Isaiah 1:14-20
August 6, 2017
During our life, we examine all types of documents: contracts, agreements, warranties, wills, insurance policies etc. These are legal and binding documents and we review them for suitable wordage, expiration date, coverage's, penalties, cost, and benefits, for anything wrong. We read even the small print!
How is it we read our warranties, review our financial documents and make sure our will is correct but yet never look at the most important document, which is the bible? The Bible is the Word of God and man is bound by His Word.
"The Bible must be considered as the great source of all the truth by which men are to be guided in government as well as in all social transactions." Noah Webster
The Bible is a Book of History - The Bible is a Book of Prophecy - The Bible is a Book of Salvation. The Bible is the story of God's grace to the world. The Bible is a Book of words: the words of the Living God. And it is important that we hear and understand the message of Christ. Psa 12:6 -7 The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.
Psalm 119 highlights the blessing and power of God's Word. How long has it been since you sat down and read Psalm 119? Here are just a few verses in Psalm 119 that pay tribute to the Word: v9) BETH. "Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word". Psa 119:11 "Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee." Psa 119:33 "HE. Teach me, O LORD, the way of thy statutes; and I shall keep it unto the end." Psa 119:34 " Give me understanding, and I shall keep thy law; yea, I shall observe it with my whole heart."
We have a sure word of prophecy; it is the Bible. But yet the offers of God remain mostly unread, and without serious consideration. How sure is this Word of God? Listen to what is said: 2 Peter 1:16-19 "For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount. We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts:"
On the mount, they heard the audible voice of God! It was a sure foundation. They heard the Word from the voice of God. We have the written Word of God. "..... We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts: " The Written Word of God is heard with the same certainty as the audible voice that spoke these words: 2Pe 1:17 For he received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. That was quite an experience to hear the voice of God! And consider the testimony of His Words: "... when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." It is quite an experience to hear God from His Written Word. Both are equally important and both are the Word of God. The audible voice of God heard in the mount is not greater than the Written Word and the Written Word is not greater than the audible voice of God that the disciples heard. We have a more sure word of prophecy in that we have the New Testament and more revelation about the person of Christ. He is not placing one prophecy against the other but urging you to heed the revelation of Christ in the Word of God by the Holy Spirit.
I want us to examine our Saviour's Word of Grace found here in 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."
It is important to see how God framed this invitation in the verses of our text 1:14-20. After the charges leveled by God against false worship, pretense, and hypocrisy and the warning to correct; He said: "Come now...."
1. We see a Word of permission, "Come Now..." The word "Come" is understood as an invitation. It invites - gives you permission. Example: If I say come over to my house, you have a reason to show up at my house.
In these words, you have your Creator, The Redeemer, the LORD saying come let us meet! You have the same given in Matthew 11:28-30 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
Why would the LORD give an invitation with the words "Come Now"?
A.) Because of sin. And all have sinned, Romans 3:23. "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God, And the payment for sin is death. Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." The understanding of man is deceitful. Jer_17:9 "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?"
B.) Because of the deception of the devil. He does not want you to come to the LORD! He does not want you to hear the gospel and he does not want you to believe the gospel. 2Co 4:3 But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: 2Co 4:4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. The devil hates Christ and wants to distort the truth of Christ and to deceive you about Him, heaven and the eternal truths of God's Word.
C.) Because the LORD wants you to know Him. Joh 17:3 And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.
His riches are unsearchable and His ways are past finding out. Eph 3:17 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, ( No One ever cared for you like Jesus)
Jas 1:17 " Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning". Jas 1:18 "Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures."
2. We see a Word in present time, "Come Now...." He is "I AM" our life before He is always in present time. Time is for us. The LORD is not bound by time. Our life before Him is not seen in days but as one life from the beginning to the end.
A.) He is the LORD and never changes. Heb 13:8 Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.
B.) In the LORD eyes the time is always "Now". 2Co_6:2 (For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.). We think of the past, present, and future but with the LORD the time is now. He is not: I was - or I will be - He is the I AM of "now".
The devil would have you believe because of the past you can't "come now". But "come now" are the Words of the LORD: words of His Grace - written through the blood of the Sin Offering. And because of Christ from every sin, from every failure, from every problem, from every burden, from every broken life, from every shattered dream you can come and you can "come now."
From every hopeless circumstance to every prison house of the mind, the God and Father of our LORD Jesus Christ said, "Come Now..."
3. We see a Word of Promise, "...And let us reason together..." Your acceptance with the LORD is guaranteed. Christ is the throne of mercy and the throne of grace.
The problem is not the LORD's acceptance of us. Our problem exists with our obedience to the Word of God. Isa 1:19 If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land:
The problems in our life are not with the LORD but with our disobedience to the Word of God.
We must be authentic in our worship. Isa 1:14 Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them. The LORD hates hypocrisy. It is living pretending to be something you are not. He said, I despise - It troubles me - I am weary of them. I am disgusted. The tragedy is found in our condition of denial. Our need cannot be known as long as we are living in pretense.
