You
Good evening, we're in Isaiah chapter 56, and the Bible reads,
Thou saith the Lord, keep ye judgment and do justice, for my salvation is near to come and my righteousness to be revealed.
Blessed is the man that doeth this, and the Son of man that layeth hold on it, that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it, and keepeth his hand from doing any evil.
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, neither let the eunuch say, Behold,
I am a dry tree.
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, even unto them will I give in mine house, and within
my walls a place, and a name better than the sons and of daughters, and I will give them
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, everyone that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it,
and takeeth hold of my covenant, even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make
them joyful in my house of prayer.
Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon my altar, and mine
house shall be called in house of prayer for all people.
Yet will I gather others to him, beside those that are gathered unto him.
All ye beasts of the field, come to devour ye, all ye beasts in the forest.
His washmen are blind, they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark,
sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber.
Yea, there are greedy dogs which can never have enough, and they are shepherds that
cannot understand, they all look to their own way, everyone for his gain for his quarter.
We will fill ourselves with strong drink and tomorrow shall be as this day and much more abundant.
Let's pray.
Father God, we thank You, dear Lord, for preserving Your precious word unto us, dear Lord.
We thank You for sacrificing Your Son for our sins, dear Lord.
We love You.
We ask that You please bless Pastor as He preaches Your word unto us in Jesus' name.
We pray. Amen.
There we go Isaiah chapter 56 here and the theme of this chapter is the promises to strangers and dumb dogs
The promises to strangers and dumb dogs
Of course
this is a very short chapter as many of the chapters previous to this are and they are mainly focusing on the
The Gentile believers and of course we know that this is specifically addressing the nation of Judah and even during that particular
time where God is reaching out
to Judah for repentance,
we obviously know that there's still Gentile believers
even during that time.
There's people who are hearing the word of God
from other nations during that particular period
that are also getting saved.
And so when we look at this,
we obviously apply it first and foremost,
to their immediate future but obviously because we're in the New Testament we can see how this
applies to us even today and of course later on in the future to the millennial reign and the new
heaven and the new earth. So today we're going to look at the promises that are made to the strangers
referring to these Gentiles and then the rebuke that he gives to the dumb dogs referring to the
Keep ye judgment and do justice for my salvation is near to come and my righteousness to be revealed
Excuse me be revealed
Blessed is the man that doeth this and the Son of man that layeth hold on it that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it and
Keepeth his hand from doing any evil now obviously what's going on here is that he's
Commanding his people to make sure that they become a people who keep the commandments of God once again
The reason that they're in the mess that they're in in the first place is because of their disobedience to God's command.
And obviously we know that part of their disobedience is that they were not observing the Sabbath.
They weren't keeping those feasts. They weren't keeping the Sabbath.
And God rebuked them for that. He allowed them to go into captivity for 70 years.
And for those specific 70 years, you know, the land had rest.
It had its Sabbath essentially is what it's referring to.
So now he's telling them, hey, now that you're back, make sure that you keep judgment.
You keep justice, make sure you're righteous, and recognize that if you want to be blessed
of God, you're going to keep the Sabbath.
Make sure you're not polluting the Sabbath and keep it at hand.
Make sure you don't do any evil.
These are some pretty practical instructions that he's giving the nation of Judah here.
But obviously the idea here for us is that God wants us to be serving the Lord until
he comes, right?
When he says there, keep judgment, do justice, for my salvation is near to come.
You know, we can take that for ourselves and say, hey, we need to make sure that as Christians, we are elevating, exalting and emphasizing justice and judgment because of the fact that the salvation of the Lord is near.
Now it's not referring to the salvation as far as the justification of our soul,
it's referring to the salvation, referring to the redemption of our bodies, the rapture, right?
And we ought to live our lives in such a way that we wait for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We obviously know that there's a lot of events that have to take place prior to His coming,
but at the end of the day, we should strive to remember and recognize,
hey, I need to be just, I need to make sure that I'm keeping judgment and not be lax in those areas.
Go to Matthew chapter 24, if you would, Matthew chapter 24.
Matthew chapter 24.
And so, you know, he's telling Judah, Hey, be just, have judgment, make sure you don't do any evil, keep the Sabbath, make sure you're not polluting it.
The way we would interpret that for us today is that we just need to make sure that we're serving God until the second coming of Christ.
And part of preaching, part of coming to church
is just constantly reminding people of that truth, right?
Because it's very easy with the hustle and bustle,
with the busyness of the week,
with all the things that we got going on,
the problems that we got going on,
whether it's financial issues, health issues,
relational issues, or just problems period, right?
Life in general can often distract us
from the most important thing, which is serving God.
And if we're not careful, we can allow this distraction to actually derail us from serving God,
cause us to deviate from the paths of serving the Lord, and we forget to do justice.
We forget to do judgment.
And once you forget to do justice and judgment, you're not very far from doing evil.
because of the fact that once we commit the sins of omission,
it's very likely we're going to start committing the sins of commission, right?
When you remove that which you're supposed to do from the Christian life,
eventually you'll end up delving into things that you're not supposed to do.
You know, you're going to end up sinning against God.
And so this is a constant reminder to us all
to make sure that we are laboring,
that we are serving the Lord each and every week.
And look folks, it's hard to do right all the time.
You know it could be tiresome to do right all the time and this is why the Bible says be not weary and well-doing
For in due season we shall reap if we faint not the idea here is that there's a temptation to faint
And what does it mean to faint to quit right?
