Let us turn again to God's Word
in Isaiah chapter 56 part of that portion of scripture we
were reading here in Isaiah's prophecy Isaiah 56 and directing
you to the second verse Isaiah 56 to blessed is the man
that doeth this and the Son of Man that lieth hold on it, that
keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it, and keepeth his hand from
doing any evil. Blessed is the man that doeth
this, and the Son of Man that lieth hold on it, that keepeth
the Sabbath from polluting it, and keepeth his hand from doing
any evil. it's the first Lord's Day of
course of this new year 2024 and I want to try to say something
with regards to what we have here in the text the blessed
man's Sabbath the blessed man's Sabbath and the Prophet goes
on to say something further with regards to the Sabbath verse
4 he says I set the Lord unto the eunuchs that keep my Sabbaths
and choose the things that please me and take hold of my covenant.
Even unto them will I give in mine house and within my walls
a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters. I will
give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off." And
then again, At verse 6, also the sons of the stranger that
join themselves to the Lord to serve him and to love the name
of the Lord, to be his servants, every one that keepeth the Sabbath
from polluting it, and taketh hold of my covenant, even them
will I bring to my holy mountain and make them joyful in my house
of prayer. We see then in the context something
of the blessings of the Sabbath keepers with regards to those
who were eunuchs and those who were sons of the strangers. The blessings then of the godly
man's concept of the Sabbath. We've thought over recent weeks
of some of these blessings. We looked of course at those
beatitudes back in Matthew chapter 5 and then last Lord's Day we
were considering what the wise man says with regards to the
blessed man there in Proverbs 8 and verse 34 and then again
we looked at the opening words of the book of Psalms the opening
verses of Psalm 1 that speak again of that blessed man So
coming then to consider something of this man spoken of here by
the Prophet in this text Isaiah 56 and verse 2. Before we come to consider the
true spiritual significance let me just make some remarks with
regards to the context The historical setting, as we said on other
occasions, Isaiah is prophesying probably a hundred years before
the Babylonian captivity. And yet he speaks much of that
terrible judgment that would befall the people of God, the
children of Israel. but he speaks not only of course
of the judgment but also intimates something of the restoration
although of course prophets like Jeremiah and Ezekiel go into
far greater detail because they are ministering at that particular
time of the of the captivity that there would be a period
there would be a restoring in due time but Isaiah also make
some reference to those dreadful times that would befall the nation
before the restoration came. And in the portion we read from
chapter 55 and there in verse 13 we read of thorns and briars
there was a terrible desolation that did come upon the nation
when the Babylonians overthrew the kingdom of Judah back in
chapter 32 for example and there are the words that we find in
verses 13 and 14 upon the land of my people shall
come up thorns and briars, yea, upon all the houses of joy and
the joy of cities, because the palaces shall be forsaken, the
multitude of the city shall be left, the forts and towers shall
be for dens forever, the joy of wild asses, the pasture of
flocks and so on. God's judgment would come and
it would be a very real judgment and we have the historical accounts
there at the end of the second book of Chronicles and it's interesting
what he said there in 2nd Chronicles 36 21 that as long as she lay
desolate so the land enjoyed a Sabbath for 70 years They had desecrated the land
really by their sins and by their idolatrous ways, but for 70 years
the land would enjoy the Sabbath as she lay in that desolate condition. But then there would come the
restoration. God would restore his people,
they would be brought out of captivity in chapter 52 and verse
9 verse 9 break forth into joy sing together ye wise places
of Jerusalem for the Lord hath comforted his people he hath
redeemed Jerusalem and so we see it here at the end of that
55th chapter that we were reading Verse 12, ye shall go out with
joy and be led forth with peace. The mountains and the hills shall
break forth before you into singing. All the trees of the field shall
clap their hands. Instead of the thorn shall come
up the fir tree, and instead of the briar shall come up the
myrtle tree, and it shall be to the Lord for a name, for an
everlasting sign that shall not be cut off. God would truly bring
his people again back into the land and establish them there
in the city of Jerusalem. Again, in that portion that we read
at the end of chapter 58, in verse 12, they that shall be
of thee shall build the old ways places, they shall raise up the
foundations of many generations, and they shall be called the
repairer of the breach, the restorer of paths to dwell in." So, there
is this historical context. It's the Prophet speaking to
the people of his own day concerning what would come in later years,
a time of judgment, of desolation, but also a time of great restoration. But we're principally concerned,
surely, with the spiritual significance of what we have in this book.
We're told, aren't we, in 1 Corinthians 10, 11, how all these things
happened unto them for ensamples, or for types, and they're written
for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come.
We can't do justice to what we read here in the Old Testament
except we see it in the light of the New Testament Scriptures
and the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Here in chapter 55 what
does God say? Verse 8, My thoughts are not
your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, saith the Lord.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways
higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.
We're not to become bogged down in trying to understand the historical
context. We want to find some spiritual
food, some good gospel sustenance, even as we come to the Old Testament
scriptures. And it is interesting. when we
see how the prophet here at the end of chapter 55 speaks of thorns
and briars. Does it not remind us more particularly
of that dreadful curse that came upon all of creation because
of the sin of Adam and the sin of Eve? Remember the judgment
that was visited upon the earth because of that disobedience
of our first parents and we have it there in Genesis 3.17 unto Adam God says
because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife and hast
eaten of the tree of the which I commanded thee saying thou
shalt not eat of it cursed is the ground for thy sake in sorrow
shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life Thorns also
and thistles shall it bring forth to them, and thou shalt eat the
herb of the field. In the sweat of thy face shalt
thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground, for out of it
was thou taken, for thus thou art, and unto thus shalt thou
return. There is the curse that is pronounced
upon all of creation because of Adam's sin. Or we say then that there is
some spiritual significance because there is a restoring even from
that dreadful curse that was there at the beginning after
the disobedience of Adam and Eve. But we know of a truth what's
declared in the New Testament concerning that what a man soweth
that shall he also reap. If a man sows to his flesh, he
shall of the flesh reap corruption. But if he sows to the Spirit,
he shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. This is the significant
thing, surely, that we see that there is an answer to the dreadful
curse of sin. And that answer is found in the
New Testament and in the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and
the ministry of Him who is spoken of as the last Adam, the Lord
from Heaven. Well, as we come this morning
to consider the words of the text, here in this second verse
of chapter 56, I want to deal really with just two basic points
first of all with regards to the Sabbath to say something
of the necessity of Sabbath keeping and then in the second place
to see how here we see something of the nearness of that salvation
that the Lord God will provide for his people. First of all,
there is the necessity of the Sabbath day and we see it very
much established as an ordinance for Israel, for the Jews. We
know that when God brings them out of the bondage that was Egypt
and directs them to Mount Sinai, and there, as he enters into
covenant with them, he gives them, of course, the Ten Commandments. And the fourth commandment concerns
the Sabbath day. Remember the Sabbath day, to
keep it holy. We are familiar, of course, with
the language of the commandments, and that fourth commandment And
the detail of it, what are they to do? They're to remember the
Sabbath day, they're to observe it, and they're reminded it is
there to set before them that God in the act of creation worked
for six days, But then he sanctified the seventh day, he set it apart
as a day of rest. He set before them then as an
ordinance to be observed in remembrance of the God who is their Creator,
who himself rested on that seventh day, so they must keep the seventh
day as a Sabbath day. But interestingly, when after
the 40 years of wilderness wanderings are now on the borders of the
promised land and they're about to enter into the possession
of that that the Lord God had promised to their fathers. Remember
in Deuteronomy 5 we have the recounting of the Ten Commandments. But there's another detail brought
in with regards to that fourth commandment concerning the Sabbath
day. in Deuteronomy 5, verse 12. Keep the Sabbath day to sanctify
it, as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee. Six days thou
