Sermon Central
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Like Snow—like Scarlet?
Contributed by Jonathan Spurlock on Dec 24, 2024 (message contributor)
Introduction: Even a small yet honest mistake can have long-lasting effects!
Text: Isaiah 1:18, KJV: 18 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.
I used to wash my white clothes in hot water with some bleach. That, I had heard, was one day to keep your whites, well, white. And most of the time, it worked!
One time it worked too well.
I had loaded up the washer with a week’s worth of whites, added the detergent, added the bleach, turned up the water to hot, got the washing machine started, and then went about my business. In my past experiences, washers tend to stay where they’re placed but when one of them does start to move, you know you have problems. That day, like all the other days we lived in that house, the washer stayed put just fine.
But there was another problem.
The load of whites came out—PINK!
Somehow a formerly (!) bright red shirt had gotten mixed in the whites and I hadn’t even noticed it. Yes, I started with a load of whites, and wound up with a load of pinks!
Of course there wasn’t much I could do about it so—I mean, real men can wear pink (and some do) but that doesn’t mean we have to like it! Socks were no problem—they’re hidden, mostly, by my pants legs and the shoes themselves. Underwear generally isn’t seen, either, so that wasn’t much of a problem. T-shirts, though, well, that’s another story. I tried to find good homes for them elsewhere!
Just like my clothes turning a (permanent—that pink never did wash out) color, sin will do that to all of us. In fact, it already has, thanks to the sin of Adam and Eve. Isaiah is pointing this out to the Israel of his day. The first chapter alone sounds like a list of sins Judah was committing.
And yet, the LORD offers hope! Forgiveness! He asked, and asks, all of us to “reason together” or to have a conversation, as a common phrase of these days (2024) has it. Best of all, the LORD promises those that even if your sins are like (as red as) scarlet—a very bright red—they shall be as white as snow.
I tried my best to make my pink clothes white, but it didn’t work. But Jesus took my sins on Himself and made my soul whiter than snow. He’ll do the same for you! Believe and be saved!
Scripture quotations taken from the King James Version of the Bible (KJV)
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