Well, we come to Isaiah 56, and
as you know, we've been going through this book right from
chapter 1. It's got 66 chapters, just as the number of books in
the Bible. For some reason, it's the monk
who divided the Word of God up into chapters and verses that
we have to thank for that, but I think it's quite a good symbol
anyway, that it's the book that has the same number of chapters
as the Bible has books. So we come to chapter 56. And
throughout it, as throughout all of the Word of God, is God's
message of salvation from sin to His people. He's chosen a
people in Christ before the foundation of the world, a multitude which
no man can number, of every tribe and tongue and kindred. And in
his word, the message of his word is not what mankind needs
to do to live a better life and therefore to all be nice to one
another. The message of this book is what God has done in
Christ to save his people from their sins, because that's why
Jesus was called Jesus. The angel said to Joseph, Call
His name Jesus. Name Him Jesus. Why? Jesus is
Joshua. Jesus is the Greek for Joshua.
Joshua in the Old Testament was the one who took them into the
Promised Land, the Saviour who took them into the Promised Land.
Call His name Jesus. Why? Because He shall save His
people from their sins. It's God's message of salvation
from sin to His people. And it doesn't tell us what we
must do in order to attain righteousness. Because we can do nothing. Because
as Isaiah says later on, in chapter 64 and verse 6, he says, all
of our righteousnesses, the things that we try to do to make us
better with God, do you know what they're like? Filthy rags. Foul, filthy rags in his sight. Because When you compare the
sinless, holy purity of the eternal God with what we are by nature
in Adam from the fall, we're sinful, we're vile, our sins
separate us from the living God. So the message is not what must
we do, because we can't. The message is what He, God,
has done in Christ. Christ is God. God became man.
God became man that he might save his people from their sins.
And it's what he did in Christ to make his people. What do we
need to spend heaven, eternity in the presence of God? Answer,
we need holiness, perfect holiness, perfect righteousness. It says
in the epistle to the Hebrews, follow, pursue, holiness, without
which, if you don't have it, no man shall see the Lord. When
you die you will not see God, you will not see God other than
in judgment and condemnation. You must have holiness. Where
do we get that holiness? It says that our Lord Jesus Christ
was made the sin of his people and bore its penalty. Why? So
that his people might be made the righteousness of God in him. You say, well, who are his people?
This doesn't seem fair. I'll tell you who his people
are. There's only one way we know. They're the people who
believe him. and who believe the gospel of his grace, from
every background, from every tribe, from every tongue, from
every kindred, which is why it says, God so loved the world.
Not everybody without exception, but God so loved a world full
of sinners that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever
believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. And
we saw how it's accomplished two or three chapters back in
Isaiah 53, that most well-known of chapters in Isaiah. where
we see there the suffering servant, the Christ of God, the Messiah
coming, and as a sacrificial substitute for his people, because
it says again and again that it was for the transgression
of my people that he was stricken, how he bore the just penalty
of the justice of God for the sin of His people. God said to
Adam in the beginning, the soul that sins, it shall die. In the
day that you disobey and eat this forbidden fruit, whatever
that was, in the day that you do that, He said, you shall surely
die. That death was a spiritual death.
He didn't die immediately, but he died eventually. And you read
the record of the Old Testament patriarchs in Genesis, and he
lived to this enormous great age, and the next one lived to
this enormous great age, and you know what it says about every
single one of them? Three words, and he died. And he died. And he died. Because God had
said, in the day that you eat thereof, you shall surely die.
