Message Two

Living in the Reality of the New Creation
Jehovah the Savior, as the Glad Tidings

Scripture Reading: Isa. 40:3-5, 28-31

Isa. 40:3-5 The voice of one who cries / In the wilderness: Make clear / The way of Jehovah; / Make straight in the desert / A highway for our God. ⁴Every valley will be lifted up, / And every mountain and hill will be made low, / And the crooked places will become straight, / And the rough places, a broad plain. ⁵Then the glory of Jehovah will be revealed, / And all flesh will see it together, / Because the mouth of Jehovah has spoken.

Isa. 40:28-31 Do you not know, / Or have you not heard, / That the eternal God, Jehovah, / The Creator of the ends of the earth, / Does not faint and does not become weary? / There is no searching out of His understanding. ²⁹He gives power to the faint, / And to those who have no vigor He multiplies strength. ³⁰Although youths will faint and become weary, / And young men will collapse exhausted; ³¹Yet those who wait on Jehovah will renew their strength; / They will mount up with wings like eagles; / They will run and will not faint; / They will walk and will not become weary.

I. The first thirty-nine chapters of Isaiah, corresponding to the thirty-nine books of the Old Testament, focus mainly on the old creation, whereas the last twenty-seven chapters, corresponding to the twenty-seven books of the New Testament, center on the new creation—2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15:

2 Cor. 5:17 So then if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away; behold, they have become new.

Gal. 6:15 For neither is circumcision anything nor uncircumcision, but a new creation is what matters.

A. Isaiah 40 reveals the announcing of the gospel (corresponding to the four Gospels—Isa. 40:1-5), salvation through regeneration (corresponding to the Acts—Isa. 40:6-8), and transformation (corresponding to the Epistles—Isa. 40:28-31); this is the revelation of God becoming a man through incarnation so that man might become God (in life and in nature but not in the Godhead) through regeneration and transformation as the content of God’s eternal economy.

Isa. 40:1-5 Comfort, oh, comfort My people, / Says your God. ²Speak unto the heart of Jerusalem, / And cry out to her, / That her warfare has finished, / That the penalty for her iniquity has been accepted; / For she has received from the hand of Jehovah double / For all her sins. ³The voice of one who cries / In the wilderness: Make clear / The way of Jehovah; / Make straight in the desert / A highway for our God. ⁴Every valley will be lifted up, / And every mountain and hill will be made low, / And the crooked places will become straight, / And the rough places, a broad plain. ⁵Then the glory of Jehovah will be revealed, / And all flesh will see it together, / Because the mouth of Jehovah has spoken.

Isa. 40:6-8 A voice said, Cry out. / And he said, What shall I cry? / All flesh is grass / And all its glory is like the flower of the field; ⁷The grass withers, the flower fades, / Because the breath of Jehovah blows upon it. / Surely the people are grass. ⁸The grass withers and the flower fades, / But the word of our God will stand forever.

B. Both Isaiah 40 and the New Testament begin with the coming of John the Baptist, who ushered in the expected Christ for the initiation of the new creation—vv. 3-5; Mark 1:1-11.

Mark 1:1-11 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, ²Even as it is written in Isaiah the prophet: “Behold, I send My messenger before Your face, who will prepare Your way, ³A voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord; make straight His paths.” ⁴John came baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for forgiveness of sins. ⁵And all the region of Judea went out to him, and all the people of Jerusalem; and they were baptized by him in the Jordan River, as they confessed their sins. ⁶And John was clothed in camel’s hair and had a leather girdle around his loins, and he ate locusts and wild honey. ⁷And he preached, saying, He who is stronger than I comes after me, the thong of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. ⁸I have baptized you in water, but He Himself will baptize you in the Holy Spirit. ⁹And in those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized in the Jordan by John. ¹⁰And immediately, coming up out of the water, He saw the heavens being parted and the Spirit as a dove descending upon Him. ¹¹And a voice came out of the heavens: You are My Son, the Beloved; in You I have found My delight.

C. The old creation does not have the divine life and nature, but the new creation, constituted of the believers, who are born of God, does (John 1:13; 3:15; 2 Pet. 1:4); hence, the believers are a new creation (Gal. 6:15), not according to the old nature of the flesh but according to the new nature of the divine life (Rom. 6:4; 7:6).

John 1:13 Who were begotten not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

John 3:15 That everyone who believes into Him may have eternal life.

2 Pet. 1:4 Through which He has granted to us precious and exceedingly great promises that through these you might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption which is in the world by lust.

Gal. 6:15 For neither is circumcision anything nor uncircumcision, but a new creation is what matters.

Rom. 6:4 We have been buried therefore with Him through baptism into His death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so also we might walk in newness of life.

