True gratitude is really a Christian grace. That is because it is directed ultimately to God from whom all blessings flow. I invite you to open your Bibles with me this morning to Isaiah chapter 12. Isaiah the 12th chapter. It is just followed, of course, the 11th chapter. And the 11th chapter, you may be familiar with because it's often read during this season of the year. It speaks about the one who is coming, the one who is the anointed of the Lord God, who will come into this world, And following that, there is a hymn of thanksgiving penned by Isaiah by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. It's only six verses, but six very pregnant verses. Then you will say on that day, I will give thanks to thee, O Lord, for although thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou dost comfort me. Behold, God is my salvation. I will trust and not be afraid, for the Lord God is my strength and song, and he has become my salvation. Therefore, you will joyously draw water from the springs of salvation. And in that day you will say, give thanks to the Lord, call on his name, make known his deeds among the peoples, make them remember that his name is exalted. Praise the Lord in song, for he has done excellent things. Let this be known throughout the earth. Cry aloud and shout for joy, O inhabitants of Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel. Well, this morning we're going to be considering, by way of main heading, this hymn. We're going to be looking at, first of all, the historic setting for Israel's hymn of thanksgiving. Then we're going to look at the special object. of Israel's hymn, the unified voice raised in Israel's hymn, and the various expressions of praise in Israel's hymn of thanksgiving. And then I trust we will come to a few words of concluding exhortations. When was this song to be sung? What was the occasion? Let us consider, first of all, the historical setting for Israel's hymn of thanksgiving. This isn't just plunked down in the prophecy of Isaiah without a context. What is the context? Well, notice, first, the time reference that's given in verse one, and then it's given again later in the psalm. Then on that day, well, what day is that when it will come? When will it come? And on that day, who is the you that will say these things? Well, the answer to these questions has immediate reference to Isaiah's historical original audience, that is, God's old covenant people, Israel. And to be more specific, it is the exiled southern nation of Judah. The hymn of thanksgiving that follows anticipates the praise of the exiles returning from Babylonian captivity to their home in Palestine. They will raise their voices in thanksgiving on that day. Well, keep in mind that Isaiah's prophecy was spoken before the southern kingdom of Judah was transported away from their home in Palestine into Babylon. So he's anticipating the song that they're going to sing after the seven years of captivity and they are brought back home. And notice too that Judah's expectation of deliverance from Babylon reminds them of God's deliverance of their forefathers at the Red Sea. We see this in chapter 11 in verse 15, look there. And the Lord will utterly destroy the tongue of the sea of Egypt, and he will wave his hand over the river with his scorching wind, and he will strike it into seven streams and make men walk over dry shod." So he's reminding the children of Israel of a past deliverance, and it's a forecast of a future deliverance of the nation after the 70 years of Babylonian captivity. And what he's saying to them is that Moses' God is their God. He's still seated on the throne and he's still providing for the needs of his people. And Judah's joy notice is heightened as they anticipate a returning remnant of their northern brethren carried away into Assyrian captivity. Look at verse 16 of the previous chapter. And there will be a highway from Assyria for the remnant of his people who will be left, just as there was for Israel in the day they came out of that land of Egypt. And so he's pointing them back to a deliverance from Egypt, And that paradigm of deliverance, they will experience the blessing of it in their own lives when God takes those who were carted away into Babylonian captivity, and he returns them to the promised land that was given to them by the hand of God. So this is the historical setting of the hymn of thanksgiving. They are looking back to their historical deliverance of the Red Sea and joyfully anticipating their own deliverance from their upcoming Babylonian captivity. Now, right away, I believe that there's a lesson for us, and it is this. Our experience of God's past deliverances encourages us to look forward in hope to future promised deliverances. The same God that has delivered us from our sin, He will continue to enable us to fight successfully our sin, and He who delivered us from sin to grace will deliver us from grace to glory. You see, the God of Moses is the God of Isaiah, and the God of Moses and Isaiah is our God. What does the Bible say? Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever. Israel's hymn of praise then has relevance for God's people today. It was written for our instruction upon whom the ends of the ages has come. It teaches that God's past mercies forecast future mercies and former deliverances are forever deliverance in Jesus Christ. He who delivered us from our sins will deliver us one day safely to glory, that he that began a good work in us will perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ. Notice, secondly, the special object of Israel's hymn of thanksgiving. Notice that Israel doesn't thank the gods of the nations around them. They don't thank Baal. They don't thank Ashtoreth. They don't thank Molech or Chemosh. They don't thank their lucky stars. They don't thank their good fortune or their favorable circumstances. And surely they don't thank their own goodness for their deliverance. The great object of their thanksgiving, you see, centers in a person, and that person is the Lord. It is the Lord God of their salvation, none other than the Holy One of Israel, their covenant God. He's the object of their thanksgiving. And so they're lifting their hearts in thanksgiving to the author of their chastening, the one that sent them into Babylonian captivity. And he's the one who is going to give them comfort. He's the object of their confidence, their strength, and their song. He is the one who has become their salvation. They are testifying with grateful lips that the things which happened to them didn't just happen by accident. God was seated upon the throne. He called the Babylonians to take them away in captivity. They were the hand of which the arm of God extended toward them, plucked them out of the promised land and delivered them to Babylon. You see, God ordained these things. He deported them and he would return them home. and their eyes, you see, were on the Lord, and upon Him alone." Notice, thirdly, the unified voice raised in Israel's hymn of thanksgiving. Notice in verse 1 that Isaiah uses a singular personal pronoun to teach that the whole nation will raise their voice in thanksgiving to God. Then you will say on that day, I will give thanks to thee, O Lord, for although thou was angry with me, thine anger is turned away and thou dost comfort me. Behold, God is my salvation. I will trust in and not be afraid for the Lord God is my strength and my song and he has become my salvation. He speaks. With a singular pronoun, this is the voice of all the people of God. When they come home, they will have the heart of one man. The returning remnant as one man, you see, kisses the hand of God that before chastened them, that has turned away the rod and now comforts them. And that leaves us with a lesson, doesn't it? We see how our shared experiences as a church nurtures our unity and reinforces our commitment to Christ and to each other. Notice fourthly, the various expressions of praise in Israel's hymn of thanksgiving. And this is where we'll spend most of our time this morning. There are five various expressions of Israel's praise and thanksgiving to God. Notice, first of all, they thanked God for their needed chastening. We see this in verse one. This is an evidence that God has worked grace in their hearts when they can kiss the rod that struck them. Then you will say on that day, I will give thanks to thee, O Lord, for although thou wast angry with me, and they have reason to believe that it was a righteous anger, thine anger is turned away, and thou dost comfort me. See, many in Isaiah's audience would remember God's judgment upon them. They might've said for years, it's been decades since we've been taken away from our homeland. We've been living here in Babylon for 50 years, 60 years, maybe, almost 70 years. Has God forgotten about us? Is his hand of judgment ever to be upon us? So many in Isaiah's audience would remember God's judgment upon them, the trauma of being dragged away from their homes in Judah and Jerusalem and forcibly marched off to a strange land called Babylon because of their rebellion against God and against His law. We read in Psalm 137 of this trauma, Psalm 137, By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down and wept. When we remembered Zion, upon the willows in the midst of it, we hung our hearts. You see, they thought they would never sing the Psalms again. For there our captors demanded of us songs, and our tormentors mirth." You see, they're taunting them. Sing us one of the songs of Zion. How can we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land? They remembered hanging their harps on the willows. They remember the intense agony of soul they experienced in being carted away to a foreign land. Now, brethren, there's a lesson here for us. We show no evidence of saving grace to be thankful for our comfort and ease. Non-Christians may be thankful when all things are going their way. But a truly repentant person, like these that Isaiah speaks of here, they will kiss the hand that inflicted the rod. David writes in Psalm 119 and verse 75, I know, O Lord, that thy judgments are righteous, and in faithfulness thou hast afflicted me. David says, I know my sin, it is continually before me. You wouldn't have been a good and a faithful and a righteous God had you not applied the rod of your judgment to my backside. I know that thy judgments are righteous, and in faithfulness thou hast afflicted me." They're not raising their fist in God's face and saying, you've given me more than I deserve. Everyone is truly repentant and says, Lord, you haven't given me half of what I deserve for my sin. A truly penitent person believes that God's chastening for his sin, in fact, displays not just his father's displeasure, but his father's love. Hebrews 12 and verse six. For those whom the Lord loves, he what? He disciplines and he scourges, literally lays stripes on every son whom he receives. And they know, furthermore, that God takes no pleasure in punishing them. He's not a vindictive God who just rubs his hands together in glee, I'm giving it to him now. No. Jeremiah says in Lamentations 3 in verse 33, How important