May I please Almighty God to
bless us together this evening as we meditate in his holy word.
Let us turn to the epistle of Paul to the Hebrews chapter 13
and we'll read verse six. The epistle of Paul to the Hebrews
chapter 13 and reading verse six. So that we may boldly say
The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto
me. In the word of God, there are
many occasions where there is a record of God's help in one
way and another. And that, of course, is a great
blessing and it's a wonderful truth. And may it be in our lives
that we indeed can look back, perhaps over days, perhaps over
weeks, months or years, or perhaps even today, and be able to confirm
the Lord has been my helper. Indeed, I'm sure that every true
child of God, every true believer can come and concur with that
statement, the Lord has helped them. And therefore, perhaps
we can think of the lines in the hymn which tells us, he who
has helped me, hitherto will help me all my journey through,
and give me daily cause to raise new Ebenezers to his praise. It's good if you and I are always
looking for opportunities to thank God and to praise God for
the help which he has granted to us. However, in this verse
that we read this evening, the apostle says, the Lord is my
helper. It was a present situation. And
again, that's a wonderful blessing. If the Lord gives us faith, to
be able to testify the Lord is my helper. The Apostle Paul had
so many evidences in his life when the Lord had helped him,
when it helped him to endure much physical opposition, helped
him to endure mental opposition, and he was able therefore to
thank God for the many occasions when the Lord had been with him.
And we see then the confidence he now is able to speak to the
Hebrews, the Lord is my helper. And of course, as we think of
it, it relates really to what goes before in the previous verse,
in the fifth verse, where he tells us He starts off and says,
let your conversation be without covetousness and be content with
such things as you have. And that of course in itself
is a very important admonition for all of us because by nature
we are covetous people. What a blessing it is then if
he gives us, the Lord gives us, that spirit of contentment. The
Word of God tells us godliness with contentment is great gain.
We brought nothing into this world and it is certain that
we should carry nothing out. Well, the Apostle then goes on
to say, for he hath said, I will never leave thee nor forsake
thee. That's a tremendous promise,
isn't it? Just think of that. whatever condition, whatever
situation you and I find ourselves in, this word remains true. He has said, I will never leave
thee, nor forsake thee, through life, and of course, then through
eternity. God never forsakes his people. Sometimes he withdraws his influence,
but he never forsakes his people. What a mercy, what a blessing
that is, and it's because of that humble confidence. We may
think it's not humble confidence, but in reality it is a humble
confidence. If you read the apostles' letters
you will know that he was a humble man, but he wanted to lift up
the Lord high, to exalt his name, and therefore he tells the truth
and doesn't suffer from mock humility. No, he's able to come
and speak with this humble confidence. And so I will never leave thee,
nor forsake thee. And then he says, so that we
may boldly say, boldly say. That's a blessing, isn't it?
Sometimes we may feel to be very timid. We are very timid. Sometimes perhaps we deserve
to be timid. But what a mercy it is when God
gives us living faith, God-given faith, because that's how it
is that you and I can come and speak in such a way. Without faith, it is impossible
to please God. And yet you see, it's God-given
faith What a mercy it is, because as it's his faith, which he gives
to us, then he receives and he must receive the honor and glory
for it. And so Paul says, so that we
may boldly say, armed with this great promise, I would never
leave thee nor forsake thee. We can then come humbly and yet
boldly and say, the Lord is my helper. And he goes on then and
says, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me. We know, of course, the fear
of man brings a snare. But here we have Paul with that
humble confidence in his God. And indeed, he tells us, doesn't
he? If God before us, who can be against us? He had proved
it. He knew the truth of it. What
a blessing it is in our lives. If we proved it and we know the
truth of it, I am able therefore to come and say, having obtained
help of God, we continue unto this day. The apostle Paul knew
that he'd received the help of God. He did continue and he would
continue because indeed the Lord was his helper. Well, I wonder
whether tonight we can humbly stand and say with a gracious
boldness in these words, indeed boldly say, the Lord is my helper. He has been, and he is today,
and he always will be. You see, you and I cannot do
things in our own strength. We may sometimes think we can,
We sometimes think we're equipped and able to do this and to do
that. This problem comes, this difficulty
comes, and we think we have the ability and the knowledge to
stand and resist all those oppositions. Well, the apostle knew where
his strengths lay, and he tells us, I can do all things through
Christ. that strengthens me. It's a lovely
word, isn't it? In the Philippians. It's a gracious
word. It's a glorious truth. And it's
true, you know, all the church of God, as he says, I can do
all things, not through his own strength, not through his own
ability, through Christ. His strength, his strength rested
in the Savior. And may it be so with us today.
May our strength rest indeed with what the Saviour has done. In the Psalms, the Psalms are
full of the gracious dealings of God with the soul. So many are penned by David himself. And we testify there in those
Psalms of how God led him, how God strengthened him, how God
blessed him, how he went in the strength of the Lord his God. And in the 118th Psalm there's
a very glorious statement in the sixth verse, and this is
what it says, the Lord is on my side, I will not fear, What
can man do unto me? The Lord is on my side. It's very similar, really, to
this word we brought this evening. The Lord is my helper. The Lord
is on my side. You see, we should be honest,
should we not, in the things of God. And we should not be those who
doubt the grace and the mercy and the love of God toward us
because if the Lord has loved us with an everlasting love and
I'm sure we all hope he has and I hope some of us know he has
by a gracious and personal experience and if he has indeed loved us
with everlasting love and surely Such a word as this must follow. The Lord is my helper. And as he said, David said, the
Lord is on my side. There was this follow on, wasn't
there? Because of that, because of that
humble confidence in his God, he was able to come and say,
I will not fear. I will not fear. By nature, we
do fear. There's many words of encouragement
in the Word of God to strengthen us. The 46th Psalm speaks of
that, doesn't it? When the Psalmist said, God is
our refuge. He joins together the whole Church
of God, includes you and me, my friends. God is our refuge
and strength. a very present help in trouble. The Lord doesn't leave us and
forsake us. He doesn't wander off and say, well, get on with
that problem by yourself. No, the Lord stands by us. God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble. Therefore, will not we fear? No need to fear. If God is for
us, if God is with us, God stands by us. Therefore we will not
be fair, although the earth be removed, and the mountains be
carried into the midst of the sea, though the waters thereof
roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the
dwelling thereof. However bad and terrible the
scene may seem, to have this humble confidence in our God,
and be able to echo these words, the Lord is my helper. I sometimes think and I sometimes
refer to that Psalm that David wrote,
the 142nd Psalm, which is a gracious word and explains where David
was. and how he reacted. Because he
tells us, I cried unto the Lord with my voice. With my voice
unto the Lord did I make my supplication. Here he was pleading, crying
to God, his helper. He tells us, I poured out my
complaint before him. What a mercy, you and I can pour
out our heart to our God. Other people perhaps wouldn't
understand, but God knows all about us. God knows why he brings
us into trials, why he brings us into difficult paths. It's to cause us to testify that
God is our helper. So he tells us, when my spirit
was overwhelmed within me, then thou knewest my path. No one
else, but God knew his path, and God knows our path. God knows
your path, and he knows my path. Thou knewest my path. In the way when I walked, Have
a privily laid a snare for me. The devil's always trying to
lay traps and snares for us. We need to always burn our watchtower. He's very active. He never tires. He's always there to try and
destroy our soul and sometimes it casts us down. But nonetheless,
let us have our confidence in our God. David tells us, looked
on my right hand behold there was no man that would know me
refuge failed me no man cared for my soul well sometimes that
may be true but bless god the lord as we already said in that
fifth verse never leaves us nor forsakes us he doesn't fail us
man may fail us and it may appear It may be so, no man cared for
my soul. And then he says, I cried unto
thee. Oh Lord, I said, thou art my
refuge and my portion in the land of the living. Where was
he? With confidence in his God as
his helper. Attend unto my cry, for I am
brought very low. God's people are brought very
low. David was brought very low, as
we read here. Paul was brought very low. Many
of God's people, evidence in the writings and the word of
God, were brought very low. But it doesn't mean to say they're
forsaken. It doesn't mean to say God is
still in that place, not the helper. God is the helper. God is with them and God is gracious
to them. God is mindful of them. And then
you see, he says, deliver me from my persecutors, for they
are stronger than I. And then bring my soul out of
prison. That's how it may seem to us.
Sometimes we may seem, we may feel to be in prison and in prison,
perhaps with the devil. And the gate's locked and we
can't deliver ourselves. No, the Lord can and does deliver
his people. He brings them into a time of
want. If everything was smooth and
plain sailing, we wouldn't pray. If everything was no problem,
we wouldn't seek unto our God. The Lord sees fit. to bring us
into these conditions, which causes us to pray unto God and
to have that humble faith that the Lord is my helper, even in
the prison. The Lord is my helper. And with
confidence to come to this God and pray, bring my soul out of
prison. Why did David pray that? Because he believed in his God.
