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Isa 43:11-19 For Your Sake I Have Sent To Babylon, and Have Brought Down All Their Nobles

Isa 43:11  I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no saviour. 
Isa 43:12 I have declared, and have saved, and I have shewed, when there was no strange god among you: therefore ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, that I am God. 
Isa 43:13 Yea, before the day was I am he; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand: I will work, and who shall let it? 
Isa 43:14 Thus saith the LORD, your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; For your sake I have sent to Babylon, and have brought down all their nobles, and the Chaldeans, whose cry is in the ships. 
Isa 43:15 I am the LORD, your Holy One, the creator of Israel, your King. 
Isa 43:16 Thus saith the LORD, which maketh a way in the sea, and a path in the mighty waters; 
Isa 43:17 Which bringeth forth the chariot and horse, the army and the power; they shall lie down together, they shall not rise: they are extinct, they are quenched as tow. 
Isa 43:18 Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old. 
Isa 43:19 Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.

In our last study, the Lord reminded us that we are the blind who are given sight, and we are the deaf who are given to hear. It is as such that we are “His elect [who] are precious in His sight”:

Isa 43:4 Since thou wast precious in my sight, thou hast been honourable, and I have loved thee: therefore will I give men for thee, and people for thy life.

Isa 43:7 Even every one that is called by my name: for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him. 
Isa 43:8 Bring forth the blind people that have eyes, and the deaf that have ears.

This is the last verse of our last study where the Lord calls us His “witnesses”:

Isa 43:10 Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me.

Why are we His witnesses? What is it to which we are to bear witness? Here it is. It is the same every time: “…That ye may know and believe me and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me.”

Is that not exactly what the Lord Himself did?

Joh 18:37 Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice.

The answer to Pilate’s question of whether Christ was a king provoked this famous question from Pilate:

Joh 18:38 Pilate saith unto him, What is truth? And when he had said this, he went out again unto the Jews, and saith unto them, I find in him no fault at all.

Christ had already clearly answered that question:

Joh 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

Christ is not saying, ‘I know the truth’. He is telling us He IS the Truth, and that is the reason He constantly reminds us of His sovereignty over all things. Our Lord and His Father are not like petty humans who crave the worship of their peers. They have no ‘peers’ as they are “above every name that is named”. Because the Lord loves us, He wants us to know “The Truth” and not believe any lies. So, this week’s verses continue with that theme:

Isa 43:11  I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no saviour. 

When Christ tells us “[We] are His witnesses” He means we witness of Him who is “The Truth”. We bear witness to His doctrine, which is who He is. To bear witness to anything we must first have seen that thing to which we are to bear witness. So, we must know Christ and His Father if we are to be His witnesses, and that is why He tells us He gives us eyes to see and ears to hear:

Joh 14:5 Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way? 
Joh 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. 
Joh 14:7 If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him. 
Joh 14:8 Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us. 
Joh 14:9 Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?

What a revelation! Christ tells us that if we have seen Him, then we have seen the Father! That is revolutionary statement!

He goes on to tell Thomas and Phillip that even though they have been with Him in a physical sense “so long time” yet they do no know Him and have not yet seen either Him or His Father in any spiritual sense. We are now told how we do come to know Christ and His Father and how we can ‘see’ both:

Eph 1:17 That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: 
Eph 1:18 The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,

There is the “revelation” of how we can see both Christ and His Father even though we never have physically seen either of them. The fact is, they are both, by nature, invisible to the physical eyes of our flesh:

Rom 1:20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: 

Col 1:15 Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:

1Ti 1:17 Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen. 

Heb 11:27 By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible.

That is how we see the invisible God:

Eph 1:18 The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,

That is how we “see the Father”. We ‘see’ the invisible Christ and His invisible Father only through “the eyes of [our] understanding”, and knowing them through their words and doctrines.

Joh 10:4 And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice. 
Joh 10:5 And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers.

Joh 10:27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:

No one knows the Lord but those whom He has saved from their own sins. We do not seek Him first. It is He who is working in us both to will and to do of the things which lead us to repentance. Not one soul has ever voluntarily come to the Lord without first being dragged to Him by the trials of life, which He works for that very purpose:

Joh 6:44 No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw [Greek: helkuō, drag] him: and I will raise him up at the last day.

Joh 6:65 And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father.

Joh 15:16  Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.

When we put these verses together, we learn that even being dragged to Christ is “given unto” us by our loving heavenly Father who chose us to know that “…Beside me there is no Savior”.

Isa 43:12 I have declared, and have saved, and I have shewed, when there was no strange god among you: therefore ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, that I am God. 

It might be deduced by some that this verse is saying we must rid ourselves of our idols before God will deal with us. That is not what “when there was no strange god among you” is saying as the next verse tells us:

Isa 43:13 Yea, before the day was I am he; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand: I will work, and who shall let it? 

