Well, I invite you to turn in the word of God to the book of Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 12, as we'll be considering all six verses in this short but quite beautiful chapter in Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 12. If you've been with us on Sunday evenings much lately, you know that typically I've been going through a series on the fruit of the spirits for a few months now. Tonight is a little bit of a break from that because this is the first Sunday evening of 2025. And historically in Dutch Reformed churches and Dutch Reformed circles, there has been the practice of having an old year's service and a new year's service in this congregation. At least since I've been here, we haven't done that. But I think it's a helpful practice in some ways to at least draw attention to these things. To remind us of the fact that God has been our God, has been faithful to us in the year past, and will continue to be so in the year to come. And so as we come to Isaiah chapter 12, this is a very helpful passage in considering these things. To remember here that we ought to remember the gospel. We ought to remember what God has done for us and to drink deeply from that in this year. And so Isaiah chapter 12, starting in verse 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. 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. 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 peoples, proclaim that his name is exalted. Sing praises to the Lord, for he has done gloriously. Let this be made known in all the earth. Shout and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Let's go to him once more and ask for his aid this evening. Father in heaven, as we come to your word in Isaiah 12, we ask that your spirit would illumine us to understand the things that he inspired thousands of years ago. May we see the glories of you and your son and your spirit in this passage, the glory of our salvation in the gospel of Jesus Christ. We ask, Lord, that you'll help us to drink deeply from this gospel and to look to it and to look to you and our Savior, Jesus Christ, all the rest of this year. We pray this in his precious name. Amen. Well, in the month of December, we were looking at what are known as the Advent songs, the songs of Jesus's birth, the songs of the coming of the Son of God, the Messiah. Here, we're looking at a song that is sung But it's really a pre-advent song, we could call it. A song that was written, that was inspired, that was known and memorized and meditated upon for hundreds of years before our Lord came. It is a song that sang of him just the same. And as we come to Isaiah chapter 12, we see this is the climax or the close, perhaps, to Isaiah chapters 1 through 12. Isaiah chapters one through 12 are often seen as sort of a unit hanging together. Chapter six is really the center of that unit. And of course, if anyone's going to know anything from the book of Isaiah, it's probably going to be Isaiah chapter six. Boys and girls, I'm sure you've heard that story time and again, the story of Isaiah suddenly being transported into the temple, but not just into the temple itself, but to see what's actually happening is basically the curtain is pulled back and he sees the Lord high and lifted up on his throne He sees all these glorious things and he recognizes, of course, that he is sinful. That is really the center of this section of Isaiah that really closes here in chapter 12. We've seen many other things. If we were to read through Isaiah 1 through 11, some of the most famous passages in Isaiah, both curses and blessings. Chapter 11 is a famous description of how things come to us at the end and the full blessing of God's kingdom as it comes to earth. But in Isaiah chapter 12, we have something that is simple in some ways, certainly short compared to some of the chapters in Isaiah. Of course, the chapters are not inspired, the chapter divisions, but also quite beautiful. As I was considering this fact, knowing as I have for some time that I would have the first Sunday nights in the new year and trying to figure out what do I do, what do I say, what part of God's word do I turn to, Isaiah 12 is one that I came back to again and again. I pray that in 2025 you will come back to it again and again as well. And we'll see three headings, as of course is our custom, each of them in turn. First, starting with the Great Reversal, verses 1 through 2. The Great Reversal. Notice with me again, verse 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. Behold, God is my salvation. I will trust and will not be afraid. For the Lord God is my strength and my song and has become my salvation. And so we see here this great reversal, this great change from anger to comfort. Really, if we think about it, the more you consider Isaiah chapter 6, the more you see that Isaiah 12 is sort of a summary of what Isaiah experienced, but in this case it's for the whole nation of Israel, all those who are truly trusting in God as Savior. Isaiah knew as he came into the presence of the Holy One, of the Righteous One, that he deserved judgment and condemnation. Not to put too fine of a point on it, but he deserved hell, as you and I do as well. He recognized, how can I be called as a prophet to go and to speak God's Word to this people as they have unclean lips, and oh, by the way, I have