Speaking of Thanksgiving, brothers and sisters, we should be thankful for these children. What a blessing it is. What a blessing it is to see that. Forgive me for going a little out of the script, but I just had a newborn. I just had a baby. She's less than a month old now. And that's why my mother's here. Huge help. And my wife is back home with our little one. And we're so thankful. We are so thankful. Indeed, children are a blessing. And we need to proclaim that in a world that sees children just as a burden. We need to proclaim that. We need to have joy in cleaning diapers, joy in teaching children, joy in doing the hard work. It is in this way that we are declaring to our God that we are thankful for His gifts, the children He has given to us. But please turn to Isaiah 55 now. Open your Bibles on Isaiah. 55. Isaiah 55. While you open, let me grab my bulletin, which I forgot. We'll be reading this morning the whole chapter, Isaiah 55. And our message here is the gospel call. One of my passions is to see the gospel in the Old Testament. That's what I have been studying in my DHM, or really will study one day on a PhD. And here we have a clear gospel call on Isaiah 55. So let us read with attention. If you are able, please stand to read God's word. And we'll be reading Isaiah 55, the whole chapter. Word of God says, 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 yourselves 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 to 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, and to honor 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. 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, 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. 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, an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off. Amen. This is the word of God. You may sit. Brothers and sisters, as we come to this text, let me ask you. Have you ever been scammed? Have you ever been scammed? You know what a scam is. To my shame, I must confess that I have been scammed. Even in America already. And last time I was scammed was that I was looking for a product on Facebook market. And I looked at the product and the price was about $100. But it was supposed to be over $200. And I thought, this is a good deal. OK, it's a used product, but not bad. Very well. I looked at the product. I looked at the seller Facebook profile. It all looked legit. It wasn't like a Google picture. It looked like someone took a picture inside a house. And I thought, yeah, I'm going to try to buy that. I arranged a place to meet, a public place. I tried to get some of my money to separate for that. What happened is that a couple of days before, the seller sent me a message, said that she had a family emergency, if it was a she. couldn't sell anymore. If I wanted, they could send it to me, they could ship it to me, but they had to travel far away for a family emergency. So I said, yeah, you know, maybe because my wife was pregnant, I was giving too much credit for the seller, and I looked at the pictures. She had a little baby on her, on the seller profile, on her arms, it looked like a single mom. I was like, okay, that's probably legit, she needs money. Yeah, let's try to set it up. So I sent half of the money, beforehand and with the promise of sending the rest of the money when the product arrived. And of course I was scammed. That was too good to be true. It was false advertisement, it was a false offer. I don't even know if it was a woman behind that profile. One day later, a couple days later, I sent half the money, the Facebook profile was deleted, The offer there on Facebook Market was deleted too. I couldn't find the person. I tried to get back my money through the cash app that I used. They said it was my fault, and of course it was. And, well, I was scammed. This was an offer that looked too good to be true, and I should have suspected. In a way, the gospel offer is like that. It looks like it is too good to be true. It almost looks like a scam. this text particularly when we read come by and eat drink with no money with no cost it looks too good to be true but here is where grace comes in that which looks too good to be true it's grace that's the very definition of grace that which will receive not from what we have done but out of a free Expression of grace from the Lord. In our text today, we see God's call to sinners. And it looks too good to be true, but it is true. It is true. It is a gospel call. It is good news. It is abundant offering. And here we see in our text, this call in Isaiah 55 really divided in two sections. There's good news. It's first of all, from verses one to five, a call for provision in the covenant, for provision in the covenant. And then from verses six through 13, it is a call to repent and believe, a call to repent and believe. So let us look at our text from this perspective of the good news that is offered unto us, the amazing news. that is offered unto us in the gospel, in the words of Isaiah 55. As we come to the text, we must understand the historical context of what is going on here. Briefly, it's really basically the same historical context of Micah 5 that we have just read. You have the threat of the Assyrians, Sennacherib, that are about to invade Judah, about to invade Israel. And what happens there, is that as they are threatened with the siege, the Lord gives promises, he gives some prophecies that they will be judged through that promised exile, but at the same time, he gives promises of hope, of hope. He corrects his people, but he also gives them something to cling on to, promises of hope, restoration and delivery. And here we find really a prediction of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, like it was in Micah 5, the shepherd. Here we really have this figure, this servant of the Lord, as it was referred in other parts of Isaiah, that is described here with a few characteristics. Thus we come, and we should listen from verses one through five, really the voice of Christ himself calling us to come. Verses 1 and 2 start with this call for provision, offering provision. Come, come, everyone who thirsts to the waters. He who has no money, come, buy, eat. Notice that this is a call for everyone who thirsts. It is not a call that is limited to a nation, to a people. It is not a call that is limited to ethnic Israel, but to everyone who thirsts. To all the nations, as we will see a little later. This is a call that it's addressing the needy, those that put themselves in the position of begging the Lord. This is a call that is also satiating, looking at that, at the text we see here. Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the water. He who has no money, come, buy, eat. It says, verse 2, why you spend money for that which is not bread, and you spend labor for that which does not satisfy. What is implied here is that this wine, this milk, this water that's being offered here, they indeed satisfy, they indeed fill the belly. I have been, I'll probably use many illustrations of newborn babies, forgive me for that, but I have just had a baby and it's so, so amazing to see when she is well fed. Her arms, you pick up the arm and you do like that and it falls. You put the baby on the breast and she eats or she has the formula in the bottle and then give it a few minutes if she is really full. Oh boy, that really satiates her, that really fills her. This is a call for a kind of spiritual food that is promised here, that will really satiate. It is directed to the thirsty, to the hungry, those that really need that food. They feel their need. They feel in their bowels their need. And this is a call that promises life. Verse three says, incline your ear, come to me, hear that your soul may live. This water, this wine, this milk, it's really the same thing promised in the New Testament. The bread of life. The water that flows into everlasting life. It really satiates. It really fills your tummy. your spiritual tummy. But this is also a rich and abundant call. Notice that it says with a rich imagery. The call comes and says to buy wine, to buy milk, to buy, to have water. All that is needed is really included here. There's not one thing that we can think that we need that the gospel call doesn't answer. The fact that's portrayed here verse Verse two says, at the end of the verse, delight yourselves in rich food, literally fat. Literally, the verse says that you will fill your throats with fat. It's really rich, it's a picture of abundance. And more importantly, this is where it looks like a scam. It is free. You buy with no money. You buy with no silver, with no labor. This gospel call denies you the right to claim, I have bought it, I have done it. No, that doesn't work here. That really doesn't work. You have no claim for ownership for this bread, for this wine, for this milk, for this water. You just accept it as a gift of grace. But notice also that this is a call that is based in the covenant. It's based in the covenant. It says in the second half of verse three that the Lord promises that he will make an everlasting covenant with his people. Everlasting, eternal, eternal duration. And this covenant, this parent is based on the covenant that he has made with David, the historical David. Really, this is the ongoing flow of the covenant that was made with David and with Abraham. We could read more about that in 2 Samuel 7. You have those same words being written there. That God promises an eternal covenant with His people. In David, and He's speaking to David. I promise to you an eternal covenant on your seed. It says there in 2 Samuel 7, 13-14. And really, this covenant, we really understand this covenant in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is a text that speaks of the covenant fulfilled in Christ. While verse three here says that this covenant was made with historical David, verse four and five transition into an ideal David. I could explain this from the basis of the grammar. There are some expressions here that make a clear difference. Those beholds here, really when they are put in parallel here, in the Hebrew grammar, they're introducing a new idea, just as this, so that, and introduces a new idea. But even if you try to make sense of historical David here, you can't make sense of historical David in verses 4 and 5. There are some characteristics here that can only apply to an ideal David, the Lord Jesus Christ. While God has made a covenant, an everlasting covenant with historical David, this covenant overflows unto us in Christ. Christ is the one that verse 4 says that was made a witness to the people. Really, Christ's prophetic role explained here. He was the one that came to preach. Matthew 4, we speak of that, Matthew 3 and 4. He came to preach the gospel of the kingdom. People want Him to do miracles, do this and that. What's Christ's priority? He came to preach the gospel. To be a witness. To testify. But he is also a king, he is a leader and a commander for the peoples. And really those words for peoples here include Gentile nations, include Gentile nations in the Old Testament. So again, this goes on to everyone. And verse five speaks of this ideal David, Christ, as one that will call a nation that he doesn't know, meaning that he doesn't have a special knowledge, a relational knowledge yet. And also the nation that doesn't know him yet, with this covenant relationship, shall run to him. So he will go to the nations, the nations will come to him, and vice versa. That was precisely the mission of Christ that we see in the New Testament, particularly in the Gospel of John. The Gospel of John says that the Father has sent him. He prays even that. As