Let's turn now in our Bibles to Psalm
1 for our scripture reading.
It's a very short psalm, so why don't
we all of us just read the whole
psalm together.
Let's stand as we read the Word of
God.
Blessed is the man that walketh not in
the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in
the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the
seat of the scornful.
But his delight is in the law of
the Lord, and in his law doth he
meditate day and night.
And he shall be like a tree, planted
by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth
his fruit in his season.
His leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever
he doeth shall prosper.
The ungodly are not so, but like the
chaff which the wind driveth away.
Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the
judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the
righteous.
For the Lord knoweth the way of the
righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall
perish.
Let's pray.
Father, we ask that you would help us,
that we might, Lord, walk in your ways.
That we might meditate, Lord, in the law,
both day and night.
That we might, Lord, be like trees, planted
by the rivers of water, bringing forth fruit
in their season.
Leaf not withering, but, Lord, the hand of
blessing upon our life, so that all that
we do might prosper for your glory.
Now, Lord, as we turn to your word
this morning, we ask that our hearts would
be open, and that you would instruct us,
Lord, out of your word, in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Well, as Carl mentioned, we are entering into
this prophecies of Isaiah.
Probably one of the most important books in
the Old Testament, in that Isaiah seemed to
have a clearer understanding and prophecies concerning the
coming Messiah than any other book in the
Old Testament.
And so, we will discover how that Jesus
is spoken of over and over again through
the prophet Isaiah, the looking forward to God's
wonderful promises in sending a Savior into the
world.
This morning, we'd like to draw your attention
to Isaiah chapter 1, verses 18 and 19,
where the Lord said, 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 red like crimson, they shall
be as wool.
If you are willing and obedient, you shall
eat the good of the land.
God wants you to know and to experience
the good life.
Jesus said that Satan had come to steal
and to kill and to destroy.
But he said, I've come that you might
have life and that more abundantly, the good
life.
That's what God wants you to have.
And as the Lord said, if you're willing,
you can have the good life.
In the psalm that we read this morning,
the promise was to those who would meditate
in the law of the Lord day and
night, they would have the good life.
They would be like a tree that's planted
by the rivers of water that brings forth
its fruit in its season.
Their leaf also would not wither and whatever
they did would prosper.
That's God's desire for you.
Now, the big lie of Satan is that
you can have the good life by discarding
the laws of God.
But in the passage today, God is calling
people to just stop and reason things through.
Stop.
Let's reason together, saith the Lord.
As you go back in the first chapter
of Isaiah, he speaks of a lot of
the unreasonable things that the people were doing.
There in verse two, the Lord said in
the last part of the verse, you have
rebelled against me.
I would like to suggest to you that
that's probably one of the most foolish, unreasonable
things a person could ever do, is to
rebel against God.
Because God loves you so supremely.
Because God wants what is the very best
for you.
God desires the best for your life.
And to rebel against God, then is to
rebel against yourself or that which is the
very best that could ever happen to you.
People rebelling against God.
To rebel against God is to put yourself
into a no-win situation.
There's no way that you can rebel against
God and come out a winner.
How would you ever hope to prevail against
God in a rebellion against him?
Have you ever thought of just how unreasonable
that would be to think that you could
win and prevail against him?
In verse three, the prophet says another unreasonable
thing.
The ox, he said, knows his owner.
The donkey, his master's crib.
But Israel does not know, the people does
not consider.
They don't stop to consider things.
Now, usually the ox is known as sort
of a dumb animal.
In fact, we used to, when we were
kids, say you dumb ox.
And we would say dumb as an ox.
A donkey isn't really known either for its
brilliance.
But an ox has enough sense to know
its master.
And a donkey has enough sense to know
who feeds it.
He knows his master's crib.
He knows that it's his master that provides
for him.
But Israel, they did not recognize God as
their owner.
Nor did they recognize that it was God
who had provided for them up to this
point.
And thus, they didn't consider that they were
rebelling against the one who was actually providing
for them all along.
And then as you go into the fourth
verse, the Lord said, O sinful nation, a
people that are loaded with iniquity, seed of
evildoers, children of corruption, they have forsaken the
Lord.
They have provoked the Holy One of Israel
under anger.
I would suggest that that's probably one of
the dumbest things a person could ever do.
And that is to get God angry with
you.
Now, we know the love of God.
And surely the Bible all the way through
assures us of God's love.
In fact, it's almost synonymous with God.
We read, God is love.
And it's important that we know God's love.
But there is another side to the coin.
