Alright, brethren, let's turn
to Isaiah chapter 55. Now, in Isaiah 55, God calls
thirsty sinners, hungry sinners, needy sinners, come to Christ,
the fountain of living waters. And he said this, he said that
when you come to Christ, he said, verse 3, your soul shall live. And he said, and I'll make an
everlasting covenant with you, even the sheer mercies of David. Now what assurance do we have
that God's able to make the soul of a dead sinner live? He said,
I'll make your soul live. How do I know God's going to
be able to make a dead sinner live? And how do I know that
He can make a covenant with me that's everlasting? And to make
a covenant with me that's sure? Those are reasonable questions.
Faith's not just blind. I mean, God teaches us. Do you
want to know the answer to those questions? Our text gives us
the answer. Then the Lord said something
else in verse 5. Before we get to our text, I
want you to see this. God declares that when Christ
calls His people out of every nation, He said in verse 5, He
said this will be the result. He said nations that knew not
Thee shall run unto Thee. He said when Christ calls His
people and scattered throughout the nation. They're going to
run to Him. Now, I'm interested in that as a preacher. You should
be interested in that as a witness of Christ, as somebody that's
called on to support the Gospel and to further this Gospel. How do we know that when Christ
speaks through the Word of the Gospel, sinners are going to
run to Him? They're going to come to Him?
What assurance do we have that that's going to happen? Here's
the answer, Isaiah 55 verse 10. For, because, as the rain cometh
down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but
watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth in bud, that it
may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater, so shall
my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth. It shall not return
unto me void. But it shall accomplish that
which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto
I sent it. I was so excited to preach this
because when I got to looking at the two texts this week in
Ephesians 4 and here, they both were dealing with the Word, speaking
the Word. And I thought they'd go so well
together because the first message was telling us to speak the good
word. Speak that which is edifying. Speak that which will minister
grace. And this word gives us assurance why God is able to
bless it. And he tells us here the way
that we can be sure that God's going to make good on every promise
and He's going to bless His word is because God's word never returns
to Him void. It always accomplishes His purpose. It always prospers in the thing
where to He sent it. I'm going to preach a message
to you this morning. Some of you are going to walk
out of here rejoicing in your heart. Some of you are going
to walk out of here cursing God. And God's Word is going to accomplish
exactly what God would have it to accomplish in both. Exactly. It's not going to return to him
void. Not a word. You're going to be left, you're
going to be moved by this word. You're not going to leave out
of here neutral. No sir. Nobody. It's not going to return
to him void. To illustrate this truth, God
made the rain and the snow. Now, I've told you before that
the rain and the snow and God's creation, it does not accidentally
illustrate God's working. The Scripture says that when
God, when Christ created everything, He says He created it for Him.
And He's before all things and all things consist that in all
things He might have the preeminence. They were made to glorify Him.
And so God made the rain and the snow and their sovereign
working that He works through the rain and the snow to show
us an illustration of how He works in His Word. Everything
is made that way. That's why it says at the end
of the chapter, when a man believes God, he says there the mountains
and the hills are going to break before break forth before Him
into singing. You're going to start seeing
Christ glorified into all of creation then because He made
it all to glorify Him in some way or another. So, here's the
first thing. As the rain and snow come down
from above, they come from heaven. Likewise, God's Word comes down
from above. It comes from God. He says in
verse 10, the rain cometh down and the snow from heaven. Verse
11, he says, So shall my word be. It goes forth out of my mouth,
God said. The rain and snow come from God
above. That's where they come from.
Psalm 104.13 says, He watereth the hills from his chambers. The earth is satisfied with the
fruit of thy works. Job 37.6 says, He says to the
snow, Be thou on the earth. Likewise to the small rain and
to the great rain of His strength. He says rain and it rains. He
says snow and it snows. He made it. He made it. And that's
the truth of God's Word. All God's Word comes from God
above to His people. This book right here, this written
Word is the message from God to His people. That's what it
is. If somebody says, I don't believe
this word of God. It ain't to you. It's to God's people. It's to God's people. It's to
those he brings to believe him. That's who this word's to. He
said, it's my word out of my mouth. Prophecy came not in old
time by the will of man. Men didn't sit down and write
this. You think about it. Sixty something writers over
a period of thousands of years, some rich, some poor, men that
didn't even know each other, and they all wrote something
about Christ. And when you put it together,
it all goes together. Take me 60 different men that don't know
each other, in different rooms, in different places, from different
stations in life, and let them all strike one note on a piano
at the same time. And let's see if it's a beautiful
song. I bet it won't be. But this is. Because behind it all, there
is a great orchestra leader, band leader. And that's God.
