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Making Disciples in All of the Nations (Isaiah 56:1-8)
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Making Disciples in All of the Nations (Isaiah 56:1-8)
Prepare the Way of the Lord! :: A study of Isaiah
Sunday Message recorded 02 May 2021
by Pastor Victor Morrison
First Baptist Church
1700 Milam
Columbus, TX, USA 78934
http://fbccolumbustx.org/
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Transcript
Introduction and Focus on Isaiah 56
00:00:01
Speaker
Would you open God's word and look with me at Isaiah chapter 56?
00:00:07
Speaker
I want to say welcome back to our series from Isaiah called Prepare the Way of the Lord. Prepare the Way of the Lord. There are two really pivotal chapters that are found in this really large book, Isaiah. One of them is where we started the series, Isaiah chapter 40. And the other one is where we are this morning, Isaiah chapter 56.
Invitation and Inclusion of Gentiles
00:00:31
Speaker
Now, if you remember last week, we heard the prophet extend on behalf of the Lord something we called the great invitation, an invitation to salvation. So as we come to this chapter, chapter 56, and this morning we're going to look at just the first eight verses.
00:00:51
Speaker
But when we come to this chapter, we hear the Lord making sure that all of us who are Gentiles, if you're not Jewish, then you're a Gentile, just like me. And so God is wanting to make sure that everybody in this room knows you also are welcome. You're welcome into his family.
00:01:09
Speaker
If you'll trust Christ, you're welcome into heaven. God loves you so much.
Unity in Christ Among Jews and Gentiles
00:01:15
Speaker
Isaiah might not fully have understood how one day Jew and Gentile would be able to come together as one in Christ. But by the time the Apostle Paul was in the midst of his ministry, he could see it. He could see it taking place. We can see it today.
00:01:34
Speaker
For he himself is our peace, Paul wrote in Ephesians 2.14, who has made both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility.
00:01:47
Speaker
You know, I know that our nation now is divided, but you know what the best response to a divided nation is? A united church. When we come together in the gospel, we come together in Christ, He makes us one. And then we say, you know what? I'm gonna go and I'm gonna share the gospel with others and help them, just like Stitch Ministries was doing for this lady, help them grow in the Lord and understand the ways of God.
The Great Commission and Global Ministry
00:02:16
Speaker
I think that's what Jesus was getting at in the Great Commission in Matthew 28, 19 and 20, when he said, go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you. And behold, I'm with you always to the end of the age.
00:02:39
Speaker
I'm so glad that we can do that together, supporting those that are at work near us, like Stitch Ministries. We're reaching out to our community, reaching out even beyond our community. We support a mission church in Houston called Nations Church led by Buddy Brents and another team of missionaries. And they're trying to make disciples of all the nations. And whenever you give, you support ministries
00:03:05
Speaker
that go beyond our church, beyond this campus, beyond our community.
00:03:12
Speaker
You remember how after Jesus cleansed the temple, Mark 11.17 tells us that he actually quoted from Isaiah 56, Isaiah 56 and verse seven. And what he wanted to do was he said, you guys are off track. And so he wanted to recalibrate the vision of his people to get them back on track with his heart. God's heart is for the nations.
00:03:38
Speaker
You know, as a matter of fact, out of the Old Testament books, which books do you think are quoted the most in the New Testament? Psalms is the leader. I'll give you that. 68 times a Psalm is quoted verbatim in the New Testament. But then 55 times this book, Isaiah, is quoted. And certainly Jesus, when he was saying, my house will be called a house of prayer for the nations.
00:04:05
Speaker
I want you to read about it. I want us to learn together. Even this morning, I received a request from one of our missionaries in Zambia.
00:04:14
Speaker
an IMB missionary named Nicholas Pivotto. And he said, we need this fall a college student. We need more than one if there's more than one. But college students who will come, who will share the gospel, who will make disciples right here in Zambia, along with other college students and underneath our supervision. So I'm excited about that. So if that's you, then this message is going to help to train you.
