Fear Not, For I Have Redeemed You 

Would invite you to take your Bibles and turn with me to the

Old Testament book of Isaiah. We're going to be looking today

at chapter 43 of Isaiah. You're using the red Bibles and

the chairs around you. You can find the page that you

will find Isaiah 43 on, printed for you in the bulletin.

Isaiah 43, perhaps one of the most beloved chapters in the

entirety of Isaiah's book. Listen as I read to you Isaiah

Isaiah 43 · chapter mention

chapter 43, beginning in verse one.

But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who

formed you, O Israel, fear not, for I have redeemed you.

I have called you by name. You are mine.

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and

through the rivers they shall not overwhelm you.

When you walk through fire, you shall not be burned, and the

flame shall not consume you. For I am the Lord, your God, the

Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I give Egypt as your ransom,

Cush and Seba in exchange for you, because you are precious in

my eyes and honored, and I love you.

I give men in return for you, peoples, in exchange for your

life. Fear not, for I am with you.

I will bring your offspring from the east and from the West I

will gather you. I will say to the north give up,

and to the South do not withhold.

Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the

earth. Everyone who is called by My

name, whom I created for My glory, whom I formed and made,

bring out the people who are blind, yet have eyes, who are

deaf yet have ears. All the nations gather together

in the people's assemble. Who among them can declare this

and show us the former things? Let them bring their witnesses

to prove them right, and let them hear and say it is true.

You are my witnesses, declares the Lord, and my servant whom I

have chosen, that you may know and believe me, and understand

that I am he before me no God was formed, nor shall there be

any after me. I, I am the Lord, and besides me

there is no Savior. I declared and saved and

proclaimed when there was no strange God among you.

And you are my witnesses, declares the Lord, and I am God

also. Henceforth I am He.

There is none who can deliver from my hand, but I work, and

who can turn it back. Thus says the Lord your, your

Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.

For your sake I send to Babylon and bring them all down as

fugitives, even the Chaldeans and the ships in which they

rejoice. I am the Lord, your Holy One,

the Creator of Israel, your King.

Thus says the Lord, who makes a way in the sea, a path in the

mighty waters, who brings forth chariot and horse, army and

warrior. They lie down, they cannot rise.

They are extinguished, quenched like a Wick.

Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old.

Behold, I am doing a new thing now it springs forth.

Do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the

wilderness and rivers in the desert.

The wild beasts will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches.

For I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the

desert, to give drink to my chosen people, the people whom I

formed for myself, that they might declare my praise.

Yet you did not call upon me, O Jacob, but you have been weary

of me, O Israel. You have not brought me your

sheep for burnt offerings or honored me with your sacrifices.

I have not burdened you with offerings or wearied you with

frankincense. You have not bought me sweet

cane with money or satisfied me with the fact of your

sacrifices, But you have burdened me with your sins.

You have wearied me with your iniquities.

I I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake,

and I will not remember your sins.

Put me in remembrance. Let us argue together.

Set forth your case, that you may be proved right.

Your first Father sinned, and your mediators transgressed

against me. Therefore, I will profane the

Princess of the sanctuary and deliver Jacob to utter

destruction and Israel to reviling.

Let's pray together. Father, we come to this portion

of Your word, and for so many of us there are such precious

treasures in this chapter. We pray that as we seek to

understand it and to unpack your word, that you would be at work

through Your Spirit to open our eyes, open our hearts and our

minds, that we would see what You want us to see, that we

would learn what we need to learn.

And above all, we would see our Lord Jesus.

For it's in His name we pray. Amen.

The prophet Isaiah lived and ministered about 150 to 200

years before the prophet Daniel lived and ministered.

But the people that Isaiah was speaking to here in this last

section of the book of Isaiah, they are the people who were

living when the events of Daniel's life took place.

People living in exile in Babylon in the mid to late 6th

century. As they would read Isaiah 43, no

doubt they would make a connection with Daniel.

It's one of the best known, one of the most loved stories in the

Old Testament. Daniel's three friends,

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, they refused to bow down to the

golden idol that King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had

created. They they refused to bow before

it and to worship it because they were followers of the true

God Yahweh. Nebuchadnezzar threatened to

throw them into a fiery furnace if they would not bow and

worship the idol. They answered Nebuchadnezzar

saying this. Oh, Nebuchadnezzar, we have no

need to answer you in this matter.

If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from

the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your

hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you,

O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden

image that you have set up. Nebuchadnezzar was furious.

We're told that he heated up the furnace 7 times hotter.

He had Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego bound and then thrown

into the furnace. It was so hot that the men who

threw them into the furnace were killed.

But then Nebuchadnezzar looked, he looked into the furnace and

he said this. Did we not cast three men bound

into the fire? But I see four men unbound

walking in the midst of the fire, and they are not hurt, and

the appearance of the 4th is like a son of the gods.

Nebuchadnezzar had the men taken out of the furnace.

He looked and saw that the hair on their heads had not been

singed, and the the cloaks that they were wearing had not been

harmed, and there was no smell of fire on them.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, all of God's pure people who

experienced this, had to think of Isaiah 43.

But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who

formed you, O Israel, fear not, for I have redeemed you.

I have called you by name. You are mine.

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and

through the rivers they shall not overwhelm you.

When you walk through fire, you shall not be burned, and the

flame shall not consume you. What hope and encouragement and

strength these words must have given God's people as they were

waiting in exile for someone to come and rescue them?

And what hope and encouragement and strength these words must

give God's people living today as we wait for King Jesus to

return the second time to redeem and to rescue his people and to

bring the new heavens and the new earth.

Let's look at Isaiah chapter 43 and let's see several things.

Isaiah 43 · chapter mention

First of all, the problem that Isaiah describes.

Secondly, the provider that will solve the problem.

Thirdly, the proof that he will do it.

Fourthly, the plan for how He will do it.

And then we'll finish by asking, So what?

What difference does this make for us today?

Well, first of all, the problem. Now, if you were here last week

as we looked at chapter 42, you will remember that chapter 42

ended by telling us that God poured out the heat of His anger

and the might of His battle on His people because of their

rebellion against Him. And as we get to the end of

chapter 43, we see the problem being stated again.

It's diagnosed in verses 22 through 24.

There God says, Yet you did not call upon me, O Jacob, you have

been weary of me, O Israel, You've not brought me your sheep

for burnt offerings or honored me with your sacrifices.

I've not burdened you with offerings or wearied you with

frankincense. You've not bought me sweet cane

with money or satisfied me with the fat of the of your

sacrifices, but you have burdened me with your sins.

You have wearied me with your iniquities.

The the language here, it sounds very similar to the language

that we read earlier in the service from chapter 1 of

Isaiah. It's the diagnosis.

Diagnosis of the problem of the people.

They have failed to call on the Lord.

They have become weary of the Lord.

They have failed to worship Him in the ways that He commands and

that He desires. Their worship of the Lord had

become cold and lifeless and heartless, going through the

motions of the rituals, and they were burdening the Lord with

their sins, wearying the Lord with their iniquities.

And then as we come to verses 26 to 28, as the chapter comes to a

close, we see what looks like a courtroom scene, verse 26.

The accused are given opportunity to establish their

innocence. Verse 27.

The prosecution's case is laid out in verse 28.

Severe judgment was pronounced just like we saw last week in

chapter 42. God's people had a problem.

They were sinning against the Lord.

They were rebelling against the Lord in His word.

And in chapter 42, they are described as blind and

inattentive and falling short and defeated and sinfully

disobedient and spiritually uncomprehending.

And here is the problem unfolds more in chapter 43, we see that

their worship was meaningless and they didn't have a

meaningful relationship with the Lord, right?

This is the problem that God's people had then and the problem

that God's people have today. We sin and rebel against the

Lord. The question is how would the

Lord respond? How does the Lord respond?

He responds by being a provider for his people.

There were provider that they needed.

You can see this provider described for us several ways in

verses one through 7. The one who comes who'll be a

provider for his people, The God himself who would come as the

provider. He is the creator God.

