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God’s Invitations (Part C)

Cross Reference Radio / Pastor Rick Gaston
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December 9, 2024 6:00 am

God’s Invitations (Part C)

Cross Reference Radio / Pastor Rick Gaston

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December 9, 2024 6:00 am

An invitation is given, an offer is made. Your way has been paid in advance; you just need to take hold of it. In this Old Testament passage, God sends out His invitation to ALL, not just those of Jewish birth.

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I'll tell you, that position that I just stated would be evil if it were loveless.

It is not. It's not loveless to stand up against wrong. You can tell them all you want, listen, I love you, but you are out of your mind. And they'll try to spin that one on you too. Just stand your ground and they'll have a chance that way.

But if you cave in and give them an inch, you're just helping them. It may take a long time, but don't back down from the truth. This is Cross-Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of Isaiah. Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross-Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. Now here's Pastor Rick in the book of Isaiah chapter 56 with today's edition of Cross-Reference Radio.

Do you suppose that I came to give peace on earth? I tell you not at all, but rather division. There's that barrier.

There's a border right there that separates, a demarcation between the two. Numbers chapter 15, because God's speaking about this misbehavior towards the things that he has told the people, presumptuous behavior. You know, one of those, well, I'm going to be the exception to this. Well, God addresses that in Numbers 15, 31, because he has despised the word of the Lord and has broken his commandment, that person shall be completely cut off. His guilt shall be upon him. I think when you heard that, if you were one of the Jews in those days, the right response would be, I'm going to honor God's word. And some did and some did not. And God's word does not come back void in that sense.

It gets work done. It separates the sheep from the goat. Those who are sincere from those who are insincere.

The contrite heart versus the one that is just really not that interested. And yet, they still want to participate in religion while they ignore the God of the very scripture who has given them, in many cases, the rituals that they go through. So God warned the people about living outside of his word, living presumptuously. David prayed, God, keep me from presumptuous sin. When our Lord used the word to refute the corruption of Satan there in the wilderness, the temptation of Christ, the word did not return void, did it? It accomplished at least two things. It halted Satan's further attempts to corrupt Jesus through corrupting the scripture. In other words, Jesus shut him up by using the scripture. So the scripture did not return void. It shut the devil up. It also did not return void in this sense. It stands as a textbook example on how to talk back to devils. Whatever application of scripture in their face.

I like that kind of stuff. But I also have to say, there's nothing easy about this life. It's just, you're going to have to still, by the sweat of the brow, you're going to have to fight and scratch for everything good. But knowing that God is backing you up, it makes it possible, it makes it worth it. Ergo that word worthy.

He is worthy. This does not mean, when we talk about God's word not returning void, that we get what we want. And we should be glad, because we also don't get what we deserve.

So it kind of balances out. Verse 12, for, well, I've got to stop. This is another phrase that people like to say, and I like this one. I'm not going to, you know, how are you doing? I'm better than I deserve. Well, I could have told him that.

I was saying the same thing about you, just to the other guy. Verse 12, for you shall go out with joy and be led out with peace, and the mountains and the hills shall break forth into singing before you, and all the trees of the fields shall clap their hands. Well, of course, it's not going to, these aren't going to really clap, it's going to be spooky, right? I don't remember, what was that? Alice in Wonderland? What were those talking trees? They were mean, too. There was a couple of places they show up. Anyhow, and they're real big, and heavy.

Well, anyway, what's going on here? Ultimately, they will be rejoicing, and the scripture's loaded with this, and Christ mentioned this to the Pharisees when they, when he was marching into Jerusalem on a donkey, and they tell your disciples not to say these Hosanna things about you, and he said, yeah, well, the rocks will cry out if they don't. Verse 13, instead of the thorn shall come the cypress tree, instead of the briar shall come the myrtle tree, and it shall be to the Lord for a name and an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off. Well, cypress trees are beautiful trees. Some trees aren't that beautiful. Some are just scrawny, but the cypress is just a beautiful tree.

Goodness, harmful. What's going on here with the thorn and the briar that stand out is the godless, and the harmful, the self-centered lives, the fruitless lives. The thorn is not fruit, and, you know, not edible fruit, and it is pictured in the thorn and the briar. Verse, Isaiah 56 now, in this section, God reveals a salvation that's made available for all who would follow him and keep his covenant, but also those outside, those outsiders. So he expands a little bit to the non-Israelites and the Israelites who were restricted because of Mosaic law.

