Tune your Bibles to Isaiah chapter 56. We're picking up a series we've done over the years. I think this is my return to it for the third time. The book of Isaiah is pretty long, and so this is my return to it for the third time. Here we get to this last section, these last 11 chapters of Isaiah's prophecy. And we're going to be looking in chapter 56 tonight. Chapter 56. Have you ever had the opportunity to be pleasantly surprised? Years ago, I remember having an opportunity where, you know, I had interest in a teaching job at a particular Christian school that I'd grown up in, and I just kind of made mention to someone, you know, I'd be willing to teach Bible in the Christian school if that ever happened. But I knew they had some other leads, and so I didn't really think that it was going to happen. I thought, you know, I'll probably have to finish my seminary degree. They won't be interested in me until... I had two years of it done, until I have the degree done. But then the next thing I knew I was getting a call from the principal and he said, you know, I heard you're interested. And he was talking to me about the job and I was kind of surprised because I didn't really think that I was on the list or that they had the need or those kinds of things. Now that's a mild kind of scenario where that's a mild pleasant surprise, but there are times in our life when something doesn't seem possible or doesn't seem likely. and we get pleasantly surprised by it. What we're going to see here in Isaiah 56 is a really big surprise, and that is what it describes is very different than the expectations of the people of Israel at the time. Now as we've looked through Isaiah, You know, we have this wonderful section from Isaiah 42 through 55 that has multiple sections about the servant of God that's coming. So, one of them was read in our scripture reading this morning. Chapter 52, last half of 52 and into 53, is one of what we call the servant songs. The first of the servant songs starts in Isaiah 42. They're about, the Lord says, My servant, and calls Him My servant, and they're about the Messiah, about Jesus. We see Him suffering in chapter 53, In other passages, we see promises about the servant of God. But what we find is, in a book that has much judgment in it about how God's judgment is going to come on Israel because of their turning to idols, we find that as we get into chapters 42 through 55 especially, we find great hope that God's Messiah is coming. So I want to just quickly look at chapter 55 and see what hope the Lord finishes that section of Isaiah as it transitions into that final section of Isaiah. Almost everyone agrees that there's a shift in thought in chapter 56 through 66. 55, let's look at this. Ho, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters. He that hath no money, come ye, buy and eat. Yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Wherefore do you spend money for that which is not bread and your labor for that which satisfieth not? Hearken diligently unto me and eat that which is good and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Here's the Lord saying you're spending all your money to go after idols and after worldly pleasures and none of it satisfies. Why waste your money on that? I've got bread, milk, water for free if you'll come to the Lord for it. He says in verse 4, Behold, I have given him for a witness to the people, a leader and a commander to the people. Behold, thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not, and a nations that knew thee not shall run unto thee, because the Lord thy God, and for the Holy One of Israel, for he hath glorified thee. What we find here is God saying he's going to exalt Israel. Verse 6, Seek ye the Lord while he may be found. Call ye upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord. And he will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain cometh down and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth. It shall not return to me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereunto I sent it." So the Lord is saying, you can bank on my promise. Have I said this? Is this my word? Is God's prophecy true? Yes. Just as you can be confident that one The fields are watered and the crops grow that the sower rejoices. You can be confident that God's Word will be kept, that God will do what He says He's going to do. And here what He's saying He's going to do is show mercy to Israel. And so at the end of the section that ends with 55 is all about God's grace and about His goodness to Israel and about His forgiveness to them. As we get into chapter 56, we get into this last section of Isaiah, and if you do a study in Isaiah, or if you ever, I don't necessarily recommend this, but if you're ever watching, say, PBS or the History Channel or something like that, I'm not saying it's wrong to watch History Channel or PBS, but if you ever watch some of the shows they have about the Bible, they're usually nonsense, okay? You're not going to learn more about your Bible from them usually. But one of the things they'll do is if they come to a section like this, they'll start to talk about tritero Isaiah, okay? And that sounds funny to us because you've probably never heard it and that's okay. But the idea is that chapter 56 through 66 sound different than the rest of the book. And