All of my life as a believer,
I have delightfully made it my business to do everything I can
to get acquainted with men who believe and preach the gospel
of God's free grace. And I attended conferences. If I could get enough money together
to get gas money and go there, I went to every conference I
possibly could. meetings of preachers, and early on, when I was just
18, 19 years old, at various meetings, I would hear men making
excuses or finding reasons to compromise the message of God's
absolute free grace. And the reasons, the excuses
that were given always had something to do with results. They'd talk
about the old revivals and revivals they read about in history and
what men called revivals. And they said, we must be preaching
something wrong. We must be doing something wrong.
So we've got to start to mold our message to get things to
happen. Read about times in history when
God would save multitudes at any given place or over a period
of days or months or weeks or years. And we're not seeing that. So we've got to do something. We've got to change. all such thinking is errant. The consequences of what we preach
are in no way to be manipulated by us. They're in no way dependent
upon us. Anything Don Fortner can make
happen, or you can make It's fake, it's false, it's not worth
a nickel. We don't stir folks' emotions
and put on shows and plays and put pressure on people to get
them to make a profession of faith. We preach the gospel and
wait on God. That's all. We preach the gospel,
and when I say wait on God, we pray, we believe him, and we
wait on God. God will save his elect. at his time according to his
purpose for the glory of his name in the day that's precisely
best for that one he loved with an everlasting love. I've seen
God save some in their youth. I thank God he saved me when
I was just not quite 17 years old. And I've seen God save some
just before they left this world in old age. after a long life
of unbelief and darkness. I've had the privilege of baptizing
folks in their 90s who God just revealed Christ in. But what
a pity it took so long. Exactly at the time and hour
appointed by God for that person and for all others affected by
it. I have no doubt some to whom
I am now speaking may soon be saved by God's free grace. You
may be a rebel now and you deserve God's wrath. There's no question
about that. Your unbelief, your rebellion, your sin courts God's
everlasting judgment and the wrath of God abides upon you
who believe not. But if the Lord God chose you
in everlasting love and the Lord Jesus Christ shed his blood to
redeem you at Calvary from the curse of the law, God the Holy
Ghost will, at the appointed time of love, call you by His
grace, reveal Christ in you, give you life and faith in His
dear Son, because God loved you with everlasting love, and God
purposed to save you, and Christ redeemed you. It is the work
of God the Holy Spirit through the preaching of the word to
bring life and faith to every chosen redeemed sinner. And he
will do so by omnipotent, irresistible mercy, grace, and love. And when he does, you will respond,
every one of you, exactly the same way. I want to talk to you, if God
will enable me tonight, about every believer's response to
God's salvation. Every believer's response. They
all respond the same way. They may go through various experiences
and various expressions of things, but every believer responds to
God's salvation the same way. Turn with me, if you will, to
Isaiah chapter 12. Isaiah chapter 12. This chapter is Isaiah's conclusion
to the sermon that he began in chapter 8. The sermon goes all
the way through chapters 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12. Chapter 12 is the conclusion
to the sermon. The whole sermon is a prophecy
of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and the day of God's salvation
and grace. And when we talk about the day
of the Lord, we're not talking about a 24-hour day. We're talking
about the day of this gospel age when Christ has come. It
may be speaking about our Lord's first advent, as clearly this
prophecy does. It may include His glorious second
advent, as clearly this prophecy does, and it certainly includes
all the wondrous works of God's grace for and in His people between
the two advents. It's talking about the day of
the Lord. the day of God's salvation. As I've stressed to you many
times, there is a specific day appointed when the Lord God calls
his elect by his grace and gives them life and faith in Christ. Let's begin in verse one, Isaiah
12. We're just going to look at this chapter, these six verses
line by line. In that day, The day he's talking
about specifically is the day of grace and salvation, when
God comes to deliver his elect from the bondage of sin. This
day of salvation. was distinctly and marvelously
typified and portrayed by the deliverance of Israel out of
Egyptian bondage that we see clearly in chapter 11 and verse
16. The redemption of Israel out
of Egypt was basically twofold. It was redemption by price and
redemption by power. Deliverance by price and deliverance
by power. First, blood was shed. Every
house in Israel had a lamb slain for the house. Blood sprinkled
upon the doorpost and the lentil, and each one was saved by blood. And you and I who are gods are
delivered from the curse of sin and from the bondage of sin and
from the death of sin by the price of Jesus Christ's precious
blood. There was no house in Israel
for whom a lamb was slain that anyone perished on the night
of judgment. And there is none among God's
elect, those chosen and redeemed by the precious blood of Christ,
none for whom the blood of Christ was shed at Calvary, who will
perish at last under the wrath of God. I understand. That's
the sticking point with most people. Folks who compromise
the gospel begin right here with limited atonement. They say we've
got to declare, we've got to preach to men that there's some
sense in which God loves everybody and Christ died for everybody.
