Salvation is of the Lord. It's
His power. Someone asked an old preacher,
what must I do to be saved? He said, it's too late. He said, no. Just because the
meeting is over can't be too late. He said, it's too late. You want to know what you must
do to be saved, and I will tell you that you're hundreds of years
too late. The work of salvation is done,
completed, finished. It was finished on the cross.
Jesus said so with the last breath that he drew. What more do you
want? You know, that is so true. Our Lord didn't make us savable.
He saved us. We just didn't know about it
until the Holy Spirit enlightens our minds, revealing Christ to
us and what He has accomplished for us. That's when we're delivered
from the power of darkness. Salvation was God's plan from
all eternity executed by His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ at
Calvary 2,000 years ago. And so we enter into a finished
work. Would you please turn to Isaiah
chapter 10? We're going through the book
of Isaiah. And it's been a while because
of our trip back east since we've been in the studies. But I want
to continue in that this morning and in the weeks to come. Someone
said, no matter what you discover or the amount of study you put
into something, no matter how you analyze it,
there's always more to learn about anything. Now that is exactly
true when it comes to the study of God's Word. We know that the
Lord has revealed His Gospel to us. We know Christ has been
made known to us. We know He's Jehovah God, our
Creator, who came to this world for the purpose of redeeming
His people from the curse of the law. But the Word of God
tells us that there are some who have a form of godliness
ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the
truth. We have come to that because
of God's enlightening power. But I've said this before and
it's so true. The more I study, the more I
realize how much I don't know. The word of God is a living word.
And Christ is on every page of Holy Scripture. And it just behooves
us, brethren, to have this in our mind when we're reading the
Scriptures. I don't care where we are, in
the book of Genesis, or in the book of Revelation, or anywhere
in between. Our desire should be to see Jesus
Christ on the holy pages of His Bible, that we might see more
of Him and learn more of Him. Our last lesson from Isaiah 10,
took us down through verse 22. Let me read verses 20 through
22 in your hand just to recap a couple of things. It says,
and it shall come to pass in that day that the remnant of
Israel and such as are escaped of the house of Jacob shall no
more again stay upon him that smote them. but shall stay upon
the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, in truth. The remnant shall return,
even the remnant of Jacob, unto the mighty God. For though thy
people Israel be as the sand of the sea, yet a remnant of
them shall return. The consumption decreed shall
overflow with righteousness." And that last message that we
preached from this 10th chapter of Isaiah was entitled Return
of God's remnant and in that message we brought out several
truths in that day has reference to the gospel of our Lord Jesus
Christ during the gospel age which the gospel age as far as
the New Testament saints are concerned took place during the
days of our Savior while he was here on this earth and after
he was crucified he lodged out his apostles and preaching His
gospel as it is set forth by His prophets in the Holy Scriptures
in the Old Testament. So the remnant of Israel refers
to God's chosen blood-bought children. The house of Jacob
is spiritual Israel. We brought this out in our last
lesson. God's church is the house of Israel, His chosen blood-bought
children. And His enlightened saints have
no confidence in the flesh. We lean on Christ. We hold on to Him. He's our strength.
He's our all. If we have Him, we have it all.
The return of God's remnant is speaking of the miracle of the
new birth, that glorious day when God the Holy Spirit enlightens
our minds. And this is a result of the Holy
Spirit dwelling in us. God sends the Spirit of His Son
into our hearts to guide us into all truths. We don't have any
clue as to what the gospel is until the Holy Spirit reveals
that to us. So many folks today think that
we have to do something before we receive the Holy Spirit. The
only thing we can do before we receive the Holy Spirit is drink
iniquity like water and just run from God and hate God. But
when we receive the Spirit of adoption, when we cry out, Abba,
Father, then God, by His Spirit dwelling in us, guides us into
all truths. Now, the word consumption, like
I brought out in my last lesson from this 10th chapter, means
destruction to destroy. And there was a destruction of
Jerusalem when the Jews went into the Babylonian captivity. But that's historical. And I
mentioned this already in our last lesson, but let me say this
again. If all we get out of these Old Testament writings is the
historical account, we've missed it. All of this has spiritual
meaning. All of this points to Christ
and His church. And our sovereign Lord destroys
every hope that we think we have when he deals with us, when he
convicts us of sin, of righteousness, of judgment. He takes away all
those false props that we were leaning on and deals with us
in such a way that we bow down before him with everything that
we ever hoped for completely destroyed. That's the consumption. And when he does that, God has
prepared us to receive Jesus Christ as our Lord and our Savior.
