If you'd like to turn to Isaiah
chapter 43. Isaiah chapter 43. I mentioned this last Wednesday
night when we met here, when we talked about Jonah. And I
actually read this passage I've titled the message, and you'll
find it in the text here, it's, Fear not, for I have. Fear not,
for I have. Let's read Isaiah 43, begin reading
at verse 1. But now, but now, thus saith
the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel,
fear not, for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy
name, thou art mine, When thou passeth through the waters, I
will be with thee. And through the rivers, they
shall not overflow thee. When thou walkest through the
fire, thou shalt not be burned. Neither shall the flame kindle
upon thee. For I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel,
thy Savior. I gave Egypt for thy ransom,
and Ethiopia and Seba for thee. Since thou wast precious in my
sight, thou hast been honorable, and I have loved thee. Therefore,
will I give men for thee and people for thy life. Fear not,
for I am with thee. I will bring thy seed from the
east and gather thee from the west. I will say to the north,
give up, and to the south, keep not back. Bring my sons from
far and my daughters from the ends of the earth, even everyone
that is called by my name. For I have created him for my
glory. I have formed him. Yea, I have made him. Fear not,
for I have redeemed thee. I have called thee, thou art
mine. There is no greater comfort to
the believer than to hear those words in the heart. What does
it mean to fear not is a question I have for us this evening. There's
two kinds of fear. There's a godly fear and there's
a worldly fear. We have an old man that we contend
with daily, and we have the new man that is being served by that
old man. We know that faith is what gives
godly fear, and unbelief is what gives worldly fear. The Lord's
fear, godly fear, teaches us in Deuteronomy 4, verse 10, The
Lord said unto me, Gather me the people together, and I will
make them Hear my words. Now, anytime the scripture mentions
the words of the Lord or the word of the Lord, that's Christ,
plain and simple. He is the word of God, as we
saw Sunday in John chapter one. I will make them hear my words
that they may learn to fear me all the days that they shall
live upon the earth and that they may teach their children. They learn to fear by the faith
that the Lord's given unto them. The fear of the Lord is what... The fear of the Lord, godly fear,
when we see ourselves as sinners, when we see ourselves as sinners,
it's because the Lord's given us godly fear to have repentance
towards God and faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ. When we
see ourselves as sinners, it's because He has caused us to be
made sinners. The repentance that He gives
to His people is godly fear. It's the same exact thing. Godly
fear. We literally, our minds are changed
about who God is, about what He has done in saving His people. We no longer think the way that
we used to think about God. That's what godly fear is. As
soon as He shows us this fear, as soon as He gives us that repentance,
He doesn't just leave us to ourself and cause us to be full of sin
and see ourself as miserable and He's holy and we're nothing.
He gives us a substitute. He gives us the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's our hope. That's why we have the ability
to rejoice. If we have this repentance towards
God, He's given us faith for the Lord Jesus Christ hand in
hand. Hebrews 12, verse 28 says, "...wherefore, re-receiving a
kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace whereby we
may serve God acceptably." Well, how do you serve God acceptably?
He goes on to say, "...with reverence and godly fear." How do we serve
God acceptably? We see God as God and we flee
to Christ. We plead nothing but the blood
of Christ for our salvation, nothing but the blood of Christ
or anything else for salvation, we plead Christ alone. That's how we serve God acceptably.
It's not what we do. It's not by works of righteousness
which we have done, but according to His mercy. It's not that we're
trying to go through life establishing our own righteousness which would
be of the law. We look to Christ who's the fulfillment of the
law. He established the law. He accomplished everything necessary
in fulfilling the law for the Lord's people. So we see that
godly fear and faith looking unto Christ go hand in hand.
They can't be separated. You can't have godly fear without
faith. Men do not have godly fear by
nature. That's not something they merit.
Worldly fear is something that men are born with. I was reading
an article by some Dr. So-and-so, and it's not really
relevant, but he stated that fear, you're born with two fears.
One of them is the fear of falling, and the other one is the fear
of I didn't write this down, and now my mind's escaped me.