Rom. 7:6 But now we have been discharged from the law, having died to that in which we were held, so that we serve in newness of spirit and not in oldness of letter.

II. John the Baptist is typified by Elijah (Luke 1:17), who is a type of the Old Testament age with the Old Testament economy, and the Lord Jesus is typified by Elisha, who is a type of the New Testament age with the New Testament economy (4:27); according to 2 Kings 2:1-15, the age was changed to the new creation by passing through four places—Gilgal, Bethel, Jericho, and the river Jordan:

Luke 1:17 And it is he who will go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the prudence of the righteous, to prepare for the Lord a people made ready.

Luke 4:27 And there were many lepers in Israel during the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them were cleansed, except Naaman the Syrian.

2 Kings 2:1-15 (see reference)

A. Gilgal was a place where God’s people were circumcised to deal with their flesh—Josh. 5:2-9; Col. 2:11; John 3:6; Gal. 5:16-17, 24-25.

Josh. 5:2-9 At that time Jehovah said to Joshua, Make knives of flint, and circumcise again the children of Israel a second time. ³And Joshua made knives of flint and circumcised the children of Israel at Gibeath-haaraloth. ⁴And this is the reason Joshua circumcised them: All the people who came out of Egypt who were males, all the men of war, died in the wilderness on the way, after they had come out of Egypt. ⁵Although all the people who came out were circumcised, all the people who were born in the wilderness on the way, after the others had come out of Egypt, had not been circumcised. ⁶For the children of Israel went for forty years through the wilderness until all the nation, the men of war who had come out of Egypt, were consumed, because they did not listen to the voice of Jehovah, they to whom Jehovah swore that they would not see the land that Jehovah had sworn to their fathers to give us, a land flowing with milk and honey. ⁷And their children, whom He had raised up in place of them, these Joshua circumcised; for they were uncircumcised, because they had not circumcised them on the way. ⁸And when they had finished circumcising the whole nation, they remained in their place at the camp until they recovered. ⁹Then Jehovah said to Joshua, Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you. So the name of that place has been called Gilgal to this day.

Col. 2:11 In Him also you were circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, in the putting off of the body of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ,

John 3:6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

Gal. 5:16-17 But I say, Walk by the Spirit and you shall by no means fulfill the lust of the flesh. ¹⁷For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these oppose each other that you would not do the things that you desire.

Gal. 5:24-25 But they who are of Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and its lusts. ²⁵If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.

B. Bethel is the place to give up the world and turn to God absolutely, taking God as everything—Gen. 12:8; 13:3-4.

Gen. 12:8 And he proceeded from there to the mountain on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; and there he built an altar to Jehovah and called upon the name of Jehovah.

Gen. 13:3-4 And he continued on his journey from the Negev as far as Bethel, to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai, ⁴To the place of the altar, which he had made there formerly; and there Abram called on the name of Jehovah.

C. Jericho, the first city that Joshua and the people of Israel had to defeat when they entered into the good land, signifies God’s enemy, Satan—Josh. 6:1-27; Eph. 6:12; Rom. 16:20.

Josh. 6:1-27 (see reference)

Eph. 6:12 For our wrestling is not against blood and flesh but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenlies.

Rom. 16:20 Now the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.

D. The river Jordan, where the New Testament baptism began, signifies death—Matt. 3:5-6, 15-17:

Matt. 3:5-6 At that time Jerusalem and all Judea and all the surrounding region of the Jordan went out to him, ⁶And they were baptized by him in the Jordan River as they confessed their sins.

Matt. 3:15-17 But Jesus answered and said to him, Permit it for now, for it is fitting for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness. Then he permitted Him. ¹⁶And having been baptized, Jesus went up immediately from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming upon Him. ¹⁷And behold, a voice out of the heavens, saying, This is My Son, the Beloved, in whom I have found My delight.

1. To cross the river Jordan, Elijah struck the water with his mantle, which typifies the outpoured Spirit, the Spirit of power—2 Kings 2:8; Luke 24:49; Acts 1:8.

2 Kings 2:8 And Elijah took his mantle and wrapped it together and struck the water; and it parted to this side and that, so that the two of them crossed over on dry ground.

Luke 24:49 And behold, I send forth the promise of My Father upon you; but as for you, stay in the city until you put on power from on high.

Acts 1:8 But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

2. The Spirit of power dealt with the river of death so that the way was open for Elijah and Elisha to cross over.

E. All this signifies that in order for us to be raptured like Elijah or receive the power of the Spirit like Elisha, and in order for the age to be changed from the Old Testament to the New Testament in our experience, we must deal with our flesh by the Spirit of life (Gal. 5:16-17, 24), give up the world and turn to God by the love of the Father (1 John 2:15-17), defeat Satan through the word of the Son (Rev. 12:11; Matt. 4:4), and pass through death to die to the self by the power of resurrection for the Body of Christ (Rom. 6:3-4; Gal. 2:20; Phil. 3:10; Matt. 16:24).

