Well, good morning, church. It's good to be with you all this morning.
Would you turn with me to Isaiah chapter 55? That's page 576 in the Pew Bible.
Today we come to the end of this great middle section of the book of Isaiah,
and it ends with an invitation. So let me read this for us. Isaiah chapter 55.
Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters, and he who has no money, come buy and eat.
Come buy wine and milk without money and without price.
Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy?
Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food.
Lord, incline your ear and come to me, hear that your soul may live.
And I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David.
Behold, I made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander for the peoples.
Behold, you shall call a nation that you do not know, and a nation that did not know you shall run to you.
Because of the Lord your God, and of 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 that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares 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 and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there but water the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth.
It shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
For you shall go out in joy, and be led forth in peace.
The mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing,
and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress, instead of the briar shall come up the myrtle,
and it shall make a name for the Lord, an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.
Let's pray together.
Father, we ask that as we come now to your word, having heard it in our ears,
we pray that by your spirit you would move in our hearts, and in our lives,
and in our words, and in our actions, to do the very work that you have set out to do,
to create a people for yourself, to bring you much praise.
So God, be with us in this moment.
Help us to receive what your spirit is saying to us.
For Jesus' sake.
Amen.
Well, maybe you've had the experience of going to your mailbox,
and finding in the midst of all the junk mail, and the coupons, and whatever,
one envelope that catches your attention.
It's kind of thicker than all the rest of them.
The envelope seems to be made of like really nice paper,
and the address is handwritten, and you open it up,
and it's an invitation.
Something wonderful has happened or is about to happen,
and this invitation says, we want you to come.
Come celebrate.
Come feast with us.
Maybe it's a graduation, or a birthday, or a wedding.
Whatever it is, something wonderful has happened,
a big life-changing event, and we want you to come and join in.
You know, if you step back,
that's really the message of the whole Bible.
Something has happened.
Something wonderful, something life-changing.
God, through His Son, has done something in history
that has changed history and can change your life, too, forever.
And now you and I are invited to come.
And Isaiah 55 is just that.
It's the invitation of the gospel, the good news.
Since chapter 40, Isaiah has been laying before us
and unraveling and unfolding all that God was going to do
to redeem His people, to liberate them from exile,
to bring them home.
And all of this came to its climax, you remember, in Isaiah 53,
with the suffering servant who would atone for His people's sins
once and for all.
And now, with all of that prepared,
with all of that completed,
the invitation goes forth.
You see, Christianity isn't like the junk mail
that you and I get.
You know, you pull out the flyer and it's like,
oh, look, I could save 20% the next time I go to Target.
Isn't that kind of nice?
Well, I don't really need anything at Target,
so, meh, and we just chuck it, right?
Now, maybe you're thinking, 20% at Target?
Why are you throwing that coupon away?
That's a pretty good coupon.
You've got to put that thing on the fridge.
Save it for next time.
But here's the point.
Christianity is not a nice little offer
that might make our nice little lives a little bit nicer.
Christianity is a summons.
It's an invitation to which you and I must respond.
And if you have not explicitly and consciously responded
to that invitation, then you're not a Christian.
But what we're invited to,
what this God calls us to is so great
that we can't just pass it by like a piece of junk mail.
We have to consider.
We have to respond.
So, let's look at this invitation together, then.
First, in verses 1 through 5 of our chapter,
God calls you and I to come.
In the first five verses, we hear the invitation.
But notice that this isn't a summons
to a court hearing that God is making.
It's not calling us to jury duty, you know,
or any kind of invitation like that.
It's a summons to a feast.
Are you thirsty?
Isaiah says.
Come and drink.
Are you hungry?
Come and dine.
And it's not the cheap stuff that's being laid out.
It's wine.
It's milk.
It's rich food that brings deep delight.
But there's also something curious about this invitation, isn't there?
We're called to come and buy this wine and milk
without money and without price.
It is something that must be purchased.
It must be bought.
