7. Let Us Reason Together

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Hymns: RHC 559 Near the Cross 173 There Is a Fountain 100 He Lifted Me 

Isaiah 1

15 And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood. 16 Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; 17 Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. 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. 19 If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: 20 But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.

Let Us Reason Together

OUTLINE

(1) Sin Abound (v15)

(2) Cleansing Needed (v16-17)

(3) Cleansing by the LORD (v18) 

(4) Be Willing and Obedient (v19-20)

INTRODUCTION

James said well in James 1:27 (KJV) Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

In the epistle of James, the author answered this question, “What is the means by which we can live a victorious Christian life?” It is with the help of the Word of God. The Word of truth must be dominant in nurturing, guiding, and disciplining the life that God implanted by means of the Word. God’s Word is depicted by three imageries: as seed (v21), as a mirror (v23), and as a law that gives freedom (v25).[1] The born-again believer with a new nature is energized by the Word of God. 

1. New Nature Energized by God’s Word (v19-27 cf. v18) 

  1. Receives God’s Word (v19-21)
    1. Rejects Old Fallen Ways
    1. Quiet before God
      1. Receives God’s Ways
    1. Doers of God’s Word (v22-27)
      1. Blessed of God (v25)
        1. By Controlled Tongue (v26)
        1. By Good Works (v27)

In Israel, religion has become a mockery. There is no overcoming, sin abounds amongst the people of God. There is a need to come to God for cleansing. 

The people followed their religious celebrations to the jot and tittle. They showed up at the right time, sacrificed the right amount, and offered many prayers. But when they left the temple, it was as if they left God there. 

Life with God is a lifelong process of sanctification. As the Word of God is seriously read and meditated upon with prayer, effecting a change.

Israel was not without God and His Word, they had the Temple worship, but their hearts are full of idols (nothing). Their affection was not true towards their God. And the LORD saw through their outward facet.

(1) Sin Abound (v15)

15 And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.

John Calvin said well, “Where hypocrisy is, there can be no true calling on God. And yet this passage does not contradict what is said elsewhere, “When they shall spread forth their hands, I will hear.” For in that passage the Lord speaks of that calling which proceeds from confidence in him. Faith is the mother of calling on God; and if that be absent, nothing is left but empty mockery. 

Yea, when ye make many prayers – He amplifies the former statement by threatening that he will be deaf to their cries, to whatever extent they may multiply prayers; as if he had said, “Though you be constant in prayer, that diligence will be of no avail to you.” For this also is a fault which belongs to hypocrites, that the more their prayers abound in words, they think that they are more holy, and will more easily obtain what they wish. Thus, their idle talkativeness is indirectly rebuked.

Your hands are full of blood Here he begins to explain more fully the reason why he disapproves, and even disdainfully rejects, both their prayers and their sacrifices. It is because they are cruel and bloody, and stained with crimes of every sort, though they come into his presence with a hypocritical display. 

Though he will afterwards add other kinds of crime, as he had mentioned the spreading forth of the hands, so he speaks of the hands, and says that in them they carry and hold out a testimony of their crimes, so that they need not wonder that he thrusts them back so harshly. For, on the other hand, the phrase, to lift up clean hands, was employed not only by prophets and apostles, (1 Timothy 2:8) but even by profane authors, who were driven by mere instinct to reprove the stupidity of men; if it were not that God perhaps forced them to make this confession, in order that true religion might never be without some kind of attestation.”

Our Lord Jesus likewise rebukes the Jews of His time –  

Jesus again asks that we take serious consideration to subdue hypocrisy and increase the grace of truthfulness in our lives. We are to be sincere in our piety, hating the evils of hypocrisy. We are to be aware of the deceitfulness of the heart. The hypocrites would love to pray standing in public places so that they may receive the praise of men. This verse certainly does not teach that we should not pray in public. Prayer is made a mockery by such hypocrites. Jesus exhorts His disciples to flee such hypocrisy. 

The focus of the hypocrites’ prayer is men and not God. Therefore their prayers do not reach God in heaven but only the ears of men who can do nothing to answer them nor reward them. All they can do to praise their eloquence, which is actually empty praise. Our Lord wants us to examine both our motives and our actions in every aspect of our lives especially pertaining to prayer. May the Lord help us to root out every hypocritical prayer and to plant in its place the graces of truthfulness. It is a sad scene when religion becomes a show! Are the hearts of men today any more truthful than in the times of our Lord Jesus? 

These timeless words by our Lord Jesus ought also to rebuke us. The evangelist Billy Sunday once observed, “Hypocrites in the church? Yes, and in the lodge, and at home. Don’t hunt through the church for a hypocrite. Go home and look in the glass. Hypocrites? Yes. See that you make the number one less.” 

Matthew 6:5 (KJV) And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.

OUR CLOSET PRAYER LIFE 

Matthew 6:6: “But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.” 

