A Glorious Invitation | Isaiah 1:18

[Music] if you weren't with us on Wednesday night you might be saying Brett Isaiah chapter 1 didn't you guys cover that not exactly I was finding out getting through two chapters but I got through half of the chapter but Isaiah is chock full of powerful important lessons we're gonna really be blessed I say as a real high point if you ask me and maybe the verse before us this morning might just be one of my faves in in all the Bible the more I think about it and meditate on this Scripture I'm just totally blessed by it but but before we enjoy this beautiful verse you kind of have to hear the horrifying words before it it makes it much more powerful much more poignant to few if you see the context if you were with us on Wednesday night basically the Lord speaks through Isaiah the prophet and says children of Israel you're totally whacked in sin you're messed up you're tweaked out and it gets like so graphic the Lord man he lays it on heavy heavy heavy and one of the things we'll see in Isaiah is as a roller coaster ride and it's got extreme highs but it also has extreme lows and the first half of this chapter chapter 1 man it plunges to the depths of well let me just give you a refresher course and once you look backward this won't be our main text for today but go back with me to verse 10 there in chapter 1 verse 10 it says hear the word of the Lord you rulers of Sodom give ear to the law of our God you people of Gomorrah now wait a minute one thing you need to understand is Sodom and Gomorrah are long destroyed they've been gone for you know hundreds of years so what's God doing he's telling the Jews in Israel and Judah that they're basically Sodom and Gomorrah he's using it as a metaphor you guys are basically Sodom and Gomorrah that's pretty heavy verse 11 to what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me saith the Lord I am full of the burnt offerings rams and the fat of fed beasts and i delight not in the blood of Bullock's or a brand lambs or he goes when you come to appear before me who have required this at your hand at read my courts bring no more vain oblations incense is an abomination to me the new moons and the Sabbath's the calling of assemblies I cannot away with it is iniquity even the solemn meeting your new moons your appointed feasts my soul hates they are a trouble unto me I am weary to bear them and when you spread forth your hands I will hide my eyes from you yay when you make prayers I will not hear your hands are full of blood do you get the Lord is just a little bit perturbed here man he's saying when you come you know in our lingo it'd be kinda like when you come to church and you lift your hands and worship the Lord we praise you meanwhile you're worshiping asteroth and you know bail and Milwaukee and and you're living totally you know sin filled lives and the Lord says your worship is an abomination to me if you think your your prayers are gonna be heard dream on I'm not gonna hear your prayers and he said I'm sick of your sacrifices wow that's pretty heavy only God can say that they come with their lambs and rams and and their bulls they look Lord we're sacrificing to you and really what they were doing is they were using the temple and the sacrificial system has sort of a doormat to wipe their feet the grace of God is a doormat to wipe their feet as they went into the temple is it okay where we partied down last night and we're totally living a life of debauchery and sin but oh praise be to the Lord the Lord says I'm not going to hear you even your incense which is a is a sort of an idiom that links to prayer even your prayers are an abomination he says wow this is heavy so the question is what's the Lord gonna do what's he gonna do to these people because we know what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah man fire and brimstone rained from heaven and just crushed the city of Sodom and the city of Gomorrah just horrifying brutal bloody situation is that what the Lord's going to do to his people the Jews because he calls them Sodom in tomorrow why did you do the same exact thing to them that he did to the the sodomites and the people of Gomorrah well the answer is something that's kind of cool the Lord made a covenant with his people a promise that he would not destroy them and that doesn't mean there wouldn't be punishment it doesn't mean there wouldn't be pain and suffering because of their own sin their own behaviors but the Lord he says something here that's just kind of profound so you hear this horrible description of how sinful they are and then the Lord says this and let's get to our text for the morning he says come now verse 18 Isaiah 1:18 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 what a glorious and beautiful invitation the Lord gives to the children of Israel in the midst of their debauchery and sinful condition come down let us reason together you know sin is pretty horrifyingly bad and it's funny because we tend to think that sin is bad because well God doesn't us to have any fun so you can't do this you know you can't drink and smoke and chew and go with girls a deal you know you you think man what's the deal why can't we have any fun Lord but the truth is as I said even last week and I've said before you know sin is not bad because it's forbidden it's forbidden because it's bad it messes you up you see before we can really fully appreciate this verse that's before us come now let us reason together though your sins be as scarlet they'll be as white as snow though they be red like crimson