We have here an exhortation from Almighty God to those who have sinned against Him, and the principle of the exhortation is so clear that it is impossible not to believe that it is the general principle of all God's exhortations to sinners; and the principle is this, that whoever feels his need of pardon can find pardon, that the sense of thirst is a sufficient warrant that God will give to the thirsty the water of life freely, that to be sensible of our poverty and to acknowledge it is a certain means of obtaining the supply of all our needs.
I. No simple-hearted man reading the life of our Lord Jesus Christ could have any doubt as to His extreme love to mankind and deep desire that all men should be saved; but unfortunately this simple view of the Gospel has been obscured by the theories of ingenious men, and a system of theology has been framed depending upon what is called the doctrine of election.It is held that, in the eternal councils of God, certain persons have been chosen by His mercy as heirs of eternal salvation; these are the elect; these are they for whom the Lord Jesus Christ died. When the ministers of Christ preach His gospel, the great end of their preaching is to call out and separate from the rest of mankind these chosen vessels of God's mercy.
II. This doctrine not only seems to modify the Gospel, but utterly to abolish and destroy it. Grant that there are millions upon millions of the race of mankind saved by this discriminating electing grace of God, still, so long as there is onehuman being who misses eternal life for want of such election, salvation must be that which no noble heart could desire; the notion of salvation being rendered valuable in a man's eyes because it is a free gift to him and is denied to his brother, is one which implies that the man so saved is a creature full of base selfishness, one who can rejoice because he is better off than his brother, one who could pretend to love a Being of infinite power, who, according to this showing, is also a Being of infinite injustice.
III. The difficulty arising from the consideration of the freedom of man's will on the one hand, and the omnipotence of God's grace on the other, is one which is philosophical rather than religious, and with which the religion of Christ as such has nothing whatever to do. It is enough for us to know that Christ diddie for all, to know that God's offers of mercy through Him are free, and that when the thirsty are invited to drink freely the invitation is to be taken in its simplest and fullest meaning.
Bishop Harvey Goodwin, Parish Sermons,3rd series, p. 153.
I. The state of the persons addressed: (1) a state of want and privation; (2) a state which man has no power to rectify or remove.
II. The provision prepared. (1) Its nature. Food. The benefits of salvation through Christ. (2) The persons for whom it is intended. Of all ages, of all nations.
III. We are induced to come: (1) by the extent of the call; (2) by the freeness of the supply; (3) by the sufficiency of the provision; (4) by the impossibility of finding redemption elsewhere.
G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons,p. 140.
References: Isaiah 55:1. Clergyman's Magazine,vol. 1., p. 9; G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons,p. 140; Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. iv., No. 199, vol. xx., No. 1161, vol. xxix., No. 1726; Preacher's Monthly,vol. vii., p. 41.Isaiah 55:1; Isaiah 55:2. D. Moore, Penny Pulpit,No. 3278. Isaiah 55:1-4. Clergyman's Magazine,vol. xviii., p. 19. Isaiah 55:1-5. C. Short, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xvii., p. 141.