Let us turn again to God's Word
and turning to the passage that we were considering a couple
of weeks ago, the end of Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 66. And I want to read this morning
from verse 21 through 23. Isaiah 66, reading verses 21,
22, and 23. And I will take of them for priests
and for Levites, saith the Lord. For as the new heavens and the
new earth which I will make shall remain before me, saith the Lord,
so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to
pass that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath
to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the
Lord. continuing then in these closing
few verses of the prophecy of Isaiah and we've been considering
the words from verse 19 following the statement there at the beginning
of that 19th verse I will set a sign among them was where we
commenced that sign or that end sign, the gospel that was to
go out to the ends of the earth. The end of that 19th verse, they
shall declare my glory among the Gentiles. Now the gospel
banner then was to be taken out to all the nations of the earth. And so, as I've said, these closing
verses really speak of two principal things. There's the rejection
of Israel, their religion was so formal, so unspiritual, but
at the same time the gracious work that God will accomplish
amongst the nations of the earth, even Gentiles. We can go back
to chapter 65, And there in the opening verses, I am sought of
them that ask not for me. I am found of them that sought
me not. That's the Gentiles. I said,
behold me, behold me unto a nation that was not called by my name.
I have spread out my hands all the day unto a rebellious people
which walked in a way that was not good after their own thoughts. That's Israel. So the rejection
as it were, of Israel. When Christ comes, He comes to
His own. They receive Him not. They refuse to have this man
to rule over them. There's only a very small remnant
in Israel who are looking for the appearance of Christ as He
appears there in the opening chapters of Luke's Gospel in
particular. But the great promise in this
Gospel book that there will be salvation for sinners of every
nation of the earth. Well, last time we were actually
looking at the verses 21 and 22, and I sought to say something
then of the breadth of the Gospel. What we read, for example, in
verse 21 concerning these Gentiles, I will also take of them for
priests and for Levites, saith the Lord." We know that under
the Old Testament it was only one tribe. Of all the tribes
of Israel, all the sons of Jacob It was just one, Levi, and the
Levites who were to serve God in and about the tabernacle.
We see that in the opening chapter of Numbers, Numbers 1 and verse
15. The Levites had no land allotted
to them in the promised land, but they were to serve God in
and about the tabernacle. and provision was to be made
for them by the other tribes. But then also, with regards to
the tribe of Levi, only one family, Aaron, and his sons were to serve
in the priesthood. That's stated quite clearly in
the opening words of Exodus chapter 28. But how different it is when
we come to the New Testament. And here is the promise there
in verse 21, concerning these Gentiles to whom the gospel is
to go, I will also take of them, says God, for priests and for
Levites. And so it is. Christ, of course,
is the great High Priest forever after the order of Melchizedek
and a different order of priesthood, He was of the tribe of Judah.
He was not of the tribe of Levi. There's a change in the priesthood.
