The Crimson Tide

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The Crimson Tide

Contributed by Stephen E. Trail on Oct 3, 2011 (message contributor)

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Scripture: Isaiah 1:16-20

Denomination: Baptist

Summary: Forgiveness of Sin

“The Crimson Tide”

Isaiah 1:16-20

Scripture Reading

Isaiah 1:18 “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. The Call from the Sovereign – “Come now…”

What we are called from and called to:

I. Called from labor to rest (Matt. 11:28)

II. Called from death to life (1 John 3:14)

III. Called from bondage to liberty (Gal 5:13)

IV. Called out of darkness into light (1 Pet. 2:9)

V. Called from bondage to peace (1 Cor. 7:15)

VI. Called to the fellowship of His Son (1 Cor. 1:9)

Pulpit Helps, August, 1992, p. 11.

a. It is a condescending call

This seems to be contradictory. Why would the Creator call His creation to come? How is it possible that the God of the universe would invite us to come to Him yet that is the case! What makes this scene seem doubly wrong is the fact that man the creature has greatly sinned against this creator God! God invites mankind to come and “reason together” with Him. We should not be surprised for He is always “seeking” a relationship with us. Jesus Came to “…seek and to save that which was lost,” and in Luke 15 we have that wonderful trilogy of parables we see a seeking after a lost sheep; a lost coin; and a lost son! No passage in the Bible illustrates this condescension better than;

Philippians 2:5 “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:

6 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:

7 But made himself of no reputation, (emptied himself) and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:

8 And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

b. It is a critical call

Notice also that there is both opportunity and urgency in this call.

Genesis 6:3 “And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.”

Isaiah 55:6 “Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near:”

Ecclesiastes 12:1 “Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them;”

Act 17:27 “That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us:”

c. It is a compassionate call

Matthew 11:28 “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

Luke 13:34 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not!”

Mark 10:21 “Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me.”

II. The Cause for the Summons – “…your sins…”

a. The sinfulness of sin

Paul Lee Tan writes about a horrible Roman practice:

"The Romans sometimes compelled a captive to be joined face-to-face with a dead body, and to bear it about until the horrible effluvia [vapors] destroyed the life of the living victim. Virgil describes this cruel punishment: 'The living and the dead at his command were coupled face to face, and hand to hand; Till choked with stench, in loathed embraces tied, The lingering wretches pined away and died.' Without Christ, we are shackled to a dead corpse--our sinfulness.

b. The separation of sin

Isaiah 59:2 “But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.”

Kurt Warner’s testimony: “Before accepting Jesus as my Lord I lived my life for only me. I never asked God what he wanted for my life. I was living only for what I wanted. When I was 25 years old I realized I was nothing without Jesus and that I was separated from Him because of sin. I asked Jesus to come into my life and show me His way. He did! Jesus became first in my life and a great change took place.”

c. The stain of sin – “indelible”

Have you ever gotten a stain on a garment that resisted every effort to remove it no matter what you tried?

I once heard about a man who worked with children who lived in sewers - somewhere in South America I think. He used to go into the sewers himself to try and help the children who were living there. Imagine you had been one of those children - virtually blind through living in the darkness underground. Filthy, through living in the waste from thousands of homes. Maybe this man offers you a chance to leave. You jump at the opportunity, but as he leads you out, as your eyes become accustomed to the light at the end of the tunnel, you start to see the state that you are in. You start to see the excrement on your clothes and in your hair. And no matter how hard you try to brush it off, the stains will not go away. And of course, the nearer you get to the light coming in from the entrance of the tunnel, the dirtier you appear. Naturally you would shy away from ever coming out of the sewer until you’re fit to be presented to the outside world. The problem of course, is that you cannot be made clean until you come out of the filth of the sewer, and by coming out it’s inevitable that you will be made aware of your own filth.

If we are to see God’s holiness, it is certain that we will recoil at our own sinfulness.

III. The Cleansing from Sin – “…white…wool.”

a. The symbolism

Though your sins be as scarlet - The word used here - שׁנים shānı̂ym - denotes properly a bright red color, much prized by the ancients. The Arabic verb means to shine, and the name was given to this color, it is supposed by some, on account of its splendor, or bright appearance. Our word scarlet, denoting a bright red, expresses the color intended here. This color was obtained from the eggs of the coccus ilicis, a small insect found on the leaves of the oak in Spain, and in the countries east of the Mediterranean. The cotton cloth was dipped in this color twice; and the word used to express it means also double-dyed, from the verb שׁנה shânâh, to repeat. From this double-dying many critics have supposed that the name given to the color was derived. The interpretation which derives it from the sense of the Arabic word to shine, however, is the most probable, as there is no evidence that the double-dying was unique to this color. It was a more permanent color than that which is mentioned under the word crimson. White is an emblem of innocence. Of course sins would be represented by the opposite. There is another idea here. This was a fast, or fixed color. Neither dew, nor rain, nor washing, nor long usage, would remove it. Hence, it is used to represent the fixedness and permanency of sins in the heart. No human means will wash them out. No effort of man, no external rites, no tears, no sacrifices, no prayers, are of themselves sufficient to take them away. They are deep fixed in the heart, as the scarlet color was in the Web of cloth, and an almighty power is needful to remove them.

Shall be as white as snow - That is, the deep, fixed stain, which no human power could remove, shall be taken away. In other words, sin shall be pardoned, and the soul be made pure. White, in all ages, has been the emblem of innocence, or purity; compare Psa_68:14; Ecc_9:8; Dan_7:9; Mat_17:2; Mat_28:3; Rev_1:14; Rev_3:4-5; Rev_4:4; Rev_7:9, Rev_7:13.

