chapter fifty-five. Ho, every
one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters. And he that hath
no money, come ye, buy and eat. Yea, 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
satisfies not? Hearken diligently unto me, and
eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself
in fatness. Decline your ear, and come unto
me. Here and your soul shall live. I will make an everlasting covenant
with you, even the sure mercies of David. Behold, I have given
him for witness to the people, a leader and commander to the
people." Behold, thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not,
and 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. 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 him. 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 wanteth 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 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.
For ye shall go out for joy, and be led forth 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
brow shall come up the myrtle tree, and it shall be to the
Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign, that shall not be cut off."
And may God bless this holy word. Our next hymn is 131. Now, Barbara, if you're not familiar
with that, we can get another one. We're happy to have you
to play for us, but if you're not familiar with it, yes, you
are, all right. We'll sing it then, and may it
withstand. 131. Now, this fifth chapter of Isaiah,
which we might even refer to as the gospel according to Isaiah,
for Isaiah preached the gospel just as well as the New Testament
apostles, but verse Isaiah begins to give here, by the inspiration
of the Holy Spirit, a number of invitations. These are marvelous invitations. They are invitations, we might
say they are commands, too. But Isaiah stands here at this
first verse, the opening verse of chapter 55, and he cries, Oh, he's attracting attention. He's trying to interest somebody.
Oh, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters. He that
hath no money, come ye, buy and eat. Yea, come buy wine and milk
without money and without price. To me that's a wonderful invitation,
as Isaiah stands and cries out to thirsty sinners to come to
the waters, to come and drink, to just quench their thirsty
souls with this precious water that he offers. Of course, you
know what kind of water he's talking about. And it seems here
that he alludes to a well of water, a spring of fresh water
in a thirsty land where people would be passing by and some
gracious man would be there to heal the passers-by who would
be thirsty, tired, hot, weary. And he would attract their attention.
He'd say, hey, there's water over here. Are you thirsty? Come over here and drink. Well,
how much is it? Well, there's no charge. You
just come and drink. Well, is there any qualification?
No, no qualification. Just, are you thirsty? That's
all you need. Well, of course, he's referring
to the blessed water of life. sinners thirst out by the grace
of God. And to begin with, I'd just like
to take my position and stand by Isaiah here as he gives this
invitation, as he calls upon men, O everyone that thirsteth,
come ye to the waters. And so I'm standing here by Isaiah.
and conversing with him. And I say, Isaiah, well, here
comes a man, he looks kind of thirsty. And Isaiah said, All
right, I'll take care of him. He said, Ho! Hey there! Are you thirsty? Everyone that's
thirsty, come ye to the waters. And the man comes over, and Isaiah
gives him the invitation. And he said, well, I'd like to
ask a question. What's this all about? Isaiah
said, well, I'm just given an invitation to come and drink
water if you're thirsty. Well, I'd like to ask some more
questions about this thing before I dive into it and drink. Who's drinking of this water?
Did he have any success? Is anybody drinking? Isaiah said,
well, I've got a man in here named Paul. And he says he's
the chief of sinners, he's drinking, and he's getting his thirsty
soul satisfied. What about you? Well, I tell
you, you know, I've got a reputation to keep, so I think I'll just
pass by. All right, keep going. Well,
here are two more men coming. Ho! says Isaiah. Everyone is
thirsty. Let him come and drink. of these
waters, and so these two men come over. And they, too, want
to question him. Who else is drinking of this
water that you offer here freely? And Isaiah said, well, to the
first man here of the two, he said, there's a woman in here,
come in here, she has five husbands, and that fifth husband she's
living with, She wasn't even married to him or any of the
rest of them. She drank of this water, this
good water. And the fellow said, well, I
tell you, I think I've got some business to care for. Well, how
about you, friend? Are you thirsty? Would you like
to drink? No, I've got to go along with
my friend here, too. He's going. All right, here comes
somebody else. Isaiah said, Oh, every one that
thirsteth, let him come to the waters, come ye to the waters. So here comes a man, and he said,
Isaiah, who's drinking of this water? Isaiah said, Well, that
false chief of standards, he drank of it, he's still drinking.
