Come Let Us Reason Together

Luke 12:48 states, "For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required. And to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask them more."

Let's pray. God, we do ask as we look into Your Word this morning. As we have worshipped You, Lord, and You, by Your Spirit, I believe, have readied our hearts to hear from You. We pray that You would speak this morning through Your Word. We know that You will because You promised that Your Word would not return void, as spoken through the prophet Isaiah. You also spoke through the writer to the Hebrews that in these last days You have spoken to us by Your Son. Jesus, You are the Word, and we pray that You, Yourself, would speak to us this morning. We ask that we would receive from Your Word the authority from which You spoke it, Lord.

We do pray for Pastor Pat and for Joyce this morning, that You would be with them, that You would touch them, and that You would heal them, Lord. We trust that You will. We pray that You would bring Pat back to us next week, for we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.

You can be seated. I was standing in this room back here, and I had some notes that I had jotted down this morning. I was flipping through my Bible and thinking, "Lord, do You really want me to share on this stuff that I have notes on?" Then our brother from the worship team was praying, and he prayed right as I was thinking this. He said, "Lord, if Pastor Myles, if You want him to speak something different and throw his notes away." So I threw my notes away.

The title I gave you is Null and Void. No title, I guess. What I want to share on this morning has application to that very verse we were going to cover in Luke chapter 12, verse 48: "For unto whom much is given, much is required."

So we're not going to be in Luke; we're going to be in Isaiah chapter one. If you'd turn in your Bibles to Isaiah chapter one, you'll see that the book of Isaiah was written primarily to the southern tribe of Judah. The nation of Israel had been divided in a civil war after the reign of Solomon, the great king of Israel.

It had been divided into two kingdoms: a northern kingdom comprised of ten tribes that was predominantly called Ephraim in the scriptures or named by its capital city, Samaria. The southern tribes, two of them left, were called Judah. It was Judah and Benjamin in the south, and they held the city of Jerusalem, which was, of course, the holy city.

When this civil war took place, the tribes to the north, because they could no longer go to Jerusalem to worship the Lord, established their own center of worship in a city called Dan in the northern part of Israel. They actually erected the worship of the golden calf once again, as mentioned in the Book of Exodus. They departed from the Lord, and during the course of the ministry of Isaiah, the northern ten tribes were carried away as captives by the Assyrian invaders and King Sennacherib. They would become what are called today the lost tribes of Israel. We don't completely know who or where they are or where they went.

The southern tribes, Judah and Benjamin, called Judah in the south, held the city of Jerusalem, and Isaiah was of that group. He had a long reign as a prophet, which is interesting because the scriptures tell us in Deuteronomy that if a prophet comes to you and his prophecies are not accurate 100% of the time, then you are to put him to death. It was very hard to get life insurance as a prophet.

We are told in Isaiah 1:1, "The vision of Isaiah, the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, the kings of Judah." You'll notice there in the very first verse that this man, Isaiah, had a long ministry. His ministry spanned the reigns of four different kings in Israel. In fact, many believe, and Jewish history tells us, that his ministry went on into a fifth king, a man by the name of Manasseh.

Tradition holds among the Jews that Manasseh was the one who decreed that Isaiah would be killed. He was put into the trunk of a hollowed-out tree, and they cut him in half. Hebrews 12:32 speaks of those who are sawn asunder or cut in two, and many people believe that this is a reference to the prophet Isaiah. Why would someone do something like that to a prophet of God? You may have read the Old Testament before.

In your reading, you realize that there were times when the king said, "I don't like that prophet. All he says about me are bad things." When the prophet of God is saying bad things about you, there's a problem. This is not because he's a bad prophet, but because you're a bad king. Manasseh was a wicked king who didn't like the things he had heard from Isaiah. However, Isaiah's ministry was a great ministry.

