I please God to bless us together
this morning as we meditate in his word. Let's turn to the book
of the prophet Isaiah, the first chapter, and we'll read verses
16 to 20. The book of the prophet Isaiah,
chapter one, and reading from verse 16 to 20. Wash you, make
you clean, put away the evil of your doings from before mine
eyes. Cease to do evil, Learn to do
well. Seek judgment. Relieve the oppressed. Judge the fatherless. Plead for
the widow. Come now and let us reason together,
saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow. And though they be red like crimson,
they shall be as wool. If ye be willing and obedient,
You shall eat the good of the land, but if you refuse and rebel,
you shall be devoured with a sword, for the mouth of the Lord hath
spoken it. These are really very wonderful
words to us today, they're really wonderful words to the whole
household of faith to the whole Church of God and it's very clear
in the time when Isaiah lived he lived a long life we're told
that he lived in the days of Isaiah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah
kings of Judah and the Lord came to him and told him what to say
what to speak to the people and it's very clear from the words
that we read in this first chapter, that at this time, Judah in particular,
were not walking really in accordance with the commands and the way
that the Lord had ordained for them. They were walking contrary. And yet, you see, in much of
their way, they were mocking God, because they were just carrying
out the ceremonies. They were carrying out those
things which Moses had instituted under the influence of the Spirit
of God. And Isaiah has to tell them,
to what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me, saith
the Lord? I am full of burnt offerings,
of rams and the fat of fed beasts, and I delight not in the blood
of bullocks or of lambs or of he goats. When you come to appear
before me, Who has required this at your hand to tread my courts? And so he goes on up to this
16th verse with a list really of the things that the people
were doing really in a mock way. They were really hypocritical.
Their heart wasn't really going with the commands of God. They
were just doing things out of tradition, salving their conscience. There's no true reality in it.
Of course, that's so sad today, really, as much as happens. In the Church of God, there's
a lot of just, mere tradition, a lot of just following a way
which they've been used to doing, but there's really not any true
reality. There's not real concern. For one, the forgiveness of all
their sins. to the wonderful direction and
leading to the Saviour. Thirdly, to walk in accordance
with His ways, not their ways. How often people today are not
walking in accordance with the Word of God. They're walking
in their own path, in their own way. They're walking in that
way which doesn't cost them very much, it's really quite convenient,
it's really quite easy. Now the reality is, that such
have not really appreciated that they are sinners before a holy
God when the Spirit of God touches their hearts. It's not just a
mere acknowledgement of that they're sinners, but it's a revelation
that God produces to direct them to see that before a holy God,
that all their righteousnesses are as filthy rags. They're not
good people, they're bad people. And they don't get better, and
they get worse. And sin then becomes a very great
problem to them. The hymn writer says, sinners
can say, and none but they, how precious is the Savior. You see, Jesus Christ will not
really mean anything in a saving way until a person recognizes
how they stand before a holy God. That means they disobeyed
the word of God. They disobeyed the commands of
God. They followed their own inclinations.
They've done those things which are not good. And as the prophet
starts when he says, 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 backward. Well, that's a very sad situation. And therefore we should be thankful
that we have such verses that we've read together this morning.
