A Message of Hope and Change in a new season
Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 10 viewsNotes
Transcript
For a message of hope and change in a new season, Isaiah 43:19 is a powerful choice: "See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert". Other verses that speak to new seasons include Jeremiah 29:11 about God's plans for a hopeful future, Philippians 1:6 about God completing the good work he has started, and Psalm 1:3 comparing a faithful person to a tree that "yields its fruit in its season".
16 Thus saith the Lord, which maketh a way in the sea, and a path in the mighty waters; 17 Which bringeth forth the chariot and horse, the army and the power; they shall lie down together, they shall not rise: they are extinct, they are quenched as tow.
Do not remember the former things: God wanted to put their eyes on the new work He would do, so He began with a reminder to not remember the former things. If they were stuck in the failure and sin and discouragement of the past, they would never go forward to the new thing God had for them.
It is a fascinating — and instructive — switch between Isaiah 43:16-17 and Isaiah 43:18. In Isaiah 43:16-17, Israel was told to look to the past by remembering the great things God did for them at the Red Sea.
18 Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old. 19 Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.
17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
But in Isaiah 43:18, they were told, do not remember the former things, nor consider the things of old. This shows us that there is a sense in which we must remember the past, in terms of God’s great work on our behalf. There is also a sense in which we must forsake and forget the past, with all its discouragement and defeat, and move on to what God has for us in the future.
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
12 As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.
11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD: God knew His own thoughts toward these exiled Jews in Babylon. They did not know or did not remember His thoughts toward them, so God wanted to state them in writing through Jeremiah’s letter.
i. God thinks about us. In Psalm 40:5 “ Many, O Lord my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered.”
ii. Yet what God told the exiles through Jeremiah was even better. God does not only think of His people, His thoughts are toward them. “The Lord not only thinks of you, but towards you. His thoughts are all drifting your way.”
iii. Furthermore, we may not know God’s thoughts, but He says, I know the thoughts that I think toward you. “Brethren, when we cannot know the thoughts of the Lord because they are too high for our conception, or too deep for our understanding, yet the Lord knows them.”
c. Thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope: The exiled Jews lived in the experience of God’s judgment upon their nation. It was easy for them to think that God was against them; that He intended evil for them. Through Jeremiah, God assured them that His thoughts toward them were of peace, and that in His heart and mind He had a future and a hope for them.
i. This promise was made to ancient Jews under the Babylonian exile, but they express the unchanging heart of God toward His people. Indeed, these were God’s thoughts toward Israel under the Old Covenant; we should not dare to believe that He is less favorable to those who come to Him in faith, through the Messiah, in the New Covenant.
ii. God has a future and a hope for His people even when they suffer in exile, even when they hurt under deserved discipline or judgment. It is the devil’s deception to rob God’s people of their sense of His future and a hope for them.
6 Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:
29 Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.
3 Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father;
3 And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
