All right, let's open our Bibles
tonight to the book of Isaiah. Isaiah chapter forty-one. Now here's my text, which I told
you this morning I'd be preaching from Isaiah forty-one. Let's read beginning with verse
eight. 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 called thee from the chief men thereof. And I 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, yea,
I will help thee, yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand
of my righteousness." Now, anytime there is a direct promise in
the Scripture, there is a condition. Anytime. I've used this so many
times, especially. I write to people who are in
any sort of trouble or sickness or problem, and I close the letter
with this passage. I use it frequently because it's
a blessing to people. Fear thou not, I'm with you. Be not dismayed, I'm your God. I will strengthen you. Yea, I'll
help you. Yea, I'll uphold you with the
right hand of my righteousness with Christ." But any time that
you find a direct promise in the Scripture, there is a condition.
For example, if any man thirsts, let him come to me and drink.
There's a condition. Are you thirsty? Then come to
me and drink. Any man that come to me and drink,
if he's thirsty, and out of his belly shall flow rivers of living
water. This he spake of the Holy Spirit,
which he would give to them who received him. Another scripture. Come unto me, all you that labor
and are heavy laden. Are you heavy laden? laboring
under the trials of sin and dislike, then come to me, and I'll give
you rest. And take my yoke upon you, and
learn of me, and you'll find rest. But are you laboring? That's the condition. All things
work together for good to them that love God, who are the call
according to His purpose. That's the condition. called
of God, according to his purpose, and in love with Christ. And
all things will work together for your good. Another one, to
as many as received him. But the Barber used to say, the
word received there is submit. Submit to Christ. To as many
as submit to Christ. Submit to Christ. To them gave
he the right, the privilege, to become a son of God. And this
awesome promise, which I read to you, is as sure and as certain
as the everlasting covenant upon which it's founded, which the
Father made with Christ on behalf of His innate. But first, let
this be established, to whom is the promise written. To whom
is the promise written? Brother Barnard quite often used
to say, just don't reach and grab any scripture. Be careful,
you might be caught reading somebody else's manual. Maybe it's not
addressed to you. God addresses his letters to
his people. The Bible is written to believers. The only thing the Bible has
to an unbeliever, to a rebel, is judgment. The Bible's written
to believers. We must not take the inheritance
to be ours if we're not a son. This is children's bread. This
is children's bread. And one of the old writers said,
Bread of heaven on thee I feed, for thy flesh is meat indeed. Even let my soul be fed with
this truth and living bread." Now, let's look at some of these
words which identify the people to whom the Lord is writing this
promise. The first thing here in verse
eight, "...but thou, Israel, art my servant." Paul uses that
phrase frequently. Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ. Really, Paul uses the word bond-slave. What is a bond-slave? Well, turn
with me to Exodus chapter 21. Exodus chapter 21, and you'll
have the word bond-slave here, and what it means. In Exodus
chapter 21, verse 2, now, if you buy a Hebrew servant, six
years he shall serve, whether he's in your service because
of debt or whatever the purpose is, but he'll serve six years. And in the seventh, he shall
go out free for nothing. If he came in by himself, he
shall go out by himself. If he were married, then his
wife shall go out with him. If his master has given him a
wife, and she hath borne him sons and daughters, The wife
and her children shall be her masters, but he shall go out
by himself. But, now watch this, if that
man who served for six long years, and if that man, if that man
shall say plainly say, come on record here now, I love my master,
I love my wife and my children, I will not go free. The only
freedom I want is to serve my master. I love my master, and
I plan to serve him the rest of my life. That's a bond slave,
a willing, loving, obedient bond slave. Then his master shall
bring him unto the judges, and he shall also bring him to the
doer, or unto the doer post. and his mastership bore his ear
through with it all, and he will serve him forever." That's what
the word servant means here. It's addressed to God's servant,
the willing, loving, bond slaves of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well,
let's look at the next word. But thou, Israel, verse 8, art
my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen over and over again Believers
are called the sons of Jacob. That's right. But thou, Israel,
art my servant Jacob, whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham my
friend. Quite often throughout the Old
Testament, believers are called the sons of Jacob. The sons of
Jacob. Why? Let me give you quickly
seven reasons why the people of God, all believers, all true
Israelites, The people of God are called sons of Jacob. Here's
the reason. The first is, God chose him.
