First Baptist Church of El Dorado - Sermons

For Unto Us: Isaiah 53 And The Gospel’s Open Door

• FBC El Dorado • Season 2025

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We trace Isaiah’s breathtaking prophecy from the suffering servant to a Savior who justifies, reigns, and invites us home without price. Personal sin meets personal grace, and the open door of Isaiah 55 calls us to come, receive, and rest.

• the humiliation of Christ in Isaiah 53
• the personal nature of sin and forgiveness
• the great exchange of justification by Christ
• the exaltation of Jesus and his reign
• the open invitation of Isaiah 55 to come and live
• God’s ways higher in mercy, not payment
• a homecoming theme from prodigal son to today

Listen, share this message with someone who needs a fresh start, and subscribe so you never miss these gospel-rich explorations. If this spoke to you, leave a review and tell us: what part of Isaiah’s promise do you need most today?

SPEAKER_00:

Hello and welcome to the FBC El Doredo Sermon Podcast. My name is Taylor Gare, and I have the privilege of being the pastor here at First Baptist, and I want to thank you for listening into our sermon this week. And I want to tell you this if you're in our area and you don't have a church home, we would love to see you any Sunday morning at First Baptist El Doredo. Would you join me now in listening to our sermon from this week? Church family, if you'll open with me now to Isaiah chapter 53. Isaiah chapter 53. Isaiah 53. And now I'm going to read verses 1 through 12. Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant and like a root out of dry ground. He had no form or majesty that we should look at him, no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And as one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned, every one to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth, like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like sheep before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. By oppress by oppression and judgment he was taken away. And as for this generation, who considered that he was cut off of the land of the living, stricken for the transgressions of my people? And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him. He was he has put him to grief. When his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring, he shall prolong his days, the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied. By his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be counted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death, and he was numbered with the transgressors, yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors. Let me pray for us. Lord Jesus, we do thank you for your gospel. Thank you that you are our Savior, the one we had waited on, who came and suffered for our sake. And Lord, let us see that so clearly this morning. We ask this in Christ's name. Amen. We're not very good at predicting the future. We're just not good at it. Uh collectively. We we dropped the ball a good bit. Uh uh we were at a church in Birmingham when uh I was in seminary, we were living in Birmingham. The church we were at, this was back in 2014, 2015, they had a great idea uh uh of what they called uh creating their uh 2020 vision, their vision for 2020, and a clever name, all that, but their idea was where do we want to be as a church when we get to 2020? And so the church came together and uh you know thought about very theological things. We thought about the the building and maintenance needed. I mean, there's just a lot that was at play. When we get to 2020, where do we want to be as a church? And yet, during all those meetings, no one spoke up in that moment and said, by the year 2020, let's just make sure we've got toilet paper and Clorox wipes. Not a soul said that. And it turns out that's exactly what we needed all year long. Uh if you read old books or old movies when they were predicting the future, it feels like all they do is get it wrong. They imagine a future that is kind of metallic and chrome. I mean, that's just kind of what the world looks like. In fact, I've got a picture now of the Jetsons. If you could put that, uh the Jetsons, I don't know if you know this, but is set in the year 2062. And so what that tells me is we've only got about 35 years to get there. And uh, I don't think, I know there's people trying to get us into space, but I just don't think we're gonna arrive there. We're just not very good at predicting the future sometimes, and yet there is this moment in Scripture when Isaiah, obviously empowered by the Holy Spirit, uh, looks into the future, is given a vision of the future, and he's spot on. This written, Isaiah 53, 700 years before the birth of any baby boy in Bethlehem, before any Savior is led to the cross or suffers in any kind of way, 700 years before this is written, and this might as well be an eyewitness account from the cross. Somehow, through the Holy Spirit, Isaiah gets it exactly right. And I want to use Isaiah 53 to really just see a few things this morning. And the first is this the humiliation of Christ. The humiliation of Christ. Now, first of all, that word humiliation is used often, but often when we think of humiliation or being humiliated, we probably just think of like an embarrassing moment. Oh, wasn't I humiliated when that thing happened? But but in this sense, a much, a much deeper form, an