God Welcomes All

Let no foreigner who has bound himself to the Lord say, “The Lord will surely exclude me from his people.” And let not any eunuch complain, “I am only a dry tree.”

Isaiah 56:3

God welcomes all who come to him. In Matthew 8:2-3 we read that a leper came to Jesus and confessed, in essence, “I know you are able to save me, cleanse me, and heal me. But I don’t know whether you are willing. I have no question about your ability, but I am an outcast. I don’t know whether you will welcome me.” Jesus told him, “I do welcome you. I am willing to save you.”

As we study the book of Isaiah, we come to this chapter whose central message is that God welcomes all who come to him. In the first thirty-nine chapters of his prophecy, Isaiah exhorted Judah to live a righteous life. But because they failed to heed his words, they were exiled. In chapters 40 through 55 Isaiah revealed the source of grace that would enable God’s covenant-keeping people to live the righteous lives that God demands. That source is the salvation given to repenting sinners by the Suffering Servant (Isaiah 53). Finally, in chapters 56 through 66, Isaiah reveals the characteristics of God’s servants, who were to live righteous lives by grace as they waited for the full revelation of God’s salvation. Now, in the fullness of time, salvation has come in the person of Jesus Christ. And now, as people of God living in the interim between these two comings of Christ, we too must live righteous lives by grace as we wait for the fullest revelation of salvation at the end of times, as Romans 13:11-14 instructs us:

And do this, understanding the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.

Isaiah 56:1-2 begins, then, describing our responsibility as we wait for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ: “This is what the Lord says: ‘Maintain justice and do what is right, for my salvation is close at hand and my righteousness will soon be revealed. Blessed is the man who does this, the man who holds it fast, who keeps the Sabbath without desecrating it, and keeps his hand from doing any evil.'”

But the real heart of Isaiah 56 is captured in verse 3: “Let no foreigner who has bound himself to the Lord say, ‘The Lord will surely exclude me from his people.’ And let not any eunuch”-that is, a physically defective person-“complain, ‘I am only a dry tree.'” The central message of this chapter is that God welcomes everyone.

God Welcomes All People

Throughout the Scriptures God is inviting people to come to his feast. In Isaiah 25:6 we read, “On this mountain the Lord Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine-the best of meats and the finest of wines,” and in Isaiah 55:1, “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come buy wine and milk without money and without cost.” These verses are speaking about the righteous salvation God is inviting us to partake of.

This righteous salvation, this feast of rich food, this great banquet on the mountain of the Lord, is not limited to physical descendants of Israel. Instead, it is free to all people, without reference to nationality, ancestry, accident of birth, gender, rank, former religious affiliations, or physical defects. In other words, every sinner is welcome to partake of it. In fact, the qualification for coming is that we must confess that we are sinners and cannot save ourselves. Everyone is welcome-the poor, the blind, the lame, the crippled, the lepers, the social outcasts, the Amorites, the Moabites, the eunuchs, the foreigners, and even Gentile “dogs” like the Syro-Phoenician woman. God excludes no one; everyone is invited to take part in the salvation of the Lord.

But verses 3 and 6 specifically state that non-Israelites are included in God’s plan of salvation. And in the last part of verse 7 God declares, “My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.” So the church is an international body consisting of all people, both Jews and Gentiles. In verse 8 the Lord says, “I will gather still others to them besides those already gathered.” Jesus speaks about this in John 10:16: “I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.” So those formerly excluded from Israel are now included. There is but one people of God.

The Suffering Servant, the Anointed One, our Lord Jesus Christ, came to save all the elect of Israel as well as the elect of the Gentiles. Of him God says, “I will make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth” (Isaiah 49:6). And in Isaiah 45:22 the Lord declares, “Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other.”

This idea of inclusion of foreigners is in keeping with the Abrahamic covenant of Genesis 12:3 where God told Abraham, “In thee all the families of the earth will be blessed” (KJV). The Jewish people were supposed to be the light for the whole world, but they failed in their mission. However, in the seed of Abraham-in Jesus Christ-all the families of the earth have been blessed, are being blessed, and will be blessed. Yes, salvation is of the Jews, but from them it flows into the whole world.

No One Is Excluded

If you are a foreigner or a eunuch, you are welcome to this great feast God has prepared. We must believe this promise and not doubt. In verse 3 God prohibits any foreigner from saying, “The Lord will surely exclude me from his people,” or any eunuch from complaining, “I am only a dry tree.”

