Included
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A Call to Live Out the Faith
A Call to Live Out the Faith
This is what the Lord says: Preserve justice and do what is right, for My salvation is coming soon, and My righteousness will be revealed.
Happy is the man who does this, anyone who maintains this, who keeps the Sabbath without desecrating it, and keeps his hand from doing any evil.
IF we are included in God’s Family
You cannot separate future salvation from living for the Lord now.
We can make two mistakes.
1 Think our works will save us.
2. Think our works don’t matter.
You cannot do better for yourself than God will do for you.
Verse 2 talks about desecrating the Sabbath.
I want to talk about this.
Then He told them, “The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath.
Why a Sabbath?
Rest. Such a powerful work producing concept. It restores, revitalizes, and reinvigorates.
Trust. When we take a regular day off, it demonstrates that we are trusting God to take care of us and bless us.
Sign. The Sabbath was the sign that God’s old Testament people were in covenant with Him.
Worship. Believers have consistently understood that setting aside a time for regular worship was important to those who were included in the Blessings Messiah brings.
When a Sabbath?
One person considers one day to be above another day. Someone else considers every day to be the same. Each one must be fully convinced in his own mind.
Whoever observes the day, observes it for the honor of the Lord. Whoever eats, eats for the Lord, since he gives thanks to God; and whoever does not eat, it is for the Lord that he does not eat it, yet he thanks God.
Be careful. Live out your faith, even in the way you practice setting aside time.
A Call to Trust That We Are Included
A Call to Trust That We Are Included
I believe many of us struggle to feel like we belong, that we fit in. Much of the fallen world works hard at dividing people.
The haves the have nots
Blacks Whites
Rich Poor
Americans/ Rest of the World
Baptist and the Rest of the church
Overweight/Underweight
Old/Young
Boomers/Millenials
Here God is using Isaiah to remind people other than the Jewish Nation that they were welcome to join in, and as accepted as anyone else.
He uses two categories of people to speak of inclusion.
Son’s of other nations (Foreigner)- should not say excluded
The Eunuch- should not say dried up (infertile and useless)
No foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord should say, “The Lord will exclude me from His people”; and the eunuch should not say, “Look, I am a dried-up tree.”
He deals with the inclusion of the Eunuch first.
For the Lord says this: “For the eunuchs who keep My Sabbaths, and choose what pleases Me, and hold firmly to My covenant,
I will give them, in My house and within My walls, a memorial and a name better than sons and daughters. I will give each of them an everlasting name that will never be cut off.
In Deut. 23 God describes in graphic detail the EXCLUSION of the eunuch, but here Isaiah points to them being included. I believe this alludes to a future day, (Verse 1 salvation is coming… the New Covenant that will include those who had been excluded)
When Jesus had finished this instruction, He departed from Galilee and went to the region of Judea across the Jordan.
Large crowds followed Him, and He healed them there.
Some Pharisees approached Him to test Him. They asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife on any grounds?”
“Haven’t you read,” He replied, “that He who created them in the beginning made them male and female,”
and He also said: “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh?
So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, man must not separate.”
“Why then,” they asked Him, “did Moses command us to give divorce papers and to send her away?”
He told them, “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because of the hardness of your hearts. But it was not like that from the beginning.
And I tell you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.”
His disciples said to Him, “If the relationship of a man with his wife is like this, it’s better not to marry!”
But He told them, “Not everyone can accept this saying, but only those it has been given to.
For there are eunuchs who were born that way from their mother’s womb, there are eunuchs who were made by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves that way because of the kingdom of heaven. Let anyone accept this who can.”
A question of divorce leads to the elevation of marriage.
Disciples: Maybe it would be better to not marry.
Jesus:
Eunuchs from birth.
Eunuchs from man’s hand (put into servitude)
Eunuchs (celibates by choice)
This is not homosexuality… But I do know some Christians who are celibate rather than act on same sex attraction.
This is a person who prioritizes God’s mission over marriage. (see 1 Corinthians 7.9)
This is as good a choice as marriage. WE NEED NOT MARGINALIZE SINGLENESS AND TREAT IT AS LESS THAN MARRIED STATUS. People often feel excluded because of their singleness.
But if they do not have self-control, they should marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with desire.
God promises to give the eunuch something better than the legacy of children. He will give them an everlasting name. (everlasting)
And it is a graphic play on words that he shall not be “cut off.”
Now the inclusion of the “foreigner”
And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord minister to Him, love the name of Yahweh and become His servants, all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it and who hold firmly to My covenant—
I will bring them to My holy mountain and let them rejoice in My house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be acceptable on My altar, for My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.”
This is the declaration of the Lord God, who gathers the dispersed of Israel: “I will gather to them still others besides those already gathered.”
Inclusion at every level.
But please note in both cases, it is those who “join themselves to the Lord”
Bring to Himself… Holy Mountain.
House of prayer for all nations.... Inclusion. This doesn’t mean that all prayers are the same, that all religions are the same… It does mean those who came to the Lord, will be included.
NO ONE who comes to Christ is EXCLUDED.
There is no Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
This is not an argument against distinctives, but one of inclusion in light and spite of the distinctives.
Question:
Question:
If God promises inclusion to the single person, shouldn’t we as well.
If God promises inclusion to the foreigner (I was a stranger til you came, I was a foreigner, til you came me), shouldn’t that inform the way we treat the foreigner.
How do we see a person’s identity? color of skin? thickness of accent? Marital status? Or redeemable by Jesus?