Come Without Coin

We make it our practice as a church to read and teach through books of the Bible, but today we're dropping into a chapter in scripture that's in the book of Isaiah, but it's in a section of Isaiah's prophecy which begins all the way back in chapter 40, and this chapter is the climax of this section of Isaiah's prophecy.

For some context, there have been two main themes building in the background that lead to this text here. The first theme that's been building in the background is that of the suffering servant. The suffering servant is one who is prophesied who would come to be both servant and exalted. Just two chapters before our text today in chapter 53, we find what is maybe the clearest messianic prophecy in the whole Old Testament. To just give you one example, a verse in chapter 53 says,

but he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace. With his wounds, we are healed.

And this is just one quote, I could have given you many, and this typifies the messianic context of much of this particular section of Isaiah, pointing ahead toward the one who is to come, the suffering servant, Jesus Christ.

So that's the first theme that's been building. The second theme that's been building up to this point is this theme of the expansion of God's people. Chapter 54, right before our text today, describes future blessing and restoration of God's people, portrays a vision of a renewed covenant of peace. And he paints this word picture of a tent whose pegs are being stretched out further to be enlarged to bring others into the space, pointing ahead to the inclusion of foreigners who were not Jewish, Gentiles, in the people of God. In chapter 56, the chapter right after our text today, declares this. It says,

and the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, these I will bring to my holy mountain. For my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.

So this incredible invitation of chapter 55 lives in the atmosphere of both messianic promise and the inclusion of the nations in a better covenant. And the invitation here in this text today moves in four simple commands that are going to be the four points of the sermon today. So the commands and the points of the sermon are first, come, second, hear, return, and rejoice. Come, hear, return, and rejoice.

One thing I want you to pay attention to as we walk through this text today is that the transforming agent here in this text is not your grit or resolve. It's God's voice. So this morning, if your heart feels dull, lean in. The King is speaking.

Come, because God feeds the empty

First point is come. Come, because God feeds the empty. This is the voice of God speaking in voice one.

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.

You can almost hear the repetition and the drumbeat of verse one again and again. Come, come, come, come. This isn't some timid suggestion. It's a summons to a royal feast. Yet surprisingly, it's not a summons to the strong. It's a summons to the needy, to the thirsty, to the one who has no money. To those who thirst, water is offered. To those who are bankrupt and have nothing to offer, wine and milk are to be bought, but without money and without price, freely given.

Have you ever been extremely, extremely thirsty? In 2016, a friend and I went on a multi-day hiking trip in the 100 degree heat of a North Carolina summer. And halfway through our hike, this multi-day hike, we realized that we hadn't packed enough water. And there were zero sources of good water to drink along the long, long hike back to the car. The journey was physically painful. My friend nearly passed out over the last few miles and I was carrying his weight on my shoulder. We legitimately didn't know whether we were going to make it back. But don't get me wrong, this is not some heroic story. No one should make a movie about this. This was just two grown men learning far too late that confidence is not the same thing as hydration. And that was only several hours in the heat without water.

Our bodies were not made to survive without regular access to water. It's the same thing with our spiritual thirst. One cannot survive without spiritual water. As water refreshes the body, so spiritual water refreshes the soul. And it comes only from God. So the thirst that's named here in Isaiah 55 is not just an emotional thirst or a circumstantial thirst. It is the soul's thirst for God himself.

The prophet Jeremiah puts this same idea a different way. He says in chapter two,

my people have committed two evils. They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewn out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.

See, the tragedy is not that we thirst. The tragedy is that we drink from cracked wells. Sometimes that cracked well isn't obvious outright rebellion. It could be familiarity, actually. We learn to be around God without actually coming to him. We know the language and the rhythms, but our thirst remains untouched. If any part of that resonates with you today, I encourage you, don't rush past that. Don't defend it either. Let the question that this text is forcing us to land on your hearts. Have I been near the water without actually drinking? Have I been near the water without actually drinking?

Jesus himself steps into this exact thirst language and claims to be the total fulfillment of it. In John chapter four, he tells the Samaritan woman at the well,

whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I give him will become a spring of water that will well up to eternal life.

And then in John 7, Jesus stands up and he cries out,

if anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.

