Free Offer of Mercy for All

The Soul's Deepest Hunger and Thirst

0:04 As we come to our study in the Word of God, I want to begin by asking each one of you, whatever your age may be, to put on your thinking cap and respond, not with your lips, with your tongue, but in your minds to this very strange but simple question.

0:29 You got your thinking caps on, kids? Ready to think? All right, here's the question. What do you think is the most hungry and the most thirsty thing in all the world?

0:46 What do you think is the most hungry and the most thirsty thing in all the world?

0:55 Are you thinking? Now, for some of you who have a teenage brother, the answer has already come to your mind. I had a nickname when I was a teenage brother to my many sisters. And to my two brothers, it was Oinky the Garbage Can.

1:13 That's what I was nicknamed in my own home. Because whatever anyone else didn't want to eat, give it to Sonny, as I was called. I didn't know I had another name except when I'd write it on a paper in school until I was about 20 years old. I was Sonny. And Sonny had a nickname, Oinky the Garbage Can, in those teenage years when it seemed I was hungry from morning till night.

1:40 And if you said the most hungry thing in all the world is a teenage brother, you would be wrong.

1:48 Someone else might have begun to think, well, maybe the most hungry thing in the world is a bear who's just coming out of months of hibernation. He's been feeding off his own body fat, and he suddenly awakes and becomes aware of the world around him. And he is ravenous with his hunger. Well, a hungry bear coming out of hibernation is.

2:11 It is indeed a hungry thing, but it's not the most hungry thing in all the world. Someone else may have thought, well, it's a lion who hasn't had a kill in two weeks.

2:23 And a lion that hasn't had a kill in a couple of weeks is a hungry animal, but it's not the most hungry thing in all the world.

2:31 What do you think is the most thirsty thing in all the world?

2:36 Well, you say maybe a camel that hasn't drunk any water for a whole week, and he's been living off all the water he ingested at the last. The last oasis as he made his way across a parched desert and now comes to a pool of water. Well, he would be a very thirsty creature, but that's the most thirsty thing in all the world. You say, well, what about those areas of land that have no rain for months and months, and they are parched and cracked, and the open cracks seem each one to be a cry to heaven for rain.

3:09 Maybe that's the most thirsty thing in all the world. Well, that's thirsty. Well, that's the most thirsty. That's the most thirsty thing in all the world.

3:18 Do you know what the most hungry and thirsty thing in all the world is?

3:24 Do you know where it is?

3:26 It's right where you sit.

3:30 The most hungry and thirsty thing in the whole world is your own soul. It's your own soul. For you see, when God made us completely different from all the other creatures that he made, only of man is it said he was made in God's image. God made us with the capacity to know him, to love him, to commune with him, to serve him, to enjoy him.

4:04 And when man sinned and pushed God out of the center of his life, he didn't push out that empty hole that only God can fill with himself. And the hunger and the thirst of the soul for meaning, for significance, for identity, for happiness, for fulfillment, that's as much a part of us as what we are as creatures made in the image of God. Remember the story of the prodigal son?

4:37 He no longer was satisfied with his father's presence, with his father's rules, and with his father's table and his father's lavish provision.

4:49 But when he left the father's table, he didn't leave his hunger at the father's table. No. He followed him right into the hog pens when he was yearning to gnaw on a corncob.

5:03 His hunger was with him in the far country, though it could never be satisfied with food fit only for pigs. The only satisfying food was back at his father's table.

5:21 But the hunger was there with him in the far country. And so it is with you. And with me. The most hungry thing in the whole world is your soul.

5:36 And the most thirsty thing in the whole world is your soul. And I want us to turn to a passage in the Word of God tonight that points us to the fact that God knows that we have the most hungry and thirsty thing in the whole world. And God himself takes the role of a street hawker of ware. He takes the role of a merchant going out in the streets and offers freely that which alone can meet the hunger and thirst of your soul and of my soul.

The Initial Invitation: God's Earnest Call

6:13 Turn with me, please, to Isaiah chapter 55 and listen as God speaks through his prophet. Isaiah 55, verses 1 through 3. Ho, everyone that is thirsty, come to the water. And he who has no money, come, buy and eat.

6:39 Yes, come buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend money for that which is not bread and your labor for that which satisfies not? Hearken diligently unto me and eat that which is good and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Incline your ear and come unto me here and your soul shall live.

7:12 And I will make an everlasting covenant with you even the sure mercies of David. Now as we look at these verses, I want you to consider with me first of all what I'm calling the initial invitation. The initial invitation in verse 1. And we're going to ask four questions of this initial invitation.

