Introduction
Well, please turn with me in your Bibles to the prophet Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 55. A passage we have looked at before, a passage that ought to be looked at frequently. Essentially what you have in this section. In Isaiah 52, redemption and deliverance are promised.
In Isaiah 53, redemption is secured by the atoning death of the servant of the Lord. In chapter 54, there are four promises made to the church. grounded in that finished work of Christ. And chapter 55, redemption is offered to sinners, and we ought to remember and rehearse the blessing of God in our salvation so that we do not forget the various things that the Lord has conveyed to us. So let's begin reading in Isaiah 55 at verse 1.
Scripture Reading: Isaiah 55
Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters, and you who have no money, come, buy and eat. Yes, come buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend money for what is not bread and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me and eat what is good and let your soul delight itself in abundance.
Incline your ear and come to me here and your soul shall live and I will make an everlasting covenant with you the sure mercies of David Indeed, I have given him as a witness to the people a leader and commander for the people Surely you shall call a nation. You do not know and nations who do not know you shall run to you Because of the Lord your God and the Holy One of Israel for he has glorified you Seek the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts.
Let him return to the Lord, and he will have mercy on him. And to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
For as the rain comes down and the snow from heaven, and do not return there, but water the earth and make it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth. It shall not return to me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it. For you shall go out with joy and be let out with peace. The mountains and the hills shall break forth into singing before you, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress tree, and instead of the briar shall come up the myrtle tree, and it shall be to the Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off. Amen.
Opening Prayer
Well, let us pray. Our Father, thank you for the written word, and thank you that all scripture is given by inspiration of God, and that all Scripture is profitable for doctrine, for correction, for reproof, and for instruction in righteousness. And tonight, Father, as we ponder this passage in the prophet Isaiah, she would help us to see Christ, help us to delight in Christ, help us to see the great blessings associated with that gospel of Jesus Christ. And may we stand in awe that you, a holy God, would redeem guilty sinners like us, that you would call us to this table tonight, that you would call us to rehearse the fact that your Son lived and that He died and that He was raised the third day, and that you have ordained this for the good and the benefit of your people in the church of Jesus Christ.
God, we do love you, and we do praise you, and we thank you. And we would ask again for the forgiveness of sins and for the power of the Holy Spirit to be at work in our hearts. And we ask in Jesus' name, amen. Well,
Overview of the Passage
we want to look first at this invitation to come in verses 1 to 5, and then secondly, if we have time, the call to believe and repent in verses 6 to 13. But there are several things going on in verses 1 to 5. In the first place, we have an invitation. In the second place, there is an interrogation.
Thirdly, there are blessings listed and indicated. And fourthly, there is a guarantee provided for the blessings promised by God. to those who come. But
The Invitation to Come (vv. 1–5)
note this invitation proper found in 55 verse 1. Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters, and you who have no money, come buy and eat. Yes, come buy wine and milk without money and without price.
A Universal and Gracious Invitation
Notice the threefold emphasis, the threefold repetition on the verb come. He is not telling sinners to stay away. He is not telling sinners to keep their distance. He is not demanding that no sinner ever comes to him, but rather, three times, God the Lord, through his prophet, calls upon sinners to come.
Again, we need to remember the context. Isaiah 53 is a record of the atoning death of our Lord Jesus Christ, that great servant of Yahweh that would lay down his life for the sheep. Based on that reality, God now offers that salvation to sinners. And the intensity of the invitation is seen in the thrice-repeated come, Alan Harmon points out.
Note that it's a universal invitation. He says, ho, everyone who thirsts. E.J. Young, in his wonderful commentary on the book of Isaiah, he says the introductory particle, this word ho, is mainly an attention-getting device, but it expresses a slight tone of pity.
The prophet is an evangelist with a concern for the souls of men and a realization of their desperate condition without the blessings that the servant has obtained. So it's a universal invitation to everyone who thirsts. but as well, as he points out, it is tinged with pity. In other words, everyone should come because you're sinners, you stand in need of redemption, and the means by which redemption is achieved has been achieved by the suffering servant of Isaiah 53. So, based on that reality, come unto the one who has given his son for sinners.
And as those who have been by God's grace conquered, those who have been constrained by God's grace to come, we ought to praise the Lord for his having brought us nigh, having brought us out of darkness into marvelous light. Notice as well that it's a gracious invitation. The invitation is addressed to those who are spiritually bankrupt. Notice the language.