You'll have to forgive me. But one is naturally the fear of falling.
And I thought, huh, man's born in a fallen state, and they're
afraid of falling. I found that very interesting,
naturally. But they don't have the fear of God by nature. Men do
not fear God by nature. That's something that must be
taught. And thankfully, through faith, it's bestowed upon His
people. Godly fear is what drives us
to Christ. We heard Sunday from Colossians 2. We have full assurance
of understanding to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God and of
Christ. We have full assurance of understanding
God is God and we are not. All we can do is just bow before
a sovereign God in fear and in reverence and say, Lord, have
mercy on me, the sinner. We have full assurance that God
became a man. And He put away the sin of the
elect by Himself. He satisfied all God's demands. He satisfied the law. And He
sat down on the right hand of God. Hebrews 1-3 tells us that. It says, Who being the brightness
of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding
all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself
purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty
on high. Do you believe that? If you believe
that, you've been made to believe that. If you believe that Jesus
Christ satisfied God's law, He saved His people from their sin,
He sat down on the right hand of God, and His people are seated
in Him. If you believe that, you've been made to believe that.
We cannot come to that understanding by ourself. We have godly fear,
repentance towards God, and faith of the Lord Jesus Christ. So
if we believe that with all of our heart, why yet do we fear?
Why do we fear? Whether it's A temporary thing? A temporal thing? Or an eternal
thing? What are we afraid of? What is
our greatest fear? What is our greatest fear? Is
it that Christ did not put away sin? No. We don't fear that.
We know Christ put away sin. We've been made to know and believe
that. Is our fear that Christ wasn't the end of the law? That
we're going to be judged according to the law? No. We don't fear
that either. We know Christ is the fulfillment of the law for
His people. We know these things. Faith believes
God, and faith just looks to Christ. So what is our greatest
fear? To the believer, we don't look at ourself and see any way
we know that we cannot merit this salvation in any way. So
our greatest fear as believers is not being found in Christ. That's our greatest fear. When
we wake up, And we begin to see ourself and we carry around this
dead corpse. Paul called it, O wretched man that I am, who
shall deliver me from this body of death? The first thing I see
is my worst enemy in the mirror. My worst enemy. Nothing in me
merits anything of God's grace, nor you, nor anyone. But thanks
be to God, He delights in mercy. As soon as we start looking to
ourself, well, what if I'm not one of His? Are we looking to
Christ? Are we looking for evidence?
Are we looking to Christ? Are we looking for something
in our life that would prove the mercy of God abides? Look
to Christ. Fear God and look to Christ as
your substitute. Godly fear reveals Christ through
faith by the preaching of the Gospel. And the Lord's people
flee to Him over and over and over. We need to be reminded,
don't we? Christ is all. Christ is all. So if godly fear
comes from God as a revelation of what we are and who He is
and what Christ has done, then certainly worldly fear must be
derived always from unbelief. Always unbelief. Anything in
this world has to be derived from unbelief. It always asks
the question. The fear of worldly fear always
asks the question, what if? What if I'm not His? Well, that's
not up to the Lord. That's not for you to know. Look
to Christ. The Lord saved His people. Do you believe that?
Look to Christ. And I can't tell you how to look to Christ. He
has to cause you to do so. It's not an action that we produce
based upon what we choose to do. We say, Lord, have mercy
on me. Lord, save me over and over.
Lord, cause me to see You. Right here, right now, this is
where He's promised and been pleased to meet with us is the
preaching of the Gospel. So if worldly fear is derived
from unbelief, the comfort for the believer is fear not, for
I have. I have redeemed you. I have called
you. I have bought you at the price,
His own blood, thou art Mine." He possesses His people. He owns
them. He bought them. They are His.
