Good evening. Let's open your
Bibles, if you would, to Genesis chapter 3. This is not going
to be our text, but we're going to start here, and our text actually
will be in Isaiah 41, if you want to put a marker over there. The title of my message tonight
is, Is God With You? This is something that I want
to know for me, and I'm sure you want to know for you. Is
God with you? And I think there's a way we can see in the Scripture
where there is. So when we look at the Scriptures,
we look at words, we want to know what these words mean. and
typically you've heard our pastor mention the law of first mention.
The first time a word is mentioned in Scripture, that's how we look
at that word for how it's to use later in Scripture. In that
same spirit, I want to look at Genesis chapter 3 here, just
a little verse in this to kind of kick this off, to see about
what is God's relationship with man. Because God's relationship
with man obviously changed after the fall and let's see what that
is. So in Genesis 3 in verse 9, the Lord called unto Adam
and said unto him, where art thou? And he said, I heard thy
voice in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and
I hid myself. So, when we look at what man's... this defines the new relationship
from here on out that man has with God. It no longer was acceptance
as it was before. From here on out, the first emotion
Adam had after the fall was fear. He was afraid. Afraid of God. His first emotions was not content,
it wasn't delight, it wasn't satisfaction, it wasn't any of
those things. It was fear. So in Genesis 3.10
we see this defines the new relationship. I heard thy voice in the garden
and I was afraid. Now there's many things that
I fear and I've been in places I shouldn't have been before.
People told me don't go in there, and I still went anyway, and
I was afraid. I've been around people before
that could hurt me and put myself in situations that I shouldn't
have put myself in, and I was afraid. I'm afraid of circumstances
happening. I don't want to lose my job.
I don't want to lose my health. I don't want to have conflict
in my home. There's many things that I'm afraid of, but there's
one common thing with all these things that I've mentioned here,
They're all temporary. You see, whether it's temporary
in terms of temporal time in this life, it ends in a year,
a month, a day, or these things are temporary in that they end
when I die. I don't have to deal with that
sickness anymore. I die and it's over. I don't
have to deal with that. But things with God are not temporary. Things with God, there's a permanence
to them. And so, is Adam justified in
feeling afraid? Yes, he is. He's afraid of God. Because God is almighty, he's
powerful, he's all-knowing, he sees all, he knows all, and he
can do all. And he hates sin. And what am
I? What are you? We are sinners
in the hands of an angry God. We forget that. That's not the
God that's preached today. You and I are full of sin, and
our God, as Clare read, is a consuming fire. And all the dross, all
the wood, hay, and stubble, all the things that are not pure
and holy and true, that's all gonna get burned up. Our sin
fuels the fire of God's wrath. I don't wanna be in that fire.
And I fear Him. So I, like my father Adam, I
fear Him because He can do with me as He will. I have no influence,
no ability to do anything to change my situation. It's a situation
of permanence. I was born in sin. I commit sin. It's all I know. It's all I am.
And I know that God hates sin. So I can't change that. If you
will, turn with me over to Luke chapter 12. These are the Lord's
words speaking of what it is that we should be afraid of.
So in Luke chapter 12, verses 4 and 5, the Lord says, and I
say unto you, my friends, and these are not Pharisees, these
are not people that he is, you know, talking things of judgment
to. He said, I'm speaking to you
as friends now. I want you to understand this. Verse 4, be
not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that they
have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you whom
you shall fear. fear Him, which after He hath
killed the body hath power to cast into hell. Yea, I say unto
you, fear Him." Now, my question is, is this the God that is preached
today? These are the Lord's words. He's
saying, you fear Him. That is not, I think if we're
honest in what we hear and, you know, we live and work in the
world, that's not the God that's preached today. The God that's
preached today is a God of second chances. He knows you can't be
perfect. I'm doing the best I can. I can't
be perfect, so I'm going to do the best I can. We'll give you
a second chance. You just keep on trying. That's the way He's
presented in many ways. He's presented as a God who cannot
save, cannot atone, unless you do something to make it work
for you. He's a God who loves you, but that won't stop Him
from sending you to hell, because if you don't accept it, what
He did, then therefore He's still going to send you to hell. He's
a God whose will and desire to save are totally dependent on
the creature, on what He decides His destiny is going to be. That
is the God who is preached today. This God is a joke, and it's
no wonder that people think religion is stupid. people check their
brains out at the door coming in because this is not who clearly
who he says it in his word, but it sounds good. So let's make
that up and say that's who God is. So people are comfortable
with that because we have some control over that situation. How can this be God? He can't
accomplish anything. If this is the God that you write,
I trusting we are going to end in ruin. We're going to be cast
into hell because this God can't help me. If it's dependent on
me to do anything, I'm going to lose. I'm going to fall short. I'm not going to be consistent.
