It's today in the book of Isaiah.
Isaiah chapter 41. Celeste texted me and said, is
there a song you'd like me to sing that ties into what you
have to say? And I said, there sure is. And the one she just sang, How
Firm a Foundation. One verse in that comes directly
from our text here in Isaiah 41 where it says, Fear not, I
am with thee. Oh, be not dismayed, for I am
thy God. I will still give thee aid. I'll strengthen thee, help thee,
and cause thee to stand. And He'll do it because we're
upheld by His gracious, omnipotent hand. Isaiah 41. Keep silence before me, O islands,
and let the people renew their strength. Let them come near. Let them speak. Let us come near
together to judgment, who raised up the righteous man from the
east, called him to his foot, gave the nations before him,
and made him rule over kings. He gave them as the dust to his
sword and as driven stubble to his bow. He pursued them and
passed safely, even by the way that he had not gone with his
feet who hath wrought and done it, calling the generations from
the beginning. I the Lord, the first, and with
the last, I am he. The isles saw it and feared,
the ends of the earth were afraid, drew near and came. They helped every one his neighbor,
and every one said to his brother, be of good courage, So the caterpillar
encouraged the goldsmith, and he that smootheth with the hammer,
him that smote the anvil, saying, It is ready for the soldering.
And he fastened it with nails, that it should not be moved.
But thou, Israel, art my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the
seed of Abraham my friend. Thou whom I have taken from the
ends of the earth, and have called thee from the chief men thereof,
and said unto thee, Thou art my servant, I have chosen thee,
and cast thee not away. Fear thou not, for I am with
thee. Be not dismayed, for I am thy
God. I will strengthen thee. Yea,
I will help thee. Yea, I will uphold thee with
the right hand of my righteousness. Behold, all they that are incensed
against thee shall be ashamed and confounded. They shall be
as nothing, and they that strive with thee shall perish. Thou
shalt seek them, and shalt not find them. Even them that contended
with thee, they that wore against thee shall be as nothing, and
as a thing of naught. 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. I will help thee, saith the Lord,
and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel." The previous chapter in Isaiah,
chapter 41, says, Comfort ye, comfort ye
my people. Speak comfortably to Jerusalem
and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity
is pardoned, for she hath received of the Lord's hand double for
all her sins. Now today, if the Lord will enable
me, I want to do just that. I want to try to comfort God's
saints. And I want to do that by looking
at the promises that our God makes in His Word, particularly
in this 10th verse of Isaiah 41. Let's read it again. Fear
thou not. Why not? For I am with thee. Be not dismayed. Why, Lord? For I am thy God. I will strengthen
thee. Yea, I will help thee. I will
uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness." Now this
term, fear not, is found 61 times in the King James Bible. And
variations of that is fear thou not, that we find in our text,
or fear ye not are found dozens more times. Now as frail human
beings, Have many fears. We don't like to admit it. We
like to think we're strong in the faith. Like other people
to think we're strong in the faith. And the truth is, we're
not. And if we didn't have any fears,
we wouldn't have any worries. Because worries come from us
owning up to the fact that we have control over absolutely
nothing. Anything that arises is beyond
our control. We worry about getting sick.
We worry about our children. and our grandchildren. When we're
younger, and some when we're older, we worry about finances,
making ends meet, providing for those that we love. We worry
about the weather and a thousand other silly things. But once
we're given faith in Christ and assurance of our God, we should
be worry-free, but unfortunately, that is not the case most times,
at least with me. We have a hard time believing
that God is able to do as He's promised because our faith is
so pathetically weak. Therefore, doubts creep in when
they really shouldn't. Our Lord told His disciples that
if they had faith as a grain of mustard seed, they could move
mountains. And considering a mustard seed is about the diameter of
a pencil lead, our faith must be microscopic. because we have
a hard time sometimes believing even the smallest of God's promises.
But here in verse 10 of our text, here in Isaiah 41, we're given
several reasons why we should not fear. First, we're told by
our God, for I am with thee. Now the last words that we read
that were spoken by our Lord before He left this earth, spoken
to His disciples in Matthew 28.20, He said this, And lo, I am with
you always, even unto the end of the world." And that is indeed
a comfort, but it is especially comforting because of the words
that the Lord spoke two verses earlier when He told His disciples,
All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth. So if the One who holds all power
is with us, we should have nothing to fear. This God whom we serve
makes numerous promises, an untold amount of promises throughout
His Word. Let me read just a couple. In
Psalm 27.10, it says, When my father and my mother forsake
me, then the Lord will take me up. Turn with me over to Ezekiel.
