There is an Indian man who lives in Mumbai who is an anti-natalist. If you’ve never heard that term, what it means is that he believes that parents have no right to have children without the consent of the child, and since you can’t get a child to consent to being born before they’re born, then basically humanity has no right to continue to procreate. In his reasoning, humanity has no purpose, and so therefore should just die out because it serves no purpose, no reason for existing.
His reasoning is wrong, of course, for two reasons. The first is his assumption that humanity has no purpose or reason for existing, which God’s Word tells us is clearly not the case. The second is his assumption that humanity should not be fruitful or multiply because it has no purpose, which again is directly against God’s Word and is actually a violation of the Lord’s commands to humanity. Both of these things I’ll talk more about in my sermon this morning, but basically, this is the kind of thinking that we’re going to come across when we interact with the world around us, and quite frankly, without being intentional in our discipleship of ourselves and others, these false ways of thinking and understanding the world start to seep into the church.
I’m going to be in the book of Isaiah this morning, particularly Isaiah 51:1-9a. Let’s hear what God’s Word says to us this morning, “Listen to Me, you who pursue righteousness, Who seek the Lord: Look to the rock from which you were cut, And to the quarry from which you were dug. 2 Look to Abraham your father And to Sarah who gave birth to you in pain; When he was only one I called him, Then I blessed him and multiplied him.” 3 Indeed, the Lord will comfort Zion; He will comfort all her ruins. And He will make her wilderness like Eden, And her desert like the garden of the Lord. Joy and gladness will be found in her, Thanksgiving and the sound of a melody. 4 Pay attention to Me, My people, And listen to Me, My nation; For a law will go out from Me, And I will bring My justice as a light of the peoples. 5 My righteousness is near, My salvation has gone forth, And My arms will judge the peoples; The coastlands will wait for Me, And they will wait expectantly for My arm. 6 Raise your eyes to the sky, Then look to the earth beneath; For the sky will vanish like smoke, And the earth will wear out like a garment And its inhabitants will die in the same way. But My salvation will be forever, And My righteousness will not fail. 7 Listen to Me, you who know righteousness, A people in whose heart is My Law; Do not fear the taunting of people, Nor be terrified of their abuses. 8 For the moth will eat them like a garment; Yes, the moth will eat them like wool. But My righteousness will be forever, And My salvation to all generations. 9 Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord; Awake as in the days of old, the generations of long ago.” (NASB)
There’s a lot in this passage that helps realign us, the body of Christ with Christ and not the world, that reminds us of who we are, who we are meant to be. Even though this is an Old Testament passage, it is for all believers. It speaks of salvation being made available to all, and we have the benefit of the New Testament to understand this is what Jesus did when He died on the cross, He made salvation available to all.
In fact, this entire passage we’ve just read from Isaiah 51 has a speaker that speaks about His people, His nation, His salvation, His law. What we understand about this passage, not only from what is said here, but also from the passages before and after it, is that it is the MESSIAH Himself who is speaking. He’s talking about the world the way it would be when He came to begin the process of reconciling the world to Him! And He is speaking to the true Israel, including converts from the Gentiles, all those who were then or ever would be in exile and longing to return to the Promised Land, and so this morning His words are for us!
There are three sections here in the Messiah’s message to us and all His people. The first begins in verse 1 and He says, “Listen to Me, you who pursue righteousness, Who seek the Lord:”. Each of the three sections I spoke about begins with this call to His people and it serves to remind us of who we are in Him and hopefully to remind us of what we’re meant to be doing as His people. So here we’re reminded that we should be pursuing righteousness, our desire should be to seek the Lord. Of all the things that He could say to us to remind us of who we are in Him, it’s not “you who are loving,” or “you who are long-suffering,”, it’s “you who pursue righteousness.” This says volumes about who we’re meant to be, what should mark us as people of God, and it’s the pursuit of righteousness, the pursuit of the Lord.
The Messiah continues by telling us, His people, to look to the rock from which we were cut, the quarry from which we were dug. There’s a link here that maybe you’ve already caught. He’s asking His people, us, to look to our foundations. Look to the rock from which we were cut. That’s Christ Himself. The Messiah is called the cornerstone three times in the Old Testament, and seven times in the New Testament, and Jesus Himself equated the passages in Isaiah where the Messiah is called the cornerstone with Himself in Matthew, Mark, and Luke’s gospels. Paul tells us that we can’t build the foundation of our lives on anything other than the cornerstone which is Christ. This is a reminder again to seek the Lord, to look to the One who has authored our faith. Which becomes very important when we look at His next point.
The Messiah says to look to Abraham and Sarah, Abraham who was just one when God called Him. What does that mean? Well, it means that even though Abraham got this great promise that he would be come the father of a great nation, when he got that promise it was just him and Sarah, childless, and with just a promise to hold onto. Abraham was just one man, but that was okay, because it wasn’t about Abraham, it was about the pursuit of righteousness, it was about Abraham’s faith as he sought the Lord, it was about looking to the cornerstone that could do all that had been promised. This is further proved by Romans 4:2-3 that tells us that Abraham was justified by faith, that he was considered righteous by faith. Further, Romans 9:31-32 says that the people of Israel pursued the law of righteousness but it didn’t lead to righteousness because they didn’t pursue it by faith.
This is what the Messiah is urging His people to do, to pursue righteousness and seek the Lord, but to do it by faith like Abraham, who was just one person, but through him God did tremendous things and fulfilled a great promise. God took one man, Abraham, and made him fruitful not because of anything Abraham did, but because he had faith that God would do as He had promised.
This is a call to us as well to be FRUITFUL. But the Christ-follower’s way of being fruitful is different than the world’s way of being fruitful. Being fruitful for a Christ-follower means faithfully seeking the Lord and His righteousness; being fruitful means allowing the Holy Spirit to cultivate in you the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control; being fruitful means discipling and mentoring others and making spiritual descendants. But all of this depends upon the grace of God living in us. We can work with the Spirit in His work, but ultimately, even this call to be fruitful is a call to be full of faith and to pursue our relationship with Christ above all else.
The second section of this passage starts in verse 4 with another call from the Messiah, “Pay attention to Me, My people, And listen to Me, My nation;”. Again, it’s a reminder of who we are, we are His people, people belonging to Jesus, the Christ. We are called out of the world and told to be holy as He is holy. This is a call to be different, set apart, to be people that are called by His Name who act like Him.
He says that a law will go out from Him. Again I’m reminded of Romans 9:31-32, “however, Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not arrive at that law. 32 Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as though they could by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone,” (NASB). The law of righteousness that is spoken of is God’s commands, God’s word, but we can’t try to keep that law through works, but only through faith.
A law will go out from Him, and what did Christ say all the law and the prophets hang on? Matthew 22:37-40, “And He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the great and foremost commandment. 39 The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 Upon these two commandments hang the whole Law and the Prophets.” (NASB)
The law is love; a command to love the Lord with everything you are and love your neighbor in the same way. James 1:27 says this, “Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.” (NASB). Sounds a lot like love to me.
This goes well with the call to be fruitful from the first three verses of this passage in Isaiah 51. Because if we’re keeping the law of love by faith, if we’re seeking to love the Lord with all our hearts, souls, minds, strength, and allowing His love to help us love others the same way He loves them, then the natural consequence of this is that we will become more spiritually fruitful in all the ways I mentioned: we will cultivate and display the fruit of the Spirit, we will be full of faith as we seek the Lord, and we will love others by sharing the gospel truth with them and discipling them.
Then the Messiah says this, “And I will bring My justice as a light of the peoples. 5 My righteousness is near, My salvation has gone forth,” (NASB). This is what happens when His people seek Him first, love Him, pursue Him and His righteousness and love others as He has loved us. Through the law of love, Christ brings His justice as a light to the people.