shalt labour and do all thy work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath
of the Lord thy God. In it thou shalt not do any work. Thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter,
nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy nox, nor thy nass, nor
any of thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates, that
thy manservant and thy maidservant may rest as well as thou. And then this, Remember that
thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy
God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched
out arm. Therefore the Lord thy God commanded
thee to keep the Sabbath day. Here is something additional
to what had been said previously in Exodus 20. They're not just
to remember God's works of creation and how the Lord God rested himself
on the seventh day, but they're to remember that they were servants,
they were slaves in the land of Egypt and the Lord brought
them out. The Lord wrote a great deliverance
for them. And in that sense what they have
is a pledge. As the Sabbath is mentioned here
in Isaiah, and he's been speaking of judgments that are going to
fall upon them again, and they'll be taken into exile, there is
a pledge. There is a pledge in the observing
of the Sabbath day. It's a reminder of a previous
deliverance, and God would grant them another deliverance. How difficult it must have been
for them to continue to try and observe the Sabbath days when
they were there in the midst of Babylon. But the man who honors
that day, lays hold on that day, and seeks to keep it from being
polluted, well that is the man who will be blessed. There was
a necessity then of the observing of the day for the Jews, they
must keep the day, and it's quite plain as we read through the
Lord of Moses how they were to observe it very diligently. But
there's also a necessity of the keeping of a Sabbath day, a day
of rest, for the believer also. As we have already intimated,
it is a creation ordinance. We have it spoken of first of
all, as you are aware, there in the opening verses of Genesis
chapter 2. In the opening chapter, of course,
we have the six days of creation and then we come to the seventh
day and the Lord rests on that day and sets that day apart. And when it comes to the Ten
Commandments, the command is to remember the day. It's a day
that they were obviously already aware of. It's not something
new, it's not something that they'd never been aware of previously. in Exodus 20. We know, for example,
how in the 16th chapter, previous to them coming to Mount Sinai,
there was that provision of the manna. And you can read through
Exodus 16, and you know, I'm sure, the account there, how
that they were to gather that manna, that angel's food that
God was feeding them with from heaven, they were to gather it
each day. But they were not to try to preserve
it overnight. They would have a fresh supply
on the following day. And if they were disobedient
and stored up the Lord's provision for one day, thinking they could
use it the next day, it would become foul. It would be of no
use at all to them. but God said that on the sixth
day He would give them a double portion and therefore they were
not to go out on the morning of the seventh day because God
had made provision and now that that had been kept overnight
would not rot and become decayed but there were some who were
disobedient and went out on the morning of the seventh day which
was the Sabbath day Well that's all recorded there in Exodus
chapter 16 and it's before the law was given there in chapter
20 and so they keep the day as a creation
ordinance really and as a creation ordinance it didn't just belong
to Israel, there must be a sense in which God has ordained it
for all humankind. And certainly with the coming
of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and the calling of the
Gentiles, we should not be surprised that the Lord still intends that
there is a day to be kept. We have those words in Hebrews
4 verse 9, "...there remaineth therefore a rest to the people
of God. And interestingly, the word rest
there is the word Sabbath. It should be really rendered,
or maybe rendered, as the keeping of a Sabbath. They remaineth
therefore a keeping of a Sabbath." And interestingly, in his commentary,
the great Puritan, Divine John Owen, really emphasizes that
truth, that what the Apostle is saying there to the Hebrews,
Hebrew believers, that even under the Gospel there is a day to
be kept, there's a Gospel Sabbath. Now, we know that in In truth, that gospel rest centers
very much in the Lord Jesus Christ. There's a resting in Christ.
