Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening. And
now for today's program. Welcome to our program. I'm glad
you could join us today. And if you'd like to follow along
in your Bibles, I'm going to be preaching out of the book
of Isaiah, the prophet Isaiah in the Old Testament. And I'll
be looking at chapter 12. It's a short chapter, just six
verses in the King James Bible, but it's full of truth. And the
title of the message is, The Lord, My Salvation. The Lord, My Salvation. And I
took that title from verse 2 where it talks about the Lord Jehovah. And you'll see the name Jehovah
there in capitals. And I'll talk to you about that
in just a moment. But let me give you some background
here. Isaiah prophesied in the city of Jerusalem A lot of his
prophecy was to the royal house under the kings that he prophesied
under, especially King Uzziah. We read back in Isaiah chapter
six where it says, in the year that King Uzziah died, Isaiah
saw the Lord high and lifted up, and his train filled the
temple. That's Isaiah six. And that's
speaking, I believe, of Isaiah's conversion experience, where
the Lord God brought him to see his sinfulness and how salvation
must be by grace based upon the justice of God satisfied by the
promised Messiah, who is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ.
And throughout Isaiah's prophecy, he preached to the people of
the reality and the terribleness of their sins. a sinful nation. He starts off the book of Isaiah,
his prophecy, with talking about all sinful nation. Now this was
the people of Jerusalem, the people of Judah, the southern
kingdom. If you know anything about biblical
history, you'll remember that after Solomon, The kingdom of
Israel was divided into two kingdoms. You had the northern kingdom,
which was made up of ten tribes, and the capital of the northern
kingdom was Samaria. Then you had the southern kingdom,
which was made up mainly of the tribe of Judah. but it also had
the tribe of Benjamin with it, but because the majority was
Judah, and Judah was the royal tribe, the kingly tribe, the
tribe through whom all the kings of Israel were to come. It's
the tribe that Christ came through in his humanity. And of course,
he's the king of kings. But sometimes that southern kingdom
is called Judah. And in the Old Testament, the
prophets, you have some prophets who prophesied in the Northern
Kingdom exclusively, some in the Southern Kingdom exclusively,
and some actually to both. Isaiah had words for both kingdoms,
but he mainly stayed in the Southern Kingdom, especially, specifically
in Jerusalem and around there. And he prophesied against the
sins of the people, that the people were rebellious, sinful,
even idolatrous. He even made the statement in
chapter one that if it weren't for a small remnant of true believers,
they would be like Sodom and Gomorrah. In other words, the
whole nation would perish. There'd be nothing left because
God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. And the sins of Israel, the sins
of Judah, were religious sins. And you read that book of Isaiah
chapter 1 where he talks about how he's tired of all their religious
rituals that had no substance, that had no truth. The truth,
you see, when God brought this nation together, the Hebrew children
out of Egypt and formed them as a nation at Mount Sinai under
the leadership of Moses, and he gave them the law, the reason
he gave them the law, there's many reasons, but one reason
was to hold them together as a nation throughout their journeys
and their occupation of the promised land, which they failed there. But mainly, the law was given
mainly to show them their sinfulness, their depravity, and their need
of eternal salvation, spiritual salvation by God's grace through
the righteousness, the blood and righteousness of the promised
Messiah. The Ten Commandments was the
law given that exposed their sinfulness. They didn't keep
the Ten Commandments. You say, well, some of them tried.
Well, maybe some of them did try, but they didn't match it
perfectly. See, that's the code of a righteousness
that man cannot produce. There's none righteous. No, not
one, Romans 3 tells us. None that doeth good in the sight
of God. But then they had the ceremonial
law. That's the laws of the priesthood
and the sacrifices and the tabernacle or the temple. And you had all
kinds of laws revolving around them. They're codified in Exodus
and Leviticus and Deuteronomy. And those laws mainly were pictures
and types of God's way of salvation by His grace, unearned, undeserved,
His grace, through the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the promised Messiah,
the coming one, the anointed one, the consolation of the Israels,
as old Simeon called Him in Luke chapter 2 at His birth. And that's
what that law was given for. But Israel failed to keep the
law. And one of the things that they
failed to do was to be an exclusive nation, not to intermarry with
the heathen around them, the ungodly nations, and not to make
alliances with other nations, ungodly, idolatrous nations,
for their protection. Now at this time in Isaiah, now
Isaiah prophesied around 700 years before the actual coming
of Christ. And at this time, the Northern
Kingdom especially was under assault by the Assyrian Empire,
who was basically an instrument of God's judgment against their
sins. If you study the history of the
Northern Kingdom, not one king in the Northern Kingdom was a
godly king. And in the Southern Kingdom,
there were a few godly kings, but not all. and God was bringing
judgment down upon them for their sins. Now, God had promised that
He was going to keep that nation intact, especially the tribe
of Judah, until the time of the Messiah. But He was still going
to punish them for their sins by taking them into captivity.