it is for us to learn that God's chastening is never an end in itself. That chastening turns His wrath away from us when He sees that His hand has accomplished His reforming purpose. He strikes us no longer than is necessary to get our attention and to bring us to repentance, not one stroke more. And then brethren, it is his delight as a loving heavenly father to comfort his penitent child. You know about that as parents. You brought your children to repentance. They're weeping over what they've done. They've confessed their sin. You take them into your arms and you comfort them. And that's what God would do with this penitent nation when he brings them back from Babylon. So God would later encourage the repentant remnant. Isaiah writes of it in Isaiah 54 and verse eight. In an outburst of anger, I hid my face from you for a moment, but with everlasting kindness, I will have compassion on you, says the Lord, your Redeemer. We behold a wonderful picture of God's compassionate heart toward his penitent people in the father's eager reception of the repentant son in Jesus' parable in Luke chapter 15. You see, when God's affliction brings us to repentance, he will again assure us of his covenant love. Indeed, that father, he looked on the horizon. He had been praying for his son. When is he going to come home? And so he may have been standing on the porch, looking toward the road that led to the far country, and he sees someone coming. Who? No, it couldn't be. Yes, it is. And he gathers up his robes and he runs to his son. He gathers him into his arms, no doubt with tears streaming down his face. and he takes his ring off, and he puts it on his son's hand, and he takes sandals, and he puts it on his son's feet, and he puts a robe upon him, and he tells the servants, go kill the fatted calf, for my son that was dead is alive, he who is gone has returned. That's a picture of the heart of God toward his penitent people. We don't serve a hard-hearted God, dear ones. God inflicts pain to bring us to repentance. Lamentations 3 in verse 32, for if he causes grief, then he will have compassion according to his abundant loving kindness. You see, God inflicts painful punishment to bring us to repentance so that he might embrace us in his comforting arms God, if God's hand is heavy on you right now, perhaps there's a reason. Maybe there's a sin that's unconfessed in your life. You haven't been running toward God. You've been running away from him. And so you need to leave your sin. You must turn from it and return to God so that he might leave his rod and receive you even as the father did his penitent prodigal son in Jesus' parable. God loves you too much to leave you unpunished in your impenitence. Repent and he will receive you. He will sweep you up into his arms. If you have never experienced God's comfort and grace, or if you are now running from God, If you are seeking happiness in sin, turn from that which is only destructive, which is your folly, and run to God. Take the advice of the hymn writer and say with him, take me, O my father, take me, take me, save me through thy son, thou which have me, make me, let thy will in me be done. Long from thee my footsteps straying, thorny prove the way I trod. Weary come I now in praying, take me to thy love, my God. So they thanked God for their needed chastening. Notice secondly, they rejoiced in God for his saving mercies. Verses two and three, behold, God is my salvation. I will trust and not be afraid, for the Lord God is my strength and song, and he has become my salvation. See, this is the song of the repentant one. This is the song of the penitent nation. Verse three, therefore, you will joyously draw water from the springs of salvation. Your soul has been parched in your sin. You run to God in repentance. He will receive you to himself. You will call him the God of your salvation. You will joyfully draw water to slake the thirst of your soul from the wells of salvation. Notice the note of confidence here. How confident are those who have turned from their sin to the Savior. How bold are those with a cleansed conscience. Those who turn to God, who live by faith, have nothing to fear. either in this life or in the life to come. Why should they fear men when God is their fear? Why should they dread any circumstance when this God is the God of their salvation, who is the God of their strength and their hope? He has become their song. He has made their hearts to sing and put a psalm of praise upon their lips. The blood-washed conscience of the redeemed, you see, makes them bold as a lion. What have we to fear from men or from devils or from God himself when his wrath has been pacified toward us by the redeeming blood of his sacrificed son? Romans 8 and verse 1, what then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? Even our own conscience won't be against us when it's bathed in the blood of Christ. We joyfully draw water from the springs of salvation when we are filled with the Holy Spirit, as we trust in the Lord Jesus, He is a fountain that shall never run dry because it flows from our ever-living Savior to quench our thirst for him. I have no doubt Jesus has this very text in mind when he promises what we read in John 7, verses 38 and 39. He who believes in me, as the scripture said, from his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water. But he spoke this of the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive." Brethren, who could be happier, who could be more grateful to God than those whose sins have been forgiven by Jesus and reconciled to God and filled