Senior Pastor, Robert Dennison, preached this message on September 14, 2025. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Audio Transcript
Cover some verses in other places we read the scripture because when you hear God’s word today, that is the most important thing that you hear when you come. That’s the most important thing that you listen to over and above all the words that are said or prayed or sung. But before we get there, I just want to acknowledge that it’s been a terrible week stabbing in North Carolina, that we heard about Charlie Kirk being assassinated and about the same time he was killed. We’re not hearing about it, but there was another school shooting in Colorado. All of these things are happening because there is sin in the world.
And we know from scripture that sin is out to destroy all of nature, to destroy individuals and to take people into captive and keep them from coming into a permanent fulfilling relationship with God Almighty. So we know these things happen because of sin, but we are confident that God is still in control and that he is working all these evil things out so that in the end we can once again experience the new creation that he desires for each of us to live in. I wanted us to take some time to just have some silent prayer for all of these different families that are affected, the communities that are affected for our nation. And we pray that as believers that we would shine a light in this world and that God might work in hearts to bring about some changes from what is going on. So I’ll close this in just a minute, but just a time of silent prayer.
Heavenly Father, we thank you that you are God Almighty, Sovereign, maker of heaven and earth, all powerful, all knowing, all sufficient, ever loving the world that you created, reaching out to each and every one to come to a saving knowledge of you and providing salvation through your son. Father, we lift up spouses today, we lift up children, we lift up families, communities and our nation as a whole as we are all grieving about the effects of sin, of wrong and evil and unfairness in this world. God, we ask that you would redeem all of these things to bring about a greater good in us. But more importantly, that you would bring about your glory, that many would come to saving faith, that they would see that you are the only true hope that we have in the midst of difficult times. And Father, encourage our hearts that we have the right answer to people and the answer is turn to Jesus, that things might be made right in individual lives and that people would come to faith and repentance and experience the new life that you offer through your Son.
It’s in his name that we pray. Amen. Reading from Isaiah 54:today, talking about the new Covenant God is speaking to the nation of Israel, to his chosen people. Rejoice, childless one who did not give birth, burst into song and shout. You who have not been in labor for the children of the desolate one will be more than the children of the married woman, says the Lord.
Enlarge the site of your tent. Let your tent curtains be stretched out. In other words, make your house bigger and don’t hold back. Lengthen your ropes and drive your pegs deep, for you will spread out to the right and to the left, and your descendants will dispossess nations and inhabit the desolate cities. Do not be afraid, for you will not be put to shame.
Don’t be humiliated, for you will not be disgraced, for you will forget the shame of your youth, and you will no longer remember the disgrace of your widowhood. Indeed, your husband is your maker. His name is the Lord of armies, and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer. He is called the God of the whole earth, for the Lord has called you like a wife deserted and wounded in spirit, a wife of one’s youth when she is rejected, says your God, I deserted you for a brief moment, but I will take you back with abundant compassion. In a surge of anger, I hid my face from you for a moment, but I will have compassion on you with everlasting love, says the Lord, your Redeemer.
For this is like the days of Noah to me, when I swore that the water of Noah would never flood the earth again. So I have sworn that I will not be angry with you or rebuke you. Though the mountains move and the hills shake, my love will not be removed from you, and my covenant of peace will not be shaken, says your compassionate Lord. Poor Jerusalem, storm tossed and not comforted. I will set your stones in black mortar and lay your foundations in lapis lazuli.
I will make your fortifications out of rubies, your gates out of sparkling stones, and all your walls out of precious stones. Then all your children will be taught by the Lord. Their prosperity will be great, and you will be established on a foundation of righteousness. And you will be far from oppression. You will certainly not be afraid.
You will be far from terror. It will certainly not come near you. If anyone attacks you, it is not for me. Whoever attacks you will fall before you. Look.
