Alright again a good morning, and welcome to everyone. I understand that there are others tuning in into this live streaming. I understand that there are those from Johor Bahru, from Melaka. Perhaps some from Miri, and also people from Singapore. Now even alright, I understand perhaps from UK and from the USA. There are of course others- individuals, friends who are also tuning in. So let me now on behalf of Grace Reformed Church warmly welcome all of you to this live streaming worship. We live in an unusual time, and so we are doing unusual things. Now we know that the lockdown or what it’s called the MCO in Malaysia has been extended. So in that sense, our present series, which I would call it a coronavirus series has also been extended.

So we do not know how much longer, but we shall pray for the Lord’s grace as we continue in this manner and to worship together, to hear the Word of God together. Now for today, I would like to draw your attention to the book of Isaiah. So you have in your sort of a bulletin the Bible text printed out. And so please look at the Bible text either in your Bible or in the printout. And I’d like to, first of all, read the text. Now our text this morning is Isaiah chapter 1, the first twenty verses. Verse 1 through verse 20 of Isaiah chapter 1. Now, this is the Word of God. “The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth! For the LORD has spoken: “I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against Me; The ox knows its owner and the donkey its master’s crib; But Israel does not know, My people do not consider.” Alas, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a brood of evildoers, children who are corrupters! They have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked to anger the Holy One of Israel, they have turned away backward. Why should you be stricken again? You will revolt more and more. The whole head is sick, the whole heart faints. From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores; They have not been closed or bound up, or soothed with ointment.

Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire; Strangers devour your land in your presence; And it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers. So the daughter of Zion is left as a booth in a vineyard, as a hut in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city. Unless the LORD of hosts had left to us a very small remnant, we would have become like Sodom, we would have been made like Gomorrah. Hear the word of the LORD, you rulers of Sodom; Give ear to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah: “To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to Me?” Says the LORD. “I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed cattle. I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs or goats.

“When you come to appear before Me, who has required this from your hand, to trample My courts? Bring no more futile sacrifices; Incense is an abomination to Me. The New Moons, the Sabbaths, and the calling of assemblies— I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting. Your New Moons and your appointed feasts My soul hates; They are a trouble to Me, I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands, I will hide My eyes from you; Even though you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood. “Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; Put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes. Cease to do evil, learn to do good; Seek justice, rebuke the oppressor; Defend the fatherless, plead for the widow.

“Come now, and let us reason together,” says the LORD, “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; But if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword”; For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.” Now this morning the title of this sermon is “Come, Let’s Talk”. And here I want to impress upon you from the outset that it’s an invitation. Here is an invitation by God to talk. In other words, God is inviting us for a chat. Look at verse 18. It says here, God says here come now and let us talk or let us reason together. And God, as I say, wants to have a conversation with us.

Now today we know that there are endless talks going on about Covid-19, about how contagious the virus is, about the death tolls in many nations, about the lockdown and the effects of the lockdown, about the economy, about the new normal. And every day, we hear talks about this subject and perhaps others as well. So we want to ask: What is it that God wants to talk to us about? What is it that God wants to talk to us about? I’ve constantly from time to time reminded the members of GRC that at this period, in this period, as we go through this period of pandemic, now there are many things that are happening and we are trying to make sense of the situation.

But one thing I want to remind you again is that during this time of lockdown, I believe that God wants us to listen. He has something to say to us. He wants to have a conversation with us. As I say not about how you might be impacted by the lockdown or not about the coronavirus. But as we read here in verse 18, God says, come now, let us talk. Let us talk together, and I want to talk to you about your sin. He says: “Come now, and let us reason together, though your sin.” Your sin. God wants to talk to us in other words about our spiritual life, about our relationship with God. So I want to ask as we begin our study this morning: How are you this morning?

Perhaps that’s what God is asking you: How are you? How have you been doing these past weeks during lockdown? How is your Bible intake? How is your prayer life? Are you living in sin? Is your zeal for God is as fervent? How are you this morning? Now God wants to have a talk with us. Now I’ll also like to ask you: When did you last had this conversation? When do you last had a conversation about your spiritual life, when you talk to someone or someone talking to you about how is your walk with God? Now have you noticed that people would talk about anything except their relationship with God? They’ll talk about sports, they talk about the weather, they talk about the economy. But God says I want to talk to you about your life, your spiritual life.

