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Seek the Lord While He May Be Found: Sovereign Mercy and the Efficacious Word (Isaiah 55:6–11) · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome back to reformed thinking.
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  Glad to be here. Today we're doing one of our
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  deep dives. We're going to be looking at a
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  really critical section of Scripture, one that I think
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  perfectly holds together human duty and divine action.
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  We're going to be in Isaiah chapter 55, specifically verses
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  6 through 11. A powerhouse of a passage it.
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  Really is. And it's right in the middle of
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  what scholars often call the Book of Comfort.
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  You know that big hopeful section of Isaiah from chapter
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  40 all the way to 55? Right.
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  It's addressed to a people who are really facing judgment,
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  facing exile. They're in need of comfort.
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  And the context here, the immediate placement of these
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  verses, is just so important to get right from the start.
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  It's absolutely vital. You really can't understand
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  chapter 55 without seeing what comes directly before it.
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  These verses are not just floating in a vacuum.
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  OK, so what's the setup? The call to seek God here in
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  chapter 55 is the immediate, gracious result of the
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  astounding work that's detailed just before it.
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  I'm talking about the great Servant song in Isaiah 52 and
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  53. The.
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  Suffering Servant. Exactly.
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  That song establishes the reality of substitutionary
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  atonement. It lays out how the servant
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  bears the sins of many and, you know, secures redemption.
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  The work is finished. So the provision is made, the
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  atonement is accomplished by the servant, and then comes this
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  open gracious invitation in chapter 55.
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  That's the. Flow from the secured work of
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  redemption to the open invitation urging people to
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  actually receive that provision. OK, so our mission then for this
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  deep dive is to really grasp how this one passage manages to hold
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  together 2 truths that I think are human logic constantly tries
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  to pull apart. First, there's this urgent need
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  for the Sinner to act, to seek, to call, to return, and 2nd,
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  there's this absolute guarantee that God's plan, which is
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  carried out by His Word, cannot possibly fail.
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  That's the tension and the beauty.
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  So we're looking for some real clarity on that balance between
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  our responsibility and God's sovereignty and salvation.
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  It's all right here in these few verses.
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  All right, so let's jump straight in Part 1, the urgent
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  call to seek and return Isaiah 55, verses 6 and seven.
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  Let's do it. The first thing that hits you
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  when you read this is just how demanding the language is.
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  God has just offered this incredible gift.
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  Salvation without money and without price.
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  Right, the invitation in verses 1 and 2 is completely free.
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  And yet the text immediately pivots from that free promise to
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  these really urgent commands. There's no sense of passive
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  acceptance here. The listener is commanded to do
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  something decisively. Yes, the tone shifts
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  dramatically. We get this series of active
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  imperatives. Seek the Lord while he may be
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  found, Call upon him while he's near, and then he continues.
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  Let the wicked forsake his way. Let him return.
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  This feels like it's demanding more than just a vague spiritual
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  interest. It absolutely is.
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  So what is the nature of this seeking that God is expecting
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  here? Well, the language is.
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  It's covenantal and it's intense.
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  Let's just zero in on that first verb.
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  Seek the Lord. The Hebrew is darosh.
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  Now, if you heard that word in the context of ancient Israel,
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  you would not think of someone casually, you know, browsing
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  spiritual options in a bookstore.
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  Right, it's not 1/2 hearted spiritual quest.
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  Not at all. Darosh means a deliberate A
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  persistent orientation of your entire life toward God's will
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  and His presence. So it's a very active,
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  determined word. Extremely.
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  It's the language used for a serious inquiry, like going to
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  consult an Oracle or even pursuing someone relentlessly.
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  The nugget of knowledge here is that God is commanding a total
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  redirection of your life. A redirection.
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  Yes, it requires you to actively recenter your whole existence
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  away from your own self-interest and turn it toward finding his
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  face and obeying his revealed will.
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  It's a very earnest pursuit, not some gentle drift.
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  That distinction is so key. It's not a suggestion.
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  It's an urgent command that defines the necessary response
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  from our side. That's right.
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  And that seeking is immediately paired with another command,
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  calling upon him or kura in the Hebrew.
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  Why do you think seeking is always accompanied by calling?
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  Well, Korra is the language of prayer, a verbal invocation.
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  When you put Dharaj that persistent internal pursuit, and
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  Korra the external verbal plea. When you put them together, they
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  define the posture of total dependency.
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  Dependency. Think about it, a person who is
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  truly seeking God, who is pursuing Him with their whole
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  life, quickly realizes they are lost.
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  They can't find him without His divine aid.
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  So they have to cry out for help.
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  They have to. They are crying out for mercy,
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  for direction, for help. You could put it this way.
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  Seeking means you stop hiding from God.
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  Calling means you admit out loud I can't make it back on my own.
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  I like that. Stop hiding and admit you need
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  help. The combination of the two
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  describes the center finally stopping their flight from God
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  and actively running toward Him, pleading for the very
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  reconciliation that the servant from chapter 53 just secured.
