Let's read two or three verses
again, the verses I read a moment ago. 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. Verse 13, For I, the Lord thy
God, will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not, I'll
help thee. Fear not, thou worm, Jacob, and
ye men of Israel. I will help thee, saith the Lord,
who is thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. Now if there's
nothing in the sermon this morning, there's plenty in the text. If
there's nothing in the sermon to satisfy a hungry heart, there's
enough in this text to satisfy the hungriest heart. The first thing I'd like to ask
in introducing this message is this question, to whom are these
words spoken? He says that important, it's
most important. To whom are these precious promises
given? I will help thee, I will hold
thee, I will sustain thee. To whom are these words spoken? We must not be caught reading
somebody else's mail. We must not steal from God's
Word when it doesn't belong to us. We have no right to take
any promise that is not given us by the Lord. We don't have
any right to cling to any promise that is not given to us. So the
first thing we must determine is to whom are these precious
promises given, to whom are these words spoken. We'll go back to
verse 8. He says, But thou Israel art
my servant Jacob, whom I have chosen. That's the first mark
of identification. The people to whom these words
are spoken, to whom these promises are given, are those whom the
Lord hath chosen. He says it twice. He says, I
have chosen thee. Down in verse 9, the last line,
I have chosen thee. Anything that we have is not
of us. The ground of any mercy is not
our merit. The ground of any mercy or blessing
is the sovereign grace of God. He says, I have chosen thee.
Paul repeated this in Ephesians 1. He said, God hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ
according as he chose us in Christ. The hymn writer said this, not
for the works which we have done or shall hereafter do, Hath God
decreed on sinful worms salvation to bestow? The glory, Lord, from
first to last is due to Thee alone. Ought to ourselves we
dare not take or rob Thee of Thy crown. Tis from the mercy
of our God that all our hopes begin. "'Tis by the water and
the blood that our souls are washed from sin.'" So this is
the first mark of those to whom this promise and these words
are given. I have chosen thee. I have chosen
thee, all right? The second mark. He says down
here in verse 9, "'Thou whom I have taken from the ends of
the earth and called thee.'" We are chosen. those to whom
these words are spoken, and we're called. Now this is not the general
call that all men hear, the general call of nature, judgment, providence,
conscience, law. Let me show you this. If you
hold Isaiah 41 and go to the book of Amos, now there is what
we call a general call, a general warning given by God to all men. Every son of Adam has some light. God deals with every son of Adam
in some way, in some measure. That's so. He said in Proverbs
1, I have called but you have refused. I have set forth my
My judgments, my commandments, my laws, and you've refused them.
I've stretched out my hand and no man regarded. All right. Now
when you cry, I will not hear you. I'll laugh when your calamity
comes. There's a way in which God deals
with all men. He said in Romans, just hold
Amos there a minute. He said in the book of Romans
that the law of God is written on every man's conscience, leaving
them without excuse. He said again in Romans that
God can be known by the things that God has made. So men are
without excuse. The heavens declare the glory
of God. And here in the book of Amos, all of you are familiar
with that passage of Scripture. It says, prepare to meet thy
God. Well, here in Amos chapter 4
is where you find it. Verse 12. Amos 4 verse 12. See it here, the last line in
verse 12. Prepare to meet thy God. Prepare
to meet thy God. Well, a whole lot of things were
said before that. God dealt with these people,
and they would not heed, they would not hear. And therefore,
he finally came to this place, all right, since you'll not hear
me, and you'll not heed my warnings, and you'll not hear my call,
therefore you prepare to meet me in judgment. Now watch this.
He said back in verse 6, I have given you cleanness of teeth.
in all your cities, want of bread in all your places. Well, that
didn't affect you. You wouldn't return to me. That
didn't influence you. That didn't trouble you. You've
had famine. You've gone without. You've been
hungry. Your children have been hungry. Did you call on the Lord?
