The Loved Congregation and our Lord Jesus Christ. This 38th Lord's Day of the Catechism teaches us our obligations with regard to the Fourth Commandment. And it mentions four obligations. First, maintaining the ministry of the gospel in the schools. Secondly, diligently attending church. Thirdly, or yeah, diligently attending church to accomplish three things, to learn the word of God, to use the holy sacraments, and to call publicly on the Lord, to give Christian alms, and then the final obligation, that all the days of my life I rest from my evil works. Allow the Lord to work in me by his spirit, and thus begin in this life the everlasting Sabbath. Instead of focusing on the obligations of the Sabbath this afternoon, what I want to do is look at the blessings of observing the Sabbath, particularly as those blessings are described in Isaiah chapter 56, verses one to eight. The chapter that we read, Isaiah 56, verses one to eight. Our Lord says, of course, that the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath. And what he meant by that, I think, was that through the Sabbath day and through the observance of the Sabbath day, we receive blessings from God. And this chapter in Isaiah teaches us some of those blessings that come from observing the Sabbath. So let's look at this passage and the Lord's day under the theme, the blessedness of keeping the Sabbath. First of all, let's talk about what the Sabbath is. And secondly, about the blessings associated with it. Before we begin to look at the actual teaching of this passage, I think it's A good thing if we try to clear up a possible misunderstanding, in fact, a misunderstanding that some have had with respect to this passage, as well as with respect to similar passages throughout the scriptures. And that misunderstanding is that works have a place in our salvation, that is that works make a contribution to our salvation. People who teach that use such passages as this. In this way, they say, look, passage says, keep justice and do righteousness for my salvation is about to come. in my righteousness to be revealed. If you want to be a participator in that salvation and in that righteousness, then you must do these works. You must keep justice and do righteousness. Our works obviously make a contribution to our salvation. But that cannot be the case, of course, from other scriptural passages we learn this fact. First of all, such passages as these assume that regeneration and faith must be already present in those who obey these commandments. That is, there is no other way to keep these commandments, to keep justice and do righteousness, unless God has already given to us regeneration and faith. For the scriptures say, whatever is not of faith is sin. Anyone who tries to keep these commandments, even if he does try to keep these commandments, without faith, without that gift of God, will not keep them. But secondly, of course, we can keep the commandments of God only by God's grace. It's not, it doesn't work this way, people of God, that God regenerates us and gives us faith and then leaves us alone and says to us, go out and do my commandments now. I've empowered you by giving you regeneration and faith. Now you have all the capacity you need to do my commandments and therefore now you must do them. But what God does actually is give us regeneration and faith and then continue his work in us to sanctify us. And from day to day, every day of our lives, as we seek to do good, to empower us by his Holy Spirit. It's by his grace that we do good works. Ephesians 2 verse 10 or Ephesians 2 is very clear. God has prepared our good works beforehand so that we should walk in them. It's all of grace and by faith. Nevertheless, such passages as these do teach us that without sanctification, we cannot be saved. We must not go to the other extreme from those who teach a work salvation and say, well, there's no need then to do good works. We must not become antinomians. We must be sanctified in order to enter the kingdom of heaven. That's the plain teaching of the scriptures in, for example, first Corinthians chapter six, where the apostle says, that it is not possible for anyone who is unsanctified to enter the kingdom of God, verses nine and 10. Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. John Calvin says in his comment on Isaiah 56 this, the nearer we are to God, so much the more powerfully we ought to be excited to the practice of godliness. The nearer we are to God, so much the more powerfully we ought to be excited to the practice of godliness. And Matthew Henry also has a very helpful comment here. The fuller assurances God gives us of the performance of his promises, the stronger obligations he lays us under to obedience. The fuller assurances God gives us of the performance of his promises, the stronger obligations he lays us under to obedience. And of course, he's deriving that in part anyway from Hebrews chapter two, which says, how well shall we escape who neglect so great salvation? Henry goes on to say the salvation here spoken of has now come. Yet there being a still a further salvation in view, the apostle presses duty upon us Christians with the same arguments. And he refers to Romans chapter 13 here. Just like to turn there for a moment. Romans chapter 13 verses 11 to 14. And do this knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep, for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand, therefore