Isaiah 1:18 Come now, and let us reason together, said the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow… I. Our text is addressed to SINNERS OF THE DEEPEST DYE. 1. In the second verse you will perceive that the text was addressed to senseless sinners — so senseless that God Himself would not address them in expostulation, but called upon the heavens and the earth to hear His complaints. 2. The text is given to ungrateful sinners. "I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against Me." Oh, how many of us come under this description! 3. By reading in the third verse, you will perceive again that the text is addressed to men who are worse than beasts. None of us would keep a horse for twenty years, if it never worked but only sought to injure us; and yet there are men whom God has kept these forty and fifty years, put the breath into their nostrils, the bread into their mouths, and the clothes upon their backs, and they have done nothing but curse at Him, speak ill of His service, and do despite to His laws. 4. They were a people "laden with iniquity." 5. They were not only loaded with sin themselves, but they were teachers in transgressions. "Children that are corrupters." 6. The blessed text we have on hand is addressed to men upon whom all manner of afflictions had been lost and thrown away. It is a great aggravation of our sin when we sin under the rod. 7. The invitation is sent to men who appeared to have been totally depraved from the sole of the foot even to the head. II. The text presents us with REASONING OF THE MOST PREVALENT POWER. III. The words of this text contain a PROMISE OF PARDON OF THE FULLEST FORCE. "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; and though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." These colours are selected because of their exceeding brilliancy. Now some sins are striking, glaring sins; you cannot help seeing them; and the sinner himself is compelled to confess them. But the Hebrew word conveys the idea of doubly dyed — what we call ingrained colours — when the wool has lain so long in the dye that it cannot be got out; though you wash or wear it as long as you please, you must destroy the fabric before you can destroy the colour. Yet here is the promise of full pardon for glaring and for ingrained lusts. And note how the pardon is put — "they shall be as snow" — pure white virgin snow. But snow soon loses its whiteness, and therefore it is compared to the whiteness of the wool washed and prepared by the busy housewife for her fair white linen. You shall be so cleansed, that not the shadow of a spot, nor the sign of a sin, shall be left upon you. When a man believes in Christ, he is in that moment, in God's sight, as though he had never sinned in all his life. IV. THE TIME mentioned in the text, which is of the MOST SOLEMN SIGNIFICANCE. "Now." ( C. H. Spurgeon.) Parallel Verses KJV: Come now, and 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. |
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