Let's turn our Bibles again to
Isaiah chapter 65. The title of the message this
evening is Christ Makes All Things New. I took that title from verse
17. The Lord says, Behold, I create
new heavens and a new earth. And what exactly is it that He's
speaking about there? Well, it's two things. First
of all, He's talking about the new creation. that He creates
in a man in the new birth. And that new man, he's a new
creation. He created the same way the first creation came into
being. By the Word of God's power, God simply spoke and this whole
world, this whole creation suddenly appeared from nothing. Just by
the Word of God's power. And you know that's the way the
new man's created too. God speaks in power. When His
Word is being preached, and he gives a new birth from nothing,
a new man born, a new spiritual man. Hold your finger there,
look over 2 Corinthians 5. Everything about that new man
is new and different. 2 Corinthians 5, verse 17. Therefore, if any man be in Christ,
he's a new creature. Old things are passed away, behold,
all things are become new. Everything about that new man
is new and different. He's a spiritual man. He's not
a fleshly man. He's spiritual. He's a holy man,
not a sinful man of flesh like Adam. He's a new man because
he's born from a new seed. He's born from the seed of the
word of God. He's not born from Adam's sinful seed. That new
man has a new nature that has new desires. He's got a new master.
He's got a new home. Christ has made all things new.
in that man. God created him new. And second,
the Lord here is talking about when he returns, he'll create
a new heaven and a new earth where he dwells righteousness.
And he's going to create that creation the same way he did
the first one, just by speaking. He's going to burn this creation
up. He's going to speak and create a new creation, new heavens and
a new earth. And it's going to be new in every
way. It's going to be new in every
way because there's not going to be any sin there. The only thing
that's going to be there is righteousness. There's not going to be any sin
in his people, and there's not going to be any sin in that world.
No more will we walk by faith or walk by sight. We will not
follow the Lord by faith. We'll see him face to face. There'll
be no more darkness. It'll be perfect light, light
and understanding. There'll be no more pain, no
more tears, No more sorrows, no more funerals. All that will
be there is joy and peace. There will be no more death.
There's eternal life. Look at Romans chapter five.
Everything there is going to be new. It's going to be the
opposite of this world of sin and misery and death. In Romans
chapter five, verse 21, Paul tells us why that's going to
be. Verse 21. For as sin hath reigned unto
death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal
life by Jesus Christ our Lord. There's no more sin. Everything's
going to be different. And in our text, Isaiah 65, Isaiah
gives us five ways that the Lord makes all things new, both in
his people in the new birth and in the new creation of heaven.
And the first one is this. Christ makes a new experience
for His people. Verse 17. For behold, I create
new heavens and a new earth, and the former shall not be remembered
nor come into mind. Now the new experience for God's
people is the experience of no more sin because of the sacrifice
of our Lord Jesus Christ. I look forward tonight that we
observe the Lord's table We can remember our Savior, remember
His sacrifice for us. This is something I do every
day. I love to think about the effectual sacrifice of Christ. It's completely, 100% successful. It thrills my soul to know that
the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses us, cleanses me. All I see about myself is sin.
I'm thrilled to know the blood of Christ cleanses me from all
sin. From original sin and guilt and Adam, from every act of sin,
from every thought of sin, from every desire of sin, it's all
gone under the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. The death blotted
out because it's all been put under the blood of Christ. I
love to think about that. Don't you love to think about
that? His blood removes our sin. And what a joy to know that God
the Holy Spirit has caused a new man to be born, a man who the
Apostle John said cannot sin. That new maiden created in the
new birth. He can never sin because he's
been given the nature of Christ in the new birth. Just like Christ
cannot sin, That man born of Christ cannot sin. That's what
Peter meant when he said we're partakers of the divine nature.
We've been given in the new birth the nature of Christ. So that
new man who's been born cannot sin. And since he can't sin,
he has no sin, he can never perish. There's no reason for God to
condemn him. He has no sin. It's all been put away under
the sacrifice of Christ. He has already been condemned
in the person of his substitute. He's already died in the person
of his substitute. There's no reason for God to
be angry at him. He'll always be accepted. That's
how successful the sacrifice of Christ for his people is.
And I tell you, that's so amazing. We can't believe it unless God
gives us faith. It's just too amazing. A human
being can never believe that. until God gives us faith in Christ. It's so amazing, he tells Isaiah,
behold, you look with awe and wonder and amazement what I'm
getting ready to do. I'm going to create a new heaven
and a new earth. I'm going to create a new man
in my people. And that also applies to heaven.
In heaven, God's elect are going to have a new experience, an
experience that we can only dream about here on this earth. the
experience of living that outsee. We have no concept of how wonderful
that'll be. Now, right now, that new man
who's been born of God, he has no sin. But all that old, that
old man still left, didn't he? And all that old man is a sin.
Right at this moment, everything's already been made new for that
new man. That new man is still forced to live in the body of
the old man. a sinful man. He's forced to
live in a creation that's filled with sin. But God's elect will
be forever finished with that experience of sin in heaven.
In heaven, we will fully experience our sin being taken away through
the sacrifice of Christ our Savior. There'll be nothing tainted with
sin there. There'll be no sin. There'll
only be holiness and righteousness in glory. There won't be anything
that resembles Adam. It will only be those who have
been made just like Christ. And we think we love to think
about the sacrifice of Christ taking away our sin now. But
in heaven, we're going to experience it. We will experience how completely
the blood of Christ removed the sin of his people. Isaiah says
it's so complete. We won't even remember it anymore. I have looked and looked and
looked at that. How can that be that we will not even remember
our sin and the sorrow and the pain and the suffering of this
world anymore? How can it be that we will not
remember that? I read that the redeemed in heaven
sing of the glorious of Christ, sing of him who washed us from
our sin. The ransom throng sings of Christ
who has redeemed us from our sin. Sounds to me like we remember
our sin, doesn't it? I mean, it seems to me like we've
got to remember something about it because we know Christ washed
us from it. We sing in glory and are thankful that Christ
redeemed us from it. I believe I got the blessing
of that here. Isaiah says that the former things should not
be remembered, nor come to mind. And that phrase, come into mind,
means, literally translated, come upon the heart. Like I said,
I'm sure we'll remember our sin, because otherwise how could we
sing the glories of Him who redeemed us from our sin? But our heart
is not going to be able to dwell upon our sin and our pain and
our suffering and our sorrow when we were here on earth. Our
heart won't be able to do it. Our heart won't be able to dwell
on that. You know why? because in glory, we will be
taken up with Christ. The glory of seeing Christ face
to face will make it so that we can't really see our former
sin and our pain and our sorrow anymore. When we're with Christ
face to face in a perfect body, perfect heart, Our hearts are
going to be so filled with the joy of just being in his presence. There's not going to be room
enough in our hearts for anything to dwell on our former sin and
our sorrow and our pain and our suffering. That's how completely
sacrifice of Christ removes the sin of his people. That's the new experience of
grace. Second, Christ makes new emotions for his people. Verse
18. But be ye glad and rejoice forever
in that which I create. For behold, I create Jerusalem
a rejoicing, and her people a joy. And I will rejoice in Jerusalem,
and joy in my people. And the voice of weeping shall
be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying. Now ever
since Adam sinned in the garden, This world has been filled with
bad emotions. It's been filled with sorrow
and crying and tears. Immediately after Adam fell,
we started seeing new emotions. The emotion of fear. Adam was
never afraid of anything before. Now he's afraid of everything.
He's ashamed. He feels hatred. Never felt hatred
before. He does now. And then God came
and pronounced the curse of sin. And ever since then, the world
has been full of nothing but sorrow and death and tears ever
since. But Christ comes to his people.
