Main idea: The Word of God is the true and powerful Word of our good King; come to Him and receive life!
The Bible is inerrant, without error, and it is infallible, unfailing in accomplishing what God intends.
Introduction: Genesis 2:25–3:7 – Is God lying to us? Is God good?
Hear the true and powerful Word of the Lord (John 7:37–39, Revelation 22:17): Come to Christ, the Word of God (Revelation 19:13) and believe in Him and live!
0:21
Thank you, Marty. Thank you, Susan. It's very exciting how different people are using their gifts to equip the body encourage the body of Christ here at Faith Baptist Church. It's really a blessing. It's great to be part of this family. So welcome to all of you. This is your normal, church family. It's great to be together, isn't it? If God is our Father, and Christ is our Savior, then we're we're brothers and sisters, right? So you look around. Maybe this is the first time you're here. But if you're in Christ, we're your family. And we get to love each other and encourage each other. So what a joy to be God's family and doubt Him as our father. If you're new, there's some ways to connect with our church. There's a QR code here and the weekly you can scan that with your camera on your phone, and it'll give you ways to connect ways for us to figure out how to serve you and how to help you get connected. There's also an information booth in the back as you walk out, you can talk to people there. As a church family, we do want to celebrate certain things. We celebrate 50th anniversaries and we celebrate engagements. Today, I believe that Julie Watts and Aaron Miller are here. I see Aaron is Julie here. Okay, but we're gonna celebrate anyway. And once you stand up, Aaron Miller and Julie Watts have been get to know each other. And not too long ago, Aaron asked to Julie if she would marry him. And what did she say? And she said yes. Okay. So she said, yeah, so let's give them a hand. That's great. Yeah. All right. Thanks, Erin. Yeah, so we want to celebrate that and pray for them that God would bless them in their engagement time and in their marriage. We're going to be in Isaiah 55. Today, continuing our Bible series on God's word is, is true. And it's gives us stability in a world of chaos. And we're talking about the topic of God's word being true and powerful. So look at Isaiah 55 with me, turn to Isaiah 55 and stand with me as we read God's word. As if 55 We're gonna read the whole chapter starting with verse one. Come everyone who thirsts, come to the waters, and he has no money come by and eat. Come buy 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 yourself enrich food, incline your ear and come to me. Hear that your soul may live and I will make with you and everlasting covenant. My steadfast sheer love for David. Behold, I made him a witness to the people's leader and Commander for the peoples we hold you shall call a nation that you do not know in a nation that you did not know shall run to you, because of the Lord your God and of the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified You. Seek the Lord while you may be found. Call upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, let him return to the Lord, that He may have compassion on him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon from my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My way is higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. Because the rain in the snow come down from heaven, and didn't return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, social my word, the that goes out from my mouth, it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose and shall succeed and the thing for which I sent it. For you shall go out enjoy and be led forth in peace in the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the fields or clap their hands. Instead of the thorn shall come up the Cypress, instead of the Briars are coming to Myrtle. And this will make a name for the Lord and everlasting sign that shall not be cut off. This is the word of the Lord. Let's pray together. God, we thank you that you are true and you are good. You never lie. Your Word is always reliable and trustworthy. We thank you that Your Word to us today in Isaiah 55 is tending to come to you, to come to you all who are thirsty and God we are thirsty, we need you. We need forgiveness. We need grace. We need strength. We need your perspective. We need wisdom. We need encouragement. And I pray that every person here this morning would hear Your word it would be encouraged to trust you because you are good, because you Christ our Savior. I pray for those here who don't know you that you would open their eyes to see the glory of Christ. They realize that Christ died for their sins and rose again, prepare for everyone facing different temptations toward sin that you would show them that your word is true that you want to give them what they need to resist and to be steadfast in trials and temptations. help all those who are suffering, people facing grief. People facing physical illness In difficulty you're paid especially for, for dot and for others. For Steve, pray for people who are facing different kinds of illnesses and treatments that you would give them strength, that you would encourage them today, show them that you're with them. I pray for all of us that you would make your word known to us. And help us to trust that your word is true and powerful. And we pray for you're ready to go out into the world and pray for Southeast Asia in the village that we spent time in as the workers there, go back and follow up this week, I pray that you would make your word known in that village and show people who Christ is. We pray that right now you would speak to us through Your Word by your Spirit, you find your name Jesus, and then maybe seated.
