If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the best of the land.If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the good of the land;If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land:If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land:
5 sermons cite this verse
… One in this section, a few more to end. Isaiah chapter 1, verses 18 and 19. I love this. God says, come now. So before I read, does that apply to you? Listen. Whoever you are, if you can hear me right now, wherever, whatever. God is saying to you, come now, not come later. Come now, and let us reason together. The word reason is, let's argue. See, he's so honest, because you know, you do want to argue with God at times, don't you? He knows that. So he says, you want to argue? Come on. Come on over, and let's argue. It's like, yeah, I got a few things to say about it. Yeah, come on, guys, bring it. Oh my goodness, I have a horrible picture in my mind. I've told you this before, but you forgot maybe. My mom, when she'd get upset with us, she was so tiny. And she was just really feisty. Incredible temper. It's a good thing she was small. But she would come after us, and we would hold her, or I or my brother, it depends on who was in trouble, she was swinging at us. …
… And it's a powerful passage. And the prophet says, if you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land. It's Shabbat. Willing. See, nomads, watch this. Nomads are willing. and again you don't become willing at the moment of the instruction because if you are not willing before the moment of the instruction you won't even hear the instruction this is one of the things that I've learned about God there is one word it's a Hebrew word and it escapes me but it's in there but it's about to hear and it's not like hear, like here you hear my voice. It literally means to listen intently. There's one word, to literally stretch your ear with the intention to obey. So there is a connection. There's an overlap between hearing and obeying. There's no distinction. In other words, I'm going to hear so good because I've already made up, I feel the Holy Ghost. I've already made up my mind that if I hear, when I hear, I will obey. …
But possibly you, my Hearer, have not much to do with such joy, for you are, yourself, unsaved. Yet it is a grand thing for an unconverted person to be under a ministry that God blesses and with a people that constantly pray for conversions. It is a happy thing for you, young man, to have a Christian mother! It is a great gift for you, O unconverted woman, that you have a godly sister! These make us hopeful for you. While your relations are prayerful, we are hopeful for you. May the Lord Jesus be yet yours. But, ah, if you remain unbelieving, however rich a blessing comes to others, it will leave you none the better for it! "If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land." But there are some who may cry in piteous accents, "The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved!" It has been remarked that those who pass through a season of revival and remain unconverted are more hardened and unimpressed than before. I believe it to be so and I therefore pray the Divine Spirit to come with such energy that none of you may escape His power! May you be led to pray— "Pass me not, O mighty Spirit! You can make the blind to see. …
II. THE TEXT MAY BE ANSWERED IN THE NEGATIVE. "Does the plowman plow all day to sow?" No, he does not always plow. After he has plowed, he breaks the clods, sows, reaps and threshes. In the Chapter before us you will see that other works of husbandry are mentioned. The plowman has many other things to do beside plowing. There is an advance in what he does—this teaches us that there is the same on God's part and should be the same on ours. First, on God's part there is an advance in what He does. "Does the plowman plow all day?" No, he goes forward to other matters. It may be that in the case of some of you, the Lord has been using certain painful agencies to plow you. You are feeling the terrors of the Law, the bitterness of sin, the holiness of God, the weakness of the flesh and the shadow of the wrath to come. Is this going to last forever? Will it continue till the spirit fails and the soul expires? Listen— "Does the plowman plow all day?" No, he is preparing for something else—he plows to sow. Thus does the Lord deal with you! Therefore be of good courage, there is an end to the wounding and slaying—and better things are in store for you. You are poor and needy and you seek water, but there is none and your tongue fails for thirst. But the Lord will hear you and deliver you! He will not contend forever, neither will He always be angry. He will turn again and He will have compassion upon us. He will not always make furrows by His chiding. He will come and cast in the precious corn of consolation and water it with the dews of Heaven and smile upon it with the sunlight of His Grace—and there shall soon be in you, first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear—and in due season you shall joy as with the joy of harvest! O you who are sorely wounded in the place of dragons, I hear you cry! Does God always send terror and conviction of sin? Listen to this—"If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land." And what is the call of God to the willing and obedient but this, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved"? You shall be saved now, find peace now if you will have done with yourself and all looking to your own good works to save you—and will turn to Him who paid the ransom for you upon the Cross! The Lord is gentle and tender, and full of compassion. He will not always chide, neither will He keep His anger forever. …
But you must notice that while Elijah thus wrapped his face in reverence, he stood still and listened. It was a still small voice, and the prophet was attending. No other sound was heard but this, "What doest thou here, Elijah?" But he stood. I doubt not that man of iron stood and wept, and seemed to say in his soul, "Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth." "He that bath earn to hear, let him hear." Oh! be very attentive to the voice of God s Spirit! If you have only a half of a good thought, take care of it. It may be the beginning of another one. Oh! if you have only just got a little leaning, thank God for it. Remember Christ does not quench the smoking flax; don't quench it yourself. "Quench not the Spirit." Oh! I have known times when I would have given my whole life to have had one tear of repentance. Can you repent now? Can you long after God now? Oh! cherish that longing! Yield to the Spirit of God. Don't be like iron to the fire that needs to have the blast-furnace on it before it will melt; but oh! be like wax to the flame, like cork on the water that moves up and down with every influence. God make you so. It wants a strong wind to shake the oak; but the fern that grows under it waves its branches at every breath of the zephyr. May you be just as sensitive as that. Bow before the Spirit's influence. The Lord make you to do it for his name's sake. …