SEEK THE LORD
IS 55:1-13
1. GOD’S OFFER OF MERCY.
IS 55:1-3a 1 “Ho! Every one who thirsts, come to the waters; And you who have no money come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk Without money and without cost. 2 “Why do you spend money for what is not bread, And your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, And delight yourself in abundance. 3 “Incline your ear and come to Me. Listen, that you may live; And I will make an everlasting covenant with you.
Humans have a constant craving in their heart for purpose and meaning in their lives. We search for things that will bring us fulfillment. We can choose to try to fill that emptiness with spiritual things or through worldly things.
In vs 1, God reveals His desire for us that we come and receive His mercy and His blessings in life. He loves us and wants us to enjoy eternal life– the blessings of this life and throughout eternity. We cannot buy these things, He freely gives them and they never come with a catch. They are His blessings to us.
In vs 2, God asks us why do we keep trying to find fulfillment in the things of the flesh. Sin/worldly things thrill us for a moment, but never satisfy us and will cost us everything.
In vs 3, God says “Come to Me!” He offers His promise of forgiveness and salvation and life everlasting and His promise is sure and everlasting also.
2. GOD’S CALL FOR REPENTANCE.
Isaiah 55:6-9 6 Seek the Lord while He may be found; Call upon Him while He is near. 7 Let the wicked forsake his way And the unrighteous man his thoughts; And let him return to the Lord, And He will have compassion on him, And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon. 8 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord. 9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts.
Three Truths from verses 6-9:
(1) God is in control of His offer of Mercy, not you!
IS 55:6 Seek the Lord while He may be found; Call upon Him while He is near.
* A couple of years ago, An item I really wanted came on sale. Unknowingly, I showed up the day after the sale ended and had to pay full price. It didn’t matter what the offer was yesterday, I had waited too late. You see, the store was in complete control of the offer, I just waited too long to receive the blessing offered.
Many want to live their life in sin and put off a relationship with God until some time in the future. Faulty planning. First off, you are not guaranteed another day or another minute. Many plan to get saved at the midnight hour, but unfortunately die at 11:30!
* Secondly, you are not in control of when God will offer you mercy, He is! What makes you think that God is bound to even offer you mercy one time, much less 100 times. God says that the proper time to repent and be saved is when He is near and offering His mercy!
(2) God desires to show mercy and forgiveness to you!
Is 55:7 Let the wicked forsake his way And the unrighteous man his thoughts; And let him return to the Lord, And He will have compassion on him, And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon.
His desire is that you repent so He can give you mercy, but He is not some big Grandpa in the Sky that will overlook sin and defiance with a wink and a nod. If you will not repent, He will discipline you. If you won’t repent after disciplining you, He will destroy you. Plain/simple.
(3) God is Holy and Wise and We are not!
Is 55:8 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord. 9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts.
One of the best words used to describe God is “holy”. He is unique and set apart from everything else. He alone is holy in and of Himself. We are sinful creatures. Because of this we approach God naturally bent. We think we can be good enough or do enough good deeds so that God will accept us on our terms. God, though, demands that man be perfect and holy to approach Him just as He is perfect and holy.
Because we are imperfect, we need a perfect Savior. When we repent and believe in Christ as our Savior, our sins are forgiven and we are born again. Jesus takes our sin from us and pays the price for them (death) and He transfers His righteousness to us so that we stand before God as though we had never sinned.
3. GOD’S SOVEREIGNTY IN HIS WORD.
IS 55:10 “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, And do not return there without watering the earth And making it bear and sprout, And furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater;
God sends the rains/snows upon the earth to water the seeds and to replenish the earth which gives forth the crops that we have for food.
Is 55:11 So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; It will not return to Me empty, Without accomplishing what I desire, And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.
God also sends out His Word and it, likewise, accomplishes God’s will and does not return void.
** You might point out that many folks reject God, so how is His will completely accomplished in sending it?
* The free will of man does not affect the sovereignty of God. God's Word is sent as a witness. On Judgement Day, His Word will be either a witness for you or a witness against you.
On Judgement Day, the unrepentant will be without excuse and, either way, it accomplishes God’s purpose.
4. GOD’S GIFT OF FREE WILL.
God is no doubt sovereign, but He gives free will to man.
Every person who God has offered the gift of mercy has the free will right to reject it and to reject God Himself. But God, in His mercy, lays out the results of man’s choice so we will know the consequences.
IS 55:12-13 12 “For you will go out with joy And be led forth with peace; The mountains and the hills will break forth into shouts of joy before you, And all the trees of the field will clap their hands. 13 “Instead of the thorn bush the cypress will come up, And instead of the nettle the myrtle will come up, And it will be a memorial to the Lord, For an everlasting sign which will not be cut off.”
(1) The Best Choice- repent and live in the blessings of the Lord.
(2) The Other Choice- reject His mercy and live in the curse of sin.
Notice the differences:
Vs 12 poetically describes how the life of the believer is filled with joy and peace. Conversely, It is understood that the life of the sinner is filled with guilt and shame. The sinner might participate in many things that are fun, but there is no fulfillment in sin.
Sin always craves more control over the sinner and its desire is for his/her misery and destruction.
Vs 13 makes the contrast obvious.
The sinner will experience thorn and nettle in his life. Both are painful.
* Nettle- I watched a youtube video of some Scottish teenagers dared each other to strip down to shorts and dive into nettle to see what would happen. 1st boy dove in and jumped up screaming like he was stung by a hundred bees. That might be why its other name is “stinging nettle”. It took 4 days for his skin to heal and quit hurting. The others chose not to follow suit.
* Thorn- we have them here in America, but our thorns are nothing compared to those in Africa. Lana and I encountered "super thorns" while there. Those thorns are strong enough to go thru the soles of good boots and right into your foot. I once had to stop and take my boot off to remove a thorn that had gone straight through my thick sole and into my foot!
Both nettle and thorn are very painful and leave their scars on the body. Sin also leaves its mark on us. The Most obvious marks are guilt and shame, but depression, anxiety, and many other medical problems can be directly attributed to sin.
For the repentant believer, though, God replaces the nettle and the thorn with the cypress and the myrtle. Cypress is known for it’s strength and hardiness and is a very useful tree. The myrtle is known for its beauty. God is telling us that when we come to Him, He will take away the pain and scars that sin has left on us and replace them with His strength and beauty in our lives.
It doesn’t end there, though. He says that the repentant believer will not be “cut off”. Conversely, the sinner will be “cut off”. This refers to being cut off from the blessings of God and also being cut off from His salvation.
The choice is up to you, though.
You have free will.
You have control over your actions.
You can choose to repent or to reject God.
** Remember this though, You may have control over your actions, but God controls the consequences!
You have free will on how you will live your life, but God is sovereign and He alone controls what you will experience in life and where you will spend eternity!
