Let's pick up in Zechariah 8,
verse 13, right where I left off this morning. I tried to show you this morning
something of the magnitude and blessedness of this promise from
our God. the one speaking here is God
our Savior. It shall come to pass that as
ye were a curse among the heathen, O house of Judah and house of
Israel, so will I save What a blessing! Your labor is not in vain, and
the Lord God's already said, I will save my people. So will I save you, and you shall
be a blessing. God takes such things as he finds
in Adam's fallen race, in the dung heap of fallen humanity,
such worthless things as we are. And by his marvelous grace, makes
from nothing a blessing, from a curse a blessing, from corruptors
a blessing, from defilers a blessing. Now based upon that great promise
to save his elect and to make every one of them a blessing,
the Lord God says to you and to me, to every believing center
And to every man or woman in this world throughout the ages
of time who seek to serve and honor Him, who seek to serve
His kingdom, who seek the increase of His kingdom, on the basis
of this promise, God says, Fear not, but let your hands be strong. Turn to Isaiah 34. Or chapter 35 rather, Isaiah
35, verses 3 and 4, we have a very similar admonition. Here the
word specifically is to every gospel preacher. God commands his servants who
go forth preaching the gospel, strengthen ye the weak hands
and confirm the feeble knees. Does that sound familiar to you?
It should. Paul uses it by inspiration,
by the direction of God the Holy Spirit, as an admonition for
every believer that we should help one another as we run the
race set before us, looking to Christ Jesus the Lord. He says
to the preachers, strengthen ye the weak hands, confirm the
feeble knees, say to them that are of a fearful heart. In the
margin, that word fearful, you see what it's translated? Hasty. That's what fear always produces.
Haste. Say to them that are of a fearful
heart. What fear is he talking about?
Whatever fear you have. Whatever it is that causes you
to pause right here, whatever it is that gives hesitation inside
you, whatever it is that is making you apprehensive with regard
to God, His providence, His grace, this world, or yourself, say
to them that are of a fearful heart, be strong. Fear not. How can you expect anyone to
heed that admonition? He's not done yet. Behold your
God. Be strong. Don't be afraid. And the way to do that is when
you start having a little trouble, go see a Some unbelieving shrink
and let him tell you how bad your mama and daddy were and
give you some pills. You'll talk to the preacher and let him tell
you things really aren't as bad as you think they are and soothe
you a little bit. No. You want strength? Behold your God. That's all. Behold your God will
come with vengeance. Even God with a recompense. Well, how does that give you
any strength? When you understand that when God Almighty has by
the sacrifice of Himself put away our sins, fully satisfying
justice, He comes to save. Look at it. He will come with
vengeance. This is the day of God's fury,
the day of His wrath. He comes with recompense to fully
satisfy the wrath and justice of God. He will come and save
you on the basis of what He has done Himself and what He has
promised. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened and the
ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. I've told you many times how
much Brother Harry Graham, who pastored Sunlight Baptist Church
in Asheboro, North Carolina, meant to me as a young man and
continues to this day. He's with the Lord now. When
I was a young man, Brother Graham was older than I am now, at least,
and I spent a lot of time with him. One night we were chatting
about some things in the scriptures, and he made a statement that
shocked me. Shocked me. We were talking about the matter
of believing God and assurance. And Brother Harry looked at me
and he says, since the day God saved me, I've never had a doubt
concerning it. Not a doubt. I was 19 years old. And I'll
be honest with you, if any other man I knew at the time had made
that statement to me, I'd have said, well, he's exaggerating
a little. But I didn't think about Harry
exaggerating. He wasn't such a man. But the
shock must have been apparent to him because he repeated himself. He said, never once, never once. Here is a man sitting before
me. who had been walking with God
for almost as long as I had been walking on the earth, who had
been preaching the gospel of God's free grace most of his
adult life, who spent his days and nights studying and meditating
on the Word of God, a man who understood the Scripture as none
that I had ever met to that point. And here I am, 19 years old. And he's never had a doubt. And
I'll be honest with you, I was full of them. I was full of them. I had a bunch. I had a bunch. I know sometimes fellas say,
well, if you have any doubts, you're not saved. And others
say, well, if you do, if you don't have any doubts, you're
not saved. But whatever men say, I was full of them. I had lots
of questions. Lots of doubts. Lots of suspicions
concerning myself. The fact is, not all of God's
saints are so full of confidence and assurance as my friend, Brother
Harry Graham. Most of us, most of us are more
like John Newton. One day, we sing with joy that
hymn Newton wrote, Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved
a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am found,
was blind, but now I see. And the next morning, things
are different. Tis a point I long to know, Newton
wrote. Oft it causes anxious thought. Do I love the Lord or no? Am
I His or am I not? Brother Don, surely you don't
have that kind of trouble. Yes, I do. Yes, I do. My message tonight is especially
to brother and sister fear heart. If you don't have any fears,
you can go on home. I've got nothing to say to you.