But that doesn't mean that there's not also a day to be kept. And
we see how in the New Testament Christians did keep the first
day of the week as their Sabbath day. We read in Acts 20 of the
Apostle being a Troas. And now upon the first day of
the week, the disciples came together to break bread. And
there is the Apostle Paul, he's a visitor amongst them, and he
observes the day with them. They kept the first day of the
week. It was the day upon which the Lord Jesus Christ had ridden
the game from the dead. And then when we come, of course,
to the very last book of Scripture, we are told, aren't we, concerning
the Apostle John, there in the opening chapter of the book,
how on the Lord's Day, though he's there in exile on the Isle
of Patmos, he's in the Spirit on the Lord's Day. And how the
Lord favours and blesses him with such a remarkable revelation
at that particular time. There's a day to be kept. And we have those words we read
through to the end of chapter 58. 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. A tremendous passage really that
emphasizes to us the significance, the spiritual significance of
the Lord's Day. A day to be observed. And coming
to the words of our text, what do we read concerning this blessed
man? the keepers of sabbath day, well
it says blessed is the man that doeth this and the son of man
that layeth hold on it he lays hold on the day to observe the
day doesn't it speak to us of faith really in the Lord Jesus
Christ the faith that lays hold of the Lamb as we have it there
in the hymn 233 and in particular the third verse
of that hymn. What does the hymn writer say?
The faith that lays hold on the Lamb and brings such salvation
as this is more than mere notion or name, the work of God's Spirit
it is. A principle, active and young,
that lives under pressure and load, that makes out of weakness
more strong and draws the soul upwards to God. Laying hold of
the Lamb, laying hold of the Sabbath. That Sabbath really
centers very much in the Lord Jesus Christ. And we can think of what's said
concerning Jacob back in the account in the 32nd chapter of
Genesis where we see him there wrestling with the angel And
the angel wrestling with Jacob. And Jacob's determination, what
does he say? I will not let thee go. I will
not let thee go, he says, except thou bless me. Isn't that what
we might understand to be the heritage of Jacob? Thy father
spoken of there at the end of chapter 58. the true spiritual significance
of the day, the laying hold by faith on the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, there is then a spiritual
significance to the blessed man that we read of here in our text. He lays hold on the Lord Jesus.
And as he lays hold upon the Lord Jesus Christ by faith, in
faith he is able to rightly observe that day that the Lord has appointed.
It is that day in which he seeks to enjoy communion with his God
and his Saviour. It is a blessed day. It is the
principal day of the believer's week. It's that day that he looks
for and longs for. It's not a day of idle rest,
it's a day really of real communion and blessed fellowship with God
through the Lord Jesus Christ. And so the Sabbath is necessary
not only for the Jew, it's necessary also for the Christian believer. This is the blessed man. In the second place, it's blessed
in this sense because here he knows increasingly the experience
of the nearness of that salvation that is in Christ, how near it
comes. And again look at the previous
verse to the text, in the opening verse of the chapter, Thus saith
the Lord, Keep ye judgment and do justice, For my salvation
is near to come, and my righteousness to be revealed. 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. All my salvation is near, near
to come. my righteousness to be revealed
says the Lord God and we think of those words that we have in
the in the New Testament the words of the Apostle there in
Romans chapter 10 he says the word is neither even in thy mouth
and in thy heart that is the word of faith which we preach or the word is neither when we
come together on the Lord's day isn't that the chief part of
our worship we have the Word of God and we attend to the Word
of God and we read the Word of God and we hear the ministry
and the preaching of that Word of God and what is it that comes
near to us? It's that salvation, it's that
righteousness as the Lord is pleased to grant
such a blessed revelation of himself, that special revelation
when he comes and communes with us. What I want to mention as we
come to consider the nearness of this salvation, some three
things under our second heading this morning. And first of all
to go back to the Jews. You see that captivity that would
come as God's terrible judgment because of their sins, because
of their idolatry, that captivity was not going to last forever. Remember how Isaiah, rather I
should say Jeremiah, Jeremiah the prophet, speaks of it there
in chapter 29 and verse 10. Jeremiah 29 verse 10, Thus saith
the Lord, that after 70 years be accomplished
at Babylon I will visit you and perform my good word towards
you in causing you to return to this place for I know the
thoughts that I think towards you saith the Lord thoughts of
peace and not of evil to give you an expected end you see it's
the same message that we have Here in Isaiah, isn't it? My
thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways. As the heavens are higher than
the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts
than your thoughts. I know the thought that I think.