“I will work, and who will [restrain] it?” Restrain what? What exactly is the Lord “working” that He poses this question? The simple answer is:

Pro 16:4 The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.

Eph 1:11 In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:

There is nothing which is not being done by the Lord, including all the evil in all cities:

Amo 3:6  Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD hath not done it?

“Before the day was I am He; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand”, and the Truth is that we were all in the Lord’s hand “before the world began… [while we] were [yet] dead in [our] trespasses and sins”:

Eph 2:1 Even you, who were dead in trespasses and sins 
Eph 2:2 in which ye once walked according to the era of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the sons of disobedience. 
Eph 2:3 Among whom we also all once behaved in the lusts of our flesh, doing the intentions of the flesh and of the thoughts, and were by nature children of wrath as also the others. 
Eph 2:4 But God, being rich in mercy, through his great love that he loved us, 
Eph 2:5 even us being dead in the transgressions, he made alive together with the Christ (ye are saved by grace), 
Eph 2:6 and raised us up together, and seated us together in the heavenly things in Christ Jesus. 
Eph 2:7 So that in the coming ages he might show the transcending wealth of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. (ACV)

Who will restrain the work the Lord is working within us? Here is the answer to that question:

Job 23:13 But he is in one mind, and who can turn him? and what his soul desireth, even that he doeth.

Dan 4:35 And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou? 

No matter how all-encompassing the work is, the Lord does not struggle when doing His work. When He speaks, big things happen “suddenly”:

Isa 48:3 I have declared the former things from the beginning; and they went forth out of my mouth, and I shewed them; I did them suddenly, and they came to pass.

The creation of the heavens and the earth was done ‘suddenly’:

Exo 20:11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

The destruction of all life on the dry land of the earth was very ‘sudden’:

Gen 7:4 For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth.

“Babylon” is the Biblical symbol for all the religions of this world which are all in rebellion against the Lord and His Christ. When the Lord decides Babylon has served His purpose, He will “suddenly” destroy “that great city” and turn the rulership of this entire globe over to His elect:

Isa 43:14 Thus saith the LORD, your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; For your sake I have sent to Babylon, and have brought down all their nobles, and the Chaldeans, whose cry is in the ships. 
Isa 43:15 I am the LORD, your Holy One, the creator of Israel, your King. 

Oh yes! We must be the first to experience the fall of Babylon within us, but the day is coming when this will also be accomplished dispensationally and outwardly:

Rev 18:1  And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory. 
Rev 18:2 And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. 
Rev 18:3 For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies. 
Rev 18:4 And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. 
Rev 18:5 For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.

Rev 18:9 And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning, 
Rev 18:10 Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come. 
Rev 18:11 And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any more:

When the Lord commands us to “Come out of her My people”, He provides a way for us to do so:

Isa 43:16 Thus saith the LORD, which maketh a way in the sea, and a path in the mighty waters; 

The Lord performed ten great miracles before He made Pharaoh to send Israel out of Egypt. Then He made a way in the sea and a path in the mighty waters of the Red Sea. It was all done for our admonition:

1Co 10:11 Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.

No matter how impossible the situation seems, nothing is impossible with the Lord, and He never fails to deliver us. The Lord wants us to know that He “leads us into temptation[s]” and trials”, and then He delivers us from those same trials. It was the Lord who sent Israel into Egypt in the first place:

Gen 45:4 And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you. And they came near. And he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt. 
Gen 45:5 Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life. 
Gen 45:6 For these two years hath the famine been in the land: and yet there are five years, in the which there shall neither be earing nor harvest. 
Gen 45:7 And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. 
Gen 45:8 So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.

If it were God who sent Joseph into Egypt, then it was God who also forced his brothers and his Father and all their families to go into Egypt. If all of that is so, then it was also God who made Joseph’s brothers decide to sell him as a slave into Egypt.

It was the Lord who sent Satan to take away all of Job’s physical possessions, as well as all ten of his children, and then afflict him with boils for head to toe (Job 1 and 2).

It was the Lord who sent “an evil spirit from the Lord” to trouble King Saul:

1Sa 16:14 But the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD troubled him. 
1Sa 16:15 And Saul's servants said unto him, Behold now, an evil spirit from God troubleth thee.

It was the Lord who sent a lying spirit into all of Ahab’s prophets, just as He does to all the prophets of Babylon till this day:

1Ki 22:23 Now therefore, behold, the LORD hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets, and the LORD hath spoken evil concerning thee.

Wicked men do not make themselves wicked. The Lord makes them wicked for the day of evil:

Pro 16:4 The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.