5:37
It if you're going for a hike in the summer, maybe this week, even when it's in the 80s, and you're really thirsty. Let's say your water bottle ran out, and you see a watering hole off to the side of the trail, you have an important question to answer. Is it poisonous? Or is it good? Is this water gonna give me life? Or is this water gonna kill me? Maybe that water has little bugs in it from animal feces. And if you drink it, you might die. Maybe it's saltwater coming in from the ocean somewhere, and it's gonna make you crazy. Maybe those skeletons laying around the watering hole or not showing you that it's reserved for skeletons, but rather it's deadly? You need to be where is this water good or not good? Is it true? life giving water or not? And the question that I'm asking is more relevant than you might imagine. You and I need to answer the question, is the word of God true? Or is it a lie? Is God a good king? Or is God not good? This question is one that we all have to face and answer day in day out with our lives. Are you going to act like what God says in the Bible is true? Or are you going to act like it's a lie? It will mean that we may never dare to say that God's word is a lie. But we can oftentimes act like it is. This is a question that Adam and Eve faced in the very beginning, right? We were living in a perfect garden paradise, living with God. He made everything good. Good. Good. Very good, right? And then what do you see in Genesis 225? Adam and Eve are there with God, this isn't the man and his wife were both naked and we're not ashamed. That's a picture is showing us that they are dwelling in perfect fellowship with God, in perfect fellowship with each other. No sin, no separation, no death, everything is amazing with them and God. And then interstage left the serpents, the craftiest of the beasts, right. And we know that Satan was working, speaking through the serpent. And what is what does the serpent say to the woman? And we know from verse six, that actually Adam was standing right there with her even though he's been very silent. He's actually there with with her and he doesn't say anything. The serpent says to the woman, Did God actually say you can't eat any of the trees in the garden? You can't even eat the fruit. The serpent is trying to cast doubt on God's goodness. He's trying to make you think, is God terrible? Does he even know what God's Word is a serpent trying to get her to really doubt him. Because there's all these trees around fruit that probably tasted like bacon through the taste of like cake. Amazing fruit better than any fruit we ever have around here, right? And Cena saying that God said, you can't have any of that. Is God just stingy and terrible? I mean, he's terrible, right? And Eve knows. She knows what God had said. Either God told her himself or Adam and told her or both. So she says in verse three of Genesis three, God said, you shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that's in the middle of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die. So she had a little bit about the touching, but she pretty much knew what God had said. And she knows that God has said this one tree, you can't eat that one or you'll die. So what did Satan say in verse four? You're not going to die. God's lying to you. He insinuates you tell us her God is lying. And then he says in verse five, why? Why is God lying? He says, For God knows that when you eat it, your eyes will be open, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil, will say always uses partial truths, right? He always likes to Half Lie half truth. Yeah, when they eat the fruit of that tree, their eyes will be open, they will know good and evil, but that doesn't make them like God, that makes them die. They're not going to become independent, and become little gods, even with God equal with God, by eating that fruit, they're actually going to die when they eat that fruit. Same lies to them and tells them God is lying. You can't trust him. He's not good. So at the heart of the question of is God's word true? Is the question Is God good? Because if God is good, that he's gonna tell you the truth. If God is not good, then he lies. It sounds like a ridiculous question, right? You look around us that everything God's made. You look at history, everything God's done. And you might say, of course, God is good. But how many times do we fall into the trap of believing this lie? That God is lying? And that sin is actually going to be good for me? That thing that God said I shouldn't have, it's going to be okay. Or God doesn't really love me when this is happening in my life. There's all kinds of ways we can believe lies. And what happens when Eve is deceived? And if that fruit and Adam not being deceived, but going right along with it and choosing to rebel against God use that fruit. What happens? They eat it and they die. The eyes of them were both opened verse seven And they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves linclass. The point of what they did there is they were ashamed. They were afraid. They're hiding from God. You see in the next verse, their relationship with God is broken. Death means separation, enter, enters into their situation, the separation from God, their relationship with God dies, and the relationship with each other, it gets broken. So what happens? Cain, their son kills their other son able, the world goes so so far south with death, abounding in every corner, that God says in Genesis six that every intention of their hearts was only evil all the time, so much violence. So much death came in the world that God destroyed the whole world, except for Noah and his family through the flood. Murder, wars, abuse, violence, genocide, idolatry, death, death, death has come to billions of people, including every one of us sitting here and standing me standing here, because of that choice to believe that God's word is a lie, and God is not good. And we're fooling ourselves. We think that now we're not facing the same question. Day in and day out, are we going to see and believe that God's word is true? Are we going to trust Him? Are we going to obey Him and believe in Him? Because we know that he is good? Are we going to doubt him? Are we going to believe that his word is a lie? It's not just an academic question. It's not just a philosophical debate with no bearing on our lives. What you decide about God's word being true, or not being true, is the decision of your lifetime. Your life hangs in the balance, life and death. Will you believe that God is good, and that His Word is true. And I want to show you from Isaiah 55, that you can trust God, His Word, God's word is a true and powerful word of a good king. come to Him and live. Look at Isaiah 55. We're gonna see here, two things that we talked about with fancy words. The word inerrant means without error, no errors. We believe that God's word is without errors. It's perfect. It's true. So one way to say that God's word as an errand is to say it's true. And God's word is infallible. It doesn't ever fail to accomplish what God intends. It's powerful. If God says, Let there be a gelato machine right here on the stage, making delicious gelato of all flavors. That would