Let's turn back to Isaiah 56. My salvation, I titled this My
Salvation, God's salvation is near to come. He says here in
verse 1, keep ye judgment and do justice. This is the duty
of every believer, to keep judgment, keep good judgment about you.
I looked this word up. It means discretion, wisdom,
common sense. I told someone the other day,
I said, I know how to get rich. We can just bottle. I said, if
I could just bottle common sense, I said, we could get rich. Keep
common sense and understanding. Keep these things about you.
And here's what he's saying. Keep judgment and do justice.
Keep these things about you, especially when you get into
trouble. When troubles come, when trials
come your way, he says keep judgment about you. Keep good judgment
about you. Don't go off and fly off and
make irrational decisions. He said keep good judgment about
you and do justice. Justice, part, some of the words
that I've looked up here on this is impartiality, equity, rightfulness. And here's one of the things
that I've always said to some people, just do the right thing. To do justice is to do the right
thing. In trouble, keep judging about
you and do the right thing. Burgess said one time, he said,
don't make a dog out of yourself trying to get a bone. I thought
that was good stuff. Don't make a dog out of yourself
trying to get a bone. Just do the right thing. Not
the most convenient thing, but the right thing. No matter how
difficult it is, do the right thing. Don't do anything wrong
for gain, because in the end you'll lose. You'll be the loser
in the end. And here's the reason he gives
us in verse 1. For my salvation is near to come. He's saying wait on me. Now realize
he's writing here to Israel that's going to go into captivity to
Babylon. And he's saying when this happens,
that's why he's saying, but this is to us. He's writing this to
us. These things are written for our learning. He's saying
when this happens, just remember this. Keep judgment and do justice. My salvation is near to come.
You know, when you look at the whole realm of this thing, from
beginning to wherever it ends, it's really short, isn't it?
It says a short work will the Lord make upon earth. And when
you compare it to God's eternity, this is short. This is short. And when He spoke to them at
this time, He could say, My salvation is near to come. Wait on me.
Wait on the Lord in these things, for his salvation, he says, is
near to come. Don't do something dishonest
to relieve yourself of trouble. Don't do something dishonest
in order to get yourself out of a little trouble. Wait on
the Lord, and he said, for my salvation, and this ought to
really make us wait, is whose salvation it is. He says, it's
my salvation. This salvation that he's speaking
of is God's salvation. He purposed it. He will execute
it. He will apply it. He will sustain
it. He will finish it. As Jonah said,
salvation is of the Lord. Now wait on him. He said, my
salvation is near to come. My promised deliverance. Remember,
he promised them Cyrus would come. Cyrus being a picture and
type of Christ. Well, Christ has already come,
hasn't He? He's already come. My deliverance is near to come
and my deliverer is near to come, and we know who that is. We have
the comfort and the joy to know who that Deliverer is, the Lord
Jesus Christ. It says in 1 John, the Son of
God has come and given us an understanding. He's come, the
Deliverer has come, and it's Jesus Christ. And my righteousness
to be revealed. There can be no salvation at
all from sin, from self, from the power of sin, without this
righteousness. You need to make much of what
God makes much of, which is His Son, His righteousness, and His
blood. And there can be no salvation
apart from that at all. My salvation and my righteousness
are both found in one person. My Son. My Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the salvation
and He is the righteousness of God's Israel. He doesn't just give me these
things, though He does. He is these things. Jesus Christ
is my salvation. He is my righteousness. Look
over in Romans chapter 1. Paul said in verse 16, For I
am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, many were, and at
one time Paul was, but not now. He says, For it is the power
of God, and through salvation to every one that believeth,
to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein, for therein
in the gospel is the righteousness of God revealed. From faith to
faith, as it is written, the just shall live by faith. The
way God saves and justifies sinners is revealed in the gospel, in
the preaching of the gospel. What we do every Wednesday and
every Sunday, the way God justifies sinners, the way we can stand
before God just, is through the blood and the
righteousness of His Son, Jesus Christ. His righteousness is revealed
in the gospel, and he said it's revealed from faith to faith.