Said, Jacob whom I've chosen, chosen not for good in me, wakened
up from wrath to flee, hidden in the Savior's sight by his
precious blood, sanctified, chosen of God. That's what we are, we're
chosen. Secondly, he's called the son
of Jacob because God loved him. The Lord said, Jacob have I loved,
and Esau have I hated. Dr. Magruder was raised in Missouri,
and his father was a preacher. Dr. Magruder's father was a preacher.
And he told me one time that he was in his father's study,
and they'd been talking about the scriptures, and this verse
is scripture. Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated? And Dr. Magruder's a young lad, asked
his father, said, I don't understand that. How could God hate Esau? And his father replied, son,
the problem is not how could God hate Esau. God hates singing.
The problem is how could he love Jacob? How could he love me and
you? Only by his grace, only by his
goodness. We are sons of Jacob because
God loved us. That's the reason. God loved
us. Commended his love for us in
the choir. We were yet sinners. Christ died
for us. And the third reason why we're
called sons of Jacob is God gave him the birthright. God said,
Jacob have a love, Esau have a hating. And the children, twins,
were in his mother's womb. And the children not yet born,
neither having done any evil, that the purpose of God according
to election might stand, not of works, but of election. He
says, the elder shall serve the younger. That's backwards, isn't
it? The elder is supposed to be the
elder and take the birthright. God said the younger is my choice,
whom I love, and he's receiving the birthright. with sons of
Jacob, because God gave us the birthright. Sons of God. Fourthly,
God revealed Christ to Jacob at that ladder. Now let me show
you that. Turn to Genesis 28. Genesis chapter 28. When Jacob
was fleeing from Esau, it says here in Genesis chapter 28, that
verse, I believe it's in verse 11, Genesis 28, verse 11. And Jacob lighted upon a certain
place, Genesis 28, 11, and tarried there all night, because the
sun was set. And he took of the stones of
that place, put them for his pillow, and lay down in that
place to sleep. And he dreamed, you got it? Genesis
28, 12. And he dreamed, and behold, a ladder, a ladder set up on
the earth, and it reached, the top of it reached to heaven.
And behold, the angels of God ascending and descending upon
that ladder. And behold, the Lord stood above
it and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, the God
of Jacob. The land whereon thou liest,
to thee will I give, and to thy seed. And thy seed shall be as
the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the e-west,
and to the east, and to the north, and to the south. And indeed,
in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. And
behold, I'm with you, I'll keep you in all places where that
thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land, And I'll
never leave thee until I've done that which I've spoken to thee
of." That's the latter, that's Christ. That's Christ. I'm the way, the truth, and the
life. No man comes to the Father but by me. God revealed, He chose
Jacob, He loved Jacob, and He revealed Christ to Jacob. And
then what's this now? And God gave him a new name.
And though there's no time with God, God's not in any hurry like
we are. We won't instant everything.
We won't have anything done now. Jacob here was wandering around
here, there, and yonder, married Leah, and then married Rachel,
and had children, and finally he's on his way to see his brother,
the one he misled. And his only way to visit his
brother, and his brother's the only way to meet him and kill
him. And the Lord met Jacob. I want you to read this now.
Genesis 32. This is why we are called sons
of Jacob. Genesis 32. The Lord chose us,
the Lord loved us, the Lord revealed Christ to us, and the Lord gave
us a new name. Old Jacob. Genesis 32, verse
24. Listen to it. And Jacob was left alone, and
there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day.
And when he saw that, who was this man he was wrestling with?