they'll be white as wool before that can actually really do anything for us we have to understand how bad sin really is um if you're if you're taking notes jot down a few things about sin that I think is kind of important first of all sin always always brings about sorrow when we sin we don't think it's gonna bring about sorrow but it does in numbers you know 32:23 says be sure of this your sin will find you out it's it's not God's gonna find you out he saw it all from the very beginning but it's your sin that catches up with you and brings about sorrow and pain and suffering sin brings about sorrow just ask akin they're in the book of Joshua you know chapter 7 we read about akin and his family remember what akin did I remember as a kid thinking his name was funny he was akin because he was stupid how stupid was he well there he was as the walls of Jericho fell in word you know and or outward I should say and and the Lord crushed Jericho and then the children is our way through but the Lord said to Joshua and the people of Israel don't take anything from that city it's all cursed if you take it you'll be cursed well they were taken you know mopping up in battle and you know kind of cleaning up in Jericho and he saw there some Babylonian garments who fancy like Prada or something today's terms or Armani and he thought wow and he looked this way he looked at when he grabbed this stuff and he grabbed some a wedge of you know gold or whatever and wealth and hides it and he sneaks home and he and he and he buries it under his tent it's kind of funny you know if you if you if you got an Armani suit you know and you're one of the Jews and suddenly you walk around somewhere in Armani you're kind of in trouble where'd you get the Armani suit it's not like they had stuff like that around there and so he had to bury to understand he couldn't even enjoy it he stole it but he couldn't enjoy it so he buried it understand well the next battle they go to this little tiny podunk town like AI and be like if they just conquered Portland the next battle is Dundee so they go to wipeout Dundee and they get totally crushed by the men of Dundee that's that's kind of the equivalent of what would have happened there they went to AI and Joshua as an army they lose and so Joshua says Lord you said wherever we put the soul of our foot man we're gonna have victory the Lord says someone has taken of the accursed thing and was like Paul who did that well get all the tribes yes Oh Joshua gets all the millions of people and of a huge group and says okay and he starts thinning out the the tribes of Israel and eventually the last tribe that's theirs Oh as it turns out Eakins tribe and then he starts doing the the the tribes by family the sons of karma the sons of Zab d the sons of Cosby these different you know families and pretty soon it's just Aikens family and pretty soon Joshua looks an incan and says why have you done this to Israel and taking of the accursed thing and they took akin at that moment and his whole family and killed them and all their possessions they burned with fire horrible story they called the name of that place the valley of Achor after akin and his stupid sinful thing of taking dumb little stuff and you say but Bret why why was this full family killed I don't know the answer to that Foley but I've got a few ideas one maybe the family was complicit and maybe they helped him bury the junk under the tent who knows or maybe it's just that simple lesson that is still equally true and that is when when when the head of the house akin was sinful it affected his whole family whether they like it or not that's true of us that our moms and dads you know if we say anything goes just my sin don't worry about it but it will affect whether you like it or not it'll affect those you love the most an akin now what a sorrowful story that is man sin always brings about sorrow but also sin always brings about number two slavery slavery that's one of the things the enemy Satan wants to do to use is enslave you to sin you know Paul says all things are lawful for me everything's you know you know I can do it if I want is what he's saying but not all things are profitable or expedient it's not good for me I will not be brought under the power of anything that's what Paul was teaching there and boy there's certain sin that will start to lock you in whether you like it or not and there's so many addictions that we have in our human nature that were so quick to become enslaved to sin isn't it interesting that there's sort of this mentality that it's the Christians who are enslaved you can't do this and you can't do that and you can't do the other man were limited and restricted but I would argue it's the exact opposite it's the world that thinks they're full of Liberty man we can party we can drink we can you know we can do drugs we can have sex outside of marriage we can be gay we can live this or that whatever but but little do they know they're the ones who are being enslaved to those things you know they're thinking they're the liberal ones and they're all free but actually they're the ones who are in the most bondage and it's so heartbreaking it's the whole thing where God knows what's good for you and what's bad for you and if you're gonna go with God you'll be looking full of Liberty and the truth will set you free but if you want to live the lie and go with the world's way don't be shocked when you find yourself enslaved to that sin enslaved just ask Samson Samson thought that he was mr. free who's gonna mess with Samson you know if he