Let us turn once again to God's
Word. And I want to draw your attention
for a while this morning to words that we find in the Gospel. The Gospel according to St. Luke
in chapter 12 and verse 32. Luke 12, 32. Fear not, little
flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the
kingdom. Fear not, little flock, for it
is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. And taking up the theme then
of the remnant, or the favoured flock, here we have one of the great
fear nots of Holy Scripture. And though we find them oftentimes
in the book of the prophet Isaiah we had a portion there earlier
in chapters 41 and 43 but previous to that in chapter 35 of Isaiah
and there at verse 4 say to them that are of a fearful heart be
strong fear not Behold, your God will come with vengeance,
even God with a recompense. He will come and save you. In many ways, those words in
that 35th chapter of Isaiah are the Old Testament counterpart
to what we have here in our text. Fear not, little flock. for it
is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. In the
passage that we were actually reading, you may have observed
quite a number of fear nots there in the 41st chapter. Verse 10, fear thou nots, 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. And then again, at verse 13,
For I, the Lord thy God, will hold thy right hand, saying unto
thee, Fear not, I will help thee. Fear not, thou worm, Jacob, and
ye men of Israel. Or as the margin says, Ye few
men, Ye few men of Israel, I will help thee, saith the Lord, and
thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. And then, of course,
in that portion at the beginning of chapter 43. But now, thus
saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and thee that formed
thee, O Israel, fear not, for I have redeemed thee. I have
called thee by thy name, thou art mine. When thou passest through
the waters, I will be with thee. and through the rivers they shall
not overflow them. When they walketh through the
fire they shall not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle
upon them." Well, we could multiply the verses that we have in Holy
Scripture in which God declares again and again those blessed
words, fear not. And why so? Because the Lord's
people are such a fearful company. Isn't that one of the marks of
the godly? The fear of the Lord which is
in their hearts. It is that fear of the Lord we're
told it is the beginning of wisdom, the beginning of knowledge. But they're not always those
who have that filial fear. There are often times those fears
that bring torment that come into their souls and so in his
goodness the Lord God addresses them with these various fear
nots. Well let us come to these words
that we read for a text and if we just tap the text on the head
it quite naturally divides into two basic parts. In the first part we have God's
flock and then in the second part we read of God's favour.
Fear not little flock, it is your father's good pleasure to
give you the kingdom. To say something then in the
first place with regards to God's flock, time and again his people
are likened to a flock of sheep, those creatures that are so timid
and so quickly frightened and that's the figure that is used
in scripture with regards to those who are the Lord's the
election of grace they are the sheep and those who are the reprobate
are spoken of as the goats and in the end of course the great
day when judgment is made and the final division as the Lord
will set his sheep on the right hand and the goats on his left. And in the course of the ministry
that we read of in Holy Scripture, even in the Old Testament, we
see how God makes provision for the care of his sheep. In Ezekiel
34, for example, we have God reproving Those threefold offices
that we see in Israel, they were false prophets, they were unfaithful
priests, they were unjust princes. These very offices that God had
given for the good of the nation, and yet, how the Lord rebukes
them in that remarkable 34th chapter, we've looked at it on
previous occasions. And as God reproves, those various
offices there, so we have the promise of that One who will
come as the Fulfillment, the Great One who is Prophet, Priest
and King, even the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. What does the
Lord say? There in verses 23 and 24 of
that chapter, I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall
feed them. Even my servant David, he shall
feed them, he shall be their shepherd, and I, the Lord, will
be their God. And my servant David, a prince
among them, I, the Lord, have spoken it." And of course, it
was David who was the great shepherd king of Israel, but a type of
the Lord Jesus Christ. David himself, in the familiar
words of the 23rd Psalm, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall
not want. He maketh me to lie down in green
pastures. He leadeth me beside the still
waters. He restoreth my soul. He leadeth
me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Oh, the
Lord is that one then who will make every provision. He shall feed his flock like
a shepherd. He shall gather the lambs with
his arm and carry them in his bosom and shall gently lead those
that are with young. It is the Lord who is the shepherd
then of his flock, who cares for all his poor, timid, fearful
sheep. And so when we come to the Gospel,
there in John we have those tremendous I Am statements. The Lord Jesus
at one, the image of the invisible God, Jehovah Jesus. I am the Good Shepherd, he says. The Good Shepherd giveth his
life for the sheep. Here then we have this imagery.
