Isaiah 55:6-13:

GOD’S PROMISES ABOUT HIS WORD

The slogan “Scripture Alone,” Sola Scriptura, means that Holy Scripture, the Bible, is the only place where God reveals what we are to believe and do. When a church like ours says “Scripture Alone,” we’re saying that every-thing we believe or teach has as its source something the Bible says, none of it comes from outside the Bible, none of it is from our own thoughts or wishes.

The Bible is God’s written Word. This is how we want to speak of it, not just as Scripture or the Bible but: God’s Word. The Bible consists of the words that God has caused, inspired, to be written down. So when you’re hearing the Bible, you’re hearing God’s words, God speaking. This makes it personal. God is personal. The Bible, God’s Word, God speaking, is God speaking to you. In Isaiah 55, God speaks about what His Word does. Hear these words as God promising what His Word will do for you, and those around you.

Sermon Text: Isaiah 55:6-13 (v. 10-13).

Lord, this is Your Word and these are Your words. Guide us by Your truth; Your Word is truth. Lord, do all things for us by Your Word. Amen.

In the name of Jesus, fellow redeemed in Christ:

In these four verses, the word “shall” appears 11 times. Eleven times! Shall is God’s word of promise: things He says He will do. These are promises He makes about you. His Word is what makes these promises come true.

Perhaps you feel that we live in a world that doesn’t need or want God’s promises and certainly doesn’t feel that it needs His Word. You live in this world and it affects you. Sometimes you don’t feel such a need for His promises. Maybe sometimes they feel like empty promises to you. The Word of God isn’t the only voice, and we must confess we listen to other voices, go after other things in life, and God can’t always get a hearing with us.

Jesus came to be tempted like this. He said to Satan, “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Mt 4:4). Jesus gives the picture in today’s gospel of how it is when God’s Word is resisted or obstructed, not allowed to take hold. He says it’s like stony ground, or dry parched ground, and like choking. All the other things leave you dry.

Jesus is using picture language that we first hear in Isaiah 55, where God pictures our life without His Word as a desert. At the end of this reading it talks about our life as a “thorn” and a “brier” that He changes into something fruitful. In the first part of this reading, He compares us to the earth that needs to be watered by rain in the spring and summer and snow in winter.

In order to get what God is promising about His Word, first we have to understand this part, what a dry desert our life is without God and His Word. Understand, this isn’t how we naturally see it. Your Old Adam thinks that you don’t need God, you’re OK on our own. It’s God who must reveal that your life is a dry desert without what His Word tells and gives you. He knows. Without God and His Word, there’s no eternal life, no joy, no hope, because nothing lasts. And because only His Word will tell you about Jesus your Savior, without His Word there’s no forgiveness, only unending guilt and no escape from condemnation, which would be a living hell.

So here in Isaiah 55, God tells us what His Word gives, and it’s beautiful!

1. God promises that in His Word you can know Him and that He’s close to you.

There is a lot of confusion out there about God. Also you are tempted to listen to the lie that God isn’t real. Because He is the Creator and we’re His creation, there’s a fear that you can’t really know Him. Also we feel so small in comparison to God, you get tempted to feel He’s far away. Especially when you suffer, you can feel that God is so distant.

But hear what God says in Isaiah 55:6: “Seek the LORD while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near.” He is speaking about His Word. He promises that in His Word you’ll find Him as He really is. He wants to be found by you, and in His Word He shows and tells you what He’s really like. Unlike what nature tells you, in His Word God shows you that He is your loving Father, that He is your dear Savior, and that He’s the Holy Spirit who is your constant companion to comfort and encourage you.

He also promises that in His Word “He is near,” close to you. He isn’t far! When you open His Word, God speaks to you. It’s personal. Even in the Sacraments, where the main thing is His words that are spoken in Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, He comes close to you, even into you. In His Word, “He is near.” He invites you not only to hear Him but to “call upon Him.”

2. God promises that His Word reveals that you can expect Him to be merciful and to forgive you.

Apart from His Word, you can’t expect to be forgiven. But the main thing in His Word, from the beginning to the end of the Bible, is that it’s about the Savior. It’s about your salvation. It’s about how God saves you in Christ. He saves by grace, which is His forgiving love.

So Isaiah 55:7 says: “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, and He will have mercy on him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.” This is a great verse about sin and grace. The first part is that you repent of your sins, as it says: to “forsake the wicked way” – to hate your sin – “and let the unrighteous man forsake his thought; let him return to the Lord,” in repentance. The question is, “Are you sorry for your sins?” If you answer “Yes,” the promise is for you.

If you have guilt because of your sins – and who doesn’t? – if you lack peace, if you think you’ve sinned too badly or too much, or that you have too much baggage, God here gives you a great promise. “He will have mercy … He will abundantly pardon.” Hear that? “He will abundantly pardon” you! There’s way more forgiveness from God, than you’ll ever have sin and guilt!

3. God promises that His Word will give you faith and protect your faith.

In order to get the benefit of what Jesus did for you, in order to receive God’s forgiveness, you need faith. You aren’t able to get this on your own. God gives it to you by His Word. “Faith comes by hearing … the word of God” (Rom 10:17).

But we sometimes doubt that God’s Word is strong enough. We think that our stubbornness may cause us to reject God’s Word. We doubt our salvation because we doubt His Word. It’s true, we are stubborn and it’s possible to reject the Word. God lets us know this possibility as a severe warning. We see it in Jesus’ parable. When it comes to evangelism and missions, we also can doubt that God’s Word is enough. We think it can’t persuade someone stuck in a false religion or who is worldly and doesn’t care about the things of God.

But God gives a great promise. He says: “So shall My Word be that goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.”

God promises that His Word will do what He sends it to do: that is, to give you faith and keep this faith alive in you. Also to bring others to faith, no matter what you and I think the obstacles are.

He pictures His Word for us like a messenger that runs forward from God to do His bidding. He compares it to the snow and rain that water the ground. A single drop of rain or snowflake weighs nothing, but you still can’t hold back the rain and snow! God’s Word is like that, it produces faith.

He also pictures how things prosper. Just as He pictures our souls without God’s Word as thorns and briers, now He says His Word changes things completely so it isn’t a thorn but a beautiful cypress tree, and it isn’t a brier but a beautiful myrtle tree. This means He is able – through His Word – to produce in you true knowledge of sin, true faith in Christ, and the strength to live a holy life– to bring forth fruits of faith in love for God and for people.

God’s Word gives faith to a person in spite of all the devil’s efforts to prevent it. The reason people believe – the reason you believe! – is as God says here, that “My word shall accomplish what I please.” Stick with that promise. His Word will form your faith, give you salvation, and keep you safe. That is why we sing today:

By grace! This ground of faith is certain;
So long as God is true, it stands.
What saints have penned by inspiration,
What in His Word our God commands,
What our whole faith must rest upon
Is grace alone, grace in His Son.

By grace! On this I’ll rest when dying;
In Jesus’ promise I rejoice;
For though I know my heart’s condition,
I also know my Savior’s voice. (#226 v. 5, 10) Amen!