Let's open our Bibles again to
Isaiah chapter 56. The title of the message is Mercy
for Outcasts. Now, you'll remember in the previous
chapters, Isaiah has prophesied that the days coming, Israel
will be taken into captivity in Babylon. But years before
that happened, God also has given Israel promises that he'll deliver
them, that he'll bring them back to Israel, to Jerusalem. And
we've looked at several of those promises already in our study,
but we're going to see another one this evening. God promises
that His people will be captives in Babylon. At that time, they'll
be outcasts. They'll be outcasts from Israel.
They'll be outcasts from Jerusalem. They'll be outcasts from the
temple. But God promises that He will gather His people back
to the land that God promised to give Abraham. Look here at
verse 8. The Lord which gathereth the
outcasts of Israel saith, yet will I gather others to him besides
those that are gathered unto him. I like this word gathered,
gathereth. It really caught my attention
as I began to look at this chapter this week. The word gather tells
us a whole lot about how God saves his people, doesn't it? We have a couple of years ago,
we planted a raspberry bush. And I think in those two years
we've gotten like six raspberries off of it. But I'm telling you
that thing woke up this year. It's producing raspberries like
wild. We can see it at our back door,
you know, you can see those raspberries on there. But now if somebody
doesn't go gather those things and bring them into the house,
nobody's going to eat them. They're just going to die out
there on the vine. Somebody's got to go gather those if we're
going to have them to enjoy. The same thing is true with a
lost sheep. Somebody's gotta go gather it, doesn't it? That
sheep is lost, and he's willfully lost. He willfully left the shepherd. He's out there wandering, and
at this point, he's wandered so far, he couldn't even get
back to the shepherd if he wanted to. He lost, he didn't know the
way. So the good shepherd goes, he
seeks that sheep, and he finds it. And when he finds that sheep,
he gathers him in his arms, That rebellious sheep, I might be
inclined to maybe kick it, maybe beat it a little bit, maybe take
that shepherd's rod and whack it around a little bit. Not the
good shepherd. In love and tenderness, he gathers
that sheep in his arm, he carries him home to the fold. And that
is exactly the way God saves his people. He gathers them.
He gathers them to his son. And they've got to be gathered.
God's elect, they're born in this world dead. They can't help
themselves. They can't do one thing to help
themselves. Just like that lost sheep cannot
come to Christ, God's elect cannot do anything to please God. They
cannot come to Him. They will not come to Him, but
they might have life. So God, the Holy Spirit, God
loves them. Those are His people. He chose
them. He's not going to let them die out there in the vine. The
Holy Spirit comes and He gathers them. He gathers them to Christ.
And the spirit does that through what we're doing right now, through
the preaching of the gospel, by preaching Christ. He sends
the preacher out with his word and the spirit blesses the word.
He gives life and faith to God's people and he gathers them. He brings them back to God. And
that is still going on today. God promised that back in Isaiah's
day and he's still doing it. He's still gathering together
his people all across this world by the preaching of the gospel.
Now that's mercy, promised mercy to outcasts. And in the previous
verses of this chapter, there are seven other promises of mercy
that we enjoy when God gathers us to him. I want us to look
at them. The first one, there is a promise of being made righteous
in Christ. Look at verse one. Thus saith
the Lord, keep ye judgment and do justice, for my salvation
is near to come and my righteousness to be revealed. And it says here,
keep judgment and do justice. That word judgment actually means
a verdict. And the word, the word judgment
is verdict. The word justice is to do righteously,
to do just. God commands us to do righteously. He commands us to keep the law
perfectly and then render a right verdict about ourselves. Render
a verdict if you kept the law or not. Are you perfect or not?
Render a verdict. Well, if we render a right verdict,
it'll always be guilty, won't it? Every time. A right verdict
says we cannot keep God's law. Even a believer who's been born
again cannot keep the law. Now, we strive to be holy. We
ought to. We ought to strive to be holy,
but we'll never be able to do it in this flesh. So the verdict
about ourselves is always guilty. We're guilty. We cannot earn
salvation from God. Well, then why does God tell
us to be perfect? If I can't be perfect, why does
he tell me to be perfect? And then can you tell me how
I can? Is there a way that I can be perfect? There is. God tells us here that his people
are perfect in Christ who is to come and that salvation that
is near to come and the righteousness to be revealed. God promises
mercy to His people in Christ, who is our righteousness and
who is our salvation. God says through Isaiah, He's
coming. That's what the whole Testament
says, isn't it? He's coming. He's coming. He's coming. And
now we say He has come. He suffered and He died. Accomplished
the salvation of His people and sent Him back to glory. He's
coming again. But the message is still all Christ, isn't it?