But also, all those who are the disciples of Christ, the followers
of Christ, they are a kingdom of priests. We believe in that,
the priesthood of all believers. And there in Revelation 5 and
verses 9 and 10, we read of that kingdom, the kingdom of God,
the kingdom of priests. Peter speaks of a holy priesthood
to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. And so out of all these nations
we have those spoken of in the 21st verse, priests and Levites
to serve the Lord. And also, of course, it's from
those Gentile nations that we have the ministry of the Word
of God, the proclamation of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Under law, it was the priest from one tribe in Israel who
were to serve God, but now under the Gospel, converted Gentiles,
minister holy things. And this is the way in which
Isaac Watts is bringing out the truth of that 132nd Psalm. In that paraphrase that we were
just singing, 365, concerning the New Testament Church, verse
3, "...here will I fix my gracious throne and reign forever." says
the Lord. Here shall my power and love
be known, and blessings shall attend my work. And then at verse
5, girded with truth and full of grace, my priests, my ministers
shall shine, not Aaron in his costly dress, made an appearance
so divine. Even those who are converted
sinners from amongst the Gentiles are called into that work of
the proclamation of the gospel of the grace of God. And as there
was to be a set ministry under the gospel, so also there is
a set worship. And it's that worship, New Testament
worship, that I want to try to say something of this morning
as we turn now in particular to the words at verse 23. Here
is our text then, Isaiah 66, 23, It shall come to pass that
from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another,
shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord. The worship of the New Testament. It is a constant worship, it
is a settled worship through all the day of grace. Whereas in the Old Testament,
of course, God's concern was principally with one nation,
even with the children of Israel. you only have I known of all
the families of the earth he says and then the language that
we have at the end of the 147th psalm the last two verses of that psalm
he showeth his word unto Jacob his statutes and his judgments
unto Israel he hath not doubt so with any nation and as for
his judgments they have not known them Praise ye the Lord." But
how different now under the Gospel. The Lord Jesus says concerning
all men that men ought always to pray and not to fail. But what of the worship that
is to be offered by the Church under the New Testament? Well,
believers are in no way bound to the Jewish Sabbaths and all
their various observances associated with the keeping of their special
days. And this is brought out quite
clearly by the Apostle when he writes in his various epistles.
As you know, in Galatians Paul is dealing especially with those
who wanted to make Gentiles as if they were Jews. They were
to submit to the right of circumcision. And Paul says if you circumcise
your debts is to the whole law. He deals with his legalistic
spirit that was so evident. But what does he say there in
Galatians 4 and verse 9 following? He says In verse 9, Now after
that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, I will turn
ye again to the weak and beggary elements, whereunto ye desire
again to be in bondage. Ye have days, and months, and
times, and years. I am afraid of you, lest I have
bestowed upon you labour in vain. They're not bound by all those
regulations by which the The Jews were bound in the Old Testament
under the Lord of Moses. But not just to the Galatians,
we find something similar when he writes to the church of Colossae
in Colossians chapter 2 and verse 16. He says, Let no man therefore
judge you in meat or in drink, or in respect of the holy day,
or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days, which are a shadow
of things to come, but the body is of Christ." Believers are
not under these various rules and regulations of the Old Testament. But however, we're not to think
that therefore God does not require men to worship him at stated
times and in a set fashion. We'd be really wrong if we were
to jump to such a conclusion. There's a sense in which we have
to recognize that under the gospel, worship is even more extensive
than was the case under the Old Testament. more extensive with
regards to time. As we've already intimated under
the Law, there were various days, there were Sabbaths, there were
monthly new moons, and so many other feasts. But there were
only three times a year when we actually read of the children
of Israel coming before the Lord. And that is a very significant
matter, really. Just three times in the year
they were specifically commanded to come before the Lord. In Deuteronomy 16 and verse 16,
the three great feasts that all the men were to attend in the
tabernacle, and then subsequently in the temple were the feasts
of Passover, and the Pentecost, or weeks, and of tabernacles
however here in verse 23 of Isaiah 66 our text this morning we see
they were to come before the Lord much more frequently the
significant words here you see are those words before Mary It
shall come to pass that from one new moon to another, and
from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship
before me." See, if the Lord, the contrast is being drawn with
those words that we have back in Deuteronomy 16, 16. We're
on just three occasions. The men were under solemn obligation
to come before the Lord to the place that He had chosen. It
was first of all at Shiloh when they came into the promised land
where the tabernacle was set up, and then subsequently the
days of David it was to be Manzion in Jerusalem. But under the gospel,
it's not just three times a year. Interestingly, what is mentioned
here in the text are the two most frequent feasts that the
Jews observed. Of course, the all-important
feast was the weekly Sabbath day. That was the first of all
their feasts. Back in Leviticus 23, we have
mention of the various feasts that were to be observed by the
Jews. And at the beginning of that
chapter, we find the first of the feasts was the weekly Sabbath. The Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
Speak unto the children of Israel, say unto them concerning the
feast of the Lord, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations. Even these are my feasts, six
days shall work be done, but the seventh day is the Sabbath
of rest and holy convocation. Ye shall do no work therein.