And so there are two parts here in this passage I’ll like to bring to your attention, and the first is this as we consider this whole matter of God wanting to have a conversation with us. I want to begin by asking: Why? Why have such a conversation? If someone comes to you today, maybe we cannot meet. Perhaps over Zoom or WhatsApp chat, and someone comes to you and says I want to have a conversation with you and I want to talk about your life. I want to talk about your spiritual life. I want to talk about the needs of your soul. Now you might perhaps pause and say, you say why? Why is there a need for such a conversation? There are so many urgent things to talk about today, but why the need?

And so, I’d like to begin by answering that question: Why the need to have such a conversation? Or in other words, why should we even or ever think of stopping people in their track and talk about their souls? Why? Well because as we see here in this text of what the prophet Isaiah saw, now that would probably be the reason that we’ll give to anyone who asks you: Why do you stop me in my tracks as it were and talk to me about this subject? And this is what we should say, it’s because of what I have seen. Now look at verse 1, it begins this way: “the vision of Isaiah”. The vision of Isaiah. In other words, it’s because of what Isaiah sees here coming. What is it that the prophet Isaiah saw coming upon this nation, the nation of Judah?

He was a prophet of Judah. He lived in Jerusalem, in Judah, and he was speaking to the people of Judah. And he said that I see something coming, and it is a matter of urgency that I want to have a conversation about this subject. Now, what is it that the prophet Isaiah saw? Now the first thirty-nine chapters of Isaiah is about a vision that Isaiah saw. He, first of all, saw the Assyrians attacking, coming and attacking their northern brethren, Israel, the Northern Kingdom. So in the first thirty-nine chapters, Isaiah was preoccupied with that vision. And at the end of it, he basically sees how the Assyrians came and wipe out the ten tribes of Israel in the north.

And so, and then he sees that the Assyrians were aggressive and had great appetite, and they were also coming for the people down south in Judah. And he says that they’ve taken the northern brethren, and they are coming for us. There is great danger coming. And so when you come to the end of this first section of Isaiah in chapter 39, now this is what is recorded by Isaiah. Isaiah chapter 39, and listen to these few verses here. Verse 5 of Isaiah 39: “Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the LORD of hosts: ‘Behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house, and what your fathers have accumulated until this day, shall be carried to Babylon; nothing shall be left,’ says the LORD.

‘And they shall take away some of your sons who will descend from you, whom you will beget; and they will be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.’””. Now, what Isaiah is saying here that as he saw the Assyrians coming, but what he didn’t see at first was another power coming, rising from the horizon, and that is the Babylonian Empire. And then later as he saw more clearly, he saw that the power or the enemy that would finally wipe them out as it were and take them into captivity is an even greater power- the Babylonians. Because the Babylonians came, and they took and they defeated the Assyrians, and then onward they come for the people of Judah in the south. Now that is the tone. That is the context of Isaiah’s prophecy.

In other words, he saw a danger coming. He saw that judgement was coming upon the nation of Judah and that they would soon be wiped out. So chapter 39 verse 5 to 7 is a prophecy of what would happen, now what would happen. And so back to chapter 1. And so the prophet Isaiah now gives the warning. Now in chapter 1 and verse 9- chapter 1 and verse 9. And so here is the urgency for such a conversation. Verse 9: “Unless the LORD of hosts had left to us a very small remnant, we would have become like Sodom, we would have been made like Gomorrah.”. He is reminding the people: Do you not remember what happened to Sodom? Do you not remember what happened to Gomorrah? What happened to them? They were wiped out. God rained fire and brimstone from heaven because of their lives.

They were not living right. It is about their life. It’s about their walk with God. And Isaiah is saying here I want to talk about your life. God is inviting us to a conversation about this subject: Are you right with God? Because there is a judgement coming, and that judgement, as Isaiah reminded them of Sodom and Gomorrah. If you would just flip back with me to Genesis chapter 19. Genesis chapter 19, and I want to draw your attention to verses 27 and 28. Now, this is the scene that in a sense Isaiah is inviting them, the people of Judah to take a look. He said take a look at this scene as recorded in your Scripture.

Genesis 19:27-28- “And then Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the LORD. Then (verse 28), he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain; and he saw, and behold, the smoke of the land which went up like the smoke of a furnace.”. Now that is a mental picture that Isaiah wants them to have as he mentions Sodom and Gomorrah in this very first chapter. It is that of the cities being up in smoke as in a furnace. He said that is coming. And now I want to draw your attention to what John saw coming- what John saw coming in the book of Revelation chapter 20. Revelation chapter 20, John also had a vision. John also saw what is coming.