You can see that in verse one. He's the one who created his

people who who formed them. He created Adam out of the dust

of the earth and breathed life into him and then created Eve

out of Adam and gave her life. He is the creator God, but he's

not just the creator God, He's also the redeeming God.

You can see that at the end of verse 1.

He says, fear not, for I have redeemed you.

God's people in the Old Testament had experienced God

redeeming them in many different ways, especially as he redeemed

them out of Egypt during the Exodus.

And God's people in the New Testament days got to experience

God's redemption in an even greater and ultimate way with

the arrival of the promised Messiah, the ultimate Redeemer,

Jesus himself. Through his death, through his

life and death and resurrection, he redeemed his people in all

ages from their sins. He is the redeeming God.

Not only is He the creator God and redeeming God, but we're

also told this is a personal God.

At the end of verse 1, he, he says he calls his people by

name. He knows them by name.

He calls them mine. The beginning of verse 3, we're

told that He is the Lord our God.

Lord, all capitals there. That's the word Yahweh, that

special, close, personal name that God gave to his people by

which they would call on Him. He's the personal Savior of his

people. The beginning of verse four.

He considers His people as precious to Him, honoured, and

he says the most personal thing you can say I love you.

He says to his people, He is the personal God, but he's not just

the creator God and redeeming God and personal God.

He is also the protecting God. These wonderful words that are

much loved in verse 2. When we go through the waters

and the rivers, He will be with us and will not allow them to

overwhelm us. When we walk through fire, we

won't be burned and the flame will not consume us.

He shows us our protection again in verses 5 through 7.

He says fear not, for I am with you.

He will be the one who will call His people from the ends of the

earth and gather them to Himself, protecting them because

He is the protecting God. What incredible and wonderful

and encouraging news. God's people have a problem.

They sin and rebel against the Lord.

But the Lord responds by providing a solution to the

problem. The creator God, the redeeming

God, the personal God, the protecting God.

He will provide and care for His people.

He creates them, He redeems them, He enters into

relationship with them, and He protects them, and He proves

that he's going to do it too. You can see that in verses 8

through 13. The language here is language of

another courtroom, verse 8. In the beginning of verse 9,

that the court assembles, witnesses are gathered.

The proof that is coming will be so obvious that even the blind

and the deaf can be witnesses to it.

The end of verse 9 The issue is stated.

The beginning of verse 10, the witnesses for the Lord are

presented. The end of verse 10 and into

verse 11 the Lord's claim is affirmed.

Before God there is no God formed, nor shall there be any.

After. Besides Him there is no Savior.

Verse 12 the issue is settled. God alone is declared and saved

and proclaimed, and there is only one who is the true God.

And then the verdict is given in verse 13.

Israel's God is the only true God.

There is no one who can deliver from His hand.

When God works, He accomplishes His great and gracious purposes,

and no one else can do what He does.

All of this is proof that God the provider will accomplish all

of His promises to His people. It's proof that He is the

creator God, that He is the one who can and will redeem His

people. He is the personal God who draws

people into relationship with himself, who considers His

people precious and honored, whom He loves.

He will protect them. He will be with them through the

roaring rivers and fiery furnaces of life, right?

This proof that He gives, that He, the great provider, will

accomplish His purposes. The proof of that is

unchallengeable. It is undeniable, and it is

above any scrutiny in the highest court of the universe,

with even the blind and the deaf being witnesses.

The evidence is so clear and obvious.

The case is so well made. The only verdict possible is God

is who He says He is. There is none other.

He alone is truth. He accomplishes His purposes and

is faithful to His promises, and He will do what He says.