This is what John called another Jesus. He said they're speaking
of another Jesus. This is not the Jesus in the
scriptures. This is another Jesus. It's another
God. It's not who he says he is in
the scripture. Now, I am afraid of the God of the Bible. I am. Because when people hear about
the God of the New Testament, they present Him kind of as what
we talked about, the God of second chances that wants to help you,
standing at the door knocking, waiting for you to open up. But
they don't like the God of the Old Testament. He's too big. He's too mean. He's too angry.
He's too hard. He's too harsh. But they're the
same one. He said, I change not. So he's
not going to change who he is. So we have to reconcile who he
is in the Old Testament with who he is in the New. So we can
say that this is another Jesus. I am afraid of God. Whatsoever
the Lord pleased, that did he in heaven and earth and the seas
and all these places. This is who God is. He's not
waiting for you or I to do anything. In fact, everything that He is
doing here is designed around causing us to do whatever His
will was. And that might be some to salvation
and some to judgment. But either way, He is in control. This is why God sent His Son
to accomplish the work that the Father gave Him. What was the
work? We talked about it this morning.
His work was all built around saving the people that the Father
gave Him. the people that Father elected in Christ, and that Christ
came in the flesh to fulfill the work. That is the gospel,
and He must be successful, or He's died in vain, because that's
the God of this world that they preach. He can die for you, but
what good does that do you if you don't do your part? So, what
is God's charge then to His messenger in Isaiah 40? He charges His
messenger with a message to His people. And that message that
he charged him with was, comfort ye, comfort ye my people, sayeth
your God. And that's what I hope to do
tonight in looking at this Isaiah 41 chapter. This is gonna be
the base for our text. So Isaiah 41, we're just gonna
read verse 10 to start with. And remember, Adam's new foundation
with relationship with God is one of fear. Yet the Lord says
here in Isaiah 41 verse 10, 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. If you've seen who God is, I
know that you're afraid. if you've seen Him who He is,
because then you have some understanding of who you are as a sinner in
His hands. So my herald to you from God's
Word is just this, fear not. Why am I not to fear? He says,
for I am with thee. Now, fear not is one thing, and
everybody in here has either said it or had somebody say it
to you. When you're afraid, somebody says, oh, don't be afraid of
that. Don't say that. That doesn't help me, because
that doesn't give me any means to not be afraid other than you
saying, don't be afraid. He's giving us a reason not to
be afraid. These aren't just empty words.
He says, fear not, for I am with thee. Who's the I? I is Jehovah
God, the God of the Bible. I is the mighty God. I is He
whose name is called Wonderful. The I is the name at which every
knee shall bow and every tongue confess His name that He's Lord
and that He's King. The I is the one whom when He's
in their presence the devils tremble. They can't even go out
of His presence to do anything until He allows them to do it.
And they're far greater in power and in strength and in ability
to hurt you or I than anyone in this world. But yet they tremble
at his presence. The eye is the one whom the earthquakes,
the scriptures say that the waves and the wind obey his voice.
That's who the eye is. Fear not, for I am with thee. That takes on a whole different
meaning than somebody just telling you, fear not. How can I know
if he's talking to me? Because I think we can say it's
not talking to everyone. Everyone is not given the message
to fear not. So it's important that we understand
who is this passage talking to? Who is he saying you fear not? Well, he tells us. Look in verse
8. In verse 8 he says, but thou
Israel art my servant. Israel is the name that he gave
Jacob later in his life. Prince with God. He says you're
a servant. Servant is one who worships,
one who serves. Prince with God. That sounds
good. Let's read on. My servant Jacob, whom I've chosen,
the seed of my friend. Now Jacob, you know, means heel,
means supplanter. It's someone who's not honorable.
The name in itself doesn't mean something of honor, but yet,
tied with that is chosen, elected of God. That sounds pretty good
to me. So I'm okay if he's talking to
me and saying, Israel, Jacob, I can get on board with that. All right, now let's look at
verse 14, because if you get on board with those two, you've
got to get on board with this one, because it's still Jacob.
Fear not thou worm, Jacob, and ye men of Israel. So I think
we have to stop there to at least look at this. If you're on board
with the servant part, being a prince with God, you're on
board with the Jacob, but the election part sounds pretty good,
you've got to be on board with the worm as well. Does that describe you? Worm,
as we know here, actually means maggot. It's not just like an
earthworm. It means referring to a maggot.
Now I can remember As a kid going back, we had trash cans out behind
the house and they'd sit out in the sun. I remember opening
one of those up and just this stench came out of there and
all the trash juice in the bottom and just maggots crawling all
over the inside of the trash can. Now has anybody ever looked
at that and said, I can see how that would be lovable? What a
fine looking maggot. It smells so good in there. I
want to take that home with me. Keep those maggots around. No,
a maggot is something of a fence. It's a stench in the nose to
God. There's nothing good about it
and all you want to do is kill it and eradicate it from your
presence and it's a fence to your eyes. There's nothing good
about a maggot. So if you get on board here,
you have to be on board with being a maggot. if you want to
be elected, if you want to be chosen of God, if you want to
be included in those who are the princes with God. You can't
pick one and not pick the other, so they're all tied to the same
person. Now, it's only when we're brought here that we see ourselves
as a maggot. We see our great need of Christ
because a maggot is an offense to a holy God. I can't come in
his presence because he demands that I am clean. And there's
nothing clean about a maggot. It's only an offense. So I have
to get on board here as a maggot that needs Christ. And everything
else, it doesn't matter. I might be a servant, as he describes
Israel. I might be dishonorable, as he
describes Jacob. And I might be even a maggot
and a worm. But if I have Christ, then that's
all right. I can get on board with that.
I'm His, and that's really what matters. So what I want us to
look at tonight is, I pick some examples where the Lord tells
us to fear not. Because if we're honest, we fear
God if we understand who He is. But I want to see in the Scriptures,
what does He point to when He says, fear not? This verse, we
don't even need to turn to it, you know it. It's Genesis 15,
1. He says, fear not, Abram. I am
thy shield and thy exceeding reward. First, that's the first
time he mentioned the term fear not. Now shield, you know, is
something used in battle. It's used to protect you. What
is it gonna protect you from? Protect you from something or
someone that's gonna hurt you. And he says, don't fear, I'm
your protection. You know what the second thing
a shield is? Second thing a shield is is also a covering. because
you can't see the one behind it when the shield's in the front.
All you see is the crest upon the front. You see the shield,
you don't see the person. So it's not only protecting me,
but it's my covering because God can't see me in my sins.
He can't look on me the way I am here. I have to be put under
the blood of Christ. And apart from Him doing that,
I am exposed for what I am. I don't want God to see me anywhere
other than in Christ and under His blood. So that's what the
shield is. I'm the shield and the exceeding
great reward. And reward, as you know, it's
a great prize. Greater and far more valuable
than anything we can imagine is when you look at the way those
words translate out. It's greater than something we
could ever even imagine. And that's what he says he is
to us. I'm your shield and I'm a greater reward to you than
you can ever imagine. Fear not. because he's our shield. All right, turn with me, if you
would, over to Genesis 26. All right, let's look at verse
24. And the Lord appeared unto him the same night, to Isaac,
and said, I am the God of Abraham thy father. Fear not, for I am
with thee, and I will bless thee and multiply thy seed for my
servant Abraham's sake. Now, when we look at this, Abraham
here is a type in a picture of Christ used in this context.