He makes all things new. That new man doesn't have any
of those emotions of fear, shame, and hatred. Doesn't have the
emotion of fear of death. Fear has been replaced with boldness
before the throne of God's grace. Boldness not because of who we
are, but boldness because of who Christ is. That we can come
boldly before the Father, knowing we'll be accepted because of
who Christ is, because of his perfection, because of his sacrifice
for us. Shame in Adam has been replaced
with honor in Christ, because we've been made righteous. Hatred
for man has been replaced with the love of Christ shed abroad
in our hearts. Sorrow over our sin has been replaced with gladness
and joy. The fear of death has been replaced
with looking forward to it. Looking forward to that time
we can lay this body down and go be with Christ. To the believer,
not only is there no fear in death, there's joy in them. To
leave this world and go be with Christ. Joy. Now you know, you
who believe know, that's spiritually true of the new man. Yet here
we sit, and I bet you today we've all felt the emotions of fear
and shame and hatred and sorrow. I bet you every one of us have.
But in heaven, we'll not have the experience of those emotions
anymore. There's not going to be any reason
to have those emotions there because of what our first point
was, Christ took our sin away completely. In heaven, there's
not going to be a fear or a tear or even a sigh. Look back a few
pages at Isaiah chapter 35. Verse 10. And the ransom to the Lord shall
return and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon
their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness,
and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. That is new emotions,
will there be no more sighing, no more sorrow, no more sighing.
There are many times, I can't even tell you how many times
I sigh in a day. And I'll sigh and Chance says, well, I know
what that one means. And sometimes I say, I don't know what that
sigh means, what does that mean? And I sigh a lot. What a new experience
when sin is gone. There'll be no more sorrow, no
more sighing, just joy and laughter. It may be even more amazing than
that. Christ our Savior says, I will rejoice in my people. I'm going to have joy in them.
That's another one I looked at. I can understand you and me having
joy in Christ. That's easy to understand. But
Christ having joy in me, that's what he said. And I'm so glad
he said it because that's the security of our salvation. The
Savior rejoices in the work of his hands, not the work of our
hands, the work of his hands, and he'll never let it go. He'll never let it fall. I find
joy in that right now. But in heaven, that joy will
be perfect. That emotion of joy will be perfect.
Thirdly, Christ gives his people new life. Verse 20. There should
be no more than an infant of days, nor an old man that hath
not fulfilled his days, or filled his days. For the child shall
die an hundred years old, but the sinner being an hundred years
old shall be accursed. There are several things about
this verse I want us to look at. It's sad but true that on this
earth, babies are dying. That's a sad thing. We see a
baby born. And our hope is that baby will
grow and mature and have many years of happiness. Well, God's
children, when they're born again, they're born babies. But you
know, none of them are still born. Every one of them. There are babes in Christ and
they grow to young men, young women in Christ. They grow to
old men, old women in Christ. And that's true because on this
earth there's growth and grace and knowledge of our Savior.
But there are no babes in Christ and no old men in Christ in this
sense. No believer is more saved than
another believer. No believer is more holy, more
righteous, more justified, more sanctified than any other believer. The babe in Christ, the one who
just believed, the one who God just gave life to, is just as
saved as the old man in Christ who's been rejoicing in the gospel
for 50 years. You know why that's true? Because
all of salvation depends upon the Lord Jesus Christ. and none
of it depends on you and me. And the example I'll use is the
thief on the cross and the Apostle John. They were both there that
day, the day of our Lord's crucifixion. And the moment that thief on
the cross believed, the moment he believed on Christ, he was
just as saved as the beloved Apostle John. That's so. The moment he believed, really
from eternity, That thief, that thief who was so rotten that
men said the only thing we can do with him is put him to death.
He was vile. Oh, what a vile life that man
had. Vile life, just a, oh. That vile thief was eternally
as loved of God as the beloved apostle John who knelt upon the
Savior's breast. that salvation in Christ. You
know why that's true? Because their salvation was entirely
dependent upon Christ. They're both accepted in Christ.
