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Okay, we're there in Isaiah 55 and look at verse number nine very famous verse for as the heavens are higher than the earth So are my ways higher than your ways title for the servants night is God's ways are higher God's ways Higher I really like that concept that you know God's thoughts are just well above my thoughts And it's always strange because when I go to God in prayer. I'm like alright God. This is how I need my prayers answered and But God never answers it the way I asked him and then it's like well, it's cause he thinks differently to us He's got a different way. He's got a bigger vision He's got the best answer compared to the not the limits of knowledge that we have and I'm thankful that I worship a God Who is much higher much greater than what a man possibly can be? So let's start there in verse number one and verse number one might sound familiar I might remind you the book of Revelation a little bit verse number one says ho Everyone that first off come ye to the waters and Here they have no money come ye buy and eat yay, come buy wine and milk without money and without price and so here we have This is this is almost exactly like we read about just read it to you You don't need to turn there, but the last chapter of the Bible revelation 22 17 it says and the spirit and the bride say come and let him that hearer say come and Let him that is a first come and whosoever will let him take the water of life Freely the water of life freely and so God is saying the same thing Look come and buy these things without money without price These things are free and so if one is thirsty come and drink of those waters So we know immediately this is speaking of a greater spiritual Context that these waters that God is inviting people to drink of yeah The everlasting waters that are found in God's Word and you know It's very interesting that he says buy right and here they have no money come ye buy But how do I buy if I have no money? So what we learn here is essentially that even though salvation is free. It's fully paid for by the blood of Christ It's the grace of God that we still need to enter into that transaction We still need to go look. I want that free water. I want that what other things I mentioned We I want that wine. I want that milk without money and without price, but it still requires our Transaction so even though Christ has paid for the sins of the entire earth. He's died for every man That's ever lived even though it's a case You still need to make that transaction with Christ and say look I'm putting my trust. This is how I transact This is how I redeem the purchase price I need to go and say Lord my trust is solely on your death your burial your resurrection I'm coming for I'm taking of it freely. I'm not bringing any money I'm not gonna try to purchase this with my well for my good works because that's what most people think right I think oh I've got a purchase my salvation by being a good person No, it's free it costs you nothing, and if you're thirsty come and drink of those waters now we also have You're there in in our eyes. I keep you thinking they come with me to 1st Peter If you can come with me to 1st Peter chapter 2 1st Peter chapter 2 other Items that I mentioned he's not just the waters But it's also the wine and how can we understand the word now of course the word wine? If you understand the King James Bible English the word wine back in those days and even prior to that wine just meant great juice Okay, I know today. We think of wine as alcoholic beverage, but I want to think about this Proverbs while you turn to 1st Peter Proverbs 9 4 it says who so is simple let him turn in hither as For him that wants of understanding She's safe unto him so I was saying look if you're simple if you're kind of you're not really well educated if you need Understanding she saved to him who's the she it's wisdom It says in verse number five come eat of my bread and drink of the wine Which I have mingled and so wine in this reference in the book of Proverbs refers to as wisdom as Understanding as learning all right, so just like you know you drink wine, and you know the sweetness and the freshness and the Just the benefits that comes with drinking wine or grape juice the antioxidants and the the vitamins you know those things give you good health well God's wisdom also gives you good health in understanding and Wisdom and so we can see yes, you know in many ways the grape juice does you know the Bible or the Word of God can? also Correspond with wine and the wisdom that comes from that and you're there in 1st Peter chapter 2 the other reference here is Milk buy wine and milk without money without price and in 1st Peter 2 verse 2 it says as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word that ye may grow thereby and so God's Word is also Described as milk in this reference so when you think about all of this combined we can understand as I 55 1 God is using very descriptive language to speak of his word as Water as wine as milk and milk is essential brethren. You know I need you to really be able to understand that You know if you've not been saved for that long like if you're and even if you've been saved a long time But you've not grown all that much. You really should desire the sincere milk of God's Word and It's a I would I would say it's a shame, but it's it's very common for newborn babes to Desire the the steak you know, but they got no teeth they can't chew the steak They can't swallow the steak, and they begin to choke on the steak of God's Word look the meat of God's Word is necessary as Well, it's for those that are of mature age fully grown, but what's going to get into that mature age? What's going to help you grow in your knowledge is the milk of God's Word? And so when I think about milk we think of something that is kind of the the basic things of the Bible And so you know if someone gets up behind the pulpit and starts preaching about I don't know the need to pray and you might say Oh, it's just you know another sermon on prayer. I want to hear a sermon on Give me a topic on Donald Trump And is it going to take over that you know that the guys Gaza Strip right reverie whatever the latest announcement You need you need the milk you know in order for you to grow and to learn and mature You need to desire that the prayers and you know when you when you hit a sermon like prayer or something like that or Reading your Bible or attending church, and you're like oh, man these basic things, but really ask yourself these questions Are you a praying person? Are you actively praying though like are you applying are you