Thoughts of peace, not of evil, to give you an expected end.
Then shall you call upon me and you shall go and And pray unto
me, and I will hearken unto you. And ye shall seek me, and find
me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart. And I
will be found of you, saith the Lord. And I will turn away your
captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, from
all the places, whither I have driven you, saith the Lord. And
I will bring you again to the place whence I caused you to
be carried away captive. Here is God's great promise to
them, that he would grant a blessed restoration. And we see how the
word was fulfilled in Daniel. There in his prayer, Daniel chapter
9, it says Daniel is reading those words of Jeremiah. that he understands that God
has accomplished the 70 years and he sets his face to pray
unto the Lord God and he prays and the Lord hears him and it's
not just the words of Jeremiah being fulfilled it's the words
also of Ezekiel those words that we have in Ezekiel 36 I said
to Lord God I will yet be inquired of For this, by the house of
Israel, I will increase them with men as a flock." Well, that
was what God promised. He would cause them to seek Him,
and they would cry to Him, I will increase them with men as a,
like a flock, He says, as a holy flock, as the flock of Jerusalem
in a solemn feast. So shall the way set be filled
with flocks of men, and they shall know that I am the Lord,
and then well chapter 37 the hand of the Lord is upon the
prophet and carries him in the spirit and sets him down in the
midst of the valley full of bones and behold there were very many
in the open valley he says and they were very dry but then how
the prophet is to prophesy unto the bones is to command the bones
that they come together And he does so, and the Lord
God Himself causes his bone to come to bone, and they're covered
with sinews and flesh, and they stand up a mighty army. You know
the account that we have there in the 37th chapter of Ezekiel. How the Lord, you see, will hear
and answer the prayer of His people. All that salvation was
near. That salvation was near to come.
My salvation is near to come, he says, and my righteousness
to be revealed. Well, that was true for them,
but surely, as we've already intimated, there's something
more than historical significance. The word doesn't just belong
to ethnic Israel in the Old Testament. The word really belongs to God's
true Israel, to His spiritual Israel. and what we have here
principally is the promise of Christ coming when God says my
salvation is near to come and my righteousness to be revealed
that righteousness comes in the person of him who is the Lord
our righteousness and we have those great words back in chapter
45 and verse 8, drop down your heavens from above, and let the
skies pour down righteousness, let the earth open, let them
bring forth salvation, and let righteousness bring up together,
I the Lord have created it, or the coming of the Lord Jesus,
when the fullness of the time was come. God sends forth His
Son, made of a woman, made under the law. to redeem them that
were under the law, that they might receive the adoption of
sons. He is that one who is the seed of the woman, of course. Spoken of there in Genesis 3.15,
we referred to the dreadful curse the thorns and the briars that
come because of man's sin, but in the midst of that dreadful
curse that God is speaking of, there's a promise. There's a
promise of the Messiah. The seed of the woman is made
of a woman. He has no human father. The Virgin
Mary, she's with child of the Holy Ghost. He's made of a woman. He's made under the law. for
He comes to stand in that low place of His people and the Lord
is well pleased for His righteousness sake He will magnify the law
He will make it honourable here is that salvation and He
comes in the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ and
so it was in the fullness of the time God sends forth His
Son the great mystery of godliness God was manifest in the flesh
and the salvation has come and the blessed man or the blessed
man that's spoken of here in the text is that man who also
knows what it is to have experienced that personal coming of the Lord
Jesus Christ in his own experience surely The salvation is applied. The salvation is a reality in
the man's soul now. The Spirit works within him.
