Isaiah 56:1-8

Our text for this morning is Isaiah 56.

We're going to be going through verses 1-8.

I'll give you all a moment to turn there.

But as we're looking at this text, I'll just say up front, we're going to be thinking about it somewhat broadly with the topic of missions as it pertains to the Old Testament and as it relates to God's overarching redemptive plan throughout the scriptures from Genesis to Revelation.

Many of us have asked questions before like, did God adjust his plan to save Gentiles or has he always planned that?

Another way that can be asked is, does the Old Testament ever actually talk about God planning to save Gentiles?

And on top of that, you might ask, did God save Gentiles in the Old Testament or was it merely talk or hinted at in something that didn't happen until New Testament?

And furthermore, why does God save?

To what end or what purpose is he saving has chosen?

So this is a sampling of some of the things we're going to be talking about today through our text, Isaiah 56.

So turning there, verse 1, thus says the Lord, Isaiah writes, thus says the Lord, keep justice and do righteousness for soon my salvation will come and my righteousness be revealed.

Blessed is the man who does this and is the son of man who keeps and holds it fast.

Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord say, the Lord will surely separate me from his people.

And let not the eunuch say, behold, I am a dry tree.

But thus says the Lord to the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose the things that please me and hold fast my covenant.

I will give in my house and within my walls a monument and a name better than sons and daughters.

I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off.

And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord and to be his servants,

everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it and holds fast my covenant,

these I will bring to my holy mountain and make them joyful in my house of prayer.

Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar.

From my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.

The Lord God who gathers the outcasts of Israel declares, I will yet gather others to him besides those already gathered.

So just real quickly here, a little context.

Again, Clay preached on Isaiah 40 last week and did most of the grunt work for me in laying that.

But I just wanted to note two things that are pertinent for our discussion today.

One, it is important to note that Isaiah is a contemporary of Hosea and Micah.

And if you're familiar with Isaiah, if you're familiar with Hosea and Micah,

you recall that those prophets are constantly calling out Israel and Judah for their sin,

namely injustice and a lack of righteousness.

They're worshiping foreign gods.

At this point, it was a nation that exploited the poor and the vulnerable while worshiping these false gods

and only giving external ritualistic worship to Yahweh,

not true single-minded devotion as he has called for.

So that's important to note.

And the other thing I wanted to note contextually before we move on

is that we need to bear in mind that Israel and Judah are on the verge of collapse.

God has been announcing his judgment.

It's been withheld at times through the prayers of Hezekiah and other intercessions.

But nonetheless, it is on the way, and the Babylonians will drag them away into captivity, into exile.

And they're going to be in exile for a while, and there's going to be three dispersions.

So we want to keep that in mind as we read this text with all that God's saying in it,

all that God is planning, all that God is doing.

So just looking at verses 1 through 2, and I've subtitled this section,

A Call to Righteousness.

And I'll read it again briefly, but we see here the Lord says,

So this is not works-based salvation.

Paul's very clear on this in Galatians.

Tyler read this text for us this morning.

We didn't collaborate.

That just worked out.

But Paul writes,

For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse.

For it is written,

Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all the things written in the book of the law and do them.

Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law.

For the righteous shall live by faith.

Galatians 3, verse 10 through 11.

Galatians 3:10–11

So Isaiah himself understood the logical flow of this.

He understood regeneration leading to sanctification.

In other words, we have to be made right, made new.

And then we can grow in holiness, grow in obedience.

Regeneration precedes sanctification.

And Isaiah recognizes this, and we see that in chapter 1, verses 16 through 17, as he records the Lord.

And the Lord said,

Wash yourselves.

Make yourselves clean.

It's that regeneration language.

Remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes.

Cease to do evil.

Learn to do good.

There's the sanctification.

That idea of turning.

Total repentance.

180 degree.

Learn to do good.

Seek justice.

Correct oppression.

Bring justice to the fatherless.

Plead the widow's cause.

So again, the flow.

It goes from washing, that renewal, that regeneration,

to sanctification, to doing good, to stop doing evil.

So what is God saying in our first two verses back in our primary text, Isaiah 56?

He's saying that the true people of God will and should act like people of God.

They should be godly as a result of their faith.

God is just.

Isaiah 61.8.

So as his people, we too should act justly.

God is righteous.

Psalm 119.137.

So as his people, we too should act righteously.

Keeping justice.

Doing righteousness.

This is why God mentions the nearness of his kingdom.

And arriving in the later half of verse 1,

for soon my salvation will come and my righteousness be revealed.

This serves as a reminder and an incentive.

Hey, I'm coming.

Let that incentivize you.

In other words, we practice righteousness now because one day we will be made entirely renewed

and completely obedient from the heart.

And if we're not acting like citizens of heaven now,

then we have no reason to think we will be someday.

All right, we should be putting on the things of God now.

And we can only be the people of God by faith.

And that faith produces those good works.

It bears fruit, as Jesus himself said,

I am the vine, you are the branches.

Whoever abides in me and I in him,

he it is that bears much fruit.

For apart from me you can do nothing.

That's John 15.5.

So we cannot keep justice nor do righteousness apart from Christ by faith.

So going back to our text, Isaiah 56,

we see that God says all of this, justice and righteousness language,

all of that is in relation to his covenant with Moses in verse 2,

when he refers to those who keep the Sabbath.

Keeping the Sabbath is the most important sign of the Mosaic covenant.

Exodus 31.12.

And the Lord said to Moses,

you are to speak to the people of Israel and say,

above all, you shall keep my Sabbaths.

But this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations,

that you may know that I, the Lord, sanctify you.

You shall keep the Sabbath because it is holy for you.

Everyone who profanes it shall be put to death.

So this is of vital importance.

In other words, when an Israelite is looking at this text,

they're not just hearing, oh, Sabbath law,

they're hearing Mosaic covenant.

Understanding this is in connection with covenant.

So when we look at that, we've got to go,

okay, well, what's going on?

Well, it's an external sign like practicing righteousness and keeping justice.

It's revealing what's going on internally.

It's revealing that regeneration, that salvation,

that demonstrates one's belief in God

to provide and sustain him.

It is an exercise of faith

because keeping the Sabbath requires people to not work seven days a week

despite whatever shortage of food or what have you,

whatever problem they may face.

In other words, it could potentially be a loss in the worldly sense

when you're thinking about it pragmatically.

So for them to give up a whole day of work

in a time in which food is everything, right?

Farming, harvesting, that's how everything's driven at that time.

That is an act of faith.

So we see then it is entirely by faith that we are able to meet the standards of God

because we are all lawbreakers, both Jew and Gentile, Romans 3.23.

So we show this faith by our works,

as James and Paul most clearly articulate throughout their epistles.

It is by faith that saints of both Old Testament and New Testament,

Old Covenant, New Covenant, are saved.

For even Abraham himself, the father of our faith,

as you've heard the expression, was saved by just that, faith.

So in short, we as a people of God,

in light of these first two verses,

we are called to be holy for he is holy, Leviticus 11.44.

And this only happens by faith.

So moving on to our next section,

verses 3 through 5,

and I've entitled this a reminder of the promise to Abraham.

So we're talking about the Mosaic Covenant,

and we're about to move into the Abrahamic Covenant.

But picking up in verse 3,

God says,

So again, this is hearkening back to the Abrahamic Covenant.

God promised Abraham that he would father many nations,

and that all of those nations would be blessed by him and his descendants.

Genesis 22.18.

In his offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.

So again, looking back at Isaiah 56,

we can see that the foreigner, right, the nations, right,

the foreigner here,

he is being brought near.

He has as much reason to hope in God as the Israelites,

as the physical seed of Abraham does.

So they too, as the seed of faith,

they have as much reason to hope in God,

so long as they come to God on God's own terms,

namely through his covenant.

But did foreigners ever actually become part of the people of God in the Old Testament?

Did God save them during that time, right?

This is that question I mentioned earlier.

And the answer is, well, yes.

There's actually a significant amount, but I'll note just four briefly.

Mosea's wife, if you've been doing the Bible reading plan,

you probably caught this this week,

but Zipporah was a Midianite who joined the covenant by circumcising her son.

Exodus 4.25-26.

So here you have a foreigner being blessed by Moses by way of covenant,

being brought in, being grafted in.

Two, many Gentiles, likely to be mostly Egyptian,

joined the Israelites on their exodus.

Exodus 12.3 says,

And granted, many of them rebelled later on,

but it's not a total rebellion by all of them.