let us cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lusts. For now our salvation is nearer than when we believed. Let's turn then to this passage's teaching about the Sabbath. There are basically three things we want to say here about the Sabbath day. The first two are just basically background points, and the third of these points is the one where we're really going to get down to the meat of this passage. We should notice, of course, in the first place that there's an emphasis in this passage in Isaiah 56 on keeping the Sabbath. That's the thing that receives the most emphasis here. Three times the prophet or the Lord through the prophet talks about keeping the Sabbath. First in verse two, who keeps from defiling the Sabbath. Then in verse four, to the eunuchs who keep my Sabbath. And again, in verse six, everyone who keeps from defiling the Sabbath. The Lord talks about other aspects of his commandments in these passages. In this passage, keep justice and do righteousness. Keeps his hand from doing any evil, verse two. Verse four, choose what pleases me and hold fast my covenant. And also in verse six, who join themselves to the Lord to serve him and to love the name of the Lord to be his servants. And hold fast my covenant. But the thing that's repeated, the one thing that's repeated three times in the passage is keeping the Sabbath. So that receives the most emphasis. The second thing that we want to notice is that at least in verse four, the prophet uses the plural, the Sabbaths. to the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths. And of course, the passage, being an Old Testament passage, has in mind not just the weekly Sabbath, which the Israelites were to observe, but all the other Sabbaths they were required to observe as well. The Sabbaths of the new moons, the Sabbaths of their feast days, the Sabbaths with regard to the land. Every seventh year, the land had to be given rest. All those Sabbaths are also included here in this prophecy. What we may call the ceremonial Sabbaths have all passed away with the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, of course, but the one weekly Sabbath has not passed away because it is a creation ordinance. And so we may take this passage as applying as far as we are concerned to ourselves on the celebration of the weekly Sabbath, the Lord's day. But the question we want to really focus on this afternoon is why is it that the Lord puts so much emphasis in this passage on the Sabbath day? Why is that the thing that is talked about three different times in these verses? And I think the first part of the answer to that question, people of God, is that the Sabbath day is, in a very real sense, central to God's commandments. That's going to need some explanation and it's going to take a little bit of study and going to some scriptural passages and so on in order to understand what that means. But there's a very real sense in which the Sabbath day is central to God's commandments. Let's first look at that fact. We talked about this actually a year or two ago when we studied the fourth commandment in the prior series on the Heidelberg Catechism, but I want to review it just briefly this afternoon. We have to turn to Exodus chapter 31, first of all. Exodus 31, verses 12 and following. There is an emphasis here. In fact, there is a repetition here in these verses of the fourth commandment, verses 12 and following. The Lord spoke to Moses saying, speak also to the children of Israel saying, surely my Sabbaths you shall keep. For it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you. You shall keep the Sabbath therefore, For it is holy to you. Everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death. For whoever does any work on it, that person shall be cut off from among his people. Work shall be done for six days, but the seventh is the Sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. Therefore, the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel forever. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed. Now what's the significance of that in this context? Well, you have to look at a large chunk of Exodus in order to see that. If you go to the immediately preceding section in Exodus, you'll see that it's a long section beginning in chapter 25, and it's all about God's instructions for building the tabernacle. He tells them what the buildings to be like, what the furnishings of the tabernacle are to be like, what the garments of the priests are to be like, and so on. He gives them all this different instruction for building the tabernacle. And then he concludes that section on building the tabernacle with this, this repetition of the fourth commandment. Not with the repetition of the first commandment, which would fit, we would think, equally well, right? Here, God's house is being set up, the place of his worship. Well, why not then talk about the first commandment? You shall worship the Lord your God. He repeats the fourth commandment instead. But it's not just that. It's also, if you go now to the material that follows in Exodus, you'll see that chapters 32, 33, and 34 are all about the sin of Israel with the golden calf. 32, 33, and 34 are about that sin of Israel with the golden calf. And then chapter 35, goes to the building of the tabernacle. So you have this large