Word of Salvation – Vol. 13 No.38 – September 1967

 

The Judgment Of Forgiveness

 

Sermon by Rev. J. H. Derkley on Isaiah 1:18

Scripture reading: Isaiah 1

Psalter Hymnal: 278:1,2; 100; 61:3; 249:5,8; 286; 426; 468

 

Dear Boys and Girls,

Do you often get into trouble with Mum?   That is quite easy, isn’t it?   Mums are not always easy to live with, not always, anyway.  Every minute you have to wipe your feet or your nose, and if you must not do that then you must wash your face and your hands.  You must play outside, but you are not allowed to make yourself dirty or to make too much noise, isn’t that how it is?  Otherwise… something is coming…!

I have heard of boys and girls who had been so naughty that they did not dare to get near to Dad and Mum!  You never know what Dad or Mum are going to do… or probably you know too well what they are going to do.  But the trouble is, you cannot keep that up very long, for you have to have to have your dinner sometime, don’t you?

Dad and Mum can be very strict, can’t they?   Their hands can be very hard when you have been naughty.  But, boys and girls, did you ever notice that Dad and Mum keep on loving you, whatever they do and whatever you do?   They even keep on loving your big brother and sister who can be so difficult at times.  You can always be sure of that.  Even when they scold you, they keep on loving you, I can assure you that, for there are not many fathers and mothers who like to hide their children.  Even when they scold big brother and sister.  If they would not love you, they would not bother about you at all; you just could do what you please…  but they would not look after you either… and that wouldn’t be so good, would it?   But now I am going to tell you a secret – you should listen carefully to this.  When you have been naughty, don’t just run away.  And don’t try to hide it either for, Dad and Mum they will find out anyway.  You know a much better way?   You should go straight to Mum and you must tell her what you have done.  But you should also tell her that you are really sorry for what you have done.  And now comes the little secret: you will find that when you do this, that Mum and Dad are not half as angry as you think they would be.  If you are really honest and show that you are sorry they might not be angry at all.  Now, don’t forget this.

You all know that Dad and Mum can get angry when you try to deny a naughty thing.  But Dads and Mums are real happy people when their children are honest enough to tell them that they were wrong again today and that they are sorry about it.  I can promise you, boys and girls, this is the safest thing to do: own up…!

Do you know, boys and girls, that fathers and mothers had to learn this same lesson themselves?  They have been little boys and girls like you are now; they had their fathers and mothers too.  But there is more they had to learn.  Dads and Mums, even when they are grown up, still do bad things.  Not the same things as you do, of course, they don’t dirty themselves, they don’t play in the mud, but they do bad things all the same.  You all know that Dad and Mum are not always nice to each other.  Sometimes they tell bad things of other people we call that tiddle-taddles, gossip, don’t we?   But worse of all is that Dad and Mum often do things which God does not like.  You know, God is just like a big Father for His people- when He finds out that you did wrong, He will give you a hiding, a big hiding you won’t easily forget.

But now, Dad and Mum have learned from the Bible that same secret that I told to you just now.  They have learned that when you do bad things you should go to God and you should tell Him; tell Him: Lord, I have done it again, I am sorry.  You must mean it, of course.  And then, Dad and Mum know that God will never, never talk about it again.  We call that – you boys and girls should remember that – we call that: God forgiving us all our sins.  Now, what I am going to tell the people in the Church this morning, the fathers and the mothers, and also the boys and girls, is that God is always happy to forgive us our sins.  When we have done wrong, and we tell God about it, He will forgive us; if we are sorry, God will forgive us.  God will forgive Dad when Dad has done wrong, and He will forgive Mum when Mum was cross again.  He will forgive big brother and sister when they have been so difficult again and He will also forgive the boys and girls, when you were up to no good again.

But: you HAVE to be sorry, remember this, you HAVE to be sorry.  AND you have to make up your mind never to do it again.  For that would be silly, of course, if God would forgive you, while you are thinking of doing all those bad things again tomorrow.

