I want to invite your attention
to the book of Isaiah. And I want to talk with you on,
don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. Fear not. I
can't tell you how many times in Scripture that little phrase
is used, fear not. Now, fear not only comes from
the outside, but a lot of times we have internal fear. And good
reason to have internal fear. I want to read about the people
of God in Isaiah 43. Let's quickly look at verse 21. This is a solid statement. God says, this people, Isaiah
43, 21, this people have I formed for myself. They're for me. They're for my glory, my honor,
my praise. They shall show forth my praise. My people are going to glorify
Me. Now, it doesn't mean there are perfect people. Watch this.
But thou hast not called upon Me. There's probably some people
in here that haven't called on the Lord in weeks. Never thought
about saying, thank you, Lord, for saving my soul. Thank you,
Lord, for making me whole. Thank you, Lord, for giving to
me salvation so rich and free. God's people get cold. And oftentimes,
you're like a kid in a department store that's shopping with Mom,
and all of a sudden the kid's busy doing stuff himself, loses
sight of Mom and can't find Mom, and begins to, Hey! Begins to
cry and holler for Mommy. You ever been there as a child
of God? Just kind of get so busy and all about yourself, and you're
looking at different things in life, and pretty soon, where's
God? That was the people in Isaiah's
day. Now it's not called upon me,
old Jacob. But thou hast been weary of me,
O Israel." Do you ever get tired of God? Now, be honest. I'm not
going to church tonight. I am so wore out. You know, I
found out this. We had such a hallelujah time
Friday night over at First Baptist. I couldn't wait till Saturday
night. I couldn't wait to get over there this morning. I thought
God might show up again. We might have a triple hitter
or something. And then over here, I came here
excited. I'm not tired of God. I want more. I want Him to show
up more. I want to see Him more. I want
to see more miracles go down. I'm thinking now about Grace
University. Why are you laughing? Look at verse 23. The small cattle
of thy burnt offering, cheapskate, ungrateful. Neither hast thou
honored me with thy sacrifices. I have not caused thee to serve
with an offering." In other words, when you think about how good
God's been to you, it's just natural to bring an offering.
Say, I want to give something to God. Not that He needs you
or me. Or not that He needs anything.
But I want to be used of Him. I want to live sacrificially.
I really don't want any more money. I can't think of anything
I really want except I want to see God. And you know, I found
out this. When you get in that place, God
just supplies and supplies and supplies and supplies. You come
out better when you're at, I don't want anything, except for Him
to get the glory and honor. Look at verse 24. Thou hast brought
me no sweet cane with money. I'd be forking it over. Neither hast thou filled me with
the fat of thy sacrifices, but thou hast made me to serve with
thy sins. You know what God says there?
You've made me to serve with your sins. I mean, you're doing
all this sinning, ungrateful, and I have to keep serving you
with your sins. God's good to you when you're
a mess. When you're ungrateful and even sinning, He just, He
serves you. Somebody ought to say, Amen,
that's true. You're nothing on the end of a stick that causes
God to bless you. You have to be from Kentucky
to understand that. Look at verse 25, I, even I,
am He that blotteth out thy transgressions for my own sake. Don't you know
who I am? Don't you know what I've done?"
He reminds us of what He's done.
I want you to just think about this a little bit. When you're
in that condition, when we're in that condition, what happens
to a child of God? It's a natural progression. You
come to a place where spiritual light comes on that God put in
there, and you go, I wonder if I'm really saved. Look at me. Look what I'm doing. How could
I call myself a child of God? It's been so long since I...
since I sang it with my heart. Thank You, Lord, for saving my
soul. Thank You, Lord, for making me whole. It's been so long since
I've cried out, Oh, what a wonder that Jesus found me! Out in the
darkness no light could I see. He put His great arm under, and
wonder of wonders He's saving even me. And can it be that I should gain
an interest in the Savior's love? Died He for me who caused His
pain. Amazed, amazed, amazed, amazed
at the goodness of God. Well, when you get that way,
it's going to get gooder now. Just hang on. Let's go to Isaiah
43 now. Just back up. Let me read these
passages real quick. Beginning with verse 1. Now,
think about what I just read. Think about the condition of
Israel. Think about the condition of Jacob. Think about where you've
been, Christian, what you've thought. Now listen to God speak
to you in the midst of all your mess. He's not speaking to good
folks who've been great giant Christians and successful in
the Christian walk. He's talking to these people
over here. I just read you about these folks. Ungrateful, unthankful,
wretches, wandering, prone to wander, prone to leave the God
I love. Now watch what He says to them.
But now, Thus saith the Lord that created thee." I'm the one
that made you. The one that made you is talking.
And He goes, "...and He that formed thee, O Israel." Fear
not! When you have everything to fear,
when you've been a lousy Christian, when you've wandered from the
God you love and wonder whether you're saved, He says, don't
be afraid. He's talking to somebody here
today. The Lord's talking to somebody here today. I hate to
preach to air. I want God to speak to somebody.
Fear not, I have redeemed thee. I bought you. Who, me? Yeah. You weren't worth
two cents, but I bought you. You know what makes a Christian
valuable? The price that was paid for you.
Otherwise, you're nothing. I'm about to get happy myself
here. I have called thee. Oh, do you remember when you
got a call? This is Jesus. Who? Jesus. Well, Lord, let me
get out of the place where I am so I can talk to you. Yeah, maybe
in the whorehouse. Maybe in the crack house. Or
maybe smack dab in the middle of some religious church. Amen. Alright, I'm getting ahead of
myself. Now watch what he says. Now you're going to go through
all this mess in life. Anybody here know there's mess in life? Oh, since I've been a Christian,
I've never had a problem. You've got a problem now. You're
lying through your teeth. Look at verse 2. When thou passest
through the waters. Oh, you're going into some deep
waters. And the problem is you can't swim. I will be with thee. And through the rivers they shall
not overflow thee. When thou walkest through the
fire, thou shalt not be burned. Neither shall the flame kindle
upon thee. For I am the Lord thy God. That's
why we're not consumed. That's why you're an overcomer
because greater is He that's in you than he that's in the
world. That's true. Between here and heaven, you
know, God's still working on us. Between here and heaven,
if you're a Christian, you're going to quit using crack. Yeah. There's some things that are
going to stop because He's in you. Oh, it may be a long process. Right? But it will happen. It
will happen. Fear not. That's what he says.
I am the Lord your God. Look at verse 4. Since thou wast
precious in my sight, thou hast been honorable. Honorable. Have
you been honorable? Listen, what that simply means
is every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father above. So, whatever is good and honorable
that comes out of you, He put in you. And He sees His own work
in you, and He says, that's honorable. And to God be the glory, right?
Look at this. I have loved thee. I have loved thee. When you were
in the crack house, when you were in a mess, He loved you.
Do you know that there never has been a time when God did
not love His people? In the old church, when I was
a young preacher, people used to say to me before I knew better
and they knew me better, they used to say to me, I know we're
having the Lord's Supper tonight. I won't be there. I don't feel
worthy. And I used to say I was a smart aleck then, a little
bit still. But back then I was really a smart aleck. You never
have been worthy. Come on out with us sinners and
say it's the blood of Christ. And let's remember Him for what
He did. Since thou wast precious in my
sight and honorable, I have loved thee. Therefore will I give men
for thee and people for thy life." Do you know? I know this. That
God has given me people who don't know God. And they're my friends. He said, I'll give you people
that will be your friends that don't even know me. Make friends
of mammon. I just, I don't think there's
any rich people here, but I'm after to make friends with rich
people. I'm just glad I'll tell you. You know why? We need their
money. I know some of you are going,
my God, what's wrong with that man this morning? He's lost his
mind. I want to be friends with politicians who are in charge
of things. It's all right to make friends.
The church shouldn't be offensive. I don't want to be offensive
to people. I want to like people. I want people to like me, whether
they're Christians or not. Amen. We're not the enemy here. Love people. Make friends of
people. God will send people to us to
help us who may not know the Lord. I've had people say to
me, he gave all that money and he's not even a Christian himself.
I'll take the devil's money and use it for the glory of God. Okay, you can tell I'm a little
wired today. I've had no coffee. But I think
I've had a lot of the Holy Spirit today. I've had a lot of the
Holy Spirit today. Look at verse 5, "'Fear not, for I am with
thee. I will bring thy seed from the
east and gather them from the west. I will say to the north,
give them up, and to the south, keep not back. Bring my sons
from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth.'" Fear
not. Just two little words measured
by space and letters. But in those two little words,
there is an abyss of consolation when you consider who it is that's
saying, fear not. It's just a sweep of comfort.
Don't be afraid. Maybe you came in here today
afraid, fearful. I don't know what's going on
in your business life. I don't know what's going on in your personal
life. But I do know this, if you're
a Christian, God would say to you, don't be afraid, I got you.
Fear not. It's as if He's saying to fear,
I'm going to spank you. You know, those the Lord loves
He chastens. Most of His chastening is just the natural outgrowth
of what you've done. You get drunk, you say stupid
stuff. You know, you may do things you wouldn't ordinarily do. Oh,
somebody in here knows better than You ought to be saying,
Amen, all over this place. Some of you people have been
drunk. You go, yeah, that's right. Noah got drunk. The Bible's full
of drunks. I don't need to go there any
further. I can tell that's not really. You're getting afraid,
I think. So God says, I'll spank you,
but I'm not going to destroy you. I spanked Shannon and Amber
a few times. Pam spanked them more. Of course
I wanted them to like me. But the reason I spanked them,
I didn't spank them to beat them to death. I wasn't trying to
destroy them. I didn't want them playing in
the street and get run over. Right? I spanked them because
I loved them. If you're a child of God, you're
going to get spanked. All God's children get spanked. There's
none of God's children that don't get spanked. Right? My mama never
whipped me. My daddy never spanked me. That's
why you're spoiled, right? Amen. Amen. My anger against
your sin is but a form of my love to yourself. Because you've
been playing in the street. And I'm angry about you playing
in the street. So you're going to get spanked. But it's only
because I love you. Listen, child of God, you are
loved of God. Don't be afraid. Always let this
be a consolation. You, little child of God, may
be here today and you're hurting, you're crying, you're sighing,
but oh, the love of God to you. He hears our cries and is compassionately
moved toward you. I can hardly stand to hear Hayden
cry or a baby cry, Caleb cry. It moves me. How much more God is moved when
you cry? He's your Heavenly Father. Isn't
that right? And some of you have been so
horribly abused, you don't understand that. But I want you to know
that the God of this Bible – you may have been physically or sexually
abused. I don't know how you've been
abused. But I do know this. The God of this Bible loves you,
child of God. And He never abuses His kids. Fear not. Don't be broken down
with slavish fear. Fear is a horrible thing. Fear
will literally immobilize you. You can't be afraid and serve
God. And I say this from a human standpoint, it's a risky, scary
thing to serve God. Yeah. In a sense, from a human
standpoint, two mil. Anybody have it here? November,
December. That's not November, December,
October, you know, March, April, May, January, February. That's
two months. That's scary. You say, well,
not to me. That's because you're not in
the battle real good. You need to come on over here on my side,
and we all need to say, we're facing two mil. Us. You're a member of this church.
I got two million dollars of your commitment. Now, see how
many leave the church after this service. Oh, yeah, you're on
the mortgage. It's not me alone. I'm not up
here by myself. There's about a hundred of you
here. Two mil. I know what's going to happen
now. Oh, God! The preacher's got us in debt
two million. You better start bringing those
pop cans. Amen. You better put your 33 cents
on the table. You better take off some of those
rings. I mean, the ones in your nose, too, and ears. You know, I still love you. I
just don't get that ring through your nose. I don't get it. His mercy is always flowing towards
you. Oh, His mercies are new every
morning. He's been merciful to me. He knows your sin. He's already
visited you for it. But be still. Don't be afraid.
My dad used to say, go to your room. I'll be up there in a minute.
I knew what that meant. And I'll tell you, there's a
whole lot of shaking going on up there in that room. Whole
lot. Dad would come up, take off that
52-inch belt and wrap it around my legs three or four times.
Oh, it felt so good when it was over. And I knew this, my daddy
loved me. And he'd always say, I want you
to know, of course, sometimes I did think like my older brother,
I wish you didn't love me so much. He would always say, I'm
doing this because I love you. That's what God does. If He ever
spanked you, just know this, He loves me so much. Otherwise,
He'd let you go. Aren't you glad God won't let
you go? I'm glad. Yeah. He lets us lay in his lap and
he holds us like a mother in his arms and says, let not your
heart be troubled. Pam used to sing over and over,
bio, bio, baby, bio, when she was putting the kids to sleep.
And you know, that was so comforting. Pretty soon, that little strong
Will Shannon would be out. She'd be out with just bio, bio,
a baby bio. It's wonderful when God takes
you in His arms, especially after you haven't had much sleep because
you've been worrying and you're a total mess, and He sings to
you, bio, bio, baby bio, and you rest. Scripture says He gives
us His beloved rest. He gives us rest. Come unto me,
all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."
Trouble in my way. Have to moan sometimes. But I've
got a God who is a God that gives rest. He does indeed. All right, real quick now. I've
got goosebumps. I'm high right now. I'm high.
There's no high like the Most High. It's a good thing I'm not Pentecostal.
