Dec. 3, 2017 PM Service To Reason With God by Conley Owens Deacon

Reasoning with God and the Problem of Sin

Thank you. I have a question for you this morning. Do you consider yourself to be a reasonable person? Now maybe you're pondering the question, but if I hadn't asked it, of course, of course you think you're a reasonable person.

Have you ever met someone who doesn't consider themselves reasonable? I've never met anyone who doesn't consider themselves reasonable. If you go to the most advanced insane asylum, go down the darkest corridor, you find the most cuckoo individual on the face of the planet, they will consider themselves a reasonable person.

This is a common bond we share with the rest of humanity, that we consider ourselves reasonable. Some people consider themselves so reasonable, they think they can reason with God. They think they could even best Him in reason.

This is a common theme in a lot of people's lives as they argue with God. It's a common theme in a lot of fiction, and it's even in older fiction. If you think about, It's a Wonderful Life, these arguments with God, or this reasoning with God, is not always direct with God.

It's mediated through someone, like in that old movie. It's mediated through the angel Clarence. Or there's the old Swedish movie that I never finished watching, The Seventh Seal, where you have the knight playing a chess game with death, if you're familiar with this movie.

Through death, he's essentially trying to reason with God, trying to best God in reason. At least I think that was the point. I didn't finish the movie. But, this is what Isaiah is going to be talking about.

Now given everything that I've just said, would it surprise you to know that God actually invites us to reason with Him? That is what God says through the mouth of his prophet Isaiah. He invites us to reason with Him.

So as we look at this passage, we are going to see what it looks like to reason with God, what it looks like to reason successfully with Him. Verse 18 says, "'Come now, let us reason together,' says the Lord.

Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. They are red like crimson. They shall become like wool.'". So God would like to reason with us about sin. He says that our sins are red.

Now the phrase goes that something is as black as sin, right? So why is it that sins are red? Sins are red because the people have blood on their hands. If you look at verse 15, it says, "'Your hands are full of blood.'".

If you've ever heard the phrase, "'caught red-handed,' that's the idea. You're caught with blood on your hands. If someone's on trial, they may look innocent. They may look guilty. But if they're covered in the blood of the victim, they're very obviously guilty.

The people of Judah here are covered in the blood of their victims. Now, they've not committed actual murder, but by not seeking justice, by allowing oppression to continue, their sin—their sin is deadly.

And this problem of sin is a real problem. If you look at the world around, look at the murder that happens, look at all the corruption. People point to different things as being the cause of this. They say, oh, well, if government just had the right policies in place.

Or they say, oh, it's technology. It's driving us further apart, and so we're not understanding each other, and that's the problem. It's easy to point things outside. The problem is sin. The problem is the human heart.

That is where, that is where this evil comes from. And so it's not just Judah that has blood on their hands, because it's not just Judah that suffers from the problems of the human heart. We have human hearts as well.

Ask yourself, do you have blood on your hands? You might think, well, of course, you know, maybe you've never murdered anybody. I'd say probably everybody here. That's the case. You've never murdered anybody.

Jesus says in Matthew 5, 21 through 22, You have heard that it was said to those of old, You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be liable to judgment. But I say to you, that whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment.

Everyone who insults his brother will be liable to the council, and whoever says you fool will be liable to the hell of fire. So even just being angry with your brother is equivalent to murder for Jesus.

Everyone is guilty of anger at some time or another. But consider these people of Judah. They're not even angry. This oppressing the poor, oppressing the needy, it's apathy. It's even one step down from anger.

We are all guilty of apathy, even more frequently than we are guilty of murder. Every interaction that you have with someone, when it does not have the heart that Jesus would have, when it does not have the care that Jesus would have, it is a small act of murder.

It is another cut here, another cut there, until you are drenched in blood. You are guilty. This guilt, this blood, it must be dealt with. So God invites us to come and deal with that blood guilt. Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord.

This is a verse that I hear used frequently, especially in the context of apologetics, defending the faith. Come now, let us reason together. The way this verse is often used is with this idea that if we invite people to come reason with us, and we can just show them all the right reasons to believe God and follow God, then they'll believe and they'll follow Him.

Or they say that if someone on their own, even apart from hearing God's word, reasons well enough, then they'll discover the truth of God and follow His ways. That's the idea that a lot of people have about this verse.

But see, I just said that the problem with sin, the problem with the evil in the world, is sin. It's a heart problem. How do you address a heart problem if you're only dealing with the mind, if you're only offering reason?

And even if you manage to deal with the heart, you have to deal with the mind— you have to deal even further with the mind than just offering reason, because sin affects the whole man. It affects the mind as well.

Now, you might say that, well, I've never seen sinful reason have any problems. You know, a sinful man can balance his checkbook. Sinful man can reason about what to wear in the morning. But sinful reason is hell-bent on denying God.