And that is God's love for those that
surrender and submit their lives to follow him.
And how he will lavish his love upon
them.
But on the other side of the coin,
God's anger and God's wrath that is going
to come upon those who rebel against God
and who try to lead others in a
rebellion against God.
And if you are in that state where
you are, well, here he describes it, that
you are loaded down with iniquity, doing evil,
becoming corrupt, forsaking the Lord.
Those are the things that provokes God's anger
upon a person.
Now, God invites them to sort of take
inventory.
Take a look at yourself.
Take a look at what's happening.
There is a young man who must spend
most of his life at his computer writing
nasty emails about Calvary Chapel and about me
and so forth.
And people all over the country receive emails
from this young man.
And he really doesn't speak too much against
me, but against Romaine.
And you're not supposed to talk about the
dead, but he can't get over some things
that Romaine said to him.
And he talks about his being harassed here
at Calvary Chapel.
I got a lengthy email today from this
same young man.
And he talks about the calamities that he's
experiencing within his family.
And yet he is still very profane and
continues in his diatribe.
Now, the Lord says, look, stop.
Wait a minute.
Take an inventory here.
Look at what's happening.
And unfortunately, this young man can't seem to
do that.
He wants to blame all of the tragedies
that are coming upon his family, upon Calvary
Chapel, rather than the fact that he is
in rebellion against God and the work that
God is doing and seeking to harm and
destroy God's work.
And I believe that it's the judgment of
God because of what he is doing.
And yet he can't seem to stop and
consider his responsibility for what is taking place.
But God said, why should you be stricken
anymore?
You see, when you rebel against God, when
you choose the path of iniquity, what you
do is you remove God's hand of protection
from your life.
You remember when Satan came before God and
the subject of Job was brought up.
Satan objected to God.
He said, you've put a hedge around him.
I can't get to him.
Take the hedge down.
Let me at him.
And he'll curse you to your face.
Well, it is true.
God does put a hedge around his people.
And I thank God for that hedge that
he has around us that protects us from
Satan, who comes to steal and to kill
and to destroy.
And God has that protective hedge around you
and around your family.
And that's a wonderful thing to know.
But a person who is in rebellion, that
hedge is removed and Satan has field day
in attacking them.
And so the Lord is saying here, why
should you be stricken anymore?
When I was in sixth grade, the teacher
read to the class the poem Invictus.
And even as a sixth grader, when he
read that poem to the class, I thought
to myself, that is just plain stupid.
It is that poem where the author says,
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
And he goes on to say that he
was captain of his fate and he was
master of his soul.
And my head is bloody, but unbowed.
And I thought, that doesn't really make sense
to me.
That I would just keep taking a beating.
That my head would be bloody, but I
won't bow it.
I'll just stand there and bloody my head
all you wish.
I'll not bow.
But that's basically what God is saying.
Why should you be stricken anymore?
Why should you have any more problems?
He said, you just seem to rebel more
and more.
Then he said, your whole head is sick
or man, you're sick in the head.
I mean, just to be in constant rebellion
and not submit, not to surrender yourself to
the Lord.
That's mental sickness.
Have you ever noticed though, however, when a
person is caught up in a sinful practice
that is destroying them, how they seem to
be so oblivious to the obvious.
They're obviously being destroyed by what they're doing.
And yet they can't seem to see it.
You try to talk reasonably with them about
what's going on in their lives, but they've
lost all sense of true judgment.
And they can't seem to see that what
they're doing is destroying them.
And they seem to have some kind of
a false assurance that I can quit anytime
I want, that it isn't really affecting me
or it isn't affecting my work.
It's not affecting my family.
And they're blind to what's happening because they're
caught in this evil that is just in
the process of destroying them.
I think of the case of Samson when
Delilah was searching for his secret of strength.
And how that every time he would tell
her it was one thing, she would have
them do that and then discovered that that's
not what it was.
But the thing that amazes me is that
here she is leading him to the ultimate
disclosure and he doesn't seem to realize what's
going on.
And I read the story of Samson and
I say, how can a man be so
stupid as to reveal ultimately to her what
the secret of the strength was, his commitment
and vow to the Lord as a Nazarite?
And how that when finally she had his
hair cut and she said, Samson, the Philistines
are upon you.
He jumped up and he said, I will
go out as I did before.
And then that sad, tragic scripture.
And he knew not that the Spirit of
God had departed from him.
And you see people who are dabbling with
sin, becoming more deeply entwined each day, until
the Spirit of God has departed from them,
but they're not really even aware of it.