And in Adam, we're sinful. But chapter 53 tells us how Christ,
the Lamb of God, came to stand as a substitute to satisfy the
demands of the justice of God. The justice of God says, the
soul that sins, it shall die. For man to be saved, man must
die. Christ God became a man that
he might die in the place of his people. And having accomplished
that redemption, which he did, you know how we know he accomplished
it? He rose from the dead. That's what it is. That's why
the resurrection is so important. He rose from the dead. He didn't
stay dead. He rose from the dead. And in
rising from the dead, confirmed, vindicated God in his justification
of his people. And chapter 54 showed us the
fruits of that salvation. Five pictures we saw. I'm not
going to repeat them now for the sake of time. And then in
chapter 55, we heard the call of God directly. Ho, everyone
that Thirsts. Thirsts for what? The righteousness
of God. Come, he says. Well, I haven't
got the money. He says, you don't need money. Come without money
and without price. He provides everything in Christ
that is needed and God himself says it in Isaiah 55. The righteousness
that God requires, the justice that demands satisfaction is
all in the Lord Jesus Christ. Religion demands legalistic conformance. Religion loves to tell you what
you must do, where you're allowed to go, the things you're allowed
to eat and drink and not eat and drink, the things that you
must dress in and you must not dress in, the places that you're
permitted to go and not permitted to go. Religion loves to lay
down rules and regulations about what you're allowed and what
you're not allowed to do. But the gospel says there is nothing
for a saved sinner to do, other than what? Look. Back in Isaiah 45, God says,
look unto me and be ye saved. God says to people, sinners,
look unto me and be ye saved. All ye ends of the earth, without
any, you know, doesn't matter where you're from, without all
ye ends of the earth, for I am God and there is no other. Nothing
to do other than look. As Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, we read in John chapter 3, speaking about
Numbers 21, when the people were being bitten by snakes and God
said to Moses, make a thing of brass that looks like those snakes
and hold it up on a pole. And those that are bitten and
dying, all they have to do is look in faith at that brazen,
brass serpent, and they will be cured, and they were. And
Jesus said, just as Moses held up that serpent in the wilderness,
so must I, the Son of Man, be lifted up on a cross and die,
and whosoever looks by faith that my sin is being dealt with
there under the justice of God, Jesus said, you shall be saved.
You shall have everlasting life. And that look is all that's needed. And even that is not something
that you do as a work to earn favour, it's a passive reception
of something that God gives. But don't ever think, you know,
it's all of grace, it's all entirely the gift of God, it's not according
to anything that we do. Don't ever think that grace promotes
sin. You know, Paul said, people say,
ah, this gospel's a good thing. I don't need to do anything to
be right with God. Therefore, let us sin. that grace may abound. The more I sin, the more God's
going to forgive my sin. Oh, what a wonderful thing. I
think I'll go and commit burglaries and get away with it. I think
I'll go and do all sorts of dreadful things and get away with it,
because God in grace has saved me from all my sin. And you know
what Paul says to that? God forbid. Don't be ridiculous.
Of course not. The gospel never promotes sin,
that grace might abound. No, those saved by grace, we
see it in chapter 56 of Isaiah, at the end of verse 2, it says
he keeps his hand from doing any evil. Keeps his hand from
doing evil. Now, all believers know that
we constantly fail. We know that we're still in the
flesh. We know that we are sinners. If we say we have no sin, we
deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. We constantly fail,
but the tenor of the life of a believer is towards the righteousness
of God. There has to be a heart's desire,
not for the things of the world, but for the things of God, for
the truth of God, for the wisdom of God, for the righteousness
of God, for the redemption that God has accomplished in his Son.
But it isn't a life of bondage. Rather, it's a life of blessing. It's not a life of legal bondage,
under a burden of things. Jesus said, all you that labour
and are heavy laden, come to me. He said, I will give you
rest for your souls. My yoke is easy, and my burden
is light. The burden of the true gospel
is a light burden. It's easy. It isn't hard. It isn't legalistic bondage.
You know, monks go off into monasteries and whip themselves and wear
horsehair shirts and crawl on their knees up cathedral steps
and do all sorts of other things, thinking that they earn favour
with God. And God's Word says it makes
absolutely no difference. In fact, in doing those things,
thinking that you're earning favour with God, you're doing
the very opposite. The very opposite. No, it's not
a life of bondage. It's a life of eternal blessing.
And Isaiah 55 ends with two verses that are a metaphor for salvation
blessing. You shall go out with joy, you'll
be led forth with peace, the mountains and hills. It's poetic
language, but it's metaphorically speaking about the blissful condition
of the one who is saved from their sins and has a hope of
eternal glory. That when I die, I know as that
old hymn says, it is well, it is well with my soul. Whatever
might happen in this life, it is well with my soul. God promises
to His people great blessing. We saw it in verse 5 of chapter
56, speaking about them that might come. People who are not
Jews might come, and they will come, in verses 3 and 4. And
He says, even unto them. No background of religion. No
background in the Jewish faith or anything like that. And this
was written nearly 800 years before Christ came. This was
written to Old Testament Israel that was about to go into Babylonian
captivity for its sin of idolatry. But he says, even to them, Gentiles,
non-Jews, will I give in mine house and within my walls a place. and a name better than of sons
and of daughters." That's just like Elkanah, the husband of
Hannah in 1 Samuel. You know, she was sorrowful because
she didn't have a son, and the other wife had many, and Hannah
was loved by Elkanah, and Elkanah said to her, am I not better
to thee than many sons and daughters? And here it says, better than
of sons and of daughters. I will give them an everlasting
name that shall not be cut off. Named with the name of God. Adopted
into his family. You know, legal adoption papers,
the child adopts the name of the family doing the adopting.