He believed this God would bring him out of prison. Indeed, his
Lord God did bring him out of prison. And how true that is
with the true church of God. Bring my son out of prison, that
I may praise thy name. The righteous shall compass me
about, for thou shalt deal bountifully with me. You see, there we have
again, his humble confidence in his God. although he was in
this condition, although he was in prison, he looked beyond the
prison bars, he looked to that time when he believed God would
compass him about and deal bountifully with him. So that God does deal
bountifully with his people in his time, in his way, for his
honour and for his glory, so that then we praise our God. from whom all blessings flow.
There's a cause then and there's a reason to praise God, isn't
there? Because the Lord has heard our prayers and indeed we can
come and boldly say, he who hath delivered and whom I trust will
yet deliver. This is the God that we have. This is the God that we adore. A well-known Psalm, Psalm 121,
touches on the truth of these things. And where the Psalm is
tells us, I will lift up mine eyes under the hills, for whence
cometh my help, my help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven
and earth. The great God, the ruler of the
universe, the creator of the universe, That's who the Sabbath's
confidence was in. And so tonight, may our confidence
be in our God, to be able to come with a right spirit and
yet a humble spirit and be able to say boldly, to his honour
and glory, the Lord is my helper. I will not fail. We'll not fear
what man shall do unto me. Poor, weak, sinful man. Indeed, Isaiah, that gracious
prophet speaks many fear not. He tells us in the 41st chapter,
there's a number of times where it speaks about fear not in that
chapter. We won't read it all, but just
one verse, which is very beautiful. And that's verse 10, this is
what it says. Fear thou not, for I am with thee. Again, let
me repeat, if God be for us, who can be against us? No one
can stand against Almighty God. If God's on our side, what a
wonderful blessing, what a wonderful favour. Fear thou not, for I
am with thee. Are you not dismayed? Sometimes
we are. That's because our faith is weak.
That's because we look at ourselves. We ought to look up. Look up,
not look down. The more you and I look down,
the worse we'll get. Look up. If we look up, where
are we looking? We're looking to the Saviour.
We're looking to the Lord Jesus Christ. that great and glorious
God. Yes, says Isaiah, therefore will
not be fear. I will strengthen thee, I will
help thee, yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my
righteousness, held up by God's right hand. You may think perhaps
We're going to fall. We think we're going to collapse.
We think we can't go any further. Trust in the Lord at all times. All times. Not just when things
are going smoothly. Trust in the Lord at all times
when things appear to be going badly. Remember such a word as
this. in what appears to be our bad
times, our difficult times, perhaps our far off times. The Lord is
still there. The Lord is my helper and I will
not fear what man should do unto me. Sometimes it may seem the
Lord's hiding his face. Well, the psalmist felt it and
he cried and he said, hide not thy face far from me. He didn't
want God to hide his face from him. Put not thy servant away
in anger. Thou hast been my help. He was
able to remind God that he had been his help. Let us look back
in our lives. Let us look back to a time when
God has helped us. Helped us to look to him. Helped us to consider him. See, when the Lord brings us
to that place, where we consider him, what he endured, it puts
everything in a right perspective, everything in a right place.
And we can thank the Lord that he hasn't left us. And when he's
dealing with us in love. And so David says, there has
to be my help. And therefore, leave me not,
neither forsake me. Oh God of my salvation. Yes, his reliance was upon his
God. The God of his salvation. Well,
maybe we tonight know the wonderful favour and the wonderful blessing
of that. And perhaps we find ourselves
like Samuel in his day and age. Samuel had quite a remarkable
life. We know the Lord dealt with him very graciously when
he was a lad and of course he became a very important person
but God was with him again and again and there was that occasion
when we're told what he did that he might remember what God had
done. It's a well-done little phrase,
it's worth repeating. Samuel took a stone and set it
between Mishpa and Shem and called the name of Ebenezer, saying,
hitherto hath the Lord helped us. Well, tonight, may we be
able to say, yes, hitherto has the Lord helped me to look after
myself to the Lord Jesus Christ. Perhaps we feel overwhelmed with
sin. Lead me to that rock that is
higher than I. Lead me to the Saviour, lead
me to Calvary, to see the Lord Jesus there suffering and bleeding
and dying on my behalf. You see, if the Lord blesses
us with a humble confidence in that great and wonderful truth,
then surely we can say in all humbleness and yet truthfully,
as we have, so that we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper and
I will not fear what man shall do unto me. Amen.