And so Isaiah comes to this and he says, wash you, make you clean. That's a good thing if we know
and realize we need to be washed. We need to be made clean. And
there's only one washing that will do us any real good. And
that of course is to be washed in the blood of the Lamb. Now
when we come there, that's when the Lord Jesus becomes a precious
reality. Because we know there's none
but Jesus can help. None but Jesus can come to us
and suit us None but Jesus who really understands where we are. And so he tells us, wash you,
make you clean. And then he says, put away the
evil of your doings from before mine eyes. We need to remember,
and especially you young people, you children, to realize that
God's eyes are in every place. You and I can never hide from
God. Wherever we are, whatever situation,
we can hide from one another. We cannot hide from God. His
eyes are upon us at every moment of our life. And so he says,
and wash you, make you clean, put away the evil of your doings
from before mine eyes. And then he says, there's two
statements here, cease to do evil and learn to do well. And these should, of course,
be taken together. It's not just a ceasing to do
evil, it is a concern to learn to do well. And it's interesting
that we have such a statement as that, that we have to learn. We're ignorant in and of ourselves. What a blessing it is when the
Lord teaches us. Because when the Lord teaches,
He doesn't make mistakes. You and I make mistakes sometimes
in our learning. What a blessing it is here that
we have a statement like this. Cease to do evil and learn to
do well. Now it's very strange but it's
very true that our nature likes doing evil. We like the things
which please our flesh. And they're not the things that
please God. And so we have this word from
Isaiah to cease from evil put put away the evil and cease
to do evil these are the words of God and we should recognize
them as such we should be very concerned in our lives that God
gives us grace he gives us his favor to do just that to put
away things which are wrong things which are not in accordance with
the Word of God. You see, we have the Bible, and
it's a wonderful book from Genesis to Revelation, and throughout
the Word of God, it's continual direction to us in the way that
we should walk our life upon this earth. And so, the prophet
instructs us here when he says to put away the evil of our doings,
You and I know in our lives what things perhaps are evil. And
perhaps we haven't always realized they're evil. But I suppose we
can define it like this. Do the things that we do turn
us to Christ? Do they direct us to Christ or
do they direct us away from Christ? And if they direct us away from
Christ, They can't be good, can they? And if they're not good,
they must be evil. And so it's necessary that the
Word of God does speak to us very clearly about these things. Because our old nature, our sinful
nature, it does and likes evil. The things which are wrong, the
things which just please our flesh, the things which aren't
pleasing to God. comprehensive is the word of
God to instruct us and to correct us and to direct us into that
which is wrong. The prophet has gone through
a list in this chapter that we read together. I won't go through
it again, but it's a very strong list. And so he says then, cease
from doing evil, but it's not a vacuum, It's not then something
we don't know where we are. We are then to be directed to
learn to do well. And we have a great and glorious
teacher, the Lord himself. He teaches. None teach like him. He teaches us. We do learn. We learn to do well. What a blessing
it is to desire them, to follow this way, to learn to do well
in our lives in our natural life and in our spiritual life they
are both very important and both very necessary that God gives
us grace to learn to do well and the prophet gives us some
examples here learning to do well he says we are to seek judgment
that means we are to seek the things which are just the things
which are right in accordance with God's eyes, that which is
righteous and not that which is unrighteous, and we are to
seek that. We are to study the Word of God
and to seek that which is good and that which is right, is to
seek. It's not to sit at home and just idle our time away. We are to seek. The Word of God
tells us, the Saviour says, seek and ye shall find, knock and
it shall be opened unto you. Invitations, aren't they? And
so he says here, learn to do well, seek judgment, relieve
the oppressed, those who are oppressed. People are oppressed
and the devil wants them to be oppressed because the devil wants
them to turn away from the things of God. He doesn't want them
to bow down before God. He doesn't want them to worship
the Lord God. So here is a gracious, Word here
of instruction. Relieve the oppressed. So we
come into contact with those who perhaps are oppressed. The
word of God to us each is to try and relieve them. Relieve
them. May not be easy. May not always
know what to do. But here is a gracious word.
Relieve the oppressed. And then judge the fatherless. Those who perhaps don't have
a father. We are to come and to judge them
and do that which is right on their behalf and then plead for
the widow. A widow who no longer has a husband,
no longer has the support of the husband. We are to take up
their case and to plead for the widow. And if you just look at
this list carefully, what you will realise is it's a list which
is costly. I often say true religion is
costly. And if our religion isn't costing
us anything, well, we have to wonder what the value of it really
is. Because true religion is costly.
