Word of Salvation – Vol. 53 No.23 – June 2009

 

Hunger and Thirst Satisfied

A Sermon by Rev John De Hoog

on Isaiah 55

Scripture Reading:   Acts 13:26-41

 

Dear Congregation.

 

In the late 1990s Richard Carlson made lots of money with his self-help books. The first in the series was called “Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff.” It was a #1 National best-seller in the USA for more than a year. Other titles were, “Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff with Your Family,” “The Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff Workbook,” and “Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff… and It’s All Small Stuff.”

 

Carlson’s aim (besides making pots of money) is to give people (quote) “Simple ways to keep the little things from taking over your life.” His aim is to help you take stock of what you see as really important. Some of the principles he advocates are as follows: “Ask yourself the question: Will this matter a year from now?” You know: Wife changes lanes while driving, and husband asks, “Why did you change lanes when you only have to change back again soon?” Wife resents question. Husband should ask himself, “Will this matter a year from now?” It’s a good principle. Or another one: “Remind yourself that when you die, your In Basket’ won’t be empty.” Or: “Get comfortable not knowing.” Or: “Remember, one hundred years from now, all new people.”

 

Carlson has a great way of turning a phrase and making us think. What is really important ? And what is just small stuff that I needn’t sweat about?

 

Isn’t it true that we all organise questions about life in layers. We have various levels of questions depending on how much we reflect, how deeply we think about life. At one level there are the questions of everyday living. We worry about our health and the health of our parents or our children, we spend money on doctors and health insurance, we try to take a healthy diet. We worry about finances: Am I going to be able to pay the bills this year? When will my loan come through? Do both of us need to work to make ends meet? We ask questions about family, we ask questions about the future, we wonder about sport, which movie to take out from the video shop, and so we could go on and on.

 

These are the kinds of questions we meet in everyday living, they are all at one certain level. We would think a person who only asks questions at this level to be a fairly superficial person. There are deeper questions, aren’t there? Who am I? Why am I here? Where am I going? Does life have a purpose? We might begin to think some of these deeper questions when faced with a crisis in our lives. A much-loved relative dies unexpectedly. We attend the funeral and realise that there is more to life than health, food, education, videos and sport. We realise that we have been getting more and more enmeshed in sweating the small stuff.

 

There are everyday questions, and there are deeper questions. But there are also ultimate questions. And these ultimate questions are about God. What is he like? Can I know him and experience his power in my life? If so, how? These ultimate questions are not asked so much these days. One of the strategies of Satan, God’s enemy, is to fill our lives with so much everyday clutter, with so much day-to-day hassle, that we rarely have the energy or the inclination to think about ultimate questions.

 

Isaiah 55 addresses ultimate questions. Let’s suspend the smaller stuff for a while and expand our thinking to the ultimate level.

 

Mankind has been called a religious animal. The Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics lists hundreds of ways in which men and women have tried to satisfy their religious longings and feelings. They have worshipped the sun and the moon and the stars. They have worshipped earth, fire and water. They have worshipped idols of wood, stone or metal. They have worshipped fish, birds and animals. They have worshipped countless gods and spirits. People have worshipped sport and economics and cars and prestige and leisure. In countless ways men and women throughout history have tried to answer their ultimate questions. In all these ways they have avoided the ultimate questions about the One True God.

 

There are others who have tried to worship the One True God, but have done it through a vast variety of sacrifices, ceremonies, sacraments and services. They believe that somehow the ceremonies and sacraments themselves have intrinsic power. That would be like believing that by taking the Lord’s Supper we do something with power in itself. “OK, taken the bread and the wine; I’m stocked up for another month.” But again, that kind of thinking is a way of avoiding the ultimate questions about the One True God.

 

Why is mankind incurably religious? Why can’t we just live at the superficial level all the time, why are we sometimes plagued with deeper questions, and sometimes even with ultimate questions? Why does a book like “Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff” sell millions of copies? Why are we like this?

 

Because God made us like this. The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 3:11, “God has set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” God has set eternity in our hearts. We crave meaning, we want answers to deep questions. We want answers to ultimate questions.

