Isaiah's Gospel chapter 55. Let's begin reading in verse 1. Isaiah
chapter 55 and verse 1. Oh, everyone 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
satisfieth not? Hearken diligently unto me, and
eat you that which is good, and let your soul delight itself
in abundance, in fatness. Incline your ear and come unto
me, here and your soul shall live. And I will make an everlasting
covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David. Behold, I have
given him for a 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 the cause 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. 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 snow from heaven, and returneth not thither,
but waters the earth, and makes it bring forth and 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 shall not return
unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please. And it shall
prosper in the things whereunto I sent it. Well, you shall go
out with joy and be led forth with peace. The mountains and
the hills shall break forth before you unto singing, and all the
trees of the field shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn
shall come up the fir tree, instead of the briar shall come up the
myrtle tree, and it shall be to the Lord for a name. born
an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off. Come ye to the
waters, O everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters." What
a wonderful invitation this is from the Almighty God who knows
how essential water is. What would we be? What would
this earth be without water? Water is essential for everything. We could not have vegetation.
We would have no trees without water. Water is essential to
soften the ground. It's essential to germinate seed. It's essential to water plants
and give fruit to the earth. Without water, everything is
hard and everything is barren. I remember I took a trip with
some of the members of my family out to Yuma, Arizona. It's in
the southern part of Arizona. If you've ever been there, you
can relate to this. And we drove into there, and
I've never in my life seen the lack of vegetation in a desert. And I was fabricasted. Finally,
I got a hold of a man who knew what was going on there, and
I said, how did you get all of this vegetation here, all kinds
of greens, out in the middle of this hard, rocky desert? And he said, we just put water
to it. He said, as rich as it can be if you'll just put water
to it. But withhold the water and everything
is barren. That's the way it is with water,
isn't it? That's the way it is with this earth. It's essential
that the earth be watered. Water is essential to our existence,
our being. I'm thankful for water because
we gather on occasions and you bathe in it. It's good for cleansing
the body. refreshing the body when we drink
it. They tell us that adult men have
about 60% of their body is made up of water. What would we do
without water? We'd dehydrate. We would die. One of the problems with old
people, they're not thirsty anymore. And what happens to them? Well,
they dehydrate. And sometimes they get sick or
worse. Come ye to the water. The Lord Jesus knows how essential
water is. So He tells us here, come to
the waters. Come ye to the waters. But look
at this. Who is told to come? Everyone
who is thirsty. Isn't it a blessing, brothers
and sisters, to be thirsty? If you're not thirsty, it's difficult
to drink water. And it's the same way with spiritual
water. If we're not thirsty, no one
can force us to drink. Why does the Lord here limit
coming and drinking to those who are thirsty? Because nobody
else will come. You have to be thirsty to come
to the waters. Our Lord Jesus said to that woman
at the well, If you had asked of Me, I would have given you
living water. But here's the problem. No one
will ask unless they're thirsty. If you're thirsty, you'll ask.
Give me water. I'm thirsty. But if you're not
thirsty, you won't ask. Listen. Everybody who asks, receives. If you're thirsty, you'll ask
and you'll receive. But if you're not thirsty, you
won't ask. How blessed you are if God has
given you a thirsty soul for this living water. We find this principle taught
all through the scripture. Thirst and a need and a burden
to be relieved. What a blessing it is this morning
if you have a conscience that is burdened with sin. If your
soul is burdened with sin and guilt, what a blessing that is. You say, Bruce, why would you
say that? Because you'll never come to the Savior without a
burden. Come unto me, all you that labor
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Oh, if you're
burdened this morning with sin and guilt, come to the Savior. There's where you'll find rest.
What a blessing it is to be sin-sick and to be a needy sinner, is
it not? Most of the people I talk to
outside this congregation know nothing about being a sinner.
Oh, they've done some bad things, but basically and essentially,
they're really good people. They're just good people. What
a blessing it is to know yourself a sinner, a hell-deserving sinner
worthy of God's wrath. Bruce, I'm a sinner in need. You know something? The Holy
Spirit revealed that to you. You can't even know that unless
He does. And here's what happens when
you're a needy sinner. You come to the Savior to meet
your need. Here's what the Scripture says.
