The Great Invitation

Well, good morning, Christ Covenant, it is great to be with you today. Let us turn our attention now to God's Word and this morning we're in the book of Isaiah chapter 55. So if you have your Bibles, Isaiah 55 verses 1 through 3. Now, if you've been here in the mornings of the last period of time at Christ Covenant, you know we've been working our way through the book of Genesis and that's been a series that Kevin has been preaching through. He's out this week and so today we're going to be taking a look at this wonderful little text in Isaiah, one that I'm confident you know and have heard many times before. You may not know this and that is that the book of Isaiah in the early church was regarded as the fifth gospel. We have Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John and so dependent were the early Christians on the book of Isaiah. So central was its theme of grace and redemption and forgiveness, and it became known as the fifth gospel after a while. And our passage today in verses 1 through 3 of chapter 55 will make that abundantly clear as this passage, as you well known, is really a passage about grace, it's a passage about the good news of the way God pursues and redeems his people. Let's listen to this great invitation, chapter 55 verse 1, come everyone who thirsts come to the waters and he who has no money come by and eat come by wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me and eat what is good and delight yourselves in rich food and climb your ear and come to me here that your soul may live and I will make with you an everlasting covenant. My steadfast, sure love for David, amen, let's pray and ask God to bless this reading of his word this morning, let's pray. Lord we confess that this is an invitation we really need to hear today. We often struggle and doubt and wonder does God really want to be with us? Do you really want to be with us? Lord today you have declared yourself to be the God who beckons, pursues and invites. May we heed that call today and pray in Christ's name, amen. So this past October had an opportunity to go to New York City to teach a class or reform theological seminary. Some of you may not know that RTS actually has a class in Manhattan right there in the middle of the city and so I went out to teach a class a couple weekends last October and one of the weekends I thought you know you could take the family. So our whole family, Melissa and our three kids all made it to Manhattan one weekend in October to be up there together and it was one evening and it was a beautiful October evening we decided you know what if we're in New York we need to go to Times Square. So that's what we did. We weren't far from it in our hotel so we hiked a few blocks and eventually we turned the corner and there it was and you've seen the shots on TV and the bright lights and the crowd in the center of the whole city which is maybe the biggest city sort of at least conceptually in the United States and in the world and there you are in the heart of everything and you could feel the excitement. You could feel the energy and the buzz. We looked with people on a beautiful fall night as we walked into this crowd it wasn't long before we were approached by every vendor imaginable. There were people dressed up as heroes from the Marvel comics wanting to see if we would get their picture with them. There was a person dressed up as Spider-Man hanging from a light pole. There were people on the street selling us watches and t-shirts and gadgets and all kinds of food and there's the world's greatest pizza and the world's greatest hot dogs. And there's this and there's that and then of course there's all the digital ads. You've been there in Times Square at least you've seen it on TV there's bright lights everywhere. There's ads for the latest Broadway show and a movie on the way out or the best running show you can buy or the best restaurant you can eat at and there we were standing in the middle of this marketplace being bombarded from every angle with every invitation you can imagine. Now that little moment I thought about later is sort of a microcosm isn't it of the world we live in? I mean that's what it's like to live in our world today is it not that we live in a world we're always bombarded with invitations, promises, buy this, participate in that, be a part of what we're inviting you to and if you take up the world's invitation and all these things and it makes amazing promises we just eat this food, wear these clothes, be a part of this thing then success and happiness is yours and we spent half our life just dealing with these messages coming our way and as I thought about this passage this morning I was reminded as we read it that this is also a scene in a marketplace may not realize it yet but the whole context here is a scene of an ancient marketplace where vendors come and they call out their wares and invite you to buy but there's one big difference in this marketplace and as I say 55 the vendor is God himself. God himself is the one doing the inviting. God himself is the one doing the selling. God is the one who is beckoning to come and get what he has for you and if you'll discover of course in this passage this marketplace is like no other because this marketplace is the kind of place that you go when you have no money and you have nothing with which to buy but yet God offers it freely himself and so what you have today in this passage then is the real voice we need to listen to today as we get bombarded with all those invitations in our marketplace of ideas God comes to us and says I've got one voice need to listen to listen to mine come to me now the original audience would have needed to hear that message. You may not remember the context and Isaiah here but this is a dark time for Israel. Isaiah prophesied under many kings in Judah they were wicked kings and God had warned them you need to turn away from your idols and your false gods and Israel wouldn't listen so God raised up the Babylonians and carted off Israel into exile and asked this message comes to Israel she's sitting in exile she's probably wondering has has God abandoned us has God turned us back on us has God going to keep his promise to us and here is wayward Israel that God is chasing with this great invitation now truth be told that's not just a message Israel needed to hear that's a message that you and I need to hear is it not as we sit here this morning we probably wonder to whether God wants to be with us maybe you've been like Israel running from God off on your own the exile wondering if he still wants to be with you this message was not only for them this great invitation is for us today so here's what I want to do I want to break down this invitation into its component parts we're going to work through five different things about this invitation to do today and I'll move quickly through these five but like any invitation when you get it you have questions and we have the same questions about this invitation what do we learn about it what is it like what's motivating it we're going to work through five things together understand this is indeed the greatest invitation we could possibly get let's start with the first of those five things and that is the nature of this invitation what are we invited to what are we invited to now that's the first thing you're going to ask anytime you get an invitation if you get an invitation in the mail if you get one in your email inbox someone gives it to you verbally the first question you want to know the answer to is well what am I being invited to is this a party is this a celebration is this a wedding is this an event what exactly is this invitation all about and this is the first thing we want to solve in this passage this morning now here's the truth if you look at this passage at first glance you might think it's about something very different than what it's really about let me look at the opening verses come everyone to thirst come to the waters come buy and eat wine and milk it sounds like it's an invitation to physical things you're going to eat you're going to drink you're going to celebrate it sounds like an invitation to a great feast you might think yourself well maybe God is inviting Israel to return to the promise land maybe all this invitation is about is a physical restoration to a physical land with physical blessings but then you keep reading and when you keep reading and take a closer look at this passage you realize actually this isn't about physical things at all in fact these physical things just symbolic of the spiritual limitation that is really taking place here as you read on in the passage you come to it in verse three look at verse three and realize what the invitation is really about look what it says incline your ear and come to me there it is this morning God is saying the real thing I want to give you is not physical pleasures the real thing I want to give you is not a restored land I don't want to give you necessarily a worldly problem-free life I don't even want to give you all the things that you think you need I want to give you the thing you need more than anything and you need me in other words what's remarkable about this passage is the great invitation the great invite isn't to some party isn't to some land isn't even to some literal feast it's an invitation to come in with God himself he is the real living water he is the real milk that satisfies he's the great wiring of celebration and by the way this is a wonderful correction in some ways to us in the Christian life this morning because I think we sometimes go through the Christian life we think about what our ultimate blessing is and we begin to think that the ultimate blessing is something that God can do for me or something that God can give me or the ultimate blessing is a problem that God can solve for me and God does do those things God does solve problems for us and God does give us physical blessings but that's not the ultimate reward that's not the ultimate thing we need God is coming to us in this passage to say the ultimate point of life is to be with me I am your great treasurer I am your great reward I am the thing you're longing for and that's the correction we need because we spend our life chasing so many things and we'll see this elsewhere in the passage we chase so many other things and God has reminded us come empty with me now when God invites us to do that what does that actually mean well look at the rest of verse three this says incline your ear and come to me and look what he says here that your soul may live when you come to God he offers you not just to be with him but the restoration of your soul he offers you eternal life you realize then that ultimately the invitation as I have an Isaiah 55 is ultimately the invitation of the gospel this will come and have a relationship with God this will come and be close to him yes we're sinners yes he's holy but God comes to us and invites us into this personal relationship to have eternal life to have our soul restored but I love about this and I'm sure you're picking up this already in the passage just how personal it is have you picked up on that it's not like God comes to Israel and says hey I've got this this great slate of ideas I want you to embrace by the way God does have ideas he does have doctrine and theology and he does want us to embrace it but notice that's not the invitation it's not to to have Israel embrace an idea or Israel to embrace a concept he doesn't come to success well here's a list of doctrines God cares about doctors but notice this is an invitation to himself wonder if that's something we need to be reminded of this morning too when you think about your Christian life are you following a set of ideas are you following a person God comes to Israel and says I want to be with you I'm not just a concept I'm not just a force I'm not just an idea I'm a person