Why Seek Satisfaction in God
Isaiah 55:3-13
Let’s turn to Isaiah 55. If you need a Bible, go ahead and raise your hand and we’ll bring one to you. Isaiah 55 is on page 615 in the Bibles we are passing out.
We all have heart-hungers and thirsts. We all long for joy, and peace, and satisfaction. So what does God wants us to do with those desires? Does He call us to ignore them? Deny them? Squelch them? No. God calls us to bring those desires to Him. He calls us to satisfy those desires in Him: knowing Him, worshiping Him, loving Him.
You can see that in vv.1-3 --
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.
3 Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David.
Here’s the illustration we used last week. We are all hungry: starving for joy and peace and satisfaction. And this table represents all of reality. Over here is God. If we were physically hungry, then God would be to us like an In ‘n Out Burger, Fries, and Chocolate Shake. And over here is everything else. If we are hungry, then everything else in the world would be to us like gravel.
So, if we will come to God, and feast on Him, we will be satisfied, just like a physically hungry person would be satisfied eating In ‘n Out.
But what have we all done? Because of our pride we did not want to bend the knee before our Creator. So we hungry people have all turned from the In ‘n Out of God, and chewed on the gravel of everything else in the world.
Can you feel how wicked this is? And because God is just and righteous, He must punish our wickedness. So we have all faced God’s punishment in hell forever.
But the story doesn’t end there. God sent Jesus, to be punished in our place. So the moment we turn from trusting these other things, and turn to trusting Jesus as our Savior, Lord, and heart-satisfying Treasure, God saves us. He punishes all our wickedness in Jesus’ death on the Cross, His power starts to change us, His presence starts to satisfy us, and we start living lives of righteousness and goodness and love.
That’s how the Christian life starts. And that’s how the Christian life continues. From time to time our remaining sinfulness makes us turn from seeking our joy in God, to seeking it in money or fame or gossip or revenge or lust or whatever. Gravel.
But because we have been born-again – we soon own up to what we are doing. And we turn from whatever we were trusting to satisfy us, and set our hearts back on Jesus Christ to satisfy us. And we again experience forgiveness, His power sets us free from those desires, He satisfies us with His presence, and we are back to living lives of righteousness and goodness and love.
The Christian life is a constant turning from seeking other things to satisfy us, to seeking Jesus Christ to satisfy us. That’s what God is saying in Isaiah 55:1-3.
But this is not easy. To do this we have to battle supernatural powers of darkness, we have to battle influences in the world around us, we have to battle sinful desires within us. To turn from the gravel to the In ‘n Out is not easy. It requires war. And we need help.
So in the rest of this chapter God helps us – by giving us four reasons which will make it even more clear why we should seek our heart satisfaction in Jesus Christ alone.
The first reason is because if we seek God, He promises that His work of satisfying us will be everlasting. You can see this in v.3 --
3 Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David.
When we turn to Jesus Christ, God doesn’t just satisfy us once. No, God makes an everlasting covenant with us – He promises that His work of satisfying us will be everlasting.
What about trials? God promises that every trial will be used by Him to bring us even more heart-satisfaction in Him. What about death? In Acts 13 Paul quotes this verse as a reference to God raising Jesus from the dead. Jesus is the first to be raised bodily from the dead – and because of Jesus’ resurrection we can know that not even death will keep God from fully satisfying us forever.
So look at the road of your future. What do you see? Yes, there will be trials. Yes, there will be death unless Jesus comes back first. But God promises that His work of satisfying us will be everlasting. So you have nothing – nothing to fear!
But there was one thing Israel feared – other peoples and nations, like Babylon. This chapter was written to be read by Israel during the time when she was living as slaves in Babylon.
And that’s why God reminds Israel of the steadfast, sure love he had shown to David. David had been surrounded by enemy peoples. But they did not stop God from fulfilling all His promises to David. You can see that in v.4 --
4 Behold, I made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander for the peoples.
In the same way, foreign nations won’t stop God from fulfilling all His promises to Israel. In fact, God will work through Israel to bring nations to God – v.5 --
5 Behold, you shall call a nation that you do not know, and a nation that did not know you shall run to you [to learn about God from you], because of the LORD your God, and of the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified you.
This ended up being fulfilled in the coming of Christ, who was Jewish, and many Gentiles ran to Jesus and His Jewish followers to learn about God.
If you will turn from gravel and seek your heart-satisfaction in Jesus Christ, then we don’t need to fear death, or trials, or other nations, or anything. God promises that His work of satisfying you will be everlasting. It will never, ever end.
The second reason is because if we seek Him, we will find heart-satisfaction in Him. You might be wondering, if I seek God – will I find anything? If I take time this afternoon to pray and talk to God, to read His Word -- will anything happen?
Look at what Isaiah says in v.6 --
6 "Seek the LORD while he may be found; call upon him while he is near;
God calls us to seek Him “while He may be found” and “while He is near.” That means God is near and can be found! Oh, this is great news!