And he says, blessed is the man that doeth this, that keeps judgment,
and he does justice, and the Son of Man that lays hold of
it. By faith, he lays hold of Christ. He lays hold of salvation.
He lays hold of righteousness. And he lays hold of these things
when he lays hold of Christ. That's when we lay hold of these
things. That keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it. Now, you know
the Sabbath was a day of rest. There was to be no work on it.
And the Sabbath represented Christ, who is our rest. And the best
that I believe the way to say this is, blessed is that man
that keeps the gospel. The gospel concerns the Lord
Jesus Christ, who is our rest. We do not pollute the gospel.
We do not pollute the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, who
is our rest. And he keeps his hand from doing
evil. This man keeps judgment and justice,
and he waits on my salvation. And he's a blessed man. This
man is a blessed man. He may not look like it outwardly.
We don't always look like it outwardly, but we are. We are
a blessed people. Any man who knows Christ, who
has Christ, who believes Christ is blessed beyond measure. You
can't measure it. Blessed beyond measure. And this
shows a work of grace in the heart for a man to do this. And
it shows faith in the heart for a man to do this, for him to
keep God's command, he says here, to keep the Sabbath and to keep
his hand from doing evil. God's people keep His command.
His commands are not grievous. We never keep them ever to be
accepted of God. We keep them because we love
Him. And we don't find His commands
grievous. He says, this is my command that
you love one another. Now, that's not grievous, is
it? If you love someone, it's not grievous to do what they
ask you to do. It's not grievous to be a servant
to someone you love. If a wife loves her husband,
if she truly loves her husband, it's not grievous for her to
be obedient to her husband. And if the church loves Christ,
it's not grievous for her to be obedient to her husband. And he says here that he keeps
his hand from evil, from doing anything evil, anything out of
the way, and he does no evil to his neighbor. And then he
speaks here in verse 3. 3 Neither let the son of the
stranger that hath joined himself to the Lord speak, saying, The
Lord hath utterly separated me from his people. 4 Neither let
the eunuch say, Behold, I am a dry tree. 5 For thus saith
the Lord unto the eunuchs that keep my sabbaths, and choose
the things that please me, and take hold of my covenant. The stranger here, you can go
back and read something about the stranger in Deuteronomy and
you can pick up on that. But the stranger by birth had
no right to the covenants of promise. He had no right to these
things. And if the stranger was circumcised,
if he wanted to join himself to the people of God, he was
to be circumcised. Yet he never really enjoyed the
full privilege of what a true Israelite enjoyed. Paul said,
I was a Hebrew of the Hebrews. Well, a stranger couldn't say
that. He couldn't say that. And a stranger could never be
a king. God said, don't put a stranger
as a king over the people of Israel. He could never be a priest. Now, this stranger is speaking
of Gentiles, us. If you look it up, he's speaking
of the Gentiles. What has Christ made us, strangers,
kings and priests unto God? He has made us kings and priests
unto God. At one time, a stranger could
not have any part of that. But in Christ, we are made kings
and priests unto God. Now in Christ, that middle wall
of partition has been brought down. Look over in Ephesians
2. This is what's happening here
in Ephesians 2. In Ephesians 2, let me start reading at verse
14. Well, verse 13. Well, verse 12. that at that time you were without
Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers
from the covenants of promise. That's the way the Gentiles were. Having no hope and without God
in the world. This is our ancestor he's speaking
about here. This is our ancestor here. You go back far enough
from our ancestor in the Gentile world, this applies to them.
