Now here in Isaiah 55, I titled
this message, The Call of God to Sinners. I love that. When I need comfort, when I need
some comfort, Chapters like Isaiah 55, chapters like Isaiah 53,
chapters like Isaiah 40, it says, Comfort ye, comfort ye my people,
saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem. Tell her her warfare is ended,
and I've given her double for all her sins, double grace, double
mercies. A sinner like myself needs comfort,
needs God's Word. Now, I started the title of this,
the gospel is not for everyone. It's not for everyone. The gospel
is for sinners, it's for thirsty sinners, it's for hungry sinners,
it's for weary sinners, it's for those who are laboring and
heavy laden with sin. That's who it's for. Christ says
this in Matthew 11, 28, "'Come unto me, all you that labor and
heavy laden, I'll give you rest.'" That gives me comfort. That gives
this sinner comfort. Because the Lord said, I can
come. Spurgeon said this, he said, every call, every call
of the gospel, every promise of the gospel has a condition
to it. It has a condition. Every promise,
every call of God has a condition to it. What's the condition here?
Thirsty. You have to be thirsty. And it takes the power of God
to bring a sinner to thirst after God, to thirst after righteousness.
It takes the power of God to bring a sinner to faith and repentance. You know, it's in us naturally
not to believe. There's a natural enmity in us
not to believe God. There's a natural enmity in us
to war against God. We're born with it. We're born
with it. I can remember well a time that
God was the last thing I thought of. He was the last thing I was
interested in. A relationship with God was the
last thing I had any interest in until he arrested me, until
he made me thirsty. till He made me hungry." It takes
God, it takes the power of God to create faith and repentance. A sinner left to themselves will
never thirst after God, never hunger after righteousness. That's
why the Word of God says salvation is of the Lord. It's of the Lord
from beginning to end. He has to save me. I'll not have
anything to do with Him if He doesn't. Now he says here in
verse 1, Ho, everyone that thirsteth. Now, first thing, let me say
this. Throughout this whole chapter, right here at 55, this is God
speaking. This is not God speaking to Isaiah. He's not saying, Son of man,
write this, even though he used Isaiah to write it. This is God
Himself. This is the Lord Jesus Christ,
right here in the Old Testament, speaking Himself. He's speaking.
And that's why he says, "...ho, everyone that thirsteth." And
what he's saying here is, stop, look, and listen. The Lord's
speaking, and He's speaking to a particular people. He's speaking
to those who are thirsty. Thirsty. He's speaking to the
thirsty and to the hungry. If I'm not thirsty, listen, if
I'm not thirsty, He's not speaking to me. He's not speaking to me. If I'm not thirsty, if I'm not
hungry, He's not speaking to me. He's speaking to the thirsty. If I'm not laboring, heavy laden
under sin, He's not speaking to me. He's speaking to a thirsty,
hungry, heavy laden people. We must not apply the gospel
to people who do not fit the description. Someone said once,
and I've never forgot this, I believe it was Henry said this, he said,
in order to lay hold of a promise, you must fit the description
of the person described in the promise. You can't just lay hold
of a promise. You must fit the description
of that person. in the promise. And that's what
the Lord said, coming to me all you laboring, heavy laden, I'll
give you rest. There's a promise of rest. But that promise of
rest is not to everyone. That promise of rest is to a
laboring, to a heavy laden people. That's who it's to. Listen to
what David said in Psalm 42. As the heart panteth after the
water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth
for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear
before God? This kind of thirst is the work
of God, and no one can quench this thirst but God. No one but
God can quench it. And be very thankful if you have
it, because few have it. I mean, few have the thirst for
God. You know that on Sunday mornings, whenever we all get
back together, all the empty seats that are here, that tells
you not many are thirsty. Not many are thirsting after
God. And then listen to this. When
he's talking about this thirst here, oh everyone that's thirsty,
it's a thirst to know God. Man wants to know everything
in the world. He seeks outer space. He seeks the depths of
the ocean. But the one thing he does not
seek, to know God. He does not seek to know God.
God said he looked down from heaven. to see if any did seek
Him, if any did understand. And he said there's none, none.
Absolutely none sought after Him, and none did understand.
He said they've all gone their own way, they've all become together
filthy. That's what he said. That's the
human race. That's the way God sees the human
race. And the way God sees it is exactly the way it is. That's
exactly the way it is. There is a natural thirst in
man that he cannot quench. When Adam fell, he left his children
thirsty. When Adam fell, he lost the way
to God, the life of God, and the truth of God. He lost that.
