By Glenn Metts
Pastor, Shiloh Baptist Church, Seymour
Focal Passage: Isaiah 25:1-10a
God saves. Those two words describe the narrative of the Bible. They are the purpose for which God has communicated to us through His written word and ultimately through the Living Word, His Son, our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ.
When we come to our Scripture this week in Isaiah 25:1-10a, Isaiah celebrates with praise and a declaration of confident trust in God. Ultimately, God is sovereign, holy and worthy of praise. He is just and will judge sin. But His heart is a God who loves, pursues, protects, and saves those who admit their need for Him and look to Him. He is a God who saves!
Sin has devastating consequences for those that insist on going their own way. For God in His holiness and sovereignty, will judge those who oppose Him and He will judge sin. Isaiah 25:2,5,10a speaks of the judgment of God upon wickedness and sin. Ultimately, God will destroy death! Isaiah said in verse 8, “He will swallow up death forever…”.
Isaiah praises God for His heart, His truth, faithfulness, power, provision and salvation. Listen to Isaiah’s testimony. He said, “You have done wonderful things; Your counsels of old are faithfulness and truth.” In verse 4, he said, “You have been a strength to the poor” and a “strength to the needy in his distress” and also a “refuge from the storm, a shade from the heat.”
God saves today. I am one. I am one that He has saved. I lost my dad to a massive heart attack one month to the day after my sixth birthday. My world turned upside down and I couldn’t understand. That event stirred in my young heart questions about life, and “why?”
Glenn Metts
I am thankful for my grandmother who would faithfully take me to church and Sunday School. I learned that there was a God in heaven who loved me and gave His Son, Jesus to die on a cross for sin. It wasn’t until I heard a preacher on television at the age of nine that I was able to grasp what that really meant though.
He said, “God wants to be a Father to you.” That grabbed my heart! Then, he proceeded to tell how a person could have a personal relationship with God through His Son, the Lord Jesus.
I knew I wanted that. By simple childlike faith I believed and asked Christ into my life. He has been with me ever since. He saved me! He forgave me and filled my heart with a peace and hope that has carried me all these years.
He gave my life purpose and meaning. My heart often sings the words to a familiar hymn that goes like this, “Blessed Assurance, Jesus is mine! Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine! Heir of salvation, purchased of God. I’m born of His Spirit, washed in His blood. This is my story! This is my song! Praising my Savior all the day long!”
The best is yet to come! In Isaiah’s words, “He will swallow up death forever, And the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces. …”
And, “it will be said in that day; Behold, this is our God; We have waited for Him, and He will save us. This is the Lord; We have waited for Him; We will be glad and rejoice in His salvation.” Amen! B&R