Oh, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters. And then it says, and you who have no money, come buy and eat. Yes, come buy wine and milk without money and without price. Every sinner ultimately is spiritually bankrupt.
We have nothing with which to please God. There is no money that we can provide that would secure favor with God. There is nothing we can offer Him. We cannot barter with Him.
We cannot trade with Him in order for Him to save us from our sin. Everything mentioned here, everything indicated here is ultimately provided by Him to us. He constrains the one that has no money to come. He constrains the one who has no money in price to come.
And another commentator, Alec Motier, makes this observation. Because the language is conspicuous, there is this buying, there is this transaction. And yet, the persons buying have no money. The persons transacting are destitute.
The persons coming are bankrupt. Listen to what he says.
The Purchase Price Already Paid
Alongside the emphasis on freeness, the verb buy is repeated. The thought of purchase is not set aside. In other words, there is a purchase price. There has been a transaction.
There has been something in exchange. It was satisfied by the suffering servant of Isaiah 53, so that we, based on that, can now come. Those of us without money can make good on this transaction by God's grace because of what the servant has accomplished. He says, the thought of purchase is not set aside.
This is no soup kitchen. Even if the clients are beggars, there is a purchase and a price, though not theirs to pay. They bring their poverty to a transaction already completed. Contextually, this is another allusion to the work of the servant.
His the price, ours the freeness. Now, you may not fully appreciate that when you're kind of tired at 520 on a Sunday night. Email me and I'll send that quote to you. It should buck you up during the week, because that is a great and a blessed reality.
The thought is not God has suspended the purchase price. The thought is, the servant of the Lord has satisfied the purchase price. Because of what he's accomplished, based on what we read in the prophet Isaiah 53, it is this, or it is now the case, that the bankrupt, the poor, the destitute, the needy can come to the Father through the Son. And then notice in terms of this invitation, it is complete.
Look at how the prophet describes what is offered in the gospel. This is sort of a metaphorical way to explain what Paul says in Ephesians 1. Paul says, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. God has given us every spiritual blessing.
For those who are theologically minded, you can ponder that and start to tease that out and start to realize that, hey, those spiritual blessings certainly include justification by faith. That's something secured for us by our Redeemer King. They can start to ponder, after justification comes sanctification, another spiritual blessing secured for us by our gracious God. And then glorification, that reality that when we breathe our last, we will enter into Emmanuel's land.
Those are the spiritual blessings that Paul is highlighting there in Ephesians chapter 1. Well, the prophet does something similar, though metaphorical, in Isaiah 55 at verse 1. Notice, "'Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters.'" Now, the waters speak to the refreshment of the gospel. the refreshment of the gospel. You see this in John chapter 7, that last great day of the feast.
What does Jesus say? He cries out, if any man thirsts, let him come to me. Refreshment comes in and through our Lord Jesus Christ. Can we not affirm that, brothers and sisters?
Is that not something that is a spiritual blessing? The refreshment of knowing that our sins are forgiven. The refreshment of knowing that we're heaven-bound. The refreshment that we know that our account is settled by the redemption of our Lord Jesus Christ.
But it's not just waters. Notice, and you who have no money, come buy and eat. Yes, come buy wine. It's an interesting thing.
Wine. Well, in Psalm 104, at verse 15, we learn that God made wine. And God made wine to gladden the heart of man. Now, man takes that good gift from God, and he abuses it, and he misuses it, and he gets hammered.
But Psalm 104, verse 15, tells us that the purpose of God in giving wine to man is to gladden their hearts. It's not to create Skid Row. It's not to create, you know, AA. It's not to create a bunch of people that would rather worship at the altar of vodka and beer than God the Lord.
God gave this good gift. It's man who twists it. It's man who abuses it. But the idea is that it gladdens the heart.
And brethren, a brief reflection on the gospel ought to remind you how it gladdens the heart, doesn't it? Not only refresh you in thoughts of, I'm okay with God, or I'm accepted in the beloved, but it's also a great gladdening agent. We can rejoice as we sing these particular hymns, as we sing these particular songs, as we rehearse Psalm 130, as we read at the outset of worship. If thou, Lord, shouldst mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?
But there is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared. Now, David could have written that as a dirge. David could have written that as one who had a gun to his head. But I suspect David wrote that as a man rejoicing in the reality of what he just wrote.