So no matter what they reason about or how well they reason in other areas, whenever some truth touches the truth of its creator, that creator is and demands things, the sinful mind will warp that truth.

Romans 1 .18 says that man suppresses the truth in unrighteousness. Sinful men suppress this truth. And if you think about the way— what this would mean if it were really God inviting us to come and reason with him, bring our standards to the table and to argue with him—think about a way a child reasons.

A child makes excuses for his actions, for his sins. He says, well, I shouldn't have to share because I don't want to share. I shouldn't have to share because she doesn't share with me. I shouldn't have to share because I never see you share.

Now, a full-grown adult is far more capable of making excuses ad nauseum. A full-grown adult is capable of having no end of excuses. This is where this leads. It leads to nowhere. In Isaiah 43, Isaiah says at the very end, put me in remembrance.

Let us argue together. Okay, so this sounds like reasoning together, right? Let us argue together. This is what happens if your reasoning with God is arguing with him. Set forth your case that you may be proved right.

Your first father sinned and your mediators transgressed against me. Therefore, I will profane the princes of the sanctuary and deliver Jacob to utter destruction and Israel to reviling. So if we come to God bringing our standards and evaluating him with our standard of reason, all that ends with is destruction.

There was an early Christian named Tertullian who said that, he said, what does Athens have to do with Jerusalem? Athens being the seat of secular reason, Jerusalem being the seat of God's reason. These two can't combine.

One must submit to the other. God's reason must be the true reason. Reason is not what man decides is reasonable. Every man has a different idea of what is reasonable. And if that's the case, if it were the case that man decides what's reasonable, then nothing would be reasonable because everybody would have their own idea.

And not only that, but how does man know that his reason itself is reasonable? He reasons that it's reasonable, and off you go in a circle. Reason is what God determines is reasonable, because God is the standard of reason.

He is the definition of reason. And I mean that in a very literal way. Reason is not some principle that sits outside of God that God abides with and submits to and acts according to reason, this principle.

That would make reason greater than God. God instead, as being the creator of the universe, having no principle higher than himself, is reason and is the source of all good reason. To argue with him, to argue with him would be to argue with a standard about that standard.

No one says to a ruler, I don't need you. I'll just use my own foot. No one sees the sun go into the sky and go down and say, well, that counts as two days because I say so. The rotating earth does not care whether or not you declare it two days or one day.

It knows that there's one day. And yet, people feel totally comfortable arguing with God about what is reasonable, whether or not it's reasonable for them to sin, whether or not it's reasonable for them to be punished for their sin, whether or not it's reasonable to seek repentance.

They feel totally comfortable arguing with God about that, and since God is the definition of reason, they are arguing with God about who knows his mind better, him or them. God knows his mind better.

And so he says in verse 19, If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land. But if you refuse and rebel, you shall be eaten by the sword, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. There's a lot of parallels here.

You can be willing or you can refuse. You can rebel or you can obey. You can eat or you can be eaten. These are your two options. And what God is speaking through Isaiah here alludes to what he has spoken previously to Moses.

In Deuteronomy 28, as the people are, as the people are entering into the promised land, God gives them some promises— promises of what will happen if they obey and promises of what will happen if they disobey.

Blessings and curses. Let me read some of these to you. The first seven verses of Deuteronomy 28. And if you faithfully obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth, and all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you if you obey the voice of the Lord your God.

Bless shall you be in the city, and bless shall you be in the field. Bless shall be the fruit of your womb, and the fruit of your ground, and the fruit of your cattle, the increase of your herds, and the young of your flock.

Bless shall be your basket and kneading bowl. Bless shall you be when you come in, and bless shall you be when you go out. The Lord will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before you.

They shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways. So do you see this? You'll eat the good of land. Your enemies will flee from you. This is what Isaiah is alluding to. And then here's some of the curses.

Verse 15 says, but if you will not obey the voice of the Lord your God, or be careful to do all his commandments and his statutes that I command you today, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you.

Skip down to verse 25. The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You shall go out one way against them and flee seven ways before them. And you shall be a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth.

And your dead body shall be food for all birds of the air and for the beasts of the earth. And there shall be no one to frighten them away. The Lord will strike you with the boils of Egypt and with the tumors and scabs and itch of which you cannot be healed.

The Lord will strike you with madness and blindness and confusion of mind. And you shall grope at noonday as the blind grope in darkness. And you shall not prosper in your ways. And you shall only be oppressed and robbed continually.

And there shall be no one to help you. You shall betroth a wife, but another man shall ravish her. You shall build a house, but you shall not dwell in it. You shall plant a vineyard, but you shall not enjoy its fruit.".

