Please turn in your Bibles to Isaiah 55.
You already heard it read.
I think it's quite important for us to
have the word in our hands.
If you don't have a Bible, I hope
you have access to one.
Maybe you have a kind neighbor who will
share the Bible with you.
Thank you.
Isaiah chapter 55.
I call this the gospel according to Isaiah.
You say, what?
The gospel is pretty clear.
In the Old Testament, it's the same gospel
we have in the New Testament.
There's only one gospel.
Salvation by faith in the Lord.
Abraham believed God and it was counted to
him for righteousness.
Habakkuk said, the just shall live by faith.
It's the same story all through the Old
Testament.
We're saved by looking to the Lord, believing
whatever revelation he has given to us.
This begins, ho everyone that thirsteth.
You know, every word of God is pure.
Even that little two-letter word, ho.
What does that mean?
It means, pay attention to what I'm going
to say to you.
God is speaking.
We hear God speaking when we read the
Bible.
We don't hear an audible voice.
I'm glad we don't.
Because Satan could imitate a voice, couldn't he?
Pretend to be God.
Much better to have it in the infallible
word of God.
And God is here saying, listen.
Or in today's language, listen up.
Pay attention to what I'm going to say
to you.
Or if you were ever in the Navy,
now hear this.
God is speaking.
Ho everyone that thirsteth.
I like that word everyone.
You know, the gospel is for whosoever will.
Isn't that a wonderful thing?
If you're here today, and you do not
know Jesus Christ as your Savior, you're eligible.
Ho everyone that thirsteth.
What's that all about, that thirsteth?
Well, it means everyone that has some great
felt need in his or her life.
I think that's very good to remember that.
For instance, here's a person, more than anything
else, he wants to know that his sins
have been forgiven.
He's thirsting.
He wants to be able to die unafraid.
He's thirsting.
You know, John MacArthur was on a broadcast
with Larry King not too long ago, and
privately, Larry King said to him, John, are
you afraid to die?
And John said, no, I'm not afraid to
die.
And Larry King repeated the question.
He said, John, now, really, are you afraid
to die?
And John said, I'm not afraid to die.
I don't look forward to suffering, to pain,
but I'm not afraid to die.
Larry King said, I wish I had your
faith.
Ho everyone that thirsteth.
Afraid to die, to be able to, the
desire to be able to meet God unafraid,
which really happens when we do die, are
thirsting to have a better life.
Not a life of emptiness, but a life
of fulfillment, a life that means something for
eternity.
Or thirsty to have the chains of sin
broken in your life.
Not to live under the mastery of sin.
Sometimes you'll hear us Christians talking about conviction
of sin.
What is that all about?
Well, it's when the Spirit of God awakens
us to the fact that we are lost
in sin and heading for hell.
Here's a person and all his life, he's
never had much thought about God.
He lived okay without God.
Didn't feel any need of a God.
But then something happens in his life.
Maybe it's a crisis and God begins to
speak very loudly to him.
He's aware of his lost condition.
He puts his head down on his pillow
at night, and he can't sleep.
He knows if he died, it would be
without God.
Without Christ.
Without hope forever.
And he feeds, he senses the Holy Spirit
tugging at his heart and saying, come to
the water.
Come to Jesus.
The water here stands for the Lord Jesus,
doesn't it?
A lot of this chapter is figurative language.
But it's very clear, very clear on the
face of it.
Come to the waters.
Oh, I notice it's plural waters.
Why is that?
Well, just let me say probably there's plenty
for everyone.
There's plenty for everyone.
When you come to the Lord Jesus has
already saved millions in the history of this
old world.
And he's saving them every day.
And he'll save you too, if you'll come
to him.
Says come to the waters.
It doesn't say clean up your life first
before you come.
It doesn't say that.
If you wait until you're better, you'll never
come at all.
Just come as you are.
Come with all your sins.
And say, Lord Jesus, here I am a
guilty, lost, hell-deserving sinner.
But I want to be saved.
I want to know the forgiveness of sins.
Will he do it?
Of course he'll do it.
He has never failed.
Come to the waters.
Whoever drinks of the water that I give
him, Jesus said, shall never thirst.
Shall never thirst.
The water that I shall give him shall
be in him a well of water, springing
up into everlasting life.
Wonderful, wonderful promise.
It says, you that have no money.
