and we pray that your will would
be done, and that you would meet the needs of each one, and that
you would be glorified in each situation. And we pray that,
oh Lord, we pray for one another too, that you would knit our
hearts together in love. all that through the preaching
of your word that we would look to you and not to the circumstances
that we're going through. I know it's so easy for us to
do that, but Lord, help us to look to thee as our strength
and as our shield. And we pray that you'd be glorified
in all that we say and do here today and in the preaching of
your word and singing of praises to you and in taking the Lord's
Supper, that you would be glorified, that you would be magnified.
In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Today we'll be in Isaiah 12 starting
in verse 1. The name of the message is Thanksgiving
for the mercies of God. Thanksgiving for the mercies
of God. A song of praise. Here before
us in Isaiah, we have a song of praise. Isaiah 12, verse 1,
And in that day thou shalt say, O Lord, I will praise thee. Thou
was angry with me, but an anger is turned away, and thou comfortest
me. Behold, God is my salvation. I will trust and not be afraid.
For the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song. He has also become
my salvation. Therefore with joy shall you
draw water out of the wells of salvation. And in that day shall
you say, Praise the Lord, call upon His name, declare His doings
among the people, make mention that His name is exalted. Sing
unto the Lord, for he hath done excellent things, and this is
known in all the earth. Cry out and shout, thou unhappened
of Zion, for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of
thee. What a song of praise. What a
wonderful song of praise. What a song of thanksgiving.
And this points us to the mercies of God. Here before us in our
text, we have a song of praise in the book of Isaiah. And think
of this, after a week of being out in the world, after a week
of being out in the world, we come together. We come together
to hear about our wonderful savior, don't we? We come here to hear
about the one who's merciful, the one who's a savior of his
people. And we find great comfort We
find great comfort in the preaching of His Word. We find great comfort
in gathering together with the saints. It's wonderful. It's
wonderful. And there's nothing like it.
There's nothing like it. And our rest, our rest is not
in our doing. Our rest is in Christ and what
He's done. What He's done. And it gives
us peace. And it gives us joy. It fills
our hearts with praise. And my prayer is that God will
illuminate the scriptures, that he would show us Christ. Because
if he doesn't illuminate them, we won't see anything. But oh,
if he illuminates the scriptures, the old timers used to say, Lord,
illuminate the scriptures that we might see thee, that we might
see you. Oh, that we might see Christ.
That we might rejoice in the great salvation we have in Him. That we might go from this place
and say, what a mighty Savior is Christ. He's wonderful. There's no one like Him. Oh,
that God might fill our hearts with praise. Look in verse 1,
and in that day, that's the gospel day. That's the gospel day for
believers. Thou shalt say, O Lord, I will
praise Thee. Thou was angry with me. Thine
anger is turned away, and Thou comfortest me. In the gospel
day, God is pleased to reveal Himself to sinners. He reveals Himself in Christ
to us. And what do we cry? O Lord, I
praise Thee. Foreign words before we were
saved. But what a mighty change. God,
the Holy Spirit rots in us when we're born again. And we give
him all the praise. And we give him all the honor.
And we just want to exalt him. And we also acknowledge our absolute
unworthiness. We're not worthy. But we acknowledge with grateful
hearts that he has had mercy on whom here have mercy. He's
a sovereign God and he can save whomever he pleases. And aren't
you thankful if you're a believer that he saved you? Oh my, oh
my. So in the gospel day, we praise
him and we give him thanks that his wrath, think of this, his
wrath is extinguished from us. It's gone. His wrath against
us for our sins who believe is gone. heaven forgiving you all trespasses
and sins. By His pardoning and grace and
mercy, we are reconciled to God. We have peace. The believer has
peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ. The payment for
our sins has been made by Christ's atoning blood. It is finished. No wonder we praise His name.
No wonder we give Him all the glory. Justice is satisfied. Justice is satisfied. Thou was
angry with me. Thine anger is turned away, beloved. Turned away in Christ Jesus our
Lord. Nowhere else. Only in Christ. And God sheds His love abroad
in our hearts, right? and we are comforted by Him. That's why we come into this
oasis every week, seeking comfort, seeking to see our Savior, to
see our King. Oh, what a mighty Savior. Look
at verse two and three here. Behold, God is my salvation. We could just park there for
a long, long time and not even move from there. is my salvation,
God. I will trust and not be afraid,
for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song. He has also become
my salvation. God is my salvation. He's my
salvation. Therefore with joy shall you
draw water out of the wells of salvation. And these are the
two verses we're going to key on right here. What wonderful
truth we have right before us here. Behold, God, God, is my
salvation. This is what the believer says.
