God's Invitation

Well, good morning, church. It's good to be with you all this morning.

Would you turn with me to Isaiah chapter 55? That's page 576 in the Pew Bible.

Isaiah 55 · chapter mention

Today we come to the end of this great middle section of the book of Isaiah,

and it ends with an invitation. So let me read this for us. Isaiah chapter 55.

Isaiah 55 · chapter mention

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 yourselves in rich food.

Lord, 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 the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there but water the earth,

making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,

so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth.

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 briar shall come up the myrtle,

and it shall make a name for the Lord, an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.

Let's pray together.

Father, we ask that as we come now to your word, having heard it in our ears,

we pray that by your spirit you would move in our hearts, and in our lives,

and in our words, and in our actions, to do the very work that you have set out to do,

to create a people for yourself, to bring you much praise.

So God, be with us in this moment.

Help us to receive what your spirit is saying to us.

For Jesus' sake.

Amen.

Amen.

Well, maybe you've had the experience of going to your mailbox,

and finding in the midst of all the junk mail, and the coupons, and whatever,

one envelope that catches your attention.

It's kind of thicker than all the rest of them.

The envelope seems to be made of like really nice paper,

and the address is handwritten, and you open it up,

and it's an invitation.

Something wonderful has happened or is about to happen,

and this invitation says, we want you to come.

Come celebrate.

Come feast with us.

Maybe it's a graduation, or a birthday, or a wedding.

Whatever it is, something wonderful has happened,

a big life-changing event, and we want you to come and join in.

You know, if you step back,

that's really the message of the whole Bible.

Something has happened.

Something wonderful, something life-changing.

God, through His Son, has done something in history

that has changed history and can change your life, too, forever.

And now you and I are invited to come.

And Isaiah 55 is just that.

It's the invitation of the gospel, the good news.

Since chapter 40, Isaiah has been laying before us

and unraveling and unfolding all that God was going to do

to redeem His people, to liberate them from exile,

to bring them home.

And all of this came to its climax, you remember, in Isaiah 53,

with the suffering servant who would atone for His people's sins

once and for all.

And now, with all of that prepared,

with all of that completed,

the invitation goes forth.

You see, Christianity isn't like the junk mail

that you and I get.

You know, you pull out the flyer and it's like,

oh, look, I could save 20% the next time I go to Target.

Isn't that kind of nice?

Well, I don't really need anything at Target,

so, meh, and we just chuck it, right?

Now, maybe you're thinking, 20% at Target?

Why are you throwing that coupon away?

That's a pretty good coupon.

You've got to put that thing on the fridge.

Save it for next time.

But here's the point.

Christianity is not a nice little offer

that might make our nice little lives a little bit nicer.

Christianity is a summons.

It's an invitation to which you and I must respond.

And if you have not explicitly and consciously responded

to that invitation, then you're not a Christian.

But what we're invited to,

what this God calls us to is so great

that we can't just pass it by like a piece of junk mail.

We have to consider.

We have to respond.

So, let's look at this invitation together, then.

First, in verses 1 through 5 of our chapter,

God calls you and I to come.

In the first five verses, we hear the invitation.

But notice that this isn't a summons

to a court hearing that God is making.

It's not calling us to jury duty, you know,

or any kind of invitation like that.

It's a summons to a feast.

Are you thirsty?

Isaiah says.

Come and drink.

Are you hungry?

Come and dine.

And it's not the cheap stuff that's being laid out.

It's wine.

It's milk.

It's rich food that brings deep delight.

But there's also something curious about this invitation, isn't there?

We're called to come and buy this wine and milk

without money and without price.

It is something that must be purchased.

It must be bought.

But the price won't be paid by us.

It'll be paid by another.

This is an essential part, you know,

the nature of the gospel invitation.

It comes free to us, but it's costly to another.

We come and buy this wine and milk without money and without price.

And then Isaiah asks us this question.

You know, think of all that you're spending yourself on.

Does it really satisfy?

As you spend your money, as you spend your labor,

as you spend your life on earthly pursuits apart from God,

yes, maybe they're good and they're proper place,

but is that bread really feeding your soul?

Is that water really quenching your thirst?

Jesus, in the midst of his wilderness temptation, said,

man cannot live on bread alone, quoting the book of Deuteronomy.

The human heart was made for more.

We were made for God.

And the great tragedy of human existence

is that we would spend our lives on something that does not satisfy

rather than come and get the wine and milk

that God offers us free of charge,

without money and without price,

because it's been purchased by him in our place, by his son.

Of course, this sort of invitation is humbling, isn't it?

To admit that everything our labors can afford

is nothing but bread that can't satisfy.

That's kind of humbling.

To admit that the only way to get the wine and the milk,

the real things our hearts long for,

is to accept it as a gift from God

that we cannot earn and cannot buy.

