My Strength and My Song

This transcription is a message from Pastor Jason Booth of Redeemer Church in Piketon, Ohio. The message is based on Isaiah 12 and focuses on the theme that the Lord is our strength and our song. It emphasizes the salvation and grace of God and encourages believers to share the gospel with others. The pastor also highlights the need for Jesus as our righteousness and the importance of praising and testifying to His goodness. The following message is brought to you by the people of Redeemer Church of Piketon, Ohio. For more information, please visit RedeemerPiketon.org. And now, here's Pastor Jason Booth with the message. Let's look at Isaiah, the 12th chapter. Isaiah, the 12th chapter. And we're going to consider all six verses of this thanksgiving offered up here. And it's a thanksgiving that is to occur in that day. So at the time it was written, this thanksgiving was being offered in advance to the prophetic realities of the future. And the title of my message is simply this. The Lord is my strength and my song. The Lord is my strength and my song. And let's read these rejoicing words together found in Isaiah 12, verse 1 through verse 6. The Word of the Living God. You will say in that day, I will give thanks to You, O Lord, for though You were angry with me, Your anger turned away, that You might comfort me. Behold, God is my salvation. I will trust and I will not be afraid. For the Lord God is my strength and my song. He has become my salvation. With joy, You will draw water from the wells of salvation. And you will say in that day, give thanks to the Lord. Call upon His name. Make known His deeds among the people. Proclaim that His name is exalted. Sing praises to the Lord, for He has done generously. Let us be made known. Let this be made known in all the earth. Shout and sing for joy, O inhabitants of Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel. Hallelujah forevermore. We pray the Lord would bless the reading of His Word today for our good and for His glory. Amen. Amen. My strength and my song. What a testimony to be able to shout and declare that Jesus Christ of whom these words were written. Is in fact the strength and the song of every single born again child of God. He is our strength. He is our song. He finds us in the graves and in the grave shackles and clothing of sin. The Bible declares in the New Testament that we were dead in our trespasses and sins. And yet we see here a prophetic utterance in Isaiah's day. In that day you will give thanks. And you will say, O Lord, for though you were anger with me, your anger turned away. What is the righteousness that turns away the anger of God? Who would possess such a thing? For when the Lord looks upon the inhabitants of men, apart from Christ, I can tell you what He sees. The Scripture says there is none who doeth good. There is none righteous. No, not one. They've all together become unprofitable. There are no righteous ones. There's nothing in this world but sin. Apathy. Disregard for the things of God. Disregard for the importance of things like the Gospel or Christ. Matter of fact, more than apathy, there's active hatred concerning the work of Christ in this world. They hate Jesus Christ. The rabid atheists hate this blessed Gospel. The religionists hate this blessed Gospel. Well, what Gospel is that? The Gospel of free and sovereign grace. The Gospel that says that the Lord will do with His pottery as a potter would work on a wheel. That He is in control. That He is the Lord of glory. And we are vessels. Some fit for wrath and some fit for mercy. And it is of His mercy that He saves some. And who are we to question God? And yet, this world finds plenty of reason to question God in their own pride, their own arrogance. The religious world hates the Gospel of free and sovereign grace because it takes them and their performances and their half-witted attempts at righteousness off the table. And they want to share glory with the Father. They don't want to glorify the Father for Jesus' sake. The God of this Scripture will not share His glory with another. He will not. He is a jealous God. Recently, a co-worker asked me what changed between the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New. And I looked him right in the face and said, not a thing. You think the God of the Old Testament is somehow softened? He's not softened. He's not changed His mind. His righteous requirements have been fully satisfied in Jesus. God is satisfied in the finished work of Jesus. This is God's work for God's people. And it required God the Son to come down and to do the work that we, weakened by the flesh, could not do. And that's why the Scripture says that He has become my salvation. The very Lawgiver. The very One who spoke the world into existence. The One who requires absolute perfection. Satisfied His own requirements on that old cross of Calvary. Thanks be to God. And today the Scripture says, with joy, we will draw water from the wells of salvation. We will draw water from the wells of salvation. Sing praises to the Lord, for He has done gloriously. Again, who receives the glory with regards to salvation? It is the Lord. He alone receives the glory. And here we see that it is His