And here we have a list which is not doing those things which
perhaps you and I want to do. But it's if we're learning to
do well. This is the outcome. This is the word of God to us
to instruct us. Learn to do well and therefore
to seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless,
and plead for the widow. And then we come to this wonderful
18th verse, it's probably one of the well-known verses in the
Word of God. And the Lord says, very directly,
come now. He doesn't say now, just wait, just
dawdle, just carry on. It is a command, it's a loving
command to those who are perhaps walking contrary to God, To those
who feel themselves to be great undone sinners, not knowing what
to do, not knowing where to turn. The Word of God tells us here,
come, come now. It's so relevant, isn't it? Naturally,
the devil will say, well, you needn't come now, you can put
it off a bit. No, the Bible says, the Word of God says, come now.
And it's to come to God. And what are we told to do? and
let us reason together. It's very humbling to think that
almighty God, the great ruler of the universe, is so wonderfully
condescending that he comes to us, unworthy sinners, and says,
let us reason together, now. Not tomorrow, not in a week's
time, now. Come now. And let us reason together,
saith the Lord. You see, it isn't the words of
a man. It's the Word of God. And you
see, where the Word of the Lord is, there is power. Power belongeth
unto God. And so may we hear this voice
to us. Come now. Come now, let us reason
together, saith the Lord. And he speaks to us and he says
this, though your sins be a scarlet, however bad they are, however
wretched they are. And he uses the symbol of scarlet
because in the old days, it may be still today, I don't know,
but when they dyed something in that red scarlet cover, they
always dyed it twice to make sure it was really well impregnated. So if it's like that, if our
sins, our sins are really well impregnated within us. And you
know, it's not easy to give up sinful things. If you and I enjoy
sinful things, it's not easy to give them up. But the Spirit
of God can give us that grace to make us willing in the day
of His power to give them up. Sometimes they're not things
which are particularly obvious. perhaps there are things that
we think about which are not good and so here we have such
a statement though your sins be as scarlet that's not to stop
us coming to God that's not to stop us reasoning together isn't
that amazing the Lord comes to the very worst of sinners the
very worst of sinners the gospel is for the very worst none are
too bad you know the We read in this chapter, Isaiah lived
in the days of Hezekiah. Well, of course, after that,
and I think Isaiah was still perhaps living in the days of
Manasseh. And Manasseh was a most wicked
king. But the Lord had mercy upon him. He was a most terrible king,
did most evil things. But we're told in the end of
Chronicles, We're told how the Lord caused him to pray to God
for mercy. The Lord had compassion on him,
and the Lord blessed Hezekiah. That's why we should have, we
should be thankful we have such words in the Word of God. It
doesn't matter how bad, how sinful, how vile we are, this gracious,
glorious, wonderful invitation is, come now and let us reason
together saith the Lord, and what's the outcome? Though your
sins be as scarlet, though they be, they shall be as white as
snow. Well, I'm sure we understand
what snow's like. We do see snow sometimes in our
country. Some countries, they don't see
it, but we do see it. And when that fresh snow falls upon the
ground, it is beautifully white. It's not gray, it's white, and
it's definitely not black. And so this is the wonderful
truth of the gospel. As we may come to God and blessed
reasoning, that means really praying to Him, explaining to
Him all about us. See, God knows all about you
and me. Other people don't, they can't. They don't know what goes
on inside. But God knows all about us. He
knows the end from the beginning. He knows everything. And therefore
we can come to our kind and gracious God and we can reason with Him. And we might have to come and
say, Lord, I'm just too bad. No, you're not too bad. You're not too bad. The vilest
sinner out of hell who comes to fill his need is welcome to
the throne of grace, a Saviour's blood to plead. That's the blessing
of the gospel, to plead the blood of Christ that cleanseth from
all sin. And that's why we have this great
and glorious, wonderful invitation. Come now and let us reason together. Whatever our condition, the invitation
is spoken so clearly. We can understand it, can't we?
I'm sure there's no one here this morning and we can't understand
the simplicity of these words. And it is a gracious word of
encouragement. Come now. Come now. Let us reason together, saith
the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet.