Knew not that the Spirit of God had
departed from him.
So the Lord said, from the sole of
your feet to the tip of your head,
there is no soundness.
Or from head to toe, you're covered with
bruises, with wounds, with open running sores.
This is God's view.
This is how God views the sinner.
Now God says, let's reason together.
Come on, wake up.
Let's reason this thing out.
You seem to be sick in the head.
Look at yourself, the things that are happening.
But in reality, you can't see.
But as God sees it, you're suffering with
wounds, bruises, open sores from head to toe.
We often on television see these glamour girls
of Hollywood who are willing to expose their
bodies to the lustful eyes of men, and
are being hailed as beauty queens and so
forth.
But God looks at these beauty queens, as
far as men are concerned, and God sees
them as just, well, to put it bluntly,
bags of pus.
He sees the filth covered from head to
toe with runny, pussy sores in the Hebrew.
And there's no bandaging, there's no covering, there's
no mollifying with ointment.
God says, take a look at the nation.
Look at the desolation that is coming upon
the nation.
Take a look at our nation.
We're going downhill.
We have gang problems, we have drug problems,
we have juvenile problems, we have marital problems,
we have venereal disease problems.
And God said, take a look at the
nation.
Your cities are burning with fire.
This is what was happening to Judah at
that particular time.
Strangers, He said, are devouring your land in
your presence.
The illegal aliens are taking over your nation.
And God calls them like Sodom and Gomorrah.
Here in California this past Tuesday, just four
years after the California voters voted overwhelmingly to
a measure that would approve restricting marriage to
a man and a woman, the Judiciary Committee
of the State Assembly on Tuesday endorsed a
bill that would legalize same-sex unions.
It's Measure AB 1967.
And it was passed by the Assembly Judiciary
Committee in an eight to three vote with
every Democrat on the panel supporting it and
every Republican voting against it.
Tuesday's committee vote marked a significant step in
the debate over same-sex marriage, demonstrating how
little the legislature seems to care for the
vote of the people.
A jubilant Lino, one of the five openly
declared members of the legislature, gay members of
the legislature, called Tuesday vote the first step.
It would seem to me that our California
legislature should be concerned with the budget deficit
and the financial problems that the face of
state facing and try to create legislation that
would be beneficial to all within the state
rather than legislation that would just cater to
and minister to such a small portion of
people.
Our tax dollars supporting this kind of a
legislature who waste the time in these kinds
of things rather than dealing with the true
issues of the state.
God is saying to the nation or to
the people, take a look at what's happening
in your nation.
Consider these things.
Come now, let's reason.
Let's be reasonable, God is saying.
God declared that he was just sick and
tired of their religious activities, their religious rights
and claims.
A recent poll that I really doubt its
validity declares that 85% of the people
in the United States say that they are
Christians.
I wondered where did they take that poll?
Here at Calvary Chapel as you were leaving
church?
If the poll had said 15% of
the people in America say they are Christians,
I would think that that would be closer
to correct.
Our nation has turned its back upon God.
We are far, far, far from being a
Christian neighborhood or a Christian nation.
God said, for what purpose is the multitude
of your sacrifices unto me?
I don't want your sacrifices, he said.
I'm full of the burnt offerings of the
rams and the fat of beast.
I have no delight in the blood of
bullocks or of lambs or of goats.
When you come to appear before me, who's
required you to come and tread my courts?
Bring no more vain ablations, incenses and abomination
unto me.
The new moons and the Sabbaths, the calling
of assemblies, I cannot stand them.
Even your solemn meetings are iniquitous.
I hate your new moons and your appointed
feasts.
They're a trouble unto me.
I'm weary to bear them.
And when you lift up your hands in
prayer, I will hide my eyes.
I will not hear because your hands are
full of blood.
All of the religious activities, unless your heart
is in it, it is a sham.
It was Lenin who said that religion is
the opiate of the people.
Tragically, he was right.
There are many people whose minds are eased
by their religious fervor or by their religious
activities or by the fact that they are,
you know, doing things that Christians should do,
but their heart isn't in it.
And such was with the nation of Judah
as Isaiah was speaking to them.
God said, I'm sick and tired of all
of this religious activity.
I didn't ask for it.
I don't want it.
I'm sick of it.
It's so important that our hearts are right
before the Lord.
God is looking at our hearts.
We may be, you know, counting on our
outward activities.
God's looking at the heart.
So God gives his remedy.
And basically, God said, verse 16, wash and
make yourself clean.