So see, there are the curses. There are, you can eat or you can be eaten. It mentioned both being defeated by the sword. It mentioned being eaten by vultures. Or, yeah, or you can obey. Now, these promises of blessings and curses were given to Israel as they entered the promised land.

There's another promised land. Those who believe have been promised a heavenly city. The rewards and curses are not too different. God has promised that those who are obedient, have access into that promised land, and those who disobey will be denied entrance into the promised land.

And this is a certain truth. He says at the end, For the mouth of the Lord has spoken it. Why is it that it is sure to happen? Because the mouth of God has spoken it. See, this is not usually what people think of when they think of reasoning.

They think of weighing things out by various standards. They don't think of God's word as being that which is not questioned and that which stands as the measure of all truth. This is a sure word that will come to pass.

Those who disobey are destroyed. Those who obey are upheld and granted eternal life. God is the God who made physics. I've never seen gravity—I've never seen gravity change what it does. It is a rule that God created, and it doesn't come out of place.

Think about how much more true that is with his reasoning about sin. It is a rule that does not change. Now when people consider gravity, no one is arrogant enough to argue with gravity about how gravity should work, about whether it should fall at 9 .8 meters per second per second or at some other speed.

And if someone were to fall off a building, that would be a humbling experience. Their stomach would flip upside down. They wouldn't think to themselves, well, I'll just negotiate with gravity and tell it how it should act.

And yet, that is how Judah feels about God and his reason. His reason about sin, which is just as firm as the laws of physics, if not more so. And as they're falling to their destruction, they're self-justifying why it is that they have this sin in their lives.

And so it is with everyone who self-justifies, who ignores the issue of sin, pretends that it's not a real issue. They're falling down to their destruction, trying to negotiate the laws of God's reason, the laws of sin.

But there is hope. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool. So are clothes being drenched in blood from guilt, from all our careless interactions with each other, from all the times we're apathetic to others, all the times we've sinned against God and his law.

There is a way to clean this. There is a detergent powerful enough even for you. And you might look at this passage and think that detergent is obedience. Ah, if I'm obedient, that will fix the problem.

Because if you're willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land. Well, obedience, while it can avoid future sins, it can't remove past sins. You need something more. Obedience is here, not because obedience is the cure, but because the pattern of obedience represents repentance.

Those who turn from their sin and obey are repentant. And why does repentance matter? Not because repentance in itself does something, but because God honors repentance with forgiveness. And the way he forgives us is through Jesus Christ.

Like that passage we read in Revelation 7, with all the saints dressed in white who've been washed by the blood of the Lamb, they're washed in the blood of Jesus. Psalm 51 .7 says something really similar to this verse, being washed white as snow.

Psalm 51 .7 says, "'Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean. Wash me, and I shall be as white as snow.'". So, hyssop is a thin branch that was used to, by the priest, to dip in blood and sprinkle people as part of the Old Testament ceremonies.

When David is talking about being purged with hyssop, he's talking about having the blood of sacrifices applied to him. Now, the blood of bulls and goats don't accomplish anything, but the blood of Jesus Christ does.

Now, this is paradoxical. You're drenched in blood, and the way you solve this is not with bleach. It's by adding more blood, and somehow this fixes the problem. Now, I always found that very odd, that the way you solve garments covered in blood is to add more blood.

Why is that the case? Why does it work like this? Hebrews tells us that the blood of Jesus speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. I don't know if you've ever considered that verse, but what it's saying, it's talking about the word that Abel's blood spoke.

It speaks when Cain is covered in the blood of Abel. When he was guilty and he was caught red-handed, Abel's blood cried out for vengeance. It's on his body as a signal, screaming for Cain to be killed, for Cain to be destroyed.

What does the blood of Jesus cry for? The blood of Jesus cries for forgiveness. It cries for, even though this person deserves vengeance, his victims deserve to be avenged, he is to be forgiven. So that forgiveness cancels out the vengeance.

These two bloods speak different words, cancel each other out, make you white as snow. That is how the blood of Jesus works. So this reason that God is inviting Judah to, this reason that he is inviting you to, is the reason of the gospel.

It's not just the reason that if you refuse and rebel, you'll be eaten by the sword, but it's the reason that Jesus Christ has made a way for your forgiveness. Jesus Christ has died. All those who believe are made white as snow, are free from guilt, and granted eternal life.

That is a beautiful and wonderful hope. And it is a reason that is firm and steadfast and something that you can latch on to. Man's reason changes just as much as man changes. But this is a reason that lasts forever.

It's as immutable as God is. It does not change. Think about how much unity that can provide us as a church. What is it that causes divisions? We have, if you have a bunch of different ideas all competing with each other, that causes divisions.

But if we all have, instead of our own sense of reason, if we're all aligning ourselves as much as we're able to with God's sense of reason, with something firm and steadfast, that is a source of unity.

