Skip to content Diligently Working Out One's Salvation - Isaiah 56-57 Jan 9 · 16 min ...more
Diligently Working Out One's Salvation - Isaiah 56-57
January 9, 2025 · 16 min
A study of Isaiah 56-57 highlighting the importance of actively pursuing God, the meaning of true Sabbath, and the inclusive nature of God's love.
Series Stand on the Word - Video On Demand January 9, 2025 · 16 min · Stand on the Word - Video On Demand
A study of Isaiah 56-57 highlighting the importance of actively pursuing God, the meaning of true Sabbath, and the inclusive nature of God's love. ...more Show the full description Show less A study of Isaiah 56-57 highlighting the importance of actively pursuing God, the meaning of true Sabbath, and the inclusive nature of God's love.
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The Call to Righteousness and Inclusion 0:09 Good morning. Welcome to Stand on the Word. Thanks for joining me this morning. Today, Isaiah chapters 56 and 57, verse 13 of chapter 57. When you cry out, let your collection0:21 of idols deliver you, but the wind will carry them away. A breath will take them away. But he who puts his trust in me shall possess the land and shall inherit my holy mountain.0:33 Now the first portion of chapter 56, Isaiah is speaking of the opening of the kingdom of god to all who will pursue it, and then he goes into what that pursuit entails. Now in the last0:45 4 verses, Isaiah shifts from comfort and hope for the coming captivity, which is still about a hundred years away, to conviction over their sin that was going to lead them into that0:57 captivity. Again, remember, Isaiah's prophetic message speaks to the near, the intermediate, and the distant future. Verse 1, chapter 56.1:09 Thus, says the lord, keep justice and do righteousness. For my salvation is about to come and my righteousness to be revealed. Now, this sounds very similar to the message of John the Baptist and Jesus himself.1:21 Look over in Matthew chapter 3 and verse 2 and repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying the voice of 1 crying in the wilderness,1:33 prepare the way of the lord, make his paths straight. Verse 2, blessed is the man who does this and the son of man who lays hold of it, who keeps from defiling the1:45 Sabbath, and keeps his hand from doing any evil. Now notice you have to want to enter the kingdom. You have to lay hold of1:56 it. As Paul wrote to the Philippians, he says this in verse 12 of chapter 2. Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work2:08 out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Now, this is not working to earn your salvation but rather working it out, making sure of your salvation. Salvation is not saying special words or2:20 having water sprinkled on you. It is seeking the lord with your whole heart and surrendering your life to him, pursuing him. It is denying yourself, taking up your cross, and following2:32 Jesus. Notice also the reference to the Sabbath, defiling the Sabbath. Now what does that mean? Well, we're not saved by the law. Okay? And we are not under the2:43 law, but the law is, as Paul wrote, a tutor. That tutor not only brings us to Christ revealing our sin, but it instructs us on how we should live for him.2:56 Now here is how I look at the law. The Old Testament, it was primary. I mean, it was the direction to give them that they had to live by the law. In the New Testament, it's a principle. In the coming reign of Christ, it3:06 will be practiced. Alright? Jesus made clear the focus on the Sabbath was not to be about legalistic restriction. As he said, the Sabbath was made for man and man was not made for3:18 the Sabbath. I believe God intended us to have a day of rest in which we focus upon him. We stop and we recognize our dependence upon him and that all these things come from him. And so we give back to him this day of3:30 focusing upon. And I think it should be a a a way of life for centuries, and we had blue laws in our in our country. And this kept nonessential businesses closed on Sunday or3:42 restricted the sale of certain items like alcohol. Most of these laws have been repealed over the last 40 to 50 years as the courts push to God from the center of civic life in our country. Now the3:54 Sabbath is a reminder that there is a God. That was the purpose of the Sabbath, To remind us that there was a god. To give it practically, it was to give us rest as well. The loss of the acknowledgement4:05 of the Sabbath, which is a loss of acknowledgement that there is a god, should be a warning that our nation is in is headed in the wrong direction. The next verses, verses 3 through4:17 8, speak to the kingdom of god being open to all who want to pursue it. Verse 3, do not let the son of a foreigner who has joined himself to the lord speak, saying, the lord has utterly separated me from his4:30 people, nor let the eunuch say, here I am a dry tree, for thus says the lord to the eunuchs who keep the Sabbaths and choose what pleases me and hold fast to my covenant. Verse 6, also the sons of the foreigner4:41 who say themselves to the lord to serve him, who join themselves to the lord to serve him, and to love the name of the lord to be his servants. Everyone