WEBVTT 00:00:01.439 --> 00:00:02.640 Buongiorno. 00:00:02.640 --> 00:00:09.679 We're back in Rome, and so the Italian is flowing out. 00:00:09.679 --> 00:00:16.160 I just really want to thank you so much for just uh receiving me once again. 00:00:16.160 --> 00:00:30.000 This has been a wonderful trip, a quick trip, and uh uh have been back to just celebrate the baptism of our son Samuel in Atlanta, and that was a real joy. 00:00:30.000 --> 00:00:34.000 But uh I didn't want to go back without visiting you all. 00:00:34.000 --> 00:00:39.359 And uh it's just been a real privilege to be with your pastor this week. 00:00:39.359 --> 00:00:54.399 Uh, I will say, without embarrassing him, there is no one who has uh ministered to me more uh than he has done over the course of uh this past year and ministered to our family. 00:00:54.399 --> 00:01:00.399 And so you are very blessed to have him in your midst and of course all your leaders. 00:01:00.399 --> 00:01:20.319 Uh and I have consider myself incredibly privileged to preach Isaiah and to uh sort of interrupt um in the midst of wonderful sermons that you are receiving already, having listened to your pastor online and discussed Isaiah, and so this is a rich moment for me. 00:01:20.319 --> 00:01:24.719 And yes, I am also here for Banu's cooking. 00:01:24.719 --> 00:01:48.079 In Isaiah 56, beginning verses 1 through 8, we will look at the servant according to Isaiah, the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, the coming of the Son, more specifically, and the people to come. 00:01:48.079 --> 00:01:53.439 God's people that will be drawn to him through the Son's coming. 00:01:53.439 --> 00:01:58.079 And so our focus will be on the sun and on the people. 00:01:58.079 --> 00:02:09.439 Before us, then in our passage is the sun and the people, the people to come, the people the sun will bring to salvation with his coming. 00:02:09.439 --> 00:02:17.919 Through the prophecy, Isaiah's vision, we we are given a portrait of salvation in the last days. 00:02:17.919 --> 00:02:22.319 Salvation in the last days, what does it look like? 00:02:22.319 --> 00:02:32.319 Isaiah's message is in the last days, salvation will include all peoples. 00:02:32.319 --> 00:02:34.240 All peoples. 00:02:34.240 --> 00:02:46.479 Herein lies the subject matter of chapters 56 through 66, this final section of the book that you have been blessed to go through until now. 00:02:46.479 --> 00:03:14.240 The salvation Isaiah looks to, in other words, includes all the peoples of the earth, all those God will draw, called to himself through the sons, justification of the many, you know this, through his being pierced for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities, chastened for our peace, and wounded so that we could be healed, Isaiah 53, 5. 00:03:14.240 --> 00:03:21.120 This salvation will reach to the end of the earth, Isaiah 49. 00:03:21.120 --> 00:03:36.159 Jesus tells his disciples before his ascension, and you shall be my witnesses, both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the end of the earth, Luke 118. 00:03:36.159 --> 00:03:47.599 And so may this message give us great encouragement to continue on being his disciples to a people through the Son. 00:03:47.599 --> 00:03:54.159 Please follow along as we read our passage, Isaiah 56, verses 1 through 8. 00:03:54.159 --> 00:04:05.360 Thus says Yahweh, keep justice and do righteousness, for my salvation is about to come, and my righteousness to be revealed. 00:04:05.360 --> 00:04:16.560 How blessed is the man who does this, and the Son of Man who takes hold of it, who keeps from profaning the Sabbath, and keeps his hand from doing eve any evil. 00:04:16.560 --> 00:04:24.160 Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to Yahweh say, Yahweh will surely separate me from his people. 00:04:24.160 --> 00:04:28.480 Nor let the eunuchs say, Behold, I am a dry tree. 00:04:28.480 --> 00:04:47.680 For thus says Yahweh, to the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths and choose what pleases me, and hold fast my covenant, to them I will give my house and within my walls a memorial, and a name better than that of sons and daughters, and I will give them an everlasting name, which will not be cut off. 00:04:47.680 --> 00:05:06.879 Also the foreigners who join themselves to Yahweh to minister to him, and to love the name of Yahweh, to be his slaves, everyone who keeps from profaning the Sabbath and takes hold of my covenant, even those I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them glad in my house of prayer. 00:05:06.879 --> 00:05:17.439 Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be acceptable on my altar, for my house will be called a house of prayer for all the peoples. 00:05:17.439 --> 00:05:29.040 Lord Yahweh, who gathers the banished of Israel, declares, Yet others I will gather to them, to those already gathered. 00:05:29.040 --> 00:05:35.120 Our passage can be understood according to the following outline, just by way of help. 00:05:35.120 --> 00:05:42.000 The salvation the Lord is bringing in the last days includes, first of all, the perfect son. 00:05:42.000 --> 00:05:45.839 Verses one and two will highlight the perfect son. 00:05:45.839 --> 00:06:02.480 He is the perfect people, perfect head of the people of God, because this is all about, all about the people, the nature of the people that God will save on that last day, the perfect son, the servant, as you've heard until now. 00:06:02.480 --> 00:06:08.160 Our passage begins then with the son, who represents the sons, plural. 