There's hope in that. That means I can't get out of
it. I can find great hope in knowing I can't mess it up. That
gives me great comfort. As soon as we put our hands to
anything, you know that we mess it up every time. This is how the Lord shuts up
the worldly fear in us. He says, fear not, for I have
saved My people from their sin. What did He say over in Matthew
1? Call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their
sin. Do you believe that? Fear not, for the Lord truly
saved His people from their sin. Fear not, for I have given Him,
the Lord Jesus Christ, all things. I have highly exalted Him. Fear
not. The Lord gave His Son for a purchased
people, for His elect. He said, this is My beloved Son
in whom I am well pleased. Fear not, because He is the reason
for everything. If He gave His Son, what is He
going to withhold from those that are found in Him? Think
about that. He's not going to withhold anything from His people.
Fear not, for He has given us all things in Christ. All things. What does the believer want?
Is it houses? Is it money? Is it land? No, it's Christ.
We just want to be found in Him. Fear not, for He is the first
cause in all things. from before the foundation of
the world. God is the first cause of all things. He's the only
one that can create something out of nothing. And he's the
only one that can make something completely go away, completely
be destroyed, completely disappear. He calls the earth. to be spoken
into existence, and He caused our sin to be washed away in
the blood, cast as far as the east is from the west. I may
have mentioned this analogy to you before, but the reason the
Lord doesn't say from north to south is because you can go north
and you'll start going back south, but if you go east, you're always
going to go east, you'll never hit west. You'll have to turn
around and go the other way. What is he saying? He said, I
kept them in the depths of the sea. They're past finding out. They're
gone. No one can find them. When our adversary comes before
the Lord accusing the brethren, accusing the brethren, and he
says, well, let me tell you about this individual, O Caleb today,
guess what he did? He's telling the Lord my sin.
The Lord says, I don't see it. It's gone. I've put it away.
I've watched it. Fear not. The Lord's done that
for His people. He's put away the sin of the
elect. He saved His people. Truly saved His people. He's
not trying to get men saved. He's not frustrated at man. He's
not frustrated with His children. He's long-suffering to us. The
Lord saved His people. Colossians 1.16 says, For by
Him were all things created that are in heaven that are in earth,
visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions
or principalities or powers, all things were created by Him,
and for who? For Him. And He is before all
things, and by Him all things consist." We must be reminded
of those words. He is before all things, and
by Him all things consist. Unbelief says, what if? The believer
says he is before all things. Fear not. By Him, all things
consist. Fear not, for I have. Faith believes,
and it fears not because it's looking to Jesus Christ. Psalm
90 verse 11, it says, Who knoweth the power of thine anger? Even
according to thy fear, so is thy wrath. So teach us to number
our days, that we may apply our hearts to wisdom. The Lord causes
His people to number their days, to realize they are but dust.
James 4.14 says, Marvel not what shall be on the morrow, for what
is your life? It is even a vapor that appeareth
for a little time and then vanisheth away. Once He shows us that we're
nothing but dust and that we're a vapor and that we are the chief
of sinners, He applies our heart to wisdom. Do you know what the
Lord's wisdom is? His name is Jesus Christ. He
just shuts us up time and time again to the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Lord is revealed and His holiness has been revealed because
Christ is the fullness of the Godhead bodily. He is a holy
God that demands justice. And the Lord Jesus Christ satisfied
the just demands of a holy God, our holy God. He did. He fulfilled
the law. He kept it perfectly. The spotless
Lamb of God hung naked before the world doing business with
God alone, Him and God. And the Lord made His soul an
offering for sin. Fear not, for I have put away
your sin. Fear not, but rest in Him. He
successfully accomplished salvation for His people. Every time in the Scripture,
whenever a man saw the Lord, he saw himself as a sinner. Every
time he saw the Lord, he saw himself as the sinner. We know
Isaiah was the same way. He grumbled and complained. Lord
willing, I'm going to bring a message from Isaiah 6 this Sunday. But
the same chapter, he says, in the year King Uzziah died, I
saw the Lord high and lifted up. And His train filled the
temple. And he says he saw The seraphims, they had six wings,
and with twain they covered their face, with twain they covered
their feet, and with twain they did fly. When he saw the Lord,
when the Lord revealed Himself to him, now the previous chapter,
you can read it, read verse 5, he keeps saying, these people
are a stiff-necked people, these people have done this, these
people have done that, and that's the reason everything's happening
to Israel the way that it is, is because of these people, and
he's complaining before the Lord. That's exactly what's happening.
