May the Lord be pleased to bless
us together this evening as we consider his word. Let's turn
to Isaiah's prophecy, chapter 43, and reading the second verse. The prophecy of Isaiah, chapter
43, and reading the second verse. When thou passest through the
waters, I will be with thee, and through the rivers they shall
not overflow thee. When thou walkest with a fire,
thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee."
We're thankful we have a prophecy like this to read and to be encouraged
by and to recognize that the Lord has spoken to his people
through these words down through the ages. And we are thankful
that he speaks still today. So as we read this chapter and
the last few verses of the previous one, we have some little insight
into what was in the Prophet's mind and heart as he was inspired
to write these things. He speaks about the rebellion,
really, the hardness of ancient Israel. And he comes and says,
Therefore it poured upon him the fury of his anger and the
strength of battle, and it hath set him on fire round about,
yet he knew it not, and it burned him, yet he laid it not to heart. It's really a very searching
and a very solemn situation. The Lord does come and deal with
his people in such a way and we don't realise the hand of
the Lord is upon us. As it were, it passes over our
head. But may we know, may we know
God's righteous judgements against us, Those things which He may
speak to us, that we may hear and understand, that we may not
be numbered amongst those that it said they knew it not, and
also they laid it not to heart. Because we want to be amongst
those who are taught by the Holy Spirit of God, and therefore
do lay things to heart, things that come into our lives, To
not just pass them off and think, well, that's just one of those
things, but to ponder and say, is there not a cause? A cause
for certain things coming into our life, perhaps to turn us
back to the Lord, perhaps to bring us to our senses, so that
we once again have right values of the things of God. and that
we put the things of the world in a right perspective, so that
they are not allowed to dominate our life, but that we recognise
the mercy and the favour of God toward us. And the Prophet then
commences and says, but now, that's the situation, that's
what exists, this difficult and sad condition, But now, here
we have the words of the Lord. And it's a powerful statement,
because it's the Lord that created us. But now, thus saith the Lord
that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel.
It's a very powerful word, spoken to the Church of God, informing
us that we are dealing with the almighty God, the creator of
all things. And now he speaks words, amazing
really, fear not. Because we have caused fear if
we've been found walking in this way, in a way of opposition to
God, turning our back upon the Lord, making excuses. We have reason to fear. And then
to think that the Lord should speak a word like this, fear
not, fear not. Why should the Lord speak a word
like that to rebellious Israel? Why should he speak a word like
that to us? Well, we're told, for I have redeemed thee, I have
called thee by thy name, thou art mine. And therefore, We are
a special people. We are a people ordained to eternal
life. We are a people who have been
loved in everlasting love. We are a people the Lord is watching
over. The Lord is guiding. The Lord is directing. And we are not being left to
our own devices. Perhaps we may have thought it
was so, but no, here we have a gracious God, an amazingly
gracious God. He always has been a compassionate
God to a people that have been so far off and have turned their
backs so often upon the great goodness of the Lord. And so
he comes and says, fear not, for I have redeemed thee. I have
called thee by thy name, thou art mine. Now we cannot really
ask for a greater blessing than this. to have it confirmed in
our hearts that we are one of those for whom the Saviour Lord
Jesus Christ has died. That's the only way of being
redeemed. Because we have sinned against the Holy God and because
of that sin we have offended God's law and therefore we are
guilty. And therefore in and of ourselves there can be no
hope for eternal life. but to think that we have such
a saviour who says, for I have redeemed thee. We know of course
that Lord Jesus Christ did redeem his people and he redeemed them
by dying upon that cross at Calvary and shedding his precious blood
as the price required. It was the death of the righteous
one. The Lord Jesus Christ which was
the only way that could atone for sin. And so the Lord Jesus
Christ took upon Himself our human form, and He then stood
in our place as our substitute, and He bore the curse instead. And therefore, by the grace of
God, we are redeemed. For I have redeem thee. I have called thee by thy name."