that the section we just read that ends with chapter 55 sounds different than the beginning of the book. And so therefore, what they theorize is that there are actually three Isaiahs. three authors named Isaiah, that it's not all written by the same prophet, and so therefore you've got three different sections to the book that were written by three different men at three different times in Israel's history. The problem with this is that there's really no historical evidence for this. The fact that a book can change tone mid-book doesn't mean that it changed authors. Okay, does that make sense? In other words, the same author can write in different tones and different points in the book, but because it has different tones, and the people who put this idea forth are people who are critics of the Bible, skeptics of the Bible. So they're people also who don't believe that the books that say they're written by Moses were written by Moses, for example, even though Jesus says they were in the New Testament. So I'm going to take Jesus' word for it, not theirs. And, you know, I am all for studying your Bible and being educated, but the fact is an education doesn't make you smarter than God. So, I reject this idea of Tritter-O-Isaiah. I don't think it's the best way to approach the book, but I do think that the idea that brings rise to it, the section that's 56 through 66, is It changes tone. It basically ties the book of Isaiah together. And it forms, chapters 56 through 66, form a unity, which if you take 56 and 66, you're going to find the same theme. And then as you move into the center of that section, you're going to find the real heart of it. But in this, what we're going to find in both chapter 56 and chapter 66 is an emphasis on God's goodness to those who are outcasts. That it's not being born an Israelite that is the thing that the Lord is looking for. That those who are not born Israelites or who are born with not having the normal blessings that you would normally expect are actually going to find God's blessing in their life. So let's look at this chapter as we go into it. Let me ask you to just turn to chapter 66 and you'll see what I'm saying. Here so you can see the parallel. Verse 10, Rejoice ye with Jerusalem, and be glad with her, all ye that love her. Rejoice for joy with her, and all ye that mourn for her. Verse 12, For thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing stream. Then shall ye suck, and ye shall be borne upon her sides, and be dandled upon her knees, as one whom his mother comforteth. So will I comfort you, and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem. And what we find is these nations being described as coming to Jerusalem. Verse 19, So we see this, the Gentiles are going to be drawn to the Lord. Alright, now this is very different. Because what we've seen throughout most of the Old Testament is here's Israel, they're God's people, but they're being unfaithful through most of the Old Testament. What they're supposed to be is that light to the Gentiles that would be an example of what a nation who follows God looks like, but instead they want to be more like the nations who don't follow God and they follow that example instead. And what we find here in chapter 56 as well as in chapter 66 is that outsiders are brought in rather than having the pedigree, what matters is having righteousness. Verse 1 of chapter 56, Thus saith the Lord, Keep ye judgment and do justice, for my salvation is near to come, and my righteousness to be revealed. Blessed is the man that doeth this, and the son of man that layeth hold on it, that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it, and that keepeth his hand from doing any evil." Now notice here, chapter 55 says, you've turned away from the Lord, you're worried about God's judgment coming on you, but remember, You know, what does he say in chapter 55? Ho, everyone that thirsteth come to the waters, and he that hath no money, come ye, buy and eat. In other words, you're not going to earn this salvation. God's going to give it to you. You don't come and buy. You're buying it with no money, is his point here. Now, think about this. Let's bring this into the gospel. What does Jesus say? All ye that are heavy laden, come unto me, and I will give you rest. Right? Anybody who comes to faith in Jesus Christ, Jesus saves. Anybody that comes to faith in Jesus Christ, Jesus saves. It doesn't matter how bad of a sinner you were before you came to Jesus. It doesn't matter what your ethnic background is, whether you're Jew or Gentile. If you come to faith in Jesus Christ, He saves you. You have eternal life through Jesus Christ. But, having said that, we also have passages of scripture that teach us that that person's life is changed when they trust in Jesus. So, for example, in the book of Romans, when Paul argues that salvation comes by faith, not through works, what is the opposition that he expects from it? Should we continue in sin that grace may abound? In other words, if your sin was great, but God's grace is greater, wouldn't it be better to sin more so God's grace could be even greater? That's what the opponents of Paul are thinking. And what Paul argues is, may it never be? No. We don't continue in sin that grace may abound. In other words, God didn't just save us from the consequences of