Otherwise, we can't preach the gospel to everybody. I've been
doing it for nearly 50 years. There is no sense in this book. Now you listen to me. You who
are without faith in Christ, there's nothing in this book,
nothing in this book to make you faintly imagine that God
loves you. Nothing in this book. Only those
who believe Christ have the word from God declaring his love. Apart from Christ, there's nothing
for you but the wrath of God. We're not sent here to tell men
God loves you. We're sent here to tell men who
God is, how God saves sinners, and what you are, and that you
deserve his wrath. And you must bow to the Son of
God. You must believe on the Son of
God. And they tell us, we got to tell
us, folks, there's some sense in which Christ died for everybody.
Otherwise, that just narrows things. We can't preach the gospel
to everybody. I've been doing it for nearly 50 years. Preach
the gospel to everybody. And I preach to everybody. Christ
died at Calvary for God's elect. All of God's elect and none but
God's elect. They call it limited atonement. Now I know folks say all the
time, Fortner ought not say that, that's offensive. Do you know
why I choose those words? Because I know it's offensive.
Offensive to men who hate God. Offensive to men who will not
bow to the Word of God. Offensive to a generation of
men who think God is in their debt. We preach free grace, limited
atonement, effectual atonement for God's elect. And there's
deliverance by power. Power that comes from God Almighty. Irresistible grace. It's described
in Isaiah 11 and 15 here as His mighty wind. His mighty wind. Our Lord told
Nicodemus, the wind bloweth where it listeth. You hear the sound
thereof, but you can't tell from whence it cometh nor whither
it goeth. So is everyone that is born of the Spirit. Ezekiel
37, the scriptures speak of this mighty wind of God by which a
valley of dead bones are raised up and made to live. That's the
work of God the Holy Ghost. It is called irresistible grace,
effectual calling. God the Holy Ghost comes to sinners
in the day of his power and gives them life. He doesn't ask if
you want life. He doesn't ask you to make a
decision that you may have life. He gives you life. And the first
thing you know about it is when you believe on the Son of God. You find yourself believing that
Jesus is the Christ, that he actually accomplished redemption.
We know that Isaiah is writing about this gospel age and the
day of salvation from God's elect because chapter 11 shows us that
our salvation, the salvation of God's elect is the subject
being addressed throughout the chapter. Let's look at a few
verses in that chapter again. In the day that God comes to
a center in saving grace, there will be, according to verse 15,
an outpouring of His Spirit. The Lord shall utterly destroy
the tongue of the Egyptian sea. And with his mighty wind shall
he shake his hand over the river and shall smite it in the seven
streams and make men go over dry shod. When the Lord God comes,
he comes by the power of his spirit. We pray that God will
pour out his spirit upon us when we gather. We pray that God will
pour out His Spirit upon the preaching of the Word. We're
going up to Fairmont next week, next weekend. We'll be preaching
a conference up there with Todd and myself. We'll be preaching
there. I ask you to pray that God will pour out His Spirit
upon us. I'll be going from there over to Cottageville. Pray that
God will pour out His Spirit upon His people, His servants,
as the Gospel is preached. If He does, He does so only to
the benefit of His people. Then in verse 10 of chapter 11,
that day when the Lord God comes is a day when he reveals his
son. In that day, there should be
a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an instant of the people,
a banner. To it shall the Gentiles seek.