00:06:08.160 --> 00:06:19.199 And secondly, as you already heard, the people, the people to come with the son, the perfect son of God, verses three through eight. 00:06:19.199 --> 00:06:35.439 And so as we begin to understand our text and focus on the sun, please follow along with that overview as we draw upon our passage to look and exalt this perfect son. 00:06:35.439 --> 00:06:38.959 He is the one through whom the people will come. 00:06:38.959 --> 00:06:46.720 Salvation, in other words, in the last days, please hear me out, will be the work of the sun. 00:06:46.720 --> 00:06:55.360 We are gathered here this morning to worship the sun as a fruit of his saving work. 00:06:55.360 --> 00:06:58.879 Salvation in the last days will be the work of the Son. 00:06:58.879 --> 00:07:09.600 It is He alone who is the perfect one, the righteous one, the only one who can fulfill the righteous requirements of God's law and who fulfilled them. 00:07:09.600 --> 00:07:15.199 Please observe the presence of the law, God's law, in verses one and two of our text. 00:07:15.199 --> 00:07:18.639 Notice again, thus says Yahweh. 00:07:18.639 --> 00:07:24.399 The first part of verse one introduces the authoritative word of God's special revelation. 00:07:24.399 --> 00:07:26.160 This is his law. 00:07:26.160 --> 00:07:33.120 Notice how the first two verses then proceed to employ legal expressions and terms. 00:07:33.120 --> 00:07:40.319 Keep justice and do righteousness, and my righteousness to be revealed. 00:07:40.319 --> 00:07:48.720 How blessed is the man who does this, who keeps from profaning the Sabbath, all throughout verse 1. 00:07:48.720 --> 00:07:58.800 All of the language, all of the language heard, from Yahweh's word, thus says Yahweh, onward, is covenantal language, the language of covenant. 00:07:58.800 --> 00:08:03.360 It is, moreover, the language of a legal or law covenant. 00:08:03.360 --> 00:08:07.759 Follow along, listen to Deuteronomy 5, verses 1 and 2. 00:08:07.759 --> 00:08:10.639 I'll read these passages for us. 00:08:10.639 --> 00:08:22.079 Then Moses summoned all Israel and said to them, Hear, O Israel, the statutes and the judgments which I am speaking today in your hearing, that you may learn them and be careful to do them. 00:08:22.079 --> 00:08:28.879 Verse 2 of Deuteronomy 5 continues, Yahweh our God, cut a covenant with us at Horeb. 00:08:28.879 --> 00:08:31.360 What is a covenant? 00:08:31.360 --> 00:08:40.559 At its core, a covenant is a relationship whereby God chooses to love a person and a people for himself. 00:08:40.559 --> 00:08:47.440 In return, he expects those same people to love him through their obedience to his commands. 00:08:47.440 --> 00:08:51.840 Righteousness and righteous living results from this. 00:08:51.840 --> 00:08:57.919 The obedient life, living in obedience to God's law, upholds justice and righteousness. 00:08:57.919 --> 00:09:08.159 You know this from the Old Testament, walking wisely in the fear of the Lord and giving testimony to the oneness of God, that He alone is God and there is no other. 00:09:08.159 --> 00:09:11.279 Deuteronomy 6.4 is another example. 00:09:11.279 --> 00:09:14.720 Summons Israel to this obedient life. 00:09:14.720 --> 00:09:23.600 Hear, O Israel, Yahweh is our God, Yahweh is one, you shall love Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 00:09:23.600 --> 00:09:27.759 These words which I am commanding you today shall be on your heart. 00:09:27.759 --> 00:09:38.000 You shall teach them diligently to your sons, and shall speak of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down and when you rise up. 00:09:38.000 --> 00:09:44.639 Back in Exodus 19, where the covenant between God and Israel is first cut, we hear these familiar words. 00:09:44.639 --> 00:09:58.559 So now then, if you will indeed listen to my voice and keep my covenant, then you shall be my treasured possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is mine, and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. 00:09:58.559 --> 00:10:03.759 These are the words that introduce our passage, the context, if you will. 00:10:03.759 --> 00:10:18.080 And yet we know that this is not only Israel's covenant, but it is our covenant, in that God established it from the very beginning of the creation of the heavens and the earth with Adam, our forefather in the garden. 00:10:18.080 --> 00:10:19.120 Do you remember? 00:10:19.120 --> 00:10:23.919 Then Yahweh God took the man and set him in the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it. 00:10:23.919 --> 00:10:32.879 And Yahweh God commanded the man, saying, From any tree of the garden you may surely eat, but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat for it. 00:10:32.879 --> 00:10:36.720 For in the day that you eat from it, you will surely die. 00:10:36.720 --> 00:10:39.039 Genesis 2, 15 through 17. 00:10:39.039 --> 00:10:49.279 Please, please hear the law through that first command given to Adam and the requirement to keep it by way of his obedient work in cultivating the garden. 00:10:49.279 --> 00:10:58.639 It is this principle of righteousness that God requires from those he has chosen to love and to be in relationship with, covenant with. 00:10:58.639 --> 00:11:14.240 It is this same expectation to keep justice and righteousness present throughout Israel's history, as witnessed from the citations from Deuteronomy and Exodus and from Isaiah's prophecy, as heard in our own passage in Isaiah 56:1. 00:11:14.240 --> 00:11:20.399 It is this same requirement, by the way, that still holds true for us today. 00:11:20.399 --> 00:11:27.759 A Pharisee tests Jesus, asking him, Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law, Matthew writes. 00:11:27.759 --> 00:11:33.200 And he said to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 00:11:33.200 --> 00:11:36.240 This is the great and foremost commandment. 00:11:36.240 --> 00:11:41.519 And the second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself, Matthew 22. 00:11:41.519 --> 00:11:50.320 Summarizing the Old Testament, Jesus adds, On these two commandments hang the whole law and the prophets, and you say, What is your point? 00:11:50.320 --> 00:11:52.240 Here is the bad news. 00:11:52.240 --> 00:11:58.879 It continues to be that principle of obedience to God's law that we have all broken. 00:11:58.879 --> 00:12:13.679 Speaking of transgression and death in Adam, Paul writes to the Romans, Therefore, just as though one man sinned and entered, and sin and death entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because we all sinned. 00:12:13.679 --> 00:12:30.639 Isaiah himself acknowledges this in his own vision when he declares in Isaiah chapter 24, 5, you've heard it before, the earth is also polluted by its inhabitants, for they trespassed laws, violated statutes, broke the everlasting covenant. 00:12:30.639 --> 00:12:41.039 If we are gathered here this morning to exalt the Son, it is certainly not our merit, nor our works. 00:12:41.039 --> 00:12:49.840 Please listen, our works, works of righteousness to keep and do the law, have brought upon us a curse. 00:12:49.840 --> 00:13:01.440 For as many as are the works of the law are under a curse, for it is written, Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law to do them. 00:13:01.440 --> 00:13:11.679 Returning to verse one of our passage, Isaiah 56, we now have a context to understand the words that follow God's word. 00:13:11.679 --> 00:13:15.200 Keep justice and do righteousness. 00:13:15.200 --> 00:13:16.960 The second half of verse one. 00:13:16.960 --> 00:13:40.799 Very interesting. 00:13:40.799 --> 00:13:54.320 While the command for God's justice and righteousness does not change, while the command results in condemnation for the people's inability, inability to keep justice and do righteousness. 00:13:54.320 --> 00:13:59.600 God's own salvation and righteousness are drawing near and to be unveiled. 00:13:59.600 --> 00:14:01.919 This is the sense of the revealing. 00:14:01.919 --> 00:14:03.679 Hence God's grace. 00:14:03.679 --> 00:14:09.200 Herein lies the good news from Isaiah's day forward. 00:14:09.200 --> 00:14:13.679 And grace of God for the people, for all peoples. 00:14:13.679 --> 00:14:24.000 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us, for it is written, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree. 00:14:24.000 --> 00:14:26.960 Galatians 3:19, 3.13. 00:14:26.960 --> 00:14:42.000 We have a Savior projected already from this time forward, who will obey, who will keep justice, who will do righteousness on our behalf. 00:14:42.000 --> 00:14:50.879 What is then the meaning of God's salvation about to come and God's righteousness about to reveal to be revealed in Isaiah 56.1? 00:14:50.879 --> 00:14:59.039 Better yet, better yet, who is God's coming salvation and revealed righteousness? 00:14:59.039 --> 00:15:15.519 He is none other than Jesus Christ, the suffering servant of Isaiah 53, the Son of God, who will be given as a covenant sacrifice for the peoples, Isaiah 42, Isaiah 49, for Jews and Gentiles. 00:15:15.519 --> 00:15:24.799 Obedience He will obey in their light, in light of their disobedience to God's law and covenantal relationship. 00:15:24.799 --> 00:15:28.399 That is why he is my Savior and Lord. 00:15:28.399 --> 00:15:35.679 That is why I stand here with you in brotherhood and fellowship in the Spirit today. 00:15:35.679 --> 00:15:40.639 He obeyed on my behalf and took my curse. 00:15:40.639 --> 00:15:46.480 Notice Isaiah's words in chapter 55. 00:15:46.480 --> 00:15:49.600 You've already heard it wonderfully preached. 00:15:49.600 --> 00:15:55.279 Just immediately prior to our own passage and chapter, incline your ear and come to me. 00:15:55.279 --> 00:16:00.960 Listen that your soul may live, and I will cut an everlasting covenant with you. 00:16:00.960 --> 00:16:08.720 According to the faithful, loving kindness of David, behold, I have given him as a witness to the peoples, a ruler and commander for the peoples. 00:16:08.720 --> 00:16:24.879 Behold, you will call a nation you do not know, and a nation which knows you not will run to you because of Yahweh your God, even the Holy One of Israel, for he has adorned you with beautiful glory, by the servants, obedience. 00:16:24.879 --> 00:16:41.279 We are adorned with beautiful glory, so that we join with other people and peoples of nations to be one by grace to worship. 00:16:41.279 --> 00:16:52.879 Notice verse two as we move forward of our passage, Isaiah 56, verse 2 continues the theme of law-keeping by the lawkeeper, not by us. 00:16:52.879 --> 00:17:12.880 The servant, God's coming salvation and righteousness revealed, Jesus Christ once again through the though the people are in view, as in verse 1, the perfect son is truly he who is the fulfillment of God's expectations for and on behalf of and as a representative of the people. 00:17:12.880 --> 00:17:26.960 And so, as we understand our passage and read it, we are always thinking of the Son, the Son, the Son, or better yet, we are thinking in Christ, in Christ, in Christ. 00:17:26.960 --> 00:17:31.759 The perfect son. 00:17:31.759 --> 00:17:36.799 Hence, as in verse 1, and together with verse 1, the Son is Yahweh's intent. 00:17:36.799 --> 00:17:43.039 It is he whom the people must hope in to fulfill all righteousness, Matthew 3:15. 00:17:43.039 --> 00:17:52.160 I am not attempting to keep justice and do righteousness on my own behalf, apart from Christ. 00:17:52.160 --> 00:18:01.279 But Isaiah presents my hope by which I am a people, by which I stand with the family of God in God's church. 00:18:01.279 --> 00:18:03.920 It is Him and only Him. 00:18:03.920 --> 00:18:05.759 Turn to Christ. 00:18:05.759 --> 00:18:12.319 Whether you have not believed or believed, turn to Christ. 00:18:12.319 --> 00:18:16.960 The language depicting the Son is even more pronounced than in verse 1. 00:18:16.960 --> 00:18:24.480 Observe the mention of the man in How Blessed is the man, beginning verse 2 of our passage. 00:18:24.480 --> 00:18:30.400 How blessed is the man, the son of man, spoken of in the second line of verse 2. 00:18:30.400 --> 00:18:38.079 The references address every man in general, pointing to the common man and a universal manhood, man and woman. 00:18:38.079 --> 00:18:49.119 It is this son of Adam and Son of God, going all the way back to the creation of the first man, that must do and take hold of God's justice and righteousness. 00:18:49.119 --> 00:18:52.720 God's law, I am hidden behind him. 00:18:52.720 --> 00:18:58.960 He must also keep from profaning the Sabbath and keep his hand from doing any evil, verse 2. 00:18:58.960 --> 00:19:04.799 These latter two commands are stated as, notice, repeated patterns of conduct. 00:19:04.799 --> 00:19:08.640 There is no interruption in this lifestyle at all. 00:19:08.640 --> 00:19:23.359 All of the actions themselves in verses 1 and 2 emphasize, particularly in verse 2, emphasize a continuity such that this man is consistently walking in obedience to God. 00:19:23.359 --> 00:19:30.559 Here in Isaiah's expectations on behalf of God, he takes hold of this obedience. 00:19:30.559 --> 00:19:40.079 At the end of the second line of verse 2, the expression itself, taking hold of, is rooted upon a very strong term addressing strength. 00:19:40.079 --> 00:19:43.519 The behavior, moreover, is intensive. 00:19:43.519 --> 00:19:52.960 This man, in other words, has a firm grip on the law and resolutely does not let it go, but walks in it blamelessly. 00:19:52.960 --> 00:19:56.480 You say, Is this me or is this you? 00:19:56.480 --> 00:20:01.359 Not at all. 00:20:01.359 --> 00:20:07.119 This is certainly not Paul, nor you and I apart from Christ. 00:20:07.119 --> 00:20:16.640 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh, for the willing is present in me, but the working out of the good is not. 00:20:16.640 --> 00:20:24.000 For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want to do. 00:20:24.000 --> 00:20:25.920 You know this, Romans 7. 00:20:25.920 --> 00:20:34.000 A few verses later, Paul says, I find then this principle, the principle of the law, what Isaiah is talking about. 00:20:34.000 --> 00:20:39.599 I find then the principle that in me evil is present, in me who wants to do good. 00:20:39.599 --> 00:20:43.200 You know how this passage ends so marvelously. 00:20:43.200 --> 00:20:47.839 Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from the body of this death. 00:20:47.839 --> 00:20:54.799 You could almost say it, thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. 00:20:54.799 --> 00:21:00.480 That is the message of Isaiah 56, verses 1 and 2 for the people. 00:21:00.480 --> 00:21:02.559 Thanks be to God. 00:21:02.559 --> 00:21:18.559 Jesus Christ is the one, the one and only who can completely fulfill the principle Paul and every man, including you and I, struggles to obey because of our captivity, enslavement to the law of sin and death. 00:21:18.559 --> 00:21:22.640 Jesus alone is the blessed man of Psalm 1. 00:21:22.640 --> 00:21:36.400 How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the way of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers, but his delight is in the law of Yahweh, and in his law he meditates day and night. 00:21:36.400 --> 00:21:38.880 Jesus is the man of Psalm 15. 00:21:38.880 --> 00:21:42.000 Please don't read Psalm 15 apart from Christ. 00:21:42.000 --> 00:21:53.119 David, the author, fixes his eyes on the coming servant when he asks, Oh Yahweh, who may sojourn in your tent, who may dwell on your holy mountain? 00:21:53.119 --> 00:21:57.759 He who walks blamelessly and works righteousness and speaks truth in his heart. 00:21:57.759 --> 00:22:14.960 And as we even heard this morning in our ABF class, and repeatedly you've heard through Isaiah, that is no one, no one among the prophets, among the people, and among even God's church, except for who? 00:22:14.960 --> 00:22:18.799 Christ, the suffering servant. 00:22:18.799 --> 00:22:20.240 The suffering servant. 00:22:20.240 --> 00:22:25.440 David ends the psalm with the words He who does these things will never be shaken. 00:22:25.440 --> 00:22:29.279 Herein lies the character from Isaiah onward. 