And He's doing. He wrote this book and it all
glorifies Christ. Every bit of it. The only reason
men don't rejoice in the book is because they don't understand
the book. They don't understand the book. This book declares
who God is. It declares things about God
that never would have entered into the heart of a man. And
this book declares that all men are totally depraved. And no
man would have ever wrote that he was totally depraved and this
whole world was too. There's not a man anywhere that'll
even confess that unless God makes it known in his heart. And so this book wasn't written
by men. This book was written by God. God wrote it. The holy
men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, the
Scripture said. And likewise, it's God who sends
the Gospel to His child. He sends His doctrine to His
child. It comes from God. In Deuteronomy
31, 32, He says, Give ear and hear, O heavens, and I'll speak. And hear, O earth, the words
of My mouth. My doctrine shall drop as the
rain, My speech shall distill as the dew, and as the small
rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers, the heavy downpour
upon the grass. The tender herb is that new man
He creates within. And His Word comes softly and
edifies that new man just like the dew comes down softly on
the tender herb. But you know what Scripture says
flesh is? It's grass. And while the gospel is edifying
our inward man, when it rains real hard, you ever seen a real
hard rain? You ever seen what grass does in a real hard rain?
It lays flat. It lays down flat. And this word
comes like a shower to our flesh. And so while it's edifying the
inward man, it's mortifying the outward, the fleshly man. That's
what the gospel does. And likewise, Christ is the word. And Christ came down from heaven.
He came down from God. We read that scripture this morning.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and
the Word was God. And the Word was made flesh and
dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the
only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Now,
so we have the written Word from God, we have the Word that He
sends. If He blesses the Word, it's
going to be out of His mouth, blessed into your heart through
the preaching of this Gospel. He does that, and then Christ
the Word, the eternal Word, He came down. That's the first thing.
Just like the rain, it comes from God. Now here's the second
thing. Just as the rain and snow always
accomplish God's purpose, God's Word always accomplishes His
purpose. He says in verse 10, The rain
cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither,
but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth in blood. Verse
11, So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth.
It shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that
which I please. The rain and the snow come, men
murmur. Oh, we haven't seen so much snow
in Omaha. I wish it wouldn't snow like
this. And it evaporates. And men murmur. Oh, it's so dry. I wish we'd get some rain. I
don't know when we're going to get some rain. As if the snow and the
rain didn't accomplish exactly what God sent it for. He said every drop, every snowflake
accomplishes God's purpose. They water the earth. They make
it bring forth in blood. Now, the same is true of Christ
the Word. Of Christ the Word. He came down. He came from heaven. And now
He's returned to God. But He didn't return before He
accomplished the purpose for which God sent Him. He accomplished
what God sent Him to accomplish. Turn over to Daniel chapter 9.
I'm going to show you what Christ accomplished. Daniel 9, verse 24. 70 weeks are determined upon thy
people and upon thy holy city. He told exactly when Christ was
coming. This is what he's talking about,
when Christ would come. And he told here who Christ was
coming for. He says, 70 weeks are determined
upon thy people. That's who Christ came for. Upon
thy holy city. God's elect people make up God's
holy city. His new Jerusalem. That's who
Christ came for. He said, I laid down my life
for the sheep. That's declaring, brother. Here's
why we specify that. I'm declaring to you that when
Christ purchased the gift of eternal life, He didn't just
purchase a gift and stick it on a shelf like some person with
no sense and say, I hope somebody comes and gets this. He purchased
it for somebody. He purchased it for somebody.