This is great.
It's going to sound contradictory in these first
verses.
Say, it doesn't make sense.
Yes, it makes good sense.
You that have no money, come you buy
and eat.
What does that mean to have no money?
When you come to the Lord, don't come
pleading your own goodness.
Don't come telling him about all the charity
you've given to, you know.
Come just as you are.
Say, in my hand no price I bring.
Simply to thy cross I cling.
Naked come to thee for dress helpless.
Come to look for grace.
Foul I to the fountain fly.
Wash me, Savior, or I die.
That's what it means to come without money.
Not pleading any of your own goodness, of
any way you could ever earn or deserve
salvation.
Just come as that guilty sinner and say,
God save me.
It says, come buy and eat.
Well, how can you buy without money?
Says, yes, come buy wine and milk without
money and without price.
Well, when you buy something, you make it
your own, don't you?
You appropriate it for yourself.
And that's what you do with salvation.
Salvation is there and you come and you
appropriate it for yourself.
But you say without money, without cost.
Well, that's true.
As far as you're concerned, it's without cost.
As far as you're concerned, it's without price.
That didn't, doesn't mean that somebody else didn't
pay for it.
That's exactly what happened.
2,000 years ago, Jesus Christ paid the
price on Calvary's cross.
He endured the wrath of God against all
your sins, past, present, and future.
He paid the price for our redemption there
by giving his life, by shedding his blood.
And who was it?
It was the second person of the Trinity,
the incarnate Son of God.
I wish I could shout this from the
housetops.
Dear friends, somebody died for you.
And his name was Jesus.
He was the creator of the universe, the
one who hurled the planets into space, the
one who designed the DNA, the one who
built your body, as it were.
And he died for you.
It's a wonderful truth when it comes home
to your heart that I've been died for,
and not by just a mere man, but
by the creator of the world.
Isn't that amazing?
I think if you could realize that, you'd
be in a hurry to come to Jesus.
So, it's a costly gift.
Somebody paid for it, and it was our
Savior, the Lord Jesus.
Dear friends, if you can buy it without
money and without price, it must be a
gift, huh?
And it is.
The gift of God is eternal life through
Jesus Christ, our Lord.
And if it's a gift, it must be
by grace, by undeserved faith.
It is.
For by grace are you saved through faith,
and that not of yourselves.
It is the gift of God, and not
of works, lest any man should boast.
Come buy wine and milk without money and
without price.
Here, we have water, we have wine, and
we have milk.
Water, you can't live without water.
It speaks of refreshment.
The milk speaks of nourishment, and the wine
speaks of exhilaration.
And you find all of those things when
you come to Jesus.
You find refreshment in Him.
Weary and worn in the struggle with sin,
you come to Him, and drink of Him,
and you're refreshed.
Nourishment, that begins a life of growth.
The things of God, that wine, the joy
of knowing your sins forgiven.
Let me say this very strongly this morning.
Any church that pretends to sell salvation by
money has to be a false church.
Because the Bible says, come without money and
without price.
And I want to tell you, there are
false churches in San Leandro today.
That's why, did you ever notice that there's
no collection taken here in Fairhaven in the
mornings?
Why is that?
Because some people might come, unsaved people, might
even be skeptics.
And we pass the collection plate, and they'll
say, I'm not good enough for your heaven,
but my money is good enough for your
coffers.
That's what they would say.
So no collection is taken.
Because we love you, and God loves you.
God wants to see your soul saved.
Come without money and without price.
I like the next question.
Why do you spend money on that which
is not bread?
That's one of the great questions in life.
Why do you spend money on that which
is not bread?
The bread the world offers provides only temporary
satisfaction, doesn't it?
Even Wonder Bread.
It's only for a short period.
You can eat and soon be hungry again.
Why do you spend your wages for what
does not satisfy?
What does that mean?
Well, better clothing, gourmet food, status cars, bigger
homes, alcohol, drugs, lottery.
You know, anyone who plays the lottery is
really mathematically impaired because because the chances of
winning that lottery are miniscule, absolutely miniscule.
And no Scott in his right mind would
play.
But if you think that's ridiculous, what about
spending $2,000 to get into the Super
Bowl?
$2,000 for a ticket to get into
the Super Bowl.
Why do you spend money on that which
is not bread?
Imagine people doing that.
