God’s Invitations (Part A)

People's and strong nations shall come to seek Yahweh, Lord of hosts in Jerusalem, and to pray before Yahweh, before the Lord, which is Christ. Now, it's an interesting little thing that Zechariah gives us here. He says, strong nations. In the millennial reign, there will be nations that will be thriving. Life will go on with much of the sin drained out of it.

And it will be a very exciting time. After today's message, to hear more information about Cross-Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. But for now, let's join Pastor Rick in the book of Isaiah chapter 55 with today's edition of Cross-Reference Radio.

I hit kind of a low spot in preparation today. I said, Lord, it's not working for me, Isaiah, right now. And then he answered my prayer.

I'm very excited, and hopefully you will be too before I'm done. In this chapter, there are invitations to come, to seek, to worship the Lord. The title, in fact, is God's Invitations. And the prophet was excited over the message that he was going to deliver, and the first verse reveals that. If you look at verse 1 of Isaiah 55, he starts off with, Oh, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters. And you who have no money, come by and eat.

Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. I mean, you know, in your devotional time, maybe you can catch it. But he's very excited about what he has to say. You hear many of the same things over and over and over, from the text and also from the speaker. If he's constantly in the pulpit, he's certainly going to repeat himself. Well, that is part of our training. Any training worth going through is repetition.

It's over and over and over until you get it, until you get it and you're real good at it. And this system of preaching is something that God has instituted and has worked well for Christianity. As difficult as it is for Christianity to plow forward in life, imagine what it would be like if we did not have so many people interested in hearing what God has to say everywhere in the scripture. On Sunday, I enjoyed going to the letter of Philemon. It's all part of God's Word, just as powerful in Philemon as it is in the Gospel of Mark or anywhere else.

And these things, you know, we don't have to be profound. We have to be attentive to what God is saying. Well, what no New Testament reader can miss is God's call to sinners. If you come to the New Testament, you hear the voice of God calling to sinners, come to me. Whether a person receives it or not is another matter. But it is all over the pages of the New Testament and here it is in the Old Testament.

Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters. This summarizes salvation by grace, through faith. You cannot earn it.

You cannot buy your way into heaven. There's one of the repetitions. A Wednesday night crowd, a midweek service crowd, we know this. But it bears repeating. Salvation which Christ gives is without money and without price, but not without faith and not without blood. We know this, but so many seem to care, seem not to care. So few seem to care about this message. Well, don't let that discourage us because that's what the devil is aiming for. You've got a better chance of hitting what you're aiming at. And Satan is aiming at us.

Not just in one spot. He's got multiple red dots on us. And he's looking to discourage us. Whatever he can take from us, he is a thief.

Whatever he can steal, he will do it. And it is our responsibility to resist that, to identify it and take evasive actions, to counter-attack. Again, I don't want to live my life on defense. I want to be the aggressor. But I can't do that in the Spirit without the leading of the Holy Spirit.

I don't want to get carnal about the whole thing. Here the prophets, as they wrote, God was leading them. God excited this man to write everything he's saying in the book of Isaiah. In this world, we work for what we get. We begin to think that way.

And we can become suspicious of anything that is free, if it has any value to it. Well, that transfers to the preaching of the gospel with some people. Some people seem not to understand that the gospel is free.

The price has been paid. They just have to believe. And if you identify that in somebody, it's a good chance to break it down for them. Now, he mentions here everyone who thirsts. Well, thirst tells of want. And people must want what God has to offer, what he is inviting the individual to come and receive. Thirst and hunger, both indicators of interest in the scripture. There's a lot of metaphor, of course, in scripture.

We love that. Some of it's not. Ten Commandments is really not metaphor. It's just write straight out, don't do this.

And it's good. It's not a criticism. But there's nothing casual about a sinner's desire to be accepted by God. The world doesn't know these things. There are people outside of church walls. They don't think about these things.

We do. And hopefully, we'll have a chance to tell the lost soul or maybe the weak believer these special things about our faith. There's nothing casual about a sinner's desire to be accepted by God. And we pick it up in Revelation 22, almost the end of the scripture. And the spirit and the bride say, Come, and let him who hears say, Come, and let him who thirst come.

Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely. See, this is a mini Isaiah, you know, Isaiah 55 verse 1 is a mini New Testament. Our Lord, he alludes to this verse in John chapter 7, that famous section where he's in the temple at the great feast. And John picks it up in chapter 7 verse 37.

On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out saying, If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. He's got this verse in mind. Well, he's the author of it.

And he's the finisher of it. The people's response to his saying that demonstrates that they understood his statement to be a messianic reference. And so here's their response to his saying that because he stands up with a loud voice.

He cries that out. Anybody thirsts, come to me. No mere prophet could say that. You'd have to be divine. Well, their response in John 7 verse 40. Therefore, many from the crowd, when they heard this saying, said, truly, this is the prophet. Others said, this is the Christ. And of course, others, you know, hemmed and hawed.

But that always is, there's always someone. Well, since the speaker here in Isaiah 55, especially verses 1 through 5, is God himself, the connection that John is making affirms that the Messiah is divine. And again, the apostles had that to tell the world that Jesus has come, the Son of God has come, that he is fully God. He's part of the Trinity without saying that we have multiple gods. When Jesus walked on the water, and this is just one example, and he stopped the storm, and you know, Peter sank, and he gets Peter back in the boat, and everybody's in the boat now, and suddenly the boat's where it needs to be. Matthew and Mark tell us that they came and they worshipped him. And they said, truly, you are the Son of God. Well, that's a big deal, because when we talk about Christ, he's God come to earth on our behalf. Yes, come, I'm sorry, I love that part about the Trinity. I love the Trinity.

I love the Godhead and how it is given to us in scripture and how it shows up. Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Well, in this life, you know, there's a saying, cash is king. But in the economy of God, faith is better than cash. And the New Testament associates both water and wine with the Holy Spirit.

Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Well, John chapter 7, where we were reading about Jesus in the temple, if anyone thirsts, let him come to me. He who believes in me, as the scriptures have said, out of his heart will flow torrents of living water. And then John writes after that, he was speaking about the Holy Spirit.

Well, Paul in the Ephesian letter, he says, be not drunk with wine, but be filled with the Holy Spirit. And here, the prophet also mentions milk. His living word is like milk in 1 Peter 2, verse 2. And of course, to the babes in Christ, to newcomers in Christ, they receive the word. They take baby steps in the word, ideally speaking. And our Lord had apparently Isaiah 52, 55, verse 2 in mind when he said in John 6, do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you.

It's very hard to do that for an entire lifetime. There's so many distractions, so many competitors for our attention and our devotion. And God says, well, then give me what you got.

He has never yelled at me for not being everything I've wanted to be in Christ. Always patient, always gentle, always just that alone helps me to be patient and gentle with people, though I don't think they always pick up on that because they're a little dull. Don't you see I'm being patient with you? Verse 2, 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 let your soul delight itself in abundance. A lot of people in Isaiah's day didn't want to hear this, but there were a lot of them.

That remnant was gobbling it up. He says that we are to take careful heed to God's words, and that brings blessings. Again, John's Gospel 10, verse 10. I have come that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly. Well, if God has blessed you, don't be ashamed of that. You're guilty for God blessing you, and don't think that God doesn't like you if you don't have as many blessings as the other person does.

Competition messes up a lot of things. Incidentally, before he says, I have come that they may have life and they may have it more abundantly, he says the thief has come to steal and to destroy. I have come that they might have life and that more abundantly. God wants people to treat the Gospel like food, a can't live without it realization. Could you imagine if the polluted universities treated the Gospel like food? No, I've got to have it.

I'm hungry. I've got to have the Gospel. Can you imagine if the sinister news media treated the Gospel that way? Or corrupted politicians?

Or it would be a different world. Verse 3, incline your ear and come to me here and your soul shall live and I will make an everlasting covenant with you. You're sure mercies of David. He says listen, approach, and pay attention. The heed. It's not enough to just hear it, to listen, though that's the important part.

There are purposes behind these invitations. God draws sinners to himself through his word more than anything. 2 Peter chapter 1, we have the prophetic word, confirmed. Would you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place?

I know it's hard as you're a youth, you know, you're growing, you've got so many things happening in your life, you still, your mind is not where it's going to be as you mature. And yet you come to church and you hear pastors saying, you know, we have the scripture, the prophetic word, the prophecies, the predictive prophecies confirm that God's word is trustworthy and you do well to heed it. And then temptation comes, failure, disappointment, setbacks, confusion, all these things.