I'll tell you who it was. It was the Lord Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, pre-incarnation appearance of Christ Jesus. He
wrestled with the Lord. That's right. That's right. And when he saw he prevailed
not against him, he touched the holler of his thigh, and the
holler of Jacob's thigh was out of joint as he wrestled with
him. And he said, Let me go. The Lord said to Jacob, Let me
go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let you
go till you bless me. You know, that's where God brings
a man. To meet Christ, to know Christ,
and I will not let you go till you bless me. You've got to have
Christ. Old Knox prayed, give me Scotland
or I'll die. I'm just going to die right here
unless you give me Scotland. And that's what Jacob's saying
here, Lord. I'm not going to let you go. You bless me. And
he said, what's your name? He said, Jacob, supplanter, chief, deceiver. What's your name? He said, my name's Jacob. And
the Lord said, Your name shall be called no more Deceiver, Supplanter,
Cheat, but Israel. Israel. For as a prince hast
thou power with God, and with men thou hast prevailed. He made him a prince. His name
is Israel from now on. Jacob asked Him, Well, tell me,
I pray thee, what's your name? He said, Wherefore is it thou
dost ask after my name? And he blessed him. And Jacob
called the name of the place Peniel. I've seen God face to
face. Sons of Jacob, chosen, loved,
redeemed, given a new name. Israel, and then Jacob believed
God. One of the last things Jacob
said as he blessed his son, he said, The scepter shall not depart
unto Shaddokoth. The scepter shall not depart
from Judah, the tribe of Christ. until Christ comes. That's the
Son of Jacob. That's the Son of Jacob. Now,
let me go back to my text, Isaiah 41. Thou ist my servant, whom
I have chosen. Verse 9. I have taken you from
the ends of the earth. Every tribe, kindred, nation,
tongue under heaven. One time, John, the apostle John,
was writing about that man, that prong, that multitude which no
man can number, from every tribe, kindred, nation, tongue unto
heaven. That's who they are, God's people. God's people. And he's taken them from the
ends of the earth, from every tribe, kindred, nation, and called
thee from the chief men thereof, and said to thee, Thou art my
servant. I've chosen thee, and I will
not cast you away. Chosen, love, and call. Call from the ends of the earth.
Call of God. And I won't cast you away. I've
called you. Turn with me to 2 Timothy chapter
1. 2 Timothy chapter 1. 2 Timothy
chapter 1. Now, this When he says he's called us,
God chose us, loved us, and called us. This is not the general call
that every man hears. That's right. There's a general
call which every son of Adam hears. There's a light, that
light of every man that comes into this world. There's a light
of nature. There's a light of conscience.
There's a light of judgment. There's a light of providence
and trouble. But this right here is that sweet, effectual call
of the Spirit. That sweet, effectual call of
the Spirit. Listen to 2 Timothy chapter 1,
verse 8. Now Paul, writing to young Timothy,
said, Be thou, be not thou therefore ashamed in the testimony of our
Lord, nor be his prisoner. But be thou a partaker of the
afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God, who has
saved us and called us." God called us. One day, Matthew was
sitting at the receipt of customs, doing his duty and work and his
business, and the Lord Jesus came by. He said, Matthew looked up and heard him.
Matthew, follow me. And he rose and left everything. That's the call. Our Lord Jesus
Christ was going through Jericho, and there was a fellow named
Zacchaeus, short of stature, couldn't see over the crowd,
so he climbed up in a sycamore tree, got up on the branches
like some little child, you know. So he could see this man, Jesus
Christ, And when our Lord Jesus Christ came by, he stopped. He looked up. Zacchaeus, Zacchaeus,
come down. I'm going to your house today.
