If you will take your Bibles
and turn with me to Isaiah chapter 56. Isaiah, the 56th chapter. We'll be looking at verses 1
and 2 this morning. As I've said in the reading this
morning, there's so much here, but I believe that it would be
best summed up in verses 1 and 2. This morning we're going to
look at these two verses. So, Isaiah 56, verses 1 and 2,
and the title of the message is, God's Near Salvation. God's Near Salvation. Isaiah 56, verse 1 says, Thus
saith the Lord, Keep ye judgment, and do justice. Here it is. 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 hands from doing
any evil. Now here we have the prophet
of God, And he tells of God's great salvation and the commandments
of God to His people to be vigilant. God declares His salvation and
then gives a command of vigilance. He says, keep judgment, do justice. Why? For my salvation is near. My salvation is near. Now, no
doubt this is talking to these Jews at this time who were about
to be taken captive into Babylon. The time was at hand that God
said, the people from the north will come in and they will conquer
the city of Judah. And they will take you captive
for 70 years. No doubt this was a comforting
Scripture to them at this time. They were in captivity, held
captive. And the Word of God is, my salvation
is near to come. Take heart. Keep judgment. Do justice for my salvation. My deliverance is near. My deliverance
is at hand. And no doubt this was not just
talking about the deliverance of Babylon, but this is also
talking about the coming of the Messiah. He told the Jews, He
said, keep vigilant, do my commandments, do judgment, keep justice. Why? Because my Christ is coming. My Christ is coming. You keep
looking for my Christ. You keep looking. Keep looking
by faith because He's coming. He's coming. He told them to hold fast to
the Law in its types and shadows, in its pictures. He said, you
look at my commandments and you'll see my Christ. You'll see my
Anointed One that is to come. And my salvation, my Redeemer
is coming. But this message has more to
say than to the captives of Babylon and to the Jews then. For this message today speaks
to God's church. This is a spiritual message to
God's people. This is a spiritual exhortation
to us who are believers. It is an exhortation to the lost,
saying, my salvation is near. My Christ has come. Sinner, repent
and believe on Christ. That's the message. And to us
who have believed, it is a message of vigilance to us. It is a message
of vigilance. We need to be vigilant. We need
to be sober. We need to be awake. And we need
to be about our Father's business. I want to divide this message
this morning into two parts. I want us to see God's salvation. Then I want us to see God's commandment.
And each one of these will have two divisions in itself. First
of all, I want us to see in this message that it is God's salvation. Look at that in verse 1. God
says, My salvation. My salvation. Friends, we declare
that salvation is of the Lord because it's His salvation. It's
His. If you remember, this nation
of Israel is a type of the church, a type of the elect of God, is
it not? This nation was to be held 70
years in captivity of Babylon. Why? To be a type and a picture
for us. You see, we're not sinners just
by our actions, are we? We're sinners by birth. We're sinners by birth. You see, no one needs to teach
us to sin. Isn't that right? Anybody teach
you? Nobody had to teach me. You didn't
have to get a blackboard and you didn't have to teach me,
okay, today we're going to discuss lying. You didn't have to teach
me that. I knew that. I knew that. Why? Because we're sinners by
birth. We are born into captivity. We are born into captivity of
sin. Man is corrupt and defiled by
nature. Every one of us. We are chained to our sins, held
captive by Satan at his will, and cursed by the law of God.
Three strikes, you're out. You're out without even taking
a swing. You didn't even have to step up to the plate. You're
already out. You're already condemned. You're
already condemned. False religion tells you that
natural man is good. That it's his environment that
corrupts him. Man is good. All you have to
do is put him in the right environment. You just got to make him have
all the right tools and necessities. You got to educate him. If you
educate him and give him money and give him things, he'll be
able then to do good. If you just put him in the right
circumstance, get him into the church, make him give him a job. You know, that's the thing with
the church today is that immediately when you walk in the door, they
hand you a job. Why? So they can keep you coming. And so we find people in churches
that are not there for the gospel. They're there because they got
a job. And they feel important. That's what false religion does.
It puts you in a choir, gives you an instrument, puts you in
a church youth group. He said, you do all that, then
they'll see God. Then a man will see God if you just give him
all the right environment. What does God tell us about ourselves?
What does God say about man? I don't care what this world
says about man. I don't have any desire to even read their
books on psychology. I really don't. God tells us
about man by nature. He says in Romans 3, 9, He says,
what then? Are the Jews better than the
Greeks? Are the religious Jews better
than the heathen Greeks? No! All are sold under sin. All are under sin. There's none
righteous, no not one. There's none that understands.
There's none that doeth good. They're all gone out of the way.
They're all together become unprofitable. There's none that doeth good,
no, not one. Friends, we must recognize that all men by nature
are unprofitable to God. They don't add one thing to God.