And that is perhaps the reason for the book of Revelation. It is an invitation to have a conversation about our lives, to have a serious conversation about our lives before God. And he said the urgency of it is because of what he saw. Verse 12, Revelation 20, and John says and I saw. “I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and the books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.”.

Now that is what John saw, and that is the reason for such a conversation. In fact, that is the reason for the urgency to talk about such a subject. And so let us come back to Isaiah. Let’s come back to Isaiah. And I said here God is inviting us to talk- to talk about our soul, to talk about our lives before Him, to talk about the future, not the future after the lockdown but our eternal future. What would that be like for each one of us? Let us have a talk. Come, says the Lord. Let us talk together. Let us reason together. Now that leads to the second thing or second part of what I want to say this morning about Isaiah 1.

The second thing is what. What is it that God wants to talk to Judah about? What is it that God wants to talk to you about? Now there are two things here God wants to talk to the people of Judah. And I believe the same two things He wants to talk to us about this morning. And I hope after this session that you would find some time to meditate on this, to have a conversation with God about your life before Him. And try to listen to Him and see what is it that He has to say to you. And I say there is two things. The first. The first, He makes it very clear here in verse 18. He says: Come now, let us reason. Let us talk together. And you say: Lord, what is it? And then He tells you “though your sin”.

Your sin. In other words, God says the first thing I want to talk to you about is your sin. Are you perfect? Are you without sin? What is your life like now? God says I want to talk to you about your sin. And then He tells them something about their sin, and there are three picture words here. There are three words here that He uses, that God uses here to speak of or to describe the sin of the people of Judah. I believe that these three words are the same words that may be used, that can be used to describe the sin of the people in this world. And I believe that the same three words can be used to describe or the speak of our own sin. So what is it that God is saying about their sin?

I say three things, three words here about their sin. He says your sin are like these. The first description of the sin is in verse 2. Verse 2, and that word is you are ‘rebellious’. You are rebellious. We are rebels. The people of this world are rebels. As far as God is concerned, in what sense are we rebelling against God? Listen to verse 2. God says here: “Hear, O heavens, give ear, O earth! For the LORD has spoken: “I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against Me”. That is God’s first charge against the people of Judah, God’s charge against every human in this world that we have rebelled against God. Now to speak of sin as rebellion against God is to underscore how outrageous sin is.

Come on, God is saying to us. Spend a moment to think about it, to think about what sin is. If you are sinning against God, think about it in terms of rebelling against God. And as I pointed out that to use this description is to underscore or to emphasise how terrible, how outrageous sin is. Sin, in other words, is the creature going against the Creator. And that is what God is saying here, you are mere insignificant creatures on earth and you dare to go against the Creator? And rebellion here in the Bible, now often the Bible tries to underscore its sinfulness, of its wickedness, of its evil by using the analogy of children rebelling against parents. Now it’s like you say how can that be? It is absolutely utterly unacceptable.

And that is what rebellion is. And that is what sin is. It’s utterly unacceptable. It is totally terrible. And here in the way that verse 2 puts it, as God says here, he uses what we call a compare and contrast. A compare and contrast. When He says: “Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth!”, He is first of all comparing. He compares us with God’s other creation. God created everything in this universe. The heavens, referring to the universe, and the earth, they’re all created by God. And God is as it were summoning, calling all His other creation to look at this as it were pitiful or terrible creation of God called man, called humanity. He’s saying to His other creation: Look! All my creations, come! Heavens, earth, stars, moon, come and look at this particular creation. Now, why is that comparison?

It’s a comparison in the sense that when compared to the other creations, they’re all creations of God. But when you look at all the other creations, they always, the heavens, the Sun, and the moon, and the stars, they always follow instructions. They will keep to their orbits and they will keep rigidly to their path. They will not move by a centimetre from the path that God has designed for them. Or look at the earth that it would always revolve on its own axis moving, and it will always move around the Sun. Always and exactly. The moment the earth shift in the slightest, everything changes. The moment God’s creation does not obey, everything will be in chaos. The universe will not be able to survive because God has designed it so.

And so the star, the moon, the Sun, the galaxy, and the earth, all of God’s creations were obedient to God. And now the contrast. By contrast. By contrast. You look at verse 2: “I have nourished and brought up children. And they”. Look at the contrast. He says the earth, the universe, the Sun, by contrast, they. ‘They’ refer to the people of Judah. They are a picture of humanity, and they, what about ‘they’? What about them? They have rebelled. They do not follow exactly what God has demanded of them. They are rebellious. And what an irony, and they are the crown of creation. They are the crown of God’s creation. You might say, how so? Now God says let us have a conversation about this. I’m making a charge. I’m saying to you that your life is not right, and you say how so?

