All for his glory

January 14, 2024
Speaker Dave Green

If you want to turn to Isaiah chapter 55, our message this morning will be primarily found there. And Bernie was telling me that you guys spent some time in Isaiah during the Advent time, looking forward to talking about Christ's coming in Isaiah chapter 9. And it came about that a few weeks ago I was listening to a sermon and the pastor sent us to Isaiah 55. And I'm not sure what he talked about for the rest of the sermon, because I kind of stayed in Isaiah 55 reading that. I know that sometimes happens when you're listening to a sermon and the pastor sends you somewhere and you get down on your own private rabbit trail. And so as I've been studying Isaiah 55, I was thinking about bringing it as our message this morning. And just a little bit of background, you may have talked about this when you looked at Isaiah 55. Late last year, but I think it was written during a time period in Israel's history, after King david. There had been that the kingdoms had already split between the northern kingdom in the southern kingdom the northern kingdom had already been carried off by assyria for the most part into captivity and russland in the southern kingdom yet we're still under threat And this was happening not just because of war and political reasons, but because God was trying to bring Israel back to himself. 
They had departed from him and they had gone so far away that nothing was getting their attention except for the threat of war and besiegement and captivity from the surrounding countries around them, and particularly in this period from Assyria, which was to the north of them. King Hezekiah and Hezekiah was attentive to the Lord and so even under threat from Assyria as God was getting the attention of all the people throughout the southern kingdom of Judah Isaiah was speaking about that, about the idea of turning back to God, about finding their purpose and their worth in God. And so as we look at Isaiah 55, that's kind of the background here. Assyria had been under, putting them under threat. There had been some battles in them. And yet the Lord gave them victory in the end over Assyria and rest from them. And it wasn't until another century or so later that we have the Babylonians coming and carrying them off into captivity because they did not in fact respond. If you, if you look up some people that have studied Isaiah, I'm sad that you'll find some conflicting information. A lot of the secular scholars or even unbelieving scholars will. say that Isaiah wasn't really written by Isaiah. Maybe the first half was, but the second half was written much later by a group of people just writing under his name. And so when you look at Isaiah 55, you'll get some bad information a lot of times if you try to do your study on the internet or even from some commentaries. And they insist that this must have been written later because he's already talking about things that look like the Babylonian captivity. And of course we know that when a prophet writes, he's writing not just about the things that are current in his happening but also about the things in the future. 
So for us as believers it's no problem for to have an issue it's really not an issue for Isaiah to be talking about things that are in the future because that was part of his prophetic role that was part of what God was sharing with the people of Israel that they might know what was going to happen in the future. Much as you know we're looking back at Paul's letters 2000 almost 2000 years later and Israel was carried into captivity into Babylon. They would be looking back at the scriptures that they had and looking back at the prophecies from Isaiah, finding meaning and comfort and even correction from what had been written before. And so as we look at that this morning, Isaiah chapter 55, let's start in verse one. It says, ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters. And you who have no money, come. buy and eat. Yes, come buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend money for what is not bread and your wages for what does not satisfy? And we'll stop there for a moment here. It's kind of the very first word kind of gets your attention. Ho. It's not something we use maybe today, maybe if you're a pirate or on a ship, ahoy, or hey. I think today we'd probably just say hey, or behold, or something else. Clearly God is trying to get their attention, and he's saying, hey, ho, listen up. And he's got some good news here. It says, everyone who thirsts come to the waters, and you who have no money come by and eat. And we see in this first couple of verses here, he's talking about something free. Pay attention, I've got some free stuff for you here. I've got free water and free food. And, you know, most of us probably didn't think much about where we were going to get our water or even our food this morning. Maybe because of the storm and the cold, we thought a little bit more ahead of time, or if we didn't plan ahead, you know, with the weather, you know, our food stores at our house might be getting a little bit lower, but I doubt many of us were really that concerned about where we were going to find our next meal this morning. But we have to realize that under this time period, they were under threat of besiegement. In fact, I mentioned Hezekiah the king. He had actually, maybe you've heard of Hezekiah's tunnel, he had a tunnel that was dug from the springs outside of Jerusalem all the way to a pool that was inside the walls of Jerusalem. Because there was a threat that if they were besieged by Assyria or by other foreign countries, that one of the things that those armies could easily do was cut off their water supply. especially in a desert area where it didn't rain for months at a time, that would be a severe threat to you in war time. And so God is offering here something that maybe we take for granted, but that was constantly on their minds there, especially if you had to go out and collect your water from a well or from a pool. Water was something that you were thinking about several times a day. 