So remember this now: Whatever happens, whatever you have done, tell it to Dad and Mum AND tell it to the Lord at night before you go to sleep.  Say it: Will You forgive me, Lord.  And I tell you that when you are really sorry that God will forgive you and you don’t ever need to bother about it ever more.  Can you remember that?

* * * * * *

Brothers and sisters, This sounds of course quite a bit like little boys and girls talk, “God forgives us all our sins!”  But is that really true?  Does God forgive every sin we commit?   Doesn’t there come a time that God will say: “I am sorry, but now you have gone too far, for this sin I cannot forgive you anymore”?  There seems to be a text which proves this; the text where Jesus says that for this particular sin there is no forgiveness, not here on earth or up in heaven.  There are people who feel so full of sin, so corrupt, that they regard themselves beyond hope.  God is too holy and they are too sinful, so that any relation between God and them is out of the question.  I don’t think there are many people like that in our Churches any more.  These are the people who are in constant trouble with the Lord’s Supper.  At the Preparation Sunday they know already that they won’t go; the Table is too holy for them.  They are too unholy to sit in the presence of the most holy God.  But there are not many people like that in our churches, I think hardly any at all.  Our tables are generally well attended, too well at times, too easily.  Sometimes you get the feeling that in our churches there is much of the ideas of the old French atheist, Voltaire.  He said, Why should you worry about sin?   If there is a God, it is His job to forgive sin, just like we all have our own jobs.  Don’t worry, everything will be fine.  No, we are not really downcast people who consider ourselves beyond salvation.

Of course, we realize that there are certain people who have no hope.  Hitler, for example, or Stalin, or some of the present (Communist) rulers.  There might be people like that in our neighbourhood who have gone so far that God will never forgive them for it, or perhaps there are some people in the Church who -according to us- are beyond forgiveness.

But I still dare to say that it is NOT TRUE!  There is no sin too great to be forgiven.  That is what our text teaches.

This is not a text all by itself, which you may cut out and hang on the wall.  Many people do that and they look at that text and they say: Behold, God is marvellous for me, isn’t He?

But this text is found in Isaiah, chapter 1, we’d better not forget that.

When we read this chapter before the sermon you might have noticed all that God is saying about this people, the people of Isaiah 1.  It is a whole list of grievous, horrible sins; these people are literally “no good” and we would say: Completely beyond forgiveness.

I will read just a few verses again.  In verse 2 we read this (and God is speaking about His very own people, His covenant people of which God had said, You are Mine and I am yours): Sons I have reared and brought up – that is the relation Father and child – but they have rebelled against Me.  The next verse is as a cry of pain: The ox knows its master (do you know an animal more stupid than an ox?) and the ass (no animal is as headstrong as an ass) knows its master’s crib.  But ISRAEL does not know!  Could God describe this nation in worse terms?   O yes, listen to verse 4: They are a sinful nation (not a few sinners here and there, but completely corrupt); they are a people laden with iniquity (they have buried themselves under their sins), they are an offspring of evildoers (it is, when it comes to it, a family trait), they have forsaken the Lord (mind you, the Lord who had graciously promised: I am your God), they have despised, disdained the HOLY One of Israel, they are utterly estranged (they have become utter strangers).  That is chapter 1 of Isaiah.  That is the description of the family of God.

Sometimes fathers and mothers have to say that their children seem to have become strangers to them – this is what God has to say about His own people.  Fathers and mothers think that they have problems (little children little problems, big children big problems), but just compare this with the problems God has with His family.  And let us be honest, the problems we have in our own family are often the result of our own shortcomings.  But you can never blame God for the problems which you find in His family.  God treats His children as they should be treated, with all the rules of fairness.  Even more than that: He loves His family, not with a blind, doting “grandfather-love” but with a perfect love, that gives everyone what is good for him.  And yet… And yet… they behave like (forgive me for the word, but it is the only word fit to describe them), they behave like bastards.

Now this is true of Israel.  God has much more to say about Israel.  At times God changes the picture and describes Himself as the Husband and Israel as His wife.  But He has to say: you have become unfaithful – a whore.  Sometimes He calls Israel a garden, but He has to complain: You bring forth weeds.  Or a tree, but it is fruitless.  That is Israel.