And when that thief and that apostle got to glory, they're
equal in every way. Didn't matter what they did here
on earth. They're equal in every way. That thief, he never could
do anything in the service of Christ, could he? Oh, he knew
Christ had a kingdom, but he never could do anything in the
service of it. He nailed to a cross. He can't move his hands or his
feet. And the apostle John went everywhere in the service of
Christ. But that apostle is not more saved. He's not more accepted. He's not more beloved than that
thief on the cross because they're both accepted in Christ. One
doesn't have a greater work than the other because they both have
the same work. It's the work of Christ the Savior.
You see, salvation is by faith through grace. By grace through
faith in Christ without any of our works. And that thrills my
soul. That's the confidence of my salvation
that it all depends on Christ and not one hair of it depends
upon me. That's a new life. Now, the second
thing here in this verse. God's children who are born,
they're never still born. But here, babies do die. And you know that will never,
ever happen in glory. Now we believe that a baby who
dies here on earth, we believe that baby immediately goes to
be with the Lord. We don't believe it because that
was a cute baby. We love that baby and it doesn't
have anything to do with you and me. That baby's just as ruined
an atom as we are. We believe that that baby goes
to be with the Lord because we believe that Christ died for
that baby. There's many scriptures that we draw that belief from. But you know, in glory, that
baby who died, taken into heaven, that baby's not going to be a
baby there. He'll be a full grown man. She'll be a full grown woman.
And that baby is complete in Christ. That baby is just as
saved as that one who lived to be an old man in Christ. Because
just like the thief and the apostle, both of them, their salvation
depends upon Christ. Both the old man, he's an old
man in the faith. He's been a believer for many,
many years. He finally died. And that baby who dies in just
moments after birth, do you know both of them have died a blessed
death? died to leave this world to go
be with the Lord. But the unbeliever who may live
a very long life, he might live 100 years on this earth and may
have good health and strength almost all those years. He may
do what men call many good works, but you know those works will
never do him any good. His death will be a cursed death.
The only way he can be saved is in Christ. His works can't
enter into it. And if he does not die in Christ,
if he does not die with faith in Christ, his death will be
a cursed death because he didn't die in faith. Here's the third
thing. Oftentimes we think here on this
earth, when we see a baby die, we think that's a life cut short.
We think that baby died much too early. We look at some old
men and that old man will tell you, I've lived too long. I don't want to be here anymore.
All I want is to go home. I pray that old man will tell
you I pray every day. Lord, when I go to bed, my bedtime
prayer is this, Lord, take me home tonight. Just take me home
tonight. When I wake up in the morning
and look around you and I do, I sigh. I'm still here. Now you
listen to me. Either way, either way, both
the baby and the old man in Christ fulfill all of their days appointed
by God. Their days will last just as
long as they have service to do for the Lord. Not one of them,
not one of them will die prematurely. And not one of them will die
too late. Not one. And the example we saw just last
week is our brother Cody Grouper. You and I would say Cody died
too young. We'd say, oh, he died so young.
And I'll be very honest with you, I thought that there was
a lot of work left for Cody to do. I really did. I had planned out the next three
years of visits with Cody. Going down in January, February,
because I felt like Cody had a lot of work left to do. We
won't be going there. But I promise you this. Our brother Cody did not leave
one thing undone. God gave him the will. Not one. Now, you and I won't even, that
applies to every one of God's people. Do I understand that? Do I understand what God's doing
in that? Absolutely not. But can I rest in it? Yes, I
can. I can rest in it. Because the
salvation of God's people is God's work. It's not our work
at all. It's God's work. He'll use somebody. He'll use a messenger. He'll
use a servant of some kind. But you just mark this down.
Salvation of God's people is His work. It's not our work.