tried to mess with Samson he'll kill you and he could kill a whole army of you if he wanted to and and and and yet Samson sort of had a few vices that really man got him into huge trouble probably the worst one is he was well he had a thing for the girls man he would he would go all the way down into Philistine country just to go sleep with a prostitute and he would do this on a sort of a regular basis and and if you recall he was meant to be set apart for the Lord he was he was a lifelong Nazarite he took a Nazarite vow and and and and remember how he started dabbling with sin just playing around with it it's kind of what we do hey I did it I got away with it seems like I'm free as he scooped the honey out of the dead lion one of the nails write vows don't don't touch any dead thing I'm free man Liberty I see that today by the way in the modern nature's Liberty in Christ man we can do whatever we want Bible doesn't say you can't drink alcohol usually the person that's arguing that point the loudest is the drunk but all that to say Samson one by one was knocking down those vows you know the he was walking through a vineyard a Nazarite wouldn't walk through a vineyard wouldn't even have anything to do with grapes or raisins or wine but he was partying down with the Philistines probably drinking the wine going through the vineyard that was stuffy strike two but you know the story when he was there with Delilah and she finally after a bunch of coercion you know convinced him to tell her the secret the last thing he hadn't done was cut his hair and man what happened to Samson you know after she cut his hair and he was asleep she woke him up and there the Philistines grabbed him and he thought he was gonna pound him like he always had done before but the Bible says that the the Spirit of the Lord departed from Samson and he did not even know it and it says there in judges chapter 16 verse 21 but the Philistines took him and poked out his eyes and brought him down to Gaza and bound him with chains of brass and he did grind in the prison house man there's a sermon for you what does sin do it blinds it binds it grinds right there are three things they blinded him he was grinding at the wheel day and night and he was bound up with chains of brass that's what sin does man I hope we understand that you can go and do your sinful thing if you want to but the Lord has warned us and he lovingly tells us man sins gonna bring you into slavery you'll be in bondage to that sin and man how many people have fallen prey to the slavery of sin but it's not just sorrow and it's not just slavery but sin brings also about a stench sin stinks it's one of those things you know where it sort of smells good at first you know what I'm talking about that nice meal that you cooked and everybody ate of it it was so good and you had leftovers oh man you thought all cook those up later and you put them in the fridge but you kind of forget about him after a while and there's certain foods particularly if you ever notice some of the foods that smell the best while they're cooking fresh and everything good but man they sit in that fridge for four or five months like what is that smell oh don't worry about that don't worry I don't respond and you open up the fridge hole your eyes get blurry it's so bad you know it's it's it's one of those smelly things that the sin does it reminds me of a story of a young couple they were getting married and they were a beautiful couple and everything was great except for they both had a secret they hadn't told each other he had a problem with really smelly feet she had a problem with the morning breath it was a real bummer so the guys like he went to his dad's a dad I mean you know my feet you know what am I gonna do I'm marrying this girl she knows it's not what I'm gonna he said okay son here's washed your feet you know three times a day powder get it all cleaned up and and and then when you go to bed wear socks don't take off whatever you do don't take off your socks he said okay the girl she went to her mom's and mom I'm gonna wake up with my morning breath what am I gonna do and she said okay here's honey set the alarm just a little earlier than your husband get up brush your teeth swish up you know some Listerine and then go back to bed and wake up with that nice fresh breath and you but you got to beat him to it don't say a word don't open your mouth until you do that that's a good idea so they get married and they're there you know marital bliss and they're there their plan is working for months but one morning the guy wakes up and oh no one of his socks had fallen off in bed and he freaks out he turns around and he starts digging in the bed and he's looking for a sock and the girl kind of wakes up goes oh honey what are you doing and the guy looks horrified and he said oh no you swallowed my sock now why did I tell you that story I have no idea oh yes thank you sin stinks sin stink so you could try to cover it up if you want to you can try to cover up the stench but you won't be able to because it always starts to stink up your life just ask for the prodigal son remember as he asked his father for their inheritance and man it was it was great he had all this money and partied I had tons of friends and as long as he was busting a move at the party having a great time his friends were there but as soon as he ran out of the money he was broke his friends blew him off he was alone and there he was he found a job just to try to survive slopping the pigs like the lowest job a guy could ever have he's a pig slop er