An Invitation to Life

Well, good morning, everyone. I greet you in the name of Jesus, and I invite you to turn to the book of Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 6.

I am undertaking a rather daunting, uh, challenge this morning. I'm going to try to preach through the first 55 chapters of Isaiah in less than an hour. And so I invite you to buckle your seat belts and take a ride with me. It may be a bit chaotic, and, uh, but I hope that, uh, there's something here that we can learn of God.

Um, and because of that, I want to bow our heads just for a moment of prayer. Dear God, I pray that you would take these preparations that I have done, and I pray, God, that they would, uh, that it would honor you and that you would speak through your word and you would minister to your people. In your name I pray. Amen.

Excuse my emotion there. Didn't see that coming.

It was a bit of a challenge, but, um, I pray that the word of God can speak to you, um, uh, through some of these, uh, things we're going to look at. We're going to look at quite a bit. Um, I'm going to read quite a bit of Scripture, and, uh, there may be s I will have some comment, but not a lot, on some of this. But I want to look at chapter, um, j uh, start in, in Jeremiah not Jeremiah. Isaiah chapter 6, for the reason that this is where Isaiah sees God. And I think that in looking at Isaiah and what he, uh, what he sh what he shares in his prophetic, um, uh, preaching to his people, I think it's really I think his this moment where he sees God is a very, very crucial point.

Isaiah chapter 6, verse 1. "In the year of King Uzziah in the k in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne high and lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphim. Each one had six wings, and with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.

And, and one cried to another and said, 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts! The whole earth is full of his glory!' And the posts of the doors were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke. So I said, 'Woe is me! For I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. For mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.'" And now I want to go back to chapter 1, the very beginning of Isaiah, and I want to start I want to look at, um, some of this it's this, uh, seemingly contrast between a God of judgment and also a God of redemption.

I've been l sort of skimming through Isaiah quite a bit, and, uh, it's been very, very interesting as I as you read that this almost this, this seems to be almost in conflict, uh, with each other. But here in chapter 1, Isaiah speaks and talks about the people that he is speaking to. And he says here in verse 2, "Hear, O Israel, O heavens, and give hear, O earth! For the Lord has spoken, 'I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master's crib. But Israel does not know. My people do not consider, alas, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a brood of evildoers, children who are corruptors.

They have forsaken the Lord. They have provoked to anger the Holy One of Israel, and they have turned away backward. Why should you be why should you be stricken again? You will revolt more and more. The whole head is sick. The whole heart faints. From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. They have not that have not been closed or bound up or soothed with ointment. Your country is desolate. Your cities are burned with fire. Strangers devour your land and your presence, and it is desolate as overthrown by strangers. So the daughter of Zion is left as a booth in the vineyard and as a hut in the garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city.

Unless the Lord of hosts had left to us a very small remnant, we would have become like Sodom. We would have become like Gomorrah. Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom. Give ear to our law, to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah. For what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to me, says the Lord? I have enough of your burnt offerings of rams under the fat of fed cattle. I do not delight in the blood of bulls or the lamb of goats. When you come to appear before me, who has required this from your hand to trample my courts? Bring no more futile sacrifices and senses of abomination to me.

The new moons and the Sabbath and the calling of the assemblies. I cannot endure iniquity in the sacred meetings. Your new moons and your appointed feast my soul hates. They are a trouble to me. I am weary of bearing with them. When you spread your hands out, I will hide my eyes from you. Even though you make many prayers, I will not hear, for your hands are full of blood."

It's a very, very sobering judgment of the people here of Judah.

But immediately after this, this horrible picture and this where God is professing his weariness with their iniquity, he follows it up with verse 16, "Wash yourselves and make yourselves clean. Put away the evil from your doings from before mine eyes. Cease to do evil. Learn to do good. Seek justice. Rebuke the oppressor. Defend the fatherless. Plead for the widows. Come now. Let us reason together," says the Lord, "though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow. And though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat of the good of the land. But if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken."

And this is repeated over and over through the first part here in Isaiah. There is a pronouncement of judgment, and time after time again, it is followed by a call for repentance and God's call for restoration, his heart to restore his people.

If you look at chapter 2, it talks about the future house of God followed right after that by the day of the Lord. And it in, in chapter 2, it speaks of the terror of the Lord. I'm going to read I want to read, um, uh, I want to read the first two verse uh, four verses of chapter 2. There's some beautiful, um, uh, um, word pictures in here. It says, "Now it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established on top of the mountains and shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow to it. Many people shall come and say, 'Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the of, of the God of Jacob.

He will teach us his ways, and when we and we shall walk in his paths. For out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between nations and rebuke people, and they shall beat their plows into beat their swords into plowshares and their pruning their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift up the sword against nation. Neither shall they learn the war learn war anymore." And then it follows the day of the Lord, and it r and there's several spots in here where it talks about that the men men shall fear the terror of the Lord, and, uh, they will hide in caves of the earth in terror of the Lord and of the and the glory of his majesty when he arises to shake the earth mightily.

Chapters 3 and 4 talk about judgment on Judah and Jerusalem. Chapter 5 talks about God's disappointment with his vineyard, this that he planted, and then he goes on to this passes judgment on the on their excesses. And he's in 24, he says, "Therefore, as the fire devours the stubble and as the flame consumes the chaff, so their root will be as rottenness, and their blossoms will ascend like dust, because they have rejected the law of the Lord of hosts and be and despise the word of the Holy One of Israel. Therefore, the anger of the Lord is aroused against his people. He has stretched out his hand against them and stricken them. The hills tremble.

Their carcasses were as refuse refuse in the midst of the streets. For his anger is not turned away, but his but his hand is stretched out still."

I'm going to jump ahead to chapter, um, uh, chapter 8. Well, actually, it's, uh, here in 6, we just read that. There's parts of, of in Isaiah, as he goes through these judgments and these restorations, there's also a narrative of Isaiah's interactions with the kings. Um, and so there's a bit of a story throughout intermingled throughout the book here as well.

So in che in 7, Isaiah is sent to is sent to King Ahaz, and then he moves into, uh, more, uh, prophecy. And in, in chapter 8, he talks about Assyria will it will invade the land, and, um, there will be judgment brought on by Assyria.

And this is this is the and this is a, a rather, uh, stark, um, picture of this judgment that is going to be brought on them by Assyria. In verse 6, he says, "Inasmuch as the people ha as these people refuse the waters of Shiloh that flow softly, now rejoice in Rezin and in Rahamah's son. Now, therefore, behold, the Lord brings up over them the waters of the river, strong and mighty, the king's king of Assyria and all his glory. He will go up over all his channels and go over all his banks. He will pass through Judah. He will overflow and pass over it. He will reach up to the neck and stretch out and, and stretching out of his wings will fill the breath of your land, O Emmanuel.

Be shattered, O ye people, and be broken in pieces. Give ear, all you from far countries. Gird yourself, but be broken in pieces. Gird yourself, but be broken in pieces. Take counsel together, but it will come to nothing. Speak the word of the Lord, but it will not stand, for God is with us."

And then we move to chapter 9. And the, the other thing that is that is a part of the of Isaiah's prophecy is this is this looking forward to the Messiah. And in the midst of all this judgment and darkness and evil, there is this light that is that is that shines throughout the whole book. And I want us to I want us to, uh, look at that briefly. In chapter 9, verse 2, it says, "The people who have walked in darkness have seen a great light, and those who dwell in the land of the shadow of death." And in verse 6, "For unto us a child is born, and unto us a son is given, and the government will be upon his shoulders, and his name will be called E Wonderful Counselor of the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.

Of his the of the increase of his government and peace, there will be no end, upon the throne of David and over his kingdom, to order it and establish it with judgment and justice. From that time forward and forever, the zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this."

In chapter 10, there's more punishment and judgment. There's judgment on Assyria. Um, chapter chapter 11 talks about the reign of Jesse's offspring, pointing forward to Christ again. And he also has this wonderful, uh, word this scene of the wolf dwelling with the lamb and the child the child playing by the, uh by the hole of the, uh, the, the cobra's hole.

Chapter, um, chapter 12 is the hymn of praise followed by chapters 13 through 24. These are proclamations of judgment on, uh against nation after nation. There's judgment against Lucifer, and ultimately, there is judgment against the whole earth.

In chapter 24, it's the impending judgment of the uh on the earth. "Behold, the Lord makes the earth empty and makes it waste." And it goes on through here and talks about that the that the everything is going to fail. The, the earth will be shaken like an olive tree.