It's never really clear on that, but I think we can infer

many of them probably remained faithful

and partook of the covenant as Zipporah did.

Another individual is Ruth.

She was a Moabite who joined in the covenant with God

and was part of Christ's lineage.

Ruth 1.4, Matthew 1.5-6.

And finally, and probably most notably, most famously

in the entire Old Testament,

is the city of Nineveh.

Repented and turned to God,

and their salvation in a broad sense

was confirmed by Christ himself, Matthew 12.41.

A great New Testament picture of these eunuchs and foreigners

who entered the covenant that God is speaking of

is found in Acts 8 with the Ethiopian eunuch.

The Ethiopian eunuch, who is both a foreigner

and obviously a eunuch,

was reading Isaiah 53, 7-8,

when Philip encountered him.

Of course, we all know the story.

Philip uses that text to preach to him about Christ,

forgiveness of sins,

and being made new and aright with God

by way of Christ, by way of the cross,

death, resurrection.

And that results in the Ethiopian repenting of his sin,

and Philip baptizes him in the name of the Father,

the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

This is just one of many fulfillments of Isaiah's prophecy

of the eunuchs and foreigners

who become God's people.

The Ethiopian eunuch came to God

by way of God's new covenant,

which includes the external sign of baptism.

So though there's some discontinuity

in the exact external signs,

there's much continuity in terms of

the meaning behind it,

the faith behind it.

It's all by faith.

And it's interesting, too,

because Deuteronomy 23, 1

forbids any eunuchs

from coming into the presence of Israel

and the Lord for worship.

But here, Isaiah speaks of an elimination

of that restriction.

It no longer bears.

It's not the same, right?

Now the eunuch is called to serve God

and be in right standing with him,

as is the foreigner.

So the eunuch should not be discouraged

that he is a dry tree,

as our text writes,

which is meaning unable to reproduce,

because God has made provision

for the eunuch to keep the Sabbath

and enter a covenant relationship with him.

The reminder of the Abrahamic covenant

means a lot of things,

but we cannot overlook

the missional aspect of it

as it is so, I think, critical to this text,

I think is central to this text in many ways.

Again, Genesis 22, 18 shows us that

God's plan for Abraham,

and by extension Israel,

has always been to bless the nations,

the foreigners, the eunuchs.

This means God has always intended to save

both Jews and Gentiles,

as it's been part of his predetermined plan.

God is about the work of drawing a people for himself

from every tribe, tongue, and nation,

Revelation 7, 9.

And Paul, the apostle,

confirms the good news of the Abrahamic covenant,

the gospel of it,

when he writes,

in the scripture,

foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith,

preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham,

saying,

In you shall all the nations be blessed.

So then, those who are of faith

are blessed along with Abraham,

the man of faith.

Galatians 3, 8 through 9.

And just a nice little verse here in the Old Testament,

I think somewhat captures this well,

beautifully,

is from Isaiah's contemporary,

Hosea.

We recorded the word of the Lord,

and declared,

and this is the Lord speaking,

I will have mercy on no mercy,

and I will say to not my people,

you are my people.

And he shall say,

you are my God.

Isaiah 2, 23.

And that's such a beautiful picture,

when you consider it,

because I'm just going off the faces here,

but I think everybody in here

is probably more Gentile than not.

And this means,

we too are grafted in,

we too are part of that blessing,

we too can be brought into that covenant.

This is news that should cause us to leap for joy,

we're not cut off from Israel,

but we are brought in by faith.

And a quick word of encouragement as well,

keep in mind the context.

So going back,

I mentioned Israel and Judah

are about to be dragged out,

away from the promised land,

away from the covenant land.

They're going to be Babylon's captives for their sin.

God's prophesying this through his prophets.

They're being punished for their injustice

and unrighteousness.

That's about to happen,

in just a short while.

And yet our text here is very encouraging.

It seems to be talking about people being gathered

on the holy hill,

which we'll come back to.

But meanwhile,

the Babylonians,

similar to the Assyrians,

they're thinking that they were mightier,

and that their gods were the true gods,

and that the Hebrew God,

our God,

Yahweh,

was weak.

They thought they were conquering Israel

because of their greatness,

their merit,

their things,

their whatever.

But they failed to recognize

that God was merely using them

as a tool

for his purposes,

namely,

the carrying out of Israel's punishment,

which was most fitting

for a couple reasons.