Well, the northern kingdom was totally obliterated by the Assyrian
Empire, and they were scattered throughout. The southern kingdom
was basically kept intact, even though they did later on, under
the prophecy of Jeremiah, or right at the end of Jeremiah's
prophecy, they went into captivity in Babylon, but they were brought
back out and brought together again. And they lasted until
the Messiah came, and then they were destroyed and scattered
in AD 70. that God was through with them.
Now, I know people don't like to hear that. You know, they
talk about Israel and the Jews today, they're God's people.
They're not. God's people today, ultimately, God's spiritual people
have always been true believers, Jew and Gentile. But God did
use this nation, particularly this physical nation, as a means
to bring the Messiah into the world, to bring Christ into the
world. Well, the Northern Kingdom was
being threatened by the Assyrian Empire, and the Southern Kingdom
also saw that as a threat, and what they were considering was
making an alliance with idolatrous nations, and God had forbidden
that. He says, they say a confederacy. You'll hear that term in Isaiah
if you read through it. A confederacy, a confederacy.
What's he talking about? Talking about an alliance with
heathen nations in order to protect them from enemies. And God said,
don't do that. He said, I'll protect you. I'll
keep you intact. But they didn't believe God.
They were in unbelief. And especially how they twisted
the law. They twisted the law and made
it a legalistic, self-righteous way of works, salvation. And that's why Christ, you know,
when He came into the world and He confronted the religious leaders,
the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the scribes, and He told them,
He said, you think you keep the law? You don't keep the law.
You don't have a righteousness that will enable you to stand
before God. And that's why he said, there's
none righteous, no, not one. He said in the Sermon on the
Mount, accept your righteousness, exceed the righteousness of the
scribes and the Pharisees. You shall in no wise enter into
the kingdom of heaven. And I hear preachers tell people
all the time, say, well, no, those Pharisees were not sincere.
Well, my friend, listen to me. We who believe the gospel, who
know Christ, we ought to be sincere. There's no doubt about that.
Oh, lack of sincerity is awful, it's hypocrisy. But my sincerity
will not make me righteous. You understand that? My best
efforts to keep the law, my sincerity in doing so will not make me
righteous. You see, what does the law say?
It says I'm in need of a righteousness that I cannot produce. And it's
one that can only be found in the obedience unto death of the
Lord Jesus Christ, who is my righteousness, in His obedience
unto death. And that's the only way that
I can be made righteous, by being washed in His blood and clothed
in His righteousness. That's what grace is all about.
Romans 5.21, as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace
reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ
our Lord. Now, as Isaiah the prophet, just
like all the prophets of God, were bringing judgments down
upon Israel and Judah for their sins, they also had a positive
message and showed the people that there is hope. There is
hope, but it's not in the physical nation. It's not in their power
or their king, their armaments. It's not in their works. It's
in the promise of the coming Messiah. And that's where we
pick up at chapter 12. Listen to what this says. It
says, and in that day thou shalt say, oh Lord, I will praise thee,
though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and
thou comfortest me. Now God sent the prophet and
he spoke very plainly and very harshly to the people about their
sins. And my friend, we need that today.
The Bible teaches that we are all sinners who cannot save ourselves
who are in need of God's power, God's sovereign power, God's
sovereign grace and mercy. The Bible says that we fell in
Adam into a state of sin and spiritual death and depravity,
and that even at our best, we still fall short of the glory
of God. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. When we speak of spiritual death
and depravity, we're not saying that everybody is a raving lunatic,
bearing arms and knives, trying to kill off everybody. That includes
us at our best. Do you understand? The Bible
says twice, man at his best state. is altogether what? Vanity. That means worthless. The best
you can do, the best I can do, we know the worst we can do is
not good enough. We know that. God's given us
a conscience. We know nobody's going to be
saved or get to heaven by going out here and murdering people
and selling drugs and robbing banks. We know that. But what
we don't know is that our religious efforts, sincere, joining a church,
getting baptized, giving our tithes, that won't save us either. That will not make us righteous.
