Good evening, everyone. We're
going to begin our evening service by standing and singing 318.
I need the every hour 318. I need Thee every hour, most
gracious Lord. No tender voice like Thine can
peace afford. I need Thee, oh, I need Thee. Every hour I need Thee. Oh, bless me now, my Savior. I need thee every hour, stay
thou nearby. Temptations lose their power
when thou art nigh. I need thee, oh, I need thee. Every hour I need thee, O bless
me now, my Saviour, I come to thee. I need thee every hour,
enjoy your pain. Come quickly and abide, for life
is vain. I need thee, oh, I need thee. Every hour I need thee, O bless
me now, my Savior, I come to thee. I need thee every hour,
most holy one. Oh, make me thine indeed, thou
blessed son. I need thee, oh, I need thee. Every hour I need thee. Oh, bless me now, my Savior. I come to thee. Thank you. Good evening. Take your Bibles
and let's turn to Philippians chapter 3. Let's read Philippians chapter 3. Paul writes, Finally, my brethren,
rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you,
to me indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe. Beware
of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision. For
we are the circumcision which worship God in the spirit, and
rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. Though I might also have confidence
in the flesh, if any other man thinketh that he hath whereof
he might trust in the flesh, I more. Circumcise the eighth
day. of the stock of Israel, of the
tribe of Benjamin, and Hebrew of the Hebrews, as touching the
law of Pharisee. Concerning zeal, persecuting
the church, touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. But what things were gained to
me, those I counted lost for Christ. Yea, doubtless, and I
count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss
of all things. And you count them but dung that
I may win Christ and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness,
which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of
Christ, the righteousness, which is of God by faith, that I may
know him. and the power of his resurrection
and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his
death, if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection
of the dead. Not as though I had already attained,
either were already perfect, but I follow after, if that I
may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ
Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself
to have apprehended 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. Let us therefore, as many
as be perfect, be thus minded, and if in anything ye be otherwise
minded, God shall reveal even this unto you." Let's pray. Our gracious Lord, Father, we
thank you for your great mercy and grace, which you show to
your people and give to your people in your blessed son, the
Lord Jesus Christ. Father, thank you for this covenant
of grace, which you have brought us under by the blood of Christ.
Lord, let us never forget how needy we are, how dependent we
are upon you. upon your son for all things,
because we have no righteousness of our own. Lord, we have nothing
to boast of and glory of in this flesh. What you show us is our
need of you. And thank you so much for showing
us the sufficiency of your son, Jesus. Lord, we thank you and
we thank you for The brethren that you've gathered here together
tonight to hear your word, we pray that you would pour out
your spirit upon us. Help me, Lord, to preach the
word faithfully. Help me to walk in the truth
of the gospel. And I pray, Lord, that you'd
bless your people, that you would comfort your people, that you
would give them your spirit to hear the word and to receive
it and to walk in the Lord Jesus Christ by faith. Lord, help us. You know our needs. You know our sicknesses, our
weaknesses, our faults. You know how foolish we are in
the flesh. Lord, help us. Forgive us. Wash
us in the blood of Christ and refresh our spirits. Lord, you
seek truth in the inward parts. And if you don't give it to us,
Lord, we're undone. There's nothing good of us. But
we thank you for your son, we thank you for your mercy, we
thank you for your grace. And Lord, we pray that you would
indeed establish this work here, that you would call out your
people, that you would gather your people here to this house,
and that, Lord, you would help us and make us to be faithful
to you and to be good stewards with the things that you've given
to us here, and that you would minister this word to your people
that they will be fed and nourished with the body and blood of Christ,
because he's everything. And Lord, we thank you for him.
Lord, you know the concerns we have in our minds, and the thoughts,
the worries, the fears. And Lord, you are God, and you're
seated on the throne. And we thank you that you are.
Help us to keep looking to you always. It's in Christ's name
we pray and give thanks. Amen. All right, brother. I'd like to say 147. No Dark
Valley. 147. There will be no Dark Valley. It's a little slow, but it's
nice. ? There'll be no dark valley when Jesus comes ? ? There'll
be no dark valley when Jesus comes ? ? There'll be no dark
valley when Jesus comes ? ? To gather his loved ones home ?
