Isaiah Lesson 75

I want to say good afternoon, it's officially good afternoon, unless you happen to be in central or mountain time, in which case it's still morning.

That's the only relative teaching you're going to get this morning. Japan is tomorrow, there you go, because of the international date line.

Jeff and I, we spend time, when we get together Wednesday mornings, looking at different verses as we progress through the book of Psalms.

There's some fascinating stuff there. Psalm 115 starts out by giving glory to who

God is. To thy name gives the glory. Then it goes into this section and it speaks about the folly of idols.

They can't even talk, they can't even walk. What real good is there in an idol?

And then that little section ends with this statement here. Those who make them, the idol makers, become like them.

They become worthless, hard hearts, there you go. As does everyone who trusts in them.

So having the lure that basically

Satan puts out there to find something other than Yahweh as God, lets you rest your faith, your trust, your allegiance to something that is absolutely meaningless.

And eventually that's what you become, absolutely meaningless. Isaiah 58 is going to talk about a very important topic, the topic of worship.

When we travel around, whether it's going on vacation and finding a church or being where our children live and going to the church that they have, or before kids, we would go to Annapolis to Sandy's parents' church.

Some churches have a tendency to be a little more emotional. And so playing on the heartstrings of emotion has a value to them.

And I don't know if you've ever been in a church where the worship service just seems to be a

Broadway production. For me it's distracting.

I imagine that God gives us the gift of music,

He really does. And it draws us into His very, very presence. I find that personally for me,

God has allowed me to have an ability to present musically, whether it's on an instrument or vocally.

A couple of years ago I sang a song on the Good Friday service called

Watch the Lamb. And it's a story about a father going into Jerusalem for the

Passover with his two young children. And he's giving them instructions, it's going to be a lot going on.

Watch the lamb, let's not lose the lamb, watch the lamb. He turns out to be the man who carries the cross for Christ up to Golgotha.

And the dramatic presentation without that song is vivid. And it ends up on Calvary.

And it's two little boys taking his hands and saying, daddy, daddy, what have we seen here? And eventually he turns around and he says, watch the lamb.

It's a powerful message. I was just about breaking up, if you could sense, just telling you this story.

Which is to say that if I get the opportunity to give a vocalization of a song like that in a worship service, if I listen to the words that I'm singing,

I can't sing. So the only way that I can get through that is to have the words so well memorized that they are a spewing out of things.

As a child, I learned how to say an accumulation of words that eventually

I could say them without any meaning whatsoever in my heart. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us.

And I could say those words perfectly, but they meant nothing to me.

Well, that is exactly the question, why should you want to do that?

For me, singing that song, it's not the first time I sang it.

I've sung it before. I've come to a piece in my heart that says,

I may not be specifically worshiping myself when I'm singing those words because I can't get through it.

But what I'm doing is I'm allowing God to use my voice as an instrument, as a tool, to help the people that are sitting there worship.

And I'm okay with that. Because I don't think I'm pretending to be worshiping so much as I'm facilitating others.

Jesus is taking his followers on a special journey.

It starts out in Matthew chapter 5. Now when Jesus saw the crowds, now these are people that were following him because they were interested in him, following in him because they've heard some exciting stuff might be going on.

Or they were following him so that they could attack him and try to trip him up and accuse him. There were various reasons why.

So Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. Get this, his disciples went up with him.

And he began to teach them a saying. The Sermon on the Mount, chapters 5, 6, and 7, are not given to those who hated him.

And they're not even given to those who are just casually looking for excitement. Maybe he's going to feed 5 ,000 and I'll get a free lunch again.

None of that. It's the disciples. So when we read the words of the Sermon on the Mount, we read the words that are given to people that have a heart, that appears to be focused.

Put the word worshiping God and wanting to see that. And so in chapter 6, it breaks into three important didactic pericopes.

Isn't that a fun sound? It talks about when you are giving your gifts, don't let your left hand see what your right hand is doing.

Don't be like the hypocrites who love to parade in front of all to see. When you pray, don't be like the hypocrites who stand in front for everybody to see.

Pray with your heart. When you fast, don't be like the hypocrites who disfigure their faces.

He's taking acts of what we would call acts of worship and just tearing them to shreds from the world's perspective.