The book of Isaiah, the longest of the prophetic books in the Old Testament, has been divided into 66 chapters. In fact, it has been called a Bible in miniature. The first 39 chapters primarily deal with the Assyrian invasion and the judgment that was going to come upon Israel because of their departure from God. The last 27 chapters focus on many of the Messianic prophecies. It is divided just like the Old and the New Testament: 39 books in the Old Testament and 39 chapters in the first half of Isaiah, and 27 books in the New Testament and 27 chapters in the second half of Isaiah.

The second half of Isaiah, beginning with Isaiah chapter 40, introduces the New Testament portion of Isaiah. It starts with the prophecy of the coming one who would prepare the way of the Lord, which refers to John the Baptist in the New Testament. This division beautifully illustrates a Bible in miniature, filled with wonderful and awe-inspiring prophecies of God.

Some of the greatest Messianic prophecies are found in the book of Isaiah. In Isaiah chapter 7, there is the prophecy of the virgin birth. In Isaiah chapter 9, we find the prophecy of the coming government of God. Isaiah chapter 53 presents the powerful chapter of the suffering servant. Isaiah chapter 61 contains the very passage that Jesus quoted when He went to Nazareth in Luke 4. As you go through the book of Isaiah, you see time and time again these remarkable things that God spoke to His people.

There are also some amazing attributes in the book of Isaiah. As God speaks to His people about coming judgment, He declares in Isaiah 13-23 the judgment that was going to come upon all the enemies of Israel, all the nations that surrounded them and had rebelled against God. One by one, every one of those prophecies has been fulfilled. We can look at the historical record, and the interesting thing about the historical record is how well it fits with the Scriptures.

Just last week, my wife and I visited my parents in Phoenix. While we were there, we went to a thrift store. I'm not typically a huge fan of thrift stores; you can walk in and pretty much tell...

Within the first 30 seconds of being in a thrift store, I assess whether it's worthy of looking around. I walked in and looked around, but I didn't see anything very good. I noticed a big old shelf full of books with a couch sitting right in front of it. So, I went and sat on the couch and looked at the shelf of books. As I browsed through the titles, most of them were goofy old novels and similar items. However, I came across two books that jumped out at me. The title on the binding was "High School Subjects Self-Taught." I thought, well, that's interesting—Volume One and Volume Two. I grabbed them off the shelf.

The first volume deals with world history and provides a Cliff Notes version summary of each of the world empires, with about a paragraph to a page dedicated to each different empire. As I flipped through, I saw Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, and many other nations. You can read them quickly and get a general idea of who reigned as king during those times and how they became world powers. When you read world history, it's like reading a newspaper. Typically, it's very informative and gives you the facts about what took place. However, when looking at that, you don't get an opportunity to open the veil and see what was truly going on behind the scenes.

As these nations rose up, Assyria had three primary kings that led them: Sargon and Sennacherib being the two great kings who led them to victory and ultimate world domination during their time. They thought themselves to be very powerful and believed they had great strength. In fact, you can visit the British Museum today and see Sennacherib's annals of all his victories, detailing how he conquered city after city and how empires fell before him. He had the mindset that the princes or leaders within his government would become kings of the world, declaring, "My princes shall become kings."

However, when you take the Bible and open the Scriptures, like the book of Isaiah, you see what was actually going on. In Isaiah, God says to Sennacherib, "You are a tool in My hand. The only reason you are having victory is because I have taken you to use you for the very purpose of judging My people. When I am done with you, I will judge you." Through the lens of Scripture, we see clearly that God is behind the scenes, working everything. He is the one who causes kingdoms to rise and fall.

To rise and to fall. It wasn't just something that happened in the Old Testament; it's happening today. We need to understand that the Lord, our God, is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He is still behind the scenes, and He is still the one who raises up one and puts down another. But why does He do these things? What is the purpose?

Part of that purpose we see as we come to the book of Isaiah. To whom much is given, much is required. There is a great responsibility given to those who have received from God. This morning, we have received great blessings from God in that He has given us His Word and a wonderful country wherein we can gather together like this to worship Him and study the Word together. Great blessings He has given to us, and to whom much is given, much is required.

