Now let's turn back to Isaiah
chapter 12. One thing you may have noticed
as Brother Terry read this chapter is that it's a short chapter,
probably the shortest one in the book of Isaiah. But as you
well know and have learned from God's Word, that brevity doesn't
necessarily determine the depth and the power of a thing. This passage here, though short,
is so full of instruction for worship. A man once said in the
past, he said, if you want to learn to worship, study the Psalms. And that's good advice. But there
are other passages, and this is one of them. If you really
want to learn how to worship, look at this passage here, Isaiah
chapter 12. This is a song of praise. It's
a song of thanksgiving for the great redemption and salvation
that God has provided for his people in Christ. This is the
song of the redeemed. It's a song that is upon every
believer's heart. Though we may not be able to
express it as Isaiah did in these words, God did it for us by his
Spirit through this prophet. I've entitled this message, Behold
God. my salvation." And that's what
the preaching of the gospel is, just a sinner saved by the grace
of God, getting up and telling people, behold God, my salvation,
in so many words. It begins in verse 1, and in
that day. Now, this is the conclusion of
a sermon that Isaiah started a few chapters back. And he speaks
here of God, he had spoken in that sermon of God's justice
and God's vengeance against sin and against wickedness, for God
must punish iniquity. He is a holy God. He is a just
God. He's never unfair. He's never
unjust. He always does that which is
right. He always judges according to truth, so that when God punishes
the wicked, he does not do it in a way that is unjust, but
he does it according to his holiness and his justice. But at the same
time, realizing what we all are by nature, and if God were to
give us, any of us, what we deserve based upon who we are or based
upon our best works, that we would all be condemned and that
eternally. But God is a God of mercy. God
is a God of grace and love. And His mercy and His grace and
His love are active. When I was listening to Sister
Mary sing that song, talking about the power of the blood
and how it reaches to the highest mountain, the thought came to
me is that it is timeless also, because here we see it reaches
back into the past. Isaiah, the day that he spoke
these words, the day that he preached this message, the Lord
Jesus Christ had not yet come into the world. and shed that
precious blood. And yet that blood was a present
reality to every sinner saved by the grace of God, everyone
who was born of the Spirit, because they looked to the future. At
this time, Isaiah is pointing to the future, pointing to one
who was to come, and to put away their sins by the sacrifice of
himself. And yet it was a present powerful
reality in their lives, for even back then God saved his people
by his grace and his mercy and his unconditional love. And the
day that's spoken of here is the day of the Messiah. It's
the same day that he spoke of back in verse 1 of chapter 11.
Look at that. There shall come forth a rod
out of the stem of Jesse. and a branch shall grow out of
his roots." That's speaking of Christ, the Son of David, his
humanity. He who would sit upon the eternal
throne of the King. It's the same day in verse 10
of chapter 11. Look at that. It says, "...and
in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for
an ensign or a banner of the people. And to it shall the Gentiles
seek, and his rest shall be their glorious." And here in verse
1 of chapter 12, And in that day thou shalt save, thou shalt
save. This day has not changed. It's
the day of Christ. It's the day of the Messiah.
It has to do with the establishment of the ground of salvation for
every one of God's people, past, present, and future. Everyone
whom God chose before the foundation of the world all the way on,
even to those who have not yet been born, this day points to
that day of redemption. It points to the day of the establishment
of the New Testament, the New Covenant, where God would abolish
that old covenant and all of its laws and all of its types
and all of its pictures and all of its shadows, because it was
to be replaced with the glorious reality of the Lord Jesus Christ,
the God-man, who suffered unto death to pay our sin debt. This
pointed to the day of the reign of the Messiah over His church.
Also, the calling of His remnant among the Gentiles and the calling
of His remnant among the Jews, which together make up the nation
known as spiritual Israel, the redeemed of the Lord. Christ
will send forth His Spirit to give spiritual life from Him
to His people. To bring them to a saving knowledge
and love for Christ and to rest in His rest. And I like that. We rest in His rest. That is, we rest in His finished
work. He finished the work and He sat
down at the right hand of the Father. He rested from His labors. And we find our peace, our hope,
our comfort, our entire salvation in Christ and Him crucified.