00:22:29.279 --> 00:22:36.799 Notice, from the Old Testament, herein lies the character of our Christ, God in Christ. 00:22:36.799 --> 00:22:50.799 The character of the Son of Man is the character of the one, the only one who has taken hold of the law, set his face like a flint to perfectly obey it and die on our behalf. 00:22:50.799 --> 00:22:55.119 The author and perfecter of our faith, he is the true Israel. 00:22:55.119 --> 00:23:03.279 The Son called out from Egypt, out of Egypt, fulfilling our redemption in Israel's place, where both Adam and Israel failed. 00:23:03.279 --> 00:23:05.279 He is the Lord of the Sabbath. 00:23:05.279 --> 00:23:14.559 Both Isaiah 50, Isaiah 1 and 58, by the way, unmask Israel's hypocrisy, even in Sabbath keeping. 00:23:14.559 --> 00:23:20.559 Notice our passage as we end our first section on looking at the perfect sun. 00:23:20.559 --> 00:23:27.039 There's almost a play on words in the last two lines of verse 2 as related to the Sabbath. 00:23:27.039 --> 00:23:41.839 Israel's Sabbath keeping was just that: profaning and doing evil on it, using their hands, there is the imagery of violence, using their hands to do harm rather than good. 00:23:41.839 --> 00:23:47.519 In other words, they were showing up to the temple, as you know, to give lip service. 00:23:47.519 --> 00:23:52.480 And the Sabbath had become a paganistic ritual. 00:23:52.480 --> 00:24:12.319 Like Sodom and Gomorrah, the people, though the people convened in solemn assembly and appointed times, though they were very religious on the outside, new moon festivals and Sabbaths, their sacrifices and offerings, the Lord pronounces as worthless. 00:24:12.319 --> 00:24:18.880 They spread out their hands in prayer, but their hands were full of blood. 00:24:18.880 --> 00:24:27.839 They did not reprove the ruthless, nor execute justice for the orphan, and did not plead for the widow. 00:24:27.839 --> 00:24:43.359 They couldn't, because they were enslaved and needed to take hold of the promise of the servant, and yet they refused, and remained in their wickedness, and then and yet worshipped. 00:24:43.359 --> 00:24:45.279 How ugly is that? 00:24:45.279 --> 00:24:55.279 The Lord therefore hated their gatherings and was burdened and weary of bearing them. 00:24:55.279 --> 00:25:06.880 Isaiah 1, verses 10 to 17, paraphrasing, get away from me, get away from me, get away from me, and yet keep justice, do righteousness. 00:25:06.880 --> 00:25:08.000 Lord, how? 00:25:08.000 --> 00:25:12.799 Lord, how come to the servant? 00:25:12.799 --> 00:25:15.519 Come to the servant, come to Christ. 00:25:15.519 --> 00:25:18.000 That is the same message for us. 00:25:18.000 --> 00:25:30.559 Dear beloved brothers and sisters, from the perfect son, our passage moves to the people to come, from the perfect son to the people to come. 00:25:30.559 --> 00:25:35.279 God's people that will be drawn to him through the son's coming. 00:25:35.279 --> 00:25:37.359 This is the people we look forward to. 00:25:37.359 --> 00:25:40.160 This is the people by God's grace that we are. 00:25:40.160 --> 00:25:42.240 This is the church. 00:25:42.240 --> 00:25:45.039 From the Son, we move to the people. 00:25:45.039 --> 00:25:54.319 With the coming of the fullness of time, in that future day, please listen, God will send forth his son, who will be born of a woman. 00:25:54.319 --> 00:26:04.559 Paul says in Galatians 4, born under the law, so that he might redeem those who are under the law, so that we might receive the adoption as sons. 00:26:04.559 --> 00:26:09.599 Our sonship is again by the grace of God in Christ. 00:26:09.599 --> 00:26:23.039 Verses 3 through 7 of Isaiah 56, verses 3 through 7 of our passage, in our passage, notice they point to the type of sons this future day will join together in solemn assembly. 00:26:23.039 --> 00:26:34.240 In other words, the foreigner and the eunuch, while they are welcome and demonstrating the Abrahamic promise already in Isaiah's day, please don't stop there. 00:26:34.240 --> 00:26:39.599 They are a type of what the coming and gathering will be. 00:26:39.599 --> 00:26:43.599 Thanks be to Christ, to God in Christ. 00:26:43.599 --> 00:26:47.119 These are the type of sons. 00:26:47.119 --> 00:26:49.599 Yahweh speaks to the foreigner first. 00:26:49.599 --> 00:26:57.599 The verses three, the first part of verse three and six and seven, and then we have to the eunuch second. 00:26:57.599 --> 00:27:01.039 Again, last part of verse three through five. 00:27:01.039 --> 00:27:05.599 Verse eight concludes our passage by looking to the others. 00:27:05.599 --> 00:27:10.720 Praise God for the others, because that is you and I. 00:27:10.720 --> 00:27:18.480 The fulfillment of the types of people, the foreigner and the eunuch, that God is assembling to himself in Isaiah's day. 00:27:18.480 --> 00:27:27.039 These include all peoples, all the peoples universally that will gather as God's people in Christ's body in the last days. 00:27:27.039 --> 00:27:38.960 There is no exception, there is no exclusion to and in God's church except by grace through faith alone, through the blood of the Lamb. 00:27:38.960 --> 00:27:47.680 Notice to the foreigner first, to the foreigner, literally, literally, the word means son of the foreign, intended as foreign land. 00:27:47.680 --> 00:27:55.119 At the Exodus, it is recorded that a foreign multitude also went up with them, Israel. 