Isaiah 43:14-28

Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “For your sake I send to Babylon and bring them all down as fugitives, even the Chaldeans, in the ships in which they rejoice. 15 I am the Lord, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King.” 16 Thus says the Lord, who makes a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters, 17 who brings forth chariot and horse, army and warrior; they lie down, they cannot rise, they are extinguished, quenched like a wick: 18 “Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. 19 Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. 20 The wild beasts will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches, for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people, 21 the people whom I formed for myself that they might declare my praise. 22 “Yet you did not call upon me, O Jacob; but you have been weary of me, O Israel! 23 You have not brought me your sheep for burnt offerings, or honored me with your sacrifices. I have not burdened you with offerings, or wearied you with frankincense. 24 You have not bought me sweet cane with money, or satisfied me with the fat of your sacrifices. But you have burdened me with your sins; you have wearied me with your iniquities. 25 “I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins. 26 Put me in remembrance; let us argue together; set forth your case, that you may be proved right. 27 Your first father sinned, and your mediators transgressed against me. 28 Therefore I will profane the princes of the sanctuary, and deliver Jacob to utter destruction and Israel to reviling.

Sermon Text:

[Read Isaiah 43]

As we look at this great chapter of Isaiah today, I would like to focus on a single promise in our text: verse 19:

Behold, I am doing a new thing…

Consider the great things God has done up to this point in the Old Testament:

He has created everything that exists with simply His word.

He has called out a people to Himself, chosen before the world began.

He has rescued His people from captivity in Egypt, parting the waters of the Red Sea.

He gave His people His good and perfect Law to define righteousness to them without a shadow of doubt.

He has brought His people to conquer Canaan, parting the waters of the Jordan River and giving them success over their enemies.

He has rescued His people time and again from their enemies, working through men, judges, who were not far removed from being scoundrels.

He set kings on the throne, and when the people began to chase after other gods, He severed the kingdom.

We still learn these stories, still see God’s dealings with these heroes of the faith:

Abraham, Moses, Job, Joshua, Caleb, Boaz, Samuel, David, Solomon.

Through their encounters with God, we come to understand His dealings with people like us.

But for all these stories, many times we fall to the faithlessness of Gideon when he told the Angel of the Lord:

if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us, saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian.” – Judges 6:13

There are a lot of believers through history, and even today, who might carry the same complaint to God:

You have done great things in the past; why do You choose to hold back now?

Like the silence of God for four-hundred years from Malachi to John the Baptist, we, or perhaps our persecuted brothers and sisters around the world, we might wonder if God is still watching over us.

It would not take a serious upheaval at all to shake the faith of many of us:

The loss of a job.

The loss of a child, parent, or spouse.

The diagnosis of cancer.

A terrible accident.

A great disaster, hurricane, earthquake, or flood.

To modern-day Gideons, the question may not be if God is CAPABLE to acting on our behalf, but if He is WILLING to do so.

Could we keep ourselves from crying out to God “Why ME?” if we were to experience only half of the persecutions many of our brothers and sisters experience around the world?

Could we endure prison, or torture, or hunger, or homelessness for the sake of Jesus Christ?

What could comfort us in those times?

What could God give us to bring us to persevere in faith toward Him?

Behold!

Stop what you’re doing and look at Him!

Give Him all your attention!

I am doing a new thing…

What a wonderful promise: He is not a God who just works in the past;

He is alive and active NOW.

All those things, all those stories we learned about the past serve to assure us of one thing: God is faithful.

There is not a struggle He doesn’t see.

There is not a cry of His child that goes unheeded or unanswered.

Because the pinnacle of this New Thing is the cross of Jesus Christ.

That is where EVERYTHING changed.

The former days turned into the latter days.

Make no mistake: any deliverance of His people He accomplished is good, but our ultimate deliverance is found in the salvation Jesus Christ brings to us.

We pray for healing for ourselves and our friends, and that is a good thing;

But all healing in this world is only temporary.

If we recover from one thing, we know we will eventually fall to another thing.

So in our weakness, even our sickness, it is good for us to remember that even in those times where we are not strong, it is still our mission to bring glory to God.

You, church, are

the people whom I formed for myself that they might declare my praise. - v. 21

But what makes this thing of God so new?

1. Who is included.

2. What it is based on.

3. The promises it gives.

Who is included in this new thing of God?

We see them in verse 20:

The wild beasts will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches, for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people,

Who are the untamed, the wild?

They are those to whom the word of God comes even in their primitive and sensual state.

They live for their lusts, satisfying their desires, their bellies, and justifying themselves with their own brand of morality.

They are the Gentiles who were:

Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— 12 remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. – Ephesians 2:11-13

They are many of the people you know, sold body and soul to the whims of advertising and pornography, lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh, and the boasting pride of life.

And such were some of you.

Such some of you may still be.

Just in case we were wagging our mental fingers at these people enslaved to the flesh, we must remember that though we have been freed from the slavery to these sins, we still can fall to them if we don’t take care.

From nearly the beginning, it has been those Jewish people, the descendants of Abraham, who have received the promises and blessings of God’s revelation of Himself.

But now, all people are commanded to repent and believe.

And with that change, we see a difference in the mission of God’s people.

In Isaiah’s time, it was the requirement that all God’s people would COME to His altar in Jerusalem, making their offerings to God regularly.

We see in verses 23 and 24 of our chapter the sacrifices that His people had failed to offer.

But after the cross, the requirement changes: Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” – Matthew 28:19-20

Secondly, this new thing God is doing is based on a different foundation.

Everything up to the cross of Jesus is based on righteousness being obtained through the Law.

The good and perfect Law that God had delivered through Moses.

And in verse 27, God mentions this:

Your first father sinned, and your mediators transgressed against me.

I haven’t done an exhaustive search, but references after the Fall to Adam in the Old Testament seem to be quite rare.

We see more references in Paul’s epistles than I have noted in the Old Testament.

I could be wrong in the number, but I recall exceedingly few mentions.

But here, Adam is brought to court and found guilty.

And Moses and the judges and the kings – all guilty before God.

They all proved to be an unworthy foundation for God’s new thing.

But the new thing God is doing is beyond anything Isaiah’s audience would even have guessed:

God would become flesh.

The promised Seed of the woman.

The promised Offspring of Abraham.

The promised Heir of Judah.

The promised Son of David.

This Messiah would then perfectly fulfill every single point of the Law of God in every single moment of His life.

Never a slip-up, never a mistake.

Never a quick thought that strayed in a single degree from God’s perfect will.

And with the Law thus fulfilled, He would lavish that righteousness on us – the brutes and animals we were.

And take onto Himself our sin and rebellion, paying the price in full for that sin by standing in the full wrath of God.

And in doing this, He would secure not only our salvation from hell, but our rescue from the sin of this world and our sanctification toward God.

Righteousness is still a matter of works, but the difference is that it is not OUR works that merit our salvation; it is the work of Jesus Christ alone.

For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. – Romans 8:3-4

Thirdly, the new thing of God has better promises.

What were the promises of the old thing, the covenant with Israel, often known as the Mosaic or Davidic covenant?

And if you faithfully obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. 2 And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the Lord your God. – Deuteronomy 28:1-2

“But if you will not obey the voice of the Lord your God or be careful to do all his commandments and his statutes that I command you today, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you. 16 Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the field. 17 Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. 18 Cursed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock. 19 Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out. - Deuteronomy 28:15-19

It’s not just the curses of the old covenant that might make us sad; how hopeless, how unattainable, are even the blessings?

Which son or daughter of Israel, with all their greatest effort, could earn a single blessing of God if it requires the complete obedience to His Law?

None. Not one.

With all their best efforts, a reasonably honest soul could only declare that based on the perfect Law of God, they deserved every curse He could bestow on them for their sin.

In fact, for us, this is the great purpose of the Law of God: to show us how hopelessly sinful we are and how desperately we need a Savior.

To accomplish what He promises in Isaiah 43:25 : ““I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.”

But the promises of the new thing, the New Covenant, are all of grace.

Obedience is still the point of the salvation of God.

Righteousness is still righteousness, after all.

God’s holy nature still requires holiness in all His people.

But the holiness, for the believer , the church, in Jesus Christ, is GIVEN to her.

A gift – grace.

And the promises made in this new thing make the promises of the old covenant seem, with respect, weak.

Please listen to this paragraph from Hebrews 8:

But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. 7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second. 8 For he finds fault with them when he says: “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, 9 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. For they did not continue in my covenant, and so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord. 10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 11 And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. 12 For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.” - Hebrews 8:6-12

The writer of Hebrews is quoting Jeremiah 31, but the promise there and the promise we see in our passage today have the same points.

They are both pointing to the promises made in the covenant enacted and instituted in Jesus Christ.

The promises of the New Covenant are not material, worldly, earthly promises of prosperity or wealth or ease or health.

They are promises of God’s abiding love through the trials of this world:

I am with you always, to the end of the age.