The Lord's gonna save his people. And not one of them is gonna
be lost because God let one of his servants slip through his
fingers and die too soon. Not one. All right, here's the
fourth thing. Christ gives his people a new
way of worship. Verse 21. And they shall build
houses and inhabit them. And they shall plant vineyards
and eat the fruit of them. They shall not build and another
inhabit. They shall not plant and another eat. For as the days
of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall
long enjoy the work of their hands, they shall not labor in
vain, nor bring forth trouble. For they are the seed of the
blessed of the Lord, and their offspring with them. Now these
Jews that Isaiah is writing to in his day, they're going to
build houses, and the Babylonians are going to come and take them
away. They're going to plant vineyards, but they're never
going to eat the grapes of that vineyard. The Babylonians are
going Because that fellow who planned them, he's already been
carried off into captivity in Babylon before the harvest came.
The labor that the Jews put into their houses and their cities
and their homes and all these things, that labor was in vain.
They never got to enjoy it. They were taken away in captivity.
Do you know what that's a picture of? That's a picture of you and
me trying to worship God by our works. If we try to worship God
by our works, try to become accepted by what we do. Our labor is in
vain. We're just laboring in vain.
We labor in vain to try to keep God's law. We labor in vain to
do something to make ourselves acceptable with God. We can't
do it. But that's the religion all flesh
is born under in bondage to the law. But thankfully, Christ comes
and he makes all things new for his people. God's elect worship
God by grace in Christ. without any of our words. And
that worship is never in vain. Worshiping God in Christ, by
faith in Christ, without any of our words, is worship that's
never in vain. It's always heard and accepted
for Christ's sake. Verse 24. And it shall come to
pass that before they call, I will answer. And while they're yet
speaking, I will hear. See, God's people are always
heard for Christ's sake. And here's another thing that's
new. Grace gives us a new promise. The Lord says, before you even
call, I'll answer. Now, how can that be? That's
another thing I looked at. How can the Lord answer before
we even call? Well, I'll tell you how. It's
the Lord's the one who makes us call. If He just leaves us
to ourselves, we're never going to call. He works on His people
and gives them the heart to call, gives them the desire to call.
We call by His will, not by ours. See, He's working on us before
we even know it. So in that way, He begins to answer before we
ever call. And the moment we call, the moment
we call on God in Christ, on the authority of God's Word,
I tell you, we will be heard. Grace must give us a new mediator
too. were always heard in Christ. And the second thing this verse
teaches is this. The believers labor in the service of the Lord
is never in vain. Never. If the Lord lays it on
your heart to do something. Just do it. Think about it. Don't
think wonder what how people will react to it or wonder what
they'll think about that. Just do it. You may think it's
a small, insignificant thing that just doesn't amount to a
hill of beans. If the Lord's laid on your heart to do in his
service, you do it. Just do it. And don't get discouraged
if it doesn't turn out the way you want it to. Don't be discouraged
about that, because it always turns out the way the Lord intended.
His work will not return unto Him for it. Our labor in Christ
is never in vain. And you know that holds true
in heaven too. I believe in heaven, we'll work. Just like Adam did
in the garden. God gave, put Adam in that garden,
gave him a job to do. Dress the garden, work in the
garden. I believe the new heavens and new earth will be the same
way. But that work will not be like going to work here. It'll
not be like work on earth. Because Christ has made all things
new for his people. We'll never plant something that
doesn't grow. We'll never build something that
finally rots and falls over. We'll never see our labor just,
it doesn't work, you know, or works for a few minutes and quits
working and we don't know why. None of our labor in heaven will
be in vain because there, there'll be no sin to ruin anything. I'll tell you something else
that's true about heaven. Our worship there will never be in
vain. I often feel like I've failed in preaching. I often
feel like, well, you know times when you
truly worship and times you don't. And I fear most often we don't
rather than do. We'll never have a worship service
like that there because sin's gone. Then lastly, Christ makes
His people a new creature who's got a new nature. Verse 25. The
wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall
eat straw like the bullock, and dust shall be the serpent's meat.