The nation of Israel was given phenomenal blessings. God had blessed them abundantly and powerfully, and they had received wonderful things from the Lord. They had the temple, the prophets, the priesthood, and the oracles of God. It was in these things that they put their hope and trust. They had a great and well-established religion that was established by God. They thought themselves to be at peace and safety, figuring that they would be okay because they had these things.

In fact, there comes a portion of Scripture in 1 Samuel 4 when the Philistines are battling against the children of Israel. They are not doing so well; Israel has been beaten in the first of the battles. So, they gather together—the advisors, the leaders—and they say, "What have we done? What went wrong today?" They are trying to figure out what they are going to do tomorrow.

Somebody got the wise idea: "You know, we forgot God." That's right! They did. "Why don't you guys go get the ark and bring it in the midst of us? When it comes to us, we're going to win because we'll have the ark." They put all their trust in this box, this two-foot by three-foot box of acacia wood overlaid with gold. Inside it were the commandments of God, the rod of Aaron that had budded forth, and a pot of the manna they had received as they traveled through the wilderness.

They brought this box, which was representative of the presence of God, and figured that because they had this, they would win. What happened? They got spanked. It was worse than the Chargers in the Super Bowl against the 49ers. Remember that?

It was bad. They were destroyed, and the Ark of God was stolen by the Philistines. You see, they had just put their trust in the things of their religion and not in the God who created them.

And so God, the One who had created them, speaks directly to them in a very powerful way in the first chapter of Isaiah. The vision of Isaiah, the son of Amoz. Many of the prophets in the Old Testament were called seers because they saw visions, and God spoke many times through visions. Not all of them; sometimes they received a still, small voice from the Lord, as did Elijah when he was in the cave in the southern portion of the nation. Some of them received messages as they saw physical things before them, but for Isaiah, he saw visions, and God spoke to him through those.

God speaks to this man, to this prophet, and the first chapter really begins like a courtroom scene. God, the prosecuting attorney, stands up against His people, who are the defendants. He calls to the witnesses; He calls to the jury, really. In verse 2, it says, "Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord has spoken." Here is God's declaration; here is His indictment against the defense: "I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against Me. The ox knows his owner, and the ass his master's crib, but Israel does not know. My people do not consider."

God says, "I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day. The ox knows his master, and the donkey his master's crib. But My people, they don't have a clue who created them. Who is their master?" That's a pretty heavy indictment because even today, we use the expression, "You are as dumb as an ox," or "as stubborn as a donkey." Here God says to His people, to call you, Israel, as dumb as an ox would be a compliment. To say that you are as stubborn as a donkey would be saying too much for you. The ox even knows his owner, and the donkey knows his master's crib.

But you don't have a clue. All the things I've done for you, and yet you do not recognize who your master is. My people do not consider.

Ah, the Lord says in verse 4, "Sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity and a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters." They have forsaken the Lord. They have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, and they have gone away backward. God says you are backslidden, you sinful nation. You're filled with iniquity. These are the very same sort of words that John the Baptist spoke when he came, saying, "You brood of vipers." You've forsaken the Lord and provoked Him. By forsaking the Lord, they had provoked the anger of the Lord, and the rest of the book of Isaiah is filled with God bringing upon His people His judgment because of their wickedness and their iniquity.

But He calls out to them now in verse 5 as a father, as one who sees His children who are being oppressed and about to be stricken. He says, "Why should you be stricken anymore? You will revolt more and more." The whole head is sick; the whole heart is faint. From the sole of your foot even to your head, there is no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. They have not been closed, neither have they been bound up or nullified with ointment.

God says you are going to be stricken, but why would you be stricken anymore? I'm here if you would only turn to Me, but you will not. Your whole head is sick. From the sole of your foot to the top of your head, you are completely filled with wickedness, with sores, with wounds, and no one is there to bind them up. No one is going to nullify them with ointment because the only one who could truly do that is God, and they would not turn to God.