Just a couple books over from our text here in Isaiah. But
hold your place in Isaiah 41. Over to the book of Ezekiel. Chapter 16. This verse in Psalms says, When
my father and mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me
up. This is described in this 16th chapter of Isaiah. We'll begin reading in verse
4. As for thy nativity, in the day thou wast born, thy navel
was not cut, neither was thou washed in water to settle thee.
Thou wast not salted at all, nor swaddled at all. Not I pitied
thee to do any of these unto thee, to have compassion upon
thee, but thou wast cast out in the open field to the loathing
of thy person in the day that thou wast born. And when I passed
by thee, and saw thee polluted in thine own blood, I said unto
thee, When thou wast in thy blood, live. Yea, I said unto thee,
When thou wast in thy blood, live. I have caused thee to multiply
as the bud of the field, and thou hast increased and waxed
and great, and thou art come to excellent ornaments. Thy breasts
are fashioned, and thy hair is grown, whereas thou wast naked
and bare. Now when I passed by thee and
looked upon thee, behold, thy time was a time of love, and
I spread my skirt over thee and covered thy nakedness. Yea, I
swore unto thee and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the
Lord, and thou becamest mine. Then I washed thee with water,
yea, I thoroughly washed away thy blood from thee, and I anointed
thee with oil. I clothed thee also with broidered
work, and shod thee with baggared skins, and girded thee about
with fine linen, and I covered thee with silk. And I decked
thee also with ornaments, and put bracelets upon thy hands,
and a chain upon thy neck. And I put a jewel in thy forehead,
and earrings in thine ears, and a beautiful crown upon thy head.
Thus was thou decked with gold and silver, and thy raiment was
of fine linen and silk embroidered work. Thou didst eat fine flour
and honey and oil, and Thou wast exceeding beautiful. Thou didst
prosper into a kingdom, and Thou, renowned, went forth among the
heathens for Thy beauty. For it was perfect through My
comeliness which I had put upon Thee, saith the Lord. The infant spoken of here was
forsaken by his father and mother and cast out into a field left
to die. This is a picture of all of God's
elect before mercy comes to us. Completely helpless to do anything
for ourselves. But He comes to us in this time
of love and says to this dead sinner, live. Dead sinner, live. And He washes us in the blood
of Christ and swaddled us in the robes of His righteousness,
never to be found naked again. wanting for nothing, and He nourishes
us through His Word and feeds our souls with His goodness and
grace. Psalm 94.14 says, For the Lord
will not cast off His people, neither will He forsake His inheritance. Christ said that of all that
the Father had given Him, He would lose nothing. There will
not be one sheep that was given to Christ that will not be sought
out and brought to the fold. In Hebrews 13.5 we read, "...let
your conversation be without covetousness, and be content
with such things as you have. For He has said, I will never
leave thee, nor forsake thee." Now though sometimes we feel
as if the heavens are made of brass, and our God seems not
to hear our pleas for mercy and grace, that is never the case. It's simply our lack of faith
and not His lack of faithfulness. It's like the words to that old
hymn that Don quoted so many times. Behind the frowning providence,
he hides a smiling face. He never ever forsakes his people. Turn with me over to the book
of Nehemiah, the little book between Esther and Ezra. The
book of Nehemiah. Nehemiah chapter 9. Now here we're given a description
of the behavior of the nation of Israel and how God heard their
cry and delivered them time after time out of the hands of their
enemies. After which, they went right
back to sinning. And again, this is an accurate
description of us in our time of rebellion before God gave
us faith in Christ We'd maybe have a close call with death
or have some sort of danger, and we'd straighten up for a
while, maybe go to church for a while, and then we'd fall right
back into our old ways because we did not know the God of all
grace. Let's begin reading in Nehemiah
9, verse 24. This is speaking of the nation
of Israel, but it's applicable to us. So the children went in
and possessed the land, and thou subduest before them the inhabitants
of the land, the Canaanites, and gave them into their hands
with their kings and the people of the land, that they might
do with them as they would. And they took strong cities in
a fat land and possessed houses full of all goods, wells digged,
vineyards, and olive yards, and fruit trees in abundance. So
