Congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ,
I want to begin with a tale of TWO SONS and their cars. One of them cannot abide a single spot of dirt on his car. He has a lotion or potion for every possible aspect of car-cleaning that you can think of. He even has products to prevent dirt from sticking to his car in the first place. But then there is the other son. He prefers to wait for one of two situations in relation to his car – the first is that his older brother gets so upset that there is a dirty car in the family that he just cleans it himself (and this is, of course, the most preferred option of the two ) and the second option is that his car gets so dirty that even he knows it needs to be cleaned.
And those of us who have ever cleaned a really dirty car or anything that was really dirty will know the sense of satisfaction that comes when something that was really dirty is now really clean.
Well this is a pretty good illustration of what we read about in the passage before us today. Isaiah describes the people who are really dirty. The need a wash, as we see in 16. And of course, we are not talking here about road dust or the normal grease and grime of life, but the first of sin.
Now, in general, every human being, before they come to faith in Christ, is completely covered with the dirt of sin – we call that the doctrine of? Total depravity.
But that is not what is being described in this passage. Isaiah is speaking here to the people of Israel – God’s covenant people – professing believers. But what we see here is that they were living a life of hypocrisy. And to be a hypocrite, boys and girls, means that you say one thing but do another. And that is exactly what the people of Israel were doing, as we shall see. But God tells them that He will make them clean; He comes to them, through the prophet, to tell them that one day He will make them spotless. And He calls on them to make the right response to this washing.
Well, because we find this passage in the OT, it looks forward to the work that Jesus did on the cross of Calvary. You and I though stand on the other side of the cross. Jesus has come and Jesus has died and Jesus has risen. The question we need to ask and answer though is the same as it was for the people of Israel: How shall we respond to God’s grace in Jesus Christ? Will we leave this place unchanged and unaffected or with renewed resolve to live a life of thankful obedience?
In this passage then GOD PROMISES TO WASH AWAY THE STENCH AND STAIN OF SIN.
And we explore this as we see OUR DIRE NEED of washing, GOD’S GRACIOUS PROMISE to wash, and THE PROPER RESPONSE to this washing.
I. So first of all, from vv1-17, we see our dire need of washing.
A. The words of v2 are words you will read in the prophets many times. Again and again, as God comes to His people to talk with them about their sinful lifestyle, He addresses His complaint, in one way or another, to the HEAVENS and the EARTH. And this may sound a little strange when we read it. Why does God call on the heavens to hear and the earth to give ear? Well, we call this covenant witness language. Let me explain: Way back in Deut. 30:19, for example, having laid out the covenant law that would form the heart of His relationship with the people of Israel, God said, “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse.”
1. If you have an official document that you need to sign, like a passport, for instance, you will need to get a third person, an independent person, to act as a WITNESS. Well, in terms of God’s covenant with Israel, there was no one who could serve as a witness over the centuries of God’s relationship with His people. So God called on heaven and earth to be His covenant witnesses. And that is why you read the language of v2 throughout the prophets. God calls on heaven and earth, who were there when the covenant was established, to endorse the fact that what God is saying is true.
B. So now God lays out His complaint against the people of Israel, kind of as though He were in some sort of courtroom seeking to prove His case. In v2 He describes the people of Israel as the CHILDREN He had “reared and brought up. But,” says God, “they have rebelled against me.” And their behaviour is so stubborn and stupid that God compares them, unfavourably, with ox and donkeys. He says in v3 that at least the ox knows who its Master is, but Israel doesn’t even know that any more. And this would be because of the sin of idolatry.
1. You boys and girls will remember how the 10 Commandments begin? “I am the Lord your God who brought you up out of Egypt, out of the House of slavery. You shall have no other Gods before me.” But Israel had forgotten this rescue and that they now belonged to God and that it was Him alone whom they should worship. Instead, as we see in v4, they are described as LADEN with iniquity. And boys and girls, to be laden with something means to be weighed down – it is a very heavy load. They were engaged in serious idolatry. And so, God calls His people “offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly! They have forsaken the Lord, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they are utterly estranged.”
C. Well, God continues His case against Israel with more COVENANT WITNESSES language as we see in vv5-8. Back in LEVITICUS 26, for example, God said to the people, “If you will not listen to me and will not do all these commandments .. then I will visit you with … wasting disease and fever … and you shall sow seed in vain … and you shall be struck down before your enemies … I will bring a sword upon you … And I will lay your cities to waste.” So in vv5-6, where we read about being sick and faint and bruised and wounded, God is pointing out to the people of Israel that the illnesses they are suffering should be setting off ‘covenant alarm bells’ in their minds. And in vv7-8, where we read about Israel having been invaded and overthrown, God is urging the people of Israel to remember His covenant and what He told them would happen if they turned their back on Him.