To watch a game that a hundred years
from now will have no significance at all,
maybe ten years from now.
Most people will have forgotten the score ten
years by now, from now, right?
The Bible is a wonderful book, puts its
finger right.
Why do you spend money on that which
is not bread?
Cruises.
I'll never forget East Stanley Jones telling about
two corpulent people who went on a cruise
once and life on the cruise was pretty
much going to the dining room and surfeiting
with food and then going to the lounge
and just sitting there until the next meal,
you know.
And this gentleman was there with his wife
and they had just finished, I don't know,
many courses of the meal and incidentally in
the cruise you can ask for anything and
they'll bring it to you and they'll bring
it as often as you ask for it.
I don't know that from experience.
Anyway, the man is sitting there with his
wife and he sees on the shelf there
two vases or vases and with an enormous
struggle he picks himself up from the lounge
and he walks over and he holds the
vase and he looks into it and he
calls back to his wife and says, it's
empty.
I want to tell you it wasn't just
the vases that were empty.
There were two lives that were empty.
Living for food, living for gourmet food with
an eternity ahead of them.
Entertainment, sensual pleasure.
And isn't that the tragedy of life today
with so many dear people?
I speak of them lovingly like hamsters on
their little wheel going around and round and
getting nowhere.
That's sad, isn't it?
Is that where you are today dear friend?
I hope if it is that you'll make
a quick change today, a quick change.
The poet said, if I gained the world
and lost the Savior would my gain be
worth living for a day?
Could my yearning heart find rest and comfort
in the things that soon must pass away?
If I gained the world but lost the
Savior would my gain be worth the lifelong
strife?
Are all earthly pleasures worth comparing for a
moment with a Christ-filled life?
The answer is no, they're not.
The word says, the Lord says to us,
listen diligently to me.
Listen diligently to me.
The marvelous thing is that the emptiness that
the world feels is found in the Lord.
Augustine said, Lord, you have made us for
yourself and our hearts are empty until we
find rest in you.
Pasteur said, there's a God-shaped vacuum in
the human heart.
Eat what is good and let your soul
delight in abundance.
Look at that word abundance.
Sinners are abundant, their sins are abundant, but
God's salvation is abundant too.
The blessings that are ours in Christ are
abundant.
In fact, Paul in Ephesians 1 speaks about
every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in
Christ.
Our Lord came to give life and to
give it abundantly.
It says, incline your ear and come to
me.
Those words are synonyms for believing.
To come to him is to believe on
him, to commit my soul to him.
Give my eternity to him for his care
and keeping.
And so we must come with our ears
ready to hear his word as it is
found in the Bible.
We have it again in Matthew 11, come
unto me all you that labor and are
heavy laden and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn of
me for I am meek and lowly in
heart.
You shall find rest unto your souls.
Here and your soul shall live.
Another synonym for believe.
Here and your soul shall live.
Isn't it marvelous that the Word of God
is filled with synonyms for the word believe.
Enter the door, drink of water, eat of
bread.
Synonyms for the belief in the Savior.
Here in your soul shall live.
Our souls were dead in trespasses and in
sins.
We trust in Christ and we're made alive
in him.
I will make an everlasting covenant with you.
God made an everlasting covenant with David.
He told him that he would have a
kingdom forever and seed to sit upon that
throne forever.
That wonderful promise is fulfilled in the Lord
Jesus, a descendant of David.
A kingdom forever, he has a kingdom forever
and he's going to reign on the throne
forever and ever.
But the Lord makes an everlasting covenant with
us, too.
What is that?
What covenant does he make with us?
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ thou shalt
be saved.
Have eternal life.
Have everlasting life.
My sheep hear my voice and I know
them and they follow me and I give
unto them eternal life.
Eternal life.
They shall never perish.
Neither shall anyone pluck them out of my
hand.
My father which gave them me is greater
than all and no one is able to
pluck them out of my father's hand.
The sure mercies of David.
I will give you the sure mercies of
David.
Well, we changed David there to David's greater
son, Jesus.
What are the sure mercies of Jesus?
Well, redemption.
When you're saved, you're redeemed by the blood
of Christ.
Justified.
You're reckoned absolutely righteous before God.
The case is acquitted.
You are acquitted before the law of God.
You're saved from going to hell.
You're forgiven of all your sins.
Isn't that wonderful?
