Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 2278
“Listen diligently to Me, and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.” Isaiah 55:2.
How important it is that we should hear God, that we should have an attentive ear to His Word and that it should, through our ears, reach our souls and become to us, consciously, the Living Word of the Living God! The great gate of commerce between Heaven and the town of Mansoul is Ear-Gate. We can see but little of the things of the Kingdom of God, but we can hear much concerning them.
We are told, not only to “listen” to God, but to “listen diligently.” You cannot have too much hearing of the right kind of truth, nor too much of the right kind of hearing. Some people like few sermons and those very short, but, when a soul is hungry after God and eternal life, it puts another meaning on this exhortation, “Listen diligently.” It cannot hear too much! It cannot hear too often! It cannot hear too intensely. Faith comes by hearing and, therefore, Satan tries to block up that gateway of mercy. If he can persuade men not to hear, then he can keep them out of the way of Grace. But the exhortation of our text sets wide open this door of salvation at which the Lord, Himself, stands and cries, “Listen diligently to Me.”
You, dear Friends, love to hear the Word of the Lord, therefore I need not dwell upon that exhortation. But I do pray that no one may hear in vain. “Take heed what you hear” and “take heed how you hear.” Do not be content merely to open Ear-Gate, but rest not satisfied until the King, Himself, comes riding through that gate right up to the very citadel of the town of Mansoul and takes possession of the castle of your heart!
With this brief introduction, we will come to the consideration of our main text which follows upon the exhortation. We are to “listen diligently” to this message from the Lord’s lips—“Eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.” Here are four things. First, the food. Next, the feeding. Then, the welcome and, lastly, the delight.
I. First, here is FOOD—“Eat what is good.”
I ask about this food, first, How is it presented to us? It is presented to us freely. The invitation is, “Come and eat.” There was a word about buying, but, as I said in the reading, that was soon covered up with, “Buy without money and without price.” Others are trying to get salvation by their own efforts. The rich man spends his money. The poor man spends his labor. But both of these ways come from self and they mean self-salvation—every man his own savior. This is not the method to which you are called—you are, indeed, deceived by that way. “Why do you spend money for that which is not bread? And your labor for that which satisfies not?” You are called simply to hear, that your souls may live! And, having heard, you are bid freely to partake of that which is good and that which is rich, which God has provided. We still need to say that the Grace of God is free. No merit is asked, nothing to fit you for its reception, nothing as a compensation to God for the gift of it. Grace is free as the air you breathe! Eternal salvation comes without a penny of cost to every hungry, needy, bankrupt soul that is willing to receive it!
Further, while it is thus presented freely as to any labor with which to procure it, it is also presented freely as to its quality, its highest quality. You are not permitted to drink freely of water and then to purchase wine. You are not invited to come and eat freely that which is good and then to spend your labor for that which is fat. No, the richest dainties of God’s House are as free as the bread He gives to hungry souls! You think that you will be highly favored if you are allowed to partake of the crumbs that fall under the table and, indeed, you will be, but the daintiest morsels on the table are as free to you as those crumbs! Sanctification is as much a gift of God as justification, and the highest perfection in
Heaven is as much the gift of Grace as the first cry of, “God, be merciful to me a sinner.” It is all graciously given and you are invited to come, not only to the waters, but to drink wine and milk, to eat that which is good and to delight yourselves in fatness!
This royal bounty is freely given and freely given to the most undeserving. The only limitation is no limitation at all! “Ho, everyone that thirsts!” All of you who are dissatisfied, or discontented. All of you who have not obtained what you want. All of you who are longing for something, you hardly know what it is you long for. All of you who have an insatiable thirst but yet indescribable. All of you who came here, tonight, saying, “I wish I had it. Others that I know have it. I hardly know what it is that they have, but oh, that I might have it!” All of you will find out what it is when you have received it! You hardly know what the taste of wine and milk may be. You hardly know what the fat things full of marrow, that are part of Christ’s great Gospel feast, can possibly be! You shall know them, by-and-by, but be who you may, come and welcome, Sinner, come! If you have nothing, Christ is everything. Though you are unworthy, He is infinitely worthy and so He presents to you food, tonight, on the freest possible terms—or, indeed, without any terms or conditions at all, for He puts it thus, “Eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.”