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 today.
I'm glad you could join us. And if you'd like to follow along
in your Bibles, turn in the Old Testament to the book of Isaiah,
chapter 12. It's a very short chapter in
the book of Isaiah, the prophecy of Isaiah, given to Isaiah the
prophet by God the Holy Spirit to record in the word of God,
Isaiah chapter 12. And the title of the message
is My Strength and My Song. My Strength and My Song. And that's taken from verse two
where Isaiah speaks of the Lord Jehovah, He is my string and
He is my song. Now, what does that mean? You
know, quite often I'll have people ask me about the Old Testament
and how I view the Old Testament, how I preach from the Old Testament.
Quite often I do. We are a New Testament church,
but the Old Testament is still very much the Word of God, the
inspired, verbally inspired, inerrant Word of God. And the
Old Testament is a gospel book. It's a book of Christ. You know,
many people have the misguided view that the God of the Old
Testament was a God of vengeance and judgment. And there is vengeance
and judgment in the Old Testament. But that the God of the New Testament
is a God of love. Well, the thing about it is,
He's the same God in the Old Testament and the New Testament.
There's no difference. And the gospel of God's love
that's in Christ by His grace is the same in the Old Testament
as in the New Testament. In fact, many people look at
the book of Isaiah and they call it the gospel of Isaiah because
there's so much of a prophecy, of the prophecies and the types
and the pictures of Christ here. And this chapter is certainly
one example of that. Now, one of the things you need
to understand about the Bible is that the Bible is God's word
of salvation by His free and sovereign grace in and by the
Lord Jesus Christ, by His grace in Christ, through the blood
of Christ, The righteousness of Christ, freely imputed and
received by God, given in faith. That's Old Testament from Genesis
to Malachi and New Testament from Matthew to Revelation. That
doesn't change. Now, in the Old Testament, the
coming of Christ and His work on the cross to redeem His people
as their surety, substitute, and redeemer is future. They
look forward by promise to the coming of Christ. In the Gospels,
Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and John, the message there is the
message of the Old Testament from Genesis to Malachi, Christ
is coming. The message of Matthew, Mark,
Luke, and John, Christ is come. And the message of Acts all the
way to Revelation is he has come. We who are believers in the New
Testament, we look back upon what the Old Testament saints
look forward to. So, but it's all the same message.
And one of the things that would be helpful to you, I've written
a book, as you know, we offer these books on our program and
on our website. We offer them free of charge.
It's the first in a series of books that I call the self-examination
series. I didn't write it first, but
I place it first in the order because the title of it is Rightly
Dividing the Word. And it's rules for interpreting
the Bible. There are rules for interpreting
the Bible. You know, people say, well, you
read it and you get this out of it. I read it and I get that
out of it. There are rules of interpretation, friend. You need
to understand that. You don't have free reign to
just go in there and just put your own meaning in or get your
own meaning out of it. The authors of this book, well,
the author is God, but he used human instruments and there is
an intended meaning. And we need to search the scriptures
responsibly and diligently to find the meaning of it. It's
not just you see it your way and I see it my way. That's the
natural man. But there are rules of interpretation
and the first rule that I put in this book is the rule of Jesus
Christ crucified and risen from the dead. That's what this is
about. Now look at Isaiah 12. In Isaiah 12, the prophet is
prophesying of the coming of Christ. Many of the prophets,
and Isaiah is included, spoke of impending judgment upon Israel,
upon Judah, for their sins. But there was always in the prophecies
a positive message that God was not yet through with that nation,
that earthly nation, because He had not yet accomplished what
He intended to accomplish through them, which mainly was to bring
the Messiah into the world, the Lord Jesus Christ, to save His
people from their sins. And that's why Christ told the
Pharisees, for example, you read the first five books of Moses
and you think you can be saved by your works under the law.
He said, Moses wrote of me. Before he ascended after his
resurrection, before he ascended to the father, he sat his disciples
down and he taught them out of the scriptures, out of the law,
the books of Moses, out of the Psalms, the poetic books and
out of the prophets like Isaiah. the things concerning himself.
