out of servant songs, but he is not out of things to say. So turn to Isaiah 55. As you turn there, I just want to thank you again for the invitation to be here, for the hospitality you've showed to myself and my family. Tom and Rita have to do that. They just show up at our house and they have to put up with us. But I don't think it's an exaggeration to tell you that For Joy and I, y'all have a special place in our heart. We love you. It's one thing to look at someone who is preaching the Word faithfully, but you have to have a church who hears and is obedient to that faithful preaching of the Word. And I can see that in you, and so I thank you for that and for your attendance and your attention this week. I know Old Testament prophecy can be sometimes difficult to get excited about and challenging to grasp, but it's here for our learning. It's here for our assurance and studying Old Testament prophecy like we have the last few days. should produce some very positive results in us. It should give us a confidence in the authority and accuracy of Scripture. It should give us a reverence in regard to God and His sovereign power and the working out of His plan of redemption. It gives us confirmation of what we believe about Jesus. We can see he's fully accomplished all that the Lord promised and all that the Lord requires. and also should give us confident expectation in our own future. Since in His first coming, Jesus fulfilled the promises of God in the Old Testament, we have every reason to believe. When we read the New Testament promises, we can trust He will return again. He will reign in His second coming. He will do again those things which have been promised to God's people. So those servant songs in the sort of second half of Isaiah help us to understand with some tremendous clarity how Jesus fulfills the Old Testament promise. So we had a bit of an introduction Sunday morning to that second half of Isaiah, and each message we've dealt with one of those servant songs. And now that we've covered those, I just want to spend a little bit of time tonight so you can see sort of the result of it, the rest of Isaiah, how it just flows out of the implications of what God's servant will do. And so looking at Isaiah 55 is an excellent opportunity to see sort of how those develop, the outflow of those promises. What we'll see in the text tonight is as a direct result of the work of Jesus, the servant king, God offers a gracious invitation to all people to come and be reconciled to him. Isaiah 55 is that gracious invitation. And so let's read this chapter. Isaiah 55, starting at verse 1. Oh, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters. And you who have no money, come buy and eat. Come buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me and eat what is good and delight yourself in abundance. Incline your ear and come to me. Listen that you may live and I will make an everlasting covenant with you according to the faithful mercy shown to David. Behold, I have made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and a commander for the peoples. Behold, you will call a nation you do not know, and a nation which knows you not will run to you, because of the Lord your God, even the Holy One of Israel, for He has glorified you. Seek the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return to the Lord, and he will have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor 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 than your thoughts. For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there without watering the earth, and making it bare, and sprout, and furnishing seed to the sower, and bread to the eater, So will my word be which goes forth from my mouth. It will not return to me empty without accomplishing what I desire and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it. For you will go out with joy and be led forth with peace. The mountains and the hills will break forth into shouts before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. Instead of thornbush, the thornbush of the cypress will come up. Instead of the nettle, the myrtle will come up, and it will be a memorial to the Lord for an everlasting sign which will not be cut off." This chapter, opens and as it opens you need to keep in mind what has led up to this gracious invitation in Isaiah 55. Last night we saw in Isaiah 53 that final servant song which describes the work of Jesus seven centuries before he's even born. He's the suffering servant who bore the sins of many. He bore our griefs and carried our sorrows and was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The punishment which brings us peace was laid on Him. By His scourging we're healed. That blessed promise flows directly into a section of Isaiah meant to encourage God's people. Isaiah was the prophet of Israel. After all, he's writing ahead to those who would be captive in Babylon and assuring them that God has a plan for their redemption. And so that's what the chapter between this and last night's text, Isaiah 54, that's what that's all about. Though their sin had brought them into captivity, God would not allow them to remain there forever because of his faithfulness, not because of their faithlessness. Isaiah 54 promises that