SPEAKER_01: I don't know what you came to church expecting to get today, but whatever it is, this offer exceeds your expectations.
SPEAKER_01: Isaiah fifty five.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, come.
SPEAKER_01: Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters.
SPEAKER_01: And he who has no money, come buy and eat.
SPEAKER_01: Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.
SPEAKER_01: Why do you spend your money for that which isn't bread and your labor for that which does not satisfy?
SPEAKER_01: Listen diligently to me and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food.
SPEAKER_01: Incline your ear and come to me here that your soul may live, and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David.
SPEAKER_01: Behold, I made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander for the peoples.
SPEAKER_01: 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 Yahweh your God and of the holy one of Israel, for he has glorified you.
SPEAKER_01: Seek Yahweh while he may be found.
SPEAKER_01: Call upon him while he's near.
SPEAKER_01: Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts.
SPEAKER_01: Let him return to Yahweh, that he may have compassion on him and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
SPEAKER_01: For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares Yahweh.
SPEAKER_01: For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
SPEAKER_01: For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and don't 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.
SPEAKER_01: 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.
SPEAKER_01: For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace, and the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
SPEAKER_01: 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 Yahweh, an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.
SPEAKER_01: So reads the word of the living God.
SPEAKER_01: This is the most lavish offer that anyone has ever made you.
SPEAKER_01: The offer is to have all of your thirsty desires fully met, to have infinite eternal love poured over you, to enjoy an eternal heaven without sin and free pardon.
SPEAKER_01: And the best thing is that it costs you nothing.
SPEAKER_01: Because it is literally the way that God ends the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Revelation chapter 22, verse 17, the last verses of the Bible say this.
SPEAKER_01: The Spirit and the bride say, Come.
SPEAKER_01: And let the one who hears say, Come.
SPEAKER_01: And let the one who is thirsty come.
SPEAKER_01: Let the one who desires to take the water of life without price.
SPEAKER_01: Who are you in that verse?
SPEAKER_01: The Spirit and the bride, that's the word, and heaven, the heavenly bride.
SPEAKER_01: They're saying come to the sinner.
SPEAKER_01: The one who hears, that's Christians today.
SPEAKER_01: You've heard, you've tasted, you've seen, and so now you turn and you say, Come.
SPEAKER_01: And the person who has never come before and is still thirsty, you got one job.
SPEAKER_01: It's to come.
SPEAKER_01: It's to come to Jesus, the fountain of living water today, and to have that gnawing ache in your soul finally filled.
SPEAKER_01: And friends, my text says that this is a limited time offer.
SPEAKER_01: He says, seek the Lord while he may be found.
SPEAKER_01: There's a time coming when he won't be found, so we don't have time to waste this morning because I don't know when that is.
SPEAKER_01: We've got to get to it because there are hungry people sitting here today.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know who you are, but you do.
SPEAKER_01: And you need to hear this invitation and you need to receive it.
SPEAKER_01: God means for you to leave here today full.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe for the first time.
SPEAKER_01: So permit me then to spread this banquet before you.
SPEAKER_01: And with the voice of this text, the very voice of God, to call you to come and to eat.
SPEAKER_01: Isaiah 55 is the extravagant climax at the end of a long section in Isaiah, Isaiah 40 to 55, often called the servant songs of Isaiah, where God describes his miraculous salvation for the nation of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: And it comes not just through a nation, but through a particular person.
SPEAKER_01: The servant, who we find out in chapter 53, is not just a king who rides on high, but he is a servant who comes down low.
SPEAKER_01: He lives a humble life.
SPEAKER_01: He dies in atoning death, and he is raised to life to see his offspring.
SPEAKER_01: And it is after that that chapters 54 and 55 come and they just explode with a response of joy.
SPEAKER_01: This is chapter 54, verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: Sing, O barren one, who did not bear.
SPEAKER_01: And you've already done that, so you got that part down.
SPEAKER_01: And then chapter 55 is the summons, is the gospel call.
SPEAKER_01: And it says, Come, come, because all the work is done, all you have to do now is come.
SPEAKER_01: Please note that the speaker in this text is God Himself.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Come to me.
SPEAKER_01: That's not Isaiah talking.