And that's what we have here, a prophecy of Christ. And he
says in verse 1, he says in Isaiah 12, listen to this, in that day,
and in that day, now he's speaking of a future day, when when people
would come together under the headship of Christ. Now look,
and in that day thou shalt say, oh Lord, I will praise thee. He's speaking of believers there
in Christ. And believers are not, he's not
just speaking of the Jewish nation, physical nation. He's not speaking
of the time when they would come back out of captivity, even though
they would. Because again, he was not finished
with them. He's not talking about the people that inhabit Palestine
today, because they have come back together and formed a nation,
but not under the headship of Christ, they deny Christ. Now,
that's the fact of the matter. But what he's talking about is
people who will come together, be called out of the world and
into the kingdom of God, the spiritual kingdom of God, under
the headship of Christ. They're believers and they're
made up of God's elect. Now that's what the Bible calls
them. People argue with me about that and they don't like me saying
it, but that's what the Bible calls them. They are God's elect
out of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation. So what I'm
telling you is when you read this passage, if you truly believe
the gospel and truly trust Christ, the Christ of the Bible for all
salvation, for all righteousness, forgiveness, and eternal life,
this is speaking about you. you can apply these things to
you. Now, if you don't believe in Christ or you're a false Christian,
in other words, you're either a hypocrite or you're one who
claims to be Christian but you deny the doctrines of Christ,
the doctrine of Christ, then this can't apply to you at this
time. This applies to those whom God
chose before the foundation of the world whom Christ redeemed,
that they were ruined by the fall now, fell in Adam, born
dead spiritually, but they had been redeemed by the blood of
Christ. We're gonna see that in here.
and they are regenerated, born again by the Holy Spirit, evidenced
by their faith in Christ. Somebody asked me one time, said,
how do you know if you're one of God's elect, one of God's
chosen? Do you believe the gospel? The true gospel now, not the
false gospels that are so popular around this country today, this
world, but the true gospel wherein the righteousness of God is revealed.
So look at what it says, verse one, and 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. Now how is
God's anger turned away? What is God's anger? It's not
an emotion. It's not a temper tantrum. It's
not God just running off a wheel, as one man would say. God's anger
is His just wrath against sins, against people to whom sin is
imputed. So how is His anger turned away
and His comfort given to a sinner like me? Well, there's only one
way in the Bible, and that's through the shedding of the blood
of His Son, God the Son, God in human flesh, the Lord Jesus
Christ. And the Bible calls that propitiation. Now, if you've heard that term,
propitiation, in the Old Testament, propitiation was taught and typified
by the mercy seat in the tabernacle, the mercy seat that was the lid
over the Ark of the Covenant. And that mercy seat where the
high priest would come into the Holy of Holies one time of year
and sprinkle the blood of the Lamb. over the mercy seat. That was a picture of Christ,
who is the great high priest of his people, who is the sacrifice,
the lamb who gave himself for their sins, our sins imputed,
charged to him. He died and satisfied the justice
of God. He satisfied the anger of God
and turned the anger away by his death on the cross. and His
blood is sprinkled on that mercy seat, Christ is our mercy seat. So what I'm telling you is this,
if you want mercy from God, look to Christ. Outside of Christ,
there is no saving mercy from God. You may be a recipient of
many good things that God gives. It rains on the just and the
unjust. But even those good things will do you no good unless you're
found washed in the blood and clothed in the righteousness
of Christ. You see, the only way that I can say God's anger
is turned away from me and I have comfort is as I stand in Christ,
having his righteousness charged, accounted, imputed to me. And
that's what this is. Look at verse two. He says, behold,
God is my salvation. The is there is in italics. which
means it could read this way, behold God, my salvation. I am not my own salvation. You
are not my salvation. The church is not my salvation.
This country, as much as I love this country and wanna see it
blessed by God in physical ways, it is not my salvation. God is
my salvation. And here's how he identifies
himself as the salvation of his people. He said, I will trust
and not be afraid for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my
song. He also is become my salvation. He's my salvation. It's not just
that he is salvation, he is. but he's my salvation. How do
I know that? I know God saves. How do I know
that he saved me? And that's what he's saying.