And that is what we find the people of the world say: How so? How is it that we are not living right? Now turn with me for a moment to Matthew chapter 19. Matthew chapter 19, and this is how that we are not living right. This is how we rebel against our Creator. Now listen to the words of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 19, beginning in verse 4. Beginning in verse 4, and here is Jesus saying: “And Jesus answered and said to the Pharisees”. And Jesus said: “Have you not read that He (that God) who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female’”. How is it that we have rebelled against God, we may ask? And God says, have you not read that I created you male and female?

And now you are denying that. And now you are saying there’s no such thing as male and female? Verse 5 “and said. For this reason”, have you not read what God has said? “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh? So then (verse 6) they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.”. And why are you now challenging me about divorce? You are saying that why can’t we divorce? Don’t you know that there are some reasons allowed by Moses that we can divorce? But you know what God said, Jesus said? From the beginning, this is not so. God has a creation design.

God has designed how the Sun should function, how the moon should function, how the earth should function, and how humanity should function, but we have rebelled. We have rebelled. Or in Paul’s letter to the Romans. Paul’s letter to the Romans chapter 1. You say how have we rebelled against God? Well, Paul says in this way. In this way. Verse 19: “because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being made understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse.”. You see in verse 18, the last part, Paul charges men as what? As suppressing “the truth in unrighteousness”. So what is rebellion?

Rebellion is when God made everything clear. His invisible attributes, they are all clearly being manifested by His creation. Everything is manifest. Everything is clear. God showed it clearly to us, but we suppressed the truth. Now that is rebellion, and that is what God is saying about us. When I say us, it includes everyone in this world. And does it not also include Christians? So often in our own lives now we know what the Bible teaches, but we are not doing them. Can you not perhaps even think of many, many churches? They know what the Bible teaches, but they do not follow. Or us in our own individual life that we know.

We hear the Word of God, we read the Word of God, we have the internet, we listen to YouTube, we listen to talks and sermons, we even attend virtual conferences and listen to all the marvellous talks. And yet, we suppressed the truth. And we are rebellious because we do not do. We do not do what God tells us clearly in His Word that we should do. That is the first word God uses to describe their sin. He said: “though your sin are like scarlet”. And this is what I mean, you are rebellious. But there is a second word God uses here to describe the sin of the people of Judah. He says I want to have a conversation with you. I want to talk about your life. I want to talk about your sin.

I am saying to you that you are rebellious, like children rebelling against their parents. And I want to tell you that is terrible. That is outrageous. That is utterly not acceptable. The second word God uses to describe their sin is the word, and I’ll put it this way. I think the word ‘stubborn’. The word ‘stubborn’ would be a good word to use here. And we see that in verse 3. In verse 3: “The ox knows its owner and the donkey its master’s crib; But Israel does not know, My people do not consider.”. God says that is My issue with you. That’s why I want to have a talk with you. You see now what we see here is God using the picture of an ox and of a donkey.

Again, when God uses the ox and the donkey, He is not saying that we are like them. He’s saying that we are worse than them. Now by using ox and donkey, He’s already saying it’s bad enough in a sense. We are not like them, but we are worse than them. Now, it’s like if they are stubborn, we are more stubborn. Now if they’re stiff-necked, we are most stiff-necked. If they are hardened, we are even more hardened. Now that is God’s problem with the people of Judah. Now Isaiah here then uses the picture of a man almost beaten to death as he continues this picture alright in verse 5, where God says here: “Why should you be stricken again?”. And perhaps thinking again perhaps of the ox and the donkey and how we might beat the ox and try to get it to obey.

He says: “Why should you be stricken, be beaten again? You will revolt more and more.”. In other words, it’s almost like there’s no point even striking you again or beating you because you will not change. Now God says I have an issue with you. Now you have been in this state for a long time. The world has been in this state for a long time. And God has perhaps sent, as I point out in my past, previous sessions with you, He brought upon this world one judgement after another. Perhaps it’s the same with us. We’re in this state for a long time perhaps of disobedience, of not living right with God.