What a blessing then, not only to have the assurance that we
are redeemed, but also to have this confirmation that God has
called us. I have called thee by thy name. And every calling is personal. God calls us individually. It's not collectively, it's an
individual calling to think of that in the counsels of God back
in eternity past that the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit should
have agreed to call a people in due time and that people who
had their names written in the Lamb's Book of Life That people
for whom the Lord died, and those people who would be called, I
have called thee by thy name. Well, tonight, may we have the
evidence in our hearts that God has a love toward us. A love so great, bad as we are,
sinful as we are, that God has graciously given us a call, given
us a call to quicken us, to make us spiritually alive, so that
by God's grace we are able to say, yes, it's true, and you
hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and in sins. I
have called thee by thy name, And because of that, he says,
thou art mine. That means we are one of those
whom God has chosen, one of those whom God has called, and one
of those whom God will bring safe home to glory. to spend
eternity with Him, forever and ever, praising His name, Thou
art mine. Well, we have then this very
clear statement encouraging to the Church of God to realize
that we are those for whom Christ has died, who have been redeemed,
and we are amongst the family of God, the Church of God, the
people of God. And the Prophet says, he directs
us then to the pathway, really, that the Church of God are called
upon to walk in. And it's a pathway of refining. It's a pathway which causes us
to be directed more and more to the Saviour. This is the pathway. when thou passest through the
waters, I will be with thee. And to the rivers, they shall
not overflow thee. When thou walkest with the fire,
thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee."
So the clear inference from this verse is that the path that the
Church of God are called upon to walk is not an easy path. Because the statement is here,
when thou passest. It doesn't say, if thou passest. It says, when thou passest through
the waters, I will be with thee. And to the rivers they shall
not overflow thee. So there will be those times
in our lives when we shall find it hard going, difficult, when
there will be waters. We know it's not easy to make
much progress, is it, in water. It hinders us. We can't go very
fast. And therefore, there may be those
floods that come into our lives. The Lord knows what floods there
are that he'll cause to come upon us. so that we will find
the difficulty of pressing on, struggling on, to make any progress. But the promise is, I will be with thee. I will be
with thee. We can think of these rivers
of times of trial and perplexity and opposition. Whatever that
may be in our lives, it will be like struggling through the
river, but to realise that the Lord has ordained these things. It's not something which we've
just come into by chance. It's that which God has ordained
for us to purify our souls, to bring us to seek more earnestly
His face. When God speaks to us of a A
treacherous calm. A treacherous calm. And if we find our life a calm,
you know, it will be treacherous. I'll tell you why. Because the
devil will then make inroads. When everything appears to be
smooth, the devil then comes and makes inroads. Why? Because we perhaps cease to pray,
or at least haven't prayed very much, or at least haven't prayed
very fervently. And we are found then where perhaps
walking in a time of spiritual famine and darkness. Yes, it's been a time of ease. But then the Lord graciously
deals with his people. He brings them into these paths
to pass through the waters and I will be with thee. We only
have to read, don't we, the lives of the people of God throughout
the scripture to see the clear evidence of their lives. We can see how the patriarchs,
what difficulties they had. Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. They didn't have easy lives,
did they? There were times of temptation, and times of difficulty. It wasn't an easy path for them. Think of Joseph, and then think
of Moses, and then think of Joshua. You can move on and think of
many people. Think of Gideon, and you can
think of Bairach and you can think of Jephthah. They all had
times of difficulty, extreme difficulty in their lives. And we have those characters
set before us to give us some indication that our life on this
earth will not be any different really to those. We foolishly
think that our life will be an easy life. And when we're in
one trouble, we seem to be coming out of it, we may think, well
I'm glad that's behind me, and we think it's all going to be
plain sailing. And very quickly we find something else comes
into our life, into our path. And in our right mind, we're
thankful to be able to compare then our life with the lives
of those in scripture. And to realise that there is
an account like this recorded, for our encouragement, so that
we realise that we're not a stranger, we're actually walking the path
of the children of God. When thou passest through the
waters, I will be with thee. And that is a very confirming
truth. When we pass through times of
heavy going, when the waters rise against us, to then realise
the Lord is with us in it. The Lord is with us in these
trials, in these temptations. It's a very glorious indication
that we are one of the children of God, because it is the pathway
of the children of God. And the Lord Jesus tells us very
clearly that it is through much tribulation that we should enter
the kingdom and be of good cheer, because I have overcome the world.