Man thinks he can, he thinks he does, but God says he doesn't.
God says that all men are unprofitable. Unprofitable. Let me ask you
this, what can you offer God without sin? Is there anything
that you can offer to God that you have not contaminated by
your sin? Neither can I. Everything we are and everything
we do is full of sin. Therefore, we cannot please God. We cannot break free from the
chains of our sin. We cannot break free from the
bondage of Satan. We cannot break free from the
curse of the law by our will or by our works. We cannot do
it. It's impossible. What do we need? We need a Savior. We need a Deliverer. We need someone to come in and
spoil the enemy and take us out to break our chains. We need someone to be made a
curse for us. And God says, My salvation is
near. My salvation is near. Is this your condition? I must
ask you, is this your condition? Are you enchained to your sin?
Are you enslaved to it? Do the things of God not appeal
to your heart? And do you not love Christ? Can
you not see God's salvation in Christ? Are you so far gone? Do you feel like the eunuch who's
unfruitful, the stranger who's a far off? If you do, if this is you, I
have hope for you. I have a good message for you.
Here it is, God's salvation is near. God's salvation is very
close. It's close. God's salvation, my friend, is
Jesus Christ and none other. God doesn't have another salvation.
God doesn't have another way by which men are freed from sins. There is no other way by which
you will be free from the curse of the law, but by this man,
Jesus Christ, and His work, be Him crucified. It is in Him that God reveals
righteousness. Do you need righteousness? God
says you do. God says you need righteousness.
I need righteousness. The only place to find righteousness
is in Jesus Christ. That's it. There is no other
way. There is no other hope. Jesus Christ came into this world
to become a man, not for His own righteousness, but that He
might merit righteousness for men. For what the law could not do,
Romans 8, verse 3, for what the law could not do and is weak
through the flesh, God sending His Son in the likeness of sinful
flesh, and for sin, condemns sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the
law might be fulfilled in us." Do you want to fulfill the law
of righteousness? The only way you and I will ever fulfill that
law is in Him. In Him. He alone is the righteousness
of God. And He by faithful obedience,
by His death on the cross, has made a way by which man may be
free from his sin. Let me ask you this. If you had
some disease and your life was at stake. And you found out that there
was a cure on the other side of the globe. A cure that is far away. Would
you not give everything you have to go there and be cured? Would
you not go that great distance If you were told that there was
a plant at the top of Mount Everest, would you not get your hiking
gear together? Would you not climb that mount?
Would you not do everything you can to save your life? Of course
you would. I would. Everybody would. But
friends, I'm telling you that your salvation is not the top
of a mountain. Salvation is not all the way
over on the other side of the world. Salvation is here right
now in this place. It is right near you. It is right
near you. It's not far. It's not far. And you don't have to do anything
to get it. You don't have to do anything to earn it. It's
right there. Where? Right where you're sitting.
Don't move. It's right there. Listen to it. It's the word that I'm preaching
to you this morning. Does it not hit your ears? Does
it not resound in your mind? How near is that sound to you?
Can you not hear it inside of you? Yes. Can you not understand
my words? Can you not perceive what I'm
saying? Look to Christ. Believe on Christ. He's near. He's right here. You remember
Naaman? That man, he had leprosy. And
he was told that there was a prophet in Israel. So he gathered all
his entourage. And I'm sure this was a big event.
He didn't just grab on a horse and take off. He got everybody
to come with him. And he had this big entourage
pulled up there at Elisha's little hut. I imagine it was nothing
more than a grass shack. And they blew the trumpets and
they said, Naaman is here! And the prophet didn't even come
out of his door. He sent that servant out there
and the servant said, go wash in Jordan seven times. He turned
around and went back in the house. And Naaman was upset. He was
mad. He was upset. You see, his cleansing
wasn't what he thought it would be. It wasn't what he expected it
to be. He expected some grand ceremony
for the prophet to come out and to bow down to him and to put
his hands over him and perform some ritual. But instead, salvation was just
dipping in the water. Go take a bath. Go take a bath
and be clean. He said, that's too easy. That's
too easy! Surely there's better waters
in my city. I don't have to come here to
do that." And one of his servants told him, he said, Master, if
he would have asked you to do something hard, would you have
not done it? You see, it's natural for a man
to desire to do something. And yet, friend, salvation is
Near. You don't even have to move out
of your seat. What is salvation? Here it is.
Believe on Christ with all your heart. And do nothing. Why? God's salvation is right near
you. It's near you. Romans says this,
Romans 10, he says, "...but the righteousness which is of faith
speaketh on this way." I said, don't say this. Don't say, who
shall ascend into heaven or who shall go down to the depths.
Why? Christ has already done that. Why would you want to try
to ascend into heaven or go down into the grave? Why? Christ has
done it. But what saith this righteousness?