And God says I’ve sent reminder again and again and perhaps in various forms, sometimes in the form of sending you a preacher, sometimes perhaps in the form of sending you a mentor, or someone to come alongside you to encourage you. But sometimes in the form of discipline, of putting you through a particular experience so that you might learn from this, but you don’t. You just don’t learn. You just are not listening. And God says I want to have a talk with you. You see the very fact that God still wants to have a conversation with the people of Judah demonstrates the mercy and the patience of God. He has not given up yet. Oh, if God has given up on us. And we think about our own life.

Perhaps long-ago God would have abandoned us, have given up on us, seeing how rebellious and how stubborn and how hardened we are. We remain the same in our spiritual life day after day, week after week, year after year, and there is no change. No progress, no increase in affection for the Lord, no increase in zeal and enthusiasm for the church. No, nothing! Nothing moves us. And God is saying about these people. Nothing moves you. You can be beaten again and again, but you will revolt more and more. And you say you know what? You are really sick. And that’s what God says is that you need to know. You are really very, very sick. Now let us be honest with ourselves. Let us not be so self-righteous that God is talking about other people.

Perhaps in some way we are what is described here. Continue in verse 5. He says: “The whole head is sick, the whole heart faints.”. Verse 6: “From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores; They have not been closed or bound up, or soothed with ointment.”. He says you’re full of sores, open sores as it were. Open wounds all over our bodies. That is the picture that God is using to describe them. And perhaps that is a fitting picture for many people today, if not most. Perhaps that is a fitting picture of ourselves, and God is talking about me. And God says that’s what I want to talk to you about. Maybe not just of individuals. Maybe of churches.

He says that is a picture of many churches. They are in a terrible, woeful condition. These churches are sick, they are dead, and there is nothing that can be done about their situation. You can scold them, you can beat them, you can instruct them, you can do anything with them, but they will revolt more and more. And God says you know what? Sick. You are really, really very sick, from top to toe. And that is why God wants to have a conversation with them. Now there is a third word that describes their sin. God says I want to reason with you. I want to talk with you. I want to be reasonable. I want you to listen. I’m going to talk about your sin, and say: “though your sins are like scarlet”.

And the third word to describe their sin is ‘self-righteousness’. Self-righteousness. And there are many perhaps other words that can be used to describe this third aspect of their sin. You can use the word ‘self-righteousness’, I think that is a good way to describe the nature of their sin. Or the other word is ‘complacency’, or being superficial. They’re just complacent. They’re complacent because they cannot see their own sin. They are so self-righteous, they are not poor in spirit. They cannot. Now you might have thought that if they are so sinful, they are so sick as I had been describing them in these verses, they would have seen it. They would have seen it. How is it that they cannot see? Now sometimes you look at churches. They are so sick. They’re so out as it were. They’re so dead, but they cannot see.

And you wonder why is it they cannot see. You know perhaps sometimes also about our own life, about individual Christians. How is it that we cannot see? But no. They cannot see. There is no brokenness. There is no sense that their life is not right with God. No sense of their life is not right with God. Then you might wonder why? Why is it that people cannot see their own selves? Why is it that churches cannot see their true spiritual state? Why is it that Christians cannot see their complacency, their poor spiritual state? Why is it that they cannot see? Now Isaiah tells the reason. In fact, God tells us the reason alright- God tells us reason here through the prophet Isaiah why these people here cannot see their sin. The reason they cannot see their sin is in verse 11.

And God said to them: “To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to Me?” says the LORD. “I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed cattle.” God says: “I do not delight in the blood of bulls, and of lambs or goats. When you come to appear before Me (verse 12), who has required this from your hand, to trample upon My courts? Bring no more futile sacrifices; incense is an abomination to Me. Your New Moons, and the Sabbaths, and the calling of assemblies —I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting. Your New Moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates; They are a trouble to Me, I am weary of bearing them.”. You know what these verses are saying?

Well, these are the religion of the people of Judah, the religious activities of the people of Judah. Now I say why is it that they cannot see their sin? The reason is because they are still very religious. Now when we say that people are living in sin and that they are not walking right with God, we are not saying that they are not in quotes “religious”, that they have given up on church altogether, they are not going to church, they’re not saying their prayers. No, these people are still, they’re still bringing their sacrifices. They’re still coming and bring their offerings. They are still observing the festivals or the assemblies. They’re still doing all the religious activity.