To gather his loved ones home, to gather his loved ones home. Let me know, dark valley, when
Jesus comes to gather his loved ones home. There'll be no more
sorrow when Jesus comes There'll be no more sorrow when Jesus
comes But a glorious morrow when Jesus comes To gather his loved
ones home To gather his loved ones home. To gather his loved
ones home. There'll be no dark valley when
Jesus comes to gather his loved ones home. There'll be no more
weeping when Jesus comes There'll be no more weeping when Jesus
comes But a blessed reaping when Jesus comes To gather his loved
ones home To gather his loved ones home To gather his loved
ones home There'll be no dark valley when Jesus comes To gather
his loved ones home There'll be songs of greeting when Jesus
comes. There'll be songs of greeting
when Jesus comes. And a joyful meeting when Jesus
comes. To gather his loved ones home. To gather his loved ones home. to gather his loved ones home. There'll be no dark valley when
Jesus comes to gather his loved ones home. I noticed that last
verse, they slow it even more, but that person plays that way. Every last verse is slower, but
anyway, thank you. Thank you, brother. I enjoyed
that. All right. Take your Bibles and turn to
Isaiah chapter 58. Isaiah chapter 58. We're going to be looking at
the last two verses in this chapter, verses 13 and 14. Now, here in
this chapter, We've seen that our Lord is describing
for us. He's teaching us what a true
fast is. It's His fast. It's not our fast. It's His fast. And His fast can
only be described as Him bringing forth fruits of righteousness
being wrought in His people. He brings forth the fruit so
that the truth of the gospel, which is Christ in you, the hope
glory it's made evident in the child of God by the grace of
your God he's working all things in his people for his glory now
all these were these words here they're testifying gloriously
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ they're speaking of his
salvation his fruits what he accomplishes in you who believe
on him, you his people. Now, we see some of these words,
we could take any of these verses here, but look at verses eight
and the beginning of verse nine, and you see that they're speaking
of your Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at verse 8. Then shall thy light break forth
as the morning. Christ is thy light. And thine
health shall spring forth speedily. Christ is thy health. And thy
righteousness shall go before thee. He is thy righteousness. The glory of the Lord shall be
thy reward. That is, The glory of Christ
gathers you together, all his people together, into his kingdom.
Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall answer. Thou shalt
cry, and he shall say, here I am. That's all blessings of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now, when Christ is revealed
to the child, their mind is turned from self. Our eyes are taken
off of ourselves. Our eyes are removed from the
things that we're doing. in laboring and striving to create
a righteousness for ourselves which is nothing more than self-righteousness
and it's not acceptable to the Lord. Our self-righteousness
is not acceptable to the Lord. And he takes our eyes and turns
them from self and puts our eyes on the Lord Jesus Christ, to
behold His righteousness, to look to Him alone. Now, in these
last two verses, therefore, we are given another sight of Christ. We're given another view of the
believers' joy and rejoicing in the Lord Jesus Christ, to
behold Him, to see Him for all His glory, so that our hope is
fixed in Christ. again and again, our peace and
our rest. I've titled this message, Call
the Sabbath a Delight. Call the Sabbath a Delight. Now, much of religion reads these
two verses. And when they read these verses,
they read them in a very fleshly manner. And of course, that's
consistent with man's worship of God, which is very fleshly. In fact, it's only fleshly and
it's only carnal. And that's all that man can bring
forth before God is his fleshly works, his carnal mind. And this whole chapter from the
very beginning of it, when the Lord sends his prophet, he tells
him, Go and declare the sin of my people. Tell them of their
transgressions. Point it out. Don't hold back
anything. You tell them the truth and expose
their carnal nature, their carnal religion, their works that they
are trusting in. We see here in this chapter that
man, his desire is to worship God, to get God to notice him
and to reward him for his labors, to reward him for his efforts
and works. If that's how we worship God,
then when we come to these verses, we're naturally, in the flesh,
going to interpret them in a very natural, carnal, physical way. A very physical way. And it'll
be very different, you'll understand these verses very differently
from how we from what the Lord has shown me in the light of
Jesus Christ, who is the believer's hope. But if we are consistent
with the spiritual nature of this chapter and by the spirit
that our God has given to us in Christ, then we're going to
continue to see Christ throughout this chapter, from the beginning
all the way to the end. It's all speaking of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And when we see Christ, we rightly
understand the scriptures. When we see these words in light
of the Lord Jesus Christ, then we rightly understand the words.