happen because God's Word is true. And it's always effective. He creates reality because what he says is always true. And it becomes true. And he says, Let there be light. He doesn't struggle with didn't say it right. He doesn't have to get the get the thing just right. He always accomplishes what he says. He is perfect. In his word. His word always does what he says it's going to do. Look at Isaiah 55. What is God's word to us. And as a 55, it says, Come, everybody has thirsts, come to the waters. And he has no money can buy and eat, come and buy wine and milk without money without price. God is saying, Pay attention. All of you are thirsty, who need come and get water. All of you who don't have any money, any resources to get this thing you need come and buy it. All of you come by without money without price. What is he talking about? He says buy without money? Well imagine, I go to McDonald's, and I pay for some food for you. And I tell them this is paid for and this is the person who's gonna come get it. And then you show up and you get the food you're coming. You're buying it, but you're having to pay for it right already paid for it. God is saying Come and buy what you need. It's already paid for Christ paid for it on the cross. He shed His blood, He paid the price needed to give us what we need. He says come while you are thirsty. What are they thirsty for? Well, God made us to need water pretty often, right? Like how long can you live without water? Not very long, maybe like three or four days. And then you're gonna die of dehydration. You have to have water, right? God created us to need water and his people depend on him for water in the wilderness. He provided them with water. When they were going off in exile they were they were thirsty. So he literally does give us physical water. But he's talking here about even more than that. What is that we need even more than water? We need a relationship with God. Every single human being was created in God's image to be in relationship with God. And if we don't have a relationship with God, we are thirsty. We need We are dying, we will die and be away from him forever if we don't have a relationship with Him through Christ. So We're all thirsty for God. We're beggars. Do we have what we need to get that relationship with God? Can we come and say here to God, here's my religious deeds. I pray these prayers. I did these good deeds. I gave this money. I was a nice person, I treated my neighbor well. We can't do what we need to do to get that relationship with God. We're beggars we don't have what we need to give to God. In fact, he invites us to come and receive from him well, we couldn't pay for something without cost for us a price has already been paid. And it's not just it's not just forgiveness, right? It's this relationship. This he talks about wine and milk feasting with him. He wants us to come to a relationship with him and we live as his sons and daughters forever. Let's look at the book of Isaiah and see why they were thirsty. Why is he saying Come to me all you are thirsty. Turn back to Isaiah one. Isaiah is written by the prophet Isaiah, to the people that you Due to the the two tribes that were part of Judah, and as Isaiah one, verse four we see what was happening with them. He says, Ah sinful nation of people laden with iniquity, offspring of evil doers, children who deal corruptly. They have forsaken the LORD and they have despised the Holy One of Israel. They're utterly strange, estranged. They're sinful. They're breaking God's laws. They're, they're worshipping idols. They're bait, their backs are weighed down and burdened with sin. They are rebelling against God, they have forsaken Him, they have turned their back on God. God is the founder of living water. Here's the Creator God and He wants them to walk with Him and be His people. And instead they said, No, it's okay. I'm gonna go make out of wood, a little statue and worship this, I'm gonna trust in Egypt instead of God. They're trusting themselves, trusting in idolatry. And so they are thirsty, they need forgiveness, they need to have a heart that's changed that goes to God instead of going to idols turned over to Isaiah five received further their their problem, why they were thirsty, why they need water, as a five verse 13. Therefore, my people go into exile for lack of knowledge. They're getting taken off to other nations to Babylon to Syria. They're honored men go hungry and their multitude is parched with thirst. They're hungry and thirsty. They're facing discipline from God. They're facing God's hand of discipline because they've rejected him and they're rebelling against Him. Turn over to Isaiah nine verse 18. Turnover as a nine verse 18 For wickedness burns like a fire. It consumes Briars and thorns. It kindles the thickets of the forest, mineral upward in a column of smoke, through the wrath of the LORD of hosts, the land is scorched, the people are like fuel for the fire, no one spares another, they slice meat on the right but are still hungry, they devour on the left, but are not satisfied. You just have ours the flesh of his own arm. It's a terrible picture, terrible description of the what they're facing, as God disciplines them because they have rejected God. They're under his wrath, facing the discipline, the wrath of God. And God is he's laying the he's pointed out in them, pouring out His discipline on them, and they need him. They're thirsty for forgiveness for a change of heart that will lead them to stop rebelling against God and go back to him. They believe the lie that he believed of saying, The God isn't good. His word isn't true. You got to figure out your own way to find salvation, God's not going to give it to you. And they are being invited as FFD five to come back to the Lord, to receive from Him forgiveness life. Look at Isaiah 12 verses one through three, we see what God wants to give them and what God wants to give us. Isaiah 12, you will see you will say in that day, I will give thanks to you a lord. For though you are angry with me, your anger turned away, that you might come from me. Behold, God is my salvation, I will trust Him will not be afraid. For the Lord God is my strength And my song. He has become my salvation. With joy, you will draw from the water, draw water from the wells of salvation. God is offering salvation to them. And he's telling them you can come and draw water from the wells of salvation. That's what he wants to give them, saying, Come all you are thirsty. You longed to belong to someone in God's saying, I created you to belong to me as my sons and daughters as my bride. He wants to make them his people. He wants to take them in and love them. And we see further in Isaiah 55 is not just Israel, God wants to do this for all the nations through the Davidic King through Jesus, God wants to make all the nations part of his people. He wants to invite people from among all those nations to come to him to drink the water that he wants to give. What is this water that he gives? That gives us joy that gives us salvation. It's the grace that He gives through the servant who suffered or we're gonna see Isaiah 43, or Isaiah 53 is the grace that God gives through what Jesus did on the cross.