absolute humbling. The absolute humiliation, the lowering and the humbling of the person in Christ, of Christ, for the sake of humanity. Look with me at verse one as Isaiah is looking 700 years into the future and says this, really, we've got this account from these witnesses. Who has believed what he's heard from us? To whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? Okay, well, what are these witnesses speaking to? What is it they should have believed? Verse 2, he grew up before him like a young plant, like a root out of dry ground. He had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. So, first of all, Isaiah is looking towards this servant. What we will see as a suffering servant that is coming, and he begins to describe this one. First of all, he grew up like a young plant, like a root out of dry ground. That sounds a lot like you could call it what we talked about last week, with this shoot that comes forward from the stump of Jesse. And yet he continues no form or majesty that we should look at him. No beauty in this servant that we should desire him. What is Isaiah getting at is this servant who's coming, he's not necessarily going to look the part as the world would define looking the part. If you're looking for a conquering king that comes to earth looking like a conquering king, you're not probably gonna find it in this servant that's coming. Instead, he didn't have any beauty that we should behold him. He he he looked uh extremely, I don't, I don't know, just like any other person. And yet within this person is the one we've been waiting for. Throughout Isaiah, throughout the gospels, throughout God's word, what we see is God's kingdom being a very upside-down kingdom and and coming in unexpected ways. Again, the the shoot from the stump of Jesse last week. Again, we see a baby born in a manger, we see a king coming forward, not with a lot of fanfare, but we see the truth of chapter 53, verse 2. We continue, verse 3. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. Look at this, as one from whom men hide their faces. He was despised, and we esteemed him not. And so this servant that is coming. What does Isaiah say about him? That men and women will reject him. They will esteem him stricken. In fact, when this man walks through town, men will hide their faces from him as one despised. So this coming servant will be a rejected servant. And certainly, as we look through the gospels, we certainly see as we look at the life of Jesus, many who did not reject him. We could say this: what do you mean everyone would reject him? We knew he had twelve disciples that followed him, and there were many other believers throughout the gospels and beyond that certainly saw him as Savior, and certainly there's no doubt about it. But all you have to do is even look at the disciples themselves and see they didn't get it right all the time. In fact, one disciple ultimately rejected him, others uh betrayed him in the last moments of his life. We we see this rejection that is happening, and the many in the crowds that were willing and ready to put Jesus on the cross, that when this servant comes, there was this rejection. And so my question is: what will this servant do in the midst of that rejection? As he is the rejected one and the despised one, what is he going to do next? Verse 4 tells us, surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Now think about that. In the midst of the rejection, the rejected one, the outcast, the despised, what does he do in the midst of that? Even for the very ones who would reject him, he would take their griefs and their sorrows upon himself. It continues, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. Verse 5. And don't miss this. But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. I want to stop there for a second. Pierced for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities. I want to ask this question this morning. I want you to think about it. Do you know that your sins are forgiven? Do you know that for you? And now notice what I didn't ask. Do you know that Christ forgives sins? I didn't ask that question. And by the way, the answer is yes to that. That's a beautiful question that has a more beautiful answer. Yes, Christ forgives sins, the sins of the world. Of course he does. But but what I want to ask is not that question. I want to ask this do you know that your sins are forgiven? Has something happened within you that you understand the personal nature of that? Now, to understand that question, to be able to answer that question, first of all, there's a prerequisite involved, and that's this that you know that you have sin, that you have sinned, that you are a sinner. I think so many people miss out on the gospel because they're unwilling to come to terms with the fact that they need the gospel, that they are a sinner that needs saved. It's as if you know, a doctor comes up to me this morning and says, you know, Taylor, and you know, we've I've looked at the x-rays, the MRIs, the CAT scans, the this, that, and the other, and I gotta tell you that there's something wrong, and we've got to operate immediately, and your life depends on it. And I look back and say, you must have the wrong guy, because I feel great. I feel just fine. You don't need to operate on me. There's there's nothing wrong. I'm I'm preaching a sermon right now. How could I do that if if you say the x-rays were