and he finds himself so hungry that he's sitting in the pig pen with the pigs eating the pig slop himself it doesn't get much more stinky than that sin just stinks and it gets more rank as time goes by the older you get you know really brutal sin not only brings sorrow slavery stench but also it brings about sickness one of the things that the Bible has a theme about sin as sickness and disease it's always linked to sin which is interesting you know it's interesting to watch our culture freaked out right now because of the coronavirus everybody's freaking out and the whole world is freaking out the CDC the Chinese North Korea you know Italy is really stricken when the first death in America just north of us up in Washington State and everybody's freaking out now the question is is it real a real problem is it is it like the flu or what's going on everybody's debating and some people are calling it a hoax and and it's just nothing but trouble but it's interesting whenever I hear of things like that my brain does a couple things first of all the Bible says in the last days stuff like this would happen we could talk about that so many things going on playing of Locust right now that's huge in Africa it's one of the biggest plagues maybe in the world's history of locusts that's destroying you know millions of miles of crops and stuff it's like a crazy crazy deal and because of that there's gonna be prolific famine this coming year in Africa like it's it's really kind of a crazy deal that's going on there but I I think man the Bible says in the last days there'll be that kind of stuff but also when I think of disease it reminds me of what happened in the Garden of Eden there was no disease until man assured it in we brought in disease when we sinned and death entered into the world when we sinned there in the garden and when you and I sinned it's awesome death but the Bible sort of equates sickness with sin in fact let's back up a little bit again go with me to chapter 1 of Isaiah and look at verse 4 it says in chapter 1 verse 4 here's Isaiah chiding against the people for their sin he says ah sinful nation a people laden with iniquity a seed of evildoers children that are corrupters they have forsaken the Lord they have provoked the Holy One of Israel to anger they are gone away backward why should you be stricken anymore he asked why should you keep being sick you will revolt more and more the whole head is sick the whole heart is faint from the sole of the foot even to the head there's no soundness in it but wounds and bruises putrefying sores they have not been closed neither bound up neither mollified with ointment he said man you guys are sick from your sin from head to toe open stinking wounds he says Isaiah's not pulling any punches he's telling them what their sin has done to them why are you are you gonna just keep being stricken with this he says you guys are sick in Isaiah chapter 3 just a few pages to the right verse 11 he says woe unto the wicked it shall be ill with him for the reward of his hands that's Isaiah 3:11 what whoa those big woose I was talking about woe unto the wicked it will be ill you'll be sick that's the idea it'll be ill with him I'm all throughout the Bible you see how sin brings about sickness so when when you're tempted to sin wouldn't it be great if you and I had all of this stuff at the forefront of your mind okay I'm about to do something that's gonna bring out sorrow it's gonna bring that slavery it's gonna bring it room bring about stench and it's gonna bring about sickness if we can only remind ourselves of that and associate the sickness and the stench and the disease I grew up in the country and we all had chickens and all the neighbors had chickens but once in a while you'd have a chicken dog a dog that had a taste for Kentucky Fried Chicken or Oregon fried chicken as it were and you can't fix a dog that's a chicken dog and so the way our neighborhood handled it if a dog got to anyone's chicken it was fair game you shoot the dog that's the way it was but I'm told that there was another way you could end chicken a chicken dog and I've never tried this but they say that they find the chicken that the dog killed and then they take that dead chicken and they tie it to the neck of the dog and the dog has to walk around for weeks with this decomposing chicken around his neck and he walks around and eventually the stench and the gross this and everything just makes the dog sick of it apparently and then as soon as they and undo the chicken and the dog goes away he doesn't come even close to the chicken coop from that day forward I don't know I've never tried that one some of you say that's horrible yeah that's what country people do and maybe trying to save the dog wouldn't be something if every time you and I send it we'll just strap that's- into our neck and we had to smell it for years to come that's the idea that's what Isaiah said man your sin stinks and you're sick and you're in trouble and even you're going to your temple and worshiping God is sick and the Lord says I don't even I don't even want to see you do that anymore heavy heavy stuff so that's the bad news that's the bad news so what's the good news well even though you and I have sinned and we all have the Bible says everyone's sinned no one is righteous not even one all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God that's who we are as people were sinners but praise be the Lord the Lord is more than reasonable it's this verse that's before us it's so beautiful when you look at it in light of what