Though they be red - The idea here is not materially different from that expressed in the former part of the verse. It is the Hebrew poetic form of expressing substantially the same thought in both parts of the sentence. Perhaps, also, it denotes intensity, by being repeated; see Introduction, 8.

Like crimson - כתולע katôlâ‛. The difference between scarlet and crimson is, that the former denotes a deep red; the latter a deco red slightly tinged with blue. Perhaps this difference, however, is not marked in the original. The purple or crimson color was obtained commonly from a shellfish, called murex, or purpura, which abounded chiefly in the sea, near Tyre; and hence, the Tyrian dye became so celebrated. That, however, which is designated in this place, was obtained, not from a shellfish, but a worm (Hebrew: תולע tôlâ‛, snail, or conchylium - the Helix Janthina of Linnaeus. This color was less permanent than the scarlet; was of a bluish east; and is commonly in the English Bible rendered blue. It was employed usually to dye wool, and was used in the construction of the tabernacle, and in the garments of the high priest. It was also in great demand by princes and great men, Jdg_8:26; Luk_14:19. The prophet has adverted to the fact that it was employed mainly in dying wool, by what he has added, ‘shall be as wool.’

As wool - That is, as wool undyed, or from which the color is removed. Though your sins appear as deep-stained, and as permanent as the fast color of crimson in wool, yet they shall be removed - as if that stain should be taken away from the wool, and it should be restored to its original whiteness.

b. The surety

“Twice in this passage we are told that our sins shall be made white as snow and as wool. Notice that these are the same words of assurance that we find throughout God’s Word. The words shall, shalt and shall be appear over 1,325 times in the NT alone.

Romans 10:9 “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.”

Romans 10:13 “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

c. The solution

Years ago I read a book called “The Chemistry of the Blood by M.R. DeHaan, M.D.” The title of that book has stayed with me all these years. Here is a quote from this book that I believe speaks to the solution for our sins:

"Before an individual can be saved, he must first learn that he cannot save himself."

There is one fundamental principle given in Leviticus 17, as follows;

"For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul."

Leviticus 17:11

This same inspired principle is repeated in the 14th verse where we read again,

"For it is the life of all flesh; the blood of it is for the life thereof."

Leviticus 17:14

Life, that mysterious something that science has never yet been able to define or fathom, is said by God to be in the blood of the flesh, so that there can be no life without the blood. Now while this is true of all flesh, we are mainly interested in the human blood and particularly in the blood of the man Christ Jesus because in His blood was not only life as we think of it physically but ETERNAL life as well. The first mention of the blood is in chapter four [of Genesis] where the blood of Abel cried from the ground for vengeance. In the preceding chapter the blood, while it is not mentioned by name is inferred. You remember how Adam and Eve after their sin have tried to make garments to cover their shame from fig leaves. That is the history of man. Instead of realizing that sin needs not COVERING but ATONEMENT, man has ever after been trying to save himself by the work of his own hands and by garments of his own manufacture. So he weaves the flimsy fig leaf garment of morality and culture and good works and law works, religion, education and reformation and a social gospel, repeating the error of our first parents when they tried to save themselves by the work of their own hands. They failed us all, [and] since then [mankind] has failed and will fail. Then God comes to them and we read in Genesis 3:21 these words,

"Unto Adam also and unto his wife did the LORD God make coats of skin, and (He) clothed them." Genesis 3:21

In this first record of sacrifice, we have the whole story of the blood. Notice three things about this act of God which was a preview of the whole plan of redemption. First, Adam's sin called for God's intervention. It must be God's work and not man's. GOD MADE THE COAT OF SKINS. Salvation must be ALL of the Lord. Second, Salvation must be by the DEATH of an innocent substitute. Since these coats were made of skin and animal first had to die to provide the covering. A poor substitute (probably a little lamb) had to die that Adam might be saved. Third, it MUST BE BY SHEDDING OF BLOOD, for the animal must be killed to give it's skin and in this sacrifice it's blood must be shed. Without shedding of blood is no remission. It is the blood that maketh an atonement for the sole. "The blood of Jesus Christ His son cleaneth us from all sin."This principle of blood laid down in this first sacrifice runs like a scarlet line all through the book. In Genesis four Cain and Abel bring a sacrifice each. One is accepted, the other rejected simply because Cain presented no blood while Abel did. In Genesis nine, Noah sheds blood of the clean animals out of the Ark and God makes a covenant of grace with him. In Genesis Twenty Two, Abraham sacrifices a ram caught in the bushes in Isaac's stead and the blood of the substitute spares the sinner. In exodus we have the Passover Lamb. In Leviticus, we have the tabernacle sacrifices with their steams of blood, and all through the rest of the book we follow the line until we trace it to it's source and we see on Calvary God's perfect Lamb of which all the others were but a picture and a type and we see the one who met the three conditions of the Father,

First -- He was God's own gift.

Second -- He died in the place of others and,

Third -- It was by the shedding of His own precious blood.

Oh, friend, have you seen the utter uselessness of [making an attempt at] saving yourself by your own fig leaf efforts? Remember, "it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul. Without shedding of blood is no remission. David cried out to God in Psalm 51 after his sin with Bathsheba and we read:

Psalms 51:2 “Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.

3 For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.

4 Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight…

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

9 Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.

10 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.”

We can only be washed clean by the blood of the crucified one! Listen to these verses fro Daniel Towners great hymn: