Well, thank you once again. It's so good to be with you. Good to see you folks again. We're going to start another series and it may take us a year to finish it. I'd like to speak on the subject of I will the I wills of God.

Now, once in a while, someone will tell us when we have a problem, I will help you. Now it's wonderful for us when they're able to do that, when they're able to fulfill what they have to say. But I don't know about you, but once in a while I've had people say, I'll help you, or I'll do that, and they don't. And that's a little disappointing. But when we start looking into the Bible about God's I wills, we never find him backing out. We never find him that he's not able to do what he said he would do. We never find him saying, I don't have time to do that. When he speaks, I will. That's exactly what he's going to do.

Now this phrase is used throughout the Bible, Old and New Testament. So we're gonna pick up a few of the Old Testament statements about the I will of God, and then we'll move to a few in the New Testament, and we'll try, probably cover one for each service that we're here. So we have a little time ahead of us.

In the book of Isaiah, chapter 41, there are three verses of scripture that I want to read tonight, or this afternoon, And it ends with, I will. God says, I will. And he's gonna do three things. He promised, I will do these three things. And we'd like to look at them this afternoon.

In Isaiah chapter 41, and in verse number eight, but thou Israel. Now in this verse of scripture, there are three names mentioned. Two names are about the same person. Jacob and Israel are the same people. Same person. Jacob was his birth name. Israel is the name that God gave him after his conversion. So it says here, but thou Israel art my servant. Now it's wonderful when God calls somebody to be his servant. And then it goes on to tell us Jacob. Now that's his original name. That's his birth name. That name means supplanter or cheat or liar. Isn't it interesting that God would be blessing cheaters and liars with his great salvation? This is wonderful. He saved sinners. That's what he says. Jacob, whom I have chosen.

Now God tells us in the first part of that, he said, Israel, art my servant. Jacob, whom I have chosen. We have God choosing someone and his name is Jacob. And Jacob was, as I mentioned, he was not a very nice guy. He was not very nice to his dad. He was not very nice to his brother. And yet God said, I have chosen him. Jacob have I loved is what he says. And then the last part of that, it says, the seed of Abraham, my friend.

Now, it is wonderful that we read in the Bible about Abraham being God's friend. Do you know where Abraham started his life? It was down in Ur of the Chaldees. That's about where Iraq is today. And Joshua tells us when he was sharing with the children of Israel close to the end of his life, Joshua was saying, our father Abraham was a worshiper of idols down in Ur of the Chaldees. Don't get thinking too big of him. He had to be saved by grace too. He just was not a good person by nature. He was an idolatrous man. God called him out of Ur of the Chaldees. We read in the book of the Acts that Stephen said the God of glory appeared unto him. So what a wonderful statement that Abraham was God's friend. You know what it makes for God to have a friend like Abraham? Abraham had to agree with him on everything about God. God was the savior. God was the chooser. God was the one that loved. God is the one that loved before the foundation of the world. God was in charge and Abraham agreed with that. We're friends.

All right, the next verse it says, thou whom I have taken from the ends of the earth and call thee from the chief men thereof. Now it's interesting that we find that the Bible shares with us in another place that God will take his people out of every kindred, nation, people, and tongue. all the countries of the world. He has his people. He finds them. He brings them. He saves them. And Abraham is an example of that. He was brought out of Ur of the Chaldees. He was brought out of a place that was not a very nice place to live. And that's what he does with all of his people. He brings us out of the worst of situations. and saves us by his grace.

He said, Thou whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and called thee from the chief men thereof, and said unto thee, Thou art my servant, I have chosen thee, and not cast thee away. What a wonderful statement that the God of heaven would say those words about a human being. I've chosen you, I will not cast you away. We rejoice that God will not cast away his people.

And then it tells us here in verse 10, that's our verse that has the three I wills of God. There are many found in the Old Testament, many found in the New Testament, but these three are so blessed to the church. It says in the book of Isaiah chapter 41, verse 10, fear thou not. Fear thou not, for I am with thee. Be not dismayed.

What does it mean, fear thou not? You know, I read about the first man that God ever created, his name was Adam. When I was in high school, particularly in high school, they tried to teach me that my great, great, great, great, great grandparents come out of a puddle of water as some amoeba and transform from this stage to that stage and this stage to that stage. And my mother called it, we have uncles that are monkeys, you know, well, I, I find in the Bible, there's no such thing as that. I find God is a creator of heaven and earth and people. He created people and he created them. in a fashion that he looked upon Adam, his first created being, and said, you know, he is good. He created the world and said it's good. He created the heavens and the earth, he said it's good.

And when he came to Adam, now he put one restriction on our father Adam. He told him, don't do one thing. Have you ever told your child, don't do that? Well, God put a restriction on Adam. And he told Adam, don't eat of one fruit tree in the garden, just one. Now in my mind's eye, I think there were thousands of fruit trees. And he had the ability of enjoying all of those fruit trees, the fruit of every one of those trees, except one, God put a restriction on it.

Now, Adam, I believe, said in his heart, God, you're not my boss. And he ate that fruit. Now the moment he ate that fruit, whatever it was, the moment he ate that fruit, we find out that there became a great deal of fear in his heart. that he had never felt before. He had an emotion of fear that he had never had. There had been conversation between God and Adam in the cool of the eve. God had come down, visited with him. They had a conversation, they had fellowship. And the moment he ate that forbidden fruit, there became great fear in Adam's heart.

Now we know this took place because Adam says, I was afraid. The first thing he did is go out to a fig tree and pull off some leaves. Now if those leaves were this big, much bigger than we know them today, or this big as the size we know them today, he sewed them together and he covered himself with fig leaves because he knew he was naked. So the first thing he did is look completely against God. God told him, don't eat that forbidden fruit. He did it anyway, and now he's covering himself.

The next thing he did is he ran away. He ran away. I don't know about you, but every once in a while, I run away from my mother, but she always caught me. Do something wrong, I'll get away with this. No, I didn't. I ran away, no. She knew where I was. Well, in many ways, that's exactly. God came down and says, Adam where art thou? Now he was not trying to find out where Adam was. He already knew where Adam was. He wanted Adam to know where Adam was. So when Adam came out and confessed what he had done, he blamed his wife for it. And he said, I was afraid. I was afraid.

Well, here we find in this verse of scripture, with regards to the friends of God, to those chosen of God, to these that God has, as it tells us here in the book of Isaiah, he says, fear thou not. I'm gonna take away all the fear that is between you and me. I'm gonna take away that fear. For I am with thee. What a wonderful statement that we find here.

Many, many, many, many years ago, there was a man by the name of Moses. And one day Moses cried out and he said, God, would you show me you? Would you show me you? And God said, I cannot show you me because you would die. But what I'm going to do is put you in the cleft of the rock. I'll put my hand over that rock. and I'll walk by. Now the words that God used in this, Moses said, show me thy glory. What a plea Moses had, show me thy glory. And you know what God said about his glory? It's found over in the book of Exodus chapter 33. I'm gonna read that so I don't mess it up. The book of Exodus chapter 33, and there in verse, 18, we read this. He said, I beseech thee, show me thy glory. Moses said that. And he said, God said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee. and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee. And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and I'll show mercy upon whom I will show mercy."

Now we say, Moses said, show me your glory. And God said, I'll have mercy on whom I'll have mercy. What is he doing? Double talking? Absolutely not. God shows his glory in saving anybody, even one. I will have mercy on whom I'll have mercy. The greatest glory of God is demonstrated in the salvation of one soul. The greatest glory of God is shown when he reveals his son in us, when he shows us the benefits of the cross of Calvary, when he shares with us that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin. That's his glory. He didn't have to come down and show us a picture of himself. He didn't have to show a bright light. He shows us his glory in what he does for his people. saves them from their sins.

So he said here, I'm with thee. What a statement he makes to Abraham, Israel, and Jacob. I am with thee. So he goes on. I'm going to go back over there to the book of Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 41. And here we have in Isaiah 41, these things, how blessed they are, Isaiah 41, and there in verse 10, it says there, fear thou not, for I am with thee, be not dismayed, for I am thy God.

You know, there's a passage of scripture over in the New Testament, when God saves some people in Thessalonica, he said, I took away your idols. I caused you to turn from your dumb idols to the living God. You know, that's what God's in the business of doing. When he saves us by his grace, he changes our affections from that which we held to, to him. He becomes the one that we are in love with. And then it goes on to say here, for I am thy God. And then he says, I will strengthen thee. Now, when God said, I will do something, he is going to do it. He's not a shirker. He's not slacking. He's not gives a statement and then takes it back. He said, I will strengthen thee.

Now we know why we need that kind of strength, because we are weak in ourselves. We have no strength of our own. We cannot get out of the mess we're in. We can't get out of the horrible pit we're in. We can't get out of our free thinking about God. We need somebody that has the ability, and God said, I will give you my strength. And what a promise it is, that it is he that gives us his strength. I will strengthen thee. And that promise is absolute. There's no, well, I thought he would, but he didn't. Or he did, but now he took it back. No, no, no, no, no. God is not a man like we are. He's not a shirker like we are. When he promises, it will be fulfilled. There will be no taking back. There will be no, oh, I had my fingers crossed. No, I used to do that with my brother. He'd make me promise something, but I had my fingers crossed, so it didn't mean anything. Do you ever do that? Yeah, we have all kinds of ways of dealing with, I don't want to fulfill my promise. Well, God doesn't do that. He's absolute when it comes to his promises. And he said, I will strengthen thee. Yes, I will help thee. I'll strengthen thee, I will give you the strength of God.

But let's, I wanna go over to the book of Jeremiah for just a moment, book of Jeremiah chapter 31. And in the book of Jeremiah chapter 31, we have these words, chapter 31, verse 31. He said here, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, and I'll make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. So many people have the idea that he's making this with national Israel, but by the very context, he's not doing that. He never forgave all of national Israel's sins. But he forgives all the sins of spiritual Israel, every one of them.

Let's follow this up. Not according to the covenant that I made with your fathers in that day, that I took them out by the hand and to bring them out of the land of Egypt, which my covenant they break. Although I was a husband unto them, saith the Lord. They broke the covenant. It was an agreement we made. God and Israel made an agreement and Israel didn't keep it. but this shall be the covenant that I'll make with the house of Israel after those days, I'll make this covenant with a church. And this covenant I will keep because they're the recipients of it, not the participants of it. I really like a covenant that someone says, I will do all of this for you and you have no responsibilities. And that's what God said. I will take care of it. I will strengthen you. I will take care of it. And I'll not leave anything to you because I know, left to you, we would fail. But I'm not going to have failure in this. I'll take care of it.

After those days, saith the Lord, I'll put my laws in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts, and will be their God, and they shall be my people, and they shall teach no man, every man his neighbor, or every man his brother, saying, know the Lord, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, saith the Lord, for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. No greater position can we have than have our sin taken care of. That's what came between us and God was our sin. And to have it taken care of, we're friends. That's why God could say, Abraham, you're my friend. Sin has been taken care of. Jacob, you're my friend. Sin's been taken care of. The church, you're my friend. Sin has been taken care of.

All right, going back over there to the book of Isaiah. This is again brought out. It says here in the book of Isaiah chapter 41, and we're just about finished. Isaiah 41, verse 10. It says, fear thou not for I am with thee. Be not dismayed for I am thy God. I will strengthen thee. We have no strength of our own. I will strengthen thee. For I am thy God. I will help thee. My goodness. The psalmist David said, thou art my help. And God said, I will help you. So there's no maybe help you if you do good. No, I will help you. Maybe good if you don't sin. No, I will help you. That's his promise. I will help you. I will strengthen you. And the I wills of God just go on and on. You know what we say? I will never sin again. Oh, I lied again. We can't say that. God said, I'll forgive your sin. I will forgive your sin. And he could keep that.

All right. And then he says, in the last part of this, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. Lord, I feel so weak and I have so little strength. I don't think I can make it. And God said, well, I'll uphold you. I'll take care of that part too. I will make sure that everyone that I've chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world will be presented spotless. I'll uphold them. I'll not leave them on their own. I'll not turn them loose. They will be mine. We will be grafted in. And he said, I will uphold thee. You know what that means? He gets to carry me on his shoulders. You know what that means to me? I get to ride. I ride on his shoulders. I don't ride in my righteousness. I ride on him. I rest in him. He's the one that is the strength for his people. And so he tells those Abraham, Isaac, Abraham, Jacob in Israel, he says, I'll strengthen thee. I'll help thee. I will uphold thee.

What does he tell us in the New Testament? I will give unto them eternal life. You know, a lot of people says, well, that's conditional eternal life. Well, God said it's not. God said it's eternal life. And when he says it's eternal life, it is eternal life. I don't care what we say. It's not conditional eternal life. It is eternal life. Now there are some really, really wicked, wicked sinners in the Old Testament. David, Abraham, Moses. Now it doesn't tell us go out and sin because you have grace. He's just saying, I save sinners and I keep them. So I'll uphold you, I'll uphold you. By my righteousness, I'll uphold you. I'll present you spotless by my righteousness. So what a statement. God made here three times. He says, I will. I will strengthen thee. I will help thee. I will uphold thee.

Let's go to the Lord in prayer. And then brother Michael will lead us in one more song.