sin, death and hell. He saves us from sin. That eventually there's a time coming when we're going to have glorified bodies and that we won't sin anymore. And that even in this life, as we grow in Christ, we battle sin and we grow spiritually so that some of the things that were past in our life are now past. And they're no longer part of our life. Doesn't mean that we never sin anymore, but on this side of eternity, that will happen on the other side of eternity. But what it means is that we are battling sin and we're changed. And what we see here is, chapter 55 offers this offer of salvation, but chapter 56 tells us, nonetheless, that changed life is a changed life. Thus saith the Lord, keep ye judgment and do justice. In other words, what does it look like to have a person who has received God's mercy? What does Jesus say? If you won't forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father in heaven forgive you. He's not saying that forgiving earns us salvation. But what he's saying is, if you've been forgiven much, you will be a forgiving person. Okay? In other words, if God's forgiven you the great debt of all your sin, then you will be a forgiving person too, because you will recognize how much you've been forgiven. So he's saying here, keep ye judgment and do justice, for my salvation is near to come. In other words, the deliverance of Israel is near to come. And my righteousness to be revealed. Blessed is the man that doeth this. and the Son of Man that layeth hold on it, that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it, and keepeth His hand from doing any evil." In other words, yes, you forsook God's commands, Israel. God called judgment on you. God's judgment was coming and there was nothing they could do to reverse it, but the Lord says, He hasn't forsaken His people. Come. By. Without money. He's offering His mercy to them, but that mercy, a life that has received mercy is a life that is full of mercy. Don't misunderstand me. I am not saying that we're saved by faith plus works. I just had the opportunity to go up to my aunt passed away last week and basically last weekend and they had the funeral last week and I flew up to Michigan for the funeral. I appreciate your prayers for me both in traveling and for me and my family and the loss of my aunt. It was very sudden. She'd had health issues but none of them that were life-threatening that we knew of and she just suddenly passed away. But my grandparents and that side of the family come from a Catholic background. And you know about the first 10 minutes of the Catholic funeral, most of the scripture readings and things, I was like, those are all good, I agree with that. They're reading scripture, sounds good. I'm not saying I agree with Roman Catholicism, I'm just saying at that point we were in agreement. But then you get a little later into the service, and the prayers were things like, Lord, receive her because of her goodness, and these kinds of things. I'm thinking that's not why God will receive us into heaven. If He's going to receive me because of my goodness, I'm going to hell. He's going to receive me because of Jesus' goodness and His death on the cross, not because I did something good. My good hasn't merited anything. God doesn't need to be reminded of my goodness because there's not much to remind Him of. And that's true for all of us. So this passage is not saying that God's mercy is dependent on people doing what is right, but what it is saying is that merely being an Israelite didn't mean you were a follower of the Lord. That yes, if you received mercy, mercy would be evident in your life. If you received grace, God's grace would be evident in your life. Verse 3, neither let the son of the stranger that joined himself to the Lord speak, saying, The Lord hath utterly separated me from his people. Neither let the eunuch say, Behold, I am a dry tree. Now what is this saying? Neither let the son of a stranger. Who's the stranger? This is a Gentile. So here's somebody who's a Gentile. They're not Jewish. But what have they done? They've joined themselves to the Lord. They've become followers of the Lord. They're worshiping the Lord, trying to keep the commandments of the Old Testament, and follow the Lord and have faith in Him the best they could. This is someone who has faith in the one true and living God. They've turned from idols. In other words, if we talked about it this way, we'd say, these are the saved Gentiles in the Old Testament. But here's the problem. If you were a saved Gentile in the Old Testament, there was a lot of the worship of Israel you couldn't participate in. You could observe some feasts and festivals. You could do some of those kinds of things. You could keep the law in many ways. But you couldn't go offer sacrifice for your sin. Gentiles weren't allowed into the temple. Ever. You couldn't go. All right? There was no way to go in there and offer sacrifice. Only Jewish men were allowed into that courtyard where the sacrifices were made. You couldn't. You were cut off in that sense. And there were things that you were outside of that no matter how faithful you were to the Lord, there were certain things you just weren't allowed to participate because you weren't part of God's nation. So what is he saying here? Neither let the son of the stranger that hath joined himself