He says His righteousness is near, that His salvation has gone forth. Christ has come. He has already paid the price for sin and death. He has already come to reconcile the world to Him, to seek and save the lost. When He returns again it will be to judge the world in righteousness and justice. That time draws near. His righteousness is near. The righteousness of His kingdom is near. This is a reminder to us that we should have a sense of urgency about His coming kingdom. Verse 6 says, “For the sky will vanish like smoke, And the earth will wear out like a garment And its inhabitants will die in the same way. But My salvation will be forever, And My righteousness will not fail.”
When we go about our days in the world, do we have this sense of urgency? Do we remember this as we meet new people, that someday, possibly very soon, everything will perish except for those who have received the salvation and righteousness of Christ? Do you meet new people and think of them as perishing without the love of Christ? Through the law of love, Christ brings His justice as a light to the people, a light to show them the way to Him. His love is extended through us, His church, to extend God’s justice, light, and teaching to the nations. He has chosen to use us, broken and imperfect people to be a light in this dark world, but so often we go about our days forgetting that we are the light of the world.
The Messiah says that the world waits expectantly for His ARM. Think about your arms for a moment. What do they do? They do the work your brain thinks of, right? They are the verb of your body, the action. If your brain says that the body needs a drink of water, it is the arms that go and get the glass of water and bring it to the mouth to drink. Arms do stuff do the work. The world waits expectantly for the arm of Christ to do the work. That’s us, we are the arms. We are the verb, the action, we, the church, are the “go” and the “do” of Christ. And the world is waiting for us, expectantly, to go and love it the way Jesus does, to go and share the good news of His salvation and righteousness that never passes away.
The final section of this passage starts in verse 7 with another “Listen to Me, you who know righteousness, A people in whose heart is My Law”. Another reminder of who we are. We know His righteousness, He has given us His righteousness, His law of love is in our hearts, written on our hearts. This is who we are, and His love is meant to flow from our hearts at every turn, with every interaction we have with others: our church, our families, our friends, our neighbors, our coworkers…everyone.
The Messiah goes on, “Do not fear the taunting of people, Nor be terrified of their abuses.” Do not fear. Don’t worry about what people will say or think of you as you love them, as you share the gospel truth with them. Do not fear the unknowns of what may happen if you radically and wholeheartedly love the Lord. Do not worry about what tomorrow will bring. Do not worry, do not fear. The Messiah says the wicked will pass, that they will be eaten up, but His righteousness and salvation will last forever.
If His righteousness and His salvation, if His kingdom and those things of His kingdom are the only things that will last forever, shouldn’t we be working with Him to see all those we love, all those we encounter, come to be a part of that everlasting kingdom, and His everlasting righteousness, and His everlasting salvation? Don’t you think your neighbor should be a part of that? Don’t you think your coworker should be a part of that? Don’t you think your family, your friends, the person at the grocery store, the waitress at your favorite restaurant, don’t you think they should be a part of that? Surely we don’t want them to perish and pass away?
The Messiah ends these three sections with this, “Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord; Awake as in the days of old, the generations of long ago.” This is a call to AWAKEN. If you’re asleep in your relationship with Christ, it’s time to wake up! Time to love the Lord with all your heart, mind, soul, strength. Time to seek Him fervently, time to desire after Him and seek first His righteousness. Time to be fruitful and let Him grow you. If you’re asleep in your love for others, it’s time to wake up! The world is waiting for His arm, you, to come and share His love with them. We don’t want them to perish. They are waiting for the life-giving truth of Christ’s salvation. You are being called out, sent out, and it’s time to go. Love the Lord, love others, all the law and the prophets hang on this, and the world is waiting for you.
1. When was the last time you led someone to Christ? The last time you invited someone to church?
2. What fears/reservations/doubts do you have about sharing your faith with someone? What steps can you take to address those fears and doubts?
3. If there were step by step instructions for how you could disciple someone to come to a relationship with Christ and bring them into the body of Christ, would you take those steps?