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  And this whole pursuit, it's time bound that adds this layer
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  of tremendous urgency. Seek the Lord while He may be
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  found, and call upon Him while he is near.
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  Yes, the temporal clause is. Critical.
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  The modern mind, I think, often just assumes God is always
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  equally available, sort of on demand.
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  So why is God's nearness presented here as something
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  that's temporary or, you know, conditional?
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  That is a crucial theological point, especially for the
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  original audience of people who felt abandoned in exile.
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  God is near in his revealed word.
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  What do you mean by that? I mean, he is near in the
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  covenant promises, in the prophet's voice, in the specific
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  offer of grace that's being made right here in the Book of
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  Comfort. But the text warns against this
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  deadly assumption that his nearness, this unique
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  opportunity to respond to the gospel, is something you can
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  safely put off. So it's a window of opportunity.
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  It is. The warning isn't that God
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  himself is going to suddenly vanish into the cosmos, but that
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  the window of, let's call it, gracious accessibility in the
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  preaching of the Word will close.
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  For an individual, or for a whole generation even.
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  It could be for either. It's the ultimate warning
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  against spiritual procrastination.
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  It cuts against the assumption that you can always return later
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  on your own terms. The nearness of God here demands
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  an immediate, decisive response. Before the heart hardens.
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  Precisely before the heart, Hortens.
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  The time is now. That's the message.
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  That really does reframe the whole passage.
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  The grace is completely free, but our response has to be
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  urgent. Yes, and that response involves
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  more than just seeking. Right.
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  If seeking to find their orientation toward God, then
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  repentance defines the necessary turning away from everything
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  that separated us from Him in the 1st place.
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  Verse 7 demands this really holistic turning.
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  It addresses both our outward life and our inner world.
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  It is absolutely holistic repentance.
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  And here we get to that great Old Testament concept of shove
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  it. It demands a concrete turning of
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  the whole person. We're talking mine, will, and
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  life. A complete pivot.
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  And the Prophet starts with the outward turning.
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  Let the wicked forsake his way. Yes, and that word way is the
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  Hebrew Derek. It means a road, a path, a
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  lifestyle. So not just a single action.
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  Not at all. It refers to the entire outward
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  pattern of your conduct, the whole mode of living that
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  opposes God's moral law. This isn't asking the listener
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  to, you know, stop 1 isolated bad habit.
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  It means abandoning a lifestyle that is centered on self rule,
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  self love and self justification.
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  It's the cessation of the life lived autonomously from God.
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  Well said. That's it exactly.
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  But Isaiah doesn't stop at behavior, which is frankly where
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  a lot of religious moralism tends to plateau.
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  He goes right to the REIT. The unrighteous man must also
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  forsake his thoughts. And this is the surprising,
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  deeply surgical part of the command.
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  The thoughts here are Macheshevat.
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  Macheshevat OK. This term goes far beyond just,
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  you know, transient notions or ideas that pop into your head.
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  It refers to the corrupt inner world of your desires, your
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  intentions, your plans, and your foundational value judgments.
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  Worldview. It's the worldview.
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  This is where the prophet insists sin actually originates.
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  Sin isn't just a collection of bad actions.
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  It flows from a worldview, a way of thinking that is hostile to
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  God. So if you don't forsake the
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  unrighteous, much of. Thought then you haven't truly
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  repented. If you don't renounce that inner
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  calculation that says I know better than God, or this sin is
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  worth the price, you've only polished the surface of your
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  outward Derek your way. So biblical repentance requires
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  renouncing both the visible sinful practices and the
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  underlying sinful thinking. The corrupt root system.
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  It's a change in your internal allegiance, not just your
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  external behavior. That's a.
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  Huge nugget of knowledge right there.
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  True repentance involves a a cognitive divorce, forsaking the
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  wicked thoughts before it even demands A behavioral separation
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  from the wicked way. It's a root level.
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  Requirement and that turning away from sin is immediately
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  defined by the necessity of turning towards something, or
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  rather someone. Let him return to the Lord.
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  Yes, the ultimate goal of repentance is defined as a
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  return to the Lord, and that word return is shove again.
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  So shove means both turning from sin and turning to God.
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  It's the core prophetic summons to Israel to restore the
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  covenant relationship. It means repentance is
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  fundamentally relational reconciliation.
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  It's not just the Stoics attempt at self improvement or some kind
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  of ethical cleanup. It's.
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  The prodigal's journey home. It is.
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  It's the journey back to the person you abandoned.
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  The whole exercise of forsaking sin is ultimately meaningless
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  unless it is a determined move back toward a relationship with
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  the covenant Lord. OK, so if the process is this
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  radical, I mean, you're talking about forsaking my entire way of
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  life and my deepest inner worldview, it sounds impossibly
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  hard. It is from a human standpoint.
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  So what possibly motivates the Sinner to even attempt such an
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  immense holistic turning? And this is where God offers the
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  motivation that changes everything.
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  The reason to turn is not, interestingly, a threat of
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  impending judgment. Which you might expect.