to the Lord speak, saying, the Lord hath utterly separated me from his people. He's saying, the time is coming when God shows his mercy on Israel ultimately. I'm thinking especially in the millennial kingdom here, that these people who've been followers of the Lord, they're not going to be cut off anymore. They're going to have the same standing as an Israelite. They've not been cut off from the Lord's people because they've been true followers of the Lord. They're a lot better off than Caiaphas or one of the Pharisees who rejected Jesus. They knew the Old Testament and they outwardly kept that law and they were Israelites, but they were apart from God. Because they were trying to establish their own righteousness and they rejected his Messiah that he sent to them. Here's one who's a believer in God, who's following the Lord, and the Lord says, let him not say, the Lord has utterly separated me from his people. Because that's not going to be the case. In other words, there's going to be a time come when they won't be cut off. They'll be fully in. He says, neither let the eunuchs say, behold, I am a dry tree. For thus saith the Lord unto the eunuchs that keep my sabbaths and choose the things that please me and take hold of my covenant, even unto them will I give in mine house and within my walls a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters, and I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off. Now, first of all, I have to deal with an item here that I don't think I would have had to deal with 20 years ago when I was preaching this passage. But today, it's increasingly popular that there are books being written by people who are professing evangelicals that are justifying homosexuality. I don't know if you're aware of this. There are actually books out there by people who claim to be born-again Christians saying, for 2,000 years, we've misunderstood the Bible, and it doesn't really condemn homosexuality. Alright, and one of the passages that some of these people go to is right here. They interpret this word eunuch here to mean a homosexual. And to say, since you're homosexual, obviously homosexuals don't have children. Okay? Because obviously we know the biology of that. And so therefore, since they don't have any offspring, you know, basically they read it this way, thus saith the Lord unto the homosexuals that keep my Sabbaths and that choose the things that please me. In other words, they love God, they just happen to be homosexual. And so this verse is being interpreted as, in the kingdom of God, there are going to be homosexuals worshiping Jesus. Now, let me say this. As Christians, our response toward homosexuality ought to be to preach the gospel, to have compassion, but still to say what God says about it. And that is that the Bible universally condemns homosexual behavior. Okay? We can say that. I don't think there's any question about that. The Bible universally condemns homosexual behavior. Now, second, that's not the only reason I don't think this is talking about homosexuals. The fact is that the word eunuch here is never used of a homosexual in the Old Testament. A eunuch is a person who is unable to have children, often made eunuchs by human beings. In other words, they were often given a position which required them to have a procedure done that would make it impossible for them to have children. I think most of us know what we're talking about with that. In other words, here's a person who's biologically unable to have children. Now, if you go back to the book of Leviticus or to the law, what we will find is that a man could not serve as a priest if he had been made a eunuch. He couldn't have the same status. Even if he was a Levite, even if he was of the right line, if he had been made a eunuch, he could not serve as a priest. He was excluded. There were certain qualifications for the priests in the Old Testament. That was one of them. But here what the Lord is saying is, yes, there were those exclusions in the law, but there's a time coming when those who were excluded by that will now be included. Just like the Gentiles were excluded, the eunuchs were excluded, now they're going to be included. And notice what he says. Now think about this too. What is the promise to Abraham that all of Israel's heritage is based on? I'm going to give you and your descendants this land, and by implication then, your descendants will be like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore." In other words, Abraham, you're going to have, you're going to become a great nation. In fact, nations will come from you. And that one of the things that's true in the Old Testament is that, you know, the heritage of being a descendant, a son of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is a great blessing. And that the Lord blessing you with children who are also descendants of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob is a great blessing. And so for someone to be a eunuch who can't continue that line of Israel, let's remember the Israelites are in, the Gentiles are out, you can't continue that line as an Israelite because you're a eunuch in this passage. And so therefore you feel like an outsider. Here's what the Lord is saying to those people. Let me make another application of this. There are sometimes people in our society, this