Have your Bibles this morning. If you would, please turn to
Isaiah 55. The title of today's lesson is
God's Free Gift of Grace. The text will be verses one through
three. What is grace? Grace is God giving
his people what they don't deserve. And what did he give us? He gave
us the unspeakable gift, the precious lamb of God, our Lord
and our Savior, Jesus Christ. And Isaiah 53 is our Savior's
sin offering. Verses 4 and 5 says, surely he
hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we did exteem
him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded
for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities, and
the chastisement of our peace was upon him. and with his stripes
we are healed. His sacrifice for sin is our
atonement. He became a substitute, and his
blood sacrifice is our justification. Isaiah 54 speaks of our Savior's
promises, and these promises are to his people. If you look
just above 55 at verse 17, The Word of God says, and speaking
to his people, no weapon that is formed against thee shall
prosper. And every ton that shall rise
against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage
of the servants of the Lord. And listen to this, their righteousness
is of me. Our Lord's perfect obedience
to his father is our righteousness. In Romans 8, God's word says,
if God be for us, who can be against us? It also says, who
shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that
justifies. And then it says, who is he that
condemneth? It is Christ that died. His righteousness
sanctifies and his blood justifies. And then in chapter 55 is our
Savior's call, the call of free grace. And these words in chapter
55 are the words of our living God. If you would, let's read chapter
55. He says, ho, every one that thirsteth,
come ye to the waters. And he that hath no money, come
ye, buy and eat. Ye, come, buy 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
satisfy not. Hearken diligently unto me, and
eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself
in fatness. Incline your ear in coming to
me. Here in your soul shall live. And I will make an everlasting
covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David. Behold, I have
given him for a witness to the people, a leader and commander
to the people. He's speaking of Christ here.
Behold, thou shall call a nation that thou knowest not, and nations
that knew not thee shall run unto thee because of the Lord
thy God. for the holy one of Israel, for
he hath glorified thee. The Bible tells his people, seek
ye the Lord while he may be found. Call ye upon him while he is
near. Let the wicked forsake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts. And let him return unto the Lord,
and he will have mercy upon him. and to our God, for he will abundantly
pardon. He goes on to say, for my thoughts
are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith
the Lord. For as the heavens are higher
than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my
thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain cometh down,
and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth
the earth, and maketh it bring forth, and bud, that it may give
seed to the sower, and bread to the eater, so shall my word
be that go forth out of my mouth, it shall not return unto me void,
But it shall accomplish that which I please, and it will prosper
in the thing where to I'd send it. For you shall go out with
joy and be led with peace. The mountains and the hills shall
break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field
shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn shall come
up the fir tree, and instead of the briar shall come up to
Myrtle Creek, and it shall be to the Lord for a name, for an
everlasting sign that shall not be cut off. Let's read verse
one here again. He says, ho, as Christ Jesus
our Lord said, everyone that thirsteth, come to the waters,
come ye, buy. Come he that hath no money, come
ye, buy and eat, yea. Come, buy wine and milk without
money and without price. This verse here speaks in a spiritual
sense, not in a physical sense. He's speaking of a spiritual
thirst, a thirst for God, a thirst for his forgiveness, a thirst
for his fellowship, a thirst to win Christ and to be found
in him. And he says everyone, Jew or
Gentile, young or old, male or female. God's word says in Matthew
5, 6, Blessed are they that do hunger and thirst after righteousness,
as Christ Jesus our Lord. Blessed is he that thirsts after
our Lord, for they shall be filled. The Lord said in John 7, if any
man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. Even our brother
David said in Psalm 42, my soul thirsteth for the living God,
God's elect receives the full blessings of God, not only in
the hereafter, but we receive him now. And every day, as his
people, we are to seek the spiritual blessings of Christ. Why is that? Because we are a needed people.
We're a very fragile people. And we need His grace and we
need His mercy every day. And He's always near. Matthew
7, verse 7 says, ask and it shall be given, seek and you shall
find, and knock and it shall be opened unto you. He says,
come to Christ. He is the fountain of life. He
is the bread of life. He is life. Verse one, he says,
come ye into the waters. In other words, come to Christ.
God's word says in Isaiah 118, he says, come now and let us
reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet,
they shall be white as snow. Though they be red like clemson,
they shall be like wool. If you have your Bibles, if you
will, turn over to Matthew 11. And keep your place here. Turn
over to Matthew 11. God's Word is such peace to His
people. You look at verse 28 through
30. Our Lord and Savior said, Coming to me are ye that labor
and are heavy laden. and I will give you rest. He
says, take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and
lowly in heart. And listen to this, you shall
find rest for your souls. That's a promise from our Lord.