section, chapters 25 to 31, about the instructions for building the tabernacle. And at the end of the book of Exodus, the actual work of Israel in doing what God commanded, building the tabernacle. In the middle between those two sections, you have the incident with the golden calf at Mount Sinai. And then between those pieces, Between the instructions for the building of the tabernacle and the worship of the golden calf, a commandment, the fourth commandment. And then if you go to the first two verses of chapter 35, notice it again. As the people of Israel began their work of building the tabernacle, Moses gathered all the congregation of the children of Israel together and said to them, these are the words which the Lord has commanded you to do. Work shall be done for six days, but the seventh day shall be a holy day for you, a Sabbath of rest to the Lord. Whoever does any work on it shall be put to death. You shall kindle no fire throughout your dwellings on the Sabbath day." So you have right in the middle of this whole matter of building the tabernacle, Emphasis on the fourth commandment, you must keep the Sabbath day. I think it's not really that difficult to understand why the Lord does that. The tabernacle is his house, his place of worship in the Old Testament. And essentially what he's saying to his people is, now I want you to observe my Sabbath. It includes worshiping the Lord, their God, the first commandment. It includes the second commandment. It includes the third commandment. Yes. But he puts the emphasis on keeping the Sabbath. And I think there's even this kind of significance to it, that the Lord is enhancing the Sabbath day, making it better really for the people of Israel. The Sabbath, they existed from creation, but now as he establishes his covenant with Israel at Mount Sinai, as he reveals to them all the sacrifices of the law and all the dwelling place of God and all the things associated with that dwelling place of God, he says, the Sabbath is going to be better from now on because of this house, which I build in your midst. So that in the first place, then, about this centrality, this idea of the centrality of the Sabbath, it has a kind of central place in the commandments of God. In this, that it's on the Sabbath day, especially, that we obey that first commandment, that we draw near to God to worship him according to his word. But the Sabbath day also, and this shows us again how significant the Sabbath is, the Sabbath day also has symbolic significance. Our catechism points us to that in the second part of the answer. It says that one of the things required of us in the Sabbath day is that all the days of my life, I rest from my evil works. Allow the Lord to work in me by his spirit and thus begin in this life the eternal Sabbath. So when we observe the Sabbath day, we are symbolically setting apart from ourselves all those evil works that we have committed. We are putting them off. And thus we are beginning in this life the eternal Sabbath. That is, that perfect rest from all sin that our Lord Jesus Christ holds in store for us yet. And Hebrews 4 points us in the same direction. Hebrews 4, verses 9 and 10. For if Joshua had given them rest, then he would not afterward have spoken of another day. There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. For he who has entered his rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from his. So you have this symbolic significance of the Sabbath, that it is symbolically putting off our sins, putting them off completely, resting from our sins, resting from our own works as God rested from his works. And then the third thing yet that we have to pay attention to here, and that is that the Sabbath is a sign of the covenant. That was in Exodus 31. In two places there. The Sabbath is a sign of the covenant. First you read it in verse 13. Speak also to the children of Israel saying, surely my Sabbaths you shall keep for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you. And then again in verse 17, it is a sign between me and the children of Israel forever. For in six days, the Lord made the heavens and the earth and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed. The Sabbath is a sign of the covenant. Just as the rainbow was a sign of God's covenant with Noah, and as circumcision was a sign of God's covenant with Abraham, the Sabbath is the sign of God's covenant with his people at Sinai. And what's the significance of that sign? Well, the Lord also tells us that in Exodus 31, that I am the Lord who sanctifies you. Sabbath is a sign that the Lord sanctifies us. It's a sign of his own rest on the seventh day, as verse 17 tells us, but also a sign that he sanctifies us. And there's one other passage we can refer to in this regard, Ezekiel chapter 20, verse 20. Ezekiel 20, verse 20. I am the Lord your God, beginning in verse 19. Walk in my statutes and keep my judgments and do them. Hallow my Sabbaths, and they will be a sign between me and you, that you may know that I am the Lord your God. So by the Sabbath day, by this sign of his covenant with them at Sinai, the Lord was saying to his people, I'm the one who sanctifies you. I am the Lord your God. I have commanded you to keep all these commandments, not just the 10 commandments, but all the ceremonial and civil law. I've commanded you to keep these commandments, but