They were guilty of injustice,

as I've said so many times now,

and now their punishment

is that they will serve as slaves

in an unjust Babylonian society.

Another reason it's fitting

is that Israel failed to be

a blessing to the nations.

They failed to draw people in

and gather them

for worship,

as God had ordained.

But even now,

in the midst of their punishment

for their sin,

God is still accomplishing

his plan to gather people

for Israel to be a blessing

to the nations,

as they are now about

to be dragged out

to the nations

to proclaim the glory of God.

And two obvious examples of that

are Daniel and Esther,

and just consider the many ways

in which they glorified God

in pagan lands

among the nations.

So I'm mentioning all this to say

that regardless of what persecutions

we face,

regardless of what trials

or obstacles arise,

and even despite our own sin,

nothing will thwart

or oppose the plans of God.

Nothing's going to get in his way

of bringing the nations

to gather,

to worship.

So God is calling his people

to keep justice

and practice righteousness

while also reminding his people

that he is using each individual

to bring about multiplication,

that we should all be messengers

of his good news

and witness the expansion

of his kingdom

as free captives

from their sin.

But why?

To what end

is he doing this?

And this leads us

to our final section,

verses 6 through 8.

And I've subtitled this,

Those God Gathers

Will Worship.

Starting in verse 6 again,

And the foreigners

who join themselves

to the Lord

to minister to him

to love the name of the Lord

and to be his servants,

everyone who keeps the Sabbath

and does not profane it

and holds fast my covenant,

these I will bring

to my holy mountain

and make them joyful

in my house of prayer.

Their burnt offerings

and their sacrifices

will be accepted

on my altar.

My house shall be called

a house of prayer

for all peoples.

The Lord God

who gathers the outcasts

of Israel declares,

I will gather yet others

to him besides

those already gathered.

So the answer is clear.

God gathers his chosen

for the express purpose

of worship.

It is not enough

that they are gathered.

We know that God

gathers people out of Egypt

so that they would worship him,

Exodus 7, 16.

But as he was giving

the law to Moses

on Mount Sinai,

they gathered to rebel

by worshiping

the golden calf.

It's all Exodus 32.

In Matthew 21,

starting verse 12,

we see many gathered

at the temple,

but Jesus drives them out.

Why?

Because they are not

worshiping God rightly

in his house of prayer.

Further,

their actions were wretched

because this very house

was meant to be

a place of blessing

for all people

as they worshiped,

and yet the merchants

were using it

as a den of thieves

to rob people,

to bring oppression,

to serve injustice.

The same problem

we're seeing in Isaiah.

They completely inverted

God's expressed will

and desire

by their sinful rebellion.

Again,

it is not enough

that the people are gathered.

They must be gathered

to worship.

And Isaiah 56

makes it clear

that we are gathered

to serve God,

to love God,

to offer sacrifices,

prayers,

and offerings.

This is the language

of worship,

the language and actions

of one who has

truly denied himself,

picked up his cross,

and followed after Christ.

If you will,

turn with me real quickly

to John chapter 4,

John 4:20

verse 20.

This is the famous passage

in which Jesus

talks to the Samaritan woman

at the well.

Again,

I think there's a lot

of things going on here

that are striking

in comparison

with Isaiah 56.

Picking up in verse 20,

the Samaritan woman

is speaking,

and she says,

Our fathers worshipped

on this mountain,

but you,

referring to Christ,

but you say that

in Jerusalem

is the place

where people ought

to worship.

Verse 21,

Jesus said to her,

Woman,

believe me,

the hour is coming

when neither on this mountain

nor in Jerusalem

will you worship

the Father.

You worship

what you do not know.

We worship

what we know,

for salvation

is from the Jews.

But the hour is coming

and is now here

when the true worshippers

will worship the Father

in spirit and truth,

for the Father

is seeking such people

to worship him.

He's gathering them.

Verse 24,

God is spirit

and those who worship him

must worship

in spirit and truth.

The woman said to him,

I know that the Messiah

is coming,

he who is called Christ.

When he comes,

he will tell us

all things.

Jesus said to her,

I who speak to you

am he.

So a couple of observations.

In the new covenant,

the hill on which we worship

is irrelevant.