They're not ritual and they're not for show. He wants them to know what is true.

Rich, I want you to get Deuteronomy 6, chapter 5. You probably don't even need to look it up.

6, 5. Once you see the first word, you won't need it. Bob, if you would get

John 5, 23 and 24. I want to put these other verses as introductions, table setters for what we're about to see in Isaiah.

John 4. That's what it should be. What did I say? John 4.

Thank you for that. Fortunately, you have grace when I misspeak. We're going to open in prayer because we haven't prayed yet.

All right, we can do that. I was going to finish my opening. Oh, my bad. I thought you were leaving. This is the lead -in. This is the lead -in.

Gotcha. Continue on. Continue on. Thank you. He forgot to reverse it.

Yeah. Go ahead, please. You shall know the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

That is God's desire throughout the New Testament, throughout all of his revealed plan.

Loving the Lord your God with all your heart, your soul, and your strength. In fact, Jesus quotes this. He said, the second is like it.

Love your neighbor as yourself. On these hang all the laws and the commandments. John 4.

Bob? 23 and 24. Yes. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshippers will worship the

Father in spirit and truth. For they are the kind of worshippers the

Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshippers must worship in spirit and in truth.

Now, could you give us a prayer? All right. So, Father, that is our prayer, Lord, that we would worship you in spirit and in truth, not going through the motions, no empty ritual,

Lord, but that we would worship from the heart, that we would love you with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Now, help us to learn from Isaiah 58 to do just that. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen.

You're going to be my Isaiah 58 person. Joshua 3. I'm going to ask you to get that.

I will talk to Joshua 8. Nehemiah 8. Lisa, if you could pull out Nehemiah 8.

Give me just verse 1, if you would. All right. Cry aloud, do not hold back.

Lift up your voice like a trumpet. Declare to my people their transgression, to the house of Jacob their sins.

There is a call here, and it's even actually a form of worship, to be crying truth aloud.

And it says here to do it aloud. This is not a timid, this is not an embarrassment.

The reason we should cry out loud is because it's God's word, and the world needs to hear it.

And then it goes on and it says, and declare to my people their transgression. It does not sound like a real loving, feel -good worship service.

But if God's word is proclaimed, the word of God is living and active, and kind of soft and gushy, and doesn't really, no, it says sharper than any two -edged sword, piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit of both joints and marrow.

And get this, able to judge thoughts, thoughts and intentions, the heart. And so when

Jeff stands up on Sunday and he opens up the word of God, this is a living and active word that not only proclaims truth, but according to what is written by the author of Hebrews, it judges the thoughts and intentions of your heart.

And so to stand up front and make everybody feel like they're okay, I'm okay, that sounds very 60s.

Peace, thank you. No, no you're not. If you are not a child of God, you are definitely not okay.

And if you are a child of God, but you're letting sin abide in your life, you have a problem that should be resolved, we should be confessing, repenting, that sin was already taken to the cross.

But if we allow sin to manifest itself, we're putting up a barrier to where we're not listening to the instructions of God.

And we don't want a pastor who's a motivational speaker. Go with that. You know, somebody that's always proclaiming, you know, you can achieve goodness, you can have health, wealth, and be wise.

You should be happy all the time. Instead of encountering the fact that God is a holy

God, you'll be judged if you violate his commands. I'm going to challenge the second thing that you said is actually true motivation.

Yeah, it should be. And so I think our pastor should be a motivational speaker. Motivating us down the path of sanctification.

Absolutely. I hope you're a motivational speaker. Now, in the world's perspective, motivating so that everybody walks out with a smile on their face and wants to come back next

Sunday because they feel so good, that's not... I don't think that's true motivation. I don't think that's love.

I don't think that's love. It brings us back to that thing that has been said in this very class, that there's a big difference between joy and happiness.

Because we should have joy all the time in our hearts because Jesus died for us.

However, there are many things. I just lost my dear, dear friend back on Long Island.

I'm not happy today. I'm not happy. But I still have joy. Amen. Praise God.

Thank you for sharing that. Amen. Scripture has many, many examples.

I've asked a couple to be read. We can talk to many of them. In Joshua 3, the nation is getting ready to go after the promised land.

They haven't yet reached Jericho. And God encourages Joshua to proclaim the word of the law.

That's motivational speaking. Do you have that too? So Joshua said, children of Israel, come here and hear the words of the

Lord your God. And Joshua said, by this sheet you shall know that the living God is among you, and that he will without fail drive out from before you the

Canaanites and the Hittites and the Hittitites and the Perizzites and the Jernashites and the

Amorites and the Jebusites. Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is crossing from before you each of the children.

What a way to motivate somebody to cry out loud. And by the way, they're going to lose focus on that after Jericho.

They're going to lose focus on that because they're going to think really good about themselves in this little town, Ai. But they do need to be getting back to the word of God and proclaiming it because we do know that God is with you.

Those are the words of encouragement. After many, many battles and victories other than Ai, Joshua takes them to Mount Ebel and Mount Gerizim next to each other.

There's a valley in between and the ark of the covenant is situated at the ark. And what they do is they go to Deuteronomy 28 and one side proclaims the blessings and the other side proclaims the curses.

These are both truths just forming, foundationing, establishing themselves to hear.

And I love that he thought of crying that out loud. It was an antiphonal, it was an antiphonal.

Nehemiah ate. The people had been in captivity for 70 years. Under Ezra, they're able to return and they start rebuilding the temple.

And then Nehemiah is let known that there is irrepairable walls and it distresses him.

And he mourns and he weeps and he fasts and eventually he's bold enough to go in front of the king.

And then as they're heading now to the people back in Jerusalem to get their attention and get them going, what does he start out with?

The word of the Lord. Eight one to three. Who's got that?

Lisa? No, I have Nehemiah. Nehemiah ate one to three. Oh. I thought you were on Joshua still.

That's all right. I'm sorry,

I was following. So Joshua ate something was supposed to be next. That's fine. As she's getting that, we can fast forward to the

New Testament. Oh, here we go. Okay, you got it? Go ahead. And all the people gathered themselves together as one man into the street that was before the water gate.

And they speak to Ezra, the scribe, to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the

Lord commanded to Israel. That's actually good enough. That's actually good enough.

I love it because the people are even motivated. They get ahold of Ezra the priest.

They say, give us the word. Give us the word. And that's how they get protected from some of the subtle attacks from Satan.

But give us the word. Give us the word. That prepares them. And that's too, as Peter is preparing to launch the church, what does he do?

He has all these people gathered from all around in Jerusalem and he proclaims the word of the

Lord. Proclaiming the word of the Lord. If you want to start out in worship, if you want to start out, love the

Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and your mind, start out with a foundation of truth, not traditions, cultural isms, or anything else like that.

Start there. Unfortunately, Israel has lost, they've lost the formula.

Verses 2 to 5, Isaiah 1, Bob, if you would get Isaiah 1, and we'll shift over there to Barb, if you would get

Malachi, otherwise known as Malachi. 1, verses 6 to 8.

Isaiah 58, 2 through 5, yet they seek me daily and delight to know my ways as if they were a nation that did righteousness and did not forsake the judgment of their

God. They ask of me righteous judgments, they delight to draw near to God. Okay, stop right there.

This actually sounds halfway decent, except for two words stuck in the middle of it.

As if. As if. As if. Now go on. Why have we fasted and you see it not?

Why have we humbled ourselves and you take no knowledge of it? Behold, in the day of your fast, you seek your own pleasure and oppress all your workers.

Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to hit with a wicked fist. Fasting like yours this day will not make your voice to be heard on high.

Is such the fast that I choose a day for a person to humble himself? Is it to bow down his head like a reed and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him?

Will you call this a fast? A day acceptable to the Lord? The imagery of the external versus the internal is on display right now.

As if. As if. So the people have been taught and perhaps they believe that by following these prescriptions they're going to satisfy

God. And so it says they seek me daily and they delight to know my ways.

When we go into the book of Hebrews, there are five woes in the book of Hebrews. Yeah, the five warning passages, yeah.

Yeah. And they could be totally misconstrued to say that a believer, a true believer in Christ can fall under the indictment of one of these warning passages and lose their salvation.

That is not what it says. What it says is that you can have somebody part of your congregation, part of your fellowship who does all of the prescriptions, externally has all of the evidence, but never had the heart.

Right. They're the ones that are in danger. They're the ones, yes. Does that mean that you can have the heart and not the outward self?