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  Right. Instead, the motivation is a
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  promise rooted entirely in God's own character.
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  And it's a 2 fold motivation, right?
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  It is first, God says He will have compassion on him.
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  The Hebrew term for compassion here is racham Racham, and it's
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  tied to the concept of the womb. It suggests a tender, heartfelt,
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  almost parental kind of mercy. It's telling us that God is not
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  a grudging forgiver. He delights in showing steadfast
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  love. He forgives with warmth and
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  affection. OK.
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  So that's the nature of the forgiveness, it's tender.
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  What about the scope of it? That's the second part, and it's
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  almost unbelievable from a human perspective.
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  He will multiply to pardon. Multiply to pardon.
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  What does that phrase actually convey?
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  Is it just a lot of forgiveness? Well, it's more than that.
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  It conveys this idea of overflowing, super abundant
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  grace. It means God won't grant some
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  minimal, reluctant forgiveness. He grants a full, rich, generous
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  pardon that completely overwhelms the magnitude of the
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  sin. So it's not proportional.
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  Not at all. It covers not just a few small
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  transgressions, but many and great offenses you know, and
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  human transactional logic. If you owe a vast debt, you
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  might get a partial reduction based on your current good
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  behavior. Right.
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  A settlement? Exactly.
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  God says here that he doesn't just reduce the debt, He
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  multiplies the pardon to cover all of it immediately and
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  totally. The Sinner is urged to return
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  because the God who commands the turning is himself overflowing
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  with the readiness and the capacity to forgive.
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  And that confidence, that promise, it really prepares us
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  for the next critical section where God explains how you can
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  offer such a, you know, an apparently reckless pardon.
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  Yes, verses 8 and 9. God's higher ways of mercy.
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  OK, let's go there. So now we shift from the
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  command, the sinner's duty, to the explanation, which is God's
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  unique ability to forgive like this versus 8 and 9 function as
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  the necessary answer to a really crucial rhetorical.
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  Question and that question is. After promising this unlimited
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  pardon, this multiplying to pardon, God anticipates the
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  listeners internal voice saying, wait, that can't be right, that
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  doesn't make sense. My sins are too great.
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  I haven't earned this forgiveness.
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  The human logic kicking in. Right.
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  And God counters that doubt by saying, for my thoughts are not
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  your thoughts. Neither are your ways my ways.
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  That opening word for is the logical connector.
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  It's the divine because. Why is such generous pardon
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  possible? Because God operates on a logic
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  that we can't comprehend through our own moral intuition.
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  That's it. So we have to analyze the
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  specific contrast God is drawing humans, even the unrighteous man
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  being addressed in verse 7. We operate by the logic of
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  strict reciprocity. Tit for tat, you get what you
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  deserve. Precisely.
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  Our thoughts, our Macheshevo. There's that word again.
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  Our moral calculations and intuitions and our ways, our
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  Derek, our established conduct and social systems.
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  They're all built on a foundation of fairness.
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  We believe people should get what they deserve.
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  If you do something bad, you pay the price.
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  And that carries over into how we think about God.
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  Of course it does. It means that if we were to
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  design a system of forgiveness, we would expect God to measure
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  out mercy very sparingly, maybe in proportion to our improvement
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  or the sincerity of our. Remorse.
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  It's the logic of moral balancing.
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  Sin creates a debt, and that debt has to be repaid by the
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  debtor. That just seems.
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  It seems logical to us. And this is where God steps in
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  and says my plan is entirely different.
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  His logic, the logic of grace, utterly overturns that human
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  system of balancing. So he's saying his very way of
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  operating is fundamentally distinct.
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  Yes, His plan is the ultimate expression of grace to justify
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  the ungodly freely requiring nothing from the Sinner except
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  that they cast themselves upon that free provision.
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  The moment we try to insert our human standard of fairness, you
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  know, should have to do three years of tenants before God
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  Forgives me, we are placing our low earthly thoughts against
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  God's higher heavenly thoughts. God is telling us to stop trying
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  to apply our Ledger based accounting system to His
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  infinite mercy. That's a great way to put it.
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  His pardon is not a calculated risk on his part, it's an
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  overflow of his character made possible by an external
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  transaction that we haven't even gotten to yet.
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  Help me unpack that distinction a little more between our
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  thoughts and his. When God talks about his
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  thoughts and ways being higher, is he just talking about
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  morality like he's more moral than us or is it something
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  deeper? It's much deeper.
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  He is talking about the very method and foundation of
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  salvation. Our highest moral thought is
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  usually justice, That wrongdoing must be punished.
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  God's higher way is a just and justifying grace.
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  It's a way that simultaneously upholds his perfect justice by
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  punishing sin, and yet grants mercy by punishing it in another
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  the Servant. So it brings us back to chapter
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  53 again. It always has to.
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  Here's a great nugget to take away.
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  God's ways are higher because they saw the moral problem we
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  didn't even know we had. And that problem is, how can God
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  remain perfectly righteous while forgiving the unrighteous?
