(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

All right, obviously Isaiah chapter 12 is a much shorter chapter here, and I love the separation here between the kind of theme of the various chapters that we've been seeing in the book of Isaiah. And I've subtitled Isaiah 12, Salvation, and that's what we see is just common over and over and over again in these six verses here. And I love, I actually, it kind of, it joys my heart to be able to preach on salvation. This may not be some profound sermon, you know, some great hidden deep truths that what we're going to dig up today, you know, which when we do through our Bible studies, oftentimes there are things like that we find like, man, that's super awesome, and there's all these great connections and everything. But tonight it's just, it's a real simple truth that we see iterated here multiple times over and over and over again. And we're going to be cross-referencing other passages of scripture, of course, but what's amazing about these six verses is what I found interesting is just the various ways of talking about salvation that we're, and we're going to get, as soon as we dig in, you see what I'm talking about, but I'm going to be focusing just primarily on the salvation of our souls this evening when I'm applying Isaiah chapter 12. But that's not the only salvation that's referred to in scripture. In fact, oftentimes, many of the times, I don't know if I would say most of the times even salvation, when the word salvation is being used or being saved, it's oftentimes talking about physical salvation, right? Many, many times through the Old Testament and there's these wars and these battles, you know, people are called on to God to be saved. It's not just for their soul or spirit being saved, it's in reference to them being saved as a people, as a group, in a time of war, in a time of oppression, right? Just to be saved from whatever bad things might happen, just similar to, you know, the verses that we use very frequently, Acts chapter 16, verses 30 and 31. In context, that passage with that jailer, when he says, sirs, what must I do to be saved? I believe he's not referring to his soul being saved. When he's asking the question, hey, what must I do to be saved, he's worried about being put to death. That's why he almost killed himself. He's worried about the punishment that was going to come because he was on duty, he was a prison guard, all of a sudden, all these doors are opened up and he thought everyone escaped. So guess who's responsible for that? He is. And as you see earlier in scripture, when a similar event happens, when men are freed from prison and there's no good explanation for it because, you know, God delivered them, because an angel was sent or whatever, that we found that, you know, other prison guards have been put to death. They've been executed because of that. And who knows how they may be executed. It may be a torturous execution, you know, which may be why he was, you know, he was kind of led to try to take his own life because he didn't want to have to face that. So then when Paul said, hey, you know, do yourself no harm, we're still here, that's when he said, well, you know, what must I do to be saved? Because still, I mean, he's got this whole situation, well, what can I do? But the reason why we use that verse out so early is because they answer him with the spiritual salvation, because they answer him with the important salvation. They didn't answer him just for, you know, the physical salvation. They give him the answer of what you have to do to be saved and go to heaven. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved in the house. And of course, he does end up believing on Christ. He ends up getting baptized with his house and he ends up, you know, he's saved. And it's a great story, but I'm digressing a little bit. Let's go back to Isaiah chapter 12. The point was just to say, you know, every time the word saved or salvation is used, it's not always referring to just your soul or spirit being saved. It could oftentimes be referring to a physical salvation. And especially in this context, too, I don't want to overlook that. But the reason why I'm just bringing it up and trying to get this out of the way now is because as we get into this, there's many, many areas or nuances within these verses that I think apply very well towards eternal salvation, towards your soul being saved. So that's what I want to focus on this evening. It's not to say that this is definitely only what this is talking about or anything like that, but that's what I'm choosing to focus on. So let's look at verse number one. The Bible reads, and in that day, thou shalt say, O Lord, I will praise thee. Though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away and thou comforted me. And even just in this very first verse, and keep your place here, turn with you to Isaiah chapter 59. You know, we as sinners make God angry. When we sin against the Lord, God is angry with that. God is angry with the wicked every day, the Bible says. And especially as an unsaved sinner, right, the Bible says that we have the wrath of God abiding us. Those who don't believe in Jesus, the wrath of God is abiding on you. God is angry with you. And in verse one here, he's saying, hey, I'm going to praise you, O Lord, though thou wast angry. You were. That's past tense. You were angry with me. Thine anger is turned away and thou comforted me. So now he's gone from a position of God being angry with him to God putting away that anger and now offering him comfort. And even this one verse is a great picture of salvation, with God being angry with you as a sinner, as a person without Christ who's headed towards hell, who's headed towards damnation because of your own sins, that those sins have separated between you and God. And we're going to