How much of this is true for us, today?

We are now God’s family, we, as we are here together in Church.  How about our relationship to God?   Are we sons… or are we rebels?  I mean, do we show ourselves as sons tomorrow in our work?  And how about our faithfulness?   Are we as a Church like a wife to God, like a Bride?  Always looking forward to meeting Him (what about the evening services)?  What about the fruits?  Are there fruits?  Or is it all weeds, or a lot of it?

Brothers and sisters, it is a custom in our Church to read the law and to confess our sins every Sunday morning.  But WHAT is it?  Just a custom?  Is it not rather something ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY every Sunday again, and for that matter every day of our lives?   We sang a while ago: For evil and oppression are found on every hand.  Not in the hands around us, but in our own hands.  WE are evil, born in sin.  Isaiah 1 – as so many places in Scripture – is a mirror in which we see a reflection of ourselves.  YOU are that man, and I am.  It is well for us to realise this.  God gives us this picture for our own wellbeing.

Isaiah, chapter one is like an examination paper.  We have given our answer to the questions which God put to us.  Now God has underlined in red all the mistakes, all the errors, so that we REALISE that we are wrong, and know where we are wrong, AND CHANGE.

For when God talks about our sins He does not do it just for the fun of it – as we like to do about the sins of others.  God has a definite aim: that we should come to realise where we stand.  To such people, to those sinners God says in our text: “Come now and let us reason together.”

We should be careful with that word, “Reason”.  This “reason” has nothing to do with “let us try to come to an understanding about it.”  It has nothing to do with “being reasonable about it” either.  The word is much better translated in the Dutch Bible: Laat ons tezamen RICHTEN – let us go to law-court together.  God is inviting His people to go to the Judge and let Him make a decision about their sins, about their relationship with God.  “Come on, let us try this out, before an impartial judge, and let us see where we are standing.”

Now we sang: “If Thou shouldst mark transgression, O Lord, who then could stand?”  But that is exactly what God is doing with us this morning, to bring us into judgment and to have a verdict over our sins.  Would you dare?  Would you dare to come to court for a fair trial?

Imagine it: You in the box of the accused, God in the seat of the Judge.  “O Lord, who then could stand?”  You couldn’t stand!  I couldn’t stand.  The case would be lost before it began.  At the moment that we would open our mouths we would start to accuse ourselves.  In fact, this is the picture of what will happen to every human being at the last Judgment.  All have to stand before the Judge.  And what can man say in his defence?   When the books are opened, it appears to be a hopeless case for everyone.

And YET I said, for it is found here in this text, that there is NO sin so great or it can be forgiven.

Now, how is this possible?  When God first invites us to the judgement, how can He then speak of forgiveness?   Judgment and forgiveness cannot go together.  Forgiveness is no longer judgement.  Where – I say it in all humility – where does God get the right from to forgive the accused guilty sinner?

We have to come to the background.  I read here in verse 27: “Zion shall be redeemed by justice.”  Shall be redeemed by justice…!  To redeem means: to buy free.  This leads us to the basis of God’s judgment: Zion shall be redeemed by justice.  God can declare us free, because Somebody else had to stand in our place.  His justice is still fulfilled, but instead that you or I have to stand before the judgment seat of God Someone Else stands there.  He takes the blame all upon Himself.  He removes the blame from the accused,

There is a story about it in the Bible, a scene just like the one of our text.  A man stands before the judgment seat – in the picture he is dressed in filthy smelly rags- which means the filth of sin.  There is also an accuser – in this case it is satan him- self.  You cannot imagine a worse accuser; he delights to point out all our sins, our transgressions, our iniquities.  As Judge we find God Himself.  The accused man has no hope, no plea, no leg to stand on.  But suddenly something unexpected happens.  You can read it in the prophecy of Zechariah, chapter 3, verse 2: And the Lord said to satan: “The Lord rebuke you, o satan!  The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you…!  (verse 4) And the angel said to those who were standing before him, “Remove the filthy garments from him.”  And to him he said, “Behold I have taken your iniquity from you, and I will clothe you with rich apparel.”  That is Jesus, the angel, as He appears in the Old Testament.  You see, at that judgment there is not only the Judge and the accused, there is not only an accuser, but there is also an Advocate, THE Advocate, “for we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous.”