The Lord God as a people and he refers to them here as that
little flock. Fear not, little flock. Think then for a while of their
their fearfulness their fearfulness as I have already intimated there
is a filial fear it is the mark of God's people
they fear the Lord they stand in awe when they come into his
presence they have some sense of his greatness his otherness
and alas we live in a day when among so many who would profess
the name of the Lord Jesus Christ in their service of worship,
there's very little of that awe, that fear of the Lord. Rather,
is there an unhealthy familiarity, a chumminess, even in taking
up the name of the Lord upon their lips. But God's true people,
they have that fear in their hearts, the fear of the Lord,
the beginning of wisdom. or they're made wise to salvation
that fear of the Lord, the beginning of knowledge they know the Lord
God and they know his Christ but there is also of course another
fear a tormenting fear it's a fear that's associated
even with the demons when James is rebuking some in that epistle
He says, oh, believe us, there is one God, though do us well.
The devils also believe and tremble. How they tremble, how they tremble
at the appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ when he was manifested
here upon the earth. And when we see him there at
the beginning of Mark's Gospel and he performs that miracle
in the synagogue in Capernaum. and what do we read concerning
those demons? let us alone what have we to
do with thee thou Jesus of Nazareth I know thee who thou art the
Holy One of God that was the Lord comes and he cast out the
demons they tremble in his very presence there is then a tormenting fear
and sometimes The sheep, they not only have that true fear
of the Lord, that filial fear, but they are tormented. They have outward fears. They
might be fearful with regards to the very necessities of life. They are beset by their doubts,
which go hand in hand with their fears. And what does the Lord
say in this very chapter where our text is found? In verse 22
He says unto His disciples, I say unto you, take no thought for
your life, what ye shall eat, neither for the body, what ye
shall put on. The life is more than meat, and
the body is more than raiment. Consider the ravens, for they
neither sow nor reap, which neither have storehouse nor barn, and
God feedeth them. How much more are you better
than the fowls? Well, the Lord does make that
provision for His people in the midst of all their doubting. The Lord's provision is a good
God. David could say, I have been
young and now I am old, yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken,
nor their seed begging bread? We're not to be fearful, we're
to trust that God who is the God of Providence, who orders
all things according to His good and wise counsels. We're to look
to Him for that spirit of gracious submission to His sovereign will
and trust Him, that He will make provision and He will make a
way for us as His people. And yet it's a fact, is it not,
that God's people often are afraid that they will be brought to
that great want they feel themselves to be in so many ways the sheep
of slaughter we have the words of the psalm
repeated there in Romans 8 as it is written for thy sake we
are killed all the day long we are accounted as sheep for the
slaughter, persecutions, trials, troubles. God's people fear all
of these things. They not only have those outward
fears, they have inward fears. They fear that in the end they
might prove to be unfaithful, they might discover themselves
to be only apostates. Here are those passages of God's
Word that trouble them often think of those words you know
the passage there in the 6th of Hebrews and there at verse
4 and the following verses the solemn words of Paul it is
impossible he said for those who were once enlightened and
have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the
Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God, and the powers
of the world to come, if they shall fall away. To renew them
again unto repentance, seeing they crucify to themselves the
Son of God afresh, and put Him to an open shame. And there are
those of the Lord's people who say, is that going to be mine?
Or will I yet be one who is worse than a backslider who falls into
total apostasy and departs from the ways of the Lord. God's people
are fearful. They're fearful sometimes of
thinking that maybe their faith is nothing more than presumption. It's not the true faith. They question themselves. They have to examine themselves
and prove themselves and know themselves that Jesus Christ
is in them except they be reprobate. These thoughts and feelings creep
into the souls of the Lord's people. What do we read here
at the beginning of the chapter? We see the Pharisees and how
the Lord speaks of their hypocrisy The opening verses, in the meantime
we read, when there were gathered together an innumerable multitude
of people, insomuch that they trod one upon another, He began
to say unto His disciples, First of all, beware ye of the leaven
of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy, for there is nothing covered
that shall not be revealed, neither hid that shall not be known.
Therefore whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard
in the light, and that which he hath spoken in the ear in
closet shall be proclaimed upon the housetoppers. And I say unto
you, my friends, be not afraid of them that kill the bottom,
and after that have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn
you, whom ye shall fear, fear him, which after he hath killed
hath power to cast into hell. Yea, I say unto you, fear him,
who is the one being spoken of there in verse five, It's the
Lord God Himself. And the Lord is speaking, you
see, of the Pharisees and their hypocrisy. And do we not sometimes
find ourselves fearful? Are we going to be those who,
at the end, were nothing more than mere hypocrites, that our
whole religion was but a fake? Nothing real, nothing true. God's
people sometimes are fearful. You've read Pilgrim's Progress
and remember how there at the end, at the very gate of the
Celestial City, there's a door which descends immediately into
hell. I remember when I was trying
to put together some little account of the origins of the work here,
the beginnings of the the work at Salem, the old chapel,
well it wasn't a chapel at all of course right at the beginning
back in 1813, 211 years ago when the work was first started and
it was started by those from another particular Baptist church
here on Portsea Island and I remember reading something of the account
of the ministers here and one of them was a Mr Mill, M I A. Double L if I remember right,
Mr. Mill. And I think it was in an
account by David Doudna, who of course for many years edited
the Gospel magazine back in the 19th century. And being a Portsmouth
man, David Doudna, he was well aware of the work
of God and the work of God's grace here in in Portsmouth and
he he knew Mr Meal he said when he was a younger man and I remember
him saying that he recalled one occasion when he heard him and
it would have been in the old Salem Chapel I imagine it had
been built by then and um he heard Mr Meal preaching and he
made this statement he said you know if I came to the end of
my life and the final step that I was to take would land me in
glory, land me in heaven. He said if I was left to myself
and I took that last step I would finish up in hell. Really made
an impression on me that the Lord has to preserve us even
to the end, left to ourselves. How fearful it is! Where would
we be but for the grace of God? He must watch over our every
step, if we're going to be those who will endure unto the end. Oh, there are many things, you
see, that fill these poor, timid sheep with great fears. that
they will yet prove to be apostates, prove to be hypocrites, and not
have a religion that is really roots of God, the work of God's
Spirit in the soul of the sinner. That's what we have to be continually
resting in and relying upon. Nothing of ourselves, but all
of the grace of God. And we need to know what it is
to receive from the Lord that Spirit of adoption. Romans 8.15 You have not received
the spirit of fear, but that spirit of adoption whereby
ye cry, Abba, Father. Fear not, little flock. It is
your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Say to
them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not, behold,
your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompense. He
will come and save you. Here then we see something of
the mark of the flock of Christ, how fearful. That's why the text
begins with that bold statement, fear not, fear not. And what's another mark of the
flock, Well, another mark is their fewness. They are a little
flock. They are a little flock. Now,
the noun here, flock, is in fact a diminutive. The noun itself
literally means little. But, there is also an adjective
before it. So, literally, it says, fear
not little, little flock. There is an emphasis, you see,
upon the smallness of the flock. It's a very little flock. It's a very little remnant. When
we go back to the beginning, when we think of the antediluvian
world, the world before the universal flood, how many were saved? There were just eight souls.
that entered into Noah's Ark, eight souls there is such a doctrine,
the doctrine of the remnant and we have it in Isaiah there in
the opening chapter of that book except the Lord of Hosts had
left unto us a very little remnant we should have been a Sodom or
we should have been like unto Gomorrah except the Lord of Hosts had
left unto us not a remnant or a little remnant, but it says,
doesn't it, a very little remnant. There were times we made to feel
that we seem to be so few, so few. What was Isaiah's ministry? We find that statement as I said
there in the opening chapter of verse 9 and of course later
in the 6th chapter we have the record of his call there in the
very year when the king Uzairah died and he sees the vision of the
throne of God and he responds to that Whom shall I send, send
me Here am I, send me he says and then the message that he
is to proclaim make the heart of these people
fat, make their ears heavy, shut their eyes, lest they see with
their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their
heart and convert and be healed. What a message it was. What a
searching and discriminating preaching it must have been.