7:35 The initial invitation found in the words, Ho, alas, listen up, everyone that is thirsty, come to the waters and he who has no money, come, buy and eat. Yes, come buy wine and milk without money and without price. Question number one. How is this invitation given?

7:59 When God stoops to liken himself to someone who goes out into the streets to make himself a man, to make himself a man, to make himself a man, to make himself a man, to make himself a man, to make himself a man, to make himself a man, to make himself a man, is where's available, free of price, free of any cost. How does he do it? Well, you'll notice that it is first of all given with a solemn and serious desire that it really be heard.

8:22 It is given with a solemn and serious desire that this invitation really be heard. You see what the first word is? Translated in the old ASV and in the old authorized version, Ho. It's a particle.

8:36 It's a particle calling someone to attention. It has no other function. Perhaps the most contemporary parallel would be what the coach does when he makes his way into the locker room where the players are gathered and says, Hey guys, listen up. And everyone drops what he's doing and turns his eyes to the coach.

8:58 Perhaps we could liken it to what happens when the drill sergeant bursts into the barracks and says, Attention!

9:05 Everyone drops what he's doing and his eyes are fixed on the drill sergeant. This is how this invitation is given. God wants all who hear it to know, I want a hearing. Listen.

9:21 Some commentators suggest that this word has a tinge of sadness in it. It's rendered by several that I consulted as, Alas! It's not only a word to get attention, but it anticipates that something is coming that has an element of the pathetic and the sad. And God is saying, Listen up.

9:42 I have something to say that is of great importance.

9:48 Some of you wonder why I try to preach to your eyeballs and why I'm disturbed when I see like I do right now someone whose head is like it's on a pivot going from side to side. Dear people, we're not here playing games. We've labored in prayer before God and bent our minds and bodies over our desks not to stand up here and hear ourselves talk. We believe that Almighty God is speaking through His Word in the only way you'll hear Him speak till He summons you to judgment.

10:25 Almighty God who need not say a word to us, but depart from me, you curse. He comes and says, Oh, listen up. Pay attention. I have something wonderful to say to you.

10:38 This initial invitation in answer to the question, How is it given? It is given with solemn and serious attention. Desire that it be really heard. But then notice, secondly, it is given with unmistakable earnestness and with passion.

10:55 Look at the language of earnestness and passion. Listen up. Oh, alas. Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters.

11:06 And that imperative is followed then with five other imperatives. He who has no money, come, buy.

11:19 You see what God is saying? He's saying, I'm dead in earth. I'm earnest about this matter. I'm unmistakably earnest and passionate.

11:28 Simply walking through the streets, mumbling occasionally to myself, barely able to other. Anybody want something to eat? Come and get it. And then ten minutes later, anybody thirsty?

11:43 Here's some drink. God is all passion. As through the prophet He says, Oh, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters. He who has no money, come.

11:56 Buy. Yes, come. Buy what? Buy milk.

12:04 God is a passionate God. He has and passions, the old language, with respect to things that we may attribute sinful passions. But that God's is so clearly revealed in Scripture that it hardly needs proof. And here is one of the examples of a passionate God.

12:30 The God who is speaking for the last words of the previous chapter are these. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord and of their righteousness which is of me, says Jehovah. Oh, everyone, this is Jehovah God with great passion and earnestness. The same Jehovah God who in the person of Jesus Christ is described in John 7.37 with these words. On that last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood.

13:09 If any man thirsts, let him come unto me and drink. He didn't stand up in the temple and with his hands in the folds of his garment mumble out so a few that are at his elbow could hear him. If any man happens to be thirsty, may I get something to give him. It says he stood at a strategic time, the last day of the feast, in a prominent place, and he cried.

13:37 He wanted all of them. If any man thirsts, let him come unto me and drink. This initial invitation, how is it given? With solemn and serious desire that it be really heard, given with unmistakable earnestness and passion.

13:57 And to the extent that in the opening up of the passage something of that passion is reflected, only then do I as a preacher rightly represent the mind of God in this passage. Some of you would be content if those of us who are in this pulpit simply stood up here and dumped a wad of truth with an attitude that we really didn't care whether you took it or not. We would be representing God falsely. God is a God passionately concerned that you hear what he says in his word.

The Recipients of the Invitation: The Thirsty and Impoverished

14:32 But then we ask the second question of this initial invitation. Not only how is it given, but to whom is it given? To whom? Is it given?

14:39 Look at the text. Ho, everyone that is thirsty come to the waters, and he who has no money come buy and eat. It is the thirsting impoverished who are invited in this passage. It is addressed to the thirsting ones.