and we see the one of whom this word speaks of. All right, let's
read verse 13 together. Let's just read the whole verse
here. 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, and shalt
honor him. not doing thine own ways, nor
finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words." Now,
let me just say, like we saw last time, when you see these
words, if and then, when you see that kind of language, you
know that this is works-based language. That's because it was
delivered under the old covenant. Now the Old Covenant has been
fulfilled perfectly by the Lord Jesus Christ. He has fulfilled
all the righteousness of the law. He is the very righteousness
of his people and in him we have fulfilled the law perfectly. The justice of the law is satisfied
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we may read these words
in the New Testament language under the covenant of grace so
that to you in Christ who believe on Christ, you have fulfilled
them. It's not an if then, it's a since
then. Since you have fulfilled these,
since you are Christ's, then these are the blessings which
your Lord brings forth in you his people. And so we can say
these words because Christ is our salvation. He's our deliverance
from the judgment of the law. The law has nothing more to say
to us. The law is satisfied. The justice has been satisfied
in him. We've been crucified with Christ
and we are no longer married to that law. We don't answer
to that law. We don't stand before the law in Adam. We stand before
the law Christ and we're dead to the law and the law is dead
to us we're alive in our husband the Lord Jesus Christ and we
stand in his inheritance the second Adam the Lord Jesus Christ
turn over to Romans chapter 8 before we get started in these verses
let's look at Romans chapter 8 and and see these truths that
declare that in Christ there is no more condemnation. We're
delivered from the law. We stand whole and complete before
our God in Christ. Romans 8 verse 1 through 4, and
we'll have some comments as we go through the verses. There
is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus,
who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. Now what
is meant by walking not after the flesh? Well in our study
in Galatians we've been seeing a very good example about circumcision. The Judaizers had come to the
Gentile churches who weren't raised under the law and they
were trying to Judaize them. They were trying to bring circumcision
to the Gentiles and telling them that this was necessary for their
salvation. But we've already established
that in Christ, He is our righteousness. He has fulfilled the old covenant,
and we stand under the covenant of grace. We're under the covenant
of grace complete in our Lord. And so if we add circumcision
to what Christ has already done, Now we're walking in the flesh. That's what Paul is saying. We
don't walk after the flesh. We're not looking to add religious
badges to the robe that Christ has given to us. Christ is all. We're complete. We're fully dressed.
We're wearing the wedding garment that Christ has given to us.