Put away the evil of your doings from
before my eyes.
Cease doing evil.
Clean up your act.
God is saying, put away and cease from
the evil practices.
Put away those filthy videos,
those channels that you subscribe to with the
filthy movies.
Put away the evil.
Don't mollify yourself by saying, well, I still
go to church and I'm still, you know,
singing hymns and so on.
God looks upon the evil that is in
your heart and he says, come on now,
let's reason together about these things.
And that's God's plea.
Let's reason together.
His promise is, though your sins are as
scarlet, no matter what you've done, no matter
how much evil is there, though your sins
are as scarlet, you can be as white
as snow.
Though they be red as crimson, you can
be as wool.
God is offering to you a full and
complete pardon for your sin.
Talk about something that is reasonable.
That's the best offer I've ever heard.
God offering a full and complete pardon.
How can a person reasonably reject God's offer
of salvation?
The New Testament asks the question, how shall
we escape if we neglect or reject this
great salvation that has been offered to us?
How shall we escape the wrath of God?
How shall we escape the punishment of hell
if we reject God's offer of salvation?
Now here's where God is offering to them
the good life.
He said, if you are willing, and thus
it's based upon willingness, you can have the
good life.
The life of freedom from the power of
sin.
The life of forgiveness from sin.
The life of fellowship with God.
The good life.
It can be yours if you are willing.
You can become a child of God.
Pardoned, cleansed, forgiven.
But the Lord said, if you're not willing
and you refuse and rebel, you will be
devoured with a sword.
The choice is given to you.
Fellowship with God, the forgiveness of sins or
destruction as the result of your sin.
Now in reasoning that out, what is the
reasonable thing to take?
Forgiveness, fellowship with God, or the destruction because
of the evil that has controlled your life.
This is the choice that God is offering
to each one today.
In Hebrews chapter 26, 10-26, for if
we sin willfully after we have received the
knowledge of the truth, that is, you've heard
God's offer to you today.
Now if you go out and continue in
the sinful patterns of life, there remains no
more sacrifice for your sins, but only a
certain fearful looking forward to the judgment and
fiery indignation, which will devour the adversaries of
God.
Those who despise Moses' law die without mercy
if just two or three witnessed against them.
Of how much worse punishment do you suppose
shall be those thought worthy of, who have
trodden underfoot the Son of God and have
counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he
was sanctified an unholy thing?
We know him who said, vengeance is mine,
I will repay, saith the Lord.
And again, it is a fearful thing to
fall in the hands of a living God.
Some of the unreasonable things that people say
are, well, I'll take my chances.
Now, does that really make sense?
If you went to LAX this afternoon, got
on a plane to fly to Hawaii, and
while you are sitting there, you see mechanics
going in and out of the cockpit, and
finally the captain comes on and he says,
good afternoon, we're just about ready to take
off for Hawaii.
We are having some mechanical difficulties, but we
have a good chance that we'll make it.
What would be your reaction?
What if he said, we're having some real
difficulties with the hydraulic system, but there's probably
one chance in a thousand that we'll make
it okay.
You'd say, get me off of this thing.
I don't want to take those kind of
chances with my life.
Have you ever considered the chances of Jesus
not being the Son of God?
The chances that he didn't die for your
sins?
The chances that the over 300 predictions were
just coincidentally fulfilled by him?
Come now, let's reason together, saith the Lord.
And I would suggest to you that the
offer that God is making to you of
forgiving and pardoning you of your sin is
the most reasonable, the most generous offer that
could ever be given to any person.
And that's what God is offering to you
today.
If you're willing, you can have the good
life.
Let's pray.
Father, we thank you for your patience.
And we thank you, Lord, for your promises.
The promise of the forgiveness of our sins,
though they be red as crimson, we can
be white as snow.
We thank you, Lord, for the promise of
the good life if we are only willing.
Lord, we pray for those today who have
been blinded by Satan, who think that they
can continue in evil and somehow escape the
anger and the wrath of God, which will
be revealed against all of the ungodliness and
the unrighteousness of men who have held the
truth of God in unrighteousness.
May this be the day, Lord, that you
open up their understanding, that you lift from
them the blindness that Satan has put over
their eyes, and let them, Lord, see and
acknowledge that Jesus is God's Son, who came
to save the world from the penalty of
sin and to save us from the guilt
of our sin by dying in our place.
May this be the day that they are
willing to enter into the good life, the
life of fellowship with you, made possible by
Jesus Christ our Lord.
In his name we pray, Amen.