I've got nothing that will be of any benefit to you. I just never have any fears.
Well, we don't measure up. You have to go find somebody
else to be of help to you. Say to them that are of a fearful
heart, God said, fear not. I will save you. Just as you were accursed, so
will I save you. Fear not. Let your hands be strong. Be strong, he says. Is he talking about physical
hands? you with fearful hearts, he says,
don't be afraid. But take hold of me with a strong
hand of faith. Take hold of me with a strong
hand of faith, not a confident hand. A confident hand grips
nothing strongly. Did you hear me? Are you saying
we shouldn't have confidence in Him? Oh yeah, but it's hard
to do that when you've got a heart full of fear. Hard to do that
when you've got a heart full of fear. If I presume whatever
it is I'm fixing to pick up and carry along with me isn't too
heavy, I'll reach and start to grab it, just go on. Did you
ever walk by something and start picking it up and you just walk
by and grab it and it's still sitting there? Because you took
hold of it with a confident hand in yourself. Being confident
you've got strength enough to carry it. But when you walk up
to it and you realize you just might not be able to pick this
thing up. You get it with every strength
and fiber you can muster in your hand and hold it to pick it up. Now listen to me. The Lord God
says, I will save you. But you hold on to me with a strong hand, gripping
me with a death grip of faith, knowing that you must have me. Fear not. Let your hands be strong. The Lord our God, ever gracious,
ever compassionate, ever sympathetic to our needy souls, takes great
care to supply us with reason to grip Him by faith who grips
us in grace. I sat down yesterday and read
every passage I could find in the scriptures, Old Testament
and New, where our Savior says something like this to you and
me, be not afraid, fear not, fear thou not, fear them not. Hundreds of times, James. Hundreds of times. He means for
us to quit being afraid. Stop letting your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also
in me. All of those fear not passages,
looking at them in their context, wherever our Lord says fear not,
the admonition almost always is given in connection with God's
promise to save our souls. Almost always. The word fearful,
as I said in Isaiah 35, verse 4, is translated hasty in the
margin, because fearful people are always hasty, and haste is
always useless. The fearful jump to conclusions. Fear is never wise, it is never
patient, it's never reasonable. Did you ever try to reason with
someone who was afraid? You can't reason with them, you
have to shake them. You take a child and say, stop! Listen
to me! Listen! You've got to hear me
now! Because you're in danger. But you won't be if you pay attention
to me. Fear is never reasonable. Fear says, well, Jacob, all these
things are against me. But the fear heart forgets all
God's promises. All the experiences of providence. All that displays is known of
God's power. Sister Fearheart forgets the
truth, the wisdom, and the faithfulness of God. Fearheart always acts
on impulse. And when we act on impulse, we
make trouble for ourselves. Fear judges the Lord by feeble
sense and never seizes grace. Fear sees the cloud of providence,
but never God's smiling face. Fear tastes the bitter, bitter
blood, but not the sweetness of the flower. Fear and unbelief,
increasing hour by hour, flood the heart. And to you, especially,
who are troubled with fear, the Lord God says, fear not, but
let your hands be strong. Fear not, let your hands be strong. I do not say that fear and faith
don't live in the same heart. They do. David said, what time
I'm afraid, I will trust in them. I can't tell you how that's helped
me. What time I'm afraid, I'll still hold you with my desperate
hand of faith, because I've got to have you. What time I am afraid,
I will trust in thee. But fear is so horribly inconsistent
with faith, and so dishonoring to our God among his people. So he says to us, fear not. Now
I want to talk to you about some of my experiences. This message
is born from several things. First, as soon as I got to this
portion of our text in Zechariah 8.13, I knew this is what God
had me to preach. Second, the last night of our
conference, as folks were leaving here, one of the ladies who was
here for the first time pulled me aside right up here, and she
said, Brother Don, I'm having trouble. I'm having trouble. I'm having trouble with this
thing of election and God's sovereignty. And I said to her, I called her
by name. I said, what do you mean having
trouble? She said, well, I know that what we're seeing here is
taught in the Word of God. The Bible teaches it. But what
if I'm not one of God's elect? What if Christ didn't die for
me? And I've been trying to In my
own mind, I sat down and wrote to that dear lady and sent her
some things. I've already sent some things
to her, but something to answer her question specifically. And
I'm going to answer them tonight. I'm going to send this to her.