You quit you throw in the towel. You say this is enough. I've had it with the Christian life
I've had it with this, you know, I just this is tiring me out
I'm burned out on the Christian life and this is very much a legitimate thing in the Christian life
I've experienced this. I know Christians that experienced this
I know pastors that have experienced this and look folks. I'm preaching to the choir
I know but you know I myself have experienced times when I felt like I wanted to quit even as a pastor
You know years ago. I had a time where I literally was gonna throw in the towel and say you know what I'm pretty much done with this
I cannot continue to pastor. I just don't feel like I can you know keep going with this
You know I was going through a really hard time and if it wasn't for pastoral friends just encouraging me every single day literally
You know sometimes we need encouragement every once a month
You know a couple times of a year like during that particular time. I needed it every single day
And I remember a pastor friend of mine just saying just just hold off for another day
Just hold off for another day just hold off for another day
And you know there's times in the Christian life when you're just at the brink of one to quit in the Christian life
Because it just gets tired having to juggle everything, especially if you're going through a hard time, right?
And during those particular times,
there's various things that motivate us
to stay in the will of God, right?
And these various things that we think about
motivate people in different ways.
Some people are motivated to stay in the will of God
because they fear what might happen to them if they don't.
They're like, you know what, I wanna quit
but I'm not gonna do it
because I don't wanna be punished by God.
And people are like, oh, that's not a good incentive.
No, no, it's a really good incentive.
Fearing God is always a good incentive, okay, you know by the fear of the Lord men depart from evil
And so it's important for us to have that but other people are just you know driven by or motivated by
The rewards that we're gonna get if we don't quit
Some people are motivated by souls other people are motivated by their family find your motivation
Maybe a biblical motivation, but find your incentive to stay in the will of God and utilize that to say
You know, I'm not gonna throw in the towel. I'm not gonna quit because of x y and z
We want to do this to the Lord comes look at Matthew 24 verse 42
It says watch therefore for you know now what hour your Lord does come
But know this that if the good man of the house had known in what time excuse me in what watch the thief would come
He would have watched and would not have suffered his house to be broken up
Therefore be also ready for in such an hour as he think not the son of man cometh
Who then is a faithful and wise servant whom his Lord hath made ruler over his household to give them meat in due season?
Blessed is that servant whom his Lord when he cometh shall find so doing
Verily, I say unto you that he shall make him ruler over all his goods our goal as Christians should be
I want God to come back catching me do what I'm supposed to be doing
Doing well
Serving God, you know when the Lord returns or when you go to the Lord
Because let's just be honest with let's just be honest here the vast majority of us if the Lord tarries the tribulation doesn't happen in our
Time we're gonna go to him first, you know, basically what I'm saying you're gonna die
We're all gonna die. Okay
and at various times, but you know what?
May it be said of you, may it be said of me,
that if we go home to be with the Lord,
that we go home doing the Lord's will.
Not go home, you know, being away from the Lord's will
for years on end, because you've been backslidden,
because you've just been away from the house of God,
you've been away from the service of the Lord,
you know, then you meet him with shame.
Obviously your salvation is not affected.
But your reward is and make no mistake about it
There's gonna be a lot of people who find themselves ashamed in the presence of God when they meet him because they quit it through in the towel
And we want to be as the admonition finds us here in Matthew 24 that when he comes or when we go to him
He shall find us doing good. He shall find us serving him
He shall find us doing the will of God to the best of our ability
And he says that he shall make him rule overall as good, you know, obviously there is a reward for your endurance
There is a reward for your perseverance. There is a reward for you when you stick it out
through hard times, through thick and thin,
there is a reward for you to receive.
God will bless you for it, okay?
And this is not a sermon on all the blessings
that you will receive for doing the will of God.
This is just to motivate you, hey,
make sure you're keeping the commandments.
Make sure you are serving God.
Make sure you're walking with him.
And pace yourself, right?
This is not a sprint, it's a marathon.
And we need to make sure that we don't burn ourselves out and you know myself included
I can go through seasons where I'm just doing too much and I can burn myself out where it's just like I just man
I'm just tired mentally. I'm tired physically. I'm tired spiritually and sometimes you got to put it into first gear again
And just slow down not stop serving God not stop winning souls to Christ not put the Bible to the side
Not stop coming to church, but you just kind of put it into first or second gear
So you get your bearings once again and then you jump back in, head first once again.
You want to make sure you pace yourself.
The point that I'm making here is that Isaiah chapter 56 verses 1 and 2 is a good reminder to us to keep judgment and justice.
You know, when you leave here, just remember, it's important to do justice, it's important to do judgment,
it's important to have Christian character, it's important to live out the works of God.
And I want you to notice this, and keepeth my works until the end, to him will I give power over the nations.
You know, God is interested in you being in this thing for the long haul.
Doing it until the end.
He said, what end is that? Your end.
Or when he returns.
Right?
You know, the Bible says he'll give us a crown of glory if we endure until the end.
And make no mistake about it, as I mentioned, sometimes you have to endure the Christian life.
That's a fact.
It's not always like that, but sometimes it is
But when we realize that sometimes we do have to endure the Christian life
We are also reminded that if we keep the works into the end
He's gonna reward us greatly because of that go to James chapter 5 if you would James chapter number 5
We're gonna come back to Isaiah 56 in just a bit
James chapter number 5. Let me read to you once again from Isaiah. He says keep judgment do justice for my salvation is near
He goes on to say blessed is that man that do with this do with what keep it the judgment keep it the justice
The son of man that layeth hold on it and keep it the Sabbath from polluting it
Look what it says in James chapter 5 verse number 7 be patient therefore by the way another word for patience is endurance
When you see the term endurance in the Bible, it's synonymous with patience
Okay, he says be patient therefore brethren unto the coming of the Lord
Behold the husband man waited for the precious fruit of the earth and that's long patience for it
Until he received the the early and the latter reign be also patient
Establish your hearts for the coming of the Lord, draweth nigh.