Brings him to the place of the conviction of his sins. Causes
him to see the barrenness of his own soul. And that all his
salvation must be in the person and work of another, even the
Lord Jesus Christ. This is that blessed man. He
lays hold by faith. Wasn't that Paul's own experience,
how he brings it out? I love those portions in Paul's
epistles when he does speak of himself. He doesn't want to speak
of himself. Time and again he's compelled
to. But when he does he can speak of the Lord's gracious dealings
with him and there in that third chapter of Philippians. He speaks of how the Lord laid
hold of him. And as the Lord laid hold of
him, so he must lay hold of the Lord. What does he say there
in verse 12 of Philippians 3? Notice
how I had already a time? we're already perfect but I follow
after if that I may be apprehended if that I may apprehend rather
that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus he was apprehended
the Lord laid hold of him he was arrested there at the very
gates of Damascus where he was bent on the destruction of Christians
and Christianity What a remarkable experience!
He was called by the grace of God and he says, he follows after
that I may apprehend, that I may lay hold of that for which also I am apprehended
of Christ Jesus. Brethren, he says, I count not
myself to apprehend it, but this one thing I do, forgetting those
things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which
are before, I press toward the mark. for the prize of the high
calling of God in Christ Jesus. Oh, this is his determination,
to be ever laying hold of the one who is promised, even the
Lord Jesus Christ. This is that blessed man. Whatever the blessed man, he
heareth me. We were considering it last Lord's
Day there in Proverbs 8.34 Blessed is the man that heareth mine Watching at my gates Waiting
at the posts of my doors Is that how we come to the Lord's Day? We come that we might again apprehend
something more of the Lord Jesus Christ that we might be those
who are truly growing in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord
and Savior. We want the Lord to come again
in that personal way to lay hold of us, that we might in turn
lay hold of Him. The Blessed Man, you see, He
lays hold on the Sabbath day, He understands the significance
of the Sabbath day, He sees it very much as the Lord's Day,
and he wants the Lord to come and have those gracious dealings
with him. Whilst there is a word here to
those Jews who were taken into captivity, that the captivity
wouldn't be forever, there would be a restoration. Principally,
these opening verses are speaking of the coming of Christ. in the
fullness of the time but how he comes to us and we can anticipate
his coming as it were sabbath by sabbath lord's day by lord's
day and then finally here is there not that assurance that
there will be comfort in the time of trouble there is comfort
in every time of trouble in the captivity those who were true
jews not just outward Jews, but inward
Jews, circumcised in their hearts, those who were the true spiritual
Israel, didn't they find comfort in the midst of all their trials? As they had the Word of God,
as they had the prophecy of Isaiah, and the ministry of men like
Jeremiah and Ezekiel, in the midst of all their troubles,
all those desolations, the assurance that there would be restorations. Well so too for the Christian
believer in the midst of every trial, is there not that rest
that is found in the Lord Jesus Christ? He says my salvation is near
to come and my righteousness to be revealed or the anticipation,
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. The nearness, the nearness
of the salvation, even in the midst of troubles, even in the
midst of great deep trials, the nearness of salvation, I have
heard that he says in the time of accepted in the day of salvation
I have suckered them behold now is the accepted time behold now
is the day of salvation God is our refuge he's a very present
help in every time of trouble that's our comfort is it not
that the Lord is near and that he will come and he will reveal
His grace to us time and time again. All the blessed man then,
what a Sabbath day he anticipates, what a Sabbath day he longs after
and yearns for, even some new discoveries of the Lord Jesus
Christ. All the Lord grant that we might
know something then of what's being spoken of here in the text
this morning, that blessed man. and that blessed man's Sabbath
die. 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. We sang those words, didn't we,
of William Gadsby's hymn on the Sabbath. And that second verse,
he says, when foes without and foes within, wrath, law and Satan,
guilt and sin, the child of God molest, fatigued with sin, distressed
with fear, he enters into Christ and there he finds a settled
rest. Jesus is Zion's only rest, thrice
happy as the man unblessed. that into Him believes. O God, grant that we might know
in some measure then the truth of the words that we sing by
that gracious application of the Spirit to our souls. Amen.