2018.11.25 礼拝

2018.11.25 礼拝

2018.11.25 Isaiah 56:1-8 “Making Lord’s day the most enjoyable day of the week.”
Isaiah 58:13-14a 13 “If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath and from doing as you please oh my holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight and the LORD’s holy day honorable, and if you honor it by not going your own way ad not doing as you please or speaking idle words, 14 then you will find your joy in the LORD,

➀ Remembering Christ’s Redemption with joy and gratitude.
Isaiah 56:3 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 complain, “I am only a dry tree.”

【Eunuch】
Deuteronomy 23:1 No one who has been emasculated by crushing or cutting may enter the assembly of the LORD.
【Foreigner】
Deuteronomy 10:18 He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the alien, giving him food and clothing.
How about us?
Ephesians 2:3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.
Ephesians 2:12 remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.

Don’t take it for granted that we can worship God.
It is not natural that He is pleased with our worship, either.
We shouldn’t forget that only by grace of the Lord, we are allowed to approach Him.

Ephesians 2:13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.

Ephesians 2:4-6 4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions – it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.

➁ Experiencing the joy of redemption in the assembly of the redeemed.
Isaiah 56:4-5 4 For this is what the LORD says: “To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose what pleases me and hold fast to my covenant – 5 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.

Isaiah 56:6 And foreigners who bind themselves to the LORD to serve him, to love the name of the LORD, and to worship him all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it ad who hold fast to my covenant –

Isaiah 56:7 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.”

Isaiah 56:8 The sovereign LORD declares – he who gathers the exiles of Israel; “I will gather still others to them besides those already gathered.”

Therefore,
We are not bound by the Sabbath law which was given to the people of Israel.
But we are bound by the commandment of Jesus, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” (Matthew 22:37)
As response to His love, we willingly choose to give one day of the week for Him by gathering with the brothers and sisters in Christ and worshiping Him.