You Baptists, no telling what would happen here. Reasons not
to fear. Number one, real quick, reasons
not to fear. Because He remembers and considers
the works of His own hands. The works of His own hands. It
would be like this. This is what He says, I created
you. I created you. And here's what
Ephesians 2.10 says, Now let me back up a little. 8. For by
grace are you saved through faith. And that not of yourselves, it's
the gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should
boast. For we are His workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus unto good works. You're my work. That's what he
says. I created you. I formed you. Maybe you're a little child of
God here and you're saying, You know, I don't have a degree.
I don't have the smarts most people have. You know, I feel
uncomfortable, not confident. I'm not... Let me tell you, God
created you. And He's given you gifts. You
need to realize who you are. Just be who you are. Don't you
hate fakes? Especially, I don't like religious
fakes. Well, praise the Lord! Hallelujah! When God wraps His arms around
you and says, I got you, I made you, I created you, I formed
you. You know, many times we forget
the wonders of His grace. We do, but He doesn't forget.
He would say to you like this, I chose you before I ever created
the world. You're not self-created. All
you folks talk about free will and how you did it yourself and
how you saved yourself and how your works are going to take
you to heaven. No, you don't get it. God says, you're My work. You're My work. I chose you.
According, He has chosen us in Him before the foundation of
the world. Paul said, we're bound to give
thanks for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God has
from the beginning chosen you to salvation. Yeah. Yeah. Formed us. And don't you
remember how He recreated us? Oh, He recreated us. I mean,
you were out there amiss. You were dead. in your sins and
trespasses, and walking according to the course of this world,
doing the most stupid stuff, destroying thyself. But in God
is your help. I'm going to tell you this. If
you get broke as a Christian, God didn't break you. God doesn't
break His kids. You may think you're going to
break up, but God doesn't break His kids. The first ray of repentance
that He is this, that ever dawned in your heart, He was the Creator
of it. The first time you realized you
were loved, He manifested that to you. All truth is revealed
truth. The second reason not to fear
is that He has redeemed us. He bought you. He walked into
the slave market of sin with His own blood. You were a slave! Satan had you! in those dreadful days of slavery
here in our own country. The bottery of slavery. And by the way, human slavery
is worse now than it has ever been in the history of the world.
Slavery has not gone away. Human beings holding other human
beings as captives. You were held a captive. You
were dead to God, inactive toward God, dead in your sins without
any thought of God. And He came and bought you off
of the slave market of sin. How much am I to bid? Well, how
much is it going to take, God said. And the Master says, it's
going to take the blood of your own son to free this one. And
He bought you and gave you your emancipation papers. If the Son
sets you free, you're free indeed. You're not a slave anymore. Don't
let the devil tell you that. You are not a slave to crack
cocaine if you're a Christian. You're free. You need to start
acknowledging. I don't need it. I'll not have
it. I'll not take it. Bluefoot, get your hands off
me. It's true. He bought us with his own blood. Don't let the enemy rob you of
this, that you're purchased. You don't belong to the enemy.
He has no claim to you. You're free. Jesus bought you
with His precious blood. Fear not. You've been bought.
And you're not bankrupt, and you'll never go bankrupt. You're
a child of the King. Oh, we used to sing in the old
church, I'm a child of the King! I'm a child of the King! With
Jesus my Savior, I'm a child of the King! You know who my
daddy is? Let me tell you about my daddy
sometime. He'll kick your daddy's butt any day of the week. Fear not, because He has called
you by name. That's what it says. Verses 1
through 6. Fear not, I have called you by name. We used to sing
in the old church too. I can hear my Savior calling.
I can hear my Savior calling. I'll go with Him. I'll go with
Him all the way. Did you get the call? I'm telling
you, I got the call. And I knew His voice. My sheep
hear My voice. And I know them by name. And
they follow Me. And I give unto them eternal
life. And they shall never perish.
Oh, happy day. There's a day I'll never forget.
When the Gospel of God came to me with appointed and personal
power and set me free. And I passed from death unto
life. No call is more personal than
this, when Jesus comes and calls you. I wouldn't be surprised
if He's not walking the aisles here today and calling somebody,
and you're hiding back there. You've got tears just ready to
flow down your cheeks because all of a sudden, for the first
time in your life, you realize you're loved of God. You realize
it's well with your soul. But your flesh is going like
this. I mean, you don't want anybody to see you moved, right?
You don't want anybody to know you're showing tears. After all,
you're 48 years old. After all, you're 38 years old.
After all, you're a man. And crack has kicked your behind
all over this county. And then Jesus came. Oh, oh,
oh, when Jesus comes. OK, calm down, Kent. He's not ashamed of us. That's
why we don't fear. He's not ashamed of us. Even
when we're ashamed of ourselves, he's not ashamed of us. He said,
you're precious. I have an admission here. When
Shannon came out of the oven, I was at the hospital and I made
a real bad mistake. I said to Pam, that's the ugliest
baby I have ever seen. But that wasn't ugly to Mama.
