Behold Your God, Isaiah 55, Part 3

Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. Simon Tugwell wrote, And it is an appetite we can never eliminate. We may seek to disown it, but it will not go away.

If we deny that it is there, we shall in fact only divert it to some other object or range of objects. And that will mean that we invest some creature or creatures with the full burden of our need for God, a burden which no creature can carry. Our Father offers us Himself. He is the only place we will find true satisfaction.

Yet, oh, we are prone to wonder and seek our own way. In this message from Isaiah 55, Pastor Rich points us to God's invitation to come to Himself, to come to the one our heart was made for. Let's listen in to this last message from the series titled, Behold Your God. This is part three of a message that was first preached on July 21, 2013 at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. To hear the whole sermon, you can visit www.delightingrace.com. This series that we have presented, Behold Your God, it does us no good to just walk away from here knowing more about God. The intent of this is that you will know God in such a way that you will passionately pursue Him. He is not information. He is not a concept. He is person and He made you person so that you could fellowship with each other and He can satisfy you.

Come to the waters, He says. God reveals Himself as our satisfaction. Simon Tugwell says, It is the desire for God which is the most fundamental appetite of all, and it is an appetite we can never eliminate. We may seek to disown it, but it will not go away. If we deny that it is there, we shall in fact only divert it to some other object or range of objects, and that will mean that we invest some creature or creatures with the full burden of our need for God, a burden which no creature can carry. You see, we're born with a bent of idolatry to put the burden of satisfaction in some created thing, and God says, Please know and understand you won't find it there. He gives us all good things to enjoy. Yes, He does, and we are to be good stewards of the things that He's entrusted to us, but they are not our satisfaction. He says in verse 3, Come to me and your soul shall live.

I like how C.S. Lewis puts it. He says, A car is made to run on gasoline. Actually, he wrote petrol.

That's how the Brits spell gasoline, P-E-T-R-O-L. A car is made to run on gasoline, and it would not run properly on anything else. Now, God designed the human machine to run on Himself. He Himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn, or the food our spirits were designed to feed on.

There is no other. That is why it is just no good asking God to make us happy in our own way. God cannot give us happiness and peace apart from Himself.

Did you catch that? Are you seeking that? God, what are you asking for?

What do we ask for in our prayer requests? God, give me this. God, give me this. God, help me this.

God, do this. Do we approach God as our cosmic vending machine? If I put my fifty cents in, He gives me what I ask for. God cannot give us happiness and peace apart from Himself because it is not there.

There is no such thing. We get this grand invitation to come to the waters and to the satisfaction that it provides from the God who delivers in person. He doesn't just stand aloof and say, you, you are thirsty, here is some water over here, go get it.

No, He delivers in person because He is that fountain of life that satisfies. He said, come to the waters. We see this, for example, in the New Testament in John, chapter four, when He was at the well and the Samaritan woman comes and He asks her for some water and she is astounded that this Jewish man would ask something of a Samaritan woman.

And she says, I don't have anything to draw it with. And then Jesus ends up telling her, the water that I give you, if you knew who it was who was speaking to you, you would ask me for water. And the water that I give you, if you drink it, you will never thirst again. What a claim! The water that I give you, if you drink it, you will never thirst again.

Think about that. I like what He says also in John chapter seven, verses thirty seven and thirty eight. It was on the great day of the feast, Jesus said, if anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.

Rivers of living water. You see, the fountain of life, when we drink from the fountain of life, we live in the outflow and therein is our satisfaction. Of course, here He was specifically speaking of the Holy Spirit and that's what Paul tells us in his letter to Titus in chapter three, verses three through seven. According to His mercy, He saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ, our Savior. You see, that theme keeps getting repeated through the scriptures.

He is our satisfaction because He is the one who delivers in person. What is our confidence of this? Is this just positive speak? Is God just ushering in a pep rally here?

No. What is our confidence of this? I want you to look with me for what He says in verses eight and nine. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are 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. How can we know that God indeed will be our satisfaction? Because our understanding is not the measure of what God can do. Our understanding is not the measure of what God can do. So important why we should know Him for who He truly is in the way that He has revealed Himself.

I cannot create a God awesome enough in my own mind to measure up to the God of the universe who is the fountain of life. My favorite verse in the New Testament when I discovered it back in my teens was Ephesians chapter 3 verse 20, now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that is at work in us. Isn't that a good verse? That's why I like Stephen Curtis Chapman's song.

If you are on Facebook at all, I was blurting out on Facebook there not long ago. The great adventure, the love of God. Sorry it just takes me back. The apex of the song says the love of God will take us far beyond our wildest dreams. And I have a confession to make. When that song is playing, particularly that part of the song, I crank it up.

I mean we're talking maximum volume and I'm sitting there hollering along with it and other drivers are looking at me like. And I want to tell them if only you knew, if only you knew, our understanding is not the measure of what God can do. Our confidence is also in God's word. God has made this promise.

This invitation is a promise. It was sealed in chapter 53. God's word is absolutely dependable. Verses 10 through 11.

Look at verse 11. So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth. It shall not return to me void. It shall accomplish what I please.

And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it. You see, God is the ultimate promise keeper. When God makes a promise, it becomes reality. The biblical record shows that. God is like what God has done. This is a dependable promise.

We can count on this. Taste and see that the Lord is good. And lastly, our confidence is what we read in verses 12 and 13.

Just the song that we sang earlier. Creation sings the Father's song. Look at verse 12. For you shall go out with joy and be led out with peace. The mountains and the hills shall break forth into singing before you and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. You see, all of creation will rejoice in renewal and satisfaction.

All of creation. There doesn't have to be despair. God has made this promise and he presents this grand invitation.

Come to the waters. For that renewal of creation, all creation now groans with anticipation. And you and I feel those groans every day. The groans of creation anticipating the time when God makes all things new. Listen, that newness begins right in here in the heart and mind of the one who has surrendered himself, herself in faith to Jesus Christ. I conclude with a quote from Jonathan Edwards, the great theologian of the 18th century. The enjoyment of God is the only happiness with which our souls can be satisfied. Fathers and mothers, husbands, wives or children, or the company of earthly friends are but shadows. But enjoyment of God is the substance. These are but scattered beams, but God is the sun. These are but streams, but God is the fountain.

These are but drops, but God is the ocean. Loved ones, behold your God. May he be. May he be your satisfaction. May he rescue you and me from the other things that we chase after that cannot satisfy us. Thanks for joining us here at Delight in Grace. You've been listening to Rich Powell, the lead pastor at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. The Delight in Grace mission is to help you know that God designed you to realize your highest good and your deepest satisfaction in him, the one who is infinitely good. We hope you'll join us again on weekdays at 10 a.m.