18:54
If you look at Isaiah 44, verses two and three, he says that says the Lord who made you who formed you from the womb, and will help you if you're not Oh, Jacob, My servant, gesture and whom I've chosen for I will pour water on a thirsty land and streams on the dry ground, I will pour my spirit upon your offspring, my blessing on your descendants. When he says come, you are thirsty, and get water. He's talking about him giving us His Spirit through Christ. What did Jesus say in John 737? When he stood up in the temple, he said, Come to me all you are thirsty, come and drink a living water. And what did John say he was talking about? He's talking about the Holy Spirit he's gonna give right? God is calling them Israel. And then he's calling us to, to come to talk to him and receive living water. This is a true offer. His Word is true. It's not a lie. And they are they're beggars they need from him. And we're the same way we need a relationship with God. He's the only one who can truly satisfy us look as to why do you spend your money for that which is not bread and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Going back to our McDonald's analogy, if someone paid for you to have a bunch of McDonald's hamburger goes in french fries, and you ate into them. And actually we're ashes wouldn't be disappointed, disappointing. You thought you're getting bread or hamburger and instead you got ashes. Like when you're cooking over the fire your hot dog, and it turns into ashes because you picked it too long. Where your marshmallow for your s'mores, and you eat those ashes from that smore is that good? That marshmallow that's just carcinogens. It's just burnt. That's not good, right? That's what they were. They're spending their money. They were being religious trying to get what they needed. By laboring by spending and what they were getting wasn't bread. It wasn't satisfying. They were trying to get relationship with God, forgiveness, life, the same way that Adam and Eve were trying, going against God's word, without God, going after other idols and gods that weren't gods. They were going after counterfeit words. And they weren't finding true life. They weren't finding satisfaction. So the question for them, is the same question for you. Are you going to come to the Lord and receive a true life from him? Your soul longs to be right with God. You long for relationship with God as your Father with Christ as your Savior. That's what you really need, whether you realize it or not, and God is offering that he is the founder of building water he gives life and salvation. Are you going to come to him? Are you going to go elsewhere, going to being a religious person, or being a good person or going to whatever self actualization realization is not going to meet that need only Christ can? Only He can give you true life? If you've already come to him, and found that He is real, he is true, His Word is true. Are you going back to him? Keep going back? How often do we need water? Right? Not just one time I drank now I'm good. Like, we need to keep going back to Christ, not to get saved again, but to keep being filled by him. Why should we believe that God's word is true? Why should we trust what he says here about coming to him? Well, if you try this out, if you go to Christ, you will find that his true tastes and see. And that book that we recommended last week by Barry Cooper, what's the book called this says it's in your notes.
21:57
Can I really trust the Bible? He talks about reading through one of the Gospels. If you're wondering today, is God's word really true? I would encourage you do it. What he says in that book, read through the Gospel of Mark or the Gospel of John or read through any book of the Bible and think, who is Jesus? Who does he say he is? Consider what his claims are? trusted him, see if he really is speaking the truth. You will find if you put your trust in Christ, that His Word is true. All of us here who have trusted him, we see that what you said is true. Consider all the other ways that we try to find life and satisfaction. It's like verse to Isaiah 55 says it's not real satisfaction. It's not real life. So that's another way you can see this word is true. We see that God's word is true, though, because he himself says he never lies. If you look at numbers 2319 There's a guy named balem, who was a prophet who was contracted by the king of Moab, who was really nervous about the Israelites, destroying them. So the king of Moab bailout tries to get bail him to prophesy against Israel, and bail them can't do it. He can only say what God says. But Listen to Isaiah, numbers 2319. God has not man that he should lie, or a son of man that he should change his mind. Has he said And will he not do it? Or has he spoken really not fulfill it? God does not lie. Hebrews six verse 18, says it's impossible for God to lie. Titus one two says that there's no deceit in God. God always speaks the truth. People talk about Can God create a rock that's too big for God to pick up? And it's a silly question, right? Of course, God could pick up whatever rocky creates, but what God cannot do is go against his character. It is impossible for God to lie. what God says is true. And what God says he's going to do with his word is true to his word is powerful, that you can trust when numbers 2319 says you can trust when Hebrews 618 says, God's Word is true. You can come to him, and believe in Him and receive life from him. Because God always speaks the truth. Look back at Isaiah 55. He says in the universe to listen diligently to me, he was good, delight yourselves enrich food. God offers an abundant feast. The relationship with God does not like just barely enough to get by. When you come to Christ, and you trust in Him, you get everything that you need, and so much more. The way that He loves you the way that he showers His blessings in his kindness on you, the way that he helps you and strengthens you the way that he encourages you. The way that he's gonna bless you for all of eternity in the new heavens and new earth. It's far more than we can imagine. God gives us an abundant peace with himself. It's relational. It's God with you, you with God because of what Christ said. He says three times he says, Listen diligently Incline your ear hear that your soul may live. Listen, we need to have a disposition of listening to God's word because it's true. God always speaks the truth. We need