God is my salvation. I will trust and not be afraid
for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song. He has also become
my salvation. So our hearts fill with joy,
don't they? Our hearts fill with joy when we think of the mercies
of God towards us in Christ. Undeserving. unmerited, but by
his free and sovereign grace, he bestows it on his people.
Oh, it's marvelous. It's marvelous. God, God is my
salvation. The Lord of glory is my salvation. Jehovah is my salvation. Can we fathom that? No wonder it fills our hearts
with praise, with joy, And this is not just something
we say, is it? This is truth. God is my salvation. God, the God of the universe,
the one who holds everything together by the word of his power, is my salvation. This is the
believer's cry. is my salvation. It's real. He
really, like I say, it's not just something we say, it's a
reality. And it's amazing. God. God is my salvation. And beloved,
there's only salvation in him. It's nowhere else. It's nowhere
else. He is all my salvation. All of When I was that lost sheep, he
came and found me, God. God did that. Just marvel. God, who rules and reigns in
heaven, left his throne and became a man and lived the perfect life. And his people can say, for me, And then God in the flesh goes
to the cross and bears the justice and wrath of God. And because
of that, because of what he did on the cross, thou was angry
with me. Thy anger is turned away. What
good news for sinners. This is marvelous. And this is
why we say, I'll praise thee, Lord. I'll give you all the glory. I'll give you all the honor,
because it's all due you. It's all duty. He deserves it
all. And salvation is nowhere else,
right? Without Christ, there's no salvation
for sinners. There's none. Without Christ,
there's no redemption for my sins. I've said it many times. I can't pay the price for one
of my sins, let alone the billions that I commit in my lifetime.
But he paid it all. Once. He turned the wrath of
God away from him. He extinguished the wrath of
God against his people. That's what propitiation means.
He extinguished that. Christ the Lord is my salvation. The questions asked, we'll look
at it this morning. How can a man be justified before God? Christ. Only through Christ. Christ Jesus,
my Lord, is my salvation. He's the author of it, so He's
the beginning, and He's the finisher. He finishes it. Where am I? I'm just the receiver. He did
it all. It's marvelous. It's marvelous. God in the flesh, Jesus Christ,
is my salvation. And this is the believer's cry. God is my salvation. And therefore,
as I say, turn with me if you would to Revelation 19. Therefore,
Revelation 19 verse 1. Therefore, what do we do? We
give him all the glory, don't we? We give him all the honor.
If he's the author and the finisher, he did it all. So he gets all
the glory. Revelation chapter 19 verse 1.
And after these things, I heard a great voice of much people
in heaven saying, hallelujah. Oh, hallelujah. Praise his name. Salvation and glory and honor
and power unto the Lord our God. Glory to you, Lord. You did it
all. You're worthy to receive all the honor and all the praise.
And this is a believers. We know what we were. We know
the pit God dragged us out of. So therefore he gets up. We know
we couldn't, we couldn't get out of the pit. We couldn't get
out of where we were, but he rescues us. He rescues us. Oh, and so we say, hallelujah,
salvation and glory and honor and power unto the Lord, our
God. And looking, it continues, our
text continues here. And in that day, thou shall say,
oh, Lord, I will praise thee. Or behold, God is my salvation,
verse two, I'm sorry. I will trust, I will trust and
not be afraid. Isaiah 12, two, I will trust
and not be afraid. Now to trust someone is to have
confidence in them. It's to have confidence in them.
And what is the believer's trust? What is the believer's confidence?
It's not in themselves. It's in Christ. We look outside
ourselves and upwards. Old Scott Richardson used to
say, we look out and up to Christ. And that's what we do. We look
out and up to Christ. He is our trust. He is our confidence
that God's wrath, His justice is extinguished, is turned away
from us in Him. He made the payment for our sins.
And what do we do? We trust Christ has redeemed
us, don't we? We trust that His blood was shed
in our place. We trust Him. We trust that He
has redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse
for me. We trust that He's done that. That He's actually done
that. And I trust that Christ died
in my room and place. That He really did. I trust that
He did that. And this is the believer's trust.