I will give them an everlasting name. Adopted into the family
of God. The saved family of God. An eternal
place and status in God's kingdom. Are you numbered amongst the
people so blessed by God? Because it speaks of a people
that is abundantly blessed by the Living God. Well, if you
are, two things mark you out, and they're in verse 6. Look
at it. Also the sons of the stranger that join themselves to the Lord,
to serve Him, and to love the name of the Lord, to be His servants.
Now listen, these are the two characteristics of those that
are the people of God who have a hope in heaven, who have an
eternal blessing. He says, everyone that keeps
the Sabbath from polluting it, and those that take hold of my
covenant. You've got to keep the Sabbath
without polluting it, and you've got to take hold of God's covenant. Those are the things that those
who are the recipients of the salvation blessings of God, that's
what marks them out from the rest. keeping the Sabbath from
polluting it, and taking hold of God's covenant. Now, what
I want to do is to consider with you in the time we have available,
what is the covenant, first of all? Secondly, how do I take
hold of it? And in the process, consider
what it is to avoid polluting the Sabbath. And thirdly, ask
if anything would stop me from grasping it, from keeping it,
from polluting the Sabbath. What would keep me from grasping
that covenant? So first of all then, what is
the covenant that this is speaking of? Well a covenant is an agreement
between two or more parties. In scripture there are several
different covenants, but essentially there are only two. Essentially
there are only two. The first one that is revealed
is the covenant of works made with Adam, in the early chapters
of Genesis in the Garden of Eden before sin had come into the
world. The covenant of works, it was,
obey my laws, you've got great liberty, obey my laws, you can
have whatever you want, but Do not eat of the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil. Do not eat of that tree. That
is the forbidden tree. Now, what it metaphorically referred
to in a literal sense, I don't know, and I don't think there's
any point speculating. God had laid down a line, and it was
do not cross that line, for if you do, that is sin. And you
will take the whole of your race into sin when you do. And the
covenant of works was made with Adam, and it basically said,
do this and live. Do that, and you shall surely
die. In the day you eat of it, you
shall surely die. The other one, that's the first one, the other
one is the covenant of grace. And the covenant of grace was
made between the persons of the Godhead. The Godhead is a trinity,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The covenant of grace was made
between the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. Made with Christ,
whereas the first one was made with Adam, the second one was
made with Christ. And it is a covenant of grace
that all of the blessings of it are accomplished by the works
and the doing of the persons of the Godhead and of nobody
else. The covenant of works, the first one, made with Adam,
reveals itself later in the book of Exodus in the Mosaic law. And clearly it says in a whole
load of commandments and civil instructions, do this and live. But you know, we couldn't ever
do this and live by nature in the flesh. Paul says to the Romans
in Romans 8 verse 3, he says, what the law could not do, what
could the law not do? The law could not establish the
righteousness that God needs. Why not? Because it's weak through
the flesh. The flesh, your flesh, my flesh,
is too weak to keep it. You know, you turn over a new
leaf. Today I'm not going to do any sin whatsoever. And it
takes about two or three minutes, doesn't it, before you realize
that you have, in thought, or in word, or in deed, because
that's what we are by nature. The first covenant, do this and
live, was weak. through the weakness of the flesh
and therefore it couldn't bring life. Do this and live was impossible
because of the weakness of the flesh. All that that covenant
showed was the inability of works to establish the righteousness
that God requires. All that covenant, all that law,
all that Mosaic law did was show us that we're forever condemned
before a just and holy God. That law was no more than, as
Paul says to the Galatians, it was our schoolmaster to bring
us to the other covenant. It was our schoolmaster to teach
us you cannot be right with God through the things that you try
to do. You can only be right with God through the things that
His Son has accomplished as your substitute and surety in your
place. And you appropriate all that
He has done when you look to Him by faith. That's it. Romans
8.3, going on from that what the law could not do, 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, that the righteousness
of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the
flesh, trying to keep it, but after the Spirit, looking by
faith to the Lord Jesus Christ, is what that means. It is the
covenant mentioned in chapter 55 in verse 3. We mentioned it
briefly last week. In verse 3, God says, I will
make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies
of David. And Paul quotes it in the Acts
of the Apostles at Antioch when he's preaching the Lord Jesus
Christ. That covenant. This is the covenant of salvation
that God formulated before time began. It's pictured, even in
the old covenant it's pictured, it's pictured in the Mosaic law.