SPEAKER_01: He says, My word, my ways is God.
SPEAKER_01: And please note, too, the tone of this text.
SPEAKER_01: He is urgent.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Come four times.
SPEAKER_01: Come, come, come, come.
SPEAKER_01: He's repeating himself over and over and over again.
SPEAKER_01: In the first seven verses, there are fourteen commands, just rapid fire, one after another.
SPEAKER_01: This is not an indifferent suggestion from heaven.
SPEAKER_01: This is an urgent, ardent, earnest plea from God, the throne of grace.
SPEAKER_01: It is sincere, and it is beckoning you, the thirsty sinner, to come to him.
SPEAKER_01: And because he is so blood earnest, he not only calls you to come in the first seven verses, which is what he is doing, but he explains why you should come in the next six verses.
SPEAKER_01: And that's going to be our outline.
SPEAKER_01: The call for you to come in verses one to seven, and the God who bids you come in verses eight to thirteen.
SPEAKER_01: So first, the call for you to come.
SPEAKER_01: This urgent plea begins by telling you what you stand to gain if you come.
SPEAKER_01: It's like one of those commercials for a burger joint where they just start slapping down ingredients in front of you.
SPEAKER_01: You know, here's the bun, here's the patty, here's the cheese, the sauce, one after another.
SPEAKER_01: Don't you want it?
SPEAKER_01: That's what he's doing.
SPEAKER_01: He's piling it up and saying, this is everything you get if you would just come.
SPEAKER_01: Three things that you get.
SPEAKER_01: First, you come for satisfaction.
SPEAKER_01: You come for satisfaction.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: Isaiah 55, verse 1 says, Come.
SPEAKER_01: And you can stop there.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know why the ESV translators put me in this position.
SPEAKER_01: I have to start by explaining to you why they got this wrong.
SPEAKER_01: It does not say come.
SPEAKER_01: That's not what the word is in Hebrew.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know why they did that.
SPEAKER_01: The word in Hebrew is the word oh.
SPEAKER_01: Literally, it's in Hebrew, it's hoy.
SPEAKER_01: This is Isaiah's favorite word.
SPEAKER_01: In the Old Testament, it is used 50 times.
SPEAKER_01: Isaiah is 20 of those.
SPEAKER_01: He begins his prophecy, chapter 1, verse 4.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Ah, sinful nation.
SPEAKER_01: And then in chapter 5, he just piles up woe after woe, same word.
SPEAKER_01: Woe to you, woe to you.
SPEAKER_01: It's this expression of exasperation, of sadness, of longing.
SPEAKER_01: And here it takes quite a different tone.
SPEAKER_01: This is the last time that Isaiah uses it.
SPEAKER_01: And here it is a particle of pleading.
SPEAKER_01: He is making this earnest and urgent.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, won't you come?
SPEAKER_01: Please come.
SPEAKER_01: I really mean it.
SPEAKER_01: And I want you to come.
SPEAKER_01: And he does.
SPEAKER_01: That's what he says, the three verbs there.
SPEAKER_01: Come, come, come.
SPEAKER_01: The word is used four times in this text.
SPEAKER_01: It is a summons, a divine instruction to move in your soul from where you are to where you need to be.
SPEAKER_01: It's how Isaiah began his ministry, chapter 1, verse 18.
SPEAKER_01: Come now, let us reason together.
SPEAKER_01: For though your sins be as scarlet, they will be white as snow.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus loves to say, Come, let the little children come to me.
SPEAKER_01: Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
SPEAKER_01: If any man would come after me, he has to take up his cross and deny himself and follow me.
SPEAKER_01: It's a word that means, I've got what you're looking for.
SPEAKER_01: You want it?
SPEAKER_01: Come and get it.
SPEAKER_01: It's right here.
SPEAKER_01: It's in me.
SPEAKER_01: Now who should come?
SPEAKER_01: The text tells us everyone who thirsts.
SPEAKER_01: Everyone who thirsts.
SPEAKER_01: This is a wide gospel call.
SPEAKER_01: This isn't just Israel.
SPEAKER_01: This isn't just church people.
SPEAKER_01: This is everyone.
SPEAKER_01: Everyone should come.
SPEAKER_01: But there are two conditions.