00:04:40
Speaker
But let's say that all of us have somebody. There's somebody in your life that you could present the plan of salvation. You could help them grow in Christ after they respond. So would you stand in honor of God's word? Let me read Isaiah 56, 1 through 8. You can follow along in your copy of God's word. I think we'll also have it on the screen. But let's read from Isaiah 56, verses 1
Reading of Isaiah 56:1-8 and Discussion on Justice
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Speaker
through 8. I'm reading.
00:05:07
Speaker
from the ESV translation. Thus says the Lord, keep justice and do righteousness.
00:05:16
Speaker
For soon my salvation will come and my righteousness be revealed. Blessed is the man who does this and the son of man who holds it fast, who keeps the Sabbath, not profaning it and keeps his hand from doing any evil. Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord say,
00:05:41
Speaker
The Lord will surely separate me from His people. And let not the eunuchs say, behold, I'm a dry tree.
00:05:51
Speaker
For thus says the Lord to the eunuchs, who keep my Sabbaths, who choose the things that please me and hold fast my covenant. I will give in my house and within my walls a monument and a name better than sons and daughters. I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off.
00:06:15
Speaker
and the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, to minister to Him, to love the name of the Lord and to be His servants, everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it and holds fast my covenant, these I will bring to my holy mountain and make them joyful in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar from my house
00:06:43
Speaker
shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples. The Lord God who gathers the outcasts of Israel declares, I will gather yet others to him besides those already gathered. Let's go to the father in prayer.
00:07:01
Speaker
Lord, we realize as we read these verses, especially as we read that last verse, we're part of those that were gathered. Thank you so much that you didn't stop gathering in Isaiah's day or in Paul's day. I thank you that, Lord, you're still gathering.
00:07:19
Speaker
gathering people through your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank you that we can partner with ministries like South Texas Children's Home, that we can deploy missionaries like Nicholas Pivotto and his wife and family to Zambia, that Lord, we can be a part of making disciples.
00:07:38
Speaker
Lord, even in our schools, in our businesses, in our community, there are those that you bring who are from other lands, other nationalities, other ethnicities. And we can become one in Christ. Help us, O Lord, to be the kind of church that would communicate to them. We're glad you're here.
00:07:58
Speaker
Let's be on mission together. And so God, speak to us this day. How can we make disciples of all the nations? In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Thank you. You may be
Living in Obedience and Faithfulness
00:08:10
Speaker
seated.
00:08:11
Speaker
You know, I believe that Isaiah gives us some very simple instructions to how we can include global disciple making whenever we're saying, okay, who are we going to disciple? Where are we going to disciple? It doesn't matter. All we can say is, here's what I'm going to do with whoever the Lord leads into my life.
00:08:31
Speaker
The first thing I think we can say is that whenever someone says, I want to be a disciple, I want to follow Christ, then the first thing we need to say as we disciple them, as we follow up on them, is we need to say you need to live in obedience to the Word of God. You need to try your very best to keep the Word of God. We realize we can't keep it perfectly. That's why we need it as Savior. That's why we need the gospel. That's why they need the gospel.
00:09:00
Speaker
But you know, when it comes to obedience, I believe there are two dimensions to obedience. The first dimension is that we would put our faith in the Word. Whenever we hear the gospel message, you have to trust what Christ has done for you. So you're going to have to trust the Word of God. You're going to have to say, I will place my faith in the Word.
00:09:24
Speaker
But once you do that, you're just getting started because you not only put your faith in the word, you say, God, I want to be faithful to the word. Those are the two dimensions where you begin and how you continue for the rest of your life.
00:09:41
Speaker
You know, the missionary map that Paul gives us in Romans 10 tells us that out of the 7.6 billion people around the world, really everyone fits into these categories. There are those who do not understand the gospel.