Their country, He says in verse 7, "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." Notice the beautiful wording that Isaiah uses here. In fact, Isaiah is one of the prophets who had probably the best command of the Hebrew language. It's very poetic, the entire book. He says, "In the daughter of Zion," or the children of Israel, Zion being Jerusalem, "the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city."

You may think, what does that mean? He says, "My people..."

Because of their wickedness, I have removed My protection from them, and they are left as a cottage. Their whole household is as if they are hiding in a vineyard. Even greater than a vineyard, He says it is as if they are like a cottage in the midst of cucumbers.

Now, how many of you have seen cucumbers grow before? Are they a good place to hide out in the bushes of cucumbers? We're going to hide in cucumber bushes? No, they grow along the ground. There's no cover for you. What God is saying to His people is that you've departed from Me, and this is how you're left. You're left in this big old huge patch of cucumbers. There's no place for you to hide. God says, "I have removed My protection from you." That's a very scary thing when God removes His protection.

Now, the call of the people in verse 9 states, "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." The people in the land of Israel during that time are making an indictment against God. They are saying, "Well, the Lord has left us, and if it wasn't for Him at least leaving us a little bit of a remnant, then we'd all be consumed like Sodom and Gomorrah."

So God says, "Alright, if you want to equate yourselves to Sodom and Gomorrah, hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom, and give ear unto the law of God, you people of Gomorrah." God says if you want to equate yourselves to Sodom and Gomorrah, then fine. You who were My people, you who were governed by God, I will call you Sodom and Gomorrah. He says, "You rulers of Sodom, you people of Gomorrah, listen up."

I want you to notice this because this is really the focus of where I want to place our attention this morning, starting from verse 11. He says, "To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto Me?" He says, "Listen up, people. Why do you bring these sacrifices to Me? What purpose is it? What purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to Me, saith the Lord? I am full of your burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of the fed beasts I delight not in the blood of bullocks or lambs or goats. When you come to appear before Me, who has required this at your hand to tread My courts? Bring no more your vain oblations. Incense is an abomination unto Me. The new moons, the Sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with it. It is iniquity, even the solemn meeting."

Your new moons and your appointed feasts, My soul hates. They are trouble unto Me. I am weary to bear them. And when you spread forth your hands, I will hide Mine eyes from you. Yea, when you make many prayers, I will not hear you, because your hands are full of blood.

Notice what God says to this people who had departed from Him. Their hearts were far from Him. In fact, as you read the rest of the book of Isaiah, that's one of the indictments that God brings against them. He says to them that you honor Me with your lips, but your hearts are far from Me. A people that departs from the Lord in their heart, a people who does not serve the Lord but only on the Sabbath day or on Sunday morning, their religious service becomes sin.

Notice that the people of Israel, the southern tribe of Judah, who had Jerusalem, had the priesthood, had the temple, had the sacrifices, and had the oracles of God. Every single morning, these sacrifices were offered to God. Every single night, they were once again offered to the Lord. They had the new moons, the feasts, and the Sabbaths. Every Sabbath, the people would honor the Lord or thought they were honoring the Lord by going to the synagogue or going to the temple. All the feast days were observed. Passover was observed. The people brought their lambs to Jerusalem for Passover and they sacrificed them. They partook of the Passover meal.

The day of Yom Kippur was observed, and the priest would sacrifice the lamb for the people and take the blood before God to offer it as atonement for the people. In fact, it's very interesting. You read the works of Josephus, the histories of the Jews. You remember, we've talked about it many times before. On the day of Yom Kippur, the priest would go into the Holy of Holies and bring the blood before God. One day a year, one man could go before God and bring the blood of the sacrifice.

And remember, we've talked about it before, how they would put a rope around the ankle of the priest and put bells at the edges of his garment so that as he was in there, if he came in contact with the holiness of God and was impure, he would be stricken as dead. Nobody else wanted to go in there, so they'd pull him out. In fact, as you read the works of Josephus, you find that during this time period, during the times of the prophets, two times a priest was stricken by the Lord in the Holy of Holies.