You know, maybe that's the hardest part,

to admit that we need someone else to pay our way.

But while the gospel invitation may humble us,

it doesn't humiliate us.

Because what God offers us in verses 3 through 5

is the very opposite of humiliation.

What is this feast that God is inviting us to?

What is it?

Well, in verses 3 through 5,

we see that it's the ancient promise of glory.

This invitation is to glory.

Listen again to verses 3 through 5.

Here it is.

Here it is.

Glorified you.

Now, in our ears,

these verses may sound a bit confusing, right?

But to an ancient Israelite,

what was being laid out here in these verses

was what it was all about.

You see,

if you go all the way back to the beginning

of the biblical story,

when Adam fell in the garden,

all creation went down into the curse with him.

And that kingdom that God had established in creation

with Adam at the head

seemed in the moment of the fall to be lost.

Now, instead of life and flourishing,

all was sin and judgment and death.

But God in that moment made a promise.

He made a binding promise.

He made a covenant.

And this promise began in the garden

and was carried on through Noah and Moses.

And eventually,

God reiterated this promise to David.

And he reiterated it in a fresh way.

God promised that God's kingdom

would be established forever

through David and David's line.

That there would be a king from David's line

who would sit on the throne forever,

a new Adam.

And that king would establish God's kingdom

and he would restore God's people

and he would even heal creation.

But it wouldn't just stop with the people of Israel.

Like a river kind of overflowing its banks

when the rains come,

this promise,

this covenant of an everlasting kingdom

would overflow out to all the nations of the earth.

And they too would come

and they would enter the covenant people.

They would come into the kingdom

and at last,

they would know God.

In other words,

God promised his people

that he would glorify them.

that they would be restored back

to what he had created them to be.

That he would raise them up from the ashes

out of death and shame.

That he would restore their fortunes,

renew their joy,

and make them that light to the nations.

And we know from the perspective

of the New Testament

that this covenant with David was fulfilled

when at last the eternal king

did come from David's line.

The Lord Jesus,

who in his resurrection

now lives forever,

never to see decay.

That's what our first reading

in our service was all about.

It was the apostle saying,

that king you've been waiting for,

the one who is going to reign forever,

he's here.

The Lord Jesus,

how do you know?

Because he's been raised

and he's never going to die.

So you see,

responding to the invitation of God's gospel,

you know,

it's not like taking up some new hobby

that might provide a few hours

of interesting distraction.

You know,

I've got an Xbox for Saturday

and I've got a church for Sunday

and then I've got to grind through

five weeks

until I can get back to my Xbox

and then back to church.

That's not what the invitation is.

Ultimately,

God's inviting you

to be restored

to the ancient glory

that he intended humanity

to have all along in creation.

To be participants of his kingdom.

To be the image bearers

we were meant to be.

To be a human person

fully alive.

That's what verse three means.

Incline your ear

and come to me here

that your soul may live.

You know,

in the Old Testament,

you know,

your soul isn't just sort of like

the immaterial part of you.

It's the true you.

Your very self,

your very being.

The invitation of the gospel

God summons to come

is the summons to enter his kingdom

under the lordship of King Jesus

and no life

and no glory.

But what exactly does it look like

to respond to this invitation?

How do we do it?

Well,

in verses one through five

as we just saw,

God calls you and I to come.

But in verses six and seven,

God shows us how to come.

If verses one through five

are the invitation to come,

then verses six and seven

are the explanation

of how to come.

So let me read

verses six and seven again.

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.

Now notice the two sides

of responding

to God's invitation.

On the one side,

we're told to seek the Lord,

to call upon him.

And this action of turning to God,

seeking him,

calling upon him,

placing our trust in him,

coming under his lordship,

this is what the Bible calls faith.

But there's another side here.

There's not just turning to God,

but there's also turning away

from our old life.

Verse seven says,

let the wicked forsake his way

and the unrighteous man

his thoughts.

This is what the Bible

often calls repentance,

turning away from

our old life without God

and admitting that our path

apart from God

leads to dissolution

and foolishness

and destruction.

Repentance is turning away

from that path,

leaving that path,

to place our whole life

in God's hands.

So here's the beauty

of the invitation

of the gospel.

We come to the Lord

as we are,

but not to stay

as we are.

The Lord accepts

everyone who comes to him,

but coming to him

entails leaving our old life

behind for a new one.

And if we do that,

if we turn

and seek the Lord,

what do we find?

If we forsake our old ways

and call upon the Lord Jesus,

how will God respond?

Does he kind of put us

on a probationary period

to see if it might work out,

you know?

Is it like you're a new hire,

you know,

given 30 days

to see if you're a good fit

with the corporation?

