The Joy of Being Connected to God
By Pastor Matt Black
18
February 2007
Lord's Day morning
Isaiah 12:1-6
Introduction: Open your Bibles to Isaiah 12, and let’s read this chapter. The title of this evening’s message is “The Joy of Being Connected to God”. Tonight we are going to be looking at the age of the church in verses 10-16.
Isaiah 12:1-6, “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 comfortedst me. 2 Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the LORD JEHOVAH is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation. 3 Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation. 4 And in that day shall ye say, Praise the LORD, call upon his name, declare his doings among the people, make mention that his name is exalted. 5 Sing unto the LORD; for he hath done excellent things: this is known in all the earth. 6 Cry out and shout, thou inhabitant of Zion: for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee.”
Illustration: Friday afternoon when I arrived home with my arms full of books from the conference, I heard our home telephone ringing. I put my books down and grabbed the closest phone. Normally I would say “Black residence”, but I had just walked in the door from a wonderful, but long week of classes at the NANC conference. So I just said, “Yeah?” Silence. “Hello?” Nothing. “Is anyone there?” I could almost hear my voice echo.
I hung up the phone. “That was strange” I thought. I looked at the caller ID, and it was my own cell phone. I thought, “Oh great, I left my cell phone somewhere, and someone is trying to call me.” So I thought I would try to call it back. I did. Suddenly I had one of those “duh?” moments as I heard my cell phone ringing from the pocket of the overcoat that I was wearing.
I almost wanted to answer the phone and tell myself I had the wrong number! I must have bumped against something and hit the call button, which dialed the last number I had dialed.
Application: The point is, it doesn’t do us any good to talk to ourselves does it? If we need help, we cannot go to ourselves for help, if you could help yourself you wouldn’t need help!
If we need help, we need someone that can give us answers. Does anyone here need a little help tonight? I know Someone who has the answers! How is it that when all is wrong in the world, we as Christians can say “it is well with my soul”? Tonight we are going to see that in this day of violence and crime and immorality, that for the Christian every day is the day of great salvation, of great security, of great singing, and a celebration of our great Sovereign. There is a joy because though we are in this world we are connected to the true and Living God in the heavens! Though we are battling sin, the flesh, and the devil, we know Christ has already won the victory!
Aren’t you glad you are saved? In the previous chapter of this book, Isaiah talks about the great banner of salvation, and the people being gathered from the four corners of the earth. It is a day where we’ve have been delivered from Egypt, which is a picture of the world. We come across the Red Sea dryshod! Now comes the refrain of praise that all of God’s people have. We all have a song to sing no matter what is going on in your life!
I. It’s a Day of great Salvation. Verses 1-2a, ““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 comfortedst me. 2 Behold, God is my salvation;”
The day you were saved everything changed. No matter how well your life was going, it didn’t matter. You could numb yourself with friends, work, movies, and simple busyness. But when the world slowed down from time to time depression came because of the guilt in your heart. The feeling of guilt comes because we are guilty of breaking God’s Law.
Look at God’s anger against sinners. We must remind ourselves often that God is angry with sinners, and though we are guiltier than Satan himself, God’s anger has been turned away. This is a day of praise! There was a time when you felt that wrath and hid from God, but you’ve heard God’s voice and come out from behind the bushes. Part of being forgiven is realizing what you’ve been forgiven from.
A. The Joy Salvation comes from knowing you are Forgiven.
Luke 7:47 tells us that whoever is forgiven of much, loves much, “but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little.”
There is joy in being connected to God, we know what an awesome and wide gulf that His love spanned when Christ died for our sins! Look at our verse again, Verses 1-2a, “And in that day thou shalt say, O LORD, I will praise thee: though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away.”
Don’t ever forget that you are a brand plucked from the burning. You were a child of Hell and now you are sons and daughters of the Most High God! God is presently angry with every sinner who is not in Jesus Christ right now. God is angry at this very moment. Psalm 7:11 says that “God is angry with the wicked every day”. Day in and day out there was a day when God hated you. You were unconverted. The earth groaned to have you on it. Christ had only one thing he wanted to do with you at that time: vomit you out of His holy mouth. Remember the day when we knew nothing of God’s holiness? We were so proud we resisted God and we held down and suppressed His truth (Romans 1:18). Oh, we may have played the religion game, but we fled from real Holy Spirit conviction every opportunity we had! Remember that?
B. The Joy Salvation comes from understanding our Justification. Verse 1, “And in that day thou shalt say, O LORD, I will praise thee: though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away,
God is angry with sinners right now. You can praise God that you are no longer in that lot! God’s anger is turned away!! Praise God you are no longer suppressing the truth! You are no longer under God’s wrath! You are justified! Romans 8:1, “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”
Praise God for His anger is turned away!!
C. The Joy Salvation comes from receiving the everlasting Comfort of God. Verses 1-2a, “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 comfortedst me. 2 Behold, God is my salvation;”
We can only understand the love of God when the Holy Spirit communicates it to our soul.
Illustration: It’s one thing to get a letter from the President of the United States that tells you that he’s proud of something you did. From time to time I will go somewhere and see a framed letter from someone important. There is the signature, but you don’t really know if he really wrote it. It’s one thing to get a letter from someone like that, it’s a whole ‘nother thing to get a knock at your door and have the President deliver the message in person.
Don’t you know that when you were saved, God wrote you a letter, and while you were reading it, He delivered it to you in Person! The Spirit was sent, and He convicted your heart of sin, righteousness and judgment. He’s told you of God’s forgiveness in Person! Listen to the words of this song in the last part of verse 1: “thou comfortedst me.”
D. The Joy Salvation comes from Seeing God. Verse 2a, “Behold, God is my salvation;” Remember what Isaiah said back in chapter 6 and verse 5? “Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.”
Remember in verse 7 God said, “thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.”
Illustration: It is one thing to say you’ve seen a picture of the moon. It’s another thing to be launched into space and walk on it! Think about Esther in the Bible. She was a Jewish peasant girl in the Persian Empire. She had heard of the King. The Bible says that when King Ahasuerus, also known in our secular history books as the great King Xerxes. Remember the King sent Queen Vashti away and searched the Kingdom for a wife. And this peasant girl was elevated from knowing about the King, to being His wife! Now she really had a lot to talk about!
That’s how it is with Christians. We’ve had a personal encounter with the Living God. He is now our Father. We used to know him like those who see pictures of the moon and know the moon, but now we know Him like those who have been launched into space and walked on the moon. We know God, and now we go around saying, Verse 2a, “Behold, God is my salvation;”
Listen today is that day of salvation. 2 Corinthians 6:2, “now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” Hebrews 3:13-15 “exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end; 15 While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.” Today is the Day of salvation. Harden not your heart
II. It’s a Day of great Security. Look at verse 2, “Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the LORD JEHOVAH is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation. 3 Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.”
1. No fear! Why do we need security systems because we are afraid! God is our ultimate security. “Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the LORD JEHOVAH is my strength and my song;
2. No weakness! We have insurance policies because of our weakness and sickness don’t we? I want to show you a security that will never fail: Look at verse 2 again, ““Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the LORD JEHOVAH is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation.
3. No sorrow! Some people when they get married, they want to get prenuptials. You don’t need to fear if God will ever leave you. 3 Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.” Psalm 16:11, “In thy presence is fullness of joy, and at thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore!”
III. It’s a Day of great Singing.
A. Preparation for singing. Before you can sing, you have to have something to sing about! Look at verse 4, “And in that day shall ye say, Praise the LORD, call upon his name, declare his doings among the people, make mention that his name is exalted.”
B. Participation in singing. 5 Sing unto the LORD; for he hath done excellent things: this is known in all the earth.
No matter what you are going through, you can sing because you are seated in the heavenlies. Have you seen answered prayer? Is God able to save souls?
Maybe you don’t have anything to sing about today. If you haven’t seen anything of God’s working in the heart of men, you need to get out there in the battlefield and win a few victories, and you WILL have something to sing about.
IV. It’s a Day of great Testimony. Verse 6-6 “5 Sing unto the LORD; for he hath done excellent things: this is known in all the earth. 6 Cry out and shout, thou inhabitant of Zion: for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee.”
We’ve got something to shout about! Look at verse 6. There is something we need to make known in all the earth!
1. He is Sovereign. “for great is the Holy One of Israel”
2. He is Holy. “for great is the Holy One of Israel”
3. He is Here. “for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee.” Hebrews 13:5, “he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.”
Conclusion: When you are connected to God, all circumstances are simply tools to make us more like Jesus. Are you connected to God, if so, everything else around you is only going to be for your good and for His glory.
Closing Hymn: 21 Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow