All right, brethren, Isaiah 55.
Let's read it one more time. Isaiah 55, 1. Oh, everyone that
thirsteth, come ye to the waters. He that hath no money, come ye,
buy and eat. They come by wine and milk, without
money and without price. Wherefore do you spend money
for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which
satisfieth not? Hearken diligently unto me, and
eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself
in fatness. Incline your ear, and come unto
me. Here, and your soul shall live. And I will make an everlasting
covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David. We've come
to the end of one year and the beginning of another. And it's
good to start a new year. It's good to have a new start. It's good to think about new
goals and new prospects for another year. But it's also good to think
about the end of the last year. Because when we start thinking
about the end of a year, it's a good reminder that there's
coming a day when we will face the end, the end. There's coming
a day when we will take the very last breath that we will ever
take. There were a lot of people, a
lot of people your age in this world and younger than you in
this world who entered the day Friday looking forward to the
new year thinking about what all they would do in the new
year and they died Friday. There were people who woke up
Saturday morning in the new year looking forward to what all they
would do in the new year who died Saturday morning. It's good to think about the
end because this life is short. It's very, very short. 4.13, James said, go to now ye that
say today or tomorrow will go into such a city and continue
their year and buy and sell and get gain, whereas you know not
what shall be on tomorrow. For what is your life? It's even
a vapor that appeareth for a little time, then vanisheth away. For that you ought to say, if
the Lord will, we shall live and do this or that. Man that's
born of a woman is a few days, just a few days, and full of
trouble. He cometh forth like a flower.
You know, a flower comes forth, looks like it's gonna be just
vibrant, pretty, and before long it's cut down. He fleeth as a
shadow. Fleeth as a shadow. It's like
watching those time-lapse videos, you know, just watch the shadow
flee. Continue as not. But the end
of the life is not the end. The end of this life is not the
end. We will spend eternity somewhere. That rich man in hell had good
things all his life. He died and he went to hell.
And he's in hell, and he saw Abraham with Lazarus in his bosom,
and he called unto Abraham, and he said, he said, send Lazarus
back from the dead to my father's house. If he goes back to my
father's house, rose from the dead, they'll believe. And Abraham
said, if they hear not Moses and the prophets, if they hear
not the word of God, this word right here, if they hear not
Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though
one rose from the dead. This is the word. What does God
say in his word? This is where we need to be given
our time and our focus and our diligence into what does the
word of the Lord say? The word of the Lord says, redeem
the time. Redeem the time, how so? Verse
six there, he says, seek ye the Lord while he may be found. Call
ye upon him while he's near. Let's hear God's word. Back in
verse one, he says, ho, that means let me have your attention.
That means give me your full focus, your full attention. Ho,
everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters. Is anybody
thirsty? This is for young and old, believer,
unbeliever. Anybody thirsty? Anybody thirsty? He says, come to the Lord Jesus. He's the fountain of living waters. If you're thirsty to be justified
before God, Thirsty to be righteous before God, thirsty to know you're
accepted of God, that you're redeemed, that you have no sin,
that God will receive you and keep you, and you don't have
to be terrified to face death. You know that he's given you
life if you're thirsty, thirsty for life, thirsty for righteousness. He says, come to Christ. He's
the living waters. He said, blessed are they which
do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. He
said, ho, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters. Christ
is the fountain of living waters. Let's go over to Jeremiah. He's
the fountain of living waters. Chapter 2, verse 13. He says, my people have committed
two evils. They have forsaken me, the fountain
of living waters. And they hewed them out cisterns,
broken cisterns that can hold no water. That's the two evils. Christ is the fountain of living
waters. He said, They forsook me, and
they went to hew out cisterns that can hold no water. In John
4, we saw this not long ago, in John 4, our Lord was speaking
to the woman at the well, and He spoke to her, and He said,
If thou knewest, verse 10, John 4, 10, If thou knewest the gift
of God, And who it is that saith to thee, give me to drink? Thou wouldst have asked of him,
and he would have given thee living water. Living water. Look down at He said there of
that earthly water, verse 13, whoever drinks of this water
shall thirst again, whoever drinks of earthly water. But he says,
but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall
never thirst. But the water that I shall give
him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting
life. John 7, verse 37, he stood there They had that great feast and
they lit some candles and had some light. He tells them later,
I'm the light. And then they poured out water
down a rock. He tells them here, I'm the water. I'm the water. I'm the rock from
whom the water comes. In verse 37, in the last day,
that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried saying,
if any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. Here's what he means by coming
to him and drinking. He said, he that believeth on
me. As the scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers
of living water. What is this talking about, living
water? Well, he talks here about wine.
The living water is life. Christ is life. He's the life
that we saw this morning, that eternal life. He speaks here
of wine. It's the wine of Christ's sin-atoning
blood that rejoices the heart, that assures us in the heart
that God will receive us. He speaks here of milk and bread.
That's life, milk and bread. Christ is the milk of the Word.
He's the Word who grows us and into whom we grow. He's the bread
of life. He's life. All of these telling
us, are you thirsty? Are you hungry? Are you wanting
life, true life, spiritual life, eternal life? He says, come to
me. Come to me. Come to Christ where full provision
for all you need is provided. That's what he's saying. Over
in Isaiah 41, here's what the Lord said, Isaiah 41. Listen
to this. The Lord's not keeping anything
from anybody. He's saying if you're thirsty,
if you're hungry, if you want to know Him, come to Him. Look
at this, Isaiah 41, 17. When the poor and needy seek
water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst,
I, the Lord, will hear them. I, the God of Israel, will not
forsake them. I will open rivers in high places,
and fountains in the midst of the valleys. I will make the
wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water. So here's the word of the Lord.
This is what the Lord said. He says, Ho, everyone that's
thirsty, come ye to the waters. come to the waters. Now look
at this next thing he says, he says, but now come empty, come
empty. Listen, verse one, he that hath
no money He that hath no money, come ye buy and eat, ye come
buy wine and milk without money and without price. Everything's
going through the roof now, prices, you know, inflation, everything's
going up and groceries are a lot more expensive. If ShopRite announced,
come here and get all the milk and the bread and all you want
with no money, you couldn't get into place. This is everlasting life. Christ Jesus the Lord. He says,
come to me. Don't come with money. Don't
come with any price in your hand. Salvation is by grace. Salvation
is by God's grace. That means salvation is freely
given by God. It's grace. It's grace as opposed
to works. It's grace. He says, come to
me. Don't bring money. Come to me. It's freely given. Freely given. Coming to Christ.
Believing on Christ. It's the exact opposite of trying
to be saved by our works. It's coming and believing on
Him. We're saved by faith, by His grace. That's what He's saying. When God chose His people, He
chose us by grace. It wasn't based on anything in
us. It was grace and justification and redemption. Christ laid down
His life by grace. by grace. He said in Romans 3,
24, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption
that's in Christ Jesus. Everything that God requires,
God has provided in His Son. Everything. Christ is who God
the Father requires. He's the righteousness of God.
He's the life that God says we have to come in. We can't come
any other way. Salvations of the Lord is by
the personal work of our Lord Jesus Christ. And so God says,
he that hath no money, he that has nothing, no payment, he can't
make a payment, he has nothing with which to purchase this.
He says, let him come without money and without price. Listen
to Revelation 21.6. This is what Christ is declaring
to us in our text. Same as in Revelation 21.6. Listen
to this. He said unto me, it is done. When he's talked about the marriage
feasts, he said, all is ready, come and dine. That's what he
said. It is done. He did everything
required to bring his people to God. It is done. I am Alpha
and Omega. That means I'm the beginning
and the end. I'm the author and the finisher
of faith. I am everything required, beginning
to end. I will give. unto him that is
a thirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. We must come to Christ with no
merit in ourselves. This was the problem the Pharisees
were having. They thought they were worth
Saving they thought they were worse if they didn't want to
believe on Christ. They didn't want to enter in by Christ alone
They would not let go of their works, but they didn't want to
hear that God saves only by grace And he saves whom he will Not
based on any merit in it. They they they wouldn't enter
him, but they didn't want to hear that message If we come with anything anything
Then Christ will not be our all Whatever the thing is we're coming
with, Christ will not be that to us. If it's wisdom and we
think it's our wisdom and we think it's our learning and our
understanding and we gave ourselves some knowledge, Christ won't
be our wisdom. He got to be our wisdom. If we come and we think
some aspect of something we've done contributes to our righteousness
before God, Christ won't be all our righteousness. any part of this salvation, Alpha
to Omega, beginning to end, any part of it that we bring by something
we've done or contributed or some co-effort we've worked out
with God, Christ ceases to be all in whatever that thing is.