who keeps from defiling the Sabbath and holds fast my covenant. No4:53 longer would those be outside the temple, outside the ability to join. Eunuchs were not allowed in the temple Temple. Foreigners were not allowed in. And and and so notice that there are no5:04 cultural accommodations for the Gentiles. Alright? They too must leave their idols. It's not like they can bring their past to them. They they have to leave their idols. They have to love the lord. They have to serve5:16 him. They have to honor the Sabbath and hold fast to the covenant of grace. And notice verse 7. Even then, even them, I will bring to my holy mountain and make them joyful in my house of5:28 prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar, for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations. The door is open to the Gentiles to the temple. As I said, that was5:40 forbidden in the old testament. The temple, which was a place of sacrifice for the Jewish people, was now to become a house of prayer for all the nations. Jesus actually quoted this in Matthew chapter5:52 21 verse 13, and he said to them, it is written, my house shall be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves. Now from this point through chapter 57, Isaiah shifts from comfortWarnings Against Idolatry and False Security 6:04 for the future to conviction for their present sin that was going to be leading them into captivity. By the way, this is also a warning for the church age as well. Verse 9. All you6:16 beasts of the field come to devour all you beasts in the forest. His watchmen are blind. They are all ignorant. They are all dumb dogs. They cannot bark, sleeping, lying6:27 down, loving to slumber. This is kind of a picture of the the sheepdogs, the the dogs that would be working with the shepherds. The dogs are lying down. They're sleeping. They're dumb. They don't6:39 bark. Yes. They are greedy dogs, which never have enough, and they are shepherds who cannot understand. They all look to their own way, everyone for his own gain6:51 from his own territory. Come, 1 says, I will bring wine, and I will fill ourselves with intoxicating drink. Tomorrow, we will will be as today and much more abundant.7:04 So the the shepherds and even their dogs were useless. The beast of the field are the Gentile armies that God would use for the punishment of the apostate.7:16 The watchmen are the leaders, primarily the spiritual leaders, the prophets and the priest. These leaders could not or would not discern night from day. Their focus was on their own pleasure and their7:27 physical well-being, not the spiritual well-being of the people that they were given the responsibility to shepherd. They told the people what they wanted to hear. As Jeremiah said, they claimed peace peace when there7:39 was no peace. You know? And, frankly, most people like it that way. You know, Paul told Timothy over in the New Testament that people have itching ears, and they wanna hear fables rather than the truth. And I believe7:51 that's that's descriptive of the day in which we live, but we need pastors. We need prophetic voices that will speak the truth, and that is the word of god. That8:03 that is that needs to be the measuring line for everything for the church, and and and we need to hold that up in the broader culture, and that needs to be proclaimed. Now I know people don't wanna8:15 hear it. They want to hear fables. They wanna hear things that make them feel good. But we only feel good when we address the inner issues, and that is our sin and confess it and come to Christ and align ourselves8:27 with his word and his ways. Verse 1 of chapter 57, the righteous perishes, and no 1 takes it to heart. Merciful men are taken away while no 1 considers that the righteous is taken8:40 away from evil. Really, that should be translated the face of evil. He shall enter into peace. They shall rest in their beds. Each 1 walking in his uprightness. Now, this is 1 of those areas where if we're reading8:52 too fast through the scripture, not and that's why this this reading plan is designed to to kinda systematically go through scripture but do so in in such portions that we can really9:04 spend some time each day reading it and meditating upon it. So I don't want you to miss it. This what he's talking about here in these first 2 verses is a display of god's mercy to the righteous to spare them9:16 from the vexation of the evil around them and the judgment that is coming toward them, they're taken away. You know, prior to Jerusalem being destroyed in 5 86 BC, there were some9:27 Jews that were taken into exile, actually in a couple of different times beginning in 6 0 6 BC when it's believed that's that's when Daniel and others were taken into captivity.9:39 Now this could, this was to spare many of them from the deprivation and despair that was going to accompany the judgment of the southern9:50 kingdom and the city of Jerusalem. This could be seen as a type of rapture of the church that is to come before the outpouring of god's judgment on the earth. You see god's10:02 mercy everywhere. We just need to be mindful of that that it's there, his grace and his mercy. Now look at the immoral, the idolatry,10:17 