Isaiah just told these people come now let us reason together let's break this down a little bit in fact the first word come what a glorious invitation the Lord says come come man if you ever want to do an interesting study just study all the invitations of the Bible I love some of the beautiful invitations I'll give you a few of my favorites you maybe you can jot them down I'll give you a little bit of a head start in your invitation study but I love Isaiah 55 chapter 55 verse 1 where he says how everyone that thirsteth come ye to the water he that have no money come ye buy and eat he invites us oh if you're hungry and thirsty come come to me jesus said come unto me in Matthew chapter 11 he says come unto me all ye who are weary and heavy-laden I love that invitation I love where Jesus also talked about that not only in Matthew 11:28 but also Matthew 1428 Jesus told Peter come when Peter said hey you're out walking on water can I bid me that I might come and and she said come he invited him to come walk on water do something radical I love that Matthew 14 28 Matthew 19:14 Jesus said let the little children come and John chapter 7 verse 37 and 38 jesus said if any man thirsts let him come and drink the disciples were out fishing and they were looking for fish but they found none but there was Jesus at the shore cooking up that fish the very thing they were looking or that they couldn't find Jesus had all along and he said come and dime man the invitations of our Lord is so beautiful he's always inviting us to enjoy and to be blessed the enemy Satan would say come and sin and get messed up and tweaked out and stink but the Lord says come let us reason together be reasonable have you ever tried to you know reason with someone the Lord invites us to come the reason we'll talk about that a second but this idea of come come unto me the Lord would say I love that beautiful invitation but not only the word come but what about the second word come when come now I think that's important I don't want to miss that he says come now let us reason together not come well someday in your life don't get it together we'll figure out when you can come to me know come right now when is it time to repent of your sins now what is it time to stop messing around with sin right now what is it in human nature that makes us put off repentance and breaking off our sin there's something weird about us that wants to stay in the stench that wants to enjoy the the tiny pleasure for 10 seconds but it brings about sorrow suffering sickness stench will still mess with it even though it's just a short little lived pleasure we'll hang there with that sickness forever when should we come to the Lord you know it reminds me of Genesis 19 when you know a lot and his family were in Sodom speaking of Sodom and Gomorrah and before the fire and brimstone rained down on Sodom and Gomorrah listen to what the angel said in Genesis 1917 and it came to pass when they had brought them forth abroad they said to lot this family escaped for your life don't even look back neither stay in the plane escape to the mountain lest thou be consumed do you sense a little urgency there if an angel comes to you and says run for your life what should you do isn't it funny that lot lingered there in Sodom the Bible says and the Angels finally get out of Dodge or Sodom desert or you know come on I wonder if some of us need that splash of cold water this morning run for your life from the sin that's enslaved you that stinks red get out of there now come now let us reason together it's so urgent it's amazing that human nature just wants to kind of chill with the sin it reminds me of what I brought up on on Wednesday night when we were studying this in Chapter one member verse five where he was talking about how sick they were he said in verse five why should you be stricken anymore he's asking a question rhetorically and the answer is he shouldn't be you should stop being sick it's a choice you can make come now it reminds me also of what we mentioned you know from the book of Exodus remember the the plagues and the plague of frogs man that had to been horrible so many frogs there were frog carcasses piled up everywhere huge piles of dead frogs and it says the whole land began to stink that's what sin does and those frogs you'd walk down the street in frogs just squishing between your toes frogs and your bed frogs in your food it was a horrible flag and finally Pharaoh and the people of Egypt said get Moses and so Moses comes into the staff and and Pharaoh says okay okay okay you can I'll let my people go you let your people go but but man you got to here into these frogs and then Moses asked the most curious question when would you like the frogs to leave I'm not kidding just a couple seven days ago a person came up and asked me Brett I was reading through Exodus and this this thing about Pharaoh saying tomorrow what's up with that and it was great I got to explain this truth and that is that's human nature one more night with the frogs that's what it is Pharaoh Moses says and Wendy would like me to pray the frogs begone I would have said right now magically make them disappear now they stink they're squishing between my toes let's get him out of here but Pharaoh says no okay you can pray tomorrow for the frogs to go he just wanted one more night with the frogs that's human nature right there we just want to hang in our sin just a little bit longer and that's really what the Lord is trying to keep the children of Israel from doing oh he says come now now is the time for salvation