He must be all. He must be all. He that hath
no money, no money, come ye, buy and eat. Ye come, buy wine
and milk without money, without price. I read this thing and
heard it of a man that was at a festival and a preacher. And one night somebody was there
and they were hawking their whatever it was, they were selling their
booth. trying to get people up to their price, you know. And
the preacher said, this is the difference between false religion
and true religion. He said the false religion is
trying to get men up to their price, what it's going to cost
you, what you got to pay, what you got to contribute. God's
gospel is saying we must be brought down to his price, free, free,
free grace, free grace. In my hand no price I bring,
simply to thy cross I cling. When a sinner comes to Christ
by faith, he finds everything is already paid in full. Everything
is already paid in full. Redemption from the curse of
the law, already accomplished by Christ. A full, perfect righteousness
before God, already ready-made. The robe is already ready-made. By faith, God just puts the robe
on you. Sin completely purged and sin
completely put away, washed away. Coming to Christ the fountain
is just confessing to him, you did it all, you did it all. I'm
accepted in you alone, no one else, just you. He already did
it. Years ago there was a brother
in the church that Brother Henry took with him down to Mexico.
He was a dentist. And they went down there and
they He did some dental work on the brethren that were out
in the jungles and places. And after he had worked on this
one lady, pulled some teeth, given her Novocaine, all this
stuff, pulled her teeth, and he got finished. And she came
over to where Brother Henry was, and she pulled out three pesos
and tried to give him those three pesos. He said, we don't want
your money. And he said, I thought about
how much money it costs for this man to go to college, how much
money it costs to go down there to Mexico, all the labor involved,
all the expenses involved, everything that was involved, the years
and all this thing. And what she was trying to give
him amounted to about $0.15. He said, we don't want it. Remember Joseph? Joseph had the
storehouses full of grain, full, absolutely full. And his brothers
came down there with a bag of almonds to try to give to Joseph,
for Joseph to give them food, because they needed food to eat.
Joseph said, I don't want your almonds. I got all the storehouses,
they're full. Come and eat. What are we going
to bring to the Lord? What are you going to bring to
Christ? Isn't that just a height of arrogance and pride to think
that we can bring something to Him who has provided unsearchable
riches in Christ, and we're going to bring our three pesos to Him? Jesus paid it all, all the debt
I owed. Sin had left a crimson stain.
He washed it white as snow. Now here's a question. Verse
2. He says, wherefore do you spend money for that which is
not bread, and your labor for that which satisfieth not? Wherefore
do you spend money for that which is not bread, and your labor
for that which satisfieth not? Now I know that education is
needful. I know that we need education.
Think about the money we spend on college and the amount of
time spent studying and to study those things. And they're needful.
Those things are needful. They can help people just like
the dentist I was just talking about. They're needful. But God
has provided his word right here. He provided his word. He's provided
us the gospel. Provided us the gospel. This is where the hours and hours
of diligent study should be right here. Do that. It needs to be
done if you're going to have to have it to get on in the world.
But this ought to be more than that. This ought to be more than
that. We're talking about life. We're talking about Christ passing
by. We're talking about him coming
near. Call on him while he's near. He's coming by. This is
his word. This is his word. What if we spent to carry this
gospel into the world like we do on a college education? This
is what's important. This is the important thing,
to hearken, to give ourselves to hear this gospel preached
and to go to his word and read his word. Folks spend so much
in the world and on all their toys and all the stuff they buy
and it's not going to satisfy. It's not. In a little while it's
going to get old and you're going to want a new toy. He's talking
about everlasting life. He's talking about water of life. He's talking about bread from
heaven. He's talking about that which is needful. The one thing
that's needful. The one thing we've got to have
if we're going to face God and be accepted. Christ. People in religion are laboring
and laboring and laboring and they never get to rest because
they just keep, they get the carrot dangled in front of them
and the whip on their back and they just can't ever rest. They're
either not done enough, just constantly, never rest. He said,
laboring for that which will not satisfy, that which will
not profit. Our Lord said, labor not for
the meat which perisheth, That's not just earthly bread. That's
not just earthly things. This body right here is going
to perish. And if all our works and all our acceptance of God
is what we've done with these hands, when this body dies, all
those works are dying too. That's why we need one whose
work is eternal, one who is eternal, one whose work is finished, one
who says, God says, this is the one I'll receive, we can come
in him. Labor not for the meat which perisheth, but for that
meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of Man should
give unto you. For him hath God the Father sealed. Labor for that meat, he said,
that endures to everlasting life. What does he mean, labor for
it? Christ said, whenever my gospel
is preached, he said, I'm gathering my people together, and I'm there
in the midst, and I'm preaching the word. Isn't that what he
said? He told his disciples, he that
receives you, receives me. He that heareth you, heareth
me. I'd get under the gospel every time the doors opened,
and I'd hear the gospel priest, and I'd hang on every word. I'd
hang on the word far, far more keenly than I would even a college
professor. And then I'd go to the Word,
and I'd read the Word, and I'd see in the Word, is this so?
