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The Call of Salvation – Part 2
Isaiah 55:1-13 (3b-7)
August 18, 2024

Tonight we really just want to jump back in where we left off this morning.
• You know we are in the invitation portion of the book.
• You know this is God’s call to salvation.
• We even mentioned this morning how it is God’s effectual call.

We have broken this call down into 6 points.

We saw the first this morning.
#1 GOD’S CALL IS AN ABUNDANT CALL
Isaiah 55:1-3a

And the simple point again is that God is reaching out
To the humble, the hearing, and the hungry
And offering them a salvation which they cannot afford.

That is what God’s salvation is.
He gives grace to sinners.

Luke 6:20-23 “And turning His gaze toward His disciples, He began to say, “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. “Blessed are you who hunger now, for you shall be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh. “Blessed are you when men hate you, and ostracize you, and insult you, and scorn your name as evil, for the sake of the Son of Man. “Be glad in that day and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven. For in the same way their fathers used to treat the prophets.”

• Jesus is living water to the woman at the well.
• Jesus is the bread of life to the starving crowd.
• Jesus the good shepherd to the wayward sheep.
• Jesus is life and life abundant to all who are broken.

God is calling His own to salvation, and it is an abundant call.

Let’s move on tonight.
#2 GOD’S CALL IS AN ANTICIPATED CALL
Isaiah 55:3-5

This segment begins with the offer of God
That if you will come to Him and listen to Him then “you may live;”

That alone is a good statement.
It is spoken to those who deserve death
And who are on the verge of death.

Think about that “throw away baby” in Ezekiel 16.
Ezekiel 16:6 “When I passed by you and saw you squirming in your blood, I said to you while you were in your blood, ‘Live!’ Yes, I said to you while you were in your blood, ‘Live!’”

• There was no worth.
• There was no value.
• And death was imminent.

But God determined to give life.
That alone is a glorious reality.

But if we read on in Isaiah 55
We find out what life God was referring to.

God goes on to say:
“And I will make an everlasting covenant with you, According to the faithful mercies shown to David.”

Every chapter typically has one verse or statement that causes more work than any of the others and for this chapter it this verse.

We kind of have an idea of what God is referring to.
Clearly it has something to do with David and the promises made to him.

So let’s start there.

It is called the Davidic Covenant.
2 Samuel 7:12-16 “When your days are complete and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come forth from you, and I will establish his kingdom. “He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. “I will be a father to him and he will be a son to Me; when he commits iniquity, I will correct him with the rod of men and the strokes of the sons of men, but My lovingkindness shall not depart from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. “Your house and your kingdom shall endure before Me forever; your throne shall be established forever.”’”

Psalms 89:27-29 “I also shall make him My firstborn, The highest of the kings of the earth. “My lovingkindness I will keep for him forever, And My covenant shall be confirmed to him. “So I will establish his descendants forever And his throne as the days of heaven.”

This promise has been important even in Isaiah’s ministry.

Who could forget?
Isaiah 9:6-7 “For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, On the throne of David and over his kingdom, To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness From then on and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will accomplish this.”

The promise to David was clear.
• His lineage will last forever.
• God will never let the line of David pass.

And even more than that, God has one descendant of David on the way
Who will in fact usher in a glorious reality for Israel.

Isaiah spoke of there being “no end to the increase of His government or of peace.”

That would certainly be an anticipated promise!
(Indeed, we look for it even today.)

In Isaiah’s day that felt like an impossible promise
• Since he was writing to a people who were in exile.

Even in our day it feels impossible.
• There are people debating whether Israel should even be a nation
• Let alone the premiere nation of all the earth.

But this was the promise to David
And certainly Israel has been waiting for it for a long time.

Clearly that promise is being referenced here.

“And I will make an everlasting covenant with you, according to the faithful mercies shown to David.”

So what is being said here?
Let me walk you through it like I worked through it.

• First of all: The phrase “according to” is in italics which means it is merely added by the translators to try and help us make sense of what is being said.

• Secondly, the word “shown” is also a word that is not there.

• Thirdly, the word “mercies” is that favorite word of ours CHECED, which is God’s loyal covenantal love.

• And the word “faithful” can also be translated “confirmation”.

So what if we removed those extra words and read this verse like this?
“I will make an everlasting covenant with you; the confirmation of CHECED to David.”

And what if what is being said by God to Israel here is this?
1. I know you are thirsty and hungry
2. And you have wasted all your wages on that which did not satisfy,
3. But when you come to Me I will give you life.
4. In fact, I will confirm the promises I made to David!

That would mean that the promise on the table here from God is:
When you return to Me and answer My call,
I will send that descendant of David
Who will come and restore Israel to a place of prominence.

Certainly the sermon of Peter in Acts gives weight to this thought:
Acts 3:17-21 “And now, brethren, I know that you acted in ignorance, just as your rulers did also. “But the things which God announced beforehand by the mouth of all the prophets, that His Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled. “Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord; and that He may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you, whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time.”

That is exactly what Peter preached.
• He said that when Israel will “repent and return”
• Then He will send “Jesus”
• And that “times of refreshing” will follow
• Which he also called “the period of restoration of all things”.

I think that is exactly what God is saying through Isaiah here.

You have God offering Israel the fulfillment of the covenant of David
When they humble themselves, hear His word,
And hunger enough for salvation that they run to Him.

And He continues the explanation.

(4-5) “Behold, I have made him a witness to the peoples, A leader and commander for the peoples. “Behold, you will call a nation you do not know, And a nation which knows you not will run to you, Because of the LORD your God, even the Holy One of Israel; For He has glorified you.”

Verse 4 is spoken about David’s descendant.
• “I have made him a witness to the peoples”

Verse 5 is spoken to David’s descendant.
• “Behold you will call a nation you do not know, and a nation which knows you not will run to you,”

God announces to Israel that when you return to Me,
• I will send the promised Messiah.
• He will bring Israel back to prominence
• And all the nations will flock to you.

Zechariah 8:23 “Thus says the LORD of hosts, ‘In those days ten men from all the nations will grasp the garment of a Jew, saying, “Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.”’”

Remember all the promises God made during that Mosaic covenant?
• I know we often focus on the curses because Israel never obeyed God,
• But do you remember the promised blessings if they would walk in righteousness before Him?

Deuteronomy 28:7-14 “The LORD shall cause your enemies who rise up against you to be defeated before you; they will come out against you one way and will flee before you seven ways. “The LORD will command the blessing upon you in your barns and in all that you put your hand to, and He will bless you in the land which the LORD your God gives you. “The LORD will establish you as a holy people to Himself, as He swore to you, if you keep the commandments of the LORD your God and walk in His ways. “So all the peoples of the earth will see that you are called by the name of the LORD, and they will be afraid of you. “The LORD will make you abound in prosperity, in the offspring of your body and in the offspring of your beast and in the produce of your ground, in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers to give you. “The LORD will open for you His good storehouse, the heavens, to give rain to your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hand; and you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. “The LORD will make you the head and not the tail, and you only will be above, and you will not be underneath, if you listen to the commandments of the LORD your God, which I charge you today, to observe them carefully, and do not turn aside from any of the words which I command you today, to the right or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.”

If God’s people would merely be righteous in God’s sight
• Then God would bless them as the preeminent nation on earth
• And all the nations would depend on them.

Well now, through Christ, they can be counted as righteous
And all the blessings that were promised then would be fulfilled.

THAT IS WHAT GOD IS PROMISING HERE.
He will make them the head and not the tail.
He will make them above and not underneath.

And all of this will be a testimony to the greatness of a God
Who saved those who could not save themselves.

“Because of the LORD your God, even the Holy One of Israel; For He has glorified you.”

It is a promise of God to the thirsty and the hungry when come to Him.
• He will then confirm the covenant of David
• And send their King to rule and to reign over the world.
• And God will do it all for His glory.

It is perhaps Israel’s most anticipated promise.

Incidentally, it is a promise that the church
Has enjoyed for 2,000 years in a spiritual sense.

Because of Christ we are now a holy nation.
• We are now blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.
• We are peace with God and we enjoy fellowship with Him.
• We are fruitful and increasing for Christ is building His church.

The church is a spiritual foreshadow
Of what God will physically do in Israel one day
When they repent and return to Him.

This call of God is an anticipated call.

#3 GOD’S CALL IS AN AVAILABLE CALL
Isaiah 55:6-7

We literally just read how Peter was calling Israel to repent and Christ just a few months after they had crucified Him.

Even then Peter told them that if they would return Christ would return and usher in that time of refreshing.

IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN AVAILABLE.

But implied here is more than that.
• We are NOT just talking about that generic or universal call.
• I told you this morning this passage looks to God’s effectual call.

What we notice here is that this call is on God’s timing not yours.

It could not be any clearer what Isaiah says here.
“Seek the LORD WHILE HE MAY BE FOUND; Call upon Him WHILE HE IS NEAR.”

While God’s universal call is always going forth,
His effectual call is not.

For someone to hold to the idea that
I can just wait and come to Christ
Whenever I want is a terrible miscalculation.

Let me put it to you like this.

Lazarus, 4 days dead, lying in the tomb, and all of a sudden Jesus makes him alive and hears from outside his grave, “Lazarus come forth!”

And so Lazarus comes out.
• Now, could Lazarus come out after being dead 3 days?
• How about after being dead 2 days?
• Nope, only on the day Christ called him out.

We think of Saul of Tarsus breathing out threats against the church until that day on the Damascus road when Jesus knocked him to the ground and blinded him with a light and called him to salvation.

Saul repents and trusts in Christ.
• Do you suppose Saul had it within himself to come the day before?
• Nope, not until Christ opened his spiritual eyes by blinding his physical ones.

The point is that you must respond when the offer is made.

LET ME EXPLAIN WHY

DEPRAVITY: you have sinful man who has no capacity to come to Him unless it is granted.

What did Jesus say?
John 6:44 “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day.”

Again, after the crowd continued to balk at His announcement:
John 6:65 “And He was saying, “For this reason I have said to you, that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father.”

It is a simple point.
Since man does not have the capacity to come whenever He wants,
He must come when God offers.

John 12:35-36 “So Jesus said to them, “For a little while longer the Light is among you. Walk while you have the Light, so that darkness will not overtake you; he who walks in the darkness does not know where he goes. “While you have the Light, believe in the Light, so that you may become sons of Light.” These things Jesus spoke, and He went away and hid Himself from them.”

NEGLECT: you have the reality of man who because of his own hardness, squanders his opportunity.

• We think of that parable of the wedding feast and the invitation goes out and so many were not willing to come.

The writer of Hebrews asked:
Hebrews 2:2-3a “For if the word spoken through angels proved unalterable, and every transgression and disobedience received a just penalty, how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?”

What could be considered a greater waste of light
Than for Jesus to spend 3 years preaching in your region
And you still not listen to Him?

Luke 19:41-44 “When He approached Jerusalem, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, “If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes. “For the days will come upon you when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, and surround you and hem you in on every side, and they will level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.”

I’ll never forget Adrian Rogers
Giving his vivid illustration of the hardening of the human heart.
• He spoke of a fire passing through a forest and the first time through it blazes and roars with intensity.
• Then another fire comes and this time a few things burn, but not all of it.
• Then a fire comes through again and this times things smoke and smolder but no real flames can be seen.
• Then another fire and nothing really happens.

Adrian Rogers spoke of the dangers of hearing and rejecting the gospel.

And that is just from a human element.
That is just the basic hardening of the human heart.

JUDGMENT: But what about the supernatural hardening that comes from God?

• Have not read that terrifying phrase repeated 3 times in Romans 1? “Therefore God gave them over…”

We know the reality about Israel.
Romans 11:7-10 “What then? What Israel is seeking, it has not obtained, but those who were chosen obtained it, and the rest were hardened; just as it is written, “GOD GAVE THEM A SPIRIT OF STUPOR, EYES TO SEE NOT AND EARS TO HEAR NOT, DOWN TO THIS VERY DAY.” And David says, “LET THEIR TABLE BECOME A SNARE AND A TRAP, AND A STUMBLING BLOCK AND A RETRIBUTION TO THEM. “LET THEIR EYES BE DARKENED TO SEE NOT, AND BEND THEIR BACKS FOREVER.”

There God judicially punished the nation of Israel
By pouring a spirit of stupor over them so that they could not see.

And all of this is just to reinforce that
Salvation is on God’s timing, not yours.

A girl may want to marry a man, but she’s got to wait until she’s asked.

“Seek the LORD while He may be found; Call upon Him while He is near.”

• WHEN the gospel is preached and it is told what you should do, DO IT!
• WHEN the Spirit of God convicts your heart of your sin and pushes you toward Christ, LISTEN TO HIM!

You don’t even know if you will be alive tomorrow…
• Or if you will ever hear the gospel again…
• Or if you will ever be bothered by the gospel again…
• Or if God will ever even convict your soul again…

The call of salvation is on God’s timing, not yours.

But here is the good news of Isaiah 55.
THE CALL IS AVAILABLE NOW!

2 Corinthians 6:2 “for He says, “AT THE ACCEPTABLE TIME I LISTENED TO YOU, AND ON THE DAY OF SALVATION I HELPED YOU.” Behold, now is “THE ACCEPTABLE TIME,” behold, now is “THE DAY OF SALVATION”

And since the call is going out to you this very moment,
What should you do?

(7) “Let the wicked forsake his way And the unrighteous man his thoughts; And let him return to the LORD, And He will have compassion on him, And to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.”