is not the same thing, but there are sometimes people in our society who biologically have not been able to have children. And we have to recognize that sometimes the Lord doesn't bless people with children. And I want to encourage us to be very cautious of what we say to people, okay? Because I have... I knew of a man and his wife, he was an assistant pastor and I think they were biologically unable to have children. And I remember people saying about them, you know, I wonder if he should even be a pastor since they've been married so long and haven't had any children. Well, You're being unrighteous because you don't know the truth. They would have loved to have had children. The Lord just didn't bless them with children. So now you're saying that because God didn't bless them with children, you think you know what's going on in their family life. You don't. So let's be very cautious about the judgments we make about people and about the things we say to people. And so again, I know we love to do this, right? So we see a young couple. They've been married a year or two. And what do we want to ask them? When are you starting a family? Now, if you're the grandparents, you might be close enough to be able to ask that question. When am I having grandchildren? But if you're just sitting on the other side of the auditorium from them in church, they may not want to share with you all of their challenges, and they may just smile and move along. But that question could actually be hurtful. That if you ask a couple who knows they can't have children and would love to have children, why haven't you had children yet? You actually were wounding them. and being unkind, you just didn't know you were doing it. So we need to be very cautious in that, okay? But what we find here, that's not the exact situation here. Some of these people maybe that were eunuchs were just biologically unable. But here's the point. They were felt like outsiders because of some of the way that the Old Testament law was structured. But here's what he's saying, the eunuchs that keep my Sabbath, in other words, keeping the Sabbath is a sign of respecting God's law and choose the things that please me. They're not worshipping idols, they're not cheating people, they're not committing murder or adultery. They're keeping the commandments of God. And take hold of my covenant. They lay hold of God's covenant. We're covenant people. We follow the Lord. He made a covenant with Abraham and said through him all the nations of the earth will be blessed. Even unto them will I give in my house and within my walls a place and a name. Now think about this. You couldn't go into that temple as an Israelite priest if you were a eunuch and do your role. The Lord's saying, I'm going to put your name in that temple. Name better than that of sons and daughters. I'm going to give you a greater blessing than having sons and daughters. I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off. and also the sons of the stranger that join themselves to the Lord to serve Him and to love the name of the Lord, to be His servants, everyone that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it and taketh hold of my covenant." Here's what the Lord's saying. Look, it's not just about being a descendant of Israel. You can be a stranger. You can be a eunuch. It's not just about all of that. What it's about is, do you love the Lord and follow Him? You see, yes. All that are a thirst, come. But there's a sign that you've come. In other words, you can't be saved and hate God. That doesn't work. You ever think about this? You don't get saved and say, God, save me and take me to heaven, but I hate you. And I have no intention of ever following you or loving you or doing anything that you've commanded me to do. That's not saving faith. That's not how following the Lord works. Now, that doesn't mean that our works save us. What it means is that God changes us when He saves us. And so, these people who've been changed, whether they're strangers or eunuchs, whether they're Gentiles or eunuchs, these people that have been changed by the Lord, they are not excluded from the spiritual blessings that God has promised. They're able to receive God's blessings. What does he say here? Even them, verse 7, will I bring to my holy mountain and make them joyful in my house of prayer. Here's his temple. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon my altar. Now remember this, here's people who have been excluded from that. Gentiles and eunuchs have been excluded from offerings on that altar and God says they're going to offer on my altar and it's going to be accepted. For mine house shall be called a house of prayer for all people." All people means even to the Gentiles. Now this is quoted by Jesus in three of the Gospels. I don't know if you remember the context in which Jesus quotes it. He quotes this passage when he's dealing with the money changers in the temple. Right? Here he finds all these people and what they've done is they've turned the worship of the temple into a money-making endeavor. And they had special currency that you had to use and had all these kinds of things going on. And Jesus sees all this and he sees this is just about greed. This isn't about worship. And he puts a whip together and he drives out the flocks that are in there, turns