LIVE IN GOD’S SALVATION
ISAIAH 43:16—21 APRIL 6, 2003
ISAIAH 43:16-21
16This is what the LORD says-- he who made a way through the sea, a path through the mighty waters, 17who drew out the chariots and horses, the army and reinforcements to-gether, and they lay there, never to rise again, extinguished, snuffed out like a wick:
18"Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.
19See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.
20The wild animals honor me, the jackals and the owls, because I provide water in the desert and streams in the wasteland, to give drink to my people, my chosen, 21 the people I formed for myself that they may proclaim my praise.
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Dearest Fellow-Redeemed and Saints in the Lord:
Yesterday, today or tomorrow—which is most important to us? Sometimes at different times in our life, it’s hard to tell which is the most important. Today in our text, if you caught the phrase in the middle of our verses, it says, ‘don’t dwell on the past.’ Isaiah stated it is good to remember but not to dwell on the past. In our society, as we look at the future, I don’t know of any place in the media, whether it’s the newspaper, radio or TV that makes the future look very promising at all—whether it’s global warming or the war or even the economy. Not many even want to look into the future. Today is the day we want to live in. To live in God’s salvation today is God’s gift to us. Paul writes in Corinthians, "For he says, ’In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.’ I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation"(2 CORINTHIANS 6:2). That is what we want to concen-trate on this morning. We are to live in God’s salvation today. We are to live in God’s salva-tion now. We will want to forget about the past that may have disappointed us and not look ahead to the future, which yet lies ahead of us.
LIVE IN GOD’S SALVATION TODAY
I. Savor God’s Deliverance
II. Praise God for Blessings
I. Savor God’s Deliverance
When take the big overview of the book of Isaiah the Biblical scholars have divided it into three parts. Chapter forty-four is near the beginning of the second part. This second part of Isaiah is where the Lord God, Himself, talks how He’s going to deliver the children of Israel by His grace. It is a part of joy and rejoicing. It was especially important for the children of Israel because at this time in their history; they were no longer in the Promised Land, no longer in Israel, they were in Babylon. The king there had come and conquered them, had taken them away from their Promised Land, had taken them to Babylon. We know where Babylon is—it’s where they’re fighting the war. It wouldn’t be too far from Baghdad today. It is quite a ways from the Promised Land if you were walking. Isaiah comes as God’s prophet. He isn’t in the Promised Land either. Isaiah is in captivity with them.
Our text says, 16This is what the LORD says—. Isaiah wanted to remind them that it wasn’t he, Isaiah, speaking. It was the Lord speaking once more. Now, if they had forgotten who the Lord was, because of their constant idol worship, Isaiah is going to remind them. This is what the LORD says, he who made a way through the sea, a path through the mighty waters. It did not take long for the children of Israel to remember when they had their backs against the walls, when the Egyptian army was on one side coming to put them to death, and the Red Sea was on the other. There was no escape. This is the Lord who made a path through the water—and even more than that. 17who drew out the chariots and horses, the army and reinforcements together…(remember that Pharaoh chased them down)… and they lay there, never to rise again, extinguished, snuffed out like a wick. It doesn’t take much to snuff out a wick on a candle. One puff and it is blown out. That was the power of the Lord against all of the great power of the Egyptian pharaoh. His great army with chariots and horsemen were snuffed out like a wick. This is the Lord’s deliverance for the children of Is-rael. They may have thought they were forgotten and forsaken. Isaiah comes and says, ‘Remember the Lord. He has delivered you in the past.’ In essence, the Lord had delivered them now. They were not dead; they were still living. They were well taken care of by their captors. Sure, they weren’t living in their homes, they weren’t living in the Promised Land, they were no longer by the temple, but God was still with them.
Isaiah says to them, ‘Forget the former things. Do not dwell on the past.’ Remember the Lord. That happened often to the children of Israel. They liked to dwell on the past. They said, ‘Look what the Lord has done for us. Why can’t He do more?’ Why can’t we still be living in our homeland—a land flowing with milk and honey? Why can’t we be free like be-fore? What had happened, the Lord had done so much for them, they were always expecting more. Even when Jesus came in the New Testament, they said, ‘we are the children of Abraham; you don’t have to come preach to us. You don’t have to provide us any different way of salvation.’ Already, Isaiah says, ‘Don’t dwell on the past.‘ Remember it. But now look at how the Lord delivers day by day.