And he left this human race thirsty. Thirsty. That's why man pursues
many vanities trying to satisfy his thirst, only to find out
that these things just make him thirstier. They just make him
thirstier. Man pursues false religion trying
to satisfy his thirst, but it only leaves him thirstier. It
doesn't satisfy. The only thing that can satisfy
a soul, I mean really satisfy, is God who made it. It's God
who made it. He's the only one who can truly
satisfy. In John chapter 4, you remember
the woman at the well. The Lord's speaking to her and
it says, Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh
of this water shall thirst again. He's talking about that water
in the well, but that water in the well represented this life.
He said, "...whoever drinks of this water will thirst again,
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." The
water that He gives is Himself. Christ is the water of life. He said, any man that drinks
of this water, this water of life, which is Christ, will never
thirst again. When God creates spiritual life
in a sinner, for the first time that sinner begins to thirst
after God, to thirst after forgiveness, to thirst after righteousness,
to thirst to be right with God. I remember that. I remember when
I was 23 years old. When I heard the gospel, and
I heard the gospel in power, and I heard it from my pastor,
Henry, and for the first time in my life, 23 years, I became
thirsty for God. I became thirsty to know God,
to be forgiven, to know what forgiveness was, to know it,
to be pardoned, and to be right with God. That's what, to be
righteous, to be right with God. And then this thirst, as I just
mentioned, is a thirst for God's favor. If God be for me, the Scripture
says, who can be against me? If I have God's favor, who can
be against me? No one. Well, it doesn't matter
who's against me. There's a lot that are against
me. Satan's against me. The world's against all of God's
children. They're against the believer.
The world's against us. But does it really matter if God be for
me? It doesn't matter who's against
me. It doesn't matter. Then there's that thirst for
reconciliation. To be a friend of God. God called Abraham a
friend. He called him a friend. To be called the friend of God. A real thirst for reconciliation.
And then there's a thirst, a thirst, and I know this, for
the power of sin to be broken. And it's not my master anymore.
Sin is very powerful. It's very powerful. It's like a master when he whistles
for his dog and it comes running to him. Like the alcoholic who
says, I'm not going to drink anymore, I'm going to straighten
up, and he'll go for a few days, a few weeks, maybe a few months.
And then when it whistles, he falls right back into it. Sin's
powerful. It's too powerful for me. I've
learned that. Too powerful. There's a thirst to be freed
from this cruel master. We read in Romans 6.14 for sin. shall not have dominion over
you." Sin is not your master anymore. Christ is my master. Christ is my master. Sin is not
my master. Satan is not my master. Christ
is my master. For you're not under the law,
you're under the grace of God. You're under grace. I know that
believers sin far more than they would, They would not send it
off. Possible, would you? You wouldn't
send it off. It's possible. I wouldn't. I
wouldn't to God I wouldn't send, but I do. I do. And I will till
I die. But thank God for Jesus Christ
because He's put away all my sins. They're gone. That's what
it means. To be saved by the grace of God
means that all my sins are gone. They don't exist no more. Before
God, I stand as pure and as holy as God Almighty's Son. I stand
as pure and holy as He is, because He put them away. They don't
exist no more. My sins are not put away because
I quit this or I quit that, I do this, I don't do that. No, they're
put away because the blood of Christ put them away. They're
gone. They don't exist. That's what
justification is. You know, justification is this,
there's nothing on the books against me. There are some things
that I know about myself. And I'll always know them. But
I tell you this, there's nothing on the books. I told you that
story one time. I believe I told you the story
of Henry. He ran a stop sign when he was a young man in school. He ran a stop sign. He hit a
car. It just broadside him. And then
he went, they had to go to court. And he asked his dad if he'd
go to court with him. And then when he went to court, he was
nervous. You know, he didn't know what
was going to happen. Then when he got to court, everybody
that was there, you know, went before the judge, went before
the judge, and the judge said, what are you all here for? And Henry told him, he said,
well, there's nothing on the books. No police officer showed up.
The people he hit didn't show up. Nobody showed up. There's
nothing on the books. He said, you're free to go. You're
free to go. You know, Henry, I hit him. I
knew I hit him. He was looking for trouble, but
there's nothing on the books. Yeah, it said nothing on the
books. That's justification. There's
nothing on the books. Nothing. That's what it is to
be justified. We are not saved by what we feel. If so, we wouldn't be saved. We never feel saved. You feel like, you say, why did
I say that? Why did I do that? Why did I
think that? We're not saved by what we feel. We're saved by
who we believe. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt
be saved." Then he says here, come ye to the waters. What's
that? Waters of mercy, waters of grace. It's full, it's rich, it's full. Who may come? He says, anyone
who's thirsty. In John 7, 37, it says, In the
last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and he cried
saying, if any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink, if
he's thirsty. And you know, they was up there
for that feast. It was a religious ceremony going on. And the Lord
knew that the people came up there wasn't getting anything.