And then the question, how long? Lord, how long? And the Lord
says, until the cities be wasted without inhabitants and the houses
without man and the land be utterly desolate and the Lord hath removed
men far away and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the
land but yet in it shall be a tenth and it shall return I know he's
ministering about a hundred years before the exile but he would
come, God was going to sift his people and they'd be taken away
into captivity but there would be a remnant God would preserve
a remnant, he must preserve a remnant because his promise concerning
the seed of Abraham must be fulfilled Christ must come of that of that
line that promised line that comes through the promised seed
of Isaac even down to him who is Abraham's true seed the Lord
Jesus and so God does preserve that blessed remnant and we had
it didn't we in that portion that we were reading there in
the in the 41st chapter of Isaiah ye few men of Israel ye few men
of Israel and even now God's spiritual Israel there are not
all Israel that are of Israel there are not all Israel that
are of Israel even when we consider the state of Christendom, if
we might use such an expression. Now many who take up the name
of Christ are truly Christians. All God's people, they are poor,
they are an afflicted people. Isn't that the promise of Zephaniah
3.12? I will leave in the midst an afflicted and poor people
and they shall trust in the name of the Lord, and the offscouring
of all things to this day, says the Apostle. And often think
of those words of Hart in the Hymn 223, Lord, pity outcast,
violent base, the poor dependence on thy grace, whom men disturb
as call, by sinner and by saint withstood, for these too bad,
for those too good, condemned and shunned. by all. This is the Lord's remnant, the
few men of Israel. He's not a Jew which is one outwardly,
neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh,
says Paul, but he is a Jew which is one inwardly and circumcision
is that of the heart, in the spirit and not in the letter,
whose praise is of God. They are a little flock they
are a little flock and how this expression is used
isn't it here not only in the text but previously speaking of them you see with
their fears even with regards to the very necessities of life
he says at verse 28 if then God so clothed the grass which is
today in the field and tomorrow is cast into the oven how much
more will he clothe you oh ye of little faith that a little
flock and so often their faith is a little faith a little faith
we feel it but as I've said on other occasions it's not the
greatness of our faith that saves us or we might have faith as
a grain of mustard seed which is the least of all seeds we're
told The vital thing always is that blessed object. It's the
one that faith has to do with. It's the object of faith. It's
the Lord Jesus Christ. And so what do we see here in
the text? It's not only God's flock that is being spoken of,
but God's favour. God's favour. It is your Father's
good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Here is our comfort. Doubtless we feel ourselves to
be few. At times we seem only to reduce. We want to increase. We long
to see sinners being saved. There are those who come amongst
us and they seem to settle with us and they seem to be responsive
and they seem to be feeding upon the Word of God and then they
depart from us. We've had it time and time and
time again. And I suppose at times we have
to recognize that there is an offense in the things that we
believe and the things we seek to declare. But it is our comfort,
you see. It's God's sovereignty. It's
the sovereignty of God and we have it so plain in this text.
Your Father's good pleasure. I like the language of the 17th
article in the doctrine of the so-called Reformed Church of
England, the 39 articles. That's a very Protestant statement
of faith. How many in the established church
believe those articles today? You know, there was a time when
if a man entered a new parish he had to what they say read
himself into the parish he had to go through the articles and
declare his belief in those articles and article 17 the article on
predestination and election and there's a phrase in there that
I think is so true it says of the doctrine of predestination
and election it is full of sweet pleasant and unspeakable comfort
sweet pleasant and unspeakable comfort the truth of God's sovereignty
and so we have it here your father's good pleasure that is the real
comfort of the little flock now the promise was given there back
in Isaiah although the prophet might speak of what would come
in due time God's judgment in the exile but also the promise
of restoration out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant that was the promise
and they that escape out of Manzai God's promise to the remnant
What is their comfort? Why, in all the vicissitudes
of their lives, in all the uncertainties that life is made up of, they
are fenced with God's sovereignty, fenced with Jehovah's shalls
and wills, firm as the everlasting hills, says John Kent. That's the flock of God. They
are folded by the Lord God Himself and they are secured by his sovereign
purposes. God in a sense wills that there
should be a little flock. That's the will of God, that
there will be a little flock. Zechariah 4 verse 10, Who hath
despised the day of small things. We're not to despise the day
of small things even in the day of small things the Lord is fulfilling
his purpose and accomplishing that that he ever intended to
accomplish and there's a contrast isn't there with those who are
dissatisfied with what the Lord God is doing say you're not a
confederacy to all them to whom these people shall say a confederacy