they did eat, and were filled, and became fat, and delighted
themselves in Thy great goodness. Nevertheless, they were disobedient,
and rebelled against Thee, and cast Thy laws behind their backs,
and slew Thy prophets, which testified against them, to turn
them to Thee. And they wrought great provocations,
Therefore thou didst deliver them into the hand of their enemies,
who vexed them. And in the time of their trouble,
when they cried unto thee, thou heardest them from heaven. And
according to thy manifold mercies thou gavest them saviors, who
saved them out of the hand of their enemies. But after they
had rest, they did evil again before thee. Therefore leftest
thou them in the hand of their enemies, so that they had dominion
over them. Yet when they returned and cried
unto thee, thou heardest them from heaven, and many times did
thou deliver them according to thy mercies, and testifieth against
them, that thou mightest bring them again unto thy law. Yet they dealt proudly and hearkened
not unto thy commandments, but sinned against thy judgments,
which if a man do, he shall live in them. and withdrew the shoulder,
and hardened their neck, and would not hear. And yet many
years did Saul bear them, and testify against them by the Spirit
in thy prophets. Yet would they not give ear,
and therefore gave us them into the hands of the people of their
enemies." But thankfully we read this in verse 31. Remember folks, this is us that
we just described before we knew the Lord. Nevertheless, for Thy
great mercy's sake, Thou didst not utterly consume them, nor
forsake them, for Thou art a gracious and merciful God. Now these verses
speak of the problems of the nation of Israel. But it's certainly
applicable to us before we came to faith in Christ. And look
at what it says, Nevertheless, for Thy great mercy's sake, Thou
didst not utterly consume them. Our God would have been right
to destroy us in the time of our rebellion. But He is a God
who delights in showing mercy to those that He gave to His
Son in eternity past. And He's not willing that any
should perish, but that all should come to repentance, as we're
told in 2 Peter. Then this verse in Nehemiah says
that God did not forsake them, for thou art a gracious and merciful
God. Now from the moment that one
of God's elect is conceived in the womb, He sends His angels to watch
over that elect one until the time that he brings him or her
to faith in Christ. And afterwards as well, we're
held in the palm of His hand, safe from all harm. In Deuteronomy
4.31, I especially like this verse. It says, For the Lord
thy God is a merciful God. He will not forsake thee, Neither
destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which
ye swear unto them." We're kept safe until the time of God's
mercy because of what His Son did, because of that better covenant
that was brought in. Turn with me over to Hebrews,
please. We're safe in Christ because of that better covenant.
Hebrews chapter 8. I know I'm having you turn to
a lot of Scripture, but as Don used to say, I want you to see
this. Hebrews chapter 8, we'll begin
reading in verse 6, speaking of that better covenant. But
now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much more also
he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established
upon better promises. For if that first covenant had
been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the
second. For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days
come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the
house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not according
to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when
I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt,
because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them
not, saith the Lord. For this is the covenant that
I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith
the Lord. I will put my laws into their
mind and write them in their hearts. And I will be to them
a God, and they shall be to me a people. And they shall not
teach every man his neighbor and every man his brother, saying,
Know the Lord. For all shall know me from the
least to the greatest. For I will be merciful to their
unrighteousness. and to their sins and iniquities
will I remember no more. In that he saith the new covenant,
he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth
old is ready to vanish away." This new covenant is so much
better because the first covenant that God made with Israel depended
upon them keeping His laws and His statutes, but this second
covenant depends upon the God-man keeping those statutes for us,
and His righteousness given to us, His perfect righteousness.
