God's Wonder Working Word Series

ISAIAH 55: 6-13

GOD’S WONDER WORKING WORD

After the call to come and receive God’s satisfying salvation free of charge, the passage instructs us to come in repentance also. We are called to repent of doing things our way because God’s ways and our ways are immeasurably different. Those who come to the Lord in repentance, ready to live life God’s way, find that He abundantly pardons. All need God’s forgiveness, His grace, and His new life. Though such transformation and its meaning for eternity is beyond our comprehend, it is not beyond God’s intent or ability. God brings about His purpose in life and in our life by His WONDER WORKING WORD.

I. CALLED TO SEEK GOD AND REPENT, 6-7.

II. CALLED TO GOD’S WAYS AND THOUGHTS, 8-9.

III. CALLED TO CONFIDENCE IN & RECEPTION OF GOD’S WORD, 10-11.

IV. CALLED TO BEAR THE FRUIT OF THE WORD, 12-13.

In verse 6 we exhorted to embrace God salvation when we sense His nearness. Seek the Lord while He may be found. Call upon Him while He is near.

Though salvation is a free gift, God must be sought while one is under the convicting power of God if it is to be received. If not, we either drift away, erect a barrier or harden our heart. We are commanded therefore to seek Him while He is near.

The Lord has come near man not only in the work of the Servant, but also in Isaiah’s preaching of the Word. God Has come near because He wants to comfort the despairing, forgive the sinner, and deliver the bound. What must one do to experience these blessings? We must seek the Lord and call upon Him.

What one is to seek is the presence of God and way of the Lord in one’s life. Seek His presence, His character, His gifts and His ways, for God longs to build them into us.

It is a call to start life over again under God’s leadership. He is ready to forgive, clean the slate and give you a new page on which to write a new history. We are commanded to do so before our day of grace runs out (Zeph. 2:2). Seize the opportunity His presence and conviction offer. The fire of God’s presence will either melt your heart or harden it. Do not harden your heart when God comes near.

An INSURANCE AGENT tried repeatedly to convince a man to buy fire coverage for his home. "No," the homeowner kept saying. "It’s well built, and I maintain it properly. My house will never catch fire." But one day it did! Imagine the look on that insurance agent’s face when the homeowner foolishly ran to him to buy an insurance policy-as smoke filled the sky and flames gutted his home. It was way too late!

Although this story was probably composed by an insurance man, it teaches the folly of presumption, and of putting off until tomorrow a decision that needs to be made today. This is especially important when it comes to escaping what Jesus described as "the fire that shall never be quenched" (Mark 9:43).

By paying for our sins on Calvary’s cross, Jesus has provided the only way of escape from the judgment to come. But we must make an important decision before we can enjoy that salvation. We must accept the offer while it is still good-before death overtakes us.

So don’t be foolish. Seek the Christ that died and rose again to provide eternal life for you, and receive Him as your Savior today. Right now, while there is still time, accept God’s free gift of salvation. You can’t repent too soon, for you don’t know how soon it may be too late.

Verse 7 exclaims that God is found by repentance. 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.

The call is to start life over again with God. Only if people forsake their way, which is the way of wickedness and turn to the Lord and His way will they authentically be seeking and calling the Lord. What it takes for us to seek the Lord is to turn away from our wickedness and our own way of thinking. Seeking which is not accompanied with forsaking our former way of thinking and life is not genuine seeking. The Lord is found in turning away from our way.

Forsaking is only is only one side of true repentance, the other is turning to God which implies a change of mind, purpose and conduct. Lives focused earthward are turned Godward.

When we turn away from our wickedness and our own way of thinking and return to God we receive His compassion and multiplied pardon (meaning forgiven a multitude of times) [Butler, Isaiah, 314]. [Unless God can pardon and transform man from his rebellion against Him and His ways without making a mockery of His entire system of justice, mere deliverance from Babylonia captivity will accomplish and mean nothing. Oswalt, Isaiah, 444].