But in you, there is, or with you, there is forgiveness that you may be feared. It gladdens the heart. It makes men rejoice. It causes them to leave their beds of sleep, to enter into the house of God, to take their hymnals or their psalters, and to open it up, and to sing with thanksgiving and praise, because the gospel gladdens the heart.
But notice, it doesn't stop there. The gospel answers to every need that man has. The waters refresh, the wine gladdens, and the milk nourishes. You see that in 1 Peter 2.
The milk of the Word. It's a nourishing agent. It's not only the means or the vehicle by which we come into saving contact with God through Jesus Christ our Lord, but it's that which nourishes us on a daily basis. It's that which sustains us.
And as this chapter in the prophet continues, he likens the Word of God to the rain or to the snow that comes down from the heavens. The rain and the snow that come down from the heavens, they don't return to the heavens. They accomplished the purpose for which the rain and the snow comes upon the earth. And the rain and the snow comes upon the earth to do what?
To water the vegetation, to increase the life and to increase the vitality of the earth. That's what he likens God's Word to. Those who would ever neglect the Word of God are those who are neglecting that agent which is most calculated to nourish their hearts in the walk of faith. And the prophet says that all these things are answered in the gospel.
It is the water that refreshes, it is the wine that gladdens, it is the milk that nourishes, and he tells sinners to come. Now,
The Interrogation: Why Spend on What Cannot Satisfy?
note the interrogation on the heels of that in verse 2a. Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy? It's a good question, isn't it? This threefold emphasis on come, this great description of what you get when you come, the water, the wine, the milk, and those who would not come, this interrogation is most appropriate, most fitting.
Why do you spend money for what is not bread and your wages for what does not satisfy? John Calvin said that men are so enchanted by the devil that they choose rather to wander through deserts and to vex themselves in vain than to rely on the grace which God offers to them. I think he is absolutely 100% correct. So I think I'll read it again.
Men are so enchanted by the devil that they choose rather to wander through deserts and to vex themselves in vain than to rely on the grace which God offers to them. Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy? Why do you continue to wander through deserts? Why do you continue to resist the gracious invitation of God Most High?
Why do you continue to stiff-arm that glorious overture of the gospel? Why do you spend money on that which does not satisfy? Why do you glut yourself in sacks of drugs or rock and roll? Why do you glut yourself in prestige, or in work, or in whatever position at your company?
Why do you glut yourself in that which does not satisfy? You see, it's maddening. It's madness, rather. It is something that is so futile when you look upon a people that are resisting and rejecting the glorious God of heaven and earth, and they were choosing, rather, to engage in vanity of entities.
I mentioned in connection with this sermon, I spoke not so greatly of C.S. Lewis this morning. We'll give him a little bit of a better shout-out tonight. C.S.
Lewis said that sinners are like persons who are offered a vacation by the seaside, but they'd rather make mud pies in the gutter. They are offered something so wonderful, so glorious, and so gracious, and they say, no, I don't want that. I would rather put together mud pies in my gutter than go and enjoy a seaside holiday. Now, some of the kids might be saying, the mud pies by the gutter sounds pretty fun to me.
But you get C.S. Lewis's point, right? Why do you spend your money? Why do you waste your life?
Why do you pour yourself into that which is never calculated to satisfy? When God the Lord has offered you the refreshing waters of the gospel, when God the Lord has offered you the gladdening wine of the gospel, when God the Lord has offered you the nourishing milk of the gospel, why do you resist that? Why do you reject that? Why do you forsake that?
And why? Do you pursue that which does not satisfy? The incredulity of the prophet, why do you spend your money and effort on that which does not satisfy? Now
The Blessings Promised
note, in the third place, under the broader concern, verses 1 to 5, of the invitation to come, note the blessings that are promised here. The blessings that are promised. They've already been encapsulated in verse 1. The whole idea of refreshment, gladness, and nourishment.
But he doesn't stop there. Notice in 2B. Listen carefully to me and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in abundance. You see, there is soul delight.
And it's not just a little bit of soul delight, but it's delight in abundance. Gotta see something in this chapter. God never does anything half-heartedly. This is why Christian service that is rendered half-heartedly is such an affront.
It is just such an affront. God doesn't act half-heartedly toward us. God, in the prophet Jeremiah 32, when he's looking forward to new covenant blessings and things that he is going to do, he says that he will plant them in the land with all his heart and with all his soul. Isaiah the prophet, 9, 6, and 7.