So if we're ever looking for a reason why God would have any
reason to do anything for you, It's for Christ's sake. And that's
what this is pointing to. So do I need to know why God
would do something for me? It's not because of my works.
It's not because of my faith. It's not because of the things
that I do or don't do. Everything that is done for God's
people is done for Christ's sake. So he doesn't have to find a
reason why to do it in you. And that's comforting to me because
that takes the burden off of me and feeling like, when's it
enough? Maybe you get yourself in a state
where you think, you know, I'm doing pretty good. He could do
something here for me. What happens when you're not? None of that
ever enters into the equation. He said, the only reason I'm
doing Anything for you, Isaac, is because of Abraham's sake.
Because he was my friend and I loved him. And that's the only
reason he'll do anything for you or I. It's for Christ's sake.
So if we're saved, if God's shown you mercy, shown you long-suffering,
shown you his grace, it's for Christ's sake. It's not found
in us. All right. We're to fear not for our salvation. Turn over to the book of Ruth,
chapter three. Now, you know the story here.
This is Ruth, who was the handmaid. She was the servant. Her husband
died, and that means she lost everything. Women couldn't hold
property back then, so she lost everything. So she went and lived
with her mother-in-law, who decided, I'm gonna go into the land of
my people, and she decided where your people are, they're gonna
be mine, I'm gonna go with you. And there was this rich man,
the wealthiest man in the region, named Boaz. and he had many goods,
and he had these fields she would glean in, and they had the harvest
at this time. So they harvested all the stuff
in the fields and they were processing it in the threshing floor. And
so Ruth came in that night after Boaz went to sleep and fell asleep
and covered his feet. And Boaz woke up in Ruth chapter
three, verse nine, and he said, who art thou? And she answered,
I'm Ruth, the handmaid. Spread therefore thy skirt over
thy handmaid, for thou art a near kinsman. And he said, Blessed
be thou of the Lord, my daughter, for thou hast shown more kindness
in the latter end than at the beginning, inasmuch as thou follow
not the rich young men, whether rich or poor. And now, my daughter,
fear not, I will do to thee all that thou requirest, for all
the city of my people doth know that thou art a virtuous woman."
What a picture of Christ we have here in Boaz. The rich man, the
well-regarded man in the city, and she came to him, and what
did he say to her? He said, fear not. I'm going to do all that
you require. She had nothing. She was nothing.
All she got were his handouts whenever he was kind enough to
tell his workers to leave her something. And he says unto her,
I'm gonna do all that you require. And that's what he says to his
children. To the sinner that comes to him for help, for need,
empty handed, I've got nothing. I'm looking for a crumb of your
mercy. And he says to you, fear not. I'm gonna do all that you
require. Well, what does Christ, what
does He require? What is going to be required
of me in order to be accepted before God? Well, first, it's
going to be a perfect righteousness. It can't be something that I
had a hand in doing because if I had a hand in it, it's going
to be corrupt, it's going to be imperfect, it's not going
to be any good. So how did He provide that so
that I don't have fear? He fulfilled the whole law. Everything
that it said and you look at it throughout the book of Leviticus
You look at all the things in there every bit of it. He fulfilled
Perfectly, so now I can come into God's presence and know
everything that I've done Is perfect because he did it. I
have no fear because I know there's nothing to criticize me for the
second thing What did he do for us that God requires? God requires,
do you remember when you'd bring a sacrifice? It couldn't have
a spot and it couldn't have a blemish. It had to be perfect. And I think
if we look at ourselves, we're full of holes and spots and blemishes. In fact, that's all we can really
see. So what did he do? He washed us in his blood. He
washed us clean, washed away all the spot, all the blemish,
and he made everything new. We can't fix up the old stuff,
so he said, I'm going to give you a new spirit, a new nature,
one that loves God, one that loves Christ. All of our sins
have been forgiven because of what he did. So He gave us a
perfect righteousness. He washed us in His blood. He's
also giving us, and this is a big one, look at your faith. Do you
have anything that you can look at your faith and say, you know,
I think I'm doing okay there? No, you can't. Faith is the gift
of God. You can't conjure up faith apart
from Him giving you the ability to do so. So he's given us faith,
he's made us clean from our transgressions, and he's given us a perfect righteousness.