As soon as he sees the Lord, you know what he says? Woe is
me. I'm undone. Because I am a man
of unclean lips. I dwell in the midst of a people
of unclean lips. For mine eyes have seen the King,
the Lord of hosts. Whenever Job began telling the
Lord his problems for about 34 chapters until Elihu came and preached the gospel
to him. It was all about Job, and Job didn't have anything
to say Elihu, because as soon as Elihu got done speaking, it
says, and the Lord spoke to Job, right then. So as soon as Elihu
preached the gospel to him, then the Lord spoke. What did the
Lord tell Job? Job began to say, Lord, I've
done this right, and I've done this right, and he began to tell
the Lord how good he was, and what good things he had done,
and this and that and the other. I don't deserve this, is what
he was saying. You've treated me wrongfully. And the Lord said,
where was you when I laid the foundation of the world, Job?
Where were you when I hung the stars in the sky? Who are you?
Who are you to reply against the Lord? Isn't that what He
does for His people? We go through this life afraid,
constantly worried, feeling like we're bearing our own sin. I'm
here to remind us this evening, you're not bearing your sin.
Christ bore them in His body. As far as God's concerned, they're
gone. Yes, we still contend with this flesh. We grieve over our
sin before the Lord, but the way God sees it is how it really
is, and it's gone. Cast as far as the east is from
the west. That's the good news. Job said, behold, I'm vile. He
said, I'm going to put my hands over my mouth and never speak
again. That's what he does for his people.
Last Wednesday, we talked about Jonah, and when Jonah found himself
in the belly of the well, He called it, hell is what he called
it. Out of hell hath I cried. And the resolve that Jonah was
left to at the very end of that, and me and Al talked about this
after service last week, is he said, salvation is of the Lord. Jonah knew if he was gonna be
saved from the well, it had to come through and by the Lord's
mercy in vomiting him back out on dry land. Who hath stayed
the hand of the Lord? Or who hath been his counselor?
That's what he told Job. Who replies against the Lord?
Now the good news of all this, brethren, is the Lord just doesn't
leave us there feeling vile and feeling woe is me. But he says
in Psalm 118 verse 6, the Lord is on my side. The Lord is on
my side. I will not fear. What can man
do unto me? What can man do unto me? Brethren, we truly only fear
what we can't control. If we can control it, we typically
are not bothered by it, whether it be a place of business where
we're working, or it be in our home and our family. We were
taking our daughters to school this week on Monday. We have
to drop them off at a strange school. Yeah, we got to see the
school, meet the teachers, but it's a totally strange place.
Her mother and I felt anxiety about this. We don't know the
people. We don't know this. What's going to happen? What if? What
if? What if? Just like I'm preaching to you right now. We're no different.
We're from the same mold and the same make. We couldn't control
that situation, and that caused us great anxiety. The Lord does
not give us the power to control anything. It's great evidence
that man has no voice in salvation whatsoever because we can't even
control a cold. We can't control anything that
goes on in our life. But yet, that's why we fear so
much is because we feel out of control. This is just earthly
fear. This is not the fear of the Lord.
The fear of the Lord looks unto Christ. The fear of the Lord
looks unto Christ. Men say that they have a fear
of God, but it's not true because they don't flee to Christ for
all in salvation. Think about that. If they truly
fear God, fearing God means you flee to Christ. It's the same
exact thing that takes place. Men do not have godly fear because
it's bestowed upon His people. Salvation is of the Lord. He
makes us a sinner and causes us to run to Christ. He allows
situations, as I just mentioned to you with my daughter, being
concerned about their well-being. He causes me to beg, Lord, save
me, save my children. That is constantly what I'm praying.
Lord, save me, save my children. As I've been praying for each
of you this week, I've constantly thought about your children and
your grandchildren. I don't know all of them by name.