this, that, and the other? And the doctor says, I promise you, inside there is something that is a life or death situation, and I stand here and say, couldn't be me. And yet, so many of us sick with sin, worse than that, dead in sin, trick ourselves into believing couldn't be me, that I'm just fine, or or you know, I'm not perfect, but surely I'm I'm better than this group or that group. Surely I'm doing okay. Surely I've done a little more good than I've done bad in my life. Someone was ringing the bell outside the grocery store and I dropped a coin or two in yesterday when I left. Surely I'm doing okay. And we trick ourselves into believing that we're all right. I just want to ask this question: Do you know that that your sins are forgiven? Because the the gospel doesn't mean much until it means much personally, until you understand it for your life. And I'm not just uh saying this for those who have not followed Christ yet. I'm saying for believers in the room, I know that you know that your sins are forgiven. And obviously that's how you come into that relationship, but but are you reminding yourself of that daily? That when you wake up in the morning, you wake up as someone that in Christ has been forgiven. That has it become so personal to you in 1633. Rembrandt painted a picture that I think is stunningly beautiful. Uh it's my favorite, right behind the return of the prodigal son. Can't touch that one, but this is right behind. And Rembrandt painted this picture, the rising of the cross. And can we put this picture up on the screen here? Uh the the rising of the cross. Here it is. And it's just this stunning picture of, I mean, it's pretty self-explanatory. You kind of said it in the title. That this picture of Jesus being lifted up to obviously die for sins. And yet, right in the midst of this picture, there's something that just feels out of place. I want to zoom in on what seems out of place. We show this next picture that's just a little zoomed in. So we got this guy. He's dressed in his blues, he's got a hat on, and something tells me that at the cross of Jesus Christ, that that there weren't 17th-century blues and a 17th-century hat on, on anybody, especially the guy raising Jesus up. I mean, Rembrandt's too good to make this kind of mistake. This is chronologically, historically, so out of place. It would be if if you you saw the beautiful picture of Washington crossing the Delaware and all of a sudden in the boat, there's a guy in a North Face jacket on. It's like, this is not historically accurate. And yet this exists because this person right here in the middle helping lift Christ up on the cross is none other than, you probably guessed it by now, it's Rembrandt. He painted himself into the picture. And why did he do it? Because he knew well what you and I need to know well, that sin is a very personal thing. That it was my sin, that it was your sin, that it was Rembrandt's sin that put Christ Jesus on the cross. And until we realize that Christ didn't just die for sin, praise God he did, but he died for my sin, he died for your sin. Until we realize that, we haven't realized much. This is what Athanasius of Alexander says in the 300s, this amazing leader in the early church in the 300s and on the incarnation. Oh, it's a good one. But he says this it was for our sorry case that caused the word to come down. Now, Athanasius, this church leader in the 300s, he can say things like that. You know, if I came to church one Sunday morning and told you, you know, it was for your sorry case that Christ came down, it doesn't sound as kind. It was for our sorry case that caused the word to come down, our transgression that called out his love for us, so that he made haste to help us and to appear among us. It was we who were the cause of his taking human form, and for our salvation that in his great love he is both born and manifested in human body. Do you understand this morning that it was for your sin that Christ came? That it was your sin that was placed upon the cross. As we talk about the humiliation of Christ, the humbling of Christ, his willingness to come down and come down for us, this happened because of your sin. And I mean that, let's be clear quite literally, so that when Christ went to the cross, it was your debt that he was paying. And I'm not talking about the debt of the person sitting next to you. Technically, I am, but but I'm talking about your debt. I'm talking about what you owed, your sin. That sin that you committed yesterday and a decade ago, that sin you're gonna commit five days from now. Watch out for that one. But it was placed on the cross of Christ for your sin. There is a very personal nature of with this suffering servant for our salvation. But verse uh five continues, he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We've turned every one to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. And so this Savior who Isaiah is showing us that is coming, that we know as we sit here today, has come in the person of Christ Jesus. This will be the suffering Savior. This will be the suffering savior who takes sin upon himself. This will be the suffering savior who committed no wrong, yet all the wrongs of even those who would uh in his own time reject him, they were placed upon him so that they might be forgiven. This is the humiliation of Christ. But next I want to see this the justification of Christ. Look with me down in verse 10. Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him. He was he has put him to grief. When his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see. His offspring, he shall prolong his days, the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. And look at this, verse 11. Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied. Don't miss this. By his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, for he shall bear their iniquities. And so why does this suffering servant do it? Why does this suffering servant who's done no wrong, who certainly doesn't deserve to suffer, who certainly hasn't earned any suffering, why does he come to this place of suffering, taking the iniquities of every sinner who's ever lived upon himself? Why does he do this? He does it exactly for what verse 11 says, so that he might justify the sinner, so that he might provide justification. We've spent all year walking through the book of Romans. Romans is kind of one giant letter talking about justification, that you and I might be made right before God. Justification, often defined as just as if I had never sinned, I'd take it further, just as if I had done all the sinning, and yet Christ has made me right with him, clothed in his righteousness. And don't miss that, that if you are justified by the finished work of Christ, then you are clothed in the righteousness of Christ, and in the heavenly places you are sealed and you are clothed in righteousness, and you are clean before him, and your standing is righteous. Not just righteous, but truly the righteousness of Christ. Why did this suffering servant come to suffer for unworthy sinners? It's so that he might give them their righteousness. So that as verse 11 tells us that he might make many righteous. There is an exchange that takes place in the gospel. And the exchange is this that Christ takes all my sin and I take his righteousness. Now, nothing about that sounds fair, does it? That does not sound like a fair deal. I I remember being in elementary school and making deals around the cafeteria table. Uh, because I had a fruit roll-up, and you had that cinnamon roll that came on the tray that, you know, one or two days a month. And if you remember that one, you know what I'm talking about. That we would try to make a trade. We would try to make a deal. And I pride myself on just how good I was around that table at making good deals. But but this is not a deal I would I would even offer. Because I knew this was out of the question. This doesn't even, the other party wouldn't even come to the table to even consider a deal like this. You take the sin, I take the righteousness, and yet, in the person of Christ, this is exactly what he has offered for you and for me. The righteousness of Christ. If you don't believe me, 2 Corinthians 5.21, he became sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. This is the sweet exchange that is happening in the gospel of Jesus Christ. And so it was the humiliation of Christ that led to the justification of Christ for sinners. And now we see this the exaltation of Christ. Look with me at the very end of chapter 52, verses 13 through 15. You say, Pastor, now wait a second, you're going backwards to make a point that you're trying to go forward with. Well, I am doing that, but there's a good reason. Isaiah 52, 13 through 15 is really the summary statement of which Isaiah 53 gives evidence for. And so these verses are really the overarching summary of what we read in Isaiah 53. And they say this: Behold, my servant shall act wisely. He shall be high and lifted up and shall be exalted. And so this is the picture of the suffering. Really, the suffering servant. This is the end result. He will be high and lifted up and will be exalted. And now the rest of Isaiah 53 is going to tell us how we get there. And it's a strange way, we wouldn't have anticipated to get there. We get there through suffering. Verse 14, as many were astonished at you, his appearance was so marred beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind, so shall he sprinkle many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths because of him. For that which has not been told, then they will see, and that which they have not heard, they understand. So there is this exalted Savior, and here's the direction of it, Isaiah 53. He will be humiliated for the sake of sin. He will bring justification to those who would call upon him and receive his salvation, and he will be exalted. So I want to be clear about something. Christ came as the suffering servant, and he is forever and for always this suffering servant, ready and willing to come for us. And yet he is now exalted to the name above all names in the heavenly places. This is the exact trajectory that Paul is making in Philippians chapter 2. Look with me as he describes Christ. He says, look at Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but he emptied himself. There's that humiliation by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross, and here it is. Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, every tongue confessed that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Christ has come in humiliation, Christ has brought justification, but now there is this exaltation. That Christ is now ascended into the heavenly places where he now rules and reigns. And there will come a day, and we talked about it last week in Isaiah chapter 11. There will come a day where Christ comes to the new heavens and new earths, and every knee shall bow before him. In the words of Isaiah 52, 15, kings shall shut their mouths before him. The exalted Christ will rule and reign forevermore. This is the trajectory of the suffering servant. Once again, humiliation that brought justification. There is now this exaltation, but I gotta end with this. The invitation of Christ. Flip two pages with me to Isaiah 55. Now that we've seen what this Savior has done, what does the Savior offer? What is our next step? Knowing what we know about the Savior, what is our next step? This is where we see the invitation of Christ. This servant who Isaiah is speaking of 700 years before he even came gives the invitation that this servant provides. And I just want you to hear these words. And if you've never read Isaiah 55, you're just in for a treat. There's just I don't know if there's many words better than these. Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters. 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. 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 of 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 uh 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. Do you wonder why? And I said in week one of the series that many people call Isaiah the fifth gospel. I hope by now you don't miss that. I hope by now you can see clearly why Isaiah really may be the fifth gospel. Written 700 years before Christ came, and yet this beautiful invitation that might as well be in Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John, or maybe just all of the above, come, everyone who thirsts, come to the water. If you don't have money, just come anyway. Buy and eat, come by wine and milk without money and without cost. What does the suffering servant come to give through his humiliation and justification that led to his exaltation? He comes to give this invitation that for any who would hear the words and respond to the act of this suffering servant, respond to what he has done for you and for your sin, you can come and receive this. And if you think it's the kind of thing that you need to come with your money, or you need to come with your effort or with your good works, if you think it's that kind of arrangement, you've got it all wrong. There's nothing to be bought here. We don't collect money here in Isaiah 55 with this invitation. You don't owe us anything. You just come and receive what the Savior has offered. You come and you come and welcome, you receive the welcome of Christ, and you receive the homecoming that he offers. We love that idea of coming home. That welcome that exists. Certainly this time of year. We love that idea of homecoming. I'm sure many of you are traveling to different homes over the next few weeks. Maybe you've already traveled a little bit. In 1943, Bean Crosby released I'll Be Home for Christmas. The timing on that song is fascinating. In 1943, right in the heart of World War II, did you know that at that time that song was somewhat of a great morale booster, encourager for troops that were overseas that very much wouldn't be home for Christmas, yet if only in their dreams they could remember what being home for Christmas is like. You may think of now what that homecoming, that welcome is like. Maybe it's a welcome in years past that maybe because of loss, you know that welcome doesn't exist anymore. Going to mother or grandmother's house and the ham coming out on the of the oven, we're you know, hanging stockings, this, that, or the other. You know what it is to just feel that welcome and feel at home. In Isaiah 55, the there's just the same kind of invitation to just come home. It's the same kind of invitation that exists in Luke chapter 15. And you know, just about every sermon I bring it up. And sometimes I think, do I need to not bring up Luke chapter 15 today? And then I remembered this. It's my last time to preach in 2025. You know, we've got the living nativity next week. I'm traveling the next week, and I say, if I don't bring up Luke 15 today, it won't come up till 2026. We can't do that. And in Luke 15, there's this prodigal son that runs far from home. He wants nothing to do with the father's home, the father's welcome, the father's safety, and he goes far from home and he finds himself in the mud with the pigs, and all he can think about is this welcome and this homecoming, and he wonders, have I completely wasted it? Is this homecoming even possible for me? Is it possible? And he comes up with the the the fact that quite honestly, no, the homecoming is not possible for me. I don't mean I can't go home, but uh, but but I can go, but but it won't be as a son. I'll go home as a servant. What I'll do is I'll I'll work my way, I'll live with the servants, I'll work hard to pay off my debts. Someday I'll pay my dad back, and I'll just spend the rest of my days just on the outskirts of my father's house, but with the servants, but surely that's better than spending my days with uh the pigs. How about that? I don't know what that sound was. Do I need a do I need to get a Lord saying, hey, maybe back off of Luke 15. Maybe, maybe I really do bring it up too much. But I can't help think of this young man far from home, and he just has this picture of homecoming, not like he thought it could be, but he could come home as a servant. And you know the story. When he comes home and there's