neither fear you their fear nor be afraid we are to seek to primarily
to be faithful and true to God's word and God's truth whatever
others might say we don't want to look to men and the confederations
of men we look to the Lord God himself and we adhere and cling and cleave
to those precious truths that the Lord has we trust burnt into
our souls we know that the gospel is to be preached to the whole
world that he's playing isn't he? go into all the world preach
the gospel to every creature that's the commission that the
Lord gives to his disciples here at the end of the Gospels and
we know that many are caught many are caught but the Lord
also says and few are chosen and there we see the Lord's own
ministry with such a dividing ministry we have those statements
time and time and time again in John's Gospel that there was
a division among the people because of him that's what it says or
it says there was a division amongst the people because of
his words in John 7.43 John 9.16 and 1090 that's the Lord's ministry and
we see how there is a diminishing we see it so graphically in that
sixth chapter of John we read the beginning of the chapter,
it's a long chapter remarkable chapter, how does it begin? After
these things, Jesus went over the Sea of Galilee, which is
a Sea of Tiberias, and a great multitude followed Him. A great
multitude followed Him, because they saw His miracles which He
did on them that were diseased. And then the Lord performs another
miracle, the feeding of the five thousand. and they want to take him and
make him king and then we come right to the end of the chapter
and what do we read there at verse 64 we're told in verse 64 Jesus knew from
the beginning who they were that believed not and who should betray
him And he said, Therefore said I unto you that no man can come
unto me except it were given unto him of my father. He'd said that previously at
verse 44. No man can come to me except
the father which hath sent me draw him and I will raise him
up at the last day. It is written in the prophets
and they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that
hath heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto mine. The effectual call of God. But
how offensive it was. He knew from the beginning who
they were that believe not and you should be trashing. And he
says, Therefore said I unto you that no man can come unto me
except it were given unto him of my Father. From that time
From that time, many of his disciples went back and walked no more
with him. Here is the offense. Here is
the offense. It's the sovereign grace of God. The same truth. He comes to some
as a word of real comfort. You know, the amazing thing is
that the call of God is something that divides men. In a sense,
that must be true with regard to the outward call. We see so
clearly at the beginning of Acts 16. Here is the apostle with
his associates and they're minded to go into Bithynia. That's the
way they're minded to go. They're thinking of going into
Asia Minor. but then there comes the Macedonian
call and they have to go where God directs them even with regards
to the preaching of the gospel the outward call of grace it
comes to one, it doesn't come to another it has never been
so but how much more is that the case when it comes to the
inward call the inward call When the people do hear the gospel,
not all will embrace it and receive it. And Paul declares that quite
clearly, doesn't he, at the end of 2 Corinthians 2? We are unto
God a sweet savour of Christ, he says, in them that are saved
and in them that perish. To the one we are the savour
of death unto death, and to the other the savour of life unto
life. And who is sufficient for these things? how the ministry of the Word
of God does divide. What is the Lord doing in all
that ministry? He is bringing us to this that
we have to look to himself and himself alone. That's the great
point of that sixth chapter of John's Gospel, the chapter of
the blessed diminishings, as our late friend Sidney Norton
would say. The chapter of the blessed diminishings. We come to the end and the Lord
seems to think, well, even the apostles are going to go, and
then Peter. Now what does Peter say? To whom
shall we to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life and we believe and are sure that Thou art that Christ the
Son of the Living God that's what we have to come to again
and again the remnant look to the Lord
for everything the sheep you see they know how weak they are
all we like sheep have gone astray we turn everyone to our own way
and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all silly
sheep, wandering sheep, fearful sheep how the remnant have to
look to the Lord alone to work that great salvation in them
again the language, the language of Isaiah he says Lord Thou wilt ordain peace for us,
for Thou also hast brought all our works in us. Other lords
beside Thee have had dominion over us, but by Thee only will
we make mention of Thy Name." Oh, it's by the Lord only. This
is what we have to be brought to, to recognize that our only
hope, our only comfort is to be found in the blessed truth
of the sovereignty of God, His gracious favor towards those
poor sheep. And so we have this great fear
not here in the Gospel. As I said, we have so many in
the Scriptures, many of them there in Isaiah's book. But here,
fear not, little flock. It is your Father's good pleasure
to give you the kingdom. Or what? can a man receive? A man can receive nothing at
all except it be given him from heaven. Oh, the Lord grant that
we might know then something of that favor and that blessing
of the gospel of his grace, the mark of those who are that true
remnant of the Lord's favored people. Amen.