You're going to hear a lot of those verses in the next month or so. But Isaiah 9 is the promise concerning the coming king, and 9.6 is the king, and 9.7 is the kingdom. And it's underscored, that blessed statement concerning the coming of the Messiah, in terms of who He is, verse 6, and in terms of the kingdom that He establishes, in verse 7. It's underscored at the end of verse 7 this way, the zeal of Yahweh of hosts shall perform this.
Notice, in this particular section, we find that God lets us delight ourselves in abundance. Look at the next page. At least in my Bible, it's the next page. But if you look at verse 7, "...let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts.
Let him return to the Lord, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God. For notice, he will abundantly pardon." God does things in abundance when it comes to saving His people from their sins. God does things whole soul-ish and whole heart-ish. As I said, it's an affront when we offer up such weakness to our God.
But we are to let our soul delight in abundance. This is connected with what Jesus says in John chapter 10. The good shepherd comes that they might have life, and that they might have it what? that they might have it abundantly. And the abundant life that Jesus is talking about there isn't the abundant life of big houses and wives with big hair and big cars and big summer homes.
The abundance is the refreshing waters of the gospel, the gladdening wine of the gospel, the nourishing milk of the gospel. That's the abundance that satisfies the heart of man. You can't get that elsewhere. There is one place for that type of abundant satisfaction, and it is with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Notice, we have as well fellowship with God. Verse 3a, incline your ear and come to me. You see, ultimately, that's what makes eternal life eternal life, isn't it? Is that we're with God.
See, brethren, the blessings of the gospel, justification, sanctification, glorification, the blessings of the gospel, the water, the wine, the milk, those things associated with illustrating how great and glorious and wonderful it is to come out of darkness into marvelous light, the net effect of the end game is that we are with God. He is our possession. He is our strength. He is our prize.
He is everything that any sinner could ever want. And that's what the prophet says. And then it's obviously spiritual life. The end of verse 3a, here in your soul shall live.
In other words, what Isaiah is doing is highlighting the words of this life that the angel instructed the apostles to preach in Acts chapter 5. And then before leaving this section,
The Guarantee of the Promise
note the guarantee. The guarantee is provided for us in verses 3b to 5. Let's just pretend for a moment you had never heard any of this. I don't think that's true of anybody here.
In fact, you may have heard this very sermon back in 2016. But imagine somebody actually hears this for the first time. It really sounds too good to be true. And you're probably like me.
If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Not the case that people just offer you two weeks on a yacht. That just doesn't happen. There's always something attached.
There's always a penalty or a presentation, which is a penalty. There's always some catch. You get a call from a radio station. We want to give you a million dollars.
No, you don't. Nobody wants to give me a million dollars. I'm sure of that. 52 years in this world has taught me no one wants to give me. There's always a catch.
So somebody might hear this, and they might hear of this refreshing water and this gladdening wine and this nourishing milk, and they might say, wait a minute, this sounds too good to be true. How can God the Lord afford to convey these gifts and blessings and privileges upon needy sinners? Well, that's what 3b-5 answers. First, this promise is pledged by covenant, 3B.
Notice, and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, the sure mercies of David. This is the new covenant. This is the covenant of grace. This is the blessed transaction wherein God has purposed to save a great multitude that no man can number.
This is what Christ accomplishes. This is what He inaugurates on the night of His suffering. This is what comes into fulfillment and realization in the first coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. God can provide the blessings listed because He's a covenant-keeping God.
Notice, secondly, the promise is secured by the Davidic king. This is another reference to our Lord Jesus. Notice verse 4. Indeed, I have given him, David, as a witness to the people, a leader and commander for the people.
This is a reference to Christ. The prophets, when they speak concerning the new covenant, oftentimes identify David as the king in those latter days. What we know from scripture, David was given the promise that from his line, one of his sons would rise up and would be that king of kings, that lord of lords that would rule over an everlasting kingdom. Well, that's Jesus.
So the promise offered by God in verses 1 to 3a are secured by the covenant-keeping God, secured by the Davidic king. And then notice, the fact is, is that God himself fulfills the promise. Verse 5, "'Surely you shall call a nation you do not know, and nations who do not know you shall run to you.'" It's already spoken of in Isaiah 2 too, when the nations of the earth will stream to Zion to be taught the law of Yahweh. Well, why do they do that?
