Sermon:
January 7, 2001
Sunday Night Alive!

Scripture:
Isaiah 1:18

Last week we talked briefly about New Year's Resolutions, and only three people out of 134 managed to keep a resolution for the whole year. We didn't ask why the rest of us couldn't keep them, but I know we all had excuses. How many of you are great at coming up with excuses for anything you need? If you think you're creative, you should see the stories that turn up on insurance companies' accident forms. Some time ago, The Toronto Sun newspaper printed a few samples from actual reports. Listen to these excuses:

• A pedestrian hit me and went under my car.
• In my attempt to kill a fly, I drove into a telephone pole.
• I had been driving my car for forty years when I fell asleep at the wheel and had an accident.
• I had been shopping all day for plants and was on my way home. As I reached an intersection, a hedge sprang up, obscuring my vision. I did not see the other car.
• The pedestrian had no idea which direction to go, so I ran over him.
• The telephone pole was approaching fast. I was attempting to swerve out of its path when it struck my front end.
• Coming home, I drove into the wrong house and collided with a tree I don't have.
• The guy was all over the road. I had to swerve a number a times before I hit him.
• My car was legally parked as it backed into the other vehicle.
• An invisible car came out of nowhere, struck my vehicle, and vanished.
• The indirect cause of this accident was a little guy in a small car with a big mouth.

I could probably add some of my own to this list for other things. How clueless these people are in thinking that they can blame somebody, anybody else. Most of us mess up in life. We also have some pretty lame excuses. But the Bible says, "If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from unrighteousness..." That's an incredible promise. Let me repeat it: "If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from unrighteousness..."

But it comes with a premise: "If we confess our sins..." Confession comes from a word that means "to call it the same thing." In other words, when we sin, we don't need to make excuses, or blame somebody else, or try to wiggle out of it. We need to say, "God, this was a sin. You call it sin; I call it sin, and that's all there is to it. Please forgive me."

It's been said the only sin God can't forgive is the sin that is never confessed. You have a choice. When you pray, do you say "God excuse me?" or "God forgive me?"

If you had a perfect excuse, you would not need forgiveness. The problem for Christians is that what we call "asking God for forgiveness" usually consists of asking God to accept our excuses. We're so quick to show God our excuses: how hard this time was in our lives, how tired we were, what kind of a day we had, or more. We forget the really important thing; the painful thing; the little bit left over which the excuses don't cover, the bit which is inexcusable but not, thank God, unforgivable.

If you are into excuses, you are spending way too much energy and receiving nothing for it. In prayer, we are only wasting time by talking about all the parts we think can be excused. Think of a doctor. When you go to see Dr. Scott Wilkinson, you show him the part of you that is wrong - your eyes. I don't go to his office with bad eyesight and waste time explaining to him that my legs and arms and throat are all right. My eyes will never get what they need. It's the same with God. What we have to take to God is the inexcusable bit, the sin. Until we can be honest with God, until we can come to God with all that we are, including the shameful, sick sin, we miss out. Don't hold back. Let God have it. Besides, He already knows all about it. He is just waiting for you and me. He's given us the invitation. Listen again to the verse from Isaiah: "Come let us talk about these things..."

The implications are overwhelming. God, who is above all and unsearchable, desires to be known. God desires a relationship with us! It is personal. "Though your sins were once red as scarlet, they can be white as snow. Though your sins were crimson, they can be white as wool."

A skeptic once asked a Christian, "How does blood cleanse sin?" The Christian thought about it for a little while. Then he asked the skeptic a counter question. "How does water quench thirst?" The skeptic was now cornered. "I don't know," he said, "but I know that it does." "Just so," said the Christian. "I don't know how blood cleanses sin, but I know that it does."

The promise of God is that when you go through this forgiveness, you become clean, like white snow or wool. Even the shameful, sick sin part. In exchange, you receive the gift of eternal life. That is exactly what God promises! Isaiah likens it to two things: snow and wool. Snow -a fresh, new whiteness, and wool - a processed whiteness.

God's forgiveness, a Radical Cleansing:

1. Like snow! A fresh, new whiteness. Have you been refreshed? Renewed? That may be God transforming you in a new way - God's way! Hear these promises from scripture:

a. "If anyone belongs to Christ, he or she is a new creation. The old things have gone; everything is made new! All this is from God. Through Christ, God made peace between us and himself." 2 Cor. 5:17-18

b. "When we were baptized, we were buried with Christ and shared his death. So, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the wonderful power of the Father, we also can live a new life." Romans 6:4

c. "You were taught to leave your old self - to stop living the evil way you lived before. That old self becomes worse, because people are fooled by the evil things they want to do. But you were taught to be made new in your hearts, to become a new person. The new person is made to be like God - made to be truly good and holy (set apart)." Eph. 4:22-24

God doesn't just patch up the old; God makes all things new. You and I are made new. The theological word for it is justification. Through Christ's sacrifice we have been justified in God's eyes. Like your word processor, we are right or left justified. We line up with God now!

Like wool! A processed whiteness:

1. Wool has to be cut, cleaned, treated, bleached. It goes through a lot before it becomes pure white like snow.

2. You and I are in a process. Have you felt "cut" lately? Or cleaned? Have you been pulled and stretched and put together again? Have you had the bad taste in your mouth that bleach can leave? Perhaps that's God's Spirit bringing you through. Hear these words of scripture:

a. "This work must continue until we are all joined together in the same faith and in the same knowledge of the Son of God. We must become like a mature person, growing until we become like Christ and have his perfection." Eph. 4:13

b. "Speaking the truth in love, we will grow up in every way into Christ, who is the head." Eph. 4:15

c. "God began doing a good work in you, and I am sure he will continue it until it is finished when Jesus Christ comes again." Phil. 1:6

d. "I want to know Christ and the power that raised him from the dead. I want to share in his sufferings and become like him in his death. Then I have hope that I myself will be raised from the dead." Phil. 3:10-11

e. "Brothers and sisters, I know that I have not yet reached that goal, but there is one thing I always do. Forgetting the past and straining toward what is ahead, I keep trying to reach the goal and get the prize for which God called me through Christ to the life above." Phil. 3:13

f. Col. 3:1-17...

The journey of faith is a process. We may be a totally new creation, but the fact is, old habits die hard. What old habits, what dead weight do you need to let go of? What is God treating you for? As we seek to be in the world, but not of the world, we are continually re-aligning ourselves to Christ. We need to rely on his grace to change us. We cannot just "get it together." We need to reach deep into the well of Christ's mercy and love. The theological term for this is sanctification. We become more and more filled with the love of God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, to the point where there is less and less room for sin to run our lives.

Maybe you've never accepted Christ into your life to forgive your sins. Maybe you've come here drenched in scarlet from your sins. Maybe you've been found out; maybe you haven't. But God knows. And God knows you. And God knows your heart. And God loves you wildly. You simply need to accept his sacrifice on the cross as God's act of freeing you from your sin, and He will make you clean like snow. He will help you through the process to become clean and pure like white wool. Take time to pray for him to come into your life and be your Lord and God. Let him clean you up. He wants nothing more than the crud in your life, and He is standing there with the gift of eternal life with him.

Maybe you've accepted Christ, but have been just giving him excuses, not letting yourself experience his true forgiveness. He knows your excuses, and he knows that really ugly small part of yourself for which there is no excuse. Give that to him. Don't live as though your sins are still scarlet, or crimson. You've been made clean by the blood of his Son! Claim it! Take time to die to yourself and your sick sin. Pray for him to lead you in your new life in this new year.