It is the Sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings. And then
In that chapter we have mention of various other feasts that
they were also to observe. But the first of all their feast
was to be the keeping of the Sabbath. But then also they were
to mark every new moon with the blowing of trumpets. And we see
that for example in the book of Numbers, Numbers 29. So, not
just a regular week by week Sabbath, but also every new moon there
was to be a solemn blowing of the trumpets and another holy
day kept to the Lord. Those were the most frequent
of all their feasts. They had other feasts that they
were to observe, but they were only annual feasts. And of course
those three great feasts Passover and Pentecost and Weeks. Now of course we have to recognize
that the weekly Sabbath day was not a Jewish ordinance, it was
really a creation ordinance. You're aware, I'm sure, aren't
you, that we see that quite clearly at the beginning of Scripture,
after the six days of creation, recorded there in Genesis chapter
1. When we come to the second chapter,
we read in the beginning of that chapter how on the seventh day
the Lord God rested from all His works which He had made,
and He sanctified the seventh day, and it became, of course,
a Sabbath day. And then when It is mentioned
in the Law of Moses, in the fourth commandment, they are simply
to remember it. It wasn't something new or novel
in any sense. It was something they must have
been familiar with previously. They were to remember the Sabbath
day. But we know when we come to the New Testament how, as
we work through the Acts of the Apostles, we see that the early
disciples began to observe a different day, the first day of the week.
For example, there in Acts chapter 20 in verse 7, we find Paul at
trial, and we read how on the first day of the week the disciples
came together to break bread. It seems that that was the pattern
they observed that day. It was, of course, the day upon
which the Lord Jesus had risen again from the dead And now the
Lord himself appears of course on that first day to them to
prove the truth of his resurrection but then on the following first
day of the week we see him appearing again whereas Thomas was not
present on that first occasion, Thomas is present a week later. And so it begins with the Lord
Jesus and it works through the Acts of the Apostles and when
we come to the end of the Scriptures in the book of the Revelation
we find John the Divine in the Spirit on the Lord's Day. And so this is the day that is
observed by New Testament believers. They are not to forsake the assembling
of themselves together, we're told in Hebrews 10, as the manner
of some is. There is to be that weekly observance
of the Lord's day, a keeping in that sense of a Sabbath. And of course, here in Isaiah's
book in chapter 58, we have those remarkable words really, God's
promise concerning the proper observing, of the Sabbath day. Verse 13, If thou turn away thy
foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day,
and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable,
and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine
own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words, then shalt thou delight
thyself in the Lord, and I will cause you to ride upon the high
places of the earth and feed you with the heritage of Jacob,
thy father, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." The
Lord is Deter De Noma as his people are obedient to his precepts
so he favours them and blesses them with his promises. So we
see how that Here in the text, there is still to be the stated
worship of God, but it is something far more frequent than was the
case really under the Old Testament dispensations. It was only three
times a year that we read of the men coming together for the
worship of God coming before the Lord. but here we see that
it is from one Sabbath to another all flesh coming to worship before
me says the Lord furthermore the great extent of this worship
is indicated when we remember back in Deuteronomy 16.16 it
was only the males it was only the menfolk who were to make
that journey from every part of the promised land to the place
where God had established his worship, be it the tabernacle
or be it subsequently the temple of the Lord. Reading the words there then
in that verse, Deuteronomy 16, 16, three times in a year, shall
all thy males appear before the Lord thy God in the place which
ye shall choose, in the Feast of Unleavened Bread, Passover,
in the Feast of Weeks, Pentecost, and in the Feast of Tabernacles,
and they shall not appear before the Lord empty. Every man shall
give as he is able according to the blessing of the Lord thy
God which he hath given thee." But it's only the man, it's only
the male. But what do we read here in this text this morning? It's all flesh. It's all flesh. It shall come
to pass that from one new moon to another, from one Sabbath
to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the
Lord. This expression, before me, remember
the significance of them going To those great feasts in the
Old Testament, God's special presence was there in the Holy
of Holies. His promise back in Exodus 25
was that he would meet and commune with his people there at the
Mercy Seat. that covering that was upon the
top of the Ark of the Covenant it was God's throne God's seat
and there he would dwell and there he would commune with the
children of Israel and of course it was only the it was only the high priest who
could ever enter into that place and he could only enter there
once a year on the great day of atonement. But now you see
we have all flesh coming to worship before the Lord week by week. All, all are to worship God. All are on an obligation to worship
God. All flesh. that doesn't exclude
anyone. All those whom the Lord has created
are to worship Him. And yet we know the truth that
unbelievers are evidently unable to worship God. How can carnal
men worship God? God is a spirit. We read those
words, didn't we? In John 4, God is a spirit, the
true worshippers worship the Father in spirit and in truth. So how can those who are dead
in trespasses and sins offer worship that is pleasing and
acceptable to God? It's an impossibility. And yet,
It's what God requires of man, because when God created man,
he was not in a flawed and sinful condition. He was responsible for the state
that man is in. God is not the author of sin.