over the tables of the money changers, and he says, you've turned my house, Father's house, into a house of merchandise. But the Bible says, Isaiah says, that it's going to be a house of prayer for all peoples. In other words, Jesus is saying there's going to be a day when the temple will be a place when people from every background are going to come here and worship. God's going to be glorified in every kindred and tongue and tribe in the temple. I think if you were to go to Ezekiel 40 through 48, you would find a description of a temple there during the kingdom of God when Jesus rules and reigns and there will be people coming from everywhere to worship Him. And I think that's what this is referring to. And what he says here is that those people are all going to come and they're going to worship the Lord. And if this is what God intended that temple to be in the first place, how dare you turn it into a place of merchandise? Okay, I don't know about you, but you know, there are times when things are just, you know, things are just so blatantly money making that they, you know, if you ever go to a ball game, for example. Now, I'm not making this application here, but I'm going to draw it one step further after this. But you ever go to a ball game? I recognize they're making money. That's their goal. But you go to some of these places, and to get the worst hot dog you've ever eaten in your life costs $6. And they want $5 for a bottle of Dasani water that you can get for $0.50 apiece at the store. You're going, OK, you kind of know that's what you're getting into when you go into these places where they have the concessions. But you know that all they're trying to do is get as much money out of your pocket as they can, right? And we don't even like it in that setting, let alone in a place of worship. Let alone in a place of worship. You know, I believe the Bible teaches that we're to give to support our local church. That is biblical. So, I'm not saying this against giving or against appealing for giving, but there are some people out there who use worship as a pretext to get rich. All right? We all know, and even the world sees through the $60 million airplanes that the evangelists on TV are calling for. Right? And there have been a couple of those in the news in the last couple of years, where some guy says, really, to serve God right, I need an airplane that costs $30 or $60 million, thinking you could buy a lot of first-class tickets for that. If you're flying from here to Los Angeles and that ticket costs $400 or $500, maybe in first class that ticket might cost $1,200, $1,500. How many $1,500 trips can you take for $30 million? And you're traveling pretty well in first class. You know, but they're saying, oh, I need this. No, it's, you know, it's greed put in no other way. In other words, even in our day, even though we're not dealing with the temple of God as Jesus was, it is still wrong to turn worship into a pretext for greed. To turn worship into a pretext for greed. Now, I thank the Lord. There are some men, I know of some men, who have written some very good Christian books and have helped many people through their Christian books, and they've made a lot of money off those books. I don't begrudge somebody making money off a book, but in a couple of those cases, I also know that those men gave every dime that they made off those books to missions efforts or to local churches or to things of that nature. I'm not saying they had to do that, but why do they do that? Because their goal was to help people spiritually through those books, not to get rich off of them. Right? You know, this is what grieves me as well about, you know, the Christian subculture of marketing. And what I mean by that is, you know, there are many people who call themselves Christian musicians or whatever, but they make an awful lot of money. And I'm not saying it's wrong to make a lot of money, but don't talk about it being your ministry when you're making $15 million a year doing it. and it's all going in your own pockets. You follow what I'm saying here? That doesn't make sense to me. But on the other hand, there are Christian musicians who say, I'll come for an offering. And they come, and they perform for an offering. But there are others that are just as wealthy as the secular musicians. They've just figured out what their niche is and which their marketing goal is. And they're not about worshiping God. They're about selling more MP3s on whatever streaming service. I almost said records, and we can still talk about records, right? Everybody knows what we mean, even though we're not literal that much anymore. But here the Lord, He applies this passage. But think about what a wonderful promise this is. The Lord is saying there's going to be a time when people from German background, and people from Chinese background, and people from Kenyan background, and people from Argentine background, and people from Mexican background, and even Canadians will come to the Lord's temple and will worship the Lord. I'm teasing about Canadians. I have nothing against Canadians. Gabe, you're fine. There we go. I grew up 30 miles from Canada, so I like it. But, you know, everybody that comes to the Lord, it doesn't matter whether you're Jew or Gentile, you come to the Lord and it will be a house of prayer for all