servants work to Israel to bring them out of bondage, both physically and spiritually. You can look back at chapter 54 for just a moment and see this. In verses 7 and 8, it says, For a brief moment I forsook you, but with great compassion I will gather you. In an outburst of anger, I hid my face from you for a moment, but with everlasting loving kindness, I will have compassion on you, says the Lord, your Redeemer. And so after granting Israel assurance in chapter 54, in Isaiah 55, the servant's work is beyond Israel. It is actually opened up to anyone who is thirsty, is given a gracious invitation from God to enjoy the pleasures purchased by that suffering servant of Isaiah 53. But I want you to understand as we go through this, while all people are graciously invited, they are also divinely commanded. As is often the case, God's invitation includes a command. That's the way it is in the book of Acts. After all, the gospel invitation is declared and it includes the truth that God commands all men everywhere to repent. So throughout this chapter, God's gracious invitation is also humanity's singular obligation. Compassionate commands just fill the text of this chapter. And you can hear the compassion and the commands. Come to the waters. Come, come and partake. Delight yourself in God's provision. Listen to me. Come to me. Seek the Lord. Call on him. Forsake your wicked ways. Return to the Lord. This gracious invitation to be accepted is also a command to be obeyed. The invitation is extended through the person and work of Jesus Christ, the Servant King. When we obey the gospel and embrace salvation through the Lord Jesus and through faith in Him, Isaiah 55, as it presents this gracious invitation, shows us six spiritual blessings provided for the servants of God by the Servant of God. God's servant provides six spiritual blessings for all believers to enjoy. And I want to just walk through those six tonight. The first one is a satisfying supply in verses one and two. Verse one says, ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters and you who have no money, come buy and eat, come buy wine and milk without money and without cost. The chapter opens, oddly enough, with the voice of a merchant shouting for customers, right? The first word, ho, it's actually, it's just a exclamation for attention. What we would probably do today is, hey! In this case, this is actually a merchant who is selling water. It's a water merchant, and that doesn't necessarily track with us, but it was common in that culture. It was as common in that culture as if we went to a Braves game and heard a merchant shouting, hey, popcorn, peanuts, ice cold soda here. But if we went to a Braves game, you know what we would never hear? We would never hear anybody say, hey, is anybody thirsty? and broke, call me on over, I'm here for you. Yet those are the two conditions in verse one, you have to be thirsty and broke. This is an open invitation, it says for everyone who thirsts. Physically speaking, they're as little else so compelling as being thirsty. And I mean really, sincerely thirsty. Your tongue dries, your lips chap, your body starts to shut down. You can go a lot longer without food than you can without water. So often, because of that, spiritually speaking, thirst is used as a description for just having a desperate need. For example, the psalmist writes in Psalm 63 verse 1, my soul thirsts for you, my flesh yearns for you in a dry and thirsty land where there's no water. And so the invitation is made here with the qualification that the ones invited must be thirsty. They must have a sense of desperate need. And when they come, that need is going to be met with a satisfying supply. Now, how do we know that the voice of some ancient water merchant in Isaiah is really the voice of Jesus giving us an invitation to come to him? Well, you know when you read the gospel of John, in John chapter seven, Jesus stands in the temple and he echoes this invitation from Isaiah in John seven, verses 37 and 38. It says, now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, if anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. And who believes in me, the scripture said, from his innermost being will flow rivers of living water. Jesus alone can satisfy your thirsty soul. And if you know you're thirsty, you know you're in desperate need, then this gracious invitation is open to you. That's the first condition. You are invited if you're thirsty. But the second condition is you're only invited if you're broke. Look at verse one again. Oh, everyone who thirsts, come to the water. And you who have no money, come buy and eat. Come buy wine and milk without money and without cost. The implication of verse one is that there is a provision without price because that price has already been paid. You don't have to pay it because the debt has already been covered. Jesus paid it all. You see how Isaiah 53 comes into this then? Everything we own was placed on Jesus. You don't add your two cents worth to cover the cost. You are bankrupt. God's servant is the one who paid for all of your spiritual needs. Reality is, if we somehow could add our own two cents worth, we'd spend that two cents with no sense. Verse one, we find that sin has made us