00:09:56
Speaker
Romans 10, 1 through 4 says there are people who are really zealous for God, but you know what they're trying to do? They're trying to do it according to their own righteousness, and it's not good enough. None of us can be righteous enough to enter into God's family. There are some people who simply don't understand about the way of salvation. They don't understand the gospel.
00:10:18
Speaker
There's a second group, those who have not heard the gospel. There are so many people around the world, they don't even know one Christian. They don't have a church like this where they can go and hear the truth, where they can go and hear the gospel. And so Paul tells us about them in Romans 10, 14 and 15.
00:10:37
Speaker
He also tells us there are those who do not obey the gospel. In Romans 10, verse 16 and 21, there are just people who say, yeah, I know what you're saying. I just reject it. I don't accept it. But then, of course, there's Romans 10, 9 through 13, those who believe in their heart, those who confess with their mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord. That's probably most of us in this room.
00:11:04
Speaker
So that's the faith in the Word. 700 years before Christ came, Isaiah saw that. And so that's what he's talking about in verse one, when he says, for soon my salvation, it will come. It did come in the Lord Jesus Christ. His righteousness, it was revealed in Christ.
00:11:24
Speaker
So as I was looking at verses one and two, I got to thinking about how do we respond to God's word in obedience? The first step is to say, I accept the authority of God's word. Look at verse one, thus says the Lord. Would you say, I got to know what thus says the Lord, what he says after that before I'll decide if I'm going to obey what he's going to say?
00:11:51
Speaker
No, I think that what we should say is whenever he says, thus says the Lord, I'm already all in. All my oars are in. All my heart is in. I want to obey him. I accept the authority of God's word. The other thing I noticed as you work your way down, verse one, when he says, keep justice and do righteousness, for soon my salvation will come. I thought about not only accepting the authority of scripture, but the adequacy of scripture.
00:12:19
Speaker
Are you still waiting for some other way to salvation? Are you still saying, I think there might be another book someday other than the Bible? Or is this one adequate? Would you say, no, I'm going to say that his salvation has already been revealed. It's already come. You know, whenever he says my righteousness be revealed, I thought, you know, we have to decide in life who's right.
00:12:45
Speaker
Have you decided, have you come to the conclusion that God's word is accurate? That's another way that we obey His word. When we say, you know what, I believe that when God says, this is the right way for me to live, these are the right attitudes, this is the right way for me to talk to others, I believe that His word is accurate. And so when it says, my righteousness will be revealed,
00:13:10
Speaker
The Word of God reveals the righteousness of God and the righteousness of Christ. So we have to say, if I'm in a choice between culture, between tradition, between what everybody else does, and a choice between obeying God's Word, for me, it's a no-brainer. I will obey the Word.
00:13:29
Speaker
If so, you're a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's move to the second thing, though. I believe that a disciple who follows Christ needs to know something very, very important, because we all come from brokenness. We all have a lot of different backgrounds. We have to know that God welcomes us. Do you know that God is standing there with His hands wide open to you? If you will come to Him through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ,
00:13:57
Speaker
You know, only an outsider understands
00:14:01
Speaker
how sweet it is whenever someone says, you're welcome in our group. You're welcome in our church. You're welcome in our Sunday school class. You're welcome in the kingdom of God. You're welcome in the family of God, somebody who's always been on the outside. It's so sweet because they also know the pain when they're held at arm's length. And they say, you'll never belong. You'll never be a part of what's going on in this circle.
00:14:28
Speaker
But God is saying to you and to me, He's saying to people all around the world, no matter what their ethnicity, He's saying, you're welcome through the shed blood of my son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you know that in the Old Testament, in Deuteronomy 23, 1 through 4, there were two groups that God Himself said, they're not welcome in the assembly.
00:14:50
Speaker
One group were the eunuchs. The other group were the Ammonites and the Moabites. They were foreigners. They were outsiders. And they had not treated God's people right. But you know what? Isaiah looks down and he says, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, a new day is coming.
