Sins Like Scarlet | Evangelical Baptist Church

Sins Like Scarlet

Pastor Don Carpenter

White As Snow (Sermon Kit) / Isaiah 1:18; Romans 3:23

Our Heavenly Father is an incredible artist. There are not many scenes more beautiful than the blanket of the season’s first significant snowfall. As a boy I remember waking up and looking out my window at the pristine white back yard completely untouched… for a moment it stood without any footprints… just perfect, white and undisturbed.

As we venture headlong into the Christmas season, we’ll be starting a new four week series called White as Snow. A fitting name for the season, but believe me this isn’t going to be a cute series about snowmen, snowball fights, and sledding down steep hills. No, this is an important time of year to talk about things like sin, salvation, and our beloved savior, Jesus.

As we inch closer and closer to Christmas morning it’s important to consider the eternal importance of the birth of Christ. Why did God send His only Son and what did Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection accomplish? What is the lasting impact and why did God choose to use people like us to build His church?

Obviously these are deeply profound questions… A far cry from the questions many of us are asking this holiday season.

? “Will Target ever get those video game systems back in stock?”

? “Why does Prime 2-day shipping keep taking 5 days? Who’s in charge over there?”

? “I sure hope my spouse/significant other/family/friends/etc.. were listening when I dropped all those hints about my Christmas presents.”

When I say all that out loud I’m struck by how trivial it all sounds. These are truly small problems compared to the issues many families around the world are facing this Christmas. But, then again, that’s kind-of the point of our gathering together. That’s the point of a series like White as Snow.

As we turn our eyes to Christ today we’ve also got to recognize there’s something else in the picture. Something that none of us want to talk about but all of us struggle with… If you’re thinking, “New Year’s Resolutions” right now you’d be close, but that’s not quite it.

What I’m referring to is sin. It’s something we’ve got to talk about if we’re also going to talk about the amazing reality of Christ in our lives. But, Praise God, one simply has to open their Bible to see God’s unique answer to the sin problem. Let us discover from God’s Word Three Absolute Truths about Sin that serves as the foundation for the wonderful Christmas story.

Sin Stains

Isaiah 1:4 KJV

Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, A seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: They have forsaken the LORD, They have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, They are gone away backward.

If you’re not familiar with the major prophets of God, like Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, then this is a good introduction. As seen in this one verse, God is speaking through the mouth of Isaiah to pronounce judgment and condemnation on the people of Israel. He calls them “sinful people” who are bent over by the weight of their sin (guilt), and that’s just the start of it. He calls them an entire group of evildoers given to lives of corruption who have forsaken their God, spurned Him, and turned their backs on Him. And all of that is just one verse, just one breath from the mouth of Isaiah.

As hard as it is to hear God speak of His people like that, it’s even harder to acknowledge it’s all true. God’s people turned their back on Him, they buried themselves beneath lives of sin.

And who are we to believe we are any different?

Sin is:

• Any Thought Word or Deed done that God says we should not do that we do anyway.

• Any Thought, Word, Deed that God says we should do that we do not do.

Sin Infects Everyone

Proverbs 16:25 KJV

There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, But the end thereof are the ways of death.

Romans 3:19 KJV

Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.

Romans 3:23 KJV

For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

Galatians 3:22 KJV

But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.

1 John 1:8 KJV

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

1 John 1:10 KJV

If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

Sin Brings The Label of Condemnation

1 Corinthians 6:9–10 KJV

Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,

Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.

Sin Brings the State of Condemnation

Romans 6:23 (KJV)

For the wages of sin is death…

John 3:18 KJV

He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

Sin Stains Are Impossible to Remove

The Law Won’t Do It

Romans 3:19–20 KJV

Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.

Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

James 2:10–11 KJV

For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.

For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law.

Any Good Deed Becomes Contaminated By Our Filthy Sin

Isaiah 64:6 KJV

But we are all as an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; And we all do fade as a leaf; And our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.

BUT…

With God the Impossible is Possible!

Genesis 18:14 (KJV)

Is any thing too hard for the LORD?…

Luke 1:37 KJV

For with God nothing shall be impossible.

God Can Make Sin Stains White as Snow.

We Have The Promises to Prove It

Micah 7:19 KJV

He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; He will subdue our iniquities; And thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.

Psalm 51:7 KJV

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

1 Corinthians 6:9–11 KJV

Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,

Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.

And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.

Isaiah 1:4 KJV

Matthew 11:28 KJV

Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

We Have God’s Explanation of How This Is Possible.

Isaiah 1:18 (KJV)

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.

• Jesus is perfectly white/ sinless

Hebrews 4:15 KJV

For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.

Mark 9:2–3 KJV

And after six days Jesus taketh with him Peter, and James, and John, and leadeth them up into an high mountain apart by themselves: and he was transfigured before them.

And his raiment became shining, exceeding white as snow; so as no fuller on earth can white them.

• Jesus became our sin so we could become His righteousness – or white-ness

2 Corinthians 5:21 KJV

For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

• Upon belief we do not just have our garments washed but scotch guarded by the Blood of Jesus… standing in His righteousness.

John 3:16 KJV

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Titus 3:5 KJV

Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;

Revelation 7:14 KJV

And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

As you dwell on that thought for a moment listen to the words of the late preacher Charles Spurgeon;

“The Lord does not deny the truth of what the sinner has confessed, but he says to him, ‘though your sins be as scarlet’, I meet you on that ground. You need not try to diminish the extent of your sin, or seek to make it appear to be less than it really is, it is all that, and probably far more. Your deepest sense of your sinfulness does not come up to the truth concerning your real condition; certainly, you do not exaggerate in the least. Your sins are scarlet, and crimson; it seems as though you have put on the imperial robe of sin, and made yourself a monarch of the realm of evil. That is how a man’s guilt appears before the searching eye of God.”

So my friends, lets reason together. Your sins are as scarlet. They stain every fiber of your being. There is no getting that stain out. Communion won’t make it fade. The waters of Baptism will only be fouled bur attempt to absolve yourself through dead works. Every work, rite, or ritual will fall short. But… with God it is possible to be made clean. Will you turn your trust from your works and onto the finished work of Jesus on the cross, ask Him to Save you, and be made White as Snow?

Exported from Logos Bible Software, 1:36 PM November 30, 2022.