spiritually bankrupt. We have no ability to pay what we owe. But in verse two, we find that sin has also left us intellectually challenged. That's a nice way of saying, it's left us really stupid. Verse two, why do you spend money for what is not bread and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me and eat what is good and delight yourself in abundance. Y'all, not only are we spiritually bankrupt, but we spend our time and attention on unfulfilling desires. Imagine a person who is really genuinely broke and really thirsty or really hungry and instead of buying the groceries they need, they take the money and they spend it on something entirely useless. Like they go buy a snow globe. The prophet asks, why are you spending your money on what's not food? Why are you working for what cannot satisfy? We spend so much of our time and attention, our spiritual capital on sin, and it cannot save us. Spend our time and effort working in sin and find out it cannot satisfy. Maybe the best description I know of this is John D. Rockefeller. He founded the Standard Oil Company and became America's first billionaire. And when the day came where he was declared to be the richest man on earth, a reporter came to him and said, Mr. Rockefeller, how much is enough? And the infamous and insightful reply came back immediately. How much is enough? Always just a little bit more. It's never enough. The things of this world will never ultimately satisfy. So God says at the end of verse two, incline your ear, right? Listen closely to me and eat. Eat what is good. Delight yourself in abundance. That is abundant food, choice food, rich, satisfying food. If you're thirsty, if you're broke, Just bring your desperately needy and spiritually bankrupt soul to answer this invitation of God. And you will enjoy a satisfying supply for every spiritual need. The first spiritual blessing we receive through God's servant is that satisfying supply. The second is kingdom citizenship. Look at verse 3. Incline your ear and come to me. Listen that you may live and I will make an everlasting covenant with you according to the faithful mercy shown to David. In 2 Samuel 7, God made a covenant with David that he would establish King David's house and throne and kingdom forever. was called an everlasting covenant, in which one of David's descendants would be a son of David, but he would be known as the son of God. And now in verse three, God extends this gracious invitation to all who are thirsty, all who are bankrupt, to simply listen to him, come to him, that you may live and you'll find everlasting life for your soul in Jesus, the son of David, the son of God. Now, verse four confuses some folks. Verse four says, behold, I have made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander for the peoples. Who is him? Is it David that Isaiah just mentioned? Is it Jesus who is yet to come? Y'all, the best answer I can give is yes. God did give David as a witness of his graciousness as a leader and a commander for his people. But God also promised David an everlasting house and kingdom and throne. And David died. And it is the greater, the son of David, that will forever fulfill God's promise. Listen, that's the very argument that the apostles make in the book of Acts. They preached Jesus through those promises of David and then said, maybe a little sarcastically, David's dead. We can go check his tomb if you want to. Jesus, the son of David, lives. And so, for example, Acts 13, 34 quotes verse three of our text to say that, as for the fact that God raised Jesus from the dead, no longer to return to decay, he has spoken this way, I will give you the holy and sure blessings of David. This is Jesus in this promise. So while David is a witness and a leader and a commander, As described in verse four, Jesus is a greater witness, the ultimate leader, and the everlasting commander of God's people. He is the servant king and God is extending this gracious invitation for all people to serve in his kingdom. Note that word people in verse four is actually plural. Again, we talked about this kind of thing last night. It's peoples. Then it's kind of interesting since the word people already implies plurality. It certainly seems like the point is to say not just these people, but all peoples. Not only has God extended this invitation to all kinds of people, but he's also promised that all kinds of people will in fact come. In verse 5, the voice of God speaks directly to Jesus, the servant king. Behold, you will call a nation you do not know, and a nation who knows you not will run to you because of the Lord your God, even the Holy One of Israel, for He has glorified you. All the way back here in Isaiah, seven centuries before Jesus is even born, God is foreshadowing what we might call the gospel era. It's not just a servant king for Israel. Unknown nations, He says, unknown peoples are going to find citizenship in His kingdom because Jesus will call them and they will run to Him, God says. Now how is that going to be fulfilled? How will Jesus call nations and they'll run to Him? Well, what if the fulfillment is like this? that Jesus comes as the suffering servant, bearing the sins of his people, rises again to give them everlasting life. And then just before