It’s exactly what Peter preached in Jerusalem: “Repent and Return!”

Here is repentance:
“Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts;”

The word for repentance in the Old Testament is (NAW-KHAM) and it literally means “to be sorry”

• It speaks of regret.
• You may even remember Genesis 6 said that God “was sorry” that He made
man.

In the New Testament the word is (MET-A-NA-AY-O) and it means “to change ones mind”.

And both of those meanings can be clearly seen here.

It certainly starts with regret.
• Regret that you spent all your wages for what did not satisfy.
• Regret that you offended God and invited His reproach.
• Regret that you valued your own opinion over God’s.

And because of that regret, you change your mind.
• You forsake your way and you forsake your thoughts.

Proverbs 3:5-6 “Trust in the LORD with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight.”

It is more than just grief.
It grief that leads to a change.

We don’t want any Esau’s here.

Remember Hebrews 12?
Hebrews 12:15-17 “See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled; that there be no immoral or godless person like Esau, who sold his own birthright for a single meal. For you know that even afterwards, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought for it with tears.”

That doesn’t mean that Esau sought repentance with tears,
It means he sought to inherit the blessing with tears.

Remember when Isaac informed him that Jacob had already come and taken the blessing by stealth?
• Esau through himself on his father and said, “Bless me too!”
• He begged for it.
• He wept for it.

But what did he not do?
He did not repent of despising the birthright.

He wept over the negative consequences of in in his life,
But he never forsook his sinful thoughts or ways.

That is NOT what we are looking for.
• Don’t just weep because you are in captivity.
• Don’t just weep because you’ve been broken off.

• Weep because you dishonored God!
• Weep because you have rejected His Son!
• Weep because you chose your own logic over His wisdom!
• Weep because you valued your idols over Him!

THAT IS WHERE IT STARTS.

There are many things we are called to surrender when we follow Christ.
• Our future
• Our safety
• Our reputation
• Our wealth
• Our comfort

But perhaps before we get to any of those
IT STARTS WITH SURRENDERING OUR FAULTY THINKING.

The gospel is not natural wisdom it is supernatural wisdom.
The gospel does not align with human thinking, it is divine.
And you’ve got to be willing to embrace that.

Throw aside your logic.
Throw aside your stubborn intuition.
“And let him return to the LORD,”

1 Corinthians 3:18-20 “Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you thinks that he is wise in this age, he must become foolish, so that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness before God. For it is written, “He is THE ONE WHO CATCHES THE WISE IN THEIR CRAFTINESS”; and again, “THE LORD KNOWS THE REASONINGS of the wise, THAT THEY ARE USELESS.”

THAT IS THE CALLING HERE.

This morning we saw two of Jesus’ beatitudes.
• We saw “blessed are the poor in spirit” when we talked about humility.
• We saw “blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness”

Here we could add:
Matthew 5:4-5 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. “Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth.”

It is the man who mourns his pride and rejection of God’s wisdom
And a man who now comes back to the Lord in full submission.

That is what you and I are called to do.
• We don’t selfishly stick to our guns.
• We don’t make excuses before the Lord.

We seek Him while He can be found and we do so with repentance.
We forsake our thoughts and submit to His.

And to that God gives a glorious promise.
“And He will have compassion on him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.”

God promises compassion to those who respond to His call.

Paul told us:
Romans 10:13 “for “WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED.”

Jesus said:
John 6:37 “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.”

IT’S A SURE AND CERTAIN PROMISE.
God “will have compassion”.

And don’t you love that next line.
“He will abundantly pardon.”
• Perhaps just promising to “pardon” might have been enough,
• But Isaiah adds the word “abundantly” too it.

And that is the second reference to that word in this chapter.
First in verse 2 God promised abundance in salvation.
“delight yourself in abundance”

Now, in verse 7 He offers abundance in forgiveness.
That means He’ll give you even more than you need!

What might that look like?
I can’t say for sure,
1. But perhaps it looks something like the promise when you come to him to forgive all the sin you have committed.

That would be huge!
2. But maybe it includes the sin you are currently committing.

That would be great!
3. And then it includes every sin that you ever will commit.
4. God promises to forgive sin through Christ that you haven’t even done yet.

HOW IS THAT FOR AN ABUNDANT PARDON?

Psalms 103:8-14 “The LORD is compassionate and gracious, Slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness. He will not always strive with us, Nor will He keep His anger forever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, Nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, So great is His lovingkindness toward those who fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us. Just as a father has compassion on his children, So the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him. For He Himself knows our frame; He is mindful that we are but dust.”

This is the God we run to.
This is the God we respond to.

And the simple point is that His call IS AN AVAILABLE CALL.

Tonight you are hearing it.
Tonight, by His gracious providence He has seen fit to have you here.
• You own a Bible.
• You have ears to hear a sermon.
• You live in a land where it is available, in your language.
• And God has made the gospel call available to you.

It will not always be available, but it is right now.

“Seek the LORD while He may be found; Call upon Him while He is near.”

This is the call of salvation.
• God is offering the full blessing of His salvation
• He is calling you to reject your own logic and thinking and respond to it.

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The Call of Salvation – Part 1
Isaiah 55:1-13 (1-3a)
August 18, 2024

We are in a glorious section here in the book of Isaiah.
It’s a section that can easily be referred to as “THE INVITATION”

To be more specific and accurate, this section details for us
The offer God makes because of the cross.

Isaiah 53 is the hinge point of God’s dealing with humanity.

Before Isaiah 53
• We dealt with Israel’s rebellion, Israel’s stubbornness,
• And subsequently Israel’s rejection, and Israel’s captivity.

But once Christ was “pierced through for our transgressions” and
Was “crushed for our iniquities” the message changed drastically.

Where the first 52 chapters showed us
• An offended God
• And explained His righteous judgment on a wayward nation

The last 13 chapters show us
• God’s offer of mercy to those who have offended Him.

FOR EXAMPLE:

We read:
Isaiah 50:1 “Thus says the LORD, “Where is the certificate of divorce By which I have sent your mother away? Or to whom of My creditors did I sell you? Behold, you were sold for your iniquities, And for your transgressions your mother was sent away.”

• We read of God’s frustration.
• We read of God sending Israel away as an unfaithful bride.
• We read of God selling His children to creditors to pay for that sinful woman’s debts.

But on the other side of the cross everything looks drastically different.
For on the cross Jesus Christ satisfied God’s wrath
Through the shedding of His own blood.

Christ came to redeem, that is to “buy back” those wayward kids.
Christ came to pay the debt of that immoral wife.
Christ came to propitiate God’s anger.

Isaiah 53:4-6 “Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him.”

And as a result of that offering we found out that God was satisfied.

Isaiah 53:10 “But the LORD was pleased To crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand.”

And now, because of the cross we no longer see God sending away that wayward woman or selling her children to pay her debts.

Now we see exactly the opposite.
WE SEE GOD CALLING HER HOME!

We started this look last Sunday night.
Isaiah 54:1 “Shout for joy, O barren one, you who have borne no child; Break forth into joyful shouting and cry aloud, you who have not travailed; For the sons of the desolate one will be more numerous Than the sons of the married woman,” says the LORD.”

Isaiah 54:6-8 “For the LORD has called you, Like a wife forsaken and grieved in spirit, Even like a wife of one’s youth when she is rejected,” Says your God. “For a brief moment I forsook you, But with great compassion I will gather you. “In an outburst of anger I hid My face from you for a moment, But with everlasting lovingkindness I will have compassion on you,” Says the LORD your Redeemer.”

Isaiah showed us two women in a hopeless condition.
He showed as “Sarah” and a “Gomer” if you will.

The Sarah was a barren woman who had no hope at a future because she couldn’t have kids.
• But thanks to the cross, God offered a future to a woman who had no reason
to hope for a future.

The Gomer was the unfaithful woman who had been divorced by her husband.
• But thanks to the cross, God offered her hope as He called her back to Himself
in compassion.

THE CROSS CHANGED EVERYTHING.

AND AS YOU WILL SEE,
It is has changed everything in Isaiah’s message as well.

The message has shifted and shifted drastically.
• No longer is it a message of warning under threat of judgment,
• Now it is a call to salvation because of the redemption of Christ.

And that is precisely what we start looking at this morning.
I am simply calling it “THE CALL OF SALVATION”

And before we get into the details,
Let me give you a broad picture of the chapter.

It’s NOT as though God has just now started calling His people to Himself.
He has been doing that since the day He chose them.

There has always been this call of God to His people
For them to repent and trust Him and obey Him.

But up until now that call has been routinely rejected.

Isaiah 65 recounts it:
Isaiah 65:2-5 “I have spread out My hands all day long to a rebellious people, Who walk in the way which is not good, following their own thoughts, A people who continually provoke Me to My face, Offering sacrifices in gardens and burning incense on bricks; Who sit among graves and spend the night in secret places; Who eat swine’s flesh, And the broth of unclean meat is in their pots. “Who say, ‘Keep to yourself, do not come near me, For I am holier than you!’ These are smoke in My nostrils, A fire that burns all the day.”

That just about sums it up.
• God has been calling but Israel has been totally disinterested.

Even on the day when God commissioned Isaiah
Isaiah was told that he should not expect much visible success.

Isaiah 6:8-10 “Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here am I. Send me!” He said, “Go, and tell this people: ‘Keep on listening, but do not perceive; Keep on looking, but do not understand.’ “Render the hearts of this people insensitive, Their ears dull, And their eyes dim, Otherwise they might see with their eyes, Hear with their ears, Understand with their hearts, And return and be healed.”

And that certainly proved true in his ministry.

When Isaiah warned the people of their sin and called them to repent and obey God, this is how they responded:

Isaiah 28:9-10 “To whom would He teach knowledge, And to whom would He interpret the message? Those just weaned from milk? Those just taken from the breast? “For He says, ‘Order on order, order on order, Line on line, line on line, A little here, a little there.’”

They didn’t want to hear it.

God weighed in on their rebellious condition:
Isaiah 30:9-11 “For this is a rebellious people, false sons, Sons who refuse to listen To the instruction of the LORD; Who say to the seers, “You must not see visions”; And to the prophets, “You must not prophesy to us what is right, Speak to us pleasant words, Prophesy illusions. “Get out of the way, turn aside from the path, Let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel.”

God has been calling and Israel has been rejecting.

That is what we might refer to GOD’S GENERAL CALL
• It is the call of God that goes out through the universal preaching of the gospel to the world.

It is a 100% valid offer given to every single human.
That if any man will repent and trust in Christ, God will save Him based on the sacrifice of Jesus.
• Any man is at liberty to receive.
• Any man is at liberty to believe it.
• Any man can take full advantage of it.

It is no different than the famous call of Jesus in Matthew 11
Matthew 11:28-20 “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

• There is no limitation to the reach of that offer.
• It is available to anyone and everyone who will take it.

Very similar to what we read in John 3
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”

• And again, that is 100% valid.
• “whoever believes in Him shall not perish”

However the human nature of man is so depraved that
Even though he is freely offered salvation,
He has no power to believe it and he doesn’t actually want it.

John 3:19 “This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.”

So while we do have a universal and GENERAL CALL of salvation that continually rings out, we know that it is A REJECTED CALL.

And Israel clearly bears that out as God said:
Romans 10:21 “But as for Israel He says, “ALL THE DAY LONG I HAVE STRETCHED OUT MY HANDS TO A DISOBEDIENT AND OBSTINATE PEOPLE.”

But the call we are talking about here
Is NOT a universal call or a general call.

The call of salvation here is: GOD’S EFFECTUAL CALL
Some have referred to it as IRRESISTABLE GRACE

It is what Jesus spoke of in John 6:
John 6:37 “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.”

When Christ hung on the cross we saw:
Isaiah 53:11 “As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, As He will bear their iniquities.”

On the cross Christ was NOT just paying an undesignated price to go in a pot with the hope that someday someone might take advantage of it.

No, on the cross He actually paid the price of redemption for His bride.
• He knew who she was,
• He paid specifically for her,
• He was satisfied because He knew she would be His.

And now in chapters 54-55 we see Him calling her to Himself.

And here is the beauty of the chapter:
SHE IS PROMISED TO COME!

Look at the statement of God to end this chapter:
(55:10-12) “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, And do not return there without watering the earth And making it bear and sprout, And furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater; So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; It will not return to Me empty, Without accomplishing what I desire, And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it. “For you will go out with joy And be led forth with peace; The mountains and the hills will break forth into shouts of joy before you, And all the trees of the field will clap their hands.”

There is nothing potential or merely possible about that statement.
• This word of invitation which God is presenting through Isaiah will succeed.
• Israel will be saved.
• It will happen.
• Christ will have those for whom He died.

THIS IS GOD’S EFFECTUAL CALL TO HIS OWN.

And it is that call we begin to look at THIS MORNING.
• God is calling sinners to salvation.
• Here He outlines what they must do to be saved.
• And the beauty is that all who are His will do it!

So let’s look at this great chapter
And hear God call His children to salvation
And let’s see what that entails.

I think it’s best to break the chapter into 6 points about God’s call,
We won’t get through all of them this morning.

#1 GOD’S CALL IS AN ABUNDANT CALL
Isaiah 55:1-3a

We call it an abundant call because
It is clearly a call to those who have nothing
And in return it offers them everything.

• It is a benevolent call.
• It is a generous call.
• It is a gracious call.