He bought it for somebody. Because there was a work that
had to be done in particular for each and every one for whom
He died. This work had to be done for
them. Alright, here's what He did. It says, He's going to do
this for thy people upon thy holy city. He's going to finish
the transgression. Christ finished the transgression
of His people. And He did so, so that God never
again sees transgressions in His people. That's good news. I'm not saying He made it possible.
I'm saying He did it. It doesn't say here He's coming
to make it possible that transgressions can be finished. He comes to
finish transgressions. And that's what He did. Look
here. It says to make an end of sin. Christ made an end of
sins for His people. Hebrews 1.3 says, When He had
by Himself purged our sins, He sat down at the right hand of
God. God, when He comes and He makes a everlasting covenant
in the heart, Hebrews 10 says, He speaks through the Holy Spirit
in the heart and He says, By His one offering, He has perfected
forever them that are sanctified. And He says, and God says now,
where remission of your sins is, there's no more offering
for sin. He says, I remember your sins
no more. They're gone. They're removed
as far as the east is from the west. That's what Christ did
by Himself on Calvary's tree. He says here, He came to make
reconciliation for iniquity. We were the enemies of God. We
sinned in Adam. We were separated from God. We
were God's enemy. He came to do everything necessary
to reconcile His people to God. To be the man representing His
people so that everything He did, God would be pleased with
and they would be reconciled friends. That means Christ came,
He had to purge our sin, He had to make atonement for our sin,
He had to satisfy the law and the justice of God for His people,
He had to make full restitution for God above and beyond what
we robbed God of. And Christ did that. He accomplished
that. Romans 5.10 says, If when we
were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son,
much more being now reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.
If He did that for us when we were enemies, now that His people
are friends, we'll certainly be saved by Him. He reconciled
us to God. And then it says here, He came
to bring in everlasting righteousness for His people. That's what he
did. By his obedience, being formed
in the womb of the virgin in holy perfection, without sin,
unlike anybody else that's born of Adam. He was holy from the
womb. He came forth from the womb speaking truth, doing truth,
accomplishing truth, establishing truth. He did it all his days,
made under the law, made of a woman, establishing the law for his
people, establishing a perfect righteousness before God. And
then He went to the cross and He took all our sins, wherein
we disobeyed righteousness, and He put away our sins, so that
in precept and penalty His people have satisfied the whole law
of God, so that the law of God has nothing whatsoever to say
to us but, well done, my good and faithful servant. You have
done the law perfectly. That's a just and righteous man.
That's what Christ accomplished for His people. And then it says
here, He came to seal up the vision and the prophecy. This
what we're reading is a prophecy. This is a vision we're reading
right here. And He sealed it up. He did everything that's
written right here. And all the prophets spoke of Him. He said,
they all speak of Me. And everything that's written
in this book is declaring Christ and what He would accomplish.
And He sealed it up. He accomplished everything written
in this book concerning Him. He fulfilled the ceremonies of
the Law. He fulfilled the whole Law. And He fulfilled the prophets.
And it says here, and to anoint the Most Holy. I read to you
this morning where he said, the Spirit of God has anointed me
to preach glad tidings. He was anointed. As God the Son,
he didn't need to be anointed. He's God the Son. But as a man,
he needed to be anointed. So the Holy Spirit was poured
out upon him, and he is the Most Holy. And not only that, but
now, He's risen and He's entered into the holiest of holies, which
was pictured by that Old Testament holiest of holies. He's entered
into the real holiest of holies, not made with hands, into the
presence of God to represent His people there to God without
spot and blameless, to make intercession for us. He's entered in. He's
anointed the most holy. This is what Christ accomplished.
When He said in John 17, 17-4, He said to the Father, I've glorified
Thee on the earth, I have finished the work which thou gavest me
to do." This is what he was talking about. When he said from the
cross, it is finished. This whole work that God gave
him to do was completed. It was finished. It was accomplished. So sinner, this is why God can
say in no uncertain terms, He can say in verse 7, Let the wicked
forsake his way. Look at Isaiah 55 and look at
verse 7. He can say this. Let the wicked
forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him
return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy on him. And to
our God, for He will abundantly pardon." The way he can say that
is because Christ did not fail. Christ accomplished the redemption
of His people and He secured pardon for His people so that
When He makes this word effectual and His people come to Him, they
will receive mercy, they will receive pardon. They certainly
will, because Christ is the way. So you can be certain, because
Christ the Word did not fail, you can be certain that all the
promises of God are in Him, yes, and in Him, amen, to the praise
of the glory of God, every one of them, because He did not fail.