today is the day of salvation I love the urgency that we see Paul articulate in Romans chapter 13 verse 11 he says he says knowing the time that now it's high time to awake out of sleep for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed the night is far spent the day is at hand let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light let us walk honestly as in the day not in rioting or drunkenness or chambering or wantonness not in strife or envy but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof man he says it's high time to awake out of our sleep put off the works of darkness that's sin and put on the armor of light that's Jesus I wonder what it is that you personally don't think about Uncle Bob right now or the person that should have been here at the service hearing this about said what is it that you have because you know what we all have sin and even if you think you don't have sin that might just be your sin I think that you think you're good we all have sins even if it's stuff like gossip or meddling or being bitter or envious or jealous oh it could be the big ones as well we can talk about addictions and all that stuff that's plaguing our culture maybe it's screen time too much screen time maybe it's social media and your usage sit there and watch social media and wonder if what people think about you and they're actually not thinking about you at all that's depressing to bread I want them to think about me and the food that I had this morning for breakfast you know it's a funny thing though that we we have little sinful nature but we want to hang on to it come now let us reason together the time is now and that's what the Lord says he says come now excuse me but number three as we break up this verse a little bit come number one now number two but number three let us reason together isn't it amazing that the god of the universe wants to reason with you I think that's amazing have you ever tried to reason with someone who's unreasonable that's a tough child right there I remember as a young man I was trying to share the good news of the gospel with a guy who was totally drunk if you ever tried to share the gospel with a drunk person have you ever tried to be reasonable with a drunk person drunk people are not reasonable there might be the poster you when you see unreasonable you might just see a drunk person there but it's funny when you try to reason with unreasonable people magnets of frustration so here's the Lord is perfectly reasonable more than reasonable and and he wants to reason with you and me less than reasonable we're the ones who are clinging to our sin we're the ones who have forsaken the the the admonitions of the Lord and done our own thing and Lord says I want a reason with you be reasonable I love how the Lord cares about reason you know you guys know Romans chapter 12 verse 1 I beseech you therefore brethren that you present by the mercies of God that you present your bodies what a living sacrifice he says holy and acceptable to God which is your what reasonable service man giving your life to Lord that's reasonable to serve him to walk with them to do as well that's reasonable Lord's has come now let us reason together I love the reasonableness of our God you know the that might go without saying for a lot of you that have been Christians and you know the Lord yeah the Lord is reasonable okay got a bread let's move on but do you realize how many people that's the thing that keeps them from God is they don't understand he's reasonable I think reasonable if God is love then he won't send people to hell that's just you being unreasonable God is reasonable and by the way if you're if you're saying that if you think that man you are so deceived and unreasonable because the the truth is that when when we sin against the Lord the Bible says there's a there's a penalty for that sin and it's death but the Lord Peter tells us the Lord would that none should perish God wants no one to perish that's God's heart he wants everyone to come to repentance but he's a perfect gentleman he wouldn't force himself on you he doesn't make you believe he doesn't make you follow him you can do your own thing if you want to and be stupid unreasonable but reason says man you you realize you're a sinner and God loves you so much that he gives you the free ticket out of your sin and the free access to heaven that's what God does I would say that's more than reasonable what is more than reasonable what's the word grace grace is being more than reasonable more than you deserve better than you should have ever imagined or thought you know I think it'd be reasonable if God just says okay you repent I'm just gonna let you cease to exist and go into oblivion that be reasonable but God says no I actually want to bless your socks off even though your us rascal even though you've sinned and you've done all these things I just want you to be totally blessed out of your mind and that's what God says come now let us reason a bowl though your sins be as scarlet that's the next phrase your sins be as scarlet doesn't be red like crimson why is that redundant why does he say that twice he says 1 your sins be as scarlet white as snow your sins be red like crimson they'll be white as wool well there's an imagery there that we can talk about for hours actually if we wanted to and I could and I know you're not shocked by that but but the truth is there's the main imagery I want you to see is the idea of red there's two Hebrew words employed for red that's why even your English one says red you know or scarlet