Now then in this verse in Isaiah, back to our text in Isaiah 10, we read that our God declares,
be not dismayed. First He tells us, fear not,
and be not dismayed. This word dismayed is another
word for discouraged. unnerved, demoralized, or disheartened,
void of any hope. And this was certainly our condition
before God came to us in saving faith. Paul reminded the Ephesians
of this in chapter 2 when he said, Wherefore, remember, it's
always good for us to remember. Wherefore, remember that ye in
time past, being Gentiles in the flesh, who are called the
uncircumcision by that which is called the circumcision in
the flesh made with hands, that at that time ye were without
Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers
from the covenants of promise." That covenant that we just read
of. Having no hope. Sad, sad condition. Having no
hope and without God in the world. But now, in Christ Jesus, ye
who sometimes were far off are now made nigh by the blood of
Christ, having no hope, completely discouraged, disheartened, and
demoralized of ever being found in Christ, sure of our impending
doom. When God first awakened us to
our undone lost condition, we came to understand that in and
of ourselves He taught us that we have no hope, of ever being
redeemed. We were dismayed. But as the
Spirit began to show us the merits and the ability of Christ Jesus
to make us righteous and meet the demands of God's law, we
began to have hope. And finally, our God gave us
faith, which we were enabled to believe on His Son. And we're
taught that even though we fall miles short of ever providing
any righteousness, acceptable to God. Yet in the God-man we
find all the goodness, grace, and righteousness that we will
ever need to stand pure and holy before His throne of judgment. And then next in this verse 10
of Isaiah 41, we read these words, I will strengthen thee. Now these
words tell us that if our God needs to strengthen us, then
obviously we're weak in and of ourselves. And when it comes
to providing anything required by the strict law of God, we're
as weak as a newborn lamb. But we find many places in God's
Word where He promises to strengthen us. Psalm 31, it says, Be of
good courage, and He will strengthen your heart, that place from which
all belief and action spring, the heart. For He will strengthen
your heart, all ye that hope, in the Lord. When we believe
in our heart that our God is able to do what He promises,
we're strengthened and taught to simply rest in faith. Let
me read from Ephesians chapter 3. You can turn over there if
you'd like and follow along. Ephesians chapter 3, starting in verse 14. This is talking about our God's
strengthening in us. For this cause I bow my knees
unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ," Ephesians 3.14, of whom
the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would
grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened
with might by His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell
in your hearts by faith, that ye, being rooted and grounded
in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth,
and the length, and the depth, and the height, and to know the
love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled
with all the fullness of God. Now unto him that is able to
do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think according
to the power that worketh in us, unto him be glory in the
church, by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. The grace of our God strengthens
our hearts by doing exceedingly abundant above all that we think
or ask. Now think about that for a minute.
Let it sink in. He doesn't just perform what
we ask for. Bill mentioned in his prayer
a few minutes ago We don't know how to pray." And he hit that
nail on the head. But our God, He doesn't promise
to do above what we think and ask. He doesn't promise to do
exceeding above what we think and ask. No, because He is a
God who possesses unlimited amounts of goodness that He gives to
His saints. Paul runs out of ways to express
what he's trying to get across to us, but he does the best he
can. with the limits of human language. And he tells us that
our God does exceeding, abundantly, above anything that the human
mind can imagine, simply because His thoughts are not our thoughts,
and His ways are not our ways. Exceeding, meaning more than
sufficient, measureless, extraordinary, boundless. Abundantly, meaning
in huge quantities, plentiful, spouting us. And such a One is
our God that He provides a way for us to ask for those things
that we need and desire, even when we can't put it into words,
because Romans 8.26 tells us this, Likewise the Spirit also
helpeth our infirmities. For we know not what we should
pray for as we ought, but the Spirit itself maketh intercession
for us, with groanings which cannot be uttered." At those
times when our heart is so weighed down and overloaded with grief,
and sometimes guilt, our God provides a way for us to ask
for what we need without speaking a word. Our Lord told His disciples
in Matthew 6a, He said, for your Father knoweth what things you
have need of before you ask Him. Does that mean we shouldn't pray
that the Lord just give us what we need? No, certainly not. But
what we need to understand is before we even ask, and many
times we ask for the wrong things, we don't know what we should
ask for, so we just stumble through like a bunch of dumb sheep and
ask for something and hope the Lord will give us what's good
for us, what we need and not what we want, But the Lord says
before we even ask Him, I mean, how great is that? It's like
a loving mother who knows what her newborn baby needs before
it ever has the ability to form words and ask for what it needs. She knows how to take care of
that child. And our Lord, infinitely above that, knows how to take
care of us. He made arrangements before this world was ever spoken
into being. to provide all that we need and
above all that we ask. Now next in our verse 10 of Isaiah
41 here, our God promises, I will help thee. Now help can mean
many things. It can mean assistance, relief,
rescue, support, aid, or lifting up. all of which describe what
our God does for us every moment of every day. Twice in the Psalms,
David wrote these same exact words in two places. He says,
"...give us help from trouble, for vain is the help of man."
