"Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price." Isa 55:1-3 ESV In these verses we are told that the Lord is the worst salesman that ever lived. The Lord is pictured at the market offering to sell his wares for no cost. In other words, he’s offering to give it away for free and without any expectation of getting anything in return. A friend of mine in business once said that the way you calculate a price for your goods is take what you paid for it, double it, and then add 99 cents. That way you are ensured a profit. Even if you have a monstrous sale and offer 30, 40, or even 50% off, you still make a good return on your investment. But here in this passage we see the Lord defies all commercial sense. His advertisement is an absolute failure from a marketing point of view. He simply gives his wares away. This is, of course, a depiction of His grace. The bread that the Lord sells is eternal life. The wine is a metaphor for the joy and richness that accompanies it. Milk refers to the wholesome wonder of it. The items that he sells are pictured as top of the line goods and ones that are satisfying in every way.
But the emphasis is that it is free. It has no cost. You buy it without money. So even the poorest of us can obtain it. As we come to this time of confession, let us remember that God stands in the marketplace to offer us full pardon for our sins. Life and salvation may be ours, but only if you receive it as the gift that it is. Let’s pray. Almighty God, We come to you this morning acknowledging the depth of our sin and guilt. We recognize that we are bankrupt of all goodness and possess no righteousness apart from you. We not only have our outward and flagrant sins, which are apparent to all, but we have many secret sins that fill our hearts—such as pride and profaneness, anger, lust and lying. We confess that we are a profane people and are blasphemous by nature. We are irreverent with the use of your name, inattentive to the expectations of your law, and lacking in the esteem that is due your greatness and majesty. Though men might not make much of such things, we know that these are great evils in your sight, and they deserve the sentence of death. But we come to you this morning because you have offered pardon for our sins and a chance to be reconciled to you. We wish to buy this milk and purchase this bread that has no cost. Lord, the only thing we can offer you is the sorrow we have for our sins—though we acknowledge even that to be radically imperfect and not as pure as it ought to be. But nonetheless, we embrace this gift of grace and grace and put our hope in the truth of your word. We trust that you purge away our sins and lay them upon Christ, who willingly took them upon himself at the cross. Lord, let these words gird our hearts and may your Spirit assure us of them, Amen. Assurance of Pardon: Jeremiah 3:12 “I will not look on you in anger, for I am merciful, declares the Lord.”
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