The Eighth Sunday after Pentecost
July 30, 2017
Isaiah 55:10, 11
A Guaranteed Return!
As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. (NIV1984)
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
Over the course of the past few weeks I have had opportunity to read and/or listen to a number of advertisements that caught my attention. The first advertisement was for a health program called French Wine for a Flat Belly. A man by the name of Thomas Newman wrote a book which details what foods someone should avoid and what foods a person should eat in order to “improve your fat burning power by more than 370%…and dramatically decrease your risk of heart problems, diabetes, cancer, and any weight related problems.” He is so sure that his program will work for you that he is offering a 60 day money back guarantee! If for any reason whatsoever you are not satisfied with the results of using his program— he will give you money back no questions asked!
I also ran across another advertisement for what could be a once-in-a-lifetime investment opportunity. It centers on “New Technology as Transformative as Discovery of Electricity.” A man by the name of David Gardner, who is the Lead Motley Fool Stock Advisor, predicts that in the next five years this technology will be an integral part of every industry from medical to financial to automobile. The technology is A.I. — Artificial Intelligence. I was hoping to hear the name of the company he suggests investing in, but to do so I would have had to spend $147 for a three year membership in the Motley Fool Stock Advisor, something I wasn’t willing to do. However, there is a 30 day money back guarantee! If for any reason whatsoever I didn’t like the stock advice I was getting, I could simply get my money back— no questions asked!
I have learned from sometimes very bitter experience that there are few if any guarantees in this world that you and I can actually count on, my friends. “Money back guarantees,” “Satisfaction Guarantees” usually contain just enough fine print for the person or company to wiggle out and still keep your money. In reality the only guarantees that you and I can count on without any reservations are the guarantees that our God gives to us. Our text for today focuses our attention on that amazing truth. Today let’s see how God Himself points us to His holy revealed Word and tells us that when we use His Word faithfully there will be: A Guaranteed Return.
While the words of our text for today may be very familiar to many of us, the larger context in which these words are found may not be so familiar. So let’s take a moment to look at the verses that come before our text. Isaiah chapter 55 begins with some of the sweetest Gospel invitations recorded in the Bible. The Lord our God says, “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare. Give ear and come to me; hear me, that your soul may live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful love promised to David” (Isaiah 55:1-3).
Over and over again the LORD, the God of free and faithful grace, extends His arms to the spiritually thirsty, to the spiritually hungry, and to the spiritually lost. The Almighty Creator of heaven and earth, the one and only living God wants to have a close personal relationship with each and every human being. But there is a problem, isn’t there. The Bible calls that problem— sin. Sin creates a Grand Canyon-like gulf between us and God. In Isaiah 55: 7 Isaiah says, “Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.” With these words God Himself reminds us that as long as we are stained by sin there can be no communion, there can be no fellowship between us and God. Just as our face automatically crinkles up when we drive past a dead skunk that has been on the roadway in 90 degree heat so also our holy, just and perfect God turns away in disgust at the stench of our sin. Humanly speaking sin leaves us in a hopeless situation, my friends. Whether it is the canyon that sin creates between us and God or whether it is the stench that emanates from each of our sins we have a problem— a problem that goes infinitely beyond our ability to remedy! That is why it is such a joy for us to hear God say to us in Isaiah 55:8, 9, “’For my thoughts are not your thoughts neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the LORD. ‘As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.’” Our impossible problem has but one Solution. That Solution, however, is not one that we would have come up with on our own. That Solution is not one that makes sense to our logical human minds. The Solution to our problem of sin is the divine Solution revealed to us right here in the powerful Word of our Savior God!
God’s desire to have a close personal relationship with us led Him to personally provide the Solution to the problem our sin. That Solution was beautifully articulated by the prophet Isaiah when two chapters before our text Isaiah wrote, “He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5). The Solution to our sin is none other than the Lord’s Promised Messiah, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. God’s promise of forgiveness through faith in His Son is an objective truth, an objective reality that no one and nothing will ever be able to change. How that objective, unchangeable, glorious truth becomes our personal possession is put into the simple easy to understand words of our text for today, “As the rain and snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”
These words of our text paint a picture that is extremely easy for us to understand, even if we cannot explain it. For example, I have been consistently amazed at how Brenda can take some seeds that have been sitting in our kitchen cupboard for years, plant those seeds in her garden, water it or let the good Lord water it and in a relatively short amount of time those seemingly lifeless seeds start growing! I have also been amazed at how quickly the grass and the hillsides turn brown here in northern California. And yet, we all know that when the rains come back this winter, it will not take long for the lawns and the hillsides turn green once again! Water contains the power to cause seemingly lifeless seeds to germinate and grow! Rain has the power to cause the brown grass to turn green once again! That’s how powerfully important physical water is for physical life!