judge and the coming judgment of God. And I'm gonna read this in the ESV, these next few verses. Verse 3, but you draw near sons of the sorcerers, offspring of the adulterer, and the10:29 loose woman. Whom are you mocking? Against whom do you open your mouth wide and stick out your tongue? Are you not children of transgression, the offspring of deceit? You who burn with lust among the10:40 oaks under every green tree, who slaughter your children in the valleys under the clefts of the rocks? Among the smooth stones of the valley is your portion. They they are your lot. To them, you have poured10:52 out a drink offering. You have brought a grain offering. Shall I relent for these things? On a high and lofty mountain, you have set your bed, and there you went up to11:04 offer sacrifices. Now, again, the idolatry, which is the worship of demonic powers, included sexual immorality and child sacrifice.11:16 And this is you know, we create idols that feed our fallen nature, and that's what they were doing in the in these oaks, in these high places, that's where we've talked about this before.11:28 They engaged in sexual immorality. It was a part of the demonic worship. And the children, oftentimes, the offspring of these encounters, were sacrificed. Verse11:40 11. And of whom have you been afraid or feared that you by by the way, let me just go back for just a moment. So he talks about the pouring out of these drink offerings and grain11:51 offerings. Think about this for just a moment. Okay? In in in Jeremiah, well, Jeremiah addresses this more directly. But so god blesses them, and they have this12:03 abundance. And this is part of the tithe. But in tithe, instead of giving this to god and thanking god for what they had been given, they offer this to idols. So think about that for a moment, how god has blessed us as a12:15 nation. What are we doing with what we've been entrusted with and what we've been given as a blessing of god? They were giving it to idols. They were giving it to really demonic forces. What are we12:27 doing? Alright. Verse 11, and of whom have you been afraid or feared that you have lied and not remembered me nor taken it to your heart? Is it not because I have held my peace from,12:39 old, from of old that you do not fear me? You see, they had mistaken god's mercy for indifference to their idolatry and sin. And let me tell you, that is happening today. I've12:51 heard that so many times as we've changed policy to redefine marriage or open the floodgates to abortion. God hasn't checked. Judged. The sky hasn't fallen. Do not13:03 mistake god's mercy, as being indifferent to sin. Alright. Verses 14 through 15, he calls them to repent. Again,13:14 god is merciful. God doesn't want to judge. God wants us to to to turn to him. Verse 15, for thus says the high and lofty 1 who inhabits eternity. Alright? He's not going anywhere. He's not going to13:26 change his mind. He's gonna be here forever. Whose name is holy. I dwell in the high and holy place with him who has a contrite. Alright. The word contrite means crushed. He is with those who are13:38 who are crushed and humble in spirit. Meaning, we know we can't do this on our own. We're broken over our sin and he's with us to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of13:50 the crushed ones. You know, god is for you. He's He's not against you but as Jesus said, you know, if if we don't fall on the rock and and and be broken, the broken, the rock will fall on us and crush14:02 us. The cornerstone. We we need to fall before him broken by our sin and god is with us. Verse 18. I have seen his ways and will heal him. I will also lead him and14:14 restore comfort to him and to his mourners. I create the fruit of the lips. Peace. Peace to him who is far off and to him who is near, says the lord, and I will heal him.14:26 See, it's right there. But look at verse 20. But the wicked are like the troubled sea when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. I mean, they're14:38 turbulent. They're churning. There is no peace, says my god, for the wicked. Peace is found in the presence of god, and it is there for the humble and the14:50 broken who come into his presence. Father, we thank you for your word. Again, just, we just we're so grateful for your word that gives instruction and guidance to our lives15:02 and for the holy spirit who is leading us on this journey. May you open our eyes and our understanding to your word and give us the ability to apply it to our lives that we might walk in the truth of15:13 your word. Lord, we don't want just a head knowledge. Lord, we want to to be formed by the truth of your word, and we thank you for that. In Jesus' name, amen. Alright.15:25 Until next time. Have a great day.15:29 Today's study comes from the stand on the word bible reading plan available for free at frc dot org slash bible. By following along in just a few minutes a day, you15:41 can read through the entire Bible in just 2 years. Learn more and request the free reading guide at f r c dot o r g slash bible.In this video 0:09 The Call to Righteousness and Inclusion5:59 Warnings Against Idolatry and False Security
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