This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “New Heavens & New Earth” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, December 10, 1989.
About this sermon
Isaiah 36-39 ends with Hezekiah’s kingdom exposed as hopeless before Assyria, and the prophet turns away from it. From chapter 40 on, Isaiah gathers his themes around God’s own coming and his eternal kingdom. Isaiah 51 calls the faithful to look to the rock from which they were hewn.
Sermon transcript
Now our picture reading is from Isaiah chapter 51. And we will be reading the first 16 verses. Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness and seek the Lord. Look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the floor from which you were dug. Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah, who gave birth to you in pain. When he was one, I called him. Then I blessed him and multiplied him. Indeed, the Lord will comfort Zion. He will comfort all her waste places, and her wilderness He will make like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord. Joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and sound of a melody.
Pay attention to me, O my people, Give and give ear to me, O my nation, for a law will go forth from me, and I will set my justice for a light of the people. My righteousness is near, my salvation has gone forth, and my arms will judge the people. The coastland will wait for me, and for my arm they will wait expectantly. Lift up your eyes to the sky, than whip to the earth beneath. For the sky will vanish like smoke, and the earth will wear out like a garment, and its inhabitants will die in white manner. But my salvation shall be forever, and my righteousness shall not wane. Listen to me, you who know righteousness, a people in whose heart is my law, Do not fear the reproach of man, neither be dismayed at their revilements. For the moth will eat them like a garment, and the grub will eat them like wool. But my righteousness shall be forever, and my salvation to all generations. Awake! Awake! Put on strength, O one of the Lord. Awake, as in the days of old the generations of long ago.
Was it not thou who cut Rahab in pieces, who pierced the dragon? Was it not thou who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep, who made the depths of the sea a pathway for the redeemed to cross over? So the ransoms of the Lord will return, and come with joyful shouting to Zion, and everlasting joy will be on their heads they will obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.
I, even I, am he who comforts you. Who are you that you are afraid of a man and God, and of the Son of Man, who is made like grass? That you have forgotten the Lord your Maker, who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth, that you fear continually all day long because of the fury of the oppressor, as he makes ready to destroy. But where is the fury of the oppressor? The exile will soon be set free, and will not die in the dungeon, nor will his breath be lacking.
For I am the Lord your God, who stirs up the sea and its waves raw. The Lord opposes, is His name. And I, have put my words in your mouth, and have covered you with the shadow of my hand, to establish the heavens, to found the earth, and to say to Zion, You are my King.” Let’s pray. Our Father, to the ends of the earth, your word has gone out.
And even in the days of the Apostle Paul, the days of the state, that the gospel had been proclaimed to every creature under heaven. The Apostle saw, as it were, the accomplishment of the mission enterprise of your Church. He saw the fulfillment of that enterprise in Jesus Christ, and as certainly accomplished as was the death and resurrection of the Savior. In his place, O Lord, being your servant and having the clear eye that he did his place was to enter into the fullness of what was accomplished in and through Jesus Christ so that in the end there could be no boast from him made with respect to the things that he had accomplished for all was from you and all was a grace but surely the message goes out and your own receive it and they having received it are held well in your grasp and no one is able to pluck your own from your hand.
Father, may we learn from your word and from the wonderful, wonderful message that has come to us which we have believed. And may it be, Lord, for the good of our soul and for your glory. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen. We have been thinking about the New Heavens and the New Earth. That has been our theme for a couple of weeks now and we have been looking at passages that have spoken indirectly about the New Heavens and the New Earth. On our way to take into consideration those passages that speak explicitly about the heavens and the earth using that phrase expressly. Passages we have surveyed thus far have been Hebrews 12, the latter verses, as the writer to the Hebrews reflects upon an Old Testament prophecy from Haggai, chapter 2, verse 6. With respect to a yet future and final shaping of all things, so that those things that cannot be shaken will remain.
We have looked at 2 Corinthians 5.17, a passage that at its heart is specifically personal.
If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. All things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. But we have contended that this personal renewal, effected through the reconciling work of Jesus Christ, has a cosmic significance, a cosmical significance indeed, extensive, pervasive, with respect to the transformation of all things in keeping with their appointed end, and the destiny which God himself has designed.
Not just my personal regeneration then, not just my own personal renewal, but that seen in the context of the creational renewal, the new heavens and the new earth, which are certainly coming, and have already made their impact upon us. as we have been reborn.
We have also included in this comment on Matthew 19, verse 28, where Jesus is concluding his remarks wherein he systematically dismantled his disciples and their expectations and preconceptions. They are anxious to get on to Jerusalem, for there they think The final and climactic order will be put in place. Oh yes, it will, but not in ways that they would have imagined. And Jesus asks them to think not in terms of that immediate resolution with respect to what awaits them in Jerusalem as they will come into an inheritance, an inheritance which they imagine which will be after the order of this creation, an inheritance which will be much along the lines of that which the which young ruler presently enjoy, the story that immediately precedes. But in light of that, you see, and those expectations, Jesus tells them about the regeneration of all things that is coming.
