Deo Gloria
Sermon for December 31, 2022
Pastor Martin Bentz
Text: Isaiah 51:1-6
Theme: God Keeps His “New Year’s Resolutions”!
- Past
- Present
- And Future
What resolutions have you made for the new year? To get in better shape, to lose a few pounds, to make the A Honor Roll at school or the Dean’s List, to find a new job, to remodel your home, to read through the entire Bible, to have devotions with your family on a regular basis?
This evening in the verses of our text the prophet Isaiah reminds us of a very comforting truth: that God always keeps his “New Year’s resolutions.” No, God doesn’t actually make any New Year’s resolutions in these verses. What he made throughout the Old Testament were promises. And when God makes a promise, he keeps it. When he speaks to his people and tells them he is going to do something, he does it. He never fails. It is in that sense that God keeps his “New Year’s resolutions.” He always keeps them—past, present and future.
In ch. 51 Isaiah is speaking to the faithful people of Israel, those who had not forsaken the LORD and not turned away to worshipping idols, those who trusted in the LORD and followed in his ways. In the not too distant future these people would find themselves in some very difficult and discouraging circumstances. They would find themselves in exile in Babylon—their homes gone, their possessions gone, their city gone, their beloved temple reduced to a pile of rumble. Try to imagine something like that. Imagine for a second going home after church only to find your house burned to the ground. Your clothes—gone. Your Barbie Dolls—gone. Your Xbox—gone. Your family pictures, your china hutch, your computer, all of your Christmas presents—gone, burned to a crisp. Would you need comfort and encouragement at a time like that? God’s people did too. And that’s what Isaiah provides in these verses. He comforts them, first of all, by reminding them of how God kept his promise in the past.
“Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness and who seek the LORD: Look to the rock from which you were cut and to the quarry from which you were hewn; look to Abraham, your father, and to Sarah, who gave you birth. When I called him he was but one, and I blessed him and made him many”(vv. 1+2). When God called Abraham to leave his homeland and go to the land of Canaan, it was just him and Sarah, just one man and his wife, and no children. And yet, God made a promise to Abraham: that he would make him into a great nation, that he would make his descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky. And Abraham believed God’s promise. But then the years went by, and Abraham and Sarah still didn’t have any children. The chances of God’s promise coming true kept getting smaller and smaller. Finally, Abraham was 99 years old and Sarah was approaching 90 herself, and they still didn’t have any children. By now the chances of God keeping his promise seemed virtually impossible. In fact, when God came to visit Abraham and told him that by the next year he and Sarah would have a son, Sarah laughed. How could she have a baby when she was 90 years old? And the next year, when Sarah was 90 and Abraham was 100, they had a baby, just like God had said. And that son of theirs had two sons. And one of those two sons had 12 sons, and those 12 sons had lots and lots of sons and daughters and grandchildren and great-grandchildren. The descendants of Abraham did become a great nation, numbering in the millions. God kept his promise, just as he had said.
Here was comfort for God’s people. If God did something like that for Abraham, the father of their nation, if he took that one man and made him into a great nation, surely he could do something like that for them too. Even though they would be living in exile one day, he could deliver them from exile and bring them back to the Promised Land. Even though they would be rather small in number, he could make them numerous again. Even though the city of Jerusalem and the temple would be lying in ruins, he could help them rebuild it, so that “joy and gladness [would] be found in her, thanksgiving and the sound of singing”(v. 3). God kept his promise to Abraham in the past. He would keep his promise to them as well. God always keeps his “New Year’s resolutions.”
In v. 4 Isaiah begins talking about another promise God had made to his people, his promise to send a Savior. “Listen to me, my people; hear me, my nation: The law will go out from me; my justice will become a light to the nations. My righteousness draws near speedily, my salvation is on the way”(vv. 4+5). The word that is translated as “law” in v. 4 has the basic meaning of “teaching” or “instruction.” And that is really a better translation here. “Teaching will go out from me,” God says. Was there any greater teacher who came from God than Jesus? “My justice will become a light to the nations.” Who is it that always gave the right decisions, the one who will judge the world with justice, the one whom the Bible calls “the light of the world”? Is it not Jesus? Who is the righteous one, the one who not only was righteous, but also makes people righteous, who gives them his righteousness? Is it not Jesus? And, of course, who is the one who brought salvation, not just for the Jewish people, but for the nations, for the islands, for all people? Yes, this is Jesus whom Isaiah is talking about. Once again God was repeating his promise: “A Savior is on the way. He will bring teaching from me. He will bring justice and righteousness. And most of all, he will bring salvation.”