It is what Jesus spoke of when He talked to that woman at the well.
John 4:13-14 “Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”

It is what Jesus spoke of to the crowd whom He had fed the day before:
John 6:32-35 “Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread out of heaven, but it is My Father who gives you the true bread out of heaven. “For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world.” Then they said to Him, “Lord, always give us this bread.” Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst.”

It is what Jesus spoke of in the temple to those Jews who were lost.
John 7:37-38 “Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’”

It is what Jesus offered again to the wayward Jews in John 10:
John 10:10 “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”

And you see references to all of that here don’t you.

It’s not hard to see that Isaiah was talking about Jesus.
• He is offering water to the thirsty.
• He is offering salvation to the poor.
• He is offering bread to the starved.
• And He is offering it in abundance.

(2b) “delight yourself in abundance”
God’s call is an abundant call.

WE JUST SAW LAST SUNDAY NIGHT
• That barren woman with no children and God told her that she was going to
have to pitch a bigger tent to hold all the kids she was going to have.

• God told that rejected woman that He was going to restore her dignity by
publicly calling her back to Himself for another beautiful marriage.

He is doing glorious things for those who are unable and unworthy.

And I remind you again that it is all possible because of chapter 53.
• Because Christ suffered the punishment.
• Because Christ appeased the wrath.
• The unworthy and the rejected are now offered a seat at the table.

It is remarkable to witness the Grace of God.
• As He calls tax collectors and sinners.
• As He extends His hands to the demon possessed and immoral.
• As He selects fishermen and shepherds and promises them a kingdom.
• “Not many wise, not many might, not many noble”

What an offer of salvation this offer of God is.

I can’t help but think of a passage even in the next chapter of Isaiah.
Isaiah 56:3-5 “Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the LORD say, “The LORD will surely separate me from His people.” Nor let the eunuch say, “Behold, I am a dry tree.” For thus says the LORD, “To the eunuchs who keep My sabbaths, And choose what pleases Me, And hold fast My covenant, To them I will give in My house and within My walls a memorial, And a name better than that of sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name which will not be cut off.”

There it’s not just barren women and rebellious women.
There the offer is extended to foreigners and eunuchs.

Men who have no right to an inheritance.
And men who have no ability to extend their name.
But God, by His grace offers even them a seat at the table
And an enduring name in His kingdom.

It is just the immeasurable and unfathomable, totally saturated and dripping grace of God as He offers salvation to the least of these.

What a glorious salvation was purchased by Christ on the cross.
What a glorious salvation was conceived by the mind of God.

What God has in store for His children
Is more than they can fathom and more than they deserve.
It is an abundant call!

BUT THE FOCUS of these first 3 verses is NOT JUST
That God offers this salvation to people who don’t deserve it.

There is also a tremendous focus on
WHAT GOD ASKS OF THE UNDESERVING FOR THEM TO RECEIVE IT.

And this is important for us to understand.
We love the sovereignty of God.
We love His sovereign grace.
We love His sovereign salvation.

But never overlook the fact that there remains a
HUMAN RESPONSIBILITY.

You can argue that you are one of the elect until you are blue in the face,
But I can promise you that
Unless you respond properly to the gospel call you will not be saved.

And that is the response to God’s call that is highlighted here.
In fact, in these 3 verses there are 3 highlighted attributes
That God wants to discuss with those to whom He calls.

It’s not so much what they must do as it is who they must be.

1) YOUR HUMILITY

We see it clearly in verse 1.
• God is addressing “Every one who thirsts”
• He is addressing “you who have no money”
• He is addressing those who have spent all their “wages for what does not satisfy”

And we circle back to what we discussed last Sunday night.
In this great offer of salvation: WHO IS THE AUDIENCE?

Well Jesus told us:
Matthew 9:12-13 “But when Jesus heard this, He said, “It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick. “But go and learn what this means: ‘I DESIRE COMPASSION, AND NOT SACRIFICE,’ for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Jesus did not come to call “the righteous”.
• That is, those who think they are righteous.

He came to call “sinners”
• That is, those who know they are sinners.

• His offer is extended to those who are thirsty but know they have no water.
• His offer is extended to those who are hungry but know they have no money.
• His offer is extended to those who realize their life has been filled with bad
decisions where they pursued that which could not satisfy.

THOSE are the people He is calling.
• If you think you are fine.
• If you are content with this life.
• If you fancy yourself to be in good standing with God based on your own goodness and works
THIS OFFER IS NOT FOR YOU.

Jesus said it like this:
Matthew 5:3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

And as we’ve said before, the Greek language is in the emphatic there which means “theirs alone” or “theirs only” “Is the kingdom of heaven.”

He’s not going to grant the kingdom of heaven
To anyone who is not poor in spirit.

• You must be aware of your spiritual bankruptcy before God.
• You must realize that you have nothing to offer.
• You must realize that you are poor and wretched and blind and naked.

WHY?
Because “God is opposed to the proud but He gives grace to the humble.”

That is God’s prerequisite.
He does not save the proud, in fact He is opposed to them.
He does not save the self-righteous, in fact they infuriate Him.

Isaiah 57:15 “For thus says the high and exalted One Who lives forever, whose name is Holy, “I dwell on a high and holy place, And also with the contrite and lowly of spirit In order to revive the spirit of the lowly And to revive the heart of the contrite.”

God is a Savior of the lowly.

And just follow Him through the gospels and watch who He saves.
• Men like Peter and James and John.
• Men like Matthew and Zaccheus.
• Women like Mary Magdalene and the woman at the well.

But He had nothing but warnings of woe for the spiritually arrogant.

Luke 18:9-14 “And He also told this parable to some people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and viewed others with contempt: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. “The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself: ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. ‘I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.’ “But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner!’ “I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Even Isaiah himself was not saved until he fell on his face and cried:
Isaiah 6:5 “Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.”

Until a person comes to that point in their own attitude
You can forget salvation.

So let’s begin there this morning.
HOW’S YOUR HUMILITY?

• Do you view yourself as a good person?
• Do you feel like you’re ahead of the pack in terms of righteous living?
• Do you feel like you do plenty of things that God should be proud of?

• Are you confident that your good outweighs your bad?
• Are you happy to show God all the things you’ve accomplished?

Then you have not yet come to the place of humility that is necessary.

Go back to God’s Law!
• Read of His impossibly high and holy standard.
• See how often you have broken it and how you break it still.
• And keep reading that Law until you fall on your face like Paul did and cry out, “Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this dead?”

Examine the character of God throughout the prophets.
• Read of the things that bring God’s wrath and compare them to your life.
• Examine how good you think you are next to His perfections
• Until you cry out with Job “I have declared that which I did not understand…I repent in dust and ashes.”

Go gaze on the perfection of Jesus.
• Look at His wisdom and might, His conviction, His kindness and compassion.
• See how holy and magnificent He is
• Until you fall on the boat with Peter and cry, “Go away from me Lord for I am a sinful man!”

Examine the word of God
Until you are crushed under the weight of the divine standard
And until you finally achieve the humility that He requires.

BECAUSE
• Until you are thirsty…
• Until you are poor…
• Until you are hungry…

The offer is not for you.
Luke 6:24-26 “But woe to you who are rich, for you are receiving your comfort in full. “Woe to you who are well-fed now, for you shall be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep. “Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for their fathers used to treat the false prophets in the same way.”

So start with your humility.
Humble yourself before God so that He may exalt you.

After that, let’s talk about:
2) YOUR HEARING

You see this mentioned 3 times in verses 2 and 3
• “Listen carefully to Me…”
• “Incline your ear…”
• “Listen…”

This walks step in step with humility
It is one of the reasons you must be humble.
ARROGANT MEN DON’T LISTEN.

James said it perfectly.
James 1:19-20 “This you know, my beloved brethren. But everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger; for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God.”

• If you’re too proud to listen to God’s word…
• If you’re too proud to accept God’s word…
• If you’re too proud to submit to God’s word…
• Then you will never “achieve the righteousness of God.”

You must be humble enough
• To realize that all of your answers are wrong.
• To realize that you made horrible decision.

You spent all your “money for what is not bread and your wages for what does not satisfy”

Later down in verse 7 God is going to say:
(7) “Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts…”

You’re going to have to come to grips with the fact
That your thinking and your logic made a mess for you.
And you’re going to have listen to the One who is truth.

You are familiar with that parable of the sower
Where “the seed is the word of God”.

And most wouldn’t accept the seed.
• They either were too hard (proud)
• Or they were too rocky (not really listening)
• Or they were too weedy (still hanging on their own thoughts)
• And they rejected the seed and are lost.

That is why after that parable Jesus was very clear:
Luke 8:18 “So take care how you listen; for whoever has, to him more shall be given; and whoever does not have, even what he thinks he has shall be taken away from him.”

“take care how you listen”

Over and over we hear Jesus say, “Let him who has ears, let him hear”.

So you have to humble yourself
So that you will be willing to listen.

But why is hearing so important?

That is simple:
Romans 10:17 “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.”

You must be willing to listen to the gospel that is being preached.
If you don’t hear the gospel you can’t be saved.
It is the power of God for salvation.

Jesus said:
John 5:24-25 “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life. “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.”

You must hear the message.
“For how will they believe in Him whom they have not heard?”

So clearly, if you are unwilling to hear, this offer is not for you.

Matthew 13:13 “Therefore I speak to them in parables; because while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.”

So there is the second thing that needs to be examined.

First is your HUMILITY – do you see that you need saving?
Second is your HEARING – are you seeking God’s word to hear how to be saved?

I love the Ethiopian Eunuch.
Acts 8:27-31 “So he got up and went; and there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure; and he had come to Jerusalem to worship, and he was returning and sitting in his chariot, and was reading the prophet Isaiah. Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go up and join this chariot.” Philip ran up and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet, and said, “Do you understand what you are reading?” And he said, “Well, how could I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.”

• Here is a man who had gone to Jerusalem to worship.
• Something in him had obviously been convicted and so he is sitting here on the way home reading Isaiah.
• (Later we find out it’s Isaiah 53)
• And by his own testimony he doesn’t understand it.
• But he’s reading it and trying his best.

That is a humble man who is doing everything he can to hear.
And God honored that in His providence by sending Philip by to explain it to him.

Being humble and broken is required, but humility is not enough,
There must also be hearing. Listen when God speaks.

• Are you even trying to find out what God wants from you?
• Are you even seeking to hear from God?
• Are you reading His word?

YOU SAY, “I don’t read because I don’t understand.”

Well that didn’t stop the Ethiopian.
He read until God made a way for him to understand.

So how is your humility? And how is your hearing?
3) YOUR HUNGER

Now why is hunger important?

Because Christ is going to ask you to do something.
• He is going to offer you satisfaction to your thirst.
• He is going to offer you satisfaction to your hunger.
• He is going to offer you satisfaction to your poverty.

And we are going to see if you are hungry enough to take it or not.

(1) “Ho! Every one who thirsts, come to the waters:” (and Christ is the water)
“you who have no money come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and mile without money and without cost.”

(3) “Incline your ear and come to Me.”

Christ is going to offer you satisfaction
But it all centers around the word Isaiah used 4 times, “come”.

Jesus states it a little differently.
Matthew 16:24 “Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.”

• Jesus is going to ask you to let go of your life.
• He’s going to ask you to take up His reproach.
• He’s going to ask you to devote your life to Him.

And look, it is NOT A NATURAL DESIRE
To want to carry a cross and follow a condemned man.

SO WHY WOULD YOU DO IT?

REMEMBER when Jesus offended the crowd in John 6 by saying that He came from heaven?
Remember how they all left?

John 6:67-69 “So Jesus said to the twelve, “You do not want to go away also, do you?” Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life. “We have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God.”

The disciples decided to follow
Because they hungered for eternal life
And Jesus was the only place they could get it.

Or how about the Rich Young Ruler who came to Jesus wanting eternal life?
Matthew 19:16 “And someone came to Him and said, “Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may obtain eternal life?”

But when Jesus explained that it would cost him all his possessions:
Matthew 19:22 “But when the young man heard this statement, he went away grieving; for he was one who owned much property.”

He was hungry for eternal life, but not that hungry.
And you get my point.

We could talk about
• The man who told Jesus he would follow anywhere, but when Jesus revealed He was homeless that man no longer wanted to follow.
• The man who wanted to follow only if he could first collect his inheritance?
• The man who first wanted an endorsement from his friends for following Jesus?

See all those men were hungry for eternal life,
BUT THEY WEREN’T THAT HUNGRY.
• They weren’t hungry enough to deny themselves.
• They weren’t hungry enough to abandon their wealth.
• They weren’t hungry enough to ruin their reputation.

But Jesus asked:
Matthew 16:26 “Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?”

How hungry are you?
Matthew 5:6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”

So you understand the point.

• You must be humble before you’ll ever be willing to hear.
• You must hear before you can know what is required.
• You must be hungry for righteousness before you will ever do what is
required which is to come to and follow Jesus.

SO HOW HUNGRY ARE YOU?
• How badly do you want salvation?
• How badly do you want peace with God?

Hebrews 12:25 “See to it that you do not refuse Him who is speaking. For if those did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape who turn away from Him who warns from heaven.”

Are you hungry enough to deny yourself,
take up your cross, and follow Jesus?

FOR THOSE WHO DO:
• You are granted the right to “come to the waters”
• You are allowed to “Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost”
• You are invited to “eat what is good and delight yourself in abundance”
• You are called to “Listen that you may live;”

This is an ABUNDANT CALL to thirst no more.
This is an ABUNDANT CALL to hunger no more.
This is an ABUNDANT CALL to have life and life abundant!