And he came down. And they will, too. When he calls
them, they'll come down. I'm going to your house. And
Zacchaeus said, Behold, Lord, half of my goods I give to the
poor." The Lord Jesus says, this day salvation has come to this
house. Father! He also is a son of Jacob, Abraham,
Isaac. This man Zacchaeus. There were
a lot of sons of Jacob running around there, sons of Abraham
running around there, but this is a son of Jacob. This is our
God. Our Lord called Him, and He calls
all of His people, all of His people. Verse 9 says, "...who
has saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according
to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which
was given us in Christ Jesus before this world began." Our
Lord casts you out because you're My servant, I chose you, I loved
you, I never cast you out. But there's one more word which
describes us sons of Jacob. One more. And I want you to look
at verse fourteen and find that one word. Fear not thy worm,
Jacob. Thy worm, Jacob. And ye men of
Israel, I have helped you, saith the Lord, and thy Redeemer, the
Holy One of Israel." Now, preacher, servant, that's a good word,
I like that. Chosen, that's a good word. Called
a son, but a worm? Well, really and truly, if I
told you what the Hebrew word for that word worm is, you wouldn't
like it. Isn't it right? Look it up sometime. Get your
strong concordance and look up this word, worm. Thy worm, Jacob. Look it up. Look it up. And you'll find that the meaning
of that word is mighty. But you know something? Our Lord
Jesus Christ, our Redeemer, took the same word unto Himself. in that glorious psalm of the
cross. Psalm 22. Turn to it. Psalm 22. And let me show you. Thy worm,
Jacob. Thy worm, Henry Mahan. Thy worm, Paul Walmsley. Thy worm, Rich and Mitch. And all you sons, you're all
worms. That's right. There are different
kinds of worms, but you're all worms. Brother Scott said one
time there's shepherd dogs and bulldogs and and lap dogs and
all, but they're still dogs. And that's what we are, just
worms. And I asked Him, did my Savior
bleed? Did my Sovereign die? Would He
devote a sacred head for such a worm as I? I had a friend one time, Glenn
Carver. He wouldn't sing that song. He
would not sing that song, that great old song. Isaac Watts wrote
that, didn't he? He wouldn't sing it. He showed
me one of them. He said, I'm not a worm. Will
you be a worm or God won't save you? So our Lord Jesus Christ
Himself took that word because bearing our sins and our shame
and our guilt on that tree, He was a worm and not a man. Psalm
22. Here it is. Verse 1, My God,
My God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from
helping me and from the words of my Lord? O my God, I cry in
the daytime, but thou hearest not. I cry in the night season,
and am not silent. But thou art holy, thou art holy. O thou that inhabitest the praises
of Israel, Our fathers, true Israel, they trusted indeed.
They trusted in you, and you did deliver them. They cried
unto you and were delivered. They trusted in you, and they
were not confounded. But I, I'm a worm, Christ is
speaking. Bury our sins on that tree. He's a maggot, he's a worm. He
took our sins into his body, but he made sin for us. that
we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. You've got to
take that now. That's just so in the book. That's
just so. I'm a worm and no man. I'm a reproach of men and despise
of the people. And all that see me laugh at
a scorn. They shoot out their lips and
shake their heads. And they say, he trusted on the
Lord that he would deliver him. Let him deliver him, seeing he
delights But I tell you, I tell you this,
when we finally see His fullness, we'll see our emptiness. Somebody, I heard a man preach
one time, he said, the more I see of my sins, the more I see the
glory of Christ. You got that backwards. The more
you see of the glory of Christ, the more you see your sin. That's
right. Got that backwards. Isaiah, that's when he saw the
Lord, and he cried, woe is me. This is the woest I've ever been,
and the lowest I've ever been. When we see His holiness, that's
when we see our ruin. When we see His glory, that's
when we see our bowels. All right, Isaiah. Let me look
back at my table for one more point. Isaiah chapter forty-one. Chosen, loved, servant, but not
cast out, and then the worm. And here's the promise. He says
in verse ten, Fear thou not. John Newton said this, Fear is
a natural problem for all men. Fear is a natural problem. Fear came into the heart when
sin came in. Fear came into the heart when
sin came in. There are several things that
Adam did not know and did not experience until he saw Him.
Three things, in fact. He experienced shame. He said,
I'm naked. He experienced guilt. He said,
I hear him. He experienced fear. I'm afraid. Never been afraid before, had
he? Now he's filled with fear. And fear came in when sin came
in, and fear will continue in the heart of believers because
sin continues in us. And only until we are stripped
of this house of clay, and some of us don't have very long, are
we glad. Until we are stripped of this
house of clay, until then, we're there. You know, some of the strongest
servants of the Lord have been subjects of great fear. Remember when David was running
from Saul, and he came to the king of Gath, that fellow over
there, Achish. He came to Achish, and he was
afraid. David was afraid of this king. And so you know what David did?