Of course, the people of Isaiah’s day didn’t get to see that promise come true, but you and I have. We know how God’s salvation came, born as a baby in Bethlehem. And we know how he accomplished our salvation, how he lived a holy and righteous life, a life of perfect obedience to God’s commands, and how he gives that righteousness to us, to all who believe in him as their Savior. He is our righteousness. Likewise, we know how he suffered and died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins, so that we might be forgiven, that we might be set from sin and death forever.
Here is comfort and encouragement for God’s people. God kept his promise. He sent a Savior. Salvation has come for you and for me and for all. God kept his present promise too.
Which brings us to his third and final promise: “Lift up your eyes to the heavens, look at the earth beneath; the heavens will vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment and its inhabitants die like flies. But my salvation will last forever, my righteousness will never fail”(v. 6). This is the promise you and I are still waiting for, the one that’s still off in the future. One day God will bring this world of ours to an end. The heavens, the sky, the universe will go poof, and disappear in a cloud of smoke. The earth will wear out and be thrown away like an old, ragged t-shirt. God will just take it and throw it in the garage. And the inhabitants of the earth will die like flies. That isn’t a pretty picture, is it, people dropping left and right like flies, dead bodies piling up like dead flies under one of those bug zappers? But then again, for many people Judgment Day will be anything but pretty. Picture Fort Myers Beach after Hurricane Ian or Puerto Rico after Hurricane Fiona. Picture the city of Minneapolis looking the same way. Picture every city looking that way, including Belle Plaine. Picture our entire world and our universe looking that way, completely and utterly destroyed. That’s what it will be like on Judgment Day.
In light of such universal devastation, you have to wonder if anything will survive, if anything will last beyond Judgment Day. God provides the answer in the closing words of v. 6. Again he says, “But my salvation will last forever, my righteousness will never fail.” Yes, heaven and earth will pass away, but not God’s salvation. God’s salvation and his righteousness will last forever, which means, of course, that you and I can rest secure. We don’t have to worry as we wait for Judgment Day. We don’t have to worry that when the universe goes up in smoke, our salvation will go up in smoke too. We don’t have to worry that when this world of ours falls apart like an old, worn out t-shirt, our salvation will fall apart too. Our salvation is solid. Our salvation is sure. It will last forever and ever. And we will last forever with it. All those who put their trust in God’s salvation, not their own, and in God’s righteousness, not their own—they will live with God, enjoying his salvation forever, because God always keeps his promises.
Isn’t this what we want to hear on New Year’s Eve, what we need to hear on New Year’s Eve: that God always keeps his promises—past, present and future? How do we know that God will continue to be with us in the new year, that he will watch over us and provide for us and our families when inflation is so high and we might be staring at a recession? Because God has promised to and he always keeps his promises. As we stand at the end of another year, another year in which we have often failed miserably to live the kind of life God would have us live, another year littered with careless words and hateful thoughts and hurtful actions, how do we know that God will forgive us, again? Or even if he does forgive us this year, how do we know he will forgive us next year, again? Because God has promised to and he always keeps his promises. As we stand on the verge of a new year, how do we know this won’t be our last or the last one for our world? And if it is the last for us or for our world, how do we know that we’ll survive, that we’ll live on with God in eternity? Because God has promised and he always keeps his promises.
You and I aren’t so good at keeping our New Year’s resolutions, are we? Last year we resolved to get in better shape, but we never did. Last year we resolved to lose a few pounds, but we never did. Last year we resolved to fix up our finances and get out of debt, but we never got around to that either. Thank God he isn’t like us! As we look ahead to the future and another new year, we can do so with confidence and assurance, because we know we can count on God and his promises. God always keeps his New Year’s resolutions. Amen.