Notice, because of the Lord your God and the Holy One of Israel, for He has glorified you. In other words, all of this is not too good to be true. It's so wonderful, it's so awesome, it's so glorious, but it's secured by the covenant-keeping God. It's secured as a result of the Davidic king who would live and die and rise again, and it's secured by the power and provision of God Himself.
Well,
The Call to Believe and Repent (vv. 6–13)
let's look quickly at the last section there. I don't want to leave anything undone. Notice the call to believe and repent in verses 6 to 13.
Faith and Repentance: The Means of Grace
Verse 6 and 7, when it says, Seek the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near. That's faith. Remember, we're justified not because of our works.
We're justified not because of our good deeds. We're justified not because we perform well. We don't hear sermons and then go home and, you know, correct our lives. No, that's not the way it works.
Moral reform is a good thing, but moral reform will never end one in heaven. Moral reform is just another vain attempt on the part of man to try to achieve God in his own strength and by his own words. No, we are saved freely by his grace, justified by faith, and that's what verse 6 emphasizes. Seek Yahweh while he may be found, Call upon him while he is near.
The next verse speaks to repentance. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to the Lord, and he will have mercy on him and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. Spurgeon said, oh, there be men that quite misunderstand the gospel.
They think that righteousness qualifies them to come to Christ, whereas sin is the only qualification. for a man to come to Jesus. That's great, isn't it? Not that we sin, not that we continue to sin, but that is the qualification to get to Jesus. He goes on, and this is intriguing because he quotes a fellow by the name of Tobias Crisp, and Tobias Crisp was notoriously known as an antinomian.
Yet in this case, what Crisp says is absolutely spot on. I've often thought when persons spend a lot of time listening to what Fisher would call legal preachers, they should read some Crisp. They should read some Philpott. They should just immerse themselves in those old brothers that spoke only of Christ and his beauty.
If that reference is lost on you, don't be alarmed. But there are those that preach in a legal vein and basically lay the people of God very low. You've never done enough. You'll never do enough.
Well, that stuff always needs to come and then have the balm of Gilead applied. You don't bruise and batter sinners and then leave them there. you point them to the glory of Jesus Christ our Lord. But back to Spurgeon here. He says, Oh, there be men that quite misunderstand the gospel.
They think that righteousness qualifies them to come to Christ, whereas sin is the only qualification for a man to come to Jesus. Good old Crisp says, righteousness keeps me from Christ. The whole have no need of a physician, but they that are sick. Sin makes me come to Jesus when sin is felt.
And in coming to Christ, the more sin I have, the more cause I have to hope for mercy. Amen, a hundredfold. Remember that on Wednesday night, we're considering the sad end of Noah. Noah, that godly man, that man that found grace in the eyes of Yahweh, that man who was perfect in his generations, that man who walked with God, gets out of the ark, grows a vineyard, and gets drunk.
He uncovers himself in his tent, and then his son Ham looks upon him in a wicked and perverted way. Thankfully, his sons Shem and Japheth cover him up. But all of that, not to disgrace Noah, as John Gill says, but to show that the best of men are men at best, but as well to encourage needy sinners to come to God for forgiveness. And I mentioned offhandedly, but it was absolutely right, I think, John Gill would go to that sad end of Noah and preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to a needy sinner.
See, brethren, the God with whom we have to do is the God of Isaiah 55, 6, and 7. Seek Yahweh while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts.
Let him return to Yahweh, and he will have mercy on him and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. Now, at times we think of the pardon of sin that we enjoy. Do we ever think of the abundant pardon of sin that we enjoy? We are abundant sinners, and God has met us with abundant pardon.
As John Newton was wont to say, I'm a great sinner, but Christ is a great Savior. That's the thrust here, brethren. Let the wicked man forsake his way. Faith and repentance, this is the means by which the grace is given by God to draw man to himself for salvation.
And then
God's Word, Power, and the Future
note, the foundation of the promise is based on who God is, the power of God's Word, and then a promise concerning the future. And that's verses 8 to 13. Quickly. Notice in verses 8 and 9.
This is one of those passages that I think is grossly misunderstood at times. I think people take this verse when they can't understand something in the Bible, and they go to Isaiah 55, 8 and 9, and say, well, there it is. We just can't know anything. That's not what the prophet means here.
If we can't know anything, then these 31,000 verses, you know, enclosed in the Old and New Testament are worthless. We can know a lot of things. We can know 31,000 propositions because God has given them to us in the inscripturated Word. The idea is not that we can't ever know anything the way, or we can't ever know anything because God is just so much above us.