But the price won't be paid by us.
It'll be paid by another.
This is an essential part, you know,
the nature of the gospel invitation.
It comes free to us, but it's costly to another.
We come and buy this wine and milk without money and without price.
And then Isaiah asks us this question.
You know, think of all that you're spending yourself on.
Does it really satisfy?
As you spend your money, as you spend your labor,
as you spend your life on earthly pursuits apart from God,
yes, maybe they're good and they're proper place,
but is that bread really feeding your soul?
Is that water really quenching your thirst?
Jesus, in the midst of his wilderness temptation, said,
man cannot live on bread alone, quoting the book of Deuteronomy.
The human heart was made for more.
We were made for God.
And the great tragedy of human existence
is that we would spend our lives on something that does not satisfy
rather than come and get the wine and milk
that God offers us free of charge,
without money and without price,
because it's been purchased by him in our place, by his son.
Of course, this sort of invitation is humbling, isn't it?
To admit that everything our labors can afford
is nothing but bread that can't satisfy.
That's kind of humbling.
To admit that the only way to get the wine and the milk,
the real things our hearts long for,
is to accept it as a gift from God
that we cannot earn and cannot buy.
You know, maybe that's the hardest part,
to admit that we need someone else to pay our way.
But while the gospel invitation may humble us,
it doesn't humiliate us.
Because what God offers us in verses 3 through 5
is the very opposite of humiliation.
What is this feast that God is inviting us to?
What is it?
Well, in verses 3 through 5,
we see that it's the ancient promise of glory.
This invitation is to glory.
Listen again to verses 3 through 5.
Here it is.
Glorified you.
Now, in our ears,
these verses may sound a bit confusing, right?
But to an ancient Israelite,
what was being laid out here in these verses
was what it was all about.
You see,
if you go all the way back to the beginning
of the biblical story,
when Adam fell in the garden,
all creation went down into the curse with him.
And that kingdom that God had established in creation
with Adam at the head
seemed in the moment of the fall to be lost.
Now, instead of life and flourishing,
all was sin and judgment and death.
But God in that moment made a promise.
He made a binding promise.
He made a covenant.
And this promise began in the garden
and was carried on through Noah and Moses.
And eventually,
God reiterated this promise to David.
And he reiterated it in a fresh way.
God promised that God's kingdom
would be established forever
through David and David's line.
That there would be a king from David's line
who would sit on the throne forever,
a new Adam.
And that king would establish God's kingdom
and he would restore God's people
and he would even heal creation.
But it wouldn't just stop with the people of Israel.
Like a river kind of overflowing its banks
when the rains come,
this promise,
this covenant of an everlasting kingdom
would overflow out to all the nations of the earth.
And they too would come
and they would enter the covenant people.
They would come into the kingdom
and at last,
they would know God.
In other words,
God promised his people
that he would glorify them.
that they would be restored back
to what he had created them to be.
That he would raise them up from the ashes
out of death and shame.
That he would restore their fortunes,
renew their joy,
and make them that light to the nations.
And we know from the perspective
of the New Testament
that this covenant with David was fulfilled
when at last the eternal king
did come from David's line.
The Lord Jesus,
who in his resurrection
now lives forever,
never to see decay.
That's what our first reading
in our service was all about.
It was the apostle saying,
that king you've been waiting for,
the one who is going to reign forever,
he's here.
The Lord Jesus,
how do you know?
Because he's been raised
and he's never going to die.
So you see,
responding to the invitation of God's gospel,
you know,
it's not like taking up some new hobby
that might provide a few hours
of interesting distraction.
You know,
I've got an Xbox for Saturday
and I've got a church for Sunday
and then I've got to grind through
five weeks
until I can get back to my Xbox
and then back to church.
That's not what the invitation is.
Ultimately,
God's inviting you
to be restored
to the ancient glory
that he intended humanity
to have all along in creation.
To be participants of his kingdom.
To be the image bearers
we were meant to be.
To be a human person
fully alive.