Well, he's going to invite them in. Verse 1 now, thus says Yahweh, keep justice and do righteousness for my salvation is about to come and my righteousness to be revealed. Again, there are Jews in Israel that were loving this, always encouraging the people to obey, to do good, to continue with him, to abide. Two virtues named here, justice and righteousness. Basic aspects of a proper Israeli life, or Israelite. The difference between the Israelites is the Israelites were the people under the Mosaic law, the sons of Jacob, and an Israeli today, you can be a Muslim living in Israel, but you're a citizen and you are an Israeli, but you're not an Israelite.

So this is one of the differences there. Integrity belongs to this towards others and, of course, in observing God's laws, the justice is more of a legal concern and righteousness is out of the heart. Godly behavior. Verse 2, blessed is the man who does this and the son of man who lays hold on it, who keeps from defiling the Sabbath and keeps his hand from doing any evil. Well, the phrase the son of man, Ezekiel. Ezekiel loved that phrase and it was God saying, you're finite, you're going to die, you're a sinner, compared to me. You're not me. You're not God.

And in a very good way. And Ezekiel embraces that. I am the son of man. I'm a human being. I'm not God. Well, when Christ comes along, of course, it speaks of his humanity. I've come as one of you. I'm numbered with the sinners and I'm not a sinner and I'm not from here, but I'm identifying with you.

So it's an identity issue, which I don't think there was one person anywhere in the Bible who questioned what the definition is of a man or a woman. People, if you don't correct things early on, if you just leave it, it's just going to get bigger. We learn this in cities where law enforcement does not enforce the law. Things get worse. It gets worse for everybody.

So yeah, don't have that stuff. And they try to engage in a, if you've ever watched them, they try to engage in an intellectual debate. It's like, let's intellectually debate whether water is wet.

No, you're stupid. There's no other answer for that. Don't tolerate it.

All right. I get to be in my little world, but I mean, that's just not going to tolerate that. Nobody's going to come up to me and debate with me about what the definition of a man and woman is. I can't define it. Because you're blind to it because of the evil in your heart.

Well, verse two, blessed is the man who does this and the son of man who lays hold on it, who keeps from defiling the Sabbath and keeps his hand from doing any evil. Well, I'll tell you, that position that I just stated would be evil if it were loveless, and it's not. It's not loveless to stand up against wrong. You can tell them all you want, listen, I love you, but you are out of your mind. And they'll try to spin that one on you too. Just stand your ground, and they'll have a chance that way. But if you cave in and give them an inch, you're just helping them.

It may take a long time, but don't back down from the truth because you think you're being harsh. You know, evil tries to do that, tries to make us feel guilty for being right. Anyway, back to this, blessed is the man who, verse two, Isaiah 56, blessed is the man who does this and the son of man who lays hold on it, who keeps from defiling the Sabbath and keeps his hand from doing any evil. The Sabbath commandment was a special sign between God and the Jewish people. That's what the Bible teaches. Exodus 31, verse 13, speak also to the children of Israel saying, surely my Sabbath you shall keep for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations that you may know that I am Yahweh who sanctifies you.

It was never given to the Gentiles, and many churchgoers have struggled with this. The Jews, they were careless about their Sabbath in the wilderness. Ezekiel, he returns to that. He's much later, but he returns to that to remind them in Ezekiel 20, and they were careless about their Sabbaths even in the land. Jeremiah calls them out on that in Jeremiah 17. After they returned from the Babylonian captivity, they were careless about the Sabbath again in Nehemiah 13 and other places too, but those are enough. The Sabbath day is the seventh day of the week, the end of the week, the day that God sanctified creation. Actually, his creation, he didn't sanctify creation, but his work, his creative work.

But then sin came. Sunday is the Lord's day. That's what John called it in Revelation chapter 1, verse 10. It's the first day of the week, not the last day of the week, and it commemorates the resurrection, the defeat of sin, the ultimate defeat, ultimately the defeat of sin. And so the Christian is called to, we're not called to honor the Sabbath, and to say that there's a Christian Sabbath confuses the whole thing. There's no Christian Sabbath. That was for the Jewish people. The church is not under that.

It belongs to Mosaic law. God's people rest in Christ, and then moving forward from that, we work to demonstrate our allegiance and to uphold righteousness. So there's another thing on the Sabbath day. A New Testament impulses, you know, one man steams one day higher than another, fine.

Another man doesn't esteem any of them, fine. There's no big deal with God. And then they hated him for that. The Jews did, many of them. Verse 3, do not let the son of the foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord speak, saying, Yahweh has utterly separated me from his people, nor let the eunuch say, here I am a dry tree. So now Isaiah is saying, listen, the Lord loves people, and he wants to save people. And there are things about this through history we don't understand all of it.