What He did. He's our Sabbath. Well, he was
Isaiah's Sabbath. You realize this is an amazing
thing that we often take for granted. But you realize you
who know Christ and believe this gospel, you know and believe
the same person and trust in the same finished work that Isaiah
the prophet believed and trusted in. It's not different. You may
know a little more about it and the details than Isaiah knew,
but he knew the gospel. And he preached the gospel and
he proclaimed it forth because Christ sent his spirit even back
then into the hearts of his people to bring them to faith in him
and to repentance of dead works. Christ, the redemption that he
accomplished by his blood, that's the redemption of the sinner
named Isaiah. It's the redemption of every
sinner saved by the grace of God. How was Isaiah justified
before God? He was justified by the righteousness
of Christ that was established and brought in at Calvary. And
he pointed to that day. He spoke of that day. He pointed
his people, his nation, to look to that day, to look to that
one who was to come. And this he says, look at verse
1 again, he says, In that day thou shalt say, O Lord, I will
praise thee. Though thou wast angry with me,
thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortest me." This is
how we know God's anger is turned away. How? We have comfort in
Christ. We have peace with God through
Christ. And just as Israel did when they
were brought through the Red Sea out of Egypt and saved out
of the hands of their enemies, that deliverance being typical
of salvation by Christ, the Gospel day or the times of the Gospel
are meant here. We've been delivered out of the
bondage of sin, out of the bondage of Satan, from the curse of the
law. And he says, O Lord, I will praise
Thee, or literally, I will confess Thee. This is not just looking
up into the air and saying praise the Lord. This is not just words
from a person. It's not just religious incantations
or sayings. This is a heart confession of
our sinfulness and the glory of God in salvation by His mercy. This is a heart confession with
thanksgiving of Christ. He is my Lord. He is my Redeemer. He is my Savior. He's my husband
for he's the husband of the church. He's my head. He's the head of
the church. He's the king of kings, but he's
more than that. He's my king. He's the king that
rules over my heart. And he says, I confess my sins
and my transgressions. I confess my unworthiness to
receive any favor from thee. I have not earned and I do not
deserve the least of God's favor or the least of God's blessings.
And I gratefully and enthusiastically acknowledge all the grace and
mercy and all the favor that God has bestowed upon me because
of his sovereign mercy, because of Christ. And he says, though
thou wast angry with me, as it appeared to the church, and according
to our apprehension of things, though all things in God, not
in reality or strictly or properly speaking, for anger is not to
be ascribed to God as man, When he talks about God being angry,
you know, we think about us getting angry. We get angry when things
go wrong or when somebody does us wrong. It's a reaction. But
what he's speaking of here is God's just wrath against sin. It's something like God's hatred.
You see, hatred in us is evil because it's selfish. But when
God hates, it's justice. That's all it is. It's not emotion.
It's not reaction. And the same way with God's angry.
The Bible says God is angry with the wicked. And it's not just
that God's throwing a temper tantrum or that he's just mad
and ready to whip up on somebody. It means God is justly, justly
angry with the wicked. And it's his disfavor. His disfavor. Well, my friend, outside of Christ,
that's all God can be toward the sinner. Apart from Christ's
blood, the power of His blood, there's nothing but anger and
hatred from God. And when He afflicts them and
continues His hand upon them, when He lets that sense of wrath
into their consciences, the people of God have no place to turn
But His grace and His mercy, begging for mercy, just like
the old publican who smote upon his breast and said, God be merciful
to me, the sinner. And when that happens, when God
the Holy Spirit brings a sinner to that conviction, what does
He do? He says it, and thou comfortest
me. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people. How does He comfort us? His anger
is turned away. He grants His gracious presence. and all his favors. Now, how
is that done? How is God's anger turned away? Well, on the cross of Calvary,
and I think this is the best way that we can say it in our
human words, but on the cross of Calvary, God turned all of
his anger towards his people upon his Son. And that's when
the Lord Jesus Christ, hanging there on that tree, for our sins
charged to him, He cried, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken
me? All of the wrath, all of God's
justice against sin was placed upon, turned upon the Lord Jesus
Christ to the point that it said in Isaiah chapter 53, it pleased
the Lord to bruise him. Everything that I deserved for
my own sins, Christ took for me on the cross. Everything that
God had against me, Christ, it was put upon Christ and gone
against Him for my sins. Everything that God required
was fulfilled in Him. Every condition, every requirement,
every stipulation, everything that entitles a sinner to salvation
was fulfilled in Christ and His anger was turned away. Now, what
comfort do you want? Do you want the comfort of family
and friends? Well, you may get it, but it's
only temporary. It won't be long. Just hang around a little while
until their comfort turns to anger. You see here it says that
thine anger is turned away. Now when God's anger is turned
away by the obedience and death of His Son on the cross, that
anger will never come back again. But now you get the comfort of
family and friends It'll turn to anger, just wait. You get
the comfort of a denomination or your works, it won't last.