Right now there are places in the world
you wouldn't want to visit.
There are people you wouldn't want to see.
There are memories you don't want to bring
back to your mind.
Terrible things that have occurred in your life,
your friends, I know how they can be
washed away.
You can become quieter than snow through the
blood of Jesus.
What can wash away my sin?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
And I tell you, it's wonderful to think
that the father can look upon us and
find no sin with which to punish us
with eternal death.
Isn't that wonderful?
I think it's marvelous.
Pardoned.
We're pardoned.
Regenerated, given a new life.
We're accepted in the beloved.
I was at a home this last week
in El Cajon.
And there was a dog there, and there
was a sign on the gate, beware of
the dog.
And I got close to the gate, but
that's as far as I got.
But you know, then the owner of the
house came up and opened the gate, and
we walked through together.
And the dog was just as gentle as
a lamb.
I got through in the person of my
friend.
I didn't get through because of my own
merit.
I got through because I was with Rupert.
You know, that's the way it is.
We have no right to stand before God.
But if I could just come in the
person of Jesus, he has full acceptance with
God.
God accepts me in his beloved son.
We're complete in Christ.
If you have Christ, you have all you
need for heaven.
Isn't that wonderful?
It is wonderful.
Christ is my fitness for heaven.
And I have Christ, I'm complete in him,
Paul tells the Colossians.
I'm made nigh by the blood of Christ.
Near, so very near to God.
Nearer I could not be, for in the
person of his son I'm as near as
he.
Dear, so very dear to God.
Dearer I could not be, the love with
which he loves his son such as his
love to me.
It's just too marvelous to tell.
Indwelt by the Spirit of God, given eternal
life, everlasting life, members of God's family.
His blessings are abundant.
Adopted as sons, sanctified, glorified, and made citizens
of heaven.
Says in verse 4, indeed, I have given
him a witness to the people.
Him there should be capitalized.
It refers to the Lord.
God has spoken to his people through Jesus.
I like that saying, I don't know who
said it.
God may have other words for other planets,
but his word for this planet is Jesus.
Isn't that good?
A leader and commander of the people.
This looks forward to the millennium, of course,
when Christ will reign as King of Kings
and Lord of Lords, but it applies today.
We have a wonderful leader.
We have a wonderful commander.
What a thrill to belong to him and
to have him and walk in his pathway.
We can choose him to reign on the
altar of our hearts.
Surely you shall call a nation you do
not know.
You know, there's a sense in which that's
true of God and people today.
God can look down and say, you know,
I don't know you if you're unsaved.
You don't open the Bible.
You never speak to me in prayer.
You don't come to the meetings of God's
people on a regular basis.
But listen to the gospel story, a people
I do not know.
And there are people like that in the
world today.
God is not in all their thoughts and
the only times when they're happier when they
can forget God.
And the only time they're miserable is when
they remember him.
And a people who do not know shall
come to you.
Gentiles will come to Israel in a coming
day.
And you know, when you get saved, people
start coming to you.
That's a funny thing.
They come to you when they're in a
crisis in life.
They come to you when they want somebody
to pray for them.
It's a marvelous thing.
I've seen that over again in the Christian
life.
People, unsaved people, realize that God is in
a Christian and wants to, wants help from
them.
Nations who do not know you shall run
to you.
You know, it's happening all over the world
today that I think in China more people
are turning to the Lord in China than
any other part of the world.
The greatest work for God today is going
on in China.
People crowding to Christ.
It's going on in Africa, too.
Poor Africa, where probably a quarter of the
million, a quarter of the population is dying
of AIDS.
People are crowding to Christ.
It says, because of the Lord your God,
the Lord is the true source of every
blessing in the Christian life.
It's all because of him and all because
of Calvary.
Notice verse 6, seek the Lord while he
may be found.
Oh, that means that there's a time when
he may not be found.
Exactly right.
Everyone hears the gospel for the last time.
There is such a thing as redemption point.
When you pass redemption point, that's it, dear
friends.
God will not always strive with men.
There's an acceptable time with God, a day
of salvation.
You know what day that is?
It's today.
I had a cousin named Donny McDonald, a
cousin of mine when we moved, I think,
Donny McDonald.
One day he was walking down the main
street of the city where he lived and
a dear old Christian lady came to him
and said, Donny, don't you think it's time
you turn to the Lord?