Now the title of this morning's message is, Be Not Afraid. And those words are found in
verse 24, but follow along with me as I walk us through the remaining
verses of this 10th chapter of Isaiah. Then I want to take us
into the New Testament for a brief time. to show you some things
that I believe is so very vital to our spiritual understanding
and for the glory of our God. Verse 23 says, for the Lord God
of hosts shall make a consumption even determined in the midst
of all the land. So continuing with the spiritual
meaning of the deliverance of God's elect during the gospel
age, verse 23 is declaring that God himself has determined the
salvation of his people. We heard this in Sunday school
this morning. Already we heard in Brother Ray Bennett's devotional
how our Lord Jesus said, All that the Father giveth me shall
come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast
out. So God's eternal decree will be executed by His own sovereign
power. The perfect redeeming work of
Jesus Christ will be revealed to God's children at His appointed
time of love for us. And we will come out of darkness
when He commands the light to shine in our hearts to give the
light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus
Christ. which we by faith embrace because
of God's grace. Now verse 24 says, therefore,
thus saith the Lord of hosts, all my people that dwellest in
Zion, be not afraid of the Assyrian. He shall smite thee with the
rod and shall lift up his staff against thee after the manner
of Egypt. Now God's remnant, his chosen
people were encouraged by God himself during the troublesome
times that was upon them during Isaiah's writings here. God's remnant were encouraged
to be not afraid. Now I just encourage you to give
some thought to that because that was no easy thing they were
going through. that wicked king, that wicked king of Assyria,
and his mighty army was marching toward them, and the people knew
that. And he determined in his mind
to destroy Jerusalem. But the Assyrians were nothing
but a whipping stick used by God. They were a rod in the hands
of Almighty God, bringing righteous judgment against those rebellious
Israelites. And when God was through with
that wicked king, he was going to destroy him and his army. Now, in every generation, God's
saints, those who have come to Mount Zion, the city of the living
God, are encouraged by God himself not to be afraid of what people
can do unto us. We're to fear God. That's a reverential
fear, of course. But don't fear what man can do
to us. Like Brother Steve said this morning in quoting Henry
Mayhem, we're as sure of heaven as if we're already there. And
if they destroy the body, that's all they can do. But God, and
we were just singing that wonderful song, it is well with my soul.
God has promised us that when this old body lays down in death,
we'll be in the presence of King Jesus and see Him in all of His
glory. So we're safe in the arms of
the true and living God, the Lord Jesus Christ. All things
are under the feet of King Jesus. He reigns over this whole universe
and everything in it. Angels and authorities and powers
have been made subject unto the risen, exalted King, the Lord
Jesus Christ, who is seated on this throne of power at this
very moment, has been ever since the God-man rose from the grave.
Verse 23 says, For yet a very little while, and the indignation
shall cease, and mine anger in their destruction. short time after these prophetic
statements were made, that wicked King Sennacherib and his army
that came up against Jerusalem was destroyed by an angel. And
we looked at this, we considered this in our last lesson and I
read 2 Kings 19 verses 30-35 and you're hearing which gives
the account of that. I want to read that again because
it's so important. It says in that passage of scripture,
and the remnant that has escaped of the house of Judah shall yet
again take root downward and bear fruit upward. For out of
Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and they that escape out of Mount
Zion, the zeal of the Lord of Hosts shall do this. Therefore,
thus saith the Lord concerning the king of Assyria, he shall
not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come
before it with shield, nor cast a bank against it. By the way
that he came, by the same shall he return, and shall not come
into this city, saith the Lord, for I will defend this city,
to save it for mine own sake, and for my servant David's sake.