He's coming. The Lord Jesus Christ is God's
salvation. You know, we talk about salvation
as a thing that Christ accomplished, and that's certainly true, but
to be more accurate, Christ is our salvation. When Christ appeared
on this earth as a man, God's salvation appeared to men, didn't
it? Paul said in Titus 2 verse 11, for the grace of God that
bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men. This salvation has
appeared. Salvation by grace has appeared
to all men. And Christ brings His salvation
so near to His people, He puts it in them. He puts it in them.
A new life, a new heart is born in them. He is our salvation. And when Christ appeared on this
earth, our righteousness appeared on this earth. And whenever we
preach this gospel of Christ, our righteousness is revealed.
Look at Romans chapter one. If we preach Christ, what we're
preaching is the righteousness of God's people. He's revealed to us through the
preaching of his word. Romans 1 verse 16. For I'm not
ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto
salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also to
the Greek. For therein, in that gospel of Christ, is the righteousness
of God revealed. from faith to faith. As it's
written, the just shall live by faith. And that's how Christ
is revealed to us. He is revealed to us as our righteousness,
by faith, by believing Him. So the only way any of us can
actually do righteously is by being in Christ. If you are in
Christ, you did everything that He did. If you're in Christ,
you've done righteously because as a man, that's what he did.
Everything he did, he did righteously. Just like if you're an Adam.
If you're an Adam, if you're represented by Adam, what did
you do? Everything that Adam did. You're
guilty in Adam and Adam gave you his nature. Well, if you're
in Christ, you've been made righteous in Christ because you did what
he did and he gave you his nature in the new birth. That's God's
promise of mercy to his people, righteousness and salvation.
Second promise of mercy is the promise of rest in Christ. Verse
two. Blessed is the man that doeth
this, and the son of man that layeth hold on it, and keepeth
the Sabbath from polluting it, and keeping his hand from doing
any evil. Now you know the law. The law
required that men rest on the Sabbath day. on the Sabbath day,
you could do a very limited amount of work. I mean, it was down
to the number of steps you could take on that day. Just very,
very limited. You had to rest. And we know
that that was a picture of Christ, of rest in Him. But boy, those
Jews under that law, now that law put a burden on them. And
this is our nature. The law put a burden on people
by requiring them to rest. Now, if it's a work day, All
we want to do is rest. We don't want to work. But boy,
the minute you tell me I got to rest, all I want to do is
work. That's our nature. It's a sin nature. It always
has everything upside down. The law put a burden on people
and they hated being under that burden. The law required rest,
but that law never could give men any rest. So God sent his
son. Christ came and he gave his people
rest. We rest in Christ because all
the work of redemption is finished. He's redeemed all his people.
There's nothing left to do. So we rest in him. We can never
rest under the law because the law always required more obedience. The law didn't care if you were
obedient yesterday. The law didn't care if you're
obedient two seconds ago. The law requires obedience now,
always requiring more. But a child of God rests in Christ,
because in him there's no more work to do. When he cried, it's
finished, the work of redemption was finished. Now that's a mercy. But notice what Isaiah says here.
He says, now you lay hold on this. You blessed is the man
that lays hold on this rest. Look at Hebrews chapter four.
The writer to the Hebrews gives us a good commentary, I believe,
on this verse. Hebrews chapter 4, verse 10. He says, now you lay
hold on this rest. See if this isn't what he says
here in Hebrews 4, verse 10. For he that is entered into his
rest, rest in Christ, he also has ceased from his own works
as God did from his. Now let us labor, let us desire,
labor therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall
after the same example of unbelief. Now does that sound strange to
you? Labor to rest? Work to rest? Seems like they're
two opposites, don't they? But I'll tell you what this is
telling the believer. We are to constantly strive to
quit trusting anything we've done. Constantly strive to do
that. Constantly strive to get rid
of anything you think you can do that will add to the finished
work of Christ. You constantly strive to quit
your works, to quit trying to earn your acceptance with God. Constantly strive to quit this
thinking that, well, if I do this, God will be more pleased
with me. Constantly strive to rest from that and to rest in
Christ alone. Rest in Christ who finished the
work. And I tell you how we rest in Christ. You rest in Him by
believing Him. Just believing. Believing Christ
has already finished all of my redemption. That's resting in
Christ. To not rest in Christ is simply
to not believe Him, to follow the same example of unbelief
and think you've got to do it yourself. But what a mercy that
God gives His people rest in Christ. by enabling them to believe
on him. The third promise of mercy is
to be reconciled to God. Neither let the son of the stranger
that joined himself to the Lord speak, saying, The Lord hath
utterly separated me from his people. Now the law, all the
law that was given to Israel was only for Israel. It was only
for the Jews. The law gave the people the right
form of worship. The law gave the people the right
way to come to God. The law gave the people all the
sacrifices and the ceremonies, all that pointed to Christ. This
was the way God was to be worshiped. But that law was only for Israel.