Gal. 5:24 But they who are of Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and its lusts.

1 John 2:15-17 Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in him; ¹⁶Because all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the vainglory of life, is not of the Father but is of the world. ¹⁷And the world is passing away, and its lust, but he who does the will of God abides forever.

Rev. 12:11 And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they loved not their soul-life even unto death.

Matt. 4:4 But He answered and said, It is written, “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out through the mouth of God.”

Rom. 6:3-4 Or are you ignorant that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? ⁴We have been buried therefore with Him through baptism into His death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so also we might walk in newness of life.

Gal. 2:20 I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.

Phil. 3:10 To know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death,

Matt. 16:24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, If anyone wants to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.

F. Furthermore, we must “tear our clothes into two pieces” (2 Kings 2:12), indicating that we no longer treasure what we are or what we can do (cf. Matt. 16:24); through all these steps we enter into a new age of the new creation, the age of God’s New Testament economy in grace, which is God doing everything for us by giving Himself to us as our enjoyment (John 1:1, 14-17).

2 Kings 2:12 And Elisha saw it and cried, My father, my father, the chariot of Israel and its horsemen! And he did not see him anymore. And he grasped his clothes and tore them in two pieces.

Matt. 16:24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, If anyone wants to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.

John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

John 1:14-17 And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us (and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only Begotten from the Father), full of grace and reality. ¹⁵John testified concerning Him and cried out, saying, This was He of whom I said, He who is coming after me has become ahead of me, because He was before me. ¹⁶For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. ¹⁷For the law was given through Moses; grace and reality came through Jesus Christ.

III. John was born a priest, but instead of serving with Zachariah in the temple, he stayed in a wild place, wore wild clothing, ate wild food, and did a wild work; he denied the entire Old Testament priesthood, but his work was the beginning of the priesthood in the New Testament for the new creation—Mark 1:1-4:

Mark 1:1-4 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, ²Even as it is written in Isaiah the prophet: “Behold, I send My messenger before Your face, who will prepare Your way, ³A voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord; make straight His paths.” ⁴John came baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for forgiveness of sins.

A. The first New Testament priest of the gospel of God was John the Baptist, the forerunner of the Lord Jesus—cf. Rom. 15: 16.

Rom. 15:16 That I might be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, a laboring priest of the gospel of God, in order that the offering of the Gentiles might be acceptable, having been sanctified in the Holy Spirit.

B. He preached the baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins as the gospel of Jesus Christ; his ministry was “the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God—Mark 1:1.

Mark 1:1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God,

C. He did not offer bulls and goats as sacrifices (Heb. 10:1-4), but he offered sinners saved through his preaching as sacrifices (Mark 1:5).

Heb. 10:1-4 For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, not the image itself of the things, can never by the same sacrifices year by year, which they offer continually, perfect those who draw near. ²Otherwise would they not have ceased to be offered, because those worshipping, having once been purified, would have no longer had the consciousness of sins? ³But in those sacrifices there is a bringing to mind of sins year by year; ⁴For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

Mark 1:5 And all the region of Judea went out to him, and all the people of Jerusalem; and they were baptized by him in the Jordan River, as they confessed their sins.

D. The New Testament priesthood offers sinners saved into Christ as the main sacrifices; they are offered to God in Christ, with Christ, and one with Christ as the very enlargement of Christ to be a part of the new creation—1 Pet. 2:5; Rom. 15:16; 12:1; Col. 1:28-29.

1 Pet. 2:5 You yourselves also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house into a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

Rom. 12:1 I exhort you therefore, brothers, through the compassions of God to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, well pleasing to God, which is your reasonable service.

Col. 1:28-29 Whom we announce, admonishing every man and teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present every man full-grown in Christ; ²⁹For which also I labor, struggling according to His operation which operates in me in power.

IV. Isaiah 40:28-31 reveals a regenerated and transformed person who is one with the eternal God and absolutely in the new creation—“Do you not know, / Or have you not heard, / That the eternal God, Jehovah, / The Creator of the ends of the earth, / Does not faint and does not become weary? / There is no searching out of His understanding. / He gives power to the faint, I And to those who have no vigor He multiplies strength. / Although youths will faint and become weary, / And young men will collapse exhausted; / Yet those who wait on Jehovah will renew their strength; / They will mount up with wings like eagles; / They will run and will not faint; / They will walk and will not become weary”:

A. Isaiah 40 presents a comparison between Hezekiah, a godly man who was still in the old creation (chs. 36-39), and a regenerated and transformed person in the new creation; the apostle Paul is the best representative of the kind of person described in Isaiah 40.

