These words were at first addressed to the Church of God.  The prophet Isaiah begins his prophecy, by calling upon the heavens and the earth to witness the exceeding sinfulness of God’s chosen people.  “Hear, O heavens, and give ear O earth:  for the Lord hath spoken; I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.  The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib:  but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.”  Such ingratitude and sin as this, he naturally supposes would shock the very heavens and earth.

Then follows a most vehement and terrible rebuke.  The elect people of God are called “Sodom,” and “Gomorrah.”  “Hear the word of the Lord ye rulers of Sodom:  give ear unto the law of our God ye people of Gomorrah.  Why should ye be stricken, any more? ye will revolt more and more.”  This outflow of holy displeasure would prepare us to expect an everlasting reprobacy of the rebellious and unfaithful Church, but it is strangely followed by the most yearning and melting entreaty ever addressed by the Most High to the creatures of His footstool:  “Come now, and let us 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.”

These words have, however, a wider application; and while the unfaithful children of God ought to ponder them long and well, it is of equal importance that “the aliens from the commonwealth of Israel” should reflect upon them, and see their general application to all transgressors, so long as they are under the Gospel dispensation.  Let us, then, consider two of the plain lessons taught, in these words of the prophet, to every unpardoned man.

I. The text represents God as saying to the transgressor of his law, “Come and let us reason together.”  The first lesson to be learned, consequently, is the duty of examining our moral character and conduct, along with God.

When a responsible being has made a wrong use of his powers, nothing is more reasonable than that he should call himself to account for this abuse.  Nothing, certainly, is more necessary.  There can be no amendment for the future, until the past has been cared for.  But that this examination may be both thorough and profitable, it must be made in company with the Searcher of hearts.

For there are always two beings who are concerned with sin; the being who commits it, and the Being against whom it is committed.  We sin, indeed, against ourselves; against our own conscience, and against our own best interest.  But we sin in a yet higher, and more terrible sense, against Another than ourselves, compared with whose majesty all of our faculties and interests, both in time and eternity, are altogether nothing and vanity.  It is not enough, therefore, to refer our sin to the law written on the heart, and there stop.  We must ultimately pass beyond conscience itself, to God, and say, “Against Thee have I sinned.”  It is not the highest expression of the religious feeling, when we say, “How can I do this great wickedness, and sin against my conscience?” He alone has reached the summit of vision who looks beyond all finite limits, however wide and distant, beyond all finite faculties however noble and elevated, and says, “How can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?”