He healed those who had need of being healed. Isn't that wonderful? And those
who had no need never came to Him for healing. Oh, what a blessing
it is, brothers and sisters, to be a sin-sick sinner. Because it's those people who
come to the Savior. If you're here this morning and
you have not come to the Lord Jesus Christ to have your poor,
sin-sick soul healed, I can tell you why you haven't come. I know
that's for a fact. If you haven't come to Christ
to be healed, it's because you're not sick. Everybody who is sick
comes to the great physician. If you're here this morning and
you haven't come to the Lord Jesus for rest, I'll tell you
why you haven't come. Your soul is not burdened with
sin. He gives rest to those who come
to Him with a guilty, burdened soul. If you're here this morning
and you haven't drank of the water of life, I'll tell you
why. You're not thirsty. You're just
not thirsty. And if you're here this morning
and you have come to the Savior, I'll tell you why you've come
to Him. Because you're thirsty. And you've come to have that
thirst quenched. If you're here this morning and
you've come to the Lord Jesus Christ, I'll tell you why. You've
been a burden-heavy, laden sinner and you've come to Him for rest.
That's why, isn't it? Nobody comes to Christ until
they have need of Christ. That's why the Lord Jesus begins
our text here with these words. Ho! Listen up, everyone who is
thirsty, come ye to the waters. Are you thirsty this morning?
Then come to Him who can give you drink. And if you're here
this morning and you need the Lord Jesus Christ, I'm telling
you, He's put that need in your heart. If you're here this morning
and you're thirsty, He's put that thirst in your heart. And
He's put that thirst there with the full intentions of you coming
to Him and Him quenching your thirst. Oh, everyone that thirsteth,
come ye to the waters. Listen to this passage of Scripture.
The Lord Jesus Christ said, Come now and let us reason together,
saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow. I don't know how you'd make sins
white as snow, do you? Only one way I know, and that's
the blood of the Savior. And though your sins be red,
they shall be as wool. Though they be as crimson, they
shall be as wool. Now listen, if you be willing
and obedient, you shall eat the fat of the land. But who is willing
to come? The thirsty. Who is willing to
come? The burden and heavy laden. Who
is willing to come? Those who are sin sick in their
soul. We've got this ideal in the religious
realm that gatherings like this, coming together like this, is
for holy people. The upper class of people. The
good people. People who's wanting to build
up their reputation. I'm telling you, this ain't the
place for those kind of people. This is a place for sinners.
Burdened, wretched, hell-deserving sinners. Because we've got a
Savior to preach to people just like you. And if you're here
this morning and you're not a sinner, I hope the Holy Spirit makes
you a sinner. Because you'll fit right in here. And if you
come here this morning and you think you're not a sinner that's
worthy of hell this morning, you ain't going to like it here.
You ain't going to like it here. I'm telling you, you ain't going
to like it here. Because we preach a Savior who comes into the world
for this specific reason, to save sinners. And you're looking
at one of the chiefs standing before you here this morning.
What are these waters then that the thirsty are to come to. Hold every one that thirsteth. Come ye to the waters. What are
these waters? I want you to hold our text because
we will be coming back to it. But look in John's Gospel chapter
7. It is always good to use Scripture
to interpret Scripture. And the Lord Jesus Christ interprets
this passage for us in John chapter 7. And look in verse 37. John chapter 7 and verse 37.
This is where they were just having
the great feast. And John Gill said when this
feast had ended, the Levites would take buckets of water and
pour it out. I don't know what the purpose
of that was, but he said that was what was going on at this
time. They were pouring huge buckets of water out. And here
is what the Lord Jesus said in John chapter 7 and verse 37. In the last day, the great day
of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst,
let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the
scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers, of living
water. Now what is this water? He tells
us in the very next verse. But this is spake of the Spirit,
the Holy Spirit, which they that believe on Him should receive,
for the Holy Ghost was not yet given, because Jesus was not
yet glorified. Our Lord Jesus tells us here
what this water is. And what is it? It is the Holy
Spirit. It is the Spirit of God's own
dear Son. He is the fountain of living
water. Now, the Lord Jesus could have
come here and mentioned every aspect of salvation to us. He
could have just went into detail, and He could have said, He that
believeth on me is not condemned. That would have been true, wouldn't
it? Boy, that would have been refreshing water, wouldn't it?