 

All of mankind’s attempts at religion have as their final aim just one goal: TO BE RIGHT WITH GOD. To be reconciled to him, to be on his side. Religion that human beings invent is always misguided and perverted to a greater or lesser extent, but it all hinges on that one central desire — to be right with God. Even though many people don’t recognise it, God has set eternity in our hearts, and we all deep down crave to be right with him.

 

And so when Isaiah 55 opens up with an invitation: “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters,” it is actually an invitation to every single human being. For in the end, all of us thirst for something more than just small stuff. That’s how we are made. Lots of people don’t recognise their thirst, but if they would stop from the whirlwind of life and just consider for a few moments, most people would admit a thirst for something more than just the superficial.

 

Isaiah 55 is made up of invitation and response, so let’s just see these two today: Invitation and Response.

 

First, the invitation. Verse 1, “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without cost.” The thirsty can come to the waters — not just to a trickle or a creek but to the waters . Full provision for the thirsty! But it’s not just water; wine and milk are available — the best drinks that can be imagined. And it’s not just drink, it’s also food that is available — come, buy and eat ! The invitation is for the hungry and thirsty ones to come and be satisfied.

 

But clearly we’re not talking about simple physical food and drink. Verse 2, “Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labour on what does not satisfy? Give ear and come to me; hear me, that your soul may live.” Don’t be satisfied with sweating the small stuff, don’t get entirely caught up with the trivial and the superficial. Why spend money and toil on all that? God says, “Give ear and come to me; hear me, that your soul may live.” The word “soul” here means the whole person — hear me that you may have life, life to the full, that you may be fully alive, body and soul and every part, alive , bursting with life!

 

Notice that all that is available here must be bought . You must spend money and labour and toil and sweat to get anywhere with the small stuff of verse 2. But notice that even the waters, the wine and the milk and the bread from God, the good stuff of verse 1, must be bought. Even though people who have no money are invited, still they must buy . And even though the wine and milk and bread are without cost, still they must buy . Seems strange, doesn’t it? They are people without money, and what they want is without cost, and yet they are invited twice to buy.

 

When you come to God, there is a purchase to be made, and there is a price to be paid, but they are not yours to pay.

 

Jesus Christ makes the purchase and pays the price. Indeed, he has already done that on the cross. He has made the purchase — he has redeemed sinners, he has bought back sinners, at the price of his own life he has fully paid for all the sins of all his people. And in him is satisfaction.

 

 

Hear him say it: How blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied. They will be satisfied. “Your soul will delight in the riches of fare. Give ear and come to me; hear me, that your soul may live.” Jesus says, “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” If you really are tired, sick to death , of sweating the small stuff, come and find the richest possible fare in me, says Jesus.

 

Here then is the invitation — it’s an invitation to true life that is enriched with a depth and a beauty that far out-distances any preoccupations we might have with the trivial and the mundane, the small stuff.

 

[Pause]

 

But now, how do I know that this isn’t all just a scam? I can say the right words, we can read these beautiful promises, but do any of the promises have any substance? The world is full of scams. They promise so much. But as they say, if it sounds too good to be true, then it is.

 

So in a world of scams and rip-offs, how can I know that what God invites me to here in this passage in Isaiah is fair dinkum? How can I believe God when he invites me to a life that will be enriched with great blessing and that will rise above the small stuff?

 

God gives us two foundations for trusting his offer here in this chapter. The first comes in verses 8-13. God will achieve his promises through his Word. Verse 10, “As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: it will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”

 

In the beginning, God created the universe through his Word. He spoke and it came into being. Through his Word, God continues to rule and sustain the universe. And through his Word he will do amazing new things. God’s Word will not return to him empty. Here is the first reason to believe God’s promises.

 

But God gives a second foundation for believing his promise in verses 3-5. Halfway through verse 3 God says: “I will make an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful love promised to David.”

 

Paul quotes from this verse in Acts 13 as he preaches to Jews in Pisidian Antioch. Let me read from Acts 13:32. “We tell you the good news: What God promised our fathers he has fulfilled for us, their children, by raising up Jesus… The fact that God raised him from the dead, never to decay, is stated in these words: I will give you the holy and sure blessings promised to David.’ (Here is the quote from Isaiah 55.) Therefore, my brothers, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. Through him everyone who believes is justified from everything you could not be justified from by the law of Moses.”

