All right, brethren, let's turn to Isaiah chapter 58. We'll ask the Lord to bless us. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you that you've assembled us here this morning. We trust it is by your hand, according to your will. Lord, we pray that our hearts are truly right this morning that we are here to hear your word and to believe on your son and do as you command in your word. Help us, Lord, to truly worship you now. Forgive us our sins and our unbelief and our complete failings and receive us by your free grace in Christ Jesus alone. It's in his name we ask it, amen. Now in verse one, the Lord says, cry aloud Spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, show my people their transgression and the house of Jacob their sins.

Now this is God's charge to his preacher, to show my people their sins and their transgressions. Now, when you hear that, you would think, well, maybe these people were in some very immoral sin and they need to be corrected. But that was not what the case was. It was their religion that was their sin.

He says in verse two, yet they seek me daily and delight to know my ways as a nation that did righteousness and forsook not the ordinance of their God. They ask of me the ordinances of justice. They take delight in approaching to God. They sought God daily. They appeared that they delighted to know God's ways. They appeared to be a people that did righteousness.

But they have forsaken the ordinance of God. You see that singular? And then there's another word there that says ordinance that's in the plural. That word that's in the plural involves all the laws of God, all the ordinances. But the one ordinance that they have forsaken is faith in God. in the Lord.

See, all the law, all the ordinances, Christ came and fulfilled for His people. And the one ordinance that we preach is the gospel of Christ declaring He is the righteousness and holiness of His people. And when God gives faith, we believe on Him, and He has fulfilled all the ordinances for His people, and God imputes His righteousness to us. So you can try to do all the laws and keep all the ordinances of God, and it will not profit. Because we can't do those ordinances, we can't keep that law. We have to trust Christ.

Now, in order to understand this passage, we're gonna have to understand that Christ is the one typified in the Sabbath day. Because this is what we're primarily dealing with here, is what they were doing on the Sabbath day. So you have a people here that were doing many works on the Sabbath day that they thought pleased God, but it's not at all what pleased God. And it's a picture of sinners who are religious, who claim to trust Christ, but they're really trying to work for their salvation. And it's superficial, their religion is superficial. because they're looking to their works and what they do, and complaining that God doesn't hear and acknowledge them.

So we're gonna have to know that Christ is the Sabbath. He says in 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, honorable, that's Christ. Christ is the Sabbath of the Lord.

He's our rest. And we can't believe on Christ and do our pleasure. We can't believe on Christ and try to do the works of the law ourselves and expect it's partly by us and partly by Him. We have to believe on Him and rest in Christ and trust He is our acceptance.

He's the Holy One of the Lord. He's the delight of the Lord, he's the honorable one before the Lord, before God, and we have to be found in him. He says, call the Sabbath of the light, the holy of the Lord, honorable, and shalt honor him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words, then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord.

So first thing we have to see, Christ is represented here by the Sabbath. We're looking at this now with New Testament eyes. They're speaking in Old Testament language here in Isaiah, but we're looking at it now that Christ has come, seeing Christ is the one pictured by the Sabbath. Go to Colossians 2 and I'll show you, Colossians 2.

Verse 16, Colossians 2.16, let no man therefore judge you.

He just said Christ came, look at verse 14. Christ blotted out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross. And he spoiled principalities and powers, triumphed over them, Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of a holy day, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath, which are a shadow of things to come, but the body is Christ. That means they all pictured Christ, but now he's come, and Christ is the fulfillment of those things.

He's the Sabbath. So verse 20 says, if you be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, the elements, the ordinances in the law, why, as though living in the world, are you subject to ordinances? Touch not, taste not, handle not, which are all to perish with the using after the commandments and doctrines of men. Those things have a show of wisdom, they're all Superficial show in will worship and false humility and neglecting of the body But they're not in any honor to God and they don't satisfy the flesh either the flesh just loves to do works instead of trusting Christ and And that's it satisfies the flesh But it doesn't satisfy God doesn't honor God and he says set your affection on Christ only Christ above So so what I'm saying to you Christ is our rest.