And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the Lord went
out and smote in the camp of the Assyrians 185,000. And when
they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpse. Does that sound like God loves
all of us? sons and daughters of Adam's
posterity. Does that sound like God loves
everybody? No. No, God has a purpose for all
that he is doing and he had a purpose when he raised up that wicked
king. And that purpose was fulfilled and then God destroyed him. He
did go back the way he came. And when he got back to his own
city, and went into the temple to worship his false god, our
Lord Jesus moved. Now I'm saying this, I
have chosen my words deliberately. Our Lord Jesus moved the two
sons of that wicked king to go into him and kill him while he
was worshiping his false god. The instruments of death are
ordained by God. And that wicked king went to
his appointed place. So the rod of God's anger was
carried out. His indignation passed through
the destruction of the enemies of his people. Now take that
and apply it to our Lord's sword of justice. that he plunged
into the heart of his darling son when he hung there on that
cross at Calvary 2,000 years ago. God's anger was appeased through
the sufferings of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He's not
angry with his people. The indignation is over. There
is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins,
and sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains. God has purged our sins as far
as the east is from the west, and he remembers them against
us no more through the perfect redeeming work of Christ our
Savior. All the writing of ordinances
that was against us have been blotted out. Does that bless
you? God Himself took them out of the way when He nailed them
to our Savior while He hung there on that cruel cross. And like
Noah, all of God's saints have found grace in His eyes. It's
grace, God's grace, that is revealed to us. The wonderful redemption
that's ours through Christ our Savior, here in His love. Not
that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to
be the propitiation, the sin-atoning sacrifice for our sins. Verse 26 says, and the Lord of
hosts shall stir up a scourge for him according to the slaughter
of Midian at the Rock of Oreb, and as his rod was upon the sea,
so shall he lift it up after the manner of Egypt. So the scourge,
the whip that God himself stirred up against the Assyrian monarch
to destroy him and his army was like we already mentioned, the
angel that was sent from God. And God likens that destruction
to the slaughter of Midian, which took place during the days of
Gideon. And his rod upon the sea refers
to the waters of the Red Sea. Remember how he parted the Red
Sea? And the Israelites walked across without getting any mud
on their feet. And then when they were safely
across, of course, Pharaoh and his whole Egyptian army dared
to pursue God's chosen people And God just brought the waters
down on him, drowning every one of them in the Red Sea. Now,
God has not changed, brethren. He's the same yesterday, today,
and forever. He's still on His sovereign throne
of power, doing what pleases Him. doing all things after the
counsel of his own will, all the inhabitants of the earth
are reputed as nothing, and God does according to his will an
army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, and
none can stay his hand or even bring him into question for what
he does. Verse 27 says, and it shall come
to pass in that day that his burden shall be taken away from
off thy shoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck, and the yoke
shall be destroyed because of the anointing." And so God encourages
that remnant during Isaiah's day to be not afraid. King Hezekiah
and the Israelites were paying tribute to that wicked king of
Assyria, and the yoke was up on their neck. They had no choice
but to do what that monarch dictated to them to do. But the spiritual
meaning is the removal of our sins from God's sight forever
through Jesus Christ, our Savior, God's anointed. The burden of
the guilt and punishment that we rightly deserve because we
have sinned against our God has been lifted from us. We bear
that no more. It was laid upon Christ, our
Savior, who was made to be sin for us that we might be made
righteousness of God in Him, and the yoke of the law and the
yoke of bondage has been taken away from spiritual Israel. We
don't bear that anymore. We're free. The Lord Jesus Christ
has set us free. If we believe God, if we believe
that He has delivered us from bondage that we were under, that
we were in, to what I call spiritual Egypt, We have no reason to fear
anything. No reason. Be not afraid is God's
word to His promised children. Brethren, if God be for us, who
can be against us? He that spared not his own son,
but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him freely
give us all things? God has justified us. Do you
believe that? I believe that. I believe I stand
before God, my standing before Him, not my state. I'm a sinner, and I am aware
of this 24-7. But my standing before God, as
Brother Steve brought out in Sunday School, is perfect. Dressed in the righteousness
of Christ, with His blood removing every spot and stain, we're as
holy as Jesus Christ Himself in God's sight. That's our standing. So we're encouraged by God. Be not afraid. Look at verses
28 and 29. He has come to Ai or Ajath. He has passed to Migron at Michmash. He hath laid up his carriages.
