Series: Isaiah
Title: Former Things and New Things
Text: Isaiah 42: 9
Date: September 4, 2011
Place: SGBC, New Jersey
The Spirit of God tells every believer to do something wonderful in verse 10, “Sing!” We have been made willing in the day of his power and we do what he commands, “We sing.” To whom? “Sing unto the LORD”. What are we singing, “Sing unto the LORD a new song!” Verse 12 tells us what this new song is, “Let them give glory unto the LORD, and declare his praise…” The glory we sing of is the glory of the LORD. Our song is to the praise of glory of the LORD. Our Lord has saved us by his grace.
Title: Former Things and New Things
Proposition: We behold in all that has come to pass the faithfulness of our God to bring to pass all that he has promised.
Isaiah 42: 9: Behold, the former things are come to pass, and new things do I declare: before they spring forth I tell you of them.
Scripture is God’s declaration of things which God foretold would come to pass, which God himself then brought to pass. All these things glorify the triune God in the salvation of his elect, by the grace of God, through faith in his Son, Christ Jesus—the new things God declares in the hearts of his children is that salvation is of the Lord.
I. When as yet Abraham did not even have a single child, God said, “I have made thee a father of many nations.” (Genesis 17: 4-5.) The former things came to pass. What are the new things God reveals in the heart of the believer by that?
In eternity, before as yet, one of God’s elect was created, God the Father said to his Son Christ Jesus, “I have made thee a father of many nations.” He gave to Christ Jesus a people chosen of God, to be saved out of, from among, every tribe and kindred on the face of this earth. Our text speaks of: praise “from the end of the earth”.
Psalm 139: 16: Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.
He is “God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.” (Romans 4:17.) He says, “I tell you of them”. Has God revealed this good news in your heart?
Ephesians 1: 9 Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: 10 That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him: 11 In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will: 12 That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.
II. Over 400 years beforehand, God told Abraham his descendants would become slaves in Egypt. The former things are come to pass, what are the new things that God reveals in the hearts of his children by those former things.
Adam’s sin, which put all God’s elect in the bondage of spiritual death, was known by God before the foundation of the world. It was according to the purpose of God in bringing glory and praise to himself in the salvation of his elect through the substitionary death of the last Adam--Christ Jesus, the Son of God.
1 Corinthians 15: 22: For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
Romans 5: 17: For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.)
3. Beforehand, God said he would redeem the children of Israel out of Egyptian bondage through the blood of a Passover lamb. The former things are come to pass. What are the new things God reveals in our hearts by those former things he brought to pass?
John 1: 36: And looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God!
1 Corinthians 5: 7:…For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:
All whom God purposed to save sinned. All owed the wages of sin. All had to die. In Christ all his people died and all are justified. All must and shall be brought to faith in Christ by his grace.
4. Beforehand, God promised to deliver the children of Israel into the land which God promised—the former things are come to pass. What are the new things God reveals in the heart of his regenerated child by those former things?
John 6: 39: And this is the Father’s will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.
Not one who God gave to Christ, not one who Christ redeemed out of bondage, not one shall be lost but all shall be delivered into the new heavens and the new earth (Revelations 21: 9-27.)
Application: God does not save by accident, but exactly according to his eternal purpose.
Ephesians 1: 11: In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:
With God all events in time from the first to the last have been as perfectly done in the Divine mind from eternity, as they are perfectly done in the moment he brings them to pass in time. Christ is the Lamb Slain from the foundation of the world. Our God is faithful—Christ the Word is Faithful and True.
Isaiah 46: 9 Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, 10 Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure: 11: Calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man that executeth my counsel from a far country: yea, I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also do it.
Everyone can read these scriptures and behold these things with the natural intellect. Not everyone believes God. Not everyone believes God foretold these things. Not everyone believes God brought them to pass. Not everyone beholds Christ and our finished salvation in these things--“History” is indeed His Story. If you believe, flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but God from heaven.
Matthew 11: 25: At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.
All who truly believe, do so, because God has revealed his word effectually in the heart he has made new by his sovereign grace—“before they spring forth I tell YOU of them.”
John 3: 33: He that hath received his testimony hath set to his seal that God is true.
1 John 5: 10: He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son. 11 And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. 13 These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.
Brethren, God has told us former things concerning Christ to come, we see and believe they have now come to pass. And we have his word of promise of eternal glory with him. He shall bring it to pass—he has saved us, is saving us and shall save us.
Oh, rest in his Word. Our God is faithful. O sing of his faithfulness! This is rest for the worried mind, rest in the midst of a world of tribulation, assurance of forgiveness as the believer beholds the sin of our flesh. The former things are come to pass. Is God declaring these new things in your heart this morning? Salvation is in no other. Forgiveness of sin is in Christ Jesus alone. Complacent rest in the hand of our God is the death blow to our ignorance and our anxious worry. There truly is no better, more comfortable, more carefree place to stand, than “Standing on the promises of Christ my King”
Let us, then, lie low before the Lord, and humble ourselves under His mighty hand. And let us sing:
Great is thy faithfulness, o God my Father
There is no shadow of turning with thee
Thou changest not
Thou compassions they fail not
As Thou hast been, Thou forever shalt be
Morning by morning new mercies I see
Al I have needed thy hand hath provided
Great is thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!
Amen!