This woman of five husbands, she came and drank. He says,
a man in there drinking now, with his head bowed, he won't
even look up to heaven, and he's beating on his breast. The man said, well that's a strange
thing, coming to this kind of water and acting like that, what
does he say about himself? Well Isaiah said, all I hear
him say is, God be merciful to me of sin. God be merciful to
me of sin. This man said, well, you know,
I don't think I'll drink today. I don't think I'll go in there.
All right. Oh, everyone that's thirsty, let him come to the
waters. Come and drink! And here comes
a man, and he said, well, tell me about what's going on here.
Isaiah goes over and tells him who's drinking, and he said,
here's a man in here that the Lord found up in a tree. and
called him down, said, I'm going home with you. What kind of a
man was he? Well, he was a public, a tax
collector. Oh, a tax collector, huh? Yeah. And that man's in there drinking,
and you know he said this, that if he'd robbed anybody, he'd
get him fourfold. What he'd robbed him of, if he'd
stolen any goods, he'd replace it. He's in there drinking. Well, this fellow said, you know,
I've got business to tend to. I've got to go. Then there's
one more. Isaiah said, oh, everyone's thirsty. Come ye to the waters. Here comes
a man. Isaiah said, you thirsty? Well,
he said, before I drink, I want to ask you a question, too, about
your water here and the people drinking of it. Isaiah said,
I've got a fellow in here. He's a thief. Not all that, he's
a murderer, and he killed to steal. He's one of the malefactors. And what about him? Well, that
man doesn't justify himself. He's got no excuse. He says,
I'm condemned. I'm worthy of this death that
I'm dying, but this man has done nothing amiss. You know, that
thief drank him, and he's happy about it. What about you? Well, I don't think I'll come
here. I don't think I'll drink this water. You are appreciated,
though. I hope you're good success. Maybe
some other time." Isaiah looks up about that time, and he sees
a man traveling. He looks warm and weary and tired
and sweaty and dusty. Isaiah says, Come ye to the waters and drink
without money, without price." This man comes over. He said, what did I hear you
say? Isaiah said, every man thirsty,
let him come on in and drink these waters. Are you thirsty?
Oh, he said, my Lord, I am thirsty. I'm so thirsty and so weary and
so tired and broken and beaten. And Richard, on time, where is
the water? Let me get to it. I'll just say,
come on in. Drink to your fill. You're truly a thirsty soul.
Oh, beloved. That's no stretch of the imagination,
is it? Oh, everyone that's thirsty,
come ye to the water. Come ye to the water. And I say
that, Isaiah, well, that's great, that's wonderful. Give that invitation. Who else you got in there, Isaiah? Well, he says there's one other
fella in there, and he's drinking, and he's rejoicing in that precious,
cool, soul-satisfying water. I said, who is it? Well, he said,
he's worse than Paul, the chief of senate. He's worse than the
dying thief. He's worse than that woman. There's
five husbands. He's worse than that man. Wouldn't
even look up to him, beaten on his breast. He's worse than all
of them. I said, who is that man? Well,
he said, I'm talking to him. I'm looking right at him. And
I said, yes, that's right. You're right. I heard a preacher
preaching this morning, and he described the death of the Lord
Jesus Christ, his virgin birth, and he said, now, what kind of
a sinner would pass by a virgin-born Son of God, a sinless person
like the Lord Jesus Christ? who passed by his cross in his
agony when he was crowned with thorns and hanging there naked
on the tree and being spit on and reviled by men and the wrath
of God falling out there on him and he crying, my God, my God,
and so forth, who passed by that man?" I said, that preacher on
the television screen, I said, well, if you could see, you're
looking at one that did die. They just passed right by. He
cared nothing for him, had no interest in him, whatever, until
he made his soul thirsty, gave me a desire for him, showed me
his beauty and his glory and his splendor. And I came back and drank of him. This is the thirsty people I
was there talking about. I asked you this morning, you're
thirsty. You're just passing by. You've
got something else to do. You've got some pleasure. You've
got some business to tend to. You've got somebody to go to
see, some oxen to plow, some lamb to buy, something to sell,
or a family to please, or this, that, and the other. But you
just go on by. But oh, dear friend, if you come
in a weary, thirsty, wretched soul, crying out for the water
of life, or if your soul, dear friend, has been made thirsty
for him who is that water of life, Isaiah is talking to you,
the Spirit of God speaking to you! You've got a reputation
to protect. You've got a name to uphold,
you've got some righteousness to boast of, you go on by. But you are seven. Oh, my God,
if you are needed, seven, realizing your need, there's the invitation.