Are you such a person? Do you deprecate yourself, saying, “I am nothing; nobody cares for me. How can God welcome me or save me? Salvation is for others, not for me”? If so, I challenge you to be like the leper of Matthew 8. Come to Jesus and say, “I know you are able to save me, but I need to know if you are willing.” And he will say, “I am willing. I welcome you. And I will save you now.”

Do not think that God will exclude you from his feast; rather, believe the declarations of the Lord-that he has included you and has a good plan for your life, a plan to save you. Do not believe your own opinions about yourself. Reject also the opinion of anyone who tells you that you are hopeless, miserable, and can never amount to anything. What matters are God’s thoughts concerning you. So look to the Lord and listen to his voice of mercy; trust in his readiness and willingness to liberate you, save you, cleanse you, and embrace you. Salvation is for every miserable sinner who repents and believes on the Lord Jesus Christ. Come to him, and you will discover him as your Savior.

God welcomes the “nobodies” of this world! Paul tells us,

Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things-and the things that are not-to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him” (1 Corinthians 1:26-29).

The world may despise you, but the Lord welcomes you. He welcomes all those who consider themselves worms. He welcomes prostitutes, publicans, and sinners of every stripe. He welcomes all who are undeserving to come into his banqueting hall. Come as you are, and he shall clothe you with his robe of righteousness achieved at the cross.

In Ephesians 2:12 Paul says of the Gentiles, “Remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ” (v. 13). Notice that phrase: “But now”! We were excluded, but now! It is a different time. It is the fullness of time, when the Lord Jesus Christ has come and accomplished redemption on the cross for us. Christ died, Christ was buried, and Christ rose again and ascended into the heavens. Christ is King of kings and Lord of lords, and Christ invites all kinds of people to come to him and be saved.

Paul continues in verse 19: “Consequently, you”-you Gentiles, foreigners, eunuchs, and miserable people, all formerly excluded-“Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household.” And Ephesians 3:6 says, “This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.”

Galatians 3:26-28 says, “You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

What about eunuchs? According to Deuteronomy 23:1, they were once excluded from the assembly of the Lord. But in Jesus Christ, no physical defect can prevent a person from coming to God. Every impotent person is included. If you are a eunuch, do not say, “I am only a fruitless, dried tree. I have no children and no one will remember me when I die.” God remembers you! Nothing else should matter.

Do not be like Absalom, who attempted to perpetuate his name by his own devices. Second Samuel 18:18 says that because Absalom did not have sons to succeed him, he built a pillar as a monument to himself, hoping that people would remember him after his death. This is self-salvation, and we must not indulge in it. Rather, all childless eunuchs should listen to the Lord, who says, “To them I will give within my temple and its walls a memorial and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that will not be cut off” (v. 5). The Lord will bring you into his temple, meaning into his presence. He will give you eternal life, and you shall never perish. He will give you glory in the house of God, and an everlasting name, which cannot be cut off. Neither death nor life nor anything else in all creation is able to separate you from the love of God.

So shake off all self-pity! Shake off all doubts! Come to the Lord! Come to the feast! Come to be clothed with Christ’s salvation, and you shall be changed forever.

Our Responsibility: To Bind Ourselves to the Lord

This promise of welcome is only extended to that foreigner who has “bound himself to the Lord” (vv. 3, 6). Salvation is offered, the feast is prepared, and we are all invited. But now we have a responsibility to come and bind ourselves to the Lord.

We have a responsibility to come to God’s feast of salvation. In the New Testament, the question is, “What must I do to be saved?” And the answer is clear: “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved-you and your household” (Acts 16:31). It is our individual responsibility to repent and believe. No one can believe for another. John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

You have heard the gospel, that the Lord welcomes all sinners, whether Jew or Gentile. Are you are a sinner? Then you qualify to bind yourself to him in saving faith. Come to him, bind yourself to him, and he shall save you forever.

Isaiah 55:6-8 exhorts us, “Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near.” Now is the opportune time, when you are listening to the gospel. We do not know what tomorrow will bring; but when we seek God today, we shall find him. “Now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2).

How do we bind ourselves to him? “Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy upon on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon” (Isaiah 55:7). We cannot come to God without giving up our sinful thoughts and ways. Repentance means to think God’s thoughts after him, for his thoughts are higher than our thoughts, and his ways are different from our ways. Real salvation comes when we forsake our ways and thoughts, and turn to the covenant Lord. Then he will show us mercy and will freely and completely pardon us.

How do we bind ourselves to him? First, we are to do so freely and voluntarily. The only compulsion we should feel is that of the Holy Spirit deep within us. The Holy Spirit moves us, regenerates us, and gives us true repentance and saving faith by which we bind ourselves to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Second, we must bind ourselves to the Lord inseparably, holding on to Christ and gripping him forever, as he grips us.

Third, we must bind ourselves unconditionally. We do not tell God what to do; he tells us. The Lord of the universe and the only Savior of the world demands total, unconditional surrender.

Finally, we must bind ourselves to him sacrificially. When we trust in Jesus Christ, we will suffer loss. Friends will leave us. We may lose our job. Our parents may forsake us. Our reputation may suffer. But no matter; we will bind ourselves to the Lord.

In Philippians 3:7-9 Paul says, “But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ-the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.”

Yes, we will suffer. We will lose the pleasure of sin that lasts only a season. We will lose the fame and adoration of this world. Our own parents may cut us out of their wills. Our best friends may refuse to have fellowship with us. We may suffer much when we become Christians. But when we bind ourselves to the Lord, he will turn all that loss into gain.

Brothers and sisters, I encourage you to bind yourselves to the Lord. Bind yourselves as Paul did, who considered everything loss for the sake of knowing Christ. Bind yourselves as Rahab the Amorite did (Joshua 2), and her name is later found in the genealogy of Jesus Christ.

Bind yourselves as Ruth the Moabitess did. Ruth was given every opportunity to leave her mother-in-law and return home to her people, her country, and her god. Instead she replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me” (Ruth 1:16-17). Notice her determination and free choice. This is serious, voluntary, sacrificial, inseparable and unconditional binding of oneself to the covenant Lord. Ruth’s name also is found in the genealogy of Jesus Christ.

Bind yourselves as the Ethiopian eunuch did (Acts 8). Though he was a Gentile and a eunuch, he heard the gospel from Philip, believed it, and asked, “Why shouldn’t I be baptized?” And after he was baptized, he returned to Ethiopia to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Salvation is not automatic. If you are not so bound to the Lord, what prevents you from doing so? Simply put, it is the sin that you still enjoy. But be warned: God will not save a person who does not forsake his sin and bind himself to the Lord.

The Purpose of This Binding

Modern evangelicals often say, “Receive Jesus and he will help you, take care of you, and be your servant for the rest of your life.” They are likening God to an English butler, who will come whenever we snap our fingers.

But that is a false view of salvation. Three infinitives are given in verse 6 that clearly state the purpose of our binding ourselves to the Lord. The first is “to serve him.” That means he is Lord and we are his servants, and we must never reverse that order. The second purpose is “to love him.” We are not love the things God gives us-we are to love him! That is why the greatest blessing we can have is to be in God’s house and enjoy fellowship with him.

What is the third purpose? The New International Version translates it “to worship him.” But the Hebrew text actually says “to be his servants.” So the entire emphasis is on serving and loving, which means we must hear and do the will of God. As Jesus told us, “If you love me, you will obey what I command” (John 14:15).

So we do not snap our fingers and expect God to take care of us! Rather, we are called to be God’s servants, and to serve means to obey. Eli told Samuel, “If he calls you, say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening,'” meaning, “I am your servant and I will hear and do what you tell me to do.” This is the idea of covenant: God is the Lord and we are his vassals. He will bless us, provided we function as his servants.

Those who are saved will “bind themselves to the Lord to serve him, to love him, and to be his servants” all the days of their lives. We do not bind ourselves to him to receive material and temporal benefit for ourselves. We freely bind ourselves to the covenant Lord for his benefit. So he is the one who snaps his finger, and we should run to obey, as the angels do. And we gladly and willingly become his bondservants because of what he has done for us. Jesus Christ died in our place for our sins; hence, we dedicate all of our lives to serve him, love him, and be his servants. (PGM) All of Christian life is an expression of our thanksgiving to God in service to Christ and glad obedience to his will. We run in his ways. In the Lord’s Prayer, we pray, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” There is no negotiation in heaven.

Have you come to the covenant Lord in true repentance and faith? Have you bound yourself to him to keep his covenant? Have you become his bondservant for here and eternity? We serve either the Lord or of Satan. There is no other way.

The Lord’s Commitment to Us

Then Isaiah gives a wonderful promise to those who bind themselves to the Lord: “These I will bring to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations” (v. 7). When we commit ourselves to the covenant Lord to hear and do his will all the days of our lives, he commits himself to us, to bless us, and to make us joyful. This is God’s plan.