He could have said, he that believeth on me is justified from all things. That's Bible, and that's true.
He could have said, he that believeth on me hath everlasting life,
or he that believeth on me shall receive remissions of sin. He could have went on and told
us every aspect of salvation. Come to me and drink of this
water. But he sums it all up. And He
takes every aspect of salvation and puts it in this one thing,
the Holy Spirit coming into our hearts. That is salvation, isn't it?
That is the water of life. That includes everything. If
the Holy Spirit has been given to you this morning, and as soon
as you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, He comes into your heart. Don't listen to these people
who tell you that you believe today and next week sometimes
you'll jabber in some kind of foreign language and then you've
got the Holy Spirit. As soon as you believe straightenly
in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit comes into your heart
and He brings all of these benefits with it. I remember that verse
over in Galatians chapter 4, one of the most blessed verses
in the Scripture. where he said, In the fullness
of time God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the
law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might
receive the adoption of sons. And listen, because you are sons,
God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son unto your hearts. crying, Father, Father. If the
Spirit of Christ has been sent unto your heart, you have eternal
life. Jesus Christ has been revealed
to you as your water of life. If the Holy Spirit is coming
into your heart, you are a forgiven sinner. You are a new creature.
You have life eternal. God is your Father. This is the
water of life. This Holy Spirit He's one with
Christ. Christ said, I'm going to pray
the Father and He'll give you another comforter. What did He
mean by that? Another comforter? Well, He's
another kind of comforter. He's one with Christ. He's a
third person of the Sacred Trinity, but He's another kind of comforter.
Jesus Christ is in heaven today in His physical glorified body. He can't come into our hearts,
can He? It's impossible that the physical Christ can come
down from heaven and dwell in you. But listen, Christ by His
Spirit can come and dwell in your heart. And when He does,
He brings all His benefits with Him. Forgiveness, justification,
eternal life, adoption. If you have the Spirit of Christ
this morning, then you have Christ. And you have this water of life. And this is the water of life
that our text is telling us about. It's the Holy Spirit and it's
called a well of water springing up into everlasting life. Another place it's called the
rivers of living water flowing in your soul. And another place,
it's called the fountain of the water of life freely. Here we
have a well, we have a river, and we have a fountain. Now what
in the world does that mean? Well, what does a well speak?
That's the source of water, isn't it? You drill down deep into
the ground and you find the source of water, that's the well. And then he speaks here of the
rivers. That's the abundance of this water. And he talks about
the fountain. That's the manifestation of the
waters to our spirit, to our hearts. Oh, everyone who thirsteth,
come to me. I will come into your heart. I will abide with you and all
my benefits of life eternal and grace will I bring with me. Ain't that wonderful? What a
wonderful passage the Holy Spirit has given us here to tell what
we have when we come to the Lord Jesus Christ. If natural water
is essential, then how much more is this spiritual water is essential? If this earth would dry up and
turn hard and die without natural water, what's going to happen
to us without spiritual water? We're going to be hard, we're
going to be desolate, and we're going to die. Spiritually. Ho, come ye to the waters. And he tells us something else.
Look back over in our text again. And he tells us something else
in verse 1 here. Not only that we have this living
water, but look what he says in verse 1 again. Ho, everyone
that thirsteth, come ye to the waters. And he that hath no money,
come buy and eat. We not only have the waters of
life, but now he mentions eating. And he tells us what that is
in verse 2. Wherefore do you spend your money
for that which is not bread? When we come to the Lord Jesus
Christ, we not only drink of the water of life, but we eat
of the bread of life. And we know who that is, don't
we? I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never
hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. I am
the living bread which come down from heaven. If any man eat of
this bread, he shall live forever. And the bread that I will give
is my body, my flesh, which I give for the life of the world." If
somebody could offer you a slice of bread, and you could eat it,
and live forever, you would eat it, wouldn't you? Everybody in
here would eat it. If you could eat a piece of bread
and live a wholesome, happy, eternal life and never die, you'd
eat it in a minute. Well, this is what Jesus Christ
did. This is the bread of life, and we come to Him and eat of
His broken body, and we drink of His precious, redeeming blood. The bread of God is He, He said,
which cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the world.
