God Teaches us to Profit
Isaiah 48:1-22
During my college years I thought being a Christian meant squelching my desires for pleasure and joy – and just following Jesus out of duty. So I tried to fight sin and go to church and read the Bible and disciple high schoolers and preach the gospel -- because I was supposed to; because it was the right thing to do.
But it didn’t go very well. My willpower regularly broke down under temptation, and I often found myself feeling empty.
But in my first year of seminary someone gave me an article by John Piper. This article gave me verse after verse from Scripture which showed that my approach to the Christian life had been wrong. These verses showed that God did not want me to ignore my desire for pleasure and joy. These verses showed that God wanted me to pursue pleasure and joy – in God Himself. And that changed almost everything for me; it was almost like a second conversion.
And this week as I studied Isaiah 48 I found a verse that taught exactly what John Piper’s article was saying – a verse that would have saved me a lot of spiritual struggle during my college years. So let’s turn to Isaiah 48 to see this verse. If you need a Bible, go ahead and raise your hand and we’ll bring one to you. Isaiah 48 is on page 608 in the Bibles we are passing out.
We are working our way through the book of Isaiah. Isaiah was an Old Testament prophet who wrote at around the year 700 BC. And this chapter was written to be read by the nation of Israel at the time when they were slaves in Babylon because they had sinned against God.
This chapter breaks down into two parts. First, in vv.1-5 God says that in the past He spoke and fulfilled prophecies so Israel would see that idols do nothing and God does everything. You can see that in v.5 –
I declared them [the prophecies] to you from of old, before they came to pass I announced them to you, lest you should say, 'My idol did them, my carved image and my metal image commanded them.'
Then second, in vv.6-22 God says that now He is speaking a new prophecy to them – that He will not pour out full punishment upon them in Babylon, but that He will free them from Babylon and bring them back to the Promised Land.
You can see that in v.9 –
"For my name's sake I defer my anger, for the sake of my praise I restrain it for you, that I may not cut you off.
Look also at v.20 –
Go out from Babylon, flee from Chaldea, declare this with a shout of joy, proclaim it, send it out to the end of the earth; say, "The LORD has redeemed his servant Jacob!"
And God’s purpose in this chapter is to call them to turn from their idols, and turn back to trusting God. And in v.17 he says something about himself to motivate them to do this. Look at what he says in v.17 --
Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: "I am the LORD your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you in the way you should go.
God teaches us to profit. That’s the truth I didn’t understand in my college years. That’s the truth that would have spared me much pain in college. That’s the truth that I saw in seminary, which deeply changed the way I approached the Christian life. And that’s the truth I want to focus on this morning.
As I thought and prayed about that verse, it struck me that there are three implications that flow from that verse.
First -- if God teaches us to profit, then God teaches that it’s not wrong to pursue profit. He wants us to pursue profit. Now there’s a problem here. In the English language, the word “profit” makes us think about money. But as we will see in a moment, God is not talking about financial profit. And the Hebrew word here translated “profit” has to do with anything that would profit, gain, or benefit us.
In other words, God is teaching us to pursue our profit, our gain, our benefit. This is taught throughout God’s Word. Let me show you two passages to back this up.
Look first at Isaiah 55:1-2 –
1 "Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.
2 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 yourselves in rich food.
So God wants you to spend your efforts on what is truly bread, on what will truly satisfy.
Here’s what Jesus said in Matthew 16:24-26 --
24 Then Jesus told his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
25 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
26 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?
So we are to deny ourselves, yes. We are to take up our crosses, yes. We are to lose our lives completely for Christ and the cause of the Gospel, yes. But why? Because of what we will gain; because that’s how we will find our lives; because that’s what will profit a man.
But when I was in college I didn’t see that. I thought God was calling me to stop pursuing my profit, my gain, my pleasure, my satisfaction; to turn from profit, to Him; from gain, to Him; from pleasure, to Him; from satisfaction, to Him.
But that was completely wrong. God teaches me to profit. God has put in me and all of us cravings for satisfaction and pleasure and joy. And God does not call us to ignore those – God calls us to pursue those – God teaches you to profit.
But how? What is it that will bring me the most profit? That’s the second implication. If God teaches us to profit, then that means God teaches where to find the greatest profit.
When God teaches us to profit, is he talking about health and wealth and a problem-free life? Is that what’s going to bring us the most profit, the most joy, the most satisfaction? No. We can see that back in Isaiah 48 – verses 17-18 --
17 Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: "I am the LORD your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you in the way you should go.
18 Oh that you had paid attention to my commandments! Then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea;
God laments that they had not paid attention to His commandments. The main commandment in God’s Word is to trust all that God promises to be to us in Jesus Christ – that Jesus Christ through His death and resurrection will secure us and satisfy us now and forever. And when we trust Jesus to be our security and satisfaction – we will obey His commands – not perfectly, but growingly.