And here, God says to the people, you bring multitudes of offerings and sacrifices to Me. He says, I don't want it. The people would come and bring their incense offering to the Lord, and it would rise to God, that which was supposed to be a sweet-smelling aroma to Him. He says, it's putrefying to Me. I don't want it anymore. It's an abomination. Take it away from Me. Who's required this of you? I don't want it.

And so, God essentially says, "I'm going to judge you." Their religious service had become sin. This occurred because, to whom much is given, much is required. God has given us so much. We've been blessed as His people in this day.

The sad fact is that many people in the modern church today get away with what Dr. TV referred to on Wednesday night as CEOs—Christmas and Easter only Christians, or perhaps Sunday morning only attendees. They come to church, and it becomes a mere religious service. We lift our hands, sing the songs, even put money in the offering plate, and partake in communion. We listen attentively, turn off our cell phones, and then go our own way. However, we bicker and fight, hold bitterness in our hearts, and harbor anger towards others. We exhibit wrath and malice, cheat, steal, and engage in whatever sinful behavior it may be.

I don't say these things to hurt anybody's feelings, but the initial title of my message this morning was "The Gospel According to the Evangelicals." What does that mean? We've rewritten the gospel in this day. We've gone through the Gospels and picked out all the things that sound really good, all the things that make us feel good, and all the aspects that fill many churches. We focus on the blessings, the promises, and those wonderful elements.

Did you realize that the gospel of the evangelicals can be condensed into about thirty verses? However, a significant portion of the gospel is omitted. In fact, I would argue that the entire 13th chapter of Luke is likely excluded from the gospel of the evangelicals. The passage that Pat was going to cover this morning speaks about the unfaithful servant.

Just to note very quickly, in Luke chapter 13, verse 47, it says, "And that servant which knew his Lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes." The servant who knows the will of God and does not do it will receive judgment.

He goes on to say in verse 48, "But he that knew not the will of God and did commit things worthy of stripes shall be beaten with few stripes." Notice what that says. Jesus Himself, the words are in red there, says that the unbeliever who doesn't know what God requires of him will receive judgment.

However, as we see in the Scriptures, there are varying degrees of judgment in hell, which is a very interesting concept. The person who does not know the will of God will receive judgment, but notice what He says: the person who knows the will of God, proclaims themselves to be servants of God, and does not do the will of God will receive many stripes, as the word says.

Matthew chapter 7 is one of those hard sayings of Jesus that honestly causes a little bit of fear to well up in my heart. At the end of Matthew chapter 7, Jesus says to His disciples—remember, the Sermon on the Mount, which spans Matthew chapters 5, 6, and 7—was Jesus' message to His disciples. Matthew chapter 5, verse 1 states, "And seeing the multitudes, Jesus went up into a mountaintop, and when He was seated, His disciples came to Him, and He taught them, saying." The next three chapters contain the Sermon on the Mount.

Speaking to His disciples at the end of Matthew chapter 7, He says in verse 21, "Not everyone that says unto me, Lord, Lord, or Master, Master, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he that does the will of my Father, which is in heaven." Many will say to me in that day—this is the part that honestly scares me—"Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name, and in thy name cast out demons, and in thy name done many wonderful works?" Then He will profess unto them, "I never knew you; depart from me, you who practice lawlessness."

See, they professed godliness but practiced lawlessness. The children of Israel at the time of Isaiah, there in the city of Jerusalem, in the southern tribe of Judah, professed godliness every single week, offering sacrifice after sacrifice and incense to the Lord. They followed the feast days, they followed the new moons, and they did all of those sorts of things, to the point where God says, "Don't do it anymore, because what you're doing is adding to yourself judgment upon judgment."

The very works that you are doing are making your judgment more severe. Understand this morning, and yes, this is a rebuke, hopefully to a very, very small number of you. If you're playing church this morning, you will be judged by God, and it will be more severe than the unbeliever who lives next door to you. That's a scary thing to consider.