Somebody will say, well, now I've got to decide if I'm going
to come to Him. Now, wait a minute. The same is true of the Gospel
being preached. The same is true. Christ calls
His people through the Gospel. Back up there in verse 5. He
said, Nations that knew not thee shall run unto thee because of
the Lord thy God and for the Holy One of Israel, for He hath
glorified thee. because God raised Christ from
the dead and glorified Him, giving Him all power in heaven and earth,
making Him head over all things to the church to fill all in
all. That's what God did. And because
He did that, when Christ calls through this Gospel and speaks
into the heart, there is a sure and certain result every time. God's Word does not return void.
It accomplishes the thing where to God sent it. What does it
accomplish? Well, just like the rain, he says there in Isaiah
55.10, he says, The rain watereth the earth, and so does Christ
the Word. When He sends forth the Word,
He waters the earth. We're made out of the earth.
We're earthy. As the first man was earthy,
we're earthy. We're earthy. But we come forth dry, barren
earth. That's what we are. We got no
life in us. We can't bring forth life. We're dry ground. And just
like that dry ground out there, it's useless without rain. The
ground is useless without rain. There's planets that God made
where they don't have rain. And it's just a dry rock. That's
all it is. Nothing grows there. The dead
sinner is useless without the Word entering into his heart,
without Christ the Word formed in the heart. He's useless. You're
a lifeless, dead, void thing. Can't come to God, can't jump,
can't do anything to please God. Nothing. But the Lord promises
His people this. Look at Isaiah 58 and verse 11. The Lord shall guide thee continually,
and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones, and thou
shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water whose
waters fell not. Turn over to Hosea chapter 6.
I want you to see this. Hosea 6. It's right after Daniel. Hosea
chapter 6. You know a farmer can plow. A
farmer can plow hard ground. And you can work hard ground.
And the more you work it, the drier it gets and the harder
it gets. You're not going to make it fertile. You can work it all you want
to. Without water, it's not going to be fertile. And a dead center
is the same way. You can bring him into religion.
You can work him as much as you want to work him. And all you're
doing is making him drier and harder. You're not doing anything.
It takes God sending the Word to make him have some life there,
to be watered. Look here. This is how God describes
the coming of Christ the Word into the heart of His child through
the preaching of the Word. Hosea 6, verse 3. He says, Then
shall we know, if the Word should be as, because this Word is effectual. Then shall we know as we follow
on to know the Lord, His going forth is prepared as the morning. We are going to know this as
we follow the Lord. This is what we are going to
find out. His going forth is prepared as the morning. Christ
the Word comes into the heart like the dawning of day after
a long dark night. You know you sit there and it
is dark and all of a sudden you look and all of a sudden you
see it is starting to get light. It was just dark a minute ago.
Now it's starting to get light. That's how this word comes. You
don't have any light. And then all of a sudden you
start having some light. Just like the morning. It comes as
irresistibly as morning light. Can you stop the morning light?
You can't stop this either. And it comes growing and increasing
like the morning light. And it gets brighter and brighter
and brighter. Look at verse 4 again. Verse
4, he says... I'm sorry, verse 3. He says, "...and He shall come
unto us as the rain." Just like He's using the rain back in our
day. He'll come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former
rain unto the earth. Israel had two rains in their
year, during the year. They had one that came right
after the seed was sown. And they had another one that
came right before it was time to harvest. When did Christ come
the first time? Remember when He came the first
time? What did He do before He came the first time? He sent
John the Baptist preaching the gospel. Well, what I'm doing
here today is I'm preaching the gospel. I'm planting the seed.