to listen to his counsel. We counsel ourselves, right? You know that you talk to yourself more than nobody else does. Probably. You listen to yourself more than you listen. Anybody else? What counsel Are you telling yourself? Does it match up with God's word? Are you committed to hearing what God's word says to meditating on it to examining your own thoughts and counsel to examining the counsel and thoughts of others of the songs to listen to and the shows the watch and the things that we read and hear about, do we examine it in light of what God says? are we hearing him? His Word is true. It's powerful. Listen to him, stop believing lies, that you're able to save yourself, that you're able to satisfy yourself that you are your own savior. You need God, I need God, we are thirsty, we are needy, we are beggars, we need to come to him. That's the truth. Anything else is a lie. We need him and he freely gives himself to us. What he says in verse three, I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast sheer love for David. He's describing in the end of verse three, through verse four, and five, what he gives, what is the water that God gives? It's a covenant relationship with us. It's not just like a willy nilly, like, you know, when you go to the grocery store, and you're at the checkout line, when there's a cashier there, you're not entering into a covenant with that cashier. He or she is not committed. Like if you don't like the line, you can always change lines, you can leave your product there you can go, what you can't do is take it and then just run you got to pay, right. But you're not in a committed relationship. They're just they're just your cashier. When you get married to someone, that's a covenant relationship, right? But us being fallen, broken human beings, oftentimes that company relationship doesn't break. And there's there's a lot of brokenness there. The Covenant doesn't always endure as it should. With God, His Word is sure and true. It's impossible for him to lie if he makes a promise to be your God forever, and for you to be His people, that he will be your father and you'll be his daughter and his son, he will keep that promise, the covenant that he mixed with us through his surance that best love for David, it's a sure promise. What did you tell David? He told David in Second Samuel seven that his son, David son was going to rain forever on the throne. God describes this in Isaiah nine, that the Son of David who reigns in the throne is going to be a prince of peace, he's going to bring peace, wholeness, no more conflict, no more wars, no more abuse. He's an everlasting father. He's a mighty God. He's a wise counselor. That is the one that God uses the son of David Jesus, to make this covenant relationship with with all of his people, the people from Israel, people from the nations. That is the thirsty that the water that he gives the thirsty, he gives us a covenant relationship with him. That's what we need. Is there a better offer to say to have a better offer than that? Does the world have a better offer than then belonging to the everlasting Mighty God forever as his sons and daughters in a covenant relationship with Him? That is what we need. Like what you see in verse four and five, this David, or son of David, Jesus, he's described him as a as a suffering servant, starting in Isaiah 40, through 55, he talks about this servant who's going to suffer. He is also the one that is the son of David that God promised. We all know that that's Jesus. Jesus is the one who was promised. Look at verse four. He says, he's a witness. God's making Jesus a witness to the peoples, a leader and Commander for the peoples. He tells everyone what God is like he's a leader and Commander, not just for Israel, but for all the nations. He rose over all the nations. He's the king of kings, the Lord of lords, that is the true and powerful word of God. What will you do with that reality? Jesus Christ is Lord, are you going to trust that his Lord and submit to Him? Are you going to keep on rebelling against Him and hope that maybe you can win in the rebellion with Satan against God? Jesus Christ is king and he wants to establish a covenant where we don't get destroyed by the sword coming out of his mouth, but rather we get to be with Him forever as his people were diverse five, we hold your so called nation that you do not know. He's turned out from talking about the son of David, in the third person, him to second person to address the old you, this Davidic son shall call a nation that you do not know that word nation, you could translate that people, you'll help people, peoples, people that don't know him, so run to you, because the Lord your God, and the Holy One of Israel has glorified You. The nations are going to come to this Davidic King to Jesus. Some of you might be Jews ethnically, but most of us aren't Jews ethnically, our Greg, Greg, Greg, Greg, Greg, Greg, Greg, Greg, great, great grandparents weren't part of Israel, right? They were part of the nations that didn't know God. But now we have this opportunity. We've been called by Jesus, from all the nations to come to Him, to worship Him. And how does this happen? God glorifies Christ. He lifts him up and shows us who he is. Christ is the true Word of God, who goes out into all the world and says, Come to come come to me. Worship Me, you trusted me to go back to books to Isaiah 53. We see what Jesus did in order to make us His people to give us this covenant with himself. This is the word that he wants us to hear and understand. Isaiah 53. starting with verse three, this is talking about the suffering servant who we know as Jesus. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And that was one from whom men hide their faces. He was despised and we assumed to not Jesus was despised. He went through our sorrow that we deserved that we have because of our sin. prayers for of Isaiah 53 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, that we esteem him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities, upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds, 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. That is how God makes an everlasting covenant with us. That is how he satisfies the thirst of our souls. That is how he gives us forgiveness, and a relationship with Him that lasts forever. He put all of our sin on Jesus, and Jesus was pierced. For our sins, He was crushed.