No, no, no, that is a great question. That is a great question. Look at that in the reverse.

Is it possible for someone to have the heart and have nothing outward? That is the book of James. James, right.

James says that you're bad if you don't have any outward. James says you have faith, you have faith, show me your faith by my works.

I have faith by my works. Faith without works is dead. Right. Now, that being said, that does not say that every believer at all times has outward expressions of their faith.

There are those who get cold and dull. But that doesn't mean that they lost their salvation.

That means that they need to be, their fire needs to be relit. That's what that means.

But, if your life never shows work, my personal testimony after receiving

Christ, no discipleship, I attempted to go back to my old way of life. And it distressed me.

It totally depressed me. I believe that was the Holy Spirit's working in my life.

Because I was grieving the Holy Spirit, and he wasn't happy. And so, that was the work. The things that I used to do,

I used to be the life of the party, I couldn't do it anymore. I changed. Faith without works, faith without works is dead.

But let's go back to this here. We have people that, they do all the things. They seek

God, and they even have the head knowledge. They can recite the verses, and they can probably even apply the verses.

But they can't understand it because it says the things of God cannot be understood by man, only by the Spirit can you understand the things of God.

And then it says, it's as if, as if they were a nation that did righteous, that didn't forsake the judgment.

They're acting, everything they're doing looks like it's as if that's who they really, really were.

And they even ask God, but what does it say in the beginning of Isaiah? Did I give

Isaiah 1? Yeah, it says 10 through 10. Isaiah 1, start at 10 and I'll stop you there.

Yeah, it goes at least till 14, I think. Okay, hear the word of the

Lord, you rulers of Sodom. Listen to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah. Okay, now stop right there.

He's actually reading this up to the Jews. They've gotten bad.

They've gotten bad. And he's calling them Sodom and Gomorrah. That's how despicable they are.

Go ahead. The multitude of your sacrifices, what are they to me, says the Lord?

I have more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams and the fat of fattened animals. I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.

When you come to appear before me, who has asked this of you, this trampling of my courts?

Stop bringing meaningless offerings. Your incense is detestable to me. New moons,

Sabbaths, and convocations, I cannot bear your evil assemblies. Your new moon festivals and your appointed feasts, my soul hates.

They have become a burden to me. I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands in prayer,

I will hide my eyes from you. Even if you offer many prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood.

Wash and make yourselves clean. That's good there. There are a couple of verses in Scripture that are frightening to me, and that's one of them.

Even when you pray, I will not listen. The ritualistic prayers, that is not prayer.

That is not prayer. That's a ritualistic, I'm sorry? It's just recitation. It's just recitation is all that it is.

Well, then there's that too. Is that Isaiah 10? Isaiah 1.

Isaiah 1. Starting at verse 10. Isaiah 1, 10 to 14. That was my first official typo.

Listen to the utilization of first person versus third person in this.

Why have we fasted? And you don't hear it. Why have we humbled ourselves?

But you don't take any pleasure in it. Then he says, behold, the day of your fast, you're seeking your own pleasure.

He's going like he does on the Sermon on the Mount. Beyond the external, into the internal.

He says, you fast only to quarrel. Fasting like yours this day will not make your voice heard on high.

It doesn't work is what he's saying. He's indicting them against what they do.

Is such the fast that I choose? Is it even meaningful if you humble yourself?

It's like, don't be like, don't be like the hypocrites who just figure their faces to show people they're fasting.

When you fast, wash your face, pour oil on your head, so that it won't be obvious to anybody that you're fasting, but to your father who is in heaven.

That's his teaching on that. It's not going to make your, is it following your head like a reed in some sort of humble, no it's not.

Will you call this a fast and an acceptable day to the Lord? That's almost a rhetorical question, it really is.

Malachi 1, 6 to 8. A son honors his father and a servant his master.

If I am a father, where is the honor due me? If I am a master, where is the respect due me?

Says the Almighty Lord. It is you, O priest, who show contempt for my name.

But you ask, how have we shown contempt for your name? You place the file fruit on the altar, but you ask, how have we defiled you?

By saying that the Lord's table is contemptible. When you bring blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong?

When you sacrifice crippled or diseased animals, is that not wrong? Try offering them to your governor.

Would you be pleased with you? Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you? That's good there.

You know how to show honor to your father, hopefully, your earthly father, hopefully.

He says, I am your heavenly father. How much more should you be honoring me? And what you're doing is you're playing games, even with your sacrifices.

You know that what I want is the best, the pure, the undefiled.

But you're actually giving me the lame of the crop and pretending like this should be an acceptable sacrifice.

Would you do that to your governor? You wouldn't get away with it. What makes you think that it would be acceptable to the

Lord, your God? Yeah. One of the key phrases I'll use with fellow Christians with regard to evangelism, one of two of them, is

Matthew 5 .16. Let your light shine so others may see your good works and worship your father as a

God. The other is 2 Corinthians, to always be prepared, to give the reason for the hope when you're asked.

This is pure 5 .16. All you have to do is be there for people. You want to witness people.

Do this. And they'll know. They'll ask, what is it with you?

The power of Matthew 5 .16, it is that when you've done these things with a heart that seeks after God, people will see it and they will acknowledge it and give glory to your father who is in heaven.

That's where now we get into what does the Lord, your God, require of all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind?

Not me. It's not worship to me. It's a spiritual change of attitude to open people wide open if they're genuine with their desire to know.

If you bring a person into church who is open to hearing, maybe you've got something that I don't have, and you take them into a church where it's just more country club empty worship.

It's a sense. What's the sense? Why am I wasting my time here? I had a good country club down there in Bedford Lakes.

I don't need this one. This needs to be a house of worship. Absolutely. Very, very well said.

That's why we're here, John. That's why we're here. Amen to that. All right, give me, let's get some good news.

Okay. Give me verses 6 to 12. Is not this the fast that I choose? To loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke.

Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house when you see the naked to cover him and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?

Then shall your light break forth like the dawn and your healing shall spring up speedily.

Your righteousness shall go before you. The glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.

Then you shall call and the Lord will answer. You shall cry and he will say, here I am.

If you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness.

Keep going. Yeah, all the way to 12. All the way to 12. Okay. If you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday and the

Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong and you shall be like a water garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail and your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt and you shall raise up the foundations of many generations.

You shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to dwell in.

He starts out by giving an encouragement of a hard attitude that I believe is part and parcel to having a surrender of yourself to God.

He said, isn't this the fast that I really want? Not the lame, not even the bloodshed.

This is the fast that I want. I want you to show pure agape love to your brothers.

Now, you're never going to show pure agape love to your brothers unless you have agape love to God. I put that out as a...

I think it's... It comes first. I can't find it in scripture that you can't have agape love for your brother without agape love to God.

Well, we agape him because he agape'd us first. That's true. Not all that is very true.

He pours out his love into our hearts. Here's the thing. He wants you to pour yourself out.

He wants you to let go of yourself, your own needs, your own everything. He wants you to undo the straps of yoke.

He wants you to share your bread with the hungry. Look to those that are in need and not yourself.

And I want now to emphasize a word that shows up. Actually, there's two words that show up.

Then and if. Okay?

All right, this is how I want you to approach worship. I want you to pour yourself out. I want you to look to the needs of others.

I want you to show pure, pure agape love in all things. Then your light will break forth like the dawn.

There's that light again. There's that, yeah, go ahead. I can't finish without asking questions.

We went into this first part where they were doing things. They saw him daily. They delighted to know his works.

They didn't forsake the judgment of God. They fast and all this other kind of stuff to no avail.

And now he says, this is how I want you to do it. I want you to empty yourself. I want you to not be of yourself.

Then your light will shine forth. Having this attitude before you ever go into worship, while you're in worship, being instructed while you're in worship, a heart that surrenders to God, empties to self, then your light will shine forth.

I have to empty myself in order to fill you. I'm sorry? I said you have to empty yourself in order for it to fill you.

Absolutely. Then your righteousness goes before you. And here's an encouragement to you.

The glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. Whatever you do, wherever you go, you have the

Lord. This is the promise that was given to Joshua. You're going into land. Don't be afraid because I'm going with you.

In fact, in that case, I'm going before you. Here he's saying that whatever you do, I am your rear guard.