work. He has done gloriously, says verse 5. You and I, we have no glory. You and I have no righteousness that we can commend ourselves to God. We can't do that. In our own strength, in our own frailty, in our own sin, we would be destroyed by the very brightness of His essence and being. We are altogether undone. But through Christ Jesus, we, as the Scripture says, can drink and draw waters from the wells of salvation. With joy. There is joy in this journey. There is joy in knowing that the Gospel is a reality. The Gospel is the way of things in the economy of God. Isaiah, I'm sure, as he received these words from God, understood at least in part, and I bet his soul longed for the day when this would be a reality. Beloved, we today commend our brothers and sisters in this world to come and drink from the wells of salvation. Do we not? Do we not proclaim the Gospel? Do we not say, come unto the Lord? He's the only way of escape. Do we not tell everyone that we can? That Jesus is the only way to the Father? The only way to eternal life? And we call everyone to account. Sing praises to the Lord, for He has done gloriously. Let this be made known in all the earth. And so, our evangelistic call is to share this Gospel with everyone we can. Our call is to preach and teach the Gospel. Now, our call is not to pressure or to manipulate or to devise human schemes to build bigger churches or to cause people to, quote unquote, make a decision for Christ. Remember, I just told you that this was the work of God. He is the righteousness. He has become salvation. He has done gloriously. Where did I pick up those three points? Oh, that's right. Our very Scripture lesson today. Do you see anything in there about us other than, come and get it? God bids His people to come to benefit from that which He has procured. And He calls His people to His wedding feast, beloved. Now, I don't know who His people are. I'm not God. I have no ability to know whether or not this one is saved and this one isn't or this one will be saved and this one's just faking it. I don't know any of that. All I can do is surround myself with people who believe the Gospel or tell me they do and trust the Lord. And I know that He has given me assurance through Scripture that the work of salvation is of a Christ alone and only the Spirit can do that work. So what are we to do? We're to preach to anybody that'll listen. We're to tell the story. The Bible says here that we should let this be made known in all the earth. Let this be made known in all the earth. There is an evangelistic mandate in the Old Testament, beloved. It's not just the New. Jesus gave the Great Commission. But I'm here to tell you that even the Great Commission, part of the going forth and telling the world of this wondrous Gospel that the Lord is now our strength and our song, even that was prophesied of in Isaiah that it would be made known in all the earth. Today, on every continent, there is some sort of Gospel witness. On every continent. Shout and sing for joy, the Scripture says, O inhabitant of Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel. The Holy One of Israel. Who is He who was tempted as are we, yet without sin? Who is He who was born perfect, of a virgin, fully God and fully man? Who is He who performed miracles, the likes of which the Gospel of John tells us that they were all recorded. The books couldn't contain them. Who is He who raised the dead, who opened blinded eyes, who walked across the sea as though it were dry ground? You see, Moses walked on a dry bed as the water moved away. And God the Son just walked right on top of the water. Miracle working, wonder working, awe inspiring, totally perfect, worthy of our praise. Why? Because He, Jesus Christ, is the Holy One of Israel. And we know by faith that He is our righteousness. How do we know that? The Scripture says He has become my salvation. The question for most sinners in this world is, is Christ your salvation? I hear a lot of talk about my salvation. You know, I'm saved, I'm, my, my, my. And that is definitely true. He is the God of my salvation. But the Bible also declares that He has become my salvation. We must be clothed in the righteous robes of Jesus Christ if we are to make heaven our home, if we are to be found blameless on that day. If Christ isn't your righteous garment, if you're counting on anything but the righteousness of Jesus Christ, you're an idolater. You do not know Him in the full pardon of your sins. For His people run to Him and say, Lord, Lord, have mercy on me. And what are these robes that we wear, but the robes given to us by and through His grace and mercy? He is our strength. Now that we're clothed in Him, what do we do? We sing His praises. We testify to His goodness. Think about the woman at the well. Jesus ministers to her in ways that only God the Son could minister to her. And she goes forth running and telling all who would hear, come and see a man who told me everything about me. When you encounter the Lord of glory and you are finally caused to get rid of all the things you thought made you good enough. Well, I'm better than the guy down the street. Well, you take that ball of unrighteous hypocrisy and throw it away. Well, I'm a member of such and such social club. Well, you take that little badge off and throw it away. Well, my daddy was a preacher. You take that little badge off because that's not going to do you any good. Well, I won first place in the Bible fund when I was in junior high. Well, take that badge off. That's not going to do you any good. Well, I gave $100 toward the church's chapel renewal fund. Take that badge off and throw it away. Well, I don't drink or smoke. I don't use bad words. Well, that's good. But take that badge off too, because that's not the righteousness. What are you left with? Well, until you know you're standing before a holy God, naked and without any hope, you have yet to experience the gospel call. For the gospel is going to rid you of all these things you thought made you holy. Your church membership does not save. Your tithing, whatever that is in this day and age, does not save. Your good deeds, though they may be good in an earthly sense, do not save you. And if you're counting on any of these things as part or as some or as just a little bit of the righteousness that's going to see you into God's kingdom, you are an idolater. God save us. And lest we think in this room to be pumped up with pride because we know this, you still battle with this. You're going to look at your neighbor when they fall into a big old pit of sin through their bad decisions, and you're going to say, my, my, my, that's a juicy bit of gossip. Maybe I'll just spread that around. And the whole time you're doing that, you're somehow puffed up with pride enough to think that you are worthy enough in God's eyes to spread gossip about somebody else. Oh, have you ever thought about it that way? When you're just sitting around jawboning about your neighbor? The only reason you talk bad about your neighbor, even if it's true, is because something down deep inside of you thinks, at least in part, that you're somehow of a better sort than that guy. Think about that. That's why the scripture calls us not to murmur, complain, not to backbite, not to gossip. Why? Because such were some of you. And you may never have done the things you're talking about that your brother did, but you thought about it. You see, we've got to know who we are in front of God. In our own strength, we are naked. We are dead. We are without hope. But when He lovingly comes in on the scene, and He, through the Holy Spirit of God, strips us of all the things we thought made us holy, all of the religion, all of the philosophies, all of the political stances, all of the things we throw up on our resume to make us look good in the sight of man, and God comes in and melts it all away by the power of the Gospel, and He makes you see clearly who you really are. He is the door. He is the way. He is our righteousness before God. And when you stand there having heard the Gospel, now the Scripture says, you sense the judicial anger of God. The Scripture says, for though you were angry with Me. Now, I want to say that for the people in the back that think that God had never had any kind of anger toward His people. The Scripture here at least says, we're going to feel it. Now, obviously, God's ways are pathfinding now. And I know that God has known and has loved His people since the beginning. Since whenever that was. Since before time began. It's an eternal love. And I don't deny that for a moment. But listen, the Scripture here says, you were angry with Me. Now, if somebody wants to fight me about that and write me a letter, you go right ahead. That's what the book says. He was angry with Me. Now, this could imply the spiritual conviction that God pours on us when He brings us in, when He saves us. And let me tell you, the convicting power of the Holy Spirit is for real. And I'm going to say something else. I do not believe that the convicting power of the Holy Spirit to bring a soul to Christ can ever be thwarted by the power of man. I don't believe that. I don't believe the Holy Spirit ever goes forth a-hunting, as it were. Goes forth seeking and saving the lost. He doesn't ever come back and say, sorry guys, I struck out today. They were too strong. But you're God, the Holy Spirit. How can a mere man thwart God? Let me save you the trouble. We can't thwart the purposes of God. And thanks be to God that we can't. Because what would we do if we could? We'd head straight for the pit. We'd have no hope. But the Bible says you were angry with Me. This could be speaking of the convicting power of the Spirit. When you finally realize that the weight of the law is on you, because you're a lawbreaker, and you have no way of escape. The judicial wrath of God rests heavy on you in the conviction of the Holy Spirit. But His anger was turned away. Beloved, is God just in sending each and every one of us to eternal torment? You know He is. Is God just in throwing us down the way and forsaking us in our own strength given the natural way of things? Absolutely. But there was something that happened that caused God to turn His anger away and instead to comfort us, says verse 1. He turned His anger away that He might comfort us. So there we are. In the midst of this spiritual conversion. We're hearing the Gospel. We know that Jesus came and died to