It is the Lord who has “mingled a perverse spirit in Egypt and caused Egypt to err in every work:

Isa 19:14 The LORD hath mingled a perverse spirit in the midst thereof: and they have caused Egypt to err in every work thereof, as a drunken man staggereth in his vomit.

None of these are outward statements. They all apply to each of us inwardly because we are plainly told that the Lord makes us all to err from His ways, and He hardens all of our hearts:

Isa 63:17 O LORD, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servants' sake, the tribes of thine inheritance.

There is a lot of evil in every city on earth. Who do the scriptures say is working all that evil? The answer is couched in a question, but it is consistent with everything else the scriptures teach from Genesis to Revelation:

Amo 3:6 Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD hath not done it?

There are many more verses of scripture which declare the Lord’s sovereignty over all things, both good and evil, but we will wrap this point up by giving the Father the credit He is due for the whole of the plan of salvation for all men. Giving our heavenly Father the glory He is due includes extending His sovereignty over the single most evil deed ever performed on earth, which is the unjust murder of His only begotten Son as a sacrifice for the sins of all men of all time. Whose hand and whose counsel determined this greatest of all evils?

Act 4:26 The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ. 
Act 4:27 For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together, 
Act 4:28 For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done.

The holy spirit anticipated we would all conclude that if the Lord is sovereign over all evil and makes the wicked for the day of evil, therefore the Lord Himself must be evil and answers that argument in this way:

Rom 9:17 For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. 
Rom 9:18 Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. 
Rom 9:19 Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? 
Rom 9:20 Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? 
Rom 9:21 Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour? 
Rom 9:22 What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: 
Rom 9:23 And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory, 
Rom 9:24 Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?

The Lord does not deny He creates evil. He proclaims it to be so:

Isa 45:6 That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the LORD, and there is none else. 
Isa 45:7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.

If the Lord created evil just for the sake of being evil, then He would indeed be a monster not worthy of worship and admiration. Notice why we are told the Lord “creates evil”:

Rom 9:22 What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: 
Rom 9:23 And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory, 
Rom 9:24 Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?

God creates evil to make His power known and “make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He has afore prepared unto glory… even us…” 

“Us” being a “vessel of mercy” has a double meaning and a double application in the scriptures. On the one hand “we”, the Lord’s elect, are the recipients of His mercy and all the glory which comes with being the first to trust in Christ:

Eph 1:5 Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, 
Eph 1:6  To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. 
Eph 1:7 In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; 
Eph 1:8 Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence; 
Eph 1:9 Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: 
Eph 1:10 That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in [the] Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him: 
Eph 1:11 In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will: 
Eph 1:12 That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.

On the other hand, “we… the vessels of mercy”, are the dispensers of the Lord’s mercies:

Rom 11:30 For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief: 
Rom 11:31 Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.

Knowing that we are the dispensers of the same mercy we have been shown, at the expense of those who once had a physical relationship with Christ, makes Paul’s statement concerning the “vessels of mercy” in Romans 9 take on a much deeper meaning:

Rom 9:22 What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: 
Rom 9:23 And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory, 
Rom 9:24 Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?

Our salvation is entirely in the hands of the Lord, and in Truth all men of all time are actually doing “what [the Lord’s] hand and [His] counsel determined before to be done… before the world began”:

Act 4:26 The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ. 
Act 4:27 For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together, 
Act 4:28 For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done.

2Ti 1:9 Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, 

Tit 1:2 In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;

This all-encompassing sovereignty of God is again affirmed in the seventh chapter of this same book of Romans. Paul declares under the inspiration of the holy spirit, that his sins are not really his sins at all. Twice Paul declares “it is not [us who sin] … but [it is] sin which is in [our] members” which makes all men to sin:

Rom 7:17 Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. 
Rom 7:18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. 
Rom 7:19 For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. 
Rom 7:20 Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. 
Rom 7:21 I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. 
Rom 7:22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: 
Rom 7:23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. 
Rom 7:24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? 
Rom 7:25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.

The holy spirit informs us our sins operate within us through “the law of sin which is in [our] members”. To whom do we credit the sustaining of “the law of sin which is in our members”? Let’s not guess about such an important question. This is to whom we credit with giving and sustaining the law of sin which just naturally dominates all men:

Jas 4:12 There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another?

All sin operates through “the law of sin which is in [our] members.” Mankind, as was Adam, was “marred in The Potter’s hand” (Jer 18:4) when the Potter deliberately and with aforethought made mankind with this “law of sin and death” as an integral part of his dying flesh:

Jer 18:4  And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.

Look closely at the words ‘I the Lord… make peace and create evil’ in:

Isa 45:6 That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the LORD, and there is none else. 
Isa 45:7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.

