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Our scripture reading comes from
Isaiah 55 this evening. Isaiah 55, let us open together. Isaiah 55. This is the word of the living
God. 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 yourself in rich food. 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
for 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, to our God, for he will abundantly
pardon. For my thoughts are not your
thoughts, neither 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 sower and bread to 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 send 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. and everlasting sign that shall
not be cut off. Amen. May the Lord bless the
reading of his word. This morning, we have heard the
call of the office bearers. And this evening, we are going
to look at the call of every believer. The call, so to speak,
the call of the office of believer. People of God, only a couple
days before, we celebrated the birthday of our Savior, Christ
Jesus. And let me ask you a simple question. Why do we celebrate his birthday
after 2,000 years, but not the birthday of other people who
lived in the past? We still celebrate the birthday,
our beloved Savior, because he is still alive. He didn't remain dead, but he
defeated the death and all the power of the darkness. Remember
what angels spoke to the woman when they went to see Jesus and
his tomb. Why do you seek the living among
the dead? He is not here, but has risen. No one could have found him in
the tomb in there because Jesus Christ has risen. Jesus Christ
still lives and Christ Jesus still speaking to us today through
his holy word. At this very moment, he is speaking
to you. We celebrate and we will continue
to celebrate his birthday as long as this world continues
to last because he has risen. The birth of our savior is not
just a pinnacle moment for the people who live after his birth,
but it was a long awaited moment and event for the Israelites
who lived before his birth. The coming of the Savior was
a long expected event in the Old Testament, which God had
begun to announce the Savior who's going to come and save
his people from the Garden of Eden all the way to the last
prophet, John the Baptist. Every minor and major event in
the Old Testament points to the one who's coming to save his
people. So both the Old Testament and
the New Testament are witnesses of the same Savior, Christ Jesus. And the birth of this Savior
fuses the Old Testament and the New Testament into one holy testimony
of the triune God. As it is written in the Canons
of Dort, God sends the gospel to the world out of his good
pleasure. And the Old Testament manifests
exactly the same gospel as the New Testament does. The Lord
calls his people in Isaiah 55 as he calls them in the New Testament. There is only one call of the
gospel and it never changes throughout the scripture. The book of Isaiah
was written around 700 years before the birth of Jesus, and
it has some, one of the most explicit prophecies about the
Savior who will restore the broken relationship with God and His
people. That's why some theologians call
Isaiah the fifth gospel. providentially wrote his books
in three section. These are not three different
books, but in each of the section, Isaiah focuses on one main theme. So we are going to look at Isaiah
55 today, which is the last chapter of the second section. The second
section starts from chapter 40 and ends at chapter 55. So chapter 55 is the climax of
the second section. And Christ Jesus, the servant
of the Lord, is the one who is speaking in this chapter to us.
And today, I want to draw your attention to this main idea that
I will repeat several times and expand it as we go through today. You must accept and repent You
must accept the gospel and repent while God has made it possible. You must accept the gospel and
repent while God has made it possible. We are going to look
at our passage with these two points, the celestial invitation
and the earthly response. First of all, the celestial invitation
is an urgent invitation. God commands us to come four
times only in verse one. Four times. God is not asking
or pleading. He is commanding Israelite to
come to him. And the Lord invites whoever
Here's his call, because this is an urgent call. How do we
know that? Let us read, let us look at the verse six again.
Seek the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he
is near. So there will be times, it won't
matter how much you look, how much you try to find God, you
won't be able to find him. So God commands Israel to come
right away. Otherwise they will be left outside
alone. So this is an urgent call for
Israelites. Because the call will last long
forever. And apart from urgency of the
call, we are also invited a feast that we are not expected to pay
anything. The Lord calls the one who is
thirst and who has no money. He doesn't call the full or the
rich. God calls his people, yet he
only expect them to repent and obey his call. Because someone
has paid the price. Someone made the way. And only
two chapters before, we read who was this person. Isaiah says
in chapter 53, surely he has borne our griefs and carried
our sorrows. Yet we esteem him stricken, smitten
by God and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities.
Upon him was a chastisement that brought us peace, and with his
wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray.
We have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid
on him the iniquity of us all. God invites his people on the
merit of Jesus Christ, the faithful servant of the Lord. Without
the work of the Christ, Jesus Christ, there would not be even
an invitation. And we would have left out in
this world, in this darkness, without any hope. Jesus Christ
also repeats this invitation. Several times in the New Testament
as well, exactly the same invitation. For example, he says in John,
if anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. And the Spirit
exactly repeats the same invitation in the Revelation. Come! And let the one who hears say,
come! And let the one who is thirsty,
come! Let the one who desires take the water of life without
price. So God has been calling his people
with the exact same call on the exact same foundation in all
times. In Jesus Christ, we are called. In Jesus Christ, we live. In Jesus Christ, we will be glorified. God doesn't give as the world
gives, brothers and sisters. You will be never full of what
you get from this world. It will only make you more hungry
and thirsty. The more you have from this world,
you become more unsatisfied. There is no real satisfaction
in this world. The world fills your life with
so many things that only makes you happy for a short time. And you have to keep paying the
price if you want to stay happy. And this becomes a vicious cycle. You cannot get away from it once
you enter. But God gives free because He
knows that you have nothing to pay for it. And God knows what
you need. God knows that you struggle.