So what's His plan? Well, He gives His plan in

verses 14 through 21. He tells them what He's going to

do, what He's going to accomplish for them several

times. You may have noticed earlier in

the chapter the Lord alluded to the the great event in the Old

Testament that's called the Exodus when God rescued His

people out of Egypt. Did you notice verse 2, he talks

about passing through the waters, passing through the

rivers, and verse three, he actually mentions Egypt being

given to his people. Verse 9, there's a reference to

the nation's people assembling in the the former things, the

things of old. Verse 11, the Lord is the Savior

of his people. He rescues them, He redeems

them, He saves them. But as we come to verses 14

through 21, the Lord is even more specifically using that

former event of the Exodus to explain his future plan for His

people. Verse 14, he says the Lord is

going to bring Babylon down. That's the nation that had, that

had invaded and conquered Judah and now held the people of God

in exile. Verse 16, just like the old days

of the Exodus, the Lord is going to make a way through the sea, a

path through the mighty waters. Verse 17 just like how Egypt's

great Chariots and horses and army perished in the Red Sea, so

the Lord would extinguish all of those who oppose Him, quench

them like a Wick. Verse 18 he tells them not to

focus on the old former things, what God did before in the

Exodus from Egypt. Rather, verse 19, he says, know

that there is a new plan. I'm going to do a new thing.

Something new will spring forth. And what was that plan?

I will make a way in the wilderness for His people to

leave exile and return to the promised land.

Verse 20, The Lord will provide for His people.

He will protect them along the way.

He will give them the provisions that they need.

And verse 21, these are the people that the Lord created and

formed and they will give Him the praise that He deserves,

right. This is this was the Lord's new

and great plan for his people living in exile in Babylon.

His plan was for a greater exodus to take place when he

would once again redeem and rescue his people and be their

Saviour and restore the relationship between him and

them. So that makes us then consider

that makes us reflect on what how does this apply to us today

then? Well, first, is this God's

grace? In Isaiah chapter 43, God was

Isaiah 43 · chapter mention

speaking to his people who were in exile in the 8th and the 7th

and the 6th centuries BC. And He was reminding them again

and again and again of His grace and His mercy and His love for

His people, of how He would rescue them and redeem them and

save them and care for them. But His words for His people,

then, are also His words for God's people today.

What he did for his people back then, redeeming them out of

exile and restoring the relationship between him and

them, that points forward to a greater redeeming that he would

do for his people. Through the person and the work

of Jesus, the ultimate Redeemer, God would redeem his people who

are in exile because of their sin.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, these personal, these precious

words that we have in Isaiah 43, they are not just what God says

to His people back then. They are what God says to His

people today, to people, God's people in this room.

And what did He tell them? He is the one who has created us

and formed us. We have no need to fear because

He has redeemed us. He knows us by name.

He calls us by name. We are His and we belong to Him.

And when we pass through the trials and the difficulties of

life, when we walk through the fires of this fallen and broken

world, He is with us. He will not let them overcome

and consume us. He is the Lord our God, the

covenant keeping faithful God. He is our Saviour.

He looks at us and He considers us precious in his sight,

honored in His sight. He tells us that He loves us.

He hasn't just given men and peoples in exchange for us, He

has given his own Son in exchange for us.

And He promises that one day he will gather us together with all

of his people from around the world.

He is our Lord. He is the Holy 1, He is our

Creator, He is our King. He has formed us for Himself and

gives us the privilege of declaring His praise.

Our God is truly a God of grace. As His people, we sin against

Him and we rebel against Him, and He responds by being our

provider, providing us salvation and His love and His grace.

Are you prone? Are you, Are you tempted to

doubt God's grace for you? Don't doubt it.

Instead, come back to Isaiah 43 and remind yourself of what is

more true than how you might feel in any particular moment.

Or maybe that you're here today and you don't know God's grace.

You haven't experienced it yourself.

You have to understand what the Lord says here.

He says that apart from a relationship with Him, a

relationship with Jesus, no worship is acceptable to Him.

For those who are apart from a relationship with Jesus, He says

that you burden the Lord with your sins, that you weary the

Lord with your sin and rebellion against Him.

In His Word He says that apart from embracing God's grace and

putting faith in the Lord Jesus, there is only utter destruction

in reviling. So experience the grace of the

Lord by trusting in Christ, believing in who He is, trusting

what He has accomplished on the cross.

We see something about God's grace here in Isaiah 43.

We also see something about God's presence.

His presence is personal. It it is so clear here in Isaiah

43 throughout the Old Testament, the in the New Testament that

the Lord desires and intends to have a relationship with his

people. God is not cold and distant and

uninvolved and aloof. God as described in Isaiah 43 as

a God who desires a living, a personal relationship with us.