00:27:55.119 --> 00:28:06.559 And so, again, already we see the signs of where God's redemption is leading, along with flocks and herds, a very large number of livestock, Exodus 1238. 00:28:06.559 --> 00:28:15.440 At the institution of the Passover meal, at the institution of the Passover meal, Yahweh speaks to both Moses and Aaron concerning such foreigners. 00:28:15.440 --> 00:28:20.160 They shall not eat of it unless all their males are circumcised. 00:28:20.160 --> 00:28:28.720 Then the foreigners, sojourners sojourning within with Israel, can come to celebrate it, and he shall be like a native of the land. 00:28:28.720 --> 00:28:31.680 But no uncircumcised person may eat of it. 00:28:31.680 --> 00:28:35.519 Both native and sojourner, notice, will be under the same law. 00:28:35.519 --> 00:28:40.640 In other words, they will be treated as equal before the Lord, as the same one people. 00:28:40.640 --> 00:28:46.400 There has always been a place for foreigners in Israel among God's people. 00:28:46.400 --> 00:28:49.920 Notice their description here in our passage at verse 3 again. 00:28:49.920 --> 00:28:51.279 Look at verse 3. 00:28:51.279 --> 00:28:56.400 They are the ones who have joined themselves to Yahweh. 00:28:56.400 --> 00:28:59.519 The meaning of joining is very profound here. 00:28:59.519 --> 00:29:04.400 The joining is similar to that of the man and the woman uniting in marriage. 00:29:04.400 --> 00:29:07.279 There is a covenantal bond established. 00:29:07.279 --> 00:29:12.160 The word is, moreover, in the passive, such that the foreigner is joined to God. 00:29:12.160 --> 00:29:14.640 In other words, God is joining him. 00:29:14.640 --> 00:29:20.319 God's drawing them to him, a call to God in faith as a proselyte to Israel. 00:29:20.319 --> 00:29:30.319 At the end of verse 4 of our passage, referring to the eunuch, Yahweh speaks of him as holding fast my his covenant. 00:29:30.319 --> 00:29:31.920 Last part of verse 4. 00:29:31.920 --> 00:29:37.920 Furthermore, furthermore, verse 6 once again refers to foreigners joining themselves to Yahweh. 00:29:37.920 --> 00:29:50.000 And in verse 7, Yahweh welcomes them, bringing them to his holy mountain, making them glad in his house of prayer, and accepting their burnt offerings and sacrifices as acceptable on his altar. 00:29:50.000 --> 00:29:52.000 Verses 6 and 7. 00:29:52.000 --> 00:29:58.240 Please notice the grace, the long suffering of God. 00:29:58.240 --> 00:30:01.680 He wants people. 00:30:01.680 --> 00:30:08.240 It's almost as though you hear repeatedly, please come, please come, come in repentance and faith. 00:30:08.240 --> 00:30:10.640 Come, let nothing stop you. 00:30:10.640 --> 00:30:14.400 Come to the Savior, bow before him in worship. 00:30:14.400 --> 00:30:15.599 Please come. 00:30:15.599 --> 00:30:21.359 It is he who will wash you in belief. 00:30:21.359 --> 00:30:25.920 It is he who has washed you as the elect people of God being drawn. 00:30:25.920 --> 00:30:27.119 Please come. 00:30:27.119 --> 00:30:32.960 Everything is evidence again of the Abrahamic promise coming to fruition. 00:30:32.960 --> 00:30:39.759 And I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you, I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed. 00:30:39.759 --> 00:30:51.920 These foreigners, notice, these foreigners hold fast not to the law covenant, nor to the principle of law, but they are holding fast to the promise of a new covenant. 00:30:51.920 --> 00:31:00.720 The author of Hebrews speaks of Christ as the mediator, you know, of a better covenant, which has been enacted on better promises. 00:31:00.720 --> 00:31:07.759 For if that first covenant had been faultless, says the author of Hebrews, there would have been no occasion sought for a second. 00:31:07.759 --> 00:31:10.079 Let me ask you, whose fault? 00:31:10.079 --> 00:31:13.119 Whose fault was the failure of the first? 00:31:13.119 --> 00:31:20.720 Answer Israel's, the people's, ours, if you will. 00:31:20.720 --> 00:31:24.640 They could not keep justice and do righteousness. 00:31:24.640 --> 00:31:30.240 They could not take hold of the law, nor keep from profaning the Sabbath and their hand from doing evil. 00:31:30.240 --> 00:31:42.000 They are, they are the vine growers, whom Jesus recounts in a parable to the people in Matthew 21, Mark 12, and Luke 20. 00:31:42.000 --> 00:31:44.400 What did the vine growers do? 00:31:44.400 --> 00:31:51.759 They thought they were the privileged ones, and yet they killed the beloved son of the owner of the vineyard. 00:31:51.759 --> 00:31:57.839 And so the vineyard owner destroyed them and gave the vineyard to others. 00:31:57.839 --> 00:32:11.920 In Matthew's version of the parable, Jesus tells the chief priests and the Pharisees, Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation producing the fruit of it. 00:32:11.920 --> 00:32:15.599 I am looking out at this nation. 00:32:15.599 --> 00:32:25.279 By grace, rejoice, embrace the Savior, and continue in Christ's likeness according to the Savior. 00:32:25.279 --> 00:32:28.799 There is more fruit and harvest out there. 00:32:28.799 --> 00:32:43.920 To these others, then, the foreigners who did not reject the chief cornerstone, nor fall on the stone that crushes those who stumble on it, but love Yahweh, walk in his ways and cling to him, Deuteronomy 11. 00:32:43.920 --> 00:32:48.559 Yahweh promises that he will, please notice our text again, verse 3. 00:32:48.559 --> 00:32:53.200 Yahweh promises that he will surely not separate them from his people. 