And please turn with me in God's word to Isaiah chapter 46, Isaiah chapter 46. We're going to be reading together the entire chapter and considering this text this evening, Isaiah chapter 46. But before we read God's word together, let's pray together for his blessing on the reading and preaching of the word. Let's pray together. Father, this is your word. It is a holy, precious thing. and we know to handle it aright, to receive it aright, that we need your help and the guidance of your Spirit. So we pray that the Spirit would be at work in power through what is preached and proclaimed in weakness, that he might powerfully use it to soften hearts, to win them to Christ if we do not know the Lord, and strengthen and confirm our faith if we do know him. So may the Spirit work through the word that he has written, And would you speak, Lord, for your servants are listening. Hear us, for we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Isaiah chapter 46. Let's pay careful attention because this is God's own word. Bell bows down. Nebo stoops. Their idols are on beasts and livestock. These things you carry are born as burdens on weary beasts. They stoop, they bow down together, they cannot save the burden, but themselves go into captivity. Listen to me, O house of Jacob, all the remnant of the house of Israel, who have been born by me from before your birth, carried from the womb. Even to your old age, I am he, and to gray hairs I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear, I will carry, and will save. To whom will you liken me and make me equal, and compare me that we may be alike? Those who lavish gold from the purse and weigh out silver in the scales, hire a goldsmith and he makes it into a god. Then they fall down and worship. They lift it to their shoulders, they carry it, they set it in its place, and it stands there. It cannot move from its place. If one cries to it, it does not answer or save him from his trouble. Remember this and stand firm. Recall it to mind, you transgressors. Remember the former things of old, for I am God and there is no other. I am God and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying my counsel shall stand and I will accomplish all my purpose. calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country. I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass. I have purposed, and I will do it. Listen to me, you stubborn of heart, you who are far from righteousness. I bring my righteousness, I bring near my righteousness, it is not far off. and my salvation will not delay. I will put salvation in Zion for Israel, my glory. Thus far the reading of God's word, would he bless it to us. For the past few days, or maybe even for the past few weeks, I'm sure people have been wishing you a happy new year, and I hope you've been wishing them a happy new year in return. It's something we do this time of year. We understand that it's something of a wish. That's really the function it has. We hope that you will have a happy new year. That's what we mean. And we've certainly been wished that a number of times in the last few days. We've wished it to a number of people. And many times in our lives we've probably been wished happy new year. Maybe you can think back through the years of your life and to think about those years when somebody wished you a happy new year to start the new year and it was a happy new year. You know, you had a good year of health, and maybe you graduated from school, or maybe you got engaged, or maybe you got married, or maybe you had your first child or your first grandchild. And when you looked back at that year, you said, that was a good year. That was a happy new year. And if that's what 2016 has been for you, then you're probably saying, I hope 2017 is just like this year. Lord, give me another happy new year. but probably you can also think of times throughout your life when somebody wished you a happy new year at the beginning of the year and it wasn't a very happy year. It was a year when you didn't have good health. Maybe you had to quit school because you didn't have the money to keep going. Maybe you had a broken engagement or a broken marriage. Maybe you had a disappointment or a death in the family. Someone wished you a happy new year, but if you looked back at that year, it wasn't very happy. And if 2016 has been that kind of year for you, then your prayer for the new year is, God, make this year nothing like last year. And we want to think about, as we look at the new year, we often greet it with a measure of uncertainty. We hope it will be a happy year, but we don't really know what kind of year it will be. And so we hope for happy, but we greet it with a measure of uncertainty. And I thought looking at this text tonight might help us in the midst of a new year that we begin with hope, but mixed with uncertainty. We might think about what God says that can give us hope and encouragement for the new year. Because this is a text that came to a people who are having a bad year. God's people in captivity in Babylon. And they were having a bad year after decades of bad years. They hadn't had a