And in the day of its appearance, they will be set upon twelve thrones. and the things that they have denied themselves for the sake of the kingdom will be compensated for in nature and that after the order of the new heavens and the new earth which are certainly coming tonight we are moving back behind the statements of the writer through the Hebrews behind words from the Apostle Paul, behind words from Jesus himself, to the prophecy of Isaiah, and most specifically to chapter 51 and the 16th verse of that chapter, the verse upon which we conclude.
A verse that is to be understood in light of the scheme which we have spoken of, namely the new heavens and the new earth. For the establishment in view, the establishment of the heavens in view in that 16th verse, is not the establishment of the heavens as in creation, nor is the founding of the earth after the order of the founding of the earth in the creation originally. What is in view is the re-establishing of the heavens, a new establishing of the heavens, a new founding of the earth, the new heavens and the new earth, and the fulfillment of God’s purpose for His people who are here so identified. Now it is appropriate that as we prepare ourselves for consideration of that expressed phrase, the new heavens of the new earth, we come to the prophecy of Isaiah. For not only is Isaiah here alluding to those new heavens and new earth in this 16th verse of the 51st chapter, but later on, as his prophecy concludes, if you run on to the 65th chapter, for instance, or to the 66th chapter, you will see there that this prophet speaks expressly about those new heavens and new earth that shall certainly, surely come.
It could be said that Isaiah, above all of the prophets, is the prophet of the new heavens and the new earth. A feat, then, that is perfected under the administration of the New Testament revelation, perfected by Jesus as he makes his proclamation to his disciples, perfected by the Spirit speaking through the Apostle Paul as he makes comments himself, bearing on this whole matter. reflected in the statements of the writer to the Hebrews, and you know, comments made by Peter in his second epistle with respect to the New Heavens and the New Earth, and again, as the Bible comes to a close, in Revelation chapter 21, the New Heavens and the New Earth, again spoken of specifically.
My feeling has been that the Church of Jesus Christ has lost sight of the New Heavens and the New Earth. She has lost sight of her goal, and she has become very, very comfortable in this creation. Isaiah and his message. Specifically as it bears upon and as it builds up to this theme that we have before us. There is a fulcrum in Isaiah. There is something of a watershed in his prophecy. It is a narrative section of four chapters in length. chapters 36-39. Do you know of those chapters? Do their contents come to your mind as I mention them? One of the few narrative sections in Isaiah’s prophecy, the story of Hezekiah, the king. Hezekiah and his circumstance, During the days of Isaiah’s prophecy, when in fact, Hezekiah with Jerusalem was besieged by the Assyrians.
The Assyrians having at their head an impressive general by the name of Sennacherib. Besieging the city and the throne of David, the year 701 B.C. Previously, the Assyrians have proved their might, their ability. Twenty years earlier, they had laid siege to Samaria, the capital of the northern kingdom. They had devastated that city. They had ruined the kingdom and taken off the children from those ten northern tribes into captivity. The story, then, is of God’s graciousness to Jerusalem and to this king. God’s love manifests His compassion to them as He spares the city.
But that fulcrum section, that watershed section of Isaiah also places before us certain other considerations. Yes, the compassion of God, His mercy for the sake of David, the preservation of that throne, even a wonder of piety expressed by resident in this king as an island. For he was a lovely man, but at the same time, despite all of these wonderful and beautiful things, capped by a wonderful deliverance, an amazing deliverance, a miraculous deliverance. For city and king is a message with regard to the vulnerability of king and people, of throne and city.
For after the deliverance, we are told that Hezekiah would have to place his house in order. The prophet makes his approach. He is told that he will die. Set your house in order, for your days are numbered. While city is spared and while Hezekiah is delivered with his people from the hand of the Assyrians, Hezekiah, this king, as glorious as he might be, is not delivered from death. Death stalks. The king is mortal. There is a fiercer enemy than Sennacherib and his horde. There is an enemy more terrible than the armies of Assyria. That enemy is death. The King, be he as wonderful an anticipation of the glorious King, the eternal King, who shall sit upon the throne of David forever.
For this king, though resilient in his piety, is also a man victimized by his own pride. You remember how, upon his recovery, graciously from God, Recovery is sent to him. The Babylonians hear of it, and they send emissaries bearing presents. And in his vanity, in his pride, Hezekiah parades before the eyes of these Babylonians, all of the treasures of the house of David. the mortality of the king, the vanity and the pride, yes, the sinfulness of this king, one so great, weakened, fatally so. And this city that has been spared to that city now comes forth through the prophet. As the prophet addresses the king, those Babylonians before whom you have paraded proudly, vainly, they shall return and carry away all the treasures which you have shown them. And in the end, the city will be destroyed and not one stone will be left upon another.” The mortality of the king. His vulnerability through pride and vanity, and the vulnerability of that city itself.