see that in Isaiah 59. Look at verse number one, the Bible reads, behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save, neither is ear heavy that it cannot hear, but your iniquities have separated between you and your God. See, that's what sin does. Sin puts that wedge, it drives that barrier between you and your God. He says, and your sins have hid his face from you that he will not hear. That's what sin does. And that's what happens in the whole world. When people, when they're born, they're born without their own sin into this world. They live, but when they start to grow and understand and know right from wrong, and they start to understand truth, and they understand what they're not supposed to do, and then they start breaking God's commandments and breaking God's laws, that's when sin revives. This is what the apostle Paul said, you know, I was alive once without the law, but when the law came, sin revived and I died. So when you don't know anything about the law, little babies don't know anything about the law, little infants, children, they don't know anything about God's law. These kids that don't even understand the shamefulness of nakedness, that just run around, they don't know really anything about God's law, they don't have sin. But when the law came, sin revived, because we're going to find really quickly, once you start understanding the law, how quickly you break that law. And as a result of that, your spirit dies, just like the same way that God told Adam, hey, in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die, talking about that fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil, when you eat this fruit, he says in that day you shall surely die, and he didn't die physically, just like the Bible says, for the wages of sin is death. When you sin, it's not that you just die physically instantly, just like Adam didn't die physically, but you die because your spirit dies. That's why you need to be born again, and it's that new man, that new creature that's born inside of you that has an eternal life, and yes, it's the sin that separates you between you and your God. He says, your sins have hit his face from you that he will not hear, for your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity, your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath muttered perverseness. You've done these things. You've driven this wedge between you and God. Turn, if you will, to Romans, chapter 5. And it's for this reason why we hear so much about atonement in the Bible. The word atonement is found over and over again in the Old Testament primarily, almost exclusively in the Old Testament, the word atonement, because it's frequently in context with sacrifices, right? With animal sacrifices to make an atonement for your soul, to make an atonement for your sins, to make an atonement for you. And obviously, we know that Jesus Christ is that atonement. You say, Pastor Rose, what does that mean? What does atonement mean? And the best way to remember atonement is just, if you think about how it's spelled, it's at-one-ment. Because what atonement does is it puts you back at one with God, right? We're at odds because of our sin. That wedge is driven in there that because we're sinners and without Christ, we've got a problem with God. His wrath is abiding on us. So until we receive Christ as our Savior, that wrath abides on you and God is angry. But once you accept the free gift of salvation, you are reconciled to God. There's a reconciliation that takes place. See, when you have a problem, there's this problem going on between you and God. You need to be reconciled. You need to be brought back to Him. You need to be brought back in good standing, brought back in good graces with God. That's what the atonement is. It brings you at one with your Lord, with your Heavenly Father. And the only way that we could be made at one is by Christ and the atoning sacrifice that He made. Look at Romans 5, verse number 8. The Bible reads, But God commendeth His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more than being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. And, man, I love the scripture. This couldn't be clearer. But of course, the law has blinders on their eyes. But the fact that we're justified through the blood of Christ, you know what they're saying? It's not you at all. Right now, you're justified by the blood of Jesus. The only reason anybody is saved at all today is just because of Jesus' shed blood, not because of you, not because of your works in any way, shape, or form. It's because of what He did for you. We're justified by His blood. You're not justified by your own actions. You're not justified by you giving up your sins. You're not justified by stopping drinking and trying to live a good life and going to church and being baptized. You're not justified by those things in God's eyes. You know what you're justified by? The blood of Jesus Christ. The pure, unspotted, undefiled blood of Jesus Christ that He laid down, that He shed for you when He died on the cross. Much more now, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. And again, how are we saved from wrath? Not by our own good deeds, not by our own good works, through Him. We're justified by His blood. We're saved through Him. Through Jesus. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, look at this, we were enemies. Doesn't that sound like what verse 1 in Isaiah 12 is talking about? Thou thou wast angry with me. Thine anger is turned away. We were enemies. We were reconciled to God by the death of His Son. Reconciled. We're brought back into good standing. We have a good relationship now. You have a great relationship with God when He creates you, when He forms you, when your soul is created and God gives you life. But then when you become a sinner and you sin against God, that makes God angry. And there's a punishment for that. But thank God that He loved us enough that even while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. To bring us back at one. To make things good again with a God that we can't make things right with. And I try to explain this over and over and over again to people, they need to understand this. People have this concept, false religions all have this same concept, where there's this scale, right, and they think, well, if I do good things and it outweighs the bad things, then I'll be okay, I'll go to heaven. There's a problem with that inherently. There's a major problem with that. With that mindset, with that way of thinking, thinking that you're going to go to heaven. And it's this. The good can never outweigh the bad, because when you do good, you know what you're doing. Let's say here's the standard, there's a line right up here at the top of the letters. This is the standard of where God expects you, where He demands you, commands you to live. You know what the Bible says to him? That know what to do good and do with it, not to him it is sin. So when you don't do good, you're sinning. Did you know that? Do you know that's what the Bible says? So when you think you're doing so good, when you're doing good unto others, you're helping people out, you're giving money, you're doing whatever it is that you think is good. You know what you're doing? You're just trying to get close to where the standard is that God said. You're not going above that. You're not just above and beyond everything that God, no. You're just doing what God expects you to do, what He commands you to do. And when you don't do that, you're actually in sin. So when you're doing those things, it doesn't outweigh any of the things that you've done that were sinful. You're just meeting the mark. At best, you're just meeting the mark, that's all you're doing. So how are you going to pay for all of the sins that you owe, that debt that you owe, because you've broken God's law over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again? The good works don't pay for that. You're just not adding more to your debt. That's all you're doing. So the scale thing doesn't work. You need forgiveness. You need that debt washed away. And the only way to get that is through Jesus. His blood covers that entire debt. Praise the Lord for that. That's the only thing that can make you at one with God. Because every time we do it, we just saw this on Sunday. What did the Bible say was a reasonable service? To present your bodies holy, a living sacrifice? To prevent yourself, your whole body? Everything about me, it's a living sacrifice on the Lord. That's just your reasonable service. That's not some, oh wow, so extra great thing that you're doing that's going to all of a sudden now start paying for the sins that you've done. Not a chance. Not a chance. There's nothing you can do to pay for that. We need to understand that. We need to be able to explain that to lost souls that are out there in this world. This is what salvation is. It's the most important thing. People walking around in the pride thinking that they're going to earn their own way into heaven. And it is pride. You know, if the people might not want to look at it that way, but thinking that you can earn your way into heaven instead of just relying on what someone else did for you, no, no, no, I'll do it. Look, we all have to acknowledge, we all have to acknowledge on the one hand that we deserve punishment for our sins. Right? Hey, we made our bed, I mean that's what we deserve. But we can't take that same mentality and turn it around to say, well now I'm going to dig myself out of this and you can't. You can't. You're dug too deep. You need someone to pull you out. And that's what Jesus does for us. And he brings us back up and he makes us at one with God. Let's see what the Bible says here in verse number two. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his life. And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom we have now received the atonement. We've received the atonement through Jesus Christ. He's made us one again with God. He's brought us back into good standing. So back to Isaiah chapter 12 verse 1, thou was angry with me, that anger has turned away and thou comforted me. And you know, after a person gets saved, God seals you with the Holy Spirit of promise. And that Holy Ghost, Jesus Christ said, hey when I depart I'm not going to leave you comfortless, I'm going to give you a comforter. So not only is God no longer angry with you, but now God comforts you because you've got the Holy Spirit that indwells you. Verse number two, behold God is my salvation. And there's the first time we're going to see that here. God is my salvation. I will trust and not be afraid. For the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song. He also has become my salvation. Christ in this verse is talking about God being his salvation. Turn to Ephesians chapter number one and what I love about this, what I love about this verse here is it's saying I will trust. Now it says and not be afraid. Now you say well I thought we're supposed to have a fear of the Lord. We are supposed to have a fear of the Lord. But you know what? We can trust in God and not be afraid that he's going to damn us to hell. There are things we don't have to be afraid of with God. When it's talking about our salvation, it talks about him being our defender and it talks about him saving us, we don't have to be afraid. We can completely trust in him. The fear of the Lord is based on us not following him, not obeying him, not being right with him in that regard. But when it's talking about just our salvation, we have nothing to fear of God. We don't walk day by day in fear going oh man I don't know, is God happy with me? Is he going to send me to hell? It's not like that. We can live and breathe every day of our life knowing, hey I'm saved, I'm saved. I will trust and not be afraid but that word trust is very important. And again this is another thing that's very important to get across to people when you're trying to give them the gospel, trying to show them how to be saved. In the United States of America today, if you stopped people on the street like we try to do and just asked them the question, do you believe in Jesus? Do you believe in Jesus? I don't know what the statistics are but I would guess they would probably be pretty high. I mean probably somewhere around 8 out of 10 people would say yes I believe in Jesus. 