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  Our human logic only offers two options for that, right?
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  Either strict justice, which means no forgiveness for us, or
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  a compromise morality, which is cheap forgiveness where God just
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  sort of looks the other way. But God's higher way offers a
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  third, impossible option. Costly righteous forgiveness.
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  And to make sure we don't think this difference is just a slight
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  quantitative 1 like God, it's just a little bit more merciful
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  than we are. He uses the vastest possible
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  comparison in verse 9. For as the heavens are higher
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  than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my
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  thoughts than in your thoughts. That image is designed to shock
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  us into humility. It's the language of
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  immeasurable, unbridgeable distance.
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  You can measure the height of a mountain.
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  But you cannot climb from the surface of the earth to the
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  outer reaches of the heavens by your own power, and in the same
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  way, no human reasoning, no moral effort, can ascend to
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  God's plan of salvation by its own internal resources.
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  It affirms the total incomprehensibility of God's
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  redemptive strategy. You have to accept it as
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  revealed truth, not as something you could have figured out on
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  your own. Exactly.
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  This distance, then, isn't about God keeping secrets from us.
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  It's about making the source of salvation crystal clear.
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  It's not from us. The foundation of this higher
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  way must be in that preceding atonement, the servant Song.
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  We have to keep emphasizing that doctrinal connection.
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  God's higher way of mercy is not him merely ignoring sin.
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  It is costly mercy, and it's rooted in substitution.
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  The servant takes the punishment.
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  The means of redemption involve laying the iniquity of His
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  people on the Servant. As Isaiah 53 says, it is the
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  mechanism of imputation that allows God to secure redemption
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  from a purely human standpoint, A righteous person suffering for
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  the unrighteous. It can seem reckless or even
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  unfair, but it's the only way to satisfy justice fully while
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  offering pardon abundantly. This is the New Testament
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  confirmation of this higher way, right?
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  Paul argues in Romans that God has revealed as both just and
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  the justifier of those who have faith in Jesus.
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  So if someone today looks at the cross and says, you know, I
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  don't understand how that works or that seems excessive, the
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  biblical answer from Isaiah is, of course, you don't understand.
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  Exactly because your thoughts are limited by the earth.
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  That's the entire point, right? We are commanded to stop looking
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  at the economy of God's grace through the lens of human
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  economics or human fairness. The cross is the ultimate
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  display of God's higher thought process.
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  It is. It validates both the severity
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  of His justice it demands blood, and the depth of His mercy.
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  He provides the blood himself. This demands our intellectual
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  and our spiritual submission. This transcended difference
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  between God's ways and ours has massive implications
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  historically, especially for the individual believer who might be
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  struggling with guilt or a lack of assurance.
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  Huge implications. So what deep comfort does this
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  comparison offer to a troubled conscience?
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  This passage is a lifeline for the conscience struggling with
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  persistent guilt. Many believers, you know, they
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  struggle to accept forgiveness because they're measuring their
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  sin against their own sense of what is forgivable.
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  They can't let it go. They condemn themselves, often
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  years after the sin has been confessed.
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  They think my dad is too heavy. I can't forget it.
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  So surely God hasn't forgotten it.
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  And this passage speaks directly to that.
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  It assures them that God's readiness to pardon is not
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  limited or measured by their finite self condemning thoughts.
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  His thoughts of grace are infinitely higher than their
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  thoughts of guilt. If you're struggling with sins
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  that feel unforgivable, God is telling you stop measuring my
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  capacity for pardon by your limited capacity to forgive
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  yourself. My grace multiplies to pardon.
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  It frees the believer from that cycle of self flagellation.
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  That reframes the struggle completely.
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  It's not an internal subjective battle anymore.
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  It becomes about an external, objective fact about God's
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  character. That's the key.
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  And doctrinally, this contrast is just essential for humility,
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  isn't it? It demands total humility.
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  We have to submit our human instincts about fairness, about
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  merit, about repayment. We have to submit all of that to
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  God's Reshield plan. If we cannot reason our way up
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  to God's plan, then we are certainly not free to redesign
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  it to fit our own sensibilities. Whether that means downplaying
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  the severity of sin or suggesting that our faith is
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  some minor contribution to our salvation.
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  Both errors come from the same root, and furthermore, this
• 19:17
  passage is a core refutation of moralism, which is perhaps the
• 19:20
  most common theological error we all face.
• 19:23
  Find that for us in this context.
• 19:25
  Moralism dictates that forgiveness must be proportional
• 19:28
  to human performance. Isaiah 55 shouts back that
• 19:31
  pardon is grounded only in God's higher thoughts, in his settled
• 19:35
  purpose, not in our works. Any theology that allows the
• 19:38
  Sinner to boast in their repentance or their striving has
• 19:41
  failed to grasp the infinite height of God's ways above their
• 19:44
  own. Our works just can't climb that
• 19:45
  high. Wow.
• 19:47
  So this is a truly massive distinction.