so this first thing then in our invitation is just what it is about it's about coming as sinners to be with God to have our soul restored to have a personal relationship with him now that's the first thing let's look at a second thing of the five here in this invitation and that is the manner of the invitation how it's being offered how does God deliver it here by the way that's important to us when we get invitations is it not you ever get an invitation where you weren't sure it was really meant you ever get an invitation where you're like seems a little half-hearted not sure you really want me at your party actually just the other week I got this invitation and an email that came to my inbox and I got the invitation I said wow this looks like a pretty interesting event I think I think I might actually want to go to this event I was about to reply to this invitation when another email came to my inbox from the same person saying oops sorry I accidentally sent that to you I didn't actually mean to invite you out and then they wrote back and said but but you know since I sent it you can come if you want I was thinking to myself well sorry you'll forgive me if I don't fill that in foods now I mean the way you give an invitation matters it's one thing to get one it's only to get one where you feel like there's some energy behind it like someone really watching there what's amazing about this invitation is not just the God gives it but the earnestness with which he gives it the persistence with which he delivers it the compassion with which he goes after his people I said it earlier as we started here that the whole scene here is like an ancient marketplace in the Greco-Roman or really the ANE world here in in in in the book of Isaiah and the ancient nearest and world marketplace is like this we're very common you'd walk into a town there be an open market and vendors would do two things an open market one is they would get your attention they would shout out to you and then once they got your attention they would offer you their wares they would say here's what I'm selling here's what I want you to come and buy if you notice here this is the way God has set up the analogy in this passage he is presenting a spiritual marketplace and he does the same thing that a vendor would do he gets your attention it's a little unfortunate here in verse one of the ESV that doesn't capture this but in the NASV there's a Hebrew word here it captures pretty accurately the the very first word in verse one is actually the word the new American standard translates as ho ho it's just like hey hey there listen to me it's it's a it's a way to get your attention in the ESV doesn't pick it up as clearly but that's what a vendor would do hey you there listen to me and then I want you to notice another thing about the way this invitation unfolds I want you to notice how much God repeats himself how persistent he is it's not one invitation it's even two invitations it's a repeated invitation over and over again verse one come everyone who thirst come to the waters come buy any come buy wine and milk listen diligently eat what is good delight yourselves in rich food incline your ear come to me notice over and over God is issuing a command a beckoning a call this is an amazing picture of the character of the God that you and I serve he is a God who is the great pursuer the great initiator he's the great secret you realize that this is a God who's chasing down his people he's going after them like a husband would woo his bride like the shepherd would go after the one sheep and leave the 99 behind this is a God who wants to be with his people it's not so much that the people are seeking God it's a God seeking them make no mistake about it when it comes to salvation this is the second point I want you to see today not only does God want to be with you that was the first point to save you to redeem you but secondly when you look at the manner of the invitation here you realize that it's God who's the great initiator if there's going to be a union here if there's going to be a reception here it's going to be due not to our diligence but gods not to our persistence but gods it's not that we're wanting to go to this party but God wants us to come God is the great loving seeker how merciful and amazing and rich he is now once you realize that that ought to raise a question in your mind why why would God do that with the people like Israel in fact maybe the better question is why would God do that with the people like us if you're asking that question at least to a third observation I want to make about this passage this morning and that is the motive of this invitation the motive why is God doing this at all it's kind of one of those things where you're like you've got invited to a party and you're like I don't know why I got invited you're like I think I knew him that well I didn't think they didn't necessarily even liked me you may have all kinds of things in your head that make this the invitation is surprised but comes to salvation though we're rarely surprised we ought to be though if you knew the state of Israel you ought to be surprised we don't have time to go back in the book of Isaiah but God has throughout the book of Isaiah laid out Israel's sins in space put them all on the table they have pursued false gods they've committed spiritual idolatry they've worshipped idols they've chased after things that God has told them not to chase after again and again and again and again and yet even with all that God's some for some reason chases them pursues them and goes after them and don't forget here that it's not that God is going after Israel merely offering a pardon it's not like God is saying well look if you come back to me I'll spare your life no God is saying if you come back to me I'll make you a child I'll make you a son you can sit at my table you can eat my food and have the richest affair when you realize that you realize that demands