As solemn it is, men have an obligation
to do a thing, and yet, spiritually they are unable to do what God
requires of them. They have to remember the Sabbath
day. There's a sense, isn't there,
in which all are still under the law of God. Isn't that what
we're told back in Romans chapter 3? What thing soever the law
saith, it saith to them who are under the law. All men are under
the law. That every mouth may be stopped,
and all the world become guilty before God. they cannot do the
thing that God requires of them that is the solemn truth of scripture
but that of course is part and parcel of the ministry of the
law to show men what they are and where they are and how the
spirit uses that law to bring conviction into the soul by the
law is the knowledge of sin and so men begin to feel increasingly
that Once God has awakened them in their souls, they recognize
their incapacity, their inability, their impotence. They're not spiritual. They need
the Spirit of God. They have to cry to God for mercy. That God would grant that gracious
help and enabling that comes only by His Spirit. That He might
come to them as the Spirit of Christ and work that salvation
in their soul. But here you see we're reading
about worship that is to be, in a true sense, a universal
worship. And so we see how the whole world
clearly lies in wickedness, because men do not worship God, they
do not observe that day that the Lord Himself has set apart
and sanctified. You know, even today, the multitudes,
they go about their business, they engage in their pleasures,
they do all that pleases themselves, and feel as if they're not subject
to any Lord of God. But this is what we have here
in the text, you see. There is that set time for the
worship of God, and it's that that is required of all men. The coming to that expression
in the text, worship before me. Does he not remind us how solemn
a thing it is to come before God, to come before God's special presence, that the Lord
is there in the midst of all his people. There's a more solemn
responsibility in a sense under the gospel than was ever the
case under the Lord of God. Maybe that's hard for us to comprehend
in some measure. We think, well, how could that
be? The gospel is grace. The Lord
is condemnation. But I think of the contrast that
the Apostle makes when he writes there in Hebrews chapter 12.
He draws a contrast, doesn't he, between coming to Mount Sinai
and coming to Mount Zion. You're familiar, I'm sure, with
the passage there in chapter 12 at verse 22. This is what
it means to come to Mount Zion the City of the Living God, the
Heavenly Jerusalem, an innumerable company of angels, the General
Assembly and Church of the Firstborn which are written in heaven,
and to God the Judge of all, and to the Spirit of just men
made perfect, and to Jesus, the Mediator of the New Covenant,
and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than
that of Abel, far more glorious than anything
that was ever known under the Old Testament. And so, the implication
of it all. What does the Apostle say, verse
25, see, that ye refuse not him that speaketh, for if they escape
not to a refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not
we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven. whose voice then shook the earth,
but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the
earth only, but also heaven." It is a solemn thing then for
us to gather together and to seek to worship this great God. And the Lord Jesus spells that
out, as we've already said in the passage that we were reading,
there in John chapter 4 he is speaking to that Samaritan woman
and as we see there was really no contact between Jew and Samaritan
Samaritans were principally made up of those of the 10 tribes
Although the tribes were scattered, there were others that had intermarried
with other nations. There they were in the north
of Israel and how the Jews despised them. And the Samaritans imagined
that they themselves worshipped God in an acceptable manner.