• 19:48
  It means that the certainty of my salvation is guaranteed by a
• 19:51
  reality that is external to and infinitely greater than my own
• 19:55
  fluctuating sense of worthiness. That's it.
• 19:57
  The human tendency is always to look inward for assurance.
• 20:01
  Am I good enough? Did I seek hard enough?
• 20:03
  Am I sorry enough? God redirects our gaze outward
• 20:06
  and upward. The certainty lies in my eternal
• 20:09
  purpose and my transcendent method of provision.
• 20:12
  And that certainty is immovable. OK, so if God's higher thoughts
• 20:16
  explain the possibility of abundant pardon, the final
• 20:19
  verses here 10 and 11, they explain the certainty of it and
• 20:22
  the means by which those merciful purposes are achieved.
• 20:25
  God shifts focus from his character to His tool, the
• 20:29
  spoken word, the devar. And to convey the absolute
• 20:32
  reliability of this word, the Prophet uses this very vivid
• 20:36
  everyday analogy. He uses the agricultural cycle
• 20:39
  of the region, the descending rain and snow.
• 20:41
  You have to remember for the listener, particularly one
• 20:43
  living in a semi arid climate, rain wasn't just a pleasant
• 20:46
  background event, it was life itself.
• 20:48
  Its function was certain. You get rain, you get life.
• 20:51
  And by linking his Word to the infallibility of that weather
• 20:54
  cycle, God makes a powerful theological statement about
• 20:57
  success. OK, so let's breakdown the
• 20:59
  mechanics of the analogy. The rain and the snow.
• 21:02
  They descend from heaven, and they do not return there until
• 21:05
  they've accomplished their task. How does this natural process
• 21:08
  mirror the divine Word? The parallel is meticulous.
• 21:12
  The source of the rain is heaven.
• 21:13
  The source of the saving word, the devar, is God's own mouth.
• 21:18
  Both are transcendent in origin and crucially, both are
• 21:21
  committed to a specific mission. They're sent with a purpose.
• 21:25
  Right. Once precipitation leaves
• 21:27
  heaven, it has a God appointed function.
• 21:29
  It doesn't just fall idly, it doesn't return as unused
• 21:33
  moisture. It falls, it saturates the
• 21:35
  ground and it produces growth. And God states, so shall my word
• 21:40
  be that goes out from my mouth. The word proceeds like a
• 21:43
  messenger on a mission. A messenger who must deliver the
• 21:46
  message successfully and report back only once that mission is
• 21:48
  complete. And the purpose of the rain is
• 21:50
  very specific. It brings forth life.
• 21:53
  The infallible natural purpose is watering the earth, making it
• 21:56
  bring forth and sprout. This means growth and
• 21:58
  productivity, and the result is twofold.
• 22:01
  Seed to the sower and bread to the eater.
• 22:04
  Right seed to the sower is provision for future sowing for
• 22:07
  future generations, and bread to the eater is present sustenance,
• 22:11
  immediate life. So a nugget of knowledge here is
• 22:14
  that God sees His Word not just as like information, but as an
• 22:19
  active, sustaining power. It's a spiritual rain that
• 22:23
  ensures the continuation of the covenant community and satisfies
• 22:27
  the present hunger of the individual soul.
• 22:29
  Yes, the rain is instrumental. It is never ever wasted.
• 22:32
  So we have this analogy where success is an absolute.
• 22:35
  In the natural world, the rain will yield fruit.
• 22:38
  And because the natural analogy is certain, the divine guarantee
• 22:41
  is absolute. This gets us to the central
• 22:43
  assertion about the devar, the word It shall not return to me
• 22:47
  empty. What does that empty mean here?
• 22:49
  It means it is never idle, never ineffectual, never without
• 22:52
  accomplishment. It's a statement of absolute
• 22:55
  metaphysical power. And it's not just a negative
• 22:57
  statement. No.
• 22:58
  It's backed up by two powerful positive guarantees.
• 23:00
  It shall accomplish that which I purpose, and it shall succeed in
• 23:03
  the thing for which I sent it. Look at that sequence.
• 23:06
  God purposes the end salvation. He sends the Word as the means,
• 23:11
  and the Word infallibly fulfills that purpose.
• 23:14
  There is no may accomplish or might succeed.
• 23:18
  It shall and it will. God's sovereign plan, carried by
• 23:22
  His spoken word, cannot possibly be thwarted by any external
• 23:26
  force. Including human resistance.
• 23:28
  Including human resistance. This has to be the foundation of
• 23:31
  all hope for the preacher and for the seeking soul.
• 23:34
  Our confidence isn't on the strength of the soil, but on the
• 23:37
  invincible nature of the rain itself.
• 23:39
  Precisely. The confidence rests entirely on
• 23:42
  the intrinsic, unchangeable, invincible power of the Divine
• 23:46
  Word. When we speak the Word of God,
• 23:48
  we're not just offering a suggestion.
• 23:50
  We are unleashing an active agent that is guaranteed to
• 23:53
  execute God's will. And that's especially comforting
• 23:55
  when you look back at how difficult the turning is.