That is something that we can rally around. And this is a hope better than anything that the world has to offer. What does the world have to offer to solve the problem of sin? Well, it has denial. It has lots of denial about the problem of sin.

It has self-justification. Lots of self-justification for why you're okay. But there's no need for any of this. God has given us something better. He's given us forgiveness. You remember that passage I read from Isaiah 43 about people arguing with God and being destroyed.

The verse just before it says, So before telling people, if you try to argue, you will be destroyed, he says he blots out transgressions for his own sake. There's no need to argue with him. There's no need to hold on to your reason.

There's absolutely nothing to be gained by this. The hope that we are offered is much better than the denial and the self-justification that the world has to offer. Think of it like this. A university is a place where reason is applauded, where reason is held high, and you have these beautiful campuses dedicated to the pursuit of reason.

You are being invited to God's university, this beautiful springtime campus, where you can spend an eternity. Or you can remain in the insane asylum of the world, denying issues, self-justifying. The option before you is clear.

Now this call to come and reason together, this is not just a call from God to us. It's not just a call from God to Judah, but it's a call from God to the world, and it should be our call to the world.

Now what does it look like for us to call the world to come let us reason together? It doesn't look like inviting the world to judge God by their standards. It doesn't look like putting God out there as a better option among many options.

It looks like this, declaring God's word and saying, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken, giving a clear truth that has clear authority and a clear way forward. That is what inviting the world to reason looks like.

Now you might think you need more than that. You might think, well, I live in Silicon Valley. It's a place with a lot of smart people. I feel like I need something more to offer people, not just, you know, declaring what God has said.

People usually aren't satisfied by that. It's true, they usually aren't. But the problem isn't that you haven't given them enough. God's word is sufficient. The Holy Spirit moves when and where and how he pleases, and if he chooses to wait for another time, that's his decision to make.

But you have been given everything you need. It's good to be able to reduce people's mental barriers by giving them, by explaining the consistency of the word of God, by showing them the inconsistency of any other thought, but this is all you need.

You don't need a PhD to go tell the world about Jesus. And if you think, well, I just don't speak well enough. I just can't, you know, I start to talk to someone about the faith, and I just, I get jumbled up.

Isaiah 32 .4 says, the heart of the hasty will understand and know. And speaking of people who've been touched by the gospel, it says, and the tongue of stammerers will hasten to speak distinctly. Now that's not guaranteeing that a stutterer who hears the gospel is going to stop stuttering, but it is a guarantee that if you have the words of God, you have something more clear, more articulate than the best public speaker that the world has to offer.

You have the word of God. That is something clear. That's something that has authority. And this should be a great comfort to you as you go out to the world to proclaim this truth. You may say, well, this seems a bit offensive and dismissive of other ideas to just declare God's word.

As I said, I'm all for showing the consistency of God's word. I'm all for engaging with ideas. But God's word cannot be measured by the standard of the world. God's word cannot be put subject to some other judge.

God is the judge. We're people who walk by faith and not by sight. The world walks by sight. It wants things that it can know empirically. You know, by empirically, I mean with sights and sounds and tastes.

It wants to experience something before it will believe it is true. We are people who walk by faith. Now what is more fundamental? Sights and sounds or God's word, which created sights and sounds? The more fundamental truth is God's word.

This is a powerful truth. It is more powerful than anything the world has to offer. And it is only offensive to those who don't believe, to those who believe it is the power of life. And so are you ready to go to the world and invite the world to reason with you?

To invite the world to reason with God? I hope you are. If you're not, how will we grow? How will we fulfill the great commission which Jesus has commanded us? If you're not inviting the world to reason with him, we're not fulfilling the great commission.

We have to be willing to invite the world to reason with us and with God. And we know that if we have God's reason, His word, we have every tool we need to be able to accomplish this victoriously. So if you are someone who has never trusted in the blood of Jesus to wash away sin and cancel out sin, God is inviting you to reason with him.

He is inviting you to come and consider this truth, consider your path and where it is headed, and consider the forgiveness that he offers in Jesus Christ. If you trust in Christ, you can be made as white as snow.

And if you're someone who already does trust in Jesus, if you've already been made as white as snow, then conform yourself evermore to God's word, to his reason. The more you do, then the more you are one who is obedient and will eat the good of the land, the more you will be blessed by him, and you will be able to appreciate all the things that he gives.

God is—our God is a God who is condescended to come and reason with us. Let us reason with him on his terms rather than our own. Dear Heavenly Father, I pray that we would conform ourselves to your reason.

I pray that we would take comfort in it and that we would have confidence in it and that we would be eager to fulfill the Great Commission, pursuing this reason, telling people of the great hope that we have in your Son, who washes sin that is red as white as snow.

In Jesus' name, amen.