They are gone over the passage. They have taken up their lodging
at Giba. Rama is afraid. Gibeah of Saul
has fled. Lift up thy voice, O daughter
of Giham. He, him, gather themselves to flee. Lift up thy voice, O daughter
of Galen. Cause it to be heard unto Laish,
O poor Anathoth. Madnonah has removed the inhabitants
of Givenham, gather themselves to flee. As yet shall he remain
at Nob that day. He shall shake his hand against
the mount of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem.
And these verses are prophesying. These are prophetical verses
that tell of how this wicked king was going to come to Jerusalem. It's giving us an account of
each step he was going to take and how the inhabitants of certain
cities would tremble and even flee because of him and his mighty
army that was marching through the land. God determined the
steps of that wicked king and his army right up to the gates
of Jerusalem before he destroyed him. Now if that's true, and
it is, Then we see through God's writings that we have nothing
to be afraid of. Those people in Jerusalem, I
know they had to be trembling in their boots. But God promised
them that not an arrow would be turned loose in that city. And He fulfilled His promise.
Now listen to me. We're traveling through a wicked
world. This pilgrimage journey we're
on takes us into the midst of people who viciously hate our
Christ and his gospel. We're surrounded on every side
by those who blatantly deny God and hate his people. I just saw
recently where a young man was carrying a big poster board and
the words that were written on it said, if Jesus Christ comes
back, kill him again. That's what they think of our
Savior. And that's the same enmity that was in our hearts before
the Lord gave us a new heart. Now, because of His grace, we
have embraced Christ and His Gospel. And we see that the world
is just full of wickedness. But every path that those wicked
people are walking on, every step they take, everything they
do is under the sovereign control of King Jesus. God has set His
King upon His holy hill of Zion and He just laughs at them, has
them in derision to think that they can overthrow the kingdom
of God. They stand shaking their fist in His face like this wicked
king of Assyria was doing towards the inhabitants of Jerusalem
thinking that, boy, by my power I'll destroy them, I'll show
them. All the evil forces of darkness, all the wicked people
of this world, all of them put together one little word from
King Jesus and it's all over. We're no match for the enemy. We're no match for the evil forces
of darkness. But we don't have to be. We have
the captain of our soul who's taken care of all of that for
us. All of our enemies are under His sovereign control. He has
already destroyed Satan. We read that in the Scriptures.
He, our Lord Jesus, through death destroyed him that has the power
of death, that is the devil. Yes, he still goes about like
a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. But he can only go
as far as God allows him to go. All of the evil forces of darkness
are like the waves of the sea. They can only go so far, and
that's it. I've said this before, but it's so true. They're just
like dogs on a leash. They can only go as far as that
leash. God brings them in check. Aren't
you thankful for the restraining hand of God? Oh my. Oh my. What a terrible world. This is already, and if God removed
His restraining hand, and He's doing that, by the way. I see
it being lifted, and men becoming worse and worse, but God is still
on His throne. Be not afraid. Look at verses
33 and 34. That wicked king thought he was
something, but our Lord says, Behold, the Lord of hosts shall
lop the bough with terror, and the high ones of stature shall
be hewn down. and the haughty shall be humbled,
and he shall cut down the thickets of the forest with iron, and
Lebanon shall fall by a mighty one." So the mighty generals
and the officers of that army just, they woke up one morning
and they were dead. 185,000 of those soldiers were
dead. And the king fled for his life.
