Isaiah 1:18 is presented as a powerful invitation from God for His people to reason with Him about their spiritual condition and receive cleansing. The sermon first establishes the nation's rebellion against God, their lack of knowledge, and their spiritual uncleanness, likening them to a leper. It then highlights God's call to wash, make themselves clean, and cease from evil, leading into the central invitation to reason together. The core lesson is that despite the depth of sin, symbolized by scarlet and crimson, God offers complete purification, urging listeners to be reasonable, repentant, and obedient to receive His cleansing and avoid judgment.
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Today I have chosen for our text a well-known verse from the prophecy of Isaiah. It's chapter one and verse eighteen. It reads like this. Come now, let us reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be read like crimson, they shall be as wool. Now allow me to read the text once more before we pray. It's found in Isaiah chapter one, verse eighteen.
Come now and let us reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be read like crimson, they shall be as wool. Let us bow for a moment of prayer. Our Father, again we have been reading from the sacred word. We do ask that by thy Holy Spirit thou shalt make known to each listener the message from this verse. No God grant that those who listen today shall be encouraged.
And if some poor struggling sinner should be listening to this message, we ask thee that thou shalt cause the light of the glorious gospel to shine in unto them that they may be saved. We ask it in the Savior's name. Amen. Now, just before we bring you the message, let us listen to another hymn. Less Let's say that he that begets and they that build a world, the world of the Lord.
For he says unto you, he says unto you. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as wide as no. like crimson, they shall be our food.
Now in order to get the real meaning of our verse, which is verse eighteen of the chapter, it is almost essential for us to travel through the preceding verses and find out what the Prophet is saying before that he comes to this important verse. After all, the verse is one of the invitations of God when he says, Come now. And he invites the people here to come for cleansing. Now the question may arise in some minds, but why for cleansing? Why do the people need to be cleansed?
When we start off then at the beginning of the chapter and take the first four verses, there is a certain charge laid against them. God is speaking to a whole nation. And as he speaks to the nation, remember, he's speaking to every individual in the nation. And so therefore it is a charge that is declared against them. in the first four verses. He is using his spokesman Isaiah. And Isaiah begins to tell us this. He says, Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord has spoken.
Now if the Lord has spoken, it becomes us to give our ears in order to listen to what the Lord has to say. When some great leader in the world makes a speech, people listen. And they listen to what he's got to say, and sometimes what these men say can have far-reaching effect on the world. So people listen when men in high places speak. But why is it, I ask you in all fairness, that people have refused to listen to what the Lord has to say? So the prophet Isaiah is calling to the nation, and he's saying this, Here, O heaven, and give here, O earth, for the Lord has spoken.
Now the question arises still further, what has the Lord said? And here is a charge that is leveled against them. He said, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. Now that's a very strong charge. to think that he takes the place of the parent and he says, I have nourished children. I have looked after those children. I have brought these children up. I have provided for them. But they have reached the stage where they have rebelled against me. May I suggest that at the present time this charge can be turned round and directed at the people of this generation.
People have rebelled against God. We are living in the age of rebellion. It is a spiritual rebellion. In spite of all the blessings that God has lavished upon men and women, they have rebelled against God. First of all, he says there's a lack of knowledge and a lack of consideration. He takes an illustration from nature. And he said, Look at the ox for a moment. The ox knows his owner. Then look at the donkey, the ass, as it's called here. The ass knows his master's crib.
But now Israel, he says, Doth not know, and my people Doth not consider. Isn't it strange that the brute beasts know their owners and are obedient to them? But here are human beings who have come from the hand of God, and they don't even know their Creator. Not only is there the lack of knowledge, but they don't consider. He says, they doth not know my people and doth not consider. Now then, on the strength of that, he lays this charge against them, ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity.
a seed of evildoers, children that are corruptors. They have forsaken the Lord. They have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger. They are gone away backward. See, the very fact that they have refused to have any knowledge of God, the fact that they will not consider these things, God says they are a sinful nation. What was said about them at that time? can be said about us today. We are a sinful generation. We are laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corruptors.