Oh, everyone that's thirsty, come into the waters and drink. Now, here's the water of life,
and he says, just drink. There are a lot of folks not
thirsty, dear friends. Well, what's the difference?
Well, I'm thirsty. Well, how come I'm thirsty and
that man over there is not thirsty? Something happened to me. God
did something for me he didn't do for that person over there.
And he can transpire that water of life. He can say, listen,
I can get the Word of God any time I want it, and the day is
not convenient for me, I've got something else, and this, that,
and the other. Oh, but your soul gets thirsty. There's the difference. Jesus Christ, my Lord, said that
thirst should be filled. Those not thirsty go empty away,
they need nothing, don't want anything. You ever try to make
a person drink when he wasn't thirsty? I have. I've seen preachers preach their
sermons, and they can get out and go around the congregation
and beg and plead and try to persuade sinners to come up to
the front. Oh, they just couldn't get them. And after a while,
maybe two men would get one and get hold of one arm, and the
other would get hold of the other arm and drag him right up there.
They're going to force him into the kingdom, they're going to
make him drink. Well, they don't make a lot of
them drink, I'll say to that. They're not thirsty. They may
drown them, but they don't make them drink this water of life.
You don't have to be a sinner over here to get him to drink
when he realizes he's a sinner, when he realizes he's thirsty.
You see a thirsty soul and you say, look, here's some water.
You've got to stand there and beg and plead and use every kind
of argument in the world and pay him and give him a position
and exalt him and honor him to make him drink water that will
quench his thirst to soul? No, sir. Your poor sinner comes
in here, my God, he's going to drink! Somebody says, you don't
give an invitation. Brother, we always give an invitation.
Isaiah wasn't inviting them to an altar, wasn't inviting them
to the front of a church, he was inviting them to the water.
And that's where we invite them to come. You thirsty souls can
drink the water of life wherever you are. Right there. It's not up here. No preacher,
no priest, no church has a basin of this blessed water, and sinners
have got to come to that priesthood, got to come to the front of that
church. And you have to line up with that crowd to get that
water. No, sir. We're leaving the wrong
impression. If we're trying to make sinners
think of that sort of thing, no, sir, come to Christ. He's
the water of life. He's the water of life when you're
thirsty for it. If you are, and you know who
to thank for that, God Almighty gave you that thirst and made
you realize your need. If a man doesn't realize his
need, he isn't thirsty, he isn't interested, he isn't going to
be interested until the Spirit of God touches his heart. So
it's a wonderful mercy to be thirsty. And Isaiah gives the
invitation. That's the gospel invitation,
isn't it? Are you thirsty then this morning?
Right now, drink that water of life and drink it freely. And you notice further, he said,
and he that hath no money that can cost you anything, come ye,
watch this, buy and eat. Yea, come buy wine, buy it without
money. That's what he's talking about.
When the word of God speaks about buying, A lot of times it's talking
about buying without any money. You've got whatever. Buy the truth. You don't pay
anything for that truth. You buy this wine and this milk
and this water, this precious food, without money and without
price. It's a gift of God. And these
are satisfying foods here, and therefore spiritual, bankrupt,
poverty-stricken souls. For no one else. Not people who
are rich and can pay and want to pay their way in, but people
who want this rich food. Wine. That is the wine of the
kingdom. And milk. A rich food. Satisfying food. You buy those
without price. You know what it is to drink
that kind of wine? Huh? To drink that kind of milk? Oh,
well, if you're drinking the water, you're drinking the wine,
and you're drinking the milk, too. That he's talking about
here. And he argues with you, why do you spend your money for
that which is not bread, your labor for that which satisfies
not? Hearken diligently unto me and
eat that which is good. You know what he's talking about? Eat that which is good and let
your soul delight in fatness. Most people are not eating proper
food. That's right. I'm talking about
the food of the world. They don't know what it is to
eat spiritual food. You remember in our own condition,
former state of nature, we didn't know what it was to eat this
food, did we? I rarely thought that there was
food. other places than here in the
Word of God and in the invitations that are given here. And brother,
I was seeking that food too. I was going after it just as
hard as I could go, just like everybody else, passing by the
cross, passing by the Savior, passing by the Church and by
the Word of God and by the people of God. And boy, I was hell-bent
on having my fill. of the food that the world could
provide until, dear friends, that food became sour in my mouth,
and that food became worthless and nothing in my sight. And then I came to this table
and began to eat this rich, soul-satisfying food. If you are in the kingdom,
if you are in the grace of God, you know what I'm talking about.