No, you didn't. You see, that's the way that
God deals with men, providentially with judgment. All right, read
on. In verse 7, I'm withholding the rain from you. When there
was yet three months to the harvest, the seeds were planted and had
just come up, and God stopped the rain, and they died. I caused
it to rain on one city and caused it not to rain on another. One
piece was rained upon, the piece whereon it rained not withered.
So two or three cities wandered into one city to drink water,
but they were not satisfied yet. Have you not returned unto me,
saith the Lord? Did that affect you? Did you listen? Did you pay any attention? No,
you didn't. Alright, verse 9. Now smitten
you with blessings and mildew. Your gardens and your vineyards
and your fig trees and olive trees increased and then the
worms devoured them. Yet, did you return to me? No,
you didn't. I've sent you pestilence after
the matter of Egypt. Your young men I've slain with
a sword. Taken away your horses and the
stink of your camps to come up in your nostrils. Yet, did you
return to me? No, you didn't. I've overthrown
some of you as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. And you were
saved. You were plucked as a firebrand
out of the burning. As a firebrand plucked out of
the burning. It was amazing. It was just amazing how you were
delivered while everybody else was destroyed. I hear people
come out of that Beverly Hills thing down yonder. Oh, it was
a miracle that I lived. Did it have any effect on them
as far as their relationship with God is concerned? Did they
turn to God? No, they didn't. No, they didn't. You see that? God warns men providentially
through judgment. God warns men through conscience.
God warns men through catastrophes. God warns men through amazing
deliverance out of difficulties. And yet you did not return to
me, God said. All right, Charlie, that's when
he said, you get ready to meet God. You get ready to meet God. You tested my patience and my
long-suffering, God says, you get ready for judgment. I've
dealt with you, all I'm going to do with you. When the judgment
comes, it may be 10 years from now, 20 years, 30 years, but
you're set for the judgment. Because that's a general call.
But brethren, there's an effectual call where Christ comes and says,
Matthew, follow me. And he follows him. There's an
effectual call, a sweet effectual call given by the Holy Spirit
where men are broken and humbled and brought to God with saving
faith. Zacchaeus, come down. And he
came down. Saul? Why persecutest thou me? He calls His sheep by name. And
they hear Him. They hear Him. Whom He foreknew,
He predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son. Whom
He predestinated, He called. And whom He called, He justified. Whom He justified, He glorified.
But He called them. He called them. So this sweet
promise in Isaiah 41, first of all, is to those whom God had
chosen. And secondly, it's to those whom
he hath effectually called. They heard him and they came.
They came. They surrendered, called of Christ,
called from the ends of the earth, called from the chief among men,
called from every tribe, kindred, nation, tongue unto him, called
by the gospel, called by the Spirit, called to Christ, called
to his blessed feet. All right, notice the next thing.
I've called you, and he says here in verse 8, you're my servant,
you're my servant. See that in verse 8? Look now
at verse 9, it says it again. You're my servant, my servant. This, not only chosen of God
and called of God, but servants of God. You know, he's servants
of God. That's who the promise is to.
Servants of God. This was one of Paul's favorite
terms. He called himself, Paul, a servant,
a bond slave of Jesus Christ. Oh, I know a lot of folks who
are servants of self, servants of family, servants of sin, servants
of entertainment, servants of pleasure, servants of materialism,
servants of the flesh, This is written to a servant of God. That's what it's written to.
And you know where that word bond-slave comes from? All right,
turn to the book of Exodus, chapter 21. Keep Isaiah 41 there, we're
coming back. Turn to Exodus, chapter 21. You're my servant. All right,
here in Exodus 21. Exodus 21. He says in verse 2, if you buy
a Hebrew servant, if you buy a Hebrew servant, he'll serve
you six years. Seventh year, he goes free. Seventh
year, he goes free. You got a man who's working in
your house as a servant, a slave, you bought him. Well, he's seventh
year, you got to turn him loose. Verse 3, if he came in by himself,
he'd go out by himself. If he were married, his wife
would go out with him. He'd go out just like he came
in. But if his master's given him a wife and she's born him
sons and daughters, the wife and her children shall be her
master's. He'd go out by himself. He'd go out like he came in.