It didn't apply to any of the other nations living around Israel.
It was only for the Jews. That law was not for the Gentile
stranger. The Gentiles, they were strangers
from Israel, aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel. The law
wasn't for them. So under the law, the Gentile
strangers were forbidden to go a lot of places and do a lot
of things. They were forbidden to come to the temple. The Gentiles
were forbidden to come into the presence of God. But now, Christ
has come. We read it to open the service
this evening. Christ has come and he's opened the way of salvation
to all men. He's opened the way of salvation
to every sinner from every nation on the face of this planet. That
broken law drives us from God's presence. Thou shalt not, thou
shalt not, thou shalt not. But grace in Christ reconciles
us to God. God's grace, He joins us back
to God in Christ who kept the law for us. We were driven away
from God in Adam. Because of Adam's disobedience,
we were driven away from God. But now in Christ the second
Adam, we're reconciled to God. Joined to Him. So much so, He
says, you have boldness to come before the very throne of God
at all times because of the obedience of Christ. So don't ever say,
don't ever say, God's grace, God's mercy, God's forgiveness,
God's salvation is not for somebody as bad as me. People hear the
gospel, and they often latch on to the doctrine of election,
and they say, well, nothing I can do about it then, whether, you
know, if I'm elected, I'm gonna be saved, if I'm not, I'm not,
nothing I can do about it. Don't ever say that. Don't ever
say I'm a stranger cut off from God. So God's mercy is not for
me. Don't ever say that. That's not true. Not if you're a sinner, it's
not. If you're a sinner, if you're a stranger, God's mercy is for
you. I tell you that notion. And I
know what I'm talking about because I set up my own head for many,
many, many years. This notion of, well, if I'm
one of God's elect, I'll be saved, nothing I can do about it. You
know what that is? That's blaming your separation
from God on God. And that's not right. Don't ever
blame your separation from God on God. I promise you, it's not
God's fault. It's our fault. Really and truly,
I know it's our sins that separated us from our God, but don't blame
your continued separation from God, even on your sins. Christ
came to save sinners. Christ came to have mercy on
sinners. If you leave here this evening
still separated from God, I'll tell you why it is. It's because
you don't think you're bad enough to need Christ to do it all for
you. That's why. You just don't think you're bad
enough. You don't think your sin is so great that Christ has
to save you by Himself. But if you're so sinful that
you know only way you could ever be saved. If you're so sinful,
you know the only way a holy God could ever accept you is
in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, then God's mercy is for
you. His mercy is for strangers. This
is the fourth promise of mercy. The fourth promise of mercy is
eternal life in Christ. Look here at the end of verse
three. Neither let the eunuch say, behold, I'm a dry tree. For thus saith the Lord unto
the eunuchs that keep my Sabbath and choose the things that please
me and take hold of my covenant, even unto them. He goes on in
verse five, we'll get to verse five in a minute. He tells them,
I'll make you my sons. I'm gonna give you life. Now
what's a eunuch? Well, a eunuch was someone who's
damaged. And usually they were damaged
intentionally so that a man could not have children. And the law
forbid a eunuch. The eunuch couldn't come into
the priesthood, A eunuch could not come to the assembly of the
people. A eunuch could never come to the temple to worship.
He's damaged. The law said he couldn't come.
Isn't that eunuch a good picture of you and me spiritually? We've
got a form of a body. It's flesh, but it's a form of
a body. But it's damaged, isn't it? It
can't produce life. It can't produce any spiritual
life. And we're dead. So we can't come
into God's presence. We can't come into the priesthood.