I have created the craftsman who blows on the charcoal fire and produces a weapon suitable for its task. And I have created the destroyer to cause havoc. No weapon formed against you will succeed, and you will refute any accusation raised against you in Court. This is the heritage of the Lord’s servants. And their vindication is from me.
This is the Lord’s declaration. And then God in Isaiah 55 gives this invitation to the people of Israel. Come, everyone who is thirsty. Come to the water. And you without silver.
Come buy and eat. Come buy wine and milk without silver and without cost. Why do you spend your silver on what is not food, and your wages on what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me. Eat what is good, and you will enjoy the choicest of foods.
Pay attention and come to me. Listen, so that you will live. I will make a permanent covenant with you on the basis of the faithful kindnesses of David. And since I have made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander for the peoples, so you will summon a nation you do not know, and nations who do not know you will run to you. For the Lord your God, even the Holy One of Israel, has glorified you.
Seek the Lord while he may be found. Call to him while he is near. Let the wicked one abandon his way and the sinful one his thoughts. Let him return to the Lord, so that he may have compassion on him and to our God, for he will freely forgive. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not my ways.
This is the Lord’s declaration. For as heaven is higher than earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. For just as rain and snow fall from heaven and do not return there without saturating the earth and making it germinate and sprout and providing seed to sow and food to eat, so my word that comes from my mouth will not return to me empty, but it will accomplish what I please and will prosper in what I send it to do. You will indeed go out with joy and be peacefully guided. The mountains and the hills will break into singing before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.
Instead of the thorn bush, a cypress will come up, and instead of the briar, a myrtle will come up. This will stand as a monument for the Lord, an everlasting sign that will not be destroyed. May we pray once again? Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. And we ask you now that you give us understanding of what it means, how it applies to us, and how this is a glorious promise, a covenant that you have made with all of the world, that you will make things right one day, and we will live with you in eternity through faith in your Son, Jesus Christ.
In his name we pray. Amen. I had an extra slide up there. My mistake. So if you’ll go to the next one.
Okay. Covenant is about relationship and representation. God created mankind because he desired to have. What does it say? Relationship.
God did not need any of us. We don’t provide him with anything. We give our tithes and offerings and our service as an acknowledgement that it all belongs to Him. But he doesn’t need us giving him money. God created mankind, women and men, because he just wants to love you and to have a relationship with you.
But we’ve also learned that God created mankind because he wanted mankind to be his representative on the earth, in turn, to share his love with everyone, that even more people might have this personal relationship with Him. And from these two statements, we know that God wants a covenant relationship with you, one that is permanent and unbreaking. And that relationship with you is pictured by marriage. It’s supposed to last the entire time that you live. And it’s not supposed to be distant.
It’s supposed to be personal. God wants to have a fulfilling relationship with you. He wants to have a perfect relationship and an intimate one. And he provides that through Jesus Christ. And then God wants you to represent him in this world by sharing that good news with everyone else.
We’ve been talking about separate covenants, but actually they are all honing in. They’re pointing to who? They’re pointing to Jesus Christ. And they are separate, but they are distinct. Can we have the next slide up there?
They’re separate, but they are all one. They’re like signs on the road that are leading you closer and closer to your destination. Okay, turn here, turn here. Each one of them is pointing us to the final destination where we’re going to find a person. And that person is Jesus Christ, who represents the perfect covenant.
He had a perfect relationship with God the Father, and he was the perfect representative of God. And when we find that person through the covenants, we find that at that destination that he dies on the cross for our sins. So that we, in turn, like him, can have a perfect relationship with God and be perfect representatives of Him. And we will one day live with him and reign with him forever. Therefore, we can say Jesus fulfilled the law and therefore became the perfect representative in a perfect relationship with the Father.
And because of his perfection as both Son of God and Son of Man, he was able to be now the perfect sacrifice he atoned for. He covered our sins. He washed them away so they don’t affect us anymore. To atone for the sins of the world and become the eternal ruling descendant of David that we learned about last week. One who has an eternal throne, one who is seated, I mean an eternal house.