I will praise thee. I will put my trust. I will put
my trust in thee and not be afraid. Now, he says the Lord Jehovah. We look at that name Jehovah. If you were reading the original
Hebrew, of the Old Testament, you wouldn't be able to pronounce
this name. The translators have added vowel points, but what
he's talking about here in Jehovah is God, my salvation. Now that's what that means. Christ
is often identified as Jehovah, The whole, for example, in the
book of Jeremiah 23, his name is Jehovah My Righteousness. The Lord My Righteousness. Jehovah
Sid Canu. He's Jehovah Shammah. There's
all, Jehovah Shalom, God My Peace. That's Christ. And what he's
saying here is Christ, who is the very fullness of the Godhead
bodily, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, he is my strength. I don't have any strength to
save myself. I don't have any power to raise
myself from the dead. People today, they think that
their form of Christianity is a false Christianity because
it's really humanism. Because it says that every man
retains a spark of good, a spark of life. When the Bible says
that we are all sinful and totally depraved, and will not, in our
own way, of our own will, choose God, choose Christ. But people
today think, well, Christ died for everybody to make it possible.
If you would just choose him or cooperate with him, that's
not what the Bible teaches at all. We don't have that strength.
The Bible teaches that no man can come to Him except the Father
which hath sent Him draw that man. That's what He's saying. The Bible says the natural man
receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. Christ said you
must be born again or you can't even see, let alone choose, the
Kingdom of God. So God has to give life. He's
my strength, He's my power. The gospel is the power of God
unto salvation to everyone that believe it, to the Jew first
and the Greek also, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed. So I don't have any strength
to put away my sins. I don't have any strength to
make myself righteous. I don't have any strength to
give myself life. I don't even have the strength
to keep myself. That's why the Bible says that
he is able to keep that which I've committed unto him against
that day. No man can pluck his children out of his father's
hand because he and his father are one. We don't have that strength.
The Lord Jehovah is my strength. He's my righteousness. He's my
sin bearer. He's my salvation. And then he's
my song. Now what does that mean? That
means worship. That's what he's talking about. Singing praises
unto God. when we meet in our worship services. What is the central point, the
central focus of worship? Is it Christ crucified, risen
from the dead, or is it men and women? Is that the focus when
you go to church? Is it nothing more than teaching
you how to be a better person? Now don't get me wrong, we ought
to be better people. But a worship service, should
be a song of praise to the best of the best, which is Christ.
And looking unto Him, that's what makes me a better person.
He is my righteousness. He is my wisdom. He is my redemption. He is my sanctification. That's
what we do in our services. We brag on Christ. We laud Him. We praise Him. We sing the song
of salvation. He has also become my salvation. He saved me by His grace. I didn't
earn it and didn't deserve it. He gave me His righteousness.
Look at verse three. He says, therefore with joy shall
you draw water out of the wells of salvation. Christ is the water
of life. He's the bread of life. That's
what we do when we come together to worship. It's what I try to
do on this program. Draw water out of the wells of
salvation. Living water, the word is called
the water of God. It feeds the hungry and it quenches
the thirst of the thirsty. In Matthew chapter five, one
of the Beatitudes, he said, blessed are they who hunger and thirst
after righteousness, they shall be filled. How are they gonna
be filled? By looking to Christ. to fill their hunger, their spiritual
hunger, and their spiritual thirst. And therefore, with joy, we rejoice,
not in ourselves, not in our opinions. I used to go to so-called
church services sometimes, and they'd go into what they call
a Sunday school, and they'd sit around, and they'd read a scripture,
and they'd ask everybody what they thought. And I thought that
was a good thing at that time, but now I see it's just nothing
more than hot air. And that's sad. Who cares what
you think as far as the word of God? What does God say? And
what our thinking should be in light of what God says is this,
joy, drawing water out of the wells of salvation. drinking
in the word of God, drinking from the fountain of life, which
is Christ. And then look at verse four.
He says, and in that day shall you say, praise the Lord. You
see, what Isaiah, this proves what Isaiah is speaking of here
as a future day is people coming together under the headship of
Christ saying, praise the Lord, call upon his name. The Bible
says in Romans 10, 13, whosoever shall call upon the name of the
Lord shall be saved. Well, what is his name? You say,
well, it's Lord Jehovah up here. Well, that means something though.