But it requires Humility, Hearing, and Hungering.
Will you humble yourself and cry out to Jesus?

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You Must Be Born Again
John 3:3
August 11, 2024

Each year, as we prepare to begin another school year, we like to commission our students and faculty back into the school.

When a man or woman commits to follow Christ,
There is a submission of the entire person,
• The entire will,
• All activities,
• All resources,
• All time,
• And even all occupations to the cause of Christ.

We do not compartmentalize Christ to One who has control on Sunday mornings, but who is then forgotten the rest of the week.

Everywhere we go is governed by His sovereign will.
And as we go we are commanded to preach Christ and Him crucified.
Every believer is under the Lord’s command to
“deny yourself, take up your cross daily, and follow Him.”

In that regard, we could preach these types of messages every week
As a reminder to all no matter their job.

But because the SCHOOL SYSTEM is such a massive part of our lives
We take special note to focus on it as school begins again each fall.

We find it beneficial to remind ourselves again
• That we are bond-servants of Christ
• There is no higher allegiance than to Him.
• Everywhere we go and everything we do is to be for His glory and for His kingdom.

And certainly the Scriptures are full of both examples and commands
That we could examine to this end.

THIS MORNING, I have landed upon John 3:3.
• Actually, the last part of John 3:7 which reads, “You must be born again.”

Nearly every Sunday as a child
• My family would go for Sunday lunch at my grandparent’s house.
• My grandpa was a lover of NFL football and so we would watch the games that were on while my grandmother finished lunch.
• In those days it seemed common that any time someone would kick a field goal, in the stands, behind the goal posts you’d see someone holding up a sign that simply said, “John 3:3”.

• I knew John 3:16, but John 3:3 was a mystery to me.
• I remember asking my grandpa about it.
I even would ask the preacher,
“Why do you always say, ‘You must be born again?’”

It’s not a phrase I hear as often today.
It is certainly more rare to see it on a sign behind the goal posts.

But when Jesus evangelized, it was the phrase He used.

Perhaps more specifically, when Jesus witnessed to someone who was convinced of his own goodness, this was the phrase He used.

That resonates with me.
• I don’t know of any Muslims that live in our pocket of the world.
• I’m not aware of any Hindus or Buddhists.
• We occasionally have Jehovah’s Witnesses come through, but I don’t know of any who live here.
• The closest Mormon temple is in Lubbock, but I don’t know of any who live here.
• You do hear of an atheist from time to time, but not even that too often.

MY POINT IS THAT
The false religion of our area is NOT some organized system of disbelief

The false religion of our area is much more subtle and subservice,
But make no mistake, it is just as lost
And can be just as militant if threatened.

It is the religion of BASIC HUMAN GOODNESS.
I’ll just call it “Good Ole Boyism”

It is a religion that for sure, if pressed,
1. Would affirm some sort of belief in God, but usually not much deeper than that belief which is often expressed in contemporary country music.

2. For the most part it maintains a sense of morality, with a few socially acceptable indulgences sprinkled in.

3. It is not so much a life that is led by the pages of Scripture as it is a life led by the sort of communal code of expectations.

4. They can actually be very religious (though certainly not all are). I’ve known many who even held roles of leadership in churches, not so much because of their Christ-likeness but because they are successful in the world and ride that momentum into positions of power in the church.

5. Typically they have no problem admitting that they are sinners. They have no claim to absolute perfection, but their sin is not something they can’t handle on their own.

6. They’ll help you if you are in need, they’ll open the door, tip their hat, and have enough good sense to steer clear of the obvious perversions of the world.

7. And the one thing that they all have in common despite their varying degrees of commitment to the church and religion is that as far as heaven is concerned, they are doing just fine.

They are the “Good Ole Boys”

In John 3 Jesus ran into just such a man.
READ JOHN 3:1-15

Nicodemus was, even by Israel’s standards, a good man.
• He was more than just a teacher in the Sanhedrin,
• In verse 10 Jesus called him “the teacher of Israel” not “a” teacher.
• He is the theological giant of his day.

HOWEVER
• In verse 3 Jesus told him that if he stayed on his current path he would never
go to heaven.
• In verse 10 Jesus was amazed that, despite his high position, he had such
little understanding of spiritual truth.
• In verse 11 Jesus exposed him as one who did not accept the testimony of
Jesus.
• In verse 12 Jesus referred to him as one who did not believe.
• If we had gone all the way down to verse 20 you’d find that Jesus insinuates
that Nicodemus is actually in darkness and that is why he hates the light.

A Good Old Boy?
Perhaps, but definitely NOT a “Saved Ole Boy”

And when this man confronted Jesus one night
The simple evangelistic message of Jesus to this man was:

(3:3) “Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

Certainly a conversation will follow, but THIS was the message.

And it IS A REMINDER to us, when we go into the schools,
Or when we go into the world EXACTLY WHAT WE ARE AFTER.

• We are NOT seeking to moralize men.
• We are NOT seeking to educate men.
• We are NOT seeking to initiate men to our traditional behaviors.

We go into the world and take a message to the lost
That they “must be born again.”

Charles Spurgeon once said:
“Now observe, brethren, if I, or you, or any of us, or all of us, shall have spent our lives merely in amusing men, or educating men, or moralizing men, when we shall come to give our account at the last great day we shall be in a very sorry condition, and we shall have but a very sorry record to render; for of what avail will it be to a man to be educated when he comes to be damned? Of what service will it be to him to have been amused when the trumpet sounds, and heaven and earth are shaking, and the pit opens wide her jaws of fire and swallows up the soul unsaved? Of what avail even to have moralized a man if still he is on the left hand of the judge, and if still, “Depart, ye cursed,” shall be his portion?”

Soul Saving Our One Business

WE ARE NOT TRYING
• To educate men
• Or moralize men,
• Or to get them to attend church,
• Or to convince them to clean up their speech,
• Or any other outward behavioral issue.

OUR GOAL IS THAT MEN MAY BE BORN AGAIN.

For as Jesus said, if a man acquires anything less than the new birth, “he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

This is a serious issue.
Our mandate is to go and preach the new birth.

Well allow me to quickly remind you of this passage in John’s gospel
• To get a better handle on exactly what Jesus preached to Nicodemus
• Then I want us to consider that simple phrase, “You must be born again.”

I hope you are familiar with this story and even with the point behind it.

But here we have Nicodemus
• “a man of the Pharisees”
• “a ruler of the Jews”
• “the teacher of Israel”

He came to Jesus by night (because darkness hates the light)
And made a simple cordial greeting to Jesus.

(2) “Rabi we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.”

That is just a simple olive branch of sorts.
• We don’t know why Nicodemus came.
• We don’t even know what question he had planned to ask.
• But he called Jesus a teacher which would insinuate that Nicodemus at the very least had come to learn something.

But Jesus nips his agenda in the bud with this startling statement.

(3) “Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

From that point it becomes evident that Nicodemus, in all his studying,
Has no clue what it means to be “born again”.

(4) “Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?”

I don’t know if Nicodemus is that confused,
• Or if this is sort of a sarcastic response meant to point out the absurdity of what Jesus just said.

Either way, Jesus and Nicodemus are not on the same page.

And then comes the FIRST EXPLANATION of Jesus:
(5-8) “Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. “Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ “The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

We have discussed this before, but to make sure you understand.

Jesus uses a different phrase but it is synonymous with “born again”
He says, “unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.”

This is a reference to Ezekiel’s revelation of the New Covenant.
Ezekiel 36:24-27 “For I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands and bring you into your own land. “Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. “Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. “I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.”

And you will remember that the next chapter in Ezekiel is that illustration of that valley full of old dry bones which are called to life by the Spirit of God.

This is what Jesus is referring to when He speaks of being “born again”.

He is speaking of the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit
To make what is dead alive and what is filthy clean.

And Jesus speaks of this is an authoritative power
Solely at the discretion of the Spirit
• Because like the wind the Spirit “blows where it wishes”.

So we are talking about a supernatural and sovereign work of God’s Spirit to make what is dead alive and what is filthy clean.

And Nicodemus is totally confused.
(9) “Nicodemus said to Him, “How can these things be?”

And this confusion earns him A JUST REBUKE from Jesus.
(11-12) “Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and testify of what we have seen, and you do not accept our testimony. “If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?”

Clearly the problem of Nicodemus is that
He has NO spiritual eyes NOR spiritual ears.

• He owns a bible, but he obviously doesn’t understand it.
• He teaches others about God, but he himself doesn’t know Him.

Nicodemus is physically alive and spiritually dead.

He is a Jewish “Good Ole Boy”
• He knows how to walk
• He knows how to talk
• He’s got a good reputation
• He’s even got a high position
• BUT HE IS NOT SAVED
• HE NEEDS TO BE BORN AGAIN

AND I WOULD SUBMIT TO YOU THAT
This is a massive problem even within the communities that we live in.

• We have educated men.
• We have moral men.
• We have polite men.
• We have “good” men.

But none of that will gain you access into heaven.
We need “born again” men.

THAT IS WHAT JESUS PREACHED.

And I’m going to challenge you as you go back into the school
And back into your work places
That you make this your objective as well.

• NOT just to see people become moral.
• NOT just to see people come to church.
• But to see men and women become born again.

Jesus said:
“You must be born again.”

Now, for the remainder of our time,
Let’s just examine that simple 5-word phrase.

I actually want to look at it in reverse order.
4 points here.

#1 THE EXPLANATION OF THE NEW BIRTH
“born again”

What does it mean to be “born again”?

Ezekiel spoke of it as God, by His Spirit, washing you with clean water and transforming your heart to begin to love God’s commands.

Jeremiah spoke of it as well.
Jeremiah 31:31-34 “Behold, days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” declares the LORD. “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the LORD, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. “They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the LORD, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”

We call it the New Covenant.
It is a reference to the life-giving work of the Holy Spirit.

WHY IS THIS NECESSARY?

When Nicodemus came wanting instruction,

Why did Jesus in effect say, “Instruction won’t help you” you must be “born again”?

Jesus told Nicodemus that renovation was not enough.
• Nicodemus had to be totally scrapped and made new.
• He had to be washed by God’s Spirit.
• He had to have a new heart given to him.
• He had to be made alive in a new way.

WHY IS THAT?

Genesis 8:21 “…the intent of man’s heart is evil from his youth;”

Psalms 51:5 “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me.”

Psalms 58:3 “The wicked are estranged from the womb; These who speak lies go astray from birth.”

Jeremiah 17:9 “The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it?”

And we could follow that up with that entire diatribe from Paul where he reveals that “there is none righteous, not even one.”

It is called: THE DEPRAVITY OF MAN
It was inherited from our father Adam.

When Adam sinned in the garden, he sinned as our representative.
And through Adam, we all sinned.
We were corrupted in him, and we are born sinful.

Romans 5:12 “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned”

And just to make sure we are clear on that verse.
When Paul says “all sinned” he uses the AORIST tense.

• The verb tense indicates something that happened one time in the past.
• He is NOT there saying that we are all like Adam and when our time came we
all sinned too.
• No, he IS saying that in Adam, who is our federal head, we all sinned in him.
• All of humanity fell with Adam, and now, like the Psalmist said we are
conceived in iniquity.

We are born with a sinful disposition.
We are born fallen.

But I fear I must tell you it is MORE BLEAK THAN THAT.

The Pelagian or the Semi-Pelagian or the Armenian or the Provisionist (which ever you prefer) would TELL YOU THE OPPOSITE.

“They hold that man is born innocent and merely falls into sin
Because of the corruption of the world around him.”

But this is NOT the language of Scripture.
Ephesians 2:1-3 “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.”

Paul speaks of the condition of mankind
Not as susceptible or even as sick, but as dead.

HE IS SPIRITUALLY DEAD, it is an inherited condition from Adam.

Perhaps this helps you understand Jesus statement regarding being
“born again”.

Man needs to move from death to life.
Man needs to move from Adam to Christ.
Man needs to be born again.

And this is what the new birth is.
It is the process by which the Holy Spirit gives life to that which is dead.
• He opens deaf ears and allows them to hear.
• He opens blind eyes and allows them to see.
• He calls them out of darkness into marvelous light.
• He drives them to Christ as the atonement for sin.
• He grants them faith to believe in the His gospel.
• And He begins the process of sanctification.

THIS IS SALVATION.

Salvation IS NOT the educational or manipulative process
Of convincing wicked men to behave better.

Salvation IS the supernatural work
Of raising dead men to life and making them holy.

And it is something that IS VERIFIABLE in a person’s life.
• Just like we can take your physical pulse this morning and determine if you are physically alive this morning,
• So we can take your spiritual pulse and determine if you are spiritually alive.

Titus 3:3-7 “For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”

IN SHORT the Holy Spirit will make you spiritually alive and it will totally transform your life.
• He will change not only your behaviors but your heart and your desires.
• He will make you a totally new individual.

2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.”

J.C. Ryle wrote an essay
And listed 8 characteristics of the new birth which are wonderful.

1. Conviction of Sin – he is more sensitive to it than ever before.
2. Faith in Christ – he doesn’t look to himself for salvation but to Christ alone.
3. Holiness – he delights in his life being ruled by God’s word.
4. Spiritual-mindedness – his focus is not on worldly things, but on spiritual things
5. Victory over the world – He is free from worldly influence and pressure
6. Meekness – there is a humility in his life as he takes credit for nothing
7. A great delight in all means of grace – he loves the word, prayer, attending church, fellowship of the saints, hearing preaching, etc.