One who is seated on eternal throne and who is over an eternal kingdom, all promised to David, all fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Now today we’re going to be looking at the new covenant. We’re just looking at words that tell us what it’s like so that we can see how it is different. It’s more specific about what is coming ahead in the end days. We turn now to Jeremiah, chapter 31 and we read verses 31 through 32.
And we’re going to see here is that the new covenant is very different than any covenant we’ve seen so far. And it is a permanent covenant. In Jeremiah we read, look, the days are coming. This is the Lord’s declaration when I will make a new covenant both with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. If you know your history in the Old Testament, Saul was the first king over all of Israel, 12 tribes.
And then David came and he was the king over 12 tribes. His son Solomon was the king over the entire nation with 12 tribes. But Solomon had a son named Rehoboam. And people said, you dad taxed us to death. Can we have a little bit of relief?
And the wise older counselor said, yes, back off on the taxes. But the young man said, no, tell him we’re going to charge you even more taxes. And when he did that, there was a man named Jeroboam that rose up and said, we’re not going to stand for this. And 10 of the tribes went with Jeroboam and formed what we know as Israel in the north. And only two tribes stayed with the true heir of David, which was Rehoboam.
God is saying that this new covenant is with all of Israel. And he says that this one will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestor. It’s going to be completely different. Jeremiah goes on to tell us in 3240, I will make a permanent covenant with them. I will never turn away from doing good to them and I will put fear of me in their hearts and they will never again turn away from me.
There’s this three part emphasis here. It’s going to be permanent. It’s going to be never turned away. It’s never going to be turned away again. The new covenant that God promised to the ancestors of Abraham was different and it was permanent.
Let’s take a look at Jeremiah 31:33. Now we’re going to see that it’s an internal covenant. It’s a relational covenant. And it’s also a representative covenant. Instead, this is the covenant I will make with the House of Israel after those days.
Again, this is the Lord’s declaration. I will put My teaching within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God and they will be My people. Where was the law written before it was written on tablets of stone. But in this new covenant, it becomes internal.
Instead of being outside of us, that it’s going to be written on people’s hearts where it’s dear to them, where they understand it. And God says, I will be their God. It’s a relational covenant. He’s not a separate God who’s out there that we have to go and see him or that we have to go on a journey to find Him. He is always, ever present with us.
And when God says that they will be My people, not only do they have a relationship with him, but it’s again, this covenant relationship that they’re also supposed to be the people that are recognized by others. These people belong to God. They represent him, and they are sharing what he desires with the entire world. Let’s go on to verse 34. And we’re going to see that the new covenant is one that is personal and it is redemptive.
No longer will one teach his neighbor or his brother, saying, know the Lord, for they will all know Me. It’s not a covenant where other people are telling us about it and we can’t take part. It’s reversed. Now, yes, they’re talking about it, but I have a personal relationship that God promises us because all of us can know Him. And when Scripture talks about knowing God, it isn’t saying that we know about Him.
It says that we really know Him. We’re close to his heart. We know what his intentions are. We know what his thoughts are. We know what his ways are.
We know what pleases Him. It’s this inner deep knowledge because it’s very personal in the new covenant. And this is from the least to the greatest. Again, he emphasizes this is the Lord’s declaration. And then he says, I will forgive their iniquity and never again remember their sin.
This is the redemptive part. Because of our sin, we cannot have a relationship with God. We can’t bathe our body enough to get rid of sin. We can’t think good thoughts enough to get rid of sin. We can’t pay money.
We can’t attend church. There’s no way we can get rid of our sin. And as long as we have sin in our life, we can’t have this new covenant relationship with God. So God does for us what we cannot do for ourself. He redeems us.
He buys us out from the slavery of sin. He pulls us away from it. And it’s not a temporary thing. He says, I will forgive their iniquity and never again remember their sin. Those that are in a new covenant relationship with the Lord is their sins or as far as the east is from the west.