15:05 Now, what kind of thirst is envisioned here? Well, obviously it's not physical thirst. Because later on in the passage, twice God speaks of the soul. Verse 2, Hearken diligently unto me, eat that which is good.

15:22 Let your soul delight itself in fatness. Incline your ear, come to me here, and your soul shall live. God is speaking to those who have soul thirst. Now, there are some who have taught, well, this passage is teaching, that only when people are awakened, and are conscious of a thirst for God, and a thirst for righteousness, is the promise for them.

15:51 Is that the way we should understand it? There are passages that speak of spiritual thirst as a unique quality among a certain group of people. Matthew 5, 6, Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. There is a hunger and a thirst that is only found among the sons of God, the sons and daughters of the kingdom, and those whom God is bringing into the kingdom.

16:19 But in this passage it becomes clear as we move through particularly to verse 2, and we see God taking the role of an inquisitor. These are people who are not hungering and thirsting for God, their money and their strength for things that will not satisfy them. They are in the delusion that they can fill their souls with the husks of this world. And yet God comes to them, and graciously, graciously addresses them in this earnest, passionate, attention-getting invitation.

16:54 And He says, Oh, everyone who is thirsty. He is speaking to all men as men and as sinners. And in this, God is acknowledging what I said in the very words of introduction, that though men have cast off God, have not killed their hunger. This is beautifully brought out, tragically brought out by the prophet Jeremiah when he says in chapter 2 of his prophecy, Jeremiah 2, verses 12 and 13.

17:29 Listen to the words of the prophet Jeremiah. Be astonished, O heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid. Be very desolate, says the Lord. Here is an astounding, an amazing, a shocking reality.

17:45 My people, who have committed two evils, they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters. No longer do they drink of Me as a living spring of pure, refreshing, soul-satisfying water. But in forsaking Me, the fountain of living waters, they do not kill their thirst. But now, God says, they try to quench that thirst by hewing out cisterns that can hold no water.

18:21 They've forsaken Me. It's an astonishing thing. They've forsaken Me, I who am like a fountain of living waters. But here's the double astonishment.

18:31 In their thirst, they still hew out their own cisterns, try to catch a little of the rainwater of the pleasures of this world, by which to assuage the thirst of the soul, only to find that those cisterns are broken and can hold no water. And so they thirst on, unsatisfied. This is who God is addressing. That's why I'm dead in earnest that you listen, children and young people, young men and women.

19:02 I'm in earnest that you hear, because this is a description of you and of Me by nature. We are the thirsting ones, not recognizing that that thirst that we seek to quench at every broken cistern we can construct is an indication that we were made for God, and that our souls can find their satisfaction only in Him. It's addressed to the thirsty, that is, to man, in his state of sin as a sinner. And in this very context, without any conscious seeking of God, in all the delusion of thinking, there can be satisfaction something and in someone other than God Himself. But then it's addressed to the impoverished. See how they are described. He who has no money.

20:00 Now we'll see later on that they do have something called money because they're trying to buy and to purchase. But here God describes them in terms of what they really are with reference to the commodities that really count. And He says you are not only thirsty, there is the unmet need of the soul, but you are impoverished. You have nothing with which to trade.

20:25 In order to procure the only commodities that can meet the need of your soul. What a graphic picture of total depravity and total inability. He who has no money. That's who God's addressing.

20:46 That's you. That's me by nature. You and I have nothing with which we can purchase the very things that will satisfy our soul. The water, the wine, and the milk that God offers.

21:03 There is nothing we have that can purchase it, can earn it, can secure it in any kind of a trade. God addresses us in all of our impoverished state and says ho everyone who thirsts come to the waters and he who has no money come buy and eat. And then it is addressed not only to the thirsty and to the impoverished but in answer to the question who is addressed it is the thirsty and the impoverished who are addressed individually. Look again at the text.

21:44 Ho the individual the single one who thirsts have no money but he who has no money. God's coming to you as an individual. You were born in a crass act of individuality. Even if you were a quintuplet, somebody was the first, the second, the third, the fourth, and the fifth.

22:24 All five weren't birthed at once. You were born as an individual. You'll die and you'll go before God in judgment as an individual. And the God who gave you life and the God who's appointed the hour of your death and the God before whom you'll stand in judgment comes to you as personally as though he stood in front of you there in that pew where you sit tonight.

22:54 And says, Ho! Who thirsts no money. God is addressing the thirsty, the impoverished, and he addresses every thirsty and impoverished individual individually. Saying in the language of this text, I'm speaking to you in a solemn and serious desire to be heard.