When it says in Matthew chapter 7, verse 22, those people call out on that great day of judgment, and they say, "Lord, we have done many marvelous works." The word for marvelous works in the original language is the word "dunamis," which is the very same word that classifies the work of the Holy Spirit in Acts chapter 1, verse 8. You shall receive power, dunamis, when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem, and Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the earth.

There will be many on that day who stand before the Lord, and they will say, "Lord, I went to church, I prayed, I gave tithes, I did all of those things." And He will say, "I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness." Because, see, when a person's life is filled with immorality, when a person's life is filled with sin and iniquity, and yet they continue to go to church and put on a front saying, "Hey, I'm a Christian."

As an example of that, how many of you have seen that thing on 20/20 where they do the show with the Perverted Justice group? Has anybody seen that before? Some of you may know what I'm talking about. There's a group called Perverted Justice, and they go into chat rooms and talk with these guys who think that they're 13-year-old girls. The guys say, "Oh yeah, I'd love to meet with you."

So then they show up at this girl's house, thinking it's a 13-year-old girl—40, 50-year-old men. They go in, and they're all ready to have some sort of wicked experience with this 13-year-old girl. Instead, they find one of the reporters from 20/20 with cameras. They confront these guys and say to them, "So, what are you doing here?" The response is often, "Uh, nothing."

Well, I have 30 pages of chat room notes here that say you were coming here because you thought you were going to meet up with a 12-year-old girl. One of the guys on this show, which I was watching about six months ago, was in his mid-50s. He talked with the reporter for quite a while, trying to explain that he wasn't going to do anything. He said he was going to wait until the girl's mother came home, and he was going to tell her what her daughter was doing.

In the midst of what he was saying, he claimed, "I'm a good Christian man." Whoa. There’s a verse in Hebrews chapter 11, which is known as the hall of faith. There’s a verse in there that says these people, who were men and women of faith, God is not ashamed to be called their God. What does that imply? It implies that there’s a group of people that God is ashamed of when they say, "I'm a Christian." They honor God with their lips, but their hearts are far from Him. They do not follow Him; they do not declare His marvelous works in their actions, only with their lips.

This was how the children of Israel were, particularly the southern tribes of Judah and Benjamin, during the time of Isaiah. Their religious service became sin. The very things they did every Sabbath day, the very sacrifices they offered, were just as if they were offering sacrifices to Baal and Asherah. Even during the time of Hezekiah, who was a good king and removed all the high places where the people were worshiping false gods, God basically said to them, "It doesn't matter." Because even when you bring your lamb to the temple here in Jerusalem, it's just like you’re serving and worshiping false gods.

I bring this message as a challenge. In the midst of that, God says to His people in Isaiah chapter 1, verse 16, "Wash yourselves and make you clean. Put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes and cease to do evil. Learn to do well. Seek judgment. Relieve the oppressed. Judge the fatherless. Plead for the widow."

"Come now, let us reason together," says the Lord. "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. And though they be like crimson, they shall be as wool."

If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land. But if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured with the sword, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it. God says to His people, as He calls heaven and earth as witnesses against them, "Listen, you have a choice." He makes it very clear through His prophet. The prophet will speak to you and tell you that you have a choice. If you are willing to allow Me to work in and through you, or if you are willing and obedient to allow Me to remove all this wickedness from your dwelling, then you shall eat the good of the land and you shall be clothed.

I will take your sin, which is as scarlet, and I will make it as white as snow. God has the power to do that. Every single one of us in this room this morning has sin in our lives. Hopefully, we have allowed that sin to be dealt with before the Lord God, and He has been able to remove it. He has the power to remove our sins as far as the east is from the west, as Psalm 103 says. He is willing and ready to do that for every single one of us, but He calls us to come to Him and submit ourselves to Him. As we do, He will remove it.