absorbing the milk? Are you attending church? You know are you reading the Bible as I don't need I just want the big things What are you even doing the basic thing how can you do the deeper and greater things of God unless you first started? Absorbing and drinking the milk of God's were the very basic needs that help your bones grow and Develop into someone that is big and mature and so you know we see that What's wonderful about the preaching of God's word is that it's free? Now you guys came in tonight, and I there was I didn't charge you anything It should be see to the front brother should be a hundred bucks. I reckon Hundred bucks and we'll work our way down 90 80 70 60 bucks 50 40 bucks Minimum price to come and listen to the world's word of course we don't charge listen to God's word is free Being saved is free You know any of you you didn't have to attend church you can pick up this Bible and take it home and read it for You there's great wisdom There's great understanding, and if you're saved you have the Holy Spirit of God who's a teacher who will guide you into all truth And it's free you don't have to go to a university or Bible college Where you're paying thousands of dollars to get the wisdom of God it's all available to you You know salvation is free, but I was as you continue to learn and read God's word It's all freely given to you. You know God is not trying to withhold you from learning and growing in his word Now we're going to look at verse number two shortly Isaiah 52 55, but first we're going to turn to 2nd Timothy please come with me to 2nd Timothy 2nd Timothy chapter 4 and We're on Isaiah 55 the 55th chapter of the book of Isaiah What is the 55th book of the Bible does Byron know is it been? What is the 55th book of the Bible does anyone know? 2nd Timothy, I've given you the answer. Thank you, brother. Let's Alright, so I turn to 2nd Timothy, but I want to notice this teaching here in 2nd Timothy chapter 4 verse number 3 2nd Timothy chapter 4 verse number 3 And of course the book of Timothy is that pastoral epistle these are epistles for pastors Okay to read to learn to understand to then teach their churches and in 2nd Timothy 4 3 it says For the time will come When they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears You Know there might come a time even in your own life where you're like. I know it all now I just I get the Bible all and yes, I just need something new and One thing you know if you're ever desiring to preach God's Word if you ever Have you know in your heart one day? I'd like to get up behind this pulpit here at blessing up at the church and teach You don't need to teach anything brand new you don't have to teach something that I've just I've the only one that Discovered this one truth in look if you're the only one that's discovered that one truth. I'm telling you now. It's wrong But like the temptation I've worked it out my wisdom, and I'm ready to tell everybody you know It's it's not uncommon for you to have itching ears and go you know that book of Enoch What is that about maybe there are some deep truths in that book or the book of Maccabees or something like this all these other? You know Lyrical books whatever it is and start listen to I've listened to enough independent Baptist pastors I know what they teach maybe maybe I need to start listening to a Who's the famous charismatic pastor Kenneth Copeland I you don't want to listen to him like TD Jakes or something I don't know They probably have something Deeper than what these Baptist pastors are preaching and you know sometimes sometimes you can get a bit dull in hearing the same things of God's Word, but it is so good for you It's nourishing helps you grow, but sometimes people just after getting the ears scratched They want something else, and it says in verse number four there for they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned unto fables For some reason fables make-believe is more interesting than the truth of God's Word This is why people would rather go watch a Hollywood movie which is a fable all right Then just pick up God's Word and read the truth This is why it's more interesting to go in and read some conspiracy about a UFO and abduction or something like that Right then just go okay There are no UFOs because Eve is the mother of all living and you know every human being in every life Comes from Eve and is on this earth You know it's you know it's just but you know that's that's some people are very curious And they start chasing things that are fables rather than truth And there's a reason I read that in 2nd Timothy because the answer to this is found it back in Isaiah 55 So come back with me to Isaiah 55 and look at verse number 2 So they turn away their ears they got itching ears They they seek fables rather than the truth and then God answers this in verse number 2 Wherefore do you spend money for that which is not bread? Now God again is using the word bread there to describe his word and just very quickly I'll just read to you from John 6 35 and Jesus saith unto them I am the bread of life and he that cometh to me shall never hunger and he that believeth on me shall never thirst You know Jesus Christ describes himself as the bread of life and the Word of God is also in the Bible described as bread And so God's asking them this question You know he says look by the water by the bread by the wine by the milk that comes from me It's free. It doesn't cost you anything. You just have to say I want it I want to buy it, but I've got nothing to pay and God says you can have it for free But then he says why do you spend your money on that which is not bread? Because why are you looking what why do you want your ears scratched? Why are you turning to fables like we saw earlier in 2nd Timothy? Why are you turning why are you turning away from the truth? He goes and your labor for that which satisfy if not So your labor you work and you earn an income you earn a paycheck and again you're using that for things that don't even satisfy You know and I'm sure a lot of us have hobbies and there's nothing wrong with hobbies And I'm sure we have interests that are even is beyond the Bible There's nothing wrong with interests, but if you've lived long enough, and you've chased after these things You know that it doesn't really satisfy how God satisfies you You know it doesn't you know I've used illustrations before when I was a kid art collecting You know basketball cards, or you know just different things And you know you get to the end of your collection like I spent so much money on this for garbage And it's just a piece of cardboard. I guess it just sits here like I don't win any