Isaiah chapter 43. We're looking tonight at the first
eight verses in this chapter, Isaiah 43. 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 passest through
the waters, I will be with thee. And through the rivers, they
shall not overflow thee. When thou walkest through the
fire, thou shall 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,
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, for everyone
that is called by my name. For I have created him for my
glory. I have formed him, yea, I have
made him. In reading through these chapters
in Isaiah, beginning with chapter 40 and the next few chapters,
we see several times God speaking to his people and admonishing
them to fear not. Two times in these verses that
we've just read, we see these words. In verse one, you see
God says, fear not. And then again in verse five,
fear not. And this reminds us, if you look
back to chapter 41, we won't look at all of these places,
but look back in chapter 41 in verse 10. Fear thou not, for
I am with thee. And then in verse 14, fear not,
thou worm Jacob, and you men of Israel. I will help thee,
saith the Lord. This reminds me, and I believe
all of us, of a fact that is true of many of God's people,
and that is many times we're given to fear. The words of the
Lord Jesus Christ, when he was here in the flesh to his apostles,
he said, fear not, little flock, for it is your father's good
pleasure to give unto you the kingdom. And the apostle Paul,
writing to Timothy, who it seems was given to fear. He said, for
God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of
love and of a sound mind. You notice in these verses here
in our text, Isaiah 43, we read of God's people passing through
the waters, through the rivers, and through fire. These are all
emblems, the water, the rivers, the fire. These are all emblems
of the various tribulations and problems and difficulties that
God's people experience in this world. And the Lord's word to
each and every one of his children is the same, fear not, fear not. I want to point out to us from
these verses five reasons why God's children should not fear. Five reasons here in these verses
why God's children should not fear. The first reason, and I
begin with this, it doesn't come first in the text, but in verse
four, fear not for I have loved thee. I began with this because
this is the fountainhead. This is the fountainhead from
which all of these others, which are mentioned here, originate,
and that is God's everlasting love. Fear not, for I have loved thee. Really,
really, that should be enough to remove all fear, shouldn't
it? Fear not. This is God speaking. This is
the Lord God of heaven and earth. Fear not, for I have loved thee. You know, in these words here,
I have loved thee, I see three truths about God's love. First of all, God's love is free. I have loved thee. God's love
is not merited. It's not bought. If you gave
all of your house and you had a very Wealthy house, it could
not buy God's love. His love is free. What he told
the nation of Israel is true of all of God's spiritual Israel,
all of God's people. And that is found in Deuteronomy
chapter seven, when God says, the Lord did not set his love
upon you, nor choose you because you were more in number than
any people, for you were the fewest of all people, but because,
here's the reason why God set his love upon you, because the
Lord loved you. The cause is not in man. It's
not in our conduct. It is not in anything about us. God loves His people and His
love is free. It's sovereign. That's just another
way of saying God's love is sovereign when we say it's free. That's
the first thing I see about God's love in this verse. It is free. And then we see that it is eternal. I have loved thee. It is eternal. It has no beginning. It is eternal. When the first star began to
shine, and I've been watching some programs, Frontiersmen. And a lot of it is taken in Alaska. And of course, there's no electricity,
no lights. And when they turn off the light,
and many times they have pictures of the skies, the millions of stars. And you
mentioned it this morning, I believe, Austin. We could not even begin
to number the stars. But he not only has them numbered,
but he has them named. And he called them all out by
name. But before the first star ever
began to shine, God already loved you. I have loved thee. His love is eternal. Now I know,
I speak for all of us here tonight, but our minds are not really
conditioned to understand or fully take that in because everything
since we come into this world, it's been past, present, and
future. That's just the way our minds
are geared to think. Past, present, and future. But
God's love is eternal and it's always present. Present. His love is eternal. And a third
thing that this tells us about God's love is it's personal. I have loved thee. I have loved
thee. Fear not, that's the first reason.
Fear not, for I have loved thee. Here's the second reason. We
find this in verse one. Fear not, for I have redeemed
thee. Now you and I know from the Word
of God that fear came into this world with sin. There never was
any fear. Holy Adam and Eve, before Adam
disobeyed God and brought sin into God's creation, there wasn't
anything like fear. He had fellowship. He had communion. He walked and talked with the
Lord. But just as soon as he disobeyed
God, he feared and tried to hide himself and cover himself with
fig leaves, which are, of course, man attempting by his works to
cover his nakedness and make himself acceptable unto God. And it never works. It never
has worked. It never will work. Man does
not have the ability. No. Fear came into this world. Adam and Eve, they had cause
to fear. Right? They had cause to fear. They had offended God's justice
and God's justice must be satisfied. God is just, he's righteous,
he's holy. They had cause to fear. They
had disobeyed God. How could Adam ever satisfy God's
justice once he had offended God's justice? How could he ever
satisfy? How could he ever make up for
his fault, his lapse? How could he ever do that? He
couldn't. Man is not able. But immediately, as we see in
Genesis chapter 3, that records man's disobedience and man's
fall. Immediately, we see God comes
with the remedy. In type, yes, but God comes with
the remedy. Fear not, for I have redeemed
thee. And the scripture says, and Adam
also and his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins and clothed
them. Now the coats of skins in which
the Lord clothed the guilty pair means that life, innocent life,
had to be forfeited. Innocent blood had to be shed.