God will never come back for something that he’s forgiven you and say, you remember what you did five years ago. I’m still holding that against you today. He doesn’t do that. He puts it away. He redeems us.
We’re going to go to Jeremiah 31 and read now about how with the new covenant, he promises us that the city of Jerusalem is going to be restored. And we want to see what that city is going to be like. Look, the days are coming. And again, it’s this emphasis. This is what the Lord is declaring when the city from the tower of Hananel to the corner gate will be rebuilt for the Lord.
And the measuring line will once again stretch out straight to the hill of Gareba and then turn toward Goa. The whole valley, the corpses, the ashes and all the fields as far as the Kidron Valley to the corner of the Horse Gate to the east will be holy to the Lord. It will never be uprooted or demolished again. Jerusalem has been destroyed over and over again. But the day is coming.
It is going to be rebuilt and it will not be demolished. And what Jeremiah is telling us, he’s naming all these particular places so that you can tell exactly how big the city is. It’s like he’s saying this is going from the capitol in Madison over to the target in Sun Prairie up here to the Mexican restaurant in Lodi, you know, over to Middleton. He’s naming very specific places so in their mind they can visualize how big this restored city is going to be. Verse 9.
The city will bear on my behalf the name of joy, praise and glory before all the nations of the earth. Who will hear of all the prosperity I will give them. They will tremble with awe because of all the good and all the peace that I will bring about for them. And in those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will dwell securely. We’re not there yet, but the day is coming that in Jerusalem people are going to say, it’s a city filled with joy and not war.
It’s a City filled with praise for God and not people against the Lord. All the nations are going to look at it and say, wow, it’s prosperous and it’s a good place. It’s a place of peace and everyone who lives there will dwell securely. This is the character of the new Covenant city that God is promising us. But not only is there going to be a new city, but Scripture tells us there is going to be a new temple.
And we’re going to read from Jeremiah today. But if you go over to Ezekiel, there’s a very long passage that tells about all the exact dimensions of what the temple is going to look look like. Jeremiah says there will be heard again a sound of joy and gladness. The voice of the groom and the bride and the voice of those saying, we’re on the next slide. There we go.
Give thanks to the Lord of armies. For the Lord is good. His faithful love endures forever. As they bring thanksgiving sacrifices to the temple of the Lord. There will be a new temple as a promise of the New Covenant where again sacrifices are going to be made.
Not looking forward to Christ coming, but being an example to us of what he did in the past by dying on the cross in the New Covenant. There’s also going to be the promise of a righteous branch. There’s going to be a Davidic king and there’s going to be a Levitical priesthood. Let’s look at Jeremiah 33:15 in those days. And at that time I will cause a righteous branch to sprout up for David.
The righteous branch is a descendant of David that’s going to come up. And it’s not going to be just any branch. It’s going to be one that is completely righteous, living a life according to God’s will and word. And Jeremiah says that he will administer justice and righteousness in the land. And that is what Jesus came to do, to be a righteous leader.
We read there that he is. This is what the Lord says. David will never fail to have a man sitting on the throne of the house of Israel. Jesus was a descendant of David, so he’s going to fulfill the prophecy of being this Davidic king. And then it says that the Levitical priest will never fail to have a man always before me to offer burnt offerings, to burn grain offerings, and to make sacrifices.
There’s going to be a new temple. There need to be Levitical priests that are sanctioned by the Lord to carry out the sacrifices in the right way. All of this is part of the New Covenant kingdom. Then we go to Ezekiel 34, verses 11 through 14. And we’re going to read some passages about this good shepherd that is coming.
What did Jesus say he was? He said, I am the good shepherd. And we have to think to the New Testament where it talks about that he goes out to seek the lost and the parable, where he leaves the 99 to go and look for the 1. So when Jesus was declaring to be the good shepherd, the religious leaders, they weren’t just thinking of any shepherd they knew. He was claiming to be this good shepherd of the Old Testament.