In 1 John 1, John is largely speaking to new believers. He says to them, "If you walk in the light as He is in the light, you have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin." Jesus' blood cleanses us from all sin when we walk in the light. It is the very thing that God spoke to His people through Isaiah. He tells them to come and walk in the light. As we walk in the light, the blood of Jesus Christ is able to cleanse us from all sin.

But if we say, as verse 8 of 1 John 1 states, "We have no sin," we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sin, then God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we will confess our sin to the Lord, He invites us to reason together. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If you are willing, if you are obedient, if you come before the Lord to confess your sin to Him, He will respond.

Confess is an interesting word. It's the word in Greek, homologeo. Logeo comes from logos, which means "the word." We see that in John chapter 1: "In the beginning was the Word, the Logos." Logeo means to speak, and homo means the same as or the same. To confess means to agree or say the same thing about your sin that God says about your sin.

Sometimes we think confession requires us to sit in a booth, be tearful, and say, "Oh, I'm sorry, I did all this stuff, and I can't believe it." Then we hear, "Oh, you're forgiven," and we go, "Alright, what? You're going to party? Oh, I'm with you guys, let's go." No, to confess is to say the same thing; it is to agree with God and acknowledge that what we have done is in opposition to Him. It is sin against Him, and we must depart from it because it is wickedness.

Sin, as described in Scripture, is dangerous for you and me. When God says, "Do not do this," it's like a warning label. Have you ever read warning labels before? Some of them make you think, "You've got to be kidding me, right?"

We were out in Phoenix, and my little nephews were there. One of them had a scooter, you know those Razor scooters? I was riding around on it, and I looked at the top where it had a warning label. It said, "Caution: This toy moves while used." Of course it does; it's a scooter! What do you want me to do, lay it on the mantle like, "Ooh, the Razor scooter"?

Warning labels are given for a purpose, aren't they? Take the warning label on a hair dryer that says, "Do not use while in the shower." Most of us think, "Yeah, of course," but there was someone who did it—just once. That's why they had to put a warning label.

The warning label basically declares the proper use of the tool so that you don't use it improperly and injure yourself. God gives us warnings in Scripture. He tells us what sin is.

Hey, don't do this thing. Then He says, do this, because this is the proper use of the life that I've given to you. He's the owner; He's the one who created it. He's given us an owner's manual, and He says to us, this is the proper use of the equipment. If you use it wrong, that's sin. If you sin, you're using it wrong, and you're going to die.

So God says, confess it. Say, no, this is wrong. What I've been doing is the wrong way to use it. I'm agreeing with You, Lord, this is the right way to use it. Confess your sins to the Lord, because He's faithful and just to forgive. But not only to forgive—what does that verse say? To forgive you and cleanse you. What does it mean to cleanse? To completely rid those things from your life. To clean you. God is able to do that.

You may, this morning, be struggling with very specific and maybe even life-dominating sin. Hebrews chapter 12 speaks about those sins which do so easily ensnare you. Every single one of us has a sin that easily ensnares us in our life. I was talking with a gentleman last week. We were meeting together, and he was saying to me, I keep falling into the same thing over and over again. Does it ever stop? I mean, I've been fighting against this, but does there ever come a point where I'm not going to have this battle anymore?

I said, you know what? Someday you're going to gain victory on this battleground, and you'll take that land. But you know what? There's going to be another battleground over here, and you're going to have to take that land. You've got to make sure that you hold this one, because when you go to take this one, the enemy's going to try and take this one back. You're going to be constantly taking up the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, the belt of truth, shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace, the breastplate of righteousness, and the sword of the Spirit.

There's not a day that goes by where you're just going to be going, alright, we got victory, because right when you think that and you drop it all down, he got me. To quench the fiery darts of the wicked one. Our God is holy; He has not changed, but He's called us to.

And he that has this hope—what hope? The hope of heaven, the hope of salvation, the hope of the return of the Lord. Peter says, "He that has this hope does what?" He purifies himself.