And in Isaiah 1, they had gotten so bad that he said, even when you pray,

I will not listen. I've grown weary. Verse 9, then you shall call and the

Lord will answer. Then, it doesn't say it, but I'm putting it there.

Then you shall cry and he will say, here I am.

This is the impact of true worship. It's a restoration of...

After the fall, it's recorded in Genesis 3, that Adam and Eve, their eyes were opened to their nakedness and guilt overwhelmed them.

They made fig leaf coverings of them. And when the Lord is walking in the cool of the day in the afternoon, as was his practice, he said, where are you?

And they said, we were afraid because we were naked. He said, who told you that?

Then you will cry and he will say, here I am. We have people in our midst that are struggling, coming out of COVID who were potentially going to lose their jobs because they refused to take a vaccine.

We have pastors up in Canada who were given a mandate, you must recite this prescribed under penalty of law.

And they refused and they got thrown in prison. We have people who have lost dear friends, husbands, wives, loved ones.

And when you cry out to the Lord, his response will be, here

I am. This all comes from our heart of true worship. It says, and then

I'm adding in the word then. It says, if you pour yourself out to the hungry and if your satisfier is for the desire of the others, the afflicted, not yourself, then your light will rise in the darkness.

Then the Lord will guide you continuously. The things that we're encountering, we can't even anticipate what they're going to be or how they're going to play out.

But somebody knows already. That's our sovereign God. He's going to be with you all the way and he says he will guide you continuously.

And get this next phrase because it ties into the Psalm 115 passage that I wrote to you.

What did it say about people who follow idols? They're going to be like empty springs.

There's no satisfaction to be gained. There's no refreshment to be gained from an empty spring.

It says, then the Lord will guide you and satisfy your desire in scorched places.

When you go somewhere where there is need for that refreshing water, he's going to give it to you.

He's the one that's going to take care of you when you're in that desert place. And you will be like a watered garden, like a spring of water whose waters do not fail.

These are the promises that God gives us when our heart is surrendering ourself and turning to him.

Then if, then if. It's all promises of blessings.

Now he's got one last word to give us and that's in verses 13 and 14. If you turn back your foot from the

Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day and call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the

Lord honor. If you honor it, not going your own ways or seeking your own pleasure or talking idly, then you shall take delight in the

Lord and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth. I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father for the mouth of the

Lord has spoken. Oh my goodness. Carol, I want you to get Exodus 20 ready for me, verses 8 through 11.

And Rich, in closing, I want you to have James 4, verse 8 ready, closing.

He chooses at this point in time, after speaking about the importance of proclaiming truth as a foundation to worship and not compromising that word of truth.

He then goes on from that and he warns us about ritualistic worship because it's a practice that has crept in and it's a practice that is creeping into our churches today.

There are still countries that have state churches and they're not honoring to God.

That, by the way, is how our denomination got started by individuals not being prescribed on how worship should be and what it has to say and they call themselves free men, free to honor the

Lord and to hear his word and the free church, Scandinavia, Norway, and Danish people.

And then they came here and they formed and they came together and formed a free church so that we are honoring

God that's proclaimed and we're not being ritualistic about what we're doing.

I really believe it is important when we practice in obedience the

Lord's table, we do it once a month. And the danger can even be that we just do that because it's the first Sunday of the month and we don't do it with an intentional form of worship but it's the act that I get to do.

Maybe that's my Catholic roots crying out but we can be guilty of that too.

We can be guilty of saying we're going to do three songs before the sermon and then we're going to do a song after the sermon and enjoy watching our very talented musicians up front.

We can be guilty of that too. But when you sing a song, actually hearing what it is that you're saying, because some of these songs are pretty deep professions.

They're pretty deep professions. But now he comes in here and he says, keep the

Sabbath. He's going to say, keep the Sabbath. Do you have Exodus 20? Who did I give that to?

20, verse 8 and 7? 8 through 11, yeah. Remember to observe the

Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days a week are set apart for your daily duties and regular work.

But the seventh day is a day of rest dedicated to the Lord your God. On that day, no one in your family, this includes your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, your livestock and any foreigners living with you.

For in six days the Lord made the heavens, the earth and the sea and everything in them.

Then he rested on the seventh day. That is why the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart as holy.