23:29 I speak to you as thirsty and destitute and I speak to you with earnestness and passion. I heap word upon word and upon command. Come by. We've asked the question, how is this invitation brought before us?

The Promises of the Invitation: Water, Wine, Milk, and Food

23:53 To whom is it brought? Thirdly, what is promised? What is promised in this initial invitation? Well, you'll see from our passage that three commodities are held out.

24:04 Water, wine, milk, and possibly inferred abundance of food. Not explicit. Look at the text. Ho!

24:16 Everyone that thirsts come to the waters. And he who has no money come by. Here's the inference. Eat.

24:26 And then there's a further reference down in verse 2 about the bread that satisfies not and let your soul delight itself in fatness. That's the abundance of the best of foods. So it is inferred that God is not only holding out the offer for water but for food and explicitly for wine and for milk. Why?

24:53 Without money and without Christ. And remember, he's using these as images of spiritual reality. He says, come to the waters. And here in the very prophecy of Isaiah, water is the symbol of the refreshing grace of God and His saving mercy.

25:12 In the 12th chapter, God says, with joy you will draw water out of the wells of salvation. Water that refreshes the thirsty. Quenches soul thirst. The last gospel promise in our Bible focuses on water.

25:30 Let him that is of thirst come. Make of the water of life freely. God says, come. Here is water.

25:41 Here is that which refreshes. Here is wine. And again, in the prophecy of Isaiah, Isaiah has made reference to wine. The symbol of joy and cheerfulness and exhilaration.

25:55 We read tonight in our very passage that wine that cheers both God and the concept of cheerfulness in Isaiah 25 and verse 6. And the prophet even speaks of God providing the best of wines. Well refined on the lees. Filtered and aged.

26:15 Exquisite wine. A symbol not merely of life sustained but life filled. Filled to exhilaration and joy. And then God says, Milk.

26:27 That food that has nourishment and the implication possibly when he says, Come by and eat. Especially in the context may be a reference to every kind of nourishing food and the best of the same. You see what God is doing? Rather than coming to us with theological terms, God comes to us in terms to which the average Israelite could so easily relate and even distance by centuries we can sense something of what God is doing.

27:00 God is coming to his people in all of thirst and impoverishment and standing before them individually and saying in this gracious gospel invitation I promise you water. That which refreshes. That which imparts life. I promise wine.

27:20 Exhilaration. And joy. And milk. And nourishment.

27:24 And food. Sustenance. It is here in myself and available to you. All that is needed and suited to furnish the soul with refreshment.

27:36 Exhilaration. Nourishment. And sustenance. God says, This is what I freely offer.

27:45 And this is not the only place in which the privileges of the gospel are likened to a feast. Jesus likened it to a marriage feast in which the king lavishes the table with all kinds of sumptuous food and tells his servants to go out and tell people all things are ready. Come to the feast. All is ready.

The Basis of the Invitation: Christ's Work and God's Purpose

28:09 And this is what God gives to us in this initial invitation. But then we ask a fourth question. We've asked how does it come to us? To whom does it come?

28:19 What is promised? What's the basis of this invitation given? On what basis does the prophet say to those in his day and does God say to us here tonight in his word, Ho, everyone with thirst, come to the waters? Well, if we were to take the time and go back to Isaiah chapter 52 and starting with verse 13, we would see that this comes at the end of the fourth of the servant of the Lord passages in Isaiah.

28:50 And in chapter 52 verses 13 through to chapter 53, God gives what is really like an eyewitness account of the sufferings of our Lord Jesus. And then in chapter 54, God says on the basis of the sin-bearing substitutionary work of the servant of Jehovah, Zion will be greatly enlarged and God will take His people from the nations. And the basis on which God now likens Himself to a vendor of wares going out into the streets and saying, Come without money and without price, it rests down upon the work of the suffering servant of Jehovah, even our Lord Jesus. And secondly, upon God's determined purpose that He shall have a vast number of those who will be the fruit of the suffering servant's work and who will be gathered into the company of His people. And because Christ has died and the Father is determined to have a vast number of those who will embrace the work of the servant, He can say and does say in all earnestness, Oh, everyone who thirsts. In the very real sense, the passage in Luke 24 is an echo of this reality.

30:18 Jesus opens their mind to understand the Scriptures, and shows them how that Christ must suffer, be raised from the dead, and that repentance unto remission of sin should be preached among all the nations. And you are witnesses of these things. Based upon the reality of what Christ has done, the Father's purpose to have a people from among the nations, He says, now go out and preach in His name repentance and remission of sins. God Himself is doing that here.

