The title of the message today
is Learning to Do Well. And I got that title obviously
from verse 17 of this passage. Learn to do well, seek ye judgment. That's what he's saying. Relieve
the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. And the
mainstay of what I want to talk to you about today as we go through
this is verse 18. Come now, let us reason together,
saith the Lord, though your sins be as scarlet. You know what
that means, red, that's talking about the immensity of our sinfulness. And Isaiah the prophet doesn't
let up. He doesn't hold back on this.
He tells the truth. He's speaking as the prophet
of God. And he says, though your sins
be as scarlet. Now it's easy for us to quote
a verse here and there. For example, we all quote Romans
3.23. I'd say most of you know what
that verse is. We've all sinned and come short of the glory of
God. But what does that really entail in its vast depth and
description? I'm reminded as I read through
this passage what the Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 2
and verse 14. He said, The natural man. Now what is
the natural man? That's all of us as we are naturally
born. Isn't that right? That's every
one of us. Every human being in this world
who's born fallen in Adam. Ruined by the fall. Born dead
in trespasses and sins. And that doesn't mean that everybody
is immoral and irreligious. It means they're spiritually
dead. That's the absence of spiritual life. Dead to the things that
really glorify God. really honor Christ but he says
the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God
for they are neither can he know them for they're spiritually
discerned spiritually understood spiritually received and he cannot
know them it takes a work of God the Holy Spirit in a new
birth the scripture says you must be born again John chapter
3 and multitudes of other verses It takes a work of the Holy Spirit
to receive these things as taught by the Spirit in the Word of
God. And one of the things, the way
he describes it in 1 Corinthians 2 is back up in verse 12. Now
you don't have to turn there, I'm just thinking about this
as I look at this passage here. The thing that the natural man
will not receive, believe, understand, and hear, and bow to, is the
things that are freely given. And what he's speaking of, Paul,
he's talking about how all of salvation, if sinners are going
to be saved, all of salvation must be given freely. It's not
conditioned on you or me. It's a free gift. Now, as Brother
Randy read through, Isaiah 1. And you see in the first part
beginning of verse 1, actually beginning verse 2 and going to
verse 9. What kind of people is he describing
here? And I'll tell you what got me
on, last week I mentioned this. What got me on to Isaiah chapter
1 is the state of our nation today. We all think about that. As I
mentioned last week, we're in an election year. And we think
about our country. And I told you last week, now
you have to keep in mind when we think about things in our
day, in our age, and politically, economically, religiously, we
have to remember we've been spoiled, folks. Now we flat have been
spoiled. I know my generation was spoiled.
taking things for granted. We see this country going downhill. And a lot of times we'll say
it like this, we'll say, well, things are worse than they've
ever been. Now, if you read the Bible, you can say things are worse
than they've ever been in one sense only. It's not in economics
and politics and morality. It's always been bad. And I could
go through the scripture if you had time this morning to show
you that. God said it. But one of the things,
one of the ways that it's getting worse and worse is there's less
and less gospel preached. There's a lot of religion now.
A lot of religion, but not much truth. Multitudes of people. Now, there are multitudes of
immoral people, but there are multitudes of religious people,
too, who are religious without the truth. And I'm not just saying
that to be critical. This is what Isaiah is saying
about his generation. Somebody asked me, he said, well,
do you think this country needs moral reformation? Absolutely. Yes, we do. We need severe, strong
moral reformation. But here's the point. Moral reformation
will not save sinners. Now, do you believe that? As Isaiah described these people,
listen to this. Verse 2, he said, here's his
message. I dealt with verse 1 last week, how he preached through
the time of these kings and what the country was like during those
times. Verse 2, 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."
Now let me put it in perspective. What he's talking about and what
he's going to describe is the state of all fallen human beings
by nature since the fall of man. We've rebelled against God. That's
our state by nature. what the scripture says. Somebody
says, well, I don't believe that. Well, that's okay, but you just
don't believe what God's Word says. If you don't believe that, don't
ever quote Romans 3.23 again. We've all sinned and come short
of the glory of God. What's that mean? It means we've
fallen short. Now, we can easily see that when we apply it to
the worst of humanity. But can we see it when we apply
it to the best of humanity? Because it applies there. You
say, I don't accept that. And I'll tell you, the natural
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. We've rebelled against God. And
it's not just in the immoral behavior of humanity. There's
that. That is rebellion. That's sin that deserves death.