Again, we are supposed to face them in the faith and not crumble under the weight of these things. You don't have to like them. I don't like them. I don't like being tempted.

I don't like the flesh. But I got to face these things and, you know, advantage goes to evil in this life. That's what the curse is all about. God created the world in six days and he rested on the seventh day because there was no sin yet amongst humans, Adam and Eve. So he could rest, but after they fell, that rest was over. And Jesus pointed that out. He says, I am my father at work until now. And he's on the Sabbath when he's healing people. He says, I will make an everlasting covenant with you. Well, they already had a covenant for, I don't know, over a thousand years now. They had a covenant, a Mosaic covenant. What is Isaiah talking about? I'm going to make a covenant with you. Well, Jeremiah in the New Testament had Isaiah's words in mind.

It comes from God. Jeremiah, a hundred years later, wrote, Behold, the days are coming, says Yahweh, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. It's very significant because at the time that Jeremiah wrote that, there was no longer a northern kingdom. He's speaking about a rebuilt Israel of all the tribes, all the people and beyond. In Mark's Gospel, Jesus, when he was giving us the communion table, he said to his disciples, This is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many. Hebrews chapter 8, Paul builds on that. A new covenant, he has made the first obsolete. The one that Isaiah is talking about. Isaiah will repeat this in Isaiah 61, and it seems like they never got it.

To this day, they don't seem to understand the fulfillment of these things. Paul writes to the Corinthians, and he says, You're ministers of the new covenant. That's what we are as Christians.

We love the Old Testament, but its Mosaic rule is subject to the New Testament revelation. The sure mercies of David. Do you know there's only one David mentioned in the Bible? And he is, aside from Jesus Christ, he's the most mentioned person in the Bible.

That ought to get your attention. That's saying, Well, let me look into this life of this man, David. What's so special about David?

Not that the others weren't special, but you can't just sidestep that. Peter applies and uses the same language here, the sure mercies of David. He applies it to Jesus in Acts chapter 13. God's covenant with David is in 2 Samuel 7. There's a promise. In the midst of David being forgiven for dreadful sins, plural.

They were dreadful. That a descendant of King David, is what is being said here, would reign on David's throne forever. Well, we now know that one, and that is Jesus Christ. Verse 4 now, Indeed I have given him as a witness to the people, a leader and commander for the people. Now, according to the rules of grammar, the pronoun him should refer to David. But, by the collection of all the messianic prophecies, we know this is Jesus Christ.

And not only that, historical David could not fulfill these things. So by default, it goes to the Christ. And the next verse indicates that this is future. Verse 5, talking about Jesus, Surely you shall call a nation you do not know, and nations who do not know you shall run to you because of Yahweh your God, and the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified you. Well, this has not been fulfilled, but we catch glimpses of it. You know, a lot of Christians love to go to Israel.

And that's not a criticism, it's just a fact. And it's born out of this relationship between the believer and what God has done on that little piece of land in Israel. And that's not the only place Christians like to go to. You know, Christians go to Rome to see the Colosseum where Christians were persecuted. Some go to Turkey, want to see where the seven churches were.

Very difficult to find. Some of the remains of them are just like barren land now. Well, and there used to be cities there. Anyway, coming back to this in verse 5 is where we are, Surely you shall call a nation you do not know, and nations who do not know you shall run to you.

And as I mentioned, we've seen some of this happen. Jerusalem will be the global center of worship. Jesus Christ will be glorified as the nations meet together to worship him there in Jerusalem. Zechariah, I love this verse. Zechariah has a lot to say about this age. He says, yes, many peoples and strong nations shall come to seek Yahweh, Lord of hosts in Jerusalem, and to pray before Yahweh, before the Lord, which is Christ. Now, it's an interesting little thing that Zechariah gives us here.

He says, strong nations, in the millennial reign, there will be nations that will be thriving. Life will go on with much of the sin drained out of it, and it will be a very exciting time. We know that Messiah came not only for the Jewish people, but for all people, John 3.16, of course. But most Jews don't see it that way, and they didn't see it that way in the ancient times either. The Jews largely misunderstood the gradual unfolding of God's redemptive plan. Now, that's not Bible jargon, that's just a fact. God is gradually unfolding His plan.