He acted like he was crazy. David did. slew his ten thousand,
saw his thousand, but he's afraid. He's an anointed king of Israel,
but he's afraid of this fella, and he let his beard just spittle,
run down his beard. He's acting crazy. And this king
said, who is this fella? Get him out of my sight. Get
him out of my house. Get rid of him. And he got rid of him.
But David was afraid. It's not like David, is it? But
Elijah, he feared Jezebel. And the Scripture said, In 1st
Kings 19, he ran for his life and prayed to die, just let me
die, the only one left. Peter was so afraid for his life,
he denied his Lord three times. And when the Lord looked at him,
tore him apart, he went out and wept bitterly. The best of men are only men
at best. The strongest are helpless if
God's hand is withdrawn. So what is the antidote for fear? I'll tell you. Here it is in
verse ten. Fear not, I'm with you. That's the antidote for
fear. I'm with you. I'll never forget
the first time in my life that I was ever really, really, really
afraid. Scared out of my skin so much. A little country boy, eight years
old, lived by the railroad track. And my mother said to me one
night, go next door, about 75 yards next door, down the railroad
track to Mrs. Starr's house and get, borrow
a cup of sugar. It's dark. And I asked my daddy
to go with, and he said, you ought to let the boy go. Well,
he let the boy go, and I went out with that cubby, and I went
down to Miss Starr's house and asked her for a cup of sugar,
and she gave it to him, and I started back. No moon, no stars, just
darkness. And I'm quick in my pace, and
then somebody jumped out from behind a tree. You talk about fear. Oh, my feet,
I'd scarce to touch the ground. Finally, I ran into the house
screaming and yelling. If my dad had only been with
me, I wouldn't have been afraid. That's right. Well, he's always
with me, the Lord, my father. He said, don't you be afraid.
I'm with you. I'm with you. Incidentally, I
lost the sugar. It was all gone. The Lord is
my life and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is
the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? I have no reason to fear Satan
or death or any of these things. God's with me. But I see one
thing. I'm going to give that scroll.
I want you to see one thing here that I see here. In this verse, five times, you
have the pronoun thou. Thou, thee, thine. It's in this one verse. Thee
and thou, and thy, T-H-Y. And five times, you have the
pronoun I. And each time that you are mentioned,
he's mentioned, the Lord God is mentioned. Listen, here it
is. fear thou not, I am with you. Do not be dismayed, I am your
God. I will strengthen thee. I will
help thee. I will uphold thee with the right
hand of my righteousness. Our Lord Jesus Christ. I preach, but it's mighty poor
preaching indeed if the Lord doesn't strengthen me. I must bury my
dear loved ones, and I think, I can't bear it. But he said, I'll strengthen
you. I must face serious illness sooner or later. Maybe I'll falter. He said, I'll strengthen you.
I grow old and weak and feeble. I can't bear to be feeble and
weak and helpless. But he said, don't be afraid.
I'll strengthen you. The only antidote for fear, any
kind of fear of anything, anybody, is to trust in the Lord. Lean not to your own understanding. But trust in Him. And here's
the beauty of it. He said, I'll uphold you with
the right hand of my righteousness. That's Christ. He is that right
hand. Let me read this and we'll quit.
In Hebrews. Hebrews chapter one. Hebrews
chapter one. That the description of our Lord
Jesus Christ, the right hand of God's righteousness. Oh, God,
who at sundry times, Hebrews 1, verse 1, in divers manners
spake in times past unto the fathers, but the prophets hath
in these last days spoken thus by his Son, whom he hath appointed
heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds, who being
the brightness of his glory, the exact image of his person,
upholdeth all things by the word of his power, when he had by
himself purged our sin, sat down on the right hand of the majesty
on high." May God bless you. Use us for
His glory.