If the servant shall plainly say, now hold on here, I love
my master. I love my wife and children.
I don't want to go out. See this now, here's a man that's
a servant, he's a slave, and he's been bought, purchased,
and the seventh year rolls around. And his master says, well, George,
you're free to go. You don't have to serve my house
anymore. You don't have to stay here,
George. You're free to go. And George's tear comes in his
eyes and he says, Master, I don't want to go. I love you. I love your house. I love your
family. I love my wife and children.
My only freedom I want, Master, is to stay right where I am and
serve you. That's freedom for me. All right,
God says, Then the Master shall take him to the judge, and the
judge shall bring him to the door, and to the doorpost his
Master shall bore his ear, bore whole his ear. put a ring in it or something,
some identification. And from then on, he's a bond
slave forever. He's taken the mark. He's a servant
forever. Well, that's what Paul calls
himself. That's where that came from when
you read the writings of Paul. And he says, I'm a servant of
the Lord Jesus Christ. He says, I've had my ear bored
willingly. I belong to Christ. I belong to Christ. I love him,
I love his house, I love his people. I'm a willing, loving,
obedient bond slave forever. You can't run me away. You can't
run me away. All right, this is this promise.
Those whom he hath chosen, he said, I've chosen you. He says,
I've called you unto myself. And you are bond slave, you are
my servant, willingly, not against your will, but willingly. Folks do what they want to do.
Folks go where they want to go. That's exactly right. And then
he says in verse 14, Fear not thy worm. He identifies the people
to whom these verses, these promises, these words are spoken. And he
calls him now a worm. He's calling him my chosen, my
called, my servant, and now a worm. I hate to offend you, but you
folks got concordances at home, those strong or crudence concordance
with the Hebrew and the Greek in the back, look up this word.
I wouldn't offend you, but you know what that word is? Paul,
that word's maggot. Look it up when you get home.
Maggot. That's what he calls him, a maggot. Preacher, I wish
you hadn't of read that. Chosen, I like that. Called,
I like that. A servant, that's all right too,
but a worm? I'm somebody. Or haven't you
found that out yet? I'm intelligent. I'm an important
person. You're a worm. That's what God's
Word says, a worm, a wiggling maggot. That's right. Alas, and did my Savior bleed,
and did my Sovereign die? Fanny Crosby caught this. She
heard old Isaac watch him, and she resented it till God opened
her heart. Would He devote that sacred head
for such a worm as I? Brethren, when we see His fullness,
we'll see our emptiness. When we see His holiness, we'll
see our corruption. When we see His glory, we'll
see our vileness. When we see His majesty, we'll
see our weakness. A wiggling, crawling, insatiable,
that word, look it up, I challenge you, You'll find the word worm
means maggot, and it takes you to another word over 3116 or
somewhere over there that says it comes from insatiable maggot
that never satisfied eating from the carcass of that which is
dead. That's what it says. So that's the folks that God
gives. And here's another identifying
word or two. In verse 9, he says, I've chosen
you, but I will not cast you away. I will not cast you away. I will not cast you away. We'll
not depart from him and he'll not depart from us. These all
died in faith. Let me tell you something. Let
me warn you. Let me warn you. We're the house of Christ if
we continue. in the faith of Christ. John
said, if they had been of us, they no doubt would have continued
with us. You, if you wish, hold out hope
for people who've left the gospel and left the worship of the Lord.