were complete in him. The Judaizer said, except ye
be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved. Such in one has fallen from grace. They're looking to their own
works. Now Romans 8 verse 2, for the
law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free
from the law of sin and death. So that law which details the
manner of Moses has no more influence over you who stand in the Lord
Jesus Christ. He's our peace and rest. The
law doesn't dictate whether we feel peace or rest because we
don't stand in the law. We're not laboring under the
law. It doesn't matter what the law says. Our peace and our rest
is found in the Lord Jesus Christ. So the law has no more influence
over our peace and our rest before the Lord. Galatians 3 verses
11 and 12 Paul said that no man is justified by the law in the
sight of God is evident for the just shall live by faith and
the law is not a faith but that man that doeth them shall live
in them and so We see that we are, we that look to the Lord,
believing Him, are justified. That's why we look to Him, because
He's revealed faith in us, and we walk by faith, trusting the
Lord Jesus Christ. We don't need the law to tell
us that cheating and lying and murdering and stealing is bad. We know that. The Spirit reveals
that in us. The Spirit teaches us. He shows
us. not to do evil against our neighbor,
but to love them as ourselves. He's written that law of the
spirit and the law of liberty on our hearts and shown us Christ. And we don't want to walk in
those ways. That's not our desire. That's
not how we think we should live. We want to live in a manner that's
honoring to the Lord because we love him and he has saved
us. It's already accomplished in
Christ. Now look at verse three in Romans
8, three, for what the law could not do in that it was weak through
the flesh, God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful
flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh. And so our God
has delivered his people from that enslaving bondage of sin
works religion. when we were afraid and we thought
this is how, this is telling us what we better do otherwise
God's going to get us and we labored in the law for want of
reward or we labored in the law because of the threatenings of
the law or we labored under the law because we feared that we
were going to stand before God and be damned to hell if we didn't
keep the law fully and properly and do our best before the law
because we were afraid we were still in bondage we weren't resting
in the Lord Jesus Christ but our God has delivered us from
that and revealed to us what he's done in giving us entirely
into the hand of Christ committed all our safekeeping all our deliverance
all our deliverance all our provision is given into Christ's hands. That's why Christ is exalted. That's why the Father has exalted
Christ and seated him at his right hand on the throne of God
because all things have been committed to his care. He's implementing
and executing all the will of God even now, even then and even
now. All right, Romans 8.4, that the
righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not
after the flesh. Everything's given into Christ's
hands that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled
in us who walk not after the flesh. We've ceased working for
a righteousness under the law for that righteousness. where
that's walking in the flesh. Trying to add circumcision, walking
in the flesh. Trying to add physical law keeping,
looking to the law as a rule of life, that's walking after
the flesh. We're looking to add something
to Christ. We're putting it on that same
level with the Lord Jesus Christ. But now we walk after the spirit,
being born again of the spirit of Christ. So let's see this. Let's see this now that this
is exactly what Isaiah is saying here by the Spirit of God in
Isaiah 58 verse 13. Let's just take the first phrase. If thou turn away thy foot from
the Sabbath. It's saying here that the believer's
foot is turned away from the Sabbath. And what that means
is we're not trying to accomplish to accomplish the rest of the
Sabbath by our labors. We're not looking to try and
do anything that accomplishes our rest because it is accomplished
in the Lord Jesus Christ. We're not trying to come to a
rest with God and a peace with God and a reconciliation with
God by the law. We trust that Christ has done
all that. He's provided everything for
us. And so we walk by faith, trusting
the Lord Jesus Christ entirely. If we didn't trust him, we'd
be running back to the law to do things, to start adding components
and little religious badges by little things that we felt were
good in the law that we could do. And then we would take those
things and say, see God, look at all those shiny objects I've
put on this robe of Christ that you've given to me. We'd be adding
things like circumcision. And we'd be adding various things
that we could do that we may judge others who can't do those
things or don't see the importance of those things that we have
placed on them. And so the Lord's delivered us
from that kind of biting and devouring one another and thinking
we've done something for the Lord. And so next the Lord says,
if thou turn away from doing thy pleasure on my holy day. Now, remember that the Lord is
showing us that the fast of the Lord here is equivalent to the
life of the believer. This chapter is describing these
fruits of righteousness that the Lord is bringing forth and
bearing in his children. in his people. He's teaching
his people. For us to say the law is a rule
of life and must be a rule of life of the believer is to say,
well, God's just not that good of a teacher. The spirit just
isn't able to keep the hearts of his people. Christ just isn't
enough. They've got to have something
physical, something tangible. They need tablets of stone to
look to to know how to live. Otherwise, they're going to live
wickedly. Well, so the spirit can't keep our hearts, the spirit
can't teach us, the Lord can't keep our hearts and fill us with
his spirit and cause us to walk by faith in the new man. And
so the Lord here, he's showing us that all our hope is the Lord
Jesus Christ. And so We stand in Christ. He's the gospel day of the believer. Christ is the gospel day. He
is the holy day that we rest in. He's the day star which has
risen in your hearts. Turn over to 2 Peter chapter
1. Let's look at 2 Peter 1 and we're
gonna pick up in verse 17. For he received from God, this
is 2 Peter 1 17, for he received from God the Father honor and
glory when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory.
This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased." This was
on the Mount of Transfiguration when our Lord was there and appeared
Moses and Elijah, the Law and the Prophets, and the Father's
voice came and said, this is my beloved son, hear him. Hear
him, because the law and the prophets testify, they all speak
of and testify of Christ who should come, of Christ who fulfilled
all the covenant of the law for his people and has established
with his blood the covenant of grace. Hear him. He's the one
whom the Father is well pleased in. Verse 18, in this voice which
came from heaven, we heard when we were with him in the Holy
Mount, we have also a more sure word of prophecy, whereunto ye
do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in
a dark place until the day dawn, that holy day that our Lord speaks
of here. and the day star arise in your
hearts." So Christ is God's holy day rising in the believer's
heart in whom we trust and believe. He's our Sabbath day rest. He's the holy day of rest that
we delight in look to and believe so our pleasure is here described
as fleshly works in this chapter when it speaks of our pleasure
it's speaking of fleshly works not just the sins that that we
do that that that various churches say are sins like smoking cigarettes
and having a beer and lying and stealing and all these things.
But if you're going to talk about canceling cigarette smoking,
well you better stop eating fatty hamburgers too. And you better
stop doing behaviors and riding motorcycles because they're dangerous
and risky to your body. Don't do any of those things.
So the Lord is pointing us to our fleshly works, even our fleshly
works in religion that we do to try and get God's attention. Look at verse 3, Isaiah 58 verse
3. Look at what they're doing. Wherefore,
why have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not? Why have
we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge? Behold,
in the day of your fast, the Lord says, ye find pleasure,
and exact all your labors. That's man's day. Pay me that
thou ow'st, God. I'm doing all these works for
you. I want you to take notice. I want every last penny. for
what I've done." That's man. He wants to be rewarded for all
his religious works. That's the pleasure. He's delighting
in himself. He's glorying in his works. He's
glorying in self. He's taking pleasure in himself
and what he does. That's man's holy day. That's
man's holy day. That's what he thinks is pleasing
to God, and all he's doing is delighting in himself and saying,
see, God, I've just got a few more pennies on the good side
to weigh out the bad things that I do. And the Lord's telling
us that's fleshly self-righteousness. That's where we do religious
works, and we want God to honor us. We want God to reward us
for our sacrifices and afflictions. that we bring upon ourselves
for God and think that He owes us something. And God says, in
the day of your fast, you find pleasure and exact all your labors. We want payment from God. But
in Christ, He teaches us, turn away from doing thy pleasure
on my holy day. Don't labor for righteousness
to add to what Christ's righteousness has already accomplished for
you and has already been brought in you. You are washed. You are
sanctified. You are the Lords in Jesus Christ. Rest in the Lord Jesus Christ. Trust Him. Believe Him. Have
confidence in your God. Trust Him. That's what Christ
has brought for you. He is our very salvation. And
so we're being taught of God throughout our lives to turn
away from dead religion, because it comes so easy to these hands
of flesh and to these minds of flesh. And we think this is the
way of life, but our Lord shows us again and again, look to me,
look to my son, trust him, rest in him and his obedience alone. 2 Corinthians 10 verses 3 through
5 says, for though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after
the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare
are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds,
casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth
itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity
every thought to the obedience of Christ. We're remembering,
Lord, you've done it all. Lord, thank you. We're rejoicing
in Him. We're delighting in the salvation
that our God has provided for us freely, abundantly in His
Son. And so the believer joyfully
confesses to others who their rest is, that it's Christ. We
delight in the finished work of our Lord, which he accomplished
on the cross when he came faithfully robed in flesh and went as our
high priest to the cross before the father and offered up himself
as an atonement for our sins to make reconciliation for the
people that we might know our God and have fellowship with
him. being forgiven of all our sins by the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's what he's accomplished.
