Are You a Reasonable Person?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Are you a reasonable person? The definition of reasonable is: (of a person) having sound judgment; fair and sensible. Does this describe you tonight? Are you a person of sound judgment? Are you a fair person? Are you a sensible person? Are you reasonable?

Yes you say? Ok, what if I bring up your spiritual life; are you still a reasonable person? Are you still a person of sound judgment? Are you still fair? Are you still sensible? Or are you like so many atheists who go ballistic over hearing the name of Jesus Christ? Are you still with me? Are you a reasonable person? Are you willing to hear me out?

If you are a reasonable person, then let us reason together. The first part of Isaiah 1:18 says: “Come now, let us reason together,” says the Lord. Let us reason together. Do you really think that God was telling the nation of Israel that they needed to reason with Him, that they needed an equal exchange of ideas?

We are not equal to Almighty God. Our ways are not His ways. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts (Isaiah 55:8-9).

So what does God mean by come now, let us reason together? Let’s go back and look at the previous verses in Isaiah 1: 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 hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.

Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward. Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.

From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment. Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.

And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city. Except the Lord of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.

Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah. To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the Lord: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats.

When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts? Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting.

Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them. And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.

Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.

Oh folks, please don’t miss this. The same iniquities, the same type of sins that the Israelites were committing are the same sins we are committing today in America. Oh we are a sinful nation. We are full of iniquity. As a nation overall we have forsaken God. We have taken Him out of our schools, out of our courts, out of our legislator and out of our executive branch. We continually stiff arm God and rebel against Him.

No wonder our nation is in the mess that we are in. God’s anger has been kindled against us and He has turned our nation over to a reprobate mind – we’ve run so far from Him for so long that He has pulled back His hands of mercy. How do we respond? We keep running faster and farther away from the Lord – all the time.

I believe God has reserved a remnant for Himself. There are some of us who are sick over the direction our country is heading. Some of us stand for God’s truth. I believe if it weren’t for God reserving a remnant, then He would pour His total judgment out on our nation. Please listen to these words again: Except the Lord of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.

But overall our nation is full of blood. We’ve butchered so many precious babies in the womb – somewhere around 58 million babies have been murdered in the womb since Roe v Wade in 1973.

What is this reasoning that God wants us to do? He wants us to do what He’s told us to do. Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.

We need to repent America. We need to turn away from evil and turn back to God. We need to stop murdering little babies. We need to stop calling evil good and good evil. We need to start calling sin… SIN once again. We need to repent and believe the Gospel.

Even as thoroughly rotten as our nation is, even as fully wicked as our country is right now, the amazing thing is that there still is hope. Jesus Christ is our hope. Without Jesus there is no hope. That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world (Ephesians 2:12). Without Jesus, there is no hope.

But I can boldly state that there is hope because I have read the rest of Isaiah 1:18, which states: 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.

How can your sins be white as snow? How can they be as white as wool? By the shed blood of Jesus Christ. What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Christ knew no sin and became sin for us. He shed His own precious blood for guilt sinners like you and me. Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission, there is no forgiveness of sin.

But your sins can be forgiven. Jesus Christ paid the sin debt that you and I owe. We did the crime, but Jesus paid our sin penalty for us. We are the ones who have rebelled against God. We are the ones who have sinned against our Holy God. We are the ones who have separated ourselves from God.

While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). Oh you can be saved today. Your sins can be forgiven. You can be cleansed. You can be made whole. You can be made right with God. Your guilty conscience can be cleared; if you put your faith in Jesus.

And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus (2 Timothy 3:15). The living Son of God took the sin of the world upon Himself. He suffered, bled and died for guilty sinners like us. He paid the sin debt that He did not owe.

That’s how much God loves us. Be cleansed today. Be forgiven today. Be saved today. Are you a reasonable person? You will never get a better offer than your sins being wiped clean. Through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ our Lord, you can be saved. You can escape the eternal damnation that you deserve. You can escape the wrath of God that currently abides upon you. Do not die in your sins and go to Hell. Repent and put your faith in Jesus.

Be reasonable. When God says come let us reason together, He’s pleading with you to stop being unreasonable. He’s reminding you that you are a sinner. He’s reminding you that you are guilty. He’s reminding you that you have a mountain of sin debt that you can never repay. He’s reminding you that there is nothing that you can do to earn salvation. He’s reminding you that your good works can never save you. He’s reminding you that salvation is of the Lord.

At the same time, He’s exhorting you to receive the free gift of salvation. He’s pointing out that there is hope in Jesus. He’s letting you know that even though you deserve His wrath and eternal punishment, He is extending mercy and grace to you, through the unblemished sacrifice of His perfect Son. But you must receive salvation. You must accept this gift that is freely offered. For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast (Ephesians 2:8-9).

Why would you reject such a great of salvation? Why would you reject everlasting life? It makes no sense, but people die in their sins each and every day. I dare say the majority of people who die each day, die in their sins; they die as unrepentant sinners (Matthew 7:13-14)

They die as unreasonable people. They die with their sin guilt still upon them. They die rejecting the One who saves. They foolishly die without hope. They die in their sins, never to receive God’s great grace, mercy and love. They die without their sins being forgiven. Instead of dying with their sins being made white as snow, they die in their trespasses and sins – black as night. They die as unreasonable people.

Are you a reasonable person? Are you willing to admit that you are a sinner? Are you willing to confess and forsake your sins? Are you willing to stop trusting in your own goodness (which isn’t good anyway, none of us are good)? Are you willing to trust Jesus Christ?

(This message was lifted up on September 25, 2015 on the square in downtown Springfield, MO)