Is this true? Is this so? And I wouldn't depend
on myself to be able to understand it. I'd go to the throne of grace
and ask God, Lord, give me an understanding. Teach me, teach
me. I can't see. I need to know.
Cast yourself on His mercy. This is what He's telling us
to do. Come to me, He said. I'll give you. Knock. I'll open. That's what he says. Listen. That's exactly what he
says. Listen to this. Verse 2. Hearken diligently unto
me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight
itself in fatness. Incline your ear and come unto
me. Come to God through the ear.
Incline your ear unto me, and herein your soul shall live. What's he talking about? The
Lord said, Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. Faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by the Word of God. This is just how God believes
to do it. Faith is going to come by hearing. Well, you can't tell
preachers to, or tell sinners to, dead sinners to hear. Well, that's what God said to
do. God said, go to this valley of dry bones, where it's just
dry parts, dead bones. That He's describing those He's
calling out. He said, go to them and declare,
thus saith the Lord God, unto these bones. He says, tell them,
O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. That's what He's
saying in our text. Hear the word of the Lord. And
you and I who believe, do you not get dry? Oh, I get dry. I need to hear the word of the
Lord. I have to hear his word to give me water. Hear the word of the Lord, O
ye dry bones. And what's he going to do? And
it saith the Lord God unto these bones, Behold, I will cause breath
to enter into you, and you shall live. That's what God said he'll
do. He said, I'll send my spirit,
and you shall live. You shall live. If we do anything
this book tells us to do, God's going to get the glory. He's
the one that gave us the heart to do any of it, the will to
do anything in this book. But you don't know that when
he's working, do you? You find that out once he's worked
and he had brought you to him. And even in our trials as believers,
we don't know what he's doing until he brought you again to
him. And then you see, ah, I see. But he said, come to me. He said,
come to me. Come in here and your soul shall
live. So that's what I'm trying to
declare this morning. I'm saying our Lord Jesus Christ
has done everything that God requires. He went to that cross
and laid down his life and shed his precious blood and perfectly,
completely, eternally redeemed a host that no man can number
that God the Father gave him. He did that. And now he's risen
and he's at the right hand of God and he's sending his gospel
forth. And this is what Christ is saying.
This is what Christ is saying. May God make us hear him. This is what he's saying. He's
saying, hearken diligently unto me. That's what Christ is saying. Is it possible for us not to
do that if we've already hearkened to him and believe him? The Ephesians
left their first love. They were doing a bunch of works.
They were going through the motions, but they had left their first
love. They had left Christ. They had left him. They weren't
just, he wasn't everything to them anymore. They got lukewarm. He says, come to me, come to
me. He doesn't ever stop telling
us, come to me. Hearken diligently unto me and
eat that which is good. Don't just come to him. Come
to him and eat. Come to him and believe. Come
to him and feast upon his broken body and shed blood. Come to
him and believe on him. That's what he's saying. Cast
all your care on him. And let your soul delight itself
in fatness. Let your soul. This is the let
we need to be talked about. It's not letting God do something.
God's going to do what God's going to do. But if we don't
come and our soul be delighted in Christ only, it's only because
we're not letting our soul do it. In other words, if we come,
it's because God draws us and God gives us the glory. If we
don't, it's our own fault. He says, come, let your soul,
this is food for the soul, this is food for the spirit. He said,
come, let your soul delight itself in fatness, in fatness. Those that come, thirsty, empty,
believe in Christ alone. This is God's promise, verse
3. And I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure
mercies of David. Christ is that covenant. He is
that covenant. And because of his finished work,
all these covenant promises are assured to us. What's he promised? Let's go, let me see here, Jeremiah
3. Jeremiah 3. Jeremiah 3. Hold on. Jeremiah 32, I'm sorry. Jeremiah
32. Well, I don't know where it's
at. Let me read it to you. Maybe y'all know where it's at.