It may be for a time, but God's anger is turned away forever.
He put our sins away. Look over at Hebrews chapter
10. This is one of my favorite chapters to understand the very
truth that I believe is being honored here in this song of
worship. But he's talking about here in
Isaiah chapter 10. of how Christ, by his one offering
for sin, put them away forever. And in God's sight, in God's
mind, in the court of his law and justice, they'll never be
brought back up again. He says in verse 14, now listen
to this, of Hebrews 10, he says, for by one offering he hath perfected,
how long? Forever. Them that are sanctified. What does that mean? That means
Christ, by His one offering, put away all the sins of all
His people forever. Who are they? Those who are sanctified,
those who were set apart by God. Set apart by God the Father in
sovereign electing grace before the foundation of the world.
Set apart by the Son on the cross of Calvary when our sins were
laid to His charge and His righteousness was laid to our charge. set apart
by the Holy Spirit in the new birth. Now, what happened to
those who were set apart by His one offering? Our sins were put
away forever. Look at verse 15. Now, he says,
whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us. What does that
mean? That means when the Holy Spirit speaks to you through
the Word of God, that's what He's going to tell you. You hear all kinds of preachers
and all kinds of people say, well, God spoke to me. And usually
they'll mean God spoke to me personally, and He told me something
He hadn't told you, and you're not going to know it until I
tell you. You know, I've heard that. You've heard that on TV
too. I heard a fellow, he's up there preaching, and he was just
going along, going along, and all of a sudden he stopped, and
he said, now wait a minute, Lord, I'll get to that. And I thought, that's
blasphemy. That's utter blasphemy. But here's
what he's saying here. When the Holy Ghost speaks words
of comfort, And that's what he does. And he does it through
his preachers. And he speaks by his Spirit words
of comfort. This is what he's going to let
you know. For by one offering he hath perfected forever them
that are sanctified. The work's finished. God's no
longer angry, you see. And somebody says, well, God
doesn't change. No, he doesn't. I know he doesn't. But our little
puny minds cannot grasp that. And that's just the way it puts
it. It comes down on our level, just like you parents who have
young, infant, or toddler children. When you speak to them, you get
down on their level, don't you? So that they can understand what
you're saying. You speak in words that you wouldn't
speak to an adult, or I hope so. But you come down on their
level. And that's what God does here.
He comes down on our level in the sense so that we can grasp
something of the comfort that He has for His people. And though
we may suffer in this life, though we may go through sickness, illness,
trouble, trials, and we will, there's a comfort here that will
last forever. Look on in verse 15, whereof
the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us, for after that he had
said before, verse 16, this is the covenant that I will make
with them after those days, saith the Lord. Now, these are the
very days that Isaiah is prophesying of in Isaiah 12. And he says,
I will put my law into their hearts and in their minds will
I write them. That is God's word. And look at verse 17 now. And
their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. Now, that's another way of speaking,
where God comes down on our level. You know, somebody says, well,
God doesn't change. He doesn't forget anything. That's
right. What he means by that, that's language that speaks to
us to show us that God will never charge us with our sins. He'll
never hold them against us. And proof of that is that verse
we quote so very often in Romans 8. Who shall lay anything to
the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Now
go back to Isaiah 12. Thou comfortest me, comfort ye,
comfort ye my people. Isaiah wrote in Isaiah 40. Tell
my people that her sins are forgiven. Tell them that her warfare is
over. You don't have to fight to be
forgiven. That's what he's saying. We have
a warfare to go through, the warfare of the flesh and the
spirit, but we don't have to war to be forgiven. We don't
have to work for salvation. The warfare's over. The work's
done. God accomplished it. Behold God,
my salvation. And look at verse 2 now. He says,
Behold God is my salvation. The is is in italics. Behold
God. Look unto the Lord. Don't look
unto the preacher. Don't look unto yourselves. Don't
look unto the church. Don't look to any work. Behold
God. If you want to see salvation,
behold God. Now, this is the God of grace. This is the God of the covenant.
This is the God who is my salvation. Salvation is of the Lord in every
way. And what he's saying here is
this. Those who have been redeemed, they want others to see this
salvation too. Isn't that the way of things?