I don't hold out any hope for them. We will not leave him, and he
will not leave us. It's not difficult for human
nature to take up toys and play with them a while and get tired
of them and lay them aside. But this thing of a relationship,
a saving interest with the God of glory is not a toy, it's a
life. It's an experience. And there's
one thing I prove when I weary of the gospel, and when I weary
of the worship of God, and when I weary of the kingdom of God,
and when I weary of the people of God, is that I never knew
the living God. Those who know the living God
grow in grace. They grow in the knowledge of
Christ. They grow in the enthusiasm of
the Spirit. They grow in the zeal of God's
kingdom. David said, I'm eaten up with
thy zeal. Eaten up with it. With the zeal
of thy kingdom. So I warn you. I warn you. They no doubt, John said, if
they ever had been of us in a saving relationship with a living God,
they would have become eaten up with the zeal of his house
and of his kingdom and of his... Actually, the things you grow weary of,
if you really know Christ, are the things of this world. You
get less and less enthused about the things with which you were
enthused. I can give you a test if you
want it, if you're interested. I'll give you a way you can determine
if you know Christ. Those who know Christ become
more and more taken up with him, and less and less, less and less
concerned about the things of this world. I'll not cast you off. All right.
They died in faith. Paul said, I finished my course.
I've kept the faith. All right. Let's look at the
promises now. In verse 10, fear not. Fear not. Verse 13, fear not. Verse 14, fear not. Oh, we have a common problem.
We have a very natural problem. Fear. Fear. Where did fear come from? It
came into the heart of man when sin came into his heart. That's
where fear came from. Several things Adam never knew
until he fell. He didn't know these things until
he sinned. He didn't know shame. He didn't know shame. We have
a problem with shame. Adam didn't know shame. He was
naked, but he didn't know it. And after he fell, he was ashamed. He said, I was naked. Adam didn't
know guilt. We have a problem with guilt.
But Adam, before he fell, didn't know anything about guilt. After
he fell, he said, I hid myself. And then fear. Adam knew nothing
of fear until he fell. He said, I was afraid. I was
afraid. So that's where fear came from.
It came from the fall. Fear continues in the heart even
of a believer. Even in the heart of a believer
because sin continues in us. That's where it came from and
that's what keeps it alive. Sin keeps fear alive. If we had
perfect faith and perfect love, it'd cast out all fear. Perfect
love casted out all fear. But because we don't have perfect
faith and perfect love, we have fear. The flesh is still alive
and the lusts there are. And we're subject, every one
of us, to this thing called fear. Once we're stripped of this house
of clay, we'll fear no more. Fear will all be gone. Well,
fear finds plenty of food on which to live, on which to survive.
The more we look within our hearts, the more we fear. Paul said,
I find a law when I would do good evils present with me. And
then fear looks without, and there's poverty awaiting, or
sickness awaiting, or old age awaiting, or pain awaiting, or
loneliness, and we fear. And fear looks at death. We've
got to die. Fear looks at judgment. Fear
looks at eternity. Fear looks at the unknown. Fear
looks at others who have failed and fallen away and departed
from the faith and asks, will I too depart? Some of God's strongest
servants have been subject to fear, great fear. Let me show
you a few examples, hold the Scripture and turn to 1 Samuel.
Some of God's greatest servants have been subject to fear. I'm saying this, fear came from
sin, and fear survives because of sin, and fear thrives on flesh,
there's plenty of things to cause us to fear. And some of God's
strongest, the best, 1 Samuel 21 is where I'm going to read,
the best of men are at men, are men only at their best. The strongest are still but men. Now look at this in 1 Samuel
21, David. And David arose and fled that
day for fear, fear of Saul. And he went to Achish, the king
of Gath. And the servants of Achish said
unto him, Is not this David, the king of the land? Did not
they sing one to another of hymn and dances, saying, Saul hath
slain his thousands, and David his tens, ten thousands? And David laid up these words
in his heart. He heard what they were saying,
and he was afraid of Achish. Uh-oh, David's afraid of Saul,
David's afraid of Achish. And David changed his behavior
before them and acted like he was crazy. And he made marks
on the doors of the gate and let his spittle run down his
beard. Isn't that sad? This is David who didn't tremble
at Goliath. And Achish said to his servants,
this fellow's crazy. He's mad. Why have you brought
him to me? I don't need mad men. Get rid
of this fellow. Run him out of my house. He's
crazy." David, that all was in the promise of God, I'm sure,
but fear caused it. He was afraid. All right, 1 Kings
19. Turn over to 1 Kings 19. Now,
here's a man. that challenged 350 or 400 men,
prophets of Baal, at one time on Mount Carmel. He was the only
fellow up there that was contending for the gospel, the truth, and
he challenged almost 400 of them. And he whipped them, by God's
grace. But when Jezebel, chapter 19 of 1 King, the queen, heard
What had been done to these prophets of hers, he had them all killed.