an explanation what would motivate God it's chased down sinful people that way I don't think we asked that question enough and the reason why I don't think we asked that question enough is because I think we're rarely surprised by God's mercy we're rarely surprised by God's mercy by the way notice how often we're surprised by God's judgment when God judges someone in the Bible were shocked sometimes we even appalled how could God do that we wonder why would God judge that person but then when God shows mercy we shrugged well of course that's what he should do of course he should bite me to his party of course I should get an invitation I think lurking behind that is the belief that we're really not that sinful of people and that I really should be invited it would be surprising if I weren't not surprising if I was what I want us to see in this passage today is the utter shock that the invitation is happening at all God doesn't have to save anyone God doesn't have to redeem Israel God doesn't have to redeem us but yet here he is consistently pursuing seeking longing chasing demands to the question of why well the good news of course is our our past is the answer is the question look down at the second half of verse three here's what we read after saying and crying your ear and come to me here that your soul may live notice what he says and I will make with you an everlasting covenant my steadfast sure love for David ah here is the motivation for God's pursuit of Israel he has made a promise to David he has made a covenant with David and he's inviting Israel to benefit from that covenant now we don't have time to turn back in the Bible and revisit what that covenant with David was but you know what it is you've read it before God goes to David and says I'll make a covenant with you there will be someone on your throne forever the son of David will rule in greatness in honor in glory and he will be a righteous king whose reign will never end of course we know who that king is eventually that son of David that great righteous branch sprouts up and comes and it is none other than Jesus Christ himself in other words the motivation for the love in this passage is the coming work of Jesus Christ where he would die on the cross and save a people for himself to fill and fulfill God's promises to David in other words what you realize in this passage is although the invitation is free it does have a price it's just that we are the ones paying the price the one paying the price would be this coming savior this redeemer who is in the covenant line of David do you realize then the key word here in this verse three is just the word love God loves you because he loves you and he loves you because of what Christ has done to redeem us so there is ultimately not just a grace centered aspect of this passage but ultimately a Christ centered aspect of this passage God's motive is to honor his son and give him a people for himself okay that's the third thing let's move on to the fourth thing of our five things in this great invitation and this is really the biggest one actually the last two were both really significant fourth thing to note about this invitation is the recipients who is invited who should come that may be the most important question if God gives an invitation to be with him if God gives an invitation to eternal life if God gives an invitation to a relationship maybe the most important question you'll ever ask is am I invited does God invite everyone is everyone included in this great invitation actually here's where the passage shocks us the answer is no not everyone is invited now you hear that you think whoa whoa hold on a second you're saying not everyone is invited to this feast you mean there's some sort of restriction on who can come I mean God has some sort of standard on who could be a part of his wedding banquet and then he may think yourself well God has a standard if God has some sort of restriction I wouldn't want to know what that is because I probably don't meet it you might think you might think of God as a standard for who can come to this party is probably going to be a really high standard it's probably going to be for the religious people or the morally upright people or the people who given away all their money or who helped the poor surely it's going to be the successful or the rich or the beautiful or what I have you surely there's the ones that are invited the shock of this passage comes when you realize something the criteria of who can come are not exceptionally high the criteria about who can come are exceptionally low in this passage realize it's not just surprising that the imitations are limited what's surprising is who they're limited to the poor the thirsty the hungry the undesirable the misfits and don't miss the point here it's not just that God tolerates these people it's not like God invites the beautiful and the moral people and says well all you other people can come to know God only invites those people it's only the people who have no money and no food who can come and you're thinking yourself this is the strangest feast I've ever heard of what kind of feast is this we're only those kinds of people can come well Jesus actually talked about it he talked about it as the great wedding banquet of the Messiah and when Jesus talked about who would get invited to his wedding feast here's what Jesus said go quickly out into the streets and the alleys of the town and bring in the poor and the crippled and the blind and the lame so the feast is limited but not to who we would expect now who's it limited to well here's what we're turning to verse 1 I want you to notice there's two limitations so who can come to this the thirsty and those who have no money let me just say a word about each of those first the thirsty this is often used in scripture has not obviously a reference to literal thirst but a reference to a spiritual condition for someone to be thirsty is to realize they're lacking