Salvation is a Gift of God Himself

0:00Thanks for tuning in to Manna, a short daily meditation to feed hungry souls with God's Word. These episodes were prepared by our day ministers for a radio broadcast called Voice of the Church and are now republished by the Reform Perspective Foundation, a Canadian charity that applies biblical truth to the issues of our time, here's today serving. Good day listeners, welcome to today's broadcast. What does salvation mean to you? What is the greatest gift that God can give to you? What does heaven really mean? Is salvation just about escaping God's punishment of our sin and hell? To put the question a bit differently, what is the attraction of heaven to you? Now some might say that heaven is where there's peace, happiness, and the relief from all pain and that, that is what is wonderful about heaven. Others might say that heaven is never having to worry about anything anymore and being

1:03able to enjoy your favorite pastime always. Each one of us may be able to fill in our own colorful description of what heaven might be for us. Would you be happy with the place of every earthly comfort and leisure activity which was without God or without Christ? If you lived in an earthly paradise with every physical blessing you could imagine, would you not like it because Christ was not there? There's a real danger that we love the gospel message because it makes us feel good and feel worthy and special before God. It is possible that we love the gospel only because we love ourselves and desire its benefits only for our own sake and not for the sake of praising God and exalting and glorifying Him. Isaiah 12 is the climax of a series of prophecies which began in chapter 7. The prophet has been speaking about the acts of the Lord on behalf of his people Judah, which will occur in the future.

2:04His people will face judgment, but they can also expect salvation from the Lord because of his faithfulness to his covenant promises. He will not abandon his people, but he will deliver them from their distress. He has many riches and blessings in store for his people. Chapter 12 begins with the prophecy of what the faithful in the land will say in that day. In the day when God will fulfill his word, the time when his salvation will be evident to all. What will God's people say then? They will be filled with praise to the Lord alone. We read in verse 1, I will praise you, O Lord, although you are angry with me, your anger has turned away and you have comforted me. Verse 1 shows the need for the salvation which the Lord provides. The people of God remember that there was a time when the Lord was angry with them. They did not serve the Lord as they should have, but they rebelled against Him and went

3:07their own way. And as a result, the Lord was angry with them and He had every right to condemn them to eternal punishment and damnation. Yet, by God's grace, the situation has changed for the better in a decisive way, and this is the point of the rejoicing of which our text speaks. For although it was the case that God was angry with us because of our sins, that anger has now turned away. The anger of the Lord has turned away because of the redeeming work of the Savior, whom He sent into the world. Believers no longer need to wait for the fulfillment of God's prophecies of the coming redeemer because He has now come and shed His blood on the cross. He has provided the decisive payment which guarantees the forgiveness of sins to all who believe in Him and rely upon what He has done for them in His death and resurrection. And so the anger of the Lord has turned away from us, and He has shown the greatest imaginable

4:11comfort to us. What exactly is the nature of the comfort and the salvation which God provides to His people which causes them to praise Him? We find this very clearly expressed in verse 2, surely God is My salvation. It is the gift of God Himself which is what is so amazing and wonderful about our salvation. He is the greatest gift and treasure imaginable. To be able to walk with Him and commune with Him, to be able to trust Him and to be comforted by Him. That is what makes life worth living and what gives God's children great joy and reason for praise. All the treasures on this earth are as nothing when compared to the amazing gift of God Himself. Without Him, everything which has been created loses its appeal and attractiveness because He creates the loving and compassionate context of all things. It is because we may know the true God, the source of all that is good and right, of all

5:15that is loving and faithful, of all that is praise worthy and excellent. That life is worth living at all. Without God, where would we be and what would be the purpose of our existence? The song of praise in our text is sung to the praise of God Himself, and it is He who provides the greatest gift there is, the gift of Himself. We have been created for the purpose of serving Him and having communion and fellowship with Him. Do you also experience salvation in this way? As a means to be able to have fellowship with God, do you understand what it says here that God is my salvation? It can easily happen that we think of salvation only as something which saves us from hell and damnation. It can happen that we think that our salvation consists of something which merely prevents us from suffering, pain and punishment.

6:15Is our gazed directed to God the source of our salvation and the purpose from which we have been made? Sometimes salvation can be seen only as a means of reaching heaven, a nice and good place, but if the Lord is there or not, it does not really interest us. And such a view does not grasp the real meaning and the depths of the gospel message. Such a view short changes God's work, and in effect makes Him irrelevant. And then we have simply focused on ourselves and God's expense, and we would demonstrate that we have understood very little of what salvation actually is, and what its purpose really is. Let us always set the Lord Himself as the chief goal of our lives, for it is He who is our salvation. We read in verse 2, 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.

7:17The prophet says that believers in that day of God's salvation will rejoice in the Lord. They will sing about the fact that God is their salvation. He is their strength in song. This means that He is the reason for them to rejoice in sing. He is the one who has given them strength and comfort in life's trials and tribulations. He is the one upon whom they are focused. He is the one who has given them meaning in life. He is the one whom they can trust with their whole heart and upon whom they can rely. After the fallen to sin, there has always been separation between God and us, man was prevented from seeing God and having direct fellowship with Him. It has always been the desire of the children of God to have that communion with God and to be able to see Him in all His glory. In Psalm 27 verse 4, David expressed this desire, one thing I ask of the Lord, this is

8:17what I seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek Him in His temple. Only David understands what it means to be a child of God, above all else. And David wanted to have communion with God. He wanted to dwell in God's house and look at God for the rest of his life. He would never tire of that. How could he? For God is infinite in eternal. God is far more amazing and wonderful than we can ever comprehend. God is the all-knowing and all-seeing one, the one who is holy and full of majesty and splendor. His glory and power are beyond compare. Strictly speaking, it's impossible for us as human beings to see God, for He's invisible and He dwells in unapproachable light. His glory would blind us and kill us. The desire of Moses and David was fulfilled primarily through meditation upon the Lord

9:19and recalling His wonderful deeds of salvation and the richness of His promises and through contemplating the greatness and holiness of God. But now, in the time of the new covenant in which we may live, we may see the glory of God revealed in His Son, Jesus Christ. When the Lord Jesus performed His miracles, He showed forth the glory of God. When we contemplate the excellence of Jesus Christ, then we begin to understand what it means to see the glory of God. May the Lord give us eyes of faith so that we will indeed see it and rejoice in the Lord alone. The excellence of Jesus Christ comes out in so many ways because of the miracle of the incarnation, the Son of God who was made man. While He was on earth, He was glorious and yet humble. He was highly exalted and yet willing to give of Himself and be humiliated for our sake.

10:21He was just and strict and yet was also merciful. He was perfectly good and holy and yet able to patiently endure much evil and sin around Him. He had divine power over creation and yet He did not use His power to rescue Himself from the cross or strike sinners dead on the spot, but He showed compassion and gentleness and pleaded that God would forgive those who cursed Him and mocked Him. In Jesus Christ, the wisdom and compassion of God is revealed in a most surprising and amazing way. Stand amazed at the Lord Himself and love Him from the bottom of your heart. Be excited about your salvation because it may lead to an eternal relationship with such an amazing and wonderful God, a God who was holy and compassionate at the same time, a God who was righteous and just and at the same time, the overflowing fountain of all goodness and kindness.

11:23Seek to worship the Lord alone in all that you do and set Him as your highest joy in all of life. Draw from Him the deep waters of His salvation with rejoicing and gladness for He desires to give Himself to you. Believe in Jesus Christ and have communion with God. Thank you for listening till next time.