Honor your father and your mother. Okay, that's good. I want you to reread 13 and the first phrase of 14 and I will really cut you off.

If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the

Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the Lord honorable, if you honor it not going your own ways or seeking your own pleasure or talking idly, then you shall take delight in the

Lord. What his prescription says here, if you honor the

Sabbath, and just summary, if you honor the Sabbath, what are the characteristics of somebody who honors the

Sabbath? That's a good question. Thank you. I was wondering that while I was reading it.

What are the characteristics of somebody who honors the Sabbath? Lay around and do nothing. Let's play with that for a second.

Lay around and do nothing. He says don't do anything. It's a day of rest. I assume you're supposed to do something.

The Sabbath and the day of rest are the same thing.

Yeah, but he says right here, nor finding your own pleasure.

Obviously, you're not supposed to do your own pleasure. There's a challenge. In other words, if I choose on a nice Sunday afternoon, and my grandchildren have come to visit, and I take them down to the beach, is that anathema?

Is it for your pleasure or their pleasure? I guess that makes a difference. As opposed to doing what?

You're not working. As opposed to doing what you do the other six days. You've never taken children to the beach and you're not working?

That's true. Could we address the difference between the

Sabbath on a Saturday and our Sunday, Day of the Lord?

Because these are two different things. Although they seem similar, and people intertwine some things from the

Sabbath with our Sunday worship. I taught this a few weeks back.

We don't have a lot of time. There was a lesson I did about five weeks ago where we talked about how it opened with the

Sabbath. You go ahead while I find something and refer you back to that.

To me, the key to this... Chapter 56. To me, the key to this here is not a legalistic mandate that you can't pull weeds in your backyard on a

Sunday. That's not what it is. In fact, this is a small rabbit trail.

I would challenge you to look at how you can and do react on a

Sunday to this man who works pretty hard on a Sunday. You probably have more of a day of rest on a

Monday than you do on a Sunday. It's not the day of the week that's the issue.

Not necessarily. I believe it comes down to your pleasure as opposed to a holy day of the

Lord. It comes down to seeking your own pleasure, to delighting in the

Lord. And having this day of your week that you intentionally want to have your mind focused on God and what does

God have. That this one day of the week can be almost like taking your

Tesla and plugging it in and giving it energy for the rest of the week. Not that you should not be, you should be in the word every day, in prayer every day.

But God created man and he set the sixth day aside to worship him.

Seventh day. Seventh day. Thank you very much. That's my second officialness. He set it aside.

Knowing that we get beat down by the workaday world for six days and the seventh day we can set aside as holy to him.

And it's not to say that we're going to put a prescription on what does it mean for you to set it aside and to be holy for him.

Somebody who their workaday world is behind a desk, behind a computer dealing with customers and all that other stuff can find refreshment with the earth and the soil under their fingernails.

This is going to look different for people. But wait a minute, that would be your pleasure. Which it says in here it should not be.

I'm confused because God said the Sabbath is Friday night to Saturday night.

And we're not doing that. Aren't we just saying, well we'll do it God but we're going to do it one way.

Okay, I'm going to let you do it. So yeah, this is the teaching that I did. It's called Lesson 73,

Isaiah Lesson 73 and it comes from Isaiah. By the way, Lesson 73, we've been numbering our lessons.

Each one, yeah. I want to correspond with Isaiah Chapter 56. And there is a dispensational change from Old Testament to New.

In Christ, according to Hebrews Chapter 4 Christ has become our rest, where we rest from our work.

And he's fulfilled that. And what came of that regarding the Sabbath is that the first day of the week becomes what's called the kuriah hamerah.

The day of the Lord, the Lord's day. And so for example, we're to set aside a certain tithe or amount of offering on the first day of the week according to First Corinthians 16.

And again and again, Revelation 110. The day of the Lord, the Lord's day was the first day of the week.

And it is, it's no longer as you said a legalistic obedience as it is a day to worship

Christ and to set apart a time for him. Now the reformers saw that, that you shouldn't do any work at all.