Who then is the faithful and wise steward? In Luke 12:42, it states, "Whom his Lord shall find or shall make ruler over his household to give him their portion of meat in due season." Blessed is that servant whom his Lord, when he comes, shall find so doing. Of a truth, I say to you that he shall make him ruler over all that he has.

But if that servant says in his heart, "My Lord delays his coming," and begins to beat the menservants and maidservants, and to eat and drink and be drunken, the Lord of that servant will come. Underline that in your Bibles in verse 46: "The Lord of that servant will come in a day when he looks not for him and in an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him asunder or cut him off and will appoint his portion with the unbelievers."

You see, a person who proclaims to be a servant of God and yet their life does not show forth that—it doesn't produce the works which accompany salvation. That person, when the Lord returns, will be appointed with the unbelievers; they will be cast in with the unbelievers.

The Scripture tells us here in verses 47 and 48 that their judgment will be more severe. Because although they knew God, they did not honor God. This is why the very last passage of Scripture here in Luke chapter 12 is important. Remember, reading in context is crucial. The context of this passage is, "Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

When your heart begins to treasure the things of this world, your decisions and actions will change. The servant here, his heart changed. He said in his heart, "My master's not coming back very quickly. That means I've got some time." And so he began to change his actions. His life changed. When you begin to see sinful acts in a Christian's life, it began months before in their heart.

Their heart began to be led astray towards other things. Their treasure was somewhere else, and then slowly their actions started to move in that direction.

So listen, when someone comes to us—a wife and a husband—and they say there has been adultery in this relationship, that adultery began months before the action ever started in the heart. By their heart, they were led away. But the inverse of that is true as well. If your heart is given towards the Lord and your actions might be sinful right now, what will happen? Your actions will begin to go towards Him.

God sends His prophets in the Old Testament and His Son in the New Testament to speak to us and show us where our heart needs to be focused. If our heart is focused on the Lord, then our actions will fall in line. I understand that none of us in this room today have perfect actions in our lives—not even me. Is it hard for you to believe? You can ask my wife. No, please don't.

But see, if your heart is given to the Lord, God will work those actions to follow. There's a saying in the Marine Corps: where the head goes, the butt follows. What does that mean? It means if I take your head and slam it down on the ground, the rest of you are going to go down too. Eric looked at me when I said there's a saying in the Marine Corps, as if to say, "What are you talking about, boy? You don't know what you're talking about." But I was right, wasn't I? Yes, I was.

There's a lot of stuff you can find on the Internet, but in Christ, where the heart goes, the life will follow. God desires our heart to be focused on Him. You realize that's the point of our worship in the mornings? When we gather here to sing these songs—like last night, we sang a song out of Psalm 98: "Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all the earth."

See, most of you don't think you have a very good voice. That's okay. God never said, "Sing with a beautiful voice to me." He said, "Make a joyful noise." This worship team puts us all to shame; I mean, they've got voices. We all sit there going, "Oh, goodness." But God says, "Make a joyful noise unto me." So, during that time of worship, we're redirecting our hearts to the Lord.

As we worship Him, our actions begin to move in the right direction too. May the Lord this week redirect our hearts towards Him so that our actions would follow. We should be those who reason with the Lord; even though our sin be as scarlet, He has made it white as snow. Would to God that we would be willing and obedient and eat the good of the land.

Let's stand together and pray. God, I pray for myself and my brothers and sisters this morning that we would have the strength by Your Holy Spirit to do the things that You command. Just as You told Your disciples, "Why do you call me Lord and do not do what I command you?" Lord, with Your command comes the strength and the power to fulfill the command, and we thank You for that. But God, help us to choose this day to follow You, for we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.

If you have need of prayer this morning, perhaps some of the things I was speaking about were directed right at your heart. Don't leave this place without seeking the Lord through prayer. Some of the pastors and elders will be up here this morning to pray for you. We want to be here to minister to you. May the Lord bless you this week. If my message offended you this morning, you can take it up with God because sin is worse. God bless you.