His zentime plan also is gradually unfolding. We now call it the gospel. And they resisted their Messiah because, and everybody should know this, He did not vanquish the Romans on the spot. Because He did not behave the way they wanted Him to behave, failing to recognize His gradual unfolding of God's plan, they voided out His words and His wonders.

Well, He didn't kill the Romans. They wanted dead Gentiles, not converted Gentiles. That's not what God wanted, and it's in the scripture, it's in their scripture. That's what happened in the days of Christ. And many of them are still crucifying Christ in their hearts. The Hebrew prophets did not know that believing Jews and Gentiles would one day be united in a church, in the New Testament church.

Paul talks about this in Ephesians 3 and other places, but there's a main one, the first 12 verses of Ephesians 3. Furthermore, none of the prophets could see how difficult this integration was going to be. Isaiah couldn't see what Paul was going to have to put up with to try to tell the Jews, listen, your Sabbath days won't work in the Gentile world. How would you even reach Eskimos and you have to follow the Sabbath? You couldn't do it.

It's impossible. God got you out of your little comfort zone in Israel and bringing all the Gentiles of the world into the faith, and to do that, He had to get the Sabbath out of the way. Quite remarkable. Come back to the Sabbath. He says, because of the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel. Well, Jesus, He is referred to as the Holy One of Israel in the New Testament.

The demons recognized Him for who He was. We know who you are, the Holy One of God, which is the same meaning. Acts chapter 3, verse 14, Peter, but you deny the Holy One and the just. That's not two different entities, that's Christ. And ask for a murderer to be granted to you. Another Peter was saying, how messed up can you people be? And he's just a lowly fisherman, he has no credentials, he was with Christ.

Those are his credentials, and those are ours too. So, verse 6, seek Yahweh while He may be found. Call upon Him while He is near. That should be a song.

It is a song. So, not taking the Lord's invitation seriously puts the soul at big risk. Seek the Lord while He may be found.

In other words, he's hinting, he's saying, you know, there comes a time where He can't be found, and that's bad for you. He's no less God because you go to hell. And He's certainly no less God, or greater God, because you go to heaven, but He's sure that's what He wants. Verse 7, let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to the Lord, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

So, here comes more of the invitation just flying, hey, everyone, if you don't have to have money for this, which for some people, you know, they think you have to buy anything, the good has to be bought. Agree with God about sin, so He can do something about your sin, or else nothing's going to work for you well when you stand before God. There is no acceptable alternative.

What can men say? Here's an alternative to the Gospel. I'll roll up my sleeves, I'll huff and I puff, and I'll earn my salvation.

It's laughable. Both the attitude and behavior must depart the natural and pursue the spiritual. The New Testament's all over that, you know, the spiritual man putting to death the old nature. And anything otherwise is rebellion. And, you know, the hunger and thirst for righteousness, the righteousness of God. There's nothing in this life that's going to satisfy these things except, of course, God's plan of salvation.

I hope it never gets boring or old news to us. And I'll also say, you know, you don't have to feel it when it's time to share it. You just have to obey.

If you see the door open, you don't have to dance through it, but you do have to go through it. And that creates an excitement all of its own when Jesus said, I have meat to eat you know nothing about. You know, preaching the truth to someone about God's kingdom and having them receive it is nourishment. Many in Isaiah's Israel considered religious observances a substitute for right living.

Well, they do that now. There are many people that think, I put some money in the offering box, I go to church, I do this. Well, that's not a substitute for obedience. Obedience is a demand all by itself. Also in Isaiah's day, there were those that were asking God to forgive them for sins that they had no interest in giving up.

And they did this by taking their sacrifices to the temple. There, it's done. And we see this today. I bought an indulgence, you know, I did this. I did a good deed. That ought to erase my sin.

No, it won't. Only the blood of Christ takes away the sin. Thanks for tuning in to Cross Reference Radio today. Cross Reference Radio is a ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel mechanicsville in Virginia. If you'd like to learn more about this ministry, we invite you to visit our website, crossreferenceradio.com.

You'll find a number of teachings from Pastor Rick available there. We also encourage you to subscribe to our podcast. When you subscribe, you'll be notified of new editions of Cross Reference Radio. Just search for Cross Reference Radio on your favorite podcast app. You can also follow the links at crossreferenceradio.com. We're glad we were able to spend time with you today. Tune in next time to continue learning from the book of Isaiah with Pastor Rick right here on Cross Reference Radio.