And they were maybe a bit legalistic. That's why, who is Eric Little? The guy wouldn't even run in the

Olympics. But I think he honored the Lord in that decision because he saw Sunday as the

Lord's day. But from the death of Jesus on a Friday and his resurrection on a

Sunday, from that point in time on, the church has always celebrated the Lord's day as the first day of the week, not

Sabbath. So that's what changed the dispensation. I think it was the

Lord. When he says on the first day of the week, set aside something. So it's a change that is, it's not that the

Sabbath was ever made null and void. This is important because in Matthew 5,

Jesus talks about that even the smallest jot and tittle still remains.

Yes, but he says these things will be fulfilled. So he himself is our

Sabbath. He is our rest. We come to rest in Christ. And so we're resting now from our works, which is what the

Sabbath always pointed to. This rest that we have in Christ that we no longer are striving on a hamster wheel, but Christ has completed the work for us by his dying and rising.

So that's the dispensational change, but there's still a general equity that remains from the

Old Testament about the Sabbath and what we're reading here, that we are to set it apart and regard it as a different day and recharge your

Tesla, as it were. That principle still remains because we're made in the image of God.

He worked for six days on the seventh day rested. Our bodies need that same kind of rhythm. So, but it's a different dispensation.

For some people, if your son's a firefighter, an

American, he gets assigned Sunday, and he has to go fight fires on Sunday. So he has to find a different day of the week to draw an eye on the

Lord. Every day, of course, but to especially take time to be with the

Lord. And that's what your pastor has because Sunday is not a day of rest for your pastor.

And this legalistic, you can't do anything. On Sunday, we had a picnic.

I didn't do a thing. I got in line, and I got food, and I ate. And I went to a lot of caves, and I lived like this.

My grandparents were burning coal. But there were people out here that were working very hard. Right, yeah.

They were serving it. They were keeping it safe and warm and whatever. Right, absolutely. And, yeah.

Okay, and one other comment can I make real quick because you mentioned it a couple times. Pursuing your pleasure here. When Jesus died on the cross, it was for the joy set before him.

It was actually, there was nothing wrong about pursuing pleasure in that sense. The idea here in 58 is you're pursuing your business.

You're, in fact, there's a translation that says pursuing your business. I have a footnote in my ESV that pursuing your pleasure or your business, you're doing what profits you not respecting the kingdom.

So, it's not a matter of, because we are to find pleasure and it's good to pursue your own pleasure in God.

That's the difference. Pleasure itself is good if it's directed in God. So, if you go down the shore and you love the fact that you're with your kids, you're not wrong because you're down the shore enjoying it.

You don't have to be dour on Sundays. That's not the idea. The concept is that you're devoting this to the

Lord and your pleasure is in him, not in your business or some other thing independent of God.

Does that help? That's exactly it. It helps, but it just doesn't seem what it says to me. Well, that is exactly it.

There's two things. One is, are you on the Sabbath self -focused or are you

God -focused? Yeah, and that next phrase actually should clarify that because it says or talking idly.

Yeah, yeah, that's it. Well, mine says nor speaking thine own words. So, I don't know.

I get the idea that really the Sabbath is supposed to be for a day of worship. Worship, yeah.

Like all day. It's not that you can't do nothing. Right. It's just that the whole idea of the day is that it's going to be set aside.

Yeah. I would agree with that. Yeah, but worship can be a little broader than the singing on a

Sunday morning. As John's mentioning, it can be worshiping through gardening. I think it's good.

Yeah, yeah. You're directing the whole day and your thoughts to him all day.

Yeah, yeah. So, I think we're on the same wavelength. Now, the other litmus test

I would give you is if you do something and the Holy Spirit is grieving your heart that you know what you're doing isn't pleasing to God and you're not honoring

God on the Sabbath, then the Holy Spirit is guiding you. We're going to close down with James 4 .8

as kind of a summary of how do we pursue this concept of right worship.

Go ahead. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. There it is.

Purify your hands, purify your hearts. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you.

Sure. Yeah, so Father, thank you so much for the study, for this time in your word.

Lord, we pray that we would be sharpened by it. That our religion would not just be this outward show, but it would be to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to honor the

Sabbath. That we would be God -centered and devoting a day to you, your day, that we could worship you all day long.

We pray, Lord, that you would sharpen us by this teaching and we thank you for your word to us. In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen. One important announcement. Yes. Both Pastor Jeff and myself have out -of -state obligations next week.

Not the week. The week will still happen. But the teaching on Wednesday will not happen.