This divine commitment has several elements:

1. “These I will bring to my holy mountain.” The book of Genesis teaches that, as a result of sin, Adam and Eve were separated from God and expelled from paradise. In Adam’s fall, all mankind fell; thus, we are all by nature dead in trespasses and sins, on our way to hell.

   Yet God promises to bring us to his mountain to enjoy his presence forever. How can that be? How can the holy God bring unholy sinners to his holy mountain and have communion with them? There is only one way: our sin must be disposed of, and we must be made holy. This was achieved by the Suffering Servant, the Lord Jesus Christ. By his death and resurrection, our sins are taken care of; it is the cross of Christ that brings us to God’s holy mountain. That is why we have to understand the central significance of the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we can come to God and enjoy his presence forever.

   This was already proclaimed in Isaiah 2:3 in reference to the Gentiles: “Many peoples will come and say, ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths.'” And Isaiah 53 tells us that it is made possible through the work of the Lord’s servant.

   Psalm 27:4 expresses the great desire of the psalmist: “One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple.” And in Psalm 16:11 he says, “You will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.” True happiness is communion with God. As St. Augustine said, “Our hearts are restless until they find rest in God.” Happiness does not come from wealth or position or power in the world. Matthew 6:32 says that the Gentiles run after such things, but they can never find happiness there.

   Happiness is to know the Savior and have communion with him in his house. When he went up to the mountain of the Lord, Moses made only one request of God: “Show me your glory” (Exodus 33:18). We must ask ourselves: What is it we are hungering and thirsting after? Is it gold or God?

   Psalm 23 concludes: “Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” This is life. This is everlasting happiness. This is rest and peace.

   God promises in verse 7 to bring us to his holy mountain. That is what we find fulfilled in Hebrews 12:22-24: “But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.”

   This is worship! This is real life! This is what we experience now and experience in greater degree when we die, and in the greatest degree when Christ comes again-life with God! God will dwell with his people (Revelation 21, 22), and he will wipe away every tear from our eyes. There will be no more pain, no more death. No sun will be needed, nor any lamp, for God himself will be our light.

   This is what God is promising when he says, “I will bring them to my holy mountain.” It is joy unspeakable and full of glory. Our restless hearts can find true and everlasting rest in God. The thief on the cross told Jesus, “Remember me when you come in your power.” And what did Jesus say? “Today you will be with me in paradise.” Paradise was lost by the fall, but paradise has been regained by the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ.

2. “And give them joy in my house of prayer.” The best translation of this verse is “and I will cause them to rejoice in my house of prayer.” That particular word for “rejoice” appears in Deuteronomy 24:5: “If a man has recently married, he must not be sent to war or have any other duty laid on him. For one year he is to be free to stay at home and bring happiness to the wife he has married” or “cause the wife to rejoice.”

   In other words, this Lord to whom we bound ourselves is also committing himself to bring us into his own presence and make us rejoice all the days of our life. He is our husband; we are his bride. Do you think he will fail to do this? No! He commits himself to bring us from afar, from all our misery and separateness, and to bring us to himself through the Messiah, and then to cause us to rejoice all the days of our lives.

   Such is God’s commitment to us: “I will cause them to rejoice in my house of prayer.” This is the blessing of true worship. We cannot come to the house of God and worship in spirit and in truth without rejoicing. It is impossible! If you are miserable when you leave worship, it means that you refused to confess and repent of the sin you came with and, therefore, you went away unblessed. But when we come having prepared our hearts to worship the Lord, he will cause us to rejoice. We shall go out with joy and be led forth with peace, and the mountains and the hills shall break forth before us.

   Thus, a husband’s duty is to cause his wife to rejoice. Even so, our Lord our Bridegroom causes his bride the church, to rejoice forever. This is something a sinner cannot do, for outside of Christ there is no joy. True joy is found only in Jesus Christ, for only he forgives our sins, justifies us, clothes us with his righteousness, fills us with the Holy Spirit, and brings us into his presence to rejoice with inexpressible joy. The kingdom of God is described by Paul as “righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Romans 14:17). And nothing in this world can put out the fire of that joy-neither death nor life nor anything else can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.

3. “Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar.” Here God is saying that he will make us his priests and accept the worship we offer in the name of Christ. What a great privilege to be priests of God! We were separated from God, a people who never worshiped. But now God looks upon us as his priests in the great high priest, Jesus Christ.

   We are all God’s priests, whether man or woman, teenager or child. It makes no difference; everyone who believes in Jesus Christ is seen as a priest. First Peter 2:4-5 says, “As you come to him, the living Stone-rejected by him but chosen by God and precious to him-you also, like living stones, are being built up into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” And verse 9 says, “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”

4. “I will give them an everlasting name that will not be cut off.” This fourth element of the divine commitment is stated in verse 5. God will give us grace and glory. He shares his eternity with us. We have total security of salvation, an everlasting name that nobody can cut off.