Christ fulfilled the law, and so the Lord's people rest in him. That's what the Sabbath day pictured. Brother Don used to point out, if you look at the Ten Commandments, right in the middle you have the Sabbath day. And so the first table honoring God and the second table honoring man is all fulfilled in Christ the Sabbath. And he says, come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden for trying to work your way to God. Come to me, I will give you rest.

That's what the Sabbath typified. And if you look at the picture of the Sabbath, the Sabbath was a Saturday. And God would give them enough on Friday to last all the way through Saturday, all the way to Sunday. Well, Christ came and laid down his life on a Friday, satisfied all the law for his people, and provided us not only rest for a day, but rest for eternity by what he did.

And so we rest, we come to him, we rest in him, and we find rest for our souls. There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that is entered into his rest has ceased from his own works, just like God did from his. When God rested After he created the world and he rested on the seventh day, he didn't rest because he was tired, he rested because the works were finished. And when Christ entered glory and sat down, he sat down because the works are finished. And when he brings you to know him and believe him, we rest in him and cease from our works of trying to come to God by our works. So this is the context to what was happening here. Now let's look at the offense.

Back in Isaiah 58, verse three, Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not? Wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge? God says, Behold, in the day of your fast you find pleasure, and exact all your labors. Now most everybody in Israel was observing a Sabbath day. During Isaiah's day, they were observing a day. But they didn't believe on Christ. And they fasted on that day, which God didn't command them to fast on that day, they did that on their own. But they considered themselves to be doing some great sacrifice by which God ought to receive them and acknowledge them, because they were doing it. And so they're complaining, we fasted, we've afflicted ourselves, we're doing all this for you and you don't acknowledge it.

You know, if we did keep the law, God says we just did what we should have done. If we could keep the law, all we've done is what we should have done. That doesn't mean God ought to give us something for just doing what we should have done. But then you have the fact that we don't keep the law. There's not only sins that we commit, there's things that we are to do that we don't do.

But here's what God says about what they were doing. He said, you find pleasure and exact all your labors. You exact all your labors. We have God's description here of what they were doing, verse three. He says, behold, in the day of your fast, you find pleasure, you exact all your labors. It was not God's fast. God never required that on that day. He says, it's your fast.

We're worshipers, add their works. They add traditions. And even when a man takes the Ten Commandments and teaches sinners, they come to God by keeping the Ten Commandments. They've turned the Ten Commandments into the commandment of a man because that's not what they were given for.

They were given to tell us we're guilty, shut our mouths so that we have to have Christ. but a little leaven leavens the whole lump. You have one that starts bringing in some tradition, then it goes to another and another and another. Next thing you know, everybody that that leaven is spread to just gets more puffed up in pride, puffed up in pride, just like leaven leavens bread. A little leaven leavens the whole lump, the whole congregation.

God says, and you exact all your labors. They were keeping a tally of all their works. They were keeping count of everything they did that God ought to be acknowledging them for, and inspecting others, and being critical of others that weren't doing. You know what the Pharisee prayed in the parable our Lord gave. I fast twice in a week, I do all these things, and I'm not like this man. Those two things always go together when somebody thinks they're righteous by their works. They add up what they do, and then they discredit somebody else for what somebody else doesn't do. When God gives you faith in Christ, you see you've never done one thing pleasing in yourself. You see your sin. And you know you have to have Christ for all. And that's where you find your rest, in Him.

But they would check up on others, and they would try to discipline others into obedience. He says in verse four, behold you fast for strife and debate and to smite with the fist of wickedness. You shall not fast as you do this day to make your voice to be heard on high. This is what all superficial works religion involves. He said you're doing all these works for strife and debate and you're smiting others with the fist of wickedness.

When Christ settles you on him in the heart, by his power, he makes you know that he has the power to discipline his children. He has the power and the ability through the gospel to bring his child into the obedience of faith to trust him. You know it because you experienced that power through the gospel.

So you stop trying to make other people do something. You don't have to go around trying to get the numbers So when you all gang up on somebody, you know Christ is in the midst of his people. He's teaching his people. He's doing it through the preaching that exalts him. And you've experienced it yourself, so you know he's able to do that. You don't have to try to do that to anybody.

That's so when you've experienced the grace of God. Look at 2 Corinthians 4. That's exactly what Paul declared I've shown you this, he said in chapter 3, he turned us from the glory of the old covenant to the glory of the new covenant. And the Spirit of the Lord did that. And he made you have liberty. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there's liberty. And so here's the result of that. Verse 5, 2 Corinthians 4, 5, he says, we preach not ourselves. but Christ Jesus the Lord and ourselves, your servants for Christ's sake.

What brought him to that? What made him stop preaching man and man's works and preach Christ and trust Christ to bless it? What made him, what made him know that Christ could do that? For God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. See, that's how he knew to just preach Christ. Quit using the, earlier in the chapter he said, we're not using those vain methods and trying to be cunning and crafty anymore. That's what's going on when men don't just preach Christ and they try to use excellency of words to take the offense out and get people to do what they want them to do. It's a great rest just to be able to proclaim the truth of what the scriptures say. and trust the Lord's gonna bless it.

Because you've experienced, you know he can. You know he has power to do it. He disciplines his people, not us. But he said in our text, he said, he told them what you're doing, you're doing to make your voice to be heard on high. You're wanting glory for working this in other people, rather than Christ getting that glory.

You know, Galatians 6.12, Paul said, As many as desire to make a fair show in the flesh, they constrain you to do this or that or the other, lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. He said, but those that are telling you to keep the law, they don't keep the law themselves. And he says, they desire to have you circumcised that they may glory in your flesh, that they may make their voice to be heard on high.

Look what we made these folks do. And Paul said, but God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of Christ by whom the world's crucified to me and I unto the world. I look back there in Isaiah 58, look at verse five. God calls it all vanity. He said, is it such a fast that I have chosen?

Now, when he says a fast, he's calling it that because that's what they were calling the Sabbath, because that's what they did on the Sabbath. You know, he told them he'd provide them food, and he did. They didn't have to fast. But they're fasting like they're doing without, because they're resting that day. They turn the rest of God into a work.

And he said, this is not what I've chosen. A day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head as a bull rush and spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Would thou call this a fast and an acceptable day to the Lord? That's not what God commanded them to do. And most of what's going on, all of what's going on in will worship and works religion, it's not what God commanded at all.

What you see, really don't pay any attention to the traditions of men and religion because man's religion is wrong. It doesn't matter if he calls it worshiping Christ or not, it's wrong. When I hear somebody, especially if I hear somebody that came out of a congregation that they said was preaching a false gospel, and then they try to later use that congregation and something that happened as an example of what God's people ought to be doing, no, everything about it's wrong. If you can't sit under it because it's false, then don't use it as an example of anything good, nothing good about it.

And that's what God said. None of this was what God commanded. Now he's gonna say what his true Sabbath is. Now here's where we're gonna see Christ because everything he says here is what Christ has done for his people. It's what God our Father in his Son has done for us. Now watch it, verse six. that you break every yoke by the Lord Jesus Christ fulfilling the law for his people.

He took the yoke off of us. He took the heavy oppression of the curse of the law and all the 600 plus commandments of the law. He took it all off of us and said, trust me and I'm carrying you. I'm carrying you to glory robed in my righteousness. that can never be undone. You see why that's rest? That's rest. He took the bands off of us. Christ delivered us from the curse by being made a curse for his people.

He says in verse seven, is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry? We're the hungry. God's people that he saves, we're the hungry. Every sinner is starved. Every sinner's dead in sin. But his people are the hungry, and God has given us the true bread from heaven.

He gave his son. And the Lord Jesus laid down his life and gave us the bread. He said that in John. He said, I'm the true bread. My father gave you the true bread. That's what was pictured in the manna that God gave. And he said, unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no life in you. Meaning, the only way to come to God is faith in Christ. And then verse seven, God says, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house. We're the poor bankrupt sinner. That's what we are, the poor.