SPEAKER_01: Condition number one, everyone who thirsts.
SPEAKER_01: You have to come needy.
SPEAKER_01: Thirst, it's a longing in your soul.
SPEAKER_01: A desire for something that you know you don't have.
SPEAKER_01: An earnestness.
SPEAKER_01: And the reality is, this is everyone.
SPEAKER_01: Everyone wants satisfaction and joy and peace and wholeness.
SPEAKER_01: Just not everyone admits it.
SPEAKER_01: But you also, he says, have to come empty.
SPEAKER_01: He says, He who has no money, come by and eat.
SPEAKER_01: Like you gotta have nothing in your hands.
SPEAKER_01: Not just that you want the thing, but you gotta know you can't get it on your own.
SPEAKER_01: You can't afford it, whatever it is.
SPEAKER_01: You can't satisfy it, you can't fix it.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says in Mark chapter 2, verse 17 those who are well have no need of a physician.
SPEAKER_01: Only those who are sick.
SPEAKER_01: I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.
SPEAKER_01: You won't go to the doctor until you admit that you're sick.
SPEAKER_01: And you won't come to dinner until you admit that you're hungry.
SPEAKER_01: Just so, you will not come to Jesus until you realize you need him.
SPEAKER_01: And he's the only one who can satisfy a parched and barren and dry soul.
SPEAKER_01: Why does he say it this way?
SPEAKER_01: He says, come buy and eat.
SPEAKER_01: Why does he just say, come, come and eat?
SPEAKER_01: This word buy is a word for grain, for food.
SPEAKER_01: And he's saying, I want you to come knowing that somebody had to pay for this.
SPEAKER_01: Just not you.
SPEAKER_01: You got monopoly money.
SPEAKER_01: Your money's no good here.
SPEAKER_01: The exchange rate is awful.
SPEAKER_01: For what should you come?
SPEAKER_01: Well, he says, Come to the waters.
SPEAKER_01: Come to the waters.
SPEAKER_01: It's a full fountain.
SPEAKER_01: The waters is plural, the fountain of living waters, refreshing drink.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says in John chapter 4 to the Samaritan woman, you drink from that well, you're just going to be thirsty tomorrow.
SPEAKER_01: You drink from the water I give you, you'll never be thirsty again.
SPEAKER_01: You come to a full fountain, you come to a free feast.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Come buy and eat.
SPEAKER_01: You don't have to pay a dime for this.
SPEAKER_01: But he had to pay everything for it.
SPEAKER_01: Fine food is also what you come to.
SPEAKER_01: A full fountain, free feast, and fine food.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Come buy wine and milk.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, God's not holding out on you.
SPEAKER_01: He's not skipping, he's not giving you the scraps.
SPEAKER_01: He's offering for you to come to a lavish feast.
SPEAKER_01: The best.
SPEAKER_01: The wine, the thing that gladdens your heart, the milk that nourishes your soul.
SPEAKER_01: He's saying, Come for all of it.
SPEAKER_01: And then he says in verse 2, Why haven't you come?
SPEAKER_01: It's like this note of incredulity.
SPEAKER_01: I can't even believe it.
SPEAKER_01: Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread and your labor for that which does not satisfy?
SPEAKER_01: Answer, because you've been eating expensive junk food.
SPEAKER_01: Sin always seems cheap.
SPEAKER_01: And it is very costly.
SPEAKER_01: You spend all your time, all your energy, all your money on that decadent life, on that vice, on that secret, and it will cost you your integrity, your reputation, maybe your marriage, maybe your life.
SPEAKER_01: And the insane thing about our quest for satisfaction outside of Christ is that it doesn't work, and we keep doing it.
SPEAKER_01: You keep going to the thing thinking it's gonna fill you up, and it never does.
SPEAKER_01: And you keep going back.
SPEAKER_01: Then he says, in contrast, why should you come?
SPEAKER_01: Well, look at verse 2 listen diligently to me and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food.
SPEAKER_01: He says, You come for delicious soul food.
SPEAKER_01: That's literally what he says.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Delight yourselves, literally in the text, your souls in rich food, fatness.
SPEAKER_01: And how do you get that food?
SPEAKER_01: He says, incline your ear.