We trust that He did that. I trust that I'm secure from
all wrath and condemnation. in Christ. First Thessalonians
5.9, For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation
by our Lord Jesus Christ. First Thessalonians 5.9, For
God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation
by our Lord Jesus Christ. It's in him. And think of this. Turn with
me if you would to Romans chapter 8. Think of this, beloved. If I trust that Christ is my
salvation, do you know that no charge can
be bought against His people? None. Because we're justified
by God. Look at this, Romans 8, 33. I love this verse, this little
verse. Who shall lay anything? We could
underline that, right? Who shall lay anything, anything? Now think of how much we sin
in a lifetime. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? Romans 8, 33. Who shall lay anything? No one will, because it's God
that justifies it. It's God that justifies. Do you
remember in scripture, it talks about the Lord, he says, Satan
cometh and he has nothing in me. Nothing, he can't find anything
in Christ, because he's sinless, perfect, perfection. Now in us,
there's a lot in us. I know in me, there's a lot.
He'd come and accuse, but in Christ, there's not. And what
am I robed in, and what are you robed in, beloved, if you're
one of Christ? The righteousness of Christ, right? Let's look at that again. Who
shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. No charge. I trust that in Christ, no charge
can be bought against me. It's wonderful. And I trust that
Christ has saved me. He really has saved me. and that he one day will present
me faultless, faultless before his throne. And scripture says
he does it with exceeding joy. God will do that with sinners. No wonder we praise his name.
No wonder we give him all the glory. Look in our verse, it
continues. It says, entrusted, I will not
be afraid. Turn with me, if you would, to
Psalm 27. So trusting is to have confidence
in one. And in here it says, in trusting
I will not be afraid. Now remember, in Christ we find
our rest for our souls, right? Peace with God and forgiveness
of all our sins. All our sins. There's not one
left behind. All of them. So the believer's
confidence is in Christ, and therefore we will not be afraid.
Why are we not afraid? Because our confidence is in
Him. And since He is able to defend me, and since He is able
to present me faultless before His throne, then I'm safe in
Him. Look at Psalm 27, verse 1. The
Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I be afraid? The Lord
is the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? When
the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, come upon me to
eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell. But when hosts should
encamp against me, my heart shall not fear. Though war should rise
against me, in this will I be confident. So his confidence
is not in himself. Look at this one thing of our
desire to the Lord that will I seek after that I may dwell
in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to behold
the beauty of the Lord and inquire in his temple. But the Lord is
his light and his salvation. And look at verse five and six.
For in the time of trouble, he shall hide me. There's the rock
that we looked at before, there's the rock Christ, the rock in
his pavilion, in the secret of his tabernacle, shall he hide
me? He shall set me upon a rock. And now shall mine head be lifted
up above mine enemies round about me. Therefore will I offer in
his tabernacle sacrifices of joy. I'll sing, yea, I will praise
unto the Lord. God's people give him praise
and sing glory unto him because he has redeemed us from all our
sins. And David's trust and rest here
is Christ. It's Christ. This is where we find strength,
beloved, in our times of weakness, in our times of sorrow, and in
our times of tribulation, we find strength in Christ. He gives
us grace and strength to make it through. And this leads us
right into the next portion of our text. For the Lord Jehovah
is my strength and my song. Here we find great encouragement
during times of trouble. Here is one to have perfect confidence
in, perfect trust in. The Lord Jehovah is my strength
and my song. God, God, our spiritual strength
is in the Lord and it springs from all the grace of God. He
is our comfort in sorrow. He is our comfort in weakness.
To Him all the promises are found, right? All the promises of God
are found in Christ. All spiritual blessings are in
Christ. And look at this, He's also the subject of our song. For the Lord Jehovah is my strength
and my song. Oh, He is the one who we praise.
He is the one who we thank. We sing praises. He's my song. I sing praises to Him for what
He's done. Turn, if you would, to Psalm
118. And may our hearts fill with
praise for what our mighty Savior has done for us. Psalm 118. We owe all our salvation to Christ. Psalm 118, verse one, O give
thanks unto the Lord, for he is good. Because what? His mercy
endureth, I love this, forever. Forever. Forever. Let Israel
now say that his mercy endureth forever. Let the house of Aaron
now say that his mercy endureth forever. Doesn't stop. Let them
now that fear the Lord say, we who fear the Lord, we who He
saved, that His mercy endureth forever. Oh, may it fill our hearts with
praise and thanksgiving, because His mercy endures forever. We thank the Lord for His temporal
mercies, and we thank the Lord for His eternal mercies, because
again, His mercy endures forever towards us in Christ, in Christ. His mercies endure forever towards
us in the everlasting covenant, which the blood of Christ was
shed for. Christ's blood ratified or confirmed
The everlasting covenant. That where God the Father gave
a people to the Son, and the Son said, I'll die for them.