unclean lips as well? How can this be? I deserve his anger, I deserve his condemnation, I deserve hell, and what he received was essentially atonement and comfort. Basically, he received heaven, in a way. What Isaiah is writing here, what he's given as an oracle from God himself, is basically this message given not just to Isaiah, but to all who trust in him. to all who trust in the Lord as their Savior. We can say now, looking back, having a fuller revelation, to all who trust in Jesus Christ. Now, some of the things that God did and said to Isaiah, of course, don't apply directly to us. We haven't been called as a prophet to the people of Israel and Judah. But these things do apply. And these things come up again and again and again throughout this wonderful, prophetical book. Isaiah has sometimes been called the fifth evangelist. or the fifth gospel, the gospel according to Isaiah, because of how clearly our Lord's coming is previewed here, how clear the gospel is in some of these amazing, wonderful passages. But we can ask, as it says, you will say in that day, what day is it? Now, the day is coming. That's a phrase, that's a sentence that can mean a lot of different things. In scripture, it can mean the day of the Lord, I remember when I was a young child and I would do something irresponsible, which I must tell you happened quite often. And my parents would say something along the lines of, one day you'll be on your own, you won't be able to do those things. And in that context, in that day was always a time for terror and anxiety. What's going on here? In what day will these things happen? Well, it's the day really essentially of Jesus Christ. There's a theme that begins, and the Old Testament comes even into the Gospels, of the fact of a day or an hour that is coming when God's promises come in their fullness, and suddenly all the things that he's been promising his people basically walk through the door in the person of Jesus Christ. Isaiah is previewing that there. In the day when Christ comes, then you will say, I will give thanks to you, O Lord, for though you are angry with me, your anger turned away that you might comfort me. That you might comfort me. And we can ask, how can this be? We know it's true because God's word says it. And if God has declared something, then it is certainly true. But how can it be that his anger has turned away and now he comforts? How can a righteous God comfort sinners? It's a question that begins to be asked early in the book of Isaiah. Even here in chapter 12, but even earlier in chapter 6, you wonder how can this be? How can this flaming coal and the tong really bring atonement to Isaiah? It's a question that's raised at different times. And there are hints given. There are certain previews and foreshadowings given, but I think the greatest answer in Isaiah comes in that famous passage in Isaiah 53 verses four and five, speaking of course here about Christ and the prophecy about him. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. How can this be? How can God's anger against sinners be turned to comfort for those same sinners? Because Christ came. Because Christ came as the Lamb of God to bring propitiation for the sins of His people. To turn away God's anger and His wrath and His condemnation and to bring us comfort. What is the result of this? Well, Isaiah says that we will sing in that day three things that the Lord has become for us. Our strength, our song, and our salvation. Our strength, our song, and our salvation. The Lord has become our strength. We know that the ancient people of Israel and Judah were tempted to look to the nations for strength. You see, they were there, they were sort of out there on their own, not the most powerful. Certainly they had gained much power in the days of David and Solomon. But by this point, between the weakening of the people as the kingdoms divided, but also just the slow decay of time, things had sort of gone downhill in some ways. I had a professor in seminary who said, in the ancient Middle East, there were cats and there were mice, and Israel was a big mouse. They were surrounded by nations, by empires that were stronger than them, that were larger than them, that had greater militaries and greater leaders as far as military strategy goes than they had. more power, more resources, more everything, it seemed. And they were tempted to look for strength in the surrounding nations. They knew where they ought to have known that God was their strength, yet they looked the nations around and they looked to chariots, they looked to horsemen, they looked to strength of arms and swords and in bows and in spears, and they ought to have looked to God. Now, perhaps we can ask at this point, what tempts us? Where are we tempted to look for strength, ultimately and finally? Perhaps in military might and economic might and all those sorts of things, perhaps in good health, perhaps in prosperity, perhaps in owning a home and having a wife or a husband and children, whatever it might be. Things tempt us to find our strength in them, to think, oh, if only I had that, I'd be okay. If only I had that, I could endure. Brothers and sisters, we have only God as well. God is our strength. God is the strongest strong one. He's the one who upholds all things, and he will be a strength for us. In the words of one commentator, not only