How? The temple, the priesthood, the animal sacrifices, the rituals
that all had to be performed, all pictured Christ and him coming
to accomplish salvation. Where the law kept saying, do
this otherwise it's sin, it then provided the remedy for sin.
Bring a sin offering, lay your hand, you know we sang in that
hymn, when I lay my hand on that, my faith would lay her hand on
that dear head of thine, while like a penitent I stand and there
confess my sin. The sinner would bring an animal
to the temple in the Old Testament regime and would lay his hands
on the animal's head and confess his sin and the animal would
be sacrificed. You may say with our 21st century sensitivities,
oh we've got such weird sensitivities, haven't we? We're incredibly
sensitive when I talk about things like this with, oh no, what an
evil barbaric thing to do. And yet in our modern wonderful
culture, in the day in which we live, the number of things
that offend The Word of God, and the grace of God, and the
truth of God are just absolutely rampant, and we have no feelings. It says our conscience is seared.
We are numb to what is actually happening with man in respect
of offense against the living God. But those animals will be
brought and will be sacrificed, and the symbolism is that the
sin of the person is transferred to the animal, which then suffers
the penalty for the sin, and thereby, you see, it only worked. Paul tells us again and again,
not by the blood of bulls and goats is any sin taken away,
but only by faith looking forward to what Christ the Lamb of God
would come and would literally accomplish, would really accomplish. It's the blood of Christ that
cleanses from all sin. This covenant is pictured several
times in the Old Testament. We read of it many, many times.
We read of it, I'm just going to give two or three examples.
In Jeremiah, in Jeremiah chapter 31, let me read two or three
verses for you. Behold, the days come, saith
the Lord. that I will make a new covenant
with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not
according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in
the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the
land of Egypt, which my covenant they break, although I was an
husband unto them, saith the Lord, but this shall be the covenant
that I will make with the house of Israel, After those days,
saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and
write it in their hearts, and I will be their God, and they
shall be my people, and they shall teach no more every man
his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord,
for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest
of them, saith the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity,
their sin, and I will remember their sin no more. Is that not
a good covenant? Are you a sinner before God?
Are you conscious that God is holy? That God is just? That
God demands the penalty for your sin be paid? And you read of
a covenant where God says, I will remember their sin no more. Is that not good news? Do you
know that's what gospel means? Good news? That's good news,
isn't it? That's the good news. That passage
is quoted in Hebrews. For the sake of time I won't
turn to Psalm 89, but there again you read of the same covenant.