But now, now in Christ Jesus, Ye who sometimes were far off
are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For Christ is our peace,
who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of
partition between us, having abolished in his flesh the enmity,
even the law of commandments contained in ordinances, were
to make in himself a twain one new man, so making peace. and
that he might reconcile both unto God, Jew and Gentile, in
one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby. And
he came, and he preached peace to you which were afar off, the
strangers, and to them that were nigh, the Jews. For through him
we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. Now therefore
you are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens
with the saints, and of the household of God. and are built upon the
foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself
being the chief cornerstone, in whom all the building fitly
framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord, in
whom ye also are builted together for an habitation of God through
the Spirit." That's why he's talking about these strangers.
They're not strangers no more. Not strangers no more. So don't say that God has separated
you from His people. That's not faith. Don't say,
well, I'm so bad. I've heard people say this. I'm
so bad, God wouldn't save me. He said, don't say that God has
separated you from His people. That's not faith, and that's
not humility. That's not true humility. Saying
that God wouldn't save me, I'm so rotten, that's not true humility. True humility is standing in
awe that God saved me. And that's true faith. Believing
that Christ can save me. It's not saying, oh, He wouldn't
save me. And don't let the eunuch say,
Behold, I am a dry tree. Now over in Deuteronomy, a eunuch
was not to be numbered among the congregation of Israel. A
eunuch was one who could not have children. He could not have
children. The strangers and eunuchs, he
says here, here's what he's saying, are released now through the
gospel, through Christ, through Christ and Him crucified. They
are released now from those civil and religious disabilities that
kept them out. You're released from them. They're
over with. Those ceremonies, those commandments,
those ordinances are gone. In Christ we are now warned.
In Christ we are warned. Look over at Colossians chapter
1. I think it's chapter 3, but let
me get over here and look. Yeah, Colossians chapter 3, verse
11. Here is where we are in Christ. Where there is neither Greek
nor Jew now. Circumcision nor uncircumcision.
Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free, but Jesus Christ is all
and in all. He said don't let the stranger
say, God's cut me off from His people, and don't let the eunuch
say, behold, I'm a dry tree. Because in Christ there's neither
Jew nor Greek, bond nor free. In Christ we're one. In Christ
we are accepted. In Christ we are righteous. We are everything He is. So don't
say I'm a dry tree. Don't say that, he says. Thus, he says, thus saith the
Lord unto the eunuchs. The gospel is for the outcast. The gospel is for the downcast. You know that's why that Pharisee
was so offended? Because he ate with publicans
and sinners. They were offended at the company
that he kept. Oh, he said, thus saith the Lord
unto the eunuchs. And then he says this also here in verse
Verse four, for thus saith the Lord unto the eunuchs that keep
my sabbaths, and choose the things that please me, and listen, and
take hold of my covenant. Take hold of my covenant, my
covenant of grace. Not this covenant of works, but
covenant of grace. It's an everlasting covenant. It was made with Christ,
the Savior of sinners. Now how do I take hold of this
covenant that he's speaking of? How do I take hold of it? by
taking hold of Christ by faith, by receiving Christ by faith.
As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons
of God. Every promise made in this covenant
to Christ belongs to me. And to take hold of that covenant,
to lay hold of it, is to lay hold of Christ, is to understand
and lay hold of the Lord Jesus Christ. And what is there in
this covenant for us to lay hold of? First of all, a complete
atonement for sin. We have it in this covenant of
grace. Secondly, He is righteousness. We have a righteousness that
God Almighty accepts, that God Almighty is pleased with. And
we can lay hold of it in the Lord Jesus Christ. And thirdly,
divine protection. God has promised divine protection
for all His children. Not a hair of your head will
perish. And then preservation. He has
promised us in this covenant of grace that He made with Christ
and us in Christ. Preservation. He'll keep us. We are kept by the power of God
through faith. He'll keep His children. He will
not lose one of His sheep. Not one. And then final glory. We had the promise of final glory. Or he says, this lay hold of
my covenant. This covenant of grace he's talking
about. And then listen to this. Even unto them will I give in
my house. This is God's house he's talking
about. And he's not talking about just a building. He's talking
about his house. And within my walls, a place and a name better
than of sons and of daughters. I'll give them an everlasting
name that shall not be cut off. I'll give them a place and a
name in my house better than sons and daughters." The eunuch could not have sons
or daughters to carry on his name. His name was just going
to die when he died because he had no one to carry on his name.