He has to plant it. I can't. But I'm sowing the seeds. That's what I'm doing. And He
comes as soon as the seed is sown. Like that early rain, He
comes and He waters that dry ground and gives life. And He's
going to come again right before the harvest. He's coming back
physically before the harvest. But He keeps watering us and
keeps watering us and keeps watering us all the way until the harvest. Now, God says back in our text,
He says this is what else the Word does. It's always effectual. He says it makes the ground bring
forth in bud. Makes it bring forth in bud.
So the word formed in the heart brings forth in buds. It brings
forth life where there was only death. It brings forth faith
to receive the truth and to love it. I've seen this happen. This
has happened to me. It's happened to you, believe.
You hated the gospel. I hated it. I didn't want a thing
to do with it. And then I began to love it.
And it came on. It didn't just happen. It came
gradually. I didn't know what had happened.
It came gradually. This is not like a torrential
downpour that just comes and then stops. This is that slow
rain that sets in and just rains for a long time. That's what
we're talking about here. It brings forth hope in the Lord
Jesus Christ, in His blood, in His obedience, in His salvation.
You begin to find that you have a good hope in Christ. It brings
forth love that cleaves to Christ with the whole heart. He comes
to you like he came to Jacob. There's little Jacob sleeping
and he comes to Jacob and he takes Jacob and he wrestles around
with Jacob a little bit and gets Jacob, you know, juggling around. And Jacob's not prevailing because
Jacob's trying to fight on his own. Jacob's trying to prevail
against God by his strength. And so Christ snapped his leg
out of joint, pinned him down and then he started going away.
And Jacob just lashed on to him and said, Lord, please don't
leave me. Please don't leave me. I can't do anything. You've
knocked my leg out of joint. I can't do a thing for myself.
I need you to bless me. And that's how he prevailed with
God. That's when he prevailed with God when he started begging
for mercy. He quit wrestling with God and started begging
mercy. And Christ made him do that. And He'll make you do that.
He brings forth patience and contentment to endure the afflictions
of this world. And all this gospel fruit is
produced by Christ the Word in the heart. He brings this forth.
When men don't see results immediately, they preach and they preach for
a while, they don't see results immediately, they think God's
gospels return to God void. And so you know what men do?
Men turn to other means and to other methods. You remember whenever
Moses went up into the mount, And the people sat down there
at the bottom of the mountain. They sat there, and they sat
there, and they waited, and they waited, and they waited. And
Moses didn't come down. And they said, make us something. Make us a God we can see. And
he made them a God they could see, and they bowed down and
started to worship it, and had a big old love feast, and pretended
like they were worshiping God. Christ had been gone. He had
been gone. And He said in these last days,
scoffers will come saying everything just going on just like it always
has. So what has religion done? They've got tired of waiting.
They got tired of waiting on Him to make His Word effectual.
And they say, oh, make us something we can see. That'll bring the
people in and that'll bring the people in. Because people like
carnal men that can only see carnal things like carnal things
they can see. Otherwise, men will walk away
from the Church of God going, I don't even know what I'm walking
away from. Y'all don't have nothing. Because it can't see nothing.
Not a drop of rain, not a flake of snow is wasted. It might fall
in a desert somewhere, in a dry desert somewhere, and it accomplishes
God's purpose in a dry desert. Or it may fall somewhere right
here, right where we are. But wherever it falls, it's got
its mission and it accomplishes its mission. And that's the Word,
God's Word. He said, we are unto God. It doesn't matter who else we
are unto, but we are unto God a sweet savor of Christ. What I read to you there at the
end of the message this morning, He said those that spoke often of
Him, there was a book of remembrance written. God listened, He hearkened,
He listened, He delighted in what He heard. He says we're
a sweet savor unto God of Christ Jesus. God likes to hear His
Son preached. He enjoys hearing Christ exalted
because He sent Him to give Him all preeminence. And He says,
We're a sweet saver unto God of Christ in them that are saved
and in them that perish. In them that are saved and in
them that perish. We're going to glorify God either
by being a trophy of His grace or being an object of His divine
wrath and judgment. Either way, we're going to glorify
Him. We're going to glorify His grace and mercy to save or we're
going to glorify His justice to damn. But we're going to glorify
Him. Everybody is. The problem men
have is just like the rain and the snow, the efficacy of this
Word, that which makes it effectual, depends entirely upon the mouth
of God instead of men. That's where the problem men
have with it. He said, My Word shall accomplish
that which I please. And it shall prosper whereunto
I sent it. Whereunto I sent it. Does man
have any control over the rain and the snow? Any control? No. Man arrogantly thinks he does.