And what did Christ do? He came to us and saved us and brought us to his house. He brought us into his house where he's assembled his church where we're fed the gospel constantly. That's what he did for us. You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that you through his poverty might be made rich. We were the poor, he became poor, went to the cross on our behalf, satisfied God to make us rich in his grace.

Verse seven, he said, and when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him. He came to us, he brought us to his house, and he made us see all our fig leaves did not cover. They left us naked. All our works never covered us, and he covered us. He gave us his garment, his righteousness, and made us righteous in him. He says, verse seven, that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh.

Now, I wanna illustrate this. Hide not yourself from your own flesh. If a man sees a brother in sin and he doesn't preach Christ to him, if he comes to him with the law and condemns him, if he, you know, they bring you up before the church and condemn you, all the stuff they do, that's hiding yourself from your brother. That's what that is. Because you're not giving them what they need.

But I'll illustrate it from scripture. You remember the parable of the good Samaritan? We are the one in the ditch. All God's elect are the one in the ditch. We were robbed and left for dead. We had nothing. All was taken from us and out of, and we're in the ditch and we're dead in sins and no way to save ourselves.

Well, here comes a Levite and a priest. The Levite represents the law. The priest represents religion. and they pass by on the other side, they wouldn't go near that man. That represents the law can't help you and religion can't help you. But it's a good example of somebody hiding themselves from their own flesh, not going to help, just passing you by. But the Samaritan was hated of the Levite and the priest. That's Christ. Christ is hated of this world, despised and rejected of men, especially in false religion.

And he came to the man in the ditch. He came to his people, and he didn't hide himself from us. He brought us out of the ditch. He put us on his beast, the gospel, the power of God and the salvation, and carried us to the inn, his church, his house, and left money left the full provision of the gospel and said take care of him till I come back. And that's what Christ brought us to his end and has provided everything so that we have the gospel. He's covered us with the balm, the oil, and healed our wounds and he's keeping us through the gospel till he comes back to get us. He didn't hide himself from us.

That's what the law, the law can't help. False religion can't help. And religious men that condemn and smite with the fist of wickedness are just, that's hiding yourself from your brother. That's not helping. Christ is the only one. Now look here in verse eight and nine.

He said, this will be what happens when you trust Christ. Then shall thy light break forth as the morning. Christ is our light. Thine health shall spring forth speedily. Christ is our life. He's our health. and thy righteousness shall go before thee, the glory of the Lord shall be thy reward. Go behind you. That's Christ. He goes before us to protect us, and he goes behind us to protect us. He's got us hedged about all around protecting us. He said, and thou, then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall answer, thou shalt cry, and he shall say, here I am. Christ hears his people when we cry. Never leaves us, never forsakes us.

He said, if thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speak in vanity, Christ grants you repentance. To quit taking that finger and pointing it at others, and he turns it around and makes you point it at you. And he makes you realize, I need Christ. And you go to Christ, and he does all this for you, and you stop speaking vanity, you stop saying there's some kind of righteousness or holiness in your deeds, you start speaking to Him, and you take the yoke off of others, because you see Christ took it off you.

I heard a false preacher preach this passage, and he preached just what works religion preaches. He said, if you do all these things, then God will bless you. You got to do it first before God will bless you. He was doing exactly what God's condemning in the very chapter he was preaching it from. You see how blind we are by nature? He was taking the chapter where God's condemning a man, pointing the finger and trying to preach works and trust works. He preached works and trusted works, doing just the opposite of what God's, doing what God's condemning.

That's what he did. as Christ uses you to preach the gospel. Now this is, here's where your works come in. But they're not works to be made righteous, they're works of gratitude. But here's what he makes you do. And this, he makes you do this primarily through speaking the gospel, through speaking of Christ, or bringing others to hear Christ, or sending the gospel into the world. And his people do the lesser things that are said here too. but it's primarily by preaching the gospel.

Look here now, verses 10 through 12. If thou draw out thy soul to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul. Christ did that to us. And so his grace makes you want to draw out your soul to other hungry sinners, other afflicted sinners, by telling them about Christ. That's the primary way you do that.