That's what verse three means.
Incline your ear
and come to me here
that your soul may live.
You know,
in the Old Testament,
you know,
your soul isn't just sort of like
the immaterial part of you.
It's the true you.
Your very self,
your very being.
The invitation of the gospel
God summons to come
is the summons to enter his kingdom
under the lordship of King Jesus
and no life
and no glory.
But what exactly does it look like
to respond to this invitation?
How do we do it?
Well,
in verses one through five
as we just saw,
God calls you and I to come.
But in verses six and seven,
God shows us how to come.
If verses one through five
are the invitation to come,
then verses six and seven
are the explanation
of how to come.
So let me read
verses six and seven again.
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
that he may have compassion on him
and to our God
for he will abundantly pardon.
Now notice the two sides
of responding
to God's invitation.
On the one side,
we're told to seek the Lord,
to call upon him.
And this action of turning to God,
seeking him,
calling upon him,
placing our trust in him,
coming under his lordship,
this is what the Bible calls faith.
But there's another side here.
There's not just turning to God,
but there's also turning away
from our old life.
Verse seven says,
let the wicked forsake his way
and the unrighteous man
his thoughts.
This is what the Bible
often calls repentance,
turning away from
our old life without God
and admitting that our path
apart from God
leads to dissolution
and foolishness
and destruction.
Repentance is turning away
from that path,
leaving that path,
to place our whole life
in God's hands.
So here's the beauty
of the invitation
of the gospel.
We come to the Lord
as we are,
but not to stay
as we are.
The Lord accepts
everyone who comes to him,
but coming to him
entails leaving our old life
behind for a new one.
And if we do that,
if we turn
and seek the Lord,
what do we find?
If we forsake our old ways
and call upon the Lord Jesus,
how will God respond?
Does he kind of put us
on a probationary period
to see if it might work out,
you know?
Is it like you're a new hire,
you know,
given 30 days
to see if you're a good fit
with the corporation?
Does he put you
in the middle of tryouts
to see if you're spiritually
fit enough
to make the team?
Is that how God's invitation works?
No.
For every sinner
who repents
and calls upon the Lord,
who receives
this invitation of life,
there's no probationary period.
There's no trial run.
There's no tryouts.
Everyone who returns
to the Lord
receives what?
Abundant pardon,
verse 7 says.
He will abundantly pardon.
Pardon.
Not begrudgingly pardon.
Not basically pardon.
Not probably pardon.
But abundantly pardon.
Pardon upon pardon.
Do you hear those words,
Christian?
Brothers, sisters?
Perhaps this week
you've fallen short.
Perhaps this week
you've seen that there's still
much remaining sin
in your life.
If that's you,
then treasure this word
abundantly.
You know,
this is the natural progression
of the Christian life.
The deeper we grow in Christ,
the more we begin to see
of God's holiness.
How beautiful,
how awesome,
how good
and great God is.
How loving
and wonderful God is.
And the more we also see
of our own sinfulness.
How deep the idols
of our heart are lodged.
How besetting
our habitual sins really are.
But for the Christian,
this doesn't lead to despair
seeing these two things
in increasing measure.
Because as our understanding
of God's holiness
gets bigger and bigger,
and as our understanding
of our own sin
gets deeper and deeper,
you see,
our knowledge of the cross
gets greater and greater.
for this is a God
who abundantly pardons.
And as the wonder
of the cross grows,
as the wonder
of His abundant pardon
captures our hearts,
that's the engine
for real change
in our lives.
The love of God
forgiving all my sins,
restoring me to glory,
giving me a place
in His eternal kingdom,
inviting me,
a sinner,
to join His mission
in the world,
to proclaim the gospel
of peace
to the whole creation,
and to do the good works
He prepared in advance
for me to do.
To let a life
of mercy and justice
be like a mustard seed,
seemingly small,
seemingly insignificant,
but with that,
to grow into a tree
with the birds of the air
resting in its branches.
all of this,
fueled by the wonder
of the cross,
and God's abundant pardon
to sinners,
to you and me.