he ascends to heaven, he tells those people, all authority is given me in heaven and earth. Go and make disciples of all nations and baptize them and teach them all of my commands. In the process, many of them are going to hate me, but many of them will run to him. And find citizenship in the kingdom of Jesus, the servant king. So the first spiritual blessing is satisfying supply. The second is kingdom citizenship. The third spiritual blessing, verses six and seven, divine reconciliation. Verse six, seek the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near. You know how you sometimes see a commercial on TV or an advertisement in a magazine and there is fine print, really tiny. Prices and participation may vary. Limited time only, not available at every location. Very often that fine print is there to hoodwink potential customers into coming and then finding they're gonna end up paying more than they thought. Well, God's gracious invitation here is for all the thirsty and the broke, the bankrupt, to come and freely enjoy His spiritual blessings through Christ. But would it surprise you that some of those disclaimers are there? Like, limited time only? Not available at every location? Here they are in verse six. They're not hidden. It's not deceptive. I'm willing to bet that verse six in your Bibles printed with the same font verse one is. It's just as big. The Lord is making his conditions clear up front. This is a limited time offer. Seek the Lord while he may be found. It's not available in every location. Call upon him while he's near. This is a quandary because we might ask ourselves, well, At what time is God, who is eternal, unable to be found? Or where can we go that God, who is omnipresent, isn't near? And the simple answer is, die in your sins without Christ and you'll find out. Those of us who believe in the precious truth of God's sovereignty have many times, unfortunately, abused that sovereignty by ignoring the urgency of appealing to lost sinners. God, in His sovereignty, has made clear there is a window of opportunity that someday will be closed. This should be taken seriously by believers as an urgent call to declare the gospel of Jesus. This should be taken seriously by unbelievers as an urgent call to obey the gospel of Jesus. This gracious invitation that is available to you tonight may not be available to you tomorrow. You can take Isaiah's word in the Old Testament, right? Seek the Lord while he may be found, call on him as well he's near. Or you can take the words of urgency from the Apostle Paul in the New Testament. Now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation. I can assure you by the authority of God's word, the invitation is not open forever. The implication of verse 6 is very clear. You delay at your own peril. Verse 6 tells us that we should come to the Lord without any delay, without any wait. Verse 7 insists we ought to come to the Lord without any hesitation, without any reservation whatsoever. Verse 7, let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let's just stop there for a second. Let's take a moment to be clear about the nature of repentance that accompanies saving faith. And if you're struggling with whether or not you've genuinely believed in Jesus, I plead you to listen to this here. The kind of repentance that accompanies salvation is not only being remorseful over sin, it's being willing to walk away from it. It is a change of what you believe so much that it creates a change in how you behave. It's not to say that a truly saved person will somehow become perfect in this life. You and I will not do that. We still have a sinful nature. We make a mess of things. But I am saying that a truly saved person will live in a way that shows that they are walking away from that sinful life and are walking with Jesus. That's what the word forsake means in verse seven. Forsake, put them away, leave those wicked ways behind. Too many times we've seen people who proclaim repentance and faith in Jesus, but all too soon it is Jesus and his word that they're leaving behind as they walk back to the very things that they left in the world. This usually happens because they've tried to conform to some outside semblance of righteousness, but have never truly been changed on the inside by Christ. Listen, you can clean yourself up in the eyes of your neighbor, You can sit down in a church pew and do it year after year and decade after decade and still be as hell bound as you were when you started. True repentance is not just conforming externally, it's being transformed internally. Look at what Isaiah says, let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man, his thoughts, right? Not just change what you're doing, but there's a change in your way of thinking. If you want to partake in this gracious invitation, if you feel an urgency to seek the Lord without delay, you need to understand it requires you to turn from your sin without reservation. You're called to repent, to forsake, to utterly abandon wicked ways and unrighteous thoughts. We were going through Savannah earlier today. We passed one of the many church signs, and one of the church signs described just the nature of all the people who were welcome to attend. The theme being, come as you are. Listen, you can absolutely come as you are, but not if you intend to remain what you were. Now there's cause for joy here because nobody is too bad for Jesus to save. He invites all the people with wicked ways and unrighteous thoughts to accept this invitation. The same God who demands repentance and change at the beginning of verse seven, that God promises forgiveness and mercy at the end of verse seven. Just look at it. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return to the Lord and he will have compassion on him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon. If you're thirsty for God and you know that you're spiritually bankrupt, you can respond to this gracious invitation by forsaking your wicked ways and your unrighteous thoughts. Seek the Lord. Call on Jesus. See His servants as your Savior. And you know what the response will be? It'll be compassion. It'll be pardon. The word compassion is the Old Testament word here that means essentially to greet someone with love. God's not going to hold you at arm's length until you get cleaned up enough. You're never gonna get cleaned up enough. But if his son, his servant has paid the price for all of your sin, and you have faith in him, then God greets you with love to come to Him. Repent, believe Jesus. You'll be met with abundant pardon, abundant forgiveness, the loving embrace of God. You'll have divine reconciliation. The fourth spiritual blessing is in verses eight and nine. It's heavenly insight. Why would we trust God's gracious invitation? After all, from a human perspective, when we've treated someone with unrighteous thoughts and wicked ways, we do not expect them to forgive us freely and embrace us with love. That kind of forgiveness doesn't make sense in our way of thinking. It's a good thing that God doesn't think the way you and I think. We have verses eight and nine. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor 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 than your thoughts. God thinks differently than us. Now we saw back in verse two, our mind is hampered by the effects of sin. Remember, we're intellectually challenged. We're really stupid. We'll spend our spiritual capital on what can't save us. We'll spend our time and effort on things that will not satisfy. Now in the immediate context, verses eight and nine are explaining the basis for verses six and seven, right? Those verses call on us to seek God, to call on Him, to repent of our sin, trust His compassion and His forgiveness, and you can do that trusting that He's got a plan that you are not gonna get your mind wrapped around. This is not the way that humanity thinks by nature. How many people in this world have been done wrong so that they would never extend forgiveness and mercy? From a human perspective, when we see sin for the offense it is, we're naturally going to ask, well, why would God hear me call? Why would He ever draw near? Why would God be merciful? Why would God pardon? I would never do those things. God's simple answer is, my thoughts aren't your thoughts. My ways aren't your ways. Y'all, I struggled with this very thing before the Lord saved me. I knew my sin. I knew the facts of the gospel. I couldn't wrap my mind around why God would promise forgiveness and pardon for me. What it would cost the life of his own son. Then I heard the words of the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians, which essentially just summed up as that the preaching of the cross is foolishness to those who perish, but for the saved it's the power of God. God's going to destroy the wisdom of the wise and void the understanding of the prudent. The salvation God provides through Jesus Christ, Paul says, is the wisdom of God and the power of God, even if it's foolishness to this world. You know, that was the apostle Paul's way of saying, Jason, God doesn't think the way you think. Don't allow the limits of your wicked mind and how it acts and how it thinks to place the limit on how God acts and how God thinks. We know that we would never find it in our hearts to do what God has done. Paul again says that in Romans 5, 7 and 8, he says, for one would hardly die for a righteous man, though perhaps for a good man some would dare even to die. But God demonstrated his love towards us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. It's unthinkable for the human mind. This is not only confirmation that God offers mercy and forgiveness that's beyond human comprehension, because he thinks and behaves differently than we do. It is also a call for us who are his people to abandon our former thinking and behavior and embrace the heavenly perspective of God. Just look at the parallel here in verse seven and eight. Beginning of verse seven, abandon your wicked ways and your unrighteous thoughts because verse eight, God's ways and God's thoughts aren't like your ways and your thoughts. So ultimately you're called to embrace thinking and behavior that is higher, that is heavenly, it is not earthly. Through the work of Jesus, God's servant king, you're given a heavenly perspective. Abandoning your old thoughts and ways and embracing the thoughts and ways of God that are higher, nobler, more glorious, more majestic. and ultimately more satisfying