When you come to a saving knowledge of Christ and you see the comfort
of grace and mercy, don't you want others to see it? That's
not a message you want to keep to yourself and say, look at
me, I've got it and you don't. I've got something that you don't
have. No, we want to see everybody. We want to see everybody come
to a saving knowledge of Christ. We want to put it out. We want
people to behold God, our salvation. He says, I will trust and not
be afraid. That is, in trusting God, there
is no fear. Christ, who is God, and who was
appointed by the Father, provided in the covenant, promised in
the Word, sent in the fullness of time, he's become the author
of salvation, he's the author and finisher of our faith. Trust
in Christ for salvation, that means be confident in him, enjoy
it, and look upon myself as safe and secure from all wrath, from
all condemnation, and from every enemy." Now, there are things
that we go through in this life, as I said, that hurt, but they
cannot kill us. They cannot condemn us. We don't
have to be afraid of sin. We don't have to be afraid of
Satan. We don't have to be afraid of the world or even death. O
death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
We don't have to be afraid of hell. We don't have to do anything
because of fear of hell, because Christ took our hell. I've heard
people who would say, well, I've gone through hell here on earth.
You don't even know what you're saying. But I want to tell you
about somebody who did go through hell here on earth, the Lord
Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary. He sure did. And as I like to say, he drank
damnation dry. There's no more, not for his
people. We don't have to be afraid of
the wrath to come because we fled for refuge to Jesus Christ
who is our forerunner. He goes on, look at verse 2,
he says, for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and song. He also
has become my salvation. Jehovah, that's the God of Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob. That's the God of grace and mercy.
That's the covenant God. And He's our spiritual strength. We have no power within ourselves.
That's why Paul says, when I'm weak, I'm strong. When I recognize
my weakness and my impotence, then that's when I lean on the
Lord, who is my strength. And He's my strength of life. He's my strength of heart. He's
the one who saves me by His grace and keeps me. And He supports
me. He provides for me. He feeds
me. He keeps me in all the things
that He would have me to do. And He's the one who is the subject
of my song. That's what He's saying. You
see, if He's the subject of my song, that's my joy. You see,
when the Lord is our strength, He's the source and sustainer
of our life, our protector, our provider. When the Lord is our
song, it means He's our joy and the love of our hearts. Every
one of us. The song of the redeemed. And
He's also become my salvation. You see, salvation was worked
out and finished by Christ on the cross. All we experience
in this life in ourselves is the application of it. You know,
when we speak of salvation, I told you before, that's a large term,
that's a big term in the scripture. It reaches all the way back to
eternity past. Paul spoke of it to Timothy,
that salvation which was given us in Christ Jesus before the
world began, chosen in Christ. You can talk about God's providence,
that he's in control of all things. Everything is working out for
good to them that love the Lord, who are called according to his
purpose. If you're one of the Lord's, he had his hand upon
you from the womb, and he never took his eyes or his hands off
of you. He directed your paths. I'll tell you what. It's an amazing
thing to think about. I look about things in my own
life and I could probably give you a list as long as this building
here and say, I'd change this, I'd go back and change that.
But you know what? God's the one who mapped it all
out. He's the one who worketh all things after the counsel
of his own will. And he's not the author of evil
or confusion, but he's in control. And then when we speak of salvation,
we can speak of Christ on Calvary, in His obedience unto death,
redeeming His people by His precious blood. When we speak of salvation,
we can speak of the new birth. You must be born again. Everything
that God purposed before time, everything that Christ purchased
in time, must be applied individually in each successive generation
to every one of His sheep. He said it in John 10 this way,
He said, My sheep hear My voice. They follow me. And then when
we speak of salvation, we can speak of our preservation, for
God not only starts the work, but God will finish the work.
And then when we speak of salvation, we can speak of our final glory.
He's going to bring us to be perfectly conformed to the image
of Christ. And this oval body, this corruptible
that hurts so much, especially as we get older, And as we suffer
through the pains and the diseases and all the things that we have
to suffer through in this life, this old corruptible is going
to put on incorruption and we'll live forever in a spiritual body
like Christ. He's become my salvation. Look
at verse 3. He says, Therefore with joy shall
you draw water out of the wells of salvation. Think about that. Turn to John chapter 4. You know
who had to go there. know the scriptures, that's when
Christ met the woman at the well. He uses this analogy of the well
and water because you know in that land of Palestine, water
and wells were such precious things. It was a dry land and
to find a good well where there was clean, running water that
would quench a person's thirst, that was especially precious. And that's what salvation is.