Now, God is so much above us, and God is the Creator, and we are the creature, and certainly there is a sense wherein we need to be spoken to as babies, but the Word of God does that, it provides that for us. I think this is the rationale for the emphasis upon repentance. In other words, you need to repent because you don't think the way God does. Your ways are not like God's.
Notice. Four. That's a rationale. That's a reason.
That's a justification. You need to believe on the Lord Jesus, and you need to repent for your sins. Why? Because my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord.
In other words, when you're engaged in idolatry, that has nothing to do with God. When you're a blasphemer, a Sabbath-breaker, you're insubordinate to authority, or you're a murderer, or you're an adulterer, you're a liar, you're a thief, or you're covetous, all those things are not what God is about. Therefore, you must repent. You need to forsake your ways.
You need to rethink your thoughts. You need to conform to the way that God has called you to think and to function. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. One commentator says, our ways and thoughts have been perverted by sin, and it is only as we turn from them to God and His mercy that we can ever have peace with Him and live the lives that will be truly productive.
So it's not a statement that we can never know anything about God. It's a statement as to why we ought to repent, because our thoughts and our actions are nothing like God's. Therefore, we need to forsake those wicked ones and, by God's grace, start to think the proper thoughts. Vis-Ã -vis Romans 12, no longer be conformed to the world, but be transformed.
By what? By the renewing of your mind. You spent all that time thinking contrary to God. Now that you're believers, Don't be conformed to the world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds.
So the emphasis there is not on we can never know anything. The emphasis is on we need to repent. And then, as I mentioned earlier, the power of the Word of God, verses 10 to 11. He likens it to rain and snow.
For as the rain comes down and the snow from heaven and do not return there, but water the earth and make it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater. So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth. It shall not return to me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it." That's a text that hopefully gets every preacher out of bed on a Sunday morning. It doesn't depend upon the preacher.
It depends upon God and His Word. He sends it forth, and He accomplishes the purpose for which He sent it. It's up to God. We pray, we preach, we evangelize, we witness, we testify, we labor.
But brethren, we really are those who affirm God's sovereignty. It is about Him. It doesn't depend upon Him who wills or upon Him who runs, but on God who shows mercy. Why do the nations flow to Zion?
Because they have this collective enlightening moment? No, it's because of sovereign grace drawing them to Zion. Why is it that any of us miserable wretches ever believed, ever sought the Lord, and ever repented from our sins? Did we have an enlightening moment?
Did we have some sort of a, wow, I should... No, it's God and His grace. These things, verses 6 and 7, are graces given by God, faith and repentance. That is never meant to discourage anybody, because in addition to the reality that God gives these, we need to underscore the equal reality that God delights to give these. that He's about this, that the mission of the Son of Man wasn't to come and to help men save themselves, but to save a great multitude that no man can number.
It is the Lord God who grants these graces, but it is the Lord God who delights to grant these graces. That's why if we actually understand John 3, that it's not a command for a sinner to make himself born again, but rather it's highlighting that if a man is to be saved, something must happen to him from without. In other words, he must be born from above or born again. Some would say, well, if you preach it that way and you take it out of the realm of man's control, then there's not really a whole lot of hope or encouragement for man.
No, it's completely hopeful and completely encouraging because God actually does want to make sinners born again. Sinners don't want to. Sinners don't make themselves born again. Sinners don't have the wherewithal.
What's more discouraging? Telling a sinner, you have the ability, you have the power, but you'll never have the will? Is that hope? Is that encouragement? or telling them, you don't have the ability, you don't have the power, you don't have the will, but God Almighty does.
And as the prophet Jonah confessed, salvation is of the Lord. You are in the best possible place casting yourself at His mercy and at His feet. That's what we need to appreciate. And then verses 12 and 13 point to the future.
Notice in verse 12, for you shall go out with joy and be led out with peace. The mountains and the hills shall break forth into singing before you, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. The joy and peace of God's people. We ought to be a people that are marked by joy and peace.
We ought to take seriously those divine imperatives of the New Testament. Rejoice always. Again, I will say, rejoice. Now, there are sorrows.
There are afflictions. There are trials, there are hardships, there are seasons where the people of God imitate their master, who was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. There is the darkness of depression, there are those times when we are destitute, and there are those times when we are hurting. But the general arc of the people of God ought to be joy and peace.