9 out of 10, 9 and a half out of 10, I don't know, I don't know what the percentage is, I don't know. But I guarantee you it would be very high because there is all different types of people that claim Christianity. I mean whether you're Catholic or Protestant or any type of denomination, anywhere and just said hey do you believe in Jesus? I mean a Mormon is going to tell you yes, a Jehovah's Witness is going to tell you yes, the Catholic is going to tell you yes, they're all going to say yes. Even people who don't have any type of affiliation with the church oftentimes will just say yeah, I believe in Jesus. So this is the problem if you don't do a good job of explaining, as I brought up before that great verse in Acts chapter 16, hey, what must I do to be saved and they said believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. If you don't explain what does it mean to believe, well I mean that just means that tons of people are saved. I mean it's just half the world is saved, right? No, no it's not. It's not it because that word believe isn't, it's not just an assent to fact, it's not just saying well yeah I mean I believe Jesus was real or I believe he's even just saying well I believe he's the Savior, but what does that really mean? And what I love is this word trust because the way that we speak today we really understand this word trust, right? But the way that the Bible is using that word for salvation, they're interchangeable, believe and trust. When you're believing on Jesus to save you, you are trusting in him to save you. It's synonymous, that's what you're intending, that's what you're expressing with your mouth, that is what I'm doing is I'm trusting him. And I've mentioned this recently in a sermon but the way that I try to also get this across to people to explain to them, hey look, if I die today and I'm confronted face to face with God and he says why should I let you in heaven, whatever I tell him is what I'm believing in. And those same people I said, whether it be 8 out of 10, 9 out of 10, whatever, that said yeah I believe in Jesus, they're going to tell you they believe in Jesus, but if you ask them that question, if they were to be asked that question, if they were to be confronted by God, I guarantee you their answer is not going to be Jesus. It's not. Because they think that their good works are going to get them in. They say Lord, look at all these things I've done for you, God I wasn't really that bad of a person, was I? I mean I tried to do good, you know my heart, I tried to do good, I tried to help people out, I, I, I, I, I, that's what they're going to say. Because that's what the vast majority of people say and if you don't understand that, come out soul winning with us because that's what the vast majority of people say when we talk to them. That's what the vast majority of people will say in our area, oh wait, and not just in our area, also in Arizona, and oh wait, also all other areas across the United States of America. They've gone out soul winning in other nations, but I can't imagine it's going to be that much different of what people are trusting in to be saved because everybody I run into that's unsaved is trusting in themselves. People are trusting in themselves more than they're even trusting in false gods to save them. These false gods are just these idols but they're ultimately just trusting in themselves that they've done good enough. Most people, they're not trusting in some other savior, they're still just trusting, well I've been, I've done pretty good, my good outweighs my bad. So you can say you believe something but it doesn't mean you're trusting. Trust is, is, is the key word here. I will trust and not be afraid. Ephesians chapter 1 explains this very clearly as well when it comes to salvation, look at verse number 12. Bob reads, that we should be to the praise of his glory who first trusted in Christ, in whom ye also trusted. After that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise. Now look at what the Bible just did here, it took that word trust and used it interchangeable with believe. It's exactly what I'm talking about. Look at verse 13 again, in whom ye also trusted after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel, so he says after you heard the gospel, you heard the gospel of your salvation, you heard that word of truth, you heard the word of God, you heard the gospel preached, then you trusted, right? You trusted after you heard that, simple. And then he says here, finishing off the sentence, in whom also after that you believed, because after that you trusted and after you believed is the same thing. The believing in Jesus is trusting in Jesus, after that you believed you were sealed with that Holy Spirit. It's not talking about two different things, well first I trusted him and then I believed on him. No. It's the same event, it's the same thing happening when you get saved, you hear the gospel, you trust in him, which is believing. After that you believed you were sealed, sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. When God seals you, the Bible's never talking about unsealing you with the Holy