Scripture: Isaiah 5:1-7; John 15:1-8
Sermon Title: “Turning the Impossible into Endless Possibilities?”
Peace Lutheran Church
10/4/2026
Introduction –
Scene 5—in Shakespeare’s play, Lady MacBeth, can’t shake it, “Out damned spot! Out I
say!” Do you remember that dramatic scene in MacBeth?
Others are watching, as she’s talking to herself, neurotically washing her filthy,
blood-stained hands because she and her husband orchestrated the murder of King
Duncan, “The old man to have so much blood in him!” she’s still scrubbing…but to no
avail.
Whether you’re a Shakespeare enthusiast or not (I’m not) – but I must admit this
powerful scene in MacBeth is a profound reality of who we truly are as sinners.
Specifically, God’s Word spoken through the prophet Isaiah hits the nail directly on the
head, “Our sins are like scarlet.”
You can’t avoid it! You can’t cover up or wash off the obvious stains, regardless of how
much Dawn soap or bleach you use, “Though your sins are like scarlet,” Isaiah
preached to his guilty as charged, blood-stained countrymen, “They shall be white as
snow.”
[*We will get to that “White as snow,” part soon, but first,we need to talk about the big
white elephant in the room.]
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Like MacBeth, in and of ourselves, we can’t undo our depravity, our blood-stained sins,
rotten to the core, and the core is rotten and punishable by death, “For the wages of sin is
death.”
God’s word makes it crystal clear.
“Oh, come on! That’s crazy! That’s not fair!”
Okay, based on whose judgment?
Regarding MacBeth, we rush to their defense, “But they were put up to it! It wasn’t their
fault! That’s not who they are…they’re not murderers…they just weren’t thinking
straight.”
Could you imagine if all crimes were solved that way?
Lord have mercy!
My friend, Pr. Dave Hall at Joy Lutheran preached it well about King David’s/our natural
depravity, “King David was a man after God’s own heart until he wasn’t.”
It’s true! Until he wasn’t!
King Solomon, David’s son, was the wisest person and the most foolish. He even
admitted it, especially about his earthly successes that went up in smoke, “Vanities!
Vanities! Or… “Pointless, pointless!”
It’s easy to point the finger at God and say, “God, your judgments aren’t fair! Why would
a holy God, a loving God allow bad stuff to good people? It’s unfair!” Okay, let’s turn the
tables around and imagine that you are in the judge’s seat. Both the prosecutor and
defendant have weighed in—the evidence is clear—the jury has done their job, “The
MacBeths are guilty!”
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But the judge says, “Nope! All charges are dropped! They’re free to go!” Gavel down,
Courtroom dismissed. If we’re related to King Duncan, or even his friends, how would
we respond to the judge’s decision to let the MacBeth’s walk out Scott-free?
We’d fly off the handle, “What?! You’re letting them go?! Where’s the justice?! How
could those scumbags get away with what they’ve done?!” Based on our very narrow,
flawed views—exercising God’s judgment is a slippery slope because we hate sound
judgment until sound judgment is truly needed.
Let’s look at it this way. If I had a potential heart problem and went to the heart doctor to
find out the truth, and through a series of tests, the doctor confirms that I have a heart
condition that requires further medical treatment, would I be exercising sound judgment
if I fired back, “Well, Doc, that’s your judgment! That’s fine and well for you, but it’s not
right for me!” Does that make my judgment right and the doc’s false about my real heart
arrhythmias?
Of course not! Let’s be honest, we want God-like control, but our flawed glasses of which
we see God, the fallen world falls short of the Lord’s eternal glory, just as His word
promises, “For all have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God.”
Obviously, we are not Divine. We are not even super-human, but to miss the mark of
God’s glory, Old and New Testament alike, tell us about the Lord’s control—handiwork
through the blessings and the hardships: “How unsearchable are His judgements and
unfathomable His ways,” Scripture continues, “For who has known the mind of the
Lord, or who became His counselor?”
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You see, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit—the everlasting 1 in 3, 3 in
1—God is holy, set apart from all creation—yet at the same time—He is fully present in
Jesus Christ—God in flesh—Whose Holy Spirit reveals to sinful humanity Heaven’s
perfect Judge, Savior—Who takes the impossible–our scarlet sins–and makes them into
white snowflakes.
Listening to this you might be thinking, but what about suffering—especially bad things
that happen to godly people who are innocent of any wrongdoing? What do we do with
that?
Listen, I’m not going to stand up here and pretend like I’m an expert on the issue of
suffering because I’m not! None of us will ever fully grasp it, but we need to honestly
deal with it. Again, while God’s ways are far superior to ours—sometimes suffering
happens because of our defiant, rebellious hearts against God, others. Greedy, lustful,
envious, violent outbursts, etc. have deadly consequences. Hasn’t that always been the
case since the fall of humanity? Yes! We could spend hours looking at biblical examples
of this—along with current examples too.