30:45
And now he's able to give us his righteousness. Like verse 1011 says he's able to make us righteous because He's righteous. He bore our iniquities, so that we can be made right? So what do we bring to the to the equation, we bring our need our sin, and God supplies everything Christ pays the full price for our sin, everything. Listen to Isaiah 4522, to 23 turned to me and be saved all the ends of the earth, for I am God and there's no other by myself I have sworn from my mouth has gone out in righteousness, a Word that shall not return. To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear allegiance. To me, every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear allegiance. That is true, every knee will bow to God, and will swear allegiance to him. And beyond that we see in Philippians, two, verse 911, Jesus was crucified on the cross, totally humility, bearing all of our sin, considering us more important in himself than what does it say, God has exalted Him, and every knee will bow to Jesus, every tongue will confess to his Lord. So the question is, as you hear this true Word of God, and as a 55, are you going to bow your knee to Christ to submit to Him? Or are you going to keep on rebelling against Him, and one day by force by your need to him, every knee will bow to him every time will swear allegiance to him? The question is, are you going to do it now? Willingly? Or will you do it by forcing the end? He's offering to you to quench the thirst of your soul by you coming to him, and him saving you. His Word is true. Some people wonder, is God's word true? Is God really good? Because there's suffering in the world? There's abuse, there's war. There's all kinds of horrible things that people do to each other. How is it that God is good? And all those bad things happen? We think about in the beginning, when God made the earth, was there all that evil? No, God made it good. And in the end, the new heavens and new earth, Revelation 21 and 22, Isaiah 6566, it describes the end is going to be good, God will put an end to all all that sin, and destruction and death. There'll be no more evil. But in the meantime, in the middle, what is God's posture towards it? He keeps all of our tears in a bottle, right? He knows our suffering. He understands our suffering, Jesus, suffered with us, he came down and became a human being. And not only does he understand our suffering, Jesus died on the cross burying our sin, so that you could deliver us from it. He promises one day is going to take us out of suffering and evil. And now he he's with us. He cried with Lazarus, his family as he wept over Lazarus being dead. He understands your suffering. He's with you now. And he promises one day to deliver you from it. So you can trust that God is good. When you read Isaiah 53. And you see how Christ suffered for our sins, and He promises to deliver us from all the suffering that we're going through right now. God is good and His Word is true. We're seeing the second part of Isaiah 55. We should repent of our wicked ways and thoughts and seek the Lord because the word is powerful. Not only is his word true, so we should come to him but his word is powerful. So we should return to Him. Because they are 55 Verse six and seven. 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 him return to the Lord, that He may have compassion on him into our God, for He will abundantly pardon. What does God want? God wants us to come to Him. That is the true word. Even though Eve and Adam rebelled against God, even though every single human since then has rebelled against God, even though other nations rage and tremble and try to throw off God's rule, according to Psalm to God beckons. He cries out, seek the Lord really may be found, call upon Him, forsake your wicked ways and thoughts and turns, turn to the Lord. That's what he wants, he wants us to come to him. He wants a relationship with us as His people. So he calls out to us to come to Him, and His word is powerful. So you see here in this section, four different ways he's calling out to them to come to him. And then he gives them three reasons in verses eight, nine verses 1011 verses 1213 why they should come to him. Why should we trust the Lord, that His word is powerful and true? We'll look and see what we see here in these verses verses eight and 910 11 and 1213. His word is true and powerful. We should come to him what does he promise number seven, though first, everyone who first takes his way and his unrighteous thoughts and returns to the Lord the Lord has compassion on him. He abundantly pardons. That's the water he gives. He has compassion. He gives us what we need. He sees you. He sees me and he knows exactly what we need. He knows the forgiveness that we need. He knows the change of heart and mind that we need because our our thoughts in our ways get so twisted up and broken. He knows exactly what we need, we need him and so he gives us himself. He abundantly pardons. Now just a little part in like, okay, you don't have to be in the death row. You get to go over here where it's just really smelly and stinky and the president over there doesn't just like kind of pardon you. He abundantly pardons you says, You are my enemy. You are firing guns at me, trying to destroy me now and welcome you into my family and sit at my table, drink my water and my wine and my milk and eat my bread enjoy being part of my family. He abundantly pardons. That's the word that He gives us. Are you going to trust that word? Or do you think you have to try to try to earn it like, Okay, God, I know you get if I do this, then will you love me more? No, you don't have to earn his love, right? You don't have to try to work for it. You can trust in Him, seek the Lord or maybe found call upon him while he's near. Why does he say that? Today you're hearing God's word, you're hearing the word spoken in red. What's your response? You don't have five minutes. We're not necessarily you don't have tomorrow, we don't know Christ could come back. Any of us could be gone from this earthly life. And what you have chosen to believe about God's word will be your final decision. If you've chosen to reject God, and then you enter into eternity through your physical death, that's going to be your position, you're going