Reasoning with God

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Monday, August 7th. Today you'll hear the heart of God who beckons you to come and reason together with Him. Here's your invitation from the Lord found in the book of Isaiah. What is it in your life that God would need to reason with about you? Well, I want us to look at this passage in the light of two things, because there are only two things spoken in this passage.

The first one is this. Here He says to us that God has called man. And the second thing He says is that man must respond to God's call.

There is no such thing as avoiding the call of God. God has issued a call to man, come now, let's reason together about your life. And He says that man will respond to that call. And so let's examine two or three things here. First of all, the fact that God has called man who has taken the initiative.

Now listen carefully. Man on his own does not reach out to search out and define God. In the very beginning, we see that man doesn't seek God, God seeks after man. It is not in the heart of man to pursue God. It is in the heart of God to pursue man. God has always taken the initiative all the way through the Old Testament. It is God sending His prophets to warn His people of their sins.

They're not out searching for God. They're not rushing to worship Him in their wickedness, in their sinfulness. It is God who sends His prophets to warn His people of their waywardness. When you come to the New Testament, is it not true that God condescended to come to earth in the person of Jesus Christ? Why did He come? He came to reveal the true nature of God. He came to make it possible for man who live on earth to find God who dwells in heaven by God coming to earth in Christ to live among men and to make it possible for man who lives on earth to go to heaven where God lives. God takes the initiative.

In the third chapter of Romans, the eleventh verse, what does Paul say? He says, no man seeketh after God. It is God who seeks man.

There is none righteous, no, not one. Man isn't seeking God. God is seeking men. What is it that man is seeking? Man is seeking pleasure. Man is seeking prosperity.

Man is seeking position. Man is seeking prominence, but men do not seek God. You say, but now wait a minute. There came a time in my life when I sought God. There came a time in your life when as a result of God moving into your life, convicting you of your sins, showing you the vanity of your way, showing you the emptiness of your life, showing you that you needed something else.

You responded to the Spirit of God who pursued you, who reached down into your life and convicted you of your sin. So it is God who takes the initiative. So in Isaiah chapter one, what is he saying? It is not man saying, come now, God, let's sit and reason together.

Make yourself known to me. It is God who says to man, come now. Let us reason together.

Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Now, what is it that God is taking the initiative about? What is he saying to you and me? Here's what he's saying. He says, come now, let us reason together. What does he mean by reasoning? God wants the reason with us about the one thing all of us need to be absolutely and totally honest about.

And what is that? And that is about life. You see, most people look at life today through all kinds of colored glasses. They don't want to see it as it is.

They want to see it like they would like for it to be. But he says, come now, let us reason together. Here is an omniscient, all knowing God, omnipotent, loving, merciful Heavenly Father who says, I will condescend to come down and reason with you. And his purpose here is not to discover because he knows everything. His purpose is to bring us into the reality of looking at our life just like it is to face the facts so that the word means. Let's come to a conclusion about this matter.

Let's settle this issue once and for all. And you see, every man has conflict in his heart. Every man has a lack of peace in his life until he is willing to face the fact of what life is all about. Life is not like it is portrayed on the television, not like it is portrayed in the movies, not like it is written about in the books and the magazines. Life has one basic foundation. Apart from Jesus Christ, life has no purpose. And here's the proof. Watch the television programs, read the books and the magazines.

And what do they offer? But life without purpose, the futility of life without God, the world is shouting to the top of its voice. They call it all kind of reality and realism. But what they're saying is, here's life without God. People weep, they cry, they moan, they identify. What they do not realize is that what they're being offered is life without purpose, life without meaning, life without a goal. It's just an existence. And what is he saying to us?

He says, come now, let us reason together. Let us look at life as it is. Let me reveal to you the truth. Look on the inside. Examine your heart.

Stop running and start looking at life. God is taking the initiative to pursue you in order to offer you the best. And you see, there are so many people who think that to become a Christian is to lose the best.

To become a Christian is to gain life's best. To lose God is to lose everything. And it is God who is reaching down to man. He says God's hand is not shortened.

What is he saying? It is God who's reaching down to sinful man who is lost and frustrated, whose life has no purpose. It is God who reaches down to rescue man from what?

Rescue him from himself. So he says, let us reason together. God wants us to face life. He wants us to see it as it is.

What is the fact? The fact is this, that apart from Jesus Christ, man's life not only has no purpose, it has no meaning. It has no real goal in this life. And the future past death is absolutely and totally destructive. He wants us to reason about the reality of sin. What is the nature of sin? Sin destroys man. Sin destroys everything within you. You see, there are a lot of people who are walking around today from the outward perspective.