You want to know whether you're saved or not. Do you thirst for
this water? Are you hungry for this food?
Are you like the rest of the folks today?" Some fellow said,
well, he was born poor, and in fact he was so poor that poor
folks called him poor. And a lady said, well, look,
we were poorer than that. And he said, how could that be?
She said, when the garbage collector came by, we asked him to leave
a can for us. Well, that's getting kind of
poor. And he's talking about how he went out and slopped the
hogs and poured that slop in the trough, you know, and those
hogs would come and they'd just lap it up and they were so hungry
for it. And I've done the same thing,
carried them feed, and I've seen them just get kind of hoggish
and knock the other one out of the way and get sideways and
just lie down in that trough and he'd open his mouth, you
know, just let the water roll in and the rest of them couldn't
get anything or couldn't get very much. But you know, slumping
those hogs and looking at them just lapping up that slough I
never desired to get in there and eat with them. I remember that I never
said, look, I believe I'll just save a bucket of this slop, give
them one bucket and I'll eat the other bucket. I never did
that in a literal way like that. But nevertheless, I'll tell you
this, I was slopping in the world. I was eating nothing but slop,
just like those hogs were eating that kind of slop. I was eating
the slop that the world and the flesh and the devil was offering. And just like those hogs, I guess
as greedy for it as they were. Oh, my friends, if you're living
like that, if you're going like the world, and that's That's
your contentment, and you're passing by the water of life,
and you're passing by this precious food, this soul food from heaven. I'll tell you, you're going to
wind up in hell unless God does something for your soul, unless
you repent, you're going to perish. No, here's water for the thirsty. Here's food for the hungry, the
precious food, even Christ. Even his word, the bread of life,
are you hungry for that? Do you need that? Or do you say,
I must have that? Regardless of what else, you
want to know if you're saved, that's a saved person. A saved
person. Some people just starve to death
for this food. Oh, they are, and I look at them
and I say, what in the world is the matter with you? I can't
get anybody else to eat. I can't interest them in this
at all. And here comes a man and he says,
Man, I'm so hungry. There's food. I just can't stand
it. I was telling you about the meeting
up in West Virginia, Brother Scott Richardson's church. And
that night I was preaching. And he called on some brother
that came down from Michigan. He and his wife came in there,
and they called on him to pray, called him to the platform. And
the man started praying, and I thought he'd never get through.
But what that man was saying was so delightful, I didn't care
if he just kept right on saying it. He seemed, he wasn't ready
for prayer every day, but really he was more ready than I realized.
But he couldn't form his words, his sentences, it seemed like
he wanted to, but he was crying out to God and pouring out his
soul. He said, Lord, we've come here.
Our souls are hungry. We're hungry for that bread that
you alone can give. And I said, my Lord, praise God,
thank you for that prayer. Now, Lord, I feel so empty. Help me when I get up to preach
that you'll just give the food out. And he did, thank God. In fact, a man came to my service,
he came down here from Michigan. My wife and I said, we're hungry.
I said, yes, I heard you pray. He said, Lord, we're hungry.
And he just kept right on telling the Lord we're hungry, and the
congregation was waiting, and he said, Lord, our souls are
hungry and we want something, we've come to them, please come
to us and please feed us today. God fed them that night. And so here, dear friends, your soul
is hungry for food. You may not get up before a crowd
and be called on to pray and pray that kind of prayer, but
your soul crying out for that bread of life. So I say sometimes,
well, I wish we had more folks to preach to. But then I say,
Lord, if there's one thirsty, one hungry soul, That's a view. That's of thy great grace and
mercy. Do you know that? Most folks
are going where they know they're not going to get the food. They're
going where they know they're not going to be exposed to this
kind of water and this kind of food. Did you read Brother Berry's Living Ideals? I believe it just
came out this past week. There's an article in there on,
this fellow is telling how it got to him, or what woke him
up. And I read that article. He's telling about, he's visiting
a certain little town somewhere in Kentucky, I believe it was.