happy new year in a long time. And the Lord comes to them at the conclusion of that captivity and preaches good news. And gives reason for hope and reason for encouragement. And the things that he says to encourage them are encouragements to us tonight. And so we want to think about what God proclaims in this text. And we want to look at three things that he does in this text. We want to see how he proclaims his everlasting care over his people, his eternal counsel, and his encouraging call. We want to think about our encouragement from that perspective. God's everlasting care, his eternal counsel, and his encouraging call. We see right out at the beginning of this passage God talking about the everlasting care he has always given to his people. And this is a word that's coming to a people, as I said, who needed to hear that. Who had spent a long time in captivity in Babylon. If we think about the book of Isaiah, you can roughly divide it into two parts. Chapters 1 through 39, Isaiah is prophesying about events that are happening in his day and time. And in Isaiah 40 and on, through the revelation of the Holy Spirit, he's given insight into events that will happen long after he is dead. And one particular event in particular that he prophesies about, which is the Babylonian captivity. And so as chapter 39 moves into chapter 40, it's like we jump ahead in time. Beyond Isaiah's day, beyond most of the captivity towards the end. I like how one commentator put it. So when we get to chapter 40 in Isaiah, he said, we wake, so to speak, on the far side of the Babylonian captivity. With a people impatient for the end. And with the start of chapter 40, moving through really chapter 48, there's what they want to hear. There's an air of liberation in the air. Maybe some of you are old enough or spent time in Holland when it was occupied by Nazi Germany, and you can think of when liberation was in the air. When it was becoming apparent that there was freedom on the horizon. That's why the words we sang from Isaiah 40 are so important, right? That God comes to a people a long time in captivity and says, Comfort! Comfort my people. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and tell her that her warfare is over. That the Lord has paid back double for her iniquity. There's this encouraging note that God is coming. God is going to free his people. And we see that encouragement pictured for us in a vivid way. In the first two verses of our chapter. We could say these two verses. You could summarize them by saying. Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great. Here are their two great gods. In a cart. Being carried off by beasts into captivity. Their two great gods are falling on their faces. Bel was their great god kind of like Zeus. Nebo was their god of writing and learning, kind of like Apollo. Here are their great gods, and they're stumbling and stooping. One has fallen, the other one's in the process of falling. And there are their idols being carted off by weary beasts. And these idols that are picturing these great and powerful gods are bumping around in the back of a cart. And when they tip over, they tip over and stay tipped over. And when they fall on their face, they fall on their face. And Isaiah says, and they can't do anything about it. There's nothing they can do but be burdens. Now we might say, now how is this going to give me encouragement for the new year? I don't know who these gods are and why do I care that they're falling over in a cart? Why does God start here? Tell me something about God. Well, God is bringing up these false gods so that he can contrast himself with them. And say, these are the kinds of gods the Babylonians have trusted in. for all the good it's doing them as they're being carried off into captivity. And he's saying to his people, and these are the same kinds of gods you put your trust in that made you become covenant breakers and carried off into captivity. And God says, think about these gods. Think about what they're like and think about how different I am than they are. And so he's introducing these gods, you see, to contrast the true God with false gods. And what is the first contrast that he brings to our minds as we see this vivid picture of these dumb idols that can't help themselves? Isaiah is telling us these idols are nothing but burdens that their servants have to carry. They burden their own servants, Isaiah says, really in three ways. They burden their beasts. They burden their billfolds. They burden their backs. We have this picture already of these animals trying to haul these gold and silver, heavy idols, off into captivity. They're wearing out their own animals with these dumb things. And God says, and where do these come from? They come from burdening your billfolds, burdening your wallets, your purses. You have to take gold and lavish it out to make these things. You have to weigh out all of your silver. And if it's not just expensive enough to gather the material for this, then you have to hire somebody to make it. Apparently, they didn't have an Aaron who could take all the gold and just say, it just came out