Everything looks so right. But on the inside, they're like a giant oak, a beautiful, giant, stately, majestic oak filled with 10 million termites, eating away day and night, cutting the heart, gutting the whole source of that tree. God says, let's stop all of the rationalization and face the fact sin still destroys the heart, the core and guts a man's soul. And when a man's soul is gutted, what is he? He's like a peanut shell with no goody on the inside. Something is missing.

There's nothing there. But he's a hull. He's a shell.

That's all he has to offer. That's why the world gives us all of these stories and all of these movies and all of these pictures with seemingly no purpose, because they don't understand life without God is without purpose. And that's why he says, come now, let's reason together. The two things he says here about the reasoning. First of all, he says, when you and I sit down before him and we begin to reason about life, we have to face repentance of our sin.

Now, listen to what he says. And notice how he describes our sin. He says, come now, let us reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. So he's dealing here with our sin. He says, though your sins be as scarlet, deep red, they shall be as white as snow, though they be red like crimson. Why does he use two words, two deep shades of red? Because he wants to describe the true nature of man.

And I think there are probably several reasons why he uses the two. But let me give you one example of why. The Bible says all of us were born in iniquity. That is, we came into the world with a bent away from God.

That is, we came into the world, what? With a spirit that desires to sin against God. He says, red like crimson, like scarlet. Not only do we have a sinful nature that makes us sinful by our very nature, but our actions, our attitudes, our motivations, our behavior before Christ comes into our life is sinful before God. So he says, though your sins be as scarlet, deep red in the eyes of God, they shall be as white as snow.

Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as well. He says, now let's reason. Notice he didn't say if you are a sinner. He says, though your sins be as scarlet. It's not a question of whether we've sinned against God or not. If you've never received Jesus Christ, listen, every sin that you have ever committed in the eyes of God rests upon you.

All of your lifetime of sin amounts to a life of guilt. He says, now let's reason about this. Let's face the facts about your sin.

Come now, he says, stop running. Don't put it off. Nowhere in the Bible does God say tomorrow, repent. Tomorrow, confess your sin. Later on, get right with God. One of these days, settle up for the Lord.

It is always now. Why is it that God always wants us to live in the now? Because God knows the nature of sin.

God knows the destructive power of it. He says to a little boy, to a little girl, come to Jesus now. Fellow says, when I'm a teenager, I will. When I'm 25, I will.

When I'm 30, I'm 40, I'm 50. Putting off the most important decision you'll ever make, and that is to settle your relationship to Jesus Christ. And notice what he says, come now, let us reason together. What is God's objective in saving a man? What is God's objective in forgiving you of your sin? What is God's objective in reclaiming you from the destructive power of sin in your life? God's objective isn't merely forgiveness. God's objective isn't merely to get you to heaven.

He says, come now, let us reason together. You know what God's ultimate objective is? You know why he wants the best for you? You know why he wants to forgive you? You know why he wants to cleanse you? You know why he wants to write your name in the Lamb's Book of Life?

You know why he wants to change your whole life? Because God wants to bring you out of sin into a sense of oneness with him that you and a holy, loving, forgiving God might live in oneness together. It is oneness with him.

Come now, let us reason what? Together, saith the Lord, though your sins be as scarlet, I'm going to make them white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, he says, I'm going to make them white like wool. That's his way of pointing to us, how God sees our sinfulness, deep red like scarlet, like crimson. But he says, I'll make you white as snow.

But he says, come now, my objective is oneness. Don't wait till tomorrow. Next week, next month, next year, there's some of you sitting here. When you were a 16 year old boy, God spoke to your heart and you said, one of these days, I'm going to give my heart to Jesus Christ. You're 65 years of age.

You have never done that. You have wasted all those years of your life. And years ago, what did God say? He said, come now, let us reason together. Let's get honest about the facts. Let's face the facts as they are. Let's do the thing that we know is right.

Let's settle this conflict once and for all. But you see, man keeps on resisting and rebelling against God. God knows the power of sin. And in the 57th chapter of Isaiah, for example, he says something here that is interesting. In describing a man who does not have Christ as his savior, listen to what he says. He says in the 20th and 21st verses, but the wicked are like the troubled sea when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up, with mire and dirt. There is no peace, saith my God to the wicked.

And if you'll notice what he says. He says the man without Christ is like what? He says he's like the troubled sea. A troubled windswept sea does not have calmness. There is no peace. And you see, in the heart of a man without Jesus Christ, where he's supreme, what do you have? But you've got turmoil. You've got a storm.

The waves of life keep beating upon your life. And there is no peace to the wicked, saith the Lord. You say, but I'm not wicked.

Let me tell you what he means by that. When he says wicked, he simply means any man who is rebelling against the will of God, insisting on having your own way. You're going to do it your way.

You're going to have it your way. Not going to yield to Jesus Christ. God says rebelling against his son is wickedness in his sight.

And my friend, whatever we may think about ourselves, the ultimate question is this. What does God think? And that's why he's saying, come now, let's reason together, saith the Lord. He says, though your sins be red like crimson, like scarlet, deep red, dyed.

The true color is sinful, disobedient before God. He says something can happen. And what is that? He says, come, let's reason together. Repent of your sins. Turn from your sins. Confess them before God and do what? And let the Lord Jesus Christ change your life. And that is to be redeemed by him.

Listen to how he describes that. Come now, he says, let us reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet, deep red, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, deep red, they shall be as wool. And here's what he's saying.

Here's the contrast. When Jesus Christ comes into a person's heart, what happens? He says God sees you in an entirely different light. He says, what happens?

Something happens to that crimson scarlet heart of yours. God cleanses you. You see, God, through the Lord Jesus Christ, came to Earth in order to reach down to sinful scarlet man and change his life. That man who lives on Earth could do what?

Go back to heaven and live with God. God made the first move. He came in order that you and I might be cleansed on Earth in order that we might be fitted to live with him in heaven. So he says he's come to do what? To make our old scarlet spirit, this soul of ours, this life of ours that is red like crimson, scarlet, deep red. He says, I've come to make you what?

White like snow, like undyed wool on the back of that beautiful little lamb. He says when the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses you of your sin, he says God sees you no more as crimson as scarlet, but he sees you white as wool as white as snow because when the Lord Jesus Christ comes into your life, what does he do? He doesn't start today and go back a week and forgive your sins. He starts at the moment you accept him as your savior. He goes back from the very beginning of your life. He wipes your life clean of everything you have ever done. He says white as snow and he says white like undyed wool, white like wool still on the sheep's back.

God changes the man's life in whom God begins to dwell. But you see, here's the choice. The choice is either to yield or not to yield, to face the facts. And this is why he says, come now, let's reason again. Now listen, as long as you keep trying to tell yourself that wrong is right, wrong is right, wrong is right, wrong is right, that one of these days you'll be able to convince yourself enough, it won't bother you no more.

You may be able to sear your conscience, but you'll never be able to make wrong right. And what is God saying? Listen, he's coming out of the spirit of a loving, forgiving father to say, I know what is best for your life. I want what is best for your life. I've paid for what is best for your life. I'm offering you what is best for your life.

Come now, let's reason together. Stop trying to fool yourself. Stop trying to fool other people. Stop trying to be something you're not. Stop trying to go where you cannot go. Stop trying to tell what you cannot tell. Stop trying to share what you cannot share. Face the reality of life, that life without God is empty.

It is void. It is vain. It is temporary pleasure, but it has the only one eternal consequence.

And that consequence is life without God and to miss the whole good of life. He says, Come now, let us reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be like scarlet, I'll make them white as snow.

Though they be red like crimson, I'll make them white as wool. You've got two choices. Obey willingly or disobey and resist me. Have the fruit of all of my blessings or be devoured by your own sinfulness.

Let me ask you a question. Do you believe God's omniscient? Is God all wise? Is God a loving Lord? Does he want the best for you? He does.

Then let me ask you this. Without him, when sickness comes, why does that leave you without the great physician? When sorrow comes, why does that leave you without the great comforter? When disappointment comes, why does that leave you without the great shepherd? When your life and your family and your children are shattered and scattered, why does that leave you without the great supporter? When life deals you a dirty blow, why does that leave you without his helping hand? And when your life is filthy and dirty with the sins and disobedience and you have no place to turn and you hate your very self, why does that leave you without a savior? And when you come to face death and you only have a few breaths to breathe and a few moments to live, without God, why does that leave you without hope and without life? Listen, out of his loving heart God came to earth to do what? To reconcile man to himself in order that man on earth might go to God and live with him eternally. Listen, God has made the first move coming to us, beseeching us, pursuing us. The next move is yours. God's done his part.

It's your move to obey or to rebel. Thank you for listening to Reasoning with God. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by intouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.