Today, our theme is a verse: Isaiah 12:1 – 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.
The theme especially of God’s anger, but God’s anger turning away is what Jesus says is one of the works of the Holy Spirit,
8And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin (God’s just anger because of our sin) and righteousness (God’s salvation for us – 2 Cor. 5 says that God made He who knew no sin to be sin so that we might become righteous) and judgment (God’s victory over sin, death, and devil for us):
And finally, as we would rejoice today and often that God’s anger has been turned away, James in our Epistle says,
Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness that God requires.
God is not mad at you!
The Lord is not angry with you!
We ought thank God often as we consider the amazing and unexpected surprise and comfort that truth really is.
I will give thank to You, O Lord, for though You were angry with me, Your anger turned away, that You might comfort me.
We live a life of expecting certain things.
I’ve come to expect that if my wife makes her homemade spicy chicken sandwiches, that I’m going to overeat.
I’ve come to expect that if I lay down in Lazarus’ bed to put him down for a nap or bedtime, I’m probably going to fall asleep, too.
I hope that you have come to expect that if you miss church, that your pastor and church family really do miss you, seeing you, receiving Christ’s gifts with you, praising our God and praying to our God with you. We’re not the same without us all here.
We live a life of expecting certain things, and it’s worth considering how easily we should expect that God is mad at us.
Can you think of some times when that was your absolute expectation?
Maybe it was one of the many times when you probably broke your promise to God that you’re going to do better, you’re going to be nicer, you’re going to be more faithful in prayer, you’re going to work harder.
Maybe there was tragedy, the death of someone you loved, the diagnoses of a sickness, a car or home accident.
And you were convinced that God was mad at you.
Maybe it’s every single day, every single evening you reflect when you reflect on that day – God must be mad at me – at least He deserves to be.
I think there some people who miss church because they think that God is mad at them, and they’d just rather avoid God.
I think there’s some people who avoid me because they think that God is mad at them, and they think I’m there to remind them of that.
I think there’s some people who avoid you as a Christian and get really mad at when you talk about the Christian faith because either deep down or right there at the service they think that God is at mad them.
It doesn’t take much imagination to come to that conclusion.
If things go bad for me, if I’m not getting the job I want, if I’m not getting the grade I want, if I’m not losing the weight I want,
Maybe, God is mad at me.
If I’m keeping doing bad, keep being quick to anger, quick to talk and slow to hear.
God must be mad at me.
This is something that is not difficult to expect because we deserve God’s anger.
Our text is from Isaiah 12 and it seems that for ancient Israel, an invasion from the Assyrians was inevitable. Death in war, being made servants and slaves, the loss of their land was what they were expecting. Sennacherib and his armies were at the door, threatening them. And the theological reflection, the reflection on the God reason of “Why is this getting ready to happen to us?” was God’s mad at us and we deserve.
We didn’t trust His promises and went after other gods.
We didn’t follow His commands and did what we wanted.
We didn’t follow through on the deal He made us, “If you do that I tell you to do, then I will protect you and I will deliver you from your enemies,” even though He followed through on His end of the deal all the time.
They were singing in that day, ”God’s mad at us and we deserve it.”
But looking forward to a new song, a new day, the Prophet Isaiah says
1You 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.
2“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.”
There are so many aspects of your life that could have you singing, “God’s mad at me and I deserve it,”
Your sin, your guilt, your suffering, your sicknesses,
We can look around at our nation and sing, “God’s mad at us, we deserve it,”
We could look around at our church and sing, “God’s mad at us, and we deserve it.”
But today and always the Lord wants us to sing,
Though you were angry with me, your anger turned away, that you might comfort. Behold, God is is my salvation. I will trust and not be afraid…..
The Holy Spirit’s work really is for us to consider the anger of God and to care deeply about it:
It is anger that comes from sin and its effect on this world and in our lives.
He will come and convict the world concerning sin, because they do not believe in me.
We don’t want God angry at us. We don’t want to sin. We don’t want to not trust Him.
And when we come to that, and He brings us to that often, every sermon, every Sunday, every Day,
The Spirit’s work is then to take what belongs solely to Jesus, the power to save and comfort and deliver, the power to make us trust and not be afraid, and apply it to us.
He will come and convict the world concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father.
His going to the Father, His suffering and death and resurrection and ascension is the only full assurance of this wonderful truth.
God is not mad at you.
The Lord is not angry at you.
We gather around the absolution and baptism and the Gospel preached and read and the beautiful mystery of the Lord’s Supper,
all themed around that song the Lord is my salvation,
The Lord God is my strength and my song.
We’ll sing when we are suffering:
I will trust and not be afraid.
We’ll sing when we are guilty:
I will trust and not be afraid.
We’ll sing though our friends die, the world mocks us and our emotions play with us:
I will trust and not be afraid.
We’ll sing when our health wanes, our minds grow weaker, and our families struggle:
I will trust and not be afraid.
The Lord God is in your midst today.
He is an ever flowing fountain of peace in your heart.
His anger has been turned away in the person of the Son of God answering for us on the cross.
The Spirit takes what belongs to Jesus, what has been earned by Jesus and His cross, and declares it again to you.
And receiving His work again today:
We’ll sing again of His salvation and say I will trust and not be afraid, for though He was angry with me, His anger turned away, that He might comfort me.