this way. They actually need a craftsman to build it. So you pour all the money into the material. You pour all the money into the craftsman. It burdens your billfold as you pay for it. And then it burdens your back. Because once you've built your God, he can't move himself around. You have to pick him up and move him. You have to stand him in his place. And once he's stood up there, he can't move. And then Isaiah said, then what do you do? You bow down to it and worship it. This thing that can't make itself, that can't move itself. You know, some parts of the Bible point out the wickedness of idolatry. Some point out the wrongness of it, the covenant breaking of it. I think here Isaiah is just pointing out its absurdity. These things couldn't make themselves. They can't move themselves. And when you cry to it, it won't answer you. And when you're in trouble, it won't save you. What is he telling us about idolatry? All idolatry does is take from you and gives you nothing back. It is nothing but a burden that you have to carry. And we might not think much of this because we're not very tempted to make idols out of gold and silver anymore. But we can sure make gold and silver idols. There's all sorts of things that we can take and make idols. And listen to what the Lord says for anything you make idols of. They will do nothing but take from you. They will give you nothing in return. They will not help you. they will burden you. And God says elsewhere, they will burden you until they kill you. That's what idols are. They're nothing but burdens to bear. Then God says, do you want to know what I'm like? I'm a burden bearer. I don't take anything from you because you don't have anything I need. I give to you. Out of the overflowing fountain of the goodness that's in me. I don't need you to carry me. I carry you, God says. He didn't need us to make him. Right, he says in verse 4, I made you. And since you've been in the womb, I've been carrying you. And until you're old and gray, I will carry you. In fact, I will carry you until you're saved. Do you see how God puts before them all of the care that he pours into his people? How different he is than idols? I'm the one who makes you. I'm the one who carries you. I carried you before you were born. I'll carry you to the end of your life. I'll carry you until you're saved. That's the God who we have. That's the God we serve. That's the everlasting care he promises to his people. And we all are faced with a choice in life to serve things that are not God or to serve God. And if you serve something you have to carry, if you're carrying your God, that ends in destruction. If your God carries you, if the true God carries you, that ends in salvation. God is saying, I couldn't be different than the idols. They're burdens to be carried. I'm the burden-carrying God. And I have a purpose in carrying you. And that purpose is to save you. And we see that salvation revealed when Jesus Christ appears because he appears as God with us, the burden-bearing God, Who bears all the burdens with which we are burdened throughout the whole of our lives. And takes all the things that burden us with him on the cross. And there he suffers his blessed body to be broken. His precious blood to be poured out that he might remove our burdens. He carries our sin, he carries our accursedness to the cross. So that we might be relieved of that burden. He gives everything that he has, his body and his soul, to give us all that's his. His satisfaction, his holiness, his righteousness, his eternal life. That's the God we have. That's the God who will care for us. That's the God who's been carrying his people. That's the God who will carry his people. And his people can always be sure that he is that kind of God. because that's been his plan from before the foundations of the world, to carry his people and to save them through our Lord Jesus Christ. And that's what comes out so clearly in this passage as well. Can other false gods control the future? Have they planned what's going to happen? Can they decree something and it will come true? Interestingly, every new year, they brought out Bel and Nebo and took them on a procession down. And the procession ended in the temple. And in the temple, it was believed that Bel and Nebo would write on the tables of destiny the fate that they had decreed for the coming year. I bet the year that they were carried off into captivity, they didn't predict that. They didn't decree that. Somehow that got missed in the tables of destiny. But you see, they couldn't even decree for one year what would happen. And God says, how can you compare me to anything else? What I decree from before it begins ends the way I've planned it. I say what's going to happen from the beginning. I declare the end from the beginning. From ancient times, I declare the things that haven't been done. So that I will accomplish my purpose. The purpose I've set for it. It's rather amazing when you think about it. God doesn't predict the future when he talks about what will happen in the future. He doesn't just predict it. He's already planned it, so he's just telling you