Many of you got up this morning, as you do on most mornings; you took a shower, brushed your teeth, maybe you shaved, some of you put on make-up; you got up and got dressed; you got yourself ready to come to church, to worship, to divine service to be given the gifts the Lord has to give. We might say that you prepared yourself with as much outward beauty as you humanly could because you wanted to look your best when you came to the divine service of your Lord. Although it may not be as noticeable today as it is at Christmas and Easter, we do prepare ourselves, at least externally, when we come to divine service at our Lord’s house. Today we will be talking about being glorified and the difference between outward glory and inward glory.
Our text is a part of God’s invitation through Isaiah for the Israelites to come and take part in the Lord’s salvation. The time of our text is when the Israelites were in exile. The Israelites owned nothing and owed tribute for everything. They were a people without a country. They had nothing. Here in our text Isaiah offers the Israelites the prophecy that they will return from exile. He is giving them hope for the future. We can relate well to the Israelites, because we too are in exile in this world. We can relate to the popular hymn, “I’m but a stranger here, heaven is my home.” We are strangers in this world. We own nothing and we owe all that we have to the Lord. We are living in exile here until we reach our permanent home in heaven.
The hope for the future that Isaiah gives is that the Israelites will no longer have to pay tribute. Their hope for the future is that they will be able to buy and eat without money or cost. Isaiah’s reference is, of course, to a spiritual eating and drinking. God’s salvation is without cost to us. What is behind this hopeful future is the prophecy which Isaiah spoke in chapter fifty-three. The cost for God’s salvation was paid for by the suffering servant, the Messiah, namely Jesus Christ and His suffering and death on the cross. Jesus paid the cost, the price for our sins, so that salvation costs us nothing.
Getting into our text, verse one reads, “1Come, 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” (Is. 55:1). Here we have the invitation and notice that this invitation is to all who are thirsty and this thirst does not mean a physical thirst. Spiritual thirst is what is important, is what is most important. The Apostle Peter reiterates this in one of his epistles when he says, “Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation” (1 Peter 2:2). In the same way that you cannot force a person who is not hungry or thirsty to eat or drink, neither can you force a person who wants nothing to do with God to read His Word, to attend Bible Class and Divine Service, to have personal and family devotions and so forth. So, is Isaiah’s invitation to us? Isaiah’s invitation is to us if we are thirsty. How do we know if we are thirsty? We know we are thirsty, spiritually thirsty, if we have a desire to be in God’s Word. We are thirsty if we are eager to come to divine service, if we are eager to read and study His Word, if we are eager and desire to confess our sins and hear God’s Word of forgiveness, if we are eager and desire to come to the Lord’s Table to eat His body and drink His blood for the forgiveness of sins. On the other hand, we are not thirsty if we can easily find excuses as to why we do not have the time to be in His Word, to come to divine service and Bible class, to make use of the means of grace. We are not thirsty if we can easily find other things to do, other places to be, and truly do not desire to be where and when the gifts of God are given out. Let us be honest folks, the excuse that we do not have time is just that, an excuse. We find time or make time to do all the things we want to do, why cannot we find or make the time to be in God’s Word, except that we do not want to be in His Word. As we have said before, it is a matter of priorities. We make the time to do what is important to us.
Going on in verse two we read, “2Why 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” (Is. 55:2). What is “not bread” and “what does not satisfy” are in reference to the things of this world. This almost sounds like a stewardship statement. On what are you spending your money? Are you spending your money on the things of this world, trying to make yourself happy in this world? or are you buying and eating what is good and in what your soul delights? In other words, are you spending your money on the things of this world in an attempt to make yourself happy? Things like your house or even a second home in which to vacation; a boat; an overwhelmingly consuming hobby, one that takes all your time, energy and finances? Are you spending your money on the things of this world in an attempt to make yourself happy and wondering why you are still unhappy? And so you double your spending thinking these things will make you happy and still wonder why they do not? The alternative our text suggests is to listen to the Lord, to eat what is good and to delight in His riches. In other words, the way to satisfy yourself is not in the things of this world, but to delight in the spiritual blessings of the Lord which are given and received through His Word and Sacraments.
Continuing on in verse three we read, “3Incline 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 ” (Is. 55:3). God has made an everlasting covenant to all who believe in Him. His covenant is that He is our God and we are His people. He has chosen us to be His people and He has sent His “sure love” which He promised through “David” who is Jesus to seal and fulfill His covenant with us.
