He's Doing a New Thing

Introduction:

We’ve made it to a new year. This is the time of year where we make our resolutions and we reflect on the previous year.

I have to admit something to you. I have been majorly depressed to close out the year.

We’ve had a combination of sickness causing us to miss out on family gatherings, the weather has turned cold and dreary, and I’ve just had the blues.

Do you get like that any? I had to call on a few friends of mine to pray for me that the gloom would pass. I needed a new year.

Well, some of you may look back on your goals for the past year and realize you needed a do over also. You may have utterly failed to meet your goals, whether they be financial or spiritual or lifestyle goals.

One of the keys to getting past the spiritual blues is to meditate on what God has done and who God is.

You see, when we consider who God is, nothing is impossible with Him. He is always doing a new thing and as Jeremiah wrote in Lamentations, “His mercies are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness.”

This morning, I want to take you to Isaiah to consider the new things the Lord is going to do this next year.

Isaiah 43 ESV

1 But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. 2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. 3 For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I give Egypt as your ransom, Cush and Seba in exchange for you. 4 Because you are precious in my eyes, and honored, and I love you, I give men in return for you, peoples in exchange for your life. 5 Fear not, for I am with you; I will bring your offspring from the east, and from the west I will gather you. 6 I will say to the north, Give up, and to the south, Do not withhold; bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth, 7 everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.” 8 Bring out the people who are blind, yet have eyes, who are deaf, yet have ears! 9 All the nations gather together, and the peoples assemble. Who among them can declare this, and show us the former things? Let them bring their witnesses to prove them right, and let them hear and say, It is true. 10 “You are my witnesses,” declares the Lord, “and my servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me. 11 I, I am the Lord, and besides me there is no savior. 12 I declared and saved and proclaimed, when there was no strange god among you; and you are my witnesses,” declares the Lord, “and I am God. 13 Also henceforth I am he; there is none who can deliver from my hand; I work, and who can turn it back?” 14 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.

Pray

There is a shift that begins at v. 1 from what has just been discussed.

1. A Plea to Remember (vv. 1-7)

He Has Made Us

Created vs. formed

Second word is a word that means painstaking care

Idols can’t create, but God does

He Has Saved Us

He Has Redeemed Us

He Has Rescued Us

These are all things that God had done for the people of Israel. They were not a nation, and God made them a nation.

They turned from God and needed to be rescued out of their sin again and again.

God delivered them again and again.

They were scattered and God drew them back in.

This is the same thing that God is doing for His people, for us, right now! This is why the Great Commission is so important.

Notice the love God has for His people on display in these verses.

God gave other unbelieving nations over for Israel.

God has a special love for His people that is not shared by the rest of the world. God loves everyone, but He has chosen to bestow His special love and care on His people.

That puts you and I in a special place. Consider that we were a part of the world of pagan nations that God sent the gospel to in order to bring us in to be His people.

If you are saved, you are not one of “them” you are one of “God’s.” You belong to Him in the same way that Israel belonged to God and He loves you the same way He loved them.

Your salvation is not the work of your hands, but the work of God.

But also, if you are saved, you now have a job to do. You are supposed to help share the love of God with this world and lead the ones God calls back to Him by proclaiming the Gospel.

2. A Summons to Testify (vv.8-13)

The second scene is like that of a court room where all the nations are called to appear and give witness.

They cannot speak because their gods are not real.

They are being called to witness to their god’s work in their lives.

God calls His people to open their blind eyes and look at what He has done

They are called to see and then this is to lead to their obedience.

They are also called once again to bear witness that God is the true God as opposed to the idols of the nations.

We have to do the same thing.

Have you been blind to what God has done for you in the past?

Have you forgotten?

Can you testify to what God has done in your life?

God confronts His idolatrous people with a decision to make. They can keep following blind and dead idols, or they could follow the true and living God.

3. A Call to Action (vv.14-21)

God is bringing an end to the system of the world that is represented by the evil empire of the Babylonians.

God speaks of natural forces - the sea, and human forces - chariots and horses and says that none of them can stop what God is going to do.

God uses language to evoke the memories of God parting the Red Sea and destroying the Egyptians to describe how His work is going to go forward and nothing can stop it.

We have a tendency to want to live in the past glories and victories of yesteryear.

We also can be crippled by our past mistakes.

God is saying not to do either. He is going to do a new thing, a new work.

God is an active God that is always doing a new thing. Part of what is going to make Heaven so wonderful will be the ongoing creative activity of God. We will constantly discover new and amazing things about Him.

4. A Warning to Consider (vv. 22-28)

Despite all that God has done for Israel, they still remain hard-hearted and stubborn.

They turn to idols because they are weary of God.

Do you get bored with God?

Do you try to get a spark from something else other than God?

In verse 23-24, Isaiah is not saying that they were not doing these things, but that they were going through the motions because they were not really repentant.

God forgives them, not because they deserve it, but because of His grace.

That’s why we are forgiven to.

Conclusion

As we consider this passage for the new year, I want to challenge you to consider a few things.

First, remember how God has saved you.

Second, remember the goodness of God and the incomparable nature of God.

Third, while it is good for us to consider the past, don’t dwell in the past. God is doing something new in your life and in the church this next year. Let’s keep moving forward so that those who have yet to hear the gospel can be saved.

Who are the people this next year who are going to be saved?

What lives are going to be changed by the ministry of the Word through Bethlehem?

What challenges will you face that will stretch your faith and cause you to grow this year?

Finally, what warnings do you need to heed from God this year?

If you are here this morning and you have not trusted the gospel, heed the warning that judgment is coming.

As we studied this passage this morning, you might have thought that God was speaking to Israel who was already in captivity, but you would be wrong. God is speaking to the people as if this has already happened, but they have not yet gone into exile.

God’s promises are so sure that He can say with certainty what will come to pass, because it surely will.

That also means that He is coming again for His bride, the church, and in judgment of the world for sin.

Repent and turn to the Lord while there is time and live your life to glorify and enjoy Him forever.