Right now, you know, men's talking about global warming and talking
about fixing it. And we think we can do that.
Let me show you something. Turn to Job 38. I'm going to
show you something. Job 38. This is what God said to Job
when Job was having a little bit of trouble. And God came
and talked to him. And this is what He said. Job
38, 22. He said, Has thou entered into
the treasures of the snow? It's the treasuries. He's saying,
Have you entered into the vault where the snow is? Where the
snow is treasured up? Or hast thou seen the treasuries
of the hell, which I have reserved against the time of trouble?
Look at that. God says, I've got plenty of
snow and plenty of hell reserved against the time of trouble. He says, and against the day
of battle and against the day of war. By what way is the light
parted, which scattereth the east wind upon the earth? Who
hath divided a water-course for the overflowing waters, or a
way for the lightning of thunder, to cause it to rain on the earth
where no man is, on the wilderness where there's no man, to satisfy
the desolate and waste ground, and to cause the bud of the tender
herb to spring forth? Hath the reign of Father, Or
who hath begotten the drops of dew? God said. Out of whose womb
came the ice and the hoary frost of heaven? Who hath gendered
it? Verse 37. He says, Who can number the clouds
in wisdom? Or who can stay the bottles of
heaven when the dust groweth into tardness and the clods cleave
fast together? You see, God alone controls the
climate. He controls the rain and the
snow and the hail. And God also comes and He sends
His Word at His appointed time, at His appointed place, and none
can stop it. And none can prevent it. He says
it's going to accomplish and prosper where unto I sent it. Where I sent it. Christ came. When did He come? In the fullness
of time. Satan tried to stop Him from
day one. Whenever God in the garden said, I'm going to put
enmity between you, Satan, and your seed, and I'm going to put
it between her seed, Christ. And from that day forward, Satan
began trying to prevent Christ from coming into the earth. He
did it when he tried to use Mordecai, Haman, to try to kill the Jews.
He did it when he used Herod to try to kill Christ. He did
it several times throughout history. Did He succeed? No. Christ the
Word came at the appointed time just like God said He did and
accomplished what God said He would accomplish. And the same
way, God's Word comes forth at God's appointed time, at God's
appointed place to God's child and He accomplishes the work
in His people. To know God. in spirit and in
truth. You see, you can know this with
a head knowledge and you can know it just in your head and
know some doctrine, but you can't know God in spirit and in truth.
You can't learn Christ in spirit and in truth by your will and
by your works. It can't be done. If you could,
you know who you'd brag on? The same one religion brags on.
Self. Man. And God won't have that.
God alone is the one who can affect this and He does it in
His people. And just like we don't have power
to stop the rain and the snow, we don't have power to stop God
from working this when and where He will. We cannot do that. Free will preachers. You know
what free will preachers are like? Free will preachers are
like rain dancers. They're dancing around trying
to make it do something they got no power to do. They can't
make a man believe God. They can't make a man alive.
They can't make a man be born again. They can't make Christ's
blood effectual. They can't make people be sanctified.
That's the work of God. Don't you want God to have the
glory? That's His work. That's not man's work. Them that
believe on His name were born not of blood, nor of the will
of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. That's what
the Scripture says. It's not of him that willeth
nor of him that runneth. It's of God that shows mercy.
The truth of this gospel is the only word. Now get this. The
truth of the gospel is the only word that God personally sends
where He will and personally accompanies with His divine presence. The Word of God is the only thing
that does that. The wisdom of this world, He
says, it's foolishness with God. But He says, My word shall accomplish
that which I please and shall prosper in the thing where to
I send it. A man can declare his own words, but it's only
God's word that God's going to bless. That's it. And this is
offensive to man. Because you know what this means?