In verse four we read,“4Behold, I made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander for the peoples” (Is. 55:4). Jesus is our leader and commander. Jesus is the witness that God has accomplished what He said. Jesus is the witness who paid the cost for us to come, buy, eat and drink. Literally, Jesus’ suffering and death on the cross paid for our salvation.
Finally verse five reads, “5Behold, you shall call a nation that you do not know, and a nation that did not know you shall run to you, because of the Lord your God, and of the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified you” (Is. 55:5). We are the nations that “you do not know.” We did not know the Lord, but the Holy Spirit has worked through His Word and Sacraments to call us to faith, to strengthen us in our faith and to keep us in our faith.
Our Gospel reading for this morning reminds us, again, that Jesus is truly human and truly God. We see His humanity in His care and concern for the people. We see His divinity in His power over the things of this world, including and especially in our reading, that He blessed the fish and loaves so that they multiplied and were able to feed over five thousand people, perhaps, including women and children, over 15, 000 people. In our Epistle lesson Paul emulates Christ in his care and concern for his people, the children of Israel. Paul says he would give his life to save his people. Paul’s bottom line, if you will, in the epistle lesson is the fact and the reminder that one is a child of Abraham, not by birth, not by flesh, not by DNA, but by faith. As we have talked about in Bible class time and again, the covenant the Lord made, back in the Garden of Eden, first to Adam and Eve, was not a covenant of flesh, but a covenant of grace. The Lord did not make two covenants, one with Israel and one with Christians. The Lord made one covenant and that covenant is a covenant of grace and faith. In other words, it is not what is on the outside that counts, not one’s DNA, but what is on the inside, faith in one’s heart, faith not in self but in Jesus.
If you have ever followed the history of the children of Israel, and we have been doing that in Bible Class, I contend that their history looks a lot like our history as a Christian America. Of course, at this point in our history, we are not that much of a Christian America and that is exactly the point. Just as Israel at one time, were God’s people, yet they gave up their covenant with the Lord, so at one point much or even most of America was a Christian land, but too many have given up their faith to follow the culture of this country and the world, rather than to follow the God of Holy Scripture. As we talked about last week and before, our problems all go back to the Garden of Eden and Adam and Eve’s sin. Their sin has been genetically passed down to us today. We are conceived and born in sin. Our every inclination is to sin. It is this sin which separates us from God. The price for sin was set in the Garden of Eden, the price for sin is death, physical death and worse eternal spiritual death. Thanks be to God that the price has been paid. Jesus paid the price for our sin by suffering the punishment for us, in our place, so that forgiveness costs us nothing, because Jesus paid the price.
As you may remember I began by talking about how we get ourselves ready to come to the divine service of our Lord, how we clean ourselves up and put on our finest for the Lord. Every Sunday morning, and maybe even every day we decorate our bodies, the outside shell of ourselves. The problem is that while we may be decorating our outsides, we still have the same cruddy inside. Although we are Christians and our sins have been forgiven, we remain at the same time sinner and saint. So, we may look good on the outside, but we are still sinners on the inside and there is no way that we can ever change that fact. We can change our appearance on the outside; we can change what others see, but we cannot change our inside. It is God alone who can change our inside. It is God alone who redecorates our inside with glory, and that is what is truly glory.
The invitation that Isaiah presented to the children of Israel from the Lord is the same invitation that our Lord offers us today through His Word and Sacraments. The invitation is for us to come, to buy and to eat, without cost. The invitation is to throw off the things of this world, the outward adornments, which do not satisfy and to put on the glory of our Lord, the true glory which He freely gives. We do this by being in God’s Word, by reading our Bibles, by having personal and family devotions, by attending Bible Class and divine service, by remembering our Baptism and how through our Baptism we were made God’s children, by confessing our sins, all our sins and by hearing His most beautiful and precious words of forgiveness, and by partaking in His Sacraments, especially by partaking in His true Body and true Blood, in, with and under the bread and wine in His Holy Meal. Indeed, it is through these very means that our Lord comes to us and gives to us all the good gifts and blessings He has to give. God freely gives and we are given to. So let me continue to encourage you, rejoice, then, and be given the gifts the Lord has to give. Rejoice, and know that the Lord has endowed you with glory, for Jesus’ sake, and to Him be the glory. Amen.
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