But it's what we do. When He knits our hearts together,
we're bearing one another's burdens, but we don't do it in a way where
we're open about it. We lift up and offer each other's name
unto the Lord and say, Lord, Lord, save our children. And
that's all we can do is just beg. The good news is He delights
in mercy, doesn't He? When we feel these fears, remember
Matthew 10, verse 28, And fear not them which can kill the body,
but are not able to kill the soul, but rather fear Him which
is able to destroy both body and soul in hell. Are not two
sparrows sold for a farthing? And one of them shall not fall
to the ground without your father. But the very hairs of your head
are numbered." I love that verse. And I want to tell you something
that the Lord showed me of that verse a long time ago. The difference
between our God and the God of false religion, no matter what
the God is in false religion, All false religion gods say you
must do something. Period. It doesn't fill in the
blank, whatever that something may be. But whenever He says
here, the very hairs of your head are numbered, He didn't
say that He counted them. He numbered them. He purposed
the hairs of your head to be the exact number that they are.
He purposed everything about you exactly the way that it is.
That's the difference between the God of the Bible and the
God of the world. Men believe that God loves you so much that
He's counted the hairs of your head. No, He loves His people
so much that He's made your hair number be 10,921. And He knows
them because He's purposed it to be so. That's the difference
in the gods that I'm talking about. I'm talking about THE
God. And you know what He says right after that? Fear ye not
therefore. In light of all that, fear ye
not therefore. You are more valuable than many
sparrows. The value that the Lord looks
into His people is the same value as He sees Christ. The way that
He sees Christ is how He sees us. How much do you think He
values His Son? We are in Christ. He's given us His name. Everything
that He's given to the Son, He's given to His people. That's how
much He loves His people. Enough to not only die for them,
but to cause them to be placed in Him, to reign with Him for
eternity. All we're going to be doing is just saying, all
praise, all glory, all honor to the Lamb forever. But this
is love, brethren. This is the love of the Lord
that He's done for His people, putting us in Christ. That's how we know that He is
not growing weary. or tired of, or frustrated with
His people. He's not. He is not growing tired
of us. He's not growing frustrated with
us. He is much more willing to show mercy to His elect than
we are to ask for it. He's much more willing to show
grace unto His elect than we are to ask for it. He's longsuffering
unto usward, not willing that any of His people should perish,
but that all should come to repentance. Do you know what that word longsuffering
means? to preserve patiently. He's going to preserve His people
to the day of Jesus Christ. He's going to. He can't deny
Himself. If He didn't, His faith would
fail. The faith of Christ that we heard about Sunday. He cannot
fail. He cannot fail. Long-suffering means to be patient
in bearing the offenses and injuries of others. Our Substitute endured all wrath
He was wounded for our offenses. He was bruised for our iniquity,
the Scripture says, Isaiah 53. He is long-suffering to us. He
has already taken our sin, cast them as far as east is from the
west, and given us His righteousness. He will not leave us to ourselves
according to His promise. If we ever look at our circumstances
and think that the Lord is pouring out His wrath upon us, if we
look at our circumstances around us and think that the reason
this is happening is because I've done this. Now don't misunderstand
my words. There is consequences according
to the flesh. I can't go out and do certain
things because I'm bound by marriage. If I don't keep my marriage vows,
there's consequences there. That's simple enough, right?
But that's called circumstances according to the flesh. What
I'm referring to right now is whenever you look around and
you think, well, because I've done this sin and this sin, that means
the Lord's wrath is going to come upon me. Those are scare
tactics used by false religion. If the Lord pours out one ounce
of wrath upon His people, Christ did not put away their sin. He
was a failure. All the sin of God's elect was
placed upon Christ and completely put away. The wrath of God will
not say anything against the believer, the Lord's people.
He can't because He fulfilled everything that was required.
