We all have our Bibles. Undoubtedly, most of the people in these churches have many Bibles at home—all sorts of different covers, different study Bibles: The seven-year-old-male-born-in-Hawaii study Bible. But is the Bible really being studied? Is it really being treasured? Is it being looked at as the source of the power for Christian believing, Christian living, Christian evangelizing, and Christian mission? I think there is a tendency to think the Bible is true, but that God has left us to our own cleverness to figure out how to minister. What would Isaiah have known about ministry in Escondido, California in the year 2008? We have to figure out our culture, we have to figure out our setting.

I was intrigued recently, while having dinner with three other people. Two of them told the story of how close relatives had been saved by street preachers—by the Lord, of course, but through street preachers. We all know street preaching is a waste of time. That it’s just an embarrassment. That it’s not clever. We couldn’t do that, especially if you are a Presbyterian or Dutch Reformed. And I thought, isn’t that amazing? The Word showed its power! God honored the preaching of His Word. Maybe the preaching wasn’t very good, maybe it wasn’t very wise, maybe it wasn’t very sophisticated. This kind of preaching almost sounds like the kind of people, Paul says, the Lord calls to himself. Do we have confidence that the Word of God gives us everything we need for worship and for ministry and for life in the church of Jesus Christ?

This is exactly what Isaiah is challenging us to reflect upon—calling us to. And it is a very remarkable promise. I decided to speak on this text, in part, because one day, not so very long ago, I was pretty discouraged as I thought about the state of the church today. And I was in a church where one of our graduates was preaching. (That was not the discouraging part.) But in the pastoral prayer that graduate, prayed, “Lord, Lord we’re thankful that your Word will accomplish its purpose.” And I thought, well, maybe I should worry a little less. If God has promised that He will accomplish His purpose, maybe He will do that. In seminary, we sometimes say, “When all else fails, trust the Lord.” And I’m afraid that this attitude too often typifies not only some of our personal piety, but the life of a church: let’s use all of our cleverness and then, maybe, turn to the Lord.

Eddy Gibb, in his article, remarks that part of his concern about emergent church leaders is that they may get too conformed to the culture in which they find themselves, as they try to preach and minister. And he adds that this may happen because they haven’t been carefully trained and educated in cross-cultural sensitivity.

Now, I think social scientists can be useful. As an historian, I have seen some wonderful historical work done on the history of the French Reformed Church to study why, from a human point of view, the church succeeded so much. And that analysis, by an historian and a social scientist, was tremendously insightful and helpful. It showed how the Lord worked in that providential moment in history. But, I often think social scientists are most helpful after the event in analyzing what happened, not what needs to happen. But again, my purpose is not to say we shouldn’t use all the wisdom that we can find in this world to advance the cause of Christ. My point is to say, in doing this, we must never use our human wisdom and cleverness to undermine our confidence in God and in His Word—our confidence that the Word is what will accomplish the purpose of God in the world.

In the context of what Isaiah is saying here, what is the purpose of the Word that will surely be accomplished? Well, the first purpose is that the Word will go out. It is so striking that the Word is going out here in the preaching of Isaiah. As Isaiah says, “Come,” “Come,”, “Come!” “Come, if you are thirsty. Come, if you are poor. Come, if you are seeking the Lord, you will find Him. This is the day in which He may be found.”

So the first purpose of the Lord that is accomplished by the Word is that the Word will be preached. And we, as the people of God, are called to make that Word known in the official preaching of the church, but also in the words that we use, as individual Christians, to bear of testimony to Christ and to His saving work. And the other purpose that is always accomplished by the Word is that the elect are gathered. It’s an odd juxtaposition that the Word goes out, but here we read in verse 5, “Behold, you shall call a nation that do not know you, and a nation that did not know you shall run to you.” God gathers His people by His Word. That is the promise of the Word. And so, the Word is the power that we, as Reformed people, should particularly treasure and stress.

Secondly, the Word is promise. Calvin, in his commentary on this chapter, says that the foundation of Christian living is knowing the pardon of God, knowing peace with God, accomplished and brought to us in the promises of God. This Word is a wonderful word of promise. There is promised here an everlasting covenant, a covenant that isn’t going to change, a covenant that is the same yesterday, today, and forever, a covenant made for us in the blood of our Lord, Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is not just one of the prophets of God who may be superseded. Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the Eternal Word of God, who guarantees, therefore, that the covenant made in His blood is an everlasting covenant that will never change. And it’s as if the Lord says to us, in fact the Lord does say to us, “my thoughts are not like your thoughts.” He says: you’re changeable, unreliable, and unforgiving. And I am unchangeable, absolutely reliable, and forgiving. And that’s the nature of my covenant that I’ll make with you. My steadfast love given to David. Why David? Because David was one of those in the Old Testament given an unconditional promise.

Now, all of you who sing Psalm 89 know that. God promised that He would make a covenant with David, that David’s son would ever sit on David’s throne and, even if David’s sons became disobedient, God would keep that covenant. And so it is today, isn’t it? David’s son sits on David’s throne. Great David’s greater son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the fulfillment of that unconditional promise.

And that’s the promise made here. If you know God, if you come to God, rest by faith in Jesus Christ his Savior, it is an everlasting covenant that will not be changed. The sure mercies of David are yours if you rest by faith in Jesus Christ.

That’s the promise here. And that’s the foundation, then, of all our living. The chapter goes on to call us to live for God. This chapter not only talks about the Word as power and the Word as promise, but it’s also about the Word as the pattern of our living. John Calvin is very eloquent on that point in his commentary on Isaiah 55. He argues that the promise of God, the mercy of God, always leads forth to godliness. He adds, “The nearer we draw to God and His promises, the more godly we will become.” There is no tension between the free pardon of God, which we should preach passionately and unequivocally, and the sanctifying power of God in the lives of His people. You can see how Isaiah puts that at the beginning of Isaiah 56:

“Thus says the Lord, keep justice, and do righteousness, for soon my salvation will come, and my deliverance will be revealed. Blessed is the man who does this, and the son of man who holds it fast, who keeps the Sabbath, not profaning it, and keeps his hand from doing any evil.”