If we were to look at our past, we could probably see different times where the Lord has delivered us. We may have been like the children of Israel, when we had our backs against the wall--the Red Sea on one side and an army of attackers on the other--and won-dering which way to go…what to do next. The Lord delivered us. We learn that He has de-livered His people from the very beginning. Adam and Eve, when they sinned certainly de-served no deliverance, but the Lord delivered them with the promise of a Savior. David, when he was to be king, often was delivered from the hands of Saul who sought to put him to death. We hear these words in 2 SAMUEL 22:2,3: "David said: ’The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn (strength) of my salvation. He is my stronghold, my refuge and my savior--from violent men you save me.’" We could still say those same words today, couldn’t we? The Lord is our Savior, our rock, and our deliverer. He has delivered us from violent men time and time again. You and I live in a country of relative peace, safety and security. The Lord has deliv-ered us. It’s not just our mighty armies; it is the Lord!
When we look, we realize the Lord is concerned for more than just our physical well-being, isn’t He? If need be, to teach us a lesson, He could do like He did to the children of Israel and have someone defeat our nation and put us into captivity. But, you and I are reminded that He already has delivered us from our worst enemies. The Lord has set us free from cap-tivity. Satan himself once held us captive but the Lord defeated him. Sin also had a stran-glehold on us, but the Lord took away our sins. Because of that, whenever we feel threat-ened by Satan or sorely tempted by him, or whenever we feel that our sins are enough to overcome us, the Lord says, ‘Remember your deliverer.’ From PSALM 34:17,18 we read, "The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles. The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit". He saves us who are crushed in spirit. We come today, once again realizing our sins weigh heavily down upon us because of the number and because of the seriousness of every sin we commit. Yet He saves us. He gives us His very own body and blood in the Lord’s Sup-per. He lifts us up from the depths of despair. That is the Lord’s main concern in our life.
Oh yes, our Lord enjoys it just as much as we do when we have a nice life and every-thing is rosy. When we don’t have any ailments or sicknesses it seems life goes a lot better. The Lord is also concerned that our soul isn’t ailing and sick, that it isn’t destined for destruc-tion and broken. When we talk about deliverance, it is the Lord who has delivered us from the depths of hell and He has delivered us from the grip of Satan and sin. We think of the first deliverance that stands as an example for us. Paul writes in Romans, "He (Jesus our Lord) was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification" (ROMANS 4:25). Jesus was delivered first, not from safety but into death itself so that you and I would be delivered from eternal death. This gives us reason then, to live in God’s salvation now…to sit back and reflect everyday on what God has done for us--that He has delivered us.
Believers can savor God’s deliverance. He says to enjoy it and as we do, day after day, then we also
II. Praise God for His blessings
18"Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. Isaiah wanted God’s people to concentrate on the present. You can well imagine the Israelites did not want to concentrate on the present. They didn’t want to think, ‘Well, here we are. We’re slaves again! Here we are—not in the Promised Land. Here we are--not in the land flowing with milk and honey. Here we are—woe is me!’ But, Isaiah says, ‘Forget those things because the Lord is going to do new things. 19See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? Everyday for the Israelites, as in our lives, gets to be an adventure because the Lord has new things in store for us. He had new things in store for them. They were not perishing. They were not fighting war anymore. They were not worried about their enemies anymore be-cause they were prisoners of their enemies. The Israelites were taken care of by their cap-tors.
The Lord was going to do even more than that. He was doing a new thing. He was still providing for them; He was still protecting them; He was still preserving them even though they didn’t think it was the best of conditions. Then he talks about this new thing that is going to spring up. I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland. Unheard of! They were used to the desert as being dry and sandy. Again, we’ve seen pictures on TV and the sandstorms. There are no streams in the wasteland. The Lord says He’s going to do that. He says when He does that, even nature understands. 20The wild animals honor me, the jackals and the owls, (why?) because I provide water in the desert and streams in the wasteland. He refers back to that again—water and streams in the wasteland. What did that mean? It meant that not only was the Lord going to provide for the wild animals, but for His people. The streams and the waters in the wasteland (as Isaiah explains more fully later on) was the fact that the children of Israel would return to the Promised Land. They would not spend the rest of their history as captives in Babylon. They would go back home. They would follow the path through the desert again back to Jerusalem.