But the Holy Spirit isn't finished here. He tells us of this living
water, and now He tells us of the bread, and here in verse
1 He tells us of some more things. Look what He says in verse 1.
Everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters. He that hath
no money, come, buy, eat, yea, come, buy wine. Buy wine. What is wine? In the scripture,
wine represents that which makes you happy. It represents that
which makes you glad. Come, eat of my bread, and drink
of the wine which I have mixed, saith the Lord. Wine maketh glad
the heart of man, Solomon said. This is Jesus Christ that we
come to, and when we come to Him, He makes us glad. Remember when the apostles had
denied our Lord and all of them had forsaken Him. He had gone
to the cross by Himself, did all the work alone. The disciples
became very afraid. They began to cry. They went
out into the upper room. They were hiding there. A risen
Lord came and stood right in their midst and said, Peace be
unto you. And the scripture says, Then
were they glad when they saw the Lord. What would make you
glad this morning? Oh, you're so miserable and you're
having all kinds of problems and sin makes you to fret and
you're worried. What would make you happy? What
would make you glad? I tell you what would make you
glad. This water of life. This bread of life. The Lord
Jesus Christ can make you glad. Come, eat this bread. Come and drink this water. Come
and drink this wine that will rejoice your heart. But He tells
us something else here. Don't only buy wine, but buy
milk. You know what milk will do? It
will nourish a newborn baby. That's all a baby drinks is milk. It drinks that and it grows.
The Lord Jesus Christ in His Word is milk. I stand before
you brothers and sisters this morning and I look at a verse
like this and I can confidently tell you that you need nothing
but Jesus Christ. You need nothing in this world
but the Lord Jesus Christ. In Him is everything to save
your soul. In Him is everything to nourish
your soul and to cleanse your conscience and to make you glad. You need nothing but Him. More
about Jesus would I know. More of His saving love that
He's given to me show. You don't need anything but Christ.
What else do you need to make you happy, to make you glad,
to save you but the Lord Jesus Christ? Nothing. And when we
try to bring something with us, it just hinders us from coming,
doesn't it? Oh, He's the fullness of the
Godhead bodily. We need nothing but Him. We could stop here this morning
and say, boy, what a message. What a wonderful message. What
a great Savior He is. And I'm going to quit looking
for other places to make me glad. I'm going to quit trying to save
myself. I'm coming to Him. In Him is
everything I need. But the Holy Spirit doesn't stop
here. Notice this. This is such strange language. In verse 1, Everyone that thirsteth
cometh to the waters, and he that hath no money, Come ye,
come buy and eat. Yea, come buy wine and milk without
money and without price. Isn't that strange language?
If you did something like that in this world and you had a business,
you had a restaurant, and you put a big sign out front and
you put your ads on the radio, come and eat, but don't offer
me any money. Eat your fill. Drink your fill.