Verse 2, Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah saying, I'm going to
get you. So let the gods do to me and
more if I make not your life as the life of one of those prophets
by tomorrow at this time. And when he saw that, he arose
and ran for his life. He came to Beersheba. which belonged
to Judah, and left his servant there. But he himself went another
day's journey into the wilderness, and sat down under a juniper
tree, and said, Lord, let me die. Let me die. That's fear. All right, Matthew
26. Turn over to Matthew 26. I'm
saying that some of God's choice servants are subject to this
thing of fear. The promise is to the chosen
to call and so forth, but some of God's chosen called faithful
servants are subject to fear. Matthew 26, verse 69. Verse 69. Now Peter sat without
in the palace, and a damsel came to him, saying, Why, you were
with Jesus of Galilee, but he denied it. He said, I don't know
what you're talking about. And when he was gone out unto
the porch, another maid saw him and said, Well, this fellow was
with Jesus of Nazareth. And again he denied. And he said,
I don't know that man. And after a while came unto him,
and after a while came unto him they that stood by and said to
Peter, Surely you are one of them, for your speech betrays
you. And he began to curse and to
swear, saying, I know not the man. That's fair. That's fair. All right, the second
point in the message. So the first point is this. The
problem here is fear. This great natural problem is
fear. It's a problem of all men. Even
some of God's choice people fear. Secondly, God's command. He says, fear not. Fear not. Three times. Fear not. Fear not. Fear not. He doesn't say, Fear,
but not so much. He says, fear not. He doesn't
say fear, but not so often. He says, fear not. We're not to fear Satan. We're
not to fear men. We're not to fear the law. We're
not to fear judgment. We're not to fear condemnation.
We're not to fear death. We're not to fear. Now here are
the promises that dispels fear. Look at verse 10, if you will.
Now, this is something that helped me a great deal when I looked
at this passage. In verse 10, five times you get
the pronoun, thou, or some form of it. You see, now let's look
at this. This helped me a lot. Verse 10, fear thou not. There's the word thou. I am with
thee, that's a form of thou, it's referring to us. I am thy
God, I will strengthen thee, I will help thee, I will uphold
thee, six times there is the pronoun thou, or at least some
form of thou. But now every time he uses that
word thou, he uses the pronoun I. You see it here? Fear thou
not, I am with thee. Be not dismayed, I am thy God. I will strengthen thee. I will
help thee. I will uphold thee. Everywhere
I run into me, Dick, I run into God. Oh, now then, I can do something
about this fear. Now then, I see every time I
mention God's mission. That's right. Wherever there
is you, there is more God. Fear thou not, I am with thee. Be not dismayed, I am your God. I will help you. I will strengthen you. I will
uphold you. Where there's my weakness, there's
His strength. Where there's my sin, there's
His grace. Where there is my failing, there
is his grace supplied. You see that? Oh, that helped
me a whole lot. Let's look here at these one
at a time. In verse 10 he says, Fear thou not, I am with thee. Most of our fear, you know something,
most of our fear is the fear of being alone. I don't have
anybody with me. I haven't been really afraid
many times in my life. One time, it's vivid, if I were
to go to a psychiatrist and he asked me about my childhood,
I'm going to bring this up. One time I've been mortally,
whatever that means, afraid. Scared clear out of my socks. I've never been since then. I was in the war, in World War
II, I went through one time in 45 days a hundred and some odd
air raids. Never knew what it meant to be
afraid. One day I was standing out on the deck of the ship,
and the Japanese were bombing and using those kamikazes, and
the ship behind us was hit, and I was standing out watching them. I was 19 years old and had sense,
I guess. But anyway, the captain on the
bridge there said, Henry, get down. I said, I can't see down
there. I want to get up here so I can see him. But one time
when I was an eight-year-old boy, we lived beside a railroad
track. And there was a man named Starr
lived on one side of us and Millers on the other, but in the country
it's a pretty good wage to other folks' house. And my mother was
making a cake or something. My dad worked on the railroad.