David spoke about it on his deathbed. David, the sweet psalmist of
Israel, King David, he wrote about it on his deathbed. He
said in 2 Samuel 23 verse 5, Although my house be not so with
God. My house isn't right with God,
it's in all sorts of turmoil. Yet he has made with me an everlasting
covenant, ordered in all things unsure, for this is all my salvation
and all my desire, although he make it not to grow. You see
what David is saying? I'm on my deathbed, but I've
got an absolutely solid hope that I'm going into the heaven
of God, to eternal bliss. When I leave this life shortly,
I'm going there because of this covenant in which God has dealt
with my sin by the one who, when David was speaking, was to come
a thousand years later. And us, we look back two thousand
years to what he's accomplished. This new covenant is the gospel
of free grace in Christ. Remember, You know, I gave the
example of paying a debt. I think I used Michael as the
person to whom I owed £100. And Michael was getting rather
twitched that I hadn't paid him back the £100 that I owed him. And he was getting really quite
annoyed, saying, when are you going to pay me back this £100? And Stephen
comes along and says, Michael, here's £100, leave your granddad
alone. And Michael's perfectly happy, he doesn't care who gave
him the £100, he's got the £100! But when it comes to, if I go
and... murder your cousin, then Stephen can't go and say, oh,
I'll go to prison for life, or I'll go to the electric chair,
or lethal injection, or whatever is the penalty for that. Because
justice says, no, that's not right, no. The one that did it
has to do it. Well, it depends what the sovereign, what the
ruler says. And God, the sovereign of the
universe, has decreed that a fitting substitute can pay the sin debt
of a people. A fitting substitute can pay
the sin debt of a people. The only fitting substitute is
Christ. Why? because he's God. He himself had no sin. He is
of infinite capacity to do this. He can die in the place of a
multitude because of who he is. This is what the Word of God
declares. He is the only fitting substitute,
which is why when he came, when John the Baptist was starting
his ministry and Jesus, right at the beginning of his public
ministry, comes. And what does John do? He points
his disciples, he says, behold, the Lamb of God. You all know
about lambs in the temple. Behold the Lamb of God, the one
spoken of in the scripture, who takes away the sins of the world,
who was made sin. He was made sin that his people
might be made the righteousness of God in him, and thereby redemption. You know what redemption is?
Somebody's taken prisoner and held, and the price of their
freedom is a ransom. And when you pay that price of
their freedom, you redeem the captured, the person in bondage,
Christ redeemed his people from the curse of the law. How did
he do it? By being made a curse for them. All these things I'm
telling you, these are straight quotes from the scriptures. Galatians
3.13, in that case, Christ redeemed his people from the curse of
the law, being made a curse in their place. And so God remains
just. Sin is punished. but he justifies
those who are sinners. Is that not glorious? So let
me move on quickly. How do I take hold of it? How
do I take hold of it? First of all, by nature, we all
think that there's something that we have to do to win favour
with God, to earn favour with God. Well, the first thing to
do to take hold of the covenant of grace, the saving covenant
of God, is to stop hedging your bets by clinging to the old covenant. Now, we read about this in Galatians
chapter 5. where Paul is speaking to the
Galatian church, because they've started to think they need to
mix legal things that they did. You know, the Jews had this right
of circumcision, and there were people who were saying, yes,
it's all well and good to be Christians, but you know, the men amongst
you have got to be circumcised, otherwise you're not right with
God. And Paul's telling them that that is absolutely wrong.
That and anything like it, anything of a legal nature is absolutely
wrong. He says, stand fast therefore
in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not
entangled again with the yoke of bondage, the bondage of legal
requirements that you must do this and you must do that. He
says, I, Paul, say to you, that if you be circumcised, or if
you do anything else of a legal nature, thinking that you're
being good and you're making yourself more favourable to God,
and, oh, I've stopped doing that this week, therefore I'm better
in the sight of God. Oh, I'm coming to church, that
makes me better in the sight of God. No, don't even think
that. Because he says, if you think that things that you do
make you better with God, listen what he says. Now, People say,
oh, there's all sorts of interpretations of scripture. Now I defy you
to come up with another interpretation of scripture than what this clearly
says. He says, if you do that, to try and earn favor with God,
Christ shall profit you nothing. Christ and the salvation he's
accomplished shall profit you nothing. It will do you no good
whatsoever. Come the day of judgment when
you stand there to give an account of your sins, what Christ has
done for his people will profit you nothing. You know, we read
of Christ, he says, many will say to me in that day, Lord,
Lord, haven't we done all these things in your name? And he said,
I will say to them, depart from me. I never knew you. Depart
from me. You didn't know me. You didn't
know what it was to rest in me. In John chapter 3, what is the
message about taking hold of this covenant? It's this. It's
God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that
whosoever believes on him should not perish but have everlasting
life. Belief in the Lord Jesus Christ. Acts 16, the Philippian
jailer, when he suddenly comes to his senses, this rough man
and those with him. I imagine he was as tough as
anybody you'd ever find today. He was a really tough, hard man.
He was... He was charged by the rulers
of Philippi to keep the worst criminals in jail, and not to
give them a very pleasant time while they were there. And I
bet he made a very good job of that. And there was an earthquake
one night, and Paul and Silas were singing hymns. They were
in the stocks, they were held, they were in great discomfort.