God knows that you suffer. God knows that you feel lost
and even sometimes hopeless. He understands you perfectly
because He experienced everything you have had. Even so much more
that you won't have to experience. because of his earthly ministry.
Yet he says, come, come to the water, eat, drink, delight in
rich food. God has done everything for our
salvation. There is absolutely nothing we
can do because he has done it perfectly. And secondly, the
celestial invitation is also a firm invitation because of
the inviter. If you ask me which word would
describe God for me in the Old Testament, I would right away
say His faithfulness. God's faithfulness to His people
and to His covenant is the sole reason we are here today and
we are talking about the gospel. God gave a promise to Abraham
thousands and thousands years before Isaiah, but he has never
forgotten his promise. Just think about that for a moment.
We sometimes forget our promises only an hour later, but God is
faithful to his promises for thousands and thousands of years.
God is not like us. God would never disappoint us
as we disappoint each other. God never forgets his covenant
promises. And God gives the same assurance
here in verse three. He says, I will make you an everlasting
covenant. My steadfast, sure love for David. And he calls his people not just
to be part of an ordinary feast, but He calls them to His covenant. And He makes an everlasting covenant
which came to fruitation in Christ Jesus' life and His ministry. And He calls all the nation as
He promised to Abraham. And the biggest benefit of this
covenant As we read in Isaiah 55, what we read is the steadfast
love and sure love of God. The Hebrew word that is used
here in this verse is a very special word, and it reflects
God's loyal love, faithful love, and it's only used for His covenant
people. So when you read the word love
here, it's specifically used to show you God's loyal love
to His people. So how do we know that God loves
us? How can we know it? because God
has proven his love with his actions. God just doesn't speak
about it, but he gave his only begotten son to save sinners
that he loves. The son of God, despised and
rejected, so God would welcome us. He was wounded, so we can
be healed. The innocent died for the guilty. He died and he did all of these
things willingly. Can it be a better expression
of love than Christ's love for his people? Can someone love
anyone as Christ loves his people? How many times we have disappointed
him? Yet how many times we have been
shown grace and mercy. God's covenant people can echo
these verses in Romans 8 in confidence. What Paul says, for I am sure
that neither death nor life nor angels, nor rulers, nor things
present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor heights, nor
depth, nor anything else in all creation will able to separate
us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. So, incline your ears to this
firm invitation because you must accept the gospel invitation
and repent while God has made it possible. Celestial invitation is also
a universal invitation as we read in verse 5. To explain the
extent of this invitation, God uses some extreme example around
the chapter 55. When you look chapter 54, chapter
56, or chapters around 55, you see whom is called. For example, God calls barren
women, wives that were cast off in their youth, the poor, the
wicked, The unrighteous, foreigners, and eunuchs are invited by the
Lord to be part of his covenant. In Isaiah 56-7, we read this,
my house shall be called a house of prayer for all people. God creates himself a nation
that reflects his mercy and grace As Jesus says this in Mark, you're
all familiar with this verse, those who are well have no need
of physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the
righteous, but sinners. God calls the hungry. God calls
the thirsty, the poor, and God hates the self-righteous. God
hates the proud. If you're a member of this house
today, you are called to declare this wonderful work of his hand.
You are not here to be proud of yourself because we don't
have anything to proud of ourself apart from Christ Jesus. And as his household, brothers
and sisters, What are you telling to the world today? What does
the world see when it looks into your life? Are you reflecting God's wonderful
plan of salvation or are you reflecting your self-righteousness? If you think that you are here
today because you are somewhat better than other people that
are outside of this building, if you think that you are saved
because you are not like those sinners who live in the darkness, you are not trusting God. But you are trusting to yourself. But if you are here today because
you're hungry, because you're thirsty, because you're poor,
and know that you can be saved through Christ alone and faith
alone, it means that you are trusting God. So, again, you
must accept the gospel invitation and repent. while God has made
it possible. And our second point, the earthly
response, first of all, needs to be an urgent response as well. Let us read verses six to nine
one more time. Seek the Lord while he may be
found. Call upon him while he is near.
Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous men 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. In Hebrew, the first sentence
of the verse six, if you translate literally, it means, while he
allows himself to be found. While he allows himself to be
found. So gospel is an urgent call, as we discussed in verse
one, because God says that there will be time, you will not find
me, even you look so hard. We can only find God if God makes
himself possible for us to be found. We can only find God because he makes himself possible
for us. Just think about that for a moment.
We didn't climb up to heaven to find him. He came down to
this earth to be found. And do you realize in this verse
why the gospel is such a wonderful news? Because God shows himself to
the sinner even before the sinner repents. God shows his mercy
and grace even before we realize our own rebellion and acknowledge
our sins. Paul speaks about this explicitly
in Romans 5. Paul says, God shows his love
for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for
us. While we were enemies, we were
reconciled to God by the death of his son. This is the good
news. This is the wonderful news. And
God only expects repentance from the sinner because He knows our
frame. He remembers that we are dust. And God expects us not just to
repent from our sin, but he expects us to change our direction, as
we read in these verses, and to walk on a new path, the path
of the righteousness. So this is not just saying, I
am sorry, Lord, I have sinned. But this is a life-changing repentance. If you are gods, you must show
this with your life. You must forsake your sins and
begin to walk on the path of righteousness. You need to show
your faith with your actions. Because faith without work is
dead. And I would like to realize the
heart of God in verse 7 especially. Being full of grace and mercy,
God is more than ready to accept anyone who repents and returns
to him. God has never rejected anyone, but he accepted them because
God made himself possible for us. because God has prepared the
way for us. So we repeat again, return to
him now, return him and find mercy, find forgiveness of your
sins and everlasting life because you will find them in the shadow
of his wings. But you might be thinking that
my sins cannot be forgiven because I have done terrible things.
How God can forgive such a person like me? Or you might be looking
outside of yourself and saying, how does this person can be here? How could this person be accepted
to the body of the saints? Doesn't anybody know how terrible
he was before? These kinds of people have no
place in the church. So what does God say to you? He says in this verses, for my
thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my way,
declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher
than earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts
than your thoughts. So God's mercy and grace goes
beyond of our comprehension. So we need to be thankful to
the Lord because of that. Because if God was thinking like
us, just imagine, who could be saved? Remember, God is calling the
poor, the thirsty, the hungry, the barren, the unique, the outsiders,
the foreigners. So the work of the servant is
more than sufficient to wash away all the sins of his people. So you must accept the gospel
invitation and repent while God has made it possible. Our earthly
response is also a firm response, a definite response, because
it emerges from the work of the servant, Christ Jesus. Let us remember verses 10 and
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 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 things for which
I sent it. The zeal of the Lord will surely
produce the fruit of righteousness in his people's life, because
this is the work of his Son, This will happen without any
question because the one who speaks is the Lord himself who
created the heavens and earth as we declared every Sunday. God says and it happens. God
says and things come to being and God says things come to an
end. Therefore, God's word here that
we read is the guarantor for the repented sinner because Christ
Jesus gives the same assurance in John 10, what he says, my
sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. I give
them eternal life and they will never perish and no one will
snatch them out of my hand. My father who has given them
to me is greater than all. and no one is able to snatch
them out of the father's hand. I and the father are one. Aren't we all in search of security? We look for a secure house for
our family. We look for a secure job to pay
our expenses. We look for a good secure treatment
when we get sick. One of our top priorities of
this life is to find security, secure life, which is quite possible
in the USA compared to other countries in the world. But how
about your soul? How often do you think about
eternity? Or do you only worry about the
short life that you will have in this world? If you have repented and confessed
that Christ Jesus is your Lord and Savior, you have already
received the best assurance, best guarantee that you could
ever receive. But if you haven't repented,
you must accept the gospel invitation and repent while God has made
it possible. And lastly, the result of our
earth response, our response takes us back to garden of Eden,
to paradise. That's what Isaiah talks about
in verse 12 and 13. God will reverse the curse. God
will restore the whole creation. And the whole creation will be
looked like its formal glory. God will renew everything. You all shall go out in joy because
there will be no wars, no hunger, no killings. The whole creation
will rejoice with God's people. And you will see God face to
face. God who truly loves you. And
all of this will take place because zeal of the Lord of hosts will
do this. People of God, the same urgency
still exists today. The Lord says in Revelation,
the very last book of the Bible, and behold, I am coming soon. Blessed is the one who keeps
the words of the prophecy of this book. Jesus is coming quickly. Remember his very first words
when he began his earthly ministry. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven
is at hand. If you haven't come to him, you
don't have a single day to lose. As Paul says in 2 Corinthians,
now is the acceptable time, and behold, now is the day of salvation. You must accept the gospel invitation
and repent while God had made possible because now it is the
time. Christ Jesus is our cornerstone.
He is our assurance. He is our high priest who still
lives and advocates us before the Father so we can join the
feast and live with him forever. The call of the gospel is a wonderful
news, a perfect news. we could ever receive in our
lives, and it's all because Christ Jesus, the servant of the Lord. And don't forget these words,
brothers and sisters, from 2 Peter. You are a chosen race, a royal
priesthood, and a holy nation, a people for his own possessions,
that you may proclaim the excellences of him who called you out of
the darkness into his marvelous light. So in this new year, hold
on the promises that you can find in Isaiah 55, and proclaim
excellent savior of this world. May your minds and hearts continue
to root in the gospel in this new year, in the name of the
Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Almighty God, graciously grant
that your word which we have heard may be inscribed inwardly
on our hearts. As we receive your word meekly
with pure affection, may our hearts be filled with love and
reverence for you. All this we pray for the honor
and praise of your name.
The Call of the Gospel
| Sermon ID | 1222231154252 |
| Duration | 35:59 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - PM |
| Bible Text | Isaiah 55 |
| Language | English |
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