 

Here is Peter’s logic. God has fulfilled the words in Isaiah 55 about David by raising Jesus from the dead. Therefore in him we proclaim forgiveness of sins, in him God keeps the promises of Isaiah 55. And the raising of Jesus is the guarantee of the promise.

 

Jesus Christ, who died and was buried, has been raised from the dead. Here is the guarantee that God’s invitation in Isaiah 55 is no scam. Two super solid foundations are secure: God’s Word, through which he created the universe and through which he achieves all he wishes to do, and the Word in person, our Lord Jesus Christ, God the Son, who died but who is alive today.

 

[Pause]

 

First we have seen the amazing invitation. Second we have shown that in issuing this invitation God is not putting a scam over us, but has given the most solid guarantee imaginable that he will keep his promises. The double guarantee comes in his Word and in the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

 

Now finally we come to the response. Verses 6-7, “Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.”

Verse 6, “Seek the LORD.” Why? Because in our natural state we don’t know God; human beings are naturally separated from him. “Seek the Lord.” Why? Because we won’t get to know God unless we seek him. We don’t get to know a friend unless we seek out opportunity to be with him or her; no one can become God’s friend without desiring it. “Seek the Lord.” Why? Because the value of knowing God cannot be overestimated. Consider the passion with which God speaks in this passage. Is God just laying out some information for us to take it or leave it? Is this a piece of junk mail that appears in our letter box only to be recycled? We have seen that it’s not a scam but a serious invitation from God to rise above the small stuff. “Seek the Lord,” and if you seek him he will be found of you. That’s the great promise.

 

“Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near.” God can now be found! We are here, we are alive, we are hearing God himself inviting us to come — God can be found today! There will come a time when he cannot be found. Your heart may become so hardened to the message of the gospel that nothing can penetrate. You may die in your sins; then it is too late to seek the Lord.

 

Or suppose you refuse the invitation that God holds out here in Isaiah, and having refused his invitation God withdraws the invitation. Suppose you go out through those doors today, back into your everyday life, and you never again hear the invitation, you never again have opportunity to respond. How tragic!

 

How important is this present moment, this moment of hearing the invitation! How unspeakably important it is that you seek the Lord now, while he may be found! Please do not leave here today with this question unresolved. The small stuff will swallow you up, the trivial and the mundane will invade and fill your life to the brim and you will lose your opportunity.

 

How can we seek the Lord? Verse 7 explains. There are two sides to seeking the Lord. The two sides are forsaking and turning. Here is a way of summarising it: We come to the Lord as we are, but not to stay as we are . [Repeat]

 

We come to the Lord as we are. If you wait until you are better, if you wait until you know you are presentable to the Lord and acceptable to him, then you will never come at all. No, we come as we are. But in coming, we come not to stay as we are. We forsake wickedness and turn to the Lord.

 

“Gracious Lord, knowing that I am utterly unacceptable to you, I come to you, I seek you, trusting not in my own virtue but only in the merits of my Lord Jesus Christ, who died to take the punishment for my sins and who rose again and lives today to give me new life. I come to you, I seek you, because you invite me to. Thank you Lord.”

 

[Pause]

 

How does the Lord respond to such earnest seeking? Verse 7, “Let him turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.” The Lord will have mercy on you — the word means the overflowing love of God’s heart. Here are the waters for the thirsty, here is the love that surges and floods over you, the love that rejoices over you with singing.

 

God… loves… you. [slowly]

The Lord will shower you with mercy. And the Lord will freely pardon.

Because of the work of Jesus Christ in taking away the punishment for our sin, so all will be forgiven, all will be pardoned. There can be no doubts here — do not doubt God. We come as we are, but not to stay as we are! For we will be forgiven and we will be loved!

 

[Pause]

 

Many of you here today have been Christians for many years. Are these words still relevant to you?

 

Let me ask: Do you still fall into sin? Is there still reason to seek the Lord and to commit yourself to his grace and to his service?

 

To ask the question is to answer it. Repentance, seeking the Lord while he may be found, is a daily thing. It is the way to enter into the Christian life, and it is the only way to live the Christian life.

 

Let all who are thirsty come to the waters. Because of Jesus Christ, whom God raised from the dead, God will certainly receive you and love you and forgive you.

 

Amen.