We must be honest in our prayers. Isa 1:15 And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood. Hands are used in prayer. "Lifting up Holy hands" Hands are stretched out when you ask for help. You will not receive relief while you ignore the oppressed. Your hands are full of blood when your tongue has murdered someone. Hands are full of blood when forgiveness is absent from the heart. You will not find God's grace. You can't find relief from your enemies when you are an enemy to someone.
We are to be right in our life. Isa. 1:16-17a Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; Learn to do well;......
The LORD has no problem in enlightening our mind of understanding when we come to the place of the hearing. 1Pe 3:10 For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile: 1Pe 3:11 Let him eschew evil, and do good; let him seek peace, and ensue it. 1Pe 3:12 For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil.
A Promise of Cleansing
"....though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." How could God make such a promise as this? It cannot be explained other than going to Calvary and viewing the Cross and the Testimony of Christ.
To understand this cleansing we must go to Psalm 22. This is a Psalm of prophecy about Christ and the Cross. In 22:6) "But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people." He is a worm in esteem, respect. You should read sometime the sermon by Oliver Greene "The Fifteen things they did to Christ at His Crucifixion". The worm is not the word for maggot but for The scarlet worm.
Job 25:6 "How much less man, that is a worm? and the son of man, which is a worm?"
Job 25:6 "How much less man that is a worm? (a maggot - worm)and the son of man, which is a worm? (Scarlet worm)"
Why is Christ referred to as the scarlet worm?
"When Christ says he was "no man", his meaning is, not that he was not truly and really man, for he assumed a true body and a reasonable soul; he partook of the same flesh and blood with his children, and was in all things made like unto his brethren, excepting sin; but that he was a man of no figure, he bore no office, and had no title of honour; he was not a Rabbi, nor a member of the Jewish sanhedrim; he had no share of government, either in the civil or ecclesiastic state; he was a carpenter's son, and a carpenter; nor was he treated as a man, but in the most inhuman manner; he was despised and rejected of men, he was called a madman, and said to have a devil;" copied from Gill from e sword.
Psalm 22 (sometimes called the Psalm of the Cross) is a great chapter of the Bible that tells about the suffering and death of Christ 1,000 years before he actually gave his life upon the cross. Verse 1 says, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? …" In the gospels of Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34, Jesus cried out the same words while hanging on the cross. In verse 6 of Psalm 22, Jesus says something odd: "But I am a worm, and no man." What did he mean by saying "I am a worm"?
Usually in the Bible, the Hebrew word for a worm is "rimmah", which means a maggot – but the Hebrew word Jesus used here for worm, is TOLA'ATH, which means "Crimson worm" or "Scarlet worm". Both scarlet and crimson are the colors of blood – deep red.
The Crimson worm [coccus ilicis] is a very special worm that looks more like a grub than a worm. When it is time for the female or mother Crimson worm to have babies (which she does only one time in her life), she finds the trunk of a tree, a wooden fencepost or a stick. She then attaches her body to that wood and makes a hard crimson shell. She is so strongly and permanently stuck to the wood that the shell can never be removed without tearing her body completely apart and killing her.
The Crimson worm then lays her eggs under her body and the protective shell. When the baby worms (or larvae) hatch, they stay under the shell. Not only does the mother's body give protection for her babies, but it also provides them with food – the babies feed on the LIVING body of the mother!
After just a few days, when the young worms grow to the point that they are able to take care of themselves, the mother dies. As the mother Crimson worm dies, she oozes a crimson or scarlet red dye which not only stains the wood she is attached to, but also her young children. They are colored scarlet red for the rest of their lives.
After three days, the dead mother Crimson worm's body loses its crimson color and turns into a white wax which falls to the ground like snow. So what did Jesus mean by saying "I am a worm"? There are a lot of ideas what Jesus might have meant, but nobody really knows for sure. However, it is very interesting that, just like the Crimson worm, Jesus sacrificed or gave up his life on a tree so that his children might be washed with his crimson blood and their sins cleaned white as snow. He died for us, that we might live through him! from http://www.discovercreation.org/
It is the blood of Christ that saves: "Without the shedding of blood there is no remission" No human means will wash them out. No effort of man, no external rites, no tears, no sacrifices, no prayers, are of themselves sufficient to take them away. They are deep fixed in the heart, as the scarlet color was in the Web of cloth. We are redeemed only by the precious blood of Christ!
Shall be as white as snow - That is, the deep, fixed stain, which no human power could remove, shall be taken away. In other words, sin shall be pardoned, and the soul is made pure. White, in all ages, has been the emblem of innocence, or purity;
As wool - That is, as wool undyed, or from which the color is removed. Though your sins appear as deep-stained, and as permanent as the fast color of crimson in wool, yet they shall be removed - as if that stain should be taken away from the wool, and it should be restored to its original whiteness. By Christ, you are made just as if you have never sinned.
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