Nevertheless, they were praising God for his salvation. And you
can imagine it echoing around that prison. And all of a sudden,
there's an earthquake. And all the doors are opened,
and the stocks are broken, and the jailer thinks, that's it,
it's up for me, I'm going to be put to death, the rulers will
not allow this. If I've let any of the prisoners
go, that's my lot, done. And he was faced with the fact
that he was about to go into eternity, in a violent way. And
he cries out, what must I do to be saved? Because I'm sure
in that moment God gave him sight. that the thing he ought to fear
was not the rulers who would probably put him to death for
what had happened. No, not that. The thing he had
to fear was God into whose hands he was about to fall. And he
said, what must I do to be saved? And Paul and Silas said, what?
Oh, you need to start being a lot better at all these. No, they
said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved.
And anybody else in your household, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Jews asked Jesus, what is the work that we should do in
order to do the work of God, in order to do the work that
God will accept? And Jesus said, this is the work
of God, that you believe on the one he sent. That's it. Not that
my believing is a work that I do that makes me better with God,
but it's something I do because God has done that work in me.
This is the work of God that you believe on the one he sent.
Now, essentially, believing on Christ Resting in Christ is Sabbath-keeping. That's what it is. In the Old
Testament, there was a day and there were feasts which were
Sabbaths. And on the Sabbath, work was strictly, absolutely
forbidden. You were not to pick up sticks.
In the camp of the Israelites leaving Egypt, one man on the
Sabbath day picked up sticks to light a fire to cook food.
And do you know what they were to do with him? They were to
stone him to death. Gosh, that's harsh. Well, it
was to picture what it is. It was to picture the eternal
death that results of trying to do anything to make yourself
right with God other than rest in the Lord Jesus Christ. Today,
the Sabbath, is not a day. Sunday is not the Sabbath in
its Christian form, as so many say. Don't be fooled by it. It isn't. It absolutely isn't.
Do you know, I know of men that I used to greatly respect, who
taught me a lot of good things from the scriptures, who still
maintain today that this day, Sunday, is a form of Sabbath
day. And you know, oh gosh, you mustn't
do any shopping whatsoever, and don't go getting a bus because
you're making a bus driver work, and don't do this, that, and
the other, and no end of, it isn't, it isn't, it isn't. Keeping the Sabbath is looking
to Christ and Him alone, not looking to any works that you
do. Sabbath means simply rest. When Jesus said, all you that
labor and are heavy laden, he said, come unto me and I will
give you Sabbath. I will give you rest. I will
give you, there's a rest for the people of God. Look in Hebrews. Hebrews chapter 4. I thought
I'd turned the page now, but I don't think I have. Never mind,
we'll find it. Hebrews chapter 4. Sorry about this, I normally
have the pages turned down to get me there quicker, but anyway,
we're there. I found it. Hebrews chapter 4 and verse 1. Let us therefore fear lest a
promise being left us of entering into his rest, his Sabbath, any
of you should seem to come short of it. For unto us was the gospel
preached as well as unto them. These were Jews who fell short. But the word preached did not
profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard
it. For we which have believed do enter into Sabbath. By believing in Christ we keep
the Sabbath from polluting it. As I have sworn in my wrath,
he said, if they shall enter into my rest, my Sabbath, although
the works were finished from the foundation of the world.
For he spoke in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise,
and God did rest, Sabbath, the seventh day from all his works.
And in this place again, if they shall enter into my rest. And
so it goes on, and he says, there remains, verse 9, a rest, a Sabbath,
to the people of God. That Sabbath is trust in Christ,
and nowhere else, for your acceptance with him, for your righteousness
before God. You keep the Sabbath, you avoid
polluting it when you rest in Christ and his finished work
of redemption. It's true that resting one day
in seven is a good principle, it is, but Sunday is not the
Sabbath in its Christian form. We're strictly forbidden in the
New Testament to keep Sabbaths in that way. As Paul said to
the Galatians, if you do that, what did I read before? Christ
shall profit you nothing. I keep the Sabbath, when by faith
I rest in the finished work of Christ, who has paid my sin debt,
who has secured my liberty, who has qualified me in righteousness
for heaven. If I think I gain favor with
God by not going shopping on a Sunday, remember, if you do
anything like that, Christ shall profit you nothing. The covenant
is established in Christ alone. How do I confess it? How do I
take hold of it? Let me quickly, and I'm rapidly
running out of time. How do I take hold of it? You
know, that's what it is. It's one thing to say, yeah,
I can see that. But how do I take hold of it? Well, here are some
things. Firstly, confess my sin. confess my sin, confess what
I am before God. Not before a priest, confess
what I am before God. Because John, in his epistle,
1 John chapter 1 verse 9, says this, if we confess our sin to
God, He, God, is faithful and just. to forgive us our sins.
