FBC Morning Light (7/27/2024)

Faith Baptist Church

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Good Saturday morning, people of faith. This weekend, we are reading Isaiah chapters 55 through 62, and I'm going to be focusing on chapter 55.

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Chapter 55 begins with a call to worship. Says ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters, and you who have no money, come buy and eat.

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And yes, come buy wine and milk without money and without price. And down in verse six, it says, seek the

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Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near. And certainly, this is a true thing, that while he is near, call on him.

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And in verse eight, we start transitioning a bit here, and the

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Lord says, for my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways.

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God is completely other. He is not like a man at all.

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For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.

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And then what I'm going to talk about for a little bit here is verses 10 and 11.

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So it says, for as the rain comes down and the snow from heaven, and do not return there, but water the earth and make it bring forth and bud that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth.

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It shall not return to me void, but it shall accomplish what

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I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.

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So the Lord is giving us an analogy here. Rain and snow come down, and what do they do?

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Before it goes through the evaporation cycle and goes back up, it waters the ground.

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And when you get a good snow pack or you get a good rain, it puts moisture in the ground so that seeds will germinate and plants will grow.

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And from that growth of the plants, we get food. And from that food, the eater may be able to eat.

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And in similar fashion, when the Lord sends forth his word, it goes forth to accomplish what he purposes for it to accomplish.

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Now, many people have taken this to mean that when you share the gospel, that the word of the gospel must produce converts.

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And well, that's taking a little bit out of context. Certainly, the gospel is the power of God unto salvation.

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I'm not saying that. But what I am saying is this verse is saying that when

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God's word goes forth, it's going to accomplish what he purposes.

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And does he purpose for some to be saved? Yes, he does.

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And in that gospel, that is one purpose that is accomplished in the going forth of the word.

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Now, what I'm going to do is I'm going to share just a couple of purposes that God has in the going forth of his word.

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And what I'm going to ask for you to do is I'm going to ask for you to think of another purpose of God's word and maybe share that with me.

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If you're on YouTube, you could share it in the context or send a message to our church.

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And I'm certain that it will get to me. But what is another purpose of God's word?

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Well, it is certainly true that you can know that there is a

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God just by looking around. You see things in nature.

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You have a conscience to know right from wrong. But what you cannot know without the word of God is that Jesus is the

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Messiah, your sin bearer, the one who paid the penalty for you, who died in your place.

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That requires the special revelation of scripture. That would be one thing that is necessary for you to have the word.

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Another purpose of the word would be for teaching

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God's people how they are to live. There are certain things we can know from conscience of how to live, but there are other things.

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Teach us to pray, the disciples asked Jesus, and Jesus responded with an example of how to pray.

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We would not know that were it not given to us in scripture.

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So again, I'm going to ask you, share with me another purpose of God's word, and I'll let you think about that and I'll pray.

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Lord, thank you for your word that it does not return void or empty, but it accomplishes that for which you purpose for it to accomplish.

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May we trust in you and in the faithful word that you've given to us.

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May we be faithful in sharing your gospel with those around us. It's in your son's name,

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Jesus we pray, amen. Have an excellent day, people of faith.