SPEAKER_01: Listen diligently to me.
SPEAKER_01: It comes through the word of God.
SPEAKER_01: Of course, we're not talking about actual food here.
SPEAKER_01: We're talking about the food that your soul needs that can only come through the word of God.
SPEAKER_01: What does Jesus say to Satan when he tempts him to turn those stones into bread?
SPEAKER_01: Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.
SPEAKER_01: You want to come to the feast, you've got to come with open ears.
SPEAKER_01: You've got to come and listen to God.
SPEAKER_01: Christianity is a religion of the ear.
SPEAKER_01: And if you come, he says, you will get the best food you've ever eaten.
SPEAKER_01: Friends, the whole world is starving.
SPEAKER_01: There is a famine in the land.
SPEAKER_01: People are pursuing their job.
SPEAKER_01: Want to go on vacation to Fiji?
SPEAKER_01: I want to come back and work day in and day out.
SPEAKER_01: And I am lonelier and sadder and less satisfied at the end of all of it.
SPEAKER_01: And God says it doesn't have to be that way.
SPEAKER_01: Just come to me.
SPEAKER_01: What you're looking for is right here.
SPEAKER_01: Come to me.
SPEAKER_01: So he says, Come for satisfaction.
SPEAKER_01: Then he says, Come for heaven.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 3, he says, Come to me.
SPEAKER_01: Incline your ear and come to me.
SPEAKER_01: Meaning, satisfaction is not going to be found in things, but in a person.
SPEAKER_01: In the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus himself uses this language in John chapter 7, and he says, Come to me.
SPEAKER_01: Here that your soul may live.
SPEAKER_01: You want eternal life, you want resurrection from the dead, you come to Jesus who gives it.
SPEAKER_01: This isn't something you get by working for it, almsgiving, cleaning your act up.
SPEAKER_01: No, you just come to him.
SPEAKER_01: And if you do cast your soul on Christ, God says that this astounding thing will happen.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 3, I will make with you an everlasting covenant.
SPEAKER_01: My steadfast sure love for David.
SPEAKER_01: Here he says, if you come to Jesus, you enter into what we call now the new covenant.
SPEAKER_01: It's a covenant that's not going to go away like the old covenant, it's going to last forever.
SPEAKER_01: And what do you get in that new covenant?
SPEAKER_01: He says, You get my steadfast sure love for David.
SPEAKER_01: David here is a way of saying the Messiah for Christ.
SPEAKER_01: God is saying, if you will come to Jesus, then you will get the love that I have for him for you.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not making that up.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus said in John 15, verse 9, as the Father has loved me, so have I loved you.
SPEAKER_01: You want that kind of steadfast, unchanging, faithful love?
SPEAKER_01: You gotta come to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And if you do, you'll see this, verse 4 Behold, I made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander for the peoples.
SPEAKER_01: Behold, you shall call a nation that you don't know, and a nation that did not know you shall run to you.
SPEAKER_01: He's saying, when Jesus comes the second time, he will be as a signal for the nations, Isaiah chapter 11, verse 10.
SPEAKER_01: He will draw all men to himself.
SPEAKER_01: Countries that have never known him, peoples who have never heard the name of Jesus will come.
SPEAKER_01: Just running.
SPEAKER_01: They'll haste to him.
SPEAKER_01: They won't wait.
SPEAKER_01: The whole earth is gonna flock to Jesus for satisfaction and joy.
SPEAKER_01: Australians, Germans, Americans, Mexicans, you name it, they'll all come and worship him in his glorious eternal kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: And God does it because of his love for Christ and that love which so glorifies Christ, He He says, will be set on you.
SPEAKER_01: That's why Jesus can make these kind of outlandish promises.
SPEAKER_01: In Revelation chapter 2 and 3, he says, The one who conquers, to him I will give authority over the nations.
SPEAKER_01: The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God.
SPEAKER_01: And the one who conquers, I will grant him to sit on my throne.
SPEAKER_01: You come to Jesus now, you get to reign with him over the world forever.
SPEAKER_01: Is that a good offer?
SPEAKER_01: And it gets even better.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 6.
SPEAKER_01: You not only come for satisfaction and heaven, but you come for pardon.