So Isaiah here, the voice of God says, come to the waters. And Jesus, the giver of a new and better covenant, says, come to me and drink. Isaiah presses this image of a feast even further. Not just to thirst, but to bankruptcy. To he who has no money. And once again, this is not primarily about physical poverty, but about spiritual bankruptcy. Someone who has nothing at all to offer. Unable to buy, unable to contribute. And to that person, the one who comes with empty hands, God offers wine and milk. which is a curious thing to offer to someone who's bankrupt.

Wine is a drink of celebration and abundance. Milk is the drink of nourishment and life given to young children. In other words, God is not just offering bare survival here. He's offering a feast. And yet, this is exactly where pride in our hearts quietly resist this kind of invitation. Not the loud kind, but the kind that says, I know I'm not perfect, but I'm really doing okay. As long as you're convinced that you can manage, contribute, pay your own way, grace like this will always feel unnecessary. Not because you're too sinful to come, but friend, I want to say it's because you're actually dangerously too confident.

And this is where my sweet southern grandmother would have looked at me if I had said something like this and just said, bless your heart. And I knew that that was not a good thing. In other words, she would have said, you have no idea what's really going on with you. Because if we're honest, this description of spiritual poverty, it doesn't fit some of us. It fits all of us. We have nothing to offer, nothing good, no coin. And yet a feast is what's offered to us.

That's exactly what it says in verse two. It says,

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.

This verse contains both question and diagnosis. Why are you spending for that which is not bread? Why are you laboring for that which does not satisfy? Isaiah's not yet confronting behavior, he's diagnosing desire. Because before God ever calls us to repent, he exposes what we are feeding on and why it never actually satisfies. This is one of the most relevant questions that God could ask a modern person.

Because just like the people of this text, we spend money, years, energy on what? on all kinds of things that promise satisfaction but can never actually deliver it. We spend our lives toward comfort, reputation, pleasure, control, achievement, entertainment, approval. Some of us are doing this with things that are explicitly sinful. Alcohol, addiction, sex. Some of us are doing it with things that are more subtle, neutral things that we've turned into ultimate things.

So I was reflecting on this. I was reflecting that anxiety in our generation may actually be one of the most common ways that we are spending our lives on what does not satisfy. Anxiety is just trying to manage outcomes, predict futures, control the impressions of other people. Because it feels safer than trusting God with those things. Anxiety is just hunger that's turned inward. It's the soul trying to feed itself security. Friends, God's not asking you to stop caring. He's asking you to stop pretending that you can be your own provider. None of these things are actually bred. They don't satisfy. We eat them and we're still hungry. Once again, our eyes are thrust forward toward Christ, who declared in John chapter six,

I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats this bread, he will live forever.

So our hungry souls need nourishment that ultimately Jesus can only provide. Which begs us to ask ourselves the question, what am I feeding on? Because you can have a life that looks respectable on the outside and still be starving internally. And I don't say this as an outsider observing from the distance. I've known seasons in my own life, what it is to be busy and productive, even outwardly faithful, yet still find my heart feeding on unsatisfying, lesser bread.

Yet God's answer to us isn't condemnation. It's invitation.

Listen diligently to me. Eat what is good. Delight yourselves in rich food.

Others of you this morning hear this and you're not actually actively seeking to rebel. Maybe you find yourself here this morning and you're actually exhausted. You're not chasing pleasure. You're just trying to survive. And even that at times feels heavy. You keep showing up, you keep doing what's expected, but your soul is dry and you don't even remember the last time that you felt the kind of joy in God that this text is talking about, a feast. If that's you this morning, hear this. God is not disappointed in your weakness. He's not asking you to bring more energy to the table. He is inviting you to sit down and receive what you cannot produce on your own.

Maybe others of us actually need a reorientation of our appetite, a retraining of our appetite to delight in the living bread and the rich food of God's grace. Because a rich feast can taste strange to a tongue that's accustomed to only eating junk. If your appetite has been trained by the fast food of this world, endless entertainment, instant gratification, constant novelty, if that's what's training your appetite, then grace can taste bland at first. The word in prayer might feel mundane, but that doesn't mean that the feast isn't good. It means that your spiritual taste buds have been discipled by the wrong table. So don't interpret initial dryness as proof that God's feast isn't satisfying. Interpret it instead as a sign that your appetite needs retraining. Keep coming. Keep listening. Because over time, the spirit is faithful to rewire what we love. and the things that once thrilled us will begin to taste like the ash that they are, while Christ will taste like the satisfying bread that he is.