It’s exactly the things that the Pharisees did in the days of our Lord Jesus Christ. They did everything, and they were so proud. They say I’m not like the other people. I go to church every Sunday. I gave my tithe. I fast twice a week. I do this, I do that. And so what is the problem? What is the problem with all these activities? The problem is this. God hates these activities because they are so superficial; because they are so external. The religion of the Pharisee is an external religion. And that’s why Jesus charged them or rebuked them by saying that they are like whitewashed tombs. On the outside, they look very nice, very clean, whitewashed. But inside, full of dead men’s bones.

That is their problem. They cannot see their sin because they look at their externals, look at their activities. They look so good, but God says it’s all a bluff. They’re all not real. There is no depth. And so God says I want to have a conversation about your Christian life. And I know. I know, God says, that you are going to church. I know, I know, God says you’re saying your prayers. You’re giving- you’re giving your money. But it’s just all an external act. External act. God says I want depth. Now what God is saying is that is it real? Is it real? Is it genuine? And so here we find God’s conversation with the people of Judah. He says that I want to talk to you about your sin. That’s the first thing I want to talk to you about, your sin.

And He describes their sin as rebellion, as stubbornness, being hardened, and as self-righteousness. As I said, there are two parts here in God’s conversation. First, it’s about their sin. But that is not the only thing. Thank God, that is not the only thing God wants to talk to us about this morning. He doesn’t just want to come and say to you, you know what? You are lousy, you are sinful, you are rebellious, you are stubborn, you are stiff-necked, you are self-righteous, you are complacent, you are superficial. There is no depth in your Christian life. That is not the only thing God wants, yes we know, and I hope that we know that is true. Perhaps to some degree that is true of all of us, and we need to listen. We need to listen to what God wants to say to us.

But there is a second thing God says I want to say to you. That is not the end of My conversation. And the second thing is this, it is a plea. God says I’m here this morning getting you together to have this conversation, it’s not just about your sin, but is also about a plea. Verse 18: “Come now (God says), and let us reason together”. By using the word ‘reason’ that God is, there’s a tone that we need to observe. God is using a tone of compassion. Yes, it’s about our sin, our rebellion against Him. But God is now coming to us with patience, with compassion. He says: “let us reason, says the LORD”.

He says, now listen to what He says. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; and though they are red like crimson, They shall be as wool. (Verse 19) If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land”. God has promised them the Promised Land, say you will get there and you will eat the good of the land. But only if- only if. Same thing God is saying to us. He has promised us the Promised Land, our spiritual Canaan- heaven. We will get there, we will eat the good of the land, but only if- only if you repent. Only if you change, you turn around. Now is it too much to ask? Think about it. Is it too much for God to ask that you repent? 

That is constantly the plea of God in the Bible from Old Testament to the New Testament. Always- always God coming to us, exposing our sin, and then telling us, and then pleading with us, come. Remember the words of Lord Jesus Christ in the Gospel of Matthew? Now Jesus said: “Come to Me, all you who labour”, are weary alright. Come to Me, “and I will give you rest.”. Did you not hear the word of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Gospel of John where He tells the people to come, I’m the Bread of Life. Feed on Me. Come, I’m the Living Water. If anyone comes to Me, he shall never thirst again. I am the Resurrection and the Life. Come, believe in Me, and you shall never die. Come. God here is doing the same. He is pleading.

And we see these two tones as it were all through perhaps the Book of Isaiah. On the one hand, God is pounding and exposing their sin. And on the other hand- and on the other hand, listen again to the words of Isaiah here in Isaiah chapter 55. Isaiah chapter 55, and then there is this appeal. This appeal. Isaiah 55:1- “Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; And you who have no money, come, buy and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in abundance. Incline your ear, and come to Me.”.

Can you not notice how many times God is inviting them to a conversation to talk? He says listen to Me. Listen to Me. “Hear, and your soul shall live; And I will make an everlasting covenant with you— and the sure mercies of David.” And verse 6: “Seek the LORD while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; Let him return to the LORD, and He will have mercy on him; And to our God, and He will abundantly pardon.”. God is pleading. And so what is so unreasonable about that, about coming back to God, about asking you to repent? What is so unreasonable about asking you to confess your sin?

What is so unreasonable about 1 John 1:9? If you- if you confess our sins, He is faithful and just and to forgive you and cleanse you from all unrighteousness, but only if. Is it too much to ask you to think about your life this morning, to examine your walk with Him? Is it too much to ask you to change, to repent, and to come back to God? Come, God says. Let us talk. Let us have a chat, a chat about your sins, about the consequence of sin. And God is saying: “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”.

This transcript has been lightly edited for readability.