But now, thus saith the Lord
that created thee, O Jacob. And that word, but, starts out
but now. Because chapter 42 is all about
judgment and wrath and the anger of God. But now, my people, listen
to the beautiful, comforting language. Now sayeth the Lord
that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel,
fear not, for I have redeemed thee. Fear not. Now think about this. Fear not. He could have said, fear not,
and you're not going to be hurt. But beyond just saying that,
he tells us why. Fear not, it's not gonna be that
way for you. But beyond that, here's the reason,
because I bought you. Fear not, my wrath is not upon
you, but more than that, I'm gonna bear your wrath. That's what redemption is. You're not going to be destroyed.
I'm going to be destroyed in your place. I have called thee by thy name. Thou art mine. That's why he
redeemed us. Because we're his. Because he
loved us from eternity. And so, therefore, when you pass
through the waters, I will be with thee. And you
know what it means when the Lord's with us. That means whatever
the waters and the floods and the fire are going to do. You remember what happened to
the three Hebrew children when they were cast into the fire
and he was with them? They didn't even smell like smoke.
That's what he's talking about here. I've redeemed your soul. from the destruction that you
deserve. And me being with you means you
come out smelling like a rose. Neither shall the flame kindle
upon me. I'll be with you. When you pass through the rivers,
they'll not overflow you. When thou walkest through the
fire, thou shalt not be burned. When he's with us, he bears everything. in our place. And that can be
applied to all of the scripture akin to that. Putting my yoke
upon you. What's a yoke? That's where two
animals are yoked together. If he's yoked with us, guess
how much work we do? Not a lick. He didn't say, put my yoke upon
you and let's get about the business of, you know, living the Christian
life. He said, put my yoke upon you and rest. You rest. And he does all the work. For I am the Lord your God. the Holy One of Israel, your
Savior. That's what it means to be saved,
is you just lay there and He saves you. If somebody runs into a burning
building and I'm confused and I don't know which way to go
and they say, it's not this way, I would say, boy, man, they helped
me out or I'd have been in trouble. If I'm laying there unconscious
and the building's coming down on my head and they carry me
out, you know what I'm gonna say? They saved me. You saved
me. That's what saving is. You don't
help in that. Lord, Simon Peter said, Lord,
save me. I'm your savior. I gave Egypt
for your ransom. A whole country, God absolutely
humiliated tortured and annihilated in the greatest nation on the
earth at that time so that his people could walk out of their
reach. Is that you, God? Ethiopia and Seba for thee. Since thou wast precious in my
sight, thou hast been honorable. Man, I don't even know how to
talk about that. God has been honorable. Because
he loves us, we're perfect. And I have loved thee, therefore
will I give men, I'm gonna give more men for you too, people for thy life. Fear not. How can you be afraid in light
of all of that? Who are you going to be afraid
of? Are you afraid of Egypt anymore? If you're not afraid of Egypt
anymore because you saw what God did to them for you, then
why are you afraid of the enemies in front of you? For I am with you, I will bring
thy seed from the east and gather thee from the west. I will say
to the north, give up. Just like I did in Egypt, I said,
you give up my people, you let my people go. He's going to say
that to everybody. You let them go. This whole world
and every corner of the compass, let my people go. They're not
yours, they're mine. Give them up. Keep not back,
bring my sons. Oh, what manner of love the Father
hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of
God. Bring them from afar. How far off were you? Made nigh,
remember how Paul said that? Made nigh by the blood of Christ.
You who were at one time afar off now are made nigh by the
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. My daughters from the ends of
the earth Even everyone that is called by my name for I've
created him for my glory I've formed him. Yeah, I've made him
And we talked about this now god's gonna get glory In his
justice and judgment and wrath. He's gonna get glory out of everybody
But if you look at romans chapter 9 when it talks about why god
makes a vessel into honor and a vessel into dishonor He makes
the vessels of mercy to reveal the reaches of His glory. I've made Him for my glory. I've
formed Him. Yea, I've made Him. Verse 8.
Bring forth the blind people that have eyes and the deaf that
have ears. Let all the nations be gathered
together and be assembled. Who among them can declare this?
In other words, bring forth all the ones, they've got eyes but
they can't see. They've got ears but they can't hear. Let's see what they have to say.