Joy and peace. And then the reversal of the curse. I love the cosmic language of verse 13. Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress tree, and instead of the briar shall come up the myrtle tree, and it shall be to the Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.
The prophets do this a lot, too. When they highlight the blessings of God that will come through Messiah, they speak in the language of the reversal of the curse. That curse was imposed by God upon the first Adam in Genesis chapter 3. This world would be filled with thistles and thorns.
This world would be filled with heartache and hardship. But there's a time coming when the thorn shall come up, and instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress tree, and instead of the briar shall come up the myrtle tree, and it shall be to the Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off." One man made this observation. He says, conquerors in the ancient world were accustomed to set up memorials that would preserve their names and tell of their conquests. They do the same thing today.
They have their legacies, and they write their books, and they open up their libraries, and they do all that sort of thing because they want their name to stand through the ages. Well, conquerors in the ancient world were the same way. They'd set up memorials that would preserve their names and tell of their conquests. The transformed earth would be a memorial of God's victory.
It's not going to be a tree here or a book there or a library. It's going to be a renewed earth. It's a new heavens and a new earth. It's a transformation that is the evidence of God's grace, power, glory, and majesty.
Forever a sign of the power of the living God, a transformed earth, a transformed community, a transformed humanity. by virtue of what we find concerning the servant of Yahweh in Isaiah 53.
Application
Well, I just want to end with one particular thought for believers. First of all, we need to be encouraged. Isaiah 55 is a treasure trove of encouraging things for the people of God. It is a blessed and a wonderful statement of what God does for us in the Gospel.
The graciousness of God in the Gospel. He not only calls us to come, He enables us to come. We see the provision of God in the Gospel. He gives us everything we need.
We need that refreshment, the water is satisfied. We need that gladdening, the wine satisfies. We need that nourishment, the milk satisfies. Every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. 1 Corinthians 1, 30 and 31, he has become unto us wisdom from God, that is, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, that as it is written, let him who glories, glory in the Lord.
God has conferred upon us everything that we need. And abundantly, even more. I mean, it's just beautiful. As well, the power of God in the gospel.
The reality of verses 10 and 11 in Isaiah 55 really ought to encourage each and every one of our hearts. We all have loved ones, we all have friends, we all have people that we hope will come to know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. We may have children or grandchildren or persons that are in our lives or that affect us or that we really care for, that we want them to come to know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Brethren, trust in the power of the Word of God.
Trust in the power behind that Word, namely God Himself. The God who sends the rain to cause the earth to grow is the God who sends His Word to bring sinners unto His Son. And it will not return unto him void. It always accomplishes the purpose for which he sent it.
And remember, while there is breath, there is hope. While there is breath in the lungs, there is hope for sinners. And one final thought. If you're a sinner tonight, listen to the prophet.
Why do you want to spend your money on that which does not satisfy? Why will you labor and pour into your efforts and do all those things that end in futility? God, in the gospel of His Son, offers a great abundance. Seek the Lord while He may be found.
Call upon Him while He is near. That is a terrifying statement this way. It assumes a time when God may not. be near." In this New Covenant setting, under New Covenant preaching, we can affirm and testify that what the prophet is saying is good right now. Seek the Lord while He may be found.
Call upon Him while He is near. But there is a day coming when He won't be near. There is a redemptively. He'll always be near, even in the punishment of sinners.
But in terms of redemption, in terms of forgiveness, in terms of receiving sinners, call upon Him while He is near. Do not tarry. Do not wait. Do not say, well, when I'm an older man or I'm an older woman, then I'll make my peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
You don't know that tomorrow's coming. Remember James, the apostle, little a says, you don't know what your life is. You're like a vapor. You're here for a time. and then you're gone.
Do not waste time. Do not reject him who calls in the gospel of his son. Well, let us pray.
Closing Prayer
Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for the abundance that you give us in the gospel, and I pray that you would encourage our hearts now as we rehearse our our thoughts with reference to these things, and as we transition now into the supper, as we consider the death of our Lord on our behalf, God, may it just draw from us praise and worship and adoration. May it draw from us greater love for the one who laid down his life on our behalf. And God, for any here that are not in Christ, we pray that you'd open their eyes, open their hearts, cause them to reflect upon the prophets interrogating question here, cause them to ask themselves the same things.
Why am I spending my life laboring for that which does not satisfy? May they come and may they taste and see that the Lord is in fact great and good and wonderful. And we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.
Well, you can turn in your Bibles to Matthew chapter 26.