And what does he say here? He says, fear not, I'm gonna
do all that you require. That's a good reason not to fear,
to know that he does it all, and I don't have to do anything.
All I have to do is believe. And he has to give me the ability
to do that. So I'm thankful for that. I will do all, fear not. So anybody who tells you you
have to accept something or do something to make it work, they're
liars. The truth's not in them because right here he tells it.
I'm gonna do it all. All right, let's look at the
next fear not. Fear not for his help in time
of need. So go back to Isaiah 41, the
chapter that serves as our text for this. And this is big here. Because, and I want you to notice,
every time you see a thee or thou referring to you, you're
going to find an I. So look at verses 9 and 10 here. Thou, whom I have taken from
the ends of the earth, and called thee from the chief of men thereof,
and said unto thee, Thou art my servant, I have chosen thee,
and not cast thee away. Fear thou not, for I am with
thee. Be not dismayed, for I am thy
God. I will strengthen thee. I will
help thee. I will uphold thee with the right
hand of my righteousness. And over to verse 13. For I,
the Lord, will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear
not, I will help thee. That's a pretty strong word of
consolation. Everything that we fear, everything
that we see, these things are needed. There's an I. And it's
always pointing back to Him. It's I will, I will, I will. So I know that He's gonna do
all that I need. That gives me some confidence
that I don't have to fear. When is the only time that you're
gonna ask for strength? Is that something that you pray
for? I think if I'm honest with myself, it's not. The only time
I pray for strength is when He's made me feel powerless. when
he's put me on my back and made me realize I can't do anything. Lord, give me the strength just
to get up and get through the day today. If I'm honest, it's not something
that I remember to pray about, and I'm ashamed of that, and
how often he has to show me over and over and over just to pray
for the strength of the day. I need him for that. What's the
only time that you're gonna pray for help? It's when you're helpless,
when you have to lay something in his feet and say, Lord, if
you will, you can make me clean. That's the only time I'm going
to ask for help is when I can't do anything about it. What's
the only time that you're going to ask to be upheld? That's one
of the other things he tells us he'll do. It's when you can't
hold on any longer. You know, we go through a lot
of things in this life, hard things, and there's times it
feels we're ground down, the burden's too great. I can't hold
on anymore. I can't hold on to know what
to do for the next hour or the next day or the next minute.
He says, I'm gonna uphold you. You don't feel like it. You don't
feel like you're gonna be able to make it, but I'm giving you
this burden to let you know I'm gonna uphold you. In Deuteronomy
31.8, he says, and the Lord, it is he that doth go before
thee. He will be with thee. He will
not fail thee. He will not forsake thee. Fear
not, neither be dismayed. The Lord is gonna be our help
in time of need. And it's only, unfortunately,
as sinful creatures in the way we are and the way the Lord is
gonna deal with us, he's gonna have to cause us to feel our
need of him. And that's done through what
Claire read tonight about many trials that we will experience.
