Well, it is a great and abiding danger. It was a danger that Adam and Eve succumbed to in the garden. It was the danger that the children of Israel gave way to in the wilderness. It was a danger that seduced the people of God in the Promised Land. It was the danger that was warned against again and again in the New Testament church and it is a danger that lives for us. The danger is that we would forget who we are and forget what we have been given. There's a short step between forgetting and a life that is no longer lived for God's glory.
People Who Have Forgotten
The passage that we are going to look at is found in Isaiah 55, if you would turn there, page 615. The book of Isaiah is really about people who have forgotten. Because of their forgetting, they are sent into exile, and who are restored again. This passage is to people, written to people who are in exile who are now called to remember as they are going to be restored, called to remember who they are, called to remember who God is, called to remember what they have been given in the free offer of His grace and the transforming power of His Word.
We are going to look particularly this morning at verses 1 to 7, but I want to read all of Isaiah 55 for you; follow as I read: 'Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters, and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourself in rich food. Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David.
Behold, I made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander for the peoples. Behold, you shall call a nation that you do not know, and a nation that did not know you shall run to you, because of the LORD your God, and of the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified you. '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, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares 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 and snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it spring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; that it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it. 'For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress; instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle; and it shall make a name for the LORD, an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.' It's my pleasure to be with you this morning and then again on the 31st of January, and we're going to look at the first half of this wonderful passage this morning and the second half on the 31st. Again, this passage is written to people who have forgotten, a people who are being called to remember and being called to remember, being called to come.
And there are five truths in this passage that are terribly important for you to remember. I often say in the evening, these are suitable for the refrigerator; remember them; mark them out. Here's the first one, subtle but important, everyone is thirsty. Everyone is spiritually thirsty. When the passage says, "Come everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has money, come, buy and eat!" Isaiah is not saying, "There are a particular group of people who are self-consciously thirsty and they should come."
Or rather the invitation is sort of like this, it's sort of the invitation a mom would make when she's on vacation with her family, and she's at the campsite cooking the meal after they've hiked for eight miles that day. She knows everyone's thirsty, but she says, "If you're hungry, come." It's assumed that all human beings are hungry. Hear this: God has built spiritual hunger into the heart of every human being. Whether people know it or not, there is a void in their hearts that only can ever be filled by God.
Every person seeks fulfillment; every person seeks hope; every person seeks meaning and security; every person wants to live with a purpose; every person wants to have a heart at rest. Every person seeks life even though they don't know it. And that's not just a spiritual thing; that's a deeply human thing. The Creator hardwired us with a desire for Him; He did that because His purpose is that we would live our lives for His glory, that everything we do, everything we say, everything we think would be done in a recognition of Him would be done by Him and through Him and to Him.
Everyone Is Spiritually Hungry
Everyone is spiritually hungry. Now, that hunger is a grace and a danger. It's a grace because that hunger is meant to draw me to God because it's only in relationship with God that I will ever know the peace and rest and hope and life that I was created to enjoy. That hunger, in a fallen world, is a danger because, in a fallen world, I'm tempted to satisfy that hunger somewhere outside of the Creator and feed myself on things that can never, ever satisfy me. You were spiritually hungry this week, and somehow, some way, you fed that hunger.
How are you feeding that hunger? Second truth that's powerfully displayed in this passage...there are only two kinds of spiritual drink and spiritual food. "Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy?" Hear that wonderful invitation, "Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price." There is the spiritual food that is able to satisfy my heart.
It is offered to me by the free invitation of a God of glorious grace. It's hard to capture the grace of this God with human words that He would literally say, "Anyone who is thirsty, come to me, and I will feed you, and I will fill you, and I will satisfy you, no matter who you are, no matter where you've been, no matter what you've done, no matter how many times you've blown it, no matter how much you don't deserve it. I offer you what you could not purchase; I offer you what you could not earn; I offer you what you could not deserve; it's only ever given as a gift.
Now, come, come, come!" How beautiful! How beautiful! We must be careful because at the heart of everything we believe is an invitation and a gift. We must not turn that into occasion for pride. We must not turn that into a reason for self-righteousness. We must not turn that into an occasion for a condemning, downlooking spirit on others who have not yet come. We're not here because we're good; we're not here because were righteous; we're not here because we're smart; we're not here because we're deserving.