In a similar way God tells us that His Word— not your words, not my opinions, not some guru’s guesses— God’s Word contains the power to cause saving faith to grow in our hearts and to bear fruit in our lives. There is absolutely nothing that you or I can add to God’s Word to make it more effective or more powerful than it already is. Just as God’s Word had the power to bring the heavens and the earth into existence (God said, “Let there be…and there was…”), just as Jesus— the Word of God made flesh— has the power to forgive someone their sins and to heal someone of leprosy and to raise the dead back to life by simply speaking the words, so also God’s Word has the inherent divine power to first bring us to our knees and lead us to humbly say, “Lord, have mercy on me a sinner,” and then to raise us up and enable us to boldly say, “Jesus is MY Lord and Savior!” That’s power, my friends! It’s a power that is able to close the canyon that once separated us from God. It’s a power that is capable of cleansing us completely from the stench of our sin. And just as I can’t explain to you how the water causes my wife’s garden to grow or how the rains cause the grass to turn green, so also I cannot logically explain to you how God’s Word causes faith to grow. But as surely as I can see the results of Brenda watering her garden, as surely as I can see the results of the rains in northern California, so also I can see the results of God’s Word being faithfully applied to peoples’ hearts and lives.
Now, the importance of this text to your life goes well beyond the time that we have left this morning. There are, however, three points that I want to make sure I place on your heart before you leave here today. First, remember that this Book (the Bible) is God’s holy, inspired, inerrant Word. Through the power of the Holy Spirit this Book came to us directly from the mouth and the mind of God Himself. Treat the Scriptures with the awe and respect they deserve. Even if there are parts of the Bible you don’t understand, even if there are parts of the Bible you don’t feel all that comfortable with— never lose sight of the fact that this is the holy powerful Word of your holy powerful God.
Secondly, never underestimate the power that God’s Word possesses. No matter how hopeless, no matter how impossible the situation may seem, the divine power of God’s Word has the ability to shine a ray of light into the darkest of days.
And finally, the power of God’s holy Word does no one any good unless it is faithfully proclaimed and properly applied. So, begin with yourself. Right here in His holy Word your Savior has given to you free unlimited access to an elaborate spiritual banquet. Right here in His holy Word your Savior has provided you with a well of living water. Eat and drink freely on a regular basis. At the very same time, however, don’t forget that your Savior has asked you to share. So share the power of God’s Word with others! Invite them to come and hear Jesus here in His house. Invite them to taste and see that the Lord is good. You don’t have to convert anyone. That is the Holy Spirit’s job! You don’t have to argue religion. God called you to be His witness not His lawyer! The awesome privilege that God has given to you is to sprinkle the life-giving water of His Word into the hearts and lives of others and then watch Him work! Sometimes you will be able to see the effects of God’s powerful Word very quickly. Sometimes it may take months or even years before you see that tender little shoot of faith grow in someone’s heart and life. There may even be times when you faithfully sprinkle God’s Word over and over again but you never see any visible results until you get to heaven and then that person comes up to you and says, “Thanks for not giving up on me.” God’s Word does not return to Him empty!
Whether it is a weight loss program or financial advice there are any number of things in this life that claim to come with a satisfaction guarantee. If for any reason whatsoever, you are not satisfied with how their product performed you can get your money back— or at least that is what they claim. I have learned from sometimes bitter experience however, that not all guarantees are what they claim to be.
Thankfully, you and I always have the guarantees that our God gives to us. The manger at Bethlehem, the cross on Calvary’s hill, the empty grave in the garden, the Sacraments of Baptism and Holy Communion, the power of the written revealed Word of God— these are the guarantees that God Himself gives to you, my friends. Count on them. Trust in them. Use them. Proclaim them. When you do, then you will always have God’s solemn promise that there will be a guaranteed return!
To God be the glory!
Amen