The chastening of the Lord is to bring about faith. We're never
going to have that if He doesn't put us through that. But that
will cause us to feel our need, our great need of Him. And I
want to feel that. I don't want trials. I don't
want to be chastened. Feeling my need of him, that
makes me realize I know that I'm alive in Christ, because
I know I can't help myself, and I'm throwing myself at his feet
for help. I need him. So we're not to fear for his
help when we need it, because he gives us this strong word
of promise here that he'll give it. All right, the next fear
not, he says, we're to fear not for safety. Let's look over at
1 Samuel chapter 22. David is such a type of Christ
here and he's on the run from Saul. So we're gonna look at
1 Samuel, we're gonna jump at a few verses. Verse 13, Saul
said unto him, why have you conspired against me, thou and the son
of Jesse? And that thou has given him bread and a sword and hast
inquired of God for him, that he should rise against me to
lie in wait as it is this day. Now verse 18, and the king said
to Doug, Turn thou and fall upon the priests. And Doug the Edomite
turned, and he fell on the priests, and slew that day four score
and five persons who did wear a linen ephod. And in verse 20,
and one of the sons of Ahimelech, the son of Abiathob, named Abiathar,
escaped and fled after David. And Abiathar showed David that
Saul had slain the Lord's priests. And David said unto Abiathar,
I knew it. That day when Doug the Edomite
was there, he would surely tell Saul, I have occasioned the death
of all the persons of thy father's house. Now, you abide with me,
fear not. For he that seeketh my life,
seeketh thy life. But with me, thou shalt be in
safeguard. So we're to fear not for safety.
So who are your enemies? First of all, our adversary,
which we've spoken of often in the scriptures. Satan, the devil,
our adversary, Lucifer, he is far more powerful and able to
hurt me than really anyone in this world, and yet we're told
to fear not. Also, the wicked of this world,
those in whom His influence and power is over. And you've been
persecuted. You can't live in this world
and not encounter people that want to hurt you, tell lies on
you, do things to you to hurt you. And so, we're to fear the
wicked of this world. But most of all, I fear my own
evil nature, because that's the subtle one. We can point to Satan
and say, well, he's evil. We can point to the wicked in
the world and say, they're evil. But the wicked that's in here,
this is the greatest camouflage that I cannot see beyond. Because
the wicked in here justifies what I think's right. The wicked
in here doesn't show me things as they really are. It shows
me what I want to hear. And so that is the greatest enemy
we have because it's an enemy within. And when the enemy's
within, we can't distinguish it from the friends. And so I
need to be protected from Satan, the wicked of this world, but
more than anybody, myself. But he says, those that seek
your life, whether it be Satan, the wicked world, or you opposing
yourself, they want to hurt you. They want to see you fall. We're
standing alone, I fear. Kind of like Elijah said, Lord,
there's nobody. It's just me. He says, you fear
not. You abide with me because the
same evil, the same ones that are seeking your life, they're
seeking my life. But with me, you're in safeguard. He's saying, you are gonna be
safe. If you're in Christ, can anything hurt you? Can the devil
get to you? No, not without his will and
ability for him to do anything. I find it interesting that in
the book of Job, it talked about how these heavenly beings had
to present themselves before the Lord. Satan was one of them.
he had to present himself before the Lord. And that's when he
started talking to him about, have you been considering my
servant Job? But he had to present himself.
So he is no different than anybody else in terms of those under
the Lord's will and power. If I'm in Christ, I don't fear
anything. I fear plenty of things. But
if I'm in him, I don't have that fear. If He's with me, there's
nothing that I have to fear. There's a passage, I'm not going
to ask you for time's sake to turn it in 2 Chronicles, where
it talks about the Lord telling Israel, don't be afraid. The
battle that you're getting ready to go into, it's not yours. He said, the battle is the Lord's.
So you stand still and you see the salvation of your God. Fear
not, for the Lord is with you. We are going to go into many
battles. There are things that we think that we're going into.
These are the Lord's battle. I'm one of His children, and
He knows everything about His children. There's nothing that's
going to happen to you, the situation you're going to be in, that He
didn't allow it to happen. And if He's the one who allows
it to happen, He's the one that's going to have to get me out of
it. He got me in it. He's going to have to get me
out of it. It's going to be for my good. It doesn't mean that
we won't hurt or that we won't go through things for the purpose
of giving us faith and to salvation. But if I'm in Christ, I have
no fear. I can stand before God Himself
in Christ and have no fear. So we're not to fear for safety.