That's what he's done. And the believer delights in
him and rejoices in his salvation. And so by trusting his salvation
for all our righteousness and acceptance with our God, we are
calling the Sabbath a delight. You that delight in the Lord
Jesus Christ, you are calling the Sabbath a delight. We're
confessing that rest of God, that Sabbath that God has provided
for me to deliver me from all my fears and worries and labors
and fear of death and fear of the devil and fear of myself. He delivers us from that into
the arms of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's our delight. And so, We
look, by looking at the Sabbath as a physical day to be kept
in your flesh as critical to your salvation, that's really
no different than the Judaizers who rolled into the Gentile churches
saying, except you be circumcised after the manner of Moses, you
cannot be saved. Christ is the Holy of the Lord. He's the holy of the Lord, he's
honorable, and we do honor him through faith, through faith. And we trust that his blood covers
me. And God is pleased with me in
his son because he's well pleased with Christ. And so our Lord
said, if I honor myself, my honor is nothing. It is my father that
honoreth me, of whom ye say that he is your God. If the Lord God
is your God, then you will delight in Christ. You will delight in
the Sabbath. There is no other salvation.
There is no other hope. There's nothing that we can do
to add to the work of Christ. All we can do is take away from
it if left to what we did. All we would do is tear it apart
and rip it down. But by the grace of God, he keeps
us. He melts our hard hearts. He
strips us of vain dead works, and He keeps showing us Christ,
and He keeps feeding us with the body of Christ, and the blood
of Christ, and refreshes us, and keeps us, and every time
we need Him, and call out to Him, He says, here I am, here
I am, look to Me. And so we exalt our Lord in this,
not ourselves in keeping a fleshly day and then exacting our labors
from God. We rest in Christ. All right,
now the Lord at the end of verse 13, he gives us three things
that are dishonoring to our own flesh. They're stripping us of
any glory and they're putting all the glory on our Lord. He
says, not doing thine own ways. Well, we see how the natural
mind and the natural heart of man are enmity against God. And so our ways are fleshly ways
of death. Man thinks that for his efforts
in religion, that they're just as good and just as sufficient
as Christ is. And he's putting his works and
his thoughts on the same level as Christ. And that's dishonoring.
That's dishonoring. Nothing that we could do is more
dishonoring than thinking that that we can compete with the
Lord Jesus Christ. And yet that's exactly what man
does because he lightly esteems Christ. And if he thinks, if
he honestly thinks that his works are good, he's calling God a
liar because the Lord says, I'm well pleased with Christ, hear
him. He never said that to anyone
else. He never said that of anyone else's works. Now, then the second,
oh, actually, look at Isaiah 55. Go to Isaiah 55, and let's
look at verse seven, and we're gonna read through verse 11.
I know it's a little lengthy, but there's a purpose for us
to see. So our Lord says in verse seven,
let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts.
and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him,
and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For 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.
For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and
returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring
forth in bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to
the eater. So shall my word be that goeth
forth out of my mouth. It shall not return unto me void,
but it shall accomplish that which I please and it shall prosper
in the thing where to I sent it. And what the Lord is saying
to us there is that our God's ways are fruitful and our ways
are unfruitful. When we labor, even in religious
things, the best we can do is bring forth fruit unto death. The believer brings forth living
fruit. Fruit that's acceptable unto
God by the seed of the Lord Jesus Christ, our husband. That's how
we bring forth fruit. Looking to Christ, trusting in
Him, believing Him who is our Sabbath rest. Now, the second
thing he says is, nor finding thine own pleasure. Nor finding
thine own pleasure. So the Lord's people were being
turned from those self-indulging works which give pleasure to
their fleshly nature, in which we try to bind God to give us
rewards for our works. So when Christ comes and teaches
us He gives us faith and we walk by faith in the Spirit. We walk looking to Him and trusting
Him. Now, we'll be troubled by this
flesh till the day we die. This flesh fights against the
truth. This flesh wants to do its own
thing and go its own way, which the Lord allows to continue because
He's showing us our need of Him. He's keeping us ever dependent
on His grace, on the Lord Jesus Christ, lest we should think
more highly of ourselves than we ought to think in glory and
self. So we do feel the struggle, we
do feel the lust and the burning, but we keep looking to Christ
and trusting Him and seeing our need of Him and delighting in
Him and glorying in Him. until this flesh is laid aside
and then we'll glory in him without the flesh. We'll continue to
rejoice in our Lord. And so we do struggle and we
walk by faith and see the sufficiency of our Savior. But the believer
does want to walk in a manner that's pleasing to the Lord.