And he says that he saw that there were going to be two Scotch
preachers out at the Baptist church to preach. And he said,
well, I didn't expect anything, but I went anyhow to the service,
not expecting anything. And he said, I thought that one
Scotch preacher for this little town would have been enough,
but there were two Scotch preachers there preaching. And he said,
I sat down in the pew and said, this Scotch preacher, one of
them got up to And so while he was preaching, the other Scotch
preacher was over there behind the organ, praying. And so this
preacher started preaching, and he said, he tore me to pieces.
Oh, he said, he dynamited my soul. He cut me to pieces, he
lacerated me, and he used all those terms. And he said, he
just cut me up so bad that it looked like he didn't care whether
I ever got back together again. And he said, I said, Lord, one
of us a fool, that either I'm a fool or that preacher's a fool.
And he said, the Lord accommodated me by revealing to me that the
preacher was not a fool. He said, I've been thanking God
for that sermon ever since, and desire of those kinds of sermons
just rip me open, tear me to pieces, lacerate. like what you like. You just
want to be soft-soaked and smoothed over and pat on the back and
slide easy into hell. Warn to them that be in Zion,
says the Word of God. Starving souls, and God gives
one hungry soul, is from him. I'm sure you run into this, as
I do too. I met a fellow the other day,
I knew him, and he told me the first time I met him, he said,
I'm saved. And so a good while or so on the other day, and I
said, you're still saved? Oh, yes, sir, I'm still saved.
And I said, how's that? You sure must be a good fellow.
So I carried him along and jogged him so he'd give me his testimony. But instead of giving me a rich,
precious testimony, he gave me this. He said, you know, when
you walk down that aisle, and you mean business," he says,
you're going to get something. I said, friend, when I walk down
the aisle, I'm going to confess I didn't mean business. I didn't,
but there was one who did mean business, and he meant business
before this world ever began. He had me in mind, and he brought
me to him. Oh, I didn't mean business, but
he put me in business. when he got to working with me,
and I thank God for that. And you meet these everywhere,
and brethren, I don't know how it affects you, but it just makes
me thank God for the people we have here who come and say, listen,
give us the word of God. Tear us to pieces. Open us up. Show us our sins. Let us see
ourselves in the light of God's searchlight. Give us that nourishing
food, that water of life, and that food, that bread. This is
what we want. We'd like to have more folks,
but this is what we want. All right, we'd like to have
a bigger church, but this is what we want. All right. Thank
God. I think if a soul has been brought
to that place, this is what he wants, this is what satisfies
him. God is going to feed that soul
somehow or another. He is going to get him some food. All right. But you notice Isaiah,
verse 6, of this. He commands these souls to seek
the Lord. He says, "...seek ye the Lord,
while ye may be found." call you upon him while he is near."
So there are two commands, one to seek the Lord, and the other,
command to pray. How is that going to fit into
that scripture over there in the 3rd chapter of Romans, where
Paul says, there is none that seeketh after God? And actually
he is quoting from David, he says, there is none that seeketh
after God. Well, it's just our experience
of nature. that no sinner ever seeks God
apart from the working of God's Spirit within that sinner. No
sinner ever really seeks God in truth and in need, realizing
his need until the Spirit of God shows him that need. Now, he may seek something. He
may seek not to go to hell. He may seek to escape the flames
of the pit of hell and all of that. or to get rid of his guilt,
to get rid of the awful condemnation he's unto. But he doesn't seek
the Lord until the Lord first seeks him. But when the Lord
seeks him, then that sinner, of course, is made to seek the
Lord. So the scripture is not contradicted. And even though the sinner doesn't
seek the Lord by nature and will not seek him, he's commanded
to seek him. He's under obligation to seek
his Creator. And we tell him the same thing
Isaiah told him. Tell sinners today, seek the
Lord, and you'll perish if you don't seek him. That's your responsibility. But oh, if God ever gives you
mercy and shows you the sinner you are, you'll seek him. You
will seek him by the grace of God until you find him and give
God the glory for him. And then he says, pray, call
ye upon him. But I want you to notice this
before we go on to that next thing. He says, seek ye the Lord
while he may be found. While he may be found. You know,
we are so stinking proud and arrogant and boastful and self-righteous,
that we all think that when we get ready to seek the Lord, we're
going to be able to find him. But we could be mistaken, could
we not? For the Lord tells us, "...strive
to enter in at the straight gate. For many," he says, "...shall
seek to enter and shall not be enabled." I hear preachers today, and they
say to some, you seek the Lord, you'll find him. Well, that isn't
what the Lord Jesus Christ said, and that isn't what Isaiah said.