So he's using this analogy here that just as the man who's involved in agricultural things, activity,
he's a husband man, he's waiting for that precious fruit.
He sows that seed and he has to wait for years on in for the tree to grow.
Then even after the tree grows, he has to wait for it to bear fruit.
And then once it bears fruit, some of it dies, other makes it forth, and then he collects it.
You know, that's a long process.
And we can say that husband men
Has patience he has long patience and what he's saying here is that we in like manner should be as that husband men
That we have patience for the coming of the Lord. We have patience
We know that even though we're not immediately seeing the recompense of our effort the reward of our works
We know that one day we will receive it
Therefore, we need to make sure that we establish our hearts.
What does it mean to establish?
You know, the word is establish.
That's what we are familiar with.
In other words, make it firm in one place.
Don't let it move.
Don't be double-minded, right?
A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.
Let not that man think that he shall receive
anything of the Lord.
You know, God wants stability in the Christian life.
He wants us to just stay put, not to move,
you know, stick in this thing for the long haul.
And obviously, it's referring mainly to the Christian life.
But you know, I apply this to church as well.
I think it's good when Christians are stable in one church for years on end.
I think it's even greater if a Christian stays in the same church for decades on end.
That's a stable person.
You know, we don't want to treat church the way we would treat a subscription or something, you know
The way we would treat
I don't know what else is do people hop back and forth on from Jim membership
You know January 1st, and then by the end of January, they're just like there's always 2026
You know, we want to make sure that we're stable and he says here be patient have endurance
Establish your hearts be firm, right?
for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.
Now, it's kind of interesting because he wrote that almost 2,000 years ago.
It was like, James wouldn't mean to draweth nigh.
We're still waiting for the coming of the Lord.
Yeah, but a day into the Lord is a thousand years, a thousand years is as a day.
And so we need to recognize that when we are viewing things in regards to endurance and patience,
we got to view it from God's timetable.
Because once we're in the millennial reign once we're in heaven once we're in the new heaven to the earth our time here is like a
Drop in the bucket
Compared to eternity right and then at that point we could say yeah, the coming of the Lord was not
Because it's already here. What's the point that I'm making point that I'm making is that you know have endurance keep judgment
Keep justice. Hey be a righteous person
Invest in being a righteous individual
You know, make sure you're working on being a just person,
a person of integrity, a person of judgment,
a person who's striving to love the Lord,
to keep the commandments of God.
If you feel overwhelmed by doing all those things,
then just, you know, just downshift a little bit.
Don't cast away the commandments of the Lord.
Don't cast away the judgment and justice.
Do it, but maybe you need to downshift a little bit
until you can get your bearings again,
and then once again, just head all in on fourth gear.
Okay, go back to Isaiah 56.
So he tells them to keep that justice to keep judgment verse 2 says blessed is the man that do with this the son of man
That layeth hold on it that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it
Now this is interesting because obviously in the Old Testament
He's telling the those of Judah
Hey keep the Sabbath to make sure you don't pollute it because obviously they weren't keeping the Sabbath
They're violating that command and that was a command that was given to them in the Old Testament
But to us in the New Testament, that's not a thing
We're not Sabbath keepers of the New Testament, okay, and anybody who's telling you to keep the Sabbath as a Judaizer
Who obviously just completely disregards?
vast portions of scripture of the New Testament and
In fact, let me read to you from Colossians chapter 2 verse 16
I was talking to a guy online about this and he is like one of these you know
Commandment Sabbath keeper. He's a Judaizer basically
And you know, he's like, you gotta keep the Sabbath,
you gotta keep the Sabbath.
And I quoted Colossians 2, 16,
let no man therefore judge you in meat,
or in drink, or respect of a holy day,
or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days,
which are out of shadow of things
that come to the bodies of Christ.
And he's like, yeah, but you know,
I think what that's referring to
is that they're trying to keep the Sabbath,
but you have people telling them not to keep the Sabbath.
And this is probably one of the most ridiculous,
nonsensical interpretations.
in the New Testament because of the fact
that no Gentile believer was keeping the Sabbath
and there wasn't this movement of people going into churches
telling them not to keep the Sabbath, right?
There wasn't these Gentile believers just going in
making sure no one's keeping the Sabbath.
These are just people who already just converted
into Christianity with no background of the Old Testament
religion of the Old Covenant.
They don't know anything about the Sabbath
which is why they're not keeping it in the first place.
The problem that they were facing is that Judaizers were infiltrating churches
Trying to bring them back under the law
Pharisees Jews we're going into these Gentile churches the churches of Galatia
Cappadocia, Bethany, Pontius we have these here in Colossae and they're telling them hey
You got to make sure you keep the Sabbath days. Oh, you can't eat shrimp. You can't eat pork
You can't do all you got to make sure you observe the new moon
And obviously, these Colossians, they're newly saved.
They don't know any better.
So they're probably thinking, oh, I guess these guys
have some validity to them.
They're Jews.
They come from the nation from which salvation comes from.
Maybe they're right.
So therefore, Paul had to come in and say,
don't let anybody judge you in these days
because they are a shadow of things to come.
Which by the way, if this means that they should not
be judged in regard to these things for keeping the Sabbath,
Then why would he say that there is shadow of things to come?
But the body is of Christ.
He's like, hey, don't let no one judge you because at the end of the day, these are a foreshadowing of Christ.