We read in Ezekiel 34, for this is what the Lord God says. See, I myself will search for my flock and look for them. God doesn’t send someone else. He goes and looks himself. And as a shepherd looks for his sheep on the day he is among his scattered flocks, so I will look for my flock.
I will rescue them from all the places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and total darkness. I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries and bring them to their own soil. And I will shepherd them on the mountains of Israel, in the ravines and in all the inhabited places of the land. I will tend them in good pasture, and their grazing place will be on Israel’s lofty mountains. And there they will lie down in a good grazing place, and they will feed in rich pasture on the mountains of Israel.
For years we’ve seen the Jews coming back to the land. It’s all about God bringing them from these distant places to which they had been scattered. And it will continue so until the new city is established. And God says in verse 15, I will tend my flock and let them lie down. He’s going to take care of them.
And again, this is the Lord’s declaration. It’s not just Ezekiel speaking these things. God says, I will seek the lost. I will bring back the strays, I will bandage the injured, and I will strengthen the weak. It sounds like who Jesus Christ, what he did when he came.
But in the love and the care, there’s also the fact that there has to be justice. Evil has to be punished and rooted out. And so the shepherd God says, I will destroy the fat and the strong, and I will shepherd them with justice. As for you, my flock, the Lord God says this, Look, I am going to judge between one sheep and another, between the rams and the goats. And if you know your scripture, that should bring to the mind that Jesus shares about one day that the goats will be separated from the sheep, because he is coming to make things Right in the world.
And the result of that we read in verse 27. The trees of the field will yield their fruit. The land will yield its produce. My flock will be secure in their land. They will know that I am the Lord when I break the bars of their yoke and rescue them from the power of those who enslave them.
They will no longer be prey for the nations, and the wild creatures of the earth will not consume them, and they will live securely. And no one will frighten them because the good shepherd is taking care of them. Verse 29. I will establish for them a place that is now renowned for its agriculture. Mark Twain visited Israel a long time ago.
When he went there, he walked through the land. He said he did not see a single person, and it was so barren that cactus didn’t even grow there. But today God is beginning to bring back this land that’s known for its agriculture. They will no longer be victims of famine in the land. They will no longer endure the insults of the nations.
And then they will know that I, the Lord their God, am with them, that they, the house of Israel, are my people. This is the declaration of the Lord God. You are my flock, the human flock of my pasture, and I am your God. This is the declaration of the Lord God. Why is God promising all this?
Is it because it Israel, the people, that nation, are wonderful and special? No. They are just as evil and sinful as all of us. God’s love doesn’t extend to us because we’re special or good or wonderful or exceptional. He just loves us the way that we are.
Let’s read in Ezekiel 36:23 and see that this new covenant is purposeful. Not so much for us, even though we’re going to benefit from it. It’s purposeful because it is for God’s glory above all things. Therefore, say to the house of Israel, this is what the Lord God says. It is not for your sake that I will act, House of Israel, but for my holy name, the name which you profaned among the nations where you went.
I will honor the holiness of my great name which has been profaned among the nations. The name that you have profaned among them. The nations will know that I am the Lord. This is the declaration of the Lord God. When I demonstrate my holiness through you in their sight.
I mean Israel, the people of Israel were not even just neutral about the Lord God says when they went away from him, they actually put his name down. They profaned it. And we could say, well, that’s terrible. And that’s awful. Why does he still love them?
Why does he promise to do these things? Well, it just shows the abundance of of God’s great love, that it surpasses everything that we could do that is evil or sinful or wrong. And it’s not so much for us. We benefit from it. But it’s all for his glory.
The new covenant is going to be amazingly different. Isaiah 36:24 For I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and will bring you into your own land. I will also sprinkle clean water on you. You will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your impurities and all your idols.
I will give you a new heart. And I’m going to put a new spirit within you. I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. It’s going to be amazingly different in that it’s going to be an internal kingdom within us. And what’s even most amazing, it’s not just that we get a new heart, but God says in verse 27, I am going to place my spirit within you.