This is the conversation the Lord has with the woman. In verse 20, He says, Our fathers
worshipped in this mountain. And ye, that is, you Jews, say
that in Jerusalem is a place where men ought to worship. Jesus said unto a woman, Believe
me, the hour cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain, in
Samaria, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. Ye worship
ye know not what. You see there, the Samaritan
religion had become so intermingled with the ideas from all the other
gentile nations with whom they'd married you know you worship
you know not what we know what we worship for salvation is of
the Jews but the hour cometh and now is when the true worshippers
shall worship the father in spirit and in truth for the father seeketh
such to worship Him. God is a spirit and they that
worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. Our believers then are to worship
in spirit. It's a spiritual worship. But
it's also that that is governed by the truth. It's governed of
course by the Word of God. And we do well to take account
of the various parts of what our worship should be. Surely
there is to be praise when we come together. But all things
are to be done in a proper manner, in an orderly fashion. And you
know how the Apostle Paul has to deal with these matters when
he's writing to the Corinthian church, a church that was very
greatly gifted. There were remarkable gifts in
that church. But there was also great abuse
of those gifts. And it seems there was a good
measure of disorder amongst them. Paul tells them God is not the
author of confusion or tumult. There was much tumult when they
came together. All things, he says, are to be
done decently and in order. There were such gifts they would
all come to the services of God's house and they would seek to
exercise whatever particular gift they had. Though Paul has
to speak to them, there in 1 Corinthians 14, 26 for example. He says,
how is it? Every one of you has a psalm.
He would come and they'd want to sing a particular psalm. But
what does Paul say? Let all things be done unto Ediphi. It seems that there was that
desire to make a display of their gifts in the worship of God.
Paul is very severe in the way in which he deals with them.
God is not the author of two months. No confusion where the
Spirit of the Lord is. There is also that truth that
will govern the worship. Isn't that what the Lord himself
is saying to that woman in John 4? The true worshippers. Yes,
their worship is spiritual worship, but it's also According to God's
truth, it's ruled and regulated by what God Himself says concerning
His worship here in His Word. But there will be prizes when
God's people come before Him in worship. The principal part,
of course, of our worship really is prayer. It's interesting when
we go back to the beginning of Scripture, after the entrance
of sin after the fall of our first parents Adam and Eve and
then of course we read of Cain killing his brother Abel we know
that there were other sons and daughters born to Adam and Eve
and then we read of Seth and Seth has a son called Enos and
there in Genesis 4 and verses 25 and 26 we read of the results of the
birth of Enos and there's an interesting statement it says
then began men to call upon the name of the Lord then began men
to call upon the name of the Lord well when sin came what
confusion it brought but God was merciful this man Enos is
born and men are now beginning again to call upon God's name.
And what is it to call upon God's name? Well, we do it in worship,
of course, but the principal part of our worship, then, is
when we speak to God very directly, in prayer. These are the parts of our worship.