So don't look at your circumstances, brethren, as my encouragement
to you in thinking, well, this is happening because I'm a worthless
sinner. Yeah, that's probably true to
some degree because we're in sin and we're in the world, but
it's not because of God's wrath. It's God's goodness that's upon
you whenever these things are happening. Look at it. It's Christ's
goodness and He's bringing you to Him. Don't think of it as
your punishment because you can't think the right way or you can't
do what you want to do. Think of it as the goodness of
God, because that's what leads men to repentance. That's what
the Lord does for His people. He doesn't leave them to Himself,
but He shuts them up to Christ. The Lord is the storm that we
endure. He's the first cause of all things. He controls the
storm? Absolutely. He's purposed the
storm? Absolutely. He is the storm. He is the creator
thereof. Do we see that? The creator of
the storm. Proverbs chapter 1 in verse 7
says, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but
fools despise wisdom and instruction. Now, wisdom and instruction here,
we do not despise because the Lord has caused us to see that's
Christ. We want wisdom, which is the
Lord's. We want the wisdom of God, which
is Christ, and we rejoice. We rejoice when the Lord is instructing
us and He's chasing us, teaching us, and bringing us to Him. It
certainly is hard to rejoice in the middle of a storm, I'll
tell you that. And you know that to be true. It's certainly hard
to rejoice in the middle of a trial, middle of trouble that's happening
in your life. But if we can see just for a moment, fear not.
For I have redeemed thee. And this storm, this trial, whatever
it may be, is bringing us unto Christ. It's not the Lord leaving
us to ourselves. He promised He would never leave
us nor forsake us. The Lord said, Isaiah 45 verse
7, I form the light and create darkness. I make peace and create
evil. I, the Lord, do all these things. The Lord creates darkness. He's the one that made light.
He's the one that makes peace and creates evil. Everything
belongs unto Him to do whatsoever He will. And who are we to reply
against Him? The Lord shuts us up unto Himself.
And thankfully, the good news is, brethren, He came not to
call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. And for His people,
when He shuts us up to Him and shows us that we're the sinner,
He shows us the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Timothy 1 verse
15 says, this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation,
that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom
I am chief. Verse 16, how be it for this
cause I obtain mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show
forth all longsuffering for a pattern to them which should hereafter
believe on Him to everlasting life." Fear not. Fear not. Because the Lord Jesus Christ,
He tells us here, is longsuffering. The Lord Jesus Christ, He goes
on to say, "...now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible,
the only laws of God be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen."
The Lord gets all the glory and salvation. Fear not, for the
Lord hath saved His people." That word honor in that verse
literally means by reason of rank or office, regarding the
price paid or received for a person or thing bought. So we see His
office as God, and we see us as the sinner being bought with
His blood. That's why He says all honor
to Him. Fear not, for I have bought you.
Fear not, for I have..." And the Lord reveals His Christ,
the Lord Jesus Christ. He reveals that it is finished.
He's telling us, fear not, for it is finished. This is all over.
It's already done. I like Steve keeps saying that
to me a couple times in the last week. I like that. It's already
done. It's already finished. We need to be reminded of that
so often, don't we? Proverbs 3.24 and 25 says, When thou liest
down, thou shalt not be afraid. Now, the Lord doesn't say here,
When thou liest down, if you do this, thou shalt not be afraid.
This is not a request. This is a commandment. He's telling
us, When thou liest down, thou shalt not be afraid. Yea, thou
shalt lie down and thy sleep shall be sweet. Be not afraid
of sudden fear, neither of the desolation of the wicked when
it cometh." How is it that our sleep can be sweet? Christ put
away the sin of His people. We know that we know that we
know for all who Christ died, they are made perfectly righteous
in the Lord Jesus Christ. So when you lay your head on
your pillow tonight, rest in Christ knowing, believing, Trusting
in the finished work of Christ alone for your salvation, that's
where you'll find sweet rest. And that's the only place you'll
find sweet rest. Everywhere else, we're just going
to be full of fear and full of doubt. Now, I want to read verse
2 one more time in our text, Isaiah 43. When thou passest through the
waters, I will be with thee. And through the rivers, they
shall not overflow thee, When thou walkest to the fire, thou
shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee."