And by the way, by the time this was written, Christ had already come, died, and resurrected.
This is already the New Testament.
So Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of those Old Testament meat drinks meats drinks diverse washings and the Sabbath
And people say well it says Sabbath days. There's multiple Sabbaths
Of course, there's multiple Sabbaths, but we could just lump them all in together as being Sabbath days and
People say well, what about the Ten Commandments? This isn't to say yeah, it says to remember the Sabbath
But if we were to make the argument should we keep those Ten Commandments we would say no
Because the Sabbath is something that's been done away with
Obviously, you know, we keep the commandments of God every single day by loving our neighbor because he that love at this neighbor
Have fulfilled the whole law according to the Roman chapter 13, right?
You know, if you love your neighbor, you're not gonna kill him if you love your neighbor
You're not gonna you're not gonna steal from them, right and so we see here that the Sabbath was a shadow of things to come
So in the Old Testament when he's addressing this to Judah they did have to keep the Sabbath
That was a righteous thing for them to do
They needed to make sure they rested on the seventh day and keep the other Sabbaths
But in the New Testament, that's no longer a thing and let me explain to you why Jesus Christ is our Sabbath
Why because the Old Testament Sabbath was there to as a symbolic representation of Jesus Christ
How so well if you remember the Old Testament when the Sabbath day would come around no person was supposed to work
And any person caught working on that day was immediately put to death.
Well, that is a foreshadowing of salvation.
Why? Because if anybody works for their salvation, they receive the second death.
Let me read to you from Hebrews chapter 4 verse number 9 says,
entered into his rest he also had seized from his own works as God did from
his let us labor therefore to enter into that rest lest any man fall after the
same example of unbelief so it equates you know not keeping the Sabbath with
unbelief
So in like manner if you don't rest in the finished work of Jesus Christ
According to the Bible you deserve that second death because you are not receiving the free gift of salvation
you know we obviously are
Commemorating we're thinking upon you know the Lord's death right over these next couple of days and
Chronologically today would be the day that he died actually a few hours ago is when he died
Was buried and now going into that you know the the high day of that Friday because today's Thursday
But according to Jewish days, you know the evening of Friday for us would be like that or excuse me
Thursday for us would be like the evening of Friday for them. I'm not trying to confuse people here
But that's just how they counted days
But during this particular time he was dead right and according to the Bible
He was actually in hell for those three days and three nights because Jesus said it for us
The son of man was for as Jonas was three days and three nights in the well's belly
So shall the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth
And of course we know that acts chapter 2 verse 31 says that that will not leave my soul in hell
Now that we'll suffer that holy one to see corruption.
What is it that he ascended but that he first descended into the lower parts of the earth?
We see that the Old Testament sacrifices, the most prominent one was the burnt offering.
Isaiah 53, we read that a couple weeks ago that his soul was made an offering for sin.
Over and over again we see this foretelling of Jesus Christ suffering for us in hell.
And so today, Friday and Saturday, we're Sabbaths in the Bible.
And so, think about this.
While Jesus Christ is paying for our sins,
what are people supposed to do?
Rest in the finished work of Jesus Christ.
Because he was delivered for our offenses.
He's doing the work for us.
That's why the Bible says that it's not of works
less than any man should boast.
The point that I'm making here is that the way we could apply this particular passage
in Isaiah 56, when it says to keep the Sabbath and not pollute it, you know, the New Testament
for us, the equivalent to that would be that we make sure we believe the right gospel and
not pollute it, what they work space salvation, okay?
And so, you know, Jesus said in Matthew 11, 28, coming to me, I'll eat that labor and
Take my yoke upon you and learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart and you shall find rest unto your soul
So the New Testament equivalent to keeping the Sabbath would be by believing on Jesus Christ and ceasing from our own works
Our own effort our own obedience and capability of being righteous before God
We are resting from that and placing our faith in Jesus Christ go back to Isaiah chapter 56
So we see that primary application to the nation of Judah, but the secondary application to us New Testament Christians
would be that God wants us to keep the commandments into the end and
Also make sure that no one pollutes salvation
No one intermingles works with salvation and preaches a false gospel
And you know obviously people who are saved are not going to pollute the gospel
If someone who claims to be saved pollutes the gospel through works and they believe it that would mean that they weren't safe to begin with
First Corinthians 15 that they believed in vain. Okay. Look at verse number three
He switches gears here and he says neither let the son of the stranger that has joined himself to the Lord
Speak saying the Lord hath utterly separated me from his people
Neither let the eunuch say behold. I am a dry tree. Now. This is an awesome verse here
why well he's saying don't allow the
Progeny of a stranger stranger someone who's not of Israel
They're not of Judah.
He's saying, don't let that person who's a stranger,
the son of a stranger is also a stranger,
but this person has joined himself to the Lord.
He's believed on God.
Don't let these words come out of his mouth.
What words?
I'm separated from his people.
What does that mean?
You know, I'm not the people of God.
Don't let, he's like, don't let anybody say that.
You know, go to these fundamental Baptist churches.
And tell him, stop saying that, because we are God's people, even from the Old Testament, it's telling us this.
He says, don't let the eunuch say, behold, I am a dry tree, but he's telling the Son of a stranger, don't let them utter that they're separated from his people.
Why? Because obviously God is prophesying, and he's foretelling, he's predicting the fact that this would be a thing.
