Ancient Israel was falling apart. Their kingdom had split into two kingdoms, the economy and military strength were declining, and the culture was rotting from the inside out.
As Israel addressed their problems, they looked to everything but God for the solutions. In Isaiah 40, God asked, “Have you forgotten Who I am?”
All too often, we look to everything but God for the answers to the problems in our lives. Have we forgotten Him too?
In Isaish 7, the Lord promised Ahaz, an unGodly king, that He would protect the him and his kingdom from a pending invasion. The Lord then invited Ahaz to ask Him for a sign. In essence, God extended His grace and provision to Ahaz, who rejected it out of his own pride.
In this message, Pastor Leland Acker shows how this fits into Isaiah’s theme of reasoning with God, and how we can align ourselves with God in our lives so we can experience the peace He offers.
God constantly invites us to return to His presence and allow Him to fix what’s wrong in our lives.
In Isaiah 1:18, He invites us to “Come let us reason together.” Reasoning with God means allowing Him to highlight, confront, correct, and cleanse us from the sin in our lives, thus, the verse goes on to say, “though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow.”
Being confronted with your sins and having them corrected doesn’t sound like a pleasant experience. To be honest, it’s something that our flesh (our human nature) dreads. This is why we find it so hard to go to church on Sunday. This is why we avoid preachers, evangelists, and many times, why we decline to go to counseling or therapy.
We don’t want to confront our sin, our flaws, our bad decisions. We want to simply ignore them and hope things get better. However, the best way to exacerbate a problem is to pretend it doesn’t exist. The best way to solve a problem is to confront it head on. Admittedly, that’s a scary and unpleasant task, but healing requires it.
And, God invites us to reason with Him so He can do that work for us.
This process is demonstrated in action in Isaiah 6, and we see God extend this same invitation to King Ahaz in Isaiah 7 when He invites Ahaz to “ask a sign of the Lord.”
At Life Point Baptist Church, we are not here to cause you to feel shame, or to berate you or intensify the pain your sin has brought you. We do want to introduce you to our Lord so He can heal you. Services start at 11 am on Sunday mornings. We’d love to meet you.
In Isaiah 1:18, God says, “Come, let us reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”
As we discussed last week, to reason with God means to come to the Lord, allow Him to convict you of your sin and correct your sin, and then God will cleanse you and forgive you of your sin.
In Isaiah 6, we see what this looks like, as Isaiah has his reasoning moment with God.
When you find yourself beset by fear, anxiety, regret, sadness or anger, you may feel overwhelmed. In this message, Pastor Leland Acker points out that to overcome the anguish in your life, you need to find peace in your heart. This message, taken from Isaiah 1:18, shows us how to do that.
The hardest days begin when we wake up and realize how far we’ve fallen. How discouraging it is to know how blessed you were, or how great you were, and see how far off course you’ve drifted.
Whether it’s realizing you’ve gained 100 pounds, spent all of your inheritance, or whether it’s something more significant, like realizing the full consequences of a spiritual failure, seeing the devastation in your life and the long road to recovery can be a daunting moment.
Such was the case for ancient Israel during Isaiah’s day. The nation had been led by God out of Egypt, through a parted Red Sea, into the wilderness, and ultimately into the Promised Land. Ultimately, the nation enjoyed military success under King David, and political and economic success under King Solomon.
Those years also saw a Spiritual revival in Israel, as the Temple was built in Jerusalem, which replaced the Tabernacle in Shiloh. Israel was at its peak, militarily, economically, and Spiritually.
But, in the aftermath of the death of King Solomon, greed and self-interests entered in, resulting in a battle between two would-be successors to Solomon, which resulted in the Kingdom splitting in half. That set a series of events into motion which led to rampant idolatry in Israel, and the nation turning its back on God.
By the time Isaiah began to prophesy, the nation was a shell of what it used to be. Instead of being a military power, it was oppressed by its enemies. Instead of being a political power, it was the joke of the heathen nations surrounding it. Instead of being an economic power, Israel experienced famines, droughts, and a fledgling economy.
To solve their problems, Israel often turned to idols, instead of repenting and returning to God. Tragically, Israel could not see the connection cutting themselves off from God, who was the source of all their blessings, and the hardships they endured. So, things got worse.
Then, God called Isaiah to prophesy to the nation.
Isaiah’s ministry to Israel was to call the nation to repentance and to demonstrate the grace and redemption that the Lord brought. This theme was set out in Isaiah 1, where the Lord told the people that they were rebellious, but, “though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow.”
Despite how severely the nation of Israel rebelled against God, God was still going to set everything right.
This promise is extended to us as well. Now matter how badly we’ve messed things up, God will redeem us and restore us, using the adversity we experience to transform us. This is a promise we can believe in.
“Come, let us reason together, said the Lord, though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool (Isaiah 1:18).”
Over the next few weeks, we will explore how the Lord will redeem and restore us through a study in the book of Isaiah. You can join us in person at 11 am Sundays at 599 Sunrise Dr. in Early, TX, or joining us on Facebook Live at about 11:15 Sunday morning, or check out the video messages that will be posted here.
May God bless you with comfort, encouragement and peace as we study these passages together.
The Point... 