But even in man's religious efforts, we by nature have rebelled against
God. He goes all the way back to Adam
in the garden. What did Adam do when he realized
that he and his wife were naked? They sewed fig leaves together,
which is a symbol of man trying to hide his sin, hide his shame,
and it played out in a religious ceremony when Cain, their son,
brought the works of his hands to the Lord to be accepted. God
had already revealed that that's not going to get it done. Man's
works and efforts, religious, moral, whatever, will not save
him from sin. Now look at verse three. He says,
the ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib. The
dumb animals know their masters. If you've got a dog, do they
know who you are? But he said, man by nature is
worse off. Look, but Israel doth not know,
my people doth not consider. You say, well that's talking
about Israel, not about America. Oh no, it's talking about America
too. You think you're better than Israel? That's man's problem. I hear people read and preach
through the Old Testament and they act as if we're better than
they. Oh, if I'd have been, we would
have done this. I've told you the story about
the preacher up in Ohio talking about the crucifixion of Christ.
And he was describing it in vivid detail, the suffering, the bloodiness
of it. And he's crying and he made the
statement, he said, if I'd have been there, I would have stopped
it. And I thought, that's blasphemy. First of all, it's blasphemy
in thinking that you can overturn the purpose of God to redeem
his people from sin. That's the reason Christ came.
You remember when Peter tried to stop the Lord Jesus from going
into Jerusalem, and Christ told him, Get thee behind me, Satan. That's why he came into the world.
His name shall be called Jesus, for he shall save his people
from their sins. How's he going to do it? By his
death on the cross. And secondly, it was a travesty
because the man thought he was better than everybody else that
was in that crowd. We're no better. Look at it. Verse 4, a sinful nation, a people
laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers. Children of evildoers,
children that are corruptors, they've forsaken the Lord, they've
provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger. That Holy One of
Israel is Christ. This is prophecy, you see. This
was about 750 years before Christ came onto the scene. But he was
always the way of salvation in the mind and purpose of God,
even in the Old Testament. They are gone away backward.
That means they're alienated, separate from God. Verse 5, why
should you be stricken anymore? You will revolt more and more.
In other words, God's punishments aren't doing any good. They're
not helping. You see, sinners don't come to
repentance and faith through judgment. They come to repentance
and faith by the power of the Holy Spirit who convicts us of
sin and of righteousness and judgment and drives us to Christ.
You will revoke more and more. The whole head is sick and the
whole heart is faint. This is not just an outward problem. This is a total depravity of
man. That's what he's talking about.
What is total depravity? Three things, remember. Total
depravity does not teach that everybody is as bad as we could
be at all. If that were the case, this world
would be destroyed already. It'd be nothing but chaos. Total
depravity teaches three things. Number one, we are not righteous
in ourselves. We always fall short. That's
what Romans 3.23 means. We've all sinned and come short
of the glory of God. Even at our worst and our best,
we do not measure up. We're sinners. Secondly, we cannot
work righteousness by our best efforts to keep the law. And
my friend, listen, I think we all, every one of us now, now
listen to me very carefully, every one of us should be model
citizens. There's no argument there. We
should be moral, we should be civic-minded, we should be responsible. We should be good fathers, good
husbands, good wives, good mothers, everything. You children should
be obedient to your parents, obedient to authority. We should
be law-abiding citizens. That's a given. And we should
encourage that. The immorality, we should fight
against it. What the Supreme Court did last
year, putting their stamp of approval
on homosexual marriage. We're against that. That's sin. But here's what I'm saying. The
best that we can be is not good enough to save us or to make
us righteous before God. By deeds of law shall no flesh
be justified, made righteous in God's sight. We are not righteous
in ourselves. We cannot make ourselves righteous.
And the third thing about total depravity is this. We don't want
righteousness God's way. Now understand that. By nature,
we're like Cain. We want it our way, by our works,
by our doing, by our suffering, by our ceremonies, by our religion. But God's way, now why is it
man by nature doesn't want it God's way? Because God's way
leaves us no room to brag. It gives all the glory to the
Lord Jesus Christ. Here's the Apostle Paul, a man
used of God like no other, preaching the gospel. He was the apostle
to the Gentiles. He went into foreign countries
and preached the gospel. And back then, you know, it's
kind of dangerous to go in foreign countries in our day, but it
wasn't nothing like back then. But he went under the command
of God, under the protection of God, and God raised up churches
in places like Galatia, Ephesus, places like Antioch, Paul preached,
and then the Apostle Paul was used of God to write over half
the New Testament. And yet, what was his testimony? Now compare Paul's testimony
to the testimony of what many so-called Christians say today. Here's Paul's testimony, Galatians
6.14, God forbid that I should glory, boast, save in the cross
of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's it. God's purpose in the salvation
of his people is that he be glorified and no man should glory in his
presence, no flesh. You see, man by nature wants
righteousness, but he wants it in a way that gives him a little
room, maybe just a little, but a little room to boast. I did
this. I accepted this. I got baptized. I joined the church. I got serious
about religion. That won't make you righteous. Look on, he says, verse six,
from the sole of the head even to the foot to the top of the
head, there's no soundness in it but wounds and bruises and
putrefying sores. They have not been closed, neither
bound up, neither mollified with ointment. He's using metaphorical
language here to describe the utter depravity of sin. It's
like in the Old Testament where High Priest Joshua was standing
before God clothed in filthy rags. Man by nature presenting
his religion, his efforts, his works to God, that's what it
is. He's standing before God in filthy rags. And what did
God say? He said, take those filthy rags
off of him and put on a new raiment, a new change, a change of clothes.
And what is the garment? God puts on. It's the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ imputed, charged, accounted to his people.
Verse 7, your country is dead. Doesn't this describe our country
today? Listen to this, your country is desolate, your cities are
burned with fire, your land strangers devoured in your presence. Is
that what's happening today in our land? And it's desolate,
overthrown by strangers, foreigners. That's what it's talking about.
Now, I'm not saying we're going to be afraid of all foreigners,
but what's happened to our country is being taken over. And then he says in verse eight,
the daughter of Zion, Zion is a picture, Zion was a mountain
in Jerusalem, a hill in Jerusalem, where the temple was on it, but
it's a picture, it's a symbol of the church. He says, the daughter
of Zion is left a cottage in a vineyard, a lodge in a garden
of cucumbers as a besieged city. In other words, that which was
glorious has now been reduced to nothing. Listen to verse nine. Now, picture
this now. Somebody gets offended at what
we preach. Because this is talking about
us by nature. That's why we need salvation
by grace. That's why we need Christ-righteousness impudency.
But picture Isaiah the prophet standing before a group at the
temple in Jerusalem, preaching this message, and listen to what
he says in verse 9. Look at it. Except the Lord of
hosts, that's the invincible God, had left unto us a very
small remnant, very few people. We should have been as Sodom
and we should have been like unto Gomorrah. Sodom and Gomorrah? Those cities were totally destroyed. But Jerusalem and Judah was not
totally destroyed yet because there was a very small remnant
of God's people. Not because they were better
than the rest of the group. but because of salvation by the
grace of God. It's like back in Genesis chapter
6, you know, when God describes the state of the world, and he
said, man's heart was evil continually. That was back then. That's God's
state of the world address. Man's heart was evil continually.
And then it says in verse 8, but Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. You see, Noah wasn't wasn't picked
out because Noah was better than the rest of the bunch. Or that
Noah made a decision that the others wouldn't make. That's
not why he was picked out. If that were the reason, he wouldn't
have needed grace. What is grace? It's something
freely given that's not earned and not deserved. That's what
grace is. If I'm saved by the grace of
God, I can tell you right now, I didn't earn it, I didn't deserve
it. or it wouldn't be grace. That's the case. Now in verses
10 through 15 what he does is he shows them this. He shows
them that religion and sincerity will not solve the problem. Religion
will not cure the problem. Look at verse 10, hear the word
of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom. Give ear unto the law of our
God, you people of Gomorrah. Who's he talking to? He's talking
to Israel, he's talking to Judah, people in Jerusalem. And here's
the key, look at verse 11. To what purpose is the multitude
of your sacrifices unto me? They were sacrificing. Now let
me tell you something, you know, in this nation today, in this
world today, There are all kinds of infamously immoral people,
aren't there? There are. And there's different
degrees, different kinds of them. In this nation, in this world,
there are all kinds of religious people. There are people who
are religious just to wear it on their sleeve. You go to this
church because, well, if you're in business, you'll get a lot
of clients that way. Meet a lot of people. There are
people who go to church for social reasons. What can you provide
in a social atmosphere for our children, for us, whatever? There
are people who go to church for other reasons. There are people
who just, they go to church because that's just what they've done
all their life. It's just tradition. I had a fellow tell me one time
years ago, he'd gone on vacation and he went to a church where
the gospel's not preached. And I said, why'd you go there?
