Isaiah 12:1-3: In that day you will say: "I will praise you, O Lord.
Although you were angry with me, your anger has turned away and you have
comforted me.  Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be
afraid.  The Lord, the Lord, is my strength and my song; he has become my
salvation."

 If there is one thing that pastors "worry" about it is simply whether or
not what they are teaching and preaching is actually heard and believed
by the members before them.  Do we really grasp the wonder that Jesus is?
 Do we understand how God sent his Son as our atoning sacrifice?  Do we
know and believe in the forgiveness of sins and the gift of eternal life,
understanding that there is nothing worthy or nothing merited on our
part.  But do we also understand that this forgiveness and gift of
eternal life is not a license to go out and do whatever we want or to
indulge in every and any kind of wickedness and sin?  This gift of
salvation found in Jesus is so awesome and so wonderful and always,
always on my mind is whether or not you, the very souls before me, the
souls given to my spiritual care, truly have the name of Jesus written on
your hearts.
 I ask that for good reason.  I ask that because I know and understand
the history of the Old Testament people.  They had the same message and
the same God.  They had the same facts and perhaps even more.  They had
the visible history of God working and moving in their lives.
 Take the group that came out of the Exodus.  Here was a group that saw
the power of God as they were saved from Egypt, who stood before the
mount of God and heard the voice of God with their own ears.  Here was a
group who knew directly from God his promises and his love and yet this
group is the same one whose sins so pushed God that instead of allowing
them to enter the Promised Land God had them wander around for 40 years
in the wilderness.  They wandered until the generation of unfaithful,
unbelieving people died out and the next generation, a believing one took
over.
 And as you continue to read the history of these people it just stuns a
person to see how wishy-washy they were.  If things were going good they
quickly abandoned God and his ways.  God would send disaster and a
prophet to deliver them from that disaster and they would become faithful
again.  How often that scenario repeats itself.  However, note that as
the years go on, the people become less and less responsive to God's
prophets so that by the time of the later prophets the people do not
respond but rather continue in their wicked ways.  In other words, they
simply stopped hearing the wonder of God, stopped believing in the
promises and truth of God.
 Now I would like to say that you and I are different, that we wouldn't
be like those people...but I look into my own heart and I know we are
like them.  I watch as souls who were taught the wonder and truth of God
grow up and abandon that truth, living like the cross is foolishness,
acting like the prodigal son!  It is distressing to see how easily and
how regularly Jesus is turned away from.  How his Word and truth are cast
aside because we think we have found something better.  Ask the elders or
ask the pastor about the frustrations of digging around the fig tree,
fertilizing and watering only to have that tree continue to not have
fruit!
 What got me to thinking about all of this is the series of devotions
found in our Meditation book for this week.  That series has been on the
fig tree that doesn't bear fruit.  That then helped to especially key my
heart as I looked at our Old Testament reading for this day.  Here is a
reading that shows the wonder and marvel of God love.  Here is a reading
that lays out God's grace and mercy for his people, a people who would
reject the majesty that it is.  Let's look at this text under the theme:
IN PRAISE OF GOD'S LOVE.  1st. His anger is turned away.  2nd. He has
become my salvation.  3rd. The Day has come.
 Just look at the very first words of this section of praise and glory to
God.  It tells you why the Lord is so wonderful and awesome.  It says, "I
will praise you, O Lord.  Although you were angry with me, your anger has
turned away and you have comforted me.  Surely God is my salvation; I
will trust and not be afraid."
 What a joy these words truly are.  The Prophet Isaiah speaks as one
whose heart has been touched by the grace of God.  We can see that as we
contemplate what is said here.  What is spoken of here is an admission of
sin.  "Although you were angry with me."  Isaiah understood the horror
that sin was and that this wound of sin was indeed a part of his life.
Isaiah, like all who believe in God's Word, realizes the holy nature of
God and the standard to which God hold us.  God's law demands that we be
perfect.  Not almost but totally perfect as God himself is perfect.  Yet
the truth is that ever since the fall into sin that perfection was lost.
Not just a small blemish on the soul of man, but rather a complete
spiritual disfigurement of mankind.  God has every right to be angry with
sin.  God has every right to send all of us, not a one exempted, but to
send all of us to hell for what we have thought, said and done in our
lives.  We deserve God's anger and punishment.  That's the fact even
today.