I love what Ryle said about this one:
“The natural man has often a form of godliness: he does not neglect the ordinances of religion, but somehow or other the weather, or his health, or the distance contrives to be a great hindrance to him; and far too often, it happens that the hours he spends in church or over his Bible are the dullest in his life. But when a man is born again, he begins to find a reality about means which once he did not feel: the Sabbath no longer seems a dull, wearisome day, in which he knows not how to spend his time decently. He now calls it a delight and a privilege, holy of the Lord and honorable. The difficulties that once kept him from God’s house now seem to have vanished away: dinner and weather and the like never detain him at home, and he is no longer glad of an excuse not to go. Sermons appear a thousand times more interesting than they used to do; and he would no more be inattentive or willingly go to sleep under them than a prisoner would upon his trial. And, above all, the Bible looks to him like a new book. Time was when it was very dry reading to his mind. Perhaps it lay in a corner, dusty and seldom read, but now it is searched and examined as the very bread of life. Many are the texts and passages which seem just written for his own case; and many are the days that he feels disposed to say with David, “The law of thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver” (Psa 119:72).”
https://www.chapellibrary.org/pdf/books/nbirfg.pdf (pg. 18)

8. Love towards others – he has died to self and love is the activity

We are talking about a man who has been made new both inside and out.
• He has not been instructed he has been born again.
• He has not merely changed his habits he has been born again.
• He is now made alive by God’s own Spirit.

He has left his dead father Adam and has been made alive in Christ.

That is what is meant by being born again.
And this is what we preach to the world.

The Explanation of the New Birth

#2 THE EXPERIENCE OF THE NEW BIRTH
“be”

Just a quick word here, but it must be understood that
We are NOT merely seeking to educate men about the new birth.

We are NOT seeking
• To make men theologians or experts on what the new birth is.
• It is not enough for men to be able to reference Ezekiel 36 or Jeremiah 31
• Or to be able to exposit John 3 explaining the words of Jesus.

Jesus did not say that you must know about the new birth.
Jesus said “You must BE born again”

It is an actual transformation that must occur in your life.

Have we not read of the poor men on the day of judgment?
Matthew 7:21-23 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’”

It is not enough to be religious or moral or even involved in ministry.
• You must BE born again.
• You must BE made new.

There is also a very important understanding here
Regarding where the power comes from.
• This is something that must happen to you.
• It is not something you do to yourself.
• It is the work of the Holy Spirit upon your life.

Lazarus could not choose to exit the tomb
Until Christ first made him alive and able to hear the call to leave.

And this is important to understand even in our evangelism.

Someone would ask, “Well, why preach to sinners if they can’t hear?”

Because the preaching of the gospel
Is the means by which God awakens sinners.

Romans 1:16 “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.”

Romans 10:17 “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.”

Paul himself was commissioned:
Acts 26:17-18 “I am sending you, to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me.”

We preach the gospel, NOT BECAUSE it has good ideas for better living.

We preach the gospel because it is what God’s Spirit uses
To raise the dead to life and grant them faith in Christ.

• You will never argue a man into the kingdom.
• You will never love a man into the kingdom.
• You will never include a man in church enough that he gets grandfathered in and welcomed into heaven.

We must preach the gospel because they must BE born again.
And the gospel is the only way that happens.

#3 THE ESSENTIALITY OF THE NEW BIRTH
“must”

There is an important word!
• Jesus said it best, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
• And again, “unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.”

THAT’S PRETTY CLEAR ISN’T IT?

Romans 8:8 “and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”

Psalms 15 “O LORD, who may abide in Your tent? Who may dwell on Your holy hill? He who walks with integrity, and works righteousness, And speaks truth in his heart. He does not slander with his tongue, Nor does evil to his neighbor, Nor takes up a reproach against his friend; In whose eyes a reprobate is despised, But who honors those who fear the LORD; He swears to his own hurt and does not change; He does not put out his money at interest, Nor does he take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things will never be shaken.”

But who fits that bill?

Psalms 24:3-4 “Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD? And who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, Who has not lifted up his soul to falsehood And has not sworn deceitfully.”

As you read in that article in your bulletin,
• When the Rich Young Ruler walked away the disciples asked, “then who can be saved?”
• And Jesus said: “With people this impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

You can’t work enough…
You can’t sacrifice enough…
You can’t read enough…
You can’t devote yourself enough…
To gain your entrance into heaven.

Jesus actually witnessed men trying.
Matthew 11:12 “From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and violent men take it by force.”

Luke 16:16-17 “The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John; since that time the gospel of the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it. “But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one stroke of a letter of the Law to fail.”

What Jesus spoke of where men who, like Nicodemus,
Where trying to figure out how to force their way into heaven.

• They were trying to lower the holy standard.
• They were trying to widen the holy gate.
• They did violence to the word of God to seek to squeeze through.

But Jesus said, it won’t work.
A natural man cannot enter.
You MUST be born again.

Revelation 21:27 “and nothing unclean, and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.”

Revelation 22:15 “Outside are the dogs and the sorcerers and the immoral persons and the murderers and the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices lying.”

Sinners aren’t getting in.
I don’t care how many hours you’ve logged in the pew.
• You must have come to Christ and begged Him to make you new.
• You must have come to Christ and submitted your very life and will to Him.
• You must have died to yourself and taken up your cross and followed Him.
You must have been made alive by the indwelling Holy Spirit
So that you are no longer the same person you used to be.

John 1:11-13 “He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”

And that brings us to the final point.
#4 THE EXAMINATION OF THE NEW BIRTH
“You”

YOU must be born again.
• You can’t enter by being raised in a Christian home.
• You can’t enter by attending a Bible believing church.
• You can’t enter by living in “Christian” nation.

You personally, apart from anyone else,
Must have come to Christ to be made new.

How many assume
• That because their parents were believers
• Or because their grandfather was a deacon that they are assured a place in the kingdom?

This isn’t like USAA insurance
Where if anyone in your family served you are eligible.

You have to deal with Christ personally.
• You must run to Christ.
• You must beg Him to make you new.
• You must submit your life to Him.

J.I. Packer wrote:
“To the question: what must I do to be saved? The old gospel replies: believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. To the further question: What does it mean to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? It’s reply is: it means knowing oneself to be a sinner, and Christ to have died for sinners; abandoning all self-righteousness and self-confidence, and casting oneself wholly upon Him for pardon and peace; and exchanging one’s natural enmity and rebellion against God for a spirit of grateful submission to the will of Christ through the renewing of one’s heart by the Holy Ghost. And to further the question still: how am I to go about believing on Christ and repenting, if I have no natural ability to do these things? It answers: look to Christ, speak to Christ, cry to Christ, just as you are; confess your sin, your impenitence, your unbelief, and cast yourself upon His mercy; ask Him to give you a new heart, working in you true repentance and firm faith; ask Him to take away your evil heart of unbelief and to write His law within you, that you may never henceforth stray from Him. Turn to Him and trust Him as best you can, and pray for grace to turn and trust more thoroughly; use the means of grace expectantly, looking to Christ to draw near to you as you seek to draw near to Him; watch, pray, read and hear God’s Word, worship and commune with God’s people, and so continue till you know in yourself beyond doubt that you are indeed a changed being, a penitent believer, and the new heart which you desired has been put within you…Do not postpone action till you think you are better, but honestly confess your badness and give yourself up here and now to the Christ who alone can make you better; and wait on Him till His light rises in your soul, as Scripture promises that it shall do.”
(Owen, John [The Death of Death In The Death of Christ; The Banner of Truth Trust; Carlisle, PA 2020] pg. 21,22)

And there it is!
You must be born again.

2 Corinthians 13:5 “Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you—unless indeed you fail the test?”

There are so many other places we could go,
But we are short on time.

But this morning I simply want to remind everyone listening:
1. “You must be born again”
2. This is the message we preach to the world.

WE CALL SINNERS
To forsake their sin and their self-sufficiency
And cry out to Christ for Him to make them knew.

WE CALL SINNERS
To put no stock in their religious actions or their pathetic theologies
And call them to lay everything on Christ.

WE TELL THEM THEY MUST BE BORN AGAIN.

We aren’t looking for good people we want born again people.
We aren’t seeking “Good Ole Boys”
We are seeking “Saved Sinners”

I read to you earlier Spugeon’s quote about the danger of only moralizing a man if he remains lost. Spurgeon would go on to say:

“Oh! I beseech you, especially you, dear friends, who are working in Sunday and Ragged Schools, and elsewhere, do not think that you have done anything unless the children’s souls are saved. Settle it that this is the top and bottom of the business, and throw your whole strength, in the name of Christ, and by the power of the Eternal Spirit, into this one object— if by any means you may save some, and bring some to Jesus that they may be delivered from the wrath to come.”

Soul Saving Our One Business

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The Heritage Of The Redeemed
Isaiah 54:1-17
August 11, 2024

We just finished what is perhaps the greatest chapter in all of Scripture
On the atonement of Jesus.

We saw the Suffering Servant and His work was fully explained to us.
• We saw why He was scorned.
• We saw why God put Him through it.
• We saw why Christ Himself was eager to endure it.
• We saw the satisfaction of both God and Christ in what He did.

The cross became crystal clear to us in that wonderful chapter.
Jesus came to be the substitute for sinners and to redeem His people.

Now that that great chapter is over, ONE GIANT QUESTION LOOMS:
WHO IS IT FOR?

Now I know we saw the wording,
• Especially in verses 4-6 of that chapter.
• Words like “our” and “us” and “we”.

But we also read verses which seemed to narrow the field.
• Verses like 53:8 which said that “He was cut off out of the land of the living
for the transgression of My people”
• We read like in 53:11 that He will “justify the many”
• We read in verse 53:12 that “He Himself bore the sin of many”

That wasn’t universal language.
That did not speak of a universal atonement in which all men are made right before God.

There is clearly a select group being spoken of.

So, even if you are intrigued by the work of the Servant in ch. 53
There still has to be some wonder as to who it is for.

Human logic would tell you
• That it is for the best, or the most worthy.
• That’s who gets the benefits in our world.

• The hardest workers get the promotions.
• The students with the best grades get the scholarships.
• The athletes with the most natural ability get the recognition.

And that is the way most people think about religion.

So if Jesus Christ is going to come and justify the many
Then surely the many there are the cream of the crop,
The best of the best, the most deserving.

WHO IS THE MANY?

Well tonight we open the next major leg of Isaiah’s closing segment.
You might call this segment: THE INVITATION

Now that the atonement has been explained
And the means of salvation is made clear, now the call goes forth.

It is the call of God to “the many” that they might take hold of this glorious redemption and all the benefits that go with it.

You may have even noticed that we titled this chapter:
“The Heritage of the Redeemed”

(54:17b) “This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, And their vindication is from Me,” declares the LORD.”

It is God spelling out exactly
What the atonement of His Servant purchased for “the many”.

It is like a man seeking to marry a woman
And first explaining to her all the wealth of his estate before he proposes.
That is very much what Isaiah 54 is.

It is God’s call to “the many” to come forward and take it.

BUT IT IS THE GROUP WHOM GOD SPECIFICALLY ADDRESSES
AS “THE MANY” THAT THE WORLD MIGHT FIND SHOCKING.

• For God DOES NOT call out to the scholars…
• God DOES NOT call out to the accomplished…
• God DOES NOT call out to the noble or worthy or strong…
• That is to say, “Not the good folks”

Instead, the chapter is directed to the bottom of the barrel.
We see words like:
• (1) “barren”
• (1) “desolate”
• (4) “shame”
• (4) “reproach”
• (4) “forsaken”
• (6) “grieved”
• (6) “rejected”
• (11) “afflicted, storm-tossed, and not comforted”

That is not the pick of the litter.
That is not the ones whom the world would have expected.

And yet this group of rejected failures are told:
• (1) “shout for joy”
• (1) “break forth into joyful shouting”
• (1) “cry aloud”
• (4) “fear not”

We see here, what has been consistent of God throughout the Scriptures:

Isaiah 57:15 “For thus says the high and exalted One Who lives forever, whose name is Holy, “I dwell on a high and holy place, And also with the contrite and lowly of spirit In order to revive the spirit of the lowly And to revive the heart of the contrite.”

God always reaches out to the poor and the broken.
His offer of salvation does not go to the seemingly most deserving,
But to the least deserving.

He DOES NOT offer a nudge to those who almost made it over the hump,
• He goes to those who fell off the ladder,
• Who are broken on the ground,
• Who have totally given up trying it again,
• And He offers them a way over.

Luke 5:29-32 “And Levi gave a big reception for Him in his house; and there was a great crowd of tax collectors and other people who were reclining at the table with them. The Pharisees and their scribes began grumbling at His disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with the tax collectors and sinners?” And Jesus answered and said to them, “It is not those who are well who need a physician, but those who are sick. “I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”

We saw it with another tax collector later in Luke’s gospel:
Luke 19:10 “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”

We love the famous 15th chapter of Luke
• Where we learn about the lost coin and the lost sheep and the lost son,
• All of whom were found and brought great rejoicing.

But it is vitally important to understand why Jesus told these 3 parables:
Luke 15:1-2 “Now all the tax collectors and the sinners were coming near Him to listen to Him. Both the Pharisees and the scribes began to grumble, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”

All 3 of those parables, especially the third,
Were to explain the heart of God in saving sinners.

We love:
1 Timothy 1:15 “It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all.”

Isaiah 54 is totally consistent with the rest of Scripture
That when God saves sinners
He saves the lowest and the least, not the biggest and best.