It's spiritually quenching the thirst of those who are spiritually
thirsty. And when we consider, Behold
God, my salvation, what He's accomplished, for we can continually
draw from that water, out of that well. You know the Lord
here, it says He must need to go through Samaria. He had a
sheep there, a woman, an infamous woman, a Samaritan. A Samaritan
woman, that means she was hated and despised of the Jews. This
is a route that no self-respecting Jew would take on any journey. He'd probably go a hundred miles
out of his way and not in a car, on foot, to avoid going through
Samaria. That's the kind of attitude they
had. But the Lord told his disciples
he must need to go through Samaria, because he had a sheep there.
And not only was she a Samaritan woman, she was an adulteress.
He comes to her. Look at verse 7. There cometh
a woman of Samaria to draw water. John chapter 4. And Jesus saith
unto her, Give me to drink. For his disciples were gone away
into the city to buy meat. And then saith the woman of Samaria
unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of
me, which am a woman of Samaria? For the Jews have no dealings
with the Samaritans." And you see the attitude coming forth
in her. Why would you even ask me? You know what I am. I'm a
Samaritan. You're a Jew. Well, Jesus answered
in verse 10 and said unto her, now listen to this, If thou knewest
the gift of God, Do you know the gift of God? You know, that's
the problem with people in religion today, even those that call themselves
Christian. They call themselves Christian,
but they don't really know the gift of God. Grace to most people,
their idea of grace, is that God has done his part, now you've
got to do yours. And it depends on which denomination,
whether God has done 50 percent, 60 percent, 70 percent, 80 or
90, or 99 and 44 one hundredths. But there's always some condition
laid upon the sinner to meet in order to obtain and receive
grace. And let me tell you what that
is now. If you put any conditions upon the sinner to receive or
obtain grace, it's not grace anymore. Do you hear what I'm
saying? You say, well, what if I'm just
a 99%-er? Well, that 1% is enough to destroy
grace. The Bible says it this way in
Romans chapter 11, grace and works will not mix. Because if it's of grace, it's
no more of works. Grace cancels out works as to
attaining or maintaining salvation. And if it's of works, it's no
more grace. They don't mix. We studied about Cain and Abel
this morning. Cain and Abel don't mix. They do not have fellowship. One's works, one's grace. And
that's what he's saying, if you knew the gift of God. What is
the gift of God? It's the gift of salvation. One
hundred percent. It's the gift of His Son. Scripture
says in Romans 8, He that spared not His own Son, how shall He
not with Him also freely give us all things? One hundred percent. It's the gift of eternal life.
It's the gift of blessedness. In Romans chapter 5, it's the
gift of righteousness. How does a sinner become righteous
before God? By grace. It's the free gift.
Not by works. For by grace have you been saved. Through faith. Even faith is
grace. Even faith is the gift of God.
You put conditions on the sinner, you've destroyed him. If you
just knew the gift of God, Here's what he says, and who it is that
saith to thee, give me the name. Do you know his son? Do you know
who Messiah is? You know, this woman here, she
had an idea of the Messiah later on. She told him that Messiah
was coming and would teach him all things. But she didn't know
the Messiah. She didn't know Christ, the God
man, and he says, He says, Thou wouldst have asked of him, and
he would have given thee living water. Now, if you know the gift
of God, salvation is not conditioned even on your asking. If you know
the gift of God, you will ask. That's what he's saying. If you
know who you are, and your frame, and your sinfulness, and your
wretchedness, and your impotence, It's not that salvation is conditioned
on your asking. If you know the grace of God,
you will ask. You will ask. Those who don't
ask, they don't know the gift of God. They don't know the grace
of God. It hasn't been revealed to them.
He said, My sheep hear My voice, and they follow Me. That's spiritual, eternal water. And the woman saith unto him,
Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with in the wells deep, from
whence hast thou that living water? Have you ever done this?