And he said, well, you gotta be in church somewhere. And I
thought, why? You don't have to be in church
where there's no gospel preached, where there's no truth preached.
That's deadly. But then there are people who
are serious about their religion. Before I was saved, before I
heard the true gospel, I was serious about it, sincere. doing their dead level best to
be the best they can be. There's all kinds of people.
But here's the key. What's the purpose of it? Now
turn to Romans chapter 9 with me. What's the reason for it? Now this is God the Holy Spirit's
commentary on the nation Israel as a whole basically throughout
their existence. You know, they were under that
old covenant for 1,500 years. That old covenant lasted from
the inception at Sinai, when God
brought them out of Egypt, brought them together as a people in
Sinai, and then it lasted up until the time of the death of
Christ on the cross. 1,500 years. And here's the whole
commentary on them. Look at verse 30, or verse 31
rather, of Romans chapter 9. He says, but Israel which followed
after the law of righteousness hath not attained to the law
of righteousness. In other words, they were trying
to keep the law, the law of God. They were trying to be righteous.
What is it to be righteous? It's to be accepted with God.
It's to be perfect before God. It's to be not guilty. They knew
they were sinners. That's why they brought their
sacrifices. Remember? He says, to what purpose is the
multitude of your sacrifice? Why would any person need a sacrifice? Because they realize they're
sinners. So it says here, they followed after the law of righteousness,
but they didn't attain it. They didn't reach their goal.
Verse 32, wherefore or why? Why didn't they make it? Look
at it. Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were
by the works of the law. They sought it by their works.
Working hard, as the old song said, to get to heaven. Should
we work hard? Yes, but not for that reason. You understand that? That's a
wrong reason. He says, they stumbled at the
stumbling stone. Now, ask yourself this question
as you look at this verse. All right, he says, they sought
it not by faith. What is it to seek righteousness
by faith? What does that mean? Well, look
at the verse now. The last part of verse 32. They stumbled at
that stumbling stone. Now, who's that? Well, look,
verse 33. As it is written, behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone
and rock of offense, and whosoever believeth on him shall not be
ashamed. The stumbling stone is a him,
it's a person, that's Jesus Christ. To seek righteousness by faith
means to seek it in Jesus Christ because he is the Lord our righteousness. The righteousness of God revealed
in the gospel is the entire merit, the value, the worth, the power
of what Christ accomplished on behalf of his people as their
surety and substitute in his obedience unto death on the cross.
He paid the sin debt for his people. He satisfied the justice
of God for his people. Every sacrifice that God commanded
Israel to participate in was a picture of righteousness by
faith, that is, not in faith. You know, a lot of people today,
they have faith in their faith. In other words, they believe
that their faith is what makes the difference between righteousness
and unrighteousness. They believe their faith is what
makes the difference between saved and lost. That's not what
makes the difference. Christ made the difference. Our
faith is in Him who is our righteousness. And every sacrifice under the
old covenant given to the nation Israel was a picture, a type,
a prophecy of Jesus Christ who would come and establish for
his people the only righteousness whereby God could be just and
still save them in love and mercy and grace. Look at chapter 10 of Romans
9 verse 1. Rather in my heart's desire and
prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. I bear them
record they have a zeal of God. Sincerity and zeal was not their
problem. Paul said, I bear them record
they have a zeal of God but not according to knowledge. They're
missing some knowledge. What were they missing? Verse
three, for they being ignorant of God's righteousness and going
about to establish their own righteousness. How'd they do
it? By their works. have not submitted themselves
unto the righteousness of God. Now what is the righteousness
of God? Look at verse 4. For Christ is the end, the fulfillment,
the completion, the finishing of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believe. Go back to Isaiah 1. Whatever you do in seeking to
be obedient, what's the purpose of it? A lot of people, what are they
doing? Well, they're trying to gain points. They're trying to
earn their way into God's favor. They're trying to earn blessings
from God. Look at verse 11 again. To what
purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me, saith the
Lord? I'm full of burnt offerings of
rant. When he says I'm full of, it
means I've had enough. I've had enough of this. Your
religion will not make you right. Your religion will not wash away
your sins. What washes away the sins of
God's people? The blood of Jesus Christ. What
can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
He says, and I delight not in the blood of bullocks or of lambs
or of he goats. It was God who commanded them
to sacrifice the lambs, the he goats, the bullocks under the
old covenant. They were doing what God commanded,
but they were doing it for the wrong reason, the wrong purpose. They were trying to establish
their own righteousness by these things, by their works. Instead
of looking at these things as God commanded them, as a picture
of someone better to come, the Lord Jesus Christ. So he says,
when you come to appear, verse 12, when you come to appear before
me, who hath required this at your hand to tread my courts?