prizes like no one's going congratulations You've got the whole set. It's like it was exciting, but now I've got to the end of it. There's no satisfaction I'm sure we've all done this to some extent where you pursue like I don't know I like watching soccer And there have been times that your table whatever sporting you might like the you know rugby league I mean your sport your team wins, and they get to the grand final. I live the trophy is like yeah And they're like next season who cares Next season we need another so we're gonna win it all over again It's like oh that wasn't really satisfying because you know you know you're not the champions forever Champions for one season like these things never truly give you satisfaction and so God is asking There's nothing wrong with these things in of themselves, but you need to understand that they don't satisfy you Only God's Word only God's wisdom only salvation Satisfies you know I've got no fear of death. I'm not wondering you know if God exists. I'm not Thinking about you know you know when I stand before God is he going to throw all my sins in my face or something like that No, I'm satisfied. I know Jesus paid for them all it's all being judged on his body And you know I get I get the benefit I get to go free my salvation was free and I when I stand before God I'm gonna stand in the righteousness of Christ. God's not going to reject me because he can't reject his son and And I'm gonna live forever with my Lord Jesus Christ for all eternity, and I'm satisfied I'm not wondering what are the mysteries of the earth and what are you know is God really out there? How many gods are there and did God really create things in 6,000 years 6,000 years ago, you know I'm not I'm not to me. I'm satisfied. I got God's Word I know I don't need to chase this information or some other private knowledge or some fables from somewhere else Let's continue verse number two Harken diligently unto me and Eat ye that which is good and let your soul delight itself in fatness All right, so he says look eat that which is good right though the bread the bread of life Christ And you know man shall not live on bread alone But by every word which proceedeth out of the mouth of God these are words of Christ, and you know when you come and Look if you've never read the Bible cover to cover. It's it's tough the first time out. It's tough okay, but the more you read the Bible the more you just stop and I'd rather I'm not this kind of guy that thinks Like you need to be in a rush to read the Bible to come from cover to cover I think you should like if you've been saved for over a year get for your Bible cover to cover But more importantly is to think and meditate on what you're reading and go how this is how does this chapter apply to me? You know and then we go. Oh, I can see I can see that I can see that Yeah, like I'm trying to tell you the times in my life when you chase other things and there's no satisfying And I think the only thing that's ever satisfied me is God The only thing that's ever answered the questions of the universe has been God's Word And so it gives me satisfaction gives me joy to know that these are things that I'm not pursuing in life And that's what I mean we can read these chapters But when you stop and really think about what it's saying and you apply it to you, then that's where it satisfies That's where you eat something, which is good. That's where your soul can delight itself in the fatness that is found in God's Word Now in saying all of this what God is telling us essentially is that The best wisdom the most satisfying knowledge the best place to get your information is freely available to you Now even the internet you got to pay for you got to pay for your internet connection To search all your things or you know to get on to AI whatever chat GPT Whatever you use these days or Wikipedia to get some information or your conspiracy websites, but when it comes to God's Word It's it's free. It doesn't cost you anything It's alright, then cost me something to go to the shop I'm pretty sure we have some bibles back there that are free if you haven't got a Bible go and grab one It's free okay, and you can actually make photocopies of the King James Bible, and you'll never You know There is no copyright upon. You know the King James Bible God's Word. It's freely available to us now what we need to take away from these first few verses just to understand the priority of that God's Word ought to have in our life and That it's the only place where you're going to receive complete truth Okay, it's God's Word. I'm not saying there aren't truth that isn't truth in other places one thing that I've had to really Deal with and I'm still I'm still trying to come to the I'm still trying to figure this out in my head But a lot of the people that I interact with within my churches or just other people that reach out to me I Could have really put into words for a long time what I'm trying to how I'm trying to help people and The way I would put into words now and some of you guys already know this because I use this term a lot is Trying to help people find Balance in their Christian life and what I mean by this is that You know if you're like reading all these books You know and self-help books and books of philosophy and psychology You're trying to understand all the wisdom of the world, but you neglect this book. You're not balanced But you know every time you're extreme There's also another extreme and there's another extreme people that sometimes I come across and it's like all I read is this book All I think about is this book all I listen to is preaching of this book Even so far where when I homeschool my kids what curriculum do you use only this book? It's like okay, so what do you teach when you're teaching your kids history? Oh, it's just the history of the Bible It's yeah, okay. There's history, but when we get to the point of the nation of Israel It's only the nation of Israel, and it's surrounding neighbors that we learn the history of that Oh, if God didn't want us to learn history of other places other peoples our nations Then you know if you wanted us to learn that you would have put it in the Bible Or you know how do you teach mathematics? Well? You know? 66 books in the Bible take away You know what is it? 39 Old Testament books equals 27 New Testament books, and that's you know even the Bible is going to teach them You know mathematics, and I don't know if you ever come across people like this where it's only this book And I'm telling you that is another extreme Because if you can come with me come with me to Ecclesiastes chapter 1 come with me to Ecclesiastes chapter 