And God is offering this to them free here. And as we consider, look at this, needs that we have our body or water and food money but God is really talking about something deeper here sure that those were actual needs that people had and the actual needs that we even have today but as we look through the passage here we'll see that he's using these to talk about a deeper spiritual issue and we see that often throughout the Bible we often see water used as a spiritual analogy to our lives or food, especially as he talks about here having bread, as a spiritual analogy. Even wine and milk, the promised land that they would have in Cana was to be filled with milk and honey. And several times he talks about the fruit of the vine, the grapes giving forth their fruit that they might have wine. But he says this, he says, why do you spend your money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy? And I think this is a common problem that is not unique to us in our day. You know, people spending their money on things that don't satisfy them. And not just their money, but their time and their pursuits. And it seems kind of funny to read that this was a problem thousands of years ago, when it could maybe be claimed that that's probably the biggest problem we have in our own American society, is people seeking after pursuits that do not satisfy them, trying to find some satisfaction someplace else other than God. 
And so we see that God is calling and asking this thoughtful question here. What are you spending your money on? and for what purpose rather than the things that would satisfy you and god is here he says i i'm offering it free you know you're not spending your money on things that you're not gonna find satisfaction and here i am trying to give it away for free uh... it's kind of interesting that he would say by without money or by without price you know we would think that you know what is the state give without money or give without price Again, I think part of this is that siege mentality where, you know, if your city is under siege, you can have all the money in the world and still not be able to buy what food you had, what food you needed. You know, certainly if, you know, if I had food and somebody was offering me a million dollars, but yet there was nowhere, you had no idea where else you could get food again under siege, if your city or your house or your country is under siege, you know, what good would a million dollars do me if I had no food, if I sold it all and had no food for my family? And so I think that's part of the reason he's talking about buying food or drink at any price. Because that was a reality for some of them. And. or coming reality for some of them, being under siege from a, in a small town or a small city or a walled city like Jerusalem where they're, where they could easily be surrounded and there was going to be no way to replace what they purchased or what they had within those walls. As we move on here, God takes it from the physical more towards the spiritual. At the end of verse 2, it says, listen carefully to me and eat what is good. And let your soul delight itself in abundance. Incline your ear and come to me. Here in your soul shall live. And so God slowly moves the passage from food, talking about food, to our soul. from listening and finding what's going to move our soul to abundance and to our soul to live. And he says, listen carefully. Eat what is good. And again, we certainly want to know what's good. We certainly need, our bodies need what's good. Coming out of a time where, especially around the holidays, where we're maybe eating a lot of things that aren't so good for us. It's a thought that we may be thinking about a lot of people in January like I'm gonna make a commitment to eat better now I'm gonna you know we're done with all the snacks and all the things from the holidays now It's time for vegetables and things that my body really needs But God is also talking about what it means for our lives to have what is good and let our soul delight itself in abundance You know that abundance comes you know not just from having a lot of food to eat Not just having a lot of money But the abundance comes from the spiritual life that God has for us. To come and listen to him, that our soul might live. And this, again, is contrary to what a lot of times people think about when they think of God, or they think of religion, especially in our society today. 