Do this sometime on your own study. Read John chapter 3, and
then read John chapter 4, and think about it. Think about who's
talking there, who's speaking, who he's speaking to, and what
he's speaking about. Now, you remember in John chapter
3, he's talking to a religious high Pharisee, a man who was
a member of the Sanhedrin, the highest court in the Jewish religion,
named Nicodemus. And he tells this man, now this
is a student of the Scriptures, named Nicodemus, and he says,
he says, Nicodemus, you must be born again. Well, you remember
how Nicodemus responded to that? Now this is, this is the religious,
this is Dr. Nicodemus, the right reverend
Dr. Nicodemus. But you remember how Nicodemus
responded to it. He said, well, born again, how
can a man enter into his mother's womb again and be born? You see,
he could not think spiritually. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God. Neither can he know. And the
Lord was teaching him something spiritual. And he said, well,
he couldn't get above the earthly. And the Lord told him. He said,
well, you can't enter the kingdom of God, you can't see the kingdom
of God. He said, that which is born of flesh is flesh, that
which is born of spirit is spirit. There's Nicodemus, the religious
doctor. Over here in John chapter 4,
he's talking to a Samaritan adulterous woman who had five husbands. The one she was living with now
wasn't even her husband. An infamous sinner. And he says,
if you knew the gift of God, you would ask me to give you
drink and I'd give you living water. And what did she respond?
She said, well, you don't have anything to draw out of this.
Well, where are you going to get this? She couldn't think
above the earthly. You see, she had the same problem
that Nicodemus had. And Nicodemus had the same problem
she had, though one was infamously religious. and read his Bible
every day probably, and the other was infamously an immoral woman. And you know when you bring those
two chapters together what you learn? This is a faithful saying
and worthy of all acceptation that Jesus Christ came into the
world to save sinners. And he saves them the same way.
One like Nicodemus or one like that Samaritan woman. Somebody
might say, well, Nicodemus might have been lost, but he was closer
to heaven than that old woman over there. Actually, if you
listen to the words of the Lord and compare Scripture with Scripture,
you'd have to say Nicodemus was farther away. Our Lord told the
Pharisees they'll encompass sea and land to gain a convert, and
when they get a convert, they make him what? Twofold more the
child of hell than they were. You see, religion doesn't do
men any good as far as salvation. It may keep them in check in
society, but as far as salvation, it brings them no closer to God.
The only thing that will bring you close to God is grace. Behold
God, my salvation. Look at verse 13. Jesus answered
and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall
thirst again, this physical water. But whosoever drinketh of the
water that I shall give him shall never thirst. But the water that
I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing
up unto everlasting life. That's what Isaiah is preaching
right over here, hundreds of years before the Lord ever came
and met that woman. Therefore, verse 3 of Isaiah
12, with joy shall you draw water out of the wells of salvation.
How? By looking to Christ, resting
in Him, finding your peace and your comfort. Our Lord said,
blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness,
for they shall be filled. Do you hunger and thirst after
righteousness? Look to Christ. He is the Lord
our righteousness. He said, Out of the springs,
the wells of the fountains of salvation. The psalmist prayed,
For with thee, with God, is the fountain of life. In thy light
shall we see life. Jeremiah the prophet, he prophesied
of the Lord. He said, O Lord, the hope of
Israel, all that forsake thee shall be ashamed, and they that
depart from me shall be written in the earth, because they have
forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living waters. In Zechariah
chapter 13, when he was prophesying of the coming Messiah, he said,
In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David
and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness.
Speaking of the Lord, our righteousness, there is a fountain filled with
blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins, and sinners plunge beneath that
flood and lose all their guilty stains. He'll quench your thirst. And our Lord in the book of Revelation
revealed to the Apostle John, he said, it's done, I'm Alpha
and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him
that is a thirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.
A thirsty man will never refuse to drink. And all who are thirsty
will draw from this well and drink from this fountain joyously,
it says here in Isaiah 12.3, not begrudgingly. Somebody said
you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink.
If you lead a thirsty sinner to the water of life, you won't
have to make him drink. He'll drink. He'll drink. Look at verse 4. Now here's a
great description of a believer. Right here. In verse 4 of Isaiah
12. And in that day shall you say,
praise the Lord. That's worship there. That's
hallelujah. That's what that is. Call upon
His name. Now, it's true that every believer
calls upon the Lord and continually calls upon Him for salvation. But here the call upon His name
is the same as declare His name, proclaim Him. In other words,
we'll speak of Him. We'll trust Him and we'll follow
Him and we'll desire to point others to Him. We'll declare
the name of the Lord. And then look at the next one.
They will declare his doings among the people. Not going to
declare what I've done. Listen, not going to declare
what he's enabled me to do. We're going to declare what he's
done. What the Lord hath done among the people. Speaking of
that salvation that he's accomplished. Make mention, it says, that his
name is exalted. Now, that means to glorify him.