Where there's like two people of gods, you know or two peoples of God
I don't even know how to properly say you know you have you have Israel who are the people of God
But then you have Gentile believers are the people of God
But the Gentile believers people of God are not the same as the Israel people of God
No, there's only one people of God and those are who are believers in Jesus Christ
So what about Old Testament believers? Well Old Testament believers believed on the Lord
And Old Testament believers who transitioned into the New Testament during the time of Christ, who were saved,
they received Jesus Christ as the Messiah, and they essentially were grandfathered in to be in the people of God.
You know, this is something that now we see permeated throughout the New Testament, but as we can see here,
it's sprinkled even in the old, where you're saying, hey, you Gentile believers, you strangers, you foreigners,
don't utter that you're not the people of God because you are the people of God.
Why because it says there that they join themselves unto the Lord
You know and here's the thing folks is that even let's just go all the way back to the wilderness
Right with the church in the wilderness
Israelites were not the only ones there
There's a bunch of Egyptians
There's people from different nations who join themselves unto the Lord during that time
And you know what they're collectively referred to as the people of God
because they submitted under that old covenant contract,
therefore they're the people of God.
Well, that's simply a foreshadowing
of what's taking place in the New Testament,
and that is that believers who are Gentiles
are the people of God as well.
The only difference is it's kind of switched.
Now there's more Gentile believers
than there are Jewish believers.
And here's the thing, once Jews get saved,
if they believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
they're joined unto the Lord,
and now we're just collectively referred
to as the people of God.
Okay, but I thought that's it. That's an awesome statement there
And of course he goes on to say don't let the eunuch say behold. I am a dry tree
Hey, what he's saying here is you know these people the stranger in the eunuch are like outcast
These are people who are you know, no pun intended are cut off
From being the people of God
Okay, and you think of a eunuch is incapable of producing fruit
Right because he's been mutilated
But he's saying here don't let this eunuch don't let the eunuch say
I am a dry tree because once you become the people of God now you have fruit that abounds to your account
Now you can get people saved now you're the people of God now God can bless you
This is what it's referring to let me reach you from Romans 9 25
It says as he say it's also in OC OC is the New Testament way of saying Hosea
I will call them my people which were not my people and her beloved which was not beloved and it shall come to
Past that in the place that is said unto them you are not my people
There shall they be called the children of the living God and one argument that I always hear from the other side regarding this is that
Well, we're the children of God, but they're the people of God
Well, we're just gonna have to go to the Bible for this because
Romans 9 literally says that he's gonna call them his people which are not his people and
Then verse 26 says that they're the children of the living God
Showing conclusively that the children of the living God are the same thing as the people of God
God sees no distinguishing factor between those two. They're the same exact thing. Okay, you know, my son is my son
But he's my people too
Because he proceeds from you, right?
Well, unlike man or he's saying here the people of God is just referring to those who are part of that new covenant
The children of God is just another way of saying that there will be gotten through the gospel
Ephesians 2 12
Echoes the same thought from Isaiah 56 when it says that at the time you were without Christ being aliens
What's another way of saying alien a foreigner a stranger?
From the Commonwealth of Israel strangers from the Covenants of promise promise having no hope and without God in the world
But now in Christ Jesus you who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ
Now brother Lucas. He's always sending me these these reels
And there's this particular reel that he sent me,
and you know sometimes you just gotta stay off
of social media, which drives me crazy.
But he sent me this reel, I'm talking about myself,
he needs to stay off of it too, but I'm talking about myself
too, you know, he sent me this reel and it's just like,
this guy's reacting to, he's like listening to some
reformed Baptist or something.
And his reformed Baptists are making just a sound judgment.
There's nothing crazy about what they're saying.
It's literally the most,
it should be literally the most
non-controversial statement ever.
And that is, he's basically,
this guy's saying, you know,
if Jews end up getting saved
and they join a church,
you know, at that point,
you should just call them Christians.
Oh!
You know, you should just call them Christians
because now they're saved.
And it's just like,
That's yeah, sounds right
Why is that? Why is that even correct? And these guys? I don't even think it was a controversial point amongst them
It's probably like a passing thought that they had or something
But the guy listening is just like, uh
He's just like he's like crashing out
He's like cannot believe this guy made that statement
He's like, how can you say that if they only refer to themselves as Christians?
They're gonna lose their Jewish identity
He's like they're gonna lose that and then you're not gonna have any Jews in church, and that's just not right
That's not good. This is bad teaching. This is bad theology
And I'm thinking to myself
Where in the Bible does this say that this is bad theology? Where in the Bible does it promote what you're saying?
You know
As far as I remember the Bible says that in Christ Jesus, there's neither Jew nor Gentile
Right like we don't come in here saying we're Gentiles
We just call ourselves, what? Christians.
And here's the thing, obviously if a Jew gets saved
and they come to our church,
they don't cease being an ethnic Jew,
just like the Mexican guy who comes to our church
doesn't cease being a Mexican once he gets saved.
As we can clearly see.
You know, I've been saved for going on 18 years,
I just can't shake being a Guatemalan or Mexican,
whatever I am, you know?
because that doesn't change obviously what's being referred to there is their
their religious identity of being a Jew that you're no longer a Jew if you get
saved because Judaism is the complete contrast to Christianity it's a false
religion it's a cult in God's eyes teaches a false way of salvation okay
But I will say this, that if you're ethnically a Jew
and you get saved, yeah, you're not gonna change
your DNA or whatever, and you're ethnically a Jew or whatever.
But I will say this, is that if you have cultural customs
that contradict the Bible, that needs to change.
And that goes all across the board
for any ethnic group that comes to our church.
You know, if you're, let's just pick on Mexicans
because I'm a Mexican.
And we got Mexicans in the house, okay?
And when I say Mexican, I'm referring to just all Hispanics.
Just like white people do all the time, right?