with His Spirit? All the great blessing of being a penitent child of God enjoying the greatest mercy God could ever give. Salvation in his son sweetens all of God's mercies, and it sweetens all of the difficulties that we face in life. Because when we look to heaven in faith, we see a rainbow over the throne, speaking of a reconciled God through Jesus Christ. So we sing pardon for sin and a peace that endureth, thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide, strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow. Blessings all mine with 10,000 beside. Notice thirdly, they thanked God by calling upon His name in prayer. Verse four, and in that day, here's that time reference again, in that day, you will say, give thanks to the Lord and call on His name. Maybe they'd suffered prayerlessness for the decades there in Babylon. God is through with us. Why should we pray to Him? Well, bless God that He doesn't reward us often according to our prayerlessness. He's greater than our sin, and His graces go beyond our failings. Isaiah teaches us here that a grateful heart will be a praying heart. How can we not want to pray when our hearts are filled with thanksgiving to God? Naturally, our chin turns upward and our mouth is open. Whether we say it with our lips or sing it in our heart, we thank God from whom all blessings flow. You might as well hold back the tide as to stifle a spirit of grateful prayer. You see, a thankful heart must vent itself in prayer. It's shut up in our bones and we have to give thanks to God. A soul exercised in gratitude will pant praise to God. You see, prayer is the breath of a thankful soul. The problem is we're often prayerless. Well, why are we prayerless? Well, is it not the case that we're often blind to God's blessings? We're so surrounded by them that we don't even see them. They're so common that we take them for granted. Brethren, we are surrounded by an embarrassment of riches. We are rich in the blessings, but our prayers They don't come. Why not? We're rich in blessings, but we're paupers in praise. Do we not possess countless blessings for which we should thank God? I say this to myself. I had to be taken to the woodshed in the preparation of this message. Gratitude itself is the gift of God. May the hymn writer's lyrics be the testimony of our own heart. 10,000,000 precious gifts my daily thanks employ, nor is the least a cheerful heart that tastes those gifts with joy. So they thank God for their needed chastening. They rejoiced in God for his saving mercies. They thank God by calling upon his name in prayer. Fourthly, they praise God by exalting his name before the lost. We see this in the second part of verse four and verse five. They came home with a song of joy upon their lips. When Cyrus cut them loose and he sent them back to the promised land, they were rejoicing. Make known his deeds among the peoples, not just the peoples of Israel, but the peoples around us. Make them remember that his name is exalted. Say this so many times that they'll go away repeating what you say, his name is exalted. Praise the Lord in song, for He has done excellent things. Let this be known throughout the earth. We have the spirit of the Great Commission right here in these words. Isaiah tells us here also that a praising heart will be a proclaiming heart. A saved heart should be a singing heart. God's deliverance of Israel at the Red Sea. You remember in the chapter 15 of Exodus, the song of Moses, he put a song of praise in their mouths. And so would his return of his exiled people from Babylon. They will go, they were sighing on their way, they'll be singing on their way back. How excellent, how wonderful are God's deeds among the sons of men. Do you often recall some of those in your own life? Sit down, take stock of what God has done. Remember things that we so easily forget. Well, what are some of those things? What deeds of God are greater, that show his delivering power? Indeed, what deliverance is greater than his deliverance of you from the wrath of God? Brethren, that is surely something to sing about. How can we be silent when God has delivered us from our sins? Recalling God's great deeds should set our hearts to singing and fill our mouths with praise. Remembering his mercy toward us should make us want to sing those things into the ears of others. let me tell you what Jesus has done for me." You know, I was in your situation. In fact, I was worse off than you. And then God, in his mercy, he reached down and plucked me like a bran from the burning. He saved my soul. He set my feet on the solid rock. I was utterly hopeless and helpless and hapless, and God reached down and he saved me. And he can do the same for you. If he can save me, he certainly can save you. Call out to him. Say, God, be merciful to me as you were to him. Are we living advertisements of the grace of God? If you're a Christian, you have a story to tell others about your Savior's mercy to you. The Psalmist, 107, verses two and three, let the redeemed of the Lord say so. In other words, let them speak about their so great salvation by the redeeming hand of God. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he has redeemed from the hand of the adversary and gathered from the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south. And brother, we fit in in one of those points on the compass, don't we? If you have tasted and seen that the Lord is good, do you desire to share your feast with others? Oh, let us not keep Christ to ourselves. May we know the exuberance that comes from sharing with others what Christ has done for us. Don't mean to pick on our brother Chris, but he has opportunities, especially in his previous job where he flew around and he had people seated right next to him. And he would open his mouth to speak about the so great salvation that he is experienced by the kindness of God. He's tasted and seen that God is good. And in speaking to others, he's praying that God would make them salivate for the same feast that he's seated at right now. Oh, brethren, how many opportunities do we have that we pass up? Yeah, may we know the exuberance. There's an ecstasy about it. You speak about what Christ has done for you, it takes you back to the day when God opened your eyes and the thrill that came from coming to know Christ comes back again, sometimes like a flood. May we not only sing, but may we live these lyrics. I love to tell this story, tis pleasant to repeat, what seems each time I tell it more wonderfully sweet. I love to tell this story, for some have never heard the message of salvation from God's own holy word. Brethren, God didn't give us his son so that we may keep him to ourselves. He's constituted us witnesses, and what do witnesses do? They have a testimony to give. We are guilty of, I think, nothing less than criminal selfishness if we fail to share Jesus with others, especially when he brings them right into our lives, and he's tapping us on the shoulder and say, tell him about me. Well, what did our Lord say? Luke 11, 33. No one, when he has lit a lamp, puts it in a secret place or under a basket, but on a lampstand, that those who come in may see the light. You see, he has made us as lights to shine his grace into this darkened world. Someone did so in your life. He's passed the bread to us that we might pass the bread to others. We cannot truly pray thy kingdom come while our mouths remain closed. The fame of our gracious savior deserves to be sounded throughout the earth. Brethren, this is the great motive for missions, but this is also the ordinary duty of Christians. Jesus conquers men's hearts as his fame is noised abroad. Nobody's ever told me this before. I know other people who call themselves. They've never told me this. Oh, Amy, may we not be guilty of being those. They never told me. Finally, by way of exposition, they shouted for joy because their great God dwelt in their presence. Verse six, cry aloud and shout for joy. Oh, inhabitants of Zion. You see, they're back home now, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel. Loud praise befits royalty. They blast their horns, and we're to sing loud praise to God. If loud praises befits earthly kings, how much louder should our praise be to befit our divine and gracious God? Mumbled praise, therefore, is worse than no praise at all. It is like leaving a penny tip after receiving first-class service. God is offended by faint praise. The God who sent guilty Judah into captivity, now received his penitent people back into his favor, should they not shout for joy? What is more appropriate than holy mirth and rejoicing by those who have been redeemed by God through Jesus Christ? Remember Judas weeping when they were carted away. They hung their harps in the willows thinking that they would never see home and happiness again, but God returned his penitent people. How great was his mercy toward them. How different was their joyful return than their woeful departure. Psalm 126 verses one through three captures that. When the Lord brought back the captive ones of Zion, we were like those who dream. You know, this can't be real. Then our mouths was filled with laughter and our tongue with joyful shouting. Then they said among the nations, the Lord has done great things for them. The nations are looking back, they're seeing the returning exiles and they say, this one, their God has done great things for them. They were testifying of God's goodness to his people. Not just the people themselves, but their neighbors. The Lord has done great things for us. We are glad. The praise of their neighbors isn't gonna be outdone by their praise. He's done great things for us. Who more privileged than those who dwell with God? Great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel. Indeed, brethren, our King resides with us. We're not yet there with Him forever, but each Lord's Day we come here, He's here with us. Here we behold Him, His majesty in power, promise, our provision and protection, that the holy God of heaven dwells with his people. This is a foretaste of glory. This is part of living in the now heaven. Is this not what Jesus promises for those who gather together in his name each Lord's day? For where two or three have gathered together in my name, there I am in their midst. how we undervalue the greatest blessing possible for men on earth, that the spirit of the incarnate God, Jesus our Emmanuel, deigns to dwell with us as his people. You see, heaven comes to earth when Jesus our Lord enters his temple as we gather together in his name. This is nothing less than a foretaste Well, what does this say to us by way of a few brief concluding applications? I'll try to be brief. First of all, let our thanksgiving be directed to God as the author of all our blessings. James 1 and verse 17, every good thing bestowed and every perfect gift is from above coming down from the father of lights with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow. We're not to derive from this a wrong application. This doesn't mean that we shouldn't thank others for the blessings that they bestow. No, not at all. But let us remember that all blessings