•Isaiah 55
•The Sower who Provides for our Need
•
1 “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.
2 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.
3 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.
4 Behold, I made him a witness to the peoples,
a leader and commander for the peoples.
5 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.
(Isaiah 55:1-5, ESV)
•
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;
let him return to the LORD, that he may have compassion on him,
and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither 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.
10 “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,
11 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.
12 “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.
13 Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress;
instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle;
and it shall make a name for the LORD,
an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.”
(Isaiah 55:6-13, ESV)
•Main Point
• How would the people return home?
• More importantly, how would they return to God?
• God would provide a way through His Servant (chapter 52-53)
• This concluding chapter sees it done
• They can return to God through repentance and faith
•
Application Points
• The Sower who Provides for our Need
• The people had been in their sin…worthy of judgments
• They often doubted what God said He would accomplish…yet the Word of the Lord never returns void
• He who has said He will accomplish has accomplished
• This provision is more than mere food and drink, but true life
• What does such life look like?
• They had been living in immorality…sin
• God offers…a way which is unique and different from the paths they had tread
•
Application Points
• The Sower who Provides for our Need (2)
• All that is left for them is to trust and obey
• To simply acknowledge what God has said He would accomplish
• A way that leads to God Himself
• In our time it can be easy to miss this point
• We are told to be our own authority, seek our own way, our own means, our own thoughts
• It reminds me of a song by Rich Mullins where he asks the world which way he should go…
•
They said boy just follow your heart, but my heart just led me into my chest
they said follow your nose but the direction changed every time I went and turned my head
they said boy just follow your dreams, but my dreams were only misty notions
but the father of hearts, and the maker of the noses, and the giver of dreams He’s the one I’ve chosen and I will follow Him.
(Rich Mullins)
•
Application Points
• The Sower who Provides for our Need (3)
• This is what the world tells us to do every day
• Yet what is man but dust in the wind, a breath away from death?
• Good is right before us, not because we invent it, but because it exists in the very person of God Almighty
• The world doesn’t want us to follow this way
• The world prefers us to be enslaved to our desires rather than be free
• Free to live in the assurance found in the only One who can provide everything we need and more
• The world says we need food and water, but what we really need is God
• The things of the world are there but are not necessary
• Only God is necessary
• Whereas the universe is contingent upon the Word of God, God needs nothing
•
Application Points
• The Sower who Provides for our Need (4)
• This same God who is so powerful reaches down and says, “Follow me.”
• You will attain all you need
• You will attain it because it is His to give, and you will receive it because He has promised to give
• What causes us to turn our backs on such an offer as this?
• Life in righteousness, justice, mercy, love, compassion, and all good things…
• Would it not be better to turn away from the things that hinder us and turn toward the One who accomplishes our salvation?
• This is the best option available to us
• Just as the rain and the snow falls, just as it waters the earth and brings forth fruit and harvest, so if we follow God we will find fruit and harvest in our own lives
•
Application Points
• The Sower who Provides for our Need (5)
• This requires us to know the Word of the Lord
• Without this knowledge there would be no hope for us, for all wickedness would mean nothing, and all good would mean nothing
• So He has given us the knowledge through His Word
• Now we can attain that which was unattainable
• He has done this through the work of the Servant who redeems
• God is the Sower who Provides for our greatest need which is salvation from the world
• God is found in what He has delivered
• Through God we find ourselves hitting the mark and finding purpose in what He has accomplished
• What are we waiting for?
• Life is before us
• Let us see that God has revealed Himself to us in His majesty and righteousness
• Let’s not waste the opportunity to know that which is before us now
• He provides for our deepest need, our need to know God, and be known by God
•
Application Points
• The Gospel of Christ
• Origins
• Fall
• Redemption
• Glorification