You know?
But that's okay, because Mexicans do the same thing
with Asians, everyone's a chino to them, you know?
They're just like, no, they're Japanese.
This is like chino, you know?
They're Korean, chino, you know?
But let's say, you know, a Mexican gets saved,
and, you know, he gets saved, comes to our church.
But he has these customs that are anti-bible date. He needs to repent of those customs and adopt Christian culture
Right if there's a culture that he's bringing into our church that is anti-bible
That has customs to contradict the word of God that can be deemed as being sinful
He needs to repent of those things and adopt Christian culture
You know the Virgin Mary needs that Virgin Mary statue needs to go in the trash
Because that is a Mexican custom that he brings from his Mexican culture that contradicts the word of God
Now again as I mentioned can't really do anything about the Virgin Mary that's tatted on your back. I get it
But you know do something about the other things though
The point that I'm making here is that our culture,
cultures are welcome in our church, obviously,
it's just those that are not in accordance
to Christian culture should be completely removed
and done away with.
You know, not all culture, not all the customs,
because you know, cultures bring food.
Some of that food is really delicious.
There's nothing wrong about it.
But if it's something that's blasphemous something that's sinful something that's wicked in the eyes of God
You know, we're gonna be well. This is just part of my culture. Well, then it needs to go
And you know what a lot of Jewish culture is against the Bible
Plain and simple so it needs to go. Oh, what am I? Oh, what if I just lose my Jewish identity lose it?
Lose it and adopt Christian culture
You know, we don't refer to them as Masianic Jews.
There's no Judeo-Christian.
We exalt Christ in this church.
Exalt the Lord, and his name is Jesus, by the way.
We don't call him Rabbi.
We call him the Lord Jesus Christ.
Okay, we don't refer to him by, even by his Hebrew name
because of the fact that he, the New Testament
is written in Greek, and the Greek is Jesus,
which today would be rendered as Jesus
or in Spanish, Jesus.
And so, you know, I'm for exalting Jesus Christ.
This is the house of God.
Purchase with the blood of Jesus Christ.
We need to make sure that the strangers and the foreigners
do not bring foreign customs into our church
that contradict the word of God
and that downplay the word of God.
So that guy obviously doesn't know what he's talking about.
He's a Judaizer.
Okay.
And he's so shocked that these guys were teaching it.
Well, you should hear one of my sermons.
The Bible says in Romans 10 verse 11,
for the scriptures say it,
whosoever believeth on them shall not be ashamed,
for there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek.
No, there's a major difference.
No, there's not.
If you believe it on Christ, there is no difference.
For the same Lord over all is rich unto all
that call upon him, for whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved, the Bible says.
No one gets special favor in our church because you're a specific ethnic group or a skin color or because you're white
You know, you don't get privileges the only privilege you get is Christian privilege. Amen
Wait a minute, you guys don't worship white people here
You know, we don't we don't exalt you for doing nothing
It's all better than you because of my skin, but what did you do though?
Oh, you're born?
That's it?
Cause you know how you have people out there
who's just like, oh, white people are just better
and that's out there.
It's a superior race, it's better.
Oh, what did you do?
Wow, I was just born this way.
So you didn't do anything.
All you do is post memes and reels
about how great white people are.
And that's it, as if you had any participation in that.
Okay, great, you found the egg.
Good for you. That's all you did
You know, but other than that, you know what? There's there's there's no boasting or glory in that because you've done no works for that
Yeah, but my ancestors. Yeah, but your ancestors are your ancestors though. You did nothing
You know, you got all these guys posting reels all my ancestors did this and we fought war you didn't do it
You're posting memes. You're making edits. You're making reels
You've done nothing
You have a following on Instagram, and that's it.
Your ancestors would be ashamed of you.
The point that I'm making here is that obviously God is exalting,
or he's telling the stranger,
hey, don't let anybody undermine you for being a stranger.
You have drawn nine to the Lord, you've adjoined yourself into the Lord,
so don't say that you're not the people of God.
Okay?
And this is echoed again in Revelation 3, verse 9.
He says, behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan,
which say they are Jews and are not, but do lie.
By the way, Jesus is saying this.
And it's very interesting what he says.
We often focus on that first half.
Some of you use your life verse.
But it says, behold, I will make them,
referring to those Jews which are not,
I will make them to come and worship before thy feet
and to know that I have loved thee.
And it's very telling, is it not?
Because what the Lord is trying to reveal here
is the fact that Jews believe, based upon this statement,
that we should be worshiping before their feet.
And you don't have to go very far to see this.
I mentioned this earlier in one of my sermons
where the Jew got up and says that you should,
you know, the problem with Christians
is they worship one Jew, you should worship all of us,
he said, because we're all dying for your sins.
It's one of the most blasphemous things you can say.
So this isn't something that's just in Revelation 3.9,
the Lord is cooking with this verse,
knowing full well what was gonna happen in the future.
It's a very legitimate thing.
And what Revelation 3.9 is telling us
is exactly what Isaiah 56 is trying to get across,
is that, hey, don't think that you are worse,
you're the off-scouring, you are the people of God,
and in fact, in the end times,
they shall worship before thy feet.
They will esteem you, okay?
Let's move on here look at Isaiah 56
First of all forces for the state the Lord and to the eunuchs that keep my Sabbath and choose the things that please me and take hold of
My covenant even into them will I give in my house and within my walls a place and name better than of the sons and of the
Daughters I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off
And what this is referring to is the fact that you know these eunuchs and strangers have joined themselves to that old covenant
And the equivalent to this, the equivalent to this in the New Testament would be people who are grabbing hold of that new covenant, that everlasting covenant.