in the place of the guilty pair. And that's what we see from the
very beginning of the scriptures. Genesis chapter three, that's
what we see all the way through the word of God. The substitutionary,
there must be a substitute and the substitute must be perfect. And he must give his life in
the stead and in the place of the guilty. That was pictured,
wasn't it? Immediately after man had sinned. If you notice here in our text,
it is the Lord. Look there in verse one of chapter
43. But now thus saith the Lord that
created thee, O Jacob, he that formed thee, O Israel, fear not,
for I, I, Jehovah, God, I, have redeemed thee. Keep your places
here, but look with me in Hebrews chapter 10, just a minute. Hebrews
chapter 10. Fear not, for I have loved thee. Fear not, for I have redeemed
thee. Here in Hebrews chapter 10, in verse one, we read, for the law
having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image
of the things, can never, with those sacrifices which they offered
year by year, continually make the comers thereunto perfect.
For then would they not have ceased to be offered, because
that the worshipers, once purged, once washed, once cleansed, should
have had no more conscience of sins. But in those sacrifices
there is a remembrance again, made of sins every year. For
it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should
take away sins. Wherefore when he cometh into
the world, he saith, sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not,
but a body hast thou prepared me. Now who came into this world? Who redeemed us? The Lord, Jehovah. When he came into this world,
he said, a body has self-prepared me. He united that body that
God the Holy Spirit had created or made from the Virgin Mary
to his person. So this is the Lord. As God,
he has no blood, he's spirit. But as man, he has blood, has
life to give, But as man, only man, he could not satisfy. So
we see he is a God-man, fully God, and yes, fully man. And both are necessary. If a person just believed that
Jesus is God and not man, he doesn't have a Savior. And if
a man believed that he was only man and not God, he doesn't have
a Savior. He must be both, man to suffer,
God to satisfy. He must be God-man. A body hast
thou prepared me. In burnt offerings and sacrifices
for sin thou hast had no pleasure. God never found pleasure, that
is, they never satisfied God. Those animal sacrifices. How
could it be possible? Even though God ordained those
sacrifices because they were pictures of His one sacrifice,
but they never satisfied God. They never took away one sin.
Not possible, as He said before, that the blood of bulls and goats
could take away sin. Then said I, Lo, I come. In the volume of the book, it
is written of me. Now notice this, to do thy will,
O God. He came to do God's will. And what was God's will? It was to redeem his people with
his precious blood. I came, I come rather, to do
thy will, O God. Above, when he said sacrifice
and offering and burn offerings and offering for sin, thou wouldest
not, neither had his pleasure therein, which are offered by
the law, then said he, lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh
away the first that he may establish the second, by the which will
we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus
Christ once for all. Now you see those last two words
have been added, once for all. They're not necessary, but if
you want them, you must understand the all there is all of God's
chosen people, once for all. And every priest standeth daily
ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices which can
never take away sins. But this man, this God-man, after
he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on
the right hand of God from henceforth expecting till his enemies be
made his footstool. For by one offering he hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified. Fear not, for I have redeemed
thee. In Galatians chapter three and
verse 13, the scripture says Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law. And what was the curse of the
law? Death, death. Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law. Christ also loved the church
and gave himself for it. Fear not, I have loved thee. Fear not, I have redeemed thee. Now notice, here's the third.
Fear not, for I have called thee, verse one. Fear not, Isaiah 43,
verse one, for I have called thee. The Lord Jesus Christ was
given a people, and he was given those people to be his bride,
to be members of his body, and to be his sheep, and he to be
the head of the body, to be the husband of the bride, and to
be the shepherd of the sheep. I have called thee. In his parable
in John chapter 10, a parable concerning the sheep and the
sheepfold, he said, my sheep hear my voice and they follow
me. And in the parable, he said,
his sheep hear his voice and he calls his own sheep by name
and leads them out. His sheep hear his voice in the
gospel. He calls his sheep by name. Many
times when I have mentioned this verse of scripture, I have said
that his sheep hear him call their name when he says sinner. Sinner. He's talking to sinners. He's calling sinners. He's talking to me. See what
I'm saying? He is my sheep, hear my voice. And he calls his sheep by name. Just like those shepherds over
in Palestine at that time, they had all their sheep named. And
when they would go out of the sheepfold in the morning, they
would call their sheep. And there might be, there might
be three or four different flocks all gathered in that sheepfold
during the night. And yet as each shepherd left,
he would call his sheep and only his sheep would come. They knew
his voice. Most of the sheep that we see
or hear about are big ranches, you know, have thousands of sheep,
but it wasn't like that in Palestine. They had 10, 15 sheep maybe,
but his sheep hear his voice. He calls them. I told someone
this past week, I was just in conversation and I won't go into
all the detail, but I said, I'm thankful the Lord found me and
this person corrected me. No, no, you mean you found him. And I said, no, that's not what
I mean. I said, he never was lost. I was the one who was lost. Oh,
oh, that's different. But I've thought about that since
then. And in truth, He does find us, but we also find Him. He
calls us, and then we call upon Him. He loves us, or we love
Him, rather, because He first loved us. And we call upon Him
because He first calls upon us. He finds us, and then we find
Him, and we seek after Him. And that is the rest of our life. We sang that hymn just a few
moments ago. Draw me near, near, precious
Lord. To the cross, not the wooden
cross, but to Christ upon the cross. Draw me near, near, blessed
Lord. The Lord said, I have called
thee by name. Thou art mine. Thou art mine. And God's people, his sheep were
his by gift. The Father gave them unto him.