00:32:53.200 --> 00:32:55.519 Verse 3, Isaiah 56. 00:32:55.519 --> 00:33:12.799 Surely separate is intensified so that the beginning negation, not in let not the foreigner at the beginning of verse 3, the foreigner is urged, in other words, to banish the thought that he should ever be cut off from God's people. 00:33:12.799 --> 00:33:14.240 Hey, who am I? 00:33:14.240 --> 00:33:16.480 Why should God choose me? 00:33:16.480 --> 00:33:19.039 Banish the thought. 00:33:19.039 --> 00:33:25.519 You are nothing, I am nothing, but once he chooses you, he will never let go. 00:33:25.519 --> 00:33:35.039 It is, it is an everlasting choice by his choice and grace in Christ. 00:33:35.039 --> 00:33:39.440 And so the foreigner is tremendously encouraged here. 00:33:39.440 --> 00:33:57.680 Rather, the end of verse seven, rather than letting go and cutting away, as those who refuse the stone and the servant, the end of verse 7 says that the foreigner will be in God's house of prayer, because it is a house, notice, for all peoples. 00:33:57.680 --> 00:34:06.880 At the dedication of the temple, Solomon prays that the newly built house of God would receive the prayer of foreigners. 00:34:06.880 --> 00:34:08.880 First Kings eight. 00:34:08.880 --> 00:34:27.039 Solomon prays, and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to you, in order that all the peoples of the earth may know your name, to fear you, as do your people Israel, and to know your name is called upon this house which I have built. 00:34:27.039 --> 00:34:28.239 Solomon's prayer. 00:34:28.239 --> 00:34:35.599 Notice the temple is God's dwelling on earth to listen to the prayers and supplications of his people Israel. 00:34:35.599 --> 00:34:43.679 We get a very profound picture of the temple here back in Solomon's day, and all those who joined themselves to Israel. 00:34:43.679 --> 00:34:48.159 This is Solomon's description of it, 1 Kings 8, 28 to 30. 00:34:48.159 --> 00:35:00.000 Yahweh, uh notice, Yahweh is to listen to the people's confession of sin and pardon them, forgiving all their transgressions, for they are his inheritance. 00:35:00.000 --> 00:35:10.960 In speaking of the new covenant, Jeremiah says, But this is the covenant which I will cut with the house of Israel after those days, declares Yahweh. 00:35:10.960 --> 00:35:17.920 I will put my law within them, and on their heart I will write it, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 00:35:17.920 --> 00:35:23.199 And they will not teach again each man his neighbor and each man his brother. 00:35:23.199 --> 00:35:35.440 I love thee each man, saying, No, Yahweh, for they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, declares Yahweh, for I will forgive their iniquity and their sin I will remember no more. 00:35:35.440 --> 00:35:53.039 The new covenant, please observe, will accomplish what the temple pleads for full forgiveness, full forgiveness that you and I today have, by virtue of Christ, complete pardon. 00:35:53.039 --> 00:36:01.280 Do you realize the grace that abounds in our midst and in our lives by the Spirit of Christ? 00:36:01.280 --> 00:36:03.599 Notice then the temple's role. 00:36:03.599 --> 00:36:04.960 The temple's role. 00:36:04.960 --> 00:36:09.280 It is a house of prayer that supplicates God for his atonement. 00:36:09.280 --> 00:36:21.840 It is the place of refuge, what the promise of atonement, complete pardon, awaits God's fulfillment of it as pledged to David, Solomon's father in covenant, 1 Kings 8. 00:36:21.840 --> 00:36:28.800 It is the temporary dwelling that points to the arrival of a new covenant and a new David. 00:36:28.800 --> 00:36:47.440 From that house, we have moved to this house in Christ by the Spirit, full pardon, full access, full grace, one with God in Christ and His people. 00:36:47.440 --> 00:37:20.480 This coming one will be displayed publicly by God as a propitiation in his blood for a demonstration of God's righteousness and forbearance, passing over the sins previously committed, sins from the temple days, as the prayers of the foreigner and the Israelite in Solomon's temple hoped for, hoped in, all of this, so that in the last days, at the present time, he, God, would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. 00:37:20.480 --> 00:37:52.079 And when you walk into this assembly, that is the that is what we proclaim the message, so that in all that we do, whether it be in our love among each other and love for our neighbors out there, and whether it be through the listening of the preaching of the word to exalt God and to worship him, all of this is to proclaim so that all people know that he is just and the justifier of him who believes, who has faith in Jesus. 00:37:52.079 --> 00:38:00.079 You do not leave this place without knowing that, without receiving that, because that is what this gathering is for. 00:38:00.079 --> 00:38:02.000 That is what we are the fruit of. 00:38:02.000 --> 00:38:05.599 From the foreigner to the eunuch, quickly. 00:38:05.599 --> 00:38:10.960 Deuteronomy 23 addresses those who are to be excluded from God's people. 00:38:10.960 --> 00:38:14.159 We heard from the scripture reading this morning so wonderfully. 00:38:14.159 --> 00:38:21.440 The first two verses say, No one who is emasculated or has his male organ cut off shall enter the assembly of Yahweh. 00:38:21.440 --> 00:38:28.079 Notice the gripping details, the deformity, the exclusion and humiliation. 