And here God says that if we do that – if we will trust and obey Jesus Christ – then we will profit. And what is the profit? Two words – peace and righteousness. There’s more in v.19, but that pertains only to Israel at that time. But the profit mentioned in v.18 – peace and righteousness -- is for every believer at all times.
The Hebrew word “peace” is the word shalom, and it refers to emotional well-being – joy and peace and heart-satisfaction -- centered on God Himself. The Hebrew word “righteousness” has a broad range of meaning, but in this context I believe it’s talking about God’s saving works in our lives – freeing us from trials, sustaining us in trials, providing all we need in order to fulfill God’s call on our lives. Peace refers to God satisfying our hearts completely in Himself, and righteousness refers to God taking care of everything else as well.
So the profit is God Himself – God as revealed in Jesus Christ. Now let me give you some other Scriptures which teach the same truth.
Look at Psalm 16:11 –
11 You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
What is our ultimate profit? Where will we find fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore? In God himself. God does not call us to squelch our desires for joy and pleasure; God calls us to pursue our desires for joy and pleasure in that which gives us fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore – God Himself.
Look at Psalm 43:3-4 –
3 Send out your light and your truth; let them lead me; let them bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling!
4 Then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy, and I will praise you with the lyre, O God, my God.
What is his profit? What is his exceeding joy? It’s God. Knowing God Himself. So we don’t turn from joy to God, we turn from lesser joys to the exceeding joy of God.
But now you might be hearing this and thinking – I can’t imagine feeling exceeding joy in God. I feel exceeding joy in having sex, in watching the Sharks with my buddies, or maybe it’s in shopping or food. But I can’t imagine feeling exceeding joy in God.
I understand that. I’ve been there. And I can still be there from time to time. So what’s the problem? Here’s an illustration I heard from John Piper. It’s like God created you with taste buds that find their highest pleasure in tasting God. But we have all sinned against God, turned from seeking Him, and that sin caused a thick callus to grow up over those taste buds. And the result is that we can’t taste the joy of God. That’s where we’ve all been at.
But here’s the good news. In great mercy God has made a way for us to be saved. He sent Jesus to died to pay the punishment for sin. And when you cry out to Jesus to save you, He brings His power upon you and cuts away that thick callus that has grown over your taste buds. And when you turn to trust Jesus, for the first time you feel – here is fullness of joy, here is pleasure forevermore, here is my exceeding joy.
So God teaches us that it’s not wrong to pursue profit, and God teaches us what is truly profit, and now third, God teaches us to pursue this greatest profit.
Here’s a quote from C. S. Lewis that nails this point:
If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good is a bad thing, I submit that this notion has crept in from Kant and the Stoics and is no part of the Christian faith.
Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak.
We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.
So the whole Christian life is to be lived as a way to gain more and more joy in knowing Jesus Christ. And we see this in Scripture after Scripture.
For example, what should motivate us to obey Jesus? Look at John 14:23 –
Jesus answered him, "If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.”
We don’t just obey because we are supposed to. We obey because we when we do we will experience more of the indwelling presence of the Father and the Son.
And what should motivate us to sell possessions so we have more to give to the poor? Look at Luke 12:33 –
Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys.
When you give to the poor in Jesus’ name, you increase your treasure in heaven; you increase the joy that you will have in Jesus Christ forever.
And here’s one specially for the Garden City church-planting core, although it applies to all of us. What should motivate us to share the gospel with lost people? Look at what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 9:22-23 --
22 To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some.
23 I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.
Paul preaches the gospel so he can save people – and so he can share with them in its blessings. In other words, when you share the gospel with lost people, God will pour out upon you more of the blessings of the Gospel – more of the heart-satisfying grace of God, more of the joy-producing presence of God, more of the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit.
God has created us with desire for joy and pleasure; the greatest joy and pleasure in the universe is found in knowing Jesus Christ; and God calls us to devote ourselves to gaining as much joy and pleasure in Christ as we can.
Questions?
What this means for us.
One – salvation. If your spiritual taste buds are covered by the callus of sin, you can leave here today changed. If you will cry out to Jesus, and ask Him to save you, He will forgive you for all your sin, and cut that callus away, and today you will taste the joy that you were created for – the joy of knowing God through Jesus Christ.
Two – motivation. Think about why you live your Christian life. For example, why did you come to our church gathering this morning? Was it just out of duty? Duty can have a place, because there are times when we need to set our hearts on Jesus and pray for God to help us see all that He is. But God doesn’t want you doing anything just out of duty. He wants to teach you to profit.
He wants you coming to our church gathering expecting to profit – not necessarily to receive from other people (although that might happen) -- but to receive something from Jesus. He wants you going to home group expecting to profit – to receive something from Jesus. He wants you sharing the gospel, giving to the poor, laboring in prayer, reading His Word – all in order to profit – to receive something from Jesus.
Don’t ever again try to squelch your desires for joy and pleasure. Pursue your desire for joy and pleasure – in God as He is revealed in Jesus Christ.