PERSPECTIVE FOR THE NEW YEAR.

Isaiah 51: 11

New Year’s Day sermon by:

Rev. G.R. Procee.

PUBLISHED BY THE
PUBLICATIONS COMMITTEE
OF THE
FREE REFORMED CHURCHES OF NORTH AMERICA.

(November 2007)

LITURGY:

Votum

Psalter 176

Scripture Reading Isaiah 51: 9 – 16

Text: Isaiah 51: 11

Psalter 81: 1, 4

Congregational prayer

Offerings

Psalter 358

Sermon

Psalter 30

Thanksgiving Prayer

Psalter 134: 2, 3

Doxology: Psalter 420: 2

Congregation,

The year 2008 has started. We have a good custom in our churches to start the new year in God's House. We are here together to ask Gods favour and blessing for this new year. We are also here to be encouraged that the Lord God is always the same. He who led you in 2007 is also willing to be with you in this new year 2008. We are also here to again be admonished and exhorted to first seek the Lord and His righteousness also in this new year 2008.

This morning our text shows us a perspective upon the future. Yesterday we saw that the heavens and the earth will all fade away. But God's salvation and righteousness shall stand forever. It shall not be abolished. It shall continue. This is the great perspective of God's children. This is the great comfort for the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. We wish to meditate upon this perspective, We see in our text how that Gods salvation and righteousness cannot be abolished. This is a deep reality. God's salvation shall be forever.

That is the perspective the Lord gives to His people. They may look in to the future with hope and expectation. They may look in to the future with longing. Because Gods children are very blessed. It is most blessed to belong to the Lord. so as we now look into this new year we do that with the perspective we find in our text:

Isaiah 51:11 Therefore the redeemed of the LORD shall return, and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their head: they shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and mourning shall flee away.

We meditate on: Perspective for the New Year. This is: 1. Entrance into Zion. 2. Eternal Blessing 3. Everlasting Power.

1. The background of the text is the Babylonian exile. The people have been led away as prisoners far from their own land, but God is going to bring them back into their own land of Israel. Isaiah sees this reality but he sees more. Because God’s redemption was not fulfilled in the return of Israel from the Babylonian exile. God's redemption and deliverance is far greater. It is higher, it is deeper.

The text says: The redeemed of the LORD shall return unto Zion. That word redeemed is very important. It can be translated by the word ransomed. To ransom means to set one free after you have paid a certain ransom price. The text means that God ransoms His people and He does that by paying the ransom price. The signification of the word is substitution. A man redeemed his first-born son by substituting a sacrificial animal for him or by paying a certain amount of money.

Here in the setting of the text, the Lord delivers His people out of exile and lets them return back to the promised land. This is all His grace to them. The Lord ransomed them.

There is more to this. The description given here of everlasting joy and singing and coming to Zion refers to more than just the return from Babylon. It refers also to the redemption the Lord gives from sin and iniquity. Man is by nature under the curse of sin. God redeems sinners from this curse. He pays the for the curse by shedding His own

Blood. 1 Peter 1:18, 19 Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: This is a spiritual redemption from sin and uncleanness. God sent His Son to deliver His people from their sins.

This redemption is also a deliverance from the power of the devil. By nature man is under the dominion and power of the devil. He is a slave to the devil, but the Lord delivers, He redeems sinners from uncleanness and sin.

This redemption can also be described as a deliverance from idol worship to serve the true God. We can refer to 1 Thess. 1:9 ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God. No longer to serve the idols of gold and silver, the idols of this world but to worship the living God. That is to render themselves to the Lord and His service.

Rom. 6:19 as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.

This redemption is also a deliverance from the violence of death. Death is the last enemy. But Jesus delivers from the sting of death and Jesus causes death to be of a different nature for God’s people. They still undergo death, but death is no longer for them a punishment or a payment for sin. Death is for them an entrance into glory. They are ushered into the presence of God. The Lord Jesus is described in Hebrews 2:14, that he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil.

This redemption is fully realized when God's children enter Zion here above, in heaven. That will be the ultimate fulfilling of this text: The redeemed of the LORD shall return, and come with singing unto Zion. That is glory in heaven. That is where their home is. The Lord Jesus has redeemed them to be forever with Him. He paid for them the ransom price and He prepares for them a place in heaven. Revel 21:3, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.

The redeemed of the Lord are those who were redeemed, who were ransomed. God paid a price for them. What price was this? The Lord Jesus paid the ransom price. God gave His Son to pay this price. The Holy Spirit made this payment possible by imparting a body and granting strength and anointing to be the Redeemer. All God's blessings and favours come to us through the Lord Jesus Christ. He merited all Gods favours. It was for Jesus sake that the redeemed of the Lord could return from Babylon. It is for Jesus sake that is people are delivered from satan’s dominion and from uncleanness ands from idols and from the violence of death. He ransomed His people. He purchased His people by His own Blood. By crucifixion of Himself He breaks the bonds of moral slavery, condemns sin in the flesh, works a hatred of it. He Himself was the ransom price. The result is that the Redeemed of the Lord shall return to Zion.