Why is he just? He doesn't sweep the sin under
the carpet. No, he's punished it in Christ already. Its debt
has been paid. He is faithful and just to forgive
us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. By
faith believing, we have forgiveness. And as I confess my sins, I take
hold of the covenant. Confessing my sins and looking
only to Christ, I keep the Sabbath from polluting it. Secondly,
what can I do? Pray. Pray to God. You heard
of that? Prayer? Pray. Whosoever, Romans
10, 13. Whosoever. Am I included? I think whosoever includes you,
doesn't it? Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall
be saved. Calling on the name of the Lord?
Pray. Lord, save me. Lord God you're just while on
others you are calling to save them please do not pass me by. God be merciful to me the sinner
said that man at the at the wall of the temple that Jesus pointed
out to his disciples there's the Pharisee saying I thank you
God that I'm not like these other men I'm so good and right and
have so much of your favor and he said that man's not justified
but he said look at this Look at this sinner, look at this
publican, this publicly known sinner, and he's there in great
sorrow saying, God be merciful to me, the sinner. Pray, whosoever
shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Believing
that God hears and finding that we're accepted in Christ. Thirdly,
what can I do to take hold of the covenant? Well, here's a
very practical thing. You can obey the command to be
baptized. If you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, obey the command
to be baptized. He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved. Why? What does that do? By going
down into the water of baptism, you are showing that you are
united with Christ when He went down into the grave in death.
And when you come up out of the water, you identify with Christ
in His resurrection. I am crucified with Christ, and
I am risen together with Christ. obey the command to be baptized.
It's not that that work will do anything for you in terms
of making you right with God, but it is what you can do to
tangibly take hold of the covenant by being baptized. Fourthly,
worship God. What we're doing now. But you
know, worship isn't just an hour on a Sunday. Worship's an attitude
of mine, seven days a week. Where two or three are gathered
together in my name, said Jesus, there am I in the midst, honoring
and praising God. In a world that has no thought
for the things of God and the truth of God, we praise Him.
We bow before Him. We lift up His glory and His
majesty. And God says, in 1 Samuel 2.30,
He says, them that honor Me, I will honor. Do you not want
to be honored by God? Well, honor Him. They that despise
Me shall be lightly esteemed. Next one, we remember him in
communion. You know, when we take the bread and we take the
wine, this isn't a mass. The bread and the wine don't
become the literal body and blood of Christ, but what are they?
They're symbols to remind us. Jesus said, this do in remembrance
of me. Don Fortner tells the account,
which I've told you before, that Scott Richardson, who has long
since died, but Scott Richardson, not long before he died, when
Don went to visit him, Scott Richardson gave him a little
penknife. And Don says, I've got plenty of penknives. He said,
I don't need another one. And Scott said, no, I want you
to have it. And Don said, why? He said, because every time you
pick it up, you'll remember me. Well that's what this is. The
bread and the wine, every time you pick it up and eat and drink
of it, you'll remember Christ. This do in remembrance of me.
And in doing it, in discerning the Lord's body, in discerning
that it was His death, and His resurrection, and His shed blood
that paid the penalty for my sins, I'm discerning what He
did in my place, I am symbolically, spiritually eating His flesh
and drinking His blood, I remember Him, and I'm taking hold of the
covenant, and I anticipate His return, I anticipate that He's
coming again, I live my life on the tiptoe of faith. So, finally,
and I'm going to go over a couple of minutes, so please bear with
me. Why not for me, then? Why not for me? You know, we
sang that hymn at the end of last week. Hark how the gospel
trumpet sounds. Christ and free grace therein
abounds. Free grace for such as sinners
be. And if free grace, why not for
me? Why not for me? You might say,
As good and as plausible as all this sounds, it isn't the world
that I live in. It's not for me. So are you saying
that you're not a sinner, condemned under God's justice? Is that
what you're saying? Would you like to tell God that,
that you think you're good enough as you are? Jesus said this,
I came not to call the righteous, meaning those who think they're
righteous, but there is really none righteous, no not one. I
came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. He
said it's those that are well, those who think they are well
in terms of rightness with God, they don't need a physician,
a doctor, it's the sick that need a physician. He came to
call sinners to repentance. If you are a sinner, this covenant
of salvation and the rest provided, the Sabbath provided in Christ,
is exactly what you need as you face eternity, is it not? This
life is relatively short. Eternity is outside of time. He is exactly what you need.