   The same promise is given by Jesus in John 10:27-28 in slightly different language: “My sheep listen to my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.” What great security! He who believes in him shall never die.

   So those who become servants of the Lord, who commit themselves to love the Lord and serve him only, are in turn blessed by the Lord. Those who make themselves kings shall be brought down to shame, and those who make themselves his servants shall be brought up to be kings. That is the way God works. He humbles the arrogant and he lifts up the humble. Our happiness is the result of our serving God. Do you desire to be happy? Then serve the Lord only. There is no other way to experience everlasting happiness.

How Shall We Then Live?

As people of God who have bound ourselves to the Lord through repentance and faith, how then should we live? What is our present responsibility as we wait for the coming of Christ and as we wait for the fullness of salvation?

In Isaiah 56:1 the Sovereign Lord tells us, “Maintain justice and do righteousness.” Then in verse 2 he says, “Happy is the man who does this.” Happiness is obedience. Thus, in the interim, we must love, serve, and obey God. Our responsibility, in other words, is to live holy lives and shine as lights in this dark world.

Jesus spoke about this responsibility to hear and do the will of the covenant Lord in Matthew 5: “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven” (vv. 14-16).

That is what it says: We must maintain justice and do what is righteous, because our salvation is near. Jesus Christ is coming again to usher in the fullness of his salvation and righteousness. This is what we read about in Romans 6, the classic passage that speaks about maintaining justice and doing what is righteous by offering ourselves to obey God.

The Bible tells us that “without holiness no one will see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14), and “blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God” (Matthew 5:8). This is the idea when God says, “These I will bring to my holy mountain and give them joy” as they behold the beauty, glory, and grandeur of our God. This is why holiness is an important ingredient in our pursuit of happiness. If God justifies a sinner, he also sanctifies him. There is no justification without sanctification. When God makes the tree good, the tree necessarily produces good fruit.

Isaiah 56:2 says, “Blessed is the man who does this.” Blessed means happy, so we could say, “Happy is the man who obeys God.” Happiness comes to us through obedience to the Lord. That is the idea: Blessed is the man who honors the covenant Lord by keeping the covenant by his grace. Isaiah is saying that a happy man is a holy man, and a happy woman is a holy woman. If you are not happy, you must examine yourself and see whether you are serving God or yourself.. A self-centered person is not happy. I would counsel such people to look upward and outward; that is, look to serving God and God’s people. Then you will experience true happiness.

Here it is, then: A happy man is a holy man. A happy man is an obedient man. A happy man is a covenant-keeping servant of the Lord. A happy man keeps the Sabbath. This means he regulates his life by the God of creation and by the God of redemption, for the Sabbath is a sign of creation as well as redemption. No pagan ever stopped working one day in seven, but a true believer remembers the Lord of the Sabbath by keeping the Sabbath. So Sabbath-keeping is a mark of the believer, a positive reordering of his life around God. By so doing, he is acknowledging that all times belong to God, and that the Sabbath especially is a time to worship the Lord. That is also why we give money to the Lord; we are recognizing that all monies belong to him.

Also, he keeps his hand from doing any evil. That is a holy life. The idea that one can accept Jesus and continue in sin is the doctrine of demons, not of the Lord. Yet it is the most prevalent doctrine in the world today. But that is not what the Bible teaches. As we wait for the Lord’s coming, it is God’s will that we live a holy life. We are to shine as the light of the world, that men may see our good deeds and praise our Father in heaven.

It says, “Keep holding fast to the covenant.” Have a grip upon God’s will and love it. Keep doing the will of God daily. This is the formula for our happiness. Such a person is brought to Mount Zion for the incomparable experience of communing with God.

God welcomes all-Jew, Gentile, foreigner, eunuchs, prostitutes, publicans, lepers, blind, lame, and even his enemies. He says, “Come all!” Bind yourselves in repentance and faith to the covenant Lord Jesus. He will save you and transform you. He will bring you to his house and cause you to rejoice forever. He will make you priests of the Lord and accept your sacrifices in Jesus Christ. He will drive away all your fears and give you a name that will last forever. Finally, he will call you blessed, as covenant-keeping people. And when God calls you blessed, your heart will throb with joy. That is real life. His covenant blessings shall be heaped upon you and you shall go out with joy. Amen.