• 23:57
  That's commanded in verses 6:00 and 7:00.
• 23:59
  Immensely difficult. Abandoning an entire wicked
• 24:02
  lifestyle and a corrupt inner way of thinking.
• 24:05
  Human will alone can't accomplish that.
• 24:07
  It can't, but the word, acting like powerful rain, penetrates
• 24:11
  the hard soil of the human heart and brings forth the very life
• 24:14
  that it commands. The efficacy of the word
• 24:16
  described here, it leads directly into one of the central
• 24:19
  doctrines of grace, doesn't it? Effectual calling.
• 24:22
  It's the Old Testament bedrock for it.
• 24:24
  If the word shall succeed in the thing for which God sent it,
• 24:27
  then the word isn't just a broad general invitation that might or
• 24:31
  might not work. You've hit the core distinction.
• 24:33
  It means the Word doesn't simply offer salvation as a possibility
• 24:37
  that is contingent entirely upon human choice.
• 24:40
  It actually brings about what God has to create in the elect.
• 24:43
  So the Spirit uses that outwardly preached.
• 24:45
  Word do effect an inward irresistible transformation.
• 24:49
  It grants the very repentance and faith that God commanded
• 24:52
  back in verses 6 and seven. The Word is the instrument God
• 24:55
  uses to successfully execute His higher ways.
• 24:58
  OK, so here's where we need to introduce a point of, you know,
• 25:01
  intellectual friction. If the word is invincible and
• 25:04
  it's guaranteed to succeed, why isn't everyone saved instantly?
• 25:08
  How do we hold together the efficacy of the word as it's
• 25:12
  described here, with the biblical reality of unbelief and
• 25:15
  rejection? That is the necessary tension
• 25:17
  that keeps us humble. And the answer lies in the
• 25:20
  specific purpose for which God sent the Word.
• 25:23
  Isaiah 55.11 says the word shall accomplish that which I purpose.
• 25:28
  OK, so the purpose is key. The purpose is key.
• 25:32
  God's purpose is not the salvation of every single
• 25:34
  individual who hews the Word, but the certain salvation of His
• 25:37
  elect people through this means. So the word has a different
• 25:41
  effect depending on the person. For those whom God has decreed
• 25:44
  to save, the Word functions as life giving reign, granting
• 25:47
  repentance. For those who remain hardened,
• 25:50
  the Word still accomplishes God's purpose.
• 25:52
  It hardens them further. It leaves them without excuse,
• 25:56
  and in doing so, it successfully demonstrates God's sovereign
• 25:59
  justice. So you see, the Word never
• 26:02
  returns empty. It always achieves the specific,
• 26:05
  predetermined purpose for which the Father sent it, whether that
• 26:09
  purpose is salvation or judgement.
• 26:12
  That makes the invincibility conditional not on human
• 26:15
  reception, but on the specifics of God's decree.
• 26:19
  It really challenges the idea that the Word is just a passive
• 26:21
  proposal sitting on a table. Absolutely, And this principle
• 26:25
  powerfully corrects a lot of modern theological distortions.
• 26:28
  First, it refutes any view that makes salvation dependence
• 26:31
  solely upon the autonomous free will of man.
• 26:34
  If success depended on man, the word would frankly often return
• 26:37
  empty. But Isaiah says it shall
• 26:39
  succeed. It shall succeed.
• 26:40
  And second, this doctrine is a massive rebuke to pragmatism in
• 26:43
  the Church. What?
• 26:44
  Do you mean by that? If the rain is guaranteed to
• 26:46
  bring life, we don't need to substitute the Word with human
• 26:49
  marketing, with entertainment, or with psychological
• 26:51
  manipulation. Any attempt to supplement or
• 26:54
  replace the preached word betrays a lack of confidence in
• 26:57
  the efficacy God guarantees. Right here, the rain is
• 27:01
  sufficient. The life comes from God's mouth,
• 27:03
  not from human ingenuity. We trust the Word because God
• 27:06
  guarantees its work. OK.
• 27:08
  So let's move to the synthesis. We've dissected the component
• 27:11
  parts, the urgent command to seek and return, which is our
• 27:15
  responsibility, and the guaranteed efficacy of God's
• 27:18
  higher ways, which is His sovereignty.
• 27:21
  How does Isaiah 55.611 fit all this together as to a perfect
• 27:24
  theological synthesis? This is the moment of harmony.
• 27:27
  It's. Often the point where human
• 27:28
  reason struggles. We want to separate these
• 27:29
  concepts or, you know, elevate one above the other.
• 27:32
  But this passage insists they are interlocking necessary
• 27:35
  truths. They are completely interwoven.
• 27:37
  This passage demonstrates that classical biblical structure,
• 27:40
  full human responsibility, those intense imperatives in verses 6
• 27:44
  and seven, is the commanded means and the certainty of
• 27:47
  absolute divine sovereignty, and verses 7 to 11 is the ultimate
• 27:51
  guarantee that the commands will be obeyed by God's chosen
• 27:54
  people. So the commands to seek, call
• 27:57
  and return are real their ownest they must.