He is my confidence. Alright, let's look at, this
is the last fear not, and this is I think the biggest one for
me. If you'll turn with me to Isaiah 54. Isaiah 54, this fear not is actually
for His love. Isaiah 54 verse 4, fear not. For thou shalt not be ashamed.
Neither shalt thou be confounded. For thou shalt not be put to
shame. For thou shalt forget the shame
of thy youth, and not remember the reproach of thy widowhood
anymore. For thy maker is thy husband.
The Lord of hosts is his name, and the Redeemer of the Holy
One of Israel. The God of the whole earth shall he be called. And now in verse 10, the mountains
shall depart and the hills be removed, but my kindness, my
love shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of
my peace be removed, save the Lord that have mercy upon me. The reason I say to fear not
his love, how often does he tell us, you don't have to be ashamed. How much are you ashamed of?
What you're doing right now, what you've done, things that
God sees in here that nobody else does. We can put on pretty
good in front of one another, and I'll keep it together for
an hour here to be around one another, but we know what's in
our hearts. In a moment, I'm exposed, I'm
revealed, I'm a fraud, and God can see it. and he knows everything
that I've done. And that has honestly been one
of the biggest things, a burden as far as knowing, going into
heaven, standing before God himself, fearing he's gonna say, I'm gonna
have mercy upon you for Christ's sake, but I really know what
you did. Because I know what I did now
and I remember it. Yet, he tells us to fear not
here. These are his words. This is
not just an empty fear not. He says, fear not, you don't
have to be ashamed. I'm not even gonna remember the
iniquities that you committed. They're thrown behind my back.
You don't have to have any fear, so we're not to fear his love.
I'm ashamed of my sin before him. I'm ashamed of how cold
and how wavering my love is. Only a son knows his shame. but only a father covers all
his shame. Isn't that what he did for his
people in sending his son to die? For those of us who have
every reason to be ashamed, he sent his son to die to cover
all of our shame so that he can say to you, fear not, you don't
have to be ashamed, not anymore. And what is the grounds for this?
Well, I'll turn back to Isaiah 43. This will be our last scripture.
This is actually the declaration of His love to His people. And
I don't know there's a scripture that I find more confidence in
and more consolation in than this scripture when I'm looking
at His love for me as one of His children. So let's just read
these first seven verses. But now, thus saith the Lord
that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel,
fear not, for I've redeemed thee, and I've called thee by thy name,
and thou art mine. He tells us here, first thing,
he said, don't be afraid. Fear not, first, because I've
redeemed thee. That means I've bought you back.
And you know what the nice thing about him buying me back is,
redeeming me with the price of his blood, of his son? I don't
own myself anymore. So I can't sell myself back to
sin like my father Adam did. He sold himself into sin when
he ate of that fruit of the tree. He sold himself over to sin.
I can't sell myself. I don't own myself. That's why
we pay for mortgage insurance when they do a title search and
try to make sure it's not owned by somebody else so that you
don't give your money to try to buy it and they say you can't
buy it. Somebody else owns it. Well, that's what he says to
all the children. I've redeemed you. I bought you back. I own
you. You're mine. And that gives me confidence
in knowing he says to you, thou art mine. That means nobody else
can get me. He owns me. He's saying, I called
you by your name. That means he knows your name. I feel insignificant before the
Lord. You know, I don't think I'm anybody,
and I could see why he would forget somebody like me. But
yet he says, I know your name. I've redeemed you. I've paid
with you with my own blood. Thou art mine. In verse two,
when thou passest through the waters, the waters of the trials
and tribulations of this life, I will be with thee. And through
the rivers, it's gonna come all the way up to your eyeballs,
but it's not gonna overflow you. It might feel like it will at
the time, but he's saying, I'm gonna be with you and these aren't
gonna go over your head. When thou walkest through the
fire, what's the fire? That's God's wrath, standing
before God and making sure we are pure and holy before him.