1 please Ecclesiastes chapter 1 So one thing I've learned to the pastor the people that God's allowed me to minister to I'm Often dealing with people that are extreme Extreme over here or extreme over there Just and I like look get balanced fine find your balance find the middle ground I don't I used to say be normal But I realize normal can mean anything to anybody like you know what is normal in the world today Don't be that normal so I rather just now say just be balanced all right and use God's Word to be your balance But look at Ecclesiastes 1 now. I understand that the book of Ecclesiastes is a journey That King the King Solomon went through okay, and in his journey he had that extreme was trying to experience everything under the Sun and neglecting God on the journey and Everything he did everything he learns everything he achieved on the Sun without God he says is vanity It's pointless But the things of themselves are not pointless It's just that they're pointless without God and he gets to the end of his journey and says look the only thing that really matters Is serving the Lord? All right, but one thing he discovers here in Ecclesiastes 1 13. I want you to notice this He goes, and I gave my heart to seek and search out wisdom Concerning all things that are done under heaven So guys look I try to learn everything that I possibly could anything under heaven all right He goes this sore travail look at this have God given to the sons of man to be exercised therewith So he acknowledges God has given man to exercise himself in knowledge We should learn All right, we should like you know brother Les for example. He learns. You know how to you know Work out right and the right nutrients for the body right you're not going to read the Bible and figure out exactly What nutrients and what minerals you need to build up your strength in your body? you're going to need to get that information from somewhere else and There are many things in life that the Bible is not going to teach you, but for you to get that further Understanding you're going to need to go to other sources and get you know and study You know God wants us to learn and sometimes he uses even the natural world and even the animal kingdom to teach us things You know God uses his creation God uses the wisdom that he's given man to be exercised there with that we would study these things But then it says in verse 14 I Have seen all the works that are done in the Sun and behold all his vanity and vexation of spirit So it says look just learning for the sake of learning. This is vanity and it's vexation but you know again, this is without God God has caused man to be exercised that we would have to learn and grow and increase our understanding and so if you take the view that I'm only going to read this one book here and That's all you're going to miss out on what God has actually caused you to be created and exercised there with all right So we need to understand that there are these extremes that we can get to it's always about finding the middle ground and the balance and I want to Go, I don't know. I don't know what it is. I'm still trying to figure this out I think it's something that needs I need to understand about man Because sometimes I feel like when someone's too extreme over here And I tell them come over here balance It's like they end up from here sometimes to over here and like no you haven't gotten the balance yet, right? It's gonna be over here. Someone's over here It's like look you know you're unbalanced come over here, and they end up coming over here It's like no you've gone too far like what is that with you going to the extremes that you know you're always driven to Why can't you stay balanced in God's Word? Let me give you an example of this and and Because you know what we see again these first few verses that the wisdom of God What is truth is found in God's Word okay, but truth can be found in other places all right? I'm not against reading books. I think reading other books is good for your learning I think listening to podcasts listen to information learning is a is a good thing to achieve and and to do and there are certain Topics that you're probably more likely to be interested in my brother Tim for example is often interested in geography and history and You know those are good things to learn right? But You can go too far in either direction sometimes, so you know one thing that I When I was in maybe 11 years old 12 years old 13 I can't remember my mom my mom used to buy me these magazines from the newsagent and They were like about dinosaurs or science and things like that right but Every magazine as you probably would understand with these topics of I love dinosaurs. I always Young boys often love dinosaurs. You know did anyone anyone else like dinosaurs was just me Exciting these huge creatures right and these sharp teeth and you know but often these books would say you know millions of years ago Oh, you know the big bang happened Whatever how many billions of years ago, and and I'm just as a kid and why I wasn't like this really Invested kid in the Bible, but I knew what God's Word says I know God created everything in six days about 6,000 years ago And I would approach those magazines, and I'd be excited like to study illustrations I like how they believe these dinosaurs interacted and what they ate and all this and how big they could grow and I was always interested In that kind of information and the descriptions, but when it came to the millions of years I would stop and go hold on how does this make sense now? I wasn't old enough to realize that people hated God. I didn't get that point yet I just thought everybody was kind of decent I didn't realize there were God haters and Bible haters and people are trying to turn your heart away from God's Word I didn't know that when you're 11 12, whatever right you just think everyone's trying to do the best They can in the world, so I just kind of concluded well You know what the information about the dinosaurs or things those those things that interests me I'm going to learn those things and I'm also going to try to understand where they're coming from with the millions of years But at the end of the day I know God's Word is true And if there's a contradiction with God's Word God knows and these scientists They're just trying to figure it out and because they can't figure it out They come up with these crazy notions of millions of years And I've just been confronted with that am I going to go with the magazines or am I going to go with God's Word? You know where am I going? Where's the balance am I going to throw out the magazines though? Is there no knowledge