We understand enough of it. The treatment that Ruth received by Boaz, as well as the Bethlehem people, the people of Bethlehem, the Israelites of Bethlehem, demonstrated that this law was never meant to exclude the Gentiles. People who came to this confession, your people will be my people, and your God will be my God. The book of Ruth, chapter 1, verse 16. She was not excluded. She was brought in. In fact, she's grandmother of David.

So very powerful. Again, the most mentioned human in the Bible, and the one that Messiah associates his throne with. There's a Gentile woman that is involved in that. These verses in Isaiah apply mainly to the end times. He's reversing Deuteronomy 23. But we'll be here all night if we go back to Deuteronomy and read these things. And so there are laws about the eunuchs concerning the temple.

There were restrictions. And now the prophet is saying, things are going to change. God has a heart for these people, and so did the prophet.

And so he's showing a wider application beyond the chosen people. And when the eunuch says, here I am, a dry tree, it alludes to his inability to have children. But God's going to get to that too. Verse 4. Thus says the Lord to the eunuchs who keep my Sabbath and choose what pleases me and hold fast my covenant.

In the context of the days of Isaiah, the Sabbaths were very much a part of that culture. This is long before the church came about. Verse 5. Even to them I will give in my house and within my walls a place and a name better than that of the sons and daughters, better than that of sons and daughters. I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off. Just remember Daniel was a eunuch.

The Ethiopian that Philip led to the Lord was also one. There are deep spiritual implications here, and the context is critical to crack the code as to what's being said. I will give in my house and within my walls a place. So God is saying, it's almost like he's saying, I'm going to have a nook in my temple that is a testimony to your righteousness, to your obedience. And in other words, God's not going to forget. That's what matters with him, the life you live, the righteous life. He says, in a name better than that of sons and daughters. Well, because they could not have sons and daughters, God was going to give them something better to be remembered by than merely having children. And that society is a big deal. If you died without having children, man, God must not have liked you.

It's a very big deal. Well, God is saying here, no, your testimony is bigger than that. You didn't have a thousand kids, but what's your testimony?

And that's what I'm going to hold up. That's what he's telling the eunuch here in this section. Otherwise, there's no way to make the verse make sense.

And a name better than that of sons and daughters. So he's telling the eunuch, I know you couldn't have children. That's all right. You can have a testimony. And that, that is better. Now that doesn't mean if you have kids that your testimony doesn't, your testimony is just as valid as the eunuch's testimony.

But that's what it comes down to. He says, I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off. Yeah, well, eventually people will forget about your kids, but not about you in heaven where it matters most. And so when the eunuch died without children and their house was, they had no house to continue, no legacy to pass on as far as offspring, they had a spiritual legacy. David's son Absalom built himself a monument because he didn't have any children.

And that's how important it was. 2 Samuel 18, now Absalom in his lifetime had taken up, had taken and set up a pillar for himself, which is in the king's valley, for he said, I have no son to keep my name in remembrance. And he called the pillar after his own name. Absalom was totally in love with himself and he was a monster.

But what that does tell us is the stigmatism attached to not having children in that society. Of course, John the Baptist, remember, he was a spiritual eunuch, you could say. He was without children. He never married. He was all about the Lord's work.

He was a Nazarite from birth, like Samson, you could say that very easily. So what God is saying to those who are handicapped in life, I'm going to take care of you. You just do the right thing. Verse 6, also the sons of the foreigner who join themselves to the Lord to serve him and to love the name of the Lord, to be his servants, everyone who keeps from defiling the Sabbath and holds fast my covenant.

Well, that's what I meant when I said, well, whether you have kids or not, that's not the point. What do you do with your righteousness? And that's what God is saying here in verse 6. Yeah, all right, I'll take care of the eunuch, but about you others, the others who don't have a handicap.

I'm also looking at how your behavior is and I'm going to expand this to foreigners. I'm going to bring them in. So again, verse 6, also the sons of the foreigner who join themselves to the Lord to serve him and to love the name of the Lord, to be his servants, everyone who keeps from defiling the Sabbath and holds fast my covenant. Paul likely referring to this in Romans 15 when he mentions he wanted the Gentile converts to be holy before the Lord maintaining the integrity.

In other words, he wasn't just trying to get Gentiles to agree with him. He wanted them to be born again and enter into the kingdom of heaven and he's likely tying it into this verse in Isaiah. Verse 7 now, Isaiah 56, even them I will bring to my holy mountain and make them joyful in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations. Verse 8, the Lord God or the Lord Yahweh who gathers the outcasts of Israel says, yet I will gather to him others, besides those who are gathered to him. Isaiah is just totally evangelical.