know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you. Know from the Sabbath day that I am the Lord who sanctifies you. That's my sign of my covenant with you. And when the people then observed the Sabbath, they were saying, they were testifying, they were signifying, the Lord is our God. He is the one who sanctifies us. That's why we keep his Sabbath. just as with circumcision, God signified the circumcision of the heart. And Israel, by observing that sign of circumcision, declared, yes, it is indeed true that God circumcises our hearts. So here, with this sign of the Sabbath, Israel, in its observance, is saying, yes, yes, it is the Lord who sanctifies us. God signifies, his people testify by their use of the sign, what God signifies. It's a testifying and a signifying of resting from our evil works. I am the Lord who sanctifies you. It's a testimony and a sign of keeping the whole covenant of God, the whole covenant. Calvin says about this passage, The Sabbath here by a figure of speech includes all the exercises of religion. I think that's right on the mark. You can't separate the Sabbath from the rest of God's covenant, from the rest of the commandments. And we're gonna come back to that as we look now in more detail in Isaiah 56. Let's turn back now to that part and begin to look at the blessings of keeping the Sabbath that are pronounced there in Isaiah 56. Notice in the first place that this passage has three parts or two parts depending on how you want to look at it. The first part is verses one and two, and there he declares the blessedness of the man who keeps the Sabbath. Blessed is the man who does this, who keeps from defiling the Sabbath and keeps his hand from doing any evil. Then in verses three to eight, he also pronounces blessings on the foreigner and the eunuch. In verse three, he speaks of both of them. Do not let the son of the foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord speak, saying, the Lord has utterly separated me from his people, nor let the eunuch say, here I am, a dry tree. And then in verses four and five, he addresses the eunuchs. For thus says the Lord to the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths. And in verses six to eight, he addresses the sons of the foreigners, also the sons of the foreigner, who join themselves to the Lord to serve him. Everyone who keeps from defiling the Sabbath, even them I will bring to my holy mountain. So those are the things we have to look at. First, the blessedness of the man who keeps the Sabbath and the blessedness of the eunuch who keeps the Sabbath and then the blessedness of the foreigner who keeps the Sabbath. Now notice that verses one and two do not mention any specific blessings. They just simply declare the blessedness of the man who does this. And the son of man who lays hold on it, who keeps from defiling the Sabbath, keeps his hand from doing any evil. Some of those blessings are made particular in verses three to eight, and we'll come to that in a little bit, but here it's just a proclamation of blessing to anyone. He doesn't distinguish or single out any group here, just simply talks about the man who does this and the son of man who does this. The blessedness of anyone who keeps the Sabbath and keeps his hand from doing any evil. So that's first about that, the blessedness of the man. Now, there's another question that arises here, and that's to what, in verse two, the first two lines, does the this and the it refer to? Blessed is the man who does this, and the son of man who lays hold on it. What do those refer to? There are two possibilities in the passage. One is what precedes. In verse one, keep justice and do righteousness. The second possibility is what follows in verse two, who keeps from defiling the Sabbath and keeps his hand from doing any evil. I am myself inclined to think that it's a reference to what follows, who keeps from defiling the Sabbath and keeps his hand from doing any evil. But it doesn't really matter greatly, especially when you consider that in verse one, keep justice and do righteousness is simply the flip side of that coin and keeps his hand from doing any evil. You have the two sides of the coin, keeping from doing evil and keeping justice and doing righteousness, and in between those, not defiling the Sabbath. I think that this and the yet refer to what follows then, who keeps from defiling the Sabbath and keeps his hand from doing any evil, though I don't think it matters greatly which way we understand it. But notice then that in these very general statements, keeping justice, doing righteousness, keeping his hand from doing evil, the Lord again singles out one commandment, only one, and the fourth. Not the first, not the second, not the third, the fourth commandment. And he sets that keeping of the Sabbath right alongside keeping his hand from doing any evil. This brings us right back again, I think, to what we were talking about in the first point, about the significance of the Sabbath resting from our evil works. The Sabbath and not doing any evil go together. Or the Sabbath and keeping justice and doing righteousness go together. You can't separate them. How is that? Well, people of God, it's very easy to illustrate that fact, first of all, You can't observe the first day of the week if all the rest of the week you do your own pleasure. If you go out and you just do whatever you want throughout