So here, the great mercy that's being offered in this first point. If you're empty, you are invited. If you are thirsty, you are invited. If you're hungry, you're invited. If you're broken, you're invited. Need is not the barrier to grace. Need is the doorway. Come. Come.

God gives life

Our second point is here. Here, because God gives life. It's at this point that the invitation actually deepens. Because God doesn't merely offer a spiritual refreshment break. This text says that he offers life. Verse three,

incline your ear and come to me. Hear that your soul may live.

At this point we see life and death language, an intensification. Because those who do not hear, they're already perishing. Only those who listen will live. But what does this mean? To hear in Isaiah's language is not merely to register sound. It's to receive what God promises. It's to trust his word. And that's because God's word is not information about life. It is the means of life. God's voice is the banquet that's described here. His voice is the meal. So the question then becomes, how? How does listening bring life? Isaiah tells us,

I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David.

The primary words that our souls need for life to spring up from death are not vague or abstract, nor is it some new invitation that is being extended on the spot. It's covenantal language, rooted in God's steadfast love. We're told that we need specific words, the words of the covenant to David. A covenant that God says here belongs not just to David, but to all who respond.

So what was promised to David? In 2 Samuel 7, God said this to David as a promise to him and his offspring. He says,

your house and your kingdom shall be made forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.

See, God's covenantal promise to David was one of forever kingship in David's lineage. David's throne would be forever. And the fulfillment of that promise, if it's not clear already who Isaiah 55 is pointing to, the fulfillment of that promise to David is found in Jesus Christ, the offspring of David, who will reign in victory on the throne of David forever and ever. From the moment of Christ's conception, the angel declared this very truth to Mary in Luke chapter 1, where the angel said,

the Lord will give to him the throne of his father David, and of his kingdom there shall be no end.

So friends, Isaiah 55 is not just an invitation to come and have basic spiritual needs yet. It is an invitation into the everlasting covenant of love fulfilled in the one who is the King, Jesus Christ.

Isaiah pushes this even further. Verse four,

behold, I made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander for the peoples. Behold, you shall call a nation that you do not know, and a nation that you did not know shall run to you. because of the Lord your God and the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified you.

So here, like in the chapters preceding and following 54 and 55, we have this clear indication that the invitation that's being offered is not just for the people of God as they would have been thought of at that time, the ethnic people of Israel and Judah, but instead a broader, much greater people of God that would include a nation that you do not know.

And here's where Deuteronomy 7, which was read for us earlier, helps us hear the consistent melody of love throughout time to all of God's people. Where God said to Israel,

it was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord has set his love on you and chosen you, but it is because the Lord loves you. And he is keeping an oath that he swore to your fathers.

Do you hear that? God's love was not rooted in Israel's impressiveness. It was rooted in God's own promises. God loves because God loves. God chooses because God chooses. And here in Isaiah chapter 55, it is that very same covenant love now spilling outward through David's king to the nations.

Here's the application that needs to land on us. If God's love is covenant love, then our security is not rooted in our performance or our impressiveness. Your assurance of salvation is not rooted in your spiritual consistency. If you are in Christ, your life is rooted in God's steadfast, sure love. And how do you receive it? Just like the text says.

hear that your soul may live.

To hear doesn't just mean to receive information, it means to receive promise. Paul says in Romans chapter 10,

faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ.

So if you want to live, you must first hear. Not merely with physical ears, but spiritually with a heart that listens. If you're here this morning and you're listening from the outside, trying to decide what you think of God or Jesus or the Christian faith in general, notice what Isaiah does not say here. He doesn't say, understand everything. He doesn't say, fix yourself first. He says, here. You don't enter grace by climbing your way in. You enter by listening and believing.

Return, because God pardons the guilty

Here. Third point, the third command of this text is return. Return, because God pardons the guilty. If verses one through five up to this point have been invitation, verse six shifts toward an urgent pleading and warning. Verse six,

seek the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near.