I got a soon rebuke. Oh, Jesus loves ugly babies. He's a mother. He said, Oh, you're
precious. You're precious. And when He
borns you again, He lets you lay there on His chest. And He
feeds you nourishment, baby food, so you can grow. And when you
grow up, you may be false to the covenant. You know, when
you first get saved, born again, you say things like, I'll never
leave you. I love you, Lord. Wherever you
lead me, I'll go. Whatever you say, I'll do. But you know that's not true.
Every Christian in here knows that's not true. You made a promise,
but you haven't kept it. But when you wasn't keeping your
promise, He keeps His. I'll never leave you. And I'll
never forsake you. A mother may forsake her suckling
child. She might do that. It's a horrible
thing when you hear about a mother who puts her baby under a car
tire. or throws her baby in the dumpster.
God said that's very unusual for a mother to do that. But
as for me, though a mother may do that, I will never do that.
Because you're precious. So you don't have to fear. Fear
not. I love the fix-it love of God.
He'll fix it. Jesus will fix it. He will indeed. Fear not because of the overflowing
of the love of God. Note how he knows the future.
He says, there is going to be waters and floods and rivers.
There's going to be fire and flame. But he promises the deepest
waters, the fiercest torrents shall not drown you because of
this all-sufficient reason you are mine. You know, he doesn't
lose any of his kids. And one day there's going to
be a great presentation when He's going to say to the Father,
Lo, I and the children which Thou hast given Me, well, let's
check the Lamb's Book of Life. John here, Bill here, Susie here. All the kids are there. All His
kids. Billions and billions and billions. You know there'll be more people
in heaven than hell. You think God is going to let the devil
beat him in regard? Somebody said, ah, you know,
Clark is a Calvinist, Clark is a predestinarian, Clark is this,
Clark is that. He believes a little handful
is going to heaven. I believe a handful is going
to heaven, but it's God's hands. No man is able to pluck them
out of my Father's hand. That's what he said. Nothing
can separate us from the love of God. Nothing can harm us.
It's only a shadow. It's only a shadow. Oh, the perseverance,
the omnipotence of divine love. Fear not. I hope you go away
from here today. You go away from here as a child
of God. And if you're not a child of
God or haven't been a child of God, I hope you go away from
here saying something like this, I believe I got talked to today.
If you are a child of God, I hope you go away from here. I'll never
be afraid again. I'm not going to be fearful.
I don't care what comes in my life, what breakdowns happen
in my life. And by the way, a lot of breakdowns
happen around here, right? All kinds of mess happens. Every
week it happens. Every day it happens around here.
We're just a huge lake of breakdowns. But God... What about death? I love this verse. I love this
verse. Listen to this. He said, there's
a day coming, and there is a day coming. He said, let not your
heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also
in Me. In My Father's house are many mansions. If it were not
so, I would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you that
where I am there you may be also. We buried a lot of people here
in 27 years. But there's a day coming when
the Father will say to the Son and to Gabriel, Gabriel, blow
the trumpet. I don't know whether that's going
to be fixed. And Jesus will appear. Don't be standing in the graveyard
when Jesus appears. And all the graves will open
up of His children. And He'll say to the south, give
them up! That's Kentucky and Alabama and Georgia and Tennessee.
Give up! To the north, all the Yankees. Give them up! Right? To the west and the east. I'm
telling you, there's a great getting up morning. Oh, there's
a great getting up morning when our loved ones who know Christ
are coming out of the grave. And those of us who remain are
going to be changed in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye. I'll
tell you right now, old Quentin and Milton are looking over there
in Herb, and look at him, he's still a crazy man talking about
that great getting up morning. Just think about that. I think
about our future. Steve sent me the story about
the little girl who had cancer and was eat up with cancer. Remember
last Sunday I brought her forth? Some of you remember what I said
about the little girl was telling her pastor about how she was
eat up with cancer and she was going to die and not live long.
She told the pastor, put a fork in my hand. And he said, why
are you going to have the fork in your hand? What do you want
that for? And she said, you know how they're always saying after
a big dinner at a restaurant, save your fork? The best is yet
to come. I'm telling you, I live every
day like this. The best is yet to come. That's true of all of us who
are Christians. Oh, it's kind of tough down here.
I want you to stand. I want you to sing as if you
have no fear because there is no reason for you to have fear.
If you don't know Jesus Christ, I trust today you fell in love
with Him, that the Spirit of God has moved in you and caused
you and born you again and caused you to look to Him and trust
Him.