They figure, well, if I turn to God, or if I get too religious, or if I start going to church, well, that's the end of all those things that I enjoy doing. And yet God is saying the opposite here. He's saying when you come to me, you actually get the things that are really going to satisfy you. You get those abundantly. God is not holding restrictions from us. He's not keeping things back from us. In fact, he says he's giving it to us abundantly that we might enjoy and be satisfied. But it is different from what the world has to offer. And we'll see that as we go down throughout the passage here. And so God isn't primarily interested in all the restrictions in our lives. And yes, he has a standard of holiness and righteousness that he desires us to live by and commands us to live by. But again, it's not restrictions for the sake of restrictions. God desires that we have this abundance in our life that satisfies us. The society around us just doesn't understand. that they're seeking for, and even in our own lives. You know, it's hard living in a society that is seeking so many things to not be infected by that same attitude. And so it's easy to get caught up. So all of us need reminding that we need to find our satisfaction in the Lord. And the next section as we move in here, it talks more about the covenant with Israel. And this guy is speaking more. to generally to the nation of Israel here, and it's less applicable to us in our lives today. He says, I will make an everlasting covenant with you, the sure mercies of David. Verse four, indeed I have given him as a witness to the people, a leader and a commander for the people. Surely you shall call a nation you do not know, a nation who do not know you shall run to you, because of the Lord your God and the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified you. I don't know if you caught it in Mike's. prayer this morning, he mentioned the leadership of David. And here it is in our passage here. As, even as I said, you know, years and years after David's life, God is referring back to that leadership of David. It really did represent the height of the nation of Israel. The height of the blessings that God had been giving to the nation, not just militarily in the land, amount of land that they had conquered, but also in their spiritual lives. to have a king like that who was not only deep in sin at times, but it was also a man after God's own heart, who was very sensitive to the Lord, who sought to lead his country to the Lord. And we see him compared over and over in all the following kings, whether it's Hezekiah or the one after him, Manasseh. They're all compared to either any followed in the footsteps of his father, David, or he did not continue in the path of his father, David. And so it's no surprise here to see David's name in this passage, because he was the standard that was set for the king and the nation, and whether that nation of Israel would be following God. and sadly they did not we know that from later passages we know that even because right now as isaiah's preaching he's calling them back to repentance you know the entire northern kingdom had broken off and simple must they had been carried off what's was later known in the new testament samara to samaria and that region was now uh... mixed with other people We see God dealing with them as a nation. And it represents God's faithfulness. One of the reasons I got so caught up in Isaiah 55 is because there's so many recognizable passages here. As we go through it, you'll see some of them that I'm sure you're going to recognize. Even in this one, there's probably, I don't know if you recognized it, but as I looked it up, it turns out that Paul quotes the end of verse 3 in his sermon in Antioch in Acts chapter 13, verse 34. Paul, in Antioch, as was his practice, went to the Jewish synagogue to preach first and to share about the Messiah, to let them know that their long-awaited Messiah had come and that Jesus had come to fulfill. And even at this time, as Israel had been set aside in their unbelief, Paul was still taking his message to the Jew first and then to the Gentile because he knew that these people were waiting for their Messiah and he could share with them the good news that had been fulfilled with him. Verse thirteen verse thirty four again Paul in his message here is rehearsing with them about how the promised Messiah would come and then verse thirty four says that he raised him from the dead no more to return a corruption he has spoken thus I will give you the sure mercies of David." It's kind of an interesting phrase there, the sure mercies of David. The meaning there isn't really clear. And even in my study here, I'm not sure exactly I got it right. But we know that mercies were offered to David. As I mentioned, he was deep in sin at points in his life. And yet, God brought him back mercifully to himself. and that those sure mercies of David, if even David, someone who was guilty of adultery and murder and leading his country in a wrong way, if anyone who had deserved punishment in such a high position of authority, then any of us would deserve as well that kind of punishment. And yet, even as those sure mercies were offered to him, even those sure mercies God is offering to them as well. Let's go on to verse six here. 