do the people rely on God for strength, but they have also abandoned all other trust. They have also abandoned all other trust, because when you have it all in God, When you have the greatest strength, what need is there for other strength? To rely on other things, to look to other things. And so he has become our strength. He has also become our song. And really that makes sense, doesn't it? Now I know, and you know, that there are many songs that have been written and sung and loved in our world that are sad. Many that really just kind of strike that note that we want to hear when we're sad and just let our emotions out. When it talks about a song here, it's talking about an outburst of joy. An outburst of praise to God coming from the fact that God is our strength. It's a good reminder for us that there is no true joy leading to song without our Lord. Without the strength that he provides. Otherwise, a joyous song is just a hope. It's just something fleeting. But when there's strength, when there's stability, when there is comfort, there is actually reason to sing joyously. Because God is the one who does it. God is the one who gives it to us. God is the one who keeps us, even in the midst of all the things going on around us. And only the gospel truly produces this. Only in the gospel do we find God in such a way that he has become our strength, that he has become our song, that he has become, it says, our salvation. In the time of the Reformation, of course, we know, many of us know, that one of the main characters, one of the main lights, the guiding lights of the Reformation was a man named Martin Luther. And there have been many things said about Luther and many things that Luther said, some better than others. Sometimes I read Luther and I think, just please be quiet. You're not helping anyone. But when Luther was good, he was great. Why? Because of himself? No, but because he suddenly understood the gospel of God's grace. And he had a way of talking about finding God. He said, if you want to find a God who is gracious and loving and can comfort you, you have to find him clothed in his gospel. Clothed in his gospel. If you look for God anywhere else than as he has come to you, clothed in his gospel, anywhere else than in the person and work of Jesus Christ, he said, it may seem like God, but all you will find is the devil. There is no hope there. There is no strength and comfort and song there. But we have strength in a song because God has stooped down to save rebellious creatures like you and I. As we begin this year, as we begin 2025, we ought to keep that in our minds. We also see the faithfulness of our Lord God here. This salvation comes down from above. In the words of another commentator, reconciliation is not our willingness to have God, but God's willingness to have us. Reconciliation is not our willingness to have God, but God's willingness to have us. We ought to repent of the ways that we get that backwards. We ought to repent of the ways that we conceive of God as if he is not the reconciling one, as if he is not the one who loved us when we were unlovely, who came to us and we would have nothing to do with him when we hated him. He is not following us around, as it were, proverbially, with a sword hanging over us, just waiting to drop it at any point. He is the God of covenant faithfulness. He is the God of unending and unshakable love, because he himself does not change. There's a temptation, I have it as well. The temptation I think all of us share in some ways and sometimes to think that 2025 will be good because of what might change. 2025 might be good because this is the year that I meet someone and get married. 2025 might change because this is the year that I get the job that I've been looking for, the promotion I want. 2025 might be good because this is the year that we finally have a child or we finally buy a house or this happens or that happens. Now, many of those changes are good, and they're blessings from God's fatherly hand. But the reason 2025 will be good is because of the one who never changes. Because God is unchanging, and His goodness and His grace and His love and His mercy to you in Jesus Christ will not change this year any more than they changed in 2024 or 2023. God is unchanging. He is faithful. and he is ours in Christ. And so we come to our second heading, the wells of salvation. Notice with me again, verse three. With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. Such a short verse. Such simple imagery in some ways. Drawing water in joy from the wells of salvation. But consider this as water in the desert. Now it's funny, having grown up in Nebraska and spent a few years in Michigan, sometimes in the course of a sermon or a reading of a text, you'll read something about the wilderness and you almost feel like you have to stop because people there think wilderness are the great fields of grass or the huge forests. Wilderness to ancient Israel meant what we have. If we walked 100 miles straight east, we'd be in the wilderness just as Israel would have been. And water in that kind of place, in that kind of area, is a wonderful thing to have. It's wonderful to have anywhere, but especially when you recognize that you may not always have it. Growing up in Nebraska, we were surrounded by ponds and lakes and rivers and streams and all kinds of water. In