Why is it that all these things are prevalent today? Simply this, because we have forsaken the Lord. We've turned away from the paths of righteousness. We've turned our back upon God. We have our faces towards the pit, and God says, He's angry. But now, He begins to describe their condition. And as you read the following verses now, you'll find the condition that is described. It's the condition of an unclean man. First of all, He looks at the man's head.
He says, why should ye be stricken any more? Ye will revolt more and more. The whole head is sick. You see, the thinking is wrong. And when a man's thinking is wrong, you can expect his whole life to be wrong. First of all, he says the whole head is sick. And then he has wrong desires. The heart is faint. The whole heart is faint. In plain words, his desires are wrong, because the heart is the very seat of the affections, the seat of the desires.
Then look at his feet, that which has to do with his walk, and where he goes. He said, From the soul of the foot, even unto the head there is no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises. and putrefying sores, they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment. Now that description that is given here is the description of a person in the last throes of leprosy. And he takes the picture of physical leprosy, and he uses that in order to describe the spiritual state of the nation.
The nation, he said, is like a man dying of leprosy. In plain words, an unclean man, one who has got to be separated from the rest of society. Remember this, nothing that is unclean, and no one who is unclean, can ever hope to occupy a square inch of God's holy heaven. Now then, if this is the condition that's described here, There's a need for cleansing. Remember our text now. Come now. And let us reason together, says 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. And so in these verses he is describing now the condition of the people. And he comes right down. And he begins to tell them not only their own personal condition, but he tells them the condition of their cities and their country. Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire, your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate as overthrown by strangers. Then he takes, as it were, an illustration from history.
In verse ten he says, Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom. Give here unto the law of your God, ye people of Gomorrah. To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me, says the Lord. I am full of the burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed beasts. Thy delight not in the blood of bullocks or of lambs or of he-goat. When you come to appear before me, who has required this at your hand to tread my courts? Now what is he telling them here? He's describing the fact that religiously they're carrying on with all the various motions of the religious activities.
They're making their sacrifices. They're coming with a religious pretense. But he said... Behind all this religious pretense, they are living like the men of Sodom and Gomorrah. Now remember, except the Lord of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom and we should have been like unto Gomorrah, he says in verse nine. In plain words, they were living in sin. They were committing the same sins as the people of Sodom and Gomorrah. And God's judgment had come upon these people, and the cities had been destroyed.
Now he's saying to his people, Israel, you have gone into the very depths of sin, and yet you're still carrying on with a kind of religious pretense. You're still having your religious ceremonies, but it means nothing to me. Bring no more vain oblations. incenses and abomination unto me, the new moons and the Sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with. It is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. Now it is because he says that he brings forth his challenge. Verses sixteen through twenty, the little section that contains our verse today, brings then a challenge.
God has spoken now through Isaiah. He has described the spiritual condition of the people. They are living lives that are unclean. Spiritually they're unclean. They're living like the people of Sodom and Gomorrah. He said, when you look at them, it's like a man in the last throes of leprosy, and no one can find any ointment that can mollify it. They haven't a cure for it. That's what he's telling them. But now because of that, God gives them a challenge. And the challenge is defined for us, verses sixteen through twenty.
They need to be washed. In verse sixteen, 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 fatherless, plead for the widow. Now then, he comes to our text. When you reach that stage, come now. Let us reason together, said 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. Now let me emphasize right here that this is a reasonable thing. God is saying, be reasonable.
Come to terms with me. Come to terms with God for cleansing. But then the man or the woman who has never reached the stage... where they see themselves as unclean sinners, will never realize that they need cleansing. The first thing, my friend, you've got to face is this, that by nature and by practice we are sinners. And because we are sinners, we are unclean. We are not fit to enter God's presence. And before we can ever hope to go into God's presence, and occupy a place in God's heaven, we must be cleansed.
There is a need then for cleansing. And he's saying, Now come, come now. Let us reason together, says the Lord. Can you imagine, my friend, that God is willing to reason with the likes of you and me? That God desires that we should learn how we can be cleansed. You see, if man cannot produce the ointment to mollify or heal, God has a cure, and after all it's God's cure that we need. God's cure for man's complaint. And God says, come now and reason.