than our puny minds can imagine. Through embracing God's gracious invitation, trusting His servant in faith, you'll be given heavenly insight that is above and beyond the wisdom of this world. That's the fourth spiritual blessing. The fifth spiritual blessing is in verses 10 and 11, the nurturing word. First of all, how does that heavenly insight come to us? How can we discern the thoughts of God and learn the ways of God? Well, verse 10 says, for as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, And do not return there without watering the earth and making it bare and sprout, and furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater." Look, I got to tell you, verse 10 was on my mind when we were slowly creeping through the snow and ice to get down here last week. God sends rain. God sends snow. He sends it for a purpose. It waters the earth. It produces the life that we enjoy. It makes your grass grow. It makes your garden grow. It makes those fields full of corn and soybeans in Illinois grow. And I know this is in Illinois. So it makes your cotton and your peanuts and your onions grow. And your pecans or pecans or I've just offended everybody now. The purpose of God, Isaiah says in verse 10, of giving snow and rain is that it's going to accomplish His purpose. And I like the end of verse 10, it says, furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater. One writer said, condensation from above produces cultivation here below. This God-sent precipitation provides the seed that needs to be planted in the spring and that it grows up and it provides also, he says, the results of that in harvest time, in the fall. So whether you're sowing or reaping, whether you're planting or you're eating the bread, it only happens if God sends the rain and the snow. Now that's a great little lesson on botany and agriculture that Isaiah has shoved in here, but it hardly seems to answer the question, how are we going to get God's heavenly insights? Except, of course, that it does. Verse 10 is the illustration he uses. Verse 11 is the lesson that he's teaching. Verse 11, so, just like that, so will my word be which goes forth from my mouth. It will not return to me empty without accomplishing what I desire and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it. Y'all, seldom do I come to the pulpit to preach without first praying for God to remember that promise. And I know He will. Of course, it's ingrained in my mind from the King James text, right? So shall my word be that goes forth out of my mouth. It will not return to me void. It will accomplish that which I please. It will prosper in the thing whereunto I sent it. Can I just tell you quickly what this verse means for me as I preach? Because, as I preach, sometimes it goes well, more often I know that I have not done well. Frankly, there is no preacher in his right mind who feels like he has done justice to the text. But always I have to trust this promise that God's word will accomplish God's purpose. Right, if God can send a storm of ice and snow and ultimately use it to produce and grow things in the spring, he can send his word and he can use it so that there's growth springing forth out of his people. Y'all, that is great encouragement for a preacher. Tom, that means you don't have to make the church grow. You can't. You just have to be a rain cloud that's out to drench them every chance you get. There's probably a more encouraging way to describe pastoring than that. But here's Isaiah's point. God does the work. It's his word. This is so personal to him. In verse 11, he says, my word, my mouth, my purposes. Do not, you men who have the gifting and the opportunity to teach the word, don't come to God's word looking for your message. Don't decide what you want to say and then come to scripture seeking affirmation for what you decided that you want to say. Preach God's message. Or said another way, don't approach the text asking, well, what can I say about this? Come to scripture asking, well, what does it actually have to say? And you say that. But this book is inspired, it's God-breathed. It's His Word that's meant, He says here, to nurture your life like rain and snow that supports every act of cultivation from planting to harvesting. The scripture will cultivate Christian character in the people from beginning to end. You want to hear God's gracious invitation? It's here. You want to know more about kingdom citizenship? You start reading. Do you intend to forsake your wicked ways and your unrighteous thinking and embrace higher, nobler, more glorious, majestic thinking of God? This is where you're gonna find it because this word, it is profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, righteous instruction. It'll make you spiritually mature. It'll entirely equip you for every good work. And it will constantly, just constantly from beginning to end. point you to Jesus, the Servant King who alone is able to save your soul. So far the spiritual blessings promised to those who accept God's gracious invitation It's a satisfying supply, kingdom citizenship, divine reconciliation, heavenly insight, it's nurturing word. And finally, verses 12 and 13, everlasting praise. And y'all, this is a good place to end the meeting. Look at