All right, brethren, Isaiah 56. Isaiah 56. Now this passage begins with, thus saith the Lord. That interests me. I wanna know what the Lord says to me. And this is what, As believers, we want to know what does the Lord instruct us to do? What does he say to us? And there's a reason this passage is written. There's a reason the Lord has given us this instruction. Here's God's purpose, and we see it down in verse eight. It says, the Lord God, which gathereth the outcasts of Israel, saith, yet will I gather others to him, beside those that are gathered. The Lord has gathered us. We were the outcasts of Israel. We were cast out of the garden in Adam, like all men were by his transgression. We were rejected of established false religion and rejected of friends and family and neighbors. but we were gathered by Christ, called by Christ. And the reason he's gathered us and the reason that we're in this earth is to preach him, to preach Christ, because through this gospel, he promises he will gather other of his lost sheep. He's gonna gather others of his lost sheep. And that's very important to understand. Everything the Lord is teaching us here is because He's using us to preach him. This is our preeminent charge, is to preach Christ. And so the word he's given us is vitally important and connected to that. All right, let's see the two things, or three things here that we see in these first two verses. First of all, the Lord commands us to keep ye judgment. Thus saith the Lord, keep ye judgment and do justice. Now those are two things, keep ye judgment and do justice. For my salvation is near to come and my righteousness to be revealed. We don't have to wonder what our Lord means, he tells us in the next verse. What is it to keep ye judgment and do justice? He said, blessed is the man that doeth this and the son of man that layeth hold on it, that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it, and keepeth his hand from doing any evil. First of all, the Lord commands us to keep ye judgment. Keep the Sabbath from polluting it. Now, he's speaking in Old Covenant language, so we're gonna have to look at this with New Testament eyes. He's speaking in Old Covenant language, because they were yet under that Old Covenant, but we're gonna have to look at this through Christ, New Testament eyes. All the Sabbaths that God gave under that covenant, all the Sabbaths pictured the Lord Jesus. They all pictured the Lord Jesus. Even when our Lord rested after he created everything, our Lord hallowed a day and he rested in that day. And the reason he rested is because he finished the work. He finished creation. He rested. Christ came and finished the work, and he is the rest for his people. Go with me to Colossians 2, Colossians 2, and let's support that, let's see it. Colossians 2, this is the word for believers, right here in Colossians 2 and verse 16. He spoke there, he declared how that Christ came and circumcised us with a circumcision made without hand. On the cross, he put away our sins, and then he came and revealed the gospel to us and gave us a new heart to know he's all. And he says, verse 16, 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 days, which are a shadow of things to come, but the body is of Christ. They all pictured Christ. And Christ is the Sabbath rest for his people. Now there are many who preach a Sabbath day. There are some who declare that believers must observe a day. They change it from Saturday to Sunday. But they command that a day be observed. Now brethren, I'm all for believers taking a day out of the week to assemble together and hear the Lord Jesus preached. And go home and study his word and think about what you've heard and spend the day looking to him. I'm all for that. I'm all for that. I'm all for believers gathering to hear the gospel of Christ preached. I'm all, and we need this. This is the children's bread. We need it. But Christ is Our Sabbath. He is our rest. Not a day. It's Christ who is our rest. He is our rest. Remarkably, some people use Hebrews 3 and 4 to try to support this idea that a day is our Sabbath. They use Hebrews 3 and 4. And the whole Hebrew letter is written to believe in Jews who had been under the law and been observing a day to tell them to believe Christ and rest in him from the law. That was the whole point of the Hebrew letter. Now go with me to Hebrews. I'm gonna show you this, Hebrews 3. It begins telling us consider Christ, consider how he was faithful. And then it says to us, we're his, we're of his house, if we continue in the faith, if we continue resting in Christ. Verse six says, Hebrews 3.6, Christ was faithful as a son over his own house, whose house are we if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope from and to the end. See, he's telling us, continue believing Christ. He's our rest. And then he used Israel in the wilderness as an example of unbelief. In verse 17, he said, but with whom was he grieved forty years? Was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness? And to whom swear ye that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not? You see, he's exhorting us to believe Christ and rest in him, but he used that earthly example They didn't enter Canaan because they didn't believe Christ. He says, so we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief. Let us therefore fear lest a promise of being left, lest a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. For unto us was the gospel preached as well as unto them. But the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. For we which have believed do enter into rest. You see this? We that believe enter into rest. Verse 10, for he that is entered into his rest, into Christ's rest, he also has ceased from his own works as God did from his. Verse 11, let us labor therefore to enter into that rest. lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. And he sums it all up in verse 14. Seeing then that we have a great high priest that's passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. He's declaring Christ is our rest. Believe on him and rest in him. Now that is how you're gonna keep judgment. Believe on Christ and rest in him. On the Sabbath day, they were to do three things that believers are brought to do when he gives you faith to rest in Christ. There's three things they were to do on the Sabbath day. Number one, they were to rest from all their works. They were to rest from all their works on that Saturday. That was a day. If they lifted their finger, they did evil. But God, by his grace, the Holy Spirit regenerates us and gives you faith and you begin resting in Christ from all your works. These are the dead works he saves us from when he purges the conscience, making you know the blood of Christ has put away all our sin and made us the righteousness of God. He fulfilled the entire law for his people. He took that covenant out of the way and established his new covenant of grace in our hearts. And when he's done that and given you faith, you begin Resting in Him. Resting from attempting to earn a righteousness by your works. Resting from trying to make yourself holy by the law. He gives you faith to rest in Christ our righteousness, in Christ our sanctification. He's our rest. And concerning Christ being our rest, because He's made us righteous, let's look at Romans 5. I want you to see it. Romans 5. Here's what he gives us faith to believe when he shows you that Christ is your righteousness, so you can rest from trying to make yourself righteous. Romans 5.17, if by one man's offense death reigned by one, much more they which receive, they which are given, abundance of grace, and of the gift of righteousness, they shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ. Therefore, as by the offense of one, judgment came upon all men who Adam represented, to condemnation, even so by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men who Christ represented. unto justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous." Well, what about the law? The law entered that the offense might abound, that we might see what great sinners we are and how we need Christ. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound, that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. What good news, brethren, when he gives you faith to behold Christ your righteousness, and you can rest from all your vain attempts at making yourself righteous by the law. Let's look at how he's our sanctify. Sanctification, go to Colossians 1. Colossians 1. He's our rest as far as holiness is concerned. Verse 12, Colossians 1, 12, we give thanks unto the Father which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. That means God has made his people fit to enter into glory right now. When he's called you, he's made you fit, meet to enter in glory, like that thief on the cross that he saved. Here's why. Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear son, in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sin. See, God's children, when he's regenerated you, He sanctified you in the heart, and he gave you faith to look from yourself, out of yourself to Christ. So we're not trying to make ourselves holy. Christ made us holy by putting all our sin away, being our righteousness, and being that holiness of our new man, united with us in the new birth. So we're resting from trying to make ourselves righteous or holy, and Christ is at rest. So in our text, When the Lord instructs us to keep judgment, he's instructing his saints to keep believing and resting in the Lord Jesus Christ. Keep resting in Christ who justified all his people and who made us holy. He made us accepted of God. That means you're perfect because it has to be perfect to be accepted. We're accepted in the beloved. So continue assembling with his people to worship Christ our rest. That's the first thing that's pictured in the Sabbath. They were to rest from all their works. Number two, on the Sabbath day, they trusted God to provide all their food, all their bread. They trusted God. On the day, he told them the day before, he would give them bread more than they needed to last them through the Sabbath day. So they had to rest, trusting the Lord to provide them bread. We just read, we didn't plan this, but we just sang, Break Thou the Bread of Life. Listen to this second verse. Bless thou the truth, dear Lord, to me, to me, as thou did bless the bread by Galilee. Then shall all bondage cease, all fetters fall, and I shall find my peace, my all in all. See, Christ is our life. He is our bread. That's what the bread is. He's the life of his people. You have life when you have Christ. And so knowing he's our life, eternal life with God, we have this assurance. He will provide everything we need in this life. He's gonna provide your daily needs that you have in this life. He is our life. So when he saved us, we have the understanding that he is saving us and he shall save us. Every day, brethren, the Lord's saving you, every day. And the Lord's providing every need you have every single day. and we're resting and trusting him to do so. He promised, he that cometh to me shall never hunger and never thirst. That's his promise, that's his promise. So the Lord instructs his child to keep judgment. You keep trusting Christ, who is your life, and you keep looking to him to provide all your daily needs, just like he's provided all your eternal needs, all right? So that's what they did on the Sabbath. They rested, and they ceased from all their works, and they gave all their servants rest, they gave all their animals rest, and they trusted the Lord to provide their bread. Now here's the third thing they did that pictures Christ. They took the yoke, because they rested, because they trusted the Lord to provide, they took the yoke of bondage off all men, and their animals and all their servants. Everybody got to rest. Everybody got to cease from their work. They took all bondage off of everybody. Well, brethren, we're in this world to declare the Lord Jesus Christ our rest, our bread, the Redeemer who has freed us from all bondage. That's what we're here for. That's what we're here for. And he's gonna save his people through this gospel. And when he does, he takes the yoke of bondage off us. We were under the yoke of the law, and he makes you to know he redeemed you from the curse of the law by being made a curse for you. We were under the yoke of our sin nature that was bondage to us, couldn't free ourselves from it. In regeneration, he freed you from your sin nature. And he keeps renewing you inwardly so that your sin nature won't have the dominion over you. And he's gonna redeem us into glory one of these days. For which cause we faint not, though our outward man perisheth, our inward man is renewed day by day. So our Lord is, when He says here, keep judgment, these are the three things included in that. You keep believing on Christ, resting in Him, who is everything you need to be accepted of God, your righteousness, your holiness. You keep trusting Christ to provide all your bread, and you preach Him and take the yoke off all your brethren. Take the yoke off, because this is how he's going to take that yoke off, is through this gospel, revealing himself in his people. That's how he's going to do it. This is what he means by keep judgment. Keep judgment. It's Christ. Look to Christ. Preach Christ. Rest in Christ. Depend on Christ. Now, let me show you this second thing. They go vitally together. They go together. If we understand the first point, that Christ is all, then this second point is the only way, only through faith in Christ can we do this second thing. The second thing he tells us to do is to do justice, to do justice. He says there in verse one, and do justice, and again, look at verse two, and the second part, he says, that man that keepeth his hand from doing any evil. Several things are included here. Now, of course, this means do not sin. Of course it means that. Of course it means keep judgment and do justice in our dealings with men. Do what's equitable. Do what's right to men. You know, when we were dead in our sins, we loved sin. When we were dead in sin, we loved sin. And we hated holiness because we hated Christ. We hated that which was right because we hated Christ. Or we would do it just for our own self-interest. But we really hated the Lord and hated that which was just and right. But now that He saved you, now that He's given you a new heart, we hate sin. The Lord makes you love what He loves and hate what He hates. and we hate sin. The Lord's child hates that we don't hate sin more. We really do. I don't want to sin. I want to be free from it. It's the one constant that's with me all the time. And I don't think people understand what we mean by this. The Lord's people are a faithful people. enter into a business deal with one of God's people, and they're going to do what's right. They're going to honor their word. God's people, that's what we try to do with all our dealings with folks. But when we're talking about sin, we're talking about If you got in a room in the middle of the wilderness, and it was sterilized, and there was nobody and nothing around to tempt you, and you were in that room by yourself, sin would be present with you, and you would sin. That's what you start learning more and more. When we're younger, we think sin's in the outward deeds, and they are, but we don't see that sin is totally, totally, totally