We can't offer sacrifices to God. We're dead. So God promises mercy to those
dead people and the mercy he promises them here is life in
Christ. We can't produce life. We can't
do it. So God gives his people life. He gathers them. The eunuch couldn't
come to the assembly. God gathers those people who
were dead in trespasses and sin. He gathers them in tenderness
and kindness and mercy. He gathers them into the assembly
of the saints. Eunuch can be a priest. God gives
his people life and he makes them priests, kings and priests
unto our God. The law forbid the eunuch to
come into the temple of God. Tell you what grace has done
for us dead eunuchs in Christ. Not only does He enable us to
come to the temple, He makes us the temple of God by the Spirit
dwelling in our hearts. Now you lay hold on that mercy.
These are covenant mercies. He said you take hold of my covenant. Lay hold on these covenant mercies
and enjoy life in Christ. Here's the fifth mercy that God
promises. He promises that these strangers, these eunuchs who
are dead, he promises that they'll be his children. Verse five,
he says, 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 should not be cut off.
Also, the sons of the strangers that join themselves to the Lord
to serve him and to love the name of the Lord, to be his servants,
everyone that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it and taketh
hold of my covenant. Now, these strangers, they're
sinners, strangers from God. They're aliens from the commonwealth
of Israel, strangers from the covenants of promise, having
no hope and without God in this world. But in mercy, God makes
promises to them. He promises that those strangers
will be his children. he's going to adopt them into
his family. And they'll also be born into his family. They'll
be a child by adoption and a child by birth. Grace makes these strangers
to be fellow citizens with the household of God. And he says,
I'm going to give my children, I'm going to give them a place
in my house. If you've got a place in the
house, I'll tell you what that means. Everything in the house
is yours. God says, I'll give my children
everything that belongs to me. If it's mine, it's theirs. God
says, I'm going to give them a rich inheritance and they can't
lose it. It's reserved in heaven for them
where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt. I'm going to give them
my righteousness. I will make them righteous in
my Son. I'm going to give them the forgiveness of sins through
the blood of the sacrifice of my Son. I'm going to give them
eternal life. that can never be lost. And I'm
going to give them my name. I'm going to give them a name
that's better than those natural sons and natural daughters, the
Jews. I'm going to give spiritual Israel,
my people, my leg. God says, I'm going to give them
a name. I'm going to give them the name of my son, Jehovah Sid
Kinnon. This is the name, Jeremiah said,
wherewith she shall be called. Jehovah Sid Kinnon, the Lord,
our righteousness. That's our name. If you believe
on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, that's your name. Jehovah
Sikkim. It's your name because you're
joined to Christ and made part of the family of God. And he
says, I'll make them be born again. I'm going to adopt them
in my family and they're going to be born again. I'm going to
give them a new nature. A nature that will keep the Sabbath
and won't pollute it. I'm going to give them a nature
that's going to serve me. But they're going to serve me
out of love as children. They're not going to serve me
as servants who were full of fear under the law. They're going
to serve me in love. I'm going to give them a nature
that loves my law and that never sins. I'm going to give them
my nature. Isn't that what a father does?
A father gives his nature to his children. I gave my nature
to Holly and Savannah. Our Heavenly Father has given
His nature to all of His people in New Berk. Now you think what
a mercy it is to be given the nature of our Father, our Heavenly
Father, because He's made us His children. And here's the
sixth promise of mercy, the promise of joy in Christ. Look at verse
seven. Even them will I bring to my
holy mountain, and I'm gonna make them joyful in my house
of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their
sacrifices should be accepted upon mine altar. For my house
shall be called a house of prayer for all people, not just the
Jews, for all people. You understand that this is a
prophecy Isaiah is writing about God bringing natural Israel back
from Jerusalem or back from Babylon. He's going to bring them back
to live in those mountains around Jerusalem. And he did that. They
came back and inhabited those, that mountainous region. But
this is primarily a promise of mercy to spiritual history. God
promises he's going to bring his elect to his holy mountain. And that holy mountain is the
church. It's Mount Zion. And God's church is just like
a mountain. Those mountains have been there since the world was
created. And the church is like a mountain.
We preach a gospel that began before creation. It's eternal.
The church is like a mountain. A mountain cannot be moved. The church can't be moved either
because it's built upon Christ. The church is like a mountain
with those high peaks that go up into the clouds because we
preach an exalted Christ who's high and lifted up. The church
is a holy mountain. A holy mountain because we're
made holy in Christ Jesus, our Savior. Now that's mercy. Now
Mount Zion, the church, is so much better than Mount Sinai,
the law. You remember the story how the
law was given at Mount Sinai. What happened? Fear and trembling. The people said, told Moses,
don't have God speak to us anymore. No, we can't approach that. We
can't approach that mountain. We'll be killed. We know we'll
never be accepted. They're full of fear and trembling.