He's saying, here, I'll give them a place. What did Christ
say? I'm going to go and prepare a
place for you. He said, in my Father's house are many mansions. So I told you. And I go and prepare
a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for
you, I'll come again and receive you, strangers, eunuchs, you
outcasts, you downcasts. I'll come again and receive you
to myself. But I'm going to give him a place and a name in my
house better than sons and daughters." To have sons and daughters in
this day, back in this day, it was like the pinnacle. They took
great pride in having sons and daughters. The eunuch couldn't
have any. But God said, the place I'm going
to give him is better than any son or daughter that would carry
on his name. They will have a place, listen, in God's family. They
have a family. God's family. And they're going
to have a place in God's presence. And I'll give them an everlasting
name and it shall not be cut off. If I did not have sons, eventually
my name would be cut off, wouldn't it? My name would just be dissolved. They would not carry on that
name. He said, I'm going to give you an everlasting name, a name
that will not be cut off. You know what that name is? Sons
of God. Behold, it says there in 1 John
3, 1, Behold, now are we the sons of God. It does not yet
appear what we shall be, but we know when he shall appear
we shall be just like him. But right now, We are the sons
of God. I'm looking, and we ought to
remember this more often, but I'm looking at sons and daughters
of the King. This is real. Every now and then
I have to be reminded, this is real. Our sonship is real. And when we deal with each other,
we're dealing with sons of God and daughters of God. Then he says in verse 7, even
them will I bring, listen, to my holy mountain. That's the
church. God said, I'm going to bring those outcasts, those strangers
that the Jews would have nothing to do with. The ordinances at
many times were against them. He said, I'm bringing them into
my holy mountain, my church. That's my house. God's house
is his church. I'm going to bring them into
my holy mountain. God is going to bring doomed,
damned sinners into his house, into his church, into his holy
mountain. And he says here in verse 7,
even them will I bring to my holy mountain and make them joyful
in my house of prayer. Are you joyful to be here? Are you joyful? Really? Are you
joyful? David said, I was glad when they
said, let us go to the house of the Lord. Are you joyful to be in his house
of prayer, his church? He said, their burnt offerings
and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine altar. Their sacrifices of praise and
prayer, he said, I will accept upon my altar. Who is that altar? Christ. We have an altar. It says over Hebrews that they
don't know anything of who served table. That altar is the Lord
Jesus Christ. We do have an altar that we come
before God. And our prayers and our sacrifices
of praise and thanksgiving is accepted through Him. Through
the Lord Jesus Christ, our worship Our praise, our singing, this
preaching is accepted upon Him, through Him. God's house, whose house
we are, shall be called a house of prayer. You know that in God's
house, prayer is made continually. God's house is the church. all
over this world, not just here. There are local assemblies everywhere.
But I'm telling you this, the church is constantly, constantly
calling upon God. There's constant prayer being
made in His house to Him. We call upon Him in the name
of Christ at all times, but especially when we gather together here.
And look here, Yet will I gather others to him
beside those that are gathered unto him." He gives a promise
of gathering the Gentiles, us. Our Lord said, other sheep I
have which are not of this fold, them also I must bring in right
now. The only thing left to be accomplished
is the gathering to gather of all of the Lord's sheep. That's
what we're waiting on. That's why we preach the Gospel
here. That's why we are on the radio. That's why these other
local churches are doing this. The Lord is gathering the outcasts.
