May it please almighty God to
bless us together this evening as we meditate in his word. Let's
turn to the prophecy of Isaiah chapter 41 and we'll read verse
13. Prophecy of Isaiah chapter 41
and reading verse 13. For I the Lord, thy God, will
hold thy right hand saying unto thee, fear not, I will help thee. The Bible contains some wonderful
words of strength and encouragement. And to realize that here we have
a statement that God himself is speaking to the Church of
God, that we should really be encouraged by it. And so the
word says, for I the Lord, thy God. That's a really humbling
statement to a believer to think that the one who has created
the universe, the one who has made us, graciously and gloriously
condescends to provide such a wonderful statement as this, for I am the
Lord thy God. You know, there are many false
gods in the world, but there's only one true God, and the true
God is the God of the Bible. And it is a wonderful mercy for
us tonight that we have the Word of God, that we have the Bible,
that we can read the Word of God which confirms to us such
wonderful and glorious truths. And the blessing is if Almighty
God gives us faith, living faith to believe the truth of God,
because if the Holy Spirit gives us that faith to believe, then
it will do us good. It will help us, it will encourage
us, it will strengthen us. It won't just be mere words. Indeed, the Bible is not mere
words. The Bible is the Word of God. And what a blessing if when we
read it, We read it just like that. It is God speaking to us
through his word. And what a blessing, therefore,
even tonight, if the Holy Spirit comes and applies, which is needful,
applies his word to our hearts, to our souls, so that such a
word does have a gracious and a wonderful application to us. For I, the Lord, thy God. And then we're told what will
happen. What will happen? We're told,
first of all, this great God will hold us by our right hand. And then he will say to us, Fear
not, and then he will help us. Wonderful statements, aren't
they? Each one is a tremendous encouragement to the Church of
God. And so as we think of this tonight,
the Lord God speaking like this, who will hold our right hand. Now, somebody holds our hand
one thing is very clear we are very close to that person you
can't be a long way away if somebody holds our hand and to just realize
that Almighty God speaks in these wonderful terms to his people
and it tells us that He will hold our right hand. And you know that if someone
holds your hand, you know you're close to them, and you go with
them. Where they go, you go, because
you're led and you're directed. What a mercy it is for us today
to think that we have a God, a great God, and let us never
underestimate the greatness of this God and the wonder that
this God looks upon us and comes like this and holds us by our
hand. We might say how wonderfully
condescending and so it is to think that the ruler of the universe
has looked upon sinful souls like you and me who really don't
deserve any notice. We really deserve to be passed
by. And yet to think that this great
God tarries and he takes us by our hand, by our right hand,
and then leads us on and is with us. And he takes us by the hand
It's a wonderful truth to realize what he then says. He says, fear
not. Well, in our lives, as we journey
on, there will be times, there may be many times, when we fear
the future, the unknown way. We don't know what's before us. Sometimes we look around and
it appears there's mountains in the way, great obstacles.
We can't see how they will be overcome. Well, we have a God
who knows everything. He knows the end from the beginning. We only see where we are in the
journey of life. And it may seem that there are
insurmountable difficulties before us there were weren't there in
the lives of the children of israel insurmountable difficulties
you may think of one which was well known when the children
of israel were being attacked by the philistines and there
was this great adversary goliath who stood up and challenged the
israelites And it would seem it was impossible for anybody
to be able to fight this great giant. But what happened? God raised up David, a young
man. And there was this young man
who did not agree to put on any armor, didn't feel comfortable
in it, and he He told the king in confidence that his God would
deliver him. Faith in God, to what would appear
to be an insurmountable difficulty. And yet, as you read that account,
how wonderful it is to realize that David, he went in the strength
of the Lord God. He didn't rely upon his skills.
He was able to tell the king that he had slain a lion and
he slain a bear because God had helped him. But he wasn't relying
on his skill. He was relying upon his God.
And his God wonderfully helped him. So that when he took that
sling and those stones and took that first stone and slung it
at Goliath, God directed it straight into the forehead of Goliath,
and he fell down to the ground, and David was able to go and
cut off his head. A wonderful deliverance, that
which appeared to be impossible. Well, that's just one example. If you read through the Old Testament,
and if you read through especially Samuel and Kings and Chronicles,
you will see many examples where God appeared and God slew sometimes
hundreds of thousands of the enemy, tasks which appeared impossible. Well, we know that things are
impossible with men, but they're not impossible with God. And so we can recognise then,
we have a statement here, as God takes us by the right hand
and we are to fear not. We are not to fear. Why? We are to go in the strength
of the Lord God. We are to depend upon His help,
His mercy, His grace, that God who has said, I will never leave
thee nor forsake thee. Therefore, we may boldly say
the Lord is my helper. How many times in the word of
God have we seen the Lord helped people? The Lord helped David
on many occasions. there are many kings who the
Lord graciously helped to overcome. And then as we look through the
New Testament, we see how the Lord appeared then and helped
one and another to be blessed with faith, to believe what the
Lord could do and what the Lord did. And in all those cases,
what was the result? The result was God's name was
honoured and glorified. And so it is really the same
today. He will. Don't forget that. As this word says, for I the
Lord God will hold thy right hand. And when the Lord says
he will do something, God doesn't have any failures. we may have
failures in our life we may say we're gonna do this and we're
gonna do that and we may not perhaps be able to perform them
but when God speaks and when God says he will it comes to
pass that's the great God that you and I blessed to know and to have faith
in this God thy God don't leave that behind take it with you
thy God for I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand saying
unto thee, fear not, fear not. You know, this word, fear not,
I just checked it up and I think it occurs 62 times in the Bible,
fear not. And I said, why did it occur
so many times? Because it was needful. God's
people, through all generations, need encouragement and that's
why it is used so many times that we may fear not and as we
journey on through life no doubt there will be future occasions
when we will need God and we will need that encouragement
from God. Don't forget here was God speaking
it wasn't just the mere words of a man you see a person can
say fear not but it doesn't have the same weight it doesn't have
the same power that emanates from almighty God because when
God speaks it is done and we know that because again we can
go back to the beginning of creation when God spake the world into
being. And God spake on so many occasions
to his people. He spoke to Abraham, spoke to
Isaac, spoke to Jacob, spoke to Daniel, spoke to Job. So many people the Lord spoke
to. And what encouraging words they
were. What strengthening words they
were. And so may we be encouraged tonight
as we have such a word as this. It's the Lord speaking, and the
Lord is saying, saying unto thee, a personal application. And we do need personal applications
in our lives. It's good, you know, to hear
of God's goodness and mercy and deliverances. to one another. But there are those times in
our lives when we need a specific application of the Word of God
spoken by God into our very hearts so that we can rejoice in what
God says and believe what God says will come to pass. There are many promises that
things will come to pass. And so many times we follow such
words by and it came to pass. You see God's promises do not
fail. That's really one of the great
blessings of God given religion to have a confidence in God. Isaiah had a confidence in his
God. All the children of God have
had a confidence in their God. And my friends today, may we
have a right and true confidence in our God, especially as we
may realize the condescension of God coming and taking us by
our hand. not leaving us just to wander
on aimlessly, but taking us by our hand and taking us in hand
so that we can believe what we read in the 107th Psalm, and
He, Almighty God, led them forth by the right way that they might
go to a city of habitation. The life of the true believer
is to prepare us for our eternal home in glory. This world is not the rest of
the people of God. Indeed, as we read here, for
here we have no continuing city. but we seek one to come. And what a great blessing if
the Almighty God takes us by the hand and leads us indeed
in the right way to bring us at last safely home to that eternal
habitation, that eternal inheritance. I love that word inheritance
because it's not something that you and I ever work for. Natural
inheritance is when somebody dies and somebody leaves us.
And inheritance, it's nothing that we work for, but it's something
which is given. And that's what the great gift
of God is. He gives his church, every member
of the church, this great and wonderful gift of eternal life. And so we can therefore understand
why this great glorious Lord comes and takes us by the right
hand and leads us on safely. What a mercy that is because
if the Lord didn't take us by hand, you know, we might wander
everywhere. We probably would wander everywhere.
And one thing is certain, we will wander away from God. What
a blessing it is when God takes us in by the hand and leads us
in that way so that we can be encouraged and that we can be
strengthened by it. The Psalmist David and also Asaph
tells us in the Psalms, there are some beautiful Psalms to
encourage us. And in the 73rd Psalm, we read,
In verse 23 and verse 24, this is what Asaph declares. Nevertheless, I am continually
with thee. Now, before that, this is what
he says. So foolish was I and ignorant
I was as a beast before thee. You know, all of us have been
ignorant. All of us have been foolish. Well, perhaps we still are foolish
in measure, but what a blessing if tonight we have this blessed
promise from God, nevertheless I am continually with Thee. That's holding me by my right
hand. You see, Asaph realised what
a blessing this was. to be held by the right hand
and therefore to know that God was continually with him. We're not told that God leaves
go. We're not told that, no, we're told this in this verse,
I will hold thy right hand. Just think about that. God's
holding us, perhaps he's holding us today. by our right hand. And if He is, you see, He won't
let go. He won't let us wander off. And Asaph goes on to tell us
this. Thou shalt guide me with thy
counsel and afterward receive me to glory. You see, the end
of this leading is glory. And that's a wonderful and blessed
prospect. And he goes on, just let me read
on a little. Whom have I in heaven but thee?
And there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee. Well that's a very grand and
glorious statement, isn't it? And what a blessing if you and
I can come to a statement like that and be able to humbly say,
Whom have I in heaven but thee? And there is none upon earth
that I desire beside thee. Indeed, really, it means give
me Christ or else I die. This evening, where is our desire? Is it toward Christ? Is it to say that I might know
him? As Paul tells us when he wrote
to the Philippians, I might know him and the power of his resurrection
and the fellowship of his sufferings and be made conformable unto
his image. That was a wonderful desire. And the Apostle Paul, you see,
was led by the Savior, led to desire these great and glorious
blessings. And so we understand what he
says, my flesh and my heart fadeth, but God is the strength of my
heart and my portion forever. To think, you see, that God is
our strength here on this earth and that we are his portion forever. Forever with the Lord. What a
wonderful blessing it is to realise that. Well, just the last two
verses in this 73rd Psalm read, For lo, they that are far from
thee shall perish. Thou hast destroyed all them
that go a-whoring from thee. But it is good for me to draw
near to God I have put my trust in the Lord God that I may declare
all thy works. They are testimony of a godly
man. What a wonderful thing if that
indeed is our testimony and we can praise and bless God for
it because it's only because of his grace and because of his
mercy. And so we have this statement
then For I, the Lord thy God, will hold thy right hand, saying
unto thee, Fear not. No. Fear not. Well, what a mercy
then to have this blessed understanding. Again, we turn to the 89th Psalm. What a mercy it is that we have
so many statements to encourage us. And the 89th Psalm tells
us Then thou spakest in vision to thy Holy One and saidst, I
have laid help upon one that is mighty. I have exalted one
chosen out of the people. What a blessing that is to realise
there was that help laid upon none other than the blessed Saviour
himself. And here we have this statement
in his 13th verse, fear not I will help thee. I will help thee. It's very wonderful, isn't it?
To have such a great positive statement. I will help thee. And this word help really means
also in the original to be surrounded, surrounded. and to be protected. Don't think then that this almighty
God surrounds us and protects us. Yes, from all the assaults
of the evil one. My friends, the devil's aim is
to overthrow us. The devil's aim is to destroy
our faith. But bless God, our faith is that
which God has given to us. Living faith to believe. Not something that we've hatched
up ourselves. Something that God has given
to us. And so then, fear not, I will
help thee. I will help thee. You know the
psalmist in that familiar psalm, 121, where the psalmist says,
I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills from whence cometh
my help my help cometh from the lord and it's a great blessing
if you and i have experienced or will experience the help from
almighty god and that help to stand firm that help to resist
the devil You see, the devil is always on the lookout for
a gap in our armor. He always wants to produce in
our hearts that evil heart of unbelief. He wants us to turn
away from the truth of God, not to rest in the Word of God. Well, what a mercy then if God
gives us grace Remember that's an unmerited favor to rest in
the promises of God. And here is a very wonderful,
blessed promise. Fear not, I will help thee. That's God speaking. It's not
man speaking, it's God speaking. So as you and I journey on through
life, and all the difficulties that we are confronted with. And let us quite clearly understand
that the journey of life is not an easy one. We're not encouraged
to believe it will be easy. And of course we have the example
of the Church of God recorded in the Word of God and we have
the wonderful example of the Saviour Himself. My friends,
what a difficult life the Saviour had. And yet, you see, He conquered. And the Word of God tells us,
and we are more than conquerors through Him. You know, it's a
blessing if we can rest on the finished work of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And the Lord says here, I will
help thee. Help thee to do what? To believe the truth of God. The devil does not want you and
me to believe. He wants us to doubt everything
in God's Word. He wants us to say, well, that's
all right for some, but it doesn't apply to me. It's the evil heart
of unbelief. It's a great blessing when the
Lord gives you and me faith and it's humble faith. You won't
boast about what you've done, but you will boast about what
Christ has done on your behalf. See, that's the real favour,
and that's the wonderful essence of true Christian, to boast in
what the Lord Jesus has done for such unworthy sinners. Well, fear not, I will help thee. And so that we may indeed go
in the strength of the Lord. The Apostle Paul, when he wrote
to the Romans, he asked the question, what shall we then say to these
things? He poses the question, if God
before us, who can be against us? No one can ultimately be against
us. The devil will do all he can
to destroy our faith. But what a blessing if our faith
is founded not on what we have done, but it's founded upon what
the Lord Jesus Christ has done. And so then we can come humbly