If God's going to send His word where He will and accomplish
what He will, that means man and his little puny will are
on a collision course with God. That's what that means. And God's
going to win. He's going to win. Because He's
going to make all His enemies His footstool. Either in grace
or in justice. But they're all going to bow.
And they're all going to kiss His feet. Everyone. But it gives
His true people great contentment. Great joy. Great assurance. I wouldn't preach the gospel
if it wasn't this way. I wouldn't go through what men
go through. That try to preach. That preach free will and works. I would not do it. I would not
want to depend on me trying to corral and coerce and talk sinners
into staying put and supporting me and paying my salary. I would
not want to do that at all. No, sir. But to know God's doing
it and God is working in His people and God is keeping His
people and whatever God's pleased to do, that's fine with me. That's
great contentment. But we got to wait on God, don't
we? When I was in the eighth grade, for the first time, I
was about, I guess, 13, I built a, I mean, I planted a garden. First time I'd ever planted a
garden. And I tilled the ground, and I got it all prepared, and
I went out and planted the seed, and then I sat back and waited
for it to rain. But I was so impatient. I wanted
to see something pop up out of the ground. So you know what
I did? I went out there, and I dug around in the garden. First
rule of the gardening, don't go out there and dig around in
the seed. I went out there and dug around. But sure enough,
underneath the ground down there, that plant had brought forth.
It had come out of that seed. So I covered it back up, got
out of the way. Some of them didn't come up because I messed
with them. But the rest of them came up. But that's what I'm
saying. Even when you can't see it. Even
when you don't know what God's doing. When God starts His work,
God's working it. He's doing it in the heart. And
you can't see it. The seed's been watered. It's
germinating. It's bringing forth life. And
you can't see it. The person it's happening to
don't even know what's happening. I'm telling you. That's why you
ask most believers, when was it God saved you? I really can't
tell you for sure exactly when it was. Because it happened over
a period of time. And He's still saving me. When
did He save me? This morning? Today? But look here. He says here,
it shall go forth. It shall go forth. Let me find
my place here now. Alright, here's the third thing.
God also says, like the rain and the snow, His Word shall
prosper. It'll prosper. Verse 10. He says,
The rain and snow not only brings forth life, it gives seed to
the sower and bread to the eater. So shall my word be that goes
forth out of the mountain. It shall not return void. Not
only shall it accomplish that which I plead, it'll prosper
in the thing where to I send it. God promises to prosper us
by continually giving us Christ the bread by His gospel. He said,
I'm going to give bread to the eater. Christ said, I am the
bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never
hunger, he'll never thirst. And God, the bread God has to
be eaten. We read this point, let the word
of God dwell in you richly. It's got to be eaten. He said,
except you eat my flesh and drink my blood. That means we got to
believe on Christ. But He gives the faith to do
it. And He gives the strength to do it. And the joy to do it.
And the will to do it. And the desire. My people shall
be willing in the day of my power. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. So believe on Christ. And feed
on Christ. And those who do shall never
hunger and they'll never thirst. He gives you everlasting life.
He gives you everlasting righteousness. Eternal redemption. The gifts
and calling of God are without repentance. So we'll never hunger,
never thirst. We'll have this Gospel. We'll
have His gift. God's Word won't fail us. You know what the Word
does? The Word of Life quickens. The
Divine Word converts us all. The Word of Wisdom makes us wise
unto salvation. Truth is, which is after godliness,
sanctifies. It nourishes us, grows us in
grace. It's a word of consolation, it
comforts. It's a storehouse where we're
throughly furnished unto all good works. The Word is divine
light. It's our guide. The Word is a
spiritual sword. It's that mighty weapon in the
hand of the Holy Spirit that conquers our enemies. And when
the books are opened in the end of the world, we're going to
be judged by the Word of God. He says, you'll never hunger.
That's it, lives and abides forever. And then look what he said. It's
going to prosper because he's going to give seed to the sower.