Now one of the greatest gifts that God can give a man or woman,
boy or girl in this life, is faithful friends. Where would
we be without our friends? But David knew that there was
only so much that our friends could do for us. They might desire
to help us, but they're limited by means and ability. But we do for each other what
we can, and when we run out of things to do, we pray. Because we know that we can ask
the One who has all power to provide the needs of our friends,
and He will do it. Psalm 38 says, Forsake me not,
O Lord. O my God, be not far from me. Make haste to help me, O Lord,
of my salvation. Not O Lord of my salvation, but
O Lord my salvation. David knew that salvation was
not a thing, it is a person. But sadly, When our Lord, in His time of need, in His time
that He was found with our sins laid upon Him, He was completely forsaken of
the Father, unlike us. Psalm 89.20 says, Reproach hath
broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness. This is speaking
of our Lord. And I look for some to take pity,
But there was none. And for comforters, but I found
none. Psalm 22, that prophetic psalm
that speaks of our Lord's crucifixion, states in verse 11, Be not far
from me, for trouble is near, for there is none to help. In Isaiah 63.3, it describes
the work of the Savior when it says, I have trodden the winepress
alone, and of the people there was none to help me. Then two
verses later, our Savior speaks and says, And I looked, and there
was none to help. And I wondered that there was
none to uphold. Therefore, mine own arm brought
salvation unto me. and my fury, it upheld me." So
because our Savior tread that winepress alone, we read in verse
10 of our text, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my
righteousness. Because of our sin being laid
on our Lord, He was deserted of the Father, with none to uphold,
with none to help. But as a direct result of that
finished work, Our God can now make this promise that He will
indeed uphold His people. And He is able to uphold us because
of His unimaginable might and strength. The Scriptures speak
many times of the Lord's right hand and the power it holds. Let me read just three. Exodus
15.6, Thy right hand, O Lord, is become glorious in power. Thy right hand, O Lord, hath
dashed in pieces the enemy. Psalm 118.16, the right hand
of the Lord is exalted, the right hand of the Lord doth valiantly. In Psalm 89.13, thou hast a mighty
arm, strong is thy hand, and high is thy right hand. Now our God also uses that mighty
right hand to embrace us. and comfort us as we read in
the Song of Solomon. It says, His left hand should
be under my head, and His right hand should embrace me. We not
only find help and protection by the right hand of God, but
we also find comfort in times of need. And of course, at the
right hand of our God is where we find our mighty Savior seated,
reigning in sovereign majesty. And then the last words of this
verse Verse 10 of Isaiah 41, it tells us how we're upheld. It says, "...with the right hand
of My righteousness." Now could it be stated any clearer? It's
the very righteousness of the God-man Savior that upholds us
and makes us accepted in the Beloved. The Scriptures make
it abundantly clear and plain that the only righteousness that
our God will accept is a righteousness that He provides in the person
of Christ, which is given us in Christ. Paul wrote of this
very thing to Timothy in chapter 3, starting in verse 5. He said,
"...not by works of righteousness which we have done..." Now could
that be any plainer? "...not by works of righteousness
which we have done, But, according to His mercy, He saved us by
the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost,
which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior,
that being justified by His grace, we should be made heirs according
to the hope of eternal life. So there you have it, dear saint,
all of the assurance, all of the comfort, all of the encouragement,
all of the promises that will ever be needed in this life found
in this one verse in Isaiah 41.10. There is hope to be had and there
is comfort to be had in the promises of our God. Now, lastly, a word
to the lost that may be sitting here or may hear this in the
future. There are many reasons that you
in your present state of unbelief should fear. You should be horrified
by what awaits you. Our Lord gave a solemn warning
in Luke chapter 12, starting in verse 4. He taught His disciples
about who and what men and women should fear. And I say unto you,
my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and
after that have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn
you whom you should fear. Fear Him which after He hath
killed hath power to cast into hell. Yea, I say unto you, fear
Him. As that infant that I spoke of
earlier cast off into the field and left to die, were helpless
and your helpless lost sinner to do anything to improve your
condition. But there's one thing that you
can do if you're able. You can cry with blind Bartimaeus,
our son of David, have mercy upon me. And you won't even be
able to do that unless God provides you the grace to do so. Sure,
you might be concerned about your soul and going to hell.
But you'll never see yourself deserving of that until the Lord
of all mercy opens your eyes and gives you grace to do so.
You'll continue to cling with what you perceive to be your
own goodness and your own righteousness until God shows you otherwise.
But perhaps our God has begun a good work in you and awakened
your heart to your lost condition, and if so, You'll be able to
cry with that publican, God be merciful to me, the sinner. May He enable you to do that
today. Bill, come lead us in a song please.