Oh well, okay, it's good for sinners. Are you not a sinner?
Secondly, perhaps you say, Well, some might say, well, I've got
my traditional religion, and I'm quite happy with that, and
we're settled in it, and I'm sure God requires me to keep
up my efforts. Well, you know, there was a man
called Saul of Tarsus, who was the most careful strict Pharisee.
in the Jewish religion. And he knew that he, as far as
he was concerned, was dead right with God in absolutely everything.
And God stripped him bare. On the road to Damascus, God
stripped him absolutely naked in terms of his own clothing,
of his own righteousness. And he says, in Philippians 3,
talking about this, he says, Though I might also have confidence
in the flesh, though I might think that my religion was a
good thing, if any other man thinks he has whereof he might
trust in the flesh, I more so. I was circumcised 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 loss for Christ. Yea, doubtless, 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 listen
what he says, I do count them but dung. I count them like a
pile of manure, As a gardener, I quite value manure, but anyway,
we won't take the analogy too far. Paul said, it's just all
that pharisaical righteousness, religious righteousness I thought
I had, I count it as nothing compared with being in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Maybe you say you're too bad
to be rescued. Do you know there was a man that was on the cross
next to Christ's cross? You read about it in Luke's gospel.
Two of them, one either side. And one cursed at the Lord Jesus
Christ along with the crowd. But the other one suddenly saw
what he was. He knew he deserved exactly the
punishment he was getting. And he said, Lord, remember me
when you come into your kingdom. In that moment, there was repentance.
Lord, remember me. And you know what Jesus said
to him? Was it too late? No, no, you're too late, you
can't do any works of righteousness. No, Jesus said, truly I say to
you, this day you shall be with me in paradise. Maybe you've
got an immoral background and there's things that you're just
too ashamed of. In John chapter 8, there was
a woman taken by the Pharisees, caught in the act of adultery.
And Jesus wrote on the ground and said to the self-righteous
scribes and lawyers, which of you is without sin? Let him cast
the first stone at her. And they all left. And Jesus
said to her, Where are all your accusers? And she said, they've
gone, Lord. He said, well, neither do I condemn you, but go and
sin no more. And in that moment, he saved
her from her sin. And she became one of the disciples. Maybe you think, oh, well, I'm
too young. What did Jesus say? Suffer, allow little children
to come unto me, and forbid them not, for if such is the kingdom
of heaven. Maybe I'm too evil. Do you know
the most wicked king that's recorded in the Old Testament, in the
rule of Israel, was Manasseh. He was even worse than Ahab.
Do you know, He came to repentance and He came to salvation. None
is beyond the reach of grace. The only ones that are, are the
ones that will not believe. That's the unforgivable sin,
not believing. God's arm is not shortened that
it cannot save. The salvation Christ has accomplished
in covenant grace is a fountain opened. The prodigal son, final
point, the prodigal son, didn't think he could return to his
father's house when he'd gone away and wasted all of his inheritance. But he came to an end of himself
where he had nothing left. He said, I've got nothing to
lose. Even if my father kills me, I've
got nothing to lose because I'm going to die if I carry on here.
And so he comes back to his father, resolved to beg for mercy. and
his father sees him a long way off when he's far away. And what's
the sentiment? It's overflowing love. The father
loves him and runs to him and it's a picture of God and the
penitent sinner coming back to him. He loves him and he forgives
him and he accepts him and he puts that best robe in the house
on him, and the ring on his finger, and calls of feast, and this
peace and rejoicing. That's the salvation that God
tells us about in this book. And if free grace, why not for
me? Amen.