Subject: S>"Though Your Sins Be As Scarlet" Date: Sun, 03 Jun 2001 08:04:20 -0500 From: Grady Scott To: ebstanley@semo.net Brethren, Here is a sermon I am planning on preaching this morning, Lord willing. Use as you see fit and request an attachment copy if you desire. - Grady "THOUGH YOUR SINS BE AS SCARLET" INTRODUCTION: President Lyndon Johnson had a favorite Bible verse that he would often recite. It is found in the first part of Isaiah 1:18, “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord...” He thought that if anyone would sit down and talk to him on a one on one basis he could always sway them to his position. He did have an almost legendary ability of persuasion! This ability was honed to perfection through years of give and take in the United States Senate. But that passage carry a far different meaning than our former president placed on it. It carries with it the need for sinful man to return to a God who earnestly desires His fallen children to return to His way. BODY I. THE COMMAND TO APPROACH GOD, “COME NOW, AND LET US REASON TOGETHER, SAYS THE LORD” A. What this passage is not saying. 1. It is not claiming that man can change God’s terms of salvation or righteousness. 2. God sets those matters! Man cannot change the will of God. a. Psalms 33:11 - "The counsel of the LORD stands forever, The plans of His heart to all generations." b. Malachi 3:6 - ""For I am the LORD, I do not change; Therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob." B. What God is saying. 1. The reasoning together was actually man coming to God and learning from God how to be forgiven. 2. When he says “Come now” he is speaking an imperative. It is not an option. If we are to be forgiven we MUST come to God. 3. God is saying that we cannot reason on our own. We need to reason with God for a way out of our sin problem. a. Jeremiah 10:23 - "O LORD, I know the way of man is not in himself; It is not in man who walks to direct his own steps." b. Proverbs 20:24 - "A man's steps are of the LORD; How then can a man understand his own way?" 4. Just as the Jews of Isaiah’s day were called on to come to God to learn of salvation, we must come to God to learn of our salvation from sins. II. THE GREAT PROMISE, “THOUGH YOUR SINS BE AS SCARLET, THEY SHALL BE AS WHITE AS SNOW; THOUGH THEY BE RED LIKE CRIMSON, THEY SHALL BE AS WOOL.” A. They had departed from God’s way and were tainted with the guilt of sin. 1. They had not remained faithful to God. They had gone into idol worship and forsook the worship and service of Jehovah God. 2. But they were still redeemable. They could yet be forgiven. B. The phrase used is important. 1. The word used here for scarlet literally mean a “double dipped cloth.” Not only had it been dyed once, it has been dyed twice. This would make it even harder to bring back to its’ natural condition. 2. Crimson was the deepest, darkest color or red known to ancient man. It was as opposite of the natural white which the cloth had been as can be imagined. 3. Snow and wool are used because the snow was pure white and the wool was in a pure stage before it was dyed. 4. He is saying that no matter how sinful a man’s condition it is possible to return to the pure sinless state once enjoyed. No matter how much he had sinned he could be forgiven. It is obvious from the reading here that it is intended to show that it is not through the sinners personal righteous that this will happen. Just as it was impossible to get out the “double dipped” crimson, so too it was impossible to men to get out their sins outside of the action of God. a. Titus 3:5_7 "not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, 6_ whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7_ that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life." b. 1 John 1:7 c. Hebrews 9:14 - "how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" d. Psalms 51:7 "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow." III. THE GREAT REQUIREMENT GIVEN TO THOSE WHO REASON WITH THE LORD, “IF YOU BE WILLING AND OBEDIENT, YOU SHALL EAT THE GOOD OF THE LAND” A. While they could not save themselves there was still a need to obey God. 1. They had to do what God had commanded them to do in order to receive His blessings. It is true that they did not deserve God’s mercy. But they could not think that no obedience to His will was required. God wanted them to obey Him. 2. Exodus 19:5 - "'Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine." 3. Deuteronomy 11:13_15 "'And it shall be that if you earnestly obey My commandments which I command you today, to love the LORD your God and serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul, 14_ 'then I will give you the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the latter rain, that you may gather in your grain, your new wine, and your oil. 15_ 'And I will send grass in your fields for your livestock, that you may eat and be filled.'" B. This is the promise today. We must obey the Lord if we are to have our sins forgiven and enjoy the blessings that He has prepared for His people. 1. Matthew 7:24_27 ""Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: 25_ "and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. 26_ "But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: 27_ "and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall."" 2. Acts 5:32 - ""And we are His witnesses to these things, and so also is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey Him."" 3. Romans 6:16_17 "Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one's slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness? 17_ But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered." IV. THE GREAT PENALTY FOR THOSE WHO REFUSE, “BUT IF YE REFUSE AND REBEL, YOU SHALL BE DEVOURED WITH THE SWORD: FOR THE MOUTH OF THE LORD HAS SPOKEN {IT}.” A. God’s people had departed from His way, now they were to pay the price! 1. They would be consumed by a foreign people. Because they were in the land of promise would not help them! They would be killed for their disobedience. 2. Leviticus 26:13_21 "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that you should not be their slaves; I have broken the bands of your yoke and made you walk upright. 14_ 'But if you do not obey Me, and do not observe all these commandments, 15_ and if you despise My statutes, or if your soul abhors My judgments, so that you do not perform all My commandments, but break My covenant, 16_ I also will do this to you: I will even appoint terror over you, wasting disease and fever which shall consume the eyes and cause sorrow of heart. And you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. 17_ I will set My face against you, and you shall be defeated by your enemies. Those who hate you shall reign over you, and you shall flee when no one pursues you. 18_ 'And after all this, if you do not obey Me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins. 19_ I will break the pride of your power; I will make your heavens like iron and your earth like bronze. 20_ And your strength shall be spent in vain; for your land shall not yield its produce, nor shall the trees of the land yield their fruit. 21_ 'Then, if you walk contrary to Me, and are not willing to obey Me, I will bring on you seven times more plagues, according to your sins." B. This should serve as a warning for both Christian and Non-Christian alike. 1. All are lost without God’s grace given through the blood of Christ. We must be saved by His blood to avoid eternal separation from God. There is a great penalty for those who do not “trust and obey.” 2. Romans 6:23 3. Revelation 20:12_15 "And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. 13_ The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. 14_ Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. 15_ And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire." CONCLUSION: In his book, Stones With Fair Colors, Gary Bowell describes the process that takes place when wool is cleansed. "We have the thought here," {Isa. 1:18} says Lionel B. Fletcher, "of wool that has been scoured. There is nothing lovelier in the world than scoured wool. I have shorn many hundreds of sheep. I know what it looks like, clotted together with grease. When you buy a tube of lanolin at the chemists, you will see then what it is that is contained in sheep's wool. At first the wool is dirty and matted together; you can almost squeeze the oil out of it. But look at the wool when it has been purified; when it has gone through the scouring process. Take it up in your hand, and it will run through your fingers like feathers, so beautiful and snowy in its whiteness. That is the picture here in Isaiah. The sinner's heart is to be made like scoured wool." Has your heart been cleansed?