fact, there was so much water it would even be in the air. It's called humidity, for those of you who grew up in Phoenix. And I confess, I never really considered what it would be like to not have water until I was driving to seminary in the spring of 2025, and we crossed the Rockies, and next thing I knew, we were in Utah. And I remember thinking, what kind of alien place is this? It's rock, it's dirt, it's sand, and that's it. Where's the water? Thinking about how if this was the middle of summer and I were stuck there without water, it wouldn't take long before I was expired. When God comes and he promises to bring this water, he promises to bring something that his people need for life, something that they know they need for life, something that you know you need for life, the gospel of his very son. Now the question is, do you draw water from the wells of salvation? Do you draw water from the wells of salvation? Do so this year. Look to God in Christ, clothed with his gospel. Go back to this source again and again and again. Read about it in the words of scripture. Meditate upon it. Remind each other of it. Remind yourself of it. Draw water from the wells of salvation and drink deeply in 2025. And remember, you don't have to dig these wells. That's the beautiful thing. If salvation were up to us, none of us would be saved, but God has dug these wells and given them to us. God provides them. In a way, this is another way of saying that we are saved by grace alone through faith alone and Christ alone to the glory of God alone. God has dug these wells. He has given us abundant water. Go, therefore, and draw from them. Again and again and again. And this is never-ending water. We know, don't we, that scarcity is a fact of life for us. We have good things, we have many good things, but there's always that question, what if they run out? What if they're gone soon? Well, God never runs out. He never changes, and His grace and mercy will never run out to you who trust in Him, to you who are looking to Him in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Remember what our Lord said in John 4 to the Samaritan woman? If you knew the gift of God and who it is that was saying to you, give me a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water. Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 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. If you're trusting in Christ this evening, this water is yours. Draw from that well and drink deeply again and again. And if you're here this evening not trusting in Christ, then God's anger still rests upon you and has not turned to comfort. This water is not something that is available to you. Repent. Confess your sins, repent to God, flee to the mercy and grace found in Jesus Christ, and know that he will come for you. He will become your strength and your song because he has become your salvation, and he will give you living water that will never run out. This is never-ending water. In verses three and four, we can't see it as well in our English translation because English has sort of lost the second person plural pronoun, except for the Southeast where they say y'all. In fact, in seminary, whenever we'd have to translate Greek or Hebrew in class, they'd make us say y'all if it was a second person plural, so they knew that we were getting it. We can say here in verses three and four, with joy, you plural, with joy, y'all will draw water from the wells of salvation and y'all will say in that day, this is plural. This is for the people of God, full stop, for the entire covenant community who is trusting in Jesus Christ. What are we doing here at Phoenix URC? What will we be doing, God willing, in the months to come at Inheritance URC? Proclaiming the gospel. Drawing water from the wells of salvation for ourselves and for those around us. Without the gospel, we have nothing, but with the gospel, there's everything. And so we see finally our third heading this evening, the response of praise and missions. Notice with me again verses four, five, and six. 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, sing praises to the Lord for he has done gloriously. Let this be made known in all the earth. Shout and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One, of Israel. Now perhaps the first thing we ought to notice in those three verses is the last thing that's read. Great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel. In your midst. How can that be great? How can that be good news for sinners such as us? Only because of Jesus Christ, otherwise it is terrifying. There is nothing worse than being a sinner in the midst of the Holy God, unless God has stooped down and saved you. God has reached out to you in grace and mercy. Remember what happened when God came down on Mount Sinai, and there was thunder and lightning and the sound of a loud trumpet and a voice, a terrifying voice, and the people shook? One of those great moments where People don't want democracy, they say, we can't go up there, we'll die, but you Moses, you can go. And what happened to the transfiguration, the glory of God shown roundabouts in Christ's very presence, his very person was transformed into a glorious vision. And the disciples, Peter, James, and John are terrified. They were right to be terrified. because they had grown up hearing again and again for