verses 12 and 13. For you will go out with joy and be led forth with peace. The mountains and the hills will break forth into shouts of joy before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. Instead of the thorn bush, the cypress will come up. Instead of the nettle, the myrtle will come up. And it will be a memorial to the Lord for an everlasting sign which will not be cut off." There's future good news here. But we also get a glimpse of kind of what I would say is the historic bad news. Look at verse 13. Instead of the thorn bush, the cypress will come up. Instead of the nettle or the briar, will come up the myrtle tree. Look, where do nettles and briars and thorns come from? Well, the answer's pretty simple. When Adam and Eve sinned, it resulted in the fall of mankind, but it also brought wide-ranging effects to all of creation. They had lived in a garden that yielded its fruit willingly and freely, but part of the curse was God told Adam, thorns and thistles are gonna be the new reality. Sin brought devastating effects to the earth. The way Paul describes it in Romans 8.22 is he says, For we know the whole creation groans and suffers pains of childbirth together until now. Since the fall, history is filled with men that are wicked walking through a world that is broken, and the evil and seduction of sin is just growing worse and worse. And without the intervention of God Himself, that is all there would ever be. But the Lord spoke to the prophet Isaiah to write to his broken people that one day the servant king would come and he would endure those thorns as a crown beaten into his head. He would reverse the curse of the fall so that all nations and all people and all creation might sing His praises forever. The thorns and the nettles in verse 13, they get replaced with evergreens. Verse 12 says we'll go out with joy. It's describing essentially like a new exodus, being delivered from bondage. It says we'll be led forth though with peace. This won't just be wandering away from bondage. There's a leader who is taking us to peace. Isaiah 9.6 calls Jesus the very Prince of Peace. There is no greater cause for eternal praise than Him. All creation, listen to me now, all creation is going to erupt to the praise of Jesus. Verse 12, mountains and hills will break forth singing joyfully, the trees of the field are going to be clapping their hands. Baptists are too serious to shout amen or clap their hands, but trees can do it. Trees ain't even got hands. Y'all understand that the idea here is that the sovereign God who can do all things that he wants to do, apparently wants to be joyfully praised. It's sad to think a tree could do it better than us. Creation praising him is not an idea that is somehow otherwise unknown to scripture, by the way. When Jesus entered Jerusalem to the rare sound of people's praise, the Pharisees insisted that he make those disciples shut up. And remember what he said? If they hold their peace, the stones are gonna immediately cry out. I almost saw that happen in a Baptist church once. The praise and worship of God that we are engaging in tonight should be a shadow of the everlasting praise of God that's going to happen around Jesus, his servant king. When Isaiah Watts wrote the hymn, Joy to the World, he was not thinking about the birth of Jesus, although that's how it is often used. Isaiah Watts wasn't thinking about his first coming. He was reveling in the worship of Jesus at his second coming. He took his theme from Psalm 98 and declared, there's going to be a day when all creation sings the servant king's praises. Right? Let heaven and nature sing. Let fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains repeat the sounding joy. How much should we praise God for this gracious invitation provided by His servants? Well, how great do you think God is? Because your worship and praise reveal your opinion of Him. Isaiah 145 verse 3 is as great as the Lord and greatly to be praised. You praise of Him as a reflection of your thoughts of Him and maybe as a whole we ought to be more enthusiastic about it. because Jesus, the servant king, will have everlasting praise. Listen to what Isaiah says at the end of verse 13, then we'll close. And it shall be to the Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off. This praise that lasts forever, is going to be for a name, for a reputation, is the description there, of the Lord himself. It's an everlasting sign. Nobody else gets credit for what God's servant has done. Not now, not ever. When you repent of your sins, forsaking your wicked ways and unrighteous thoughts, and you respond to God's gracious invitation and His gracious command here in Isaiah 55, by looking to Jesus in faith, All these spiritual blessings become ours, a satisfying supply for your soul, kingdom citizenship to serve him, divine reconciliation with God, heavenly insight into God's own thinking, a nurturing word to cultivate your life. And you're invited to the everlasting praise of Jesus for all that he's done for us. He is God's chosen, obedient, successful, and suffering servant. He is God's gracious invitation to be accepted and God's authoritative command to be obeyed. God's servant is worth all blessing and honor and glory forever. Thank you again.