00:15:09
Speaker
A new day is coming. He heard God promising a new day when the foreigner, he wanted the foreigner to stop saying he wasn't welcome. He's unwanted. He said, I want you to stop saying that. Look at what he says in verse three. Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord say, well, the Lord will surely separate me from his people. There's nobody.
00:15:33
Speaker
Listen to me closely. There's nobody that stands in the shadows when it comes to God's family. Everybody's welcome at the foot of the cross. Everybody's welcome in the center of God's love and activity and what he wants to accomplish.
00:15:48
Speaker
The other group were the eunuchs. And so he wants the eunuch to stop feeling unimportant because they can't have a family. And so he says, let not the eunuch say, behold, I'm a dry tree. I can't bear any fruit. I can't accomplish anything in my life.
00:16:05
Speaker
Well, what was the turning point? Look at verse 3. Something turned the corner in verse 3. Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord. That's always the turning point. Whenever you make a faith commitment, a public declaration, a public profession of your faith in Christ,
00:16:26
Speaker
And so if you have, we need to stop playing some video from the past. And we just start receiving the identity that we have in Christ, that we're accepted. God loves us. As a matter of fact, there's so many wonderful things that God says to them when he says, look, I'm going to give you a monument and a name better.
00:16:49
Speaker
than sons and daughters. God's got an identity that's better for you. And then he says, I'll give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off. So think about what that would mean to someone who was a eunuch. This is incredible that outsiders would receive such a welcome. Let me move to the third thing.
Using Gifts for God's Work
00:17:10
Speaker
If someone in your life says, I want to be a disciple, I want to follow Christ, then you need to challenge them. OK, whatever God has placed in your life, whatever gift, ability, whatever resources, will you offer those to help with his work?
00:17:28
Speaker
You know, somebody who says, I follow Christ, but they don't want to be a part of what God is doing, is that true? Is that even possible? Disciples all over the world can give the following kinds of offerings to his work. Look at verse six and verse seven. You know, he says, and the foreigners who joined themselves to the Lord, okay, what comes next after a person joins themselves to the Lord? To minister to him, to love the name of the Lord, and to be his servants.
00:17:57
Speaker
You see, one offering you could say is, I want to offer to God the gift of service. I want to do something for God. Does that ever just really move within your heart? That's why we have a closed closet. That's why we have a servant's heart ministry. That's why we reach out to students and to children. That's why we send missionaries because the people of God have this internal, I don't know, it's like a compulsion.
00:18:22
Speaker
And they're saying, I've got to serve him. I want to give him the offering of service. But there's another offering you could offer to the Lord for his work. Read on, he says, everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it and holds fast my covenant.
00:18:40
Speaker
I think another offering you can give is sanctification, to say, Lord, I want to try my best not to be a stumbling block to those that are in my world, to those who are watching me. Do you know what will hinder the work of God more than anything else? It's the inconsistency of Christians. Whenever we say one thing, like on a Sunday morning, but all through the week, we live.
00:19:04
Speaker
for the evil one or we live like the world. And so we need to say, Lord, I want to be a consistent witness for Christ and offer you this sanctification offering. There's another offering and that would be a song. I love so much how we have so many talented musicians and we have so many talented singers who are always helping us to lift our song up to the Lord. That's another kind of gift.
00:19:31
Speaker
As a matter of fact, I'm glad you can't hear me singing because I'm down here. You know, I feel sorry for Tim. I'm sorry, Tim, if I wrecked your hearing, just send us a bill. No, I'm kidding. But anyway, the song, man, the Lord gives you such joy. And you know what I say? I just got to sing to him.
00:19:47
Speaker
Some of my best moments are in the car singing praise songs with KSBJ and so forth. But he makes them joyful, he says, in his house. There are offerings to support his work. When you can say, OK, I'm going to give an offering to First Baptist because they take our offerings and they just send it in so many different directions to support so many different ministries in God's work. Of course, there's the supplication for his work.