Be reasonable. And even if your sins be a scarlet, it's possible for them to be made as white as snow. Even if they be red like crimson, it's possible for them to be made again as pure as wool. Now, I don't know you, my friend. I cannot see you. But if you're listening to my voice now, might I say this to you, I don't care who you are, and I don't care where you are, if you have reached the point where you realize that your sins are a scarlet. Remember, my friend, you can be made as white as snow.
And even if you think that your sins are so bad that they're red like crimson and everybody knows about them, and you would be afraid or ashamed to face people up again if they knew about your sins, it's possible, my friend, for your sins to be made again and for you to be made just as pure as wool. You see, God can deal with you as a sinner, and God can deal with your sin. God has a cure. And God is saying to you, come now. You see, this is one of the invitations of the Bible. Our God is an inviting God.
When the flood was about to be brought upon this old world, He invited Noah, and he said to Noah, come now, come into the ark. It was an invitation to come in for salvation. Here there's an invitation to come for cleansing. When you come to the last book of the Bible, there's a beautiful invitation there to come for life. The Lord Jesus Christ, when he was here on earth, he invited people to come for rest. You see, our God is an inviting God. He's not a God who drives your way. He's a God who wants you to come. And God is saying, now come and have an audience with me.
Come now and let us reason together. I want to ask every listener today, have you ever shut yourself secretly into your room and got down on your knees before God and allowed God to speak to you through his word? And have you ever sought to speak to God in prayer? Have you ever cried to God? Remember the Bible says, Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. And again I remind you that God is willing for you to come and come to terms with him. For he says in verse nineteen now, if ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land.
In plain words, be repentant. and turn to God in obedience. You see, in the opening verses we see ourselves as sinners. And he has said in the opening verses that they had rebelled against him. He had nourished up children, but these children had rebelled against him. Now, when you come to verse nineteen, if you be willing and obedient, isn't it again like the whole story of the prodigal who rebelled against his father and walked out of the house, went away to enjoy his life as he thought, and to do his own thing, but he was breaking his dear old father's heart, no doubt.
But he came back. When he came back, it was in true repentance. He was then willing and obedient to sit down and eat at his father's table. He had had enough of the far country. Living in sin hadn't helped him one little bit. Now here in verse nineteen then, God is calling for them to be repentant, to turn back again, no longer to continue in a state of rebellion, but in true repentance to come back to God. He had a cure for all... their sinful nature. Now he said, Don't be rebellious, or else God's judgment will come upon you in verse twenty.
But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it. Now take those three verses together just for a moment. First you have God's invitation, inviting us to be reasonable. Come now and let us reason together. May I suggest to you that we ought to be reasonable. For after all, God has given us minds that can reason. And if I'm not fit for God's presence now, why don't I come to God and get things put right, so that if I'm called from time into eternity before another day, I'll be ready for God's presence.
My friend, your sins may have separated between you and your God, but God is still anxious to deal with you and to forgive your sins and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness. Come now. Come now, he said. Let us reason together. Be reasonable. Come to terms with God for cleansing. Ah, but look, be repentant. There will be no cleansing apart from repentance. If you be willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land. Repentance is a necessary thing. Repentance means a change of mind towards God. A change of mind about God. A change of mind about sin.
You may think you can sin and get off with it, my friend. But remember, God knows it all. And sin must be punished. The wages of sin is death. So why not be willing and obedient? Why not repent towards God and exercise faith in the Lord Jesus Christ? But remember this, there's the warning. Don't be rebellious. If you continue in rebellion against God, there is only one other alternative, my friend. Either you repent and tundra God, or if you refuse and rebel, remember this, ye shall be devoured with the sword, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. That means judgment will come.
Either we have salvation from the Lord now, or we have judgment. Either we repent and turn to God, or we continue in rebellion and turn away from God. What is it going to be with you, my friend? Remember now again the words of our text. Come now. Let us reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be read like crimson, they shall be as wool. May it be that someone listening to me now, just where you are, my friend, that you'll turn to God.
Turn and believe this very hour. Trust in the Saviour's grace and power. Then shall your final answer be saved for a long eternity. This is Mr. McNeil bidding you good day.