Does he put you

in the middle of tryouts

to see if you're spiritually

fit enough

to make the team?

Is that how God's invitation works?

No.

For every sinner

who repents

and calls upon the Lord,

who receives

this invitation of life,

there's no probationary period.

There's no trial run.

There's no tryouts.

Everyone who returns

to the Lord

receives what?

Abundant pardon,

verse 7 says.

He will abundantly pardon.

Pardon.

Not begrudgingly pardon.

Not basically pardon.

Not probably pardon.

But abundantly pardon.

Pardon upon pardon.

Do you hear those words,

Christian?

Brothers, sisters?

Perhaps this week

you've fallen short.

Perhaps this week

you've seen that there's still

much remaining sin

in your life.

If that's you,

then treasure this word

abundantly.

You know,

this is the natural progression

of the Christian life.

The deeper we grow in Christ,

the more we begin to see

of God's holiness.

How beautiful,

how awesome,

how good

and great God is.

How loving

and wonderful God is.

And the more we also see

of our own sinfulness.

How deep the idols

of our heart are lodged.

How besetting

our habitual sins really are.

But for the Christian,

this doesn't lead to despair

seeing these two things

in increasing measure.

Because as our understanding

of God's holiness

gets bigger and bigger,

and as our understanding

of our own sin

gets deeper and deeper,

you see,

our knowledge of the cross

gets greater and greater.

for this is a God

who abundantly pardons.

And as the wonder

of the cross grows,

as the wonder

of His abundant pardon

captures our hearts,

that's the engine

for real change

in our lives.

The love of God

forgiving all my sins,

restoring me to glory,

giving me a place

in His eternal kingdom,

inviting me,

a sinner,

to join His mission

in the world,

to proclaim the gospel

of peace

to the whole creation,

and to do the good works

He prepared in advance

for me to do.

To let a life

of mercy and justice

be like a mustard seed,

seemingly small,

seemingly insignificant,

but with that,

to grow into a tree

with the birds of the air

resting in its branches.

all of this,

fueled by the wonder

of the cross,

and God's abundant pardon

to sinners,

to you and me.

But can we be sure about it?

Will God really pardon?

Will God really give us

a place in His ancient

promise of glory?

Will God really make good

on His invitation?

Well, if in verses 1-5

God calls us to come,

and in verses 6-7

God shows us how to come,

in verses 8-13

and the rest of our passage,

God gives us assurance

to come.

Isaiah 55 moves

from invitation

to explanation,

finally to assurance.

And there are actually

three assurances here,

three pairs of verses,

each starting with the word

for.

How do we know

God will abundantly pardon

and make good

on His invitation?

Well, first,

because God's ways

are not your ways.

Look again at verses 8-9.

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.

Here's the good news, friend.

God

isn't

like us.

We humans

rarely pardon,

let alone

abundantly pardon.

But God

isn't like us.

Do you remember

what the Apostle Paul

wrote in Romans 5?

He says,

scarcely

will someone die

for a righteous person.

Maybe for a good person

someone would dare

to die.

But God

shows His love

for us

in that while

we were still sinners,

Christ died for us.

God's thoughts

are not our thoughts

and God's ways

are not our ways.

We want to turn away

when others wrong us,

but God turns towards us.

We want other people

to pay when they offend us,

but God pays

what we owe

when we've offended Him.

And God isn't just

a little different

or slightly different.

God is massively,

majestically different.

Like the sky

and clouds

and stars

are higher than the earth,

billions of miles away,

that's how much higher

God's ways are

than our ways.

And that means

God will abundantly pardon

all who come

trusting in His Son.

But it's not just

that God's ways

are higher than ours.

In verses 10-11

we see that God's word

is more productive

and more effective

than ours.

Look again

at verse 10-11.

For as the rain

and the snow

come down from heaven

and do not return there

but water the earth,

making it bring forth

and sprout,

giving seed to the sower

and bread to the eater,

so shall my word be

that goes out

from my mouth.

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.

God's word

always accomplishes

what God desires.

It never comes back empty.

Like rain that comes down

and produces grain

and grain that becomes bread

and bread that feeds

the hungry.

God's word is productive

and effective

always without fail.

If God says it,

He'll do it.

In Genesis 1,

God's word brought forth

the heavens and the earth

in creation.

And Hebrews 1 says

that God's word

upholds the universe

and keeps it in existence.

And that powerful,

effective word

in creation

and preservation

is the same

powerful,

effective word

that God speaks

in redemption.

How do you know

God will do what He says?

Because this very word

became flesh for us

and for our salvation.

God spoke

and things came into being.

And when God spoke

a word of redemption,

what did He do?

He became flesh for us.

The Son,

the word of God

became incarnate

in the person of Jesus

and we beheld His glory.