And when He finally gathers them in, it's over. It's over. When He finally gathers them
in. We are the gathering, this right here, the believers here,
We are the gathering of God's grace in Christ. That's what
we are. And now he changes here. There's
always a flip side. He changes the prophecy here
in verses 9 and 12, 9 through 12. And he's going to deal with
the false shepherds and those watchmen. He says, All ye beasts
of the field, come to devour, yea, all ye beasts in the forest. God's going to deal with these
false shepherds and these watchmen. The greatest reason for Israel's
captivity, the greatest reason for their captivity was owed
to those watchmen and those shepherds. That's the greatest reason. You
go over in the book of Revelation. When the Lord writes to the churches,
the seven churches, he says, write to the angel of Ephesus.
Write to the angel of Laodicea. You know who that angel is? It's
the pastor. It's the watchman. That's who
it is. There is great, great responsibility
laid on this position, doing this. And the reason Israel went
into captivity and had so much trouble was laid at the feet
of the watchmen. And note what he says about these
watchmen. He says, I tell you what, you don't have to worry
about being politically correct when you read the Bible, do you?
Just listen to how he describes these watchmen. He's talking
about not worrying about offending somebody. Truth will offend liars. You don't offend liars. He says, they are blind. They are blind. They are, listen,
they're willfully blind. They had the Bible. Those Pharisees
and scribes, they read the Word of God. They had the whole Old
Testament that we have. They read it. They read this
right here, what I'm reading. Of course, when they read it,
they thought, well, that was somebody else. They always think it's someone
else. And then he says here, they are
ignorant. Willfully ignorant is what they are. Willfully ignorant
of God's righteousness in Christ. When Christ came into this world,
he performed many miracles, didn't he? He spoke. They said never
a man speak like this man. This man speaks with authority.
But they wouldn't have it. They were willfully ignorant.
They did not want the light. Then he says they are dumb dogs
that cannot bark. What good is a watchdog that
cannot bark? Might as well shoot it. It's
useless. God said these watchmen who should
be on guard and not let the enemy in, warn the
people of the enemy, He says they're just dumb dogs
that can't bark. They cannot bark. Sleeping, that's
why they can't bark. You ever walk by a sleeping dog? Sleeping. The dog's asleep. The watchman's asleep. Why is he asleep? He says because
he loves to slumber. He loves to take it easy. You
see, standing here preaching the truth and saying things you
know offend some people. You know, the church, you love
the gospel. But you've got to offend some people too. You've
got to tell the truth on men whether they like it or not.
But these, it says, loves to slumber, sleep. Take it easy. Don't ruffle the feathers. Don't
make it hard on themselves. And he says they're greedy dogs.
You look over the margin and it says strong appetite. Not for the truth. They have
a strong appetite. They're shepherds that cannot
understand. They cannot understand how God saves sinners because
they've closed their eyes and plugged up their ears. They cannot
understand who Christ is. Who do men say that I am? Well,
some say you're this prophet, some that, some Elijah's. But
who do you say I am? They cannot understand. They look to their own way for
their own gain from their own quarters or from their own comfortable
home. They have no more concern about
the sheep and the protection of the sheep, the good of the
sheep and the glory of God in the Gospel. They take care of
themselves. And here's their message to one
another. Come ye, say they, I will fetch
wine, and we will fill ourselves with strong drink, and tomorrow
shall be as this day, and much more abundant. Here's what it
is. It's self-promotion. Their message
is self-promotion. Come let us get drunk on the
people's money. That's what they're saying. At
their expense. And tomorrow will be just as
good as today. But God says, come ye beasts of the field.
God has already prepared their destruction. Now how long He
lets it go on, only God knows. But He's already prepared their
destruction. And He'll devour them in His
time. But to the sinner, the stranger, the eunuch, they will
dwell in the house of the Lord Christ. Remember this, now listen,
remember, keep ye judgment, no matter what trouble comes your
way, keep ye judgment and do justice, for my salvation is
near to come and my righteousness to be revealed. Trust me, trust
me. I'll take care of the false teachers
and I will deliver you. You just do the right thing.
You just do the right thing. I'll deliver you and I'll take
care of them.