save sinners. And yet for a while, maybe for years, you hear this and think, well, I'm good enough on my own. I believe that Jesus was a good man. And then all of a sudden, the Spirit of God comes in on the scene. And He makes you willing in the day of His power. And now you hear this Gospel and you feel lost and undone. And you know that you have no hope. And you've repented of all the things, all those merit badges you used to wear that you thought made you acceptable to God. And now you find in God not a judging Father. Not a judging Father. Not like an earthly tyrant. But instead, you find a loving Father who comforts you. And when the Lord saves a sinner, He brings him in and clutches him just like a mother hen would do her chicks. He is the cleft of the rock that we can hide in in the storms and the seas. And He holds us. He comforts us. And He fills us with the Holy Spirit of God. Our abiding Comforter who will be with us forever. Who will lead us into all truth. And out of our bellies will flow rivers of living water. How does Isaiah say this? He calls it the wells of salvation. Hallelujah. I thought I was somebody until I encountered the Gospel. And I realized real quick that I wasn't anything at all. I was a pile of sin. A pile of old, used rags set for the fire. But greater is He who is in me than he who is in the world. And He is my song and my strength. I could be feeble in body. I could be old and on my deathbed. And yet, I will know that I know that I know because of the testimony of the Word of God and the convicting power of the Holy Spirit that Jesus Christ is mine and I am His. He is my strength. Even in my weakness, the Bible says, His strength becomes perfect. Even when I struggle with sin, He is the abiding Presence who tells me that He is my righteousness. And to get back up and to keep on walking, He is my song. For the Scripture says, I waited patiently on the Lord and He inclined unto me and He heard my cry. And He picked me up out of a horrible pit, out of a miry clay, and He set my feet upon the rock and established my goings. He has put a new song in my mouth. Even praise to our God. Many shall see it and fear and trust in the Lord. Do you see how this works? The Lord saves a sinner by His free and sovereign grace. That sinner knows that he has no power, no efficacy in and of himself to do anything. But boy, when the Spirit of God fills him to the overflow, he goes forth and he tells his friends and his family, and he says, listen here, you need to know about Jesus. Not about me. I'm a nobody. I'm a sinner. But Jesus Christ came to save sinners. And if this message resonates with you, it only does so because the Spirit of God is testifying to this truth in your heart. And that's our song, beloved. Christ is our song. He is our strength. We have people in this room so young that they can barely talk. Some a lot older than that. And as we grow, we reach a pinnacle of our own physical strength. Do we not? We do. You get to a certain age where you feel pretty confident that if you had to stand your ground, you probably could. This would be the best time to do it. And then some of you are past those years and you realize real quick that you're no longer a 15-round fighter. You might be good for two. And then only if you had to, right? But the Scripture here says none of that matters. None of it matters. Whose strength do we live in? We live in the strength of Christ. Whose strength shall we die in? We will die in the strength of Christ. And in the process, we will shout and sing. And we will make this known in all the earth that the Lord is our strength and our song. How am I worthy to give Him praise? Because He has made me worthy. And why does He deserve praise? Because He has made me worthy. Who gets all the glory? All the honor? All the praise? The Lord of glory does. And we can have joy for this journey knowing that this work of grace was God's to start, God's to finish, and it's God who will see us through. It's all God's work for He is the beginning and the end, the first and the last. So we're going to get older. We're going to get creepier. We're going to have troubles in this old world just like everybody else because we live as humans on planet earth. So, we can trust that our God will sustain us. We can trust that the Holy One of Israel is in our midst. The Scripture even says that where two or three are gathered in His name, there He is in the midst. Hallelujah forevermore. So sing praises to the Lord, for He has done gloriously. So, who gets the testimony? The Lord does. We get to say it loud. God has done gloriously. God has done gloriously. He is our strength and He is our song. Lord, I have blessings to Your Word today. Encourage us and excite us in the Gospel of God's free and sovereign grace. Help us to share this message with our friends and our neighbors. And Lord, we trust that You would add to the church daily such as should be saved. We pray these things in the mighty name of the Holy One of Israel, Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. Amen. Amen. You have just heard a message from Pastor Jason Deuse of Redeemer Church of Piketon, Ohio. To learn more about the good news of Jesus, please visit RedeemerPiketon.org.