30:52 Christ has suffered, Isaiah 53. Jehovah has purposed to have a vast seed from among the nations. The tent of God must be lengthened. Its stakes must be strengthened.

31:03 Its cords lengthened. God has promised that He will gather His people in great multitudes. And because of that, He can come in this gracious invitation, saying, Oh, everyone who thirsts. Now we've looked at the initial invitation.

The Searching Interrogation: Why Pursue Unsatisfying Things?

31:23 Now look with me secondly in verse 2. What I'm calling a searching interrogation. The God who invites now asks two questions. The God who invites, not another, the God who invites in the same setting comes to those individuals to whom He has made this gracious invitation, and He says, while I'm in your face inviting, I want to ask you two questions.

31:53 Here they are. Why do you spend money for that which is not bread and your labor for that which satisfies not? Two questions. The searching interrogation.

32:09 Because you see, questions force us to think unless we are deliberately throwing the question to one side and fixing our mind on another concern. When I stand up here as I did at the beginning of the sermon and said I want to begin by asking you a question, it forces your mental faculties into focus. God is doing this in this passage, but not just to those ancient Israelites, to the prophet. He's doing it with you through His Word.

32:39 And He's asking you two questions. Look at them. The first question is, more literally, why do you weigh out money for that which is not bread? Why do you take your money back and weigh out and put into the balance, a certain amount to purchase a certain commodity and what you are purchasing is not?

33:05 God said earlier that they have no money. No, they don't have any money to purchase what God offers. But there is a sense in which they do have money. They do have a trading commodity.

33:16 And God says out of that trading commodity you weigh out an amount of it for that which in reality is not bread. What is it you cannot purchase? You do have that which you weigh out for that which you think is bread and that which you think will satisfy your hunger. And then His second question is, why do you weigh out literally the fruit of your labor for that which cannot satisfy?

33:48 It is not why do you spend your labor, but it's the fruit of your labor, your earnings. God's asking the same question a little differently. Why do you weigh out money for that which is not bread and the fruit of your labor, your earnings, for that which does not satisfy? Those are searching questions.

34:15 Here God stands offering that which alone can satisfy. Yet they are determined to go on spending for that which cannot satisfy and that which is not bread. And God wants to know why. God wants to know why.

34:35 Why are you doing what you are doing? You give the money of your time and energy and your mental and emotional faculties and physical powers will quench the thirst of your soul and satisfy the hunger of your soul. But I know that it is not bread and it can never satisfy. It can never bring you to satiety, to fullness, to deep and true satisfaction.

35:10 Now to try to drive home this question, I want to use a little parable. This is not a true story. I've made it up. I want you to imagine with me that there's a group of people who are all on a bus that's making its way from one point to another and they have to travel across one of those vast expanses in the western part of our country where from mile after mile there is dry desert.

35:36 No towns, no villages, just dry desert. And as they're making their way across that stretch the bus breaks down and they can't fix it. And for some reason it's a stretch where very little traffic passes and someone who has a little idea of distances and places and towns suggests we're going to have to hike it to the nearest town. And so they begin to hike it under the burning sun.

36:06 It isn't long before their mouths are parched. They begin to feel the oppressiveness of the sun beating down upon them. They begin to feel hunger pains. Thirst and hunger are now realities that are at the forefront of their consciousness moment by moment.

36:26 Some of them are about to quit and say I can't go another mile. And others beginning to get angry with one another and blame shifting and all of the chemistry that happens in that kind of a settlement. And just at that point along comes a truck driver. And he stops and he inquires and he finds out about their plight and he said well I make this route many times and I know that another 30 miles or 25 miles down the road there's a little town and I know the proprietor who owns a lovely little mom and pop restaurant there.

36:58 Let me call ahead and tell him that I'm going to pile you all in the back of my truck and we'll be there in half an hour. And I'll ask him to prepare some food and drink for you. And so they all pile in and off they go. And then they arrive at the little town and sure enough as the truck driver is called to head on his cell phone there by that little mom and pop restaurant the proprietor has spread several tables filled not with fancy gourmet food but good sure enough meat and potatoes solid stick to the ribs food.

37:32 And there are pictures in jugs of pure, clean, refreshing water. Various kinds of fruit juices to replace the electrolytes and all the rest for you folk who know about these things. And as the people tumble out of the truck one by one instead of going to that table spread with luscious food pictures of thirst quenching beverages which I need right now they march right by and they go to a place 50 yards away. Where there is a man who has his table open there in public view and he's standing there saying come to my table for a cup of sand for a cup of and while this owner of the mom and pop restaurant freely offers real food that can satisfy real hunger and real water and real orange juice and every kind of refreshing drink that can quench thirst. These people walk by his table with this satisfying food and drink all for wallets and purses and pocketbooks

39:00 clunking out and for sawdust the truck driver and the proprietor watches them as they take their cup of sand and pour it down their parched burning throats and they choke down their sand. And then they grab their little pile of sawdust and with mouths that have no saliva they try to masticate and swallow. Would you wonder if the truck driver and the mom and pop restaurant proprietor would go over and say why do you spend your money for that which satisfies not? Why do you spend your money for that which is not food? Would you think him to be some kind of an irrational overpowering overbearing emotional and psychological bully to come to those people and say please this seems like madness why do you spend your money for that which is not food and for that which satisfies not?

40:25 Sand and sawdust can never quench a burning thirst or assuage. Now that's what God is saying. In verse 1 he says the table is spread water people walk by and plunk out personal explanation why? And that's what God says to you tonight to every single one of you to whom he has come if for the first time tonight for some of you times without number in the place of your education in your Sunday school class in this pulpit and God taken the role the vendor of wares

41:48 and says to you in his earnest invitation come to the water because of what Jesus has done without money without and a mouth full of sawdust and meet the hunger of your soul because sand no matter what it is some sand and sawdust are more sophisticated than others some stink and are gross whether it's the elevated sand and sawdust of the arts and the noble and the beautiful

43:01 and the aesthetic and that which ennobles and uplifts whether it's the base smelly sawdust of sensuality and profanity and bizarre behavior and bizarre appearance whatever whatever doesn't have its source in God and is the water of life and the wine of life and the milk of life and the bread of life that are found in Christ it's sawdust and it's sand and God comes with this searching interrogation says why why and I beg you to not push this off as so much preachers blow and go home and employing five minutes wide madness and have sought at least chase your madness don't think you're slow to hell refusing to answer the question why that's what God wants to know why do you weigh out your money

The Crowning Invitation: Gracious Commands and Promises

44:30 for that which is not bread and the fruit of your labor for that which satisfies not well then we move from that initial invitation the searching interrogation to what I'm calling now the crowning invitation originally I had the word imploration but that's not one in most of our vocabulary but it's a legitimate word you won't find it in some dictionaries but I found it in one of mine and I like it because you see imploring is stronger than merely inviting I might invite you over to my house would you like to come over for a cup of coffee but if I implore you it's something different say I really want you well I'm too look my friend I really my day won't be complete can you give me one imploring is an earnestness and that's exactly what we find in verse 2b and verse 3 let's look at it together the God who becomes the inquisitor and asks why do you spend money for that which is not bread and your labor for that which satisfies not he comes around full circle and now he invites again but he invites graciously imploringly and even with greater passion and trying to sort this out in order to preach it was no easy task

45:58 because you see the language of imploring is often not logically structured language you get a mother imploring her son not to do something foolish a mother imploring a child to avoid something that will be dangerous she doesn't sit and structure her sentences in logical arrangements the imploring is the effusion of the passion of her heart in the moment and there's something of that in this passage but as I try to be true to the text it seems to me that we have at least two categories of this crowning invitation and they are these what is graciously commanded and what is graciously promised look at that which is graciously commanded you have two couplets of God's commands hearken diligently unto me and eat that which is good verse 3 incline your ear and come to me hear and your soul shall live this is what God graciously commands he says hearken diligently hear in your hearing hear indeed Alexander suggests the translation because the same root is there in the two Hebrew words hearken hearken hearken in your hearkening

47:25 hear in your hearing hear indeed God graciously commands us now not merely saying hold listen up tension God now says listen in your listening hearken diligently and then he says come I'm sorry hearken diligently unto me and eat that which is good stop eating that which you've been deluded into thinking is food and is not good it can only destroy you it can only destroy you sand and sawdust will only eventually kill you they cannot nourish you they cannot sustain life let alone bring life in fullness God says eat that which is good hearken diligently and eat that which is good and then the second couplet incline your ear and come unto me hear incline your ear means stretch out your ear it's as though a number of voices are mingled and you can't hear distinctly the voice of the one speaking God says stretch out your ear toward me make sure take it into your mind and direct your thinking

48:54 make sure that my voice breaks through all of this incline your ear and hear and then God says come incline your ear and hear and come unto me sounds like New Testament language, doesn't it? Jesus saying come unto me all you that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest and what I want you to notice in this aspect of the passage in the crowning invitation what is graciously commanded has a dominant emphasis upon the ear what you hear and how you hear did you catch that? Did you catch that?