He is opposed to the proud, but He gives grace to the humble.

AND THAT IS HIS MESSAGE HERE.
He is calling sinners to salvation and He is adamant
That He is calling the worst of sinners.

Look even to the next chapter:
Isaiah 55:1-2 “Ho! Every one who thirsts, come to the waters; And you who have no money come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk Without money and without cost. “Why do you spend money for what is not bread, And your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, And delight yourself in abundance.”

It is a clear point isn’t it?

Well that is the segment we have now entered.
Having revealed the means of atonement and forgiveness,
Now the offer of salvation is going forth.

Now we are listening to God’s invitation!

We are going to break chapter 54 into 3 main points.

#1 THE AUDIENCE
Isaiah 54:1-8

This is actually the same point we just made,
• I just want to make sure you have a good understanding of exactly who God is addressing here.

(1a) “Shout for joy, O barren one, you who have borne no child; Break forth into joyful shouting and cry aloud, you who have not travailed;”

The first specific person mentioned is THE BARREN WOMAN.

And if you understand this through Bible eyes you will understand the scorn and shame that went along with that.
• This is a woman who could bear her husband no children.
• This is a woman who was left without a posterity.
• This is a woman with no future.
• This woman was considered in the O.T. to be cursed of God since it is God who opens and closes the womb.

That is why you see women like Hannah:
1 Samuel 1:8-11 “Then Elkanah her husband said to her, “Hannah, why do you weep and why do you not eat and why is your heart sad? Am I not better to you than ten sons?” Then Hannah rose after eating and drinking in Shiloh. Now Eli the priest was sitting on the seat by the doorpost of the temple of the LORD. She, greatly distressed, prayed to the LORD and wept bitterly. She made a vow and said, “O LORD of hosts, if You will indeed look on the affliction of Your maidservant and remember me, and not forget Your maidservant, but will give Your maidservant a son, then I will give him to the LORD all the days of his life, and a razor shall never come on his head.”

Hannah referred to her inability to have children as “affliction”.

Remember Rachel’s confrontation of Jacob?
Genesis 30:1 “Now when Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, she became jealous of her sister; and she said to Jacob, “Give me children, or else I die.”

The point is, this is a big deal.
This is a barren woman.

Now, if we want a spiritual parallel here
We would liken this woman to a person who has no works or accomplishments to brag about.
• This is a person who has done nothing of remembrance.
• This is a person with an empty resume.
• This is a person who has no reason to boast of any accomplishment.

You might, if you wanted to be especially harsh,
Refer to them as useless due to their fruitlessness.

If you think that one is low and harsh, look at the next.
Here we see THE REJECTED WOMAN

The spiritual parallel here is of
• One who did do works, but they were totally unacceptable, perhaps even immoral,
• And thus totally rejected by God.

Think about Cain whose offering was rejected by the LORD.

Verse 4 speaks of “the reproach of your widowhood”
• But you should know that the root word there for widowhood is simply a word that means “forsaken”.

This becomes even clearer down in verse 6
• Where we read “Like a wife forsaken and grieved in spirit, even like a wife of one’s youth when she is rejected.”

This is a woman in whom fault was found
And thus she was sent away by her husband.

This certainly hits home in the narrative of Isaiah:
Isaiah 50:1 “Thus says the LORD, “Where is the certificate of divorce By which I have sent your mother away? Or to whom of My creditors did I sell you? Behold, you were sold for your iniquities, And for your transgressions your mother was sent away.”

Incidentally, that has really been God’s message to Israel through Isaiah,
Though not always through the analogy of a wife.

Isaiah has compared them to bad sons:
Isaiah 1:1-3 “The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz concerning Judah and Jerusalem, which he saw during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. Listen, O heavens, and hear, O earth; For the LORD speaks, “Sons I have reared and brought up, But they have revolted against Me. “An ox knows its owner, And a donkey its master’s manger, But Israel does not know, My people do not understand.”

Isaiah has compared them to a bad city:
Isaiah 1:21-23 “How the faithful city has become a harlot, She who was full of justice! Righteousness once lodged in her, But now murderers. Your silver has become dross, Your drink diluted with water. Your rulers are rebels And companions of thieves; Everyone loves a bribe And chases after rewards. They do not defend the orphan, Nor does the widow’s plea come before them.”

Isaiah has compared them to a bad vineyard:
Isaiah 5:3-6 “And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, Judge between Me and My vineyard. “What more was there to do for My vineyard that I have not done in it? Why, when I expected it to produce good grapes did it produce worthless ones? “So now let Me tell you what I am going to do to My vineyard: I will remove its hedge and it will be consumed; I will break down its wall and it will become trampled ground. “I will lay it waste; It will not be pruned or hoed, But briars and thorns will come up. I will also charge the clouds to rain no rain on it.”

THEY ARE A REJECTED PEOPLE.
And yet, that’s exactly who God is now offering atonement to.

SO God has just revealed to us the glorious atonement of Christ,
And how sinners can be justified through His substitutionary death.

And to our utter dismay
The first people God runs to in order to offer this atonement is
• The barren woman who has done nothing of value
• The rejected woman whose works were totally displeasing.

GOD SAVES SINNERS.

SO:
• Are you sinful?
• Have you blown it?
• Are you ashamed of what you’ve done?
• Do you think yourself unworthy of salvation?

Then you are qualified for salvation!
For Jesus Christ came to save sinners.

That is the audience.

#2 THE ANNOUNCEMENT
Isaiah 54:1-8

We see the audience God addressed,
But now we see how God addressed them
And the announcement is pure delight.

To that BARREN WOMAN who had done nothing of any value,
God tells her to look on the atoning work of Christ and, “Shout for joy”

He says, “you who have borne no child; break forth into joyful shouting and cry aloud, you who have not travailed;”

And the promise here moves beyond simply being forgiven.

“For the sons of the desolate one will be more numerous than the sons of the married woman,” says the LORD.”

See this barren woman was weeping and grieving
Because she had done nothing of significance in her life.

She was leaving no legacy, no posterity, no children.
Her life would be forgotten with no trace nor memory of her.

And through Christ God offers her a greater purpose and posterity
Than any woman ever achieved through her own efforts.

Let me put it to you another way.
God just promised her, through the atoning work of Christ, “a future and a hope”.

In fact:
(2-3) “Enlarge the place of your tent; Stretch out the curtains of your dwellings, spare not; Lengthen your cords And strengthen your pegs. “For you will spread abroad to the right and to the left. And your descendants will possess nations And will resettle the desolate cities.”

God tells this woman, “You’re gonna need a bigger house!”

Just to make sure we are understanding the gospel ramifications here.
• Have you ever heard of something like this?
• Have you ever heard of God taking a barren woman and promising her
descendants that will spread across the world and possess nations?

Yes!
If you’ve read the story of Abraham and Sarah.

Galatians 4:21-28 “Tell me, you who want to be under law, do you not listen to the law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the bondwoman and one by the free woman. But the son by the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and the son by the free woman through the promise. This is allegorically speaking, for these women are two covenants: one proceeding from Mount Sinai bearing children who are to be slaves; she is Hagar. Now this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem above is free; she is our mother. For it is written, “REJOICE, BARREN WOMAN WHO DOES NOT BEAR; BREAK FORTH AND SHOUT, YOU WHO ARE NOT IN LABOR; FOR MORE NUMEROUS ARE THE CHILDREN OF THE DESOLATE THAN OF THE ONE WHO HAS A HUSBAND.” And you brethren, like Isaac, are children of promise.”

What was Paul’s point?
What is the gospel implication here?
GRACE PRODUCES A BIGGER BLESSING THAN WORKS EVER WILL.

Wasn’t that true for Sarah?
God took the useless and by grace used them for the greatest purposes.

And let’s look at our other woman, our REJECTED WOMAN.

And God has quite a message for her too.
(READ 4-8)

The simple message and overall message is that
YOUR SHAME AND REPROACH ARE REMOVED.

WHY?
Because I’m going to call you back to Myself.
• I’m going to have compassion on you.
• I’m going to reenter a covenant with you.
• I’m going to marry you again.

All of the reproach you bore in that nasty divorce
I’m going to absolve through a beautiful wedding.

But again, have you ever heard of a story like that before?
• Have you ever heard of a immoral woman being sent away and then taken
back by the LORD?

You have if you’ve read about Hosea and Gomer!

• Gomer was a prostitute.
• She bore Hosea 3 children.
• The third one he named Loammi which means “not mine”
• Hosea sent her away.

But what happened next?
Hosea 3:1 “Then the LORD said to me, “Go again, love a woman who is loved by her husband, yet an adulteress, even as the LORD loves the sons of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love raisin cakes.”

You see the gospel there right?

It is God announcing to the useless and the vile
That through the atoning work of Christ
They will be made fruitful and beautiful.

That is the announcement of the gospel.
• You are sinful, and your works have accomplished nothing.
• All you have done has been riddled with mistakes and failure.
• Based on your own works or ability you have no reason to smile at the future,
• And you have no reason to expect that anyone will value your life.

But Jesus Christ came to this earth.
• He was a “man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.”
• He bore our sins and He took our shame.
• “He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities.”
• “By His scourging we are healed.”

What was barren is made fruitful through Christ.
What was vile was made beautiful through Christ.
The least acceptable becomes the most attractive.
The least worthy becomes the most sought.

Because of Christ those with no future now have a future.
Because of Christ those with no hope now have hope.

Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.
That is the announcement.

• God calls out to the barren and tells her to “shout for joy”
• God calls out to the rejected and tells her “Fear not”

And first and foremost I just want to know if you can see yourself there?

This announcement is NOT FOR the fertile woman or the fruitful woman who is saturated in pride because of all she has accomplished.

This announcement is NOT FOR the noble wife who has managed to keep her husband and her dignity in the community.

God is opposed to the proud, but He gives His grace to the humble.

If you are a broken failure, the gospel is for you.

Incidentally, this is exactly the message which God will preach to Israel.
He will call her back to Himself as well, once she realizes
That her works are of no value and her accomplishments are a sham.

But the message is clear,
God forgives sinners through the atoning work of Jesus Christ.

The Audience, The Announcement

#3 THE ASSURANCE
Isaiah 54:9-17

I shared with the youth at REGEN the story of Iris Blue, I may have shared it with you as well.
• You can google her and you’ll love the testimony.
• But she was basically as immoral of a woman as you can imagine, but a man led her to Jesus on the sidewalk one say. She has the famous quote, “I knelt down a tramp and I stood up a lady.”
• But what Iris also shares in her testimony is that from the time she gave her heart to Jesus she immediately started doubting her salvation.
• She said she just kept calling the guy who led her to the Lord wanting to pray the prayer again to make sure it worked.
• She tells the story of how she called him at 2 in the morning doubting and he asked her, “Do you usually call people at 2 in the morning doubting your salvation?” She said, “No”. He said, “See, you’re different” and he hung up.

But what Iris was talking about was the response of a person
Who just received an offer that was too good to be true.

That is exactly what the gospel feels like to those who really receive it.

• If you’ve been spiritually bankrupt and poor in spirit.
• If you have grieved over your sinfulness.
• If you have been willing to submit to anything Jesus wants for salvation.
• If you have craved mercy
• If you have hungered for righteousness
• And if you really, in the purity of your heart just wanted salvation because you knew you didn’t deserve it.

Well, when Jesus reached in and saved you, it feels too good to be true.

Why would He give a future and a hope to a useless and immoral sinner like me?
• I have borne Him no children, I have produced no benefit for Him.
• I have been nothing but unfaithful and have blasphemed His name.

• Why would He be willing to marry me anyway?
• Why would He be willing to give me a posterity?

It just is so far opposite of anything this world offers.

BUT ALSO:
What if I mess up and He sends me away again?

Well, that is what we deal with here in the second half of this chapter.

• God looks at the barren woman, to whom He has just promised children.
• God looks at the rejected women, to whom He has just proposed.

And perhaps He perceives the doubt or skepticism in their eyes
SO GOD POURS OUT ASSURANCE.

3 reasons why that unworthy redeemed woman can be certain that God will never again leave her or forsake her.

1) AFFIDAVIT (9-10)

Jesus liked to use the analogy of Noah and the flood, specifically when He talked about judgment.
• Jesus taught that the second coming would be like the flood in the sense that men will be totally caught off guard by the judgment that will fall upon them.

But here God appeals to the story of Noah for a different reason.
God looks past the flood to the promise made to Noah after salvation.

And what was that promise?
Genesis 9:11 “I establish My covenant with you; and all flesh shall never again be cut off by the water of the flood, neither shall there again be a flood to destroy the earth.”

GOD MADE AN OATH.
• God swore out an affidavit that He would never flood the earth again.
• No matter how immoral we got, He would never flood the earth again.

Here is the question: HAS HE?
Has he ever gone back on that promise?

And of course the answer is “No”.

And what is the point of God then to this barren and rejected woman?
Namely this: GOD KEEPS HIS PROMISES
• If God said He would give you children, He will give you children.
• If God said He would have compassion on you, He will have compassion on you.

The writer of Hebrews uses that same understanding of God’s character in his letter to the Hebrews.
Hebrews 6:17-20 “In the same way God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose, interposed with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil, where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.”

The writer of Hebrews is referring to God’s oath in Psalms 110:4
But the point is the same.
When God swears He will do something it is sure and settled.

And that is what God says here
To the undeserving sinners He has determined to save,
“I have sworn that I will not be angry with you Nor will I rebuke you.”