what's going to happen. Because he has fixed an inalterable plan. And it just unfolds. Because he is God. And declares all that is going to happen from the beginning. And once he has set it down in his eternal counsel, it's unchangeable. It's inalterable. So you see, it's not hard for him to tell Isaiah, prophesy about what's going to happen in the future. The future's already been written. It was written before the foundations of the world. And what does God say about his eternal counsel in this passage? I declared the end from the beginning, and whatever I have purpose to do, I will accomplish my purpose. my counsel will stand. I will accomplish my purpose. Friends, that's good news. Because as God reveals in his passage here, his plan for his people is salvation. His plan is to save them. For Israel, he's promised to save them from their worldly struggles, From their worldly powers they need to be delivered from. God is going to save them from Babylon. That comes across in verse 11. He's going to call a bird of prey from the east. You might say a screaming eagle to descend on Babylon and to carry it away like a predator. He's called for this bird. It's completely under his control, you see. Just the way he whistled for Babylon like a dog, he's calling for Persia like an eagle. To do the work he has commanded them to do, to set his people free, to send them home. And it's certain. Whatever he said is going to take place. It comes out a little more strongly in the Hebrew in verse 11, the second part. There are all these emphasis in the original language. So we could translate the end of verse 11. Indeed, I have spoken. Surely I will bring it to pass. I have purposed. Certainly I will do it. I've planned to set my people free. I promised to set my people free. Of course I will do it. Of course I will call them back. That's good news. But the news gets better because God's people have another problem. Not just worldly captivity. They have another problem. They have a problem of spiritual captivity. They are those who this passage tells us are far from righteousness. And God promises to save them not just from their present worldly difficulty, but to save them from their spiritual captivity, their spiritual bondage, the fact that they are hard-hearted and far from righteousness. And how is God going to solve that problem? Can they somehow bring themselves near to righteousness? No, we know our theology too well to say that. So what is he going to do? He's going to bring his righteousness near. I bring my righteousness near. I will come and save my people. And how does God bring his righteousness near? Again, in the person of Jesus Christ. He's God with us, drawing near to his people. He's the one who brings the righteousness of God and puts salvation in Zion. Because that's what God's people need, someone to bring his righteousness to them for those who have no righteousness of their own. This is just that great doctrine of justification by grace alone through faith alone on account of the righteousness of God. That Jesus will bring that righteousness near. And what will that mean? It will mean God's salvation and God's glory on his people. It's a wonderful plan to deliver. And it's a plan that was fixed before the foundations of the world. He chose us in Christ before the foundations of the world. In time and history he worked that faith in us by grace through the operation of the Holy Spirit. Making us children of God. He's the good shepherd who will carry us throughout this life. He came into the world to put salvation in Zion. All those who the Father have given to me, I will lose none of them. I will raise them up on the last day. I give them eternal life and no one will snatch them out of my hand, our Lord said. And I will be with them always to the very end of the age. This is the salvation that our God has planned for us. And so he calls us this evening. Now this passage is all about what God has promised to do. But we shouldn't miss the things that God calls us to do as his people in this passage. God will everlastingly care for his people. He's established a plan for salvation from all eternity for his people. And then he gives his people a call in this passage. It's an encouraging call. And God tells his people to do three things. We heard last week that John was a preacher. Isaiah was a preacher, too. He had three points. What are his three points of application for us this evening? What are we called to do? We should pay attention to them. They would be good New Year's resolutions. Are you ready? Have I established the importance of it? What does God tell us to do in this passage? First thing he says is, listen to me. Listen to me. The good news comes from outside of us. There are many voices in this world who say a lot of things. We have more information coming at us than any other generation. And what we need to do is to stop and take account and weed out the rest of the voices and just listen to God. Listen to me, he says. That's the first thing we need to do. The second thing he says in this passage is remember who I am. Listen to me. Remember who I am. Recall who I