What's being described here is a day of repentance. Not a single day, but a period of time. There will come a day and time where the Lord can be found, and that is today, but there will come a time when that day will have come and gone. And on that day, the time of mercy and calling out to the Lord will have passed, and the time of righteous judgment will come. And so the text pleads, seek him, seek him while he may be found,

There is a right urgency to this. Right now, right now, grace in Christ is held out to all who will receive it in faith. It can be found today, this day, it is near. But this day is not forever. If you have not trusted fully in Christ, Heard of the mercy of God and tasted of the feast that this text describes, do not let yourselves fall prey to one of the greatest deceptions of the enemy, this idea of the procrastination of repentance. I'll repent later. I have time, not today. It's not that I won't ever do it, it's just not yet. Friends, the enemy doesn't necessarily need you to hate God. He just needs you to continue to lay, surrendering your life to Him. The word later is sometimes one of the safest feeling words that we know. It sounds responsible or calculated. It sounds like we're just scheduling obedience for later. yet later has quietly buried more repentance than outright rebellion ever has. Every single later trains your heart to ignore the king's voice. Friend, don't wait for a better moment than the one that God has given you. Today is the day to seek the Lord. Today.

Maybe you hear this and instead your thought is, this invitation couldn't possibly apply to me. You don't know what I've done. You don't know the things that I've done. God would hate the things that I've done. But the radical nature of God's mercy is still unfolding. Verse seven continues.

Let the wicked one forsake his ways and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to the Lord.

So now this invitation is not just being offered to the thirsty and the poor, but it's being offered to the wicked, the wicked and the unrighteous. Even God's enemies are invited. And this is one of the greatest shocks of all of scripture, this idea that God doesn't merely tolerate sinners. He invites them. He invites sinners just like us.

But returning requires forsaking, not a partial edit or lifestyle adjustments. God calls for a total forsaking of an entire way of life and actions, including actions, but also, the text here says it includes our unrighteous thoughts. This is what the Bible calls repentance. a complete turning away from an old way of life and turning toward God. And then the heart of the invitation, the text says,

let him return to the Lord that he may have compassion on him, for he will abundantly pardon.

This is where the grace of Jesus Christ comes in. Because God doesn't forgive by pretending that your sin doesn't matter. He forgives because the judgment that we deserve fell on Christ instead of on us. Our guilt was laid on Him. The punishment that should have been ours was borne by Jesus. And that's why mercy can be abundant and forgiveness can be real. It's because it was paid for, not just waved away. The price has been paid. That's why this invitation isn't reckless. It's actually incredibly costly. It's just not costly to you. He has paid the cost.

Maybe this is beautiful. And praise God for that. But I can imagine that some might actually find this idea offensive. Because a free gift, a free gift of abundant pardon means that you can't contribute yourself. You can't pay God back. You can't earn your salvation. And maybe that part is why it's so hard sometimes to accept

Sometimes the hardest law is easier than mercy. Sometimes the hardest law feels easier than just receiving the gift of mercy that God offers. Sometimes we don't want grace, we want wages for our merit. But friend, God rejects that. Instead, He just says, return, and God will have compassion. Not after you prove yourself or clean yourself up. Not after you show that you're worthy. Return and God will pardon.

And if you struggle to believe that, let words from other parts of scripture strengthen you. Paul describes the unrighteous in 1 Corinthians 6. He says,

do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived.

And then he lists many kinds of sinful lifestyles that make all of us unqualified to receive the kingdom of God. Lives of sinners, just like us. And then he says this, in verse 11,

And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

Friends, and such were some of us. This was all of us. Notice how Paul speaks. He does not say, in such were some of you, but because you worked really hard, you're gonna be okay. He says,

you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified.

These are all actions of a merciful God toward an undeserving people. And yet some of you are here knowingly or unknowingly trying to manufacture the favor of God because of what you think of as your good and impressive behavior. In the presence of a holy God, this is just total foolishness.

Return to the Lord. Turn and repent. Return. And the promise of God stands before you today. If you hear the voice of the Lord today, that is a mercy. Respond now. Stop making peace with what God calls wicked and return to him. Not because you've cleaned yourself up, but because he has compassion on sinners like us. That's the whole point of this invitation. He's not reluctant. He's not stingy. He doesn't pardon in teaspoons. He says, I will abundantly pardon. So bring him the mess that you are. This was all of us. And come and find a heart toward repentant sinners like us that is a heart of compassion.

And if that mercy still feels like too much to believe, Isaiah will now tell us why it's certain.