Neither on this mountain

nor in Jerusalem,

but we are able

to worship the Lord

everywhere

now that we are

indwelled by the Holy Spirit.

We also see

that Jesus,

as the Son of God,

echoes God the Father

in Isaiah 56

by clearly asserting

that he is saving people

for himself

to worship in spirit

and truth.

We must be active

about the work of obedience

and doctrinal purity

if we are to know

and worship God rightly.

It's all of 1 John.

We know we love him

if we keep his commands,

we keep his word,

we keep his law.

We have to know him.

And finally,

Jesus Christ

is God incarnate,

the Holy One of Israel,

whom we will worship

one gathered

for the marriage

of the church

and the Lamb of God.

Revelation 19,

Revelation 19:6

verse 6,

Then I heard

what seemed to be

the voice

of a great multitude,

like the roar

of many waters

and like the sound

of mighty pearls

of thunder,

crying out,

Hallelujah,

for the Lord our God,

the Almighty reigns.

Let us rejoice

and exalt,

and give him the glory,

for the marriage

of the Lamb has come,

and his bride

has made herself ready.

It was granted her

to clothe herself

with fine linen,

bright and pure,

for the fine linen

is the righteous deeds

of the saints.

And the angel said to me,

Write this,

Blessed are those

who are invited

to the marriage supper

of the Lamb.

And he said to me,

These are the true words

of God.

Then I,

this is John speaking,

Then I fell down

at his feet

to worship him,

but he said to me,

You must not do that.

I am a fellow servant

with you and your brothers

who hold to the testimony

of Jesus.

Worship God,

for the testimony

of Jesus

is the spirit

of prophecy.

The great multitude

being made up

of Jews

and Gentiles,

those whom God

has called,

they,

we,

will give him

the glory.

We will wear

fine linen

as we produce

righteous deeds

by faith,

and we will

be gathered

and worship

the Lord.

So just three

applications in closing.

We want to be about

the works of missions.

By prayer,

by giving,

by encouraging,

by serving.

We have many

in our church

that are senders

and we have many

in our church

that are goers.

Let's come alongside

them in whatever capacity

that we can

to serve the Lord.

And don't undermine prayer.

I think so often

people feel,

oh,

well,

I don't have

enough money

to give

or I don't have

the ability

or the means

or calling

or whatever

you want to call it

to go over

and do that work.

Well,

prayer is one

of the primary

motives in which

the church has grown

and you see it

throughout Acts.

And that's something

you can do

and it's free.

Right?

It's easy.

Let's be in prayer

about missions.

Let's be in prayer

for missionaries

and prayer

for the lost.

Second application,

let's take heart

in knowing

that nothing

can thwart

or stop

God's plan

of salvation

and restoration.

We do not have

to worry about

persecution,

poor political

candidates,

or anything

that might

seemingly be

in our way.

Obviously,

a lot of things

are going on

right now

in our country

and some good,

some bad,

and, you know,

we all have

our interpretations

of them,

but regardless

of what's happening,

regardless of how

many conspiracy

theories are true

or this or that,

it's irrelevant.

It's not going

to stop God.

It's not going

to thwart

his plans to gather.

It's not going

to stop him

from saving

those whom he's

called.

And three,

most importantly,

and I think

if we're doing

the first two

right,

it results

in doing

this third

one,

we want

to worship

the Lord.

We do this

by obeying

his word,

by keeping

justice,

practicing

righteousness,

by being salt

and light

to the earth,

a blessing

to it

and its

peoples.

We should

be thankful

as Gentiles,

foreigners to

Israel,

that God

has always

planned to

graft us

into his

salvific plan.

let's express

that thankfulness.

We should be

thankful that

he is a just

and righteous

God who we

can trust.

And we are

going to an

eternal kingdom

where there will

be no injustice,

oppression,

wrongdoing,

or any evil

of any kind.

We're not going

to worry about

voter fraud

or any kind

of other

worldly thing.

In everything

we do,

we are going

to glorify God.

Everything

falls under

that umbrella

and there

is no

substitute

for it.

Without

it,

missions,

salvation,

and everything

becomes meaningless.

We are

saved for the

purpose of

worship and

we go on

mission and

support missions

for the sake

of gathering

God's people

on his holy

hill for

worship.

So let's go

to the Lord

now in prayer

and let's

worship him.