He knew that. And he stood up, he said, before
they left, he said, if any of you thirsty, come to me. You're
not gonna get anything out there. You're not gonna get anything
in the ceremonies. You come to me, I'm the water of life. I
am. The gospel does away with all
distinctions. In Christ, we're all the same. He says in Colossians 3, where
there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision,
barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free, but Christ is all and in
all. If a person dies of thirst, standing
by a clear crystal stream of water. Whose fault is it? Whose
fault is it? It's their fault. Listen. The Lord Jesus Christ does not
keep a sinner from drinking of Him. He doesn't do that. It's the sinner who will not
drink of Him. Men go to hell because they will not. Listen
to what the Lord said in John 5.40, And you will not come to
Me that you might have life. You will not come to Me that
you might have life. And notice to whom He's speaking
here. He's this thirsty and listen, He that hath no money, He that
hath no money, I'm glad he didn't say, he that's six foot tall
and above, come to me. I'd be a goner. I'd never be
able to come, never. But he said, he that has no money,
I tell you, you can take anybody on this earth and they can go
broke. Not everyone can be rich, but
everyone can go broke. He that has no money. You know, it's not hard to get
sinners to come up With the price, it's just hard to get him to
come down to it. Free. Free. You notice we want everything
free but salvation. Somebody give us a home, we'd
be thrilled to death. Somebody give us a new car, we're thrilled
to death. You know, we pay a dollar to win the lottery, we're thrilled
to death, we win the lottery. But tell a man that salvation
is free. He says, no, I'd rather work
for it. That's the only thing that a man would rather work
for, is salvation. Everything else he wants free.
He wants you to give it to Him for nothing. "...he that hath no money." This
is for the spiritually bankrupt. This is for the poor in spirit
that the Scripture speaks of in Matthew. They are the ones
commanded to come for mercy, for forgiveness, for pardon.
For all that they need to stand before God accepted is in that
water of life. this water. It's all in the water,
the water of life, the Lord Jesus Christ. Come ye buy and eat,
yea, come buy wine and milk without money and without price. How
do you buy without money? Well, he's speaking here of faith.
But you take that word buy, B-U-Y, take you out of it and just B-Y. Come by faith. I come by faith
to the Lord Jesus Christ and receive the water of life. He's
the bread of life. He's the water of life. He's
the wine. He's the milk. He's everything I need. And I
come to Him by faith and I receive it from Him. Now, seeing that life and forgiveness
are free in Christ, then this question is asked. Why? Wherefore,
why do you spend money for that which is not bread, and your
labor for that which satisfies not? I tell you, under that old
Jewish economy, it was labor, labor, labor. The ceremonies. You know, on the Sabbath day,
they could only walk so many steps. I mean, it was labor. And it
never satisfied. Never satisfied. Why do you spend
money for that which is never satisfied? There is no value,
there is no lasting value in religion without Christ. There is no lasting value. There
is no lasting value in morality. If Christ is not there, if Christ
is not there, He's not there. It's Christ and Christ alone. There's no value in being religious. If Christ is not in it, if he's
not in it, it's useless. It's useless. You know, Paul
said bodily exercise profits little. And he's talking about
the bodily exercise of religion. He said it profits little. Little
value in it. This verse has to do with trying
to merit salvation by what we do or don't do. Salvation by
works never satisfies the soul, and it sure never satisfies God. God is only satisfied with the
doing and dying of His Son. He said, and He never said this
about anybody else, this is my beloved son in whom I'm well
pleased. Hear him." He never said that
about anybody else. He spoke from heaven. God spoke
from heaven audibly. He said, this is my son. He's
the one I'm well pleased with. Now you listen to him. You listen
to him. Now, hearken diligently unto
me and eat that which is good. There in verse two, Eat that
which is good. What is that which is good? It's
the gospel. It's the gospel. Christ in the gospel. And let
your soul delight itself in fatness. Gospel fatness. God saying, listen
to me and live. Go your way and die. Give diligence
to hear the gospel. Give diligence to hear it. God
speaking. When the gospel is preached,
if God is preaching right now, if He's speaking, If He speaks,
it's not me speaking, it's God speaking. I like what Joe Terrell
said. Joe Terrell said, you want to
hear God speak out loud? You want to hear God speak? You
may have read this in a bulletin. Joe said, you want to hear God
speak? Just read the Bible out loud. That's God speaking. That's God speaking. That's His
Word, that's what He's saying. That's His Word. What we are
reading here in chapter 55, this is God speaking. Literally, this
is God speaking. in these verses. And for especially in those early
years when I heard the gospel, boy, I hung on to that one. That
was all I had to hang on to was His Word, His promise. You promise,
you promise. Lord, you promise. There's no
better way to pray and go before God than to take His own Word.