This is the Lord Himself speaking to us. Yet it was a major news story recently that the Pope has decided to rewrite the so-called ‘Lord’s prayer’, or what the Catholics, Episcopalians and Lutherans all call ‘the our Father’. 

Here is how the verse the Pope wants to rewrite presently reads in the King James and in Italian and in Spanish:

Mat 6:13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen. 

“Lead us not into temptation” is repeated in:

Luk 11:4 And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil.

Here is how the Pope thinks those verses should read:

"[T]he first Sunday of Advent," the church wrote, "a new translation of the Our Father will come into force in all forms of liturgy. The Catholic faithful will no longer say: 'Do not submit to temptation' but 'Do not let us enter into temptation.'"

The Pope went on to state “God does not create evil”, and he said, “No father would tempt his own child.” 

If the Pope insists on rewriting Matthew 6:13 and Luke 11:4, he will be forced to also rewrite all the verses I have listed in this study which state plainly:

Isa 45:6 That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the LORD, and there is none else. 
Isa 45:7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.

The Lord Himself tells us He creates evil (Isa 45:7), He makes the wicked for the day of evil (Pro 16:4), He sends evil spirits to trouble us (1Sa 16:14), lying spirits to make us believe their lies (1Kg 22:23), and He “makes us to err from His ways and hardens our hearts from His fear” (Isa 63:17). The Pope and most ministers in all of Christendom tell us that none of those things are true.

Who will we believe - men or God? Here is what we are instructed to do:

Rom 3:4 God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.

Our study today concludes with the very same message from our Lord. Just as we are told the Lord raised up Pharaoh to be destroyed (Rom 9:16-18) and that the crucifixion and death of Christ was “what Thy hand and Thy foreknowledge determined afore to be done”, we are also told this about all those who withstand the words of Christ within us:

Isa 43:17 Which [the Lord, verse 16] bringeth forth the chariot and horse, the army and the power [of the adversary]; they shall lie down together, they shall not rise: they are extinct, they are quenched as tow. 
Isa 43:18 Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old. 
Isa 43:19 Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.

We will indeed “Know it… [when the Lord] makes a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert”. Those words are primarily speaking of how the Lord drags us to Himself despite all the works of “spiritual Sodom and Egypt” within and without, and in spite of all the lies and idols of our hearts in the churches of Babylon.

Rev 11:8 And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.

But the Lord performs a “new thing” within us and drags us out of Babylon despite all the odds set against us:

Joh 6:44 No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw [Greek: helkuō, drag] him: and I will raise him up at the last day.

When we “come out of [Babylon] it is because the Lord drags us out:

Rev 18:4 And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

The Lord does not want us to think or act as if we cannot fall away. The exact opposite is true, and we are to think and act as if it were a distinct possibility that we could “be a castaway”:

1Co 9:24 Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. 
1Co 9:25 And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. 
1Co 9:26 I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: 
1Co 9:27 But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.

At the same time, the Lord wants us to realize that if indeed He has written our names in His book of life in this present time (Rom 8:18), then nothing in heaven or earth can separate us from the love He has for us:

Rom 8:31 What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? 
Rom 8:32 He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? 
Rom 8:33 Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. 
Rom 8:34 Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. 
Rom 8:35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 
Rom 8:36 As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. 
Rom 8:37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. 
Rom 8:38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 
Rom 8:39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Rom 11:30 For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief: 
Rom 11:31 Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy. 
Rom 11:32 For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all. 
Rom 11:33 O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! 
Rom 11:34 For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor? 
Rom 11:35 Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? 
Rom 11:36 For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.

Next week, Lord willing, we will learn that our salvation is guaranteed despite anything we do and is accomplished in us by the Lord Himself “for His own sake”:

Isa 43:20 The beast of the field shall honour me, the dragons and the owls: because I give waters in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert, to give drink to my people, my chosen. 
Isa 43:21 This people have I formed for myself; they shall shew forth my praise. 
Isa 43:22 But thou hast not called upon me, O Jacob; but thou hast been weary of me, O Israel. 
Isa 43:23 Thou hast not brought me the small cattle of thy burnt offerings; neither hast thou honoured me with thy sacrifices. I have not caused thee to serve with an offering, nor wearied thee with incense. 
Isa 43:24 Thou hast bought me no sweet cane with money, neither hast thou filled me with the fat of thy sacrifices: but thou hast made me to serve with thy sins, thou hast wearied me with thine iniquities. 
Isa 43:25 I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins. 
Isa 43:26 Put me in remembrance: let us plead together: declare thou, that thou mayest be justified. 
Isa 43:27 Thy first father hath sinned, and thy teachers have transgressed against me. 
Isa 43:28 Therefore I have profaned the princes of the sanctuary, and have given Jacob to the curse, and Israel to reproaches.