The Lord didn’t just do this for nature; he says ‘to give drink to my people, my chosen, 21 the people I formed for myself (Isaiah reminded them that they were God’s chosen people. God did everything for them) that they may proclaim my praise.’ They were not forsaken or forgotten. They were God’s chosen people. They were the children of Israel…always were, always will be.
Today, in essence, we may say that God’s choice is not upon the children of Israel be-cause they rejected Him. This refers to the Orthodox Jews who are still expecting the Savior yet to come. Who is left? Who are God’s treasured possessions today? God’s treasured possessions include you and I and every believer in Christ the Lord. Everyone who looks to Jesus for his or her salvation is His treasured possession. Believers are called His children and treasured possession. From MALACHI 3:17 we read, "’They will be mine,’ says the LORD Almighty, ’in the day when I make up my treasured possession. I will spare them, just as in compassion a man spares his son who serves him.’” You and I are no different than Adam and Eve. You and I are no different than the complaining Israelites. We don’t deserve salvation but we are God’s treasured possession and He saves us.
We’re coming to the end of the season of Lent. It’s a blessed time when we look again and again at how God sent His Son to save us. He wants us to think about that in the pre-sent…His salvation. Our reaction is to remember all the blessings God has given us. Today, do not even think of any earthly blessings at all. The Lord tells us we rush after things in this life. He says, ‘But I even give the pagans that—those who aren’t my chosen, those who aren’t my treasured possession.’ The rain and snow fall upon the just and the unjust. He says for us to remember our spiritual blessings because the pagan, the unbeliever, doesn’t consider spiritual blessings at all. Paul tells us in EPHESIANS 1:3, "Praise is to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiri-tual blessing in Christ.” He starts with forgiveness for us and then every spiritual blessing af-ter that is ours. If we have forgiveness then we have everything else. You know that list—hope, peace, joy, comfort, and patience, long suffering—and it goes on and on. Every spiri-tual blessing, not just a few, not just some, but everything you and I need for our very spiritual well-being.
As we live in the present and we think of those things and we praise God, we would praise Him all the time. In the book of HEBREWS 13:15 we read, "Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise--the fruit of lips that confess his name.” It talks about the fruit of the lips. I want to talk about the fruit of our lives too. You and I have every spiritual blessing. You and I know that no matter what the media tells us about the fu-ture, the future is in God’s hands. Even if the world did perish or the economy just went bad or we were defeated and everything else went bad, the Lord is still in control. We have hope and peace and joy and comfort. In these times and days, it’s all the more important that peo-ple see the sacrifice of Christ (not just the fruit of the lips that confess His name, but the fruit of our life) that in us. The world around us needs to see our confidence and joy as we live in the present, knowing that the future will take care of itself. God is in control.
It’s not easy. It is not easy to live in the present according to our society. We’re not raised that way. In the last few decades, society doesn’t look at the present. It looks at the past and says, ‘What can we learn from the past? How come we are not doing things like we used to? How come we’re aren’t fighting this war the way we did before?’ The world looks to the future and tries to scare us. Our world tries to frighten us I think—from weather reports--to economy—to all those things. And it is frightening if you just concentrate on them. What has happened to the present? It is gone.
The Lord reminds believers to dwell in the present. He says to us to live in God’s sal-vation today. Savor the deliverance that God has provided for you. As you savor and enjoy God’s deliverance and salvation day after day after day, then you’ll praise God for all of His blessings. This, too, is a gift of God. From ECCLESIASTES 5:19,20, we read, "Moreover, when God gives any man wealth and possessions, and enables him to enjoy them, to accept his lot and be happy in his work--this is a gift of God. He seldom reflects on the days of his life, because God keeps him occupied with gladness of heart.” May our gracious God keep you occupied day by day with the gladness of your heart as He provides you with salvation day by day so that you may live a life of praise for Him. Amen.
Pastor Timm O. Meyer