Show us formal things. Let them bring forth their witnesses
that they may be justified. Job said, I know it's so of a
truth, but how can man be just with God? Or let them hear and say it is
true. You see, that's the true flood. That's the true fire right
there. When you stand before the bar of God, What arguments
are you going to bring? What case are you going to make
before God? Because it better be a good one. And you know why
his people don't have to fear? I'm with you. And again, what
that means is, not it's a cooperative effort, not he picks up where
we leave off, not he meets us halfway. When he's with us at
the bar, it's all on him. The judge is not even going to
look at me. How it goes with me is going to depend on my advocate. But if you don't have him now,
you come and see what you're going to say to God. Verse 10,
let's see, or let them hear and say it's true. Either justify
yourself before God or shut up and hear what he says and say
you're right. Somebody's right. And when you see that it ain't
you, you need to acknowledge that he's right. Verse 10, You're my witnesses,
saith the Lord, and my servant, whom I have chosen, that you
may know and believe me, and understand that I'm he. Before
me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. I, even
I, am the Lord, and beside me there is no Savior. Are we witnesses
to that? I have declared. Remember this
part? I have declared. In other words,
God has decreed. Purposed. Made a proclamation
from heaven. Here's how it's going to be.
And wrote a book about it. I have declared. And I've saved. What's the declaration about?
I'm going to save. And then he said, then I did
it. I did it. I accomplished it. And then I
showed my people what I did for them. This book is about how
God's going to save his people. And then it's about how he did
save his people. And then when the fullness of time has come,
God revealed his son in me. He showed me the glories of His
Son. He showed me the precious blood
that washed me clean. He showed me how He can be just
and yet declare a wretch like me justified before His very
throne. When there was no strange God
among you, there's not going to be, nobody's getting any glory
now when He reveals Himself. Therefore you are my witnesses,
saith the Lord. And what do we witness? What's
our message? He's God. It's really that simple. We talked
about that, didn't we? He's God. They say, oh well,
Jesus loves you and He died to save you if you'll just let Him.
No. Our message completely contradicts that. And our message is He's
God. God don't try. God don't... You know, Job didn't
say the Lord giveth, the Lord maketh things available, and
the Lord taketh away. He just said the Lord gives and
He takes. He don't make things available. He don't offer. He gives and He takes. Verse 13, Yea, before the day
was, I am He, and there is none that can deliver out of my hand. No man shall be able to pluck
them out of my hand. And it's a fearful thing to fall
into the hand of the living God. I will work. I will work. I have redeemed thee. I have
saved thee. I will work. And nobody can do
anything about it. Job learned two things on the
ash heap. Thou canst do anything, and no
thought of thine can be withholden from thee. No thought of thine
can be hindered. And now, verse 14. Thus saith the Lord your Redeemer,
the Holy One of Israel, for your sake I have sent to Babylon and
have brought down all their nobles. And the Chaldeans, whose cry
is in the ships, that means that's a cry of joy and exultation.
They're proud of their ships. They were apparently great shipbuilders
and that was their strength. They had a great Navy. But the Lord said, I brought
them down. I brought them down for you. I am the Lord, your Holy One, and the Creator of Israel,
your King. Thus saith the Lord, which maketh
a way in the sea, and a path in the mighty waters, 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 toe. In
these four verses, the Lord declares his mighty intervention again
on behalf of his people to save them. He said, you can see the type
of God I am and how I feel about you and how I do things with
regard to you. in what I've done for you. He said in verse 4, since you
were precious in my sight, thou hast been honorable and I have
loved thee, therefore will I give men for thee and people for thy
life. And here's an example of it right
here in this passage. We see the sovereignty and the
power of God. Notice the language which he
uses to convey how simple a thing it is for God to destroy all
of our enemies. He brings this world to its knees
with a word. The great and mighty enemies,
supposedly, of God, if you ask them, they'd say they're mighty.
He brought down the Babylonians and their nobles. He brought
them down. It says in Daniel 2.20, Daniel
answered and said, Blessed be the name of God forever and ever
for wisdom and might are His. They're His. And He changes the
times and the seasons. He removes fumes. Let's say it again. knowledge to them that know understanding. He removeth kings and he setteth
up kings. He giveth wisdom to the wise
and knowledge to them that know understanding. If you know something,
it's because he gave it to you. It is given unto you, he said
to his disciples, to know. It's given unto you to know anything.
If you know how to change the oil in your car, it's given unto
you. But what he's talking about here,
it's given unto you to know who I am, and what I've done, and
what I'm going to do as I reveal it to you. And why? Because I
love you. Paul said, oh, I get on my knees
before God that you might know something of his love. that you might understand the
height and depth, width, the breadth of the love of God. That's why Paul got on his knees
before God for. He's got to give us that. And
if He ever reveals to us what love is, next time somebody says
God loves everybody, it might be hard to keep quiet if you
know what His love is. God says in our text here that
he made a way in the sea and a path in the mighty waters.
It's clear what he's referring to there, the Red Sea, where
he led his people through on dry land and saved them from
the Egyptians. And what I always remember most
about that is how that Moses and the people were murmuring
and saying, well, You know, we had it better off in Egypt. We're
in trouble now. We're gone. We're done. And Moses said, just stand still. Shut your mouth and stand still
and see the salvation of the Lord. Look at verse 17. This is so
interesting. Which bringeth forth the chariot
and horse, the army and the power, He bringeth forth the chariot
and the horse, the army and the power. They shall lie down together,
they shall not rise. He's still talking about the
Red Sea there and how he brought forth. Think about this. Even if God brings Israel through
the Red Sea, he opens the waters. Everybody says, that's the miracle,
you know, and I'd say that's a miracle. And they stood up
like walls. The water stood up like walls
on either side. And they walked through and it
wasn't even muddy in there. And they walked through there.
And then if he had closed the Red Sea. You reckon the Egyptians
would have figured out some way to get to him? Pharaohs. He's
like a hornet now. He's so mad. He's going to get them one way
or another. Unless God kills him. And so
what did God do? He brought them forth into that
right between the walls of water. Wouldn't you have been a little
bit leery of that if God opens the water for his people and
allows them to go? Before you stepped in there,
you might be thinking, how long is this going to be like this? I don't want to be caught in
that. I'm sure it crossed their mind. But the Lord brought them
forth. He brought them in there. For the scripture saith unto
Pharaoh, even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I
might show my power in you, and that my name might be declared
throughout all the earth. Now, God saved us from a much
greater enemy than Egypt. We're going to see something
very beautiful in a minute, Lord willing, about that and how it's
compared to that. But if God put Pharaoh on a throne
so that he could dump him in the river and destroy him so
that everybody would say, what a guy, What are you going to
say now that he redeemed your soul from hell? Reckon why he
did that. What are we going to say when
he picked the worst, ugliest, nastiest worm on his earth and
set him among princes? May his name be declared throughout
all the earth. for His power. He does as He
pleases in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of
this earth. And there's none that can stay His hand or even
question what He's doing. May His name be declared throughout
all the earth for His great love, wherewith His particular distinguishing. We've got to call Him on it,
don't we all? God loves everybody. Anybody that loves everybody
don't love anybody. All true love is distinguishing. May His name be declared throughout
all the earth for the glory of His cross. Here in his love, not that we
loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the
propitiation for our sins. The word toe in verse 17 is a
wick. It's what they made wicks out
of for their lanterns or what we would call a candle now. So what God is saying there is
he put them out like a candle. the army of the Egyptians. Snuffed them out like a candle.
Like you pour a glass of water on a candle. And notice one more
phrase in this passage of four verses that we read, and then
we'll move on for now. Verse 14, for your sake. For your sake. Now we know that
God does everything for his own glory. And we know if we did
that, it would be selfish and foolish because we don't deserve
any glory. But when God does things for
his glory, it's just right. It's just right. He deserves
all glory. But you know what glorifies God? Saving your wretched hide. That's
what. Saving you. for your sake. God is glorified in doing things
for you if you're his. God made a universe
for you. You look up in the sky at night
and you see the stars twinkling there. What are they doing there? God made a paradise for you. Adam woke up in a perfect place of communion
with God, with no limitations, no corruption of sin, perfect
communion and absolute provision. And I'll tell you this, God arranged
a fall for you. He did that for you. How would
you ever be holy like His Son? How are you ever going to be
infallibly holy like the very Son of God without the fall? How will you be made the righteousness
of God in Him, in Christ? Unless you're reconciled to God
by the death of His Son. And there must first be a fall.
There must be sin if Christ is to bear our sins. And Christ bearing our sins and
triumphing over them is the very glory of God manifested. You're not going to see God's
glory until you see Christ crucified. God sent his son for you. For
your sake. He said this is my body which
is broken for you. This is my blood which is shed
for you. That's the one of the marvels
of the Lord's table to me. I can't. I can't pick up that
piece of bread or that little cup. Without thinking of those
two words for you. In verse 18 he said, Remember
ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old. Now, God is saying here, maybe you've forgotten. Remember ye
not, that's the problem, you don't remember. That's why you
worry. That's why you're anxious. That's
why you're afraid. You don't remember. You don't remember
what I've done for you. And why? Is that what he's saying
here? You don't remember. You remember
you not. That would certainly be true.
We always forget, don't we? That's why he instituted the
Lord's Table and said, when you do this, remember me. You don't
need to remember something you haven't forgotten. And we do,
don't we? We forget. We get caught up in
all manner of worldliness and leaning on
our flesh and just self-righteous thoughts and fear, worry. There's one remedy to all of
that. Remember me. You can't remember him and be
afraid. You just can't do it. And you might think, how can
we forget him? I haven't forgotten him. Oh,
yeah. We do. We do. But this may be God, and I'm
pretty sure this is right. When both are true, when it could
be one or the other, and both are true, I think it's good to
mention both. Whether he's saying you've forgotten
or not, we know that he says that in this book, right? Alright, and so here, what about
this? He may be saying, forget about
what I did before. He just told them, reminded them
of Egypt, the Red Sea, and how that he saved them mightily,
and he'd been doing that throughout their history. The Ammonites,
and all of them. The salvation that he wrought
for them with all of their enemies. But he may be saying, forget
about that for a second. Remember ye not the former things,
neither consider the things of old. Just put that out of your
mind for a second. And there's a reason why he might
say that. In this sense, the next verse,
I believe he's saying in the next verse, you haven't seen
anything yet. Just forget it. That was nothing. That was nothing. I believe that's what he's saying
here. God is saying all these wonders that I've done in saving
you from your enemies and they are wonders They're just pictures of what
I'm really gonna do This new thing that I'm gonna
do it's in the next verse God is saying look away from the
picture and And look at my son. Look to what salvation really
is. That's just a shadow. Look away from the shadow. And
this is the Son of God described in these next few verses. Look
at verse 19. Behold, I will do a new thing.
Now it shall spring forth. And shall ye not know it? It's not going to be done in
a corner. It's not going to be obscure and It still is not obscure. 2,000 years later, everybody has a
Bible. Just about everybody. Shall you not know it? I will
even make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. The beast of the field shall
honor me, the dragons and the owls. Because I give waters in
the wilderness and rivers in the desert to give drink to my
people, my chosen. Now the picture in the top was
for the whole earthly nation of Israel who themselves are
a type of the elect of God. But this new thing I'm going
to do is just for the remnant, just for the chosen, just for
the select ones, just for the Israel within Israel. I'm gonna
open a way in the desert, I'm gonna send a river in the desert. Isaiah described him in chapter
53, which one of these days we may get to, as a root, a tender plant springing
up out of a dry ground. Life in the desert, a path in
the wilderness. Listen to the prophecy of God
here about giving his people a drink in the desert To give
drink you see that to give drink to my people This river in the
desert is going to be so that my people Will have something
to drink And not water Remember he said to the woman at the way
you drink this water. You'll be thirsty again before long
But the water that I give you the water of life you'll never
thirst again listen to that and then listen to this in John 7
37 in the last day that great day
of the feast Jesus stood and cried saying now there was a
great religious feast and people had come from all over the place
you remember the Ethiopian eunuch had come to Not this particular
one, I'm sure, but had come to a feast. Maybe the same one in
a different year. And all the religious activity
that would go on at those, and most of it probably didn't even
resemble what God had ordained. You know how religious people
are. They take what God has ordained
and they twist it and turn it and turn it into some fleshly
thing that appeals to the senses and yet utterly annihilates the
picture of Christ in it. The truth of Christ. And I'm
sure that had happened. So they came to this big religious
feast and I'm sure most people left there feeling pretty good
about themselves. Well, you know, every year, you know, every time
the feast is It's appointed that we come, we come every year,
you know, we honor God and we, you know. But the Lord said this,
because there were a few that were leaving that feast and they
didn't get what they came for. There were some that left that
feast and they weren't feeling that good about themselves. They
weren't thinking we've done our religious duty again, you know,
hallelujah. And he's talking to them. He's
talking to the ones that left there feeling empty. Thinking, if we could just hear from God. Through all of this mess of religion
and fleshly work, work-centered, man-centered, Religious foolishness If we could have just heard from
God And it says he cried saying if any man thirst Let him come
unto me and drink That's what Isaiah wrote God's gonna send away a river
to give drink to his people, his chosen. What is that river? Well, the Lord came to show us
what the river is. Yeah, he did, but more than that,
he is the river. Come unto me and drink. Come unto me and drink. If any
man thirst, come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me,
as the scripture hath said, Out of his belly shall flow rivers
of living water. You'll never be thirsty again.