They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountains, saith
the Lord. Christ makes that new man completely
new in the new birth. That new man, he's got He's got
a new nature. It's not the nature of Adam.
It's the nature of Christ. That new man has peace. The wolf and the lamb. Those
are natural enemies. The whole reason you've got to
have a shepherd is wolves are going to come and eat sheep. Somebody's
got to keep the wolf away. The wolf and the lamb are natural
enemies. But you know, in Christ, natural born enemies have peace. We have peace with God. through
the blood of our Lord Jesus, the blood of His cross. And we
have peace with each other through the same blood. I know here we
don't enjoy that peace with God or peace with one another as
fully as we ought to. And the reason for that is there's
still sin in us. But there, there won't be. In glory, we will never
have a moment that we fear punishment from God because we have peace
with Him in Christ. We'll never have a cross word
or hurt feeling between each other will have peace. I thought
about this illustration. I can't imagine what it's like
to be stoned to death. It's not something that happens
instantly, you know, you get shot in the head or something.
As I understand it, a relatively slow process, something I would
hope to avoid. But you think about Stephen being
stoned to death. He had to look around, don't
you think? And he saw Saul stand over there, Saul of Tarsus, consenting
to his death, standing there holding the coats of the cows.
Saul said, let me take your coats so you can throw those rocks
better. And he's standing there holding their coats, watching.
But Stephen got stoned to death. Stephen had a thing. What a wretch. We know Stephen is going to lay
down in peace with Saul, with Paul. They're going to worship
God together, shoulder to shoulder. Christ makes that new man. He's
new. He's got a new nature, so he's
got a new appetite. The lion is going to eat straw
like the bull. Now, this is what I know about
lions. They're meat eaters. A lion is
a natural predator. It's just in that lion to want
to stalk and kill that bullet, that wildebeest. It's just in
him to stalk in the tall grass and kill one. He don't even have
to be hungry. It's just his nature to want
to stalk one and kill one. But not in glory. You know, the
reason the animals are predators and hunt one another and eat
one another now is because a man sinned. But when sin's gone,
the predators are going to be gone. And the lion, that's a
good picture of us. Isaiah used the lion here as
an illustration because the lion is a good picture of you and
me by nature. By nature, we desire to bite
and devour one another. Just do anything we can to get
a leg up on somebody else. But not the new man. The new
man's got a new appetite. He's got an appetite for the
word of God. He doesn't have an appetite to
devour one another. He's got an appetite to devour
the Word of God. He's got an appetite to be at
the feet of Christ, not trying to get a leg up on all his brethren.
He's got a new appetite. But now notice that this promise
is not for everybody, is it? This promise is only for God's
elect. This promise is only for those who have faith in Christ.
This promise is only for those for whom Christ died. Because
Isaiah says the serpent, he eats dust now, and he's going to eat
dust then too. The serpent's still going to
be under the curse. He's still going to be eating dust. Those
who do not believe on Christ, they're under the curse now.
And they'll be under it eternally. They'll suffer for it eternally
because they refuse to believe on Christ. But Isaiah closes
by telling us this. Everyone who believes on Christ
will never suffer any hurt. They'll never be destroyed because
Christ suffered for it. because Christ was destroyed
for them. And when He was destroyed, He
put their sin away by His sacrifice. And that's what we're going to
remember here now. I truly enjoy the Wednesday before
Thanksgiving. I always want to observe the
Lord's table the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. We have so many
reasons to be thankful, don't we? The abundance of everything that
the Lord has given us, physically, materially, and especially spiritually. We have so much to be thankful
for, that all of the reasons for our thanksgiving are pictured
in this day. They all begin with the sacrifice
of Christ. Now I enjoy feasting at the Lord's
table before we go feast at our tables tomorrow. So Eric, you
may come and distribute the bread.