We've got waitresses and waiters to wait on you and serve your
every need, but don't bring any money with you. You'd go broke,
wouldn't you? But this is the living God. This
is the rich God. He's too rich to sell anything,
and you're too poor to buy anything. So He either has to give it freely
or not give it at all. Matthew Henry had four things
to say about this passage where he said, come and buy without
money and without price. And listen to this. Here's what
Matthew Henry said. These gifts are so invaluable
and such as no price can be set upon them. What price could you
put upon eternal salvation? What price could you put upon
possessing the Son of God in your soul? There is no price
you could put on that. You were not redeemed with corruptible
things as silver and gold, but with the precious, precious blood
of Christ. The redemption of the soul cannot
be valued. It is invaluable. Matthew Henry
secondly said this. He who gives these gifts has
no need of us, nor of any return that we can make him. He makes
us these proposals not because he has occasion to sell, but
because he has a disposition to give. He's not trying to sell
anything. Poor preachers today trying to
offer Jesus Christ for a dollar. If you don't take Him for a dollar,
we'll let you have Him for a quarter. He's not up for sale, brothers
and sisters. He's not up for sale. God loves so freely. He gives
so freely without any obligation on His part or any debts to pay. He says, come without money and
without price, because He is willing to give all of these
things freely. Matthew Henry said thirdly about
these things, that these things that are given, these precious
gifts, this water of life, have already been bought. They've
already been paid for. at a great price, not to us,
but by Jesus Christ the Lord. He purchased them Himself. He purchased forgiveness. He
purchased life. And now He can freely give it. And He can justly give it. Matthew
Henry said this fourthly. God does this. He gives these
gifts so freely to show us that we are welcome to all these gifts. though we are most unworthy of
them, and can never make anything that even resembles a payment
on them. He said we ourselves are not
of any value, nor is anything that we can do is of any value. We must admit this and own this. Listen now. If Jesus Christ is
ours, then heaven is ours. And therefore we must know and
admit that we are indebted to free grace alone. Why does he say come and eat,
drink without money and without price? Because we'll forever
be indebted to sovereign free grace. That's why he gives these
things without price. He's too rich to sell, isn't
he? And you're too poor to buy. So he says, take it freely or
you can't have it at all. Isn't that our trouble? Could
God be this good, Bruce? Could He be this gracious? Could
He be this generous to outright give us all of these things?
Yes. Yes, He is. And we spend our
time trying to earn these things and bringing some molded pennies
in our hands to offer for these and estible gifts. I did that
all through my teenage years. I brought broken promises to
God. If you'll do this for me, I'll
do this for you. It won't work, brothers and sisters.
It won't work. Just come to Him as a hell-deserving
sinner and reach out empty hands and say, Lord, save me freely.
Wash me freely. Give me the life that's in Christ
and give it freely. Hold everyone that thirsteth. Come ye to the waters. Look in
verse 2 now. Wherefore do you spend money
for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which
satisfies not? O my soul, can you imagine the
time and the labor and the money that's been spent on temporal
worldly things that in the end They won't profit. How much labor and time does
people spend in getting money, and keeping money, and worrying
about money, only to finally leave it all? And it never profits
our souls, does it? I've often thought of this. I
don't want to live in poverty. I don't want to have to beg for
my food. I don't want to wind up in a
homeless shelter. I want to have enough money to
have a house that's warm and nice. I want a vehicle that you
can trust to get around in. I want to have enough money to
go to the grocery store. I want to have enough money to
take a friend out for lunch. But when it comes right down
to it, there's nothing in money that's going to satisfy your
soul, is there? You're not redeemed with corruptible
things as silver and gold. That man that sat up all night
thinking about, what am I going to do with all these goods? I'm
going to tear down my barns and build greater barns. And I'm
going to say to my soul, rest now and take your ease. You've
got many goods laid up for many years. And that night his soul
was required of him. And I bet you all that he had
stored up never fed his soul at all. These temporal things, even though
they're good in and of themselves, will not satisfy your soul. They
won't do it. Cora just got back from touring
over in Europe. Cindy and I just got back from
a vacation in Florida. One of the best vacations I ever
had. We got to spend some time with family, walk the beach.
Man, it was up in the 70s and I pulled off my shoes and kicked
up sand and we ate fish to our fill. But you know something? That didn't do a thing for my
soul. And it won't take long that I'll
even forget about it. There's only one thing, brothers
and sisters, that will satisfy the soul, and that's the One
who made it. We're fallen from our Creator. And these temporal things that
we seek after and search after will not satisfy that which only
our Creator can satisfy. Until we are reconciled to Him
in the Lord Jesus Christ, our souls will remain empty and void
and desolate and die lost. Why spend you money on that which
is not bread? Solomon had amassed a fortune. You know Solomon had so much
silver and gold they couldn't even count it. They quit trying
to count it, he had so much. He had houses, he had all kinds
of exotic animals, exotic plants, he had servants, he had singers. Man, he had everything. He said,
I was greater than anybody that was ever before me. And he got
to be an old man. And he looked on all that he
had masked. And you know what he said about it? It's all vanity
and vexation of spirit. I'd love to have some things
of this world. To be honest with you, you do
too. They're essential, aren't they? But they won't satisfy
your soul. They'll never satisfy your soul.