When he saves us, we want to do works not for justification,
not for sanctification, but because we are justified and because
we are sanctified. We want to honor the Lord. The
Lord puts that in us. And so turn over to Hebrews 11. Hebrews 11, and look at verses
five and six. By faith, Enoch was translated
that he should not see death and was not found because God
had translated him. For before his translation, he
had this testimony that he pleased God. But without faith, it is
impossible to please him. And so we see the way that we
please our God is by faith. Anything we do that's not done
in faith is faithless and it's not a good work. But anything
we do, we do to the glory of God. Whether we eat or drink,
we drink to the glory of God. We serve Him. We look to Him
and trust Him. And so he that cometh to God
must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that
diligently seek him. And so he turns us from seeking
ourselves and seeking our own pleasure and to delight in Christ
our Sabbath rest. Now the third thing that he says
in verse 13 is he says, nor speaking thine own words. And what that
means is that as far as salvation is concerned, as far as the gospel
is concerned, as far as the Sabbath rest of our God is concerned,
we don't speak our thoughts and we don't speak our ways. No one
cares what my opinion is, no one cares about my ideas or what
I think God means or what God does. And no one cares about
what you think and your opinions. We want to know the truth as
God has revealed it to us in His Word. And so we bow to our
God and we bow to His Word. As Job said, though He slay me,
yet will I trust in Him. And so we may be putting down
our own flesh in saying these things, it's because we don't
have any confidence in the flesh. As Paul said to the Philippians
in 3.3, we are the circumcision which worship God in the spirit
and rejoice in Christ Jesus. We call the Sabbath a delight. We rejoice in Christ Jesus and
have no confidence in the flesh, but we have every confidence
in Christ. We believe him. and we trust
him and therefore the Lord is turning us away. He's turned
us away and it is turning us away from our carnal words and
works and our ways. We found a better word, the word
of God who's coming to flesh. We found a better way, Christ
who is the way, the truth and the life and he's our only way
in acceptance with the Father. All right, let's look at verse
14 together. This will be shorter. Verse 14
Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord, and I will cause
thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with
the heritage of Jacob thy father, for the mouth of the Lord hath
spoken it. Now, if you're keeping a physical
Sabbath day in order for God to take notice of your sanctifying
works and to bless you for it, you're laboring in the law after
the manner of Moses. You're trusting in that to get
God's notice and for God to bless you for what you're trying to
do for him. That's working in the law after
the manner of Moses. but the Lord has turned our hearts
to look to his Son for our rest and our peace and our joy. And
so our Lord, he summarizes this by saying that the one who delights
himself in God's Sabbath, which is the Lord Jesus Christ, he
promises to bless them, to give them an inheritance. And he describes
it here in two ways. First he says, and I will cause
thee to ride upon the high places of the earth. In other words,
we inherit. eternal life in the Lord Jesus
Christ. The psalmist said in Psalm 1833,
He maketh my feet like Hines' feet, and setteth me upon my
high places. And Paul affirms in Colossians
3 verses 1-4, He said, If ye then be risen with Christ, seek
those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right
hand of God. Set your affections on things
above, not on things of the earth. For ye are dead, and your life
is hid with Christ. When Christ, who is our life,
shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory. you who rest in Christ. You have
the promise of God that he will cause thee to ride upon the high
places of the earth. You have an inheritance with
your God in Christ. Second, he says that he will
feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father. There's a promise
in the word in Genesis 28 verse 14 that's given to Jacob and
it says, thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth. And thou
shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north,
and to the south. And in thee and in thy seed shall
all the families of the earth be blessed. Now Jacob is named
specifically. It's not Abraham. He doesn't
name Isaac, instead he references Jacob here. And the reason, I
believe the reason why the Lord does this is because he's speaking
here, in this chapter, he's speaking to all the chosen, redeemed seed
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And in Christ, none of his children
are lost. None of his sheep are lost. Christ didn't fail. He's the
successful Savior. And so he's accomplished our
salvation. Abraham had his Ishmael. Isaac had his Esau. But Jacob had 12 sons. And all
12 of his sons believed and trusted the Lord. They were all saved.