 But did you hear that next line?  It said, "Your anger has turned away
and you have comforted me.  Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and
not be afraid."  Here we are clearly told that God's anger is turned
away.  What is neat to realize about these words is the fact that it is
God doing the action.  In other words, it is God who has turned away his
anger.  It is God who offers comfort and salvation.  That fact is made
all the more clear when the second portion of this text says, "Give
thanks to the Lord, call on his name; make known among the nations what
he has done."
 How my heart soars to hear these words.  God's righteous, perfect and
well-deserved anger He turns away.  It is not directed at me, not
directed at those who truly and surely deserve it.  Nope, what happens is
that instead of anger God offers me comfort!  He soothes my hurts and
pains, covers over my shame and imperfections.  He tells me in His grace
it's all right.  I'm going to be fine, there's nothing to worry about for
He has forgiven me and He pours upon me his comfort.
 That's why Isaiah then says, "Surely God is my salvation; I will trust
and not be afraid."  When God forgives, when God turns away his anger and
wrath against the sin of our lives, when God pours comfort upon us what
else would one call that but "salvation."  God has rescued me.  God has
brought me to safety and takes care of my needs.  In these words we
recognize and see the joy of faith.  The confidence that God is
trustworthy and true.  The knowledge that God will do exactly as he says.
 That's faith.  And faith has an impact.  Faith brings the response: "I
will trust and not be afraid."  I will trust in God.  I will put my soul,
my being, my very self and all things necessary into the hands of God.
And because God is faithful and true, because God remains steadfast and
unchangeable in His grace I am not afraid.
 That's why we find the next lines.  "The Lord, the Lord, is my strength
and my song; he has become my salvation."  This is the heart of faith.
To realize that God's grace and love is there just for us.  In him is
strength.  In him is the joy of song, the uplifting verses of love, true
and unending.  In Him and Him alone is our safety and peace.
 Do you see any difference in what the Israelites were taught about
salvation and what we are taught?  They were saved by grace through
faith.  We are saved in the same way.  The only difference between what
they had and what we have is timing.  They were looking forward to the
promises given here.  We look back at the promises fulfilled here.  Let
me explain.
 Twice in this section of comforting prophecy you find the words "In that
day you will say."  For the Israelites "that day" was yet to come.  That
day was a future day, a day yet to be when the absolute truth of these
promises will be totally and irreversibly true.  For you and I "that day"
has come.  That day has taken place and all that that day proclaimed we
know to be a fact, an irreversible fact.  The question we will want to
ask ourselves is, "Just what is "that day?"
 I think all of us here know what that day is.  Not just one day, really,
but a time period that culminated in one unique and special day.  "That
day" began when Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior was sent into this
world.  From the day that the angel announced to the virgin the birth of
her son that day began.  Jesus came to live our perfect lives for us.
Jesus came to be the atoning sacrifice on our behalf.  That's important
to grasp because it is upon Jesus that God turned his anger.  The reason
we don't get that anger is because Jesus took it.  We get the comfort
that Jesus won for us.  We get the benefits of the fact that Jesus rose
from the dead to show that all of this is true.  So please note that our
phrase "that day" actually refers to the day of resurrection and the hope
and joy that day stands for.  But in reality "that day" is all about the
work, the redemption and the salvation of Jesus.
 We know about that day.  We know what it means.  We know that for Jesus
sake we have the forgiveness of sins, eternal life and salvation.  We
know that Jesus is our salvation and our song.
But remember how I started?  We spoke of how people take this marvel of
God, yea, the wonder of Jesus for granted.  What we want to be careful of
is to not do that ourselves.  Not to be fig trees without fruit.  Not to
be those who might say the cross is important but who life like the
message of the cross is foolishness.  We don't want to be the prodigal
sons who squander their inheritance on that which will destroy us.  Let's
never tire of having in our hearts the simple marvel of our words, "In
that day you will say: "I will praise you, O Lord.  Although you were
angry with me, your anger has turned away and you have comforted me.
Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid.  The Lord,
the Lord, is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation."
Amen.