Lord, you say it. You say it. God won't refuse His own Word.
Lord, you say it. Climb your ear, bend your ear,
and what he's saying here is bend your ear as to catch every
word, as to get up on the edge of your seat. God's speaking.
Do you know how condescending it is for God to speak to us?
A worm like me, a sinful man like me, for God to speak to
me? Someday He won't speak. Someday
that door will be shut. But right now, boy, when a gospel's
preached, he's speaking. God's speaking. Here's a promise. Here in your soul shall live.
No sinner ever came to Christ and perished. That's given me
so much comfort when I read the Gospels. You know, every sinner
that came to Him that had a need, He met it. He never turned away
a sinner. He turned away Pharisees. You
know what He said to His disciples one time? Leave them alone. Leave Him alone. Worst thing
in the world can happen. God, leave you alone. Leave me alone. That's
the worst thing that could happen. But every sinner that ever came
to Him out of need, Christ met that need. He met that need. And then He says here, here in
your soul shall live, and I will make. Here's another promise. These are promises. I will make
an everlasting covenant, not just a covenant, an everlasting.
This won't be broken. with you, even the sure mercies
of David. In Jeremiah 31, it reads like
this, But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house
of Israel after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in
their inward parts and write it in their hearts. That is,
I'll put my word in their hearts. Christ said, if my word abide
in you, I'll put them in your heart and will be their God and
they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more
every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know
the Lord, for they shall all know me from the least of them
unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord. Listen, for I will
forgive their iniquities, and I will remember their sin no
more." You know why he remembers sin no more? Because there's
no more. That's why. You can't remember
something that's not there. It's not there. That's why He
can remember them no more. Ever bring them up, they're not
there to bring up. And this covenant is an everlasting covenant and
it cannot be broken because it was made with my surety, the
Lord Jesus Christ. It was made with Him. I can't
break it. If I could break it, I would
have broke it a long time ago. I would have broke it a long
time ago. But this covenant, this everlasting
covenant, the sure mercies of David, he's talking about the
greater David, Jesus Christ. That covenant of grace made with
him before the foundation of the world on behalf of a multitude
of sinners, no man can number. No man can number. And he says,
I'll make this covenant with everyone who comes, every thirsty
person who comes to me, every thirsty sinner that comes to
me. they will partake of the sure mercies that was made with
Jesus Christ in the covenant of grace. He said, Behold, verse 4, I have
given him for a witness to the people, a leader and commander
to the people, a witness. I've given him for a witness.
A witness of what? Of God's will. This is the will
of Him that sent me. Of all that the Father hath given
me, I should lose nothing. His will and redemption, His
love, His way of salvation. Christ said, I am the way, the
truth, and the life. He's a witness to these things.
And He's the leader and commander. He's the captain of our salvation. He's the King of kings and Lord
of lords. That's who He is. Verse 6 tells us that everyone
that's thirsty He says, seek the Lord while he may be found.
Call upon him while he's near. When the gospel is preached,
the Lord's near. He's near. He's near. He said, where two
or three are gathered together in my name. He says, I'm right
there in the midst. In spirit, he's here with us. That's an awesome thought when
you really, really sit down and think about it. That the God
of heaven and earth would visit this little congregation right
now and be with us. As sinful as we are, as sinful
as we are, as cold as we are. John Newton said one time, he
said, and I can't quote it verbatim, but he was saying that, how can
I be a child of God and be so cold, be so indifferent? But the Lord deals with us, the Father deals with us, according
to the merits and person of Christ, doesn't He? The One who intercedes
for us. Verse 7, Let the wicked forsake
his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts. You know, we automatically think,
you know, the people out there on the streets or in the bars
and alleys. Now, you know who the wicked
man here is? It's the religious man who's
lying on God. It's the Apostle Paul when he
was a Pharisee of the Pharisees. And he's out there persecuting
the church. The most wicked people on this earth are the most self-righteous
people on this earth. They're the ones who robbed God
of his true glory. The self-righteous. and then
righteous man his thoughts, and let him return to the Lord, and
he'll have mercy upon him, entire God, and he'll abundantly pardon."
You know, this thing started out, ho everyone that's thirsty,
and then it comes here to this verse, verse 7, let the wicked
forsake his way. I tell you what, it just opened
the door wide open for me. This suit fits me. It fits me. He just opened the door for me. And what he's saying here is
change the way you think about God and the way He saves sinners.