Now let me stress that the only way you can seek and find God is if you seek Him in and through Jesus Christ. The reason you need Jesus is because of all the times you’ve sinned by turning from God and chewing on gravel. But God sent Jesus to be punished for our sin in our place.
And so if you will seek God through Jesus you will find Him – you will have a first-hand experience of Him. You will feel His love, sense His presence, experience His heart-satisfying joy.
Now this is not our constant experience. But it can be our frequent experience. If we will frequently come to God through Christ, and think deeply on the Scriptures, pray earnestly, worship fervently – we will frequently find Him.
Augustine was a church leader in North Africa at around the year 370 AD. Augustine was living with a woman who was not his wife, he knew this was sin against God, but he had no power to stop, and he was desperate. But every day his mother prayed for him to turn to Jesus Christ.
And one day he was in a walled garden in his backyard, weeping with frustration at his sinfulness. But then all of a sudden he heard a young child singing a song in the yard next door behind the wall – “take it and read, take it and read.”
He knew God was calling him to read the Bible. So he went inside, found a Bible, opened it and started to read and pray. He was turning from the gravel to the In ‘n Out. And what happened? He found God. Here’s what he said happened --
How sweet all at once it was for me to be rid of those fruitless joys which I had once feared to lose … You drove them from me, you who are the true, the sovereign joy. You drove them from me and took their place, you who are sweeter than all pleasure. (ibid., p.40).
That’s the second reason – because if we seek Him, we will find Him.
The third reason is because when we seek Him God will meet us with compassion and pardon. Some of you know you’ve been chewing gravel, you know you’ve sinned against God, you know God is just and punishes sin – so why seek God? Who wants to seek a God who’s angry?
But look at what Isaiah says in v.7 --
7 let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
Because Jesus died on the Cross to pay for sins, if we will turn from the wickedness of chewing gravel, trust in Jesus as Savior, Lord, and Treasure – God will meet us with compassion and pardon; not just pardon -- abundant pardon.
Is it shocking to think that God could meet wicked unrighteous people with compassion and abundant pardon? It is shocking – because this is not according to our thoughts or ways. But look at what he says in vv.8-9 --
8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares 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.
God’s ways are not our ways. God promises that if we will turn to Him, trusting Christ, we will receive compassion and pardon. God promises that with His very words.
And in vv.10-11 God says that His words always come true –
10 "For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
11 so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
So God’s Words about compassion and abundant pardon are completely true and are always fulfilled. That’s the third reason to seek Him.
The fourth reason is because if we seek him, our eternal satisfaction will be so spectacular that creation will sing and clap. You can see that in vv.12-13 --
12 "For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
13 Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress; instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle; and it shall make a name for the LORD, an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off."
Here’s a clue which will help in your study of the Old Testament prophets: one set of verses can describe two different events. It can describe an event that is coming to Israel, and also describe a later event that is coming to all God’s people.
That’s what’s going on here. When Isaiah talks in v.12 about Israel going out in joy and being led forth in peace, he’s talking about the time when God will cause His people to go out from Babylon and be led forth back to Jerusalem.
But when we read the rest of vv.12 and 13 it sounds like there’s more going on than just Israel’s return to Jerusalem. Something so spectacular is happening that it causes the mountains and hills to break forth into singing, and the trees to clap their hands. And in v.13, the language of thorns and briers sounds like the curse over the world in Genesis 3 – and the fact that thorns and briers will be replaced with cypress and myrtle sounds like the curse will be lifted from the world.
So these verses are talking both about Israel’s restoration to Jerusalem, and to our future existence in the new heavens and earth. And the point is that our eternal satisfaction in God will be so spectacular that creation will sing and clap.
You’ve heard about bucket lists – all the things you want to do before you die. Now I don’t want to be too picky, but too often that sounds like this life is where it’s really happening, and eternity is not so hot. So get the excitement in now while you can. One more surf before I go. One more view of the Grand Canyon. One more taste of lasagna.
There’s nothing wrong with surf and the Grand Canyon and lasagna. But these are all inferior foretastes of what is to come. The new heavens and new earth, new resurrection bodies, and especially worshiping God the Father and Jesus the Son with all the redeemed -- will bring such joy and excitement and pleasure that you will miss nothing here.
The future you have in eternity is so spectacular that it will make mountains sing and trees to clap. But to experience this eternity you need to turn from the gravel and bring your heart-hungers to Jesus Christ.
Questions?
What does this mean for us?
You have heart-hungers and thirsts. Here’s God in Jesus Christ; here’s everything else.
If we seek God, He promises that His work of satisfying us will be everlasting.
If we seek God we will find heart-satisfaction in Him.
If we seek Him God will meet us with compassion and pardon.
If we seek him, our eternal satisfaction will be so spectacular that creation will sing and clap.
Turn from everything else, and seek your heart-satisfaction in God as revealed in Jesus Christ.