And that's because we have here a confidence then in our God
as we recognise the Lord is with us. He's helping us. He's strengthening us. He's enabling
us to stand. We may be ready to fall down. We're ready to give up. Ready
to perish. No, the Lord says, I am with
thee. I will be with thee. What a promise
that is. Sometimes we're thankful we have
these words, because we can lay hold of them. We realise then
why they're written. They're written there for our
encouragement, so that we realise that we're not a stranger, but
in actual fact we're a fellow pilgrim. And we're passing through
that way which God has ordained. And I believe it is a way ordained
to keep us, to keep us calling upon God in a really, if we're
honest, prayer is the life of our soul. If we don't have any
prayer, it's like not having any breath. Naturally, we need
breath to live. Spiritually, we need prayer to
live. And therefore, God graciously
causes us situations so that we have to pray to God. Pray
to God that He would appear for us, maybe in our providential
life, our natural things. The Lord could have easily provided
everything for us, plain sailing, No difficulties and no trials.
The Lord has ordained a path for you and me so that we pray
unto God and that we then know the Lord is with us. And it's
a wonderful blessing to be able to come and to pour out our heart
to our God, to blessed relief, to blessed help and strengthens
us to realize that the Lord knows And we commit our way unto Him. And we trust in Him. And we believe the way ordained
for us will be for our spiritual good and for our spiritual blessing. And so here we have. And through
the rivers and they shall not overflow thee. It may sometimes
feel that water is rising. The difficulties are getting
more intense. The trials are bigger. It seems
as though we shall be overcome. It seems as though, as we have
it here, the river will overflow us. No, and the river shall not overflow
thee. and we come to that place where
we think we may find that overflows and that we are overcome. Sometimes
my friends, temptations are very great and we feel we shall be
overcome. It may be like Christians in
the Pilgrim's Progress, when he was on that path and Apollyon
was over him, the devil, Christian slipped and he fell.
Sometimes you and I may slip and fall. We might think then, we're going
to be overthrown. Overflow the river will overflow
us. Well, you know, remember the
case of Christian. He lost his sword. We might think we've lost the
word of God. We may not have read it as we should have done.
It may have been on the shelf and we haven't read it as much
as we should. Lost our sword. Stretched out his arm. Was able
to grasp his sword and thrust at the devil. So my friends,
if we're in this state, you see, it may be that the rivers appear
to be almost overflowing us. They shall not overflow thee." As we're able to realise that
God is with us, even in that situation, and he's teaching
us, and we're learning. We're learning not to rely on
our own strength. We're learning not to go in our
own strength. We're learning to rely on the Lord himself. The Lord teaches us. The Lord
directs us. The Lord blesses us and brings
us into that path which will make us dependent upon our God. So he says, the rivers they shall
not overflow thee. And then he says, and when thou
walkest with a fire, thou shalt not be burned. Neither shall
the flame kindle upon thee. Well, we have that wonderful
example in the Word of God, in the prophecy of Daniel, don't
we? Where there were those three
people, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. You know, they were
told to bow down and worship that golden image. And they would
not do so. They knew what was the outcome.