He's gone five days a week, came home on the weekends. My brother
and sister and mother and I live in this little old country house
by the railroad track. And she said, go over to Miss
Starr's and buy me some flour. And it was a pretty good walk.
It was dark. It was about 8 or 9 o'clock at night or something.
It was dark, I know that. And so I went, I left the backyard,
walked up by the garden and then down to the railroad track on
a high hill. The railroad was down there and
it was dark. And I walked over to Miss Starr's, knocked on the
door. It took me a while to get there and I said, my mama wants
to borrow some flour and she gave it to me and I started back.
And I was already scared anyway. And I was walking along and a
man, jumped out at me from behind a big tree. I guess he thought
he'd just kid a little boy, but he jumped out at me in the dark
and screamed. And I threw the flower one way,
and I went the other way. I remember that so vivid, I was
so scared. I cried for hours and hours and
hours. Now, one thing would have kept
me from being afraid. I wouldn't have been scared if
my daddy had been with me. If he had been with me, that
man wouldn't have scared me. All right, watch this. My God
says, don't you be afraid. I'm with you. You're not alone.
You're never alone. I don't care, He says, where
you are, I will not forsake you. I will never leave you alone.
I'm with you to the end of the earth. Wherever you go, I'm with
you. Don't be afraid. Fear thou all loneliness. Being by yourself, you're afraid. But I'm not by myself. I am not
alone. All right, look at that next
line. Be not dismayed. Do you fear
dismay? Do you fear poverty? He says,
don't, because I'm your God. You see, don't be dismayed. Don't
fear poverty. I'm your God. God is greater
than my difficulties. God is greater than this world. God is greater than ten thousand
worlds. I'm your God. If God so clothed
the lily and take care of the sparrow, will He not help you? I'm your God, He said. Do you fear trials and tribulations
and temptation? I'm your God. I'm not just your
assistant or your... I don't like these terms, God
is my co-pilot. He's not my co-pilot. He's the
pilot. I'm a steward or something. That's disgusting. I'm your God. I'll not suffer you to be tempted
above that which you can bear. My grace is sufficient. I'm your
God. Don't ever lose sight of that.
Don't be dismayed. Don't be distressed. Don't be
depressed. I'm your God. God. All right, look at the next line.
I will strengthen thee. But Lord, I've got to preach.
And what poor preaching it's going to be. I'll strengthen
you. I'll strengthen you. Lord, I've
got to teach that class what poor teaching it's going to be.
I'll strengthen you. Lord, I've got to bury my loved
one. I don't know whether I can take it or not. I'll strengthen
you. Lord, I've got to be operated
on. I've got to go into the operating room, into surgery. I don't know,
Lord, whether I can bear up. I'll strengthen you. I'll strengthen
you. Lord, I'm going to get old, and
I can't bear to be feeble. I can't bear to be dependent.