B. The Lord gives power to the faint, and to those who have no vigor He multiplies strength—v. 29; Eph. 6:10; Phil. 4:12-13; 2 Tim. 2:1-2; 4:7.

Isa. 40:29 He gives power to the faint, / And to those who have no vigor He multiplies strength.

Eph. 6:10 Finally, be empowered in the Lord and in the might of His strength.

Phil. 4:12-13 I know also how to be abased, and I know how to abound; in everything and in all things I have learned the secret both to be filled and to hunger, both to abound and to lack. ¹³I am able to do all things in Him who empowers me.

2 Tim. 2:1-2 You therefore, my child, be empowered in the grace which is in Christ Jesus; ²And the things which you have heard from me through many witnesses, these commit to faithful men, who will be competent to teach others also.

2 Tim. 4:7 I have fought the good fight; I have finished the course; I have kept the faith.

C. To wait on the eternal God means that we terminate ourselves, that is, that we stop ourselves with our living, our doing, and our activity, and receive God in Christ as our life, our person, and our replacement—Isa. 8:17; Gal. 2:20; Heb. 12:2; Col. 4:2.

Isa. 8:17 And I will wait on Jehovah, who hides His face from the house of Jacob, and I will look eagerly for Him.

Heb. 12:2 Looking away unto Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down on the right hand of the throne of God.

Col. 4:2 Persevere in prayer, watching in it with thanksgiving,

D. Such a waiting one will be renewed and strengthened to such an extent that he will mount up with wings like eagles; as a transformed person, he will not only walk and run but also soar in the heavens, far above every earthly frustration.

E. An eagle signifies the powerful, transcendent God, and its wings signify the resurrection power of Christ (the grace, strength, and power of God applied to us)—Exo. 19:4; 1 Cor. 15:10; 2 Cor. 1:12; 4:7; 12:9:

Exo. 19:4 You have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to Myself.

1 Cor. 15:10 But by the grace of God I am what I am; and His grace unto me did not turn out to be in vain, but, on the contrary, I labored more abundantly than all of them, yet not I but the grace of God which is with me.

2 Cor. 1:12 For our boasting is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in singleness and sincerity of God, not in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of God, we have conducted ourselves in the world, and more abundantly toward you.

2 Cor. 4:7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and not out of us.

2 Cor. 12:9 And He has said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness. Most gladly therefore I will rather boast in my weaknesses that the power of Christ might tabernacle over me.

1. The eagle’s wings are the means by which the four living creatures are coordinated and move as one (Ezek. 1:11); this signifies that our coordination is not in ourselves but in God and by the divine power, the divine strength, and the divine grace.

Ezek. 1:11 And thus their faces were. And their wings were spread out upward; two wings of each were joined one to another, and two covered their bodies.

2. The wings of an eagle are not only for moving but also for protection; whatever we do and whatever we are must be by the grace of the Lord and the power of the Lord; at the same time, we are under the overshadowing, the covering, of the Lord’s grace and the Lord’s power—Psa. 17:8; 57:1; 63:7; 91:4; 2 Cor. 12:9b.

Psa. 17:8 Guard me like the pupil of Your eye; / In the shadow of Your wings hide me

Psa. 57:1 Be gracious to me, O God, be gracious to me; / For my soul takes refuge in You; / Indeed in the shadow of Your wings I will take refuge, / Until the destruction passes by.

Psa. 63:7 For You have been my help, / And in the shadow of Your wings I will shout for joy.

Psa. 91:4 With His pinions He will cover You, / And under His wings You will take refuge; / His truth is a shield and a buckler.

3. The using of two wings to cover the living creatures indicates that in the coordination we should not display ourselves but should hide ourselves under the Lord’s grace—3:5-6; 12:9; Phil. 3:3.

2 Cor. 3:5-6 Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to account anything as from ourselves; but our sufficiency is from God, ⁶Who has also made us sufficient as ministers of a new covenant, ministers not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

Phil. 3:3 For we are the circumcision, the ones who serve by the Spirit of God and boast in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh,

F. May we all be like Paul, who was absolutely in the new creation; with him, the old creation had been terminated, fired, and replaced, and now the new creation is here with Christ—Gal. 2:20; 6:15-18; cf. Rom. 6:4; 7:6.

Gal. 6:15-18 For neither is circumcision anything nor uncircumcision, but a new creation is what matters. ¹⁶And as many as walk by this rule, peace be upon them and mercy, even upon the Israel of God. ¹⁷Henceforth let no one trouble me, for I bear in my body the brands of Jesus. ¹⁸The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers. Amen.

Rom. 7:6 But now we have been discharged from the law, having died to that in which we were held, so that we serve in newness of spirit and not in oldness of letter.