They knew that they would be thrown into the burning fiery
furnace and the king had them brought to him and he inquired
of them and they said we are not careful to answer what that
meant was they didn't couch their words in clever words to pretend
that well they wanted to obey the king no they were very honest
and very forthright And it may be sometimes that
you and I are brought into situations where we're told to do something. It would be a blessing if you
and I, by the grace of God, are bold like those men. Now they
didn't know what the outcome was going to be. All they could
see was the burning fiery furnace. And they knew what the decree
said. and yet they were bold to tell the king that they weren't
careful to answer the king and to say that they would not bow
down. Whatever the consequences, well there couldn't be a more
serious consequence could there? Death was staring them in the
face and yet they were not careful to answer the king. Well, we
know that the Kin in order, the furnace to be heated seven times
hotter to an incredible heat. So hot that it slew those who
took up these three men and threw them into the furnace. But God
was with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. And God is with his
people today. And we should not therefore fear
as it were the burning fiery furnace, if we're doing that
which is right. You need to fear it if you're
doing that which is wrong. But to not fear it if you're doing
that which is right. And so they were thrown into
the burning fiery furnace. And as you well know, the fire
had no effect upon them. What a miracle. And also the
king said, I see four men walking, and the fourth is like unto the
Son of God." God was with them in a very amazing revelation. As you and I are called to walk
on this earth today, you might think, well, of course I won't
be called upon by the king to bow down to some great idol. Well, you may be in your life,
you may be called to do something, of which you realise is not true
and not right and not good, you may have to stand firm. Stand firm. You know, there's
the expression of nailing our colours to the mast. I don't
know if you know what that actually means. But when our boat was
lightly to sink, The sailors would nail their colours to the
mast, so that with the boat sunk, they would still know which boat
it was. Nailing our colours to the mast,
so that people would know that we stood firm for the truth. They didn't hide it, it was clearly
set forth. What a good thing then, if we
can do that, In our situation, it may not be quite so dramatic
as it was in Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego's life. But nonetheless,
it may be a dramatic thing in your life and my life. We may
have to stand firm. And so the Prophet says, again,
when? We perhaps think, well I don't
think I'll have to walk that path in my life. When thou walkest
through the fire, thou shalt not be burned, neither shall
the flame kindle upon thee. You see, the Lord will be with
us. And we can then endure, as the
Apostle Paul said, I can do all things through Christ that strengthens
me. There's our support, there's
our strength in the Lord Jesus Christ. We may need some encouragement
sometimes in the difficulties of the way. Well that encouragement
comes by looking to the Saviour. As the Apostles spoke when he
wrote to the Hebrews to consider him, that he endured such contradiction
of sinners against himself, lest we be wearied and faint in our
minds." We may be ready to faint. We may be wearied. There's our
example. There's our evidence. The Lord
Jesus Christ. When we come into times of crisis,
And we do come into times of crisis. Look to the Saviour. Consider Him. And may therefore you and I be
made willing in the day of His power to do His will. Yes? Not as it were to try and
defend ourselves. These men, they didn't try and
defend themselves, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. They just
spoke the truth. They didn't ask for any leniency.
My friends, the Lord Jesus Christ, He went to the end of the law
for righteousness sake. He endured the wrath of God so
that you and I might be freed from the curse. And so, it may be that the Lord
brings us into paths like this so that we understand a little
better the cost and the value of our salvation. We can very easily have low opinions
and low estimates of the cost of our salvation. I say that
in a right way, I don't mean to underestimate anyone, but
sometimes we can read things and we can just absorb it into
our minds without really appreciating the cost of our salvation. And
then the Lord graciously brings us into these scenes. It may be perhaps, like we sung
in that hymn, He may bring us to Gethsemane. We see there the
agony of the Saviour, what He endured, what He passed through,
and therefore in some small way, you and I may be called to pass
through things which will bring us into a position where we understand
in some small measure the cost of our salvation. And I believe
then we shall value the Saviour. The Lord Jesus Christ will then
mean something. He won't just be a name. He'll
be a name which is above every name. that in the name of Jesus
every knee shall bow. And then you see we bow down
to the Lord Jesus Christ. And then we say, nevertheless
not my will, but thine be done. Then we are submissive to the
will of our God. And then you see we realise the
path that we've been called to walk in is one to bring us nearer
to Christ. And then you see, we can bless
God for it. And it is an evidence of sonship. It's an evidence that we have,
that God has indeed formed us for himself, for his praise. We read, didn't we, together,
this people are formed for myself, they shall show forth my praise,
for my glory, That's what we're here on this earth for. Not to
live a life of ease and comfort just for ourselves. We're here
to bring forth and to show forth the glory of God. And this is brought forth so
wonderfully when the Lord gives us that grace to walk in this
way, to endure what the Lord sees fit to place upon us. When
thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned, neither
shall the flame kindle upon thee." You see, we fear, don't we? We
fear sometimes the unknown way. We may think I shall perish.