• 28:00
  Be addressed to every person who hears them.
• 28:02
  The Sinner is treated as a responsible moral agent who is
• 28:05
  actively fleeing God. Our inability apart from grace
• 28:09
  is not presented as an excuse for inaction.
• 28:11
  It's the very reason the Sinner should cry out for the mercy God
• 28:14
  offers. But the hope of obedience, the
• 28:17
  actual possibility of that turning, that has to rest
• 28:19
  completely outside the Sinner in the divine guarantees we just
• 28:23
  talked about. Precisely the assurance that the
• 28:25
  wicked can forsake his way in return rests entirely in God's
• 28:28
  higher thoughts of mercy and in the invincible Word that
• 28:31
  guarantees the spiritual outcome.
• 28:33
  God ordains both the end salvation and the means to that
• 28:36
  end. Yes, the commands, the promises,
• 28:39
  and the effectual power of His word.
• 28:42
  The call to seek is not some test to see if you can achieve
• 28:45
  repentance on your own. It is the very path created and
• 28:48
  assured by God by which the Sovereign Lord draws his people
• 28:52
  home. It's a moment of profound
• 28:54
  harmony. God commands what He also
• 28:57
  provides. Let's delve into that harmony a
• 28:59
  bit more. He commands us to forsake our
• 29:01
  wicked thoughts, our macheshevo, which seems impossible for a
• 29:04
  corrupted mind. It is impossible.
• 29:06
  Yet the Word is the reign that successfully accomplishes what
• 29:09
  God purposes, which includes changing those very macho
• 29:13
  Chevelle. It creates this beautiful,
• 29:15
  circular reality we seek, but only because God, through His
• 29:19
  Word, has first sought us and given us the desire and the
• 29:22
  capacity to respond. The sinner's act of returning is
• 29:25
  simultaneously a display of human volition and the result of
• 29:28
  God's powerful, effective call. We turn, but we understand that
• 29:32
  the power that caused the turning came from outside.
• 29:34
  Us. That's the retrospective
• 29:36
  understanding of the believer. This synthesis is so crucial
• 29:39
  because it acts as a kind of theological guardrail, right?
• 29:42
  It rejects the two major extremes that often arise when
• 29:45
  people try to simplify this complex reality of salvation.
• 29:49
  It stands firmly against both fatalism and moralism.
• 29:52
  OK, let's take fatalism first. Fatalism misuses sovereignty as
• 29:56
  an excuse for apathy or passivity.
• 29:59
  It's the thinking that says if God has already decreed it, my
• 30:02
  actions don't matter. And the commands in this passage
• 30:05
  just annihilate that excuse. They do.
• 30:07
  The urgent, active, time bound commands seek the Lord while He
• 30:12
  may be found. They destroy that excuse.
• 30:15
  Our actions matter because God has ordained our actions as the
• 30:18
  means to the end. He has decreed the seeking is
• 30:21
  the expression of the effectual calling.
• 30:23
  We are commanded to run, not to sit passively waiting for the
• 30:27
  rain. OK.
• 30:27
  And 2nd, it stands against moralism.
• 30:29
  Right against moralism, the doctrine of God's higher ways
• 30:32
  provides the perfect antidote. Moralism assumes that salvation
• 30:36
  must be earned, or at least be proportional to human effort.
• 30:39
  It reduces salvation to a transaction.
• 30:41
  A transaction where the Sinner has to meet a specific standard
• 30:44
  of works or emotional sincerity. Isaiah 55 says no forgiveness is
• 30:50
  multiplied to pardon because God's thoughts are infinitely
• 30:53
  high, secured by the Servant's work.
• 30:56
  We don't contribute to the basis of our pardon.
• 30:58
  We only accept the pardon that is offered by God's
• 31:01
  transcendent, costly grace. And crucially, this doctrine
• 31:05
  challenges the center of so many man centered theologies, this
• 31:09
  idea that the decisive factor in salvation rests purely in the
• 31:13
  autonomous choice of the Sinner. The certainty that the Word
• 31:16
  shall succeed locates the decisive factor squarely in the
• 31:19
  transcendent purpose of God. If the Word were merely a
• 31:22
  proposal waiting for human ascent to become effective, its
• 31:25
  success rate would be entirely dependent on the fluctuating
• 31:28
  will of humanity. And it would often fail.
• 31:30
  But God guarantees the success. The Word is not a proposal.
• 31:34
  It is an active, invincible agent.
• 31:36
  This means that while the command to seek is real, the
• 31:39
  reason anyone does seek is the supernatural, effective working
• 31:42
  of God's purpose through the reign of His Word.
• 31:44
  So when a person repents, they are not acting against God's
• 31:48
  sovereignty, They're acting in accordance with the very thing
• 31:51
  God sovereignly decreed, the turning of their heart.