You see, this judgment is still a valid judgment.  But the judgment runs as follows: You stand there and I, in the box of the accused; God is going to judge; but Jesus steps forward and He says: No, I declare this judgment case NOT VALID.  For I have paid already for the crimes this man, this woman committed; I was judged for these sins, and I was punished for these sins.  I went already to hell instead of this sinner.  God: no case!

This is exactly what we find here in Isaiah 1.  God says: The blood-red sinfulness is changed into pure white righteousness.

Yes, even in the time of Isaiah the basis for this verdict was JESUS.  Verse 27 said it already: Zion shall be redeemed by justice.  SHALL be redeemed, that is future; but the righteousness is present.  Verses 16 and 17 urge Israel: Wash yourselves – is that any different from “fleeing to Jesus”?   HE is our righteousness!
There is a fountain filled with blood,
drawn from Immanuel’s veins;
and sinners plunged beneath that flood,
loose ALL their filthy stains.

That is where we arrive: with Jesus.  Only those who have become one with Jesus, they are safe in the judgment.  Those people have no fear really!  They might even say, Alright, Lord, LET us have a judgment together, let us reason together.  BUT I APPEAL TO JESUS.  And I will not fear with Him at hand to bless.

This changes the whole picture, the whole trial.  For with an appeal to Jesus, the verdict is a foregone conclusion: Freed from the crimson stain of sin!  Just as a judgment without Jesus is a foregone conclusion: I have no hope, nor plea.  And the crimson and scarlet of sin remains as burning as before, if not worse.

This must finally have explained what I dared to say at the beginning: There is NO sin which cannot be forgiven.  The grace of God is always greater than our sinfulness.  For Christ is greater.  I mentioned in the beginning the unpardonable sin, the sin that cannot be forgiven, of which Jesus spoke.  Now, you will remember that I have been speaking of sin committed by people like you and I, people who are believers, people who seek their safety in Jesus.  For those people there is no sin so great or it can be forgiven.  For they are always under the grace of God.  You have to be careful with this, of course.  Paul writes about it in Romans, for there were people who had heard the very same thing: There is NO sin so great that God cannot forgive it.  And they said: Let us sin, what does it matter, grace is available? Christ has died for our sins anyway.  But this proved immediately that they had NO REAL relationship to Christ, that they did not belong to Christ.  For we read in Colossians the law for the New Testament believers: For you have DIED with Christ, sin has no more appeal for you, you live with Christ, in Christ you seek the things that are above.  You belong now to the new family, the family of God and Christ.  This does not mean, of course, that you cannot sin anymore; true enough, we do sin, right until the end of our lives.  But believers, people who belong to the family of God, don’t like it, to sin, they are so sorry about the fact that they still sin – they can kick themselves for their sins.  They keep on doing it, there seems to be something in them that pushes them to it, but they hate it.  They are the people like Paul: The good that I would, I do not; who shall deliver me from the power of this death?   But they come to the same answer as Paul found: I thank God…. through Jesus Christ!

To those people God says: Come now, let US reason together.  Though your sins are like scarlet, or like crimson, they shall become as white as wool or as snow.

That is the difference, the only difference, the important difference, the world of a difference.  The blood of Christ cleanses us from all our sins, it washes us, it removes the stain of our sins.  And we step into these lily-blank garments of which the book of Revelation speaks.  It all depends on your appeal to Jesus Christ.

The last question I have to ask: Is He YOUR Advocate, or, to say it in other words: Do you have complete faith in Jesus Christ?   Do you believe that Jesus died, was punished, for your particular sin?   If not, make an appointment today, don’t delay too long.  For the judgment comes, unavoidably.  But you, seek your appeal in Christ.

Amen.