Spirit. Show me the chapter and verse where God unseals the Holy Spirit from you. No. The Bible says you're sealed, and if God seals you, no man's gonna break that seal. Only God could break that seal, and you know what, he doesn't. You know why? Because he's putting earnest down on you. That's what the next verse says, which is the earnest of our inheritance, until the redemption of the purchased possession unto the praise of his God. God's already bought you. He says until the redemption, he comes to redeem his purchased possession. Hey, he bought you with a price, and he doesn't leave you completely by yourself, he seals you with that Holy Spirit of promise. The Bible says, hey, I promise I'm coming back. I'm coming back, and I'm gonna fully redeem you, because when we get saved, when our spirit is born again, there's still a salvation that we're waiting for. It's the salvation of our bodies. That hasn't happened yet. We're still in sinful flesh. But when Jesus comes back, we're getting new flesh. We're getting new bodies. We're gonna be redeemed. He said, hey, I purchased you. You're not perfect yet. I'm not done with you yet. But here's the Holy Ghost. I'm gonna put this down here. Put it down in your heart. I'm sealing you with that. This is my earnest. Why do people put earnest money down when you buy a house? It's supposed to be a significant amount of money so you don't just back out on the deal. It's showing, hey, I'm serious about this, because I don't want to just lose all this money. Well, this is God putting an earnest on us saying, hey, I'm serious about this. I'm coming back. It may be a while. It may be thousands of years, but I'm coming back. And he put that earnest down, and he's giving you the Holy Spirit until he comes back and redeems his purchased possession and gives you a new body and then full salvation at that point, which is the earnest of our adherence until the redemption of the purchased possession unto the praise of his glory. Ephesians chapter 1 is so clear about trusting being that faith, that belief. Turn if you would to John chapter 4. I'll read for you from Isaiah 12, verse 3. So we saw in verse 1, God was angry, and he's turned away his anger, and he's comforted. Verse 2, two times, salvation's being brought up. God's my salvation, and I'm trusting, and I'm not afraid. I'm trusting in God. No reason to be afraid. I'm trusting in God. No reason to fear. Verse number 3, therefore, with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation. Again, there's that word, salvation. It's about drawing the waters out of the well of salvation, and this is a great illustration that we see multiple times in the New Testament. Here in John chapter 4, we see the story of the woman at the well, right? Great illustration, again, of salvation, and how easy salvation is, and how permanent salvation is. You cannot lose it. Verse number 7, there cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus saith unto her, give me to drink. For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat. Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, how is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which I am a woman of Samaria? For the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. Jesus answered and said unto her, if thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. And he says, look, if you just knew what the gift of God, what is the gift of God, by the way? Eternal life, everlasting life, right? The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. And Jesus talks to this woman that's at the well, who's physically getting some water. Hey, if you knew what the gift of God was, and who it is that saith to me, because he's the one who just said, give me to drink. If you knew what the gift of God was, and you knew who I was, you'd be asking me, and he's talking to himself in the third person, but he's saying, you'd be asking me, and I'd give you living water. He's saying, just ask me, and I'll, just ask me. Just ask. That's not hard, is it? But you know what, you do have to do it. When you put your faith in God, you're asking to be saved. You have to ask to be saved, and tell God, hey, I'm trusting in Jesus, save me. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made, and is made unto salvation. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved, we'll see that in a little bit here. Look at verse number 11, the Bible reads, the woman saith unto him, sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. From whence then hast thou that living water? She has no idea, it's going right over her head. She's just thinking about this well. You don't have anything to draw with, what are you talking about, this living water? Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank there of himself, and his children, and his cattle? Jesus answered and said unto her, whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again. So he's saying, no, no, no, I'm not talking about this water. You drink this water, of course you're going to get thirsty again. I'm going to drink of this water, and guess what, I'm going to be thirsty again in like two minutes. This is just for the flesh. Verse 14, but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst. But the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. The woman saith unto him, sir, give me this water that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw. And I'm not going to continue on the rest, so I turn to Revelation chapter 21. But what I love about this parable, what I love about this story that Jesus is explaining, it's not even just a parable, he's just saying, look, if you just ask, I'll give you living water. And it's water that once you drink it, you never thirst again. Never thirst again. He doesn't say you'll never thirst again, well, unless you do X, Y, and Z, or