I may have told you an account which I heard an American minister
giving years ago. He told us of his testimony and
how he was an exceedingly bad person. He was a drunkard and
he was into drugs and everything else and he said he committed
every sin in the book and he was in a terrible state and he
continued in that state and then he got married and he bought
a house in Michigan and he went and the house was in a bad state
and it needed a lot of work done to it and he got into the house
and he started repairing the cracks and he looked at the door
And the neighbor came and he said, oh, he said, I'm your neighbor.
Oh, he said, pleased to see you, come in. And he said, well, can
I help at all? And he said, yeah, you can help.
He said, come on up this ladder and do some work. And the man
came and got up the ladder and the man came down and he sat
in the corner, got out his bottle of whiskey and started drinking.
And the man on the ladder said, well, he said, it's good to see
you. He said, I'm a preacher. And the man said, what? You're
a preacher? You can get out of this house
and don't come back in anymore. Anyway, he went out of the house,
but every time this preacher saw this person, he said to him,
will you come to church tonight with me? Every time he came,
when it was a church night, he would see him and say, will you
come to church? And he said, no, I'm not coming. And this went
on for a while, and then he said to his wife, well, I'm not gonna
get out of this questioning. When it's the church service
night, we're going to go down to the hamburger place and have
a hamburger. So they used to go there every
time. And then once he said, well,
I think this chap must have forgotten now, so perhaps we'll go back.
And he said he went back and they met this man. And the man
says, well, will you come to church? And this chap said, man,
you never give up. He said, no, and I won't give
up. So he went on for a bit, and
then he carried on. He said, when you come to church, he said,
all right, I come to church. But he said, I'm gonna make some
conditions. I'm gonna sit in the back seat, and I want nobody
to ask me any questions, okay? And he said, okay. So he came,
and he sat in the back seat. And the minister, the preacher,
wasn't preaching that night. There was someone else who preached.
And he preached from these words on the 18th verse in this first
chapter. Come now, let us reason together,
saith the Lord, thy sins be as scarlet, they shall be white
as snow, and though they be red like crimson, they shall be as
wool. Well, after the service, the
man came out and he approached this preacher and he said, hey,
he said, you've been telling that man all about me. And he
said, no, I haven't said a thing. Well, he said he got hung up
tonight. He got really hung up. He kept on saying, come now and
let us reason together. And the preacher said, well,
it wasn't me. And anyway, it was the means
of conversion to this man. And he went home and he told
his wife and he said, well, He said, we must pray. He got down
on his knees and prayed. The Lord would forgive him of
all his sins. And the Lord came to him and
spoke these words then powerfully into his heart. And he was blessed
with wonderful forgiveness. And the account just goes on.
I'll just say a little bit more of it. So next morning he gets
up and he goes to work. He goes to work. Previously,
he'd stolen a number of dishes from the workplace. He went to
the gate to check in. He brought this pile of dishes
and he gave them to the man. The man said, what's that? He
said, well, I brought these back. He said, I stole them. He said,
when God makes a man a Christian, he makes him honest. So I said,
I brought them back. And then he went to his workbench
and he said to his brother, Friends on the workbench said, well,
he said, I'm a Christian. And the priest said, really,
you're a Christian? He said, yes. And he told them how the Lord
had come and blessed him. Another man on the workbench.
And he said, oh, he said, I'm a Christian. And the shep said,
you're a what? He said, well, I'm a Christian.
He said, I don't understand that, he said, because I was converted
last night. I want to tell everybody. He
said, and I've been working with you many years. And you've never
told me a thing about Christianity. So, that's a little account which
is very telling really. And I heard it from himself. Come now then, and let us reason
together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow. So nothing to take to stop the
blessed forgiveness from Almighty God. And he goes on and says,
though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. It gives
a double picture really of the blessed forgiveness of God because
when God forgives, we are forgiven. God doesn't
keep on raking up the the sins and bringing them back, you see.