It says, seek the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to the Lord and he will have mercy on him and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon and again this we see this calling this prophetic calling as we do through a lot of the profits, that was the primary role it was that the whole reason god needed profits was not just a to say you know the good things in the blessings that were coming but i'll announce the people there need to return to the lord and uh... Particularly with the nation of Israel, we see the cycle over and over again of them turning away from the Lord, turning towards idols, seeking even the kings, the leadership, sometimes even the priests and the people in Jerusalem, and yet God giving them mercy, calling them back over and over and again. And we see that in here, this passage as well. And again, it's turned away from. that national focus that we just saw with the covenant, talking with the whole nation of Israel, to a more personal approach, as he's calling on them individually to seek the Lord while he may be found, to call upon him while he is near. And I think this is another thing that we take for granted, certainly our society today, as we think, well, God's going to be there when I get ready, when I'm ready to turn to him. and you know i'll just wait on you know my life's kind of busy right now i'm just doing the things that i am that i'm doing and you know i'm happy with my life the way it is and i'll do i'll turn to god later when i really need him or you know when i think when i think you know it's time for that you know but that's not always the case we don't always have none of us know especially in weather like this none of us know what's gonna happen to us from one moment to the next or even with our health. So we now have to seek the Lord while he may be found and to call upon him while he is near. I don't think he's quoting this exactly in Acts 17. Paul is speaking to the Athenians there, Acts 17:27, but he says something fairly similar in calling them who are in Athens to seek the Lord while he is near. Acts 17:27. Here's a completely different audience. Paul is not in the synagogue. He's out talking to the philosophers, the people who really don't have a background in the Bible or in the prophets. And so he actually makes some comparison to their own philosophers. And so he comes to this and reminds him in 17:27. Says, so that they should seek the Lord in the hope that they might grope for him and find him. though he is not far from each one of us. For in him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, for we are also his offspring. And again, just that idea that we need to seek the Lord while he can be found, seek him while he is near. It was a constant theme in the preaching, not just of the prophets, but in Paul as well. 
His life is uncertain. And we don't know. what tomorrow holds for us. And so we are called to seek the Lord. Verse seven there says, back in Isaiah 55, verse seven says, let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to the Lord and he will have mercy on him and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. Now you're probably thinking. or many people might be thinking, maybe not you necessarily, but ah, here's the catch. I knew the free food wasn't all we had in mind here. There had to be a catch somewhere along the way. And here it is. It says, let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to the Lord. And so God does call us to turn away from sin. We think of the homeless shelters. They bring people in. They give them food. maybe fresh clothes and a place to sleep at night. But then there's the catch, you know, they ought to sit through a sermon and listen to what the Lord has to say too. And yet they continue to offer this freely to them, day after day. And the Lord continues to offer it to us freely as well. 
Even in our sin, He continues to offer us that satisfying food, spiritual food. And it says this, and he will have mercy on him and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. There's certainly passages that talk about if you don't turn to the Lord, if you continue in your wicked ways. You know, if I had to ask, you know, none of us wants, really wants, likes to think about ourselves as being wicked. You know, we can maybe admit we're sinful, but are we really wicked? Sadly, yes, we try to think we think wicked that's that person over there that's that person who never thinks about god never turns away and yet you know the standard that god has for all of us is one that none of us measure up to you know in god's eyes we are all wicked in god's eyes we're all unrighteous you know in man's eyes we try to kind of rank people well that one's a little nicer than i'm not as bad as that person there and yet all of us need to turn and forsake our ways and turn our unrighteous thoughts back to God and His righteous thoughts. And here, if we start looking at verse 8, we get to what those righteous thoughts are. Verse 8 says, for my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says 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. it is one of those verses or passages here that immediately jumped out at me and one that you know I've heard lots and lots of times through different messages through different thoughts and especially you know when you're questioning God You know, someone, you know, this is a verse that we're often taken to, to see that for God's thoughts, this is God speaking here, my thoughts are not your thoughts nor your ways, my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways, my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. And of course, we often get this out of context. 