It's not just a label. It's not just something that
you find in a phone book. The name of the Lord is that
which identifies and distinguishes him from counterfeits. And it's
his character, it's his nature, it's his glory. And it's his
doings, look at verse four. And in that day shall you say
praise the Lord, call upon his name, declare, now listen to
this, declare his doings among the people. Don't declare our
doings, our works, Don't declare your works, declare His doings. That's what it is. See, we're
here to preach and to present and to witness the distinctive
nature of God as revealed in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord
Jehovah, the Lord our righteousness. As God in human flesh, it pleased
the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell. The one who
is my surety, all of my sins were laid upon Him, imputed to
Him, that's what the word is. It was accounted to Him, charged
to Him, the debt of my sins. And as my surety, he came and
fulfilled all righteousness, which has been imputed, accounted,
charged to me. He did this by his death on the
cross. That's how he worked it out.
He obeyed unto death and paid my sin debt in full and ensured
the salvation of every sinner for whom he lived and died was
buried and arose again. He didn't make salvation just
merely possible if people would do their part. That's not His
name. That's a false Christ, that's
a counterfeit. His name is Jesus, for He shall
save His people from their sins. Is He able to do it? His name
shall be called Emmanuel, which being interpreted as God with
us. He died, He was buried, He arose
again the third day. He's the risen Christ. That means
that his work was fully done and finished and fulfilled. His death is the guarantee of
the salvation of all for whom he died. That's what he did. That's his doings. And he saves
his people from their sins. He sends his spirit into the
world to bring them under the word of God, the gospel, and
gives them life and He brings them to faith in Him and He preserves
them under glory. That's His doings. My salvation
is not of me. It's not conditioned on me. It's
all of the Lord conditioned on Christ. Declare His doings among
the people. Make mention that His name is
exalted. You cannot preach Christ too
high. I've told people this, I said, you can't preach Christ
too high and you can't preach man too low. Verse five says,
sing unto the Lord, for he hath done excellent things. This is
known in all the earth. This is not just for the Jews,
but this is for God's people all over the earth. Now we know
that he's not talking about everybody without exception there, because
everyone without exception doesn't know this and doesn't believe.
Knowing this means to believe it. This is known in all the
earth. God has a people out of every tribe, kindred, tongue,
and nation. And then in verse six he says,
cry out and shout, thou inhabitant of Zion. Now that word Zion,
physically it was just a hill outside of Jerusalem, but what
it means, it's a type, it's a picture, it's a symbol of the church.
the elect of God, the redeemed of the Lord, those who are born
again and called out of the world. And this is cry out and shout
thou inhabitant of Zion, for great is the Holy One of Israel
in the midst of thee. Great is Christ in the midst
of thee. Christ said where two or three
are gathered in my name, there I'll be in the midst of them.
Christ is the foundation, the rock of the church. The church
is built upon him, not Peter. Don't listen to these people
who say Peter is the rock. He's not. The word Peter, Petros,
meant little stone. The word rock in Matthew 16 is
like the rock of Gibraltar. That's Christ. Upon this rock
I will build my church. Christ is the rock. You see,
my hope is built. on nothing less than Jesus' blood
and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name, on Christ, the solid rock
I stand. All other ground is sinking sand. Christ was the rock upon which
Peter himself stood. Peter was a sinner saved by grace.
So Christ is the foundation of the church. Christ is the chief
cornerstone of the church. That means everything is measured
by him. Are you a member of Christ's
church? Well, you must measure that by
the standard of who Christ is and what he accomplished on Calvary
to put away the sins of his people, bring in everlasting righteousness,
and secure their salvation. God's gonna judge the world in
righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained, and that he
hath given assurance unto all men, and that he hath raised
him from the dead. Christ is the Head of the church. He's the head, we're the body.
And Christ is the heart of the church. He's the lifeblood of
the church. And that's what he's saying here.
When you're brought into his church, not a building on a corner,
but his church, the people of God, Jew and Gentile, who believe
in him, when you're brought into the church, you'll cry out and
shout. great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee."
You'll say, He's my strength and He's my song. All powers
given to Him, any power I have is His, not mine. He's my strength
and He's my song. He's the subject and He's the
goal of my worship. I sing of the Lord, sing the
wonder story and praise His name. Hope you'll 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 1102 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.