what we are. And as you get older, you begin to see that more. We're in a condemned building, that's this body of flesh. And we hate our sin. None of God's saints want to sin. We want to keep judgment and do justly, perfectly. We want to do it perfectly. But we have this sin nature so that when we would do good, evil is present. And that keeps us knowing that it's only Christ who delivers us. It's only Christ saving us day by day, just like Paul said, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ my Lord. So then with my new man, I serve the Lord, but with my flesh, the law of sin. It's just how it is for his people. But knowing, brethren, this is the other thing that, so knowing we have a sin nature, it keeps us looking only to Christ, only to Christ. And it also keeps us knowing this, when you do anything good, you know all your fruit is of the spirit of God and you give him the glory. We don't go around drawing attention to ourselves for anything we've done that's good because we know We did what we should have done. That's all we did. And it's all of the Lord. He caused you to do it. So he commands you here, yes, do not sin. That's included in this. Look to Christ for strength and give him the glory for any good that you do. But this is also in regard to one another as brethren, to one another as brethren, to fellow saints. Do justice, do no evil toward brethren. preeminently by speaking the gospel of Christ to one another in every time of need. The one thing we need in every need we have, the needs may change and be different from time to time, but the one need we have to meet that need never changes. That one need is Christ. And we speak this gospel to one another, reminding each other. When our Lord said, that it pleased God through the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe, he meant from the beginning that he calls you to the end. When it says faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God, it means from the first moment he calls you all the way to your last breath. So we're to speak this gospel. If your brethren are cast down for any reason, for any reason, when a brother offends, whatever it is, When brethren just flat out sin, do justice, do no evil. How do you do that? Speak the good news of Christ to one another. Remind one another who Christ is and what he's accomplished on behalf of his people. Don't whip one another with the law and don't throw New Testament precepts at one another. Speak the good news that Christ is all our righteousness and holiness and redemption and acceptance with God. Speak of him. All right, here's another thing. To do justice, to do no evil, is to be merciful to one another for Christ's sake. To be merciful to one another for Christ's sake. What does faith believe? When God gave us faith, what did he give us faith to believe? He gave us faith to believe that the Lord Jesus Christ justified us from all our sin. He gave us faith to believe that God justified all his elect. That's the faith he gives you. He gives you faith to know we are the righteousness of God in our Lord Jesus Christ. Faith believes Christ really is my holiness. He really is the sanctifier and the sanctification of all his people. This is what faith believes. Romans 8.33, who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It's Christ that died. Yea, rather, that is risen again, who's at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. So, when brethren sin, what is the just thing to do? I keep saying this, I know, I've repeated this many times. But when brethren sin, knowing that God has justified his people, knowing Christ is our righteousness, what is the just thing to do? What was the just thing to do for you when you were lost and just dead in trespasses and sin? What was the right, just thing for God to do since Christ had justified you? The just thing was to send you the gospel and give you a heart to trust him, to be merciful to you. That was the just thing to do. That's why Christ laid down his life on the cross, that he might be just to be merciful to his people. So that's the just thing for us to do. It's just to speak the gospel of Christ to a fallen brother. It's just. That's how he's gonna rebuke us when we sin, through the gospel. It's just to be merciful and to forgive without limit. Go with me to Luke 17. Luke 17. Verse three. Take heed to yourselves, the Lord speaking, take heed to yourselves, if thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him. Oh, that means I need to go and just really let him have it with the word of God. No, that's not what it means. It means go and speak to him about what Christ has accomplished for us. Go and speak to him about how bad our sin is that God had to send his own son to lay down his life for us. That's how you were made to see your sin. He said, you look upon me whom they've pierced and they'll mourn. That's how he rebukes you in the first hour. That's how he's gonna do it. Now, it's the goodness of God that leads you to repentance. this good news of Christ to one another. And he says, and if he repent, forgive him. And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, that