But, you know a lot of context really isn't needed for this because god is outside of our context that's the whole point here really is the fact that god is outside he's in the heavens he's outside no matter what might be happening to us sees the whole picture The fact that he's higher than this. He sees more than we see. And if you've had children or if you've worked with children, a lot of times you know that what you can see from your vantage point is a lot different than what they can see from their vantage point. And not just how high or how small they are, but from a wisdom point of view and a wisdom standard. And what we want as children, even what we want as humans, A lot of times differs from what God sees as best for our lives. And again, we come to the idea here of, you know, why are we spending our time and our money on things that aren't satisfying us? God who can see everything, he knows what's best for us. He can see what's going to satisfy us. He sees what we really long for, where that abundance truly is going to come from in our lives. And he's sharing it with us and reminding us that his ways are not as our ways especially when you look at our society. You just have to drive down the highway and look at the billboards. And you see that what man is seeking after is not the same as what God is seeking after. We need a lot of the physical things in this earth. I'm not saying that those things are bad. God is not saying that the food and the drink and the things are bad. He's saying those even help us lead us to God. An understanding of what our true needs are actually helps us to know what our spiritual needs are. 
I think it was C.S. Lewis who says, you know, the very neat fact that we have needs points to the fact that there is a God and a creator. When we understand that we have a longing for something and we don't see what it is, it points to the fact that there is a spiritual realm that we don't see and understand. It leads us to God, those longings that we have in our life. Just as hunger leads us to food and thirst leads us to water, spiritual longing leads us to God. Look at verse 10 here. It says, for as the rain comes down and the snow from heaven, and do not return there, but water the earth, and bring forth in bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater. So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth, shall not return to me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it. Here's another passage that's full of some familiar verses that maybe you've heard before. The idea here that. Well, we've had snow this week. We didn't have snow before this week. I started studying this passage. And I don't know if it was a personal illustration God was sending for me or maybe for you, knowing that I was going to be bringing this message to you this week. But the snow came. And it has a purpose. That's what God's saying here, that the rain and the snow has a purpose. God sends the snow and the rain for a purpose. Now we may not want it, especially in the depths and the inches are all at once like we got it this week. But it's there for a purpose. And we can see this. We know that water, especially living in a state where agriculture is a huge deal here, it says the water comes that it might bring forth and bud, that it may gave seed to the sower and bread to the eater. And we know that the snows provide of moisture that's needed throughout our state. And particularly in a place like Israel, which was mostly desert, that it was much needed there. In fact, Paul even quotes from this passage in 2 Corinthians 9-10. He's talking about giving, actually, financial giving. 2 Corinthians 9-10. And Paul uses this verse to talk about how God blesses. 2 Corinthians chapter 9 verse 10 it says now may he who supplies seed to the sower and Bread for food so they're quoting from that's how you know from here in Isaiah. He's providing the seed He's providing the bread for food supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness So Paul's doing something similar here. He's taking the things the physical things and is comparing them to the spiritual things And they don't negate each other. You know, the physical things. A lot of times, you know, as grace theologians, we tend to think, well, the physical was all in the past with Israel, and we're now just the spiritual. But we see that God still does act in some ways in physical. And in fact, you know, Paul is talking about giving money. 
Not just spiritual thoughts, but he's actually talking about giving financially. and recognizing that the only reason we're able to give financially is because God blesses us. We don't know exactly how that happens, but oftentimes looking back we can point to say, you know, this was God providing. This was God giving me what I needed. You know, I didn't know how it was going to come about, and yet God made it possible in my life. And as we go back to Isaiah here, we see that the same illustration that Isaiah is making here, I'm talking about how sending that snow and that rain, it's going to accomplish the purpose that God sought for it. And then verse 11, he says, so shall, so, meaning here's the point here I'm making, so shall my word as it goes forth from my mouth, it shall not return to me void. But it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it. So God's not only sending rain and snow, he's sending his word forth. And his word is going to accomplish his goal and his purpose, just like the rain and the snow accomplishes his purpose. And I think most of you have probably heard this verse before, where his word shall not return to me void. I know it's a favorite from a pastor's and preacher's point of view, because a lot of times it may be that we feel like we're sending God's word out into the void and not knowing how it's going to be heard or received. And yet we know that God is faithful. And I know pastors and preachers, a lot of times they'll stand at the back and they'll be talking to people. And someone will say, Pastor, that really spoke to me when you talked about this. And the pastor will think, I don't even remember saying that part. That wasn't in my notes. 
That just came from the Lord. I don't remember saying that part. And yet it was there that it might bless you as God sent it forth. And God is sending forth his word. And it only happens though in today's world as people pick it up and read it from his word or as pastors preach it from their pulpits or as you share it with your neighbors or your coworkers or the people around you that it goes out. As we know in Romans that it needs the messenger. It needs that person to carry forth the word. Most people aren't going to pick up God's word and start reading it for themselves. Maybe if they found themselves in a hotel room and the TV for some reason wasn't working and neither was their phone and the internet was out, they might open the door, pick up the Bible and actually look at it. But it's becoming less and less. There are so many more distractions, more and more today, that fewer and fewer people are actually considering what God's word has to say. And yet it's still here. It's still going out. It's still available. And we know even in countries where it's persecuted, where it's restricted, that it's still going out. And it's still accomplishing his goal. As we come to the end of the verse here, verse 12, I couldn't read this without thinking of the song. I think it's probably by the Gaythers or someone that made popular. I don't know, most of you probably recognize it. It's not as popular as this morning. 
I haven't maybe heard it sung for a while. But verse 12 says, for you shall go out with joy and be led out with peace. The mountains and the hills shall break forth in singing before you. And all the trees of the fields shall clap their hands. and the first thirty minutes that the for the stock of up the separate street instead of the briars are come up the murder tree it's all because the lord for a name for an everlasting sign this album shall not be cut off here's a go and uh... what was the rec room at camp at that time there was a picture of your up on the wall and had trees with hands at the end of the branches written quoting this verse since then painted over and used for a different purpose in there but i can't you know it reminds me of this that it's such a picturesque thing i mean it's not it's beyond what reality you know get it's an illusion it's an analogy And yet for a people that was either sitting in a city being under siege or years later when they do come get carried off to Babylon and are sitting in captivity, it's a verse that they'll look back on and see that the Lord desires for them this joy, this peace, that they would be let out from that captivity, that the gates would open, that the siege would no longer be there. 
And then not just the joy of people, but the mountains and the trees themselves will break into singing and clap their hands. And then the blessings. And the blessings here are primarily for Israel. We know that Israel was blessed, excuse me, and promised physical blessings, that they were given a specific place of land and a specific blessing that the crops in those lands and the trees in those lands would flourish. And so we understand that instead of the thorns shall come up the cypress tree, and instead of the briars 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 this is, again, God's ultimate purpose, that it would be for his glory, that it would be for his renown, that it would be for his name, a sign, a sign not just for people, but that the people would see and acknowledge the fact that God had done this. that God had done something that wasn't possible any other way except that God was doing it. And even nature itself would acknowledge that and see that. And while we don't have that same kind of deliverance in plan for us in the same physical way, we know that we have a future of joy and peace, that we have a present that God desires for joy and peace for us, and that again, it's for His glory. and for his renown. Let's close in prayer. Dear Lord, we thank you so much for your word, that it does go out for your purpose.
And it accomplishes that purpose in our own lives and in the lives of people around us. Help us, Lord, to listen, to hear it, to respond, to turn away from our wickedness, our unrighteousness, that we might come back to you. We thank you, Lord, for that mercy that you give, for that abundance that you give us, the joy, the peace, and the desire to see us fulfilled. And Lord, help us not to find that in anything else but you, to seek. That which our heart truly desires, which you implanted within us, Lord, we thank you so much that can be found in you, that satisfaction that you give, in your name, amen.

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