But can we be sure about it?
Will God really pardon?
Will God really give us
a place in His ancient
promise of glory?
Will God really make good
on His invitation?
Well, if in verses 1-5
God calls us to come,
and in verses 6-7
God shows us how to come,
in verses 8-13
and the rest of our passage,
God gives us assurance
to come.
Isaiah 55 moves
from invitation
to explanation,
finally to assurance.
And there are actually
three assurances here,
three pairs of verses,
each starting with the word
for.
How do we know
God will abundantly pardon
and make good
on His invitation?
Well, first,
because God's ways
are not your ways.
Look again at verses 8-9.
For my thoughts
are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways
my ways,
declares 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.
Here's the good news, friend.
God
isn't
like us.
We humans
rarely pardon,
let alone
abundantly pardon.
But God
isn't like us.
Do you remember
what the Apostle Paul
wrote in Romans 5?
He says,
scarcely
will someone die
for a righteous person.
Maybe for a good person
someone would dare
to die.
But God
shows His love
for us
in that while
we were still sinners,
Christ died for us.
God's thoughts
are not our thoughts
and God's ways
are not our ways.
We want to turn away
when others wrong us,
but God turns towards us.
We want other people
to pay when they offend us,
but God pays
what we owe
when we've offended Him.
And God isn't just
a little different
or slightly different.
God is massively,
majestically different.
Like the sky
and clouds
and stars
are higher than the earth,
billions of miles away,
that's how much higher
God's ways are
than our ways.
And that means
God will abundantly pardon
all who come
trusting in His Son.
But it's not just
that God's ways
are higher than ours.
In verses 10-11
we see that God's word
is more productive
and more effective
than ours.
Look again
at verse 10-11.
For as the rain
and the snow
come down from heaven
and do not return there
but water the earth,
making it bring forth
and sprout,
giving seed to the sower
and bread to the eater,
so shall my word be
that goes out
from my mouth.
It shall not return
to me empty,
but it shall accomplish
that which I purpose
and shall succeed
in the thing
for which I sent it.
God's word
always accomplishes
what God desires.
It never comes back empty.
Like rain that comes down
and produces grain
and grain that becomes bread
and bread that feeds
the hungry.
God's word is productive
and effective
always without fail.
If God says it,
He'll do it.
In Genesis 1,
God's word brought forth
the heavens and the earth
in creation.
And Hebrews 1 says
that God's word
upholds the universe
and keeps it in existence.
And that powerful,
effective word
in creation
and preservation
is the same
powerful,
effective word
that God speaks
in redemption.
How do you know
God will do what He says?
Because this very word
became flesh for us
and for our salvation.
God spoke
and things came into being.
And when God spoke
a word of redemption,
what did He do?
He became flesh for us.
The Son,
the word of God
became incarnate
in the person of Jesus
and we beheld His glory.
And on the cross,
the incarnate crucified word
cried out,
it's finished.
Sins are paid.
Death has died.
The enemy's been defeated.
And that same word
is now heralded
in the preaching
of the gospel.
The invitation goes forth
from the empty tomb
of the risen Lord
down through the preaching
of the apostles
and now being proclaimed
by the church
in every age,
the invitation goes forth.
And this word,
because it's God's word,
God's gospel,
it cannot fail.
If God says He will pardon,
then surely He will
abundantly pardon.
But it's not just God's ways
or God's word
that assures us
that God will make good
on His invitation.
There's also God's name.
Look again at verses 12-13.
For you shall go out in joy
and be led forth in peace.
The mountains and the hills
before you shall break forth
into singing
and all the trees of the field
shall clap their hands.
Instead of the thorn
shall come up the cypress.
Instead of the briar
shall come up the myrtle
and it shall make a name
for the Lord.
An everlasting sign
that shall not be cut off.
These verses show us
the kind of radical transformation
that God's word brings.
