Surely It Is God Who Saves Me!

4th Sunday in Lent, 3/31/19
Isaiah 12:1-6


Surely It Is God Who Saves Me!
I. A saving truth to embrace
II. A saving truth to share


I’ve learned long ago not to Google spiritual questions and expect to read the truth. Instead, I Google spiritual questions to be slightly amused by what I find or don’t find. But that attempt to be amused usually backfires and I find myself far more disturbed than amused.

But several days ago I did it anyway. I Googled the question, “What do you want God to do for you?”

The first site encouraged me not to deify common sense. Not being quite sure what that meant, I read a little further. It told me that often we ask God only for things which align with our common sense, and in doing so, we limit the power of God. We deify our common sense. Instead, we ought to ask God to do the impossible for us, as mentally nonsensical as that is.

The next site instructed me to pray very specifically for God to do something for me. It warned me not to pray with ambiguity because—are you ready for this?—then God won’t know how to answer my prayer. That advice flies in the face of God’s specific comfort which he states in his word, that when we don’t know what to pray for, the Holy Spirit helps us and actually prays for us.

I quickly searched a couple other sites, but I didn’t find one with the suggestion that I was looking for. So, what was I looking for? Well, as I teach our Catechism students, if our sins deserve damnation, then our greatest need is the forgiveness of sins and rescue from hell. So, when I Googled, “What do you need God to do for you?” I was hoping to find this answer: salvation.

This morning’s worship theme proclaims that, as God’s people who trust in Jesus as our Savior, we know that the pinnacle of wisdom is that we are saved through faith in Jesus. What we need our God to do for us more than anything else is to save us from our sins.

And that’s what this season of Lent is all about. That’s what Jesus came to this earth to do. That’s the truth that we celebrate this morning. And that’s the focus of this morning’s sermon text from Isaiah 12. Isaiah states it like this: “Surely God is my salvation!” For our focus, let’s use some words that are similar and more familiar to us. Surely it is God who saves me! I know that you came to worship believing that truth, but surely you’re willing to ponder for a few minutes something so eternally important.

Part I.

How old were you when you began caring what other people think of you? I tried to answer that question for myself, and it seems that I began caring when I realized that my friendships with other children were heavily influenced by what they thought about me. So I began caring.

There’s a healthy level of interest in what others think of you. But some people are emotionally and psychologically disordered by it. If that’s something you struggle with, I’ll try to help you, but what I’m more concerned about is this: Are you concerned about what your God thinks about you? Since you’re here in worship today and not somewhere else, I’m assuming you are to one degree or another.

With that being the case, listen to what Isaiah states, “You were angry with me.” Do you realize how tragic those words are? Yes, Isaiah is speaking what is true in his relationship with the holy God, but he’s also speaking for every sinner, for you and me. Our sins before God rightly make us objects of his anger. We know from the Bible that God’s anger at sin has caused him to destroy wicked cities and even entire nations of people. And now Isaiah states that the laser of his anger is on me?!? That’s terrifying!

But Isaiah doesn’t leave us spiritually paralyzed in fear for long. In fact, he immediately states, “Your anger has turned away.” As a child, were you ever the object of the gaze of your parent’s hairy eye? You know that look—the one that makes you squirm in fear. If looks could kill, you’d be dead. Isaiah felt it. Every sinner should. But now Isaiah informs us that the all-seeing eye of God filled with anger over sin has turned away. What a relief!

But the news gets even better! He informs us, “You have comforted me.” God has done a complete 180. His anger over our sin has been replaced by his comfort for us. Just what does Isaiah mean? God doesn’t want anyone to perish forever because of their sins. Recall God’s activity immediately after the fall into sin. In love he approached Adam and Eve. Yes, he did announce the terrible consequences for their sins, but he also announced the coming of the One who would crush Satan’s head. Our God does not want to be known as the God who damns sinners, but as the God who saves sinners.