As we see here in Isaiah 43, the the Lord doesn't want just bare,

outward rituals from us. He doesn't want us just to go

through the motions of worshipping and living for Him.

He wants our heart. He wants a living, active,

personal relationship between Him and us.

Is that what you have? Do you know the Lord in this

way? If not, I would encourage you to

make use of the means that He's given us to grow in our

relationship with Him, the depth and the breadth of our

relationship with Him. Get to know the Lord better by

reading His Word. Spend time talking to Him

through the gift of prayer that He's given to us.

You can even use the Word of God to pray to Him, using His own

word to pray back to Him, especially in the Psalms.

Seek out the fellowship with God's people, fellowshipping

with God's people, building greater bonds of unity and love

and service that can actually help us to deepen our

relationship not only with each other, but also with the Lord

himself. We see something here about the

personal presence of God and His desire for a personal

relationship with these people. But we also see something as we

think about God's presence, we also see something about Him

protecting us. Our God is a protecting God.

This wonderful language that we have here in chapter 43 about

how the Lord protects and watches over His people, that

should bring us an incredible amount of encouragement and

peace and hope. Now notice the Lord doesn't say

that there won't be any roaring waters.

He doesn't say that there won't be any rivers in this life that

we have to live. He doesn't say that there won't

be any fires that we might have to walk through in life.

The Lord doesn't promise us that we won't have trials and

difficulties and burdens and hard things in this life.

In fact, he says that if you are a Christian, if you are one of

God's people, that might actually be worse for us.

But what He does promise is to be with us, to protect us and

preserve us, to bring us through the trials and the hardships,

whether that means removing those things for us in this

life, or whether it means preserving us as we have to

endure those hard things for the rest of our lives, knowing that

we'll be free from them in the life to come.

Do you trust the Lord's protection and provision and

care for you? If you are prone or tempted to

doubt the Lord's care and protection and provision for

you, come back to Isaiah 43. Be reminded of what is more true

than how you might be feeling in any particular moment.

Lastly, we not only see God's grace and God's presence here,

we see God's intention. It's obvious even just from

Isaiah 43, but all throughout the Scriptures, God's intention

in giving us His grace is to lead us to more holiness.

The indicative is meant to lead to the imperative.

What is true of us because of the gospel is meant us, is meant

to lead us to follow the Lord in the ways that He calls us to do

so. God's grace proclaimed in Isaiah

Isaiah 43 · chapter mention

chapter 43 and ultimately accomplished on the cross when

Jesus died and in the resurrection where Jesus

conquered sin and death. His grace to us is meant to lead

us to growing and holiness and becoming more and more like our

Savior. Our sin should make us weary.

It should burden us. Those who have experienced the

grace of God should be motivated and empowered to lean and fight

against their sin and to root it out of their lives.

Those who have experienced God's grace should make a stand in the

moment of temptation. They should choose to love and

obey the Lord more than what is tempting them in that moment.

Do you know the the length, the breadth, the depth, the height

of God's grace? Does it lead you into greater

obedience, greater following of God's Word?

If not, I would suggest to you that your knowledge and

understanding and experience of God's grace is probably not as

great as you think it is. Come back to Isaiah 43, come

back to all of the scriptures and meditate and reflect on

God's grace to you what it actually means, and let that

drive you away from your sin and drive you to greater Christ

likeness. Let's pray together.

So many precious promises and words here in this chapter of

your, of your word. We pray, Father, that as we

meditate on them today, You would drive them deep into our

hearts and our minds. There's so many things within

our own hearts, in our lives, and even out in the world that

argue against all of these precious promises and words that

you've given us in this chapter. We pray, Father, that we would

come back to it again and again, remind ourselves of what is

true, what you have said about us as we meditate on that, as we

believe it, that we would live out of it, Father, in a way that

truly causes us to become more and more conformed to what Your

Word says. We should be like that.

We would more and more be lights to this world, demonstration of

Your gospel of grace to sinners like us.

This we ask because we ask it in Jesus name, Amen.