You see, that's it. And we need to hear that. We
need to hear how sinful we are. And we still don't get the depth
of it. All have sinned. and come short
of the glory of God. Think about it. There's none
righteous, no, not one. There's none that doeth good
according to God's standard of goodness. You think you're a
good person? Well, you may be compared to other people. You
know, amongst human beings, there's all kinds of degrees of goodness
and badness and evil, sincerity, religion, all kinds of different,
but in God's sight, There's only one standard of goodness, and
that is the perfection of goodness, the perfection of righteousness
that can only be found in one person, the Lord Jesus Christ,
and based upon his obedience unto death as the surety, the
substitute, and the redeemer of his people. But what Isaiah
is saying here is though that we've seen the anger of God,
the wrath of God, the displeasure of God against our sins, there
is comfort. But where is that comfort to
be? Is it in my efforts to obey God? Well, if I gain comfort
from that, it's a false comfort. No, it's in Christ, and this
is what he says in verse two. Behold God, my salvation. There's where the comfort is.
God, my salvation. And he says, I will trust and
not be afraid. If I trust in myself, or if I
trust in my works, or my religious efforts, I hear a lot of people,
you ask them, well, are you a believer? Are you saved? And they'll go
back to when they were 12, 13, 14 years old. Well, I gave my
heart to Jesus and I got baptized. Is that your comfort? My friend,
that's no comfort in the Bible. You don't ever hear anybody in
the Bible, any believer in the Bible saying that, going back
to that. You know what that comes from.
It comes from false religion where they try to get little
children down the aisle so they can put a number on their roll
and get them in the baptistry whether they know the truth or
not. Now you may think I'm being too hard there, but I'm not.
Salvation is a gift from God and it comes through revelation.
God revealing himself to a person by the power of the Holy Spirit
through the preaching of the gospel. And so he says, I will
trust and not be afraid for the Lord Jehovah, the Lord of salvation,
the Lord God, my salvation is my strength and my song. He's my strength. I have none
of my own. Paul said, when I'm weak, I'm
strong. Why is that? Because when I'm at my weakest,
that's when I depend and trust on the Lord the most. and I'm
strong in Him, and then He's my song. I worship Him. That's what singing's about.
Singing's not about entertaining you. You know, so many churches,
their singing is not worship, it's entertainment, it's feeling,
it's emotion. But the Lord Jehovah is my song. I sing unto the Lord. I sing
a new song, worthy is the lamb that was slain. And this term
Jehovah, you know, it's a transliteration. It's come down in the English
language. The original term was Yahweh,
and it didn't have any vowel points in it. But what it's talking
about is the God of grace, the God of salvation. Even the name
Jesus, His name shall be called Jesus because He shall save His
people from their sins. The name Jesus, Yeshua or Joshua,
means God, my salvation. He shall save His people from
their sins. Well, He's my strength. Is He
powerful enough to do it? Well, He's God, manifest in the
flesh. Is He willing to do it? Well,
He said He was. He said, no man takes my life
from me, I give it of myself. He willingly, before the foundation
of the world, took upon Himself the people of God, known as the
elect. God chose them, gave them to
Christ, and put all the responsibility of their salvation upon Him.
The Bible says he is able and he is willing because he loves
his father and he loves his people. He loves his sheep. He laid down
his life for his sheep, not for everybody without exception.
You see this idea that he died for everybody. God loves everybody. Christ died for everybody. Now
it's up to you. Is that your comfort? Oh, I made
a profession. I got baptized. I walked and
I, my friend, that's not biblical. Salvation is a gift. Faith is
a gift. Repentance is a gift. If left
to ourselves, we wouldn't even desire to believe the gospel,
to believe in Christ. So it says he's my strength,
my song, and he also is become my salvation. How do you know
that he's my salvation? Well, if God has given you spiritual
life, that means this, by the power of the spirit, that's the
new birth, you must be born again. And he does that by his spirit
under the preaching of the true gospel, not a false gospel. That
means he's given you eyes to see. Well, what is it you see
that you didn't see before? Well, I see the glory of God
in salvation. in the person and work of Christ.