Salvation, right?
Which is why he says towards the letter in verse 5,
I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off.
And in fact, we see this in Revelation chapter 2 where the Bible said Jesus says that he's going to give them a stone with a new name.
We're all going to get a new name in the end times, right?
And it could be that it's a name given to us that's, you know, the new man's new name.
We don't know exactly what that entails.
The point is that he's telling them, grab ahold of that covenant, get saved, and you'll never
be cut off.
Skip down to verse 7.
He says, even then will I bring to my holy mountain and make them joyful in my house
of prayer.
Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon my altar, for mine
And what he's saying here is that the strangers,
though they're not ethnically of Israel,
they're not ethnically of Judah,
because they join themselves to the Lord,
God's gonna accept their works.
He's gonna accept their burnt offerings.
Though that's not something that was accustomed of theirs
from the foreign nations,
because they joined themselves to that old covenant,
he will esteem the offerings of these strangers.
And obviously the equivalent to this is the fact that God esteems our works of the New Testament even though we're not of Israel
Even though we're not of Judah God esteems. He values the works that we do in his name
He's not gonna forget the works that we've done in his name
He loves them
And I'm skipping a lot here because I'm running out of time skip down to verse number nine here
So, you know, he's given all these promises.
He's talking about the stranger, the eunuch.
He's like, you're going to be fruitful.
I'm going to bless you.
Keep my works.
Make sure you're not polluting my Sabbath.
I'm going to accept your burnt offerings.
I'm going to give you a new name.
And then he just switches to talking about false prophets.
Verse 9 says, all ye beasts of the field come to devour ye
all the beasts in the forest.
And, you know, it's just like, Pastor, what is that symbolically representing?
It symbolically represents a real event, where literally, in Revelation 19, God's going to call all the fouls of the air to come feast on the flesh of captains and leaders and kings.
This is the end of false prophets, is what it's referring to.
Feeding the beast of the field with the flesh of kings as it says in Revelation chapter 19
Look at verse 10 his watchmen are blind. Who's watchmen Judas watchmen?
They're all ignorant. They're all dumb dogs. They cannot bark sleeping lying down loving to slumber. So he's rebuking
the spiritual leaders of Judah of that day, right? He's like
They're blind
They're ignorant meaning they're simple. They're stupid. That's what that means
And he says that they're dumb dogs meaning they're incapable of barking dumb means silent mute, right?
And it says that they're sleeping they lie down and they love to slumber now
This is important because obviously when we compare this to the Watchmen of Ezekiel 33 God tells the Watchmen
Hey, you're supposed to watch out for the enemy
When the enemy comes as a flood, you need to make sure that you're vigilant,
you need to make sure that you warn God's people of the sword to come,
you need to make sure that you're alert,
you need to make sure that you sound the alarm to protect people from the judgment to come.
That is the watchman's responsibility.
And the way we would apply that to the New Testament is a pastor, for example, operates as a watchman.
And what is our job as a watchman to be vigilant,
to watch, and to bark at you?
You know, I'm gonna tell you something right now,
I'm not a dumb dog.
I'm not a mute dog.
And here's the thing, is that, you know,
dogs are really annoying to me.
I personally do not favor dogs.
And I know we got dog lovers in here, okay?
And cat lovers and animal lovers and whatnot.
But you know, a dog can be very annoying
if it's constantly barking, right?
But then, you know, some dogs serve their purpose
by barking in order to alert you
that maybe someone's breaking into your house,
there's someone who's not supposed to be there, right?
That's what they're for, at least, I think.
Other than that, I don't know why you would have a dog.
I'm just kidding, sort of.
But you know, a dog's supposed to,
but you know, if the dog is just constantly barking,
it can get annoying.
A dog's bark is annoying.
Especially if it's like a Chihuahua or something.
Oh yeah.
Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.
It's just like,
ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha,
ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.
And if they have like a loud bark or if there's just bark,
To warn you
Well, let me just say this is that the pastor's job is to bark at you
And I know I know you sometimes when I bark at you
Hey, I know that I could offend you sometimes by barking at you. I
Know I could get under your skin by barking at you, but let me just tell you right now
I'm just trying to warn you
I'm not a dumb dog
You selected me as your pastor and as this pastor. I'm just like that pit bull on that Rottweiler
I'm that whatever not at you all you know, I'm not
I'm that, I'm that mastiff or something.
And I'm just barking at you, telling you to repent,
barking at you with rebuking, reproving, correcting.
And I'm just constantly barking and barking.
And you may think to yourself,
oh, all this barking is just so annoying, just so much.
But I'm just trying to warn you though.
I'm not here just barking because I'm a Chihuahua
or something like that.
I'm actually trying to warn you that you're in danger.
They you're making bad decisions
And let me just say this don't ignore the bark of the dog
Don't ignore it
You know and look there's watchers there's dogs out there pastors out there that are literal dogs as
The biblical you know equivalent to what a dog would be is it which is a false prophet beware of dogs as it says in Philippians chapter 3
But you know what these dogs will not bark
Why because they're ignorant they're blind they can't see anything
They can't even see when the enemy is coming.
In fact, he is the enemy.
They're blind because they can't see,
they're ignorant and they're not gonna bark.
Why?
Because they love to sleep, they're hirelings.
And you know, there's tons of people
that are under the voice of their preaching all the time
and they're never being warned,
they're never being protected,
they're never being rebuked.
And you know what?
People might like that type of ministry.