He casts them behind his back. They're forgiven, they're forgotten.
And why? The glorious gospel is that Lord
Jesus Christ died to take away our sins. And my friends, the
death of the Saviour was not in vain. The Lord Jesus
Christ didn't shed his precious blood in vain. He died to atone
for the sins of his people. What a blessing it is for us
today to have that wonderful realisation that we have such a great and
glorious Saviour. The Lord tells us in the 43rd
chapter in Isaiah, in the last few verses in the 43rd chapter,
this is what we read. I, even I, am he that blotteth
out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember
thy sins. You see, when the Lord blots
them out, they're forgotten. Put me in remembrance. Let us
plead together. Declare thou that thou mayest
be justified. My first father hath sinned,
and my teachers have transgressed against me. Therefore I have
profaned the princes of the sanctuary, and have given Jacob to the curse,
and Israel to reproaches. But the glory is here surely.
Put me in remembrance. Come to the Lord. Confess our
sins freely. Yes. He freely forgives. Yes, there's no price to pay.
He freely forgives. It's a wonderful thing, isn't
it, to have such a God who forgives freely. The 55th of Isaiah, it's
a well-known chapter. It starts off, Ho, everyone that
thirsteth. And if you and I are sinners
before God, we'll thirst for forgiveness. It won't be something
which is irrelevant. Because, and I'll tell you why,
because no unforgiven sinner enters into heaven. That's very
serious, isn't it? That's very important, isn't
it? Don't just paddle on day by day, thinking, well, I hope
it'll be alright in the end. The word is, come now. Not tomorrow. Not the next day. Ho, everyone
that thirsted, come into the waters. And he that hath no money,
we haven't got any currency to pay for forgiveness. We don't
need any currency to pay for forgiveness. And he that hath
no money, come ye buy and eat, ye come buy wine and milk without
money and without price. What a great and wonderful favour
it is. What a wonderful blessing the
gospel is. And so we have these encouraging
words to us today. And he just goes on, let me just
run on for a few moments. If ye be willing and obedient,
ye shall eat the good of the land. Well, what a mercy when
God gives you and me a willing spirit, a willing spirit to earnestly
seek his face, a willing spirit to come like this and to come
to the Lord and to reason with him, to pray to him, and He will
take away all our sins. The Lord convicts, the Lord touches
our heart, we're guilty before God, and we will need forgiveness,
and we will need the mercy of God. And it won't be something
which is irrelevant, it'll be very important to us. It is important,
it's vitally important. And so, if ye be willing and
obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land, It's good news,
isn't it? The Lord gives us that winning
spirit, you see. We shall eat the good of the
land. We shall walk before the Lord in the light of his countenance. We shall feed spiritually. The
Lord will bless our souls. He'll lead us into all truth
as it is in Jesus. He'll direct us to see what a
glorious salvation we have. He'll direct us to see what a
glorious inheritance there is before us when we leave this
world to come and to be with Christ forever. If he be willing
and obedient, he shall eat the good of the land. But if he refuse
and rebel, he should be devoured with the sword, for the mouth
of the Lord has spoken it. This is the solemn searching
word of God. We should be very thankful that
we have such words before us, but they're very true and they're
very solemn and they are God's word. Don't think it's irrelevant. Don't think it's not something
which touches your heart. Don't think it's something you
can forget about. Don't think it's something that
is not necessary. It is very very important. This great and glorious statement
here that the Prophet Isaiah speaks and it's in the middle
of this chapter more or less and this chapter speaks about
all the sins of Judah and yet you see There's this wonderful
gospel verse right in the middle, and it's a wonderful gospel verse
for us today. The Lord does not change, I am
the Lord, I change not, therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. There are so very many beautiful
verses in the prophecy of Isaiah. It is sometimes referred to as
the gospel of Isaiah. And really, it is the Gospel
of Isaiah. In the 41st chapter, in the first
verse, he says, Keep silence before me, O Islands, and let
the people renew their strength. Then let them come near. Then
let them speak. Let us come near together to
judgment. You see, what a wonderful favour
it is to be blessed with union to Christ. together. It's really
a consideration which is too big for us to grasp, that the
Lord Jesus, the Blessed Saviour, the Second Person of the Trinity,
the Creator of all things, condescends to come where we are, to speak to us, to encourage
us, to direct us, What a wonderful, blessed God we have. In the 44th chapter of Isaiah,
again, we have similar words from verse 21, where we're told,
44th chapter, 21st verse, remember these, O Jacob and Israel, for
thou art my servant, I have formed thee, thou art my servant, O
Israel, thou shalt not be forgotten of me. unworthy sinner not forgotten I have blotted
out as a thick cloud thy transgressions and as a cloud thy sins return
unto me for I have redeemed thee isn't that wonderful news eh?