2 Corinthians 4, 6 calls it the glory of God in the face of Jesus
Christ. I see God's greatness, His sovereignty. He didn't have to save me. He's
not obligated to save me. He said in Romans 9, 15, he said,
I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. I will have compassion,
or I will be gracious to whom I will have compassion or be
gracious. So then it's not of him that runneth, nor of him
that willeth, but of God that showeth mercy. He brings me to
see how God can be both a just God and a savior. God must be just when he acts
in any capacity, when he creates the world, when he rules the
world, when he condemns sinners, when he saves sinners, he must
be just. He must be both a righteous judge
who judges according to truth, who will not hold back his judgments,
his righteousness, his truth, as well as a loving, merciful,
gracious, heavenly Father. And how can he be both? That
goes back to the question of questions. How can God be just
and justify the ungodly? How can a sinner be just with
God? What is it to be just? It means
to be forgiven of all our sins based on a just ground, a righteous
ground. It means to be declared righteous
in the sight of God. And that's real, but based upon
a just ground. And what is the only just ground?
The blood of Jesus Christ. What can wash away my sins? Nothing
but the blood. And it's based upon his righteousness,
which the Bible calls the righteousness of God imputed to me. David described
the blessedness of the man to whom the Lord imputed, charged,
accounted righteousness without works. Now it's not without a
work done, but who did the work? Jesus did, Christ did, but it's
without my works. So I stand before God. based
upon the merit, the value, the worthiness of a person and a
work that I didn't contribute to. It's all Christ, salvation
of the Lord. And so he says in verse three
of Isaiah 12, therefore with joy shall you draw water out
of the wells of salvation. Not only does he save me by his
grace, God my salvation, the Lord my salvation. Not only does
He save me by His grace, but He keeps me by His grace. I continually, as a sinner saved
by grace, with joy, draw water out of the wells of salvation.
And who is that well? That's Christ, the living water,
the fountain of living waters. Remember what He told the woman
at the well in John 4? He said, if you drink of this
fountain, this water, you'll never thirst again. Because Christ
will always be there in His word by the power of the Spirit. quenching
our thirst for truth, for righteousness, for all the things that we need
to be saved. He's the water of life and he
keeps us. There's no such thing as being
saved one day and then lost. You know why people believe that?
Because they believe that salvation is in some way, to some degree,
at some stage by their works, conditioned on them. And that's,
let me tell you something, that's a false gospel. When God saves
a sinner, He keeps that sinner unto the end. Paul wrote that
in 2 Timothy 1.12. He said, I know whom I have believed,
and I'm persuaded that He is able to keep that which I've
committed unto Him against that day. And what have I committed
unto Him? My whole salvation. Everything
that I have by way of salvation, spiritual life, and everything
that I will attain as far as glory is all conditioned on Christ. And he's fulfilled those conditions
to secure my eternal life. And look at verse four. And in
that day, shall you say, praise the Lord, not praise me or praise
some man, praise the Lord, call upon him. Call upon His name. His name identifies Him and distinguishes
Him. Declare His doings among the
people. Not my doings, not your doings. You ever been to a testimonial
meeting where people stand up and talk about what they've done
or what they've experienced? And they may say, well, God enabled
me to. No, that's just a clever disguise,
a bragging. Somebody said instead of testimonials,
they all call them bragimonials. No, he says, we're gonna declare
his doings among the people. We're gonna make mention that
his name is exalted. And so he says, sing unto the
Lord, verse five, for he hath done excellent things. This is
known in all the earth. And then he ends with, cry out
and shout thou inhabitant of Zion, the church, for great is
the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee. That's Christ.
Christ is the Holy One of Israel. Christ is the Messiah. Christ
is the Savior. Christ is my surety, my substitute,
my redeemer. He's my life giver, my preserver. I hope you enjoyed this message.
Be sure to join us next week for another message from God's
Word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, write us
at 1-1-0-2 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia. Contact us by phone at 229-432-6969
or email us through our website at www.TheLetterRofGrace.com. Thank you again for listening
today and may the Lord be with you.