Thou shalt not be burned. Neither shall the flame even
kindle upon you." There's not even going to be smoke on your
clothes. Like those fellas that got thrown in the fiery furnace,
there wasn't even smoke on their clothes when they came out because
there was nothing to burn. All the wood, the hay, and the
stubble, all the meaningless things of this life are going
to be burned up. so that all that's going to be left are the
precious jewels. And you can apply fire to the
gold, you can apply fire to the silver, nothing's going to come
out of it. It's pure. So the fire can't even kindle
upon it because there's nothing that'll burn. For I am the Lord
thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Savior. I gave Egypt for
thy ransom, Ethiopia and Saba for thee, since thou was precious
in my sight, and thou hast been honorable, and I have loved thee. Therefore, will I give men for
thee and people for thy life. He says that to his people, you're
precious. I don't feel precious, but if
he says I am, I am. I'm honorable. How am I honorable? Only in the Lord Jesus Christ.
You know that. Everything that he did for his
people, it makes us precious. It makes us honorable. In God's
sight, so much so that he says, and I love thee. So we can have
confidence that he loves his people for what Christ did. And
we also see here the Lord puts a difference between his people.
He's saying, I'm gonna give people and I'm gonna give nations for
your life. When Don was preaching here Wednesday night, he basically
gave the example of what's the reason the rain falls? Because
I need it. What's the reason the sun rises
up in the sky tomorrow? Because the Lord's people need
sunshine and they need air. And as soon as we're not here,
the sun will stop to shine, the rain will stop to fall. There'll
be no reason for any of this. Everything that is done here
is done for the Lord's people's sake and bringing them home.
Because not one of them's gonna be lost. So he says, I'm gonna
give people and nations for thy life, since thou was precious
to me and I love thee. We're his children. Think about
your own children, how you do for them. You wanna protect them.
In verse five, fear not for I'm with thee. I'll bring thy seed
from the east and gather thee from the west. I'll say to the
north, give up. And to the south, keep not back.
Bring my sons from far and my daughters from the end of the
earth. I said this this morning, how far is the east from the
west? It's as far as it can be. How high is the north from the
south? It's too high and too low. I can't get to either of
them. But yet he says, he said, don't you keep back my sons and
daughters. I'm going to get all of them and I'm going to find
them, bring them to me. And that's what the charge of
all of creation and this world is, is us being brought to him. That's what's going on. And now
lastly, even speaking of everyone, all those that he searched the
earth for to bring him to him, everyone, that is called by my
name. What's his name? His name is
the Lord, our righteousness. And if you look in verse one,
he says, fear not, I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy
name. What's our name, the church?
The Lord, our righteousness. We have the same name. Because
he goes on in verse seven, it says, for I have created him
for my glory. Who's the hymn? Hymns the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's who he created for his
glory and his glory is what? Bringing all of his people home.
We're brought as the prodigal son home to the father. And what
was the father's reaction when he saw the prodigal son? It was
something of love. There was no mention of what
he did. My son was lost, but now he's found. Let's kill the
fatted calf and rejoice. And that is what it would be
for every believer that comes home. He tells us to fear not
because He knows we fear. That's why He gives us these
sure words of confidence because that's our relationship with
God as fallen men. But yet He says to some, fear
not. We're to believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. We're to confess His name and
to bow to Him as our King. And I'll close reading this verse
out of Psalm 37. It's the last verse. The salvation
of the righteous is of the Lord. He is their strength in time
of trouble, and the Lord shall help them, and the Lord shall
deliver them, and He shall deliver them from the wicked and save
them, because they trust in Him. Now if this is you, if you're
one of those people that trusts in Him, He can say unto you,
fear not, for I am with thee, I am thy God, I'll strengthen
thee, I'll help thee, I'll give thee aid.