For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. He is, as I said, he is the fountain
of life, he is the bread of life. Verse 1, he says, come into the
waters, come to Christ. God's word is absolute truth,
for he is absolute sovereign in providence, salvation, and
creation. And God puts that thirst in us.
It don't come natural for us to want it. It's not in a natural
man to want anything to do with God. All good gifts and all perfect
gifts come from Him. It says here in verse one, in
Isaiah 55, it says that he that hath no money,
the poor and the needed, What does it mean to be poor and needed?
We're nothing but sinners. And the only thing that we all
have to offer to our God is our sin. One preacher said, to have
nothing, to know nothing, and to be nothing is to be poor and
needed. We realize that we have nothing
to bring to God. That salvation is in Christ and
Christ alone. and we must come to Christ on
his terms, not on our terms, but on his terms. The Lord Jehovah
become a man and he redeemed all of the people that God had
placed in him before the beginning of the world. We by our belief
in God's free grace in Christ Jesus and his finished work upon
the cross. We feed and we feast. upon Christ. We need Christ, and we need his
graces, and we need his comforts, whether we realize it or not.
In this world that we live in, we need him each and every day
of our lives. We have nothing within ourselves.
The Bible says that our righteousness is as filthy rags. If you will,
hold your place here and turn to 1 Peter. Please. 1 Peter verse 18. It says in verse 18, For as much as you know that
you were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from
your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers,
but with the precious blood of Christ as a lamb without blemish
and without spot, who verily was ordained before the foundation
of the world, but was manifested in these last times for you,
who by him do believe in God that raised him up from the dead
and gave him glory, that your faith and hope might be in God. Grace is a gift, redemption is
a gift. 1 Corinthians 1.30 says, but
of him, God the Father, are you in Christ Jesus, who of God has
given unto us wisdom and righteousness, sanctification and redemption. It's all in Christ. The book
of James, verse 117, says that every good gift and every perfect
gift comes from God. That's even a gift of repentance.
We are able to repent by the goodness of God. Ephesians 2,
8 and 9, it says, for by grace are you saved through faith and
that not of yourselves. It's a gift from God, not of
ourselves. So we have nothing to boast about. And our text here in verse two,
It says, wherefore do you spend money for that which is not bread,
and your labor for that which satisfy not? Hearken diligently
unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight
of itself in fatness. He says, wherefore do you spend
money for that which is not bread, and your labor which satisfies
not? He's talking about two things
here. He's talking about materialism. He's talking about false religion. If you will, hold your place
here and turn to Luke 12. The Bible says that we're to
set our affection on things above and not on things of this world. Luke 12, verse 15. God's word
says, and we got to always remember that we're very fragile and that
God is absolute sovereign in providence and our days are numbered. And he says here in verse 15,
And he said unto them, take heed and beware of covenants, for
a man's life consists not in the abundance of the things which
he possess. And he spoke a parable unto them,
saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentiful. And he thought within himself,
saying, What shall I do? Because I have no room where
to bestow my fruit, foods. And he said, this will I do. I will pull down my barn and
build greater, and there will I bestow all my fruits and my
goods. And I will say to my soul, so
thou hath much goods laid up for many years, take thy ease,
eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool,
this night thy soul shall be required of thee. Then whom shall
these saints be which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth
up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God. We must remember that our lives
are in the hands of Christ, that we are his bride, And we are
not our own. The Bible says that we were bought
with a price and that he is our Lord. And also the people that Christ
is talking about here is people that are in false religion. It
says back in the council halls of eternity that God chose a
people for his son. And through sanctification of
the spirit and belief of the truth, They were placed in Christ
Jesus. Christ said, when I walked on
this earth, incarnate in the flesh, when I come to this earth
as a representative, as for my people, but the Bible says, for
in Adam all died, and in Christ we were made alive. Christ Jesus,
our Lord, out of a perfect righteousness, fulfilled all righteousness,
and he imputed that righteousness into his people. All the glorious
redemptive work of God is in Christ Jesus and in him alone. So many people are relying on
their works for salvation. They know about him, but they
don't know him. I heard a preacher say one time,
if it's 99% grace and 1% works, it's useless. God said, I will
not share my glory with no one. Salvation is of the Lord. Our
Lord said that they have eyes, but they don't see. They don't
see the glory of Christ. They don't see the power and
the wisdom of God in Christ. His perfect obedience is our
righteousness. His sacrifice for sin is our
atonement. His blood sacrifice is our justification. It's all in Christ Jesus, our
Lord. All right, let's ask this question.
What should we do to do the works of God? The Bible tells us in
John 6. If you would, hold your place
and look over at John 6. Verse 28. God's word says in John 6 verse
28, Ben said then to him, they was curious, what should we do
that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered and said
unto them, now listen to this closely, this is the work of
God that you believe on him whom he hath sent. Turn back to Isaiah
55. To believe, to believe on him
whom God hath sent. That word belief is more than
head knowledge. It's heart knowledge. It's to
believe and to trust and to rely and to rest upon Christ Jesus
in the human lung. Psalms 35, 5-11. If you will,
turn there. 36, verse 5-11. In Isaiah 55, he said, listen
diligently. He's saying, listen carefully
to what I've got to say. Go after food that is for the
soul, not the food that is for, you know, the things that we
see are only temporary. Life is like a vapor. It lasts
for a little while and it's gone. But the things that we don't
see, they're eternal. And then in Psalm 36, look at
verse five. Thy mercy, O Lord, is in the
heavens, and Thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds. Thy
righteousness is like the great mountain. Thy judgments are a
great deep, O Lord. Thou preservest man and beast. How excellent is Thy lovingkindness,
O God! Wherefore the children of men
put their trust under the shadow of Thy wings. Thou shalt be abundantly
satisfied with the fatness of thy house, and thou shalt make
them drink of the river of thy pleasures, for which thee is
the fountain of life. In thy light shall we see light. O, continue thy lovingkindness
unto them that know thee, and thy righteousness to the upright
in heart. Let not the foot of pride come
against me, and let not the hand of the wicked remove. We need
to feed upon Christ, our spiritual food, each and every day of our
lives. The Bible says in Romans 10,
9 and 10, if I shall confess with thy mouth for Lord Jesus
and believe in thy heart that God hath raised him from the
dead, thou shalt be saved. We'll turn back to Isaiah 55,
and it says here in verse three, he says to incline your ear and
come unto me. Here in your social live, and
I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies
of David. He says to incline your ear.
You know, there's only two kind of people in this world, safe
sinners and lost sinners. You know, we're all sinners.
We have two natures. The body is fed through the mouth
and the soul is fed through the ear. That's why it's so important
that we hear the word of God preached every chance that we
get. It's important that we read the word because that's God speaking
to his people. That's God speaking to his people.
You know, it says that As God has led, we need to thank God
every day for His compassion and His grace. Why is that? It's
because He shows us His grace. He shows it to us every day,
His mercy every day. Psalm 92, 1 and 2 says, It is
a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, and to sing praises
unto thy name on most high, to show forth our loving kindness
in the morning and our faithfulness every night. He does that for
His elect. And as I say, we need to hear
His Word and we need to keep on hearing His Word. I heard
a preacher say one time, he said, he said, I was looking to Jesus
yesterday. I was looking to Jesus today.
I'll be looking to Jesus tomorrow, Christ Jesus, our Lord. And he
said, I'll be looking to Christ when I leave this world and go
to be with Him. I'll still be looking to Christ. Verse three, it says, incline
your ear in coming to me here in your social live, and I will
make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies
of David. He says here that I'll make an
everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.
Here, David actually is the Lord Jesus Christ. And he's talking
about the everlasting covenant of grace that he has given his
people when he placed Christ Jesus. whenever he placed Christ and
his people in Christ before the foundation of the world. Isaiah
54, 10 says, there's so many promises in this word. That's
why it's so important. You know, in the world that we
live in, we're so fragile and we don't know what we're gonna
face from one day to the next. And there's so many promises
to his people that is in this word. And this word is absolute
truth. And he says, I will do all my
will, and none can stay my hand, or say what do if I fall. But in Isaiah 54 10, he says,
and listen to this, he's talking to his people, to his elect. He says, for the mountains shall
depart, and the hills be removed, but by my kindness, My kindness
shall not depart from thee, neither shall thou covenant of my peace
be removed, saith the Lord, to have mercy on thee. His mercy
is from everlasting to everlasting, and his love is our everlasting
hope. And I thank God for his word.
I'm finished.