the other says crimson because there are two separate words one the first one is kind of the word in the Hebrew for generally the word read though your sins be read they'll be white as snow red and white and that would have brought that image to the people but but then the second one brings a whole nother image though they be like crimson that's that's the Hebrew word that maybe some of you are familiar with the word crimson in the Hebrew there if you look it up it's the word tole it doesn't mean know what that is remember what we talked about in Psalm 22 it's this amazing word picture that the Lord uses all throughout the scripture that's linked to this little worm why is the word crimson the word to--let's well it's it's it's like a word that has two meanings it means worm but it also means red well why is it mean red that's stupid nope it's it's very logical because the to--let's worm they would collect these little worms in ancient times and it was the first historical way they could actually make red dye for clothing red was this royal color that they'd loved but it was hard to make red clothing and the way they did is they take these little coca solicits these little worms and they'd collect them and then they grind him up and it would make this bright red substance that was like an indelible dye that they could sew clothing in and it would make the written the clothing bright red and so that's why the word means the same thing red told it red or worm so so it's an amazing through crushing there's redness and then but seeing the story of the way the worm works is even more fascinating in fact do you remember the the one of the perhaps greatest messianic Psalms is Psalm 22 would you go back there with me keep your finger here and go go to Psalm 22 let's do a refresher on that one because this this is it starts off if you remember Psalm 22 with the words from the cross where Jesus quotes Psalm 22:1 while he's hanging on the cross he says in verse 1 of 2 Psalm 22 my God my God why hast thou forsaken me and he goes on and there so much about Jesus in this chapter prophetically it's amazing but go to verse 6 Psalm 22 verse 6 he says but I am a worm that's the word tolet in the in the Hebrew and no man a reproach of men despised of the people verse 7 all they that see me laughed me to scorn they shoot the lip and they shake their head saying he trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him let him deliver him seeing in the light of him remember that's what they said when he was hanging on the cross he saved others why can't he save himself this is a prophetic song about Jesus on the cross great stuff but people say well why would Jesus call himself a worm if this is a prophecy about Jesus why would he say I am a toilet worm well that's interesting because see the tallest worm would climb up on a tree and the female worm would climb up and fasten herself to the tree like permanently once the female tree or worm was fastened it was a permanent fastening almost like a cocoon chrysalis sort of thing like a caterpillar does but this worm connects itself to the tree and then kind of covers itself over and then gives you know birth to the little worm 'lets I don't know what you call baby worms but we'll call morelets and these little baby worms come out and the mother dies in childbirth or let birth and then it gets really weird these little worm --let's survived by eating the body of the mother worm who was hanging on the tree and eventually the worms start to grow and then they go off and be their little worms that they are but what's left on the tree is this bright red spot where this mother worm had given her life for her little ones hanging on a tree and there's a bright red spot well after a few days after the worms are long gone this little red spot starts to turn bright white and it starts as the wind blows the little white stain starts to kind of flake off and eventually the wind blows it off and it falls like snow too ground and if you go to this region of the world where these to--let's worms are in the Middle East it's an amazing thing because a certain time each year where that happens it looks like it's snowing outside because of these to--let's worm you know flakes from the tree isn't it funny how God uses his own creation to depict his beautiful and glorious work he says I am a to--let's worm who hangs on a tree and gives my life and even as Jesus said eat of my body drink of my blood and that's how you you survive and then your sins were like scarlet they shall be white as snow like the picture is kind of amazing really and so then it says though your sins be like tolet the worm read they'll be as white as snow there's a link there white as wool well wool is white it just doesn't look like it when a sheep's dirty but when you give a sheep a bath I know something about this I had sheep in 4h yeah you can make wool look really really white and that's the true nature of its color but I love that the Lord takes something by the way did you know red is one of the hardest colors to get out especially red dye once red dye has hit material you can't get it out there's no way to get it out without destroying to the very essence of the thread you can't just you can't get the certain kind of red out and the Bible people knew this if you had to toll it to die hit the cloth it was gonna be red no matter what you did and yet here's the Lord saying though your sins be red which humanly speaking you can't get that out but the Lord says I can though your sins be indelible irremovable perfectly stained forever I will make them white as snow do you understand what good news this is not only for the children of Israel who are in a heap of trouble and Isaiah chapter 1 but it's good for you and me who are also in a heap of trouble because we're sinful too we failed we've made mistakes and you know what I would think it'd be good for you and for me this morning to consider am i still wallowing in my stench of sin am I still taking up sinful stuff but good news come now right now be reasonable and let the Lord take your sins that are read and spotted and turn them white as snow that's what the Lord wants to do for you that's the gracious merciful love of God amen would you bow your heads please with me in just a minute we're gonna close with a little communion service but before I do that I'd like you just have an attitude of prayer with your heads bowed and I wonder if there's some of you that have yet to accept Christ maybe for some reason you've not really received the love of Christ maybe you've never heard the gospel and that is you're a sinner in the wage of that sin is eternal death but the gift of God is eternal life and the Lord would say to you today come now why would you wait any longer why would you wallow in your sin hey it doesn't mean you're gonna be perfect none of us are perfect but it means we're perfectly forgiven for our sins though your sins were as scarlet there'll be as white as snow he'll wash you cleanse you that's what he wants to do and forgive you for all your sins if you're confessing your sins to the Lord the first John chapter 1 verse 9 says do you confess he'll be faithful he'll be just to forgive you of your sins and cleanse you from all unrighteousness you can walk out of this room today knowing that you're forgiven for your sins repentance is part of the deal you have to repent that is a change of mind say I'm a sinner and I acknowledge that and I've sinned against God and I want forgiveness for those sins that's that's the key and if that's you I won't embarrass you but right where you're sitting I'd love to pray a prayer of confession of faith right where you're sitting and if you want that man you can be saved you can have your sins forgiven and before we go to the table of communion this this is what you need to do and then if you're a Christian joining that that forgiveness that God has given then you can come to this table of communion and take the bread and know that Jesus his body was given for you he across for you took your sin it's not that he just forgives you magically he dealt with your sin because he paid the price himself for your sin so when you eat that bread you're remembering his bruised beaten body that he took the hit for you when you take the cop here remembering his blood that was innocent that he shed on your behalf and you eat the bread you drink the cup remembering what Jesus did for you and then rejoicing that your sins are forgiven if that's you and you want to do that and confess Christ and be saved man would you acknowledge that just with everybody else's heads bowed would you acknowledge that by just giving me a quick wave and look up at me and all I'd like to just acknowledge that's great good let me look around for a little bit more I don't want to miss anybody and you back there could see you over here and cool cool don't let me miss you awesome good those of you that have expressed this you know this is cool you say is this really that easy it is because Jesus did all the work he died on the cross and he declared it is finished what was finished the work of salvation for Humanity Jesus did it all so we get to just simply accept it it's the greatest gift a person could ever receive is the forgiveness of sin so I'm gonna pray this prayer of confession and I'm gonna ask the whole church would you guys pray out loud with me let's back these five or six people let's back them up and pray with them but if you're if you're one who's praying right now for the first time know that the Lord will hear this prayer and this is a confession that is salvation that's what Jesus tells us let's pray dear father in heaven I believe in your son Jesus Christ I believe that he died on the cross for my sins and that he rose up from the grave and that I'm forgiven help me to walk with you thank you for saving me in the name of Jesus Christ lord I pray blessing on these people who've just confessed you father I pray that you would just really confirmed their faith may they know that they are forgiven I pray that Lord that they keep them from doubt lord I pray that their faith would be strengthened and so we pray thee to wrap their arms around them and they know the love that you have for them and the forgiveness of sin for them and as we go to your table now of communion I pray that you'd meet us here and that we'd rejoice in the great forgiveness the mercy Lord that beautiful invitation a reason with you and accept the work of salvation of the cross so meet us here Lord we pray let's all stand together and the communion tables are open there all around the room all the way around the room there's communion elements you can leave your chair and you can take a piece of bread and the cup and and worship the Lord go back to your chair and we'll close up the service you you

Channel: Athey Creek

Views: 11,596

Rating: 4.9156117 out of 5

Keywords: Brett Meador, Bible, Church, Teaching, Study, Christian, Jesus, Micah DePaoli, Oregon, Through the Bible, s2-290, Isaiah

Id: Vcfk9rJzVto

Length: 50min 18sec (3018 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 01 2020