That is, he'll call his elect when the banner is lifted up,
when he pours out his spirit, and his rest shall be glorious. When God comes in grace, It's
a day for the gathering of his elect. He pours out his spirit.
He lifts up this banner, Christ Jesus and him crucified. And
when he does, he gathers his elect. Look at verse 11. And
it shall come to pass in that day that the Lord shall set his
hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people,
which shall be left from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Patras,
and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath,
and from the isles of the sea. And he shall set up an ensign
for the nations, and shall assemble the outcast of Israel, and gather
together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the
earth. Now, let me help you in your understanding of the Old
Testament Scriptures. You're in 1 Samuel, soon be getting
to the prophets, and you'll get into Isaiah, and Jeremiah, and
Ezekiel, and Hosea, and God talks about in covenant mercy, gathering
his people from this land and that, and gathering them to their
own land. In those prophecies, and in those
words of the Old Testament, their own land, The land of Canaan,
which God promised Abraham and gave to him in Joshua's day.
In all those passages, Canaan is only figurative of God's everlasting
salvation. And this is what he does. With
his providence and grace, he sends his word and gathers folks
from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south.
He says to the four corners of the earth, give up, keep not
back, bring my sons from afar. And so he does by his grace. Look at chapter 11, verses six
through nine. When God comes in the day of
salvation and grace, pours out his spirit, reveals his son and
gathers his elect, he performs a work of conversion by his almighty
grace. Oh, when God saves a sinner,
everything changes. The wolf also shall dwell with
the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the
calf and the young lion and the fatling together, and a little
child shall lead them. and the cow and the bear shall
feed, their young ones shall lie down together, and the lion
shall eat straw like the ox, and the suckling child shall
play on the hole of an ass, and the weaned child shall put his
hand on the cockatrice dead. Now watch what it says. They
shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, for the
earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover
the sea. I look forward to a day when
God makes all things new and everybody walking in the new
creation knows the Lord and walks in righteousness. But in this
gospel day, even now, God is graciously filling the earth
with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.
The gospel goes everywhere because God has his elect everywhere.
Read on. Look at the next line in Isaiah
12, what? In that day, thou shalt say,
oh Lord, I will praise thee. When God comes in grace, the
first thing that comes out of the sinner's heart is praise
to God. Isn't that amazing? The first
thing that comes out of his heart is praise to God. This word praise
is confess. When God comes to his elect in
saving power and grace, the sinner he saves confesses Christ. He confesses him. Hold your hands
here and turn to a very familiar text in Romans chapter 10. Romans
10, I want you to see it. Romans 10 verse nine. The apostle says, if thou shalt
confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine
heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be
saved. Now I have to tell you what that
does not mean. That does not mean if some slick
soul deceiver pulls you aside on the streets walking downtown
one day and talks you into making a profession of faith and says,
now if you'll say I believe in Jesus, you'll be saved. Repeat
after me, I believe in Jesus. All right, now you say, that's
a lie and nobody's ever saved by it, but only deluded by it. That's not what it means. What's
he saying? If thou shalt confess with thy
mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in thine heart that God hath
raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. He's saying exactly
the same thing John says in 1 John 5, 1. Whosoever believeth that
Jesus is the Christ, he's born of God. Now read on. For with
the heart man believeth unto righteousness. That does not
mean your believing makes you righteous. But believing on Christ,
we believe God with reference to righteousness. Believing with
reference unto righteousness. And with the mouth, confession
is made unto salvation. We believe God with reference
to righteousness, knowing that Christ alone is our righteousness.