unless you stop going to church, or unless you stop believing, there's nothing put on there. He says you're never going to thirst again. But Jesus says you can take a drink of water, which is a very simple task, that you don't have to go and get yourself, you just ask for it. He's already got it. He has the living water. You don't have to worry about how he got it. You don't have to worry about where his bucket is. He's got it. And you ask him for it, he'll give it to you. And once you do that, you're never going to thirst again. You find eternal life. You don't need to get it again and again and again and again and again. You get it one time. It's yours forever. That's awesome. What a great illustration of salvation. Revelation 21, verse number 5, the Bible reads, another illustration, another example of the water of life, salvation through the symbolism of water. Verse number 5, and he that sat upon the thrones said, behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, write, for these words are true and faithful. And he said unto me, it is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is the thirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. He that overcomes shall inherit all things and I will be his God and he shall be my son. I will give unto him that is the thirst of the fountain of the water of life freely, freely without charge, freely, nothing that you have to do, freely as much as you want. And once you get that water of life, I mean, hey, how joyful is that? Isaiah 12, 3, therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation. It's a happy event, getting that water of life. Isaiah 12, verse number 4, the Bible reads, and in that day shall ye say, praise the Lord, call upon his name, declare his doings among the people, make mention that his name is exalted. Before we, yeah, go ahead and turn to Joel chapter 2. There's many places we could turn in scripture about calling upon the name of the Lord, and especially in regards to salvation. We're turning to Joel chapter 2, however, because, just because particularly, it still fits with everything I'm talking about and it definitely is going to, you know, we're going to see this here, even with salvation, but don't forget where we are in the context of Isaiah, right? We've just been seeing these awesome prophecies of end times, of the millennial reign, of all these things that happen at the end of the world, essentially. Joel 2 is another prophecy of end times events, of God punishing the world, which is why I'm bringing this up here, because I think with Isaiah chapter 12 also, you know, hey, we have nothing to fear, salvation, salvation, salvation, salvation, God's our savior. All these other things are going to happen, all these bad things are going to happen, you know what, God's with his people, God saved us. And whoever's drawn to that water freely, whoever's trusted, whoever's believed, we're safe, we're good, we don't have to fear him. Joel chapter 2, look at verse number 23, the Bible says, be glad then ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God, for he hath given you the former reign moderately, and he will cause to come down for you the reign, the former reign and the latter reign in the first month, and the floor shall be full of wheat, and the fats shall overflow with wine and oil, and I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the canker worm and a caterpillar and a pomer worm, my great army which I sent among you, and ye shall eat in plenty and be satisfied and praise the name of the Lord your God that hath dealt wondrously with you, and my people shall never be ashamed, and ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the Lord your God and none else, and my people shall never be ashamed, and it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions, and also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit, and I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood and fire and pillars of smoke. Now, before I continue even further, there's a couple more verses I want to read. I just want to point this out to you, how I think in multiple places in scripture there are dual prophecies happening. We know that part of this passage has been fulfilled in Acts, chapter 2, at the day of Pentecost. This is brought up saying, hey, your old men shall dream dreams, and your, you know, your sons and your daughters are going to prophesy, and this is what was happening in Acts, chapter 2. So absolutely without a doubt that this was being fulfilled then, but I think that that was only part one of the fulfillment of this prophecy. I think this is going to happen again. I think that this is still going to continue to happen because of the fact that when we continue here, he says, and I will show wonders in the heavens and the earth, blood and fire and pillars of smoke, the sun shall be turned into darkness, verse 31, and the moon into blood before the great and terrible day of the Lord come. That hasn't happened yet. So we know just from history, just where we are in history, that this hasn't happened yet. We know that Acts, chapter 2, was referring to part of this as being fulfilled, and there's a lot of overlap, or I should say double prophecy, when it comes to Jesus Christ coming to this earth, because when you look at the Old Testament prophecies, you see oftentimes some of it being applied to his first coming and some of it being applied to the second coming. I personally think that some of these events that he's talking about here is going to happen again in the future, but it may not. It may be that this was already completely fulfilled and not again, but I do think that this is going to happen again, personally. That's my opinion on that. But without a doubt, he's continuing to talk about this great and terrible day of the Lord. Verse number 32 is where I'm driving home this point, though, and it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered, for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the Lord hath said, and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call. And you know what? That goes for anyone who's calling on the name of the Lord for the soul to be saved, as well as those who just are already saved spiritually, but they're saying, God, save us. These people are after us or whatever, these people trying to kill us. Whether it be even before the millennial reign, when Antichrist is coming after you and trying to kill you, you say, Lord, save us. Or whether it be after the millennial reign, when Satan's loose from hell and he goes around trying to gather everyone against Jerusalem that we just read about a couple weeks ago. Either way, you can still call on the Lord, Lord, save us. And we have full confidence that he will do that. That's a promise over and over and over again in scripture. What a great promise. We could call on the Lord and he'll hear us and he'll save us. This is a joyful chapter, Isaiah chapter 12. Go back to Isaiah chapter 12. How much are we reading about salvation? It's just throughout this entire passage. And then verses 5 and 6, verse 5, sing unto the Lord, for he hath done excellent things. This is known in all the earth. Cry out and shout, thou inhabitant of Zion, for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee. Talk about a reason to sing and praise and rejoice. How about God being the Savior of your soul? The gospel is good news. I hope that you have found joy in your Christian faith. It's funny. I do. I think this is funny. I think it's interesting. I think it's amazing. So many people have this perception of fundamentalist Baptists. And you know what? They ought not to. And shame on us if we're not presenting the Christian life the way it ought to be. The lost world gets everything wrong, so it's no surprise that they get things wrong. That's the amusement that I get from it, is that they have this one perception. They'll have the perception of the few second news clip of me talking about the homos or something, right? Like, that's a perception of, oh, these fundamentalist Baptists, they're so hateful and horrible and everything else, and they're so mean and they're poor kids and they have to be subjected to all this stuff and it's so terrible. I don't know about you. I hope you have the joy. I hope you actually love your life and love the Lord and you're happy knowing that He's your Savior and you can have that joy and rejoice in Him. Yes, we preach on sin a lot. Yes, we want to live what's right. Yes, you may have some extra pressures because you want to do right, because you want to succeed in God's eyes, because you want to make God happy. But you know what? You ought to have this joy unspeakable and full of glory because of the salvation of the Lord, because you know all these promises, because of everything the Bible tells us about those that trust in Him. That's great news. Hopefully when we sing these praises unto God and just sing out and praise His name, all praise to Him who reigns above in majesty supreme, who gave His life for man to die, and He might man redeem. Hopefully you're joyful and happy and you're not going, oh man, we've got to sing in church again. It should move you. You should love to praise God because of what He's done for you. We have a Savior that's worthy of our praise, eternal praise, forever and ever and ever. I told you at the beginning of the sermon, I was happy, I was kind of excited to preach this sermon tonight because I love spending time on salvation. Now we don't preach it every week because we need to know a lot more in the scripture, but man, when this comes up, I was thinking, what a great Wednesday this is going to be. They all have God's word as its own specialty, its own area that I love going through, but this is a good subject. This is not something that I have to get all angry about because it's just so frustrating being in a sinful world and there's all these horrible things going on. This is hope. This is joy. We have a Savior that saves you without you having to do anything and He saves you forever. He saves you eternally. That is some great news. That is some great news. God's word is so perfect. I mean, I even just love the divisions of the chapters. Whether that's of God or not, I don't know, but you know what? The people who are dividing those chapters did a good job because this is very consistent in all these verses, this whole section just on salvation, it fit together so well. It's the word of God and it's amazing. Praise God. All right, as far as that word of prayer. Dear Lord, we love you. We love you, God. Thank you for loving us. Thank you for commending your love toward us, your awesome love, that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us, dear Lord. Thank you for that. Thank you for just having that care and offering the complete sacrifice that's necessary for us to be saved. You are so worthy of our praise, dear Lord. You are worthy of us, honestly, presenting our bodies a living sacrifice every single day of our lives. Help us not to be selfish. Help us to get over ourselves, Lord. Help us to see this truth every day so we don't get too caught up and choked in the cares and concerns of this world, Lord, but that everything that we do can be pleasing in your sight. God, lead us and guide us. Build our church. Help us to reach more people, Lord. I love everyone in this church, but God, we want to see so many more. We want to see so many more, brethren. Lord, lead us to the people. Lead them to us. Lead us to grow and to just reach all the people that will listen and will receive you, dear Lord. Help us in that endeavor. God, we love you. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.