he can be swayed by money. And so there is no truth it's
very difficult to know who's on your side, who's doing what.
And so the children of Israel began to be like that. They took
bribes, they perverted the course of justice and God says I want
judgment. I want it to be done rightly.
I want you to relieve the oppressed, to judge the fatherless and plead
for the widow. And so this The repentance that
God was looking for from his people was that they turned from
their sin and then turned to a lifestyle of righteousness,
a lifestyle that was pleasing to him, that everything was ordered
in a way that he required. But then he says, come now. In James chapter 1 in the New Testament
you will see that it's a similar image that
is being painted by God regarding the people of God. We know that
the people of Israel, after they rejected Christ, Jerusalem was
destroyed and the gospel goes forth into all the world and
there is gathered in from every nation a people. And so what
was expected of the people of Israel, justice, righteousness,
the relieving of the oppressed and the widows and the fatherless. These acts of mercy, this lifestyle
of righteousness was obviously to be continued through into
the New Testament era. And James tells us that we're
not to be just hearers of the word but doers of the word also. But he says from verse 22, Be
ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your
own selves. For if any man be a hearer of
the word and not a doer, he is like a man beholding his natural
face in a glass. For he beholdeth himself, and
goeth his way, and straightway forgeteth what manner of man
he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and
continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but the
doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. If any
man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue,
but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain.
Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to
visit the fatherless, and widows in their affliction and to keep
himself unspotted from the world. And so we see exactly what the
Lord said to the people of Israel. This is what the Lord required
of them. They had gone into the world,
contaminated themselves completely. And he says, come back to me,
wash yourself, make yourself clean, put away the evil, learn
to do well. seek judgment, relieve the oppressed,
judge the fatherless, please for the widow, come now and let
us reason together, saith the Lord. Pure religion is this,
undefiled before God, to visit the fatherless, the widows in
their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world. This is what God desired for
the people of Israel and how they fell so far short. even to rejecting his own son,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And he says, come now and let us reason together, saith
the Lord. And this is the most important
part. You see, repentance and facing
the wrong way, godly living, without repentance it can do
you no good. The scripture tells us not by
works of righteousness that we have done but it's by coming to the Lord. It is only him that can remove
the stain of sin. Repentance cannot remove the
stain of sin. Godly living cannot remove the
stain of sin but God can remove that stain. Come now he says
and let us reason together. Now Isaiah 55. From verses 1 to 3 it says, Ho,
everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that
hath no money, come ye, buy and eat, yea, come, buy wine, milk,
without money and without price. Wherefore do you spend money
for that which is not bread, and your labour for that which
satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me and
eat ye that which is good and let your soul delight itself
in fatness incline your ear and come unto me here and your soul
shall live and I will make an everlasting covenant with you
even the sure mercies of David. Remember Jesus says come unto
me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you
rest. And so God says to those who
understand the depravity of themselves, the depth of their sin, He says, come and let us reason
together. Why would anybody want to come
to God? Only to confess their sin. As we saw this morning, against
thee and thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight. Sin is against God. It's not
how we see ourselves, it is how God sees us. We may deem ourselves
to be good citizens of this country, good Christians. We come to chapel,
we do this and we do that. But how does God see us? Look
at the extent by which the people of God backslid. And as God looked
at them, he says, I don't even listen to their prayers. When
they put their hands up, I turn my face away. Their offerings are vain obligations
I cannot away with. It is iniquity. Even solemn meetings,
new moons and your appointed feasts, my soul hates. They are
trouble unto me and I'm weary. When thou spread'st forth thy
hands, I will hide my eyes from you. Yea, When you make many
prayers I will not hear for your hands are full of blood. What a solemn picture it paints
of a back-slidden Christian. But God says wash yourself. Get
rid of that uncleanness. Learn to do well and then come
and reason with me. Though your sins be as scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow. He desires that they come and
confess their sin before him. He says, the scripture says,
if we confess our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive
us of our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Come now and let us reason together,
saith the Lord. There are many excuses which
will be put into the mind as to why you cannot come to the
Lord. You may hear that you are not
able, but if you are thirsty, if you
know that your only hope is in Christ, if you know that he is the only
one that can forgive you, then the door is open. invitation
is there to come to those who are thirsty and to those who
are in need. Satan will give you all manner
of excuses. Maybe you will say, well I'm
so sinful. There's no greater sinner than
me. Have you read what we have read
today? Have you seen the extent by which