is there no understanding in these magazines, and you know no no because that's another extreme There are things that you can learn from these science magazines Whatever it is, but I realize that if it's contradicted to God's Word, then I'm going to go with God's Word And that's kind of been my life Overall in how I try to absorb information and study. I'm happy to learn lots of things I'm happy to learn from podcasts and audio books And you know my own personal studies and whatever reading other books and reading sometimes some health some self-help type books I quite enjoy it But whenever there's a situation where I realize there's a contradiction with God's Word I always just default well God's Word is true, and I'm not going to let that information cause me to go to one extreme All right And I think we need we need to be able to learn and apply this in our lives Like when it comes to say psychology, and I sometimes enjoy reading books on psychology just trying to understand what makes man tick and while you can learn a lot of things and and I can relate to some of that and I can it helps me as a Pastor to sometimes interact with people and to know whether someone is genuine or they're just trying to be That may be designed to backstab you or something like there's been a little bit more cautious sometimes at the same time I realized that these books aren't going to give me all the answers Because the only one that knows the condition of a man's heart is the Lord God is the only one I can I can pick Up on some things, but I don't really know a man's heart I don't even know my own heart according to the Bible only God knows such a thing All right, and then so I can I can find that balance in these books But when you when you end up going no, no, I can work out a man's heart, too You've gone too far You know you you drunk the Kool-Aid of man's wisdom and you've got to be brought back to a balance You know I can read books on finance for example right and learn something about how to better structure myself Financially how to budget better how to invest You know it's for a future for a rainy day But when I start to see that that book might be causing maybe the lust and the love of money I know no God's Word does not want me to love money God's Word does not want me to trust in uncertain riches God's Word wants me to trust in him and so whenever the book starts to go that direction I can quickly be brought back to the balance because I know what God's Word has to say Nevertheless there is some information in those books that are worthwhile to learn from You know I'm just trying to give you some some examples right and whatever other topics that might interest you You need to always understand there's knowledge and God has exercised man to learn these things There's something he wants us to do But make sure you always find that balance and never been drawn to one extreme over another extreme Okay, and it's strange because sometimes I see this Where someone does pursue some knowledge elsewhere does pursue information Elsewhere and then that causes a brother to go fully this way It's like well. This is the truth. I figured yep. It's contrary to God's Word now brother You've gone way too far now. You've got all the way over here come back and be balanced You know let God's Word balance you and so you know I just want to make this you know clear that I'm not against Learning I'm not against other books some people are some people say no the only book I'll ever read is barber God wants you to exercise your wisdom and learning there is much to learn in the world And it's going to help you in life, but you always want to make sure you maintain that balance I just I want to throw that in there because I feel like this is a topic that I'm dealing with Every year maybe every month as a pastor because I get all kinds of questions and questions Often come from one extreme or the other But let's continue back in Isaiah 55 Isaiah 55 in verse number 3 Isaiah 55 verse number 3 Remember how we read about 2nd Timothy chapter 4 about having itching ears and ears being turned into fables well, God says in verse number 3 incline your ear and Come unto me Here and your soul shall live and I will make an everlasting covenant with you even the sure Mercies of David So God says look listen incline your ear listen to me your soul shall live God is offering you the everlasting covenant Which of course if your soul is going to live what comes of the everlasting covenant is everlasting life Okay, he calls it the even the sure mercies of David So when we combine verses 1 to verse number 3 we see that God is speaking to the unbeliever the unbeliever Salvation is free turn your ears toward him, and he will make an everlasting covenant with you everlasting life He will give your soul life Okay, so this is clearly about salvation Now I'm going to show you something kind of funny alright that I've heard taught behind the pulpit And it gets taught by many pastors, okay, so verse number 3 ends with even the sure mercies of David, right? And then verse number 4 begins with behold I have given him for a witness to the people a leader and commander to the people I've heard and again. It's this teaching that the Jews in the Middle East are God's chosen people That one day in the millennium that King David they will teach King David is going to lead the nation of Israel in that time and that this is a fulfillment see King David's mentioned there in Verse number 3 and there we have the commander over that nation in verse number 4 I've heard this taught multiple times, and this is one of the go-to texts for it Alright now this statement even the sure mercies of David is brought up again for us in the New Testament So come with me to Acts 13 come with me to Acts 13 I'll show you where it is Acts 13, and we'll understand what God means by the sure mercies of David Acts 13, please I'll turn there myself actually Acts 13 Let's start in verse number 33. Let's start there Acts 13 33 God hath fulfilled the same unto us Actually, let's start with verse number 32, and we declare unto you glad tidings, which is the word gospel by the way How that the promise which was made unto the fathers So this gospel these glad tidings were made unto the fathers or the spiritual fathers And I'm going to tell you right now one of those fathers that this was promised was made was to David, okay? I'll show you soon as we keep going God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children in that he have raised up Jesus again as It is also written in the second psalm thou art my son this day have I begotten thee So what we read here is that God promised the