• 31:54
  Precisely the Sinner experiences it as a heartfelt, sincere,
• 31:59
  voluntary turning. They recognize that they sought,
• 32:02
  they called, they returned. That subjective reality is
• 32:04
  completely real and necessary. But retrospectively,
• 32:07
  retrospectively in faith, they understand that the power to
• 32:11
  make that turn was secured by God's higher ways and applied by
• 32:14
  the irresistible reign of His Word.
• 32:17
  Their experience of choice is bracketed by God's certainty.
• 32:19
  So if we successfully hold these two truths together, sovereignty
• 32:23
  and responsibility, what is the resulting spiritual state?
• 32:26
  What happens to the soul that grasps the synthesis?
• 32:29
  The outcome is, I'd say, threefold total humility,
• 32:33
  unshakable comfort and a focus, dedication.
• 32:35
  Let's break those down. Humility first.
• 32:37
  Total humility, the synthesis silence is all boasting.
• 32:40
  If salvation is holy of the Lord, grounded in His higher,
• 32:43
  costly thoughts, then the Sinner cannot take any credit for the
• 32:47
  successful outcome of their repentance.
• 32:49
  They realize that they returned only because the effectual reign
• 32:52
  of the Word made their barren hearts sprout solely day,
• 32:55
  Gloria. All glory to God alone.
• 32:57
  OK, second. Unshakable comfort.
• 33:00
  This synthesis abolishes despair.
• 33:02
  The God who commands repentance is the same God who
• 33:05
  simultaneously guarantees the means to that repentance.
• 33:08
  The sinner's hope rests not in the quality of their turning,
• 33:11
  which is often weak and hesitant, right, but in the
• 33:13
  certainty of God's character and word, which cannot fail.
• 33:16
  The sheer magnitude of God's multiplied pardon overwhelms any
• 33:20
  lingering self condemnation. Humility, comfort, and 3rd.
• 33:24
  Focus Dedication. Once we understand the nature of
• 33:27
  the Word as an invincible agent, it directs our entire life of
• 33:30
  faith and practice. We dedicate ourselves to the
• 33:32
  means God has guaranteed the hearing and the preaching of
• 33:35
  that word. We cease relying on human
• 33:37
  methods and lean entirely on divine power.
• 33:40
  That seems like the perfect posture for the learner, a
• 33:42
  confident humility. You're confident because of God,
• 33:46
  and you're humble because you know you couldn't have achieved
• 33:48
  it without Him. It is the only true source of
• 33:51
  real lasting assurance. The seeking soul rests in the
• 33:54
  fact that the command to return is backed up by an infinite
• 33:58
  capacity for pardon and an invincible power of delivery.
• 34:02
  OK, we have completed our deep dive into Isaiah 55, verses 6
• 34:07
  through 11. We've walked through the
• 34:09
  incredible progression of this central text.
• 34:11
  We saw the intense urgent summons demanding human
• 34:14
  responsibility, that holistic turning of both our way and our
• 34:18
  thought. We then understood the divine
• 34:20
  explanation, the transcending character of God that makes
• 34:23
  forgiveness possible, rooted in the costly atonement of the
• 34:26
  servant, confirming the God's thoughts of mercy are infinitely
• 34:29
  higher than our human logic of reciprocity.
• 34:32
  And finally, we grasp the unshakable guarantee that God's
• 34:35
  Word, like the unfailing rain, ensures the certainty and
• 34:38
  success of His redemptive purpose, providing the
• 34:40
  foundational assurance for effectual calling.
• 34:43
  For you, the learner, remember this key take away.
• 34:46
  The true assurance for the seeking soul is that the
• 34:49
  magnitude of God's grace is not measured by your ability to feel
• 34:53
  it or accept it, or by your success and moral balancing.
• 34:57
  Your hope lies solely in the fact that the God who commands
• 35:00
  you to return is the God who multiplies to pardon, and whose
• 35:03
  word cannot and will not return to Him empty.
• 35:07
  And to leave you with a final thought built upon this doctrine
• 35:10
  of the words efficacy, consider what this says about the local
• 35:13
  assembly, the local church. If the word alone is guaranteed
• 35:16
  to be the life producing rain that brings life and makes the
• 35:19
  earth sprout, what does that imply about the centrality and
• 35:23
  the methodology of faithful expository preaching in that
• 35:26
  assembly? It's a huge implication.
• 35:28
  It confirms that the greatest need of the Church is not
• 35:30
  organizational brilliance. It's not entertainment.
• 35:32
  It's the relentless, unadulterated delivery of the
• 35:35
  invincible Word. All our confidence, our
• 35:38
  planning, and our focus must rest squarely there, knowing
• 35:41
  that God has guaranteed its success in accomplishing what He
• 35:44
  purposes. It is sufficient.
• 35:46
  A vital point of application, Our trust is in the instrument
• 35:49
  God promises to make effective. Thank you for joining us for
• 35:52
  this deep dive from reformed thinking.
• 35:55
  Till next time, keep seeking the Lord while He may be found.