the Father has sent me, I send you later, he will send the disciples. And also, in Christ, we see the glorification of God. The second part of verse 5. Now, this glorification of God, of Christ, is particularly what we see in chapters like John 17. Let me just read a few verses of John 17, 1-3. John 17, it's the prayer of Christ. There's this glorification of the Son, and the Son in turn glorifies the Father. When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that the Son may glorify you. Since you have given him authority over all flesh, his kingly role, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him." Don't you see the parallel with this text? He is the one that gives eternal life that is promised here. He is the one that has authority over the nations. He is the one that glorifies the Father as the Father glorifies Him. This is the ideal David. This is Christ in Isaiah 55 calling you. And what can we learn, brothers and sisters, from this text? What applications we have from these verses here? There are so many, so many. First of all, this call presupposes hunger and a thirst. And let me ask you, are you hungry? Are you thirsty? Do you have a hunger and a thirst for God? You see, not everyone has it. In a sense, every human being has a hole in himself and needs that to be filled with God. Yes, this is true. Ecclesiastes speaks of that, right? But men like to sashay themselves. They like to fill their tummies with the junk food of this world. And therefore, they don't feel their need. Wasn't that the preaching of Christ in the New Testament quite often? Wouldn't He come and preach that those that are filled with their riches, with their provision, they have no need for God? Wasn't the contrary what He preached on Matthew 5 on the Beatitudes? Matthew 5, verse 3. What is the mark of the believer? Poor of spirit. The poor of spirit is the one that has the kingdom of God because he is ready to accept the offer of grace that is provided here in Isaiah 55 and all throughout the Bible. Do you hunger and thirst for God? Are you a poor of spirit, someone that is poor of spirit? Where do you find your satiation? Where do you find your needs fulfilled? You see, People that are spiritually dead, they don't have hunger, they don't have thirst. But if you feel hunger and thirst, believer, even if you still feel that right now, that you need more of God, be encouraged. That's a sign that you are alive. Maybe you are starving a little bit, but you are alive. If you have known what it is to be hungry for God, what it is to desire God, To want God's presence, God's word, God's transformation, work of sanctification in you, be encouraged. But don't stop searching him. Don't stop looking for him. Don't stop going into the waters, onto the bread, onto the wine, onto the milk that is being offered here. If you have experienced before, but now you feel like you are a little sick and you don't have the appetites that you used to have, Go there and eat. It will open your appetite. Go unto the Lord. Go unto the Lord. Once someone told me, and I think it was a good counsel, I once came to a brother, a more mature brother, and said to him, I really don't feel like reading my Bible. I really don't feel like praying. How can you help me? He turned to me and he said, you know, it's just like when you are sick, when you have like a bug in your stomach. Sometimes you lose your appetite, but you got to keep eating. Otherwise you will starve. You get weaker. So even if you don't feel anything, even if there's no butterflies on your stomach, when you open your Bible, go there. It is the word of God. It is this precious food that has been given to you. And it will satiate you. It will open your appetite again. And it will fill your tummy. It will satiate your spiritual needs. And if you are particularly hungry, if you feel that need of God, then what are you waiting for? Just go right now. The text is so clear. Four times, even in those verses that we have read, four times they call, come, come, come, come. Two times they call, buy, buy. Two times again, eat, eat. And if it promises you don't need any money, you don't need any work, come. If you are hungry, come. Acknowledge yourself in that position of the one that is in need. There's that story that preachers use about the beggar. You might have heard that, that there was an artist that once invited a beggar to paint him, to make a painting. And the beggar came. And he was so delighted with the invitation that he changed his clothes, he got some of his savings that he had, and he shaved and he was there prepared for the painting and came to the artist and said, here I am, please paint me. And the artist looked at him and said, no, I wanted to paint you as a beggar. Now I don't want to paint you anymore. You're dismissed. It's maybe a silly story, but it really illustrates how we come, how we come, what's the attitude in which we come to the gospel of Christ. Come, come as a beggar. Come as a thirsty and hungry sinner that needs restoration, that needs salvation, that needs transformation. Come as you are, don't wait. Don't try to reform yourself. Don't try to go buy wine and milk. and water from other places so that you are good enough to have that food. No, just come. He calls you. He calls you. The Lord is calling you today. And particularly come to Christ, the ideal David. He is the promised seed of David that was in view here in this text. He is the fulfillment of the covenant that was made for us in him. He is the one who preaches to us and calls us to come again and again. He is the gracious Savior that says, come, all the weary, all those of you that are heavy laden, I will give you rest. It's the same one calling you here, come, all the thirsty, all the hungry, I'll give you food and water and wine. This is the one who calls you to come. Would you want a better preacher? Would you want a better Savior? than this Christ, the one that calls you to come with abundant provision. He is willing to be a witness for you. He is willing to be your king, your leader and commander. He calls you to come with no more excuses. Just come as you are. But particularly, Christ calls you to come in faith and repentance, and that's what we see on the second part of our text, verses 6 through 13. It is interesting here that we see this call unto repentance, verse 6, really we see the time of repentance, the nature of repentance, and the expectation of repentance. What is the time of repentance? Seek the Lord while he may be found, while he is near. It is now. This presupposes that there will be a time that he won't be available, that he won't be near, but now he is, as he calls you. What is the nature of repentance here? It's the forsaking of one's ways and thoughts. Let the wicked forsake his ways and thoughts, meaning his worldview in modern terms, and his behavior, his lifestyle, his ways. That's really what's in view here. The Gospel call is a radical call. In the New Testament, we have that call to discipleship that Christ comes and says, forsake everything. But, oh Lord, can I hold on to this little thing? No, you can't. But, Lord, I want to go back home and bury my father. Follow me, says Christ. There's not one thing that is more important than Christ. The forsaking of one's ways and thoughts, of leaving behind who you were and loving Christ with all that you are. That's the call of the gospel. It's a pretty radical call. The call unto repentance is to full commitment. Notice I'm not saying perfect commitment, because we are sinners and we fail, but full commitment. He calls us to forsake our thoughts and ways and trust in his because they are much higher. We'll deal with this in a while. But the expectation of repentance, as you forsake your ways, as you forsake your thoughts, and you come unto Christ, the expectation is that he will accept you with forgiveness and with mercy. Verse seven says that. Let the weak forsake his ways, the unrighteous mend his thought, let him return unto the Lord, meaning repent, that, so that, in order that, the Lord may have compassion. on him and let him return to our God, he will abundantly pardon. Abundantly pardon, meaning not only he will look over your sins as if he, yeah, that happened, but yeah, I'll let it pass. No, he will abundantly pardon. He will throw your sins in the sea of forgetfulness and leave them there and treat you as one of his children. That's an abundant pardon. Abundant forgiveness, abundant mercy. And this call unto repentance comes with reasons. There's a reasoning going on. It isn't such a display of grace that the Lord is reasoning with us. Come, let us reason together, the Lord says. Because there are four reasons for faith here. Look at the repetition of the four in the translation here. Verse 8, four. Verse 10, four. Verse 12, four. Verse 8 and 9, 4, verse 10, 4, and verse 12, 4. There are four fours. This is a way in the Hebrew, the particle key, to really give a cause, to give a reason. And I summarize those here as really reasons for faith, for you to believe, to repent and believe. Why? Not only because of God's compassion and mercy that we have seen here, but God gives us abundant reasons. First of all, for my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither your ways are my ways, declares the Lord. God's thoughts and ways, his perfect holiness, almighty justice, it's very distinct from ours. When it says it's higher, it's not saying that it's inaccessible. It would say it's utterly distinct. But there's another reason here. First of all, God's thoughts are higher, but also, God's Word is always effective. The rain and the snow, they come down, and then we will see here that His Word is always effective. You can trust. You can trust that He does what He promises to do. Philippians 1, verse 6. Philippians 1, verse 6. The one that began the good work in you, He will bring it into completion. Effective. Effective Word for transforming you, for fulfilling its purpose. There's a promise of curse reversal here. If you look at verse 12 and 13 here, there's this picture here of the briar and the thorns here being removed, and cypress and myrtle being brought. Really using the language, the briar and thorns, are really the language of Genesis 3. That which was promised to come as a curse upon us. But there's a curse reversal in view, and there's finally a promise of glorifying God's name. It shall make a name for the Lord, second part of verse 13, everlasting sign that shall not be cut off. The name of the Lord is in view. So we have several applications for us here, brothers and sisters. First of all, there's this call to come. With repentance and faith, you come to the Lord as you are, but not to stay as you are, but to be transformed. You don't come trying to reform yourself, but as you come you let the Lord do the work in you. And as we come with true repentance and faith, this text calls us to come quickly without excuses. What is the time to come? Again, while the Lord is available and near. There will be a time he won't be available and near, so come now. Don't make excuses. Don't wait until you are old. Don't wait until You have lived a life of sin and then you have to deal with all the consequences of that. Do you remember Peter? Do you remember Peter? Peter was one that was called and he came to Christ right away. And yes, he sinned and he had troubles and he had some difficulties in his life. But it was much better to come early on and face those difficulties with Christ. Now compare it with Paul. Until the end of his life, he had to suffer with a thorn in his flesh, which I interpreted to be really the memory of his murder, of how he murdered people. He came