a father that just runs to him and welcomes him home. And he even makes the speech I'll come home as a servant. Father, if I could just work my way back to you, and the father will just have nothing of it. And in other words, he basically says this come, everyone who thirsts, you just come to the water. If you don't have money, you're at the right place. Come buy wine and milk without money and without cost. But there is a welcome for everyone, because there is a father that stands ready to welcome. I want to see one more verse before we run today, and it's verse eight of Isaiah 55. I stopped just short of it, and it says this. After this grand invitation, we see this for my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. Verse 9, for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. These verses are beautiful verses. God, your ways are higher than my ways. But normally, when we hear that verse, we think of it in terms of, you know, maybe something very hard in life has happened, and and we've used this verse to just try and trust that that God knows better than we do, and his ways are higher than mine. And I'm not I'm not saying that's not a uh a part of that verse, it is. I'm not saying that that can't be just some piece of encouragement during that time. But I do want to give us an even fuller context that what do those verses come right after in Isaiah 55, right after this joyful invitation, that there's nothing you can do, there's nothing you can earn, there's no merit that you can have that can earn this. And and and what how what do we do with that? We've got to realize that God's ways are just different from our ways. So, what is Isaiah getting at in this moment? That every part of you is going to look at that kind of invitation, and you know how the world works, and you know how your mind works, left to your own devices, and you're just gonna say, that can't be true of me. You're just gonna be tempted to say there's gotta be some kind of catch. Surely that that the God and Father of all knows better and knows my wicked heart enough to know you can't just let me in. And in that moment, you've got to tear down that that picture that you've made of God that is less than the loving God that we have. You've got to realize that God's ways are different than our ways, and if God wants to give an invitation that is open to all, that can't be earned, he can do it. Dane Ortland, in his book, Gentle and Lowly, has a quote just about these exact verses, and it says this what is God saying? He is telling us that we cannot view his expressions of his mercy with our old eyes. Our very view of God must change. What we would say, what would we say to the seven-year-old who, upon being given a birthday gift by his loving father, immediately scrambled to reach for his piggy bank to try and pay his dad back. How painful to a father's heart. That child needs to change his very view of who his father is and what his father delights to do. Let me tell you, God's ways are higher than your ways. God's ways are different than your ways. How? Because he's so much more merciful than you'd ever dare imagine. By the way, you're so much more sinful than you ever thought possible. And yet he's so much more loving than you ever dared to dream. His ways are different than yours because you would put a limit on the grace we can offer. I would put a limit on who can receive the invitation and who can have this homecoming. And God just says these words come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters. If you don't have money, that's quite all right. You just come by and you can take it and you can have it and you can receive it. And the suffering servants come for you. He's died for sins, for your sin. He's taken them to the cross, taken them to the grave, risen again. You can have life in him, not just now, for all eternity. If there's a better gospel than that one, I don't know it. If you offered me a different one to preach, I wouldn't do it. If there's a better story, there just can't be anything better than that. And that is the invitation that exists in Isaiah 55, that trickles down from Isaiah 53. That is the invitation that exists in the Gospels as we hear about how this suffering servant came to us in the person of Jesus Christ. That is the invitation that exists for someone even now, even this morning, to hear for the first time that your sins are forgiven, and to hear for all eternity that you are safe and you are home in Christ Jesus. Pray with me. Lord Jesus. Thank you for the gospel. Thank you for this invitation. The invitation to come home. There's nothing more beautiful than a homecoming, and that homecoming can be found in you. And so, God, for that, I give you thanks and I give you praise. Lord, if there's anyone in this room today that needs that kind of homecoming for the first time to know that you are their Savior and you delight to forgive their sins, Lord, even now would they receive it. Lord, I thank you for the message of the gospel. I thank you that during this Advent season we can be reminded over and over again just of what you've done for us. And so, Lord, now in these moments, would we respond accordingly? For your glory, we ask. In Christ's name, Amen. Would you stand? We'll worship. I'll be down front. If you'd like to respond, to join our church family to talk more about Jesus, to let me pray over you, I'll be down front as you come.