That would have been unheard of in the Old Testament because the Spirit of God moved from prophet to king. He was up on Saul and then he left Saul. He was wherever he wanted to be, but it was usually just upon special anointed leaders or prophets. But God is saying the day is coming that each and everyone is going to have this special gift, that his spirit is going to live within us. It’s amazingly different that this was promised.
I will place my spirit within you and cause you to follow my statutes and to carefully observe my ordinances. You will live in the land that I gave your ancestors. And here is the total goal of covenant, that you will be my people and I will be your God. God’s desire to have a relationship with everyone is what all the covenants are about. Well, you might say, well, what about me?
I’m not a Jew, I’m not an Israelite. Well, that’s the great mystery that we learn about in the New Testament, that the New covenant is mysterious, but it’s explained to us. And the explanation as we read through is that we can all be part of the new covenant because God is going to join us together through Jesus Christ to be one with the people of Israel. For this reason, we read in Ephesians chapter three, I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ, on behalf of your Gentiles. He wasn’t speaking to the Jews here.
He’s talking to everyone who is not a Jew. Assuming you have heard about, haven’t you, about the administration of God’s grace that he gave me not for the Jews, but for the Gentiles. And here he says, I’m talking about this mystery that was made known to me by revelation. As I have briefly written above, God explained to Paul the great mystery. By reading this you are able to understand my insight into the again, the mystery of Christ.
This was not made known to people in other generations. They didn’t understand it in the Old Testament, even though it’s there. But now it is revealed to his holy apostles and the prophets by the Spirit. And this is the explanation to the mystery. The Gentiles are co heirs.
This was unheard of because they couldn’t even worship together in the temple. But now God is saying, I’m bringing you together. You’re going to be members of the same body and you’re going to be partners in the promise in Christ Jesus. And that comes from the through the good news, the Gospel, that Jesus Christ died on the cross. He was buried and he was raised from the dead so that we could be united with the Jewish people and experience the new Covenant Kingdom.
Ephesians 2, 11, 22 we read. So then remember that at one time you were Gentiles in the flesh. You were called the uncircumcised because the Gentiles did not circumcise their boys and they were called that by those who were the circumcised or the Jews.
And at that time, verse 12 says you were without Christ. We were in a terrible shape. We were excluded from the citizenship of Israel. We were foreigners to all the covenants, plural, a promise. We were without hope because we were without God.
We were in a terrible situation. But the great thing is that now in Christ Jesus, you who were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ, for He is now our peace who made Both groups Group 1. He’s made them together and he tore down the dividing wall of hostility. And in the flesh he made of no effect the law consisting of commands and expressed in regulations so that he might create Himself now one new man from the two, from the Gentiles and the Jews. They’re going to be one man and there’s going to be peace.
He did this so that he might reconcile both to God in one body through the cross by which he put the hostility to death. He came and he proclaimed the good news of peace to you who were far away. That would be us, the Gentiles, and peace to those who were near the Jews. For through him we both have now access in one spirit to the Father.
19 goes on to say, so then you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with the saints, members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, which Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone, and in him the whole building. All of the Jews, all of the Gentiles that had placed their faith in Christ are being put together. We are growing into a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you are also being built together for God’s dwelling in the Spirit.
It’s available. The new covenant is for all of us. It’s for the Jews, it’s for the Gentiles. And we go back now to Isaiah 55, that when God spoke about the new covenant, then he gave an invitation for people to to join it. Because within the whole Jewish community, it’s offered to them to be part of it.
But there still has to be an acceptance. Because just as there are Gentiles that won’t be part of the new heavens and the new earth, reigning and ruling with Christ, so there are Jews that will not either if they don’t come to the Lord and respond to his invitation. Let’s look at Isaiah 55. What is that invitation? The first part of it is to come, come everyone who is thirsty, come to the water.