He said, seek ye the Lord while he is near. And our Lord Jesus
Christ said, you will seek. But that doesn't mean you're
going to get in the straight gate that you're going to find.
Some seek in the wrong way, some seek too late. Some seek out
insincerity, and they don't get in. And no sinner ever seeks
the Lord in the proper and the right way, but one who is made
to seek by the Holy Spirit. But Isaiah suggests here that
there is a time to seek the Lord. And in that first chapter of
Proverbs, Doesn't God warn and say, listen, because I called
and you refused? Because I stretched out my hand
to you and no man regarded? Because I cried to you and you
would not hear? He says, then when you cry to
me, I will not hear you. When you seek me, you shall not
find me. And when your calamity and destruction
cometh, God says, then I will laugh. your calamity." Isaiah
says, "...seek ye the Lord, while he may be found." Father, can
he be found of you today? Is he near you? Is he? Is this the time for seeking
the Lord? May the Lord bless you to be so. And then he says,
"...call ye upon him." while he is near, seeking while
he can be found. I know God is not emotional like
we are, and we talk about our patience and so forth, and our
patience gives out. But God's longsuffering, I know
that. But the scripture does tell us
that his longsuffering is not forever, that he has gotten weary
of some men and cut off his longsuffering. As with Pharaoh, you remember,
that old wicked king and emperor and rebel against God, God's
long-suffering even went out to him. Then there came a time
when God said, that's enough, and I'll tell you this. He said,
I've raised you up even for this very purpose, to show my power
in you. And he destroyed him. So he didn't
seek him when he could be found. And now he says, call upon him
while he is near. Beloved friends, oh, I wish I
could shake sinners up sometimes. I know I can't do it sometimes. You think they're a little interested,
but I wish I could get hold of them and say, look here, you
fool, you, don't you know that you can't presume upon God's
mercy? God Almighty can send you to
hell any time he wants to. He doesn't owe you anything.
You are responsible to seek him and to cry to him, to call upon
him. Every one of them will tell you,
well, listen, the Lord is merciful, he's loving, he's kind, he won't
save everybody, he's trying to save everybody, and I'll come
to him when I get ready. There will be a lot of sinners
calling on God to never be saved. A lot of sinners seeking the
Lord that will never be saved. So you've got to be warned. I know they get on their deathbed,
no interest in Christ, just running after the slop of the world just
like all of us, where every unsafe person is. But to get on their
deathbed? And there in their misery, in their dying hour,
in their fear, they said, Lord have mercy! And everybody said,
well, you know, he's saved. He's saved. Now, you know that. And I think God is merciful,
for God just to. And God said to some, I'm not
going to hear you. Why would God hear him on his
deathbed? He's been a rebel all his life.
He said, I'll wait for that time. leave them fresh, and make people
think they're saved. They might not even be conscious
of what they're saying. Saying, oh, doped up and crying,
Lord have mercy. When he's not saying, Lord save
me from my sins, a guilty, wretched, hell deserving sinner that I
am, but just Lord go easy on me. Lord just don't give me what
I deserve. That's really not seeking the
Lord, is it? That's not really calling upon
the Lord in grace. Well, these are wonderful things,
marvelous invitations. And then just this one other
thing here, let the wicked forsake his way. The way of the wicked
is to be forsaken, 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." Now notice here, this
is a call to repentance. And Isaiah tells what repentance
is, two things. He tells us what repentance is
in the first place. He says it's turning from sin. And what's that? Let the wicked
forsake his way. Well, now, the wicked way of
a sinner is corrupt and dark and in rebellion against God,
and going his own way and not the way of God. In fact, everything
that sinner does is sin against God. He goes out to water his
garden, he's sinning. Goes out there to plow it, he's
sinning. Even the plowing of the wicked
is sinning. Goes out there to harvest his crop that God's given
him, he's still sinning against the Holy God. Goes in and loves
his children, he's sinning against God. Loves a good wife or the
good husband that's been given, he's still sinning against God. That's all he can do. Sit down
at the table and fills his stomach with the good food that God gives
him up on the earth, he's still sinning against God. He says,
let the wicked forsake his way. Let the wicked forsake his way! His way. And then not only is
it turning from his way, but that wicked man must turn from
his own thoughts. Notice that? And the unrighteous
from his thoughts. The unrighteous man is God says in that next verse,
my thoughts aren't your thoughts. You go out there and tell a sinner,
you don't think like God. Your mind is not like God's.
He'll either punch you right in the nose and hurt you pretty
bad. He'll tell you right off, I do
think like God. My thoughts are just like God's. I know God and I think like him
and I reason like him. You bring out some kind of the
word of God, here's what God says, my thoughts are not your
thoughts. And you say, I don't like that
preacher. I don't like that fellow, he ought to be killed. God says,
your thoughts are not my thoughts. Your way is not my way. You're
going to have to forsake your way, that's sin. You're going
to have to forsake your thoughts, that's sin. Did you ever do that? Comptroller comes down and says,
well, I'm going to quit drinking liquor. He's been a drunkard
all his life. He makes a profession. And everybody
says, well, you know, he was saved from a drunkard's life.
Well, he'd still go to hell if that's all he's saved from. Saved
from a drunkard's life. Well, isn't that good? Well,
he'd go to hell if that's all he's saved from. Man comes down. I was saved from profanity."
Well, if that's all he's saved from, he'll go to hell. You've
got to be saved from your way. Your way is not God's way. You've
got to be saved from your thoughts. Your thoughts are your own righteousness.
You think of your own self. You justify yourself, do you
not? As a sinner before God, I said,
those thoughts have got to be They've got to be changed. Let
the unrighteous man forsake his thoughts. I find a lot of folks
say they're saved, but they think just like an unsaved person.
They say they're in the kingdom, but they still think and they
act just like an unsaved man acts. There's no difference.
You say, well, he's religious? Well, who isn't religious? He
speaks about the Lord. Well, a lot of folks speak about
the Lord, don't know him in their salvation, never come to the
fountains of water to quench their thirsty souls and eat this
bread and drink this wine and this milk that's without money
and without price. And then he said, Let him return
unto me. Let him return unto the Lord.
So really, salvation or repentance is not merely forsaking your
way, forsaking your thoughts, or forsaking sin as part of it. But all that may be done and
not turn to the Lord Jesus Christ. That's repentance. When you turn
to the Lord, that's true repentance. You turn to him, you're weighed
behind. Your thoughts are behind you. Your idols are behind you when
you turn to the living God, the Savior of sinners. Now that cuts
right to the heart. Didn't our Lord say? And Isaiah
went right to the heart here and stripped men down. Our Lord
said, for out of the heart proceed evil thoughts. Somebody said,
I have evil thoughts. Oh yes, I know about that too.
Where do they come from? Where do they come out of the
heart? Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.
And Isaiah is preaching the same thing. Your thoughts are evil
because your heart is evil. And you have to forsake the thoughts,
and you have to forsake, by the grace of God, your way and turn
to the Lord. Oh, beloved, didn't I encourage
you at the Senate? God promises sinners like that,
that he'll have mercy, that he'll show abundant mercy unto them. He will have mercy upon them,
and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon them. So old Isaiah could
preach to sinners. We have the blessed gospel today,
and we can face the violence most ill-deserving, wretched
sinner in the world. the chief of sinners and say,
listen, listen here, oh, everyone that thirsts, come ye to the
waters. Come and buy wine and milk without
money and without price. Seek ye the Lord while he may
be found. Call upon him while he is near.
Forsake your ways. Turn away from your thoughts.
Return unto the living God. He says he'll have mercy. Mercy! This is what you need. And he
says, I will abundantly pardon. That's no little pardon. That's
not just a little slap on the back. God just pours out his
abundant pardon upon a sinner coming like that. You that kind
of sinner, you won't be the other kind. A thirsty sinner, a hungry
sinner for this prayer, for the forgiving grace of God, for His
mercy. Then come, that's thirst. You shall come when you come
to Christ. He's the water of life. How do
I drink? Well, you just believe on Him. Believe on Him. Submit to it
and cast yourself to it. That's a wonderful gospel that
Isaiah preached. Let's believe it. Let's drink
it in. You are thirsty, son. Come and
drink. May the Lord bless the exultation
of every heart. I would like for us to sing number 403. I can hear my Savior calling.