the week and then you come to the house of the Lord on the Sabbath day to worship him, to sanctify the Sabbath day, you will be called a hypocrite and rightly so. You can't separate proper observance from the Sabbath day from the everyday holiness of your life. But we should also look at it from the other point of view. And that is that if you don't observe the Sabbath day, that means that you don't take seriously the Sabbath day as a sign that the Lord sanctifies you. And that will have an effect on the rest of your life. Every day of the week. So you can observe the Sabbath day without sanctifying yourself. And if you observe the Sabbath day properly, that will affect your sanctification in the rest of the week. You can't dissociate the Sabbath day from keeping the whole covenant, from observing the whole law of God. And it's on those then who keep his covenant and do his commandments that the Lord pronounces this blessing. Blessed is the man, he says, who does these things. Blessed is the man. And that blessing's not just a blessing for the Sabbath day, but a blessing for the whole week. The Lord doesn't limit his blessings to the Sabbath day there in verse two. So that's the blessedness of the man. and the blessedness of the son of man, that is anyone who keeps his Sabbath, keeps the Sabbath and keeps his hand from doing any evil. Then as we've said in verses four and five, the Lord begins to talk to the eunuchs. And we need to go into that a little bit. There are a number of things that we have to know there about that. He says first in verse three, don't let the eunuch say, here I am, a dry tree. What's the point of that? Well, of course, the point of the eunuch saying that is he can't beget children. And that was a significant thing, more significant for an Israelite than it is for us. As we're going to see in a moment, we'll come back to that. But the Lord is saying, don't let the eunuch say that. He shouldn't say that. Don't let him say, I'm a dry tree. And he also addresses the foreigner there and he says, don't let the foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord speak saying, the Lord has utterly separated me from his people. That foreigner was separated from God's people in the Old Testament. In many different ways, for example, in Exodus 12, verse 43, God says to the people of Israel through the prophet Moses, no foreigner may partake of the Passover. Now this, of course, foreigners could be circumcised and could become part of the nation of the Jews and could partake of the privileges of the people of God as Jews. But no foreigner, as a foreigner, could partake of the Passover. No foreigner could have a place among the people of God. God said to Israel when they went into the land of Canaan, I don't want you making covenants with them. You have to keep yourself separate from those nations. You don't belong together. And in Nehemiah 9, when they transgressed this commandment of the Lord not to intermarry with those foreigners, Nehemiah went to the length of breaking those marriages, sending those foreigners away, and expects God to bless him for it. In Ezekiel chapter 44, verses seven and nine, we have another indication of this. Ezekiel 44, verses seven and nine. When you brought in foreigners uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh to be in my sanctuary, to defile it, my house, and when you offered my food, the fat and the blood, then they broke my covenant because of all your abominations. Thus says the Lord God, going down to verse nine, no foreigner uncircumcised in heart or uncircumcised in flesh shall enter my sanctuary, including any foreigner who is among the children of Israel. The foreigners were excluded, excluded from Israel, excluded from the house of God, excluded from the Passover. And with regard to the eunuchs, the same thing is true. Deuteronomy 23 verse one says, eunuchs are not to be allowed into the house of God. Deuteronomy 23 verse one, he who is emasculated by crushing or mutilation shall not enter. the assembly of the Lord. And the Lord also says to the eunuchs, I don't want them to be saying, verse three, here I am, a dry tree. But instead, the Lord says to the eunuchs, who keep my Sabbaths and choose what pleases me and hold fast my covenant, even to them I will give in my house and within my walls a place and a name better than that of sons and daughters. I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off. What's the point? Well, the point is this, people of God. that those eunuchs lost, through their inability to have children, their place and name in Israel, didn't they? That was important. The families of Israel were given an inheritance in land, and they wanted to preserve that inheritance, and the way to preserve that inheritance was to have children so that it could be passed on from generation to generation. A eunuch lost his inheritance. and therefore he lost his name. There are commentators who disagree with that interpretation of the passage, and that's okay, but I think that's what the prophet has in mind here. They lost their name in Israel through not having any children. And God says to these eunuchs, I don't want you to say that anymore. I don't want you to say, I'm a dry tree. I'm going to lose my place and name in Israel. I'm going to give you a name and a place better than the name that you would obtain through having sons and