people. Jesus will be worshipped there. Verse 8, "'The Lord God which gathers the outcasts of Israel saith, yet will I gather others to Him besides those that are gathered unto Him.'" Here's what he's saying. You know, they were thinking really small. Sure glad we're God's people because He's going to be merciful to us, chapter 55. We're going to receive this good gift of God, of His mercy. But the Lord's saying, you're thinking too small. It's going to be a lot bigger than that. If He's going to show you mercy after you've turned to idols and you knew the truth, certainly won't He be gracious to the Gentiles? I mean, think about it. The Gentiles didn't know better. They didn't have God's law. They were worshiping idols because they'd always worshiped idols. Now, we know from Romans 1 that people worship idols not because they're seeking after God, but because when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, and their foolish heart was darkened, and seeking them, professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and they exchanged the image of the incorruptible God for the image of four-footed beasts, etc. People worship idols because they're trying to make their own God. So, idolatry is a way to turn away from God. But the fact is, if you grow up with the knowledge of God through God's truth through the Bible, So again, think about this young people who've grown up at Calvary Baptist Church or grown up in church. If you've grown up in church, you have a responsibility. You know the truth. It's one thing for a person who's never heard the gospel. I mean, it's sad that people who don't hear the gospel don't have that chance to come to faith in Christ. That's why we must go and preach the gospel to them. But on the other hand, think of somebody who knows the truth and rejects it. The Israelites in many ways had known the truth and rejected it and gone after idols, but the Lord said he was going to show them mercy. Certainly then wouldn't he show mercy to the Gentile nations who didn't have God's law? Yes, he will. And that's exactly what this passage is saying. that God is going to show his mercy on others that are unexpected. There's an unexpected surprise here. You're a eunuch and you thought you're excluded? God's gonna bring you in. You're a Gentile, that's most of us in this room, and you're excluded? God's gonna bring you in. And we need to be careful with this too, because we can have a Christian subculture that makes us think that there's people that are in and there are people that are out. And the fact is, what makes you in or out is whether or not you come to Jesus. Okay? And I've seen plenty of people who know how to talk the right talk and dress the right dress, who eventually turned away from the Lord. But then I also thank God, on the other hand, for people who come in with all the signs of having been in the world, whatever those might be, and they come to faith in Jesus. You know, and when you see them at church, they don't look like they grew up here. That's okay. That's okay. When you talk to them, they're just excited about Christ and what He's done for them, and about what they're learning from the Bible. Okay? Now, I'm not saying that we should look like the world. Don't misunderstand me. But the fact is that there are some things you can do in this life that can leave scars, that can leave marks, that can make it look like, you know, you went after the world, and you did. I have a friend, he's a pastor, pastors a church in Philadelphia. And you know what? For 40 years now, he's been battling hepatitis C because he used to inject heroin. And then he got saved. The Lord called him into ministry. And guess what? He's ministering in a neighborhood in Philadelphia that's a fairly rough neighborhood. But when he goes up to the druggie on the street and starts giving him the gospel, they're like, man, you don't know how hard this is. He says, I used to be exactly where you were. What do you mean? I want to see the scars that are still on my arm? He's not saying that proudly. He's saying, look, God saved me. He can save you. All right? And so we thank God that even people who sometimes don't look like they fit in our subculture, God saves. And we need to be careful with this. That there are times that the people walk into our church and we need to be careful not to judge that we think we already know where they are spiritually. You know, we had a man who was coming here occasionally. He was homeless. And one of the interesting things about him was that if people in our church actually offered to buy him food or give him money, he wouldn't take it. We do get people here who are homeless that are panhandlers, and they just show up to try to get money. They beg money off people. But he wasn't like that at all. Unfortunately, many of us, we prayed for him in our prayer meeting. He got shot in the head a few months ago over in Winter Garden and nearly died. But here was a man that if you just made a judgment about him, you might think, ah, here's another panhandler. But he wasn't a panhandler. He was coming here to hear the Bible. Thank God for that. He may not fit in your sphere of friends and maybe didn't have as clean of clothes as you and some of those other things, but he was coming here to hear the Bible. Thank God for that. You know, I heard one