And you without silver. Come buy and eat. And again, come buy wine and milk without silver and without cost. What God has to offer does not cost us anything. And he’s not just talking about physical water here.
It’s like when Jesus spoke to the Samaritan woman. She thought he was talking about the water in the well. And he said, no, I’m giving what you really desire. I am offering you what you really want. But you have to first respond to that.
You have to come to me. You can’t go elsewhere for salvation. And then God asks this question, why do you spend silver on what is not food and your wages on what does not satisfy? In other words, why are you chasing after things in the world that you can buy, hoping that they will make you happy? Because what you need is spiritual food to change you, that you will have what I truly have to offer.
He said, listen carefully to me. Eat what is good and you will enjoy the choicest of food. Pay attention. And what does it say? Come to me and then listen so that you will live.
And if you do this, I will make a permanent covenant with you on the basis of the faithful kindnesses of David. The invitation that God offered the Jews to have a personal relationship with Him. It’s the same for us today. And Isaiah even explains it. And in this coming to God, there’s seeking, there is calling out to the Lord, and there is repentance that’s involved in verse 6.
Seek the Lord while He may be found. And the implication there is that there’s going to come a time that he won’t be able to be found. And it’s not because he won’t be available. But you may be so hardened in your heart you can’t find Him. But ultimately the time will come when Jesus Christ returns or you come to death.
And after that you cannot accept. So the emphasis is, if you feel like God is seeking you today, you need to come to him and not wait. Call to him while he is near. And then Isaiah says, let the wicked one abandon his way and the sinful one his thoughts, and let him return. This is the whole definition of what we call repentance.
As long as we are under sin’s control, we’re walking the way the world walks. We are walking in this direction. We’re going after everything we’re saying, everything we’re thinking, everything the world wants us to think. And repentance is saying, I don’t want to go this way anymore. There is a turning in my life.
It’s a returning to following God’s way and wanting to live a righteous life. And people that have true faith have this repentance in their life. Let the wicked one abandon his way and the sinful one his thoughts. Let him return to the Lord. And God promises us that when we do this, we have compassion.
God will have compassion on us. And it says, without cost, without good works, he will. What are the two words there? Freely Forgive. God’s gift of salvation requires nothing on our part.
We merely accept it. And this seeking, this calling, this repentance, it’s just all evidence of what God is doing in our life. And it all goes along with what we call faith. We jump over to John chapter three. We don’t believe God and get saved because we believe.
When we believe, we’re just accepting what has already been done for us. Let’s read what John3 says so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.
For God loved the world in this way. He gave his one and only Son so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world. That wasn’t the purpose. It was to save the world through him.
But then we have two choices here. Verse 18 says, Anyone who believes in him is not condemned. But it also says, on the other hand, anyone who does not believe is already condemned. There is no neutral ground. When you die, you don’t approach God and say, well, I did not believe.
I just didn’t believe. So that should count for something. That’s not an option. If you haven’t chosen to place your faith in Jesus Christ, you are on this side of the equation. You’re going to be condemned for all eternity and you’re not going to participate in this new covenant kingdom that we’ve been reading about today because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God.
So you’re either on this side today and you need to come to God. You need to have faith that shows that you want to turn from living this way to living for the Lord and just believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross for your sins. And by believing that, he comes and he places his spirit within you. For those of us that are believers and we’re on this side of the equation, what all this should mean to us is that no matter what’s going on in the world, a glorious and wonderful time is coming that God has promised that will last throughout eternity. And that is our hope that takes us through all the dangers, the sin, the sadness, the disease, the disasters that we have in this world.
May we pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for what you have promised us. We thank you and are absolutely confident that you will bring it about and that it will be for eternity. We don’t have to worry about it ending. We don’t have to be concerned that some greater God is going to come along and defeat you in the future, because you are almighty and sovereign, and it’s in you and you alone.
And for your glory that we believe all that you have said and promised. In your Son’s name we pray. Amen.