They are promises of sanctification.

They are promises of salvation.

They are promises of the resurrection from the dead.

They are promises of a life more vast and beautiful than anything we can experience in our current sinful flesh.

We must be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye.

The perishable must put on the imperishable.

The corruptible must put on incorruptible.

And death must be swallowed up in victory as we see the Appearing of our Lord.

Whether it happens before our eyes close in death,

Or whether it opens our long-closed eyes to new sight and new bodies and everlasting life, we know our Lord is returning to gather His people to Himself.

Israel was gathered to Jerusalem; we shall meet Him in the air.

Israel worshipped in the temple that was a copy here on earth of the true temple of God in heaven.

We will worship God forever in a temple not made with hands.

For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, 3 if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. 4 For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. 5 He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. - 2 Corinthians 5:1-5

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Target Date: Sunday, 2 March 2025

Word Study/ Translation Notes:

21 – declare – sapar – the root is to count – it is mathematical. In the Piel stem, it is iterative – to recount, to tell over and over again.

The reason God made His people is to declare His praise throughout the earth, to recount it to each other and to others.

Thoughts on the Passage:

16-17 – This is a reminder of what God did in bringing Israel from Egypt:

The path through the sea

The chariots in pursuit

The protection of His people and the destruction of His enemies

18 – Remember not – He is not telling them to forget the good things of God in the past, but to recognize His hand in the present and to anticipate His hand in the future.

God does not move through time, so He does not evolve in relation to His people. The change, the “new thing” is a new relationship, established before time began, to appear in time at the moment of Jesus Christ.

18 - Gideon asked the Angel of the Lord: if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us, saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian.” – Judges 6:13

For many in our day, we accept that God did great things in the past. But it is hard not to cry out with Gideon “Why is life so hard for Your people?”

We all have a tendency to look backward to times of greatness or glory. We live in the past rather than living in the present day.

We long for the pleasure or ease of the past, like the irresponsibility of childhood, rather than savoring the blessings of today.

It probably stems from the fact that the past is known, but the future is unknown and mysterious, revealed only in God’s timing to us.

We often prefer to complain that God did NOT act rather than to seek Him in humility to beg Him to act.

Such judgment toward God reinforces our own estimate of our wisdom or greatness.

I was listing to a skeptic the other day, and he declared that he had left behind Christianity because he could find no empirical evidence. I could only think that the fact he could not see the evidence is because he willfully misinterprets the evidence God has given.

Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when it shall no longer be said, ‘As the Lord lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt,’ 15 but ‘As the Lord lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the north country and out of all the countries where he had driven them.’ For I will bring them back to their own land that I gave to their fathers. – Jeremiah 16:14-15

We must remember the good things of God in the past, but we remember them to strengthen our faith in God for the present moment.

Our faith cannot be a faith of our fathers and mothers alone: it must be our faith, a real and living faith in the real and living God.

19 – New thing – This is God’s action in the present and future.

Not just the salvation of His people on earth, but the salvation of His people forever.

The Law is indeed good, but the new thing – His Son made flesh – is greater than anything He has done.

22 – Even the captivity and overthrow of His people was to His glory.

all the nations will say, ‘Why has the Lord done thus to this land? What caused the heat of this great anger?’ 25 Then people will say, ‘It is because they abandoned the covenant of the Lord, the God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them out of the land of Egypt, 26 and went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods whom they had not known and whom he had not allotted to them. 27 Therefore the anger of the Lord was kindled against this land, bringing upon it all the curses written in this book, 28 and the Lord uprooted them from their land in anger and fury and great wrath, and cast them into another land, as they are this day.’ – Deuteronomy 29:24-28

“The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law. – Deuteronomy 29:29

What is the Good News of this passage – Where is Jesus Christ? (if you can’t answer this question, are you finished?)

Teachings:

What do we learn about God/ Jesus/ Holy Spirit?

God does not just act in the past: He is active today, accomplishing His great purposes in the world.

Applications:

For the Christian:

For the Backslidden:

For the Unconverted:

Primary Preaching Point:

Building Points:

[on even numbered page]

MORNING PRAYER:

Adoration:

Almighty God and everlasting King.

Confession:

Forgive us our pride, and the loathsome lengths to which we will go to support our fleshly vanity.

Thanksgiving:

In You we find our only hope, both in this life and in eternity joined with Christ Jesus.

Petition:

We beg that You subdue the power of our sins by Your Holy Spirit.

Intercession: (also beyond our local)

We pray that Your peace would reign anew on the earth: