Isaiah 55

Isaiah 55:2-3

do we find much of Christ in the fifty-third, and which of the church of Christ is the fifty fourth chapter, is in this we have much of the resources of grace made with us in Christ. The first mention of David which are promised here, ver. 3. are understood by the abuses of the benefits which form to be from the regeneration of Christ, Acts xiii. 34, which may serve as a key to this chapter; Here is, 1. A gracious institution is left to come and take the benefit of good-gener, ver. 1. 2. Profiting arguments to witness this institution, ver. 2—4. 3. A promise of the benefit of this institution among the Gentiles, ver. 5. 4. An exhortation to repentance and reformation, with great encouragement given to him for parable and forgiveness thereupon, ver. 6—9. 5. The reformation of all this, with the certain efficacy of the word of God, ver. 10, 11. 6. To say this will produce, and the glory that will accrue to God thereby, ver. 12, 13.

1. HO, every one that thirtheth, come ye of the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, ‘buy and eat, yea, come, boy-wise and milk’ without money, and without price. 2. Wherefore do ye spend money for ’that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatten. 3. Incline your ear, and ‘come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live, and ‘I will make an everlasting comment with you,’ even the four mercies of David. 4. Behold, I have given him for a witness to the people, ‘a leader and commander to the people. 5. Behold, thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest who, and nations that know not thee shall run unto thee, because of the LORD thy God, and for the holy Oke of Israel; for he hath glorified thee.

We have here,

1. A gracious invitation to sinners in general, to come and partake of the benefits and ordinances of the gospel. Ah, may we that they be, no exception is made; the invitation to general and universal to sinners of all ranks and dogma: if they thrift for pardon, righteousness, and salvation, as those who see themselves perishing without it, then they may come and welcome to Jesus Christ: come unto the waters, Christ is the fountain of living waters, his spirit is wholly represented by this omission, and his ordinances are the pools; in these the foul mountains commonmen with the Saviour, and he difpures out of his lutees to the slutty; and he that hath as many, but and precious is the salvation of the gospel, requiring no meritorious qualification, nothing at one oem to recommend us to the all in favour, for indeed we have nothing worth his acceptance; we are utterly corrupt and inflicted, our hell is bad, and our farthest poverty must shudder and undermine; yet that is no disarmament: ’no, it is such, and such alone, whom Christ invites, and who will be persuaded to come to him to say and act. As food eaten and digested nourishes the body, so doth the promises of the gospel, when mixed with faith, prove our foals. Christ in his ordinances is to be fed upon, an word in the bread of life; and in his decrements we eat his faith and drink his blood, the sweetest and most nourishing food for our beds, called the rest of the world; even, any wear and milk; the invitation is repeated, because of our stupid backwardness, and Christ urges our acceptance of his mercy, as if it were to favour those to him, inflicted ‘at an unintended obligation contravention we. And lead we should hesitate, because mention is received a purchase, and we have nothing to pay, the whole is offered without money, and without price; Christ indeed hath paid for all the blessings he believes to the full; but to us they come free as the light which shines on us, or the air we breathe.

2. Christ’s postulate, with those who seek righteousness and comfort out of him. Wherefore do ye spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labour for that which is not bread? all the still and pains of the worldly-minded men intend procure them to be found in; corroding cares learn their gains, corrupt their enjoyments; the pleasures they seek to produce, are found in the milk of bread, and disappointment to perpetual but when they are better and more enduring position. And they who, by their doings and desire, would first relishably a righteousness before God, labour but in the furs; their bread is poison, their not, their not; the more they seek thus to enter into life, the better they advance in the path of death; for the of Christ there is no perishing right now, and all worldly enjoyments without his love and favour, and but distorting dreams; and death, too late, will advance the soul our perceive the next question. Happy they who are led to seek their happiness.

nefs from Christ alone, and from him to expect righteousness and salvation.

3. He exhorts them to hearken to his word, and embrace the true good, which he prefers to bellow upon them. Hear him diligently unto me, with such serious attention as the importance of the salvation of an immortal soul demands, and not ye that which is good; the glad tidings of good things, which the word of truth in the gospel proclaims, such good things as pass man’s understanding; and let your soul delight itself in fatness, in the pardon and peace, righteousness and joy in the holy good, which are provided as the richest scall for the believing soul. Incline your ear, and come unto me, Jesus would kindly, would earnestly court the sinner to take the riches of his grace. Strange! that we should need entreaty to come to him and be happy! here, and your soul shall live, or that your soul may live like spiritual and eternal being derived from the word of Jesus, and they who hear and believe in him can never die: and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the farer mercies of David; to strengthen our faith, God condefeends to bind himself under a covenant with his people; a covenant of his own contriving from everlasting, and which will endure to everlasting. The blessings of the covenant are called mercies, because man’s deters is utterly excluded; and mercies of every kind, whether respecting grace or glory; farer mercies, confirmed by the faithfulness of the unchangeable God, and as being the mercies of David, that is, of Christ his Son, by whom they were obtained, through whom they are disinclined, and in whom all the promises of God are yea and amen. Blessed, for ever blessed be God, for Jesus Christ.

4. Christ is promised for a witness to the people; him hath God the Father sent, to bear witness to the truth, and he is faithful and true. He came in the flesh, to publish in all nations the great salvation of God, and by his works and miracles sufficiently proved his divine mission: him we are commanded to hear and obey, for he is a leader and commander in the people; a leader, as he instructs and guides his people to walk in the ways of truth and righteousness, and having led them by his counsel, will bring them at last to his glory: a commander, the captain of our salvation, who will subdue all our enemies before us, and make us more than conquerors; who bids us follow him, and leads the way to victory and everlasting triumphs. Now, They who receive Christ’s word as true, will follow his example as their pattern, and manfully fighting under his banners, win through his grace, and wear the crown of righteousness.

5. Vult and numerous shall be the converts, that at the invitation of Jesus shall come to him. Behold, thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not, the nations of the Gentile world, that before were not acknowledged as God’s people; and nations that know not that shall run unto thee, denoting the eagerness with which the Gentiles would receive and embrace the gospel; because of the Lord thy God; because of the demultification of the spirit and power accompanying the word, and the grace and love of God in the gospel, which are most mightily confiscating, and because they now perceive there is no approaching a holy God but through a Saviour; and for the holy one of Israel, trusting on his faithfulness; or to the holy One of Israel, to Christ, the holy Saviour; on whose atonement, righteousness, and grace, they alone depend; for he hath glorified thee; God the Father hath exalted his Son Jesus, given him to be head over all, committed all power into his hands; and he is glorified when sinners come to him, out of his fulness to receive an abundant supply of all their wants, and this is an encouragement to draw near to him, since our salvation is his glory.

6. ¶ 5 Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near. 7. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for the will and abundantly pardon. 8. ¶ For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, faith the LORD. 9. ¶ For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. 10. For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and retruneth not thicker, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the flower, and bread to the eater: 11. ¶ So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing wherein I lent it. 12. For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall stop their hands. 13. ¶ Instead of the thirteenth shall come up the fir-tree, and instead of the brise shall come Vox. II.

up the myrtle-tree: and it shall be to the LORD for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.

6. 6—13. We have here the same subject of the return of sinners to God farther prosecuted.

7. They are urged to seek God from the consideration of his rich grace and readiness to receive the miserable that fly to him for mercy. (1.) The persons addressed are the wicked and unrighteous, for such we all are, and such Christ Jesus came to seek and save; they who know not this to be their characters, have no part nor lot in his salvation. (2.) The way in which they are directed to proceed. In faith, power, and penance, seek ye the Lord which he may be found, call upon thee which he is near. God will be found at them that seek him; this is his promise: therefore on our knees we must cry for the pardon and mercy we need, and he prefers to bellow, and this without delay, before his abused sentence call us off, and lay, my spirit shall no longer thrive; or death carry us to the tomb, when it will be too late in knock, because the door is shut. Oh howe should this awful consideration awaken our impetuosity, whilst the day of life and mercy lasts? Let the wicked forsake his way, let him turn from the paths of sin with hastening and abhorrence, not spare one darling lust; and the unrighteous man his thoughts, let not our dishonest desire of evil return, the views of promised grace must conflate the sinner to part with all readily, cheerfully, unbelievably, and to cleanse the temper as well as reform the practice; and let him return unto the Lord, from whom he had so greatly departed; to stand before him as a criminal licking pardon, as a helpless worm to find grace, and as a redeemed soul now engaged in his service, and desiring to follow him in all his holy ways, whoever thus seeks, will find. For; (3.) God promises he will have mercy upon thee; this, will abundantly pardon; no guilt to great, no iniquity to aggravated, but that there is with him grace abounding for the chief of sinners. And this is mentioned, not as the condition and reward of our repentance and prayers, but as the argument to engage us thereto; seeing we can neither repent nor pray till we see this pardoning mercy and grace extended towards us in the Redeemer. (4.) He answers an objection their fears might raise, guilt being ever ready to drive us to despair. They indeed who have never known the burden of sin, think it easy to believe in God’s mercy; whilst they who have once felt it, are soon convinced of the unbelief of their hearts. My thoughts, says God, are not your thoughts, in general with regard to his, Christ, happiness, &c. and particularly which seems here intended respecting the manner of the sinner’s acceptance: for whom we scarce dare believe he can receive such vile wretches as we are, he knows how to glorify himself in being the justifier of him who believeth in Jesus; neither are your many my ways; ours are perverbs, his pure; ours lead to death and hell, his to life and glory: we never could forgive one who had offended us as we have God, yet he can and doth freely and fully both forgive and forget it. Thus as the heaven are higher than the earth, so incomparably transcendent are his thoughts and ways of mercy and grace beyond all that we can ask of think.

8. The Lord engages to make his own word effectual. For as in the kingdom of nature, the rain and snow directed by Divine Providence water the earth, and caute its forcibly, accomplishing God’s purposes of mercy in providing food for men’s bodies: So, says he, shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth, the word of the gospel, of which Christ is the sum and substance; it shall not return unto me void, but, accompanied with divine energy, it shall accomplish that which I please be made effectual to the conversion of as many as the Lord our God shall call; and it shall prosper in the thing wherein I sent it, producing a plenteous harvest of converted souls, and leaving those inexcusable who reject it. Now, All God’s purposes and promises must infallibly take effect; and it is a great encouragement to all his faithful ministers to be affirmed that they shall not labour in vain in the Lord: to some they will be a favour of life unto life; to others a favour of death unto death, and in both God will be glorified.

9. The word being made effectual to the conversion of men’s souls, will produce great joy in the hearts of the redeemed; as was the cafe with the Jews when released from Babylon, to whom this may primarily be applied, and who herein represented the people of God going forth from the slavery of sin, their hands loosed, and they rejoicing in the glorious liberty of the sons of God, whilst the mountains and hills break forth into singing, as if congratulating their deliverance, and all the trees of the fields clap their hands for joy; which may expend the delight of the apostles and ministers of the word, when they saw their labours so abundantly blessed, and so many converted by their preaching, who rejoiced with them as so blessed an event. And the consequence of this was a wondrous change in men’s temper and dispositions. Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir-tree, and instead of the brise shall come up the myrtle-tree: and being thus removed in the spirit of their minds, it shall be to the Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not

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and be cut off; God having taken them for his own, will preserve them by his grace, below, and bring them to be everlasting monuments of his mercy, love and power in his kingdom of glory above.