the Lord's redeemed us and how are we redeemed? redeemed with
the precious blood of Christ. That's the price that was paid
to take away our sins. It was the greatest price that
could ever be paid. The Saviour gave His life. You
can't give a greater thing than that because once your life's
taken, it's gone. The Lord Jesus Christ gave His life. Oh, what a wonderful blessing
it is to have such a Saviour. And so let us Recognize the wonderful
truth if you will be willing and obedient well may you and
I be willing The devil doesn't want you to be willing believe
you me He'll try and make every excuse To not be willing to obey
the word of God To not be willing to hear these gracious words
come now and let us reason together The devil will make up all sorts
of reasons and all sorts of thoughts in your mind So this doesn't
occur. But what a blessing it is if
the Holy Spirit gives us that grace, that favour to come to
Him in all simplicity. It's not a complicated statement,
is it? It's very simple. Very simple. And I hope that
the Holy Spirit might direct us to come to Him. Come now. Let us reason together, saith
the Lord. Thy sins be as scarlet, they
shall be. white as snow, now they'll be
red like crimson they shall be as wool when the Apostle Paul
wrote to the Ephesians and of course we're going through the
Ephesians at the moment but in the first chapter he says this to the praise of the glory of
his grace chapter 6 verse to the praise of the glory of his
grace wherein he hath made us accepted in the Beloved, in whom
we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins,
according to the riches of his grace, wherein he hath abounded
toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known unto us the
mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure, which he
hath purposed in himself." Well, you can go on. It's a long sentence.
I won't read it all in the first chapter of Ephesians. It's a
long sentence. But the wonderful words are, in whom we have redemption
through his blood. And we all need redemption. The
forgiveness of sins. And we all need the forgiveness
of sins. No exception. Don't think there's any other
way. No, we all need the blessed favour and blessed forgiveness
of our great and glorious Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And in
the last book in the Bible, the Revelations, John the Apostle,
he tells us in the 7th chapter, and towards the end, the 13th
verse in the 7th chapter, he asks the question, or rather
he hears what they say, and one of the elders answers saying
unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? And
whence came they? And I said unto him, Sir, thou
knowest. And he said to me, these are
they which came out of great tribulation. Notice that, means
what it says, great tribulation. The Lord spoke of that in the
18th of John. It is through much tribulation
that we should inherit the kingdom. It would be a good joy. I have
overcome the world. And so this is really reiterated
here. These are they which came out
of great tribulation and have washed their robes and made them
white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the
throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple. And
he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. They
should hunger no more, neither thirst any more, neither shall
the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the lamb which is in
the midst of the throne shall feed them and shall lead them
unto living fountains of waters, and God shall wipe away all tears
from their eyes." Well, I hope we're thankful for the gospel.
I hope we recognize the reality of it. I hope we are blessed
with the humble hope that we come within these words and that
they may be a gracious and glorious invitation to us, even today,
and to believe that what God has spoken all those years ago
is as powerful today as it was then. Come now and let us reason
together, saith the Lord, that your sins be as scarlet, they
shall be as white as snow, that they be red like crimson, they
shall be as wool. Amen.