We may think I shall never be able to do that. I can never
walk that way. Well, the Lord gives strength. The Lord gives grace. The Lord
enables us. When we walk through this way,
then there won't be that which we thought would come upon us.
When they walk us through the fire, thou shalt not be burned.
No. And on those three people, not
even the smell of burning. Thou shalt not be burned. And
now we were fearing. Fearing. neither shall a flame
kindle upon thee." Now, as we know, sometimes in those days
when martyrs were burned at the stake, they were given wonderful
grace to bear that burning furnace, which consumed their bodies.
able to stand firm in those exceedingly trying situations. And then, this verse is really
central to what I want to speak on tonight. We then come on to
this, for I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour. What a blessing it is to be brought
through these paths to prove that we are one of God's children. For I am the Lord thy God. We want to know that, don't we?
We want to know the Lord is our God. In that personal way, the
Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour, a personal revelation. And as
the Lord comes and brings us through trials, and through temptations,
and through opposition, it is to prove that the Lord is our
God. The Lord's heard our cries, He's
heard our prayers, and He's brought us safely through. And my friends,
He will bring us safely through. He'll bring us safely through
life. Through life. And why? We have
it here, since thou wast precious in my sight. Isn't that amazing
to think, you and I. I speak for myself to think how
unworthy you speak for yourself and say how unworthy to think
that we are precious in the sight of the Lord. Precious, so precious. that he ransomed us. He paid
the price for our salvation. Since thou was precious in my
sight. And then there's a statement
here, which is very testing, I think. Thou hast been honourable. Well, we have to ask ourselves,
don't we? We have such a kind and gracious God. Have you and
I been honourable to our God. Have we acknowledged what He's
done and what He's said? Thou hast been honourable. Well,
I hope that might be true of us. Well, I hope it will be true
of us, that we will have been honourable to our God. Since thou art precious in my
sight, thou hast been honourable and I have loved thee. You see,
we are precious and He's loved us. Oh, my friends, how can we
not be honourable to our God? For all that He's done, His love,
so great, so free. He says, I have loved thee, therefore
will I give men for thee and people for thy life. And then
there's another great statement. Fear not, for I am with thee. Fear not, for I am with thee.
So we have these verses really contained within these fear nots. Naturally, we fear, don't we? We fear the unknown way. We look
around, we look at the future. We see mountains, we see obstacles,
we see difficulties. The Lord can make them all flow
down at His presence. The mountains flow down because
the Lord has placed them there. They're His mountains and they
flow down. Fear not. So tonight, may you
be encouraged in our walk, in our path, whatever that may be.
Don't think it will be easy. but be encouraged to know that
in that path the Lord is with us. And the Lord is with us. He'll hold us by our right hand.
This is the way. Walk ye in it. I am with thee. Passing through the waters. When thou passest through the
waters, I will be with thee. And to 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." Fear not. The Lord will help. The Lord
will strengthen. The Lord will bless. And in this
path, this path ordained by God, it is to prove us, it is to test
us, and it is to bring us into fellowship with Christ. Fellowship
with His sufferings. Remember how the Apostle Paul
desired it. fellowship with his sufferings,
he knew that was a place of blessing. It's a place that nature recalls
from, but it's a place of blessing, it's a place of strengthening,
and it's a place of union with the Lamb. And so may we tonight
be thankful we have such an account, to realise this is the Word of
God, and may it be applied to our hearts, that we may be encouraged
to press on in our journey through this life. Amen.