forefathers of this gospel message that one day Jesus Christ be resurrected from the dead because that is the gospel the death the burial and the resurrection of Christ and look at verse number 34 and As concerning that he raised him up from the dead, so there's it's clearly it's about Christ's resurrection, right? Now no more to return to corruption He said on in this wise I will give you the sure mercies of David I Will give you the sure message of David, so what is the sure message of David the resurrection of Christ? This was a promise these glad tidings this gospel were given to our forefathers of old and now it's given to the children of that generation that they'll preach into The gospel message given to the same from the fathers of old to the new generation and of course when it comes to the gospel This this is the mercy of God, right? When God saved us he's given us his mercy the sure mercies sure means for sure You know a hundred percent right the the sure mercies that God gave to David is the gospel message that we all benefit from So when you understand that from acts 13 that it's about the resurrection of Christ Obviously tied into the gospel message, and then you read come back with me to acts 55 Okay, and we read about the everlasting covenant with you Even the show misses of David. It's like well obviously the gospel is what brings us into that everlasting covenants That's what the short message of David is. This is not talking about King David coming in the millennium and Leading the nation of Israel some like this right and then when you understand what that is the shortness of David is the resurrection of Christ you get to this number four Behold I have given him who David no Jesus Jesus is the sure mercy of David, okay? I have given him that's Jesus for a witness to the people a leader and commander to the people All right now you understand the context of what that means this is another prophecy of Christ that Christ would be a leader and commander to the people Specifically now the millennium when he reigns in the millennium because it says in verse 5 behold thou shall call a nation that thou knowest not and Nations that knew not thee shall run unto thee because of the Lord thy God and For the Holy One of Israel for he have glorified thee All right, so all nations will be seeking the Lord God all nations are going to be seeking the Holy One of Israel in the millennium and when Christ comes back to establish his kingdom. He's going to be that leader that commander to the people Okay, so once again. We see this is now talking about Millennium Israel All right, let's get to verse number six Seek ye the Lord while he may be found Call ye upon him while he is near all right now verse number six I don't know if you've again. This is a very famous verse seek ye the Lord while he may be found I love this verse actually call ye upon him while he is near now is this to unbelievers or to believers? I want you to think about it. Just think about yourself. Don't need to answer Seek ye the Lord while he may be found call ye upon him while he is near Now we know the first few verses worry about unbelievers. God's telling them look. It's free All right to get this knowledge from God He invites them to take part of this everlasting covenant the shore mercies of David Then he says in verse number six seek ye the Lord while he may be found call ye upon him while he is near Well, I'll give you my answer, and then I'll show you why my answer why I believe my answer. I believe this is to believers Now I've heard many sermons about this being an unbeliever and I think you can maybe apply I think unbelievers need to seek the Lord I agree with that as a general sense But I can see this the first application of this of this teaching is to believers Because it's it's similar to Matthew 7 7 which I'll just read to you Matthew 7 7 says ask and it shall be given you Seek and ye shall find knock and it shall be opened unto you For everyone that asketh receiveth and he that seeketh findeth and to him that knocketh it shall be opened and This teaching of Jesus Christ in Matthew 7 is about our prayer life Going to God in prayer and asking things and seeking him, and he'll give us those answers So seek ye the Lord while he may be found call ye upon him while he is near and This is why some people apply verse number six about salvation Because it's a false gospel out there. They will tell you you got to turn from your sins to be saved And you ask somebody I've seen it ask somebody where we're in the Bible doesn't say in order for you to be saved You need to turn from your sins Well, Isaiah 55. Can you tell me something in the New Testament? Isaiah let's go to Isaiah 55 verse number 6 seek ye the Lord while he may be found call ye upon him while his knee Let the wicked forsake his way see verse number 7 and The unrighteous man his thoughts and Let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon See in order for you to be saved in order for you to be forgiven of your sins You need to forsake your evil way even your thoughts need to forsake those thoughts and come to the Lord Now why is verse number six and verse number seven not about salvation can anyone see in those texts brother Return unto the Lord meaning they were the Lord's If you're returning to the Lord you already belong to the Lord All right, and so yeah, you know and this is about our fellowship. This is about our walk with the Lord We know that we can walk in darkness. We know we can get ourselves into some horrible sins We can be like the prodigal son and go about living some righteous living right, but then we can return back to the Lord Because we're already saved and God wants us to forsake our evil ways You know God wants us to clean up our lives God wants us to repent of our sins not how to be saved But in order to maintain a close walk with our Lord to maintain fellowship with our Lord So thank you brother Tim. You're right and let him return unto the Lord and You know again when it comes to that story of the prodigal son a lot of pastors teach that that's about salvation they'll say see the son left and He went out and live in a righteous life and the way that you get saved is turn away from your righteous living and Come to the Father like the prodigal son did and so come to the front and you know get saved or something like this No, no, he's already the son of the Father He starts as the son of the Father All right, then he goes and lives a horrible life and goes You know what things were better when I was with my father, so it goes back to the Father He's already a son of the Father Okay, so the prodigal son is not about how to be saved It's a