SPEAKER_01: He says, seek Yahweh while he may be found.
SPEAKER_01: This is another way of saying come.
SPEAKER_01: He's saying, make it your quest today.
SPEAKER_01: Make it your ambition to not leave here without him.
SPEAKER_01: Call on him.
SPEAKER_01: Say that you need him.
SPEAKER_01: And he says, do it right now.
SPEAKER_01: He says, seek him while he may be found.
SPEAKER_01: Call on him while he's near.
SPEAKER_01: He's near right now.
SPEAKER_01: He can be found right now.
SPEAKER_01: That won't always be the case.
SPEAKER_01: There is a time coming when the window of opportunity will close.
SPEAKER_01: H.B.
SPEAKER_01: Charles says of this text, when will that window close?
SPEAKER_01: I don't know, and I don't want to know.
SPEAKER_01: Neither do you.
SPEAKER_01: You all want to find out that way.
SPEAKER_01: You want to come now.
SPEAKER_01: And if you do, verse 7, this is how you come.
SPEAKER_01: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man, his thoughts, let him return to Yahweh.
SPEAKER_01: You got to know God is not just satisfying and full of love, he is also holy.
SPEAKER_01: He is totally set apart from sin.
SPEAKER_01: And so if you're going to come to him, you have to, the word is repent.
SPEAKER_01: You have to turn away from your sin, forsake your sin, and turn to him.
SPEAKER_01: The language here, it's like he's saying, you can't reconcile with your wife until you leave the other woman.
SPEAKER_01: You need to make right with God now, and if you turn away from that sin and to him in faith, this is what you get, that he may have compassion on him.
SPEAKER_01: And to our God, for he will abundantly pardon you, get forgiveness.
SPEAKER_01: And not just a little, but I love the way he says it.
SPEAKER_01: You get abundant pardon.
SPEAKER_01: It's like he's saying, You probably think you've sinned too much.
SPEAKER_01: That God doesn't want you anymore.
SPEAKER_01: You're outside of the reach of his hand, and he is saying, I have more forgiveness than you ever have sinned.
SPEAKER_01: Our sins, they are many.
SPEAKER_01: His mercy is more.
SPEAKER_01: Ephesians chapter 2, verse 4.
SPEAKER_01: But God being rich in mercy, he's got a lot of it.
SPEAKER_01: He saves us.
SPEAKER_01: Which means that no matter how bad it has gotten, you have never gone too far for God to reach you.
SPEAKER_01: So come.
SPEAKER_01: He says, come and be satisfied.
SPEAKER_01: Come to this eternal kingdom of love in Jesus, and come and I will forgive all of your worst sins.
SPEAKER_01: It is all free, so just come.
SPEAKER_01: But some of you hear that offer and you are skeptical.
SPEAKER_01: And you say, He wouldn't do that.
SPEAKER_01: He wouldn't keep that kind of promise.
SPEAKER_01: Nobody would.
SPEAKER_01: It's too extravagant.
SPEAKER_01: It's too much.
SPEAKER_01: And so, in the next six verses, he gives you three reasons why you should come.
SPEAKER_01: He's sort of answering objections before you even have them.
SPEAKER_01: And it's all about who he is, the God who bids you to come.
SPEAKER_01: And the basic thrust of his argument is that this God who is calling you to come in all that he is and does is supreme.
SPEAKER_01: He is not like you and me.
SPEAKER_01: He tells us about God's supreme ways in verses eight and nine.
SPEAKER_01: Verse eight, for my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares Yahweh.
SPEAKER_01: Familiar verses?
SPEAKER_01: Usually out of context, you see the four at the beginning of verse eight and ten and twelve.
SPEAKER_01: Those are there to tie you back to the argument that he's just been making.
SPEAKER_01: You should come, and the reason you should come is because of this.
SPEAKER_01: And the first reason is because my ways and my thoughts are not like yours.
SPEAKER_01: They're totally different.
SPEAKER_01: But they're not just different in a bad way.
SPEAKER_01: You could be different and worse.
SPEAKER_01: He says they're different and a way better.
SPEAKER_01: 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.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 40, verse 25, God says, To whom then will you liken me?
SPEAKER_01: To whom will you compare me?