to realize to say your thirsty is realized you're in desperate need of help to be thirsty is to realize that you're a sinner in need of grace in a need of redemption this is why the invitation is for the thirsty is for those who know they don't have it all together and by the way that the whole idea of thirsty is just not a concept we get in our modern day here we are in Charlotte and North Carolina in 2022 and I say hey it's for the spiritually thirsty the problem is very few of us have ever really been thirsty I mean how many of you have I mean maybe you went for a run in your thirsty but that's not what we're talking about here in the ancient world it was not uncommon to be thirsty in near death water was not available in the in the desert worlds oftentimes when you will be on long journeys it was not unusual to be thirsty to realize that you are dying if you don't get water soon and if you've never been in a real desert and really felt the the some beating down on you in the parking in your mouth and feeling like every bit of moisture is evaporating off your skin it's hard to know what an ancient person would see this as but an ancient world to be thirsty is to be near death to be on your pathway to dying and God wants to make it very clear this marketplace is for those who know they are desperately needy spiritually it's not for those who think they've got it all together and all figured out but it's not just thirsty I want you notice it's also those who have no money look at the other part of verse one the better word here in our modern parlance is bankrupt this is a marketplace for the bankrupt now what is this referring to spiritually here's what's interesting this is an amazing combination it's one thing to know you have a need that's thirsty the reason I think God add bankrupt here is because he wants to make a second point which is it's not just that you have to know you have a need you have to know that you are unable to fill it yourself by the way it's that second thing that's so key most of us might recognize our need we might recognize we're sinful people we might recognize we're imperfect but we might think we can solve it ourselves we might think we have the resources the ability to overcome it I can just work harder do more be better fix the problem God says no not only do you have a need your bankrupt you have no ability to fix it on your own by the way did you notice the invitation is not just to the poor it's to those with no money that's very important here because God doesn't want to say well if you have a little money to contribute all contribute the rest of them in the middle now God is saying this marketplace is for those who have no money at all this means that we don't bring anything to salvation on our own we don't make any contribution on our own that God does it all now this is hard for us as people as Christians we want if for honest with ourselves we kind of want to pay a little bit for salvation that's it we're taught in our world that well maybe all can contribute a little bit and God can contribute a little bit and we'll meet in the middle and God says no this is a marketplace like no other the only way you buy in this market is by trying not to the only catch in this marketplace is that the only people we let in are with do have no money do you imagine that you imagine showed up at a marketplace that's all roped off and they say well you got to enter into the gate and they're like well do you have any money and you're like yeah I got lots of money like well this isn't for you this isn't the marketplace for you're like what wait hold on I can only get in here if I have no money yep that's the gospel that's grace God turns everything on its head by the way that's what makes the gospel good news it's for those who are thirsty and those who are spiritually bankrupt for those who aren't thirsty for those who think they have it together spiritually for those who think they have plenty of spiritual money to spend they're not invited it's not that God doesn't want to have a relationship with those people but they'll never come if they're satisfied on themselves they'll never come to this invitation so this is a market like no other now I thought this week how do you take something like this and put it into modern terminology I I couldn't help but think back and you'll resonate with this because everybody has experienced this as a child growing up I want you to think back to your days in elementary school when you're on the playground and it's time to pick teens for kickball okay you remember that horrible experience we all know it right somehow two people end up as captains I never know how this happens but two people end up as captains and then everybody else lines up it's this moment of embarrassment and shame because what is every kid hoping for just please Lord and let me not be the last one picked right and you know how it goes they start off with the most the best athletes the greatest players and then they whittle the way down to okay fine I'll pick you I'm mad about it but you okay you're on my team and that whole experience we all remember our childhood and want to block it out but imagine one day that you're on the playground and things just go very differently what does the captain step that there and said that kid with crutches there with his friend ankle I'll pick him there would be like you don't really understand the game very well do you and then what have you said that the kid on the end of there is overweight and is slow and no one ever picks him I'm gonna I want him on my team and then what the captain said you know that little kid over there who hasn't hit his growth spurt yet and he's always last he's the run of the litter I want him on my team and then he goes through and he picks the weakest the smallest the least likely that is the kingdom of God and here's what God will do God is going to pick that team you know he's gonna do he's gonna win with that team