And we confess with our mouths unto, that is, with reference
to salvation. Our confession to God is a confession
not by which we're saved, but a confession with reference to
God's salvation He's given us. For the Scripture saith, watch
this, whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed, for
there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek, for the
same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. The first
time those words are used are back in Genesis chapter four.
Men began to call on the name of the Lord. That's not saying
I believe in Jesus or confessing with your mouth the words the
Lord Jesus Christ, but rather it is worshiping him, worshiping
the Lord God as he's revealed in Christ, confessing him with
reference to righteousness done by him, with reference to salvation
performed and given by him. The same sinner confesses Christ
in his heart. He confesses Christ with his
mouth before God's people and before the world. He confesses
Christ in the waters of baptism. You remember our Lord came to
John to be baptized and John said, I can't do that. And the
Lord said, suffer to be so now for thus it becometh us to fulfill
all righteousness. Now you explain something to
me. I know we've got Campbellites all over the world. You tell
me how it is that getting in a tub of water makes you righteous. You explain that to me. How it is that somebody getting
in the River Jordan and going underwater makes them righteous.
It doesn't do it. It has nothing to do with it,
but rather it symbolically declares how righteousness is accomplished
by the doing and dying of Christ, our substitute. We lived with
him. We died with him. Now we're buried
with him and we're raised with him to walk with him in the newness
of life. Every Sunday evening we come
here and confess Christ with the Lord's table. You who believe
not, I never have a private service, it's a public service. We want
you to stay and watch. The bread and wine, not for you
if you don't believe. If you're a believer, it's yours, it's
the Lord's table. But we who believe by this show
forth the Lord's death till he come. This is how Christ accomplished
redemption. He took on himself our nature.
He lived in obedience to God and he took our sins as his own
and was justly crushed to death beneath the wrath of God. The
bread representing his perfect holy humanity, his righteousness
in life before God. The blood representing his atonement,
his sacrifice, his death. the two separated, certainly
testifying the certainty of death. Christ died for us, that's how
we live. As this confession we make to
God our Savior is for the praise of the glory of his grace. Read
on. Though thou wast angry with me,
have you ever known what that is? Have you ever known what it is
for God to be angry with you? For God to be angry with you?
Have any idea what that is? Until you know God's anger against
you, you can't possibly know God's grace in you. Not happening,
not happening. The very first thing God does
when it comes in saving power is to convince men of sin, their
unbelief, for which God is angry with the wicked every day. Knowing
therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. You see, when
God comes in saving grace, the first thing he does is reveal
his wrath against sin. If God killed his son when he
found sin on his son, what do you reckon he'll do to me if
he finds sin on me? If God abandoned his son when
he found sin on his son, what do you reckon he'll do to you
when he finds sin on you? Thou wast angry with me. But look at the next line. Though
thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away. Thine anger is turned away. My dungeon flamed with light,
and God's anger was turned away. Turned away. You can never know
what that is unless you know his anger against you. Though
thou wast angry with me, thine anger was turned away. I don't
suggest, imply, or think that everybody must go through the
same emotional experience, the same soul turmoil, but I do tell
you, that you will never know the blessedness of having his
anger turned away until you know the terror of his anger in your
soul. His anger was turned away by
the blood of Christ at Calvary. Picture again in Egypt, God said,
I'm gonna send my angel. He's gonna pass through Egypt
and he's gonna kill all the firstborn in Egypt. But wherever I see
blood, when I see the blood, I'll pass over you. And I can
just picture, if you want to get a visible picture, I can
picture the angel of God walking through the streets of Egypt.
And midnight howl comes and he walks up to the door, that blood,
and he turns and goes the other way. God's anger was turned away at
Calvary. And then he comes in saving mercy
and sprinkles the conscience from dead works, Hebrews chapter
nine, and purges your conscience from dead works and turns away
his anger in you. So that you know now by the call
of God, by the gift of faith, by the word of God, by the seal
of his spirit, that God's no longer angry. believing on the
Son of God, God is no longer angry. And thou comfortest me. How is it that God comforts his
people? He does it through the preaching
of the gospel, by the power of his Spirit. He says to his prophets,
comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith the Lord. Speak comfortably
to Jerusalem, speak to their heart, cry unto her that her
warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned, for
she hath received the Lord's hand double for all her sins. By the preaching of the gospel,
by the power of his spirit, the Lord God sheds abroad his love
into your hearts. And he proclaims the free forgiveness
of sin so that you have God himself testifying in you that your sins
are forgiven. I've tried to find it while I
was preparing this message. I'll find it and get it to you
eventually. My friend, Brother Ed Hale, who'd been with the
Lord for a long time, used to sing a song. A lot of folks didn't
like it. I really liked it. The title of the hymn, he wrote
it, I've got a pardon in my pocket. I've got a pardon in my pocket.
Well, you can't speak like that. Why not? God has turned away
His anger from me and now He comforts me, declaring that my
sins are gone. He declares all the promises
of His grace, His mercy, His love, all His goodness promised
in the covenant. He comes by the gospel and by
the power of His Spirit, seals them to our hearts. giving us
the sweet assurance of acceptance with God and access to Him through
the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ, our blessed Redeemer. Look at verse two. Isaiah is still describing the
confession of a sinner saved by the grace of God. Behold,
God is my salvation. God is my Savior. The Lord Jesus
Christ is God, the great God and our Savior. He's the Savior
appointed by the Father, promised in the covenant, and sent in
the fullness of time, and now the Savior revealed in us. That
word behold, which prefixes the confession, is a word of assurance. God is my salvation. It's a word
of affirmation, acknowledging to all that God is my salvation,
not the church, not my experiences, not my thoughts, not my feelings,
not my works. God is my salvation. And it's
a word of adoration, admiring God for his salvation, declaring
that God alone is my salvation. And maybe as much as anything
else, maybe more than anything else, it's a word of amazement.
Aren't you amazed? God is my salvation. Jesus Christ
is my Savior. He is my God, my Redeemer, my
Beloved. Behold what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed on us, that we should be called the sons
of God. And it's sure a word of hope if God is my salvation. Why not yours? Maybe He'll save
you too. If God had mercy on me, maybe
he'd have mercy on you. Read on. I will trust and not
be afraid. Boy, that's a mouthful. I will
trust and not be afraid. I will trust Christ for all my
salvation. I'll be confident of him. I'll
look upon myself as one who is safe and secure in him, and trusting
him, I'll not be afraid of sin, my own or anyone else's, of Satan, the prince of the power of the
air, the wicked one, the fiend of hell, Apollyon, the devil,
that one who is the roaring lion seeking to devour my soul, I'll
not be afraid of the world, no matter what it produces, no matter
what it brings, no matter how it opposes me, even of my flesh. that raging hell that's in me,
or of death, or of hell, or even condemnation at the day of judgment. You see, if Jesus Christ is God,
my salvation, I have no reason ever to fear the wrath of God. churches and preachers and religious
hucksters like to control people. You didn't know that, did you? They like to manipulate. And
I'll tell you how they do it. Doesn't matter whether they're
Baptist or Presbyterian or Pentecostal or Papist or Buddhist or anything
like that, they have to do it. They do it with fear. Keep folks
afraid. You just might not make it after
all. If you do that now, God's gonna
get you. Faithful man, declare the word
of God faithfully. Mark Henson, if you believe God,
there's no reason for you ever to be afraid of God. No reason
ever, ever. You who are fathers, you got that boy back there?
You want Him to discipline you. I mean, you want Him to hear
you and you want to discipline Him. You want to make Him mind you. But what a horrible thing it'd
be to go to bed every night, that boy's scared to death to
see your face. What? A son of a loving father
afraid of Him? That's horrible. That's horrible.
We believe God. and trusting his son have no
reason to be afraid of him. Read the rest of verse two with
me. For the Lord Jehovah is my strength
and my song. He also has become my salvation.
The Lord Jehovah is God my deliverer. Jesus Christ, my savior, he's
my strength. The strength of my life, the
strength of all grace, the strength of all duty, the strength for
every trial, and he's my song, his person and his work. Sing
praises to him for he's my salvation. If ever you come to Christ and
obtain salvation by him, you'll never tire of hearing or repeating
it. The Lord Jehovah is become my
salvation. John Gill rightly said, salvation
is wrought out by Christ and believers have it in him and
they know it and believe it and are already saved in him. This work is done. as done now as it shall be when
we stand holy and without blame before him in his glory at the
last day. Verse three, therefore, because
God is your salvation, with joy shall you draw water out of the
wells of salvation. Water represents daily reviving,
refreshing grace. The bucket with which we draw
the water is faith. And it's drawn by prayer so that
the Lord God says, come now boldly to the throne of grace, that
you may obtain mercy and find grace to help in every time of
need. Come to the waters, the waters
of life, the wells of salvation, the Word of God, the promises
of God in the gospel, the person and work of God's dear Son, and
draw water from the waters. Now, look at verse four. Once
God saves a sinner by his grace, the saved sinner isn't content
to have grace for himself. He wants others to know worship
and honor praise and trust the Lord Jesus Christ, our God and
our Savior. Back up to verse three again.
And in that day ye shall say, praise the Lord, call upon his
name, declare his doings among the people. Make other folks
know him. Make mention that his name is
exalted. His name is praised. how I was
reproved as I prepared this message again and am reproved now. Do you remember how anxious you
were when first God stopped you in your mad rush to hell and
saved you by his grace to tell everybody? You remember how anxious
you were? For everybody to hear what God
done for you. For everybody to hear of Christ
and his redeeming love, mercy and grace. Oh God give me that
fervor now. Make all men to hear who he is
and what he's done. Look at verse five. Sing unto
the Lord for he hath done excellent things. Sing hymns of songs and
spiritual songs and praise to our God. Sing of what he is in
himself and what he has done. For he hath done excellent things. This is known in all the earth. The apostles preached it everywhere.
The prophets preached it everywhere they went. The early church scattered
through the book of Acts. Everywhere they went, they preached
it everywhere. He has wrought out an excellent salvation. He's
brought in everlasting excellent righteousness. By an excellent
sacrifice, he's justified us. And he's obtained for us an excellent
inheritance in glory. This is known in all the earth. Verse six. Cry out and shout. Thou inhabitant
of Zion, for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of
thee. Christ the Holy One of Israel
is in the midst of thee. Certainly that's talking about
the local church, but Zion refers to the whole church of God, the
whole body of Christ, all God's elect, the whole church of God
universally. Wherever they are, he's in the
midst of them. Always walking among the golden
candlesticks. Always in the valley of myrtle
trees, walking in the midst of his people. And he's great. Oh, great. A great God to be
trusted. a great redeemer to be believed,
a great savior to be proclaimed, a great king to be obeyed, a
great priest to give us peace with God, a great husband, a
great friend. This great one, my God, this
is my beloved and my friend. God make him yours. Oh God for Christ's sake give
you life and faith in his dear son for your everlasting souls
joy and good and for the praise of the glory of his own great
name. I can't think of a better reason
a better argument to give to God in prayer for yourself or
for anyone else. Lord If saving sinners glorifies
you, surely it will glorify you to save me. If saving sinners
glorifies you, surely it will glorify you to save my wife,
my husband, my son, my daughter, my neighbor. God have mercy and
make Christ theirs for His glory. Amen.