preacher say, you know, the guy comes in the church and you go, ooh, he has B.O. And this preacher said, you have B.A., bad attitude. We need to reach out to him. And so we have to recognize if the Lord's mercy here, see, this is not what the Israelites expected. God's mercy is going to reach out to the Gentiles? This is what the Pharisees and Jesus they didn't get. They didn't even think about this passage. How are the eunuch and the stranger going to be included? God says they are. And we thank God. Let's remember this. We're sons of the stranger. We're not insiders. We were almost all born outsiders. God brought us in. So when a person who comes in to us seems like an outsider, remember, you are too. God's mercy came to you. It can come to them. You know, I thank the Lord over the years that we've had some people that were very, very faithful in greeting people. Oscar Reedy's passed now, but he was just terrific. Many of you said, you know, one of the first people who greeted you at church was Oscar Reedy when you first came here. Bob Angel, they've moved away and he has his health problems now, but Bob Angel, many of you would say, you know, he came up and he met me and found out my name and knew my name the next week when I came back. And one of my fears as a pastor is that those people who were given to our church as gifts from God to minister, that we not overlook that. That those men, the Lord's called one to glory and one, you know, his health has deteriorated and he needed to move closer to his son. But who's going to take up their place? It's easy for us in a church to look around and say, you know, I'm talking with my friends. I don't want to be bothered with that visitor. But remember, you were an outsider once too. It's difficult to walk into a new church and not know anybody. It's an intimidating thing. It's hard. You don't know if people are going to be nice to you. You don't know what they're going to say to you. You don't know what the church is going to be like. And you know what? It's really refreshing when somebody comes up and starts talking with you and greets you. It's really encouraging. It's really helpful. But, you know, that's only going to happen if those of us who are here, let's face it, on Sunday night it's mostly our people who come regularly, that those of us who are here, if we don't go and say hello to people, nobody's going to. In other words, the Lord says the outsiders are welcome here if they come to Jesus. We have to say the same thing. We have to have the same attitude. If you're coming here to church and you're an outsider, you ought to feel welcome because people greet you. I know it's easy. I'm talking with my friend. We're talking about the football game. We're talking about whatever. And it's easy to get into our social circles. And we enjoy that at church. There's nothing wrong with that. But don't let that get in the way of reaching out and welcoming the visitor and the outsider. Because God cares about the outsiders. When I first came here, I had to chuckle because I thought the thinking was kind of funny. A man in the church came up to me and he said, you know, I'm almost getting uncomfortable at our church now because there's so many new people here. And I thought, that's actually a good thing that there's new people here. And you know how to not be uncomfortable? This is many years ago. Go get to know them. And then they won't seem like new people to you. And guess what? If you sit on this side and somebody else sits on that side, And that person, and I've heard people make these kinds of comments, that new couple, I'm like, which new couple? And then they describe them like, they joined five years ago. Oh, well, we sit on the other side of the church, so I've never got to know them. I know, well, go over there and get to know them. I know you've been here for 20 years, and so they seem like they're new, but the fact is, get to know them. It goes both ways. The members of the church, when we receive somebody into membership, we have to get to know them. Now, when they come into membership, they should try to get to know us, but that has to go both ways. In other words, imagine what a load this would be on the new member if he had to go get to know everybody and nobody reached out to him or her. In other words, here in this passage, we see the Lord welcoming outsiders. And although this, in way of application, isn't directly from this passage, it's still the same spirit. And that is, if God welcomed the outsiders, aren't they welcome here? And then shouldn't we make them feel welcome? Absolutely. We thank the Lord for that. So this is a wonderful passage of scripture. Here's God, both in chapter 56 and later when we get to chapter 66, we'll go through it more clearly. God is making a promise that is astounding here. Those of us who are strangers, those of us who are Gentiles, we're welcomed in because of this. God's mercy. Those of us who felt like we don't measure up, the eunuchs are the ones in this passage, you don't need to measure up. Jesus measured up for you. Follow Him. He's enough. And so the Lord calls us to be people who recognize that we've been welcomed in as outsiders and therefore to reach out to the outsiders and rejoice in the Lord. Let's bow our heads. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for this