You'll never leave unsatisfied. Well, don't we thirst for Christ,
Chris? Yeah, all the time we do thirst, but we're always satisfied,
too. Always satisfied. The Jews religion had degenerated
into godless orthodoxy as religion always does. Outward form of
worship with no heart or faith in God. And the Lord cried after
it was over, is there anybody that's still thirsty? Are you
satisfied with this or are you thirsty? When you came to this great religious
feast, did you get what you came for? Do you have a need? Is there anybody here that has
a need that man-made religion cannot fill? The Lord Jesus Christ has come
unto me. Don't come to church, don't come
to the front, come to me. He said in verse 20 there, the
beast of the field and the dragons and the owl shall honor me. Unclean
creatures. This apparently makes reference
to the Gentiles who had no hope, who had no thought for God. They
were the enemies of God's people. And yet, He says they're going to honor
me. When I send my son, they're going to honor me. Ephesians
chapter 2. We refer quite a bit to Ephesians
2, 8 through 10. By grace are you saved through
faith and that not of yourselves. And I want to read that part.
but I want us to read beyond that Ephesians 2 verse 8 for by grace are you
saved through faith and that not of yourselves it's the gift
of God not of works lest any man should boast for we are his
workmanship if he made us if he made a lump
out of the same lump if he made a vessel unto honor How are you
going to boast in that? We're His workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus under good works. If you do a good work, which
is a work of faith, with a heart desire to honor Him, you can't boast in that. He ordained
it, He created us under that. which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them. And then look at the context
of this. We don't often go past that when
we quote those verses there. Wherefore, remember. Wherefore,
remember. God gets all the glory. God saved
you by his grace and gave you faith and made you love him and
worship him and serve him. Wherefore, remember. Don't forget. Don't forget. that you being
in time past Gentiles in the flesh who are called uncircumcision
by that which is called the circumcision in the flesh made by hands, that
at that time you were without Christ. When he did all this
for you, you were hopeless. You didn't have a hope in the
world. You were without Christ in every way. You not only didn't
have Christ, you didn't want Christ. You weren't looking for
Christ. Being aliens from the Commonwealth
of Israel, you didn't even know what God said and didn't care.
And strangers from the covenants of promise, you didn't know anything
about it. Having no hope and without God
in the world. That's us. But now in Christ
Jesus, you who were at one time a far-off, are made nigh by the
blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who hath
made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition
between us, having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even
the law of commandments contained in ordinances, for to make in
himself of twain one new man, so making peace and that he might
reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross having slain the enmity thereby
God's not mad at me anymore because all of his anger and wrath and
punishment was poured out upon his son in my place And now there's
just peace with God. And came and preached peace to
you. He declared, He saved, and He showed. He declared it to
me. Be ye reconciled to God. For He made His Son to be sin
for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. On that basis, on the basis of
Christ And what he did for sinners on Calvary, be ye reconciled
to God, 2 Corinthians 5. To you which were far off, and
to them that were nigh, the Jews too, that were near in the sense
they had the outward advantages and knew some things that God
had revealed. For through him we both have
access by one Spirit unto the Father. Now therefore you're
no more strangers. but fellow citizens with the
saints and of the household of God, and are built upon the foundation
of the apostles and the prophets." Built upon the foundation of
the apostles and the prophets. What is the foundation of the
apostles and the prophets? Jesus Christ himself, being the
chief cornerstone, in whom all the building fitly framed together
groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord. in whom ye also are
built together for the inhabitation of God through the Spirit. That's what Isaiah is talking
about. To those without hope, strangers, to the covenants of
promise, aliens, to the commonwealth of Israel. And he said, remember
that. He said it in the context of
salvation by grace through faith that he gives unto good works
that he ordains. total sovereign grace upon his
people. In that context he says don't
forget that God included you when you were without any hope. God didn't have to choose Israel
and give them his word and his covenant. He didn't have to reserve
to himself that remnant within Israel And he sure didn't have to include
a bunch of gentile dogs like us. But he did. Remember. Wherefore remember.
God's mercy is magnified in saving the lowest of the low. If there's a dog somewhere that
doesn't deserve even a crumb, that's who the Lord came to save. And I'm happy to take my place
among that number, aren't you? I just want to be his dog. Paul said unto me, who am less
than the least of all the saints. Among all those dogs, I'm the,
I'm the, the mangiest one. Less than the least of all the
saints. Unto me, he said, is this grace
given. That I should preach among the
Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make all men
see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning
of the world has been hid in God. who created all things by
Jesus Christ to the intent that now unto the principalities and
powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold
wisdom of God. We have the wisdom of God in
the mystery. According to the eternal purpose
which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord. Isn't it good to be
in on that? He calls us in the text, my people,
my chosen. This religious world despises
the God who chooses. They want the choice to be theirs. I'm so glad it's not. My people,
my chosen. How do you feel about that? By his grace, we delight in the
sovereign election of God. My people, he says, you're mine. You were precious to me. I love
you. Don't be afraid. I've saved you,
I'm saving you, and I'm going to save you. That's why they call it good
news, the gospel. Let's pray.