We're here because a God of glorious grace has made an invitation we could never deserve. Our hearts must be marked by humility. I am afraid as your pastor, I am afraid that theological knowledge and biblical literacy and participation in ministry can cause us to forget who we are, to begin to think that we're deserving, to forget that if you follow Christ for 1,000 years, you would need His grace just as much that next day as the first day you believed. It's a glorious offer, a glorious invitation of grace, but that offer competes with another offer.
It's food that cannot satisfy, and the rhetorical question is, "Why would you eat there? Why would you eat a meal that you know wouldn't fill you?" I said to the children as I spent time with them in the nine o'clock service, "If your mom served you breakfast, and she said to you, 'I want you to know that when you eat this breakfast, it will leave you empty.' Would you eat? Would you eat if she laid out 10 of those breakfasts?" And, one child, being a skilled theologian, said, "No, Pastor Tripp, 10x0 is zero."
You see the lie of the garden; it's a dangerous lie; it's a seductive lie; it's a lie that's still being whispered in our ears...it's that somehow, some way, life can be found outside of the Creator, that somehow I can go to creation, and I can find that satisfaction for my empty heart. I can find peace; I can find wholeness; I can find rest; I can find meaning; I can find a purpose somewhere outside of the Creator. Oh, don't think that you've risen to a point where you're still not tempted to listen to that lie.
If you could honestly say today, "If only I had..., my life would be..." What would you fill in? Perhaps it's possessions; you think maybe, if you acquire enough things, then your heart will be at rest. Maybe it's a certain achievement; if you can only accomplish this, you would be satisfied. Maybe it's a relationship, if only you could get acceptance with this person, the love of this person, then maybe I would have peace. Maybe it's a certain experience, if only I could experience these things, then I'd be satisfied.
The Creation Cannot Satisfy
It's all a lie because the creation has no capacity whatsoever to satisfy your heart. It can't. And the rhetorical question of this passage should ring in our hearts this morning: "If we've been given a free offer of food that satisfies, why would we feed ourselves somewhere else?" But we do! There is a third truth. Here it is; it is the epicenter of this passage. It may surprise you when I say it. Jesus is the drink; Jesus is the food that satisfies. You may look at Isaiah 55 and say, "Paul, I don't see Jesus in here.
Where did you get Jesus out of this passage?" Let me read for you verses three, four, and five. Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David. Behold, I made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander for the peoples. Behold, you shall call a nation that you do not know, and a nation that did not know you shall run to you, because of the LORD your God, and of the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified you.
That passage is referenced by the apostle Paul in Acts 13 when he's preaching a sermon on the death and resurrection of Jesus. You see, what is the writer talking about here when he talks about this, "...everlasting covenant with David, a covenant that will last forever?" Listen, that covenant is fulfilled; those promises are fulfilled in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ who is the Son of David who sits on the throne of David forever. What are those promises to the nations that nations beyond Israel will be blessed?
Those promises are fulfilled in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ who is the light of the Gentiles, and in His grace, the gospel comes to people everywhere. Jesus is the only drink that can satisfy; Jesus is the only food that can give you life. Now, I would ask you, "Are you feeding on Jesus?" You say, "Of course I am, Paul. I'm here this morning." Well, let me ask the question this way, "When you're discouraged, when your heart is not at rest, when circumstances or people have disappointed you, when you are facing temptation and you just feel exhausted, when experiences have come your way that you thought you'd never experience, (Hear my question.) where do you run?
Do you run to Jesus? Do you?" Maybe in those moments of despondency, where you run is the television, and you have one of those evenings where you numb your mind with four hours of what can never satisfy your soul, that will never work. Maybe you run to the temporary pleasures of food. I'm going to say it, "...literally asking chocolate to be your own personal messiah." I'm serious. And the shelf lives of those pleasures pass quickly. Maybe you try to glob onto another human being, hoping that they can give you peace of heart that no human being could ever give you.
You can't turn people into your messiah. Maybe a shop. It is an exciting and fulfilling thing, but that shopping is an act of idolatry; it's a God replacement. I'm asking that to be my spiritual food. Some of you, if you are honest, are carrying a debt that you shouldn't be carrying because you've run there too many times. Maybe you slip into a quiet room by yourself, and you feed on internet pornography, looking for its perversity to satisfy your heart. When your heart is ill at ease, not at rest, broken and grieved and fearful, hear the question, brothers and sisters, "Do you run to Jesus?
Do you?" Jesus is not something we just study; He's not something that we just exegete. He is a person that we're called to love, and in loving Jesus, there is life. Do you love Him? Oh, not just on Sunday morning, but on Tuesday morning and Wednesday morning, or have you constructed a life where you're out after your dreams? You know what your life would be like; you know what you want to accomplish, and that's what drives the system, and you try to fit in Christ in the available slots of an all too busy schedule.
I Forget
I think it would be wrong for me, as your pastor, to assume that because you're here and you are a member of Tenth Church, that daily you're feeding on Christ. I think we forget; can I say this? "I forget." Maybe you numb yourself with a little too much alcohol. No, you're never drunk drunk, but that 3 or 4, 2 or 3 drinks at night has become too much of a habit. It's clear that it's a spiritual escape. It's clear that it's become a food that competes with what only can be found in Jesus. Maybe when you're angry, where you run is to explode that anger on somebody near you because you feel the release of doing that when you know that's a flawed human being and with all their failure, they should not carry the full weight of your anger.
Do you run to Jesus? Do you feed on Jesus? Do you drink Jesus? Or where the rubbermeets-the-road in your everyday life, are you tempted to forget, are you tempted to run other places? Jesus is the only drink that will ever satisfy. It is such a beautiful thing to be able say; I have such privilege to say these words, "God's answer to your hungry heart is Himself." Fourth truth: You must come to Him by faith. You must come to Him by faith. You must believe these truths and they must move you. I love the words that flow out of the metaphor of food and drink that really do depict what it means to come to Christ by faith.
Here are the four verbs: come, buy, eat, be satisfied. Come, buy, eat, be satisfied. 'Come' means move toward Christ, put yourself in the place where the grace of Christ and the love of Christ is taught, encouraged, and worshipped. Do you love God's Word? Do you? Not because you find brilliant ideas there, not because it's a wonderful story with a great plot and a beautiful ending, but because in this Book, you find Jesus, and you love this Book. You don't read the Bible in the morning just so you can complete your yearly Bible reading and hit Revelation by December.
That's a wonderful thing, but it's not a wonderful thing if you don't see Jesus in the pages, if that process doesn't make you hunger for more of your Savior. Do you love to be with God's people? Do you love the fellowship of people who love Jesus too and remind you of your need of Jesus and teach you things about Jesus, and when God's people are gathered, you're there? Why?...because you love Jesus. Do you love ministry...because you actually get the opportunity to bring Jesus to people who may, too, be forgetting?
Does that describe you...that kind of hunger and you haven't arrived? You don't feel like you've arrived; you don't feel like you've gotten enough. I wonder if for some of us, years ago, when we first came to Christ, that's what we were like? We ran to Jesus; we ran to everyplace that we could to hear about Him, and we could find His people. We ran to His word; we loved to be there. Is that where you still are or have you forgotten? Is it all too well-known and all too taken for granted, and frankly a bit boring?
Come! Second word is 'buy'. Buy is a word of commitment; I'm going to buy-in. I am going to commit myself to this kind of lifestyle. I understand the danger of life in a fallen world because every day when I awake and I move around in this fallen world, I face temptations; I face voices that call me to feed on other things but Christ. I want to make the commitment to live with Him and for Him. That means I live an open and honest life; I ask for prayer when I'm facing temptation. I'm open to wise Biblical counsel because I've committed myself to a Christ-driven, Christ-centered, grace-hopeful way of living.
It's not something that exists at the borders of my life; it's central to everything I think and everything I do and every desire and everything I say. I want my life to be about the Lord Jesus Christ. 'Eat'...it means I consume Him by faith. I take it in. I long for the truth of Jesus Christ and the Person of Jesus Christ to do His work in me. No! It makes no sense if you have chosen a fine restaurant, and you have committed yourself to a particular meal on the menu, if you don't eat it. Are you feeding on Christ, taking it in, acting upon it by faith?
Final verb...'be satisfied'. See, when you're satisfied, you're not going anywhere else. A satisfied person comes again and again and again and again and again. I'm not going anywhere else. I'm not listening to those lies; I refuse to ask the creation to do what only the Creator can do. I will resist those lies that say, "Spiritual life, in the fullest sense of what it means, can ever be found outside of Jesus." Fifth truth: now is the time to come, verse 6: '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; and let him return to the LORD, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.' You don't know what lies in front of you because you don't write your story.
How to Respond
You aren't in control of the sovereign operation of God's grace, and so you respond immediately whenever the appeal is made, and the passage actually tells you how to respond. It's the final definition of what it means to feed on God by faith. There is in these words a beautiful definition of repentance. Listen to this. "...let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts." There's a turn of behavior and a turn of heart in those words. Now, what is repentance? Repentance is a definitive change in my heart, (Look up here!) that leads to a change in the direction of my life.
Now, what you have here is a call to repentance, and that call is not a one-time call; that call is a daily call, that because sin still exists inside of me every day, I come once again to Jesus. I come confessing a heart that wanders away from Him. I come confessing words that are not spoken for Him. I confess behavior that is not lived within His boundaries, and I do that again and again and again and again until I'm on the other side, and repentance is no longer needed. That's what faith looks like.
You see, if you're not doing that, if your life is not a daily life of confession and repentance, then you're able to grow accustomed to your sin; you're able to grow comfortable with it; you're able to live with things that God calls you to forsake. No matter how well you can exegete the gospel of Jesus Christ, no matter how well you can define the theology of God's Word, no matter how much money you put in the plate over the years, no matter how much you participated in ministry, no matter if you hold an office in this church, the call of Christ to you is, "Come and repent yet again."
I was reminded this morning at 5:15 a.m., as I read this passage again, and said to the Lord, "I want to do justice to this call this morning." The call I felt, as your pastor, was, "Then, Paul, you come; you come again to Me this morning." I put my head down and prayed, "Lord, I don't come to You enough; I don't confess my need enough; I grow comfortable with things that I should not be comfortable with. Won't You welcome me once again, and won't You satisfy my heart so fully that I won't wander ever again?"
Would you pray that this morning? And what is the promise? There's no more beautiful promise in the universe than this: Pardon, that every wrong thought, that every wrong desire, every wrong word, every action will be forgiven because the One who calls you to come is full of compassion. Come! Come! Come! Where do you run? Do you remember who you are and what you've been given? Do you really, in the press of everyday life again and again run to Jesus and feed on Him by faith? How often are you snookered by the lie that somehow the life that you see can be found outside of the Creator?
Maybe you're here this morning, and you are hearing this invitation for the first time. I would plead with you: Don't wait; come. Say, "Jesus, I want you to satisfy my heart; I've never known that satisfaction. I need Your forgiveness; I've never known that forgiveness." Come! Maybe you're a believer, but you recognize that you do forget, and there are patterns in your life of feeding yourself on things you should not use as replacements for the Messiah. Maybe for some of you, those are socially acceptable things and no one would notice.
Maybe for others of you, they are perverse and dark, and you live a double life, hiding, because you've let some sin begin to control you and begin to be the place where you feed. I would say as your pastor, "Won't you come? Don't be afraid of speaking words of confession because when you come, the promise of the Redeemer is pardon." May we remember, and in remembering, may we come. Let's pray: Thank you, Lord, for the beautiful words of this invitation made so long ago to people who had forgotten, and in forgetting, had forsaken You.
These wonderful words ring with power to us who are tempted to forget. May we remember that there is built in us spiritual hunger, that that spiritual hunger will either be satisfied by You or by something in the creation that really doesn't have the ability to satisfy it. May we remember that Jesus is the food that we need? He is hope; He is peace; He is truth; He is wisdom; He is forgiveness; He is life. Our souls will never be satisfied until they are satisfied in Him. And 'coming' means we feed on Him by faith, and we come again with broken hearts of repentance, turning once again from sin to You. Oh, in grace, won't You draw us to come and be satisfied? In Jesus name, Amen.