the children of Israel fell or slipped into sin? And how God
saw them and yet he still invites them to come to him and to reason
this thing out. Yes they may bring all manner
of excuses and you may bring all manner of excuses but God
will not have any excuses. There is nobody that is too sinful
to come to the Lord Jesus Christ and to find forgiveness. And if you tell God how sinful
you are, you're telling something that he already knows. And he knows more about you and
me than we know about ourselves. You may think that you have done
this sin that is so bad and yet he knows far more of the sins
that you have committed. You may think that there is this
one sin that is blocking you from coming to the Lord Jesus
Christ that can never be forgiven. Maybe you're thinking, well I've
committed the unpardonable sin. Well you haven't. 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. And the Lord presents to the
people of Israel two dyes that they knew something about. Scarlet. was double-dipped. It was a deep
dye that could not be got out of a garment. Sun, rain, no amount
of washing could remove it and he says the extent of your sin
is so deeply ingrained into your soul yet I'm able to get it out. As we
saw this morning with those who advertise those cleaning products,
they say our product is the best one for removing this. Well God
knows how to remove the deepest dye of sin in the life of a person. And though your sins be as scarlet,
double dipped, deeply dyed, yet They shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson,
they shall be as wool. Crimson was also a dye that was
used, and it was used to dye woolen products. It was also
extremely difficult to remove. Yet God, he says, I'm able to
reverse the process. the wool that was white and you
have made it red like crimson, I am able to get it out again. Your sin is able to be washed
away and your life is able to be cleansed from all sin. It can be washed away. And really it's this. Scarlet for Scarlet and Crimson
for Crimson. You see, the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ is able to cleanse us from all sin. And this is
the cleaning agent that God has for the removal of the deepest
stain of sin. The scarlet blood, the crimson
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. The blood of the Lord Jesus Christ
cleanses us from all sin. Of the hymn that says, are you
washed in the blood? Are you washed in the blood?
of the Lamb. Come now and let us reason together. There's no excuses. You will
not be able to present to God a reason why you should not be
forgiven, the reason why your sin could not be cleansed. There's nothing that you could
have done, said or thought that cannot be dealt with by the sacrifice
of the Lord Jesus Christ. No amount of sin can pass through this way and
not be forgiven. Think of the Apostle Paul, a
murderer. I don't think any of us are murderers
here tonight. But he was saved by the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Come now, 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 David in his repentance over his sin Asked to be washed Psalm 51 after the sins that
he had committed that adultery and murder and lies. He says,
have mercy on me, O God. According to thy loving kindness,
according to the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out
my transgression. Wash me thoroughly from mine
iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my
transgression and my sin is ever before me. See confession. He
confessed. Wash you and make you clean. For I acknowledge my transgression
and my sin is ever before me. Verse seven. Purge me with hyssop
and I shall be clean. Wash me and I shall be whiter
than snow. That was David's desire. I wonder if that's our desire
tonight. We understand the deep dye of sin in our lives. Maybe
we've been putting off or thinking of any excuses as to why God
wouldn't accept you. But he will accept those who
come to him in Jesus' name, asking for their sins to be blotted
out, asking to be washed from their iniquity. Those who acknowledge
their transgressions, their sins, their stepping over the line,
their rebellion of God. Those who understand that they
have sinned against God and they need to be purged. They need
to be cleaned, they need to be washed and they need to be made
whiter than snow. Well there is a fountain that
has been opened, that is opened even today for sin and for uncleanness
and anyone who comes to that fountain is able to be washed
from all of their sin and that fountain is the precious blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Whoever comes to him will in
no way be cast out for he receives sinners, he is a friend of sinners
and he's able to wash them in his precious blood to take away
their sins, to blot out their transgressions, to satisfy the
law of God and to remember their sins and their iniquities anymore. Well may each of us this night
be washed and may whiter than snow and be, although our sins
be as crimson, be made like as wool. May the Lord add his blessing. Amen. Let's close our worship here
today in singing from Gadsby's hymn number 289. 289. Thus far my God has led
me on and made his truth and mercy known. My hopes and fears
all turn at rise and comforts mingle with my sighs. Hymn 289,
tune 405. And thou wilt take them with
thy sight. Earth is my fatherland. ? God love thee, let this be true
? ? Atop the rising sun ? ? Jesus, Lord of thy people ? Dear Heavenly Father, we thank
Thee for the promise of salvation and we thank Thee that Thou art
able to put our sins behind Thine back and remember us, remember
them no more. And we thank thee that, though
our sins be as scarlet and crimson, they are able to be as white
as snow. We pray that we may be granted
that great measure of faith to be drawn in true repentance and
sorrow of sin to the Lord Jesus Christ as our only hope of salvation. We ask that we may go on our
way rejoicing in what thou hast done this night and do take us
home in peace and in safety. And I may the grace of the Lord
Jesus Christ and the love of God the Father, fellowship and
communion of the Holy Spirit to be with us each now and forevermore.
Amen.