And then in chapter 25, there is this there's this praise to God. It says, "O Lord, you are my God. I will exalt you. I will praise you, for you have done many wonderful wonderful things." And it's also there in 26, the song of salvation. And it is this, uh, this praise to God and for his it says in, in verse 12 of 26, "Look, Lord, you will establish peace for us. You also have done all our works in us. For, O God for, O Lord our God, masters beside you have dominion over us."

In verse 27 and 29 I mean, in, in chapters 27 and 29, there's these these pronouncements of woes on Ephraim and on Jerusalem. And, um, this pattern continues throughout, uh, Isaiah. And now I want to I want to jump ahead to chapter 40.

And I'm going to read this chapter. And as I read this, I want you to think about this in, in light of all this judgment and all this evil, I want you to think about this, uh the title of this chapter is God's People Are Comforted. And I want you to think about three things as I read this. I want you to think about God's power, his position, and I also want you to be aware of his compassion.

Chapter 40, verse 1, "Comfort yes, comfort my people," says your God. "Speak comfort to Jerusalem and cry out to her, that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, for she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins. The voice of one crying in the wilderness, 'Prepare the way of the Lord. Make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted and every mountain and hill brought low. The crooked places shall be made straight, the rough places smooth, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it.' A voice said, 'Cry out!'

And he said, 'What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all of its loveliness is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades because the breath of the Lord blows upon it. Surely the people are as grass, and the grass withers, and the flower fades. But the word of the of our God stands forever. O Zion, you who bring good tidings, get up into the high mountain, O Jerusalem. You who bring good tidings, lift up your voice with strength. Lift it up. Be not afraid. Say to the cities of Judah, 'Behold your God. Behold, the Lord shall come with his strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him. Behold, his reward is for him and his work and his work before him.

He will fleed his flock like a shepherd. He will gather the lambs with his arm

and carry them in his bosom and gently lead those who are with the young.

Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, measured heaven with a span, and calculated the dust of the earth in a measure, weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance? Who has directed the spirit of the Lord, or as his as his counselor has taught him? And with whom did he take counsel, and who instructed him, and who taught him in the path of justice? Who taught him knowledge and showed him the way of understanding? Behold, all nations are as a drop in a bucket, are as are and and are counted as small dust on the scales. Look, he lifts up the aisles as a very little thing, and Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor its beast sufficient for a burnt offering.

All nations before him are as nothing. They are counted by him less than nothing and worthless. To whom then would you liken God, or what likeness will you compare to him? The workman molds an image. The goldsmith overspreads it with gold. The silversmith casts silver chains. Whoever it is to improvi whoever is too improvi improvised for such a contribution chooses a tree that will not rot. He seeks for himself a skilled workman to repair a carved image that will not totter. Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundation to the earth? It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and his inhabitants are like are like grasshoppers, who stretches out the heavens like a curtain and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.

He brings princes to nothing. He makes judges of the earth useless. Scarcely shall they be planted. Scarcely shall they be sown. Scarcely when they when their stock take root in the earth, when he will also blow on them, and they will wither, and the worldwind will take them away like stubble. To whom then will you liken me? Or to whom shall I be equal?" says the Holy One. "Lift up your eyes on high to see who has created these things, who brings out their host by number and calls them by them all by his by name, by the greatness of his might and the strength of his power. Not one is missing. Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, 'My way is hidden from the Lord, and my just claim is just is passed over by my God'?

Have you not known? Have you not heard the Everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth? Neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might, he increases strength. Even the youth shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall. But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint."

In chapter 41, there's I was amazed at how many verses here in Isaiah are these verses that you see on plaques and like if you Google verses for when you're scared or when you're troubled or for courage, how many of those are here in Isaiah? In Isaiah 41, verse 10, it says, "Fear not, for I am with you. Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. Yes, I will help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand." In 41:3, uh 41:43:1, "But now thus says the Lord who created you, O Jacob, and he who formed you, 'Fear not, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by my name.

You are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you. And though the waters and though the rivers and through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned, nor shall the flame scorch you.'" As I've looked over this and have read through there, I was just amazed at the picture of God that Isaiah is portraying.

And I think I and I've I really feel like this reveals who God is and the heart of God, how God can both be merciful and just because both both of these attributes, his judgment and his mercy, are both motivated by the same thing.

And that is the Creator's love for his creation.

His acts of mercy have the same intention that his acts of justice have and of judgment. If God was only merciful, we would never we would never face the consequences of sin. And if God was only just, we would never be have the chance to experience his mercy and to repent because of our sins.

