Isa 12 1 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. 2 “Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the Lord God is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation.” 3 With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. 4 And you will say in that day: “Give thanks to the Lord, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the peoples, proclaim that his name is exalted. 5 “Sing praises to the Lord, for he has done gloriously; let this be made known in all the earth. 6 Shout, and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.”
I have titled this sermon "The Triumph of Grace". In the spirit of full disclosure, I've taken this title from a sermon by Ray Ortlund, pastor at Immanuel Church in Nashville, TN. However, once I heard this title it became clear that this short little chapter in the book of Isaiah displays several different Biblical facets of grace and allows us to see not only how grace has triumphed for us but continues to so and calls us to enter into that triumph.
Before we dive into God's word, I want to share three historic images in an attempt to help us define and grasp the idea of triumph. The first is Lake Placid, NY, Feb 22, 1980. The US hockey had just beaten the mighty and "unbeatable" Soviet hockey team. There was bedlam in arena, bedlam in the streets and bedlam in houses across the county. The second is Appomattox Court House, VA , April 9, 1865. Robert E Lee had just surrendered his Confederate forces to Ulysses S Grant. Four bloody years of war were over with hundreds of thousands dead. Most of the South lay in ruins. Most of the country lay in despair. The third is at the Flossenberg concentration camp, Germany April 9, 1945. Dietrich Bonhoeffer had just been hanged for treason after faithfully serving Christ and Christ's church in Germany before and during World War II. Bonhoeffer did not shirk his responsibility to God in opposing Hitler, but neither did he shirk his responsibility to face the consequences of his actions.
How can each of these disparate events signify triumph? The euphoric hockey victory? The long fought, hard won military surrender? The execution of a man willing to die for what he believed? I would dare say that most of us have been around long enough to see triumph in each of these events. And I would contend that the breadth of the emotions associated with each of these triumphs, from excitement and adulation to sorrow and loss to melancholy and relief, show us that triumph is not necessarily a one size fits all sort of thing. It is bigger, much bigger, than any one of these events. And if it is so with human triumph, how much more so is it with the triumph of grace?
If you would, look with me again at Isaiah 12. As we consider what God has to say to us in these few verses, I would like to approach this chapter by meditating on a few overlapping themes rather than going sequentially verse by verse. As is typical in Hebrew poetry, various literary devices are used to make various thematic points rather than a logical argument we would expect from an author like Paul. My goal today is to draw out four themes from these six verses that I trust the Holy Spirit use in our lives today. They are Triumph Accomplished, Triumph Received, Triumph Proclaimed and Triumph Realized.
The context of Isa 12 is interesting. The first 11 chapters are this mix of calling out the disobedience and rebellion of Israel, the promise of God's just judgement and the even greater promise of God's undeserved deliverance. Nothing in these 11 chapters hints at God winking at sin or sweeping anything under the rug. Then, in the following 12 chapters, God pronounces judgement on the nations surrounding Israel. Taken has a whole this entire first section of Isaiah has two reoccurring themes: Sin yields judgement. But grace yields forgiveness.
God through Isaiah reminds us that although He was once angry with us, is not so any more. And although the just and righteous anger of God terrified us, we are in terror no longer. What has changed? In Isaiah's day God's anger was directed at his people as they sought other gods and yet pretended to still follow the one true God. Did God wake up one morning and decide that His glory and call for exclusive worship didn't really matter, that sin, rebellion and faithlessness didn't really offend His perfect holiness? Of course not. So, what changed?
In one sense we could say nothing changed. It does not take much more than a cursory reading of the Old Testament to realize that God has always been a God of grace. If we are totally honest, we should continually ask ourselves and be amazed that there is a more than 2.5 chapters in the Bible. Why let Adam & Eve live? Why provide an ark? Why favor, protect and bless Abraham or Issac or Jacob. Why speak to Moses and rescue a people? Why put up with those same people as they continually gripe and complain? Why endure all the years between Joshua and David? Why raise up a man after God's own heart only to see him fail in a way that might even make a 21st century politician blush? Why put up with centuries of evil kings and half-hearted people whose devotion was more and more to the false gods around them? Aren't these all examples of mercy and grace? God withholding the just hand of discipline and sending forth the kind hand of blessing. Clearly God has always been a God of grace.
But in another sense, everything has changed. Throughout the Bible, beginning to end, God has a righteous standard that we fall far short of. In fact, I am fond of saying that we owe God an incredibly large debt and all we have to pay with is Confederate money. And yet, God promises that His righteous anger will be appeased. How is this possible? How can our sin and its consequences been taken care of and yet God remain holy and just? How can any single Old Testament promise (not to mention the collective whole) be fulfilled? How has the triumph of grace been accomplished? It is quite simply and profoundly through the death and resurrection of Jesus.