I can't find it. I wrote it down wrong. He said, Behold, the days come,
saith the Lord. Here, I know where we can find
it. Let's go to Hebrews 8. Go over there and read it. Here it is right here. Verse 8. Jeremiah 31, that's
what it was, Jeremiah 31. Here it is though, right here
in verse 8, Hebrews 8, verse 8. For finding fault with them,
he said, Behold, the day is come, saith the Lord, when I make a
new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of
Judah, not according to the covenant I made with their fathers in
the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt,
because they continue not in my covenant, and I regarded them
not, saith the Lord. For this is the covenant that
I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith
the Lord. I'll put my laws into their mind and write them in
their hearts, and I'll be to them a God, and they shall be
to me a people. And they shall not teach every
man his neighbor and every man his brother, saying, Know the
Lord. Here's what he means by that. When he writes his word
in our heart, he says, They shall all know me. They'll know me
from the least to the greatest. because I will be merciful to
their unrighteousness and their sins and their iniquities. Will
I remember no more? Will I remember no more? That
old covenant, he said, at that time was already made old and
it was for waxing away. All the old covenant works and
everything was going by the wayside because it was done with. But
he said, this is the new covenant. This is the new covenant I'll
make with you. He said, when I put my gospel
in your heart, when my spirit starts bearing witness with your
spirit, you're going to understand my word. You're going to know
my word. You're going to believe me. You're going to hear me.
You're going to believe me. When you know me, you're going to
see I'm your God, and you're my people. You're going to have
an unction from the Holy One, and you're going to know all
things because you're going to know Christ. And when you know Christ,
you're going to realize that in Christ, God promises, your
sins and your iniquities will I remember no more. I will be merciful to your unrighteousness. And Christ promises this. He
said, I will never leave you. I will never forsake you. Never
forsake you. He keeps coming. He keeps teaching
us this. We get to hearing all the voices
and everybody's talking and we get to going after this and that
and the other thing. And Christ comes and he speaks
again and he says, come to me, come to me. And he draws you
to it and he says, now sit down and listen. And he teaches you
in your heart that he's your home, that he's your home. He's
y'all and he says to us these promises are all yes and amen
in him. They're fulfilled in him in him
in him This was David's salvation. This was David's hope right there
at the end when David had gone through his whole life He said
he summed the whole thing up with these words right here He
said although my house be not so with God. It's not so in Israel. Look around the kingdom It's
it's not this way in the kingdom He said, yet hath he made with
me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things. That means he
dotted every I and he crossed every T in this covenant. We're
about to drink this wine. He said, this is to remember
the New Testament in my blood. Ordered in all things, and sure,
because it's on Christ that foundation. He finished the work, finished
the work. And he said, this is all my salvation. Who's he talking about? He's
talking about Christ. He said, this is all my desire.
Christ. Though he's not making it to
grow. I'm about to leave. I'm about to die. It's about
to be not only the end of the year for me, it's about to be
the end of my life, David said. He said, but this is my salvation.
This is my desire right here. To be with Christ. God says,
come ye to the waters. Come to Christ, the fountain
of living water. Come without money, come without price. How
do I do that? He said, incline your ear, hear
my word, hear my preaching, hear my gospel. Come unto me, hear,
and your soul shall live. Come and eat, come and believe,
trust him, cast it all on him. And I will make an everlasting
covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David. And I'll tell you what, when
He does this, He keeps renewing His promise to you, keeps showing
you this over and over and over. Whatever you can face the New
Year saying, whatever it beholds, whatever it holds, I know He's
holding it. And He's holding me. And He's
made His promise. And this is all my salvation. I'm in His hand. In His hand. I want you to get an education.
I want you to have good things and enjoy life and what have
you. Give yourself to this gospel,
to hear Christ speak. Seek him diligently. Like this is not only this, like
this is the end right here. You got a week left. Seek him
diligently. He says you'll find him. You
search for me with all your heart, you'll find me. All right, let's
remember him. Brother Ravi, Brother Adam.