Isaiah 43. Often when the new year approaches
and the old year passes away, we have a tendency to look back. And with that, typically, there's
lots of memories for the past year. There's good memories and
there's typically sad memories. But frequently, we take time
to look back. And having the opportunity to
preach to you this kind of early in the year, it's been my desire
to bring a message of encouragement as we begin a new year. And looking for a text, I listened
to several of God's messengers on the subject, sought wisdom
on the subject from a lot of the old writers, messages on
the beginning of a new year. And with that, I can tell you
I heard several good messages. I'm thankful for sermon audio
that we can kind of go back and listen to some of those old messages. But oddly enough, it wasn't until
the Lord led me to this passage of Scripture in Isaiah 43 that
I believe I have a text. Look at verse 18 and 19 of Isaiah
43. And here we read, "...remember
ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old." My title is this. Don't look
back. Don't look back. Now, it's important
to know the context of this passage of Scripture. Earlier, Isaiah
had just referred to the bringing of Israel out of Egypt. They
came through the Red Sea. You all remember that account
where Pharaoh and his army were drowned in the Red Sea and the
children of Israel were delivered. And these are certainly things
worth being remembered with a thankful heart. What a sight! What a sight
that must have been! for the children of Israel. Can
you imagine that? I mean, here they sit, the Red
Seas in front of them, and behind them is this great army of Egypt. No doubt these were warriors.
And the children of Israel, they were just slaves. They'd been making bricks, What a horrific sight that must
have been, the fear that must have gripped their hearts when
that happened. And remember that, Pharaoh, or not Pharaoh, Moses
spoke to him. As Pharaoh led that great army,
Moses spoke to the children of Israel. And he said this, he
said, fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the
Lord, which He'll show unto you this day." You're going to see
this. You're going to live to see this salvation. And He said,
this army, this army that you fear so great, He said, you'll
see them again. You're never going to see them
again, forever. No more again, forever. Don't look back. Don't look back. Again, what a sight that had
to be. What a mighty and great deliverance
that was. And they weren't walking through
with mud on their feet either. The sea was parted and they walked
through like just on dry land. a wall of water on each side.
And as they passed through, they went to the other side, and those
waters just collapsed on the Egyptians. The enemy vanquished. The enemy destroyed. Isn't that
what the Lord Jesus Christ did for our sins? That great enemy
that we could never, never defeat? The Lord has put it away. Put it away forever. What a sight that must have been.
And no doubt, they often remember that. They remember that day
with a thankful heart. But listen, not in comparison
to that which was coming, that great deliverer that would come. the Egyptians put away, our sin
put away. Truly a sight those things must
have been. God sent the plagues. Remember all those plagues that
He sent to Egypt upon the Egyptians? And each time, each time He delivered
the children of Israel. When there was darkness throughout
the land of Egypt, there in Goshen, there was light. God's always
given light to His people. But listen, something greater. Rather, someone greater was coming. Remember ye not, remember ye
not the former things. Israel, Israel had a tendency,
a tendency to look back. And you know, I can't help but
think this, don't we do the same? Don't we do the same? Listen,
how often did the children of Israel murmur at Moses and say
things like this? Why don't you just leave us alone? We'd have been better off serving
the Egyptians. Why'd you bring us all the way
out here in the wilderness? We'd been better off to die and
be buried in Egypt. How often? How often did they
do that? It'd been better for us to serve
the Egyptians than we should die in this wilderness. Don't
we do the same? You know, we read about that
and we think, how could they do that? After all they had seen,
how could they do that? My friends, don't we do the same
thing? Aren't we prone to the same sin,
to the same thing? A tendency to look back. But yet here in our text, "...remember
ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old."
Back there in Genesis 19, when the Lord was going to destroy
Sodom, That angel spoke a lot and said, he said, take your
wife and take your two daughters, and he said, escape for your
life. And he gave them this instruction. He said, look not behind you,
look not behind you, neither stay in the plain, but escape
to the mountain, lest thou be consumed with everyone there. Don't look back. Don't look back. Listen. Sodom. What is in Sodom
that you want? Why would you look back there?
Turn back there to Genesis. Genesis 19. Genesis 19. Look
at verse 17. Just read this for yourself.
It came to pass when they had brought them forth abroad that
He said, "...escape for thy life. Look not behind thee, neither
stay thou in all the plain. Escape to the mountain, lest
thou be consumed." And then down in verse 26, what do we see there? "...But his wife looked back
from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt. Remember not the former things,
neither consider the things of old. Don't look back to something
that the Lord was pleased to bring you out of. Don't look back, neither stay
in the plain. The Scripture says this, What
have we been delivered? We've been delivered from this
world. Scriptures say this, love not the world, neither the things
that are in it. Let me ask you, would you go
back to Egypt? Huh? Would you go back to Egypt?
Would you go back to Sodom? Back to, listen, back to the
law? Back to sin? Back to bondage? In John chapter 6. Turn there
with me to John, the book of John. John chapter 6. In verse 66. Our Lord is speaking to His disciples. He spoke, look beginning in verse
65. He said, "...therefore said I
unto you, no man can come unto Me except it were given unto
him by the Father." No man can come to Christ unless he's drawn
to Him. That's plain, isn't it? That's
plain in Scripture. Not everybody agrees with that though, do they?
Some men get a little bent out of shape about that. That Almighty
God's sovereign. That Almighty God calls His...
that He has an elect. That He calls to Himself. And
it says here that when some of those men heard that, He said,
from that time, many of His disciples went back. And they walked no
more with Him. Listen, they went back to whatever
they were doing before. And obviously they were not His
true disciples. Huh? Listen, for had they been
His true disciples, they would have continued with Him. But
it says they went back. And that word that can literally
mean this. They returned to the things that
were behind. Look that up and you can conclude.
They returned to the things that were behind. To the things of
this world. Huh? Probably to their old companions. To Satan in their own heart.
Like a... I had a dog vomit one time. In
his crate. And I thought, boy, that's going
to be a mess to clean up. What'd that dog do? Right back
to his vomit. That's... That's us by nature. A dog returning to a vomit. Like a pig going out there in
the mud and water. Listen, you can spend all day
cleaning up a pig, but what's he going to do? He's going to
go right back to that slop. He's going to be muddy just like
you found him. And that's us by nature. That's each and every
one of us by nature. Returning again to their old
companions, to Satan, to their heart. to the works of the law,
to those scribes and Pharisees who had all the answers, right,
of what they needed to do, of their subjection, all those things. Listen, being ignorant of God's
righteousness. A man that tries to establish
his own righteousness By the works and deeds of the law, by
His dying and doing, what do the Scriptures say? That man's
ignorant of God's righteousness, God's full and free righteousness
by His grace. Listen, remember not the former
things. Our Lord asked His disciples
after this happened, His true disciples, He said, will you
go away? Will you return? Will you go
back? What did Peter say? Peter said, Lord, to whom? To
whom shall we go? There's no other refuge. To whom
shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. Paul said to the Philippians,
he said, forgetting those things which are behind, those things
that are behind us, and he said, reaching forth unto the things
which are before, he said, I press toward the mark for the prize
of the high calling of God in Christ. In Luke chapter 9, verse 62,
our Lord said this, He said, No man, having put his hand to
the plow that looks back, is fit, is fit
for the kingdom of God. Turn back with me to our text,
Isaiah 43. Remember not the former things,
neither consider the things of old. deliverance through the Red Sea. What happened there? Pharaoh
and his army destroyed. Again, certainly worthy to be
remembered with praise and a thankful heart. But again, not in comparison
to that one which was coming. Not in comparison to what would
be done. That one who was coming. Eternal
redemption. Not a temporary deliverance from
the things of this world, but eternal redemption in the Lord
Jesus Christ. The salvation, the full and complete
salvation of His people. Look at verse 19 here of Isaiah
43. He says, For behold, I do a new
thing. a new thing. Behold, I do a wonderful
thing." A wonderful thing. The Lord Jesus Christ, His name,
His name is wonderful. Behold, I do a new thing, a wonderful
thing, an unheard of thing. Huh? Listen, healing the sick,
the cleansing of lepers, raising the dead, the casting out of
devils, In Jeremiah 23, turn over there with me. Jeremiah
23. Let's turn over a few pages. We're beginning with verse 7
of Jeremiah 23. Therefore, behold, The days come, saith the Lord,
that they shall no more say, The Lord liveth which brought
up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt. But the
Lord liveth which brought up and which led the seed of the
house of Israel out of the north country, and from all the countries
whither I had driven them, they shall dwell in their own land."
Promised land. That land which was promised.
a new thing, this new thing, this wonderful thing. Can it
be, listen, can that point to anything other than our Redeemer? A new thing, a wonderful thing?
God, listen, God manifest in the flesh, that God would take
on flesh and become a man? Look down in verse 25 of our
text. It says, "...I, even I am He that blotteth out my transgression,
blotteth out thy transgression for mine own sake." and will
not remember thy sins." It's none other than the Lord
Jesus Christ, looking unto the Lord Jesus Christ. In Isaiah
45, 22, just a few pages over from our text here, we read,
"...look unto Me, and be ye saved from all the ends of the earth,
for I am God." And there is None else. Not looking behind, but looking
unto Him, looking unto the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus
Christ, God in human flesh, listen, He's the eternal God. And yet
we read here in our text, He's referred to as a new thing. How can that be? How can that
be? In Isaiah 9-6 we read this, "...unto us a child is born,
unto us a son is given." A child, again, God made in human flesh,
made Himself to be a man. He came here robed in flesh as
an infant, as a child, a child that had never been seen on this
earth before. He said this, He said, A body
hast thou prepared Me. He was made a man. And in that
body, can we even wrap our minds around
that? That little infant that Simeon
held there in the temple dwells Almighty God. In a new body,
just like when we have children, that's a new body that's never
been seen before. That Son which was given, He
took upon Himself the form of a servant. He was made in the
likeness of man and being found in fashion of man, He humbled
Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the
cross. made sin, made sin for us, made
sin for His people. Why? Why? But to deliver His people from
the curse of the law. Now listen, by His obedience,
by His righteousness, by His holiness, delivered us from the
curse of the law. And here's the amazing thing.
We're made accepted in Him. That has to be revealed, doesn't
it? That has to be revealed. Listen,
He paid the sin debt for His people. He put away our sin. He put away our guilt. He washed
us white as snow. He's buried. He's risen, He's
ascended on high, seated at the right hand of Almighty God where
He ever lives to make intercession for His people, for us, for us. This new thing that we read about
here, it says, it shall spring forth, it shall bud forth as
a branch, Me and Brady took a walk this
morning and we saw these vines. And right now they're dormant,
right? They look dead. But you know,
when the spring comes, that new bud will shoot forth. You ever
watch like the bud of a flower and it just closed? And you watch, and you watch,
and you watch, and then one morning you walk out and it's just open. The Lord Jesus Christ, He shall
spring forth. He shall come forth. It shall
bud forth as a branch, suddenly, at once. Just like that branch grows out
of a tree. In the book of Zechariah, twice
he's referred to as, my servant, the branch. The branch. He took upon himself the role
of a servant. That servant that would justify
his people. And we look to him. He's referred
to as the branch of righteousness. That branch which brought everlasting
righteousness. to His people, as our substitute,
as our representative, and listen, by Him, get a hold of this, try
to get a hold of this, by Him, we're made the very righteousness
of God in Him. So perfect and complete in Him,
listen, we bear His name. We bear His name. The Lord righteousness. When I married my wife, Abby,
she took my name. Nobody refers to her as Abby
Simpson anymore. She's Abby Floyd. She bears the
name of me, of her husband. That pales in comparison to our
new name. His church Boy, there's a lot
of things we could be called, isn't there? She shall be called, not she
might be called, she should be called, she could be called,
she shall be called the Lord our righteousness. Now back to
our text here. Remember not the former things,
neither consider the things of old. this, listen, this new thing,
a new thing, a wonderful thing, a complete thing, an eternal
thing. It shall spring forth, that righteous branch, it shall
spring forth. And He says here, shall you not know it? His people
know it, don't they? His people will know it. He said
this, He said, My sheep hear My voice. He's a, listen, what
else does it say? A way, a way in the wilderness,
in that barren land, that thirsty land, that unfruitful land. There
is a way. It's the Lord Jesus Christ, the
way of salvation. A river, who'd ever heard of
a river in the desert? What'd he say? He told that woman, he said,
that woman at the well, he said, whosoever drank into this water,
never gonna thirst again. It shall be in him a well springing
up into everlasting life. Water's precious. It seems to
me like out this way, water's pretty precious, isn't it? My
friends, there's nothing more precious than this living water,
the Lord Jesus Christ. A new thing, a new thing which
can, listen, again, it can only be the Lord Jesus Christ. What's the effect? What's the
effect of this new thing? Listen, it produces a new creature,
a new creation. Old things, old things are passed
away. In the Scriptures, we read of
a new and living way. Huh? A new name. We just talked about that. The
bride bears her husband's name. We bear His name. The Lord, our
righteousness. And listen, what else is... we
sing a new song. It's what the Scriptures declare. Our Lord said this, Behold, I
make all things, all things new. Oh, remember not the former things."
Don't look back. Behold, I do a new thing. And we look to Him. We look to
the Lord Jesus Christ. Look unto me and be ye saved,
all the ends of the earth, for I'm God and there's none else. Spurgeon said, I believe that
was the Scripture, he said the Lord revealed the Gospel to him.
He was walking to the service one night, snowstorm come up. He ended up being in some place
that he hadn't planned on being. And he heard this, under the
gripping weight of sin, he heard that scripture, look, look unto
me. Back there, back there in Numbers
21, You're probably familiar with this passage, but God had
heard, hearkened to the voice of Israel. He had delivered the
Canaanites and the children of Israel, and afterwards they were
journeying. They were journeying from Mount
Hor by the way of the Red Sea. And on that journey they became
discouraged as often as we do. I don't know about you all. I
can say that of myself. I do get discouraged. And they were discouraged. And
they were discouraged, it says, because of the way. You know
what's amazing, if you think about that, that way that they
were going, that's the path that Almighty God had given them to
go. and whatever direction he's pleased
to lead his people, that's the direction he's given. And yet
it says they became discouraged because of the way. And what
did they do? What do we always do? Well, we complain. They spoke against God and they
spoke against Moses and they said, why didn't you just let
us die there in Egypt? Weren't the graves there good
enough for us? Why'd you bring us out here? And God sent those
fiery serpents And they bit the people. And many people died. Judgment. God sent forth judgment
for sin. Why would, you know, truly, why
would He be merciful to any? But yet, yet He's pleased to
be merciful to some. And the people, they came to
Moses and they said this, they said, we've sinned. We've sinned."
And they said, won't you intercede? Won't you intercede on our behalf?
And the Lord told Moses, He said, take that serpent. He said, make
a serpent of brass and you put it up on a pole. When it came
to pass that everyone that was bitten, when he looked upon the
serpent, what happened, Andre? He lived, didn't he? Life! Life! Could it, listen, could
it be that simple? to just look? Huh? Here's the command. It hadn't
changed. Look and live. I think it was,
I think Henry, I think Henry said this one time. He said,
he said, man needs to quit lying and trying and crying and buying,
going about every, every way possible and just do this. Just look. Just look. You reckon there were people,
you reckon there were men and women back there that refused
to look? I suspect there were. Refused
to look. Those who would not submit to
the command. I'm not looking. You'll do so,
you'll do so to your condemnation. Those who would not submit to
the command. Maybe there were some who said,
you know what? There's gotta be a better way than this. There's
gotta be a better way to this. I'll just, I'll tell you what
I'll do. I'll run over to Mike's house, he's got some things,
and we'll just make up our own serpent. Instead of one of brass,
we'll make one of wood, and we'll just look dead. Ignorant of God's righteousness.
That's what the Scriptures say, man, right? Ignorant of God's
righteousness and going about to establish their own. Those who would not submit to
the righteousness of God. It's no different all the way
back there in that time than it is today. Listen, those who
would not look because of unbelief. Well, I just can't believe. I
just can't believe that God would save a man because he looked. Those too proud, I'm not looking,
too proud to look, too proud. Those who refused, listen, those
who refused to believe that they were dying, huh? I'm just, I'm
feeling a little faint here, but I'm sure I'll be fine. What's the command? Look. Look
and live. Our Lord told a group of people
this. He said, you won't come to me
that you might have life. Let me ask you this. All the
way back there in the Old Testament, the command was look and live.
What happened to those people that looked? Huh? What happened? Let me read it
to you. It came to pass that if a serpent
had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived. He lived. Life! Oh, my friends,
don't... don't look back. Huh? Don't... don't look at those... Oh, there's
so many things behind this, aren't there? Don't... don't look back.
Don't look back. Look... look to Christ. Look
to God's salvation. In closing, let me just read
this. Don Fortner wrote an article,
I don't know how long ago he wrote it, but our pastor put
it in our bulletin here a few months back. Maybe you've read
this. I just thought it went with the
message this morning. It says this, throughout the
Bible, Don wrote this, throughout the Bible, The act of faith by
which we receive eternal life is referred to as a look. Like the children of Israel bitten
by the fiery serpent, they look to the brazen serpent for life. And in the same manner, we must
look to Christ. Look to the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Lord Jesus Christ crucified for eternal life. And He gave
these three points. I'll give them to you quickly.
Salvation begins with a look. It begins with a look. Isaiah
45, 22, "...Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of
the earth. For I am God, and there is none
else." Look away from ourselves, look away from anything and everything,
and look to Christ. Christ and Christ alone. for our salvation." Listen, resting
in nothing, resting in nothing but Him. Number two, salvation
is maintained by look. In Hebrews 12, 2, it says, "...looking
unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy
that was set before Him endured the cross, despised the shame,
and is set down at the right hand of God." Listen, you don't
sit down. It's different in our day, but
listen, you don't sit down until the work's finished. And our
Lord sat down, the work complete. And then third, salvation will
end in a look. Revelation 22 verse 4 says this,
"...they shall see His face." looking, looking unto Him. If you hope to see His face to
glory, look to Him. Look to Him now. Look to the
Lord Jesus Christ. Not behind us, not looking back,
but looking to Him. Paul writing to Philip, he said,
I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do. He said,
forgetting those things which are behind me, and reaching forth,
reaching for those things which were before, I pressed toward
the mark of the prize of the high calling in Christ, looking,
looking unto Jesus, looking unto the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, I
pray He'd give us, I pray He'd give us eyes to see Him, faith
to rest in Him, and cause us always to be found looking unto
the Lord Jesus Christ. All right. May God bless His
Word.