generations that God is holy, that God is righteous, and that's a problem for sinners. In fact, God's personal presence in their midst had to be curtained off in the tabernacle and then in the temple. Otherwise, he would either leave them or worse, break out in wrath against them. Here Isaiah says, though, great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel. And that is the reason for the praise and for the missions. Why? Because of Jesus Christ. Because God has come close to us in order to save us, in order to bring us to himself. That in Christ, his anger has been turned to comfort. And his terrifying presence has been turned into a presence of supreme and full and final blessing. Phoenix URC, God is in your midst. He was in 2024, he will continue to be so in 2025. Do you recognize that? Do you find comfort in that? Do you take joy in that? do you see the glories of the God who is in your midst, who has even saved you? What should our response be? Well, there's really a two-fold response here in the passage. First, missions. How can we possibly keep quiet about a God and Savior like this? He says that we will proclaim his deeds and his name. His name is who he is, his deeds are what he has done to really show who he is. Reminds us perhaps of Psalm 22, 30, and 31. Posterity shall serve him. It shall be told of the Lord to the coming generation. They shall come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn that he has done it. That's the kind of idea that's here in Isaiah 12. To go and to tell others who he is and what he has done. In other words, we are called to bring water to a thirsty world that's dying of thirst. We've been given the wells of salvation. Draw from it. Remind yourself of it, remind others of it, and proclaim it to the world around us. So practically, what can you do? Pray. Pray for missions and evangelism and church planting. Pray specifically, even in our context, that Inheritance URC will reach out to those in the West Valley and that many will come to know and to see the Savior Jesus Christ in this way. Witness, evangelize those with whom you have the chance. And it's amazing once you start praying how often God's going to bring you people unexpectedly. And encourage. Encourage each other in the interactions you have. Encourage those who are going out and evangelizing. Encourage the core group who is going to Sunday soon. Leave and go out to the west side. Pray, witness, and encourage. Our first response to this is missions. Our second is praise itself. Now praise is more than just singing. But perhaps there's nothing better that encapsulates praise than singing. When we come together and sing as God's people, we sing as the natural response of those who have been redeemed. So brothers and sisters, sing out. And that's one of the things I love about this congregation. When I'm up here and I'm hearing you sing, especially a song that you know, I understand if you don't know it as well. When it's a song you know and I can tell it's a song that has really struck deep within you, sometimes it thunders. There's a reason for that. Because this is our God, this is our Savior, this is who He is and what He has done. This is His name and His deeds and we're responding in praise as the natural response. So continue to sing out. Not only to encourage each other, but first and foremost, to praise your God and your Savior. And consider how and why you praise God. At the beginning of the year, it's perhaps a good exercise to do, to ask yourself, who is God? What has God done for his people in general, and what has he done for me specifically? You'll be amazed how your praise changes in those waves. It becomes deeper. It becomes more heartfelt and it becomes more varied because you see more of who he is and what he has done. And so praise him all the more this year. Sometimes we're tempted to think that getting saved, quote unquote, is the end of it. There's so much more. So much more that God has brought us to, that God will give us and God will continue to give us for all the everlasting ages. So drink deeply from the wells of salvation in 2025 and encourage one another in this. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we come to you in many ways in awe of who you are and what you have done for us. of the fact that Christ came for us when there was nothing lovely, nothing glorious, nothing meritorious about ourselves, but that the salvation that you have worked for us in Jesus flows directly out of you and your love and mercy and grace to us. We thank you, Lord, for the fact that you have been faithful to us in 2024, and we know that you will continue to be faithful in 2025. We ask that your spirit will grow our faith, will grow our vision of you as we wait for the final vision on the last day. May you enable us more and more to take and draw water from the wells of salvation, to drink deeply and to share that water with others. We thank you, Lord, how you faithfully, week in and week out on your day, strengthen us spiritually by feeding us on the word. We thank you, Lord, also for the food, the physical food that sustains us bodily that we are about to partake. We thank you for those who prepared it. We ask that you would bless it to us and enable us to have a good time of fellowship and edifying time together. And we pray all these things in Christ's precious name. Amen.