We come together to praise God, we show forth His praises, we
exhort one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,
as Paul says to the Ephesians but we also address to him our
prayers we unite before the throne of Christ you see there's a reason
for that order that we do seek to observe when we come together
for worship and prayer I say is a significant
aspect but how careful we have to be Now, the preacher in Ecclesiastes
very much reminds us of these things. You know the passage
there in the beginning of chapter 5. Keep thy foot when thou goest
to the house of God, and be more ready to hear than to give the
sacrifice of bulls. For they consider not that they
do evil. Be not rash with thy mouth, and
let not thine heart be hasty towards anything before God for
God is in heaven and thou upon earth therefore let thy words
be few or what can we say words fail
us sometimes when we come before God we stand in awe before Him
and yet we know that prayer is God's ordinance He invites us
to pray, to take with us words in the language of Hosea, to
take with us words and to say, take away all iniquity and receive
us graciously. And He has made provision for
us to pray. We have one as our Advocate in
heaven, the Lord Jesus. Though His priestly work is finished
here upon the earth, He's made the great sacrifice, the sin-atoning
sacrifice, but now He has entered beyond the veil, heaven itself,
where he ever lives, to make intercession. And we're to make
use of his intercession, we're to plead in his name. And as there is praise and prayer,
so there is also, of course, very much the centrality of the
Word of God. Why is the Word of God so prominent
in our service of worship? Why does the pulpit have the
chief place as we gather? Because it's from the pulpit
that the Word comes. There's the reading of the Word,
and there's the preaching of the Word. In those pastoral epistles
where the Apostle Paul is giving instruction to those young men,
Timothy and Titus, concerning the work of the ministry, He
makes an interesting statement in 1 Timothy 4.13, giving some
direction to young Timothy. Till I come, he says, give attendance
to reading, to exhortation, and to doctrine. What does he mean? Give attendance to reading, exhortation,
doctrine, more literally teaching, is the word that he's used there.
is speaking of the public exercise of the ministry. In his exercise
of his ministry, what is Timothy to do? He's to read the Word
in the public place. It's the public reading of the
Word. He's to exhort the people from the Word of God. He's to
teach the people the doctrines of the Word of God. That's the
context that we have there. It's the importance of the word.
It's no mere accidental thing then that in our chapels amongst
the non-conformists historically there was that emphasis upon
the centrality of God's words, the reading of it, and the opening
up of that word. And of course we know that this
is how the Lord God is pleased to work. He has ordained preaching
as one of the principal means of grace. You know that passage
in Romans 10. We've referred to it many times
previously. Romans 10. Verse 13. Whosoever shall call
upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. And then the question,
how then shall they call on Him? in whom they have not believed.
And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard?
And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they
preach except they be sent as it is written? How beautiful
upon the mountains are the feet of them that preach the gospel
of peace and bring glad tidings of good things. But they have
not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah saith the Lord who
hath believed our report, so then faith cometh by hearing,
and hearing by the word of God. Paul is making it so clear the
importance of that word of God, the opening up of the Word. He
pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that
were saved. says the same apostle to the
Corinthians. All God's good pleasure to bless
the proclamation then of His own Word. And of course, in this
chapter we have those words addressed to those who would reverence
the Word of God. Back in verse 2, God says, To
this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite
spirit, and trembleth. at my word." Again at verse 5,
Hear the word of the Lord, ye that tremble at his word. How
we are to reverence the sacred pages and to submit to the authority
of God's word. And that's to govern all of our
worship. As we have it here in the text,
it shall come to pass that from one new moon to another, from
one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before
me, saith the Lord." Surely the Lord Christ himself is mindful
of these words even as he converses with that Samaritan woman concerning
the true and proper worship of God in this day of grace, the
true worshippers. They worship the Father in spirit
and in truth. The Father seeketh such to worship
Him. Or might it be our desire then
to worship God and to worship Him always in accordance with
those things that He has revealed to us, here in His Word, to do
the thing that is pleasing in His sight. Not well-worship,
not what we think is nice and pleasing and acceptable, that
makes worship exciting for us, but that that reminds us always
of the solemnity of what it means to come before the Lord God.
It's a worshiping before me, saith the Lord." May the Lord
be pleased to bless His word to us this morning. Let us, as
we come to a close, sing our final praise in the hymn 789. We're going to omit verse 6.
Omitting verse 6, 789, the tune Holy Warfare 471. O ye sons of men, be wise. Trust
no longer dreams and lies. Out of Christ's almighty power
can do nothing but devour. Worship God, then, in his Son. There he's loved, and there alone
think not that he will or may pardon any other way. 789, we're omitting verse 6,
and the tune is 471.