Time-Honored Truths

Sermon on Isaiah 51:1-8

You might have heard of the time when Jesus and Satan were quarrelling. They were arguing over who was the better programmer. So, they held a contest with God as the judge. Whoever wrote the better computer program in ten minutes would win.
Jesus and Satan both typed away furiously. This went on for about 9 minutes, but suddenly there was a power failure, and everything went dark.
When everything came back up again, Satan tried to get back everything he had lost, but he tried in vain.
Jesus pressed one key and it all came back.
The devil looked in astonishment. "No way! How did he do that?!"
God shrugged and said "Everybody knows Jesus saves."

Today, on the third Sunday of Advent, we continue the sermon series on Isaiah, reflecting on the meaning of “salvation”. We are familiar with the phrase “Jesus saves”. It is used in bumper stickers and car decals. It is the perennial tagline of evangelistic messages and words of comfort. But I ask, how much do we really believe in it? I ask not because we are unbelievers, but precisely because we are believers. Yet, I understand sometimes it can be very difficult. When trouble refuses to go away, and your prayers are unanswered, it is tough to continue the faith. Where is God when he is needed most? Where is the salvation from my saviour? I admit that such times can be very trying. Given the choice, when confronted with the question, as a friend, I would choose to remain silent. I believe a presence of solidarity beats foolish careless comments. Still, today's passage presents three time-honoured truths经久不衰的真理. I think they can be enlightening in such tormenting situations.

The prophet Isaiah faced a crowd asking such questions of God. These people have lived in exile for years. They were a tiny minority race in the vast Babylonian empire. They faced the hardships of survival, the threat of persecution and the danger of assimilation. But the biggest issue lay within them. With each passing year, their Jewish identity was fast becoming a distant memory. Their hope of a national restoration was diminishing as the original group of exiles slowly died off. Time was a luxury they could not afford. With the hindsight of history, we know that almost 60 years elapsed from the first exile (597BC) to the Edict of Restoration (537BC). It is reasonable to say that very few of the original exiles lived to see the act of salvation from God. Over the years, some of these exiles had given up their faith. Some others were idol worshippers to begin with, and they had never repented despite the judgment from God. But these were not the ones Isaiah was addressing in today’s passage. Isaiah was actually speaking to the faithful ones. Verse 1 says “you who pursue righteousness and who seek the LORD”. Verse 7 calls them “you who know what is right, you people who have taken my instruction to heart”. Though they were believers, they needed more than just blind faith. Where is God when he is needed most? Where is the salvation from my saviour? Isaiah answered them with three time-honoured truths. What they needed was a renewed understanding of “salvation”.

Salvation that is Timeless 跨时的救恩
In our first sermon of the series two weeks ago, Pastor Daniel shared that salvation is God’s judgment upon evil. Last week, I carried on the reflection on salvation. Salvation fulfils God’s own purposes and will. So now we know what salvation is. We know its causes and motives. We know the “what” and the “why”. But we don’t know about the “when”. When will salvation arrive? Are we there yet? How long, O Lord? The three time-honoured truths from today’s passage deals with this relationship between salvation and time. And the first time-honoured truth is this: God’s salvation is salvation that is timeless.

In verse 6 “Lift up your eyes to the heavens, look at the earth beneath; the heavens will vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment and its inhabitants die like flies. But my salvation will last forever, my righteousness will never fail.” Again in verse 8 “For the moth will eat them up like a garment; the worm will devour them like wool.
But my righteousness will last forever, my salvation through all generations.”

These verses proclaim that there is a timeless quality to God’s salvation. His salvation “will last forever”. To illustrate this point, God’s salvation is contrasted with heaven and earth. We see mountains and stars as timeless. Our lifespan is a pittance compared to their millions of years of existence. Yet, God says that their existence, though lengthy, will still end one day; vanishing like smoke, wearing out like garments, dying like flies. In contrast to something that ends, a salvation that never ends is truly timeless. The same contrast is made with the enemies of God’s people. They too will die someday. That’s when the moths and the worms will get them. But God’s salvation doesn’t die, it is timeless.

How are we to understand a salvation that is timeless? Does it mean “once saved, forever saved”? That does not seem to gel with historical evidence where the sins of the Israelites led them into multiple national crises. Sometimes evil strikes without rhyme or reason, like in the times of Esther or Balaam. Since multiple troubles require multiple salvations, why then does God claim that his salvation is timeless? This is because God equates his salvation with his righteousness. God’s righteousness and his salvation are inseparable and quite often equivalent. And since God’s righteousness does not diminish over time, such is also the nature of his salvation with respect to time. How can this be? How can salvation become timeless when we need it time and time again? The problem is that we always equate the existence of something with its effects. We see salvation when we are saved, we see love when we feel loved. Yet, ask any parents. Does their love for their children change when they are not explicitly showing their love to them? Of course not. It is still love when they are working. It is still love when they are punishing. This is the same with God’s righteousness and his salvation. They are there even when we do not see any explicit effects. God is righteous when he gives his laws. He is righteous when he judges those who break his laws. He is righteous in his deliverance when his people repent. Similarly, his salvation is not only in effect when he is “doing the actual saving”. His salvation is in effect all along when he is righteous by his own nature. When he manifests his righteousness to us, he is already saving us. His salvation has come, even when you don’t feel saved. Such is a salvation that is timeless.