But there are other times when God allows suffering—and while it seems unfair
especially to those whose sins didn’t cause it—God turns those hard times into endless
possibilities for, “His kingdom come, His will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
[*Please understand. This does not give anyone the “green light” to do something
malicious and say, “This is God’s blessing for you.” Not a chance! We are not cut out to
play God’s role.]
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But in the context of believers “enduring hardships, trials of many kinds” for trusting
Jesus—they are not signs of God’s cruelty. Rather, because of God’s boundless gift of
grace and faith—using something that we would judge—as “worthless, hopeless, a lost
cause” —Jesus Christ, the only holy Judge and Savior—uses our adversity and
transforms it into abundant, life-changing faith, far beyond anything we could ever
imagine.
We could spend hours looking at those biblical references too—along with your
Spirit-filled testimonies that speak of God turning something that seems impossible into
endless possibilities in Jesus’ name.
Do we believe that?
We sing the hymn, “Amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me, I
once was lost but now am found, I was blind but now I see.” Most people, even
non-church going people, are familiar with that hymn, but have you stopped to wonder,
what would be so amazing about God’s amazing grace without His holy judgment,
rightly judging/turning what’s evil and dead—into new, eternal life?
I want you to imagine God’s point-of-view of His perfect judgment and mercy coming
together like the right hand in the right glove. Are you ready for this? It was the same
message that Isaiah preached about our scarlet sins being turned into white snow flakes:
“God showed his love toward us in this, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
In other words, “While we were enemies of God because of our blatant jealousies, fits of
rage, deceit, betrayals, false worship, etc.—Jesus Christ—the only, sinless
God-man—died on a murderer’s cross for us?!”
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Let’s be honest, is that fair? We might consider sacrificing our lives for the people we
love, but would we ever hint at the gross thought of sacrificing our lives for our enemies?
Peace Lutheran—Jesus Christ—crucified for our sins and raised from the dead—His holy
suffering—turning what’s impossible into His endless possibilities, “He shall make our
scarlet sins white as snow.” By the way, did you know that each snowflake is unique?
In the same way, the Creator of each unique snowflake is the same Redeemer who
recycles, who turns what’s beyond our control into abundant possibilities, even calling
you fruitful, like luscious grapes on the best vines, which makes me wonder about God’s
amazing grace, “God, why do you love so much that you would send your only blameless
Son to die for me?!” Have you ever prayed that prayer?
Folks, it’s time to come clean. Even living in a luxurious castle like Lady
MacBeth—your four walls can’t change your depravity, neither can your money,
possessions, human intelligence, artificial intelligence, religious pretenses, weapons
past/present/future, etc. can’t change what only Jesus Christ—the perfect Judge, Savior
can change, just as the Spirit-filled song in Isaiah chapter 5 sings: “What more could
have been done for my vineyard than I have done for it? When I looked for good
grapes, why did it yield only bad?”
During Isaiah’s prophetic ministry, the rebellious king of Judah, Ahaz, what a sour grape
he was! He took matters into his own hands, relied on foreign powers instead of on
God’s salvation, and just like Solomon’s “vanities”, Ahaz’s efforts were short-lived, too.
His “boastful vineyard”, kingship turned into a pile of rubble–first by the Assyrian
Empire, followed by the Babylonian, both of which Isaiah predicted. Has anything
changed today in our fallen world?
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But glory be to God because the suffering of the King of kings who took Ahaz’s/our
rubble upon Himself–the same Judge/Savior turned it into a well manicured vineyard
again. Do you remember Isaiah’s Spirit-filled description of Heaven’s King? This is one
of my favorite passages in all of Scripture. Written several nearly 700 hundred years
before Jesus’ miraculous birth—the same Judge, Savior fulfilled God’s plan to a T:
“He was despised and abandoned by men, a man of great pain and familiar with
sickness; and like one from whom people hide their faces, he was despised, and we had
no regard for Him.”
“However, it was our sicknesses that He Himself bore, and our pains that he carried,
yet we esteemed him stricken by God, struck down and humiliated. But he was pierced
for our offenses, He was crushed for our wrongdoings; the punishment that brought us
peace was laid upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed.”
Did you hear that? Jesus took what’s impossible–our punishment–God’s holy judgment
that we deserved and turned it into heavenly possibilities through His sacrificial death
and glorious resurrection, just as He preached shortly before His crucifixion in John 15:
“He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear
fruit he prunes.”
Folks, “pruning” is not a fun process. It’s painful, but it’s necessary, in that, “the
branches,” the forgiven, Spirit-filled body of Christ, will be even more fruitful.
Can you visualize the heavenly possibilities? Don’t take my word for it; take the King of
kings’ words, just as He preached it: “Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch
can bear fruit by itself. It must remain in the vine.”
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Let me ask you, what does Jesus need to prune in your life so that you, your family, your
co-workers, even those who are difficult to love, dare I say, “your enemies,” can be even
more fruitful in Jesus’ name, taking what seems impossible and turning into endless
possibilities?
Let’s pray.

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