Sermon Tone Analysis

Open your Bibles to Isaiah 58. 

•That’s where we will begin this morning.

•We are in the third week of a six week series on the doctrine of the Christian Sabbath.

•Today our focus will be on the Sabbath in the prophets.

Thus far in this series we’ve seen that the Sabbath began at creation.

•We’ve seen that the Sabbath is a Moral Law that did not go away with the end of the Old Covenant.

•And now, in order to reinforce the truth that there is a Sabbath for Christians, I want us to consider what the prophets of the OT had to say about the Sabbath.

•They spoke about it often.

Usually they spoke about how the Sabbath was being broken and how God’s wrath was coming because of it.

•God spoke many words to His People through the prophets about the Sabbath.

•But this morning, I want to consider a couple of happier and, hopefully, instructive portions of prophecy about the Sabbath.

•In particular, I want to consider chapters 56 and 58 of Isaiah’s prophecy.

This morning, I will not dive deeply into every detail in these two chapters, since there is so much Scripture that could be covered.

•Instead, my aim is to give a broad, sweeping exposition of each text so you can see the major themes the Lord is getting at.

•And, by doing so, I hope to show you that the Sabbath is for us today, and that God promises great blessings to those who keep it holy.

This is my outline for this morning:

•First, I want us to look at Isaiah 58 and consider Sabbath Keeping as a Mark of True Religion.

•Then, we will turn to Isaiah 56 to see Sabbath Keeping Prophesied for the New Covenant Age. 

•Then, we will turn back to Isaiah 58:13-14 to see God’s Blessings for Sabbath Keepers.

I hope to show you this morning that Sabbath-keeping was not a mere external, ceremonial show of religion, but is a mark of true religion.

•I hope to show you that the Sabbath is prophesied to continue on even after all the ceremonies of the Old Covenant had passed away.

•And I hope to show you something of God’s grace and kindness that He promises for those who obey His commandment to keep the Sabbath holy.

•May God bless the preaching of His Word and increase our love for Him by it.

If you would, and are able, please stand with me now for the reading of the inspired, inerrant, and infallible Word of God.

Isaiah 58:13-14

[13] “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; 

[14] 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.”

(PRAY)

Our Triune God, 

We thank you for your Word.

It is our sure and certain guide in a world of uncertainty and change.

We ask now that you would help us to understand, believe, and cherish what you have revealed in Scripture.

By the mighty working of the Spirit of God, teach us and grant us hearts warm to the truth.

Cause us to behold your wisdom, goodness, and kindness in the Scriptures.

Make us teachable.

And teach us.

Help us today.

Sanctify us by your truth.

Your Word is truth.

We ask these things in Jesus’ Name and for His sake.

Amen.

1.)

As you all know by now, many claim that the Sabbath was a Ceremonial Law given only to the Jews and, therefore, it is not binding on the Christian.

•I know that I addressed that error at length last week, but I’d like to briefly address it again today from Isaiah as a way to dive more deeply into further arguments for the Christian Sabbath.

•I think that Isaiah 58 contradicts the idea that the Sabbath was a merely Ceremonial Law.

•And I say that because in this chapter external religious ceremonies like fasting with no heart behind it are being compared to true religion.

•And one of the marks of true religion is found in vv13-14 that we just read.

•And what would that mark of true religion be?

The answer is Sabbath-keeping.

I will now read the entire chapter to you and then make some brief remarks so you can understand what is being said.

Isaiah 58:1-14

[1] “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.

[2] 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.

[3] ‘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.

[4] 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.

[5] 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, and a day acceptable to the LORD?

[6] “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?

[7] 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?

[8] 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.

[9] 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,

[10] 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.

[11] 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 watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.

[12] And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; 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.

[13] “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; 

[14] 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.”

In this chapter, Isaiah is being instructed to cry out against the sins of God’s People.

•And what is that sin?

It is the sin of hypocritical formalism.

Of having external forms of religions and ceremonies but not actually worshipping God. 

•We see this accusation from the Lord in vv1-5.

•There it is said that the People are fasting, but they are doing so with insincere hearts.

They’re trying to manipulate the LORD.

They “seek” the LORD daily and “delight to know” His ways “as if they were a nation that did righteousness and did not forsake the judgment of their God…” (V2)

•They engage in external forms of worship, pretending to delight in the LORD as if they were righteous.

But in reality, they were wicked and hypocritical.

•And they ask, in v3, “Why have we fasted, and you see it not?

Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?”

•They ask God, “Why don’t you answer or care for us?

We’re fasting, but you won’t do as we’ve asked.”

•And the reason why God doesn’t hear them or help the is found in vv3-4: “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 heard on high.”

•They are obsessed with doing their will/pleasure instead of God’s.

They oppress the poor and act wickedly and harm their neighbor.

In v5, God says that this kind of “fasting,” this kind of religion, is not the fast that He chooses.

•God is not looking for mere externals like bowing your head like a reed, or sitting in sackcloth and ashes.

•God wants something more.

Such merely external ceremony is unacceptable to the LORD.

So in this chapter, Isaiah is instructed to prophesy against merely external, ceremonial, ritual religion.

•God says that such religion is actually false religion.

There is no heart behind it.

•And so, GOD HATES IT. 

•Why?

Because people who only practice ceremonial religion are not truly loving and obeying God, but are only giving a show of religion.

•The Apostle Paul talks about this kind of religion in 2 Timothy 3:5: “having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power.”