At this point, it is important to remember two things. The first is this: that salvation has always been by grace through faith. Those of us who are followers of Christ have a backward looking faith while Abraham, Mosses and David had a forward looking faith. Both the Old Testament saints and the New Testament saints look to one objective event. Grace triumphed at the cross. The second thing to remember is that apart from Christ, God is justifiably angry with us. That is Isaiah's point in verse 1. I know we don't like to think about God's wrath, but without a correct conception of the bad news that we were under God's just condemnation, there is little meaning and value to the good news that we have been saved in Christ. As Don Carson says, "We will never realize the magnitude of the solution is until we grasp the magnitude of the problem." And Jesus makes this enigmatic statement in Luk 7:47 "Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.”
So, the triumph of grace has been accomplished and because it has been accomplished God's anger turns to comfort and our fear turns to joy. What had been a curse is now a blessing. As Paul says in Rom 8, God is for us. But this triumph of grace that has been accomplished must be received through faith. We've touched on this a little already. Faith is the means of accessing God's salvation in both the Old and New Testaments. God's expectation here, as stated by Isaiah, is that we would trust God in what says. That is the essence and simplicity of faith, isn't it? That we would simply take God at his word.
Yet, it is right here that so many of the people of God get sideways with the gospel, whether before or after the cross. Somehow we feel compelled to try to either to add to it or delete from it. We've all seen and probably participated in the additions. Jesus + the right music, Faith + the acceptable attire , Grace + the correct bible translation. And a hundred other things. We do this almost subconsciously because we all want some merit or accolade. While we don't say it, deep down we probably all want an "Atta boy!" from God.
Interestingly, at the same time that we are trying to add to the gospel, we are also trying to delete from it. Think back to Genesis 3. What was the original temptation? "Did God really say?" In every successive generation from Adam to Christ, into the fledgling church and up to today, there is this pattern of trimming back on what God commands and not trusting him for who he is. Just like Adam & Eve, we want to do things our way. Our lack of obedience, whether we are adding to the gospel or deleting from it boils down to one root cause, we don't trust God.
Recently I read a short book excerpt by John Piper. I would like to share it because I think Piper captures well the full orbed nature of our trust in God.
"When I lost my footing as a little boy in the undertow at the beach, I felt as if I were going to be dragged to the middle of the ocean in an instant.
It was a terrifying thing. I tried to get my bearings and figure out which way was up. But I couldn’t get my feet on the ground and the current was too strong to swim. I wasn’t a good swimmer anyway.
In my panic I thought of only one thing: Could someone help me? But I couldn’t even call out from under the water.
When I felt my father’s hand take hold of my upper arm like a mighty vice grip, it was the sweetest feeling in the world. I yielded entirely to being overpowered by his strength. I reveled in being picked up at his will. I did not resist.
The thought did not enter my mind that I should try to show that things aren’t so bad; or that I should add my strength to my dad’s arm. All I thought was, Yes! I need you! I thank you! I love your strength! I love your initiative! I love your grip! You are great!In that spirit of yielded affection, one cannot boast. I call that yielded affection “faith.” And my father was the embodiment of the future grace that I craved under the water. This is the faith that magnifies grace."
As God is speaking through Isaiah to His people, He emphasizes that the Triumph of Grace has been accomplished and that it must be received. But he doesn't stop there because grace doesn't stop there. If the triumph of grace has been accomplished and it has been received, it must also be proclaimed. Look at the active words in the later half of the chapter. Give thanks, make known (twice), proclaim, sing praise (twice), shout. All these actions, while quite different in their execution, all have one thing in common: they are taking what is internal and making them external. In a word they are various ways of giving testimony of the triumph of grace in our lives. Even communion, which we just celebrated, is done so that we may proclaim Jesus' death until he returns.
Not too long ago, I heard a sermon from a passage very similar to Isa 12 in the Psalms. One of the speaker's main points was that there is an ever present tendency to think that the purpose of the gospel is for it terminate on us. Jesus died for me (which is true). Jesus rescued and redeemed me (also true) Jesus is sanctifying me (also true) and one day Jesus will glorify me (again, true) But is that the end and extent of the gospel, albeit multiplied millions of times over? Millions of salvific silos? Or is there an even grander, more glorious reality of which our salvation, sanctification and ultimately glorification (as grand and glorious as they are) are only a part?
What if our salvation is really about God? The Father, Son and Spirit planning, orchestrating, and proclaiming that God is our salvation and the He is our strength and our song?