They like the Joe Olsteins. They like the Rick Warrens. They like the dumb dogs that don't bark
Because then it doesn't annoy you
You're just there. You're just like oh look at that puppy
He's just like
You're just like a nice sermon
But he just never barks and
That's an issue why because dogs are meant to bark the watchman is supposed to warn you
And look, folks, I know, I know, I know, I know.
Then my bark annoys you sometimes.
But you know what?
That's why I'm here, though.
I know sometimes it's just like,
oh, there he goes again on that modesty thing.
Oh, there he goes again on that doctrine.
Or there he goes again on feminism.
Or there he goes again on being effeminate.
Oh, there he goes in it.
And I'm just like, hey, hey, hey, hey!
Some of you just woke up
Someone's gonna clip that now. I shouldn't have done that
And I'm just barking. I'm barking. I'm growling. I'm growling
But not because I like to but because I'm here to watch over your souls
Here to warn you of judgment. I'm here to warn you of bad decision-making
I'm here to bark at you to warn you that there's an enemy outside trying to get in
I'm here to warn you of the thief that's trying to break into your spiritual life
I'm here to warn you of that enemy that's seeking to get you off track. I'm here to warn you
I can't protect you. I can only warn you you have to protect yourself and
He's rebuking these leaders for being dumb dogs because at the end of the day they're false prophets who didn't warn Judah
They weren't announcing judgment. They weren't doing any of that and because of that they suffered the consequences
There are hirelings they love sleeping meaning that they're not vigilant not only that look at verse 11 says yay
They are greedy dogs, which can never have enough
There are shepherds that cannot understand they all look to their own way
Everyone for his gain from his quarter
So what is this showing us a dog that does not bark a watchman that does not warn has the ulterior motive of wanting something from you
The reason they don't offend you the reason they don't bark at you because they want your money
That's why and they know that barking is not going to get it for them
It's not because they love you
It's not because they're nicer
It's not because they're godly. It's not because they're kind. Oh, they're just more godly
Or they just they just have so much love in their hearts. No, they're greedy. It says
They can never have enough and you know what if if one day I'm no longer a pastor
I want to join myself to a church that a path with the pastor the rips face
Not a pastor who makes excuses for sin. Oh
We all keep God's commandments. It's all good. You know, you don't have to worry about any of that
You don't have to repent of your sin. Don't worry. God looks it in the heart
No, I want you to turn me to righteousness
And I know the biblical formula to be in turn to righteousness is sometimes I got to be told that I'm wrong
That's just how it works
You know what and I commend God's people when they can when they can listen to a heart sermon
They can listen to the preaching of God's word and say you know what that was a loud bark
And I'm gonna listen to that probably didn't like it, but you know what it's true
And at least you know that I'm not a greedy dog a
Greedy dog which can never have enough why I'll tell you why because I'm barking at you and
Every time I bark I run the risk of running you off
When I bark at you, don't you know that I know
that I'm running the risk of running you
out of the church one day?
I know the risks.
Whenever I drop a sermon like I did on Sunday,
I know the risks.
You don't think I think about like,
people might leave our church because of this.
But then I'm reminded, I'm not a dumb dog though.
I'm a watchman, and you know what?
I'm not greedy of gain, and I hope that they just
take this sermon to heart, and I hope that the bark
warns them of the dangers to follow.
I know I run the risk, I know I'm rolling the dice,
but it's okay, because it's my job.
And so what do we see here?
There's so much more that I wanted to say.
Let's just finish up here, verse 12.
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.
We see that these leaders are drunk.
They're not vigilant, they're not sober.
They don't really care for the people that are under them.
They're careless.
They're putting their people in danger
by not teaching them.
They're people in danger but not preaching to them.
They're putting people in danger
but not watching over their souls.
And so what do we learn from Isaiah chapter 56?
We learn, first and foremost,
that God esteems the foreigner, the stranger,
if they join themselves unto the Lord, okay?
And we should keep our works into the end
because we know we're gonna receive a due recompense.
But also, here's the last thing that we learn
is what my bark is all about.
Okay, may I know you sometimes and you know what?
If you're looking to be in our church for decades on end,
you're gonna hear me bark at you till I'm like an old dog.
I'm just gonna be like, bark, bark.
Oh, you know those dogs that just like,
I'm gonna bark until the very end.
I'm gonna give it all I got.
I'm gonna watch over you until either you leave
or until I go home to be with the Lord.
One of them's gonna happen though.
Hopefully it's the latter though until I go home to be with the Lord
And I hope you give heed to the barks and not be offended by them
But just may may cause you to get out of bed and look like oh, there's danger
There is danger. We're trying to warn me. There's someone who's trying to break in there's someone who's trying to hurt me and my family
You know the Satan's out to get me. He's just barking to warn me of this particular danger
Don't be the person's like oh shut that dog up
Put a you know a dog collar on that the zapping. What's that called a little shocker? Oh
I don't take collars
I'll rip that thing off and I'll bark even louder
Let's pray father. We thank you so much for your word Lord. Thank you for the
Spiritual watchman spiritual dogs so to speak and our lives that have barked at us Lord throughout the years to warn us
to warn us of the impending dangers that lie ahead and I pray Lord that you'd
help us to esteem that and thank you for the love that you've shown towards the
stranger in times past and of course the love that you continue to show the
stranger even now and Lord we know that there are many strangers many foreigners
many unsafe people who are going to be here on Sunday for Easter help us as
your people to be the watchman
And to care for them Lord to give the gospel unto them that they may be saved
They may have eternal life get a new name Lord and be joined into the Lord and the promises of God
And I pray you bless this as we go on away Lord. We love you. We thank you pray this things in Jesus name. Amen