and when he wins with that team he will get the glory grace is the way the gospel works and grace is for people who are weak like us and grace is God all the glory that brings us to our final point fifth thing I want to bring to your attention today as we look at this invitation we've seen the nature of it it's spiritual it's the God we've seen the manner of it God is earnest we've seen the motive it's the love that God has for David ultimately in Christ we've seen the recipients it's for the thirsty in the bankrupt and now we come to the last and that is the reasons to accept this invitation why should you come you know what's interesting about invitations I don't have you ever noticed this before people rarely when they give you an invitation rarely give you reasons to accept it if they're inviting you to a party they don't say in the invitation normally by the way this is going to be the greatest party of all time don't miss this one this is going to be amazing the people don't do that they say I'm having a party I don't want you to come or I have a wedding I want you to come they don't actually give you a four-point outline on why should accept their invitation which you know what God does when he invites us he actually gives us reasons to accept it it gives us a reason why we would follow this invitation what's interesting about this passage God gives us a little bit of a negative reason and a positive reason I want you to notice here in verse two here's the negative reason why do you spend your money for that which is not bread and your labor for that which does not satisfy God says you know why you should accept this invitation because you're wasting your life pursuing your false gods you notice what he says in verse two why do you spend your money by the way this is the only time money is spent in this passage and God's marketplace you don't spend money and notice what he says in the Israelites you are spending money but you're spending it on what isn't bread if you come in my marketplace I'll give you a real bread and it's free do you realize what he's saying he's saying what you're doing with your life doesn't make sense you're spending your effort for something that's not bread but I'm offering something that is bread and I'm not going to charge you anything for it why are you wasting your life chasing idols this is the first reason God gives for why we should accept this invitation because the idols we're chasing are destructive and a waste of our life you don't want to be an idol chaser serving false gods never ends well you know why because idols are horrible task masters they'll demand everything from you and you labor under their yoke and you get crushed by them and when it's all over there's nothing there you take the package and you open it up at home and it's empty God says to us I'm going to give you real bread and it's going to be free but here's the other thing that's the negative reason why should we accept it but there's a positive reason look at look at the rest of verse two listen diligent to me and eat what is good and delight yourself in rich food actually the old and ivy put this better the old and ivy says delight yourself in the richest affair God is saying if you come to me I will give you a spiritual feast beyond your wildest dreams water milk wine the reason that is a resonate with us because water milk and wine aren't that rare in our world but in the an e world the ancient years can world water was even rare and then have milk that'd be amazing and have wine well that must be the the height of existence to have wine is to have some sort of gram blessing to be the richest person possible and God as I said I'm gonna give you water I'm gonna give you milk I'm gonna give you wine all of that is in me why should you accept the imitation to be with God here's the answer because it's better than anything else you could choose it's simply better it's like offering a great feast to someone and them saying well you know I really like mac and cheese and chicken fingers it's like no you ever had a good meal why would you settle for that here's the point we cannot live the Christian life always convinced that everything we're leaving behind is more wonderful than than God the only way to live the Christian life is to be reminded and convinced that God is better than everything else we could chase and as long as we're convinced everything else is better then we'll live the Christian life looking out of the corner of our eye all the time longing for something else when God is saying I'm giving you the rich feast don't settle for second best

as I think about that I want to close with a quote from CS Lewis this is a quote that you've heard before I probably used it before but I couldn't resist using it again because it makes this point so well what is the point the point is don't be so easily pleased with the things of the world God is offering you something better in himself here's what Lewis says and deed if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised us in the gospels it would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong but too weak we are half-hearted creatures fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in the slum because you cannot imagine what it is meant by an offer of a holiday at the sea we are far too easily pleased that's the message today God offers you a great invitation it's the greatest invitation in the world don't be so satisfied on the things of the world when God says come to me with no money with no price and I will give you a feast beyond your wildest dreams let's pray

Lord we're so grateful for this passage today remind us of your grace that's infinite rich deep Lord you're better than anything else we could chase or help us to come to you today not resisting or afraid that if there's any here who've been resisting who've been running they would have relent today and take you up on this invitation we pray all this in Christ's name