Come and Buy at No Cost?

Sunday,August 2, 2020

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Come and Buy at No Cost?

Guest Preacher Gregory Lyon

Isaiah 55:1-5

He stepped into the marketplace a disheveled man. His tattered clothes told the story of man who had lost everything. His leathery skin spoke of a hopeless wanderer who had no place to rest his head. Years of being beaten by experiences and life choices aged him well beyond the years he had walked the earth.

He entered into the marketplace hoping to scam a little bread, an apple, some water…anything. It was a busy day in the outdoor market. The vendors lined the street and it seemed like the whole city had shown up to get the first dip into the goods. It was shoulder to shoulder. Pushing and shoving. Vendors yelling at the top of their lungs beckoning you to visit them for a good haggle and a little piece of contentment.

Everything was for sale. Everything had a price. They just had to catch the ear of the right rich fool and sell them a line so that they’d pay way too much for something worth a fraction of the price.

This was the chaotic scene the hopeless wanderer walked into. The rich spend and they never have enough. One vendor to the next tries to sell you on a product with their smashing personalities and attention grabbing one liners but he had been there before. He had wasted his money before. He wasn’t going to fall for it this time. He couldn’t fall for it this time. He didn’t come to the market with anything but the guilt of knowing he had blown it all chasing after something that just floated away. Here today, gone tomorrow. Now he was desperate.

He came to the market hoping for a bite to eat but it was more than that. He wanted hope. He had lost it years ago and he didn’t have anyone to blame but himself. And now those same vendors were trying to sell him hope through the same things he had wasted his money on before. Perhaps the walk through the market was a waste of time. A chasing after the wind.

Israel was hopelessly wandering. How far they had fallen. From the people who were literally wandering in the desert some 700 years earlier cared for miraculously by God to an established nation that was sold the products that promised hope but couldn’t deliver. Their kingdom split in two at the feet of idolatry. Israel to the north. Judah to the south. Even then, their vain pursuit of happiness left them hopeless.

Their heathen neighbors sold them on idol worship with all of the unspeakable rituals attached to it from temple prostitution to child sacrifice. These, they were convinced, would bring them the life they were seeking but instead it left them spiritual bankrupt and broken. A nation hopelessly wandering in their own homeland.

It would take national captivity for them to see just how far they had fallen. The Babylonians would take Judah captive and burn Jerusalem to the ground. Hope was lost and they had no one to blame but themselves. So, tail between their legs, they enter into the marketplace searching for hope…real hope…the hope that had so escaped them when they spent and spent on the wickedness of their neighbors as if God was keeping them from something.

Foolish Israelites. Couldn’t they see it? God had given them everything that could have ever needed. He gave them a home. He gave them victory after victory over their enemies. He gave them the land flowing with milk and honey. He had blessed them again and again and they thought that that wasn’t enough? They had to have more…they just had to have more! And “more” broke them.

Foolish Israelites. Yeah but have you ever entered into that marketplace? Have you ever spent foolishly on the vendors trying to get your attention—the vendors trying to convince you that what you have isn’t quite enough? The vendors who try to convince you that God is not enough? But its not always those people out there, sometimes it’s that little evil vendor in my own heart that draws me away from my God.

So what do we do? “Yeah…I know what God says but honestly, I just want to have a little fun. I’ll just take a little dip into this.” “Honestly, if God knew what I really needed…I’ll just take a little taste of that.” “If God really had my best interest in mind… I’ll just get a few more of those.” Ah…if only this, that, and those were just things. But so often it’s so much more. It’s justifying an action that you know is sinful. It’s craving the gifts of God at the expense of the Giver of those gifts. It’s striving after the stuff of this world as if that’s the one thing that we need to finally reach the contentment that we seek. The words of the teacher in Ecclesiastes rings true for us more than we care to admit, “The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill of hearing.

We enter the marketplace looking for something more than a bite to eat. In this chaotic world, we’re looking for something to hold onto where so much has failed us before. We’re looking for something real, something lasting. We’re looking for hope. But we enter into the market a broken and sinful people. Spiritually corrupt from the moment of conception coupled with a lifetime of experiences and life choices that make us wonder whether anyone…even God…can bring us the hope that we so desperately need.

And so we, side by side with the hopeless wanderer and the children of Israel enter into the chaotic marketplace. Can you picture it as Isaiah delivers to us a message of hope…a message meant for the captives in his day…a message of deliverance not just from their earthly enemies but a deliverance that lasts into eternity. Can you hear that message for them…but not only them…for us?

Picture the scene. It’s a madhouse. On all sides, the vendors are vying for our attention trying to sell us hope. “Buy one of these and you’ll get what you’re looking for.” “If you have a few more of those, then your life will be complete.” “Take this then you’ll be set for life.” But you’ve been there before. And the older you get, the more you realize that the best this world has to offer doesn’t give you what you’re looking for.

But then another Vendor catches your ear. He doesn’t scream at you like the rest. He doesn’t beg you to accept. He only calls you with a simple message, “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.

Free? To you yes. But not free at all. You see, the gift that this Vendor is calling you to cost a great deal. He offers hope and a future but it comes at a cost. This Vendor offers you the gift of grace that came at the price of his own Son, given for you. Isaiah already said it, “He was pierced, crushed, punished for our iniquities.” Free…to you yes. But it came at great cost to him. That’s how much he loves you!

But his sales pitch isn’t done. He says to you and to me, “Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy?” Makes sense doesn’t it? Think of all the things that you have spent your time and energy on as if your life depended on it? As if your eternity depended on it. Think of all the things that you have gotten for yourself as if that one thing will finally bring you contentment only to find that there was another thing waiting on the other side. “Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy?

Listen, listen to me,(says your God) and eat what is good, and you will delight in the richest of fare. Give ear and come to me; listen, that you may live.” Dear friends, your gracious God calls out to you today like a vendor in a marketplace. His voice cuts through the noise of this world and beckons you to himself. He offers what no one else could. He offers to you life…life forever with him. He offers you a life right now free from guilt. A life of freedom in which you can live and love without obligation to please your God because he is already pleased with you through his Son, Jesus Christ who valued you enough to give his life for you. And the very call to come and listen and buy empowers you to accept. For “faith comes from hearing the message and the message is heard through the word of Christ.” Grace upon grace. He beckons you to come and then empowers you to do so.

Can you picture the Vendor trying to make a deal with you? He sells you on this amazing gift of grace that draws you in and then comes the question, how much? You got me here by saying no cost but let’s haggle. So God makes a covenant with you…a deal if you will. He says, “I will make an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful love promised to David. See, I have made him a witness to the peoples, a ruler and commander of the peoples.” Here’s the deal God makes with you, King David’s greater will be your Savior. He will be your hope. He will be your everlasting bread. Your thirst-quenching water. He will be your forgiveness and your life. And what do you have to give in return. Nothing. So go ahead and try to haggle. God won’t hear it. His grace comes at no cost to you!

You and I enter into the marketplace of this world spiritually void and lost. We come trying to prove that we have it all together but the dark places of our lives tell a different story. The stresses of life get to us and we’re left tired, guilt ridden, and searching for something to hang on to. Then the voice of our Savior cuts through all the noise and beckons us to himself, “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.”

We enter the marketplace broken and lost, we live in the marketplace with the glory of Christ Jesus, King David’s greater Son, our hope for now and into eternity..

So now it’s your turn. Be the vendor. Call to the broken and lost. Call to the searching. Let your voice be the one voice of love that cuts through the noise and beckons someone to hear, “Come and buy at no cost. It’s worth it.” Amen. 

Sermon coming soon

Pastor at Immanuel, Steve Bauer

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