That is his temple. Verse 13, bring no more vain
oblations, that's empty offerings. Religion without truth, religion
without heart, religion without Christ is empty in God's sight. He says the new moons and Sabbaths,
the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with. I can't get away from
it soon enough. That's what God is saying. It
is iniquity. It doesn't balance out. It doesn't
measure up. Even the solemn meeting. Verse
14, your new moons, your appointed feasts, my soul hateth. They
are a trouble unto me. I'm weary to bear them. And when
you spread forth your hands, I'll hide mine eyes. And that's
prayer. Those who come to God in prayer without Christ, he
says, I'll hide mine eyes from you. Yea, when you make many
prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood,
the blood of sacrifices. They're going through the motions.
Religion will not cure the problem. Well, what will? Well, the only
thing that'll cure it is the grace of God in Christ Jesus
who saves us from sins. Look at verse 16, he says, 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 followers, plead for the widow. Now, he's not preaching
salvation by works here. He's not teaching salvation by
the works or the wills of men. First of all, we cannot wash
away our sins. If we could wash away our sins,
then we wouldn't need the blood of Christ. We cannot make ourselves clean
in God's sight. That's established in Scripture.
Remember, Job talked about that. What is man that he should be
clean, and he which is born of woman that he should be righteous?
Remember Job said in one place, he said, if I wash myself from
top to bottom with white snow, he said, I'm still unclean. I'm
a sinner. What he's teaching here is a
truth that they and we need to learn. And that's this. These
are people who claim to be the people of God. These are people
who claim to love God and serve God. Well, my friend, love for
God cannot be measured by religious activity and practices. It's measured by how we treat
our neighbor, especially our brethren in Christ. Isn't that
right? Love your neighbor as yourself. Love for God is expressed by
believing Christ and His Word, by keeping His commandments,
and He never commanded any sinner to seek salvation by their works.
He forbid that. by loving the brethren, and what
we learn from this is this. Listen to this. First of all,
none of us by nature love God. Secondly, if any of us do love
God, it's due to a powerful work of the Holy Spirit shedding abroad
in our hearts the love of God in Christ. Thirdly, our love
for God even now is imperfect and cannot make us righteous
before God. Listen, there is absolutely no
substitution for perfect righteousness before God. You say, well, then
how can I make it? Look to Christ. Looking unto
Jesus, the author and finisher, he is righteous. And he's my righteousness. He's
the righteousness of every believer here this morning. It's not our
love for God that saves us, it's his love for us in Christ. And
then fourthly, it's a struggle for us to love God and love our
neighbor as we ought to love. That's a struggle. The leaders and the people of
Judah, they wanted to say they love God by their religious ceremonies,
but the Lord cared more about how they treated other people,
especially the downtrodden, the fatherless. That's the orphan.
The widow. You know, that was the two classes
of people that were left to themselves in this society back then. You say you love God and you
treat people like that? You don't love God. So what's
he say? Look at verse 18. Come now, let
us reason together. Now this is not appealing to
the natural reasoning of fallen men. Natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God. This is reasoning based upon
God's word and God's ways. He says, though your sins be
as scarlet. I'm going to deal with this next week in more detail. God be merciful to me, the sinner. You see, if I'm seeking to be
cleaned by my works, then I reject this great truth that I'm a sinner. I reject Christ. Come now, let
us reason. Though your sins be as scarlet,
they shall be white as snow. Though they be red like crimson,
they'll be as well." How is that possible? There's not but one
way. And that's by the grace of God through the blood and
the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's it.
That's my only hope and your only hope of standing before
God. justified, accepted, saved by
His grace, His free sovereign mercy in the Lord Jesus Christ
alone. Nothing added to Him, nothing
taken away. It's all in Christ.