story about a backslidden Christian far from Lord coming back to the Lord and living in his ways Let's continue there verse number eight actually before we turn to verse number eight if you've got a finger in 2nd Timothy come back with me to 2nd Timothy 2nd Timothy chapter 2 2nd Timothy chapter 2 please 2nd Timothy because we're comparing the 55th book of the Bible 2nd Timothy we have Isaiah 55 as well Now again the books of 1st and 2nd Timothy are for pastors Primarily okay, it's to pastor Timothy Paul the apostle Paul is teaching pastor Timothy how to be a good pastor And this is what he says to Timothy to a pastor in 2nd Timothy 2 22 Flee also youthful lusts To a pastor yes but follow righteousness faith Charity peace with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart You see even pastors need to forsake their evil ways Even pastors can be sinners even pastors can seek youthful lusts in their life Okay, and so the direction is flee these things stay away from these things pastor Timothy Again just showing you this is not pastor Timothy's saved a long time ago All right But even pastor Timothy can get himself into some bad sins and the apostle Paul's correcting him or gently advising him All right to stay away from these things, but follow all the things that are important righteousness faith charity peace And so come come back to me to Isaiah 55 and verse number 8 God says for my thoughts are not your thoughts Neither are your ways my ways sayeth the Lord. I mean this is so clear Because you ask the average person. What do you need to do to go to heaven? The average person will say to you well be a good person Yeah, your thoughts are not God's thoughts your ways are not God's ways You think you have to be a good person to go to heaven you think you have to pay your way to heaven You know in the Catholic Church They believe in purgatory that if you have a loved one dies They're probably burning in purgatory and in order to get them out you can ask your priest to pray for them But you got to make sure you put some money in first you got up You got to pay their way out of purgatory You guys I'm I know I know it's like because my wife was a Catholic so I know she's talking about all these things Right, and she told me how her dad would like put thousands of dollars. You know into the church offering say Can you please pray for my mom that she can get out of purgatory and go to heaven? Thousands of dollars thousands of dollars. You know into the Catholic Church and God's telling us look. It's free Like you know man's ways is corrupted You know man thinks it's about how good I am to go to heaven or man thinks I've got to pay my way into heaven God says my way is not your ways Who's the way? I am the way the truth in the life? Jesus said Jesus said Jesus no man come front to the Father, but by me the only way to the Father the only way to heaven is by Jesus and He paid your way to heaven. He died on the cross. He was buried three days later. He rose from the dead He is the sure mercies of David. It's through him that you enter into the everlasting covenant so you know it's just And look if we didn't have the Bible we would think as stupidly as these false religions, too We'd also be trying our best to go to heaven we'd also be going with I'm not rapist I'm not a murderer, and I'm not these as bad as some people so God surely should accept me into heaven because look how good I am We'd be thinking just as foolishly But again is because of God's Word because of his sincere milk Because of the waters of life that he gives us because Christ is the bread of life That we understand that salvation is by only one way and that's by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ He Says in verse number nine for the heavens are higher than the earth So are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts How high can you go in the air with your own strength? How high can you jump? I don't think I can jump and touch that ceiling. Maybe someone can But if you can hit that ceiling not so you can jump pretty high But so much how much higher is God? And compared to God we've barely left the ground You know and you know I flew over today right and I'm up in the air and I'm thinking well I can look down and we're pretty high But I still can't see God How high is God you know compared to to us? and I look this up and I just out of curiosity so The vehicle that man has created that has gone as high as possible as far as possible into space is Voyager number one and Voyager two okay the Voyager program has cost the Adjuster for inflation today the cost of the Voyager program is four billion dollars American dollars four billion American dollars and even the Voyager Ships have not found God It's like how high is God how far above is God how much greater is God? You know and and his ways are not our ways, and you know this is why it's so important that we When we're going through some difficulties or challenges in life And we need some answers, and we we ask God we need to go to him in prayer We need to seek him we need to look for him and his answers and his wisdom that we don't get impatient I'm like you I get impatient. I want God come through now I need an answer now, but God's ways are just so much greater And I can tell you just my own testimony won't go into any infant read like any detail But there have been so many times that I'm like God. I need an answer like this I need you to come through like this and God says no I will answer, but I'll come through another way, but I never know what that way is and it requires faith It requires well Lord I just need to trust you and then God comes through and answers it in such a different way such an amazing way I'm like man. God's your way is truly higher than my ways Your thoughts are so much more you know the big picture that I'm only focused on the here and now I'm focusing this one problem Right now, but God you can see it all you know and this is the great God that we serve I'm thankful for a God that is so much greater than me You know Well in verse 10 he says for as the rain cometh down and the snow from heaven and returneth not vida but water of the earth and Make if it bring forth and bud then it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater So shall my word be that go forth out of my mouth it shall not return unto me void But it shall accomplish that which I please and it shall prosper in the thing where unto well where to I sent it So God says his word is like rain when the rain comes or the snow comes You know snow on the mountains and it melts and it goes down in the rivers. You know it waters the ground Okay, it goes into the river