daughters. I'm going to give you an everlasting name in my house. And that name will not be cut off. I will give in my house and within my walls, a place and a name better than that of sons and daughters. An everlasting name that shall not be cut off. The Lord is prophesying here about the New Testament, isn't he? And with regard to both these eunuchs and the sons of foreigners, he's saying, No personal or national characteristic is going to prevent anyone from having a place in my house. I will give them a place through the extension of my salvation to the nations. So that foreigners also, in verses six to eight, Also the sons of foreigners, of the foreigner who join themselves to the Lord to serve him and to love the name of the Lord to be his servants. Everyone who keeps from defiling the Sabbath and holds fast my covenant, even them 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. These foreigners who were before excluded from the house of God will be brought in. They will be joyful in God's house. Their sacrifices and offerings will be accepted. And we should note in that connection, Leviticus chapter 22, verse 25, Leviticus 22, verse 25. Nor the Lord says there from a foreigner's hand, shall you offer any of these That is any of those sacrifices, those sacrificial things as the bread of your God, because their corruption is in them and defects are in them, they shall not be accepted on your behalf. The foreigner's sacrifices weren't accepted. Even Israel couldn't take something from the foreigner and offer it to God. God said, they're defiled by the fact that they belong to the foreigner. And here he says, that's not going to be true any longer. The foreigner is going to be allowed in my house. He's going to be joyful in my house. His sacrifices and his offerings are going to be accepted in my house. These come, these blessings come to those who keep his Sabbaths and who observe his covenant. He doesn't say this to any eunuch and to any son of the foreigner. Thus says the Lord to the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths and choose what pleases me and hold fast my covenant, even to them I will give in my house. And in verse six, also the sons of the foreigner who joined themselves to the Lord to serve him and to love the name of the Lord, to be his servants. Everyone who keeps from defiling the Sabbath and holds fast my covenant, even them I will bring to my holy mountain. That's the reward of grace. those who keep his Sabbaths and observe his covenant. To them, God gives these blessings. He says it again, of course, using different words in Psalm 15. Lord, who may abide in your tabernacle, who may dwell in your holy hill, he who walks uprightly and works righteousness and speaks the truth in his heart. They are the ones. But here especially, Isaiah says, who will dwell in God's holy hill? Those who keep his Sabbaths. It's not the only thing he says, but it's one of the things he says. Those who keep his Sabbaths. And he's prophesying about our times, about us. about those days when the eunuchs will no longer be excluded from the house of God. And when the sons of foreigners will be brought into that house from which they were formerly excluded. We are among those foreigners. And this blessing of keeping the Sabbath is pronounced upon us. The foreigners who have joined themselves to the Lord. to love him, to serve him, to keep from defiling his Sabbaths, to hold fast to his covenant. To us, he says, I will bring to my holy mountain, bring them to my holy mountain, will make them joyful in my house of prayer. Their offerings will be accepted on my altar. Why? Because the rule is going to change, people of God, The rule is not going to be any longer only Jews. The rule instead will be this, for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations. The end of verse seven and verse eight. The Lord who gathers the outcasts of Israel says, yet I will gather to him others besides those who are gathered to him. And I think what he means there is, as I gather the outcasts of Israel and bring them back into their land, I'll bring others with them, add these others to them, the Gentiles, they will come also into my house. And of course, for us here in the New Testament period, upon whom these blessings have been pronounced, there's also the remembrance, people of God, that that Sabbath points forward to the perfect rest of the kingdom of heaven, to the heavenly sanctuary. And it is of that heavenly sanctuary that God says then in verse seven, even them I will bring to my holy mountain. So we have the Sabbath, we have the Sabbath in a sense in one way central to our lives as Christians. because we cannot observe it without sanctifying ourselves and because we need it for the sanctification of ourselves following it. We observe that Sabbath not just on the Lord's day by not working and by worshiping the Lord, but as the catechism says, but by resting from our evil works all the days of our life. And to us, then, who keep the Sabbath, the Lord pronounces these blessings. I will give in my house and within my walls a place and a name better than that of sons and daughters. I will bring them to my holy mountain. I will make them joyful. Their sacrifices will be accepted. Those are good reasons for keeping the Sabbath, are they not? Let's take God's word to heart. May God bless the proclamation of his word.