Rejoice. God accomplishes and renews

Point four is rejoice. God accomplishes and renews. Rejoice. Isaiah anticipates the question that's rising in many hearts. How can this be? How can God pardon like this? How can he invite the wicked? How can he forgive so freely? And God answers not by lowering his holiness or shrinking his mercy, but by lifting our eyes to him. He says in verse eight,

for my thoughts are not your thoughts. Neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

In other words, don't measure God's mercy with your yardstick. God is not like us. He's not limited in compassion. His grace is not cautious. And praise God for that. Because if God's mercy were like mine, which is hesitant and conditional and easily exhausted, we would have no hope. But friend, his ways are higher, his heart is deeper, his pardon is real.

Then Isaiah grounds that awe-inspiring mercy in a promise, not merely that God can save, but that God's saving work cannot fail. Verse 10, he says,

for as the rain and 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, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth. It shall not return to me empty, but shall accomplish that which I purpose. It shall succeed in the thing which I sent.

Isaiah is saying God's mercy isn't just possible. It's not just a possibility. It's a certainty. Because the mercy of God is carried on the vehicle of the word of God. And God's word does not fail. It does not come back empty handed. It does not fail because of our hard hearts. It does not fail because of a culture that is dark. It does not fail because sinners resist. If God has spoken, his word accomplishes what he intends it to. That is a promise.

Rain and snow fall, it waters and it brings life. Seed to the sower and bread to the eater. The text says, so shall God's word be. And here Isaiah teaches something that's foundational to the Christian life. Transformation doesn't begin with your internal resolve. Transformation begins with God's external word. God speaks and hearts turn. God speaks and faith rises. God speaks and repentance happens. God speaks and joy awakens.

This is why your Bible, God's Word, it's not an accessory or a religious add-on or something that you pull out of your closet when your life is collapsing. No, the Word of God is the voice of the King. And it's the means by which the king feeds, pardons, and renews his people. So the most practically transformative question is not, what should I do next? Instead, it's, whose voice am I listening to?

Because God does not say, listen occasionally. Here, he says, listen diligently. Some of you are trying to grow in your holiness or fight sin while you're letting your mind be catechized by screens instead of by the word of God. And you wonder why nothing changes. The primary spirit-empowered agent of change in the life of a Christian is the word of God preached, prayed, read, and spoken to one another. The primary Spirit-empowered agent of change is the Word of God.

And this means embracing ordinary faithfulness. Scripture read even when it feels dry. Prayer offered even when there's no emotional fireworks. Church attended sitting under the Word of God together even when you'd rather stay home. The rain on soil doesn't instantaneously produce flowers. And the same is true in you. But he is faithful to bring the fruit in time. Isaiah doesn't stop there. He ties the certainty of God's word with the certainty of joy. Verse 12,

for you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace.

He's not describing anxiety or exhaustion here, but joy. Joy and peace. Not merely calm circumstances, but being reconciled to God. And Isaiah says that creation itself will join in this song. The mountains sing, the hills rejoice, the trees clap their hands.

And this isn't just decorative poetry, this is curse reversal language. Because of the curse of sin in Genesis, it said it produced thorns. But here in verse 13,

instead of thorns shall come up the cypress, instead of the briar shall come up the myrtle.

This is renewal. This is new creation breaking in.

Isaiah is not merely describing how you feel internally in a moment. He describes here where history itself is going. And at the center of this renewal is Christ. Every word of this beautiful invitation every single difficult to believe, yet wonderfully true word, they are fulfilled in Jesus. The water is Jesus. The bread is Jesus. The feast, Jesus. The covenant love fulfilled in Jesus. The pardon purchased by Jesus. The word of life, the word of God made flesh, is Jesus.

And God, in Christ, by the Spirit, will accomplish what he purposes. This is where your heart gets to rest. So wherever you find yourself today, whether resistant or receptive, confident or confused, weary or restless, this invitation is not conditional on your emotions. It remains what it is, free. Costly. Too good to be true, yet true.

The only question left is whether you will keep your distance or come. Come without coin. Hear the word. Return to the Lord and rejoice. Because the word of God will not return empty.

Would you pray with me?

Father in heaven, we rejoice in your great, just unfathomably great mercy toward us. And we pray that you would give us hearts to come, to hear, to return to you, and to rejoice in the work that you are doing, the certain work of redemption that Christ has accomplished and is accomplishing in us. We give you praise, in Jesus' name, amen.