But I'm not preaching to her. I'm talking to you. To you. Who probably had the same kind
of fear she's had, and I've had, and often continue to have. Here's
the first. I know this book teaches God's
absolute, sovereign election of some to salvation. I'm fully
aware of that. In fact, I'm so confident that
every one of you here are aware of it, we will not look at the
many scriptures that teach it. Let me just state it plainly.
You've not chosen me, our Savior said. I've chosen you. Many are
called, but few are chosen. If it hadn't been for the elect's
sake, things are said would have happened, but they couldn't because
of the elect's sake. God does all things for his elect. God has chosen some to salvation
through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth.
God has a people whom he will save called his elect. He will
save them, every one of them, and none but them. Don't dare
say that. I don't dare say less or more
than this book says. And God says, Jacob have I loved,
and Esau have I hated. That's exactly what he says.
God's going to save his elect, all of them, and none but them.
Well, what if I'm not one of God's elect? Turn with me to
John chapter 9. John chapter 9, let me show you
something. Our Lord healed this man who
had been born blind. And it was on the Sabbath day
when he healed him. And boy, that put the Jews in a tizzy.
They were in an uproar. They called him into the church
council and tried to persuade him that the Lord didn't really
heal him. I've been there a few times.
They tried to persuade him, you weren't really blind. No, you
just had a little problem and he washed that out of you. You didn't really expect us to
believe you were born blind and now you see. And do you think this is the Messiah? And the poor boy, he says, well,
to be honest with you, I don't have a clue who he is. I don't
have a clue who he is. All I know is I've lived all
my life in darkness and I was blind. And now I say, are you
one of his disciples? We'll throw you out of the synagogue,
mama and daddy too. And when the Lord Jesus came
to him, knowing all the trouble he'd been through, he asked this
man, look at verse 35. Jesus heard they cast him out
and when he found him, He said to him, Dost thou believe on the Son
of God? He said, well, who is it? I love
this. Who is it? Man, this fellow wouldn't
pass mustard to get into any church. Who is it? Who is it? And the Lord Jesus
said, you've seen him. Look up here. Oh yeah, I do believe
you. I do believe you. The question
should never be. Let no one ever ask the question. What if I'm not one of God's
elect? That's not the question. That's not the question to be
answered. Young folks get hold of the, when I say young folks,
they might be 80, but they get hold of the gospel of God's grace
and some understanding in it, and man, they'll run up and down
the streets, they'll push folks aside, they'll get them aside
at the church. What do you think about election? And most folks
you talk to don't have a clue what they're talking about. What
do you mean election? They don't have a clue about
it. And they're trying to convince folks of election. That's not
the issue. I don't care whether folks go
to hell as Calvinists or as Armenians or as Buddhists. If you go to
hell, you go to hell. I'm interested in you knowing
who Jesus Christ is. Do you believe on the Son of
God? Do you hear Him preach in His
saving power and glory? Do you believe Him? Do you believe
on Him? You notice the Lord didn't ask
him, did you believe me yesterday? He didn't ask him, did you believe
me when first I came and healed you? He didn't ask him, did you
believe me when first you watched? He said, do you now believe on
the Son of God? I ask you, I ask you, do you
believe on the Son of God? I asked me, do you believe on
the Son of God? Well, I've had so many struggles,
that's not what I asked you. I had so many conflicts, that's
not what I asked you. I'm not sure I knew enough, that's
not what I asked you. I'm not sure I've experienced
the same things you have, that sure isn't what I asked you.