00:38:28.079 --> 00:38:31.920 No one of a legitimate birth shall enter the assembly of Yahweh. 00:38:31.920 --> 00:38:39.440 Even to the tenth generation, none of his seed shall enter the assembly of Yahweh, Deuteronomy 23, verses 1 and 2. 00:38:39.440 --> 00:38:50.000 The law concerning the eunuch is paramount to calling him, as in our passage, the last part of verse 3, a dry tree, a dry tree. 00:38:50.000 --> 00:38:51.519 What does that mean? 00:38:51.519 --> 00:38:56.480 His physical deformity leaves him literally without hope of inclusion. 00:38:56.480 --> 00:39:11.199 To the eunuch, however, who trusts in the promise, just like the foreigner cited before him, and because of the promise, keeps Yahweh's Sabbaths, chooses what pleases Yahweh, and holds fast, holds fast to Yahweh's covenant by promise. 00:39:11.199 --> 00:39:12.559 God will give him a house. 00:39:12.559 --> 00:39:14.079 Please notice, verse 5. 00:39:14.079 --> 00:39:15.679 God will give him a house. 00:39:15.679 --> 00:39:20.719 God will give him his house, and within God's house a memorial. 00:39:20.719 --> 00:39:36.159 In other words, the one that was completely excluded, who had no possibility of children or a future, God will give him many sons and daughters that will remember him by his righteousness. 00:39:36.159 --> 00:39:39.119 God will do the impossible. 00:39:39.119 --> 00:39:55.760 The blessing of the eunuch in covenant with Yahweh, who awaits the fulfillment of that covenant through the coming servant and son, is an everlasting name, never to be forgotten, with all the saints of God, to him who has never had sons and daughters to be remembered. 00:39:55.760 --> 00:40:02.400 Second half of verse 5, God will have the eunuch remembered forever by the righteousness he trusts in. 00:40:02.400 --> 00:40:04.800 This is our family. 00:40:04.800 --> 00:40:07.280 This is our trust. 00:40:07.280 --> 00:40:11.599 This is how we are remembered as we live for Christ. 00:40:11.599 --> 00:40:26.639 Of interest, of interest, at the cleansing of the temple, Jesus drives out all those who are buying and selling in the temple and says to them, It is written, My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a robber's den. 00:40:26.639 --> 00:40:27.760 Matthew 21. 00:40:27.760 --> 00:40:36.719 Right after Matthew writes those words, he says, And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. 00:40:36.719 --> 00:40:38.159 Matthew 21, 14. 00:40:38.159 --> 00:40:48.239 The buyers and sellers of Israel, those included in the temple, are compared to robbers, while the blind and the lame, those excluded, are received as heirs. 00:40:48.239 --> 00:40:59.840 To all the peoples, finally, verse 8, after speaking to the foreigner and after speaking to the eunuch, the types that will come, God addresses the fulfillment of the people. 00:40:59.840 --> 00:41:10.639 To all the peoples, verse 8, we see this portrait of salvation in the last days coming to a close, which with much emphasis on the Lord's work of gathering. 00:41:10.639 --> 00:41:12.239 Notice verse 8. 00:41:12.239 --> 00:41:14.400 It is so profound. 00:41:14.400 --> 00:41:17.039 Observe the repetition of the word gather. 00:41:17.039 --> 00:41:25.360 Lord Yahweh, who gathers the banished of Israel, declares, Yet others I will gather to them, to those already gathered. 00:41:25.360 --> 00:41:26.320 Three times. 00:41:26.320 --> 00:41:31.840 He gathers his own. 00:41:31.840 --> 00:41:33.039 Rejoice. 00:41:33.039 --> 00:41:37.280 Go out and preach the gospel because he is gathering. 00:41:37.280 --> 00:41:40.400 Yahweh is described as a gathering God. 00:41:40.400 --> 00:41:48.400 Isaiah 60 reveals this gathering to reach its completion in a glorified Zion, in a new heavens and new earth. 00:41:48.400 --> 00:41:56.320 In the present age, in the present age, we continue to live in the day of harvest, a plentiful harvest. 00:41:56.320 --> 00:42:03.920 As Jesus prays to the Father in his high priestly prayer in John 17, hear these words. 00:42:03.920 --> 00:42:21.679 Jesus prays, I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, even as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you sent me. 00:42:21.679 --> 00:42:30.800 There are still, there are still New Hyde Park, there are still others to be gathered to his people. 00:42:30.800 --> 00:42:40.559 We come to worship this morning Jesus, who was faithful to him who appointed him, as Moses also was in all his house. 00:42:40.559 --> 00:42:52.320 Only, only Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, and we are a better house because Jesus was a faith was as faithful as a son over God's house. 00:42:52.320 --> 00:42:54.719 We have a better covenant. 00:42:54.719 --> 00:42:56.559 Please, please. 00:42:56.559 --> 00:43:05.039 Isaiah 56 calls us to press on to maturity in Jesus Christ and proclaim him. 00:43:05.039 --> 00:43:06.400 Let's pray. 00:43:06.400 --> 00:43:10.719 Father, we thank you for your word this morning. 00:43:10.719 --> 00:43:13.519 We thank you for its truth. 00:43:13.519 --> 00:43:24.880 We thank you for its ancient truth, ancient and yet contemporary, because it reaches us, it convicts us in this present age, it saves us. 00:43:24.880 --> 00:43:39.039 And so as we live out this present age, please, Father, give us the grace and humility, the trust and hope in Christ to continue being used as vessels of mercy to gather those who are yours. 00:43:39.039 --> 00:43:40.559 In Jesus' name, Amen.