And the Holy Spirit draws us. The everlasting covenant made
in eternity. And this is why, again, the blood
is so important. Without the shedding of blood,
there's no remission of sins. Without the shedding of blood,
without the blood of Christ, there's no gospel. We saw that
on Sunday night. There's no gospel without the
blood of Christ. All the blessings of the covenant
come through the precious blood of Christ. Redemption, peace,
pardon, justification, and even admission into heaven itself.
When I see the blood, what? I'll pass over you. Oh, it's
marvelous. And Isaiah continues, says, and
my song, and my song. So our song, our praise is to
Christ about what he's done for us. And we give it all to him. And it's personal. Look at this,
my song. It's personal. It's personal. This is my song. I've experienced
this. Every believer says, I've experienced
this. This is my song. This is the
reason I give all the praise to Christ. You know, if I could just express
how I feel in words. We're so feeble, we can't. You
know, preachers, we often talk about this way. If we could only,
if we could only say it the way we feel it sometimes. But oh,
this is what he's done for me. God is my salvation. He's done
it all. And every believer rejoices,
because it's the same for them. I'll sing thy power to save when
this poor Lisperin stammering tongue lies silent in the grave. Oh, let us sing the praises of
our great God and Savior in Christ for what He's done. Look at the end of this verse.
This wonderful fact is repeated again. He has also become my
salvation. We look at that. God is my salvation. God. Jesus Christ was God in
the flesh, and He died in the room and place of His people.
Therefore, God is my salvation. What wonder this fills us with.
What awe to think that the God of the universe is my salvation. We are just, Spurgeon said, animated
dust. But the God of glory has mercy
on us. God is my salvation. This is the believer's cry. God. Religion? They want to have something to
do with it. Nope. God is all my salvation. It's
all Him. He did it all. The Lord is my
strength and my song and He has become my salvation. He is my
God and I will prepare Him in habitation. My Father is God
and I will exalt Him. Exodus 15, 2. So the same expression
is used here. The Lord is my strength and my
song and He has become my salvation. And this just means, as we looked
at earlier, that He is the author and the finisher. He's the Alpha
and the Omega. Scripture declares Christ is
the one who rots out salvation for His people. That which we
can never do, He does for us. Look at verse 3 here. We'll quickly
look at this verse. Therefore with joy shall you
draw water out of the wells of salvation. Think of the joy that
we draw out, right? Of the wells of salvation. This is a deep, deep well. Deep, deep well. And think of this. The bucket, remember the old
wells, and they used to have the, you'd lower down the bucket.
That's what I picture when I see this, is that you lower down
the bucket, and then you draw out. Well, the bucket is faith. One old-timer said, the bucket
is faith, which with this water is drawn. And that's a gift from God. We're bucketless. It gives us a bucket to draw
that water from that well. And drawing the water requires
strength and labor, right, which the saints receive from Christ.
We receive that from Christ Jesus our Lord. It's drawn in prayer. It's drawn in the reading of
the scriptures. It's drawn in meeting together. We just draw
from that well, right? It's drawn when we hear the gospel
of God's free grace preached. And we draw that water hard.
And what did the woman at the well say of Christ? Sir, give
me this water. Give me this water. The water
of life. And don't we desire to drink
of that well? Oh, we want that. We want that water. Didn't want
it before. And we drink on the water of
the well of life, which is Christ. And we receive strength. And
we receive grace. And we're always joyful after
we drink that water. Oh, it brings us joy. Turn with
me, if you would, to John chapter 7. With joy we draw out the water. What a difference when we were
in religion. Think of this. When we were in
religion, pray, pray, pray. You got to pray. Oh, I remember. But you know what? I get to pray
now. I get to pray. When I was in religion, you got
to read 10 chapters a day. But I get to read the Bible now.
I don't have to. I get to. I don't have to pray,
I get to pray. You know? I get to hear the preaching
of God's gospel for grace. I get the privilege and the honor. Look at this in John 7, 37 and
38. In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood
and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me
and drink. Is that not the general gospel
call that goes out? Out it goes. He that believeth
on me, as the scripture saith, hath out of his belly shall flow
rivers of living water. Oh, the wells of God are deep,
deep. Oh, we're so blessed. Oh, what a what a wonderful salvation
we have in Christ. To him be all the glory and honor
and praise.