have been for my people. And once we've listened and once we've remembered, we're to take heart. We're to take courage from who God is. That's the calling that we have here in this passage. Listen to me. Remember my faithfulness and take courage. We have to listen to God because sometimes his plan isn't what we would like his plan to be. He had a plan to deliver his people, but it wasn't the kind of plan they were exactly looking for. If you'd have asked Israel, what are you hoping God will do? They would say, I'm hoping he will reset the clock. I'm hoping we will go back to Israel and be Israel again. That we will be under our own control. We'll be freed finally from the thumb of foreign oppressors. We'll rule ourselves again and David's son will sit on his throne. We want to go back to the way things were in David's day. Well, that wasn't God's plan for them. You know, when we hear about Cyrus setting God's people free, the story does not go when he set his people free and they lived happily ever after. Read Ezra, read Nehemiah, read Haggai, read Zechariah. Life was hard when they went back. And they had to wrestle for centuries with the question, is this what deliverance looks like? Is this it? Is there ever going to be a restoration? Are we ever going to be free again? Are we ever going to rule ourselves again? Is David's throne ever going to stand again? Right, the Pharisees are asking those very same things. In Jesus' day. That's why we have to listen to God. And to trust his plan. And not to think because his plan is not our plan that somehow the plan is failing. he has a plan that he is working out. And that's why this call in this passage should be encouraging to us, because it's a very realistic call that Isaiah gives us. It's realistic about what we experience in this life. There's nothing about the call to follow Jesus that says, follow Jesus and everything will be easy. Everything will be fine. I'm sure I'm not telling you anything you don't already know. Because you follow Jesus, many of you, and your lives aren't easy. Everything isn't just automatically fine. And so if you think that's the plan, you're going to be disappointed if that's not how things work out. That's why we have to listen to God. That's why we have to remember what has happened in the past to God's people. God does not say you're going to have an easy life. He doesn't say everything becomes automatically easier when you follow me. In fact, the call to follow me is a call to take up your cross and die. But what does God promise? That through the ups and downs of life, over the mountains of joys and the valleys of disappointment, through the happy times, through the hard times, He will carry you. He will be your God. And you will be his people. And no matter what comes to you, it will turn out for your glory. Because that's his plan. To save you. And to bring you to glory and rest. Not now. But at his time. In the age to come. The call that God gives to us is very honest about our lives. God calls us to a very realistic faith. God says, look at the facts of life right in the face. And don't sugarcoat it. Life is what it is. And we know that if someone tries to make it sound like it's really, everything's just fine, everything's okay, we know they're lying. Because that's not how life is. You see, what God comes and does and says, have a realistic faith. Look life in the face and say, life is what it is. It's some good and some bad, some ups and some downs. That's really what life is. But look at life as it really is and trust God anyway. That's what God's word calls us to do. To look realistically at life and say, I'm going to trust God anyway. That's how Abraham is commended to us as an example of faith in Romans 4. Right? God came to him with a wonderful promise. I'm going to give you a child. I'm going to raise up offspring from you until they're as numerous as the stars in the sky or the sand on the seashore. Great promise. What did Abraham do? He faced the facts of life. He looked at himself and said, I'm 100 years old. I'm as good as dead. Paul's words, not mine. I'm 100 years old. I'm as good as dead. And my wife is no spring chicken. She's barren. And the amazing thing that Paul tells us in Romans 4 is, Abraham's faith did not waver. It did not weaken. In fact, something amazing happened. It grew stronger as he glorified God. How could that be? Because he was utterly convinced that God would do what he promised. That's what this passage is calling us to do. That's what God is doing when he says to us, listen to me, remember who I am, and take courage. Look at life with all of its reality, with all of its ugliness, with all of its difficulty, and trust me anyway. Because I have promised. And what I promise has already been laid down as an absolute certainty for the future. I will carry you and I will save you. It's a realistic call. That's why it's an encouraging call. It's realistic about our experiences. It's also realistic about who we are. Because we can be very skeptical when we hear something like that and say, okay, pastor, you're talking about Abraham. He's a hero of the faith. He's