I hear so many of us say this, well, one thing I don't want
to do is depend on my children. What we're saying, we don't want
to depend on anybody, aren't we? We're proud. I can't bear the thought of being
dependent. I'll strengthen you. I don't
care. Whatever that thorn was Paul
had, he prayed about it, and God came to him and said, now,
my grace is sufficient. Now, you just leave that alone,
and let's don't pray about it anymore. My grace is sufficient. And then look at this. He says,
I'll strengthen you, I'll help you, I'll help you, I'll help
you. I read a story, and this is all
I'm going to give on this point here. I read a story about a
preacher who decided to move his study. He had it drawn downstairs,
and he's going to move it upstairs. And he had a little boy about
the size of your youngest boy, three years old, something like
that. And he was moving his books, and the little boy just kept
saying, let me help, let me help, let me help, you better let me
help. Well, the daddy said, all right, son. That'd be all right.
Just get one of those books over there." Well, he went over there,
and he just got the biggest one, Howe's Complete Works, or Baxter's
Complete Works, or something. It's a pretty good-sized book.
And he struggled and strained under it and staggered under
it and started up the stairs with it, and he kept falling
and struggling and pushing and shoving, and finally he couldn't
go a step further, and he just sat there with that big book
in his lap and started crying. And his daddy saw the problem.
He wanted to help. He wanted to do something for
his daddy. And his daddy came walking up, and he picked up
boy, book, and all in his arm and carried him up the steps.
My friend, and they laughed all the way up the step. God says,
I'll help you. I'll carry you and the burden.
I'll carry you and the trouble. I'll carry you and the sickness,
I'll carry you and the trial, I'll carry you and the load,
whatever it is, I'll carry both of you, I'll help you." And look
at the last line, I quit. And I tell you this one, when
I got to this, he said, you don't be afraid, you're not alone.
I'm with you. And don't you be dismayed or
discouraged. I'm your God. Oh, the men I work with preach
it. It's all right. You're not alone. God's with
you. And I'll strengthen you. You
don't have to do what you're doing by yourself. We go forth
in the strength of our God, and I'll help you. But he said, I'll
uphold you. I'll uphold you with the right
hand of my righteousness, I'll uphold you. With me? You with
me? I know very few believers who
do not occasionally entertain the fear of one day departing
from the faith, or denying the Lord, or falling from the faith. Most of them entertain that thought
at least sometimes. One of the hymn writers put it
this way, Oh Lord, with such a heart as mine, unless you hold
me fast, I feel I must, I shall decline and perish at the last. Thank God it's not dependent
on me. He says, I will uphold thee. And you know what he adds there?
I'll uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. This
has to be Christ. It just has to be Christ, the
man at his right hand. Who is the man at his right hand?
It's the author of righteousness. It's the source of righteousness
for his people. The right hand of his righteousness. That's what he says, I'll uphold
you with. I'll consider you and accept you and receive you and
hold you with the right hand of my righteousness. No. There's
no good in you. There's no good to be found in
you. There's no good expected of you. But I'll tell you, there's
plenty of righteousness in him. There's sufficient righteousness
in Christ, and you don't have to be afraid. Look at verse 14. He ends it the same way he does
verse 10. "'Fear not, thou worm, Jacob,
and ye male of Israel. I'll help you,' saith the Lord,
and your Redeemer. Not in my strength, never. Not
in my goodness ever, but always in his righteousness I stand. Always in his righteousness I
stand. Fear not. Our Father, we give
thanks for the Word. How helpless we feel, how totally
sinful and fleshly and weak Insufficient? Who is sufficient for these things?
Unable? We feel like a worm, susceptible
to being stepped upon or crushed beneath all the forces and powers
of evil, yea, even in our own hearts. And Lord, we look to
Thee. We look to Thee. Our hope is
in Thee. Our confidence is in Thee. Our
trust is in Thee alone. We keep coming. We keep coming
to Thee. We keep calling upon Thee. We
keep looking to Thee. We keep trusting in Christ. Never,
never fully satisfied. We never will be till we're awake
with Thy likeness. O Lord, keep us by Thy power.
We pray for Christ's sake. Amen.