00:20:15
Speaker
When you come to verse seven, he says, for my house should be called a house of prayer for all peoples. We can pray. We can offer up supplication for those around the world. Well, let me give you one final one. Someone who says, I want to be a disciple. I want to follow Christ.
00:20:34
Speaker
I think that what they should say from that point on is, Lord, use me to reach someone else.
Encouraging Outreach and Inclusion
00:20:41
Speaker
I want to conduct outreach. I want to be a part of reaching others. Isn't it amazing in verse 8 that Isaiah, his vision must have been incredible. How far down the future can you see? Isaiah could see me and you coming to know Christ.
00:20:58
Speaker
Here's all I know. He says, I will gather yet others. When it says others there, you know your name is included in there. I will gather yet others to Him besides those already gathered. They were gathering in Isaiah's day. When you read through the New Testament, they were gathering in those days, but you know God's still gathering in 2021.
00:21:20
Speaker
and he still wants to gather even beyond you. And so when a church grows is when a church captures that vision and they say, you mean God could use me to reach out to someone else? I mean, by the time we get to verse eight, it's like he's driving a sports car and he's, man, he's shifting gears. I wanna give you five gears from that one verse. The first gear is the word go. You know, he says those are outcasts of Israel.
00:21:47
Speaker
Instead of outcast, because it has a negative connotation, I want to think about outsiders. Do you know there are people around the world who are outside of the opportunity to hear about Christ? 42% of the world is still unreached. Many of them do not have a Christian in their life. They didn't grow up in a Christian family. They don't have a church. And so unless someone goes into their life, they're not going to hear.
00:22:13
Speaker
So the first gear is go. The second gear would be Gentiles. You know, here it's called others, but you know, the others there would be foreigners, Gentiles. That's us. That's people that are at your school, at work, in your neighborhood, people around the world.
00:22:29
Speaker
So the second gear is I've got to get to the others who still don't know. The third gear would be this one, goal. What is the goal? Okay, if we're gonna go, if we're gonna share with others, then what's the goal? To him.
00:22:44
Speaker
to Him. It says, The Lord God, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, declares, I will gather yet others... Where? To Him. That Him, there's Christ. So Christ is the goal. That's why Peter's could say in Acts 4, 12, there's not another name.
00:23:04
Speaker
that's given under heaven among men by which we must be saved. There's only one way to heaven and it's through Christ. And so we should say, Lord, I want to go into all the world and preach the gospel. And then the fourth gear is gather.
00:23:20
Speaker
Did you notice in verse eight, gathers mentioned three times? I think God really is serious about gathering, don't you? I know that a lot of people think that it's kind of super spiritual to cut down a local church, but I just want to ask you to slow that down a minute.
00:23:37
Speaker
If you cut down a local church, there's one thing you're saying. You're saying to Jesus, I don't like your bride. We need to be careful that we don't take baggage from people who have hurt us and take that into saying, I don't like churches, period. None of them.
00:23:54
Speaker
The New Testament church is the reality. It's God's way. God wants to gather. You're not meant to live the Christian life on your own. Neither is anybody around the world. So if you lead someone to Christ this summer, you should say, God, help me. Help me to remember three times in Isaiah 56, verse eight, you said you're the God who gathers.
00:24:15
Speaker
God wants them to be gathered in the family. We need one another. And then the fifth and last gear is to guard. Gather, it almost sounds like he's trying to gather us to separate us. That's true. You know, in a parable that Jesus taught called the parable of the tares, parable of weeds, in Matthew 13, verse 39 through 43, Jesus said he's going to gather the wheat
00:24:41
Speaker
and He's going to gather the weeds. The wheat He's going to place in His barn in heaven, but the weeds are going to be destroyed in a fire. Oh, listen, the reason we have to go, the reason we have to make sure that they're gathered to the Lord is because we need to be a part of helping them come into the safety of God's shield that's provided in salvation.