And he says, then shall thy light rise in obscurity and thy darkness be as the noon day. When Christ is your light, and you speak of Christ to others, he'll bless the word to his people, if you're speaking one of his, and he'll be the light to them. And in the process, he'll be your light. When I'm studying to preach Christ the light to you, he's giving me light, as I'm trying to find a message to bring you the light.

We benefit from speaking of him because you've got to look into his word and he's teaching you of him so that you can speak of him. You're reaping the benefits that he works in others as you speak of him. Look here, and the Lord shall guide thee continually and satisfy thy soul in drought and make fat thy bones. He makes you spiritually healthy. And thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water whose waters fail not, you'll be fruitful.

Christ does it to us by bringing you to preach him, and then he does it to others through the word we preach. And he says, and they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places. Christ builds you up as a living stone that was just a wasted place. He makes a new creature and makes you a living stone. and then through the gospel he uses us to preach, he builds up other waste places. And thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations, and thou shalt be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of paths to dwell in. Now that's Christ preeminently, but when he teaches you the gospel, he sets you on Christ the one foundation, and as you promote the gospel, we're preaching Christ the one foundation. And through that gospel, as he saves others, he's making us to be repairers of the breach. He's making us to be restorers of the path to dwell in. He's the path to dwell in. And he's making us do the same to others.

Now listen, the Lord's people If you see somebody that needs a coat, you'll give them a coat, because you know what Christ did for you in giving you the coat of his righteousness. But the primary way you're going to give them a coat is speaking the gospel to them.

You know, false religion says, well, we'll do a clothing thing or a gift thing for poor folks to get them in here. And they end up spending all this money and getting themselves in a debt where they have to water the gospel down. Their original thinking is, we'll have these sports and activities and all these programs and all these humanitarian efforts to get people in and then we'll speak the gospel to them. But they end up getting in debt doing all this extra junk that God never commanded and they never preached the gospel because then they couldn't pay the bills. But the Lord's people starts with Christ. He makes you see Him, know Him, trust Him, believe Him. Case closed. You settled on Him. And then He makes you know the preeminent thing sinners need is for you to preach Him.

That's what they need. None of the extra myth. And then in the process, anybody need something earthy, physically? Lord's people are gladly giving it to them because we know Christ gave us His righteousness and He's provided every earthly thing we have. We don't have to worry that we're going to do without.

He's going to provide what you need. But you don't do anything because you're trying to work your way to God or expect God to give you a return on your investment. That's not what it is. It is you believe Christ and in gratitude to him, you want others to know him. You want to speak of him. and whatever anybody needs, you'll help them. So that needing a coat won't be a distraction. They can sit and be warm and hear the gospel. Or if they're hungry, that won't be a distraction. You give them what they need to eat so they can sit and hear the gospel.

You see what I'm saying? This is all the grace of God toward us, because all of this is what Christ did for us, every bit of it. And in the process of studying and hearing the gospel, so that you can speak the gospel to others, he's making your light to arise, Christ your light. And he's clothing you, and he's benefiting you, and he's enriching you, so you can speak of him to others and enrich others. Let's thank him, brethren. Father, we thank you for sending your son, the true bread. Thank you for providing all this for us.

Lord, we, We're just the lost, we're a worshiper, trusting ourselves, looking to ourselves, and you came and saved us, and we thank you, we give you the glory. Lord, don't let our religion ever be just a superficial, shallow thing. Make us truly know our need of Christ and the depths of your grace and your love, and make us cast all our care on him And Lord, make us useful to speak of him and trust you provide every lesser thing we need so that whatever we can provide for others, we do it and we do it all knowing you've saved us by your grace, made us righteous and holy in your son. And Lord, we thank you.

Thank you so much for all the riches of your grace that you've freely given to us. Thank you for protecting us and protecting our children. Lord, your hand is around your people and under your people and protecting your people at all times. And Lord, we acknowledge that and we thank you. We give you the glory. In Christ's name we pray, amen.