system back into the sea and as it's passing through it's bringing water And you know life brought back to back to the land and so you know water brings Allows for fertility it allows for the crops to grow for things to blossom for the flowers to blossom And that's what God's Word should do in our lives as we read God's Word This is like rain from heaven And this is what's going to help you grow and and be a mature believer. You know be balanced in your life You know and there's a beauty in God's Word, and I thank you for being at church here tonight on Thursday I always say I know it's how hard it is on Thursday shopping night here in Sydney and the traffic and all that But you come and I hope when you meditate and you hear God's Word It's not hearing pastor Kevin, but focusing what God's Word has to say that In you it feeds you in you it nourishes you in you it brings forth You know fruitfulness it brings some wisdom into your life That's the point of God's Word right God doesn't want to just it's come down to return back to him He wants to pass through a dry land and and cause blossoming of flowers and things to grow and and that's how our lives ought to be the way we grow and mature and Become greater Christians is by consuming God's Word You know I won't get to turn there in case you turned away, but 2nd Timothy 3 16 you guys know this all scripture is given by inspiration of God all scripture all of this every single page is Given by inspiration of God God gave you every page in this word every word God gave us that word You know I think about Moses and the Ten Commandments He had two tablets with Ten Commandments stone tablets. That's amazing because the Bible says that God wrote that with his own finger That's amazing, but God gave us this this is more. This is more than the stone tablets He's given us everything all the knowledge we can possibly have to our fingertips right here Available to us to help us nourish and to be to grow and develop you know please love this book Please love these words these are God's words to you You know when you hear a foolish preacher like me try my best to explain it Forgive me when I mess things up, and I misspeak, but please understand that the great wisdom comes from this book All right, there's nothing that I'm preaching that you can't learn on your own with the Holy Spirit of God that lives within you, okay? This is the word that goeth out of my mouth it shall not return unto me void But it shall accomplish that which I please and it shall prosper in the thing where to I sense it God says every time God's Word is proclaimed. It is prospering someone Okay, it is causing It will accomplish what he pleases and You know we sometimes go through the soul wing and we can apply this to that if as well if you want And we give someone the gospel we speak the words of truth and sometimes they reject it they don't want to hear it we do our best to give out of John 3 16 and Never think that what a waste of time no one got saved You know you know it's the dry patches you go through sometimes We don't see people say for a while, and you feel like is it working It's it is working God promises us that his work will not return to him void, okay? Verse number 12 For ye shall go out with joy and be led forth with peace The mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands So you know if creation could sing if the mountains could sing if the trees could clap their hands When we preach God's Word and when you preach God's Word Creation would want nothing more than to rejoice and to sing With you you know as you go out there And you preach the gospel and no one's hearing it the trees hurt it They're happy God's creation is happy that God's Word is being proclaimed the grass enjoyed it The mountains enjoyed it. That's heels enjoyed hearing God's Word preach. You've always got an audience or Audience audience sorry You've always got an audience all right if man's not listening to God's Word being preached God's creation is and if they could sing if they could clap they would they would rejoice at the words that have been spoken and Then we get verse number 13 the last verse I believe the last verse again applies to in the larger context I believe it applies to the millennium, but we can take a spiritual teaching and apply it to us verse number 13 says instead of the thorn Shall come up the fir tree and instead of the briar Shall come up the myrtle tree, and it shall be the Lord for a name for an everlasting sign That shall not be cut off So we can apply to the millennium what we've learned to the millennium Is that when God returns is going to cause this world to flourish in amazing ways right the these the deserts are going to Grow crops, and it's going to be trees and flowers God's going to change the landscape of the earth as we know it's going to be a beautiful earth when Christ rules and reigns But we can apply this in our lives again We can say maybe there's a time where you're a maybe you're a bit dry Maybe in your life, you know instead of bringing forth fruits. You're bringing forth Thorns and thistles and briars You know what and in order for that to be changed in your life in order for you to be fruitful You need God's Word you need to absorb God's Word And he will plant the fir tree you plant the myrtle tree in your life And you continue to grow and blossom for the name of the Lord All right, Reverend title for the sermon was God's ways are higher. God's ways are higher. He surely is you know and I'm Probably there's a need that you've got today for the you need it. You need the Lord to answer Maybe you're going through some hardship you go for some trials. Maybe there's a lack of wisdom Problems and hardships, maybe sorrows that you're experiencing and you need to go to God and say God Can you answer these prayers? Can you please help me? Can you please? Give me your way. Give me understanding, and I'm telling you now. It's not going to be answered the way you think God's ways are higher his ways are different to yours his thoughts are well above above your thoughts But he will answer and his ways are always perfect and he can cause you to grow and to blossom But let me encourage you. You know what when you're going through challenges Stick to the house of God stick to reading his word stick to praying to the Lord okay stay close to him All right stay close don't be the prodigal son don't be the guy that runs away and ruins his life for a while You don't need to learn hard harsh lessons that way just stay close to him, right? How did it say how was it said in the passage? Seek you the Lord while he may be found call ye upon him while he is near okay. Let's pray