Everybody's running and hiding. And they knew even if we do offer
all these animal sacrifices which are required by the law, I'll
still yet never be accepted in them because it's not possible
that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.
Every time I offer these sacrifices that are required by the law,
you know what it does? Wayne still reminds me I'm still a
sinner. I still gonna have to offer another one and another
one, another one. These sacrifices constantly remind me I'm a sinner
and this sacrifice This animal blood can never put away my sin.
Constantly full of fear. But in Mount Zion, which is the
church, there's none of that fear and trembling. There's joy
in Christ. There's joy because we know we
don't have to offer another sacrifice. One sacrifice of Christ was enough. He's all we need. The sacrifice
of Christ was accepted by the Father and so are we if we're
in Christ. Does that give your heart joy? To know you're accepted by God
Almighty at all times. If it doesn't, it should. Joy
to be accepted in Christ. Always, at any time of day, we
can always come to God in Christ and be accepted. Because the
sacrifice of Christ is all we ever need to be accepted. That's
joy in Christ. And then here's the last mercy.
God promises that he will hear the prayers of his people. Verse
seven, he says, even then will I bring to my holy mountain,
make them joyful in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings
and their sacrifices should be accepted upon mine altar, for
my house should be called a house of prayer for all people. Now
under the law, the people had a tabernacle, and that tabernacle
and the surrounding area there inside that fence, It was a house
of sacrifice, wasn't it? Constantly offering sacrifices
to God. They offered those sacrifices.
The sacrifices on the Day of Atonement. And boy, the people
sure hoped God will accept them. And they were never quite sure.
Wonder what's going to happen. Remember the high priest's garments?
He had those bells on the bottom of his robe. And the people sat
outside and listened on that Day of Atonement. He brought
that blood in behind the veil to the Holy of Holies. They listen. Do they still hear the bells?
Is he still moving around? If we don't hear the bells, probably
he stopped moving because God killed him. And we're not accepting. So they were glad as long as
they heard those bells. Now God in mercy promises that
his people will always be accepted. They'll always be heard in Christ. There's no more listening to
those bells and wondering if God's going to accept our sacrifice
to the high priest. Because the high priest himself
sacrificed himself to put away the sin of his people and no
more sacrifice is required. God accepts his people in Christ. So his house is not a house of
sacrifice anymore, is it? He says it's a house of prayer.
It's a house where sinners call and God hears. God says, you
come to this house and you pray, you call to me and I'll hear.
Now that's mercy. God promises he'll hear the prayers
of his people. Our Lord said, if you ask anything
in the name of Christ, God will hear it and give it. Isn't that
what he said? Then why don't we pray? Do you need mercy? Pray for it. Pray for mercy for
Christ's sake. God said he'll give it. Pray
for the forgiveness of your sin, for Christ's sake, and God will
give it. Pray for righteousness in Christ.
God said He'd give it. Pray for faith in Christ. You
say, well, I just don't believe. Well, ask God to give you faith.
He said He'd give it. Pray for a new heart. Pray for
life in Christ. God said He'd give it. I tell
you, we ought to make much of prayer. Oh, we ought to make
much of prayer. especially because of this mercy
God's promised, He will hear the prayers of His people. To
think that sinners like you and me can have confidence, boldness
to come before the Almighty in prayer because God's promised
He'll hear us and accept us in Christ our Savior. Now that's
mercy. That's a salvation that's been
brought near and righteousness that's been revealed. And we
can be thankful, can't we? Let's bow in prayer. Our Father, how can we ever thank you and
praise you enough for the multitude of mercy that you so freely bestowed
upon your people? Father, we're thankful. We're
thankful. We praise you. What mercy that
sinners like us have a Savior. have been made righteous. Have
rest in Christ. Rest from all of our works. We've
been given eternal life. Father, we thank you. Father,
we thank you for your mercy that you've made us part of your family. Children of God with an eternal
inheritance. You've given us joy. Oh, what
joy we have in the Lord Jesus Christ. Enable us to leave here
this evening with joy in our heart. that we're accepted in
the Lord Jesus Christ, cleansed from all sin in him. Father,
we pray you'd make your word effectual, to call out your sheep,
to comfort the hearts of your people, and to get glory to your
name. For it's in the name of our Lord
Jesus Christ, for his sake and for his glory, we pray.