Larry Criss, do you believe on the Son of God? I do. That's the result of divine election. You mean if I believe in the
Lord chosen me? I do. I don't mean if you believe
the Lord will choose you. I mean if you believe the Lord
has chosen you. Do you believe? Let me show you
from the scripture. 1 Thessalonians chapter 1. 1 Thessalonians chapter 1. The evidence and the fruit of
election is faith in Christ. And you can't have the fruit
without the root. Here in 1 Thessalonians chapter
1, Paul writes to these Thessalonian believers. Now listen to what
he says to them in verse 4. And he's writing by inspiration.
He's not just writing, uh, uh, giving a compliment to him. Brother
Don, he says, knowing brethren. Well, we can't really know whether
anybody's saved or not. I beg your pardon. Knowing brethren,
beloved of the Lord, your election of God. Well, how can you know
that? For our gospel came not unto
you in word only. but also in power and in the
Holy Ghost and in much assurance. We know your election because
you heard the word and believed by the power of God. Tell you something else, I've
had trouble with the matter of redemption. That too causes fear. This dear lady asked me, A few
weeks ago, standing right here at the conference, she said,
what if Jesus didn't die for me? If he didn't, you're going to
hell. If he did, you're going to glory. That's just plain fact. But that's
not the question. That's not the question. Faith
in Christ is one of those redemption gifts obtained by the Lord Jesus
when He ascended on high and received gifts for men. Yea,
for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among
them. Faith in Christ is the result of redemption accomplished
and redemption applied. There's no question. There's
no question at all. Anybody who reads this book Somebody
said, well, that matter of limited atonement, particular redemption,
that's so confusing. That's not confusing. Anybody
who reads this book understands clearly when God gave the sacrifice
to Israel, He told them, them alone, in the Father of Egypt,
them alone. He didn't even tell the Egyptians
what He was doing. He said, you go tell the Israelites
about this land, sprinkling this blood and deliverance coming.
The sacrifices made on the day of atonement were made for no
one except the Jews. The law was given to no one but
the Jews. Other folks weren't even told
about it. They weren't even told about it. Throughout the scriptures,
everything referring to redemption speaks of redemption as being
for a particular people. And everything referring to it
speaks of redemption as effectually accomplished. For the transgression
of my people was he stricken. When he had by himself purged
our sins, he sat down with right hand of the majesty on high.
Universal redemption is universal nonsense. It's useless redemption. There's not a hint in the scriptures
to teach it. But what if I'm not one of those
redeemed? Again, that's not the question.
The question is, do I believe on the Son of God? If I believe Him, it is because
He sprinkled this heart and this conscience with His blood by
the power of His Spirit, saying, redeemed. Redeemed. I could not and would
not otherwise believe Him. The blood cannot be applied in
the wrong way. The blood cannot be applied to
the wrong person. The blood sprinkled upon my conscience
by God's Spirit, declaring pardon and forgiveness, giving me faith
in Christ, in whom also you believe, after that you heard the word
of truth, the gospel of your salvation. If that's been sprinkled
on me, and I've been set free, it's because I'm redeemed. How
do you know Christ died for you? Because He set me free. He redeemed me with His blood.
I know He did, because He spoke in peace and pardon to my soul
by His Spirit in the gospel, giving me faith in Him. What
about a factual calling? Now let's look at that a little
bit. John chapter 6. This is one of those things,
again, with which my soul struggles so much. When first I began to
have some apprehension of my need for Christ and His grace,
and began to be terrified in my soul of God's wrath, as I've
told you before, I'd had fits of religion before, like most
folks did. Make a profession of faith, and join the church,
and last for a little while, and as they say, go back. And
I'd go back a lot of times. I would think about confessing
Christ. Satan would roar. God the Holy
Spirit had called you. This is just a little emotional
spasm. You'll get over it. Don't embarrass
yourself again. You know He had called you. And
you know you can't come unless He calls. Look at this, John
6 verse 44. And He was telling the truth.
