SUNDAY SERMONS

 

Though Your Sins Be as Scarlet

Isaiah 1:18  "Come now, let us settle the matter," says the LORD. "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.

This is one of the greatest texts in the Bible. I am glad it is there. Now we know that any man, even though he has gone far away from God and deep down into sin, can have all of his sins taken away. The scarlet can be as snow. The crimson can be as wool.

We see in this text that God is a reasonable God. He is a gentleman. He never forces anything down our throats. He talks to us, He reasons with us, He counsels us, but He leaves it up to us as to whether we will follow Him or not. He is simply saying in this text, “I want to sit down and talk things over with you. Let’s reason this thing out and I promise you that if you will put your trust in Me I’ll wash all your sins away.”

God knows this. If you are reasonable, if you are sensible, if you will listen to Him and use your intellect, you will do the right thing and be saved.

So ‘let us draw this picture. God sits in one chair and a lost sinner sits in another. Filled with compassion and love, what will God say to the sinner?

I. G0D SAYS — “YOU MUS REALIZE THAT YOU ARE A SINNER”

Here is the way He puts it:

Romans 3:23  for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

 Isaiah 53:6  We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Romans 3:10  As it is written: "There is no one righteous, not even one;

Jeremiah 17:9  The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?

a.  Now God is not merely saying that we have done some sinful things. He is also saying that we have a sinful nature.

b.  Some people say, “I’ll cut off this sin; I’ll give up that bad habit.” You can do that and still be a sinner.

c.   God is not as much concerned with the fact of your various sins as He is that you are a sinner.

An apple tree is not an apple tree because it bears apples. It bears apples because it is an apple tree. You are not a sinner because you sin. You sin because you are a sinner, you have a sinful nature. Angels don’t sin because they are angels. But you do sin because you are a sinner.

d.  You can get rid of some sins, even of many sins, and still be a sinner.

In the early years tent revivals would travel from town to town. In a revival in a country community. On the first day of the meeting a good woman told the preacher, “Some of the young men in our community are playing cards and gambling. I want you to preach a sermon against gambling.” In her mind if the preacher were successful  in getting these young men to give up their gambling, that would not have solved the problem. The preacher didn’t preach about gambling. He preached Christ who could save from all sin, and in the providence and grace of God these young men came and heard the message, were converted and gave up their gambling.

e.  People are not changed by giving up a few sins. They are changed by conversion to Christ, then they have a power to overcome their sins.

A young man, after he had been on a drunken spree for several days he was ill at his home. The local pastor visited him and he said, “Preacher, I am going to quit drinking. The doctor told me that if I continued to drink I might go out like a light one of these days.” His resolution did not last long, because it was born of fear and not from the New Birth. What he needed to do was not merely to give up something. He needed a new life, he needed to be born again.

f.    We notice that God says we have gone astray “like sheep.” Not like dogs or horses — they can find their way home. But when a sheep goes astray someone must go after it and bring it back home. So Jesus the great Shepherd came down to earth. He came looking for His sheep, that He might save them and bring them home.

g.  God also says that we have turned to our “own ways.” There are just two ways to turn, our way or God’s way. If you have not turned to God’s way you are going your own way and that’s the way of sin, the way that leads to hell.

h.  So God says, “You must realize that you are a sinner and that sinners are lost.” Why does God want you to feel that way? Because if you see yourself as a sinner, you’ll feel your need of a Saviour. It’s when a man knows he is drowning that he feels the need of a rescuer. It’s when a man knows he is sick that he feels the need of a doctor. It’s when a man knows he is a sinner that he feels the need of a Saviour.

i.     Why don’t you say to the God who reasons with you, “Yes, Lord, I know I am a sinner.”

II. GOD SAYS, “I LOVE YOU IN SPITE OF YOUN SIN”

·      “But,” you say, “how can that be possible? If I am a sinner, how can a holy and righteous God love me? I don’t love the unlovely, I don’t love those who oppose me. How can God love me when I have sinned so grievously against Him?” Well, that’s why He is God. He can do what you can’t do.

·      He hates your sin, but He loves you.

Suppose that you had a child and a dread disease was eating that child’s life away. You would not love the disease, but you would love the child. S0 God hates the sin that is ruining you, but He loves you.

·      How do we know that God loves a sinner? We go to Calvary and see God’s only Son dying on a cross. We cry out, “Why does God allow this?” One answer comes back from the skies, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

·      A father loves a prodigal son, a mother loves a wandering child, a wife loves an unfaithful husband, a patriot loves his country. But all of this is nothing compared to God’s love for sinners.

How wide and deep is God’s love? Well, think of such men as Hitler and, Mussolini and all the evil that came out of their lives and plans. Of course God did not approve of what they did. But if these men had turned to Him in genuine repentance, He would have forgiven them. He loved them but not their deeds.

·      Maybe you are saying, “I have stooped pretty low. I have done things I don’t want anyone else to know about.” That doesn’t matter. The thing that does matter is that God loves you and every other sinner on earth.