He's looking to just, he has a global view and beyond just the Jewish people and he is a Jewish person. In my holy mountain, of course, that's the temple in Jerusalem. In scripture, the burning of incense pictures prayers and it's flat out said, of course, in Revelation and other places but the holy incense in the temple symbolized prayers of the saints rising to God. The outer court of the temple was supposed to be an area for foreigners to come into worship but by the time Christ comes, they had turned that outer court of the Gentiles into a marketplace and of course, they were abusing, they were gouging the people and Christ braided a whip and flipped over tables and rebuked them for it and he quotes this passage here. He says it is written in here in Isaiah, my house shall be called a house of prayer but you have made it a den of thieves. So there Isaiah, the most quoted of all the Old Testament prophets. David, the most named in the Bible. Isaiah, the most quoted Old Testament writer in the New Testament.

For my house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations. So the idea that the foreigners would pray to Yahweh, that goes back to when Solomon dedicates the temple. In chapter 8, he speaks about the foreigners also being a part of the system of worship and we in the New Testament, we see it all come together. Now the last section, the last three verses, we go right through them.

They're really setting us up for the next few chapters that are coming. It's almost an abrupt return, it is an abrupt return to the rebuke of hypocrites and apostates. Verse 9, all you beast of the field come to devour all you beast in the forest. So it's emphatic. He's calling this metaphor for judgment coming.

These are the enemies that will be coming into the land of Israel and judging them as happened to the northern kingdom by the Assyrians and largely to the southern kingdom by the Assyrians also. Verse 10, his watchmen are blind, they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber. So a little while ago, I went on a little righteous tirade about this whole gender nonsense and that's what it is. And you may have said, well that was pretty harsh.

Well I didn't call them dumb dogs. You know, this is what it takes. Let's just get to what this is. Okay, regular words aren't working for you, I'll use some imagery here. The beast of the field are summoned to devour the blind watchmen. They were supposed to see the enemy, what Satan was doing, they were supposed to see the things that would hurt the people, but they chose to be blind to those things. Like drunken leaders, they were incompetent and they caused pain and suffering. In America, we have people running parts of America that hate America.

And you have it here in scripture. They hated Israel. All they cared about was themselves. And so the sleeping dogs who could not bark, they were supposed to give warning for everybody to wake up. But they weren't alert to leaders. They loved to sleep. And they were, they refused to sound the alarm.

Ezekiel, again, God refers to Ezekiel as the watchman. You're supposed to sound the alarm. Imagine if there's fire in a building and you just run out the building and don't say anything.

It's an occupied building. And you don't say anything to anybody. That would be downright evil. It would be criminal. And God is saying these leaders in Israel are criminals because they have the law. They have the moral code. And they're not exercising it.

They're abusing it. And they're hurting people. Verse 11, yes, they are greedy dogs which never have enough. And they are shepherds who cannot understand.

They all look to their own way, every one to his own gain from his own territory. Oh, you think Isaiah didn't have family members like this? You think there were loved ones he didn't have like this? But he's responsible to God. He's calling it like it is.

It doesn't help anybody to sweep these things under the rug. That's what these leaders were doing. And the prophets would have none of it. Hosea, you know, he calls his wife Gomer, he calls it like it was with her. Broke his heart. But in the end, he wins.

But man, did he have to go through, she put him through so much. Verse 12, come one says I will bring wine and we will fill ourselves with intoxicating drink. Tomorrow will be as today and much more abundant.

Yeah, I just want to satisfy themselves at the expense of the people. Ezekiel 34 deals with the unfaithful shepherd even further. But in the New Testament, in First Peter chapter five, God says to the prophets, you care for my people without being self-righteous, without being condescending. You shepherd the flock of God. Thanks for tuning in to Cross-Reference Radio today. Cross-Reference Radio is a ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel mechanics Ville in Virginia. If you'd like to learn more about this ministry, we invite you to visit our website, crossreferenceradio.com.

You'll find a number of teachings from Pastor Rick available there. We also encourage you to subscribe to our podcast. When you subscribe, you'll be notified of new editions of Cross-Reference Radio. Just search for Cross-Reference Radio on your favorite podcast app. You can also follow the links at crossreferenceradio.com. We're glad we were able to spend time with you today. Tune in next time to continue learning from the book of Isaiah with Pastor Rick right here on Cross-Reference Radio.
Whisper: medium.en / 2024-12-10 08:45:52 / 2024-12-10 08:55:43 / 10

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