He was telling the truth. You can't come unless He calls.
Our Savior said no man can. Now He doesn't say here no man
will. He said no man can. He did say no man will, but here
He says no man can. No man can come to Me except
the Father which has sent Me brought him. And I will raise
him up at the last day. In other words, you can't come,
but if you do come, it's because the Father drew you, and if the
Father drew you, salvation is yours. I'm going to raise you
up at the last day. It is written in the prophets, they shall all
be taught of God. Every man therefore that hath
heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me. He said in verse 63, it's the
Spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing. But look at
verse 37. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me, and him that cometh to me. What does it say? Him that cometh
to me I will in no wise cast out. Well, I don't know if I
came the right way or not. Let me tell you something, you
can't come to Christ the wrong way. Him that cometh to me, I
will in no wise cast out. Come in. The Savior said, Don,
you can't come unless I draw you. And Satan says, you can't
come, you know you're not being called. The Savior said, He that
cometh to me. I will in no wise cast out. So,
well, Brother Don, I've been trying to come for a long time.
No, you haven't. No, you haven't. That's not so. That just isn't
so. You've been trying to make a deal with God for a long time.
I know. I've been there. You say, well,
Lord, I want to be saved. I want you to receive me. I want
to have you. And this is what I'm going to
do. And so you start making preparations. You can make all the preparations
you want to. But as long as you're making preparations to come,
you ain't coming. But in order to come to Christ, I've got to
learn this, I've got to know that, I've got to experience
this, I've got to think that. As long as you set up qualifying
conditions, you won't come and you can't come. Well, how do
you come to Christ? There ain't but one way you can
or will go. And that's when you are utterly,
utterly incapable of doing anything or bringing anything by which
to commend yourself to God and coming to Him. Coming to Him. Coming to Him. Do you come to Him? Do you come
to him? I'm so wretched, so vile, the
kind of folks he loves to have. But you don't know how corrupt
I am, the kind of folks he came to save. He says, whosoever cometh
unto me, I will. No quiet questions. Never cast
out. woman with issue of blood, you
remember the story? She had been 12 years stooped
over with a disease, constantly blood flowing from her, constantly,
for 12 years. She never got over her regular
cycle, just constantly, constantly. And so she's bowed over, and
she's dirty, and she's defiled. She's unclean before the law.
And she spent everything she had on physicians of no value. And she didn't She didn't, as
far as we're told in the scriptures, she didn't hear any call from
the Savior. She didn't hear anything. As
far as we're told in the scriptures, nobody invited her to come to
Christ. As far as we're told in the scriptures, nobody spoke a word to her about
anything, saying, now tell you what, you come over here and
the Lord Jesus will take care of you. But when she had spent
everything she had and was nothing bettered in utter desperation
because she had no other turn to make. Utter desperation. Will you hear
me? Faith in Christ is always the
result of utter desperation. Always. I don't know whether He'll heal
me or not, but if He doesn't, I'm gone. And she sneaks through the crowd
and touched And the Master said, Holy! Who touched me? It wasn't for
his sake he said that, he knew who touched him. It was for the
disciple's sake and for her sake. And she came and told him everything.
That's how we come to Him. And our Master says, He that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. But Brother Don, we know that
only those who endure to the end shall be saved. Oh, how Satan
roared against me with that. You won't last. You won't last. Oh, you know it won't work. You've
tried this before. And one day struggling with this.
Oh, I find it amazing. I've talked to folks. I find
it amazing how quickly we will find reasons to believe everything
that might keep us from believing God. Isn't it amazing how quickly
we'll latch on to anything negative? You can't continue in the faith.
You won't last five minutes. It won't happen. And I know he's
right. But perseverance isn't my work. Ultimately, it is not even my
responsibility. My surety. assumed all responsibility
for me. And one day, trying to study
this book, I fell on this statement in 1 Thessalonians 5, 24, and
it leaked from the pages of Holy Scripture right into my heart. Faithful is he that calleth you,
who also will do it. Now, fear not. Fear not. Let your hand be strong. Blessed Savior, give us grace with a strong hand
of faith, knowing our weakness, our inability, knowing that we
have nothing and can do nothing. Clean to you and to you alone. Amen.