Change your thoughts about God, who He is. God said in the Psalms,
you thought I was altogether like yourselves. That's a terrible
way to think of God. I want a much better God than
me. One like me. I want one that's totally unlike
me. I want God to be God. For my thoughts, he says, my
thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,
saith the Lord." You know, when we try to logically figure out
the way God saves sinners, we go wrong every time. If God had
asked Adam when he fell, if he would have asked Adam to devise
a way back into his presence, back into his favor, Adam would
have never said, you become a man. You keep the law, your own law. You obey every jot and tittle
of it. You die under the penalty of
that law and be buried and rise again and go back to glory and
then bring me there. No, Adam would have worked. Just like he did, he went and
hid, tied some fig leaves around him. It's just like it is today. It's a work salvation. Every
time man gets involved in trying to figure out how God saves sinners,
it's always a work salvation, always. Even this, even when
they say this, that Christ has done all he can do and the rest
is up to you, that's works. If anything's left to me, I mean,
if I have to put the period at the end of a sentence, it's not
of grace, and we're a goner. Salvation's of the Lord from
beginning to end. When we try to logically think
it out, we're wrong. We go wrong every time. You remember
what Nahum said? Remember Nahum the leper? I've
just read that this week. He was a leper, greatest general
in Syria, but he was a leper. And this little girl that had
told the king about the prophet Elijah. And so he sent for him
and then Naaman comes to Elijah and he says, go dip in the river
Jordan seven times. And he was offended. And the
first thing he said, I thought. He said, I thought he'd come
out here. I thought he'd do this, do that, hocus pocus. I thought
they'd do some ceremony. He said, are not the rivers far,
far, and he named another river. Are they not better than the
river Jordan, that muddy Jordan? Naaman, you're going to go down,
and you're going to go to Jordan, and you're going to dip seven
times, and you're going to stay a leper. He said, well, I thought. You know
what he did? He went down to Jordan, he dipped seven times,
just as God's prophet told him to do, and when he came up out
of that Jordan, it says his flesh was as fair like a young child. It was just pure, clean, no leprosy
whatsoever. But God met him, listen, God
met him at his point of rebellion. That's where God met him, at
his point of rebellion. And he bowed to God, and he went
down that old muddy Jordan. And God saved that man. God saved
that man. Now, he says this in Isaiah 55,
and I'm going to close. 10-11. As the rain comes down
and the snow from heaven, it returns not thither, but it waters
the earth, and it makes it bring forth bud, that it may give seed
to the sower and bread to the eater. So shall my word be that
goes forth out of my mouth. It's going to accomplish the
thing that I've purposed. It will not return to me void.
It's going to do exactly what I pleased. It's going to do exactly
what I sent it for. And it will prosper." Prosper. When God speaks, things happen.
We heard that this morning. When His Word goes forth, He
accomplishes exactly what He purposed to accomplish. Now,
verse 12 and 13. For ye shall go out with joy.
This is their heritage. This is those whom God saves. They're going to go out with
joy, and they're going to be led forth with peace. The mountains and
hills shall break forth before you into singing. All of creation
is going to rejoice, and all the trees of the field are going
to clap their hands. Instead of the thorns shall come
up the fir tree. The thorns was what? That was
a part of the curse. The curse has been removed. What
he's speaking here in this 12 and 13, he's speaking of that
new heaven, new earth. On that new earth, there's not
a curse. There's not even a trace of it.
Not a trace of it. Not be a thorn, a briar, nothing. There won't be not even a glimmer
of sin. Nothing. Nothing that offends,
he said, will enter into that kingdom. Instead of the thorn
shall come up the fir tree, instead of the briar shall come up the
myrtle tree. And this shall be to the Lord for a name, for an
everlasting sign that shall not be cut off." I'm going to close with Revelation
22, 17. And the Spirit and the Bride say, Come, and let him
that heareth say, Come, and let him that is athirst come, and
whosoever will. Let him take of the water of
life freely." I'm so thankful God wrote that to me. That's
to me. That's to me. I'm like, that's a letter to
me. Henry used to write me when I lived in Milton. I could not
wait to get to the mailbox. I would go to the mailbox every
day looking for a letter because I'd written him. I'd be looking
for a letter from him. I'd get that letter, I'd open
that letter. I still got him. I still got him. This is God's
letter to me. all these promises, all that
I have in Christ, all that I have coming, all that I have coming. Every son of God, every child
of God is going to stand on a new earth someday, solid, just like
this one. And sin is going to be no more.
Sorrow, tears, going to be no more. We'll quit growing old. We'll have no more birthdays.
It'll just be one eternal day.