Don't you think it's time you sought the
Lord?
And he said, what's he ever done for
me?
That weekend, Donny and his nine-year-old
boy got on a ship to cross to
the mainland and coming off the ship, they
drove the wrong way on the ramp.
They perished.
Donny heard the gospel for the last time.
Donny heard the voice of God speaking to
him for the last time.
Hmm.
I had an uncle by marriage.
He was an uncle by marriage, married my
aunt, and my dear father used to witness
to him, tell him the way of salvation
and urge him to trust the Savior.
And he just turned it off like you'd
turn off the faucet.
And one summer my father was in Scotland
on a visit and that uncle was dying
in the hospital.
And he was saying, Where is William?
Where is William?
That was my father's name.
William wasn't there.
William had already been faithful to him, but
he wasn't there.
Seek the Lord while he may be found.
Call upon him while he is near.
Not too long ago a young fellow named
Jesus here in San Leandro stopped at the
Chinese restaurant, bought a meal to bring home,
got in his car, crossed the railroad track,
was crossing the railroad tracks, Washington Avenue, you
know, the Amtrak came along.
He was ushered into eternity.
Little did he know that morning that he
would be in eternity before sundown.
Dear friends, it's serious, isn't it?
Seek the Lord while he may be found.
Call upon him while he is near.
When is he near?
He's near when he speaks to you.
He's near when you sense the Spirit of
God working in your heart.
Maybe your heart is beating just a little
faster.
You know, God is speaking to you.
That's when he's near.
He's near when he knocks at the door
of your heart.
Someday you say, I will seek the Lord.
Someday I will make my choice.
Someday, someday I will heed his word and
answer the Spirit's voice.
Choose now, just now, for the Lord is
here and angels your answer wait.
Choose now, just now, while the call is
clear.
Tomorrow may be too late.
Let the wicked forsake his way and the
unrighteous man his thought.
That's interesting.
Let him forsake his lifestyle and let him
forsake a filthy thought life.
That's what it means.
Let him return to the Lord like the
prodigal son coming back to his father who's
waiting to be gracious.
He will have mercy.
I love that expression, to our God, for
he will abundantly pardon.
Notice it's abundant pardon and full pardon.
Who is a pardoning God like our God
who has grace so rich and free.
Goes on seemingly a change in thought.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts.
Neither are my ways your ways.
Seems he's switched the subject.
He hasn't.
What he's saying here is that man would
never have devised the gospel.
He never would have thought of the gospel.
God's thoughts are way up above ours.
His thoughts are.
He's talking about that.
The wisdom of God.
In fact, John Paul says in first Corinthians
one, the foolishness of God is wiser than
men.
Man calls the gospel foolishness.
It's wiser than men.
When in the wisdom of God, the world
by wisdom knew not God.
It pleased God by the foolishness of the
message preached to save them that believe.
The last part of the chapter and just
go quickly Tells of how When you get
saved, it's like being released from captivity And
all the trees are shouting and clapping their
hands with joy And the mountains are singing,
you know Beautiful language, isn't it?
Beautiful language and then the last verses tell
the transformed life Your life before you were
saved was like a briar bush like a
thorn bush and now you're saved.
It's like a cypress Like a cypress tree
the wonderful change that comes when Jesus comes
into your heart It's really isn't the gospel
according to isaiah I just ask you to
bow your head in prayer now and while
our heads about i'd like to Extend the
invitation.
Is there somebody here?
And you're tired of your sins You want
to know your sins forgiven you want to
have peace with god And be sure of
heaven right there as you're sitting there this
morning You can say lord jesus come into
my heart will he of course he will
him that cometh unto me.
I will in no wise cast out Come
to him now I wouldn't mind you coming
down forward if you want to I don't
mind that I wouldn't mind you raising your
hand.
You don't have to But if you do
trust christ, why don't you come down afterwards
and let us talk to you Perhaps help
you along in your new life Father, we
just thank you for the wonderful word of
god We hear your voice speaking In every
line and we want to make each faithful
saying our own we pray for any here
who are Still in their sins another way
to hell Pray that by a definite act
of faith.
They may say jesus.
I will trust you Trust you with my
soul guilty lost and helpless You can make
me whole there's none lord jesus none like
thee for the broken-hearted there's none like
thee We ask it in jesus name and
for his sake amen