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 45, verse 22, come to me and be saved, because I am God and there is no other.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not like you.
SPEAKER_01: You, when you are offended, run out of forgiveness eventually.
SPEAKER_01: You, when you love, grow cold in your affections.
SPEAKER_01: You in your delights, well, really honestly, you can't delight everyone for that long.
SPEAKER_01: God's not like us.
SPEAKER_01: As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are his thoughts.
SPEAKER_01: Astronomers who try to measure these things, they say, if you were to go just straight up from the top of your head to the edge of the universe, it's 45.6 billion light years.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know how they come up with a number like that, but that's what they say.
SPEAKER_01: But they say that's just the observable universe, it could be more than that.
SPEAKER_01: Really honestly, it could be infinite.
SPEAKER_01: God, in his ways, is not like us.
SPEAKER_01: He is infinitely not like us.
SPEAKER_01: I think this is the main problem, the main error that we commit that keeps us from coming to God is that we tend to think that God is like us.
SPEAKER_01: Like he's like a version of me, but just a little bit older and a little bit nicer.
SPEAKER_01: Someone told me after their first service, no, that's your dad, Dan.
SPEAKER_01: That's true.
SPEAKER_01: We take the God who made us in his image and we remake him in our blurry image.
SPEAKER_01: And God says, Stop thinking like that about me.
SPEAKER_01: I am not like you.
SPEAKER_01: And that's a really good thing.
SPEAKER_01: Way better, way more forgiving.
SPEAKER_01: That's why you can trust me.
SPEAKER_01: That's why I can satisfy you and nobody else can.
SPEAKER_01: That's why, even if nobody else will accept you, I'm still saying, Come.
SPEAKER_01: But not only is God supreme in his ways, he is supreme in his word.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 10: for as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and don't 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.
SPEAKER_01: God uses the image of rain and snow.
SPEAKER_01: He repeats these words, heaven and earth, because he's trying to remind you, my ways are different.
SPEAKER_01: You can't control the weather.
SPEAKER_01: You could guess what it is sometimes, but you can't control it.
SPEAKER_01: And when God works, when he speaks, it's like the rain coming down from the sky, watering the ground, nourishing it, and giving life and feeding people.
SPEAKER_01: And that's what he does with his word.
SPEAKER_01: He gives seed to the sower.
SPEAKER_01: You need to sow the gospel, he gives that to you.
SPEAKER_01: Bread to the eater, you need to be satisfied, he gives that to you.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 11 So shall my word be that goes from my mouth.
SPEAKER_01: His very words are the words of holy scripture.
SPEAKER_01: And it is this book that is as effective as rain in accomplishing God's life-giving, all-satisfying purposes.
SPEAKER_01: Psalm 19, verse 7, the law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul.
SPEAKER_01: Matthew 5, 18, Jesus says, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot will pass from the law until all is accomplished.
SPEAKER_01: God does everything he means to do with his word.
SPEAKER_01: Now, some of you don't like the rain.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you really don't like it when it snows in the middle of the week.
SPEAKER_01: I get that.
SPEAKER_01: But I hope that when you see it now, it will remind you to say, God always keeps his word.
SPEAKER_01: Just like he's feeding the earth every day with his water, so he is feeding souls every day with his word, and he is keeping it.
SPEAKER_01: He will be faithful to all of his promises.
SPEAKER_01: So he says, Don't doubt those sweet promises.
SPEAKER_01: I don't break promises like people, I keep all of them, so come to me.
SPEAKER_01: And then he says, not only are my ways and my word supreme, but so is my work.
SPEAKER_01: He says, if you will come to God today, then you should know it won't always be this hard.
SPEAKER_01: Some people, the reason that they say for why they won't come to God and become a Christian and worship Jesus is because they have too much pain in their life, too many hard things, and they'll say, if God is good, and God is sovereign, meaning using a troll, then why are there all these evil things going on?
SPEAKER_01: Usually called the problem of evil, and often how people answer it is that they'll say, Well, it's because God either isn't sovereign or he isn't good or he just doesn't even exist.
SPEAKER_01: And God says, I have a way better answer for you.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 12.
SPEAKER_01: For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace.
SPEAKER_01: The mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
SPEAKER_01: Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress, instead of the briar shall come up the myrtle.