is what you call a repeat offender. If he does it seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee saying, I repent, thou shalt forgive him. and don't miss the next word. And the apostles said unto the Lord, increase our faith. That's why I said to you, the first instruction from our Lord goes with the second. We have to first be made to know and give a faith to believe Christ has really justified all his people. We are really and truly the righteousness of God in him. That's the only way we can be merciful to one another and forgive without limit, is trusting Christ. Remember how much God has forgiven you for Christ's sake on a daily basis, on a daily basis. I won't have you turn there, but you know the parable our Lord gave that man that he owed his Lord a hundred pence, this great sum, and he went to his Lord and asked for mercy and his Lord forgave him all of it. And then this man goes to his servant, his servant owes him far less. I'm sorry, the man owed 10,000 talent. His servant only owed 100 pence, a lot less. And he asked for mercy. And this man who had just been forgiven that great sum wouldn't forgive this man who owed him far less. And the Lord said, He called him a wicked servant. And he said, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desirest me. Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellow servant, Esavan, as I had pity on thee? And his lord was wroth and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due to him. Here's the point. Our lord said, so likewise shall my heavenly father do also unto you, if you from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses. You know what, if faith, if we need faith to be merciful and forgive, because we really believe Christ justified his people, an unforgiving spirit is the fruit of unbelief. That's what it is. It's the fruit of unbelief. Here's what the Lord's gonna keep his child knowing. Be kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake has forgiven you. Do keep judgment. You believe Christ Jesus, who's justified, and do justice. It's just to be merciful and forgive, brethren. All right, here's another thing. To do justice, it's not a temporary one-time thing. It is to bear long with one another and suffer a long time. Sometimes, and I think more times than not, the way the Lord tries our faith as believers and the way he increases us in faith and teaches us patience is he doesn't come immediately and grant repentance to a brother who has fallen. He waits a while. And he does it for the brethren who have not fallen to teach you to go to him and pray to him and ask him to help, to teach you to wait on the Lord to work so that he increases our faith in him and our hope in him and our patience waiting on him. The Lord does this. He said this, I say this to you a lot, Paul in Romans 14 said, Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not, and let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth, for God hath received him. Whatever your brother does or does not do, don't despise him, whichever side of that you're on, for God's received him. And always remember this, who art thou that judges another man's servant? To his own master he standeth or falleth, Yea, he shall be holding up, for God is able to make him stand. This is what Christ is teaching us constantly. He's the only one that makes us stand. He's the only one that makes us stand. And when you fall, he's the only one that's able to pick you up and make you stand. And so it is for you, brethren. So it is for you, brethren. The Lord may wait a long time, but here's what he's doing. Galatians 6. This is doing justice. Galatians 6, verse one, is what he's teaching us right here. Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit of meekness. The spirit of meekness is a spirit of utter dependence on Christ, knowing he's your master, he's your brother's master, He's your righteousness, he's your brother's righteousness, he's your holiness, he's your brother's holiness, and you're utterly dependent on him, the spirit of meekness. Considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. That's what I'm saying. Sometimes that one that's fallen, the reason the Lord waits to make him stand is for you who have not fallen to keep you considering you're very apt to fall into a worse transgression by doing evil, by doing that which is unjust, by not being merciful and not being long-suffering and not being forbearing. The Lord's teaching us not to trust ourselves. There's a Pharisee in us that loves to take the law and the precepts of God and sling them at one another. I remember years ago, somebody reminded me of this and I needed it. And it was something Brother Scott Richardson had said. He said, you know, if you go out to feed the chickens, he said, if you sling that, if they sling that corn at them, they gonna scatter. But if you just drop it, they'll just come right up around your feet and eat it right around you. We preach this gospel and speak this gospel to one another, reminding each other what Christ has accomplished and we do it in a spirit of meekness. Don't read the scripture to read it at somebody. Read