and believe this true word. What shall we say then to these
things? If God before us, who can be
against us? God you see speaks to us tonight,
these words, fear not, I will help thee. The devil cannot overthrow
a promise like that, because that word is proved in the Word
of God again and again. The saints of God have been helped. You've only got to take the Apostle
Paul himself, how he was wonderfully helped in his life. The many,
many difficulties he had, the many imprisonments the Apostle
Paul had. great opposition that the Apostle
Paul had. But he didn't give up. He didn't
give up. He pressed on. He pressed on
knowing that he was one of those whom the Lord had called And
he gives us a list, and it's good sometimes just to remind
ourselves of what the Apostle Paul suffered as he journeyed
through life. We read the life of the Apostle,
which we can do very clearly in the Acts, and we might think,
well, he had wonderful deliverances and wonderful blessings, but
he lets us in to a little of a secret when he wrote to the
Corinthians in the second epistle and the 11th chapter. And as
we come down to near the end of that chapter, verse 23, and
he says, are they ministers of Christ? I speak as a fool, I
am more. in labors more abundant. And
as I've often said, it's really good to recognize that the Apostle
Paul doesn't suffer from mock humility. He is an honest man. And so he tells us, I speak as
a fool. I am more in labors more abundant,
in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths
oft of the Jews five times received I 40 stripes save one. Thrice
was I beaten with rods. Once was I stoned. You can read
about that when he was stoned and he was taken up as dead.
Thrice I suffered shipwreck. A night and a day I've been in
the deep, in journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils
of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by
the heathen, in perils in the city, perils in the wilderness,
in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren, in weariness
and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst,
in fasting often, in cold and nakedness. Beside all those things
that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care
of all the churches, Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is offended,
and I burn not? If I must need glory, I will
glory are the things which concern my infirmities. Well, that's
a testimony of the apostle. And therefore, how true it is,
as the Lord Jesus tells us at the end of that wonderful discourse
in the upper room, it is through much tribulation we shall enter
the kingdom. But be of good joy, I have overcome
the world. So we can say this, we're not
promised an easy journey. But we are promised a good end. We are promised a deliverance. There will be a time when the
Lord comes to receive us unto himself. As he spoke again in
the upper room on the 14th of John, 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.
And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again to
receive you unto myself, that where I am there, ye may be also. So fear not. It's a good prospect. I will help thee. The apostle
was helped. The saints of God have been helped. The saints of God will be helped
because God doesn't change. That which he promises comes
to pass. Oh my friends tonight may we
rely upon the great and glorious truth of God And again, the Apostle
says, and it's good to think that here's the Apostle Paul
writing when he wrote to the Romans and the eighth chapter
in the Romans and verse 28, this is what we read. And he tells
us, and we know, the Apostle was able to tell us, and we know there wasn't any doubt about
it and we know that all things and
that's difficult sometimes to say but nonetheless the Word
of God is true and we know that all things work together for
good to them that love God and to them who are the call according
to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he
also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son, a despised
and crucified man. To the image of his son. Yes, called. What a wonderful
blessing that he might be the firstborn among many brethren."
Well, there we are. We have a confirmation in the
New Testament, really, of these truths that the prophet Isaiah
sets before us under the blessed influence of the Holy Spirit. And tonight, may we realize how
wonderful they are. We read the 13th verse, but as
you may have noted, as we read down here, the 10th verse says
this also. Fear thou not, for I am with
thee. Be not dismayed, for I am thy
God. I will strengthen thee, yea,
I will help thee, yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand
of my righteousness. Well, we have a kind and gracious
God who goes on after the 13th verse to say, fear not thou worm
Jacob. And ye men of Israel, I will
help thee, saith the Lord, and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of
Israel. What a blessing to have such
a Redeemer, such a Saviour, who has been so gloriously willing
to give His life, that you and I might receive the wonderful
gift of eternal life. Surely we have to say, what a
Saviour, what a God, who should look upon such an unworthy sinner,
and deal with us in love to our souls, and give us that good
hope, through grace, that it is well with our soul, and have
this confirmation, for I the Lord, thy God, will hold thy
right hand, saying unto thee, fear not, I will. Help me. Amen.