When it says to make mention of it, it doesn't mean just as
a side note or as an afterthought or as a by the way, as I'm talking
about my religion or my beliefs. Oh, by the way, it's of the Lord.
No, no, that's not what he means at all. But he means to keep
it in mind at all times, to call to mind all times. It's in the
hands of the Lord, especially salvation, but in everything. In all my life, it's of the Lord. Look at verse 5, singing to the
Lord, for he hath done excellent things, and this is known in
all the earth. First, the Lord was the song
of the worshiper. Now he sings this song of the
Lord to whosoever will listen. Anybody want to know? Anybody
want to hear? If the Lord has become your song,
then sing it. The psalmist wrote this, he said,
let the redeemed of the Lord say so. For he hath done," what's the
subject of our song? The subject of our song is what
the Lord has done. He's saved me from my sins. He's
made me righteous in the sight of God. And he says this is known
in all the earth because God has a people all over the world.
people out of every tribe, kindred, tongue and nation. This is not
just for one nation. It's not just for one family.
It's not just for one, earthly speaking, not just for one group
or language. God, spiritual Israel is made
up of all kinds of people. They're all different. There's
a man like Saul of Tarsus who's brought into the same family
as a Samaritan woman who was an adulteress. There was a fisherman
like the Apostle Peter brought into the kingdom, and there was
an Ethiopian eunuch brought in. You see that? Back in the Old
Testament, all kinds of people brought in. God has a people. And look at verse 6. He says,
Cry out and shout, thou inhabitant of Zion, for great is the Holy
One of Israel in the midst of thee. Cry out and shout. Don't
be timid about it. That's what he's saying. Don't
be ashamed. We don't have anything to be
ashamed of. You know, the Bible teaches that those who appear
at judgment in their own works, they shall be ashamed. Because
that which they think so highly of will be brought low to be
nothing, less than nothing. But I'm going to tell you something.
If Christ is your hope and your comfort, you don't have anything
to be ashamed of. And I'll tell you something.
Now, you get a hold of this. And I hope I get a hold of it
too. The Bible says he's not ashamed of us. Now that's saying
something. Now I want to tell you something. We've got a lot to be ashamed
of. I mean, even now. I'm not just talking about our
past history. Sometimes the way we act now, we ought to be ashamed.
Isn't that right? Am I telling you the truth? And
yet it says he's not ashamed to call us brethren. You ever
know the families who have some members of their family that
they're kind of ashamed to say, well, yeah, he's my son or my
daughter or my brother, my sister? He's not ashamed to call us brethren.
And we've got a lot to be ashamed of. But we don't have to be ashamed
of him. He's the Lord of glory. He's
the one that created this world and put the breath in our body.
And he's the author and finisher of our faith. He saved us from
our sins. And when we stand before God, we don't have anything to
be ashamed of. He said, this is my beloved Son
in whom I am well pleased. Hear ye Him. Just proclaim the
name of the Lord. Shout it. And who's going to
do it? Thou inhabitant of Zion. You
know what that means. That's people who dwell, remain,
sit, and abide. That's the inhabitant of Zion.
You're an inhabitant of Zion. You're a member of the church.
You weren't voted in. You were brought in by election,
by redemption, by the new birth. That's how you were brought in.
They didn't take a vote. God added unto His church, such
as He says. And you dwell there, you remain
there, you sit there because you're under the teachings of
the Holy Spirit by the Word of God who leads you to Christ,
and you're going to stay right there in spite of yourself and
in spite of myself. The child of the King. a citizen
of the kingdom. We have a permanent, abiding
place in the household and family of our Father, because Jesus
Christ, the Eternal Son, has set us free indeed." And then
he says, "...for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst
of thee." Our salvation, our preservation, is all due to the greatness of
the Holy One of Israel, the greatness of Christ. Here we who rest in
Christ are assured that God will complete his work for us and
in us because he promised he would be a blessing to the Gentiles
in the future and all Israel, even his remnant out of the Jewish
nation shall be saved. All Israel shall be saved. How
do we know it's true? How do we know? Because he's
great. He's great in His love for us, He's great in His ability,
He's able to save to the uttermost them that come unto the Father
by Him. Behold God, my salvation. Let's sing hymn number 468 as
our closing hymn. I will sing the wondrous story,
468.