And like I said earlier, he was killed by his own two sons. So God took care of that. Now
I want to take you over to John chapter 11. Just give me a few
more minutes of your time. Our subject this morning is addressed
to God's enlightened children. Be not afraid. And if you're
in Christ, you have absolutely no reason to be afraid. But if
you're not in Christ, you have every reason to be afraid. The
scripture on the front of this morning's bulletin Take it from
John 14, one through three, and John 17, 24, where we read, let
not your heart be troubled, our Lord says to his disciples. 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 and prepare a place for you, I will come again and
receive you unto myself, that where I am, there ye may be also. Then we read in John 17, 24,
where our Lord Jesus in His high priestly prayer said, Father,
I will that they also whom Thou hast given me be with me where
I am that they may behold my glory which Thou hast given me
for Thou lovest me before the foundation of the world. So we
have the promise from God Himself, our Lord Jesus, that we're going
to be with Him, that we may behold His glory. Pastor Don Fortner
said, God who is sovereign over all history is sovereignly working
his will and all the events of history. Note, we must never
judge God's goodness in the light of his providence, but judge
his providence in the light of his goodness. The object of God's providence
is the spiritual eternal good of his elect. In every age there
is a remnant, Pastor Fortner goes on to say, according to
the election of grace, who must and shall be saved. It was true
in Isaiah's day, and it is true today. And everything God does
directly and indirectly is for the salvation of that elect remnant,
end of quote. And I say amen. Now in closing
this message, let me give you three things that all Unregenerate
men and women fear, and they might try to hide this fear,
but it will surface eventually. The fear of death, the fear of
standing before God's throne on Judgment Day, and the fear
of eternal torment. There has been many, many, many
foxhole conversions, and many of those bolstered that they
had no fear of death until they were looking it straight in the
face. Then they changed their tune. And many of them cried
out in prayer, God if you would just save me from this awful
predicament that I am in, I promise to go to church, I promise to
do better, I promise to do this, I promise to do that. God spared
them and went right back to their wicked way of living. but that fear of death. They
don't fear God, but they fear death. And here in John chapter
11, we have every reason given to us by our Savior not to fear
death. Lazarus had died, Mary and Martha
were mourning the death of their brother,
It says in verse 19 of John 11, many of the Jews came to Martha
and Mary to comfort them concerning their brother. Verse 20 says,
then Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and
met him, but Mary sat still in the house. Then said Martha unto
Jesus, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. But I know that even now whatsoever
thou wilt ask of God, God will give it thee. Jesus saith unto
her, Thy brother shall rise again. Martha saith unto him, I know
that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day.
Jesus said unto her in verse 25, I am the resurrection and
the life. He that believeth in me, though
he were dead, Yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth
in me shall never die. Believest thou this? I know about
you, but I believe that. I know this body has to lay down.
I know this body is corrupt. It cannot inherit the kingdom
of God. We cannot take our mortal bodies
with us to heaven. We must put on immortality. but absent from the body is present
with the Lord, our Lord Jesus said so. These are words found
in Holy Scripture. So when this old body lays down
in death, we're going to be in the presence of our wonderful
King who loved us and gave Himself for us. He that believeth on
Him shall never die. We have no reason to fear death. I know we're apprehensive. I
know this is something that we haven't experienced yet, and
it's not something we're going to just rush into by jumping
out in front of a 19-wheeler, or take our own life. I know
these things are not what we will do, but I know also that
if we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as He is set forth in
the Scriptures, He has destroyed death. He has taken the sting out of
death. He has promised us, and He is
able to keep His promise. that if we believe on Him according
to the Scriptures we shall never die. Be not afraid to go through that
door marked death. What is waiting for God's children
on the other side is eternal bliss in the presence of our
King who loved us and gave Himself for us. I turn back, turn over
I should say to Romans chapter 8 all of Adam's posterity The
whole human race will live forever. Some in eternal bliss with Christ
our Savior. Some in eternal torment separated
from God forever. And we all must stand before
the judgment seat of Christ and give an account of the things
which we have done. And people in their unregenerate
state fear that day of standing before the judgment seat of Christ.
But the Word of God teaches us that perfect love casteth out
fear. That all of God's children will
have boldness in the day of judgment. Because as Christ is, right now
as Christ is, so are we in this world. And verse 1 of Romans
chapter 8 says, There is therefore now no condemnation, no judgment
to them which are in Christ Jesus. And the last part of that first
verse does not belong there. It belongs down in verse 4. But
it doesn't do any harm to it. It just doesn't belong there.