Seek ye first and foremost The Kingdom of Heaven. The Kingdom
of God. And all these things will be
added unto you. But it's not just seeking for
temporal things like houses or gold or cars or whatever that
is. Don't you feel sorry for these
people who labor? He talked about you spend your
labor for that which satisfies not. What about religion? Look
how much religious people labor for things that won't satisfy
their souls. Lord Jesus told about that Pharisee
that fasted twice a week and paid tithes of all that he possessed
and said, Lord, I thank you I'm not like other men. I used to
read that passage and it just filled me with disgust for that
Pharisee. But not anymore. Now I feel sorry for him. All
his fasting. Can you imagine fasting twice
a week? Maybe 24 hours? Setting down and taking everything
that you have right down to your herbs in your garden and paying
10% of it? Keeping all that straight? All
the labor that he put into that for what? You see, sometimes these Mormons
And man, they're 18, 20 years old, and they're dressed to the
hilt and got these nice suits on, nice haircuts, and they're
handsome looking men, and they've left their life, and they can't
pursue even their education anymore because it's required of them
to go for two years and do missionary work. They win souls to the Mormon
religion, and when they've won him, they make him two-four more
the child of hell than they are. And their labor doesn't satisfy
the soul. I used to make fun of those guys,
but anymore it brings a tear to my eye. You're laboring for
naught. It's sad, isn't it? And the Lord
emphasizes here the necessity for coming to the waters. Bypass this other stuff and come
right to the waters. Come right to the Lord Jesus
Christ. And because you and I are so
earthbound and we think so worldly and set our hearts upon temporal
things and neglect the precious and eternal things, the Lord
presses this issue. How important is it, brothers
and sisters, that we come to these waters? How important is
it that we drink and eat? How important is it? He stresses
it. Look in verse 2. Diligently unto Me. This is important. Eat that which is good and let
your soul delight itself in fatness. Look in verse 3. Incline your
ear and come unto Me. Hear! Hear! And your soul shall live. Why
is He so serious and why does He keep pressing this? Because
there is a risk this morning that you're here and you're listening
to my voice talking about these living waters and the necessity
of them and you leave here and forget what you've heard. How
many have sat under the gospel just like we are this morning
and because they don't listen and take it seriously, they leave
and Satan catches that from their heart which was sown there. Oh,
this is important. This is the most important thing
you'll ever do in your whole life, is sitting where you're
sitting this morning and hearing about these waters. But you must
not sit and listen carelessly, dear soul. You must hear and
take it to heart and come to the Lord Jesus Christ. The best
advice I could give anybody this morning, don't you move a muscle
to listen, to leave this place until you, from your heart of
hearts, Come and give yourself up to Jesus Christ to be saved. That's how important this is. And he doesn't stop there. Look
what he says in verse 6. It's not only hearing, but put
in action what you've heard. Seek ye the Lord. Seek Him with
all your heart. While he may be found, call ye
upon him while he is near. There are people who have waited
too late to call, and then they'll never be heard. That rich man
is in hell this morning, and he's calling for a drop of water,
but he'll never have it. There are those that God has
come close to. He's come near. Warning them
and encouraging them. But He has left them. And He
will never come near them again except in judgment. Oh, what
a warning this is! How serious this is! Call ye
upon Him while He is near. Seek Him while He may be found. Now look in verse 7. 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." We are apt to go away this morning,
and we are apt to think, Bruce, this is too good to be true.
This is absolutely too good to be true. I have sinned all my
life against God. And you're telling me now that
He is willing to give me, forgive me, to wipe away all my sins,
to cleanse all my mountain of iniquity? I'm telling you that.
I'm telling you that. You'll say, that's almost unbelievable.