And on the cross,

the incarnate crucified word

cried out,

it's finished.

Sins are paid.

Death has died.

The enemy's been defeated.

And that same word

is now heralded

in the preaching

of the gospel.

The invitation goes forth

from the empty tomb

of the risen Lord

down through the preaching

of the apostles

and now being proclaimed

by the church

in every age,

the invitation goes forth.

And this word,

because it's God's word,

God's gospel,

it cannot fail.

If God says He will pardon,

then surely He will

abundantly pardon.

But it's not just God's ways

or God's word

that assures us

that God will make good

on His invitation.

There's also God's name.

Look again at verses 12-13.

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 briar

shall come up the myrtle

and it shall make a name

for the Lord.

An everlasting sign

that shall not be cut off.

These verses show us

the kind of radical transformation

that God's word brings.

This invitation of abundant pardon,

of God's glory and kingdom

through the crucified

and risen Jesus,

it brings about what?

It brings about a new creation.

Once there were tangled thorns

and briars,

now there's a forest

of cypress trees

and myrtle trees.

This beautiful forest

where once there were

thorns and briars.

And is this not a picture

of the redeemed people of God

brought from death to life

through the glorious gospel

of God's Son?

But the assurance

that God will do it

is found at the very end.

How do we know

God will make good

on His invitation?

How do we know

that God will abundantly pardon

and transform us like this?

Because this is going

to be the sign.

The transformation

of the effective word

is going to be the sign,

the everlasting sign

of God's great name.

When the new creation erupts,

when God's people

are forgiven and transformed,

and ultimately,

in the new heavens

and new earth,

when all of creation

is released from its bondage

to decay,

and the mountains

and the hills

break forth into singing,

and the trees of the field

clap their hands,

all of that is going

to be a testimony

proclaiming the greatness

of God.

It shall make a name

for the Lord.

You see, friends,

this is how God

has chosen and ordained

to display His glory,

to display His name,

His nature,

who He is.

This is how God

has chosen to display

that for all eternity

through the redemption

of His people,

redeeming them

from sorrow

and the enmity of sin

into joy

and peace

of abundant pardon.

And through their redemption,

God will sweep up creation

in freedom

from sin's decay.

You see,

God didn't just want

to reveal His glory

as a God who creates.

God chose to reveal

His glory also

as a God who redeems.

And if this is how

God has chosen

to reveal His great name

for all eternity,

then surely it must be so.

If God is choosing

to raise us to new life

so that in the coming ages

He might show

the immeasurable riches

of His grace,

as Paul says in Ephesians 2,

then we can have

all the assurance

in the world

that He will do so.

Why?

Because God has staked

His own name

and His own reputation

on it.

The masterpiece

that God will hold up

showing how awesome

and how much

of a God He is

so that His glory

and wisdom

and beauty

might shine forth

for all eternity

are His redeemed people

united to the Redeemer,

our Lord Jesus.

He signed His name

on the canvas

and He will surely

complete every stroke

of that masterpiece

to perfection.

And that means

everyone who responds

to this invitation,

everyone who comes,

leaving their old life,

calling upon the Lord Jesus,

will be saved.

So you've gone

through your mail.

You've opened

the invitation.

Here it is.

While there's still time,

God says through Isaiah,

respond.

Come.

Come to the waters.

Come buy and eat

without money

and without price.

Don't wait.

Come.

Call upon the Lord Jesus

and you will be saved.

And brothers and sisters,

those who have already

called upon the name

of the Lord,

remember what we've been

invited into,

a feast,

a joy.

So celebrate today.

Rejoice and be glad.

Yours is a glory

that will not fail.

Let your neighbors

and your coworkers

and your family

see your joy.

You've been invited

to the feast.

The new creation's begun.

Let them see your joy

and let them know

that they're invited too.

Let's pray together.

Father in heaven,

we pray that as we've

heard and considered

this invitation this morning,

that your spirit

would work in our hearts

to bring them

from death to life

to respond to this call

to turn and trust in you.

God, for those who are

wrestling with this call,

I pray

that you would come to them,

liberate them

from their fears

and their doubts,

and grant them the faith

to trust in you.

And God, for those who

by your mercy

have responded

to this invitation,

for those whom you've

brought into your church

through this wonderful

invitation to come,

I pray, Lord,

that we would have

the joy

that is spoken of here.

and the peace

and the glory.

God, we know

it's imperfect now,

but we see it.

We see the signs

of your kingdom

breaking out in our midst.

We see thorns

that have been turned

into beautiful trees,

so we pray for more of it, God,

and we pray

for a great confidence

in you

and a joy in you

that is befitting

of our Lord Jesus,

the great King of joy

who has purchased for us

such a great

and unshakable salvation.

In his name we pray.

Amen.