By purchase, he purchased us with his own blood. And by conquest,
the Holy Spirit, he conquers us and brings us. Fear not. for I have loved thee, fear not
for I have redeemed thee, fear not for I have called thee. Number
four, fear not for I am with thee. Verse five, fear not for
I am with thee. His presence is promised. I will
never leave thee nor forsake thee. And you cannot help but
notice the word through, through in verses two, when thou passest
through the waters, I will be with thee. And through the rivers,
they shall not overflow thee when thou walkest through the
fire. He's with us in the waters, in
the rivers, and in the fire, and we're going through. We're
not going to stay in the waters. We're not going to stay in the
rivers or in the fires. We're going through. And why? Because He's with us. That's
why. Because He's with us and because
He gives us strength and grace and He gives us perseverance.
In ourselves, we are just like Jacob described his oldest son,
Reuben. Reuben, weak as water. Really, weaker than water. The Lord Jesus Christ said, for
without me, you can do nothing. But he has promised to be with
us. Fear not, for I am with thee. You know, we have many examples
in the Word of God to bring this truth home to our hearts, but
there's none better than the three Hebrew children. When they
refused to bow to Nebuchadnezzar's idol, and the furnace was heated
seven times hotter because they'd already made up their mind they
were not going to bow, and they told the king that, But you know,
the soldiers, if I understand that right, the soldiers that
threw those three men into the furnace, they died. The heat was so strong that the
soldiers who threw them in, they died. But then it wasn't long
before Nebuchadnezzar was looking into that fire. And he asked
his people, did not we cast three? Didn't we cast three men bound
into the midst of the fire? Isn't that what we did? He didn't do anything. He gave
the order. He didn't cast a man. But he
said, didn't we cast three men into that fire? Sure. True. True, O King. Well, I see
four men. I see four men loose walking
in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt. And the form
of the fourth is like the Son of God. Fear not, for I am with
thee. When thou passest through the
waters, when thou passest through the rivers, and when thou passest
through the fire, I am with thee. And number five, lastly, Fear
not, for I will bring all thy seed. Notice beginning in verse
five about middle ways. 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 every
one that is called by my name. For I have created him for my
glory. Now the seed here, I will bring
thy seed, refers to the spiritual seed of Jacob. It begins with
the word to Jacob and then Israel, who is Jacob. Thy seed, that
is his spiritual seed, It is not Israel after the flesh, we
know that, but it is Israel after the spirit. That is all of God's
elect, all of God's chosen people are scattered all around this
world, different ages, different times. But as this verse tells
us, they're going to come from the north and the south and the
east and the west. wherever they are, whatever climb
in which they have been born, in which they live, they're going
to come. Not one is going to be missing,
not one. God's purpose concerning his
church is going to be accomplished. Sometimes we get discouraged
and I have read enough church history and enough history to
know that there have been times when when the church of the Lord
Jesus Christ has been larger as far as numbers, and there's
been times when she has been smaller. That's all in God's
providence. We don't know at any time how
many of God's people are in this world. I guess the closest we
ever come to that is in the days of Elijah when God told him,
I have 7,000. Elijah thought he was the only
one. I have 7,000 who have not vowed the day to bail. We don't
know how many. That's not our position. It's not needful that we know,
right? But we do know this, that each
and everyone that God loved from eternity Christ redeemed with
His precious blood is going to come to Jesus Christ. Not one is going to be lost. In Matthew chapter 8 and verse
11, the Lord said, I say unto you, that is to those Jewish
leaders who just turned thumbs down on Him, who didn't recognize
Him as the Messiah, as the Savior, He said, I say unto you that
many shall come. I like that word many, don't
you? This is my blood of the New Testament,
which is shed for many for the remission of sins. I don't know
how many there are, but I know there's many, many. Many shall
come from the east and the west and set down with Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob in the kingdom of God. Fear not. For all his seed shall
be brought safely home, not one shall be missing. Well, there's
five truths there in these verses that God gives us as to reasons
why we should not fear. The opposite of fear is faith,
isn't it? Believe God, trust God. Let's
sing a verse or two of a hymn, Never Alone, Never Alone.