SPEAKER_01: One day God will not only resurrect you to eternal joy, he will fix the whole earth.
SPEAKER_01: He will right every wrong.
SPEAKER_01: He will reverse the curse that today makes life such a struggle.
SPEAKER_01: Such that Romans chapter 8, Paul says the creation is groaning for that day, for the revealing of the sons of God, for the removal of that corruption.
SPEAKER_01: Of course, he's using the image of Genesis 3.19 here, the thorn and the briar, and he says, I'm gonna undo that and put in its place the cypress, the beautiful trees, the myrtle.
SPEAKER_01: The whole earth is gonna be just praising God and worshiping him, the mountains breaking forth and singing to him, the hills, dancing and delighting in him, a new creation freed from decay and death and sighing and tears.
SPEAKER_01: So why would he go through all this pain then to get to that?
SPEAKER_01: And his answer is then the last part of the verse.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 13.
SPEAKER_01: And that victory over sin and death shall make a name for Yahweh, an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.
SPEAKER_01: The word for name, there is a word for memorial, a statue, a remembrance.
SPEAKER_01: God will recreate the whole earth with you on it as a way of saying, look what I've done.
SPEAKER_01: Look how glorious I am.
SPEAKER_01: Come to me and worship me because I am worthy.
SPEAKER_01: Long after the Lincoln Memorial is just a bunch of dust.
SPEAKER_01: God will recreate this earth and say, look at my glory and enjoy me.
SPEAKER_01: I don't work like that.
SPEAKER_01: I can hardly get my taxes done.
SPEAKER_01: God will fix the whole world and make it a glorious testimony to the praise of his son and his salvation.
SPEAKER_01: So can can you honestly say this morning that all of that not bread that you've been eating is doing the trick?
SPEAKER_01: Is it really satisfying you?
SPEAKER_01: Is it really worth it?
SPEAKER_01: God says in this text, come to me.
SPEAKER_01: Christian, if you are here and you are weary from the road, he says, Come to me and be satisfied.
SPEAKER_01: Refresh yourself through this word, in me, the fountain of living water.
SPEAKER_01: And if you came here today and you have never come all the way to Christ, today is the day.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Come to me.
SPEAKER_01: Come and be satisfied.
SPEAKER_01: Don't know what you were expecting to get at church, but this is the offer.
SPEAKER_01: And it's the best one you're ever gonna get.
SPEAKER_01: Look no further.
SPEAKER_01: But come to him.
SPEAKER_01: He came for you and he is calling to you now.
SPEAKER_01: We started by looking at Revelation chapter 22, where it says, Let the one who hears say, Come.
SPEAKER_01: I want to give you, Christian, an opportunity to do that right now.
SPEAKER_01: In song.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna put the lyrics on the screen.
SPEAKER_01: And I'd ask you to stand, and I want you to sing with me to each other, calling us to come, and then I'll pray.
SPEAKER_01: Let's sing together just our voices.
SPEAKER_02: Softly and tenderly, Jesus is calling, calling for you and for me.
SPEAKER_04: See on the portal season and watching, watching for you and for me.
SPEAKER_01: That they would come to the fountain and drink.
SPEAKER_01: God, only you can do that.
SPEAKER_01: And so we beg you for your mercy.
SPEAKER_01: Be abundant in pardon, fulfill your word, do your purpose.
SPEAKER_01: May we praise you for it.
SPEAKER_01: We ask this in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And now, for a parting word for Pastor Jesse Johnson.
SPEAKER_00: If you have any questions about what you heard today, or if you want to learn more about what it means to follow Christ, please visit our church website, iBC.church.
SPEAKER_00: If you want more information about the Master Seminary or our location here in Washington, D.C., please go to tms.edu.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you're not a member of a local church and you live in the Washington, D.C.
SPEAKER_00: area, we'd love to have you worship with us here at Emmanuel.
SPEAKER_00: I hope to personally meet you this Sunday after our service.
SPEAKER_00: But no matter where you live, it's our hope that everyone who uses this resource is involved in their own local church.
SPEAKER_00: Now may God bless you this week as you seek Jesus constantly, serve the Lord faithfully, and share the gospel boldly.