Well, look what He says here in verse 8. 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 above your ways,
and my thoughts above your thoughts." I just can't believe. I just
can't think that God would be this gracious. That's because
your thoughts are not His thoughts. We shouldn't be thinking our
thoughts. Everything you know naturally about the Lord, you
might as well destroy it away. Everything I knew naturally about
the Lord. When I was a teenager, when I
come to Christ and He opened my heart and began to teach me,
everything I thought was wrong. I remember Brother Baker. I thought
of you, Brother. Brother Baker was raised in the
Church of Christ. And when the Lord saved him, he went to a
friend of his and said, Why can't I find what I believe in the
Bible? And his friend said, Do you think it's not in the Bible? What we think is not even in
the Bible. How to come to God by our thoughts
is not even in the Bible. We're so after error, aren't
we? Look what he says. I can't deal
with all this. We've got to quit. We've got
to finish up here. But he says something here in
verse 12 or 13, and I thought, how many poor, miserable sinners,
poor, miserable sinners, have come to the Lord Jesus Christ
in their misery, and He turned their misery into happiness. I thought surely the Lord wasn't
going to save me. I was ready to despair when He
saved me. I didn't think He was going to
save me. I mean, I was miserable. The burden of guilt was upon
my conscience, my heart full of unbelief. But He made me so
happy. How many have come to the Lord
with heaviness and He gave them joy. How many have come to Him
and He gave them beauty for their ashes. And that's what He's talking
about here in verse 10 and verse 11. Or verse 12 and verse 13. You
shall go out with joy and be led forth with peace. The mountains
and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and
the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Instead of
the thorn shall come up the fir tree. Instead of the briar shall
come up the myrtle tree. He turns your sorrow to joy,
doesn't he? You cannot know, if you're here
an unsaved, you cannot know the joy and the peace that the Lord
Jesus Christ gives you when He saves you. But let me say this
one more thing and we'll quit. Here in verse 9 and 10, as the
heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways above your ways.
In verse 10, 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 whereunto I sent it." You know something? When the Lord sends rain down
from the clouds, it has an effect, doesn't it? My yard's so high
now, I don't know how I'm going to mow it. Because of the rain,
watering it. And boy, it's produced grass
like crazy. Got my potatoes planted, and
they're ready to pop out of the ground. Water them, water them,
water them. It's the same way with God's
Word. You may be here this morning, and you won't come to Christ.
You've heard this word preached, and you say, no, I've got other
interests. Thank you, though. And you may
go on your way and perish. But listen, that's what God purposed
by His Word. You say, Bruce, that's an awful
thing to say. What does the Bible say about
the Word? It's the Savior of life. It's the Savior of death. It will give you life, or it
will harden your heart. It will draw you to Christ and
make you fruitful, or it will drive you from Christ in anger. You cannot be neutral when you
hear the Word of God. And if you won't come to Christ
this morning, okay, go ahead and leave. But there are some
who are coming. You better bet there are some
who are coming. God has sent it with that purpose to bring
souls to Jesus Christ, His Son, that He may be glorified. And
it will produce that effect. I'll ask you. You examine your
own conscience. Wasn't it that way with you?
How many friends do you have, maybe you were raised up with,
they have no interest in Christ at all? When they heard the gospel,
they refused it and rebelled against the Lord. But when you
heard it, you came. What was the difference? He sent
it for the purpose of saving your soul. That's wonderful,
isn't it? You say, Bruce, how in the world
can I know that He sent it on purpose to save me? You can know
that. Come to Christ. Come to the Lord
Jesus Christ. And when you drank of this water,
you can say that was God's purpose all along. All of these encouragements,
all of these warnings was to me on purpose to bring me, to
humble me before God and to save my soul. Father, we thank You. Thank You
for Your precious Word. Forgive our awful deliverance.
But Lord, this is Your precious Word. And though the vessel Be
mere clay. This gospel is the power of God.
And make it so to each heart this morning. Glorify the Lord
Jesus, the messenger of the covenant. Our Father, reward Him for His
blood shedding, for His quivering lips, for His sweat in the garden. Father, reward Him by drawing
poor sinners to Him this morning. Lord, You have been lifted up.
Draw sinners unto Yourself. Encourage Your saints, Your dear
children. For Your glory we ask these things. Amen. He's all I need. He's all I need. Christ is all I need. He's all I need. He's all I need. Christ is all I need... Lord bless you. Be careful going
home. See some of you Wednesday night.
See some of you in the morning around nine o'clock. We got a
door to put in back here. Is it Miss Bobby's birthday?
Tomorrow?