If Israel is looking to her king for something permanent, if she is looking to her king for something that is perfect, if she is looking to her city, Jerusalem, as something that is invulnerable. Crisis has come that has now invaded into the consciousness of those like Isaiah, the consideration of the instability and new currents of everything they see, even of those who sit upon David’s throne. and that sitting in which they might well sit. Now that is the full conception of Isaiah’s prophecy. And to that you can add all that has gone before, with regard to the sentences that have now been read out by this prophet over Israel as a whole.
Not just the nations, not just oracles against them, laying them waste, speaking about their mortality, their vulnerability. The fact that their empires and kingdoms will crumble, become as dust, No. For the Lord has a case against his own people. And if we turn our gaze from the King and look at them, things are even more depressing. For they have abandoned the true God. Their worship has become compromised, mercilessly. And they find themselves now under the edict. God will judge. God will judge, he will destroy. His just sentence is read out over the heads of the people.
We spoke this morning about the hopelessness of Elizabeth’s circumstance. Now read Isaiah and hear about the hopelessness of the condition of God’s people as Isaiah addresses that. So we come then to Isaiah 40 through 66. And maybe as sublime a section of the prophets as has ever been said before us. In those chapters there are at least three themes that are put before you. Against the background of Israel’s hopeless condition, against the background of the judgment that is being read out over her and the testimony that now rises with regard to her vulnerability, her compromised condition.
And as it is apparent now that there is no one, yes no one, to whom she can turn who can in fact deliver her. Against the background of all of this comes that glorious message of consummate mercy. Comfort, comfort you my people. She has received the double for all of her sins. And now I will visit her with my mercy. How magnificent the manifestation of that mercy.
For the Lord tells us that in visiting the people with mercy, He Himself will do it. So the first theme from all others that is enunciated by Isaiah in these chapters is this, God will come. God Himself, prepared you the way of the Lord, so calleth the voice from the wilderness. God Himself is coming. And He brings with Him justice and mercy in the heart.
Now the second thing, the second thing has to do with the figure of Hezekiah and the answer to him. For just as Hezekiah has proved himself vulnerable and mortal. As that has all been displayed, unquestionably, and as it is now evident that there is no servant for the Lord in Israel by whom God will in fact work his purposes, The corollary theme that arises with the fact that God himself is coming is that the servant of the Lord, par excellence, shall make his appearance. And this one will be not merely for the sake of exhibiting a perfect obedience to the will of God, but for bearing the mortality and the vulnerability of his people, Samarra, in himself. conclusively, so that they, by root of him, might live.
Joined to the message, then, of the coming of God is the message of the servant of the Lord, that one by whom we will be saved, that one whose strife will be for our healing, Like sheep have gone astray, we have turned everyone to his own way, but the Lord has laid upon him the iniquity of us all.” The great God, the humble servant.
To what end? that they might be restored to another administration where another king proves his vulnerability, his mortality, another king overcome by his pride and vanity, his sinfulness, another kingdom where block upon block, stone upon stone is capable of being dismantled, torn down, A circumstance subject to dissolution, capable of being unmade, if not destroyed altogether. Not on your life. Not on your life. And that is why, you see, all of the critics are wrong. They want to set the stage for these latter chapters of Isaiah in the day of the exodus.
It’s not far-reaching enough, for the vision Isaiah is beyond the restoration of the Messiah. and to the restoration of all things, and the establishment of the new heavens, and the newer, beyond, near, return to Palestine, Israel, to Jerusalem, to the rebuilding of walls and the Temple there.
But unto that order, very firmly, indestructibly, return at once. incapable of dissolution. That order into which it is impossible for guilt to occur cannot occur. That order into which sin cannot occur is impossible. That order in which all sin and crime Are they me? They’re the order. That order in which there is absolutely no doubt in your mind whatsoever that you are the people of God. No doubt. Not even in the presentation. And how tragic. And how tragic.
We might say that in Isaiah’s day, there was adequate reason for the confusion, the misunderstanding, the blurred vision of the people to whom he spoke. But what of us? Are we Jews all over again? living as it were before the great day to which Isaiah looked. As if the events that have transpired in and through Jesus Christ have never happened, as if our vision had not been cleared and our understanding straightened out by his appearance, Is there an unreconstructed Jew lurking within your soul and within your heart to demand it and reclaim desperately to this significant other?
This is what he wants. But in giving yourself to this order, you deceive yourself by thinking that you will have the eternal order too. No, you won’t. No, you won’t. You will not be given to it. And we follow God, we know that’s true, even though He presently persists in your attitude. Isaiah, the messenger of a new order, a new administration of the new heavens and the new earth which is perfect answer to the dilemma that overtakes Israel with respect to her king and that nation in which there had been such hope such expectation Why there is something much glorious now. Something much glorious that is yours. And by faith you see it. And by faith you seize it.
The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.