What if it is God's plan to display His manifold wisdom to all of the created order both in the physical word but also in the spiritual world? What if He determined that be best way to do this was for His grace and mercy to be triumphantly proclaimed by the ones who were the recipients of His grace? Why does the gospel spread be word of mouth? By testimony? By God's word being proclaimed rather than by the Holy Spirit simply speaking truth into each of our hearts? Why are we here together today? Because in doing so God's grace is even more triumphant and His glory even more astounding and His wisdom even more worthy of praise and honor.
I don't consider this reality often enough, but one of the awesome conclusions we can draw from our study of the book of Acts is that God really intends to spread his gospel through people. Acts 2: worship and proclamation. Acts 4: teaching and praising. Acts 16: proclamation and worship. Even in Acts 12, when the hammer falls in Jerusalem and the church scatters what happens? Worship and proclamation. And this worship and proclamation is not limited to our local settings. Isaiah is clear: this message is for the whole world. If there is one God, which was a big issue in Isaiah's day, He is by necessity the Lord of all. And if He is Lord of all, what He has done needs to be made known to all the nations.
Through Isaiah, God has shown us that in every generation the triumph of grace is accomplished, it must be received and it will be proclaimed. These three aspects of the triumph of grace result in a fourth. Everything I've said to this point could be and often is made intellectual and academic. But if grace is to really and fully triumph, it also must be realized. Verse 3 says it this way: "With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation."
You see the triumph of grace is not just something that happens external to us. While it is true that we are clothed in robes of righteousness and freely and completely by the blood of Christ, the triumph of grace is internal as well. It cannot be limited to how we think and act. It has to affect who we are. In addition to that, as the gospel becomes real in our lives, it oozes out to those around us. That is why Isaiah switches from a singular "you" in verse 1 to a plural "you" in verses 3-4.
There is this expectation in both the Old and New Testatments that because of the grace of God we are different. The triumph of grace needs to sink from our heads to our hearts and then out to others. In a very real sense, God's grace cannot be like rain in parking lot, getting the surface wet but leaving what's underneath unaffected. Instead, God's grace should be like rain on a lawn or field or garden, soaking in, nourishing, replenishing all that it touches.
This is stated clearly in 2Co 5:17 "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come." Gal 2:20 says it this way: "I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." Phi 3:12-14 "Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." Perhaps this gets to the heart of Jesus' statement in Jn 4:14 "but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
So here are some questions to ponder as we begin to wrap up this message. The first one is this: Believer or unbeliever, what is the basis of your standing before God? Be honest with yourself. You can fool me. You can fool your closest friends. But you can't fool God. Unbeliever, I cannot make you believe. But if the Spirit is pressing on your heart today do not leave here until you do business with God. And believer, if Christ alone is not the basis of your confidence and hope, you too need to business with God.
The next question is this: if your confidence is in Christ alone, what difference does it make? Does the triumph of grace really affect your marriage? Your job? Your connections to your kids or your parents. I'm not talking moralism. I not talking about dos and don'ts. I'm talking about the grace of God so affecting you, being so triumphant that it actually begins to ooze out of you and into the lives of others.
I have one final question: As the triumph of grace moves from your head to your heart, as the accomplishment of Christ is received by faith and begins to affect both the what and how of your life, are we becoming greater proclaimers of this reality? Not all of us are preachers or teachers, but we can each give testimony to God's grace as it operates in our lives daily. Not all of us are singers or musicians, but we can each shout to the Lord and to our fellow believers of the greatness and the glory of God.
Psa 89:5-18 5 Let the heavens praise your wonders, O Lord, your faithfulness in the assembly of the holy ones! 6 For who in the skies can be compared to the Lord? Who among the heavenly beings is like the Lord, 7 a God greatly to be feared in the council of the holy ones, and awesome above all who are around him? 8 O Lord God of hosts, who is mighty as you are, O Lord, with your faithfulness all around you?
9 You rule the raging of the sea; when its waves rise, you still them. 10 You crushed Rahab like a carcass; you scattered your enemies with your mighty arm. 11 The heavens are yours; the earth also is yours; the world and all that is in it, you have founded them. 12 The north and the south, you have created them; Tabor and Hermon joyously praise your name. 13 You have a mighty arm; strong is your hand, high your right hand. 14 Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne; steadfast love and faithfulness go before you. 15 Blessed are the people who know the festal shout, who walk, O Lord, in the light of your face, 16 who exult in your name all the day and in your righteousness are exalted. 17 For you are the glory of their strength; by your favor our horn is exalted. 18 For our shield belongs to the Lord, our king to the Holy One of Israel. (ESV)