And that’s what caused Isaiah to break into this hymn of praise, “Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. For the LORD, the LORD, is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation.” Our God doesn’t simply talk about our salvation. Isaiah states, “You have become my salvation.” Our salvation is his essence. It’s what our God is all about. It’s what he wants us to know about him. It’s what he wants us to seek from him.

What do you want from God? How about simply this: salvation. And God gives it. He wants to give it. He loves to give it.

Surely it is God who saves me! That’s a saving truth to embrace.

“Stricken, Smitten, and Afflicted” is a Lent hymn familiar to many of us. In the third stanza it refers to the horror of Christ’s death on the cross with these words, “If you think of sin but lightly nor suppose the evil great, here you see its nature rightly, here its guilt may estimate.”

We live in a world that not only thinks light of sin, it delights in it and even denies that sin exists. And since we live in the world 24-7, it becomes easy for that nonchalant attitude to seep its way into our hearts and minds. It takes words such as Isaiah shares with us this morning to shake us to our spiritual senses. Here’s what God thinks about your dishonesty, your lust, your discontent, the terrible things you think and say about other people, your laziness, your excuses not to do what a child of God should do and love to do. “You were angry with me.” And Lent gives us a golden opportunity to own up to our sinful ways. And when we do, then we can not only hear but embrace the truth that God’s anger has turned away and he has become our salvation. That’s what the death of Christ was all about for you—your forgiveness and eternal life. That’s what your God thinks about you! Surely it is God who saves me! Embrace that saving truth!

Part II.

Good news to embrace is always good news to share, and that’s where Isaiah leads us in the second half of this text.

I’d like to share a bit of trivia with you regarding the life of the great Old Testament hero of faith, Abraham. Perhaps you know that God called him to move to a place he would show him. That place turned out to be the Holy Land. And here’s the trivia question: What was one of the first things Abraham did when he arrived there? Genesis 12 informs us that he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord.

Isaiah encourages us to do the same thing with these words, “Give thanks to the Lord, call on his name, make known among the nations what he has done.” You might have thought that calling on the name of the Lord means to pray to him, but Isaiah’s words help you understand that it actually means to tell others about the saving ways of our God. God’s truth is not only, “Surely it is God who saves me,” but also, “Surely it is God who saves you.”

Realize that God is not asking you to do something as extraordinary as Abraham did. He’s not telling you to go to a strange place, build an altar and call on people to trust in Jesus. And he certainly doesn’t specify that we do so in a hostile environment, although that might be the case.

Instead, he usually gives us opportunity to do so in friendly confines, such as with a relative or friend, people whom we know and love. Ask yourself, “Of the people that I know and love, who needs Jesus?” Once you answer that question, pray about it. Ask the Lord to give you wisdom and courage, and then pray for opportunities, open doors, to “proclaim that [the Lord’s] name is exalted.” Perhaps that conversation starts when you ask them if they need your help with something, and, when they open up to you, then you have the opportunity to relate to them how your faith in Jesus has helped you in a similar situation. That way that person will know that you’re someone they can go to in the future for trustworthy spiritual advice. And the goal is always to lead them to see Jesus as their Savior from sin.

Surely it is God who saves me! What an amazing, saving truth to share!

I want you to think about this for a moment: Do you consider yourself to be a blessed person? In the grand scheme of things, I’m guessing you do. Even though we can’t claim to be billionaires, we’ve been blessed tremendously, especially as we consider how our God has saved us through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

That’s what the next three weeks of the church year are all about. We’re quickly heading to the cross of Jesus on Good Friday and then to his empty tomb on Easter. The resurrection of Jesus is the foundation of everything we believe. It’s the assurance that our sins are forgiven and heaven is ours. His resurrection also means his word is truth.

Three weeks from today, we’ll be celebrating that resurrection. The children will sing at the beginning of our worship. We’ll proclaim that Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! It will make a great Sunday for you to invite someone to worship with you.

Surely it is God who saves me! What a saving truth to share! May God help each of us do just that! Amen.