D. Well, what all of this adds up to is that the people of Israel had immersed themselves in injustice, idolatry, and immorality, such that God equated them with the people of SODOM and GOMORRAH, as we see in vv9-10. We read about S&G in Genesis 19. They were towns where all sorts of deviant and unnatural behaviour took place. So getting back to our dirty car image, if the people of Israel were a car, they would not be like most cars you see on the road that are mostly clean apart from a few bugs on the windscreen and a bit of dirt flicked up from the tyres; they would be more like the farmer’s car, which because he lives down a long and muddy gravel road, means the car is absolutely covered with dirt. The people of Israel were filthy with sin.
E. And their REBELLION against God was revealed in the same way that our rebellion against God is revealed today. God had commanded His people to keep His commandments. But we already noted from God’s equating them with Sodom and Gomorrah that there was idolatry and gross immorality in Israel. And we see from vv15-17 that their hands were full of blood – they were a people of violence and murder, and they committed evil acts and oppressed the fatherless and the widow. So it was the way that the people were living and their lack of love for their neighbour that revealed their rebellious and wicked hearts. Well, you and I have the commandments of God also. And we also have the Lord Jesus who said, “Love the Lord your God (wholeheartedly)” and “love your neighbour as yourself” and “if you love me, you will keep my commandments.” So, how would those who hear your language and see your behaviour each day characterize you? Would they describe your life as a life of obedience or a life of rebellion and wickedness?
F. But as bad as everything that we have already read about the people of Israel is, what MULTIPLIES their wickedness is what we read in vv11-14. For there we read that while the people were engaged in idolatry and sexual immorality and cruel injustice, they were continuing to go the temple and offer burnt offerings and they were observing the new moon and Sabbath feasts and gathering to sing loud Psalms and spreading out their hands in prayer. They had become the epitome of what we call SUNDAY CHRISTIANS. And boys and girls, Sunday Christians are those people who are in church on Sunday with the name of Christ on their lips but who are absolute crooks at their place of business or physically or emotionally abusive to their spouse and/or children or engaged in one sort of sexual sin or another or regularly drunk and gambling, or anything of that nature, from Monday through Saturday. The people of Israel were religious hypocrites. They pretended to be one thing in church when in truth they were something entirely different.
1. So here we are. It is Sunday. We are here at worship. We have sung loudly. But is this just because we are religious? Could it be that you are here and ‘going through the motions’ because this is how you have been brought up? Does your Christianity last just the 24 hours of Sunday? Are you a filthy, dirty car from Monday to Saturday that gets a quick wash on Sunday morning so that it looks like a clean car when it gets to church?
II. Well, having read all that we read about the people of Israel, what would you expect God to say to them now? You would expect Him to say That is it. I am through with you. Your number is up. The time for judgment has come. But that is not what we read as we come to v18 is it. Instead we read God’s GRACIOUS PROMISE to wash, our second point.
A. God says, “Come now, 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 become like wool.” We have spoken a couple of times of the LEGAL LANGUAGE that God uses in this passage. And that kind of continues here in v18. God presents Himself as the Judge and the Jury. And with the words, “Come now, let us reason together,” He is telling Israel that the case is closed; their guilt is plain; we all know what they deserve – judgment. The covenant witnesses that God has called add up to a watertight, open and shut case – the guilt of Israel is proved.
B. But do you remember, from EXODUS 33, what happened when Moses asked God to show him His glory? God replied, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The LORD.’ And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.” And looking back to Exodus 33, PSALM 103 says, “The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always chide, nor will He keep His anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does He remove our transgressions from us. As a father shows compassion to his children, so the LORD shows compassion to those who fear Him.” God is holy and just but God is also a God of grace and mercy and peace who loves to forgive.
1. Boys and girls, there are some words about grace and mercy that you hear at the beginning of every worship service. Do you know what they are? The minister will say something like, “Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” And they are words from the beginning of every one of the Apostle Paul’s letters. Every time he wrote to another congregation, he would begin his letter with words like that. And because his words are the words of the Holy Spirit to the churches, we use them also to begin our services. Well, sometimes, because we hear words like that in every service, we can make the mistake of not really thinking about them much at all. But we really should. You see, while we come to church as God’s children, we also come as returning sinners who really deserve His wrath and condemnation. But how does God receive us? “Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” Isn’t that wonderful! God is so gracious!
C. Well, as God promises to wash away the stench and stain of His people’s sin, He is not speaking here of every individual in Israel who was alive at that time but ultimately of the coming of Jesus. And this is because Jesus would do what all of the sacrifices and ceremonies of the law could not do, which was to truly wash away the stench and stain of sin.
D. And there is some powerful imagery in this verse as we see the CONTRASTING COLOURS the Lord mentions. Sin is pictured as scarlet and crimson red while the future spiritual condition of God’s people is pictured as the whitest of whites.
1. You boys and girls have probably all seen one of those TV commercials about washing powder. Children get their white tee-shirts covered in mud or blood or tomato sauce, but Mum puts a scoop of Cold-power or Persil or whatever brand is being advertised in the wash and those white tee-shirts come out sparkling white, don’t they!
2. And you have probably all seen fresh snow on the ground and how white and clean that looks.
3. But the rather curious thing about this verse is that the only thing that can remove the scarlet stain of sin is the blood of the Lord Jesus.
a. Ephesians 1:7 says, “In [Jesus] we have redemption through His blood.”
b. Revelation 7:14 describes the great crowd of God’s people in heaven. We read, “They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”
c. And we think of this at the Lord’s Supper table too where we are told that the blood of Jesus was poured out for the complete forgiveness of all our sins.
d. You may have come to church today covered in the dirt of sin, but you need to know that the blood of Christ can cleanse away the stain and stench of every sin. 1 JOHN 1:7 says, “If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, [God] is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
The promise of salvation is a gracious promise. It is a promise that we can have what we do not deserve, which is the forgiveness of our sins by the blood of Jesus.
III. And that is the gracious promise of washing that we read here in Isaiah 1:18. But thirdly and finally, we read also about THE PROPER RESPONSE to this washing in vv19&20.
A. We have probably all experienced what it feels like when someone takes your kindness or patience or generosity for granted. Can you recall a time when that happened to you? You gave someone a job or you gave someone the benefit of the doubt or you let them borrow a tool even though last time they broke the tool you lent them, and they let you down or they are not thankful or they take you for a ride. It is frustrating to say the least and extremely disappointing and hurtful at worst. Well, try and put yourself in the shoes of God when it comes to you and your sin. Again and again He welcomes you to worship with His grace, mercy and peace, and He assures you that your sins are forgiven, and He reminds you in the sermons and at the Lord’s Supper table that your sins are forgiven. But all too often the church is like a petrol station car wash; we drive out of freshly cleaned but it is not long before the dirt spots of sin start covering us again.
B. And so, having made this gracious promise to the people of Israel, God urged them to repent and again reminded them of His covenant promises. In Leviticus 26 and Deut. 28, God said that if His people would turn from their wickedness and repent, He would bless them and cause them to prosper and flourish once again. And that’s what we read of in v19, “If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land.” But in Leviticus 26 and Deut. 27 God was also clear about what would happen if they continued in their disobedience. And that’s what He reminds them of in v20, “But if you refuse and rebel, you shall be eaten by the sword.” So in a nutshell, what God is saying to Israel is Eat or be eaten!
C. But while the people of Israel only had a promise about being washed to become like snow or wool one day, you have the reality of Jesus and what He did on the cross.
1. We read earlier in 1 Peter 1. And it talks there about ransomed by “the precious blood of Christ.” But what response does God expect from us as those saved by the blood of Christ? “Be holy as I am holy.” “Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart.”
2. Ephesians 2 tells us that we have been “created in Christ for good works … that we should walk in them.” We were saved by grace that we might do what pleases God.
And what would please God is if you left this place so thankful that your sins have been washed away by the blood of Jesus that you are determined to resist temptation and to busy yourself with all that is right and good. Is that what you are resolved to do? Will you leave this place thankful to be saved and determined to serve? Boys and girls, will you leave this place determined to be a bit kinder to your brother or sister than you have been, because your sins are forgiven in Christ? Brothers and sisters, will your conduct and speech toward your spouse be different this week than it was last week? Will your attitude toward your employer or lecturer or teacher or workmates be different this week than it was last week, because your sins have been forgiven in Christ? Are you resolved to not be such an impatient and angry driver, because your sins are forgiven in Christ?
If so, then may the Spirit of God give you all that you need to do this and the humility to turn to Him in confession and repentance when you stumble. May God be praised! Amen.