the father of the faithful. Of course he doesn't waver. Of course he doesn't weaken when he's called to trust in the promises of God, but I'm no Abraham. I'm no hero. He could have that kind of faith. I'm not sure I could have that kind of faith. Well, God is being very realistic in our passage about who he's talking to. When he says, listen to me, what does he say? How does he refer to the people he's calling to listen to him? Listen to me, you hard-hearted people who are far from righteousness. Recall it to mind. Remember who I am, you transgressors. Take courage, you rebels. This isn't a call to the best of the best. And that's what's encouraging. It's a call to people like you and me. Who are sinners. Who are far from righteousness. who can be hard-hearted and who rebel against the commands of God. It's these kinds of people that God is calling. This is the kind of person Abraham was, too. And God is calling sinners and those who are far from righteousness and those who are hard-hearted and those who are transgressors and those who are rebels. Have I included you yet? He's calling you. and he's calling me, he's honest about who we are. That's an encouraging thing. But the most encouraging thing, of course, is that the call is honest and realistic about who God is. This passage is filled with, I will do it. I will carry, I will save, I will put salvation in Zion, I will bring my righteousness near, I will do it. So listen to me. Listen to my word. In the new year, don't stop listening to God. Use every opportunity you have to listen to God. Be at every service that is called so that you can listen to God. Spend time in his word so that you can listen to God. Pray to him. Talk to him. Remember who he is. Remember his faithfulness. There's no one who's ever trusted him who's been put to shame. There's no one who's ever trusted God and said in the end, you know what he didn't carry me he didn't save me no every single person who's trusted in the lord found that he delivered them through every adversity and safely into his heavenly kingdom and he will do the same for you so people of god take courage you do nothing else this year listen to god remember who he is and take courage he made you from the womb he's been carrying you to the end he will carry you and he will save you my prayer for you is that you have a very happy new year but even if you don't and no matter what kind of year it is you have a God who will extend to you his everlasting care as he has purpose to do out of his eternal counsel from eternity and he will continue to call you by his grace to faith and trust in him that we all trust in him and be utterly convinced that he will do what he promised Amen I'd like to pray from a prayer that I've adapted from a devotional Abraham Kuyper gave on this same passage that God is the God who declares the end from the beginning so let's close our time in prayer our father in heaven we have lived through this past year we have crept through it and have struggled through it but from its first beginning you have ruled it before this past year came to us you held it in your holy hand from your hand it came forth to enter our lives it came not of itself but you sent it your faithfulness was there every morning your mercies were mighty on those who feared you and every night and morning your divine compassion was new now Lord we stand again at the opening of a new year for that year also you appoint its beginning you have planted the seed of this new year in our world but also you know what the end of this year will bring us for you declared its end from the beginning you know whether for us or for one of our dear ones it shall be the last year of life or whether for us or one whom our soul loves it will be the year of their conversion and coming to life you know whether roses will be strewn upon our way or thorns on the stalk shall smart and wound us you know all the trouble with which this year shall burden our hearts you have filled the cup of bitterness and of suffering that this year shall be put to our lips but you also hold in your beneficent hand all the blessings that shall come to us all the abundance that shall be our portion all the blessed comfortings that shall refresh our hearts and therefore father help us take courage help us not to be anxious or afraid But help us now at the change of years in childlike confidence to take hold of your hand, your faithful hand, our Heavenly Father. And with you, this year also will be to our good and to our benefit. All things, even our deep fall into sin, must work together for our good. Provided we know but one thing, which is that we have put our trust in the God who loved us with an everlasting love. And then whatever comes to us this year, Lord, whether death or life, hunger or sword, the strong hand of powers, this year too it shall be the blessed experience of all of your children that neither height nor depth nor things present nor things to come nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from your almighty love, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. So be it now and forever. Amen. Thank you.