There is an intentional (not an accidental) concealment of the praying saint in his private prayer. The door is not only shut but also locked to ensure privacy. His blessings come not from men but are divinely bestowed from heaven above by his Father! 

This is a page out of the diary of David Brainerd, a missionary to the American Indians, on Monday, June 14, 1742, “Felt something of the sweetness of communion with God and the constraining force of His love. How admirably it captivates the soul and makes all the desires and affections to centre in God! I set apart this day for secret fasting and prayer, to entreat God to direct and bless me with regard to the great work I have in view, of preaching the gospel; and that the Lord would return to me, and show me the light of His countenance. Had little life and power in the forenoon. Near the middle of the afternoon, God enabled me to wrestle ardently in intercession for absent friends. But just at night, the Lord visited me marvellously in prayer; I think my soul never was in such agony before. I felt no restraint, for the treasures of divine grace were opened to me. I wrestled for absent friends, for the ingathering of souls, for multitudes of poor souls, and for many that I thought were the children of God, personally, in many distant places. I was in such agony, from the sun half an hour high till near dark, that I was all over wet with sweat. Yet it seemed to me that I had wasted away the day and had done nothing. Oh, my dear Jesus did sweat blood for poor souls! I longed for more compassion toward them. Felt still in a sweet frame, under a sense of divine love and grace; and went to bed in such a frame, with my heart set on God.” 

(2) Cleansing Needed (v16-17)

16 Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; 17 Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.

Wash you, make you clean – He exhorts the Jews to repentance, and points out the true way of it, provided that they wish to have their obedience approved by God. Hence, we conclude that nothing can please God unless it proceeds from a pure conscience; for God does not, like men, judge our works according to their outward appearance. It frequently happens that some particular action, though performed by a very wicked man, obtains applause among men; but in the Sight of God, who beholds the heart, a depraved conscience pollutes every virtue. And this is what is taught by Haggai, holding out an illustration drawn from the ancient ceremonies, that everything which an unclean person has touched is polluted; from which he concludes that nothing clean proceeds from the wicked. Our Prophet has already declared, that in vain do they offer sacrifices to God, in vain do they pray, in vain do they call on his name if the integrity of heart does not sanctify the outward worship. For this reason, in order that the Jews may no longer labour to no purpose, he demands that cleanness; and he begins with a general reformation, lest, after having discharged one part of their duty, they should imagine that this would be a veil to conceal them from the eyes of God. [Calvin]

Having known the heavenly way, the godly way, we are to keep on that path but be a doer of God’s instruction to a blessed life. We deceive ourselves if we hear God’s Word and stop short of doing. Wholehearted acceptance of the Word must result in active obedience to the Word. For example, in keeping of the Lord’s Day. It must not be the dictates of our hearts but according to His commandments.

Learn to do well, Which men are naturally ignorant of; to do good they have no knowledge; nor can they that are accustomed to do evil learn to do well of themselves; but the Lord can teach them to profit, and of him, they should ask wisdom, and desire, under the influence of his grace, to learn to maintain good works for necessary uses, and particularly to do acts of beneficence to all men, and especially to the household of faith; and also, the following ones, 

seek judgment; seek to do justice between man and man in any cause depending, without respect of persons: 

relieve the oppressed; the poor that are oppressed by their neighbours that are richer and mightier than they, right their wrongs, and deliver them out of the hands of their oppressors1: 

judge the fatherless; do justice to them who have none to take care of them, and defend them: 

plead for the widow; that is desolate and has none to plead her cause. [Gill]

To be continued…

[1] James speaks in practical terms concerning what believers’ will experience when they live their Christian life. And he teaches them how to live this life of faith to receive God’s blessings. He showed to marks of true faith.

He began the letter by warning the believers scattered all over Asia Minor (v1) how to handle the trials (v2-11) and temptations (v12-18) that come their way. He taught them to go through trials with joy, patience and prayer (v2-8). In particular, he cited the trials that come with poverty and riches, teaching the believers how they are to view material possessions (v9-11). There are those who lost their livelihood as a result of their faith and were living in modest material comfort. He encouraged have an eternal perspective toward the temporal nature of material things of this life, that their lives be rich toward God rather than finding security in the riches of the world. Then he told the believers about the nature of temptations (v12-16), delineating its cause (v13-14), its consequence (v15) how succumbing to temptation is a life gone off course (v16). 

He told us the blessing of overcoming temptations in life is the heavenly reward or “crown” of eternal life (v12). God is not the author of temptation. It is the “flesh” or fallen man in them that draws believers to sin and the consequence of sin is death (v13-15). He warned against yielding to temptation (v16).  Having shown the reward (v12), the snare (c13-16) of temptation, he showed how to refrain from yielding to temptation (v17-18) by showing how to counter temptation by remembering God’s goodness and the innate ability within us to overcome sin by the new nature in us. Now, he explains to us the means by which we can live a victorious Christian life is with the help of the Word of God.