How is this righteousness obtained? He says, the word is nigh thee. That's near you. How near? It's in your mouth and in your
heart. Now, how near is your mouth and
heart? It's very near. Believe with your heart and confess
with your mouth. I remember that story, a woman
was saved on the ministry of Ralph Barnard, and she came to
him and said, Brother Ralph, the Lord saved me. He said, that's
great. He said, no, no, I've got to
tell somebody. I've got to tell somebody the
Lord saved me. He said, don't worry, it will
get out on you. It will get out on you. Why? Because whatever
is in the heart comes out. It will come out. It all comes
out in the wash, right? Many people profess, I believe
in Jesus, I believe in Jesus. That's good, that's good. It'll
all come out in the wash. It'll all come out in the end.
Time will tell. Time will tell who's God's and who's not. It's easy to confess with your
mouth, but friends, confession with the mouth is not salvation,
but believing in the heart is salvation. Setting your heart,
your affection on Christ. Is Christ all your affection? Or does he have to share? God gets a hold of your heart.
He won't have to share with anybody. He won't have to share with anybody.
Your whole heart and affection will be on Him. That's what it
is to believe with the heart. It is to rest the eternal weight
of your soul on Christ alone. And this salvation is right near
you. Here it is. Believe. Believe. Number two, this salvation is
nearer. It's not only nearer, but it's
nearer. To those of us who have believed, to those of us who
have believed on Christ as our Lord and Savior have bowed to
Him, we know that our salvation is
accomplished. We know that our salvation is
finished. It's done. It was purposed to
be done in eternity. It was accomplished by Christ
in time. Yet, we know this, we've not
fully experienced what our salvation shall really be, have we? John
says, look, I don't know what we're going to be like, I just
know we're going to be like Him. I don't fully understand this
thing. I don't know exactly how it's going to all pan out, but
I know this, We shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as
He is." Now that doesn't clear up very much, does it? Because
I've not seen Him. I can only see Him by what the
Word of God says about Him. Paul says that we look through
a glass darkly, don't we? But then, Face to face. You know, sometimes I imagine
at heaven's throne, I imagine seeing His feet. I imagine holding
on. If I could just hold to His feet,
I would just be blessed to stay at His feet for eternity. But
God says, I've got more than my feet. You get to see my face. You get to see my face. And friends,
our salvation, we know it is near us. We know that it is in
us. We know that Christ has accomplished
our salvation. That there is nothing left for
us to do, to add to His work. But friend, I know this should
comfort our hearts, our real accomplishment of this salvation,
our experience of this salvation is nearer. It's nearer than when we first
believed. John, how long ago was it that
you believed? It's been a while. It's nearer now than it's ever
been before. Mine is nearer now than it's
ever been before. Paul says this in Romans 13,
verse 11. He says, And that, knowing the
time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep. Why? For
our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. Friends,
because our salvation is nearer, because we are closer to appearing
before our great God and Savior, how is it that we are to conduct
ourselves? Friends, the Lord Jesus Christ
doesn't put these things in the Word of God so that we might
have them on our head only, but that we might exercise them with
our arms and our feet, that we might go and do what He's commanded
us to do. This salvation is nearer, therefore
wake up. Wake up. It's high time you get out of
bed. It's noon. It's noon. You shouldn't be in
bed. You should be up. You should be working. Why? Our salvation is getting close.
It's getting near to the time where we will see Christ. And
therefore, God gives us His commands. And this is the second part of
my message. God's commands. This is how we are to behave
ourselves because our salvation is near. Look at our text. He
says, keep judgment and do justice. Keep judgment and do justice.
First of all, keep judgment. What does that mean? Where do you find what true judgment
is? God's Word. How do we know what's
good judgment? How do we know what's right and
what's good for us to do? You will only find that in God's
Word. You will find that out by God's Word. This is where
we find God's judgments. Believer, don't look to this
world for sound judgment. You won't find it. Don't look
and lean on the advice or opinions of men. When God has expressly
told us what is good, what is right, what is just, that's what
we're to be doing. Are we not? Keep judgment. Religion tells us to keep the
law. It tells us to keep the traditions of the church. It
tells us to keep our goodness and our good works close by for
our confidence. Is that good judgment? Is that
what God says? No. What does God's Word tell
us to do? Look at that in verse 2. Blessed,
happy is the man that doeth this. and the Son of Man that layeth
hold on it, that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it." There
is the judgment we are to keep, to keep the Sabbath from polluting
it. What does that mean? What is
this talking about? It's not talking about the law.
It's not talking about keeping that commandment of the law,
which is the Sabbath. That's not what it says here.