Romans 5:8  But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

·      This verse doesn’t say that He extended His love and gave His Son for perfect people, but for sinners.

·      Now God’s love calls for a response. What are you going to do about His love? Are you going to turn your back on it? Are you simply going to ignore it?‘ Don’t do that, my friend. Let that great love for you break your heart and bring you to Him.

III. GOD SAYS, “I DON’T WANT YOU TO PERRSH”

2 Peter 3:9  The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

Ezekiel 33:11  Say to them, 'As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! …'

a.  All the way through the Bible He is pleading with men to turn away from sin and live.

·      In Noah’s time the world was filled with rankest sinners. God did not want to see them die so He sent Noah to preach repentance and salvation to them.

·      He didn’t want the people of Nineveh to die, so He sent ]onah to preach to them.

·      He doesn’t want to see you die, so He sent His Son to die for you and provide a way of escape for you.

The railroads have their efficient red light warning systems. When the engineer peers into the night and sees the red light shining, he knows there is danger ahead and brings his engine to a stop. To go through the red light might mean death to him and to his passengers. In like manner God has set up His red lights along life’s pathway to save men from hell. What are some of them?

·      There is the Bible,

·      there are the gospel sermons you have heard,

·      there is the church,

·      there is the witness of a friend,

·      there are the sorrows of life, and, finally,

·      there is the Holy Spirit.

If you crash through all of these warning signals you will go down to hell. Yet, all the while God is saying, “I don’t want this to happen to you. I’ve done everything necessary to save you.”

 

IV. G0D SAYS, “I OFFER YOU SALVATION

THROUGH MY SON”

a.        The sinner deserves only to die. But God loves the sinner so much, in spite of his sin, that He sent His Son to die in the sinner’s place.

Do you remember Barabbas? He was in prison on the day that Christ was to be crucified. But Pilate, the governor, had a custom of releasing a prisoner on a certain holiday. He gave the people the privilege of choosing the one to be released. So he brought both Jesus and Barabbas out and placed one on his right side and one on his left. Then he asked the mob, “Which one shall I release unto you?” Think of the choice they had to make. On one side stood the sinless Son of God who had gone about doing good. On the other side was Barabbas, whose evil deeds were known to everyone. What choice did the people make? They cried out, “Release unto us Barabbas and crucify Christ.” So Barabbas went free and Jesus died. As He hung on the cross I can imagine that Barabbas crept close to the cross and said, “There’s where I should have died today, but, thank God, that wonderful man died in my place.” That should be the cry of every man.

b.        As you think of your sin, as you know you deserve death, as you see Jesus dying on that cross in your stead, you ought to cry out, “I belonged there, I had sinned, I deserved death. But He died there for me, so I’ll take Him as my Saviour and love Him and serve Him all my life.”

Some years ago a man was gloriously saved and someone asked him how it happened. He answered, “I swapped with Jesus. I swapped my sin for His salvation. I gave Him my sin and He gave me everlasting life.” That’s what happens in salvation and it’s the most wonderful bargain a man can ever make.

c.   Salvation is a simple matter but men try to make it difficult.

A certain lawyer said, “Before I was saved I used to think that if I ever became a Christian it would have to be in some great center of learning where all of my questions could be answered. But instead I was saved in a rescue mission as I knelt at the front with human derelicts all around me. When I knelt I had all my questions, when I arose they were gone. God didn’t answer them, He removed them.

d.” Oh, soul in sin, don’t go around looking for arguments and answers, just come to Jesus. He is the answer.

e. Christ is your only hope. He saves you when you come to Him in simple faith. All your good works, all your gifts, all your kindness to others, all your form and ritualism can never save you. Only Jesus can do that.

The Bible says we must come to the Lord with a broken and a contrite heart. Then and then only can they find the peace that passes all understanding. When a man says, “My heart is burdened with my sin, but I now humbly repent of it all and simply trust Christ for my salvation,” in that minute he is saved and all the bells of heaven begin to ring out for joy.

Here is a man who comes home at night, all tired out. He says to his wife, “What must I do to find rest?” She replies, “Believe on that chair and you will find rest.” “I do believe,” he says, “I have always believed in that chair, but I am still weary. What else must I do?” Then she says, “Trust the chair, commit yourself to it. Give yourself up to it. Lean on it with all your might.” Then he sits down and it feels so good that he says, “I’m resting now.  didn’t you tell me to trust the chair and commit myself to it? The moment I sat down I began to rest.”

When you say to me that you want to be saved I say to you, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” Then you say, “Do you mean that I am just to believe in Him in my mind? I’ve always done that. I believe He was the Son of God and that He died on the cross.” But I say to you, “Faith means more than that. Trust your all to Him, all the past, present and future. Commit everything to Him. Lean entirely on Him.” And the minute you do that you will find rest and peace and eternal life. You will be able to say, “All is mine since I trusted Him.”

Do I hear someone saying, “That’s all very good, but I have plenty of time left yet in which to be saved.” A man in the Bible said the same thing, but God said,

Luke 12:20 “Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee”. And that night he died.

How much more time do you have?