Salvation that comes Time and Time Again 时时的救恩
But God understands our weakness. Knowing the “salvation that has come” can be rather conceptual. Pastor, sorry, but I don’t want theology. My trouble is now. I want confirmation of salvation now. I can sympathize with such sentiments. Isaiah obviously agreed, and so he gave such assurances of salvation to the Jews in exile. They lived in anxiety and futility. They needed hope. Isaiah talked about the “salvation that has come”. That is the salvation that is timeless. Then Isaiah talked about the “salvation that will come”. And this is the second time-honored truth: God’s salvation is salvation that comes time and time again.

In verse 1, “Look to the rock from which you were cut and to the quarry from which you were hewn; 2 look to Abraham, your father, and to Sarah, who gave you birth. When I called him he was only one man, and I blessed him and made him many. 3 The LORD will surely comfort Zion and will look with compassion on all her ruins; he will make her deserts like Eden, her wastelands like the garden of the LORD.

How do we know that God will save us? This is Isaiah’s answer: the method of induction. God has saved before, God has saved repeatedly, and hence God will surely save again. The Israelites were worried about their tiny and dwindling population. Their hopes plummeted when Jerusalem fell. Their homeland was destroyed. Yet, this is what Isaiah said: Are these ever a problem for God? Had not God enacted precisely such wondrous salvation time and time again? So we look to the past to expect comparable acts of God for the future. When God called Abraham, he was old and his wife was barren. In terms of fertility, they were as promising as a rock. Those were the days before Viagra and IVF. Yet from one man, they became a people. The Middle East was a place of wilderness. Yet, that was where God designed the mythical Garden of Eden. God has created a people from a man, and garden from a wasteland. For those with faith, these were not legends. These were historical facts that they believed in. So as one with such faith, they should be prepared for the salvation that comes time and time again. Their faith in the past should be their hope for the future. This is a salvation that will surely come, just as it had happened time and time again.

As I have spoken last week, for these people, this salvation did come in the form of Cyrus of Persia. Their hopes were not in vain. For us Christians today, the inductive process has extended for another two and a half millennia. From the salvation of Jesus, through the persecution of the early church, then overcoming the Dark Ages and now challenging the modern ideologies, we have witnessed more than our fair share of God’s acts of salvation. It is a salvation that comes time and time again. We have seen much more, we should believe even more. John 20:29 “blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

Salvation that is Timely 及时的救恩
So far, we have covered two time-honoured truths. We know of the salvation that is timeless. We know of the salvation that comes time and time again. We believe the salvation that has come. We believe the salvation that will come. But I think some may still not be satisfied. An assurance of a future salvation is not the same as getting the salvation immediately. If it is coming, then why not let it happen now? Surely, all things are possible with God.

Allow me to side-track here to consider this matter. Is there ever such a thing as the right time? Will we ever be satisfied? I have two young children. The boy, who is younger, exhibits a different concept of time from the girl who is older. For the boy, yesterday refers to everything in the past, today is now, and tomorrow is everything in the future. He wants everything now because tomorrow seems like a distant future. For the girl, I can help her make plans in terms of weeks. She can appreciate delayed gratification better. I also notice similar changes in myself. When I was a teenager, I wanted changes that were instantaneous. Now that I’m older, I can wait for changes that will take a decade. I think the more time you spend in time; the more you appreciate the nature of time. What is urgent and what is important can be very different between two people, because of the way they look at time.

I now come to the third time-honoured truth: God’s salvation is salvation that is timely. Isaiah needs to address the issue at hand. When is the salvation? Why not now? Isaiah answers: God’s salvation is timely, it happens in His good time.

In verse 5, “my righteousness draws near speedily, my salvation is on the way, and my arm will bring justice to the nations. The islands will look to me and wait in hope for my arm.”

Sometimes, I muse to myself. Speedily indeed! That speedy salvation could be five to ten years. In the case of the Exodus, it was forty years spent preparing Moses as a shepherd. Then again, I’m just looking at it from my perspective of time. I wonder what it’s like to look at it from God’s time. Things happen in His good time. Think about it. When you are in the midst of deep trouble, suddenly salvation comes. What would be your very first thought? Too late? I think not. Your thoughts would likely be: Oh, what a relief. This is just in time. Because you wanted it and you needed it, at the moment when salvation comes, it is always a good time. Like rain in a drought, like a cure in times of sickness, good news is always timely. God’s salvation is timely.

Isaiah proclaims three time-honored truths to the desperate Israelites in exile. God’s salvation is timeless, it comes time and time again, and it will be timely. The response is to wait in hope. Brothers and sisters, Advent is an annual season, where we exercise the spiritual discipline of waiting in hope. This virtue does not come naturally, though I think it does improve with age. In our impatience, we may forget the salvation that has come; we may forgo the salvation that will come. Will we remain faithful when the salvation does come in His good time? May we hold fast to these three time-honored truths. God’s eternal salvation draws near.