The Word of God teaches in verse 1, and this is where it ends,
After the word Jesus, there is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus." No judgment. Why is that? Why
is it that we will not be judged when we stand before Him? Because
we were judged in our substitute, and we were found guilty. Our
God made His darling Son, who knew no sin, to be sin for us. And he was found guilty. Guilty. I don't understand that. How can the finite mind understand
that which is infinite? But God punished his son for
my sins. The sin debt has been taken care
of. God has found us in Christ without
any sin because He took care of our sins, put them in the
grave and buried them out of God's sight forever. We have
already been punished in our substitute for all of our sins. Now listen to me, and I'm speaking
to the young as well as the old. You have no way of knowing when
your life is going to end on this earth. you may go out of
this life before this day is over. And if you're not in Christ,
if your faith is not in the Lord Jesus Christ according to the
scriptures, you will go right to eternal torment where there's
no escape from that. And everybody knows that. In
their minds they know. Turn over to Romans chapter,
back to Romans chapter 5 and I'll bring this to a close. We
know that there's only two places,
either hell or heaven. We're going to be in one of those
places when our life is over. The only way you can be assured
of entering into eternal bliss is to believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ according to the scriptures, to put your faith and your trust
in Him. God will not have any mercy on anyone who refuses to
bow down to His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and believe on
Him. It says here in Romans chapter
5, starting at verse 8, God commendeth His love toward us, and that
while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. What a manifestation
of God's love for His elect. He didn't die for the goats.
He died for the sheep. And when we stand before him
on judgment day, the sheep will be on his right hand, the goats
on his left. And he will say to the goats
that are on his left, depart from me, ye workers of iniquity.
I never knew you. In other words, he was never
intimate with them. He never knew them in a loving
way. But he says to his sheep, well done, thou good and faithful
servant. enter into the joy of the Lord. Now, when were we ever
a good and faithful servant? In Christ. In Christ. He walked perfectly, establishing
righteousness for his people. And when He died, He died the
perfect substitute. He had no sin of His own, but
our sins were laid on Him. All of our iniquities. And He
died for the ungodly. Look at verse 8. Much more than
being now justified by His blood. Listen to this. We shall be saved
from wrath through Him. As Brother Ray brought out in
his devotional, the word shall is an imperative. It can't be
any other way. We shall, because we were justified
by the blood of Jesus Christ, we shall be saved from wrath
through Him. Because He lives, we live. And
so the wrath of God has already been poured out on us in our
substitute. God has delivered us from the
wrath to come. That's why He can say to those
on His right, well done thou good and faithful servant, enter
into the joy of the Lord, and we enter into paradise, into
God's eternal kingdom, into eternal bliss, because Jesus Christ laid
down His life for us, because He paid the redemption price
in full, for all of our sins. It says in verse 10, For if,
when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death
of His Son, much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And so here our Savior has come
out of the grave. He has sat down at the right
hand of the Majesty on high. He's there not only Oh, don't miss this. He's there
not only as our surety, making sure that we will be delivered
from the power of darkness and Satan and sin are brought into
a living union with Himself. He's not only there seated as
our surety, He's there as our sovereign Lord, making sure that
all that which He has purposed shall come to pass. for his eternal glory and eternal
good of all those that he loved and gave himself for when he
laid down his life at Calvary 2,000 years ago. What a hope
that is set before us. It's like an anchor of the soul
that's both sure and steadfast. That hope is Christ and he has
already entered within the veil. He has sat down, and we've been
made to sit in heavenly places in Him. And folks, there is no reason whatsoever
to be afraid of anything. Be not afraid is addressed to
me, addressed to God's children in every generation. Jesus Christ
is able to save to the uttermost those who come unto God by Him,
seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them. Abraham staggered not at the
promise of God, but was strong in faith, giving glory unto Him,
being fully persuaded that God was able to perform that which
He has promised. This is the confidence all of
God's children have, and the confidence is not in us. Our
confidence is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Be not afraid. Grab a hold of the truth and
run with it. Embrace the truth with joy in your hearts and be
a living testimony before this world of wicked men and women
that it is well, no matter what our luck might be in this life,
no matter if the whole world turns against us, no matter if
we are going through that door marked
death, with an incurable disease called
cancer, or whether we leave this life in an automobile wreck,
or if we die of natural causes, it is always well with the righteous. It is well with my soul. Be not afraid.