it, everything in this word toward an offender is to gain them. It's to gain them. It's not to separate them, it's to gain them. So he says, do this considering yourself. Verse two, bear ye one another's burden and so fulfill the law of Christ. That may take a while, you may have to bear with him a long time. But for, if a man think himself to be something, when he's nothing, he deceiveth himself. But every man prove his own work, then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another. He says after that, the will worshiper is trying to use the law to constrain you by his power so he can rejoice in what he made you do. He says, if you wait on the Lord, and you do justly, you trust the Lord to make his child stand, and you bear long with your brother, and you restore your brother, you keep giving him this gospel, and you wait on the Lord, and you pray to the Lord, he said, then you'll have rejoicing in your own heart and not in another. The Lord will make you see him, he'll make you see what he accomplished, and you'll rejoice in him in your own heart. And that's what our text said. Our text says in verse two, blessed, happy, Full of rejoicing is the man that doeth this, and the son of man that layeth hold on it. Now I got one last point. What's the motive by which the Lord constrains us to do both these things? What's the motive? Here it is, verse one. Second part, for my salvation is near to come, and my righteousness to be revealed. Listen, in every trial right now in this life, Christ is near. Christ is near and he'll soon reveal himself. And our brethren, if they have a need or in you, when you have a need, he's near. He's gonna deliver his child out of the trial and he's gonna keep doing this for us day by day. That is the spirit, the motive the Spirit of God puts in our heart to constrain us to wait on the Lord and to do justly speaking of the Lord and to keep judgment, looking only to the Lord and do justly speaking only of the Lord. He's our salvation every day. Every trial, wait on Him. This is the constraint. He said, my salvation is near to come and my righteousness to be revealed. And also, brethren, Galatians 5, let's look there. This is our constraint to keep walking by faith because Christ is soon to return. The salvation God's provided for us is Christ, the righteousness God's provided is Christ, and he's near. He's soon to return. Galatians 5.5, we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. That's Christ. We're waiting for the hope of Christ, our righteousness. and we're waiting by faith. For in Jesus Christ, nothing you do or don't do in your flesh, nothing your brethren do or don't do in their flesh avails. Here's what avails. Faith which worketh by love. It's the Lord having made you a brand new creation, and it's the Lord causing you to look only to him, causing you to look only to him. That's what avails. And very soon, he's returning, brethren. Go with me to Romans 8. Romans 8. You know, I just realized what I did this morning. When I got to the end of my message this morning, I said, I wrote the wrong scripture down. I thought, and I had you turn to Revelation. Well, in this message, I was gonna have you turn to Revelation. In that first message, I was gonna have you turn to Romans. But the points are the same. Go to Romans 8. I'll show you what I was gonna show you in that first message. I'm saying Christ is near, and he's soon to return. So he tells us this right here. He says in verse 16, the spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God, and if children, then heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. If so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creature waited for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity not wittingly, but by reason of him who has subjected the same in hope. Because the creature, all the creation itself, shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption unto the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together unto now, and not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption to wit, the redemption of our body. For we're saved by hope, but hope that is seen is not hope. For what a man seeth, why does he yet hope for? But if we hope, for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. So in the meantime, the Lord says, keep judgment, keep looking to Christ who has settled judgment for his people, do justly, look to Christ to work in one another and remind each other of him continually. And the constraint of our heart is his righteousness is near, Christ our righteousness is near and he will reveal himself in every trial and at last in that last day. We're waiting for him. We're waiting for him all the time. All the time. We need him constantly, every day. And we're waiting for him. And we're waiting for him to return. All right, brethren, if Christ is all your salvation, if this is, if this, hearing him, you say, amen, this, he's all my salvation, then we're gonna obey his command and come to his table and take this bread and this wine and remember him. Remember him. All right, Brother Adam and Brother Jeff, if y'all pass it out.