How can God make such a promise?
• Surely we will sin again.
• Surely we will offend Him again.

How can He promise such a thing?
• Because Christ has already borne all His wrath and God was satisfied.

IN FACT, God’s promise that He will never be angry
Is the most certain and sure thing that you have in your life.

Ever been to the mountains?
• They look unmovable, they are always there, they are enduring.
• One might think that they are the most certain thing we have in this world,
• But even they are not as certain as the promise of God to never again be angry
with His children.

(10) “For the mountains may be removed and the hills may shake, But My lovingkindness will not be removed from you, And My covenant of peace will not be shaken,” Says the LORD who has compassion on you.”

The Psalmist wrote:
Psalms 46:1-3 “God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change And though the mountains slip into the heart of the sea; Though its waters roar and foam, Though the mountains quake at its swelling pride. Selah.”

When God says it, it is certain.
He will not remove His compassion from you…EVER.

2) ALTERATION (11-14) (start with 11&12)

You will notice I hope all the references to security in these 4 verses.

“stone” – “foundations” – “battlements” – “gates” – “walls”

Those are all fortifying aspects of security.

What we also see is that
God is not only establishing them, but beautifying them.
• “I will set your stones in antimony”
• “your foundations I will lay in sapphires”
• “I will make your battlements rubies”
• “your gates crystal”
• “your entire wall of precious stones”

We get images here of the heavenly city which is certainly arrayed with beautiful stones even as Isaiah reveals here.

I like to see this imagery also similar to how we would view a wedding ring.
• It is a band, marked with a precious stone, and it is a symbol of commitment, of
covenant, and endurance.

But there is even more pictured here than that.

Notice also verses 13-14 “All your sons will be taught of the LORD; And the well-being of your sons will be great. “In righteousness you will be established; You will be far from oppression, for you will not fear; And from terror, for it will not come near you.”

• God speaks of all the sons being “taught of the LORD”
• He speaks of them being established “in righteousness”

Do you understand the reference?

Jeremiah 31:33-34 “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the LORD, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. “They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the LORD, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”

That teaching, that clothing in righteousness is the New Covenant where God promises to do in us what we could not do for ourselves.

We love Ezekiel’s version.
Ezekiel 36:25-27 “Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. “Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. “I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.”

God talked about the New Spirit and the true washing and the absolute change of heart that would occur.

If you still aren’t seeing the promise then look to the New Testament.
Ephesians 5:25-27 “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless.”

Do you see it now?
• It is Christ washing us.
• It is Christ adorning us in His beauty.
• It is Christ making us a bride He will never want to leave.

CHRIST WILL NEVER SEND YOU AWAY
1) Because He said it wouldn’t.
2) Because He is washing you every day and you are more desirable to Him today than you were the day He married you.

And He will keep doing that until you are without blemish.
Your sanctification is one of the reasons
You should have such assurance.

He is altering you to be more desirable to Him.

3) ADVOCATE (15-17)

Now we come across that other fear.
We call them “skeletons in the closet”
• I know He saved me.
• I know I’m not the person I used to be, He is changing me.

But what happens if someone from my past comes up and reminds Him of something I was?
• What happens if someone comes and tries to tempt me back into sin?
• What happens if slip up and someone runs to Him to expose my new failure?

And incidentally, someone will!
Revelation 12:10 “Then I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, he who accuses them before our God day and night.”

What then?

Well first of all, that accuser won’t be from God.
“If anyone fiercely assails you it will not be from Me.”
• God isn’t looking for ammunition on His bride.
• He’s not the kind of husband who sets traps to trip up His bride.
• He’s also not the accusatory kind.

Secondly, they take their life in their hands when they do that.
“Whoever assails you will fall because of you.”

That is to say, the day they attack His bride
Is the day they sign their death warrant.

(16) “Behold, I Myself have created the smith who blows the fire of coals And brings out a weapon for its work; And I have created the destroyer to ruin.”

If they try to destroy you, I will destroy them.

And then THAT FAMOUS VERSE
That gets applied to all sorts of goofy situations.

(17) “No weapon that is formed against you will prosper; And every tongue that accuses you in judgment you will condemn.”

That does not mean
• If someone points a gun at you and pulls the trigger that God won’t let the bullet kill you. Check history, it happens.

No, he’s talking about the accusations of the enemy
That are meant to cause God to stop loving you
And to send you away again.

And God here says,
• “There is not a word that can be spoken,
• There is not an evil deed you can be accused of,
• There is not a testimony against you
• That can ever succeed in its purpose.”

How many times have we read it?
Romans 8:31-39 “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Just as it is written, “FOR YOUR SAKE WE ARE BEING PUT TO DEATH ALL DAY LONG; WE WERE CONSIDERED AS SHEEP TO BE SLAUGHTERED.” But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Do you understand that?
• We have an advocate.
• We have the Son of God who continually intercedes on our behalf.

The One who paid our debt,
Constantly reminds the Father that our debit is paid.

God looks on the rainbow and is reminded to never flood the earth again.
God looks on Christ and is reminded that we are forgiven.

AND NOTICE THOSE CLOSING WORDS.
It is a great invitation and incentive
To every barren rejected sinner in the world.

“This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, And their vindication is from Me,” declares the LORD.”

In other words:
• This is what a woman can expect if she marries Me.
• This is what you can expect from God if you trust in Christ.

He will save you in spite of your past.
He will give you a future and a hope.
And what He promises He will never revoke.

Who wouldn’t want a salvation like that?
What barren immoral woman in her right mind would turn down such an offer?

And that is why in the very next chapter we read:
Isaiah 55:1-2 “Ho! Every one who thirsts, come to the waters; And you who have no money come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk Without money and without cost. “Why do you spend money for what is not bread, And your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, And delight yourself in abundance.”

That is what you call a proposal!
• God has laid out for us what those who trust in Him can expect.
• And then He extends His arm to you and says, “Come!”

What a glorious heritage is promised to those who are redeemed.

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The Saving Servant
Isaiah 53:10-12
August 4, 2024

This morning we return to our study of Isaiah’s suffering servant
And come to the conclusion of this wonderful 53rd chapter.

There is so much richness and joy found here that I’m quite certain that next week we could start through it again and still be overwhelmed but the atoning work of Christ.

As we have said, you just can’t overstate the significance of this chapter.
We learn our doctrine on the atonement from the New Testament writers,
But they learned it from Isaiah 53.

This is the passage that made it all make sense.

When a natural man looked at the cross,
All he could see was humiliation, defeat, disappointment, and death.

There was no silver lining to watching a man hanging on a cross.
• The suffering coupled with the embarrassment
• And the certainty of death
• Could not be painted in a positive light.

It is no wonder that even the disciples
Were immediately and instantly grieved by what they saw.

But what human eyes could not perceive,
The Spirit of God could certainly reveal
And that is what this chapter does for us.

It allows us to examine the cross through God’s eyes, not our own.
And through God’s eyes the cross is only glorious.

Just to remind you of where we’ve come.

We started in Isaiah 52:13-15 where we discussed: THE SUCCESSFUL SERVANT

That is how Isaiah began the passage.
Isaiah 52:13 “Behold, My servant will prosper, He will be high and lifted up and greatly exalted.”

But that statement certainly represented God’s perspective, not man’s.
For from man’s perspective
All that could be discerned was humiliation and death.

Isaiah 52:14 “Just as many were astonished at you, My people, So His appearance was marred more than any man And His form more than the sons of men.”

Human eyes didn’t see exaltation, human eyes saw horrifying destruction.

And even this past week, while we are at Glorieta with the youth at camp this verse came to mind.

The theme of camp was “In His Image”
• We discussed how man was made in the image of God,
• But how because of sin that image has been distorted or marred.
• And here we find Christ paying the penalty for that sin and the punishment laid
upon Him was that His body was “marred more than any man”.

We marred the spiritual image which God intended for us to bear, and as a punishment Christ had His physical image marred by God in judgment.

He certainly didn’t look like a successful servant of God on the cross.

But that’s exactly what He was.
Isaiah 52:15 “Thus He will sprinkle many nations, Kings will shut their mouths on account of Him; For what had not been told them they will see, And what they had not heard they will understand.”

Through His suffering He will be the savior of nations.
• On the day when God opens the eyes of the blind,
• The nations will flock to Him for salvation.
• He is The Successful Servant.

From there Isaiah began to explain why this chosen servant of God was rejected so severely as to be hung on the cross.

In Isaiah 53:1-3 we saw: THE SCORNED SERVANT

He was rejected and disbelieved because He didn’t have the right personality or the right pedigree.
• He was tender and mild
• And Joseph was nothing but a carpenter.
• He also had “not stately form or majesty that we should look upon Him, Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him.”

And since He didn’t appear to be the type of Savior we wanted,
We did not esteem Him.
Instead we asked for His crucifixion, and thus He was marred.

Isaiah said He was, “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;”

And as we noted, that is a peculiar title for One who is very nature God.
• We know of God’s ASEITY (self-sufficiency).
• We know He needed nothing outside of Himself.

So why was He filled with sorrow?
Why was He acquainted with grief?

And Isaiah gave us that answer in 53:4-6 were we saw: THE SUBSTITUTIONARY SERVANT

The grief He bore and the sorrow He carried
Was NOT His own grief or sorrow, it was imputed grief and sorrow.

He came in the “likeness of sinful man”.
He bore our pain and our grief.

When He hung on the cross and received the wrath of God,
It was NOT for anything He had done.

“He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities;”

God was treating Him like He lived my life.

2 Corinthians 5:21 “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

As Isaiah said, “The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed.”
• He was taking our place.
• He was our substitute.
• God first placed our sin on Him and then crushed Him for it.

And that led us to wonder how Christ felt about that.
• Did Jesus want to die?
• Did He want to bear our sin and the wrath upon it?
• Was He ok with this great injustice poured upon Him?

And the answer is: ABSOLUTELY!

In Isaiah 53:7-9 we saw: THE SILENT SERVANT

He had more than a few opportunities to plead His innocence
Or to beg for mercy and He ignored every one of them.
• He never threatened.
• He never warned.
• He never begged or cursed or even complained.

He came to bear our sins on the cross
And He saw it through to the end.

As the old hymn says:
“Humbled for a season to receive a name from the lips of sinners unto whom he came, faithfully he bore it spotless to the last, brought it back victorious when from death He passed;”

Isaiah 53:7 “He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth.”

• We saw His cruel arrest.
• We saw His corrupt trial.
• We saw His crucifixion on the cross.

But we also saw that God vindicated Him in His burial.
Isaiah 53:9 “His grave was assigned with wicked men, Yet He was with a rich man in His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was there any deceit in His mouth.”

He died in reproach, but He was buried in honor
Because God was pleased with Him.

And certainly if you were here LAST WEEK,

We can easily throw in the sermon Cody preached from Psalms 22
• Where David looked ahead 1,000 years and quoted Christ on the cross saying,
“My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”

As Cody pointed out,
• David saw that crimson worm attached to the tree,
• Covering His offspring with His own shed blood
• And revealed to us that when Christ called to God for help God heard Him.

Christ was clearly vindicated by the Father in death.
You even saw that last week in Psalm 22.

Well that brings us to OUR FINAL QUESTION
And thus our final segment here in Isaiah 53.

We ask the question:
If God was pleased with Him that He would vindicate Him in burial, why was God so pleased to first crush Him?

That is what we read here in Isaiah 53:10
Isaiah 53:10a “But the LORD was pleased To crush Him, putting Him to grief…”

If God was so pleased with Him so as to honor Him in burial, why was God so pleased to first crush Him in grief?

And of course the answer is
Because of what Jesus was accomplishing through His crushing death;
• Which was nothing less than the appeasement of God’s wrath
• And the salvation of sinners.

That answer is given to us here in the final 3 verses as we now examine: THE SAVING SERVANT

We’ll break this final segment down into 3 points.

#1 GOD’S SATISFACTION
Isaiah 53:10a

You will notice as we work our way through these final 3 verses that “Satisfaction” is really the closing theme of the chapter.

And so it certainly must first be discussed, as it is mentioned here,
That the work of the cross totally and perfectly satisfied God.

(10a) “But the LORD was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering…”

Isaiah says a mouthful here when He calls what Christ did on the cross
“a guilt offering”.

The “guilt offering” was a specific type of atoning sacrifice prescribed by God and revealed to us in Leviticus 5 and 6.

It was certainly an atoning sacrifice.
• It was certainly a blood offering given to God for the forgiveness of sins.

Some of the specific sins listed that it was required for were:
• If someone is a dishonest or unreliable witness. (Lev. 5:1)
• If someone touched an unclean animal. (Lev. 5:2)
• If someone touched human uncleanness. (Lev. 5:3)
• If someone makes a thoughtless oath to God. (Lev. 5:4)
• If someone acts unfaithfully to any holy thing. (Lev. 5:15)
• If someone commits any sin at all. (Lev. 5:17)
• If someone deceives or cheats their neighbor. (Lev. 6:2-3)

All of those sins would require that the sinner then present to God
The “guilt offering” for the forgiveness of that sin.

The segment closes with this clarifying statement:
Leviticus 5:19 “It is a guilt offering; he was certainly guilty before the LORD.”

It was an offering in which the animal had to die
And its blood was sprinkled on the altar.

Isaiah takes that well-known atoning ordinance
And tells His audience to look at this suffering servant.

That is what He is doing.
He is the “guilt offering”.

He is being offered to God as a blood sacrifice
For the forgiveness of the sins of His people.