late on his life, and there were consequences. And worst of all, there was Judas, who never really came to Christ. Come while he is available and near. Don't make excuses. There are consequences for late coming. and there are much worse consequences for not coming. But his grace is available to you right now, abundant grace. He calls you to forsake your thoughts and to come, your thoughts and ways, with true repentance. And he does that in a way that he promises you that compassion and forgiveness are indeed available. The gospel of Christ really offers you this overflow of compassion and forgiveness. It is free grace for the worst sinner. Everyone who is thirsty, everyone who is hungry. Oh, but I have done so many wrong things. Everyone who is thirsty, everyone who is hungry. The only criteria here is seeing your need. and come with this expectation of abundant forgiveness. Abundant forgiveness. This is something that we see in Christ, that there's this abundant forgiveness in the cross, as he is there in the cross. Some of his last words are, O Father, have compassion on them, them whom, the ones that are crucifying me. They know not what they are doing. What a display of compassion and forgiveness, even that sinner, that last sinner saved by Christ while he was on earth. The thief on the cross or the criminal on the cross, whatever he did. What did he bring to the table? He just came hungry and thirsty. Oh Lord, have mercy on me. And Christ saved him. There's a sure compassion, a sure forgiveness available. And there are several reasons for us to come. What a wonderful thing it is that we trust in this God that has higher thoughts and ways than ours. Would you want a different God? Would you want a God that you can trust? That does things the way it just seems to Him according to His immediate pleasures? No. We can rest in a God who is high in the heavens. He does whatever He pleases according to His holy, majestic, perfect will. The Word of God expresses this to us in so many ways that His wisdom, in James 3, it says that His wisdom is above, from above it is pure, it leads to peace, it is gentle, reasonable, full of mercy, abounding in good fruits, impartial, sincere. Romans 11.33 expresses this to us in a different way when Paul praises and says, oh, the deaths of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable His thoughts. and how inescrutable His ways. What can we do when we look to such a holy, majestic God except worship Him? We trust that God's Word is effective unto us to transform us. There is hope of change in this life. It is effective. God's Word is enough. Really, we live in a world that is so saturated with promises of change. If you do those 10 steps, you will get there, you will get what you want. But God's Word is enough. 2 Timothy 3, the Word of God says, All scriptures breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete equipped for every good work." Every good work. Peter will say something similar. Peter will say that we have been given everything that we need for godly lives. 2 Peter 1, verse 3, His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godless through the knowledge of Him, Christ, who called us to His own glory and excellence. How do you change? Look at Christ. Look at Christ. How can I forsake my ways and thoughts? I have been so addicted to this behavior, to this pattern of behavior, to this sin. I have been so enamored with this sin for so long. God's word is effective in Christ for you, which really changes you. There is hope. That's why the skull is so precious. It is not a scam. It is real. And there's a promise, as we come to a conclusion, of the curse of the fall being reversed. The thorns, the briars that were there because of our father Adam, they will be one day completely removed. There will be one day in which there will be no more sorrow, no more pain. Really, the picture of reversal here, it's similar to revelation. There will be only joy for everlasting life. There will be joy peace and prosperity for all of creation. That's what's promised here in these verses. While we, nowadays, we groan with the expectation of the glorification, the creation itself groans with the expectation of glorification, says Romans 8. There will be one day when this will really happen. And finally, we are motivated to come and to listen to this call for God's glory. Every time a sinner attends to the call of the gospel, God is glorified in the building of his church. Just consider how great is our weakness and how God is glorified in saving such sinners. Spurgeon once, in a sermon, he said that putting all these things together, the poor instruments that God has in the church, the poor materials, and the numerous foes, the numerous Challenges that we have and adversaries. When God builds up the church under such circumstances as these, he certainly appears well in his glory. That's what he does. That's what he does. He takes the lowly and the humble and he exalts. He overthrows the logic of this world. Now in light of this gospel call, that is a gospel for provision in the covenant, and a call for repentance and faith. I want to conclude with the words of Revelation, but issue a final call for us. Revelation 22, verse 12. The Lord Jesus Christ calls you again here, and he says in his word, I am coming soon. bringing my recompense with me to repay each one for what he has done. I'm the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. Blessed are those who wash their robes so that they may have the right to the tree of life, that they may enter the city by the gates. And verse 17 on says, the spirit and the bride say, come. Let the one who hears say, come. Let the one who is thirsty come. Let the one who desires take the water of life without price. This is the call of the gospel, brothers and sisters. Let him who hears come. Amen.