Who are these ones who enter into Zion? They are the ones who are redeemed. They have become aware of their guilt and sin. They have fled to Jesus for deliverance. He has become their payment. These people now walk on the way of holiness. They hate all

uncleanness because the Holy Spirit lives within them. They accuse themselves that they are so foolish because of the remaining indwelling sin, still their heart is set upon the Lord and they walk in His ways. These ways lead them to Zion.

Zion is the dwelling place of the Lord. The place where He is in perfect peace. That is where He leads all his people. How blessed and precious to have this as your perspective for the New Year. Blessed when He leads you and you may know that your future is with Him. Then you can continue on in life with peace and with hope.

Is this your perspective? We all have our expectations for this New Year. Some have resolutions they want to implement. Now they want to have a new fresh beginning. A new start with new hopes. But all our man made hopes will amount to nothing but if you may live with this perspective that the Lord leads you to Zion, how blessed you then are. That is truly the only real perspective that can fill our hearts and lives. Then it can only be a true new year for you, when you may live in this perspective on His future. He makes all things new. That is the only way how we can enter a new year, when we belong to His people. Otherwise everything remains old and dull and lifeless. You need to be a pilgrim on your way to Zion.

So on the New Year’s day the question comes to us: Do we belong to these people, who live in the expectation that they shall arrive in New Jerusalem?

On what is this hope based? It cannot be based on anything of you yourself. It can only be rooted in God and in His grace and in His power. All who belong to the Lamb are placed on the way to Zion. The way is to fall down before him, to confess your sins, to plead for His mercy to take you and to lead you where you cannot bring yourself. You need a clean heart and a new heart, and a new perspective. That is all found in Christ.

You need to know Christ. He is the Way. In the desert of this world God has laid out a way to reach Zion. You need to walk on that way. You can’t stay at home. You can’t just live for this world that is going to perish. The heavens shall vanish like smoke and the earth shall become old like a garment and they that dwell therein shall die. You can’t just stick around. You have to be on the way to Mt. Zion. You have to become a pilgrim. If you’re not on that road, it is high time, you get there. You say: How can I do this. That is all found in Christ. Think of Christian in Pilgrim’s Progress: Goodwill said to him: “Look before thee, dost thou see this narrow way? That is the way thou must go: it was cast up by the Patriarchs, Prophets, Christ and his Apostles, and it is as straight as a rule can make it: This is the way thou must go.”

These people gain an entrance into Zion, but these people shall also have:

2. Eternal blessing. These people on their way to Zion shall enter there with joy. That is with singing, with songs of praise and adoration. The text says: the redeemed of the LORD shall return, and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their head: they shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and mourning shall flee away. That shows the happiness and joy they receive. They have rich blessing.

They are going to Mount Zion. That is the dwelling place of God. That is where His presence displays light and joy. The Lord said He chose to live in Zion. Ps 132:13,14 For

the LORD hath chosen Zion; he hath desired it for his habitation. This is my rest for ever: here will I dwell; for I have desired it. That is the place of rest, of delighting in God, the place of being in the immediate presence of God. That is so glorious and so full of blessing. They will be in the light with Him, in peace, in perfect love and in rest. Joy shall beam from their faces. Because they are in the immediate presence of God. Rev. 22: 3-5 And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him: And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads. And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.

The text says: Everlasting joy shall be upon their head. The text repeats this because it is all so wonderful and beautiful and because there are really no human words to explain beauties of heaven: They shall obtain gladness and joy. They shall rejoice forever more because of all His goodness and because of all His grace and His kindness. They have true joy and gladness. This is even repeated a third time, but then in negative words: sorrow and mourning shall flee away. All tears and sorrow are done away with. Pain, loneliness and grief shall not be remembered. There shall be full rejoicing in God. They will have as it were a crown of everlasting joy.

Then shall the words be fulfilled of Revel 21:3,4 Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.

Revel 7: 15-17 they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.

This is the future God’s children are going to receive. During the time of oppression and struggle in this present life on earth, the redeemed of the Lord experience still hardship and sorrow because they still experience the power of sin. There are tribulations, but at the same time they anticipate this blessed future. For God gives now already a foretaste of that joy. The Lord has delivered them from a vain walk in sin and gives them love for Him. They have peace with God. They have been reconciled to God. Before they were reconciled and were still in bondage of sin and misery, they had no real joy. They had no peace, but since the Lord entered their life they experience love. So on their way to Zion they go with singing. For they are numbered among the ransomed of the Lord.

When they arrive in Zion all sorrow and sighing will flee from them. Isaiah 35:10 And the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. This sorrow and sighing shall not just be removed. It shall flee away. It cannot be together with such singing and deep joy. As a conquered enemy flees, so these flee away.