And as I look through this this these chapters, I was impressed with this is someone we can trust. This is a God who is for us, a God who is with us, and a God that his people, his creation, are the object of his affections. And everything he does has one purpose, and that is to give his creation an opportunity to turn back to him.

And then I want to look at chapter and the most compelling argument for this God, a God a God a God who is for us, is this in chapter 53 where it says where he talks he talks about the sin-bearing servant. And he's looking forward to describing what lengths he is going to go to to provide a way and a path of redemption for his creation.

And I'm going to read here in chapter 53, "Who hath believed our report, and to whom has the Lord of the arms been revealed? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or commonliness, and when we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from him. He was despised, and we did not esteem him. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we esteem him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions.

He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement for our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before it shears is silent. So he opened not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment. And who will declare his generation? For he was cut off from the land of the living. For the transgressions of my people he was stricken, and they made his grave with the wicked, but with but with but with the rich at his death, because he had done no violence, nor was any deceit found in his mouth.

Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. He has put him to grief. When you make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed. He shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall see the labor of his soul and be satisfied. By his knowledge, my righteous servant shall justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his soul unto death. And he was numbered with transgressors, and he bore the sins of many and made intercession for transgressors."

And then I want to look at chapter 55. In light of all this of God's provision in this heart of God, this is this is one of my favorites in the book of Isaiah, and it's a very, very well-known chapter.

And it's an invitation to life. "Ho, everyone who thirst, come to the waters. And you who have no money, come buy and eat. Yes, come, buy milk and wine without money and without price. Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and why your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me and eat what is good. Let your soul delight itself in abundance. Incline your ear and come to me. Hear, and your soul shall live. And I will make a covenant, an everlasting covenant with you, the sure mercies of David. Indeed, I have given him as a witness to the people, a leader and a commander for the people. Surely you shall call a nation you do not know, and nations who do not know you shall run to you, because the Lord your God and the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified you.

Seek the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let them return to the Lord, and he will have mercy on him and to our God, for he for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor your ways my ways," says the Lord. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain comes down and the snow from heaven, and do not return there, but water the earth and make it bring forth bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater.

So shall my word that goes forth from my mouth. So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth. It shall not return to me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper the thing for which I sent it.

For you shall go out with joy and be led out with peace. And the mountains and the hills shall break forth into singing before you, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Instead of a thorn shall come up a cypress tree, and instead of a briar shall come up the myrtle tree. And it shall be to the Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off."

Here at the beginning, there is an invitation. And Jesus and Isaiah uses the most valuable commodity on earth when he talks about thirst. And he says, "Anyone that thirst, come to the waters. And even if you don't have money, come."

And I was just impressed with this invitation that Isaiah is putting forth here.

This invitation also has a requirement of us. He says, "Seek the Lord while he may be found." This invitation is not something that is that that is always before us. Seek him while he may be found because and return to the Lord, for he will abundantly pardon.

If you look back, you think back to chapter one and the depravity of the people and how the weariness of God, here he is extending an invitation that if you seek me and if you call upon me and you forsake your wicked ways, he will have mercy and he will abundantly pardon.

In verses eight, nine, and ten and eleven there, I think there's there are aspects of life and God's judgment and mercy that aren't always I can't honestly say I always understand. And sometimes I'm left grappling a little bit. And I think I think and I think this is what Isaiah is referring to here. God's God's plan and his his his purpose sometimes exceeds our understanding.

And but his God's plan of redemption is is is is there, and he will accomplish it.

Excuse me. And then there is a reward for our response to this invitation. He says, "For you will go out with joy and be led out with peace." And we live in a time of chaos and of we were talking earlier about this wars and rumors of wars and things like that. And as as as a as a as a follower of Jesus, the most valuable thing that I feel that is out there that I can have is peace and joy. And a peace and joy that is not because of the circumstances that are around me or that I may experience, but is a peace and a joy that is in spite of of those circumstances because of who God is and his love and his faithfulness to his people.

So I hope this has been an encouragement to you. And I want to I want each of us to look at this invitation, whether we are thirsty, whether we are weary, whether we are lost, whether we are tired and worn. The invitation is there for each of us, whether we have never responded or we have responded, but we feel the weight of sin in the world. The invitation is there for all of us. And I want to encourage us to daily take that invitation and to drink of life that he is offering for us.

Well, that is all I have to have to share this morning. I thank you for your attention. Or is there any response before we close?