Now, the waters mentioned here is the wrath of God. And the
rivers mentioned here is death. You've heard of the River Jordan
before, being likened unto death many times. But it's the same
thing with the fire right here. The fire, it likens unto wrath,
and the flame is unto death as well. I'm reminded of the Hebrew,
the three Hebrew men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that would
not bow unto the king. And the king said, OK, if you're
not going to give me the glory, I'm going to burn you in the fiery
furnace. And he tried to do so. He cast them into the fiery furnace.
And what does the Scripture say happened? The king got up and
looked. He said, did we not cast three
men into the fire? He said, yes, Lord. He said,
well, I see four, and the fourth is likened to the Son of God.
Now, the other versions, other than the King James, and I like
the King James the best, in my opinion, I like the ETHs because
it's a continual, he loveth, it's continual. I love that.
But in other versions it says that, and the fourth is likened
to the sons of gods. That's totally different than
the son of God. That's his name, the son of God. I like that better.
But that being said, When the Lord causes His people to pass
through the fire of this world, it's nothing like the fire He
endured for His people. When we pass through the fire,
it will not burn us, neither will the flame kindle us. Why?
Fear not, for I have put away your sin. I have went through
the fire for you. I have been in the lowest hell
for you. His people, He's done that. The
rivers and the waters mentioned here remind me of the children
of the Red Sea. The children of Israel as they crossed the
Red Sea. We talked about that the last time I was here, back
in June, I guess it was. When the children of Israel get
up to the Red Sea, the Lord tells, through Moses, stand still and
see the salvation of the Lord. And he parts the water. They
couldn't see the other side. It was ten miles where they crossed.
They could not see all the way across. They only could go by
faith that the Lord was going to be true to His Word, and He
will be true to His Word. Faith just looks to Christ. It
just believes God. And as they ventured forth into
that place, the floods did not overcome them, did they? When
they got to the Jordan River, they were blocked into going
into the Promised Land. What did the Lord do for them again?
He parted the sea again, didn't He? The river. That's what He's
done for His people. How did He do that? By the sacrifice
of Himself. By going into the lowest hell
for His people, enduring the wrath of God. The floods can't
touch you, brethren. The rivers can't overtake you.
O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
Fear not, for I have..." He's already brought us back to glory.
We're already glorified in the Lord Jesus Christ. He says in Isaiah 41, "...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 by my right hand
of my righteousness." What is the right hand of His righteousness?
That's Christ. He'll uphold us by His Son, the
Lord Jesus Christ. That's what Paul said in Romans
8, verse 18, Now, I'm from Tennessee. Whenever
we say, I reckon, it's not the same thing as what Paul's saying
right here. Somebody would ask, do you want to go with me down
to the store? I'd say, well, I reckon that's not what Paul's saying
at all. When Paul says, I reckon, that word means to calculate
or he's fully persuaded. So he's gathered all the information.
By faith, God's given him the grace to see Christ. And he's
gathered all that information, spiritually speaking. And He's
calculated. He's fully persuaded. He's fully
persuaded that the sufferings of this present time are not
worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed
in us. Fear not, brethren, for the Lord
says, I have given you My glory. It will be revealed in you. It
will. We rest knowing He will gather
and not lose one of His elect. Now in closing, look at verse
9 of chapter 43. Let all the nations be gathered
together and let the people be assembled. Who among them can
declare this?" He's asking a question about all the nations gathering
together and all the people assembled. Who can declare what he just
said? Who else can say what God said? Fear not, for I have redeemed
thee. Fear not, for I have bought thee.
He says, gather them together. Who else can declare this and
show us formal things? Let them bring forth their witness
that they may be justified. We know that there's only justification
found in Christ. So he says, or let them hear
and say that it's true. What do we say when the Lord
says, when the Lord Whatever the Lord says, it doesn't matter,
because of what's been revealed to us through the eyes of faith.