49:38 Diligently hear your faith and eat that which is good. Incline, come unto me. Hear and your soul shall live. Do you see the emphasis upon hearing?

49:54 Faith comes by hearing. Hearing by the word of God. And as I reflected upon this, it came home to me so forcefully. One of the clearest indications that someone is serious about God's offer of mercy is the way they listen to preaching.

50:16 One of the greatest encouragements I have with some of you children is the way you listen when we preach to you. One of the greatest discouragements is the way some of you don't listen. You don't hear as though the eternal state of your soul will hang upon the words of God brought to you by the servants of God.

50:41 God ordinarily saves His people through the preaching of the word. God is ordained by the foolish. The foolishness of the thing preached to save them that believe. The surest way to harden your soul and pave the way to hell with slick grease is to fool around while the word of God is preached.

51:02 To be looking around, watching what others are doing. Fiddle with the marker on your Bible. Fiddle with something else. Paddle with this.

51:09 Mess around with this. Let your mind run here and there. Be gawking here. Be gawking there.

51:15 Be looking down. God says, Hearken diligently. Stretch out to here. Here.

51:25 What is graciously commanded is hearken diligently. Why? Because God says, I'm serious about my invitation. I'm not playing games.

51:35 I'm serious about what I offer to you in my grace. Hearken diligently. Eat that which is good. There is something to eat.

51:43 I'm not promising things that are mirages. When I say, Come to the waters, there is water. When I say, Come buy wine and milk without money and price, there is wine for the soul and milk for the soul. Eat that which is good.

52:02 That's what's graciously commanded. But now what is graciously promised? Look at the text. Wonderful promises.

52:10 God says, First of all, your soul will be delighted with the best in abundance. Hearken diligently unto me and eat that which is good. And let your soul, your soul delight itself in fatness. The phrase in fatness means with reference to foods, the best and the best says, this is what I will give to the delight of your soul.

52:44 You see what a contrast with the disappointing awareness that when we try to fill our spiritual hunger with sawdust, and quench our spiritual thirst with sand, God says, we're spending money for that which is not bread and our labor for that which what? Satisfies not. That which can never fill up the soul. God said us, as old Augustine said, our souls are made for you and they are restless till they find their rest in you.

53:22 Let me be blunt. There isn't enough of a bank of sensual pleasure. In this world to fill your soul. If you had a million years to enjoy it, there aren't enough to fill your soul.

53:40 There aren't images in your favorite films. There isn't enough sweetness in the words of a lover. An obvious paycheck, the most luxurious mansion that's it cannot satisfy. It's sawdust and it's graciously promises.

54:04 If you heed my gracious command, if you come, if you come to me by without money, without price, embrace in the nakedness of faith, in the despairing of any help in yourself, throw yourself upon my mercy and my son and your soul will be delighted with the best in abundance.

54:30 I say again to you children and young people and young adults, find me one older saint who ever says, I receive, regret that I left the sand and the sawdust in my youth and I've been drinking at the fountain of life and eating of the bread of life all my days. I challenge you go out and find an old saint in this congregation. Ask this old man, aren't you sorry you came to that fountain? You listened to God when he said, come to me, come to me and buy wine in your 17th year.

55:11 You've entered marriage of urges, sunk your life into sensuality and into the debasing and the ignoble. You've lived a streak of regrets. Say no. Regrets are when my remaining sin has deceived me and I thought I'd find something to quench my thirst and satisfy my hunger and I sought it outside of God in Jesus Christ and all it did was bring the tears of repentance and the grief and remorse of a broken heart. Your soul will be satisfied. You can't tell me your soul is satisfied. You try to convince yourself the sand and the sawdust satisfied, but you know they don't.

56:11 You know they don't. And it's because you're listening to the voice of the one who tried to persuade our first parents and succeeded that they could be satisfied with sand and sawdust. God said there's life in me and all that I am to you, and all I've provided for you. You need nothing outside me and of my will.

56:33 And that tree is the symbol that you're going to live that way. And the devil came along and said no. There's something to give satisfaction outside of God and of His will. And he offered them something.

56:49 When she saw the tree was good for food, pleasing to the eyes, and desired to make one wise, ah, here is a drink for my thirsty soul outside of God and against the will of God. But surely it'll taste good going down. Here is a hunger that God has not been pleased to meet with what He's provided. I'll have it satisfied in another way.