And here we find that God was pleased to accept it.

That word “pleased” in the Hebrew
Can also be translated, “desire” or “delight”.

In short, God really wanted this.
• God desired this.
• God delighted in this.
• It pleased Him to see Christ on the cross bearing our sin.

It points us back to the love of God who delights in mercy and forgiveness.
It points us to the desire of God to forgive sinners.

And so when Christ offers His body on the tree
As an offering for sin and guilt, God is pleased to accept it.

He crushed Christ.
He heaped grief upon Him.

Christ was providing Himself as the means
Through which God could and would save His children.

And the beauty of what we learn in all of Isaiah 53, not just verse 10,
IS THAT THE OFFERING WORKED.
• God was pleased.
• God was satisfied.

The New Testament word we use here is: PROPITIATION

Romans 3:23-25a “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith.”

1 John 2:1-2 “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.”

1 John 4:10 “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

Hebrews 2:17 “Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.”

The word itself means “appeasement” or “satisfaction”
It is such a strong word that
It cannot be defined as anything partial or potential.

It is total, it is effective, it is complete, it permanent.

All of the wrath which God had toward the sin of His people
Was totally and permanently eradicated by Christ on the cross.

God’s wrath was appeased.
God’s anger was settled.
God’s justice was satisfied.

Romans 8:1-3 “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh,”

And this satisfaction means the world to us.
• We are no longer counted as enemies, we are now counted as sons.
• We are pleasing to the Father through Christ’s atoning work.
• We are loved, we are accepted, we are welcomed.

God holds no wrath for those who are in Christ Jesus,
HE IS SATISFIED WITH JESUS.

God’s Satisfaction

#2 CHRIST’S SATISFACTION
Isaiah 53:10b-12a

This is really the main thrust of these final 3 verses.
Namely that Christ also was totally satisfied by what He accomplished.

Hebrews 12:2 “fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

We are taught that Christ “despised the shame”.
• That doesn’t mean He hated it.
• It means He thought little of it.

It was a small price to pay in order to achieve what He achieved.

And let me just say,
If you are not totally captivated by the love Christ has for you,
You most certainly should be.

He looked at the cross with all of its EARTHLY HUMILIATION.
• He contemplated the arrest
• He contemplated the trial
• He contemplated the false accusations
• He contemplated the beatings
• He contemplated the embarrassment
• He contemplated the reproach

But He thought that an acceptable price if it meant saving you.

He certainly considered the cross with all of its DIVINE WRATH.
• He prayed about that cup of wrath in the garden
• He sweat drops of blood under the weight of sin
• He anticipated the day of the Lord that would soon fall on Him

Even that He thought an acceptable price if through it He could save you.

Let me show you His satisfaction here.
And it’s easiest to understand His satisfaction if we break it down a little further into 3 areas.

1) SATISFACTION IN DEATH (10b)

“If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand.”

There are certainly a lot of atoning applications that can be made here,
But I want you to follow the point of Isaiah.

• Christ was a man on a mission.
• Christ was a man who came to accomplish a purpose.

As our youth learned at every worship service at camp:
1 Timothy 1:15 “It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”

But think about a man on a mission for a moment.
• Think about a man who came to deliver captives or set prisoners free.
• Think about a man on a liberation mission to rescue those in bondage.

• He leaves his home base and travels into enemy territory.
• He identifies the captives and hatches a plan to deliver them.

But the next thing you see is
The would-be hero hanging dead before the people.

To earthly and human eyes, what does that mean?
IT MEANS HE LOST.

He’ll never see those captives delivered.
He’ll never see any more of life at all.

Solomon painted a very accurate earthly picture of death for us:
Ecclesiastes 9:2-6 “It is the same for all. There is one fate for the righteous and for the wicked; for the good, for the clean and for the unclean; for the man who offers a sacrifice and for the one who does not sacrifice. As the good man is, so is the sinner; as the swearer is, so is the one who is afraid to swear. This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that there is one fate for all men. Furthermore, the hearts of the sons of men are full of evil and insanity is in their hearts throughout their lives. Afterwards they go to the dead. For whoever is joined with all the living, there is hope; surely a live dog is better than a dead lion. For the living know they will die; but the dead do not know anything, nor have they any longer a reward, for their memory is forgotten. Indeed their love, their hate and their zeal have already perished, and they will no longer have a share in all that is done under the sun.”

I remember my dad laying in a hospice bed, and he got all emotional one day and said, “My grandkids won’t even remember me.”

That was a grief and sting of death.
• You won’t see your kids or grandkids grow up.
• You won’t experience their great moments in the future.
• In fact you won’t see anything else, your days are over.

And we don’t even have to talk about the success of your mission.
If you die, the mission is over.
It is defeat.

That is what death always looks like.
That is what death always feels like.

Even Christ’s disciples thought this to be the case when Jesus died.
Luke 24:21 “But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, it is the third day since these things happened.”

“He had a good run, but now He’s dead and everything has fallen apart.”

But that is NOT what Isaiah says.
• Isaiah says that even though He died on that cross, “He will see His offspring”
• Even though they buried Him in a tomb, “He will prolong His days”
• Even though His followers saw only failure, “the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand.”

BUT HOW?
• How could Christ die and still see His offspring?
• How could Christ be buried and still prolong His days?
• How could Christ in such circumstances still cause God’s plan to succeed?

You know the answer: RESURRECTION!
• He died, but He didn’t stay dead.
• He was buried, but He wasn’t there long.
• His followers grieved, but it was very quickly turned to joy.

In short, this grief and sorrow and suffering
Was not permanent and it was not ineffective.

What He did there was not a defeat, it was a victory!
He didn’t fail in His mission, He succeeded in it!

God’s plan was perfectly executed by Christ through death.

Acts 3:18 “But the things which God announced beforehand by the mouth of all the prophets, that His Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled.”

Christ was satisfied even in death
2) SATISFACTION IN ANGUISH (11)

“As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, As He will bear their iniquities.”

We know people who experience victory even through suffering.
• We’ve heard of soldiers who suffered greatly yet still won the battle.
• We think of cancer patients who endure difficult treatments but beat the disease.

But while such people certainly celebrate the victory,
It is very rare for any of them
To actually have fondness about the battle itself.

They see the battle as a necessary evil, but an evil none the less.

And that is perhaps what we would expect from Christ.

That maybe He was glad that He accomplished God’s purpose
But that He would have nothing but disdain
For the cross on which He suffered.

But that is NOT what we learn here.
We learn that Christ was satisfied with the anguish of the cross.

“As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied;”

Literally it reads, “He will see satisfaction”

The word “satisfied” there is interesting too.
The Hebrew word means “to be full” or “to be satiated”,
It can even speak of a glutton full of food. (Like you after Thanksgiving dinner)

Have you ever been so satisfied with something?

I work with wood as a hobby and I’ve told people that:
• I don’t like going to get lumber
• I also don’t like unloading lumber
• I don’t enjoy cutting up or ripping lumber
• I don’t enjoy much of the process of building
• I really hate finishing it and moving it

To which you might ask why I do it?
• I like to look at it when I’m done.
• There is a satisfaction to me in what is accomplished.

Here we find that Christ looked past the anguish of His soul
To the satisfaction of what He was accomplishing.

What was this satisfaction?
“By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, As He will bear their iniquities.”

The word “knowledge” there means “perception or discernment”

That is to say that while He was suffering
• He knew what He was accomplishing
• And even in the midst of His anguish
• He was fully satisfied with that.

Perhaps you’ve heard the song that states,
“When He was on the cross, I was on His mind.”

That is the idea here.
• He knew why He was there.
• He knew why the Romans were crucifying Him.
• He knew why God was afflicting Him.

HE KNEW
• He was being punished so that those whom He loved might go free.
• He was being crushed so that those whom He loved might have peace.
• He was dying so that those whom He loved might live.

And the understanding He had
That He was successful in His mission
Was totally satisfying to Him.

This again is why we believe in an ABSOLUTE ATONEMENT.

It is unthinkable to us that Jesus could have been bearing such anguish on the cross and not know whether or not anyone would ever believe.

It is unthinkable to us that Jesus could be bearing God’s wrath on the cross with no certainty at all that it would actually save anyone.

No, “My Servant, will justify the many, as He will bear their iniquities.”

He knew exactly who He was dying for,
He knew that because He was dying for them that they would live.
Every single one of them.

He was satisfied in death, He was satisfied in anguish
3) SATISFACTION IN ETERNITY (12a)

“Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, And He will divide the booty with the strong;”

To the victor goes the spoils and Christ Jesus is the victor!
And even while dying in anguish on the cross
He was satisfied for He knew what was coming.

God’s plan was being fulfilled.
His children were being delivered.
And He was obtaining an incomparable future glory.

Hebrews 12:2 “fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

Philippians 2:9-11 “For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

Revelation 5:9-12 “And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals; for You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. “You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth.” Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders; and the number of them was myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.”

Christ knew the glory that was His.
• He was fulfilling God’s plan
• He saving His children
• And He knew that He would soon be with those He saved in glory.

“How I long to breathe the air of Heaven, Where pain is gone and mercy fills the streets; To look upon the One who bled to save me, And walk with Him for all eternity.

There will be a day when all will bow before Him. There will be a day when death will be no more. Standing face to face with He who died and rose again; Holy, holy is the Lord

And on that day, we join the resurrection, And stand beside the heroes of the faith; With one voice, a thousand generations, Sing, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain”

Christ saw that day coming.
And even while in anguish on the cross He was satisfied.

He did what He came to do and He was satisfied!
• He fulfilled God’s plan.
• He saved sinners.
• He earned eternal glory.

God’s Satisfaction, Christ’s Satisfaction

#3 OUR SATISFACTION
Isaiah 53:12b

The final 4 lines here of Isaiah 53 give us a great summary
Of the great work of Christ on our behalf.

Let’s start with His HUMILIATION
“Because He poured out Himself to death,”

Philippians 2:6-8 “who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

We think of His humiliation to become human.
• He was made in human likeness.
• He bore our sorrow and our grief.
• He bore our sin and carried all the way to judgment on the cross.

Every part of that was beneath Him.
Every aspect of that was a humiliation to Him.
He deserved so much more and He received so much less.

He humbled Himself to death, “even death on a cross”.

From there certainly we discuss His IDENTIFICATION
“And was numbered with the transgressor;”

Every gospel writer alludes to it, but Mark states it explicitly.
Mark 15:27-28 “They crucified two robbers with Him, one on His right and one on His left. And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “And He was numbered with transgressors.”

We call it identification.
That Christ identified with us.

He stood in our place.
He put on our sinful robe to take the punishment we deserve.

And so we also talk about His SUBSTITUTION
“Yet He Himself bore the sin of many,”

It wasn’t His sin He bore, it was our sin He bore.

He wasn’t the One who deserved wrath, that was our fate.
But in humiliation and identification, He hung on that cross in our place.

Last week Cody told you that in the story we are Barabbas and that is true.
The murderer set free while Christ hangs on his cross.

Christ stood as a criminal.
Christ was mocked, condemned, crucified, and crushed as a sinner.

Because that is what we deserved.

And we also see His role as HIGH PRIEST
“And interceded for the transgressors.”

From the cross Christ cried, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do”
• And that is a prayer He has echoed countless times on our behalf since that day.

He came in humiliation to identify with you,
To die as your substitute,
And to become a faithful high priest on your behalf.

Because of what He did,
• We will never bear the wrath of God.
• We will never know what it is to be forsaken of God.
• We will never be without atonement or intercession.
• We will never be rejected.

All we will ever know from God is pure and perfect love
Because Christ came in our place to save us.

So here is the question:
ARE YOU SATISFIED?

God was satisfied with the offering of Christ.
Christ was satisfied with the anguish required in order to save.
ARE YOU SATISFIED WITH WHAT HE DID?
Or do you still want the world instead?

Isaac Watts said:
“Where the whole realm of nature mine, that were a present far too small. Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.”

Can you sing that with him?

Sovereign Grace Music wrote the song:
“Lord, forgive us for our love Of the things we wish to own. We forsake the feast above For all the crumbs below. Though You’ve made us sons and daughters, We do not the world disown. May we find our greatest treasure Is in You alone.”

Is that true in your life?

Rhea Miller wrote this famous one:
“I’d rather have Jesus than silver or gold; I’d rather be His than have riches untold; I’d rather have Jesus than houses or lands. I’d rather be led by His nail pierced hand.

I’d rather have Jesus than men’s applause; I’d rather be faithful to His dear cause; I’d rather have Jesus than worldwide fame. I’d rather be true to His holy name.

Than to be the king of a vast domain, Or be held in sin’s dread sway. I’d rather have Jesus than anything This world affords today.”

How about that one?

Jesus Christ left heaven to be humiliated and die in your place
And He was satisfied in doing so.

And now He asks you
To be so satisfied in Him that you
Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Him.

And yet so many love this world too much to do it.
How can it be that God was satisfied with the sacrifice of Jesus but so many sinners are not?

• Idolatry is the sin of not being satisfied with Jesus.
• Lack of priority is the sin of not being satisfied with Jesus.
• Stinginess or coveting is the sin of not being satisfied with Jesus.
• And the list could go on and on and on…

We refuse to leave our sin and follow Jesus
Because we are not satisfied with Him.

If we’ve learned anything from Isaiah 53 it is that Jesus is enough!
• And He deserves my devotion.
• He deserves my praise.
• He deserves my commitment.
• He deserves my contentment.

He deserves, my soul, my life, my all.