What do we say? We say truth, Lord. Whatever proceeds out of
His mouth, we just say truth, Lord. And we acknowledge that
we are false and we are full of sin. Fear not, for He is truth. He is the way, the truth, and
the life. And He's given this life unto
His people. Fear not, because He has given us life. And verse
10 says, Ye are My witnesses, saith the Lord, and My servant,
whom I have chosen, that ye may know and believe Me, and understand
that I am He. Before Me there was no God formed,
neither shall there be after Me. I, even I, am the Lord, and
besides Me there is no Savior." We only look to Christ by faith
because we have been given godly fear, repentance towards God.
And we have been given faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Listen
to the Lord's declaration in verse 12 because of this. We're
allowed to enter into this as His people. We've been given
this promise. I have declared, and have saved,
and have showed. This is all past tense. This
is all past tense. I've declared, I have saved,
and I have showed. In Romans 8, verse 30, it says,
Moreover, whom He did predestinate, then He called. And then He called,
He justified. And then He justified, He also
glorified. Now, understand, this is all
past tense. He hath glorified. We're already
there with Him. We're called. We're predestinated.
We're called. We're justified already before
His eyes and we're glorified already. Fear not, because you're
glorified as far as God's concerned and the way He sees it is the
way that it really is. Fear not, for He has saved His people from
their sin. Verse 12 says, I have declared
and have saved and I have showed. When there was no strange God
among you, Therefore, you are my witnesses, saith the Lord,
that I am God. Yea, before the day was, I am
he, and there is none that can deliver out of my hand. I will
work, and who shall let it? That word, let it, literally
means, who's going to change your mind? I've made you believe.
Who's going to change your mind? There's no man. If a man can
talk you into it, another man can talk you out of it. I've
heard Greg say that many times, and it's so true. If I can convince
you of something right now, somebody else can convince you of something
else. But we're fully persuaded, brethren, of God. That's the
difference. Fully persuaded that Christ is all. Fully persuaded
that He saved His people from their sin. I want to turn to a passage of
Scripture as one of the last things we read tonight in Psalm
27. I want to leave you with this. Psalm
27. Verse 1 says, The Lord is my
light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is
the strength of my life, and whom shall I be afraid? When
the wicked, even my enemies, and my foes come upon me to eat
my flesh, they stumble and fail. Though an host should encamp
against me, my heart shall not fear. Though war should rise
against me, in this will I be confident. I will be fully persuaded. One thing have I desired of the
Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house
of the Lord all the days of my life. and behold the beauty of
the Lord to inquire in His temple." When the Lord talks about the
wicked, even my enemies and my foes coming upon me, the believer
can look around and see people that's against Him, but really
we know that the wicked man is this man right here. This is
the foe. This is our adversary. Sure, we have to contend with
the devil, but the Lord's already beat the devil. and He's already
put away our sin, but every day, day in and day out, we see, O
wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this
death? We don't have to fear, brethren, because the Lord's
terrors can pass about Christ on the cross. Think about that.
The Lord was made sin for His people and the Scripture says
the terrors of the Lord can pass Him about. We don't have to fear
because He has faced our fear for us. He really entered into
all of our fear. He entered into all that we feel
as in our sin. He bore our sin in His body. All the doubt that we had, He
bore in His body. Think about that. grumblings
and complainings. Every sin, the unbelief, the
sin that does so easily beset us, He bore that in His own body
for His people. Our thoughts? He knew our thoughts.
He owned them as His own. And now you know what? He's given
us His thoughts and that's all the Lord sees. He's given us
His righteousness and that's all the Lord sees. He's taken
our fear away and given us life everlasting and joy unspeakable
and full of glory. That's our hope. Fear not, for
I have made you believe. When our path is dark and His
face we can't see, fear not, for He has saved us. When our
heart is grieved, fear not, for the Lord hath predestinated us,
He's redeemed us, He's called us, He's justified us, He's sanctified
us, He's glorified us. What shall we say to these things
then? If God be for us, who could be against us? Fear not, for
I have. Amen. Father, bless your word according
as you promised, cause us not to fear, cause us to look to
Christ, our substitute. It's in his name we pray, amen.