When the seed comes in in the harvest in the garden, you eat
some of it, but that's not all you do with it. You know what
you do? You save some of it and you sow it next year. That's
how you're going to have a garden next year. Unless you go every
year to the co-op, buy your seed, and then you defeat the purpose
of growing a garden, you're going to waste all your money. You
save your seed, and you plant it next year. And that way, you
keep it going. Keep it going. Well, He gives
this gospel to us, not only to give us life and nourishment,
He gives this gospel to us to sow this word for the calling
out of His lost sheep. He gives it to us. We're to help
the poor. Why? Just so we can help the
poor, so we can preach the gospel to them while we're helping them. We're to help each other, just
to help each other, so we can preach the gospel to each other
while we're helping each other. We're to provide for the furtherance
of the gospel. Just because we want to see the
gospel preached? No, because we want to see people saved through
this gospel. And somebody might say, well,
what I've got is my own. I shouldn't have to cast my seed
and cast my bread upon the waters. How soon will we starve if the
clouds said, well, this water is mine. I shouldn't have to
cast this water on the earth. We'd starve to death. We'd starve
to death. God's Word says this, Ecclesiastes
11.3, if the clouds be full of rain, they empty themselves upon
the earth. Are you full? God made you full? That's what He's done for His
people. He made us full. He promises to keep us full like
the clouds so that we can sow this seed and get the gospel
spread far and wide. He says, He that observeth the
wind shall not sow. And he that regardeth the clouds
shall not reap. If we're always looking at the
clouds and the what if, what if, and no I can't, we won't
ever sow, we won't ever reap. So he says, but as you know not
what the way of the Spirit is, you know not how the bones do
grow in the womb of her that is with child. Even so thou knowest
not the works of God who maketh all. In the morning sow thy seed,
and in the evening withhold not thine hand. For thou knowest
not whether it shall prosper, either this or that, or whether
they both alike shall be good. And someone sowed this word to
us, and it prospered. God made it prosper. Aren't you
glad? Aren't you full? And so sow thy
seed to those in need. God promises this. It shall accomplish
that which I please, it shall prosper in the thing where to
I send it. And if God's given you a heart to sow, I guarantee
you this, if God hasn't given you a heart to sow, and you're
not a cheerful giver, and you don't want to see the word go
forth and all that, then He's not going to provide for you
to do it. You are going to find trouble. But if you are a cheerful
giver, because God has put it in your heart, He has filled
you full, and He made you in your heart want to serve Him
and want to spread this gospel, lay down your life, do without,
whatever you got to do to get this gospel out, then brethren,
I tell you this, He will provide you with everything you need
to do it. I guarantee you that. I guarantee you that. As it is
written, he dispersed abroad, he's given to the poor, his righteousness
remaineth forever. Now he that ministereth seed
to the sower, both ministereth bread for your food, and multiplies
your seed sown, and increases the fruits of your righteousness.
So he says, God's able to make all grace abound towards you,
that you always have in all sufficiency and all things may abound to
every good work. And there's something else, one
last thing I want you to see. In 2 Corinthians 9.11, you don't
have to turn there, but Paul said this, he says, and because
we're enriched in everything by God to all bountifulness,
he says, this sowing of this gospel, this helping the poor
and doing all these things, it causes through us thanksgiving
to God. There's thanks being given to
God. Now look here at our text, Isaiah 55 and look at verse 10.
He says, The rain cometh down in snow from heaven, and returneth
not thither, but it does return. It does return. But He's saying
it waters the earth first. But it does return. The rain
does. It comes down and it goes back
up. It goes back up. And the Word
is the same way. God's Word goes back. He sends
His Word into the heart of His child. And it goes back. But
it doesn't go back in the same form. The snow don't go back
as snow and the rain don't go back as rain. And it doesn't
go back in the same form. You know how it goes back to
Him? Thanksgiving and praise. and gratitude and service to
Him. That's how the Word goes back
to Him. It returns to Him. But before it does that, it always
accomplishes what He sent it to accomplish and makes it prosperous. So sinner, you can be sure every
Word of God is certain. And you can be sure, believer,
that as you drive your vehicle with 300,000 miles on it because
you want to save your money so you can support the gospel, whatever
it is you're doing, I guarantee that God will provide for you
because He's going to make this world prosperous. Amen.