This is talking about Christ, our Sabbath. Jesus Christ is
the Sabbath of rest to everyone that believes. He is the rest
of our souls. He is the rest of our souls. Believer, our natural man is
always trying to look somewhere else besides Christ. It's always this world and religion
are trying to take our eyes off of Christ. They're trying to
take our eyes off of the finished work of Christ and put it on
something that we have done. But believer, we are to keep
judgment in that we are to keep Christ as our Sabbath of rest. Keep looking to Christ by faith. That's what it's telling us.
Don't pollute His offering by trying to add something we've
done to it. Don't pollute it. To look at anything but Christ
as our peace with God, to look at any reason for God to accept
us, is to pollute the rest of Jesus Christ. Scripture says the just shall
live, how? By faith. How are you to conduct
yourselves? By faith. To believe on Jesus
Christ. Remember we discussed this in
a previous week, we talked about that verse in Hebrews that says,
let us labor to enter into our rest. How do you labor to enter
into rest? What is he talking about? He's
talking about putting off all our works as evidence of acceptance
with God. To put off all of our deeds and
to continue to look to Christ. That's what it is to keep judgment.
Friends, that is good judgment. Look to Christ and stop looking
to yourself. You won't find any evidence here.
If you turn your eyes within, you'll only find fear and doubt. Look to Christ. Wake up and look
to Christ! Stop looking at everything else.
Keep judgment. Stop trying to pollute His Sabbath
by adding your works to it. Number two, to do justice. Look
at that in the last part of verse 2. We can find the reason what
it is to do justice in the last part of verse 2. He says, "...and
keepeth His hands from doing any evil." When God by grace saves a sinner,
He creates in us a new nature. A new heart. He takes that old nature and
He dethrones it. And He sets up His throne inside
of our hearts. Where Christ now rules and reigns
in every believer. And friends, if anyone says,
I believe in Jesus, but there is no change of life. There is
no life. There is no life. I've met people who have constantly
professed their faith in Christ for many years. But if you were
to look at them, you would have no way of telling their life
had changed at any point. All they've done is made some
profession of faith and said, Oh, I'm saved! Everything's well! And then they just went right
back to their sin, and nothing changed. Friends, that's not
salvation. That's not true salvation. It's not salvation for someone
to just confess with their mouth. They must believe with their
hearts. And by believing with their hearts, their actions will
show it. They will. Friends, I'm not what
I want to be. I'm not what I'm going to be.
But praise God, I'm not what I was. I'm not what I was. And neither is anyone that believes
in Christ. Truly, honestly. I've met people
who have said, well, I believe in Christ. I believe all those
things you preach about election and predestination and all those
things. And yet, it seems strange to
me that they profess that their salvation came from false religion.
Does that not seem strange? Would it not seem strange if
they say, I love the gospel, I love Christ, and yet they still
reside under a false preacher? Would that not seem strange to
you? It's strange because there's
no life there. You see, God's people, yes, God takes His people
from among false religion, but He brings them out of it. He
don't leave them in it. Friends, God's salvation is always
accompanied by power and love for the gospel. Friends, I pray that if you are
like just any of those people that I've mentioned, I pray you
would let all that go and just rest in Christ. And by resting in Christ, we
want to do good and not evil. Paul said this,
shall we sin that grace may abound? God forbid that you should live
any longer in sin. How can we who are dead to sin
live any longer in sin? I like this illustration. You
have a bunch of hogs and sheep running down a hill and they
fall in the mud. All of them fall in the mud.
If you'll notice the nature of the sheep, the nature of the
sheep is to get out of the mud as quickly as they can and clean
themselves off. That's the nature of a sheep.
But the nature of the hog is to wallow in the mud. And you
can clean a hog off all you want to, but he loves the mud. And friends, you can clean a
man off all you want to, but if he's not saved, if he's not
a sheep, he'll wallow in his sin. He'll love his sin more
than he'll love Christ. I know that God's people sometimes
fall asleep. Isn't that right? Sometimes we
fall asleep. And I believe we are in the sleepiest
generation that the gospel church has known in generations. They say in their hearts, they
say, well, Christ has done all, and nothing I can do to add to
my salvation, so I'll do nothing. Where do you find that in the
Word of God? Because I don't. There's a difference between
waiting on Christ and doing nothing. Believer, it's high time that
we wake up out of sleep and live in the light of the Gospel. If we would live every day in
light of eternity, I guarantee you we would live different lives. If this gospel means more to
us than anything, we would be different. I know it's easy to say that
you love the gospel. But friends, to love the gospel
means you have to give up things for it. You will. And if you have anything above
Christ, if there's anything, your family is above Christ.
If your job is above Christ. If your children are above Christ. You'll neglect the gospel. And if you neglect the gospel,
there's only two reasons for it. You're either asleep or you're
dead. And it's high time that God's
people wake up. And we start living in light
of eternity. And stop living as creatures
of time. I pray that God would bless this
to our hearts. Let's stand and we'll be dismissed in prayer.