When we look at them, we see horrible sin. We see things of
shame. We see ourselves in the things
that they did. And we see men who we wonder,
how can the Lord love them? And yet we know they are the
children of God. And they picture the children
of God. Every one of Jacob's children
were saved. None were lost. And so the Lord
here is speaking to the whole body of Christ. and not one of
them is lost. He shall not fail in any way
to bring them safely home to the Father. And so Christ is
our perfect rest. He's our peace. you that hope
in him and trust him and believe him for your righteousness, you
shall not fall away, you shall not be lost, you won't be shut
out. And the Lord saying, there's just too many, we can't do it.
All his children are saved. All his children are brought
home in Christ. And so we call upon the Lord
Jesus Christ and we call him a delight. And in Christ, we
call the Sabbath a delight because Jesus Christ is the child of
God's Sabbath rest. He's the holy day. He's the honorable
of the Lord. And we honor the Lord, believing
Him and trusting Him and resting in Him. If you see something
in you you don't like, call upon the Lord. Don't run to the Ten
Commandments. Call upon the Lord, say, Lord,
have mercy, help me, Lord, save me, deliver me from this sin
that I hate so much. Trust him, he keeps his people. His blood is sufficient to save
us to the uttermost, amen. All right, let's pray. Our gracious Lord, we thank you,
Father, for showing us Christ. for carrying
through this whole chapter. Christ, Christ, Christ. He's everything, Lord. Thank
you. Lord, thank you for delivering
us and turning us away from doing our own works, from speaking
our own words, and from finding pleasure in our ways and thinking
that the things we do gain us some special merit with you. But Lord, we've heard your word,
which has come into our hearts with power, that you delight
in your Son, Jesus Christ. And Lord, you've given us faith,
whereby we delight in him too. Thank you, Lord. because we know
that's all of your grace. Otherwise, we keep going back
to fleshly things and carnal things and thinking that these
things were our salvation. Lord, we're so thankful that
Christ is enough. We don't want to walk in fleshly
ways at all. We want to walk in a manner that's
honoring. to you, and pleasing to you,
and we know that's in Christ. And that man whose heart and
mind is set on the Lord, Lord, you say you keep them. Thou wilt
keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee. Lord,
keep us ever looking to Christ. It's in his name we pray and
give thanks. Amen. All right, Joe. Let's all stand and sing a closing
hymn, 288, wonderful piece, 288. We'll sing the first four verses. Pour away in the depths of my
spirit tonight, rose a melody sweeter than sunlight. In celestial like strains it
unceasingly falls, O'er my soul like an infinite call. Peace, peace, wonderful peace,
coming down from the Father above. Sweep over my spirit forever,
I pray, in fathomless billows of love. What a treasure I have in this
wonderful piece, buried deep in the heart of my soul. So secure that no power can mine
it away, while the years of eternity roll. Peace, peace, wonderful peace,
coming down from the Father above. Sleep over my spirit forever,
I pray, in fathomless billows of love. I am resting tonight in this
wonderful peace, resting sweetly in Jesus' control. For I'm kept from all danger
by night and by day, and His glory is flooding my soul. Peace, peace, wonderful peace,
coming down from the Father above. Sweep over my spirit forever,
I pray, In fathomless billows of love. And methinks when I rise to that
city of peace, where the author of peace I shall see, that one
strain of the song which the ransom will sing in that heavenly
kingdom shall be. Peace, peace, wonderful peace,
coming down from the Father above. Sweep over my spirit forever,
I pray, in fathomless billows of love.