to be rejecting God forever, under his wrath. But today, you have the opportunity. You're hearing his word, he may be found today he's near, call upon Him, trust in Him. Today is the day of salvation, trust in Him, returned to the Lord Hill abundantly pardon. Look at verse eight, and nine. He gives them one reason why they should turn to him from themselves, says My thoughts are not your thoughts. neither are your ways my ways declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts. God's ways, and thoughts are higher than ours. He is far above us. His thinking is true and pure and right. There's no deception in his thinking. There's no evil in his ways. We always are lower, His ways are higher. And so we should turn from our way, like what did Adam and Eve think? What what did you think when Satan lied to her? So well, I got to try to become like God, and become independent of God, because God's not really good. He's trying to keep me from something good. Her ways and her thoughts were wicked, they're, they're twisted, they were deceiving her. There's so many ways that our thinking and our living can be twisted, and not fitting with what God's way is. So we need to come to Him for sake our way of thinking our way of living in common embrace his way of thinking his way of living. In the biblical counseling room, we talked about putting off and putting on right, we need to put off our way of thinking and our way of living and put on Christ way of thinking and living. What is our way of thinking and living when someone wrongs us? I gotta fix it to make it right. If I don't rectify this, nobody will. What is God's way? Love your enemy, pray for them. Vengeance is Mine says Lord, I will repay. We started going through suffering, everything's going wrong. In our lives. Our way of thinking is all God was hate me. What do I do to deserve this? What does God say? I'm with you. This is something that I'm with you and I'm going to help you to go through it. I'm gonna give you strength. We face sin and temptation. And our way of thinking is, Oh, it's too hard. How can I do this? God says, No, I'm gonna give you what you need. You have Christ, you have everything you need, through my spirit, through my word, we can trust him. His ways are higher than our ways and his thoughts are higher than our thoughts. So we should come to him. His ways are better. It's mind blowing, when you come to understand the gospel, how how God has chosen to love us and save us and make us as people forever. Who could imagine this plan that God has chosen, the god is laid out, that God would send himself his own Son to earth to die in our place to make us forever as people, he would pay the full price, so you could freely give to us this water of life. It's amazing. We should come to Him and trust in him. See, the next section. God's word is powerful. It doesn't come back boy. Look at verse 10, and 11, as the rain and snow come down from the heavens didn't return but what are the earth making bring forth in sprout, giving a seed to the sower and bread to the eater? So my social my word be that goes out from my mouth. It should not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose and shall succeed and the thing for which I sent it.
39:33
Some of you maybe I saw your yard got greener after a rain a week ago, right? When the rain comes, the grass gets greener things grow, or when people made in God's image who are smart and figure out irrigation system cells and makes things grow. But the point is the water causes growth to happen. And then if you're a wheat farmer, you harvest that wheat. You take and mash it up and you make flour then you make bread, like we eat, right? God provides and then there's the result of us being able to eat and benefit from that. It has an effect We see hear God's word is like that only it's more infallible, it's more trustworthy, even in the rain or the snow, you can count on what God says happening. God's Word always is fulfilled, it always comes true. When God said, Let there be light, there's light. When he says that there be a star in the sky, or a moon or a sun, it happens. Whenever God says happens. He never struggles to make the thing that he said happen. It's his word is powerful and effective. He tells Mary, who's a virgin, you're going to be pregnant, and the child in your room is going to be the Son of God, the Holy Spirit's gonna put him there happens, he tells Abraham and Sarah who are very old and can't have kids anymore, you're gonna get pregnant, and happens. He tells Hezekiah, that he's going to deliver him from all of those Syrian troops, the 185,000 troops camped outside of Jerusalem, who are going to destroy them. In the next morning, they wake up and all 185,000 are dead. It happens when God says happens. Jesus tells the Paralyzed guy, Your sins are forgiven, and his sins are forgiven. He says to the paralyzed, gotta get up and walk, he gets up and walks, His muscles are healed, he tells the blind guy, you're healed. Whatever God says happens. His word is powerful. So we're going to believe that, as you trust what he says, you'll see His Word is true and powerful. He does things in your life. He gives you joy, where you didn't have joy. He gives you strength where you didn't have strength, He forgives you, where you had guilt and fear and shame. He gives you hope, or you didn't have hope. He gives you power where you didn't have power. He speaks in what he wants to happen, happens. We can trust God's word. There's a couple of objections people have, to God's word being true. One of them is that we don't have the original manuscripts in our hands, the original things that the people wrote down the original authors of the Bible, but we do have are lots of copies. We have over 5800 copies of the New Testament, in Greek and then 1000s more copies in other languages. We have so many copies, but we can be confident that what we have in our Bibles is exactly what God's word is. We can trust this. It's God's word. All 66 books are God's Word, you can trust that this is God's word to us. And it's true. It's way more evidence of what the originals are than we have any other document in antiquity. And we don't doubt those documents. Another thing that makes people wonder about God's word being true, is