This invitation of abundant pardon,
of God's glory and kingdom
through the crucified
and risen Jesus,
it brings about what?
It brings about a new creation.
Once there were tangled thorns
and briars,
now there's a forest
of cypress trees
and myrtle trees.
This beautiful forest
where once there were
thorns and briars.
And is this not a picture
of the redeemed people of God
brought from death to life
through the glorious gospel
of God's Son?
But the assurance
that God will do it
is found at the very end.
How do we know
God will make good
on His invitation?
How do we know
that God will abundantly pardon
and transform us like this?
Because this is going
to be the sign.
The transformation
of the effective word
is going to be the sign,
the everlasting sign
of God's great name.
When the new creation erupts,
when God's people
are forgiven and transformed,
and ultimately,
in the new heavens
and new earth,
when all of creation
is released from its bondage
to decay,
and the mountains
and the hills
break forth into singing,
and the trees of the field
clap their hands,
all of that is going
to be a testimony
proclaiming the greatness
of God.
It shall make a name
for the Lord.
You see, friends,
this is how God
has chosen and ordained
to display His glory,
to display His name,
His nature,
who He is.
This is how God
has chosen to display
that for all eternity
through the redemption
of His people,
redeeming them
from sorrow
and the enmity of sin
into joy
and peace
of abundant pardon.
And through their redemption,
God will sweep up creation
in freedom
from sin's decay.
You see,
God didn't just want
to reveal His glory
as a God who creates.
God chose to reveal
His glory also
as a God who redeems.
And if this is how
God has chosen
to reveal His great name
for all eternity,
then surely it must be so.
If God is choosing
to raise us to new life
so that in the coming ages
He might show
the immeasurable riches
of His grace,
as Paul says in Ephesians 2,
then we can have
all the assurance
in the world
that He will do so.
Why?
Because God has staked
His own name
and His own reputation
on it.
The masterpiece
that God will hold up
showing how awesome
and how much
of a God He is
so that His glory
and wisdom
and beauty
might shine forth
for all eternity
are His redeemed people
united to the Redeemer,
our Lord Jesus.
He signed His name
on the canvas
and He will surely
complete every stroke
of that masterpiece
to perfection.
And that means
everyone who responds
to this invitation,
everyone who comes,
leaving their old life,
calling upon the Lord Jesus,
will be saved.
So you've gone
through your mail.
You've opened
the invitation.
Here it is.
While there's still time,
God says through Isaiah,
respond.
Come.
Come to the waters.
Come buy and eat
without money
and without price.
Don't wait.
Come.
Call upon the Lord Jesus
and you will be saved.
And brothers and sisters,
those who have already
called upon the name
of the Lord,
remember what we've been
invited into,
a feast,
a joy.
So celebrate today.
Rejoice and be glad.
Yours is a glory
that will not fail.
Let your neighbors
and your coworkers
and your family
see your joy.
You've been invited
to the feast.
The new creation's begun.
Let them see your joy
and let them know
that they're invited too.
Let's pray together.
Father in heaven,
we pray that as we've
heard and considered
this invitation this morning,
that your spirit
would work in our hearts
to bring them
from death to life
to respond to this call
to turn and trust in you.
God, for those who are
wrestling with this call,
I pray
that you would come to them,
liberate them
from their fears
and their doubts,
and grant them the faith
to trust in you.
And God, for those who
by your mercy
have responded
to this invitation,
for those whom you've
brought into your church
through this wonderful
invitation to come,
I pray, Lord,
that we would have
the joy
that is spoken of here.
and the peace
and the glory.
God, we know
it's imperfect now,
but we see it.
We see the signs
of your kingdom
breaking out in our midst.
We see thorns
that have been turned
into beautiful trees,
so we pray for more of it, God,
and we pray
for a great confidence
in you
and a joy in you
that is befitting
of our Lord Jesus,
the great King of joy
who has purchased for us
such a great
and unshakable salvation.
In his name we pray.
Amen.