57:17 And the next time you find them, they're running from God in shame. Know, my friend, your soul will be delighted in the best in abundance as you come, as God invites you. Then God says your soul will truly live. Look at the text.

57:37 Incline your ear, come unto me here, and your soul shall live. That means it's not alive while it's feeding on sand and sawdust. It's a living death. That's why Jesus said of His own sheep, I am come that they might have life and have it more abundantly, indicating they have no life outside of me.

58:01 Paul says in Colossians 3, when Christ, who is our life, know your soul will truly live when you come in faith and embrace God's gracious promises in the gospel. And thirdly, not only will you find that your soul is satisfied in abundance, your soul will truly live. But you will experience all God has pledged to be and to give in Christ to needy sinners. That's in the latter part of our text.

58:35 God concludes the passage by saying, And I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David. And what are the sure mercies of David? Well, Paul uses this passage in Acts chapter 13. The sure mercies of David are God's promises to David that He would have a perpetual seed to sit upon His throne.

59:00 And those promises point forward to the coming of David's greater Son, the Lord Jesus. And Paul takes this very phrase from Isaiah 55 and says it finds fulfillment in Jesus Christ and in all the gospel promises that God has made in Him. And this is what God is doing right here, preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ to us through His prophet. He says you'll experience in covenantal commitments by God everything that I've promised to be to and give to sinners because of Christ and in Christ.

A Final Call to Embrace God's Mercy

59:40 That's a gracious, gracious promise from the living God. Well, we come around full circle now to where we began. The most hungry, the most thirsty thing in all the world is your soul. And feed and drink somewhere you are, you must, and you will of necessity.

60:08 Do so for all eternity. Remember that man in Luke 16? In his lifetime, he was seeking to fill his soul with the sand and the sawdust of his affluent life. Abraham says, Son, in your lifetime you had your good things.

60:32 And someone would have come to him and said, Look, I've got a thimble full of water. Would you like it? He'd say, Take your thimble full. I've got cellars full of the choicest water.

60:40 I've got cellars full of the choicest wine. I've got smokehouses filled with the choicest of meats. I have cupboards filled with every delicacy imported from all parts of the world. Take from me with your thimble full of water.

60:58 But when Jesus describes him in hell, he's begging, not for a thimble full, for one drop. He's thirsty still. He thought the sand and the sawdust was filling his soul. In hell, there's no more sand and sawdust but the stuff of this world.

61:22 And he's left with the thirst of his soul as well as his throat and his tongue. You see, God will not take with impunity those who say, God, hawk your goods. But no, thank you. God mercifully has hawked his goods again tonight.

61:52 But my dear friend, the time is coming when God will no longer stand before you in the word and promise of the gospel and say, hold everyone who thirsts. Come to the waters. Come, buy wine and milk without money, without price. No longer will God take the role of a gracious interrogator saying, why do you weigh out your money for that which is not bread and the fruit of your labor for that which can never give you fullness and satiety and satisfaction.

62:26 No longer will God say, hearken diligently, eat that which is good, incline your ear, come here, live. No longer will God promise. Your soul will live. Your soul will be delighted.

62:41 My son stands ready to receive you. The door of mercy is yet open. May God grant that some of you this night will walk through saying, God, forgive me for my folly of trying to satisfy my soul thirst with sand and sawdust. You read on in this chapter and that's what God calls you to do.

63:06 Verse 6 and following, seek the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he's near. Have dealings with God here tonight. When you go to your home, seek him.

63:16 The God who speaks in this passage, seek him. Then God goes on to say, let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man and his thoughts. Say, God, I'm done trying to fill my soul with sand and with sawdust. And let him return unto the Lord for he will have mercy upon him and to our God.

63:38 You go to the fountain of living waters. You go to the one who says, come, I will give you true water for the soul, true milk and wine for the soul. Go to him and God says he will abundantly pardon. It's too simple.

63:55 It's too simple. God goes on to say, my thoughts are not your thoughts. Neither are my ways your ways. If people treated you the way you've treated me, you'd stick them in the corner and turn their back to you for a while and say, pout for a while, prove yourself for a while and by degrees, I'll take you back into my favor.

64:13 God says, no, no, no, come, come, welcome. He's the father in the story of the prodigal. The prodigal's not the hero. He was a scoundrel.

64:23 The hero is the father who loved him while he was in the far country, who stood waiting to receive him, who lavished his bounty upon him when the son said, I will arise and go. Oh, may God grant that this night, in this place, some of you will hear the voice and no longer try to satisfy your soul with the sand and the sawdust, but find the fullness that is in Christ for all who believe. Let us pray.