00:25:06
Speaker
You know, think about this. God could have chosen any method he wanted to get the gospel out. He could have chosen any method. I mean, he could have had a big loud speaker, put all kinds of speakers across heaven. Now hear this. He could have had angels flying around, all kinds of different things. But you know what he chose? He chose 12 men. He chose disciple making. He chose investing in other people.
00:25:32
Speaker
see there's impact through contact whenever we say I want to connect with other people because it's through people that people will say you know what this is how your life can be changed and so that's why whenever Paul was you know on the face of this earth he was
00:25:51
Speaker
Finding people like Timothy, a younger man, and he said, I want you to come with me. I want you to watch me and then I'm going to give you responsibilities and then eventually you're going to help others. I'd say he modeled, he mentored, and he multiplied.
00:26:07
Speaker
What about you? Are you modeling? Are you mentoring? Are you multiplying? Certainly, Timothy's parents, his mom, his grandmother, they did what they could to mentor him, to disciple him. But Paul came along and Paul took it to another level. Are you reaching someone else with the gospel?
00:26:29
Speaker
You know, if there was one place that Isaiah 56 was completely fulfilled, you know where that one place was? Ethiopia, the Ethiopian eunuch, the Ethiopian eunuch, Acts chapter eight, verses 26 through 39, one man came to Christ in a chariot on a dusty back road. The Holy Spirit led Philip to join the chariot. A man was reading the Old Testament scroll of Isaiah, Isaiah.
00:26:59
Speaker
And Philip, it says, opened his mouth beginning with this scripture and he told him the good news about Jesus. When he baptized that foreigner, guess what happened? Isaiah 56 came true. Foreigners coming to know Christ and eunuchs coming to know Christ all in one man.
00:27:22
Speaker
Isn't it amazing how God can accomplish his word? He wants to fulfill his word, his plan in your life and through your life. Don't forget, I'm praying that God would lead somebody from our church to go to Zambia, you know, to be a college student and help, you know, Nicholas Pivotto and his family and all these other Zambian Christians to be able to fulfill the great commission.
00:27:48
Speaker
I received a newsletter last night from Jesse and Danielle Cook. They're getting ready. They're finishing their language study by September. They'll be going to Costa Rica. It won't be long after that. Jesse's going to be saying, come on down. Send a mission team.
00:28:03
Speaker
We're already going to partner with Buddy Brents and Nations Church in Houston. Next June, Lord willing, we want to take a team from Nations Church and from First Baptist Columbus and go to Japan and come alongside of Jacob Tice and his mission team and reach those that are there in Osaka, Japan. And we want to help them with discipling. You want to go?
00:28:25
Speaker
Does God calling you to go? It's not just a trip. It's a mission. You see, our mission is to make disciples of all the nations. Who is it that God is calling you to reach to disciple? Maybe it's you. It starts with you. You know, I know some are finishing up school.
00:28:44
Speaker
Some are going to be free in the summer. We've got VBS coming up. We've got student camps coming up, children's camps coming up. You know, there's a lot of ways you can be a part of all that God is doing. If you'll just simply start by saying, I'm going to turn my eyes on the Lord and I'm going to follow Him. Let's pray in whatever God says to your heart. I'd be happy to pray with you. I'll be waiting down front if you need someone to speak with.
00:29:09
Speaker
Lord, thank you so much for this time to gather together in the name of Jesus. We've assembled in your name and asked, invited you to bless our time. And so God, we want you to have your full control during this time of invitation. May your Holy Spirit
00:29:27
Speaker
Speak to our hearts. Let each person know that the Great Commission includes them. First, that they would come to salvation in Christ, become a disciple. But second, that they would also make disciples of others. And so help them to know there's a place for them. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.