apparent contradictions. For example, there's three stories about Jesus healing a blind guy around Jericho. So Luke 18, as Jesus draws nearer to Jericho heals a blind guy. And Mark 10, as he says, leaves Jericho, he heals another blind guy, and then in Matthew 20, as Jesus leaves, Jericho hills, two blind guys. So the two apparent contradictions and I say apparent because not actually are that did you just feel a guy going integers Jericho, or when you left? Well, imagine this guy as he goes into Jericho gets healed by Jesus. Now you can see, it's gonna be a lot faster. And he goes and finds his blind friends and tells them where to go. Those blind guys go to the exit of the city, right? And then they go over there. And as you're leaving, Mark says, He healed one guy. Now these are the two guy two guys, wherever there's two guys, there's also one guy, right? So Mark didn't say there was only one guy. He just said that Jesus healed Bartimaeus, a guy who Mark knew his name. Matthew says he healed two guys. So he healed a couple of guys there. It just mark only mentioned one of them. So there's all kinds of stuff like that where people say, Oh, the Bible contradicts itself is not true. But the reality is, there are answers and solutions to all those apparent contradictions. But the greater evidence that God's word is true is what we see Jesus saying, Jesus, who either is Lord liar or a lunatic, right? Josh McDonald taught us those three words, right, that if Jesus is who he says he has, he's the Lord, He's God. And if he says, The Bible's true, it has to be true. If Jesus is lying to us, then he can't be a good teacher, where Jesus is crazy, then he's also not a good teacher. So either his Lord in the Bible is true, or he's not. And we shouldn't trust the Bible. And the confidence that I have, that I hope and pray you have is that Christ is Lord. You can trust that the Bible is true. So you can come to him you can seek the Lord, you can return to Him, and you will find forgiveness you will find life, he will abundantly pardon you and give you compassion. And now that you've come to him and your child, you think he's going to not want to give you compassion. Now, all of you are already has children. Does he want you to come to him now and give you compassion? Or just like Sorry, I already gave you the compassion I had. I can give you more today. No, he's abounding in love, abounding in steadfast love, abounding and compassion, to keep believing that His Word is true. Keep coming to him. Keep trusting in him. Look at the last motivation that he gives us in Isaiah 55. He says, for you shall go out enjoy and be led forth in peace in the mountains and hills before you shall break forth into singing and all the trees of the fields or crop their hands. He's talking about the results of this salvation that God is going to give not only Israel but all of the people of the nations who come to Christ he just say you're gonna go out enjoy it. You're going to be led out from exile from from slavery to sin in the mountains and the hills are going to break forth and singing. Imagine the day when the mountains and the hills and the trees are all going Yeah, They're all going out excited and cheering. Read Romans eight, the whole earth is under the curse. And when the sons and daughters of God are redeemed, and they're made like Christ, and we're led out and triumphant victory through Christ, all Christians is going to be so excited, way more excited to win your football team wins when we're excited than when you win the lottery. We were excited when you got cured of cancer. We were excited that anything. When Christ is leading all of his people, all of his family out, and all of all of Christians being freed from the curse, there's no more sin, no more suffering, no more death. It's gonna be a beautiful day. And we're gonna enjoy all that because the word of God the Son of God was nailed to a tree he became the curse, so we can be freed from the curse. How is it that God accomplishes His word? His word, the word of God, the Bible is 100% true, and you can trust every single word that he says here. How does he accomplished his Word, the Word of God became flesh. Right? The second person of the Trinity has also called the word, John one Jesus is described as the word. Revelation 1913 says Jesus has a name written on him the Word of God. Jesus accomplishes God's will, as God speaks. The Word of God, Jesus accomplishes everything that God wants to do. He fulfills God's will God's kingdom. He's the Davidic king. He's the offspring of Abraham who brings blessing. He's the one who brings in the new covenant for God's people. Christ is the word of God, our good King, who makes God's word happen. So you can trust this. Because Jesus is making it true. He's making a powerful, it is true, that he's making it happen. He's carrying it out. He is the one who fulfills the will of God perfectly in all of creation, and in our lives, so you can trust him and come to him. I encourage you to think, what in what ways is my life not matching you up with God's ways and God's thoughts? God's Word is true and powerful. How does your life need to shift? How do you need to return to the Lord and trust in Him and have his thoughts and his ways? Are you coming to him and drinking? Think about that analogy of water? What's the water that you need from Christ today? How does he want to help you have what you need through giving you of Himself by His Spirit? Christ says, Come to me and drink. Are you going to Christ, day by day go but go to Christ and see how wonderful he is, as he gives you Himself by His Spirit through His Word. Let's pray. God, thank you so much for being such a gracious merciful God. We all deserve to be destroyed under your wrath, and yet you have given us your word of mercy, promising this eternal relationship through your son. Thank you so much Christ for suffering in our place, so that we can become your people. Thank you for inviting us to come to you and to drink from your living water. Amen.
Nathan Thiry is the Growth Groups & Outreach Pastor at Faith Bible Church. He enjoys biking and outdoor activities, and has a passion to see the gospel spread throughout our community and the whole world!
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