ultimately originate from God. Other people are conduits of God's blessing, and we should thank them for being such, but all praise should ultimately redound to God. Secondly, let us be encouragers of our brethren to be thankful to God. That's why we're gathered here this afternoon, aren't we? But this should be our ordinary experience to tell others what God has done for us, to encourage them to be thankful, too. You see, we cannot encourage gratitude in others if we're not grateful ourselves. Grateful people draw out the gratitude of others. And if we tend to grumble and complain, let us confess that is sin and ask God to give us a joyful, thankful spirit. May God give us an infectious spirit of gratitude. May our thanksgiving be catching. Thirdly, let us not be selective but universal in our thanksgiving. A repentant Israel thanked God even for the chastening of their sin. because it did its perfect work. It brought them to repentance, and ultimately they were brought back home. And so will we be if we are truly grateful people. You know, no chastisement seems pleasant at the time, the writer to the Hebrew says, but when it works its purpose, it will bear the fruits of righteousness, peaceful fruits of righteousness, and we will share in his holiness. Let me ask you, as I ask myself, can we thank God for the rain as well as the shine, through the sad times as well as the happy times, in sickness and in health, in leanness as well as in prosperity? That will tell where our hearts really are. We're not mercenaries, we're Christians. We serve God not for what we can get, No, we serve God because He's good, and in serving Him, He provides for all of our needs. Are we thankful for our salvation and for our Savior more than anything and anyone else? Fourthly, let a thankful spirit perfume our prayers. Philippians 4.6, be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, and here's a little Phrase that we often forget, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. We're often asking, more frequently than thanking, but are our prayers perfumed with a spirit of gratitude? Prayer continually uttered without a spirit of gratitude is offensive to the nostrils of God. It bites the hand that feeds us. But grateful prayer is a sweet savor, especially as it is offered to God in Jesus' name, because all blessings come ultimately through Him to us. Fifthly, let our thankfulness to God for our salvation fuel our witness to the lost. God has rescued us that we might seek the rescue of others. Let us speak of our Savior's fame to those who've never heard his name, who came to seek and to save that which is lost, people like ourselves. Let us not be afraid of their faces. Oh, they may grumble, they may sneer, but when God brings that word home to their hearts, they'll thank God on behalf of that faithful person that told them the truth, whether they remember our name or not. God gets all the praise. Sixthly, let us joyfully anticipate the presence of our Lord as we gather in His name. Drowsy, lethargic worship is not pleasing to God. Do we believe that God is really here when we come together in His name? May our worship be exuberant because the King of glory, the Holy One of Israel, is in our midst. He has saved us from our sins. How joyful should be our hearts. Praise should erupt from our lips. But sometimes we just kind of go through the motions. Oh, we're formless often at heart when we're not. There'll always be the case when we're not walking with the Lord. He said, I was glad when they said to me, let us go to the house of the Lord. I'd rather serve as a doorkeeper in the house of God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness. I would rather be with the few that worship than the many that snub God. Oh. Brethren, may we come here and desire even as few as we may be to enthrone the Lord upon our praises. Do you lift up your voice when you sing? Do you sing with all your might the praise of your God? Finally, let all strangers to Christ seek his saving mercy today. Go to Christ, confess your sin to him. God turns his anger away from all who come to him seeking salvation through his son. And Jesus will turn none away. Jesus died to pay for the sin of everyone who places their trust in him. So don't delay, go to him today before it is too late. Isaiah, again, I'll close with these two verses, 55 verses 6 and 7, "...Seek the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts. and let him return to the Lord, and he will have compassion on him. And to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. You see, his grace is greater than all of our sin. Oh, may God speak to our hearts this day. Let's pray. Lord God, what a wonderful passage is the 12th of Isaiah. And though it was written originally for a penitent people in Babylon to encourage their praise of their God who returned them and turned their sighing into singing, Lord, what have you done for us that's not greater than that through Jesus Christ, our Savior, who has